Good Evening all,
Well, it's been a while since I've been on. I can't promise I'll be on again soon either. Unfortunately, with our second move, buying a new dog, being incredibly busy at work, and sponsoring a cadet in our home, I have not had time to devote to my blog. I have missed it terribly, and I have even gotten some emails from readers questioning where it went.
The best I can hope for this week is to be able to post once or twice. If I beat that best, that is awesome...but please understand if I can't, that I'm just caught, in life, with life...and busy. :)
Anyway, I want you all to know that good news is still happening every day. Here are the articles I found for you all that have already happened today. :)
Today's Top 5:
1. Vet Reaches Inside Shark to Pull Grappling Hook (Atlanta Journal Contstitution)
2. Alzheimer's Drug Reverses cognitive Decline Over 12 Month Period in Early Human Testing (Science Daily)
3. Archaeologists Find 600 Year Old Chess Piece in Northwest Russia (RIA Novosti)
4. Woman Elbowing Her Way to Arm Wrestling History (The Denver Post)
5. Students Can Now Get Textbooks for Free (Inventorspot.com)
Honorable Mention:
1. Rock Port Missouri, First 100 Percent Wind Powered Community in US (Science Daily)
Today's Top 5:
1. Vet Reaches Inside Shark to Pull Grappling Hook
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/news/stories/2008/07/18/australia_shark_rescue_grappling_hook.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=15
Associated Press
Published on: 07/18/08
SYDNEY, Australia — A veterinarian in Australia plunged his arm up to his shoulder into the throat of a rare shark to save the animal after it swallowed a grappling hook.
The gray nurse shark is generally much smaller than the more aggressive great white. It is also not considered a threat to humans, but its bite could still do serious damage.
Divers spotted the shark Monday as it swam with a group of others near Byron Bay, 500 miles north of Sydney, Trevor Long of the Sea World marine park said Friday.
After the animal was captured and placed in a holding tank, rescuers pushed a stiff plastic pipe into the shark's throat. Blyde then reach down through the pipe to free the hook.
"As a veterinarian you often end up putting your hands in places that people find somewhat unattractive," Blyde told Seven Network television.
The gray nurse shark is one of Australia's most endangered marine species after being fished to near-extinction, with some estimates running as low a fewer than 300 animals left in the wild in waters off the country's east coast.
2. Alzheimer's Drug Reverses Cognitive Decline Over 12 Month Period In Early Human Testing
ScienceDaily
(July 18, 2008) —
A drug once approved as an antihistamine in Russia improved thinking processes and ability to function in patients with Alzheimer's disease in a study conducted there, said an expert at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. The findings are published in the journal The Lancet.
"More research is needed, but we are encouraged by the effect the drug Dimebon had on Alzheimer's patients" said Dr. Rachelle Doody, professor of neurology at BCM and lead author of the study.
In the study, the authors noted that Dimebon is the first drug for Alzheimer's disease that demonstrated continued improvement in patients over a 12 month period. Other approved drugs do not have this effect.
Half of the 183 patients in the Russian study received Dimebon; the other half were given a placebo or an inactive pill. Clinicians at the study sites then monitored the patients' progress over the next year on five different outcomes. All of those in the study had mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease.
"What we saw in the clinical trial is that people on the medication continued to improve over time," Doody said. "Those on placebo continued to decline."
Researchers believe the medication works by stabilizing mitochondria, the cellular components that produce energy, and possibly by inhibiting brain cell death. Researchers evaluated patients' thinking and memory ability, overall function, psychiatric and behavioral symptoms, and ability to perform daily activities.
"Usually at this point in a drug's development, we are happy to see improvement in one of the outcome measures," Doody said. "We saw improvement in all five."
Some participants complained of occasional dry mouth, but no one opted out of the study because of the side effects.
"As we continue research, we hope to replicate these results," Doody said. "My belief is that this drug will turn out to be useful for Alzheimer's disease, regardless of the stage of the disease."
Doody said this is only the first study looking into the effects of Dimebon on Alzheimer's disease. She also noted that it involved only a relatively small population from one specific region of the world. The ongoing Phase 3 study will include several international locations including the United States.
Other researchers who contributed to this study include: Dr. Svetlana I. Gavrilova, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow, Russia; Dr. Mary Sano, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City, NY; Dr. Ronald G. Thomas, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA; Dr. Paul S. Aisen, formerly with Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC and now at the University of California, San Diego; ; Dr. Sergey O. Bachurin, Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Physiologically Active Compounds, Chernogolovka, Russia; Drs. Lynn Seely and David Hung, Medivation, Inc., San Francisco, CA.
Funding for this study came from Medivation, Inc., the company developing the drug worldwide. Doody is also a member of the Scientific and Clinical Advisory board for Medivation, Inc.
3. Archaeologists Find 600-year-old Chess Piece in Northwest Russia
http://en.rian.ru/culture/20080718/114352042.html
14:51 18/ 07/ 2008
VELIKY NOVGOROD, July 18 (RIA Novosti) - Archaeologists in northwest Russia have discovered a chess piece dating back to the late 14th century, a spokesman for local archaeologists said on Friday.
"The king, around several centimeters tall, is made of solid wood, possibly of juniper," the spokesman said.
The excavations are being carried out at the site of the Palace of Facets, in the Novgorod Kremlin in Veliky Novgorod. The palace is believed to be the oldest in Russia.
According to the city chronicles, chess as a competitive game emerged in Veliky Novgorod, the foremost historic city in northwest Russia, in the 13th century, but was banned in 1286 by the church.
However, besides the king, archeologists in the region have found a total of 82 chess pieces dating back to at least the 14th century, showing that the game remained popular among the local population despite the church ban.
In late May, archaeologists in the ancient city uncovered a number of medieval baby bottles. Medieval Slavs made feeding bottles by attaching leather bags to the wider part of a cow's horn. The babies drank milk from holes made in the tip of the horns.
The first historical mention of Veliky Novgorod was in 859 AD. City chronicles say that by 862 AD it was already a stop on the trading route between the Baltics and Byzantium.
The city will celebrate its 1150th anniversary in 2009.
4. Woman Elbowing Her Way to Arm Wrestling History
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_9915967
By William Porter
Denver Post Columnist
Article Last Updated: 07/18/2008 02:31:10 PM MDT
Arm-wrestler Brandy Stark does a static hold with a 40-pound dumbbell for one minute as husband Russell looks on. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post )On the laundry list of things I might first notice about a woman — her eyes, her smile, whether she is aiming a large-bore handgun at me — biceps generally don't rank too high.
But when the woman is Greeley's Brandy Stark, one of America's greatest arm-wrestlers, well, I check out the muscles in her shirt sleeves.
We were in the weight room at Work Out West, Brandy's hometown gym. She was fresh from a grueling static hold with a 40-pound dumbbell, replicating the feel of locking down on an opponent's unfortunate arm.
Brandy assessed her bulging bicep. "You know, I have no idea how big my arms are. A lot of women don't have good upper-body strength, but for whatever reason I do."
Her beefy forearms taper into strong wrists and small, almost delicate, hands. In two weeks she hopes to have them wrapped around a big trophy.
Stark's goal is to be the first woman to win her sport's triple crown. She's one title away, needing only a victory at the U.S. Armwrestling Federation championships on Aug. 3 in Salt Lake City.
Stark also won major tourneys in May and June. In horse-racing terms, they were arm-wrestling's Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. The USAF tourney is the Belmont — and the third jewel in the triple crown.
If she places first or second in Salt Lake, competing in the 176-pound-plus unlimited class, she makes Team USA and goes to the world meet.
"That's the dream," she said.
Stark is 35. She has the thick trunk and sturdy legs of a shot-putter, but was a volleyball player and sprinter growing up in Limon. Her spiked hair is streaked with blond.
On her right bicep is a tattoo: "Armwrestler."
"It's official," she said, grinning. "I can't quit now."
Brandy, a mother of three, began arm-wrestling in 2003.
"I just like the adrenaline rush and being able to compete one on one," she said. "Although I get nervous before meets. Like nauseous nervous.
"But that goes away after the first match."
There is little money in her sport, just bragging rights.
Her husband, Russell, introduced her to the sport. He, too, is a competitive arm-wrestler, though not quite at the elite level of his wife.
Russell is an easygoing guy and doting husband. Massaging Brandy's left shoulder, he proudly told me a story.
"I had some of my roughneck friends down one evening," said Russell, an oil-rig worker in Wyoming. "They wanted to arm-wrestle me, but I told them they'd have to wrestle Brandy first.
"She pinned them all. And these were big, strong dudes."
Little did the dudes know.
Along with iron biceps and forearms, arm-wrestlers develop unusual tendon strength. An average person's elbow tendon is the diameter of a pencil. A champion wrestler's might be as thick as a nickel.
Technique is crucial. Some competitors try to nail opponents out of the gate. Others lock their arm in place until the opponent tires, then slowly lever them over for the pin.
"It takes a certain personality to start arm-wrestling," Brandy said. "You have so many aches and pains."
Brandy wrestles as a righty and lefty, often exiting tourneys lugging two trophies. Nothing is left to chance: She scouts her opponents. "I don't know if they scout me, but if they don't, they should."
Brandy hoisted a barbell. Russell looked on, beaming.
Forget Beijing. History awaits in Utah, just a few pins away.
William Porter's column runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 303-954-1977 or wporter@denverpost.com.
5. Students Can Now Get Textbooks For Free
http://inventorspot.com/articles/students_can_now_get_textbooks_for_free_15904
Posted July 18th, 2008 by Joshua Khan
Textbooks are a major expense college students wish they didn’t have to deal with. Despite being a stack of paper that will only be looked at once, they can cost individuals up to a $1000 a year. Some students try to fight the “system” by sharing textbooks, but disadvantages keep bombarding their plans. When you buy a textbook, you’ll be lucky to even sell it back for half of the original price.
The publisher Flat World Knowledge is hoping to help students by giving away textbooks for free. Based in New York, the firm recently launched a project to supply four business and economics textbooks online to undergraduates of 15 different campuses. It may seem like a small start, but the results can free a student from the textbook fiasco that binds them.
But will the textbooks have the same content as the thick ones located on campus?
Flat World Knowledge’s resources aren’t different at all. They have been reviewed by academics and are even unique in their own way as some text includes images and video. Since their based online, the textbooks are also open-source; they can be updated easily and changed to match a particular outline or curriculum.
Starting next January, Flat World Knowledge hopes to offer its textbooks to numerous institutions. It’ll be interesting to see how other bookstores and publishers react, since their plan is strongly affects a lot of organizations and companies.
As for the students, don’t be surprised if they never buy another book again.
Honorable Mention:
Rock Port, Missouri, First 100 Percent Wind-powered Community In U.S.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080715165441.htm
ScienceDaily (July 16, 2008) —
Rock Port Missouri, with a population of just over 1,300 residents, has announced that it is the first 100% wind powered community in the United States. Four wind turbines supply all the electricity for the small town.
Rock Port’s 100% wind power status is due to four wind turbines located on agricultural lands within the city limits of Rock Port (Atchison County). The city of Rock Port uses approximately 13 million kilowatt hours of electricity each year. It is predicted that these four turbines will produce 16 million kilowatt hours each year.
Excess wind generated electricity not used by Rock Port homes and businesses is expected to be move onto the transmission lines to be purchased by the Missouri Joint Municipal Utilities for use in other areas.
University of Missouri Extension specialists say that there are excellent opportunities for sustainable wind power in northwest Missouri.
There are currently 24 wind turbines in Atchison County, 24 in Nodaway County and 27 in Gentry County. MU Extension specialists say the wind farms will bring in more than $1.1 million annually in county real estate taxes, to be paid by Wind Capital Group, a wind energy developer based in St. Louis.
"This is a unique situation because in rural areas it is quite uncommon to have this increase in taxation revenues," said Jerry Baker, MU Extension community development specialist.
The alternative-energy source also benefits landowners, who can make anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 leasing part of their property for wind turbines.
Other wind energy companies are looking at possible sites in northwest Missouri, Baker said.
A map published by the U.S. Department of Energy indicates that northwest Missouri has the state's highest concentration of wind resources and contains a number of locations potentially suitable for utility-scale wind development.
"We're farming the wind, which is something that we have up here," Crawford said. "The payback on a per-acre basis is generally quite good when compared to a lot of other crops, and it's as simple as getting a cup of coffee and watching the blades spin."
"It's a savings for the community in general, savings for the rural electric companies, and it does provide electricity service over at least a 20-year time period, which is the anticipated life of these turbines," Baker said.
Baker said the wind turbines attract visitors from all over, adding tourism revenue to the list of benefits.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
2008: July 2nd Good News (George Washington's Boyhood Home Found; Certain Foods May Improve Intelliegence; more...)
Good Afternoon all,
Here is yesterday's post. Todays will follow soon. :)
Today's Top 5:
1. Get Smart About What You Eat and You Might Actually Improve Your Intelligence (Eurekalert.org)
2. New Approach Offers Chance to Finally Kill Herpes (Yahoo News)
3. Long Sought Boyhood Home of George Washington Found (ABC News)
4. Ethanol Byproduct Produces Green Results (Bio-medicine.org)
5. University of Washington Medical Center Takes Part in World Health Organization Surgical Checklist Initiative (University of Washington News)
Honorable Mentions:
1. Humans Wore Shoes 40,000 Years Ago, Fossil Suggests (National Geographic)
2. Taiwan Power Co to Plant 1 Million Trees in Exchange for Expansion (Earth Times)
Today's Top 5:
1. Get Smart About What You Eat and You Might Actually Improve Your Intelligence
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/foas-gsa070208.php
Public release date: 2-Jul-2008
Contact: Cody Mooneyhan
cmooneyhan@faseb.org
301-634-7104
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
MIT researchers offer tantalizing evidence on how to make people smarter, naturally
New research findings published online in The FASEB Journal provide more evidence that if we get smart about what we eat, our intelligence can improve. According to MIT scientists, dietary nutrients found in a wide range of foods from infant formula to eggs increase brain synapses and improve cognitive abilities.
"I hope human brains will, like those of experimental animals, respond to this kind of treatment by making more brain synapses and thus restoring cognitive abilities," said Richard Wurtman, MD, senior researcher on the project.
In the study, gerbils were given various combinations of three compounds needed for healthy brain membranes: choline, found in eggs; uridine monophosphate (UMP) found in beets; and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), found in fish oils. Other gerbils were given none of these to serve as a baseline. Then they were checked for cognitive changes four weeks later. The scientists found that the gerbils given choline with UMP and/or DHA showed cognitive improvements in tasks thought to be relevant to gerbils, such as navigating mazes. After these tests were concluded, the researchers dissected the mouse brains for a biological cause for the improvement. They found biochemical evidence that there was more than the usual amount of brain synapse activity, which was consistent with behaviors indicating higher intelligence.
"Now that we know how to make gerbils smarter," said Gerald Weissmann, MD, Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, "it's not too far a stretch to hope that people's intelligence can also be improved. Quite frankly, this can't happen soon enough, as every environmentalist, advocate of evolution and war opponent will attest."
###
This article is scheduled for final publication in the November 2008 issue of The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), which is published by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and is the most cited biology journal worldwide according to the Institute for Scientific Information. FASEB comprises 21 nonprofit societies with more than 80,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. FASEB advances biological science through collaborative advocacy for research policies that promote scientific progress and education and lead to improvements in human health.
2. New Approach Offers Chance to Finally Kill Herpes
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/herpes_treatment_dc
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
Wed Jul 2, 5:39 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday they may have found a way to flush out herpes viruses from hiding -- offering a potential way to cure pesky and painful conditions from cold sores to shingles.
They discovered that a mysterious gene carried by the herpes simplex-1 virus -- the one that causes cold sores -- allows the virus to lay low in the nerves it infects.
It does so via microRNAs, little pieces of genetic material that regulate the activity of many viruses, the researchers report in the journal Nature.
It may be possible to "wake up" the virus and then kill it with standard antiviral drugs such as acyclovir, said Jennifer Lin Umbach of Duke University in North Carolina, who worked on the study.
"We are trying to go into animal trials," Umbach said in a telephone interview.
The Duke team is discussing a potential collaboration with Regulus Therapeutics LLC, a joint venture between Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc and Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc that specializes in microRNAs.
Herpes viruses cause permanent infections. They head straight to nerve cells, where they stay latent for the life of an animal or person, often causing periodic outbreaks.
Herpes simplex 1 or HSV-1 causes cold sores, HSV-2 causes genital herpes, while varicella causes chicken pox and returns in middle or old age as herpes zoster to cause shingles.
Acyclovir and related drugs can suppress symptoms but only when the virus is active.
IMPOSSIBLE TO KILL
"Inactive virus is completely untouchable by any treatment we have. Unless you activate the virus, you can't kill it," said Bryan Cullen, who oversaw the research.
Umbach said that for still unknown reasons, viruses infecting different neurons in the same body activate at different times, making it impossible to eradicate an infection.
Her team found that a gene called LAT controls microRNAs that turn off other genes in the virus.
"The presence of these active microRNAs keep the virus dormant," Umbach said. "When the virus is activated by stress like UV (ultraviolet) light or a wound, production of (other) genes goes up."
Then LAT is overwhelmed and unable to keep the virus in check. It wakes up and causes an outbreak.
A drug that would turn off the microRNAs could drive the virus out of hiding and allow all copies of the virus to be killed with acyclovir, she said.
"You would have one cold sore but you would get rid of it," she said. Curing something more painful, such as shingles, might be a little trickier, she added.
One class of drug called an antagomir might work, Umbach said. These chemically engineered oligonucleotides are short segments of RNA that can be made into mirror images of a targeted bit of genetic material -- such as the herpes microRNAs. They would attach and "silence" the microRNA.
The potential market is large. An estimated one in five Americans have genital herpes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while 100 million have the HSV-1 virus that causes cold sores.
The CDC estimates there are a million cases of shingles every year in the United States alone.
3. Longsought Boyhood Home of George Washington Found
Discovery Offers Insight Into First President's Life
http://www.abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=5297035&page=1
By JOHN DONVAN
July 2, 2008
Nearly everyone has heard of George Washington's Mount Vernon, Va., estate, where tourists flock to visit the place where our first president lived and died.
Archeologists' discovery of George Washington's childhood home offers insight into the life of our nation's first president.
(AP Photo)Now, archeologists believe they have found the home where, according to legend, Washington, who could not tell a lie, chopped down the cherry tree.
The Ferry Farm site, located near Fredericksburg, Va., overlooking the Rappahannock River, just 50 miles south of Washington, D.C., which archeologists have excavated, is believed to be the house where Washington lived as a child, from the time he was 6 years old,.
After Washington moved away, the house rotted and was swallowed by time and grassland, preventing archeologists from finding its actual site until now.
The search for Washington's childhood home began seven years ago. First, researchers found remains of a home predating Washington's, and then they uncovered another home from the 19th century. Through trial and error, researchers found this area and excavated for three years, before verifying that it was the Washington's family home.
Related
The 'Real' George Washington EstateFloods Dash Historic Town's Tourism HopesNew D.C. Walking Tour Traces Lincoln's End"If George Washington did, indeed, chop down a cherry tree, as generations of Americans have believed, this is where it happened," said Philip Levy, who is a historical archaeologist and professor at the University of South Florida.
"What we see at this site is the best available window into the setting that nurtured the father of our country," Levy said.
David Muraca, director of archeology at the George Washington Foundation, made the find. From the remains, they were able to debunk historical assumptions about Washington's first home.
While historians had long believed Washington lived in a small cottage, the foundation and cellars that were found prove that the house was one and a half stories. Evidence also shows that the fire that had been said to have driven the family from the home, was merely minor.
Also from the remains, archeologists unearthed thousands of artifacts that once belonged to the Washington family: fragments of ceramic tableware, the bowl of a clay pipe with Masonic markings, scissors and a set of 18th century wig curlers -- perhaps used by Washington himself.
The clay pipe bowl -- with the Masonic crest -- is especially exciting for archeologists, since Washington joined the Masons in 1753.
4. Ethanol Byproduct Produces Green Results
http://www.bio-medicine.org/biology-news-1/Ethanol-byproduct-produces-green-results-3864-1/
2 July 2008
PROSSER WA Commercial flower and plant growers know all too well tha...Enter dried distillers grains with solubles or DDGS. DDGS a byprod...Researchers applied DDGS two ways: to the soil surface and mixed into...When mixed into the potting media however dried distillers grains we...[RSS]
http://www.bio-medicine.org/inc/biomed/biology-news.asp
http://feeds.bio-medicine.org/latest-biology-news
Email Subscription: Get Latest Biology News delivered by emailDate:7/2/2008[Outline] [RSS]
PROSSER, WA Commercial flower and plant growers know all too well that invasive, ubiquitous weeds cause trouble by lowering the value and deterring healthy growth of potted ornamental plants. To control weeds, many commercial nursery owners resort to the expensive practice of paying workers to hand-weed containers. Some growers use herbicides, but efficacy of herbicides is questionable on the wide range of plant species produced in nurseries, and many herbicides are not registered for use in greenhouses.
Enter "dried distillers grains with solubles", or DDGS. DDGS, a byproduct of converting corn to fuel ethanol, is typically used as livestock feed. Rick A. Boydston, Harold P. Collins, and Steve Vaughn, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, undertook a research study on the use of DDGS as a weed deterrent on potted ornamentals. The study results, published in the February 2008 issue of HortScience, evaluated the use of DDGS as a soil amendment to suppress weeds in container-grown ornamentals.
Researchers applied DDGS two ways: to the soil surface, and mixed into the potting media of transplanted ornamentals. Applied to the soil surface after transplanting, DDGS caused no injury to plants. According to Dr. Boydston, an agronomist with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), "grains applied to the surface at rates that gave good coverage of the soil (800 and 1600 g/m2) reduced the number of common chickweed and annual bluegrass. Weed control was not perfect, but could reduce the amount of hand-weeding typically required."
When mixed into the potting media, however, dried distillers grains were toxic to transplanted rose, coreopsis, and phlox plants. Researchers concluded that DDGS may be useful for reducing weed emergence and growth in container-grown ornamentals when applied to the soil surface at transplanting. Dr. Boydston noted that additional research is needed to identify and confirm the safety (of using DDGS) to ot
'/>"/>
Contact: Michael W. Neff
mwneff@ashs.org
703-836-4606
American Society for Horticultural Science
Source:Eurekalert
5. University of Washington Medical Center Takes Part in World Health Organization Surgical Checklist Initiative
http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=42704
2 July 2008
Mary Guiden
UW Medical Center (UWMC) took part in an international broadcast and global launch of the World Health Organization's "Safe Surgery Saves Lives" campaign Wednesday, June 25. UWMC is the only U.S. site of eight sites around the globe participating in the pilot phase of the project, which involves the use of a checklist for care before, during and after surgery.
Dr. E. Patchen "Patch" Dellinger, vice-chair of surgery, is directing UW efforts and implemented use of the checklist for all general surgical operations at UWMC starting in April. It will be used for all operations by all surgical specialties by fall 2008.
Dellinger's work coincides with Dr. David Flum's efforts on the state's Surgical Clinical Outcomes Assessment Program and is supported by groups including the Washington State Hospital Association, Washington State Nurses Association, Washington State Medical Association, Group Health and others. Flum is a UW associate professor of surgery.
What items are covered on the checklist? Before a patient is rolled into the operating room, medical center staff ask the patient to confirm his or her identity and the procedure. Once in the operating room (OR), all team members introduce themselves by name and role ("I'm Patch, and I'm the surgeon," is how Dr. Dellinger introduced himself before a recent surgery).
As a visual prompt, the checklist is poster-sized and hangs from an IV (intravenous) pole. The patient's identity is again confirmed as well as the site of the surgery and procedure due to be performed. The health-care team discusses any anticipated critical events and goes over an antibiotic redosing plan for cases that may last more than three hours. The OR checklist takes from one to four minutes to complete.
Dellinger said the UW "jumped at the chance to be a pilot site" for the WHO initiative. "A lot of us feel as if we don't know why the checklist hadn't been there" all along, he said. Not all reactions were initially positive, he admitted. "One surgeon said, ‘It sounds like a good idea as long as I don't have to do anything I'm not already doing,'" Dellinger said, with a chuckle.
Registered nurse Jodi Bloom said she was initially skeptical because she thought the checklist was cumbersome. "But now, when I go to other specialties, I feel as if something is missing," Bloom said. (She will no longer have that "missing" feeling as the checklist is rolled out more broadly at UWMC.)
Debby Lunde, also a registered nurse, described herself as perhaps the "biggest skeptic" when it came time to employ the checklist. "It was one more thing that we had to do," she explained. After a few months of using the checklist, however, Lunde said she is now one of the strongest supporters of the initiative. One of the things she appreciates is the opportunity to ask questions and raise concerns. "I love the way it brings us together in open communication and connection as a team, totally focusing on the patient," Lunde said.
The checklist has now been used in more than 500 operations at UWMC, and Dellinger estimates that it has helped to reduce patient safety errors by about half.
Honorable Mentions:
1. Humans Wore Shoes 40,000 Years Ago, Fossil Suggests
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080630-oldest-shoes_2.html
Scott Norris
for National Geographic News
July 1, 2008
Humans were wearing shoes at least 10,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study.
The evidence comes from a 40,000-year-old human fossil with delicate toe bones indicative of habitual shoe-wearing, experts say.
A previous study of anatomical changes in toe bone structure had dated the use of shoes to about 30,000 years ago.
Now the dainty-toed fossil from China suggests that at least some humans were sporting protective footwear 10,000 years further back, during a time when both modern humans and Neandertals occupied portions of Europe and Asia.
Study author Erik Trinkaus, a paleoanthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, said the scarcity of toe bone fossils makes it hard to determine when habitual shoe-wearing became widespread.
However, he noted, even Neandertals may have been strapping on sandals.
"Earlier humans, including Neanderthals, show [some] evidence of occasionally wearing shoes," Trinkaus said.
Regular shoe use may have become common by 40,000 years ago, but "we still have no [additional] evidence from that time period—one way or the other," the scientist said.
The study by Trinkaus and Chinese co-author Hong Shang appears in the July issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.
Tale of the Toes
In a previous study, Trinkaus found that shoe-wearing and barefoot human groups show characteristic differences in the size and strength of their middle toe bones.
Consistent shoe use results in a more delicate bone structure, because footwear reduces the force on middle toes during walking.
In his latest study, this anatomical evidence allowed Trinkaus to date the origin of shoes to a period long before the oldest known shoe remains.
Elizabeth Semmelhack curates the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Canada. She said given what we know about the effects of shoe-wearing, Trinkaus' approach makes perfect sense.
"The simple act of wearing shoes alters the structure of our feet," Semmelhack said.
"It's interesting that [Trinkaus] is looking at these prehistoric remains and coming to the same conclusions."
Function vs. Fashion
The first forms of protective footwear probably evolved from simple wrappings used to insulate the feet from snow and freezing temperatures, experts say.
The oldest preserved shoe remains, dating to roughly 10,000 years ago from the western United States, are simple sandals woven of plant fibers.
But at some point shoes stopped being mere protection and become a fashion item.
Some anthropologists have suggested that even the earliest shoes may have served a more symbolic than protective function.
Beads found around the ankles and feet of human skeletons dated to 27,000 years ago suggest the presence of decorated footwear, Trinkaus said.
"History is replete with examples of impractical, irrational shoes," noted shoe museum curator Semmelhack.
"The actual first shoes may have been created out of necessity. But elements of irrationality probably crept in very early on," she said.
"Even these ancient people were probably trying to express something."
2. Taiwan Power Co to Plant 1 Million Trees in Exchange for Expansion
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/216557,taiwan-power-co-to-plant-1-million-trees-in-exchange.html
Posted : Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:27:05 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Environment
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Taipei - The Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), after promising to plant 1 million trees, has won permission from the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to expand one of its power plants, a newspaper said on Thursday. According to the Commercial Times, EPA gave approved Taipower's plan to expand its coal-fired power plant in Linkou, outside Taipei, after Taipower had promised to plant 1 million trees to compensate for green house emissions from the expanded plant.
In its report to EPA, Taipower detailed short-, mid- and long-term measures for environmental protection, and pledged to cut its 2020 greenhouse emission to the level of 2008, the daily said.
The state-run Taipower plans to install 3 more generators at the Linkou Power Plant to boost the plant's power generation capability from the current 1 million kilowatts to 2.48 million kilowatts.
Taipower will invite international tenders for the 3 generators, with the contract worth about 4.8 billion US dollars. The first generator is scheduled to go into operation in 2013, the Commercial Times said.
Here is yesterday's post. Todays will follow soon. :)
Today's Top 5:
1. Get Smart About What You Eat and You Might Actually Improve Your Intelligence (Eurekalert.org)
2. New Approach Offers Chance to Finally Kill Herpes (Yahoo News)
3. Long Sought Boyhood Home of George Washington Found (ABC News)
4. Ethanol Byproduct Produces Green Results (Bio-medicine.org)
5. University of Washington Medical Center Takes Part in World Health Organization Surgical Checklist Initiative (University of Washington News)
Honorable Mentions:
1. Humans Wore Shoes 40,000 Years Ago, Fossil Suggests (National Geographic)
2. Taiwan Power Co to Plant 1 Million Trees in Exchange for Expansion (Earth Times)
Today's Top 5:
1. Get Smart About What You Eat and You Might Actually Improve Your Intelligence
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/foas-gsa070208.php
Public release date: 2-Jul-2008
Contact: Cody Mooneyhan
cmooneyhan@faseb.org
301-634-7104
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
MIT researchers offer tantalizing evidence on how to make people smarter, naturally
New research findings published online in The FASEB Journal provide more evidence that if we get smart about what we eat, our intelligence can improve. According to MIT scientists, dietary nutrients found in a wide range of foods from infant formula to eggs increase brain synapses and improve cognitive abilities.
"I hope human brains will, like those of experimental animals, respond to this kind of treatment by making more brain synapses and thus restoring cognitive abilities," said Richard Wurtman, MD, senior researcher on the project.
In the study, gerbils were given various combinations of three compounds needed for healthy brain membranes: choline, found in eggs; uridine monophosphate (UMP) found in beets; and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), found in fish oils. Other gerbils were given none of these to serve as a baseline. Then they were checked for cognitive changes four weeks later. The scientists found that the gerbils given choline with UMP and/or DHA showed cognitive improvements in tasks thought to be relevant to gerbils, such as navigating mazes. After these tests were concluded, the researchers dissected the mouse brains for a biological cause for the improvement. They found biochemical evidence that there was more than the usual amount of brain synapse activity, which was consistent with behaviors indicating higher intelligence.
"Now that we know how to make gerbils smarter," said Gerald Weissmann, MD, Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, "it's not too far a stretch to hope that people's intelligence can also be improved. Quite frankly, this can't happen soon enough, as every environmentalist, advocate of evolution and war opponent will attest."
###
This article is scheduled for final publication in the November 2008 issue of The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), which is published by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and is the most cited biology journal worldwide according to the Institute for Scientific Information. FASEB comprises 21 nonprofit societies with more than 80,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. FASEB advances biological science through collaborative advocacy for research policies that promote scientific progress and education and lead to improvements in human health.
2. New Approach Offers Chance to Finally Kill Herpes
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/herpes_treatment_dc
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
Wed Jul 2, 5:39 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday they may have found a way to flush out herpes viruses from hiding -- offering a potential way to cure pesky and painful conditions from cold sores to shingles.
They discovered that a mysterious gene carried by the herpes simplex-1 virus -- the one that causes cold sores -- allows the virus to lay low in the nerves it infects.
It does so via microRNAs, little pieces of genetic material that regulate the activity of many viruses, the researchers report in the journal Nature.
It may be possible to "wake up" the virus and then kill it with standard antiviral drugs such as acyclovir, said Jennifer Lin Umbach of Duke University in North Carolina, who worked on the study.
"We are trying to go into animal trials," Umbach said in a telephone interview.
The Duke team is discussing a potential collaboration with Regulus Therapeutics LLC, a joint venture between Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc and Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc that specializes in microRNAs.
Herpes viruses cause permanent infections. They head straight to nerve cells, where they stay latent for the life of an animal or person, often causing periodic outbreaks.
Herpes simplex 1 or HSV-1 causes cold sores, HSV-2 causes genital herpes, while varicella causes chicken pox and returns in middle or old age as herpes zoster to cause shingles.
Acyclovir and related drugs can suppress symptoms but only when the virus is active.
IMPOSSIBLE TO KILL
"Inactive virus is completely untouchable by any treatment we have. Unless you activate the virus, you can't kill it," said Bryan Cullen, who oversaw the research.
Umbach said that for still unknown reasons, viruses infecting different neurons in the same body activate at different times, making it impossible to eradicate an infection.
Her team found that a gene called LAT controls microRNAs that turn off other genes in the virus.
"The presence of these active microRNAs keep the virus dormant," Umbach said. "When the virus is activated by stress like UV (ultraviolet) light or a wound, production of (other) genes goes up."
Then LAT is overwhelmed and unable to keep the virus in check. It wakes up and causes an outbreak.
A drug that would turn off the microRNAs could drive the virus out of hiding and allow all copies of the virus to be killed with acyclovir, she said.
"You would have one cold sore but you would get rid of it," she said. Curing something more painful, such as shingles, might be a little trickier, she added.
One class of drug called an antagomir might work, Umbach said. These chemically engineered oligonucleotides are short segments of RNA that can be made into mirror images of a targeted bit of genetic material -- such as the herpes microRNAs. They would attach and "silence" the microRNA.
The potential market is large. An estimated one in five Americans have genital herpes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while 100 million have the HSV-1 virus that causes cold sores.
The CDC estimates there are a million cases of shingles every year in the United States alone.
3. Longsought Boyhood Home of George Washington Found
Discovery Offers Insight Into First President's Life
http://www.abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=5297035&page=1
By JOHN DONVAN
July 2, 2008
Nearly everyone has heard of George Washington's Mount Vernon, Va., estate, where tourists flock to visit the place where our first president lived and died.
Archeologists' discovery of George Washington's childhood home offers insight into the life of our nation's first president.
(AP Photo)Now, archeologists believe they have found the home where, according to legend, Washington, who could not tell a lie, chopped down the cherry tree.
The Ferry Farm site, located near Fredericksburg, Va., overlooking the Rappahannock River, just 50 miles south of Washington, D.C., which archeologists have excavated, is believed to be the house where Washington lived as a child, from the time he was 6 years old,.
After Washington moved away, the house rotted and was swallowed by time and grassland, preventing archeologists from finding its actual site until now.
The search for Washington's childhood home began seven years ago. First, researchers found remains of a home predating Washington's, and then they uncovered another home from the 19th century. Through trial and error, researchers found this area and excavated for three years, before verifying that it was the Washington's family home.
Related
The 'Real' George Washington EstateFloods Dash Historic Town's Tourism HopesNew D.C. Walking Tour Traces Lincoln's End"If George Washington did, indeed, chop down a cherry tree, as generations of Americans have believed, this is where it happened," said Philip Levy, who is a historical archaeologist and professor at the University of South Florida.
"What we see at this site is the best available window into the setting that nurtured the father of our country," Levy said.
David Muraca, director of archeology at the George Washington Foundation, made the find. From the remains, they were able to debunk historical assumptions about Washington's first home.
While historians had long believed Washington lived in a small cottage, the foundation and cellars that were found prove that the house was one and a half stories. Evidence also shows that the fire that had been said to have driven the family from the home, was merely minor.
Also from the remains, archeologists unearthed thousands of artifacts that once belonged to the Washington family: fragments of ceramic tableware, the bowl of a clay pipe with Masonic markings, scissors and a set of 18th century wig curlers -- perhaps used by Washington himself.
The clay pipe bowl -- with the Masonic crest -- is especially exciting for archeologists, since Washington joined the Masons in 1753.
4. Ethanol Byproduct Produces Green Results
http://www.bio-medicine.org/biology-news-1/Ethanol-byproduct-produces-green-results-3864-1/
2 July 2008
PROSSER WA Commercial flower and plant growers know all too well tha...Enter dried distillers grains with solubles or DDGS. DDGS a byprod...Researchers applied DDGS two ways: to the soil surface and mixed into...When mixed into the potting media however dried distillers grains we...[RSS]
http://www.bio-medicine.org/inc/biomed/biology-news.asp
http://feeds.bio-medicine.org/latest-biology-news
Email Subscription: Get Latest Biology News delivered by emailDate:7/2/2008[Outline] [RSS]
PROSSER, WA Commercial flower and plant growers know all too well that invasive, ubiquitous weeds cause trouble by lowering the value and deterring healthy growth of potted ornamental plants. To control weeds, many commercial nursery owners resort to the expensive practice of paying workers to hand-weed containers. Some growers use herbicides, but efficacy of herbicides is questionable on the wide range of plant species produced in nurseries, and many herbicides are not registered for use in greenhouses.
Enter "dried distillers grains with solubles", or DDGS. DDGS, a byproduct of converting corn to fuel ethanol, is typically used as livestock feed. Rick A. Boydston, Harold P. Collins, and Steve Vaughn, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, undertook a research study on the use of DDGS as a weed deterrent on potted ornamentals. The study results, published in the February 2008 issue of HortScience, evaluated the use of DDGS as a soil amendment to suppress weeds in container-grown ornamentals.
Researchers applied DDGS two ways: to the soil surface, and mixed into the potting media of transplanted ornamentals. Applied to the soil surface after transplanting, DDGS caused no injury to plants. According to Dr. Boydston, an agronomist with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), "grains applied to the surface at rates that gave good coverage of the soil (800 and 1600 g/m2) reduced the number of common chickweed and annual bluegrass. Weed control was not perfect, but could reduce the amount of hand-weeding typically required."
When mixed into the potting media, however, dried distillers grains were toxic to transplanted rose, coreopsis, and phlox plants. Researchers concluded that DDGS may be useful for reducing weed emergence and growth in container-grown ornamentals when applied to the soil surface at transplanting. Dr. Boydston noted that additional research is needed to identify and confirm the safety (of using DDGS) to ot
'/>"/>
Contact: Michael W. Neff
mwneff@ashs.org
703-836-4606
American Society for Horticultural Science
Source:Eurekalert
5. University of Washington Medical Center Takes Part in World Health Organization Surgical Checklist Initiative
http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=42704
2 July 2008
Mary Guiden
UW Medical Center (UWMC) took part in an international broadcast and global launch of the World Health Organization's "Safe Surgery Saves Lives" campaign Wednesday, June 25. UWMC is the only U.S. site of eight sites around the globe participating in the pilot phase of the project, which involves the use of a checklist for care before, during and after surgery.
Dr. E. Patchen "Patch" Dellinger, vice-chair of surgery, is directing UW efforts and implemented use of the checklist for all general surgical operations at UWMC starting in April. It will be used for all operations by all surgical specialties by fall 2008.
Dellinger's work coincides with Dr. David Flum's efforts on the state's Surgical Clinical Outcomes Assessment Program and is supported by groups including the Washington State Hospital Association, Washington State Nurses Association, Washington State Medical Association, Group Health and others. Flum is a UW associate professor of surgery.
What items are covered on the checklist? Before a patient is rolled into the operating room, medical center staff ask the patient to confirm his or her identity and the procedure. Once in the operating room (OR), all team members introduce themselves by name and role ("I'm Patch, and I'm the surgeon," is how Dr. Dellinger introduced himself before a recent surgery).
As a visual prompt, the checklist is poster-sized and hangs from an IV (intravenous) pole. The patient's identity is again confirmed as well as the site of the surgery and procedure due to be performed. The health-care team discusses any anticipated critical events and goes over an antibiotic redosing plan for cases that may last more than three hours. The OR checklist takes from one to four minutes to complete.
Dellinger said the UW "jumped at the chance to be a pilot site" for the WHO initiative. "A lot of us feel as if we don't know why the checklist hadn't been there" all along, he said. Not all reactions were initially positive, he admitted. "One surgeon said, ‘It sounds like a good idea as long as I don't have to do anything I'm not already doing,'" Dellinger said, with a chuckle.
Registered nurse Jodi Bloom said she was initially skeptical because she thought the checklist was cumbersome. "But now, when I go to other specialties, I feel as if something is missing," Bloom said. (She will no longer have that "missing" feeling as the checklist is rolled out more broadly at UWMC.)
Debby Lunde, also a registered nurse, described herself as perhaps the "biggest skeptic" when it came time to employ the checklist. "It was one more thing that we had to do," she explained. After a few months of using the checklist, however, Lunde said she is now one of the strongest supporters of the initiative. One of the things she appreciates is the opportunity to ask questions and raise concerns. "I love the way it brings us together in open communication and connection as a team, totally focusing on the patient," Lunde said.
The checklist has now been used in more than 500 operations at UWMC, and Dellinger estimates that it has helped to reduce patient safety errors by about half.
Honorable Mentions:
1. Humans Wore Shoes 40,000 Years Ago, Fossil Suggests
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080630-oldest-shoes_2.html
Scott Norris
for National Geographic News
July 1, 2008
Humans were wearing shoes at least 10,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study.
The evidence comes from a 40,000-year-old human fossil with delicate toe bones indicative of habitual shoe-wearing, experts say.
A previous study of anatomical changes in toe bone structure had dated the use of shoes to about 30,000 years ago.
Now the dainty-toed fossil from China suggests that at least some humans were sporting protective footwear 10,000 years further back, during a time when both modern humans and Neandertals occupied portions of Europe and Asia.
Study author Erik Trinkaus, a paleoanthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, said the scarcity of toe bone fossils makes it hard to determine when habitual shoe-wearing became widespread.
However, he noted, even Neandertals may have been strapping on sandals.
"Earlier humans, including Neanderthals, show [some] evidence of occasionally wearing shoes," Trinkaus said.
Regular shoe use may have become common by 40,000 years ago, but "we still have no [additional] evidence from that time period—one way or the other," the scientist said.
The study by Trinkaus and Chinese co-author Hong Shang appears in the July issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.
Tale of the Toes
In a previous study, Trinkaus found that shoe-wearing and barefoot human groups show characteristic differences in the size and strength of their middle toe bones.
Consistent shoe use results in a more delicate bone structure, because footwear reduces the force on middle toes during walking.
In his latest study, this anatomical evidence allowed Trinkaus to date the origin of shoes to a period long before the oldest known shoe remains.
Elizabeth Semmelhack curates the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Canada. She said given what we know about the effects of shoe-wearing, Trinkaus' approach makes perfect sense.
"The simple act of wearing shoes alters the structure of our feet," Semmelhack said.
"It's interesting that [Trinkaus] is looking at these prehistoric remains and coming to the same conclusions."
Function vs. Fashion
The first forms of protective footwear probably evolved from simple wrappings used to insulate the feet from snow and freezing temperatures, experts say.
The oldest preserved shoe remains, dating to roughly 10,000 years ago from the western United States, are simple sandals woven of plant fibers.
But at some point shoes stopped being mere protection and become a fashion item.
Some anthropologists have suggested that even the earliest shoes may have served a more symbolic than protective function.
Beads found around the ankles and feet of human skeletons dated to 27,000 years ago suggest the presence of decorated footwear, Trinkaus said.
"History is replete with examples of impractical, irrational shoes," noted shoe museum curator Semmelhack.
"The actual first shoes may have been created out of necessity. But elements of irrationality probably crept in very early on," she said.
"Even these ancient people were probably trying to express something."
2. Taiwan Power Co to Plant 1 Million Trees in Exchange for Expansion
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/216557,taiwan-power-co-to-plant-1-million-trees-in-exchange.html
Posted : Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:27:05 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Environment
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Environment News Home
Taipei - The Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), after promising to plant 1 million trees, has won permission from the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to expand one of its power plants, a newspaper said on Thursday. According to the Commercial Times, EPA gave approved Taipower's plan to expand its coal-fired power plant in Linkou, outside Taipei, after Taipower had promised to plant 1 million trees to compensate for green house emissions from the expanded plant.
In its report to EPA, Taipower detailed short-, mid- and long-term measures for environmental protection, and pledged to cut its 2020 greenhouse emission to the level of 2008, the daily said.
The state-run Taipower plans to install 3 more generators at the Linkou Power Plant to boost the plant's power generation capability from the current 1 million kilowatts to 2.48 million kilowatts.
Taipower will invite international tenders for the 3 generators, with the contract worth about 4.8 billion US dollars. The first generator is scheduled to go into operation in 2013, the Commercial Times said.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
2008: July 1st Good News (World Becoming Happier; Coffee Could Help Beat Multiple Sclerosis; more...)
Good Afternoon All,
It's 5am here in Seoul. I've been up since 3 am, unable to sleep. I am not tired, and I hope I don't get tired later on today. Wish me luck. :)
Here are the news articles I have found for you today. :)
Today's Top 5:
1. World Becoming a Happier Place, Survey Says (ABC News)
2. Prince Charles Shrinks Carbon Footprint with Car that Runs on Wine (Fox News)
3. Coffee Could Help Beat Multiple Sclerosis (Yahoo News)
4. Malaysian Folk Medicine Cuts Chemo Treatment Resistance (United Press International)
5. A Boy with Leukemia Gets His Wish with a Visit to Hawaii (Honlulu Star Bulletin)
Honorable Mentions:
1. Dragonflies May Provide Alert System for Water Pollution (Earth Times)
2. Jordan Discovers What Could be First Christian Church on Earth (Yahoo News)
Today's Top 5:
1. World Becoming a Happier Place:
Denmark World's Happiest Country
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/wireStory?id=5281954
July 1, 2008
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Denmark, with its democracy, social equality and peaceful atmosphere, is the happiest country in the world, researchers said on Monday.
New research shows that while Denmark leads the world in happiness, people in most other countries are also, on the whole, becoming happier.
(ABC News Photo Illustration)Zimbabwe, torn by political and social strife, is the least happy, while the world's richest nation, the United States, ranks 16th.
Overall, the world is getting happier, according to the U.S. government-funded World Values Survey, done regularly by a global network of social scientists.
It found increased happiness from 1981 to 2007 in 45 of 52 countries analyzed.
"I strongly suspect that there is a strong correlation between peace and happiness," said Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, who directed the study.
And, said Ingelhart, there is a strong correlation between happiness and democracy.
"Denmark is the happiest country in the world in our ratings," Inglehart said in an audio statement released by the National Science Foundation, which paid for the analysis.
"Denmark is prosperous -- not the richest country in the world but it is prosperous."
Puerto Rico and Colombia also rank highly, along with Northern Ireland, Iceland, Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden.
"Though by no means the happiest country in the world, from a global perspective the United States looks pretty good," Inglehart said. "The country is not only prosperous; it ranks relatively high in gender equality, tolerance of ethnic and social diversity and has high levels of political freedom."
The survey, first done in 1981, has kept to two simple questions:
"Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not at all happy?" And, "All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?"
Writing in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, Ingelhart's team said they have surveyed 350,000 people.
2. Prince Charles Shrinks Carbon Footprint with Car that Runs on Wine
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,374303,00.html
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Prince Charles drives his Aston Martin Volante DB6 with wife Camilla Parker Bowles.
LONDON — Prince Charles' income grew last year, while his carbon footprint shrank.
The eco-friendly prince even has an Aston Martin that runs on wine.
An annual review of Charles' accounts released Monday said the prince made more than $32 million from property and investments between April 1, 2007 and March 31 this year, 7 percent more than in 2006-7. Charles paid $6.8 million in tax, $10,000 less than the year before.
The prince's office said greater use of green energy and fewer plane and car journeys helped Charles cut the amount of carbon dioxide he produced by 18 percent to 3,081 tons.
Charles has promised to reduce his emissions of greenhouse gases by 25 percent between 2007 and 2012.
The report said Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, traveled 37,000 miles on official duties and overseas travel accounted for the largest chunk of the prince's carbon footprint.
For domestic travel, the prince's Jaguars, Audi and Range Rover now run entirely on biodiesel made from used cooking oil, and his 38-year-old Aston Martin is fueled by bioethanol from surplus wine.
The prince has also installed wood-chip stoves at his country homes — the Highgrove estate, where he farms organically, and Birkhall in Scotland — and energy-efficient boilers at his Clarence House residence in London.
"I hope it shows a good picture," said royal aide Sir Michael Peat. "I really do believe that the contribution their royal highnesses make to national life continues to develop and broaden."
The 59-year-old heir to the throne receives private income from properties of The Duchy of Cornwall, the 136,000-acre estate established in 1337 by King Edward II to provide income for his heir.
Charles' official spending, including money spent on charitable work and official duties, was $20.8 million. His personal spending, which includes the salaries of 30 full-time staff, was $4.4 million, down from 2.6 million pounds.
However, Charles' thrifty gene appears to have skipped his oldest son. A British newspaper reported Monday that five helicopter flights taken by Prince William during training with the Royal Air Force cost taxpayers more than $100,000.
The most contentious was a flight to attend a stag party on the Isle of Wight off southern England, which cost just over $17,400, The Guardian reported.
The newspaper said it obtained the figures from the Ministry of Defense under a freedom of information request.
William also flew military aircraft to his girlfriend Kate Middleton's home, his father's country house and the royal residence at Sandringham.
The Ministry of Defense said "all flights undertaken by Flying Officer Wales were a legitimate part of his RAF training." But the ministry acknowledged there had been "a degree of naivety in the planning of the training sorties."
3. Coffee Could Help Beat Multiple Sclerosis
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/healthussclerosis
Tue Jul 1, 12:45 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A strong cup of coffee may do more than just wake you up in the mornings. It could also help you stave off multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a new study.
Scientists in Oklahoma found that mice which had been immunized to develop an MS-like condition appeared to be protected from the disease by drinking the equivalent of six to eight cups of coffee a day.
"This is an exciting and unexpected finding, and I think it could be important for the study of MS and other diseases," said Linda Thompson, from the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation who worked in collaboration with Cornell University and Finland's University of Turku.
Caffeine prevented adenosine, one of the four building blocks in DNA, from mixing with its receptor in mice.
Adenosine is common molecule in humans and plays a large role in helping to control the biochemical processes for sleep and suppressing arousal.
When the molecule is blocked from binding with its receptor, the body's infection-fighting white cells cannot reach the central nervous system and trigger the reactions which lead to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, or EAE, the animal form of MS.
The findings could have important implications for other auto-immune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, in which the body's own defense systems turn against itself.
But Thompson, co-author of the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, warned there was a lot more work to be done in fighting multiple sclerosis, a debilitating and progressive disease in humans.
"A mouse is not a human being, so we can't be sure caffeine will have the same effect on people prone to develop MS without much more testing," she said.
Further retrospective studies to track the caffeine intake of patients with MS and its effects might be the next major step.
"If you found a correlation between caffeine intake and reduced MS symptoms, that would point to further studies in humans," Thompson said.
Some 2.5 million people worldwide are thought to suffer from MS, a disorder of the central nervous system which leads to loss of muscle coordination.
4. Malaysian Folk Medicine Cuts Chemo Treatment Resistance
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2008/07/01/Malaysian_medicine_cuts_chemo_resistance/UPI-26631214920256/
Published: July 1, 2008 at 9:50 AM
MONTREAL, July 1 (UPI) -- A Canadian, U.S. and Austrian study has discovered a Malaysian folk medication reduces resistance to cancer chemotherapy treatments.
McGill University researchers said the study focused on a class of natural products known as cyclopenta benzofuran flavaglines, or CBFs. Working with mice genetically modified to mimic human leukemias, they found the CBF compound silvestrol can make tumors susceptible to the killing effects of anticancer drugs.
Silvestrol is a natural compound derived from a large genus of trees and shrubs found in Malaysia, South China and some Pacific islands, the scientists said. It's been used in Malaysian folk medicine for generations, but never as a cancer therapy.
The researchers cautioned trials in humans and possible treatments are still many years away.
The results of the study that included Boston University, the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the University of Vienna and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute are published in the June issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
5. A boy with Leukemia Gets His Wish with a Visit to Hawaii
http://starbulletin.com/2008/07/01/news/story09.html
By Nalea J. Ko
nko@starbulletin.com
Peddling on his BMX bicycle through Diamond Head crater with his family in tow, 12-year-old Kyle Williams' wish finally came true.
The Make-a-Wish Foundation, with the help of the Hawaii Bicycling League, brought to fruition yesterday Kyle's dream to ride his bike in a volcano.
"In all reality, it's a miracle he's with us," said Kyle's mother, Ann Walden.
Last week, Kyle's Hawaiian vacation plans were nearly suspended again when he caught chickenpox.
Diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer that attacks infection-fighting cells, Kyle has been in recovery, waiting for more than a year to visit Oahu.
"I just really wanted to go to Hawaii," he said.
Kyle is one of about 100 children who asked to visit Hawaii in the month of June alone, according to an official with Make-a-Wish Foundation of Hawaii.
Since 1986 the Make-a-Wish Foundation in Kyle's home state of Washington granted 3,500 wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions.
"Until the time there are no more kids who get sick, I can't imagine one kid going through what they do and not getting a really fabulous wish," said Audrey Seale, a volunteer with the Washington chapter. She met the Williamses in 2006 when Kyle was at the Ronald McDonald House preparing for a bone marrow transplant.
To grant wishes like Kyle's, the foundation depends on a community of people.
Alaska Airlines flew Kyle's family - his father, mother and brother - from Washington state. Airline officials also waived fees to fly Kyle's BMX bike, which he received last summer at a luau in Washington.
Seale says the people of Hawaii really worked to make everything possible for Kyle.
"Everybody just really had that spirit of aloha to make it happen," said John Climaldi, events manager with the Hawaii Bicycling League. The league provided three bikes for the Williamses, but Climaldi credits the state Department of Land and Natural Resources for arranging yesterday's Diamond Head bike ride.
Ann said flying to Hawaii was what Kyle had wanted for a while. "I think it's important because, you know, it's an opportunity that he might not ever had before," she said.
In total, Kyle's wish is estimated to cost $5,800. But despite popular belief, the Make-a-Wish Foundation is not well funded, according to a statement released by the foundation. Children typically wait about four months before their wishes are granted.
The young Sonics fan's dream does not end with the bicycle ride. Kyle's family will visit Hanauma Bay, the Polynesian Cultural Center and Pearl Harbor. Set to drop by the Matsumoto Shave Ice store before returning home, Kyle said he is anxious to see more of Hawaii.
Honorable Mentions:
1. Dragonflies May Provide Alert System for Water Pollution
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/215656,dragonflies-may-provide-alert-system-for-water-pollution.html
Posted : Sun, 29 Jun 2008 05:43:02 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Nature (Environment)
Singapore - Dragonfly young could soon be the aquatic version of the canary in a coalmine, a researcher said in a published report on Sunday. Just as the singing birds were used by miners to warn them of toxic air, young dragonflies that live in reservoirs and ponds hold the potential of alerting humans to water pollution, The Straits Times said.
Researcher Nanthinee Jeevanandam, at the National University of Singapore, said she hopes to use their genetic fingerprint to help national water agencies like Singapore's Public Utilities Board determine the level of cleanliness in reservoir water.
Different dragonfly species have varied tolerance to pollutants such as lead and sulphate, the report said. Some require cleaner water or more oxygen.
Studying the species would be a quick and chemical-free method of evaluating water quality, Jeevanandam said.
She said she has collected DNA sequences for about a quarter of the city-state's 110 dragonfly species.
2. Jordan Discovers What Could be First Christian Church on Earth
http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20080628/896/twl-jordan-discovers-what-could-be-first.html
Sat, Jun 28 08:00 AM
Rihab (Jordan), June 28 (DPA) Excavations are continuing on a hilltop in the rural Jordanian town of Rihab to find additional evidence that supports a recent epoch-making discovery of what renowned archaeologists believe could be the first church on earth.
'We believe this is the world's first church, where early Christians took refuge after they escaped Roman persecution in Jerusalem and came here to perform their rituals in secrecy,' archaeologist Abdul Qader al-Hosan told DPA.
Al-Hosan is head of the state-run Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies and a professor of archaeology at Hashemiyah University.
'The evidence we have indicates that this church sheltered 70 disciples of Jesus Christ and was built between 33 and 70 AD,' he said.
'We believe they remained in this cave until the Christian religion was endorsed by the Romans,' he added.
The chapel, which lies directly underneath the Saint Georgeous Church, was dug in an underground cave, the exterior outlet of which leads to a cluster of churches, which were built successively at different times, according to al-Hosan.
Therefore, Rihab, 60 km north-east of Amman, is called the town of 30 churches, he said.
Al-Hosan said that he 'deeply believed that Jesus Christ visited Rihab in the early days of Christianity'.
'According to authenticated history, Jesus Christ spent part of his life in Jordan's Ajloun area, 32 km north of Rihab, and was earlier baptised at a site 40 km south-west of Amman,' he said.
A mosaic inscription in Greek on the floor of St Georgeous Church described the early Christians as 'the 70 beloved by God and Divine'.
St. Georgeous is believed to be the oldest 'proper' church in the world, built in 230 AD, according to the inscription in the church.
Going three steps into the cave, one can see a circular area with a 2.5-metre radius, believed to be the apse, and several stone seats for the clerics.
The cave also includes the living places of the first Christians. 'A wall with an entrance is the only partition separating the altar from the living area,' said Hosan, who holds a doctorate in archaeology from Istanbul University.
'This tunnel is believed to have been used by the first 70 Christians as a gateway to their water system. We hope when we open the tunnel soon, we will get further evidence that this worship place is the first church on this globe,' he added.
Al-Hosan said that his excavation team had found pottery believed to have been brought by early Christians from Jerusalem 'because such products were not familiar to people in northern Jordan in that period'.
His team also found 'skeletons and bones' in a cemetery situated next to the chapel.
'It is divided into three parts, which we believe were devoted to men, women and children,' he said.
The City of Rehabis, as it was called during the Roman era, was one of the 10 allied cities, or Dekapolis, which were under the military control of the Roman empire but which were economically and religiously independent, al-Hosan said.
He reproduced letters from at least three churches in Jordan describing the discovery as an 'amazing event'.
Archimandrite Nektarious, bishop of the Greek Orthodox archdiocese, called the discovery of the cave an 'important milestone for Christians all around the world'.
It's 5am here in Seoul. I've been up since 3 am, unable to sleep. I am not tired, and I hope I don't get tired later on today. Wish me luck. :)
Here are the news articles I have found for you today. :)
Today's Top 5:
1. World Becoming a Happier Place, Survey Says (ABC News)
2. Prince Charles Shrinks Carbon Footprint with Car that Runs on Wine (Fox News)
3. Coffee Could Help Beat Multiple Sclerosis (Yahoo News)
4. Malaysian Folk Medicine Cuts Chemo Treatment Resistance (United Press International)
5. A Boy with Leukemia Gets His Wish with a Visit to Hawaii (Honlulu Star Bulletin)
Honorable Mentions:
1. Dragonflies May Provide Alert System for Water Pollution (Earth Times)
2. Jordan Discovers What Could be First Christian Church on Earth (Yahoo News)
Today's Top 5:
1. World Becoming a Happier Place:
Denmark World's Happiest Country
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/wireStory?id=5281954
July 1, 2008
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Denmark, with its democracy, social equality and peaceful atmosphere, is the happiest country in the world, researchers said on Monday.
New research shows that while Denmark leads the world in happiness, people in most other countries are also, on the whole, becoming happier.
(ABC News Photo Illustration)Zimbabwe, torn by political and social strife, is the least happy, while the world's richest nation, the United States, ranks 16th.
Overall, the world is getting happier, according to the U.S. government-funded World Values Survey, done regularly by a global network of social scientists.
It found increased happiness from 1981 to 2007 in 45 of 52 countries analyzed.
"I strongly suspect that there is a strong correlation between peace and happiness," said Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, who directed the study.
And, said Ingelhart, there is a strong correlation between happiness and democracy.
"Denmark is the happiest country in the world in our ratings," Inglehart said in an audio statement released by the National Science Foundation, which paid for the analysis.
"Denmark is prosperous -- not the richest country in the world but it is prosperous."
Puerto Rico and Colombia also rank highly, along with Northern Ireland, Iceland, Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden.
"Though by no means the happiest country in the world, from a global perspective the United States looks pretty good," Inglehart said. "The country is not only prosperous; it ranks relatively high in gender equality, tolerance of ethnic and social diversity and has high levels of political freedom."
The survey, first done in 1981, has kept to two simple questions:
"Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not at all happy?" And, "All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?"
Writing in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, Ingelhart's team said they have surveyed 350,000 people.
2. Prince Charles Shrinks Carbon Footprint with Car that Runs on Wine
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,374303,00.html
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Prince Charles drives his Aston Martin Volante DB6 with wife Camilla Parker Bowles.
LONDON — Prince Charles' income grew last year, while his carbon footprint shrank.
The eco-friendly prince even has an Aston Martin that runs on wine.
An annual review of Charles' accounts released Monday said the prince made more than $32 million from property and investments between April 1, 2007 and March 31 this year, 7 percent more than in 2006-7. Charles paid $6.8 million in tax, $10,000 less than the year before.
The prince's office said greater use of green energy and fewer plane and car journeys helped Charles cut the amount of carbon dioxide he produced by 18 percent to 3,081 tons.
Charles has promised to reduce his emissions of greenhouse gases by 25 percent between 2007 and 2012.
The report said Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, traveled 37,000 miles on official duties and overseas travel accounted for the largest chunk of the prince's carbon footprint.
For domestic travel, the prince's Jaguars, Audi and Range Rover now run entirely on biodiesel made from used cooking oil, and his 38-year-old Aston Martin is fueled by bioethanol from surplus wine.
The prince has also installed wood-chip stoves at his country homes — the Highgrove estate, where he farms organically, and Birkhall in Scotland — and energy-efficient boilers at his Clarence House residence in London.
"I hope it shows a good picture," said royal aide Sir Michael Peat. "I really do believe that the contribution their royal highnesses make to national life continues to develop and broaden."
The 59-year-old heir to the throne receives private income from properties of The Duchy of Cornwall, the 136,000-acre estate established in 1337 by King Edward II to provide income for his heir.
Charles' official spending, including money spent on charitable work and official duties, was $20.8 million. His personal spending, which includes the salaries of 30 full-time staff, was $4.4 million, down from 2.6 million pounds.
However, Charles' thrifty gene appears to have skipped his oldest son. A British newspaper reported Monday that five helicopter flights taken by Prince William during training with the Royal Air Force cost taxpayers more than $100,000.
The most contentious was a flight to attend a stag party on the Isle of Wight off southern England, which cost just over $17,400, The Guardian reported.
The newspaper said it obtained the figures from the Ministry of Defense under a freedom of information request.
William also flew military aircraft to his girlfriend Kate Middleton's home, his father's country house and the royal residence at Sandringham.
The Ministry of Defense said "all flights undertaken by Flying Officer Wales were a legitimate part of his RAF training." But the ministry acknowledged there had been "a degree of naivety in the planning of the training sorties."
3. Coffee Could Help Beat Multiple Sclerosis
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/healthussclerosis
Tue Jul 1, 12:45 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A strong cup of coffee may do more than just wake you up in the mornings. It could also help you stave off multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a new study.
Scientists in Oklahoma found that mice which had been immunized to develop an MS-like condition appeared to be protected from the disease by drinking the equivalent of six to eight cups of coffee a day.
"This is an exciting and unexpected finding, and I think it could be important for the study of MS and other diseases," said Linda Thompson, from the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation who worked in collaboration with Cornell University and Finland's University of Turku.
Caffeine prevented adenosine, one of the four building blocks in DNA, from mixing with its receptor in mice.
Adenosine is common molecule in humans and plays a large role in helping to control the biochemical processes for sleep and suppressing arousal.
When the molecule is blocked from binding with its receptor, the body's infection-fighting white cells cannot reach the central nervous system and trigger the reactions which lead to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, or EAE, the animal form of MS.
The findings could have important implications for other auto-immune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, in which the body's own defense systems turn against itself.
But Thompson, co-author of the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, warned there was a lot more work to be done in fighting multiple sclerosis, a debilitating and progressive disease in humans.
"A mouse is not a human being, so we can't be sure caffeine will have the same effect on people prone to develop MS without much more testing," she said.
Further retrospective studies to track the caffeine intake of patients with MS and its effects might be the next major step.
"If you found a correlation between caffeine intake and reduced MS symptoms, that would point to further studies in humans," Thompson said.
Some 2.5 million people worldwide are thought to suffer from MS, a disorder of the central nervous system which leads to loss of muscle coordination.
4. Malaysian Folk Medicine Cuts Chemo Treatment Resistance
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2008/07/01/Malaysian_medicine_cuts_chemo_resistance/UPI-26631214920256/
Published: July 1, 2008 at 9:50 AM
MONTREAL, July 1 (UPI) -- A Canadian, U.S. and Austrian study has discovered a Malaysian folk medication reduces resistance to cancer chemotherapy treatments.
McGill University researchers said the study focused on a class of natural products known as cyclopenta benzofuran flavaglines, or CBFs. Working with mice genetically modified to mimic human leukemias, they found the CBF compound silvestrol can make tumors susceptible to the killing effects of anticancer drugs.
Silvestrol is a natural compound derived from a large genus of trees and shrubs found in Malaysia, South China and some Pacific islands, the scientists said. It's been used in Malaysian folk medicine for generations, but never as a cancer therapy.
The researchers cautioned trials in humans and possible treatments are still many years away.
The results of the study that included Boston University, the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the University of Vienna and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute are published in the June issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
5. A boy with Leukemia Gets His Wish with a Visit to Hawaii
http://starbulletin.com/2008/07/01/news/story09.html
By Nalea J. Ko
nko@starbulletin.com
Peddling on his BMX bicycle through Diamond Head crater with his family in tow, 12-year-old Kyle Williams' wish finally came true.
The Make-a-Wish Foundation, with the help of the Hawaii Bicycling League, brought to fruition yesterday Kyle's dream to ride his bike in a volcano.
"In all reality, it's a miracle he's with us," said Kyle's mother, Ann Walden.
Last week, Kyle's Hawaiian vacation plans were nearly suspended again when he caught chickenpox.
Diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer that attacks infection-fighting cells, Kyle has been in recovery, waiting for more than a year to visit Oahu.
"I just really wanted to go to Hawaii," he said.
Kyle is one of about 100 children who asked to visit Hawaii in the month of June alone, according to an official with Make-a-Wish Foundation of Hawaii.
Since 1986 the Make-a-Wish Foundation in Kyle's home state of Washington granted 3,500 wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions.
"Until the time there are no more kids who get sick, I can't imagine one kid going through what they do and not getting a really fabulous wish," said Audrey Seale, a volunteer with the Washington chapter. She met the Williamses in 2006 when Kyle was at the Ronald McDonald House preparing for a bone marrow transplant.
To grant wishes like Kyle's, the foundation depends on a community of people.
Alaska Airlines flew Kyle's family - his father, mother and brother - from Washington state. Airline officials also waived fees to fly Kyle's BMX bike, which he received last summer at a luau in Washington.
Seale says the people of Hawaii really worked to make everything possible for Kyle.
"Everybody just really had that spirit of aloha to make it happen," said John Climaldi, events manager with the Hawaii Bicycling League. The league provided three bikes for the Williamses, but Climaldi credits the state Department of Land and Natural Resources for arranging yesterday's Diamond Head bike ride.
Ann said flying to Hawaii was what Kyle had wanted for a while. "I think it's important because, you know, it's an opportunity that he might not ever had before," she said.
In total, Kyle's wish is estimated to cost $5,800. But despite popular belief, the Make-a-Wish Foundation is not well funded, according to a statement released by the foundation. Children typically wait about four months before their wishes are granted.
The young Sonics fan's dream does not end with the bicycle ride. Kyle's family will visit Hanauma Bay, the Polynesian Cultural Center and Pearl Harbor. Set to drop by the Matsumoto Shave Ice store before returning home, Kyle said he is anxious to see more of Hawaii.
Honorable Mentions:
1. Dragonflies May Provide Alert System for Water Pollution
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/215656,dragonflies-may-provide-alert-system-for-water-pollution.html
Posted : Sun, 29 Jun 2008 05:43:02 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Nature (Environment)
Singapore - Dragonfly young could soon be the aquatic version of the canary in a coalmine, a researcher said in a published report on Sunday. Just as the singing birds were used by miners to warn them of toxic air, young dragonflies that live in reservoirs and ponds hold the potential of alerting humans to water pollution, The Straits Times said.
Researcher Nanthinee Jeevanandam, at the National University of Singapore, said she hopes to use their genetic fingerprint to help national water agencies like Singapore's Public Utilities Board determine the level of cleanliness in reservoir water.
Different dragonfly species have varied tolerance to pollutants such as lead and sulphate, the report said. Some require cleaner water or more oxygen.
Studying the species would be a quick and chemical-free method of evaluating water quality, Jeevanandam said.
She said she has collected DNA sequences for about a quarter of the city-state's 110 dragonfly species.
2. Jordan Discovers What Could be First Christian Church on Earth
http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20080628/896/twl-jordan-discovers-what-could-be-first.html
Sat, Jun 28 08:00 AM
Rihab (Jordan), June 28 (DPA) Excavations are continuing on a hilltop in the rural Jordanian town of Rihab to find additional evidence that supports a recent epoch-making discovery of what renowned archaeologists believe could be the first church on earth.
'We believe this is the world's first church, where early Christians took refuge after they escaped Roman persecution in Jerusalem and came here to perform their rituals in secrecy,' archaeologist Abdul Qader al-Hosan told DPA.
Al-Hosan is head of the state-run Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies and a professor of archaeology at Hashemiyah University.
'The evidence we have indicates that this church sheltered 70 disciples of Jesus Christ and was built between 33 and 70 AD,' he said.
'We believe they remained in this cave until the Christian religion was endorsed by the Romans,' he added.
The chapel, which lies directly underneath the Saint Georgeous Church, was dug in an underground cave, the exterior outlet of which leads to a cluster of churches, which were built successively at different times, according to al-Hosan.
Therefore, Rihab, 60 km north-east of Amman, is called the town of 30 churches, he said.
Al-Hosan said that he 'deeply believed that Jesus Christ visited Rihab in the early days of Christianity'.
'According to authenticated history, Jesus Christ spent part of his life in Jordan's Ajloun area, 32 km north of Rihab, and was earlier baptised at a site 40 km south-west of Amman,' he said.
A mosaic inscription in Greek on the floor of St Georgeous Church described the early Christians as 'the 70 beloved by God and Divine'.
St. Georgeous is believed to be the oldest 'proper' church in the world, built in 230 AD, according to the inscription in the church.
Going three steps into the cave, one can see a circular area with a 2.5-metre radius, believed to be the apse, and several stone seats for the clerics.
The cave also includes the living places of the first Christians. 'A wall with an entrance is the only partition separating the altar from the living area,' said Hosan, who holds a doctorate in archaeology from Istanbul University.
'This tunnel is believed to have been used by the first 70 Christians as a gateway to their water system. We hope when we open the tunnel soon, we will get further evidence that this worship place is the first church on this globe,' he added.
Al-Hosan said that his excavation team had found pottery believed to have been brought by early Christians from Jerusalem 'because such products were not familiar to people in northern Jordan in that period'.
His team also found 'skeletons and bones' in a cemetery situated next to the chapel.
'It is divided into three parts, which we believe were devoted to men, women and children,' he said.
The City of Rehabis, as it was called during the Roman era, was one of the 10 allied cities, or Dekapolis, which were under the military control of the Roman empire but which were economically and religiously independent, al-Hosan said.
He reproduced letters from at least three churches in Jordan describing the discovery as an 'amazing event'.
Archimandrite Nektarious, bishop of the Greek Orthodox archdiocese, called the discovery of the cave an 'important milestone for Christians all around the world'.
Monday, June 30, 2008
2008: June 30th Good News (Watermelon May Have Viagara Effect; Cardiff Begins Food Recycling; more...)
Good Afternoon all,
I tried to upload photos today, but unfortunately I keep running into some sort of internal error. I will try to upload photos again during my lunch break.
Today I want to recommend the following articles. First, I found it hilarious, and awesome that Watermelon (yes, I said WATERMELON) may have Viagra Effects. Apparently, Watermelon has an effect on the blood vessels that is similar to Viagra. The benefits? Well, for one thing, Watermelon is an all natural product. Of course, since it's not a drug, the effect is likely to be less potent, but isn't it nice to know you can sit down on July 4th, enjoying a traditional American pasttime, and then be more ready to have some excitement with your loved one?
Secondly, being an Idahoan, and having an Aunt who loves dressage, I couldn't help but enter the article about Debbie McDonald. She just recently became the second Idahoan to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. Way to go Debbie. :)
And, lastly, I'd like to point out the article about pine oil. This article claims that Ticks and Mosquitos may be warded off by a product made from pine oil MORE EFFECTIVELY than by using DEET (tm). It's good to know that yet another natural product is out there.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy today's posts! :)
Today's Top 5:
1. Watermelon May Have Viagra Effect (Eurekalert.org)
2. UN: US Aid Arrives in North Korea (Yahoo News)
3. 9 Young Hikers Rescued from Western N.Y. Gorge (Pocono Record)
4. Tick And Mosquito Repellent Can Be Made Commercially From Pine Oil (Science Daily)
5. Wales: Recycling Revolution for Your Food Waste (Wales Online)
Honorable Mentions:
1. Researchers are First to Simulate the Binding of Molecules to a Protein (Physorg.com)
2. Second Idahoan Qualifies for Beijing Olympics (Idaho Statesman)
Today's Top 5:
1. Watermelon May Have Viagra-effect
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/tau--wmh063008.php
Public release date: 30-Jun-2008
Contact: Dr. Bhimu Patil
BPatil@ag.tamu.edu
979-458-8090
Texas A&M University - Agricultural Communications
COLLEGE STATION -- A cold slice of watermelon has long been a Fourth of July holiday staple. But according to recent studies, the juicy fruit may be better suited for Valentine's Day.
That's because scientists say watermelon has ingredients that deliver Viagra-like effects to the body's blood vessels and may even increase libido.
"The more we study watermelons, the more we realize just how amazing a fruit it is in providing natural enhancers to the human body," said Dr. Bhimu Patil, director of Texas A&M's Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center in College Station.
"We've always known that watermelon is good for you, but the list of its very important healthful benefits grows longer with each study."
Beneficial ingredients in watermelon and other fruits and vegetables are known as phyto-nutrients, naturally occurring compounds that are bioactive, or able to react with the human body to trigger healthy reactions, Patil said.
In watermelons, these include lycopene, beta carotene and the rising star among its phyto-nutrients – citrulline – whose beneficial functions are now being unraveled. Among them is the ability to relax blood vessels, much like Viagra does.
Scientists know that when watermelon is consumed, citrulline is converted to arginine through certain enzymes. Arginine is an amino acid that works wonders on the heart and circulation system and maintains a good immune system, Patil said.
"The citrulline-arginine relationship helps heart health, the immune system and may prove to be very helpful for those who suffer from obesity and type 2 diabetes," said Patil. "Arginine boosts nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels, the same basic effect that Viagra has, to treat erectile dysfunction and maybe even prevent it."
While there are many psychological and physiological problems that can cause impotence, extra nitric oxide could help those who need increased blood flow, which would also help treat angina, high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems.
"Watermelon may not be as organ specific as Viagra," Patil said, "but it's a great way to relax blood vessels without any drug side-effects."
The benefits of watermelon don't end there, he said. Arginine also helps the urea cycle by removing ammonia and other toxic compounds from our bodies.
Citrulline, the precursor to arginine, is found in higher concentrations in the rind of watermelons than the flesh. As the rind is not commonly eaten, two of Patil's fellow scientists, drs. Steve King and Hae Jeen Bang, are working to breed new varieties with higher concentrations in the flesh.
In addition to the research by Texas A&M, watermelon's phyto-nutrients are being studied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service in Lane, Oklahoma.
As an added bonus, these studies have also shown that deep red varieties of watermelon have displaced the tomato as the lycopene king, Patil said. Almost 92 percent of watermelon is water, but the remaining 8 percent is loaded with lycopene, an anti-oxidant that protects the human heart, prostate and skin health.
"Lycopene, which is also found in red grapefruit, was historically thought to exist only in tomatoes," he said. "But now we know that it's found in higher concentrations in red watermelon varieties."
Lycopene, however, is fat-soluble, meaning that it needs certain fats in the blood for better absorption by the body, Patil said.
"Previous tests have shown that lycopene is much better absorbed from tomatoes when mixed in a salad with oily vegetables like avocado or spinach," Patil said. "That would also apply to the lycopene from watermelon, but I realize mixing watermelon with spinach or avocadoes is a very hard sell."
No studies have been conducted to determine the timing of the consumption of oily vegetables to improve lycopene absorption, he said.
"One final bit of advice for those Fourth of July watermelons you buy," Patil said. "They store much better uncut if you leave them at room temperature. Lycopene levels can be maintained even as it sits on your kitchen floor. But once you cut it, refrigerate. And enjoy."
2. UN: US Aid Arrives in North Korea
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080630/ap_on_re_as/nkorea_us_aid
By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer
Mon Jun 30, 1:43 PM ET
SEOUL, South Korea - Thousands of tons of food from the U.S. has started flowing into North Korea, the U.N. food agency said Monday, as aid groups warned that the impoverished nation faces food shortages not seen since 2001.
A freighter carrying 37,000 tons of wheat arrived Sunday night after North Korea agreed to open up to greatly expanded international aid. The shipment was the first installment of 500,000 tons in assistance promised by Washington, the World Food Program said.
The aid, however, was not directly related to the ongoing nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang. U.S. officials have repeatedly said they do not use food for diplomatic coercion.
The shipment arrived just days after the North delivered an atomic declaration and blew up the cooling tower at its main reactor site, in a sign of its commitment not to make more plutonium for bombs.
In exchange, the U.S. lifted some economic sanctions and said it would remove the country from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.
State Department spokesman Tom Casey said there was "zero linkage" between progress on nuclear talks and the food delivery's timing. He said the U.S. has spent months working with the WFP to make sure food delivery could be properly monitored.
"We do not link food assistance, whether that's to North Korea or Zimbabwe or any other country, to political considerations. We do that based on humanitarian concerns," Casey said.
Sunday's wheat shipment will be enough for the WFP to expand its operations to feed more than 5 million people, up from 1.2 million people now getting international aid. The WFP hopes to start distributing the U.S.-provided food within two weeks.
U.N. agencies are conducting a food survey expected to be completed in mid-July to determine where to distribute the aid, but the WFP said preliminary reports "indicate a high level of food insecurity."
The country's regular annual shortages were expected to worsen because of floods last summer that devastated the agricultural heartland. The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization has said North Korea's cereal crop will fall more than 1.5 million tons short this year, the largest food deficit since 2001.
Prices at the country's limited markets — where North Koreans who can afford it shop when public rations fall short — have skyrocketed due to shortages.
"Even if the situation is not dramatic right now, it could continue to deteriorate in the months to come so that's why we need to address the situation as quickly as possible," Jean-Pierre de Margerie, the WFP's North Korea country director, told The Associated Press from Pyongyang.
De Margerie said observers had not yet seen evidence of a renewed famine. The North's food shortages in the 1990s — after it lost Soviet aid and poor harvests due to natural disasters and mismanaged farming — are believed to have killed as many as 2 million people.
The North has long bristled at the monitoring requirements of international donors to make sure that the food reaches the needy. In 2005, the government sharply scaled back what foreign aid it would allow and requested only development assistance, saying there was no longer an emergency situation.
Pyongyang agreed to the new aid program Friday, the WFP said, the same day Pyongyang blew up the reactor tower.
The new aid agreement marks a return by the WFP to its earlier levels of assistance, but also with greater access to parts of the country where the agency has not previously worked, de Margerie said.
American relief groups will distribute 100,000 tons of the food in two northwestern provinces, and the WFP the rest.
North Korea also has allowed the WFP to send some 50 more international workers to the country for monitoring, its largest staff presence since starting operations there in 1996.
The U.S. is the largest donor to the WFP's current aid program in North Korea, having pledged $38.9 million.
3. 9 Young Hikers Rescued from Western N.Y. Gorge
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080630/NEWS/80630007/-1/rss01
June 30, 2008
OTTO, N.Y. (AP) -- Nine young hikers were rescued by helicopter from a western New York gorge Monday morning after they were forced to spend the night on a rock ledge because of rising creek waters.
State police Sgt. Thomas Kelly said an Erie County sheriff's helicopter plucked the hikers, ages 17 to 21, from a ledge about 20 feet above the rain-swollen Cattaraugus Creek in the Zoar Valley. The ledge was about 150 below the lip of the gorge, he said.
The helicopter made several trips to take the hikers out two at a time between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., Kelly said.
He said the group from suburban Buffalo was hiking Sunday when rising waters from heavy rainfall cut off their access to a trail leading out of the gorge, a popular hiking area located along the Erie-Cattaraugus county line 30 miles south of Buffalo.
Heavy rains fell Sunday across western New York. When that happens, water levels in the gorge "can rise 3-4 feet quite quickly," Kelly said.
Attempts to reach the group Sunday night were hampered by fog and darkness, and the rescue effort was put off until daylight, he said.
The group included three women and six men from Kenmore, Tonawanda and Williamsville.
The hikers, dressed in T-shirts and shorts, called 911 around 8 p.m. Sunday to report they were trapped in the gorge, Kelly said. Overnight temperatures dipped to the high 50s.
All nine were taken to Tri-County Hospital in Gowanda to be checked out, Kelly said.
4. Tick And Mosquito Repellent Can Be Made Commercially From Pine Oil
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080629080038.htm
ScienceDaily
June 30, 2008
A naturally-occurring compound prepared from pine oil that seems to deter mosquito biting and repels two kinds of ticks has been found by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists.
A patent* was issued on May 27 for the compound, isolongifolenone, and partners are being sought to bring this technology to commercial production.
In laboratory tests, ARS chemist Aijun Zhang in the Invasive Insect Biocontrol and Behavior Laboratory, Beltsville, Md., and his colleagues discovered that the naturally occurring compound deters the biting of mosquitoes more effectively than the widely used synthetic chemical repellent DEET. The compound also repelled two kinds of ticks as effectively as DEET.
Insect repellents are used widely to prevent bites from mosquitoes, sand flies, ticks and other arthropods. For the most part, people apply repellents just to avoid discomfort, but there is a more serious side to the use of these products. Human diseases caused by blood-feeding ticks and mosquitoes represent a serious threat to public health worldwide.
Malaria is the chief threat, killing approximately two million people per year and threatening billions. Other diseases include dengue fever, chikungunya, Lyme disease and typhus. Some segments of the public perceive efficient synthetic active ingredients as somehow more dangerous than botanical compounds, giving additional importance to the discovery of plant-based isolongifolenone.
Zhang's team also developed an easy and efficient method to prepare this repellent. Many natural-product chemicals isolated from plants and essential oils have proven to have repellent effects. Most often, such compounds never attain commercial development and their use is limited or impractical because they are expensive and not available in pure and large quantities.
In contrast, this newly-discovered repellent can be prepared inexpensively from pine oil feedstock in ton quantities for large-scale commercial applications, giving it a significant advantage over many of the other natural-product repellent chemicals.
*Patent number: US 7,378,557 B1
Adapted from materials provided by USDA/Agricultural Research Service.
5. Wales: Recycling Revolution for Your Food Waste
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/06/30/recycling-revolution-for-your-food-waste-91466-21171182/
Jun 30 2008 by David James, South Wales Echo
PLANS to recycle leftover food will turn Cardiff into the “best recycling city in the UK”, the council claimed today.
The city council is planning to become one of the first cities in the UK to bring in weekly food waste recycling.
Residents will be asked to collect all food waste, from potato skins to chicken bones, and set it aside for collection once a week.
But there were immediate concerns raised about the scheme after similar proposals elsewhere led to a series of complaints about hygiene.
The weekly collections are a key part of the council’s hope of hitting the Assembly Government’s target of recycling 40% of all waste by 2010.
The city’s executive member for the environment, Margaret Jones, said every household in the city would receive a small plastic caddy and a supply of bio-degradeable bags.
She said: “It’s a brave move. We are leading the way.
“Every household will be given a kitchen caddy and small biodegradable bags for all their food waste free of charge.”
Several South Wales councils are carrying out trials of food waste collections in certain areas, including Rhondda Cynon Taf and Bridgend.
But Coun Jones said Cardiff would become the first city to introduce a collection service for all residents.
Merthyr Tydfil council introduced a similar food waste recycling scheme last year.
But John Morgan, 57, of Castle Park, said: “During the hot weather we had flies and awful smells. You can wash it out but you’ve still got the flies coming.
“I stopped using it after five weeks because it got so bad. It’s completely unhygienic.”
And photographer Rob Norman, of Magor, noticed a surge in rats when Monmouthshire council introduced an optional scheme.
He said: “You’re supposed to scrape everything in but it stinks. A couple of times we’ve opened it and there have been maggots inside.
“There are no bags so when the blokes come and chuck it in the lorry it doesn’t empty completely.
“We’ve had a rat in the garden and the guy who came to sort it out said there had been many more since the blue box scheme was introduced. He said we might as well serve the food on a plate to them.”
Unlike Monmouthshire, Cardiff’s scheme will use bags inside the caddies.
Food waste recycling is widely seen as the only way for councils across the UK to reduce the amount of rubbish sent to landfill but there are concerns about the cost of collections and how willing residents will be to use the system.
Coun Jones said the biodegradable bags provided would be small enough for a single family meal and would be collected weekly with garden waste, which is currently collected fortnightly.
She said the council did not anticipate problems integrating the increased pick-ups into the city’s current recycling collection systems.
Unemployed Brian Watkins, 26, of Roath, Cardiff, welcomed the introduction of a scheme in the capital.
He said: “It’s a good idea but there needs to be some sort of control to avoid the smells and hygiene issues.
“Rats are here anyway so I don’t think it’s any more of a concern than with black bags.”
The waste collected will be composted at a dedicated recycling centre, called an in-vessel composting system, which will be built at the Lamby Way landfill and run alongside the existing windrow system for composting garden waste.
Coun Jones estimated that if the system was well used, it would help lift the council’s recycling rate to 10%.
All residents in Cardiff will be able to recycle food waste from October 10.
Everyone living in the city will be given a new ‘mini bin’ and asked to put out their leftovers for weekly collections.
But hygiene fears have been raised after residents in areas with similar schemes claimed the bags attracted rats and maggots.
david.james@mediawales.co.uk
What do you think? Email echo.newsdesk@mediawales.co.uk or call us on 029 2058 3622
Honorable Mentions:
1. Researchers are First to Simulate the Binding of Molecules to a Protein
http://www.physorg.com/news134064683.html
30 June 2008
View of the ATP/ADP carrier from the cytoplasm, with the ADP molecule (blue, aqua, red and white spheres) at the entrance, ready to be funneled into the carrier. Image courtesy of Emad Tajkhorshid and Yi Wang, U. of I.
You may not know what it is, but you burn more than your body weight of it every day. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a tiny molecule that packs a powerful punch, is the primary energy source for most of your cellular functions.
Now researchers at the University of Illinois have identified a key step in the cellular recycling of ATP that allows your body to produce enough of it to survive. Without this cycling of ATP and its low-energy counterpart, adenosine diphosphate (ADP), into and out of the mitochondrion, where ADP is converted into ATP, life as we know it would end.
Researchers have for the first time simulated the binding of ADP to a carrier protein lodged in the inner membrane of the mitochondrion. It is the first simulation of the binding of a molecule to a protein. Their findings appear this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
As its name indicates, ATP contains three phosphate groups. The energy produced when one of these groups is detached from the molecule drives many chemical reactions in the cell. This process also yields ADP, which must go through the ADP/ATP carrier (AAC) to get into the mitochondrion to be converted back into ATP.
The AAC acts a lot like a revolving door: For each molecule of ADP going into the mitochondrion, one ATP gets booted out. These two activities are not simultaneous, however. The carrier is either shuttling ADP into the mitochondrion or ejecting ATP into the wider environment of the cell, where it can be put to use.
"The carrier is a reversible machine," said biochemistry professor Emad Tajkhorshid, who led the study which was conducted by biophysics graduate student Yi Wang. "Both ATP and ADP can bind to it and make it to the other side using this transporter."
Previous studies used X-ray crystallography to determine the three-dimensional structure of the carrier when it was ready to accept a molecule of ADP.
In the new analysis, the researchers developed a computer simulation of the interaction of a single molecule of ADP with the carrier protein. Thanks to better simulation software and larger and more sophisticated computer arrays than were available for previous studies, this simulation tracked the process by which ADP is drawn into the carrier. It also showed how ADP orients itself as it travels to the site where it binds to the carrier. (See movie.)
In the simulation, the researchers observed for the first time that ADP disrupts several ionic bonds, called salt bridges, when it binds to the carrier protein. Breaking the salt bridges allows the protein to open – in effect unlocking the door that otherwise blocks ADP's route into the mitochondrion.
The simulation included every atom of the carrier protein and ADP, as well as all of the membrane lipids and water molecules that make up their immediate environment – more than 100,000 atoms in all. It tracked the interaction over a period of 0.1 microseconds, an order of magnitude longer than what had been possible before. "Until two years ago 10 nanoseconds was really pushing it," Tajkhorshid said. "Now we are reaching the sub-microsecond regime, and that's why we are seeing more biologically relevant events in our simulations."
The longer time frame meant that the researchers did not need to manipulate the interaction between the molecules. They simply positioned the ADP at the mouth of the carrier protein, some 25 angstroms from the site where they knew it was meant to bind. (An angstrom is one ten-millionth of a meter. Most molecular binding interactions occur at less than 6 or 7 angstroms.) They even placed the ADP upside-down at the mouth of the protein carrier and saw it flip into an orientation that allowed it to bind to the carrier.
The identified binding pocket for ADP explained a lot of known experimental data, and revealed an unusual feature of the carrier protein: Its binding site and the entryway leading to it had an extremely positive electrical charge.
It had a much greater positive charge than any known protein transporter.
This positive charge appears to serve two functions, Tajkhorshid said. First, it allows the protein carrier itself to nestle tightly in the mitochondrial membrane, which contains a lot of negatively charged lipids. Second, it strongly attracts ADP, which carries a negative charge. More interestingly, through a bioinformatics analysis the researchers show that this unusual electrostatic feature is common to all mitochondrial carriers.
Other negatively charged ions can enter the carrier, Tajkhorshid said, but only a molecule with at least two phosphate groups can disrupt the salt bridges to activate it.
This simulation marks the first time that researchers have been able to describe in molecular detail how a protein binds to the molecule that activates it, Tajkhorshid said.
The findings shed light on a fundamental physiological process, he said.
"Any time you move anything in your body, you use ATP," he said. "Many enzymatic reactions also require ATP. In the central nervous system, the transport of hormones, neurotransmitters or other molecules, these are all ATP-dependent."
"It has been estimated that you burn more than your body weight in ATP every day," he said. "So that's how much ATP you have to carry across the inner mitochondrial membrane every day – through this guy."
Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2. Second Idahoan Qualifies for Beijing Olympics; One More Shoots for Roster Spot Monday Night
http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/429370.html
Staff and wire reports - Idaho Statesman
Edition Date: 06/30/08
Debbie McDonald of Hailey and her 17-year-old Hanoverian mare Brentina, one of the top dressage teams in United States history, are headed to Beijing for their second straight Olympic appearance.
McDonald finished second Sunday at the USEF National Grand Prix Dressage Championships in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
In August, she will return to an Olympic venue, where she helped the Americans win a team bronze at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Greece. She finished fourth in the individual competition.
McDonald is the second Idahoan to qualify for the Beijing Games. Boise cyclist Kristin Armstrong, a former world and national champion, qualified last summer and will be a medal-contending rider in August. She finished eighth in the Athens road race in 2004.
Steffen Peters of San Diego, Courtney King of New Milford, Conn., and Leslie Morse, of Beverly Hills, Calif., also earned Olympic berths in dressage Sunday. Peters and King believe the United States has a good chance to win a medal.
“In an Olympic year, everything is a little unpredictable,” Peters said. “Germany and Holland are very strong, but let’s not forget that New England didn’t win the Super Bowl and Big Brown didn’t win the Triple Crown.”
Added King: “There’s going to be a real fight for the bronze medal. The Danish can be pretty strong. The British can be pretty strong. We can be pretty strong. Steffen said, ’Yeah, that’s why we have to go for silver.’ “
Dressage is a series of sequential skills that trains a horse for riding by developing its athletic and performance abilities. It entered the Olympics at the 1912 Stockholm Games.
SYMMONDS RUNS MONDAY NIGHT
Bishop Kelly High graduate Nick Symmonds will run Monday night for his chance to land a spot on the Beijing team. He is in the finals of the 800 meters at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials in Eugene, Ore.
Symmonds can qualify by finishing in the top three.
The final is scheduled to start at 9:25 p.m. MDT. Two-hour television coverage on the USA Network begins at 9:05 p.m.
I tried to upload photos today, but unfortunately I keep running into some sort of internal error. I will try to upload photos again during my lunch break.
Today I want to recommend the following articles. First, I found it hilarious, and awesome that Watermelon (yes, I said WATERMELON) may have Viagra Effects. Apparently, Watermelon has an effect on the blood vessels that is similar to Viagra. The benefits? Well, for one thing, Watermelon is an all natural product. Of course, since it's not a drug, the effect is likely to be less potent, but isn't it nice to know you can sit down on July 4th, enjoying a traditional American pasttime, and then be more ready to have some excitement with your loved one?
Secondly, being an Idahoan, and having an Aunt who loves dressage, I couldn't help but enter the article about Debbie McDonald. She just recently became the second Idahoan to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. Way to go Debbie. :)
And, lastly, I'd like to point out the article about pine oil. This article claims that Ticks and Mosquitos may be warded off by a product made from pine oil MORE EFFECTIVELY than by using DEET (tm). It's good to know that yet another natural product is out there.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy today's posts! :)
Today's Top 5:
1. Watermelon May Have Viagra Effect (Eurekalert.org)
2. UN: US Aid Arrives in North Korea (Yahoo News)
3. 9 Young Hikers Rescued from Western N.Y. Gorge (Pocono Record)
4. Tick And Mosquito Repellent Can Be Made Commercially From Pine Oil (Science Daily)
5. Wales: Recycling Revolution for Your Food Waste (Wales Online)
Honorable Mentions:
1. Researchers are First to Simulate the Binding of Molecules to a Protein (Physorg.com)
2. Second Idahoan Qualifies for Beijing Olympics (Idaho Statesman)
Today's Top 5:
1. Watermelon May Have Viagra-effect
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/tau--wmh063008.php
Public release date: 30-Jun-2008
Contact: Dr. Bhimu Patil
BPatil@ag.tamu.edu
979-458-8090
Texas A&M University - Agricultural Communications
COLLEGE STATION -- A cold slice of watermelon has long been a Fourth of July holiday staple. But according to recent studies, the juicy fruit may be better suited for Valentine's Day.
That's because scientists say watermelon has ingredients that deliver Viagra-like effects to the body's blood vessels and may even increase libido.
"The more we study watermelons, the more we realize just how amazing a fruit it is in providing natural enhancers to the human body," said Dr. Bhimu Patil, director of Texas A&M's Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center in College Station.
"We've always known that watermelon is good for you, but the list of its very important healthful benefits grows longer with each study."
Beneficial ingredients in watermelon and other fruits and vegetables are known as phyto-nutrients, naturally occurring compounds that are bioactive, or able to react with the human body to trigger healthy reactions, Patil said.
In watermelons, these include lycopene, beta carotene and the rising star among its phyto-nutrients – citrulline – whose beneficial functions are now being unraveled. Among them is the ability to relax blood vessels, much like Viagra does.
Scientists know that when watermelon is consumed, citrulline is converted to arginine through certain enzymes. Arginine is an amino acid that works wonders on the heart and circulation system and maintains a good immune system, Patil said.
"The citrulline-arginine relationship helps heart health, the immune system and may prove to be very helpful for those who suffer from obesity and type 2 diabetes," said Patil. "Arginine boosts nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels, the same basic effect that Viagra has, to treat erectile dysfunction and maybe even prevent it."
While there are many psychological and physiological problems that can cause impotence, extra nitric oxide could help those who need increased blood flow, which would also help treat angina, high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems.
"Watermelon may not be as organ specific as Viagra," Patil said, "but it's a great way to relax blood vessels without any drug side-effects."
The benefits of watermelon don't end there, he said. Arginine also helps the urea cycle by removing ammonia and other toxic compounds from our bodies.
Citrulline, the precursor to arginine, is found in higher concentrations in the rind of watermelons than the flesh. As the rind is not commonly eaten, two of Patil's fellow scientists, drs. Steve King and Hae Jeen Bang, are working to breed new varieties with higher concentrations in the flesh.
In addition to the research by Texas A&M, watermelon's phyto-nutrients are being studied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service in Lane, Oklahoma.
As an added bonus, these studies have also shown that deep red varieties of watermelon have displaced the tomato as the lycopene king, Patil said. Almost 92 percent of watermelon is water, but the remaining 8 percent is loaded with lycopene, an anti-oxidant that protects the human heart, prostate and skin health.
"Lycopene, which is also found in red grapefruit, was historically thought to exist only in tomatoes," he said. "But now we know that it's found in higher concentrations in red watermelon varieties."
Lycopene, however, is fat-soluble, meaning that it needs certain fats in the blood for better absorption by the body, Patil said.
"Previous tests have shown that lycopene is much better absorbed from tomatoes when mixed in a salad with oily vegetables like avocado or spinach," Patil said. "That would also apply to the lycopene from watermelon, but I realize mixing watermelon with spinach or avocadoes is a very hard sell."
No studies have been conducted to determine the timing of the consumption of oily vegetables to improve lycopene absorption, he said.
"One final bit of advice for those Fourth of July watermelons you buy," Patil said. "They store much better uncut if you leave them at room temperature. Lycopene levels can be maintained even as it sits on your kitchen floor. But once you cut it, refrigerate. And enjoy."
2. UN: US Aid Arrives in North Korea
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080630/ap_on_re_as/nkorea_us_aid
By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer
Mon Jun 30, 1:43 PM ET
SEOUL, South Korea - Thousands of tons of food from the U.S. has started flowing into North Korea, the U.N. food agency said Monday, as aid groups warned that the impoverished nation faces food shortages not seen since 2001.
A freighter carrying 37,000 tons of wheat arrived Sunday night after North Korea agreed to open up to greatly expanded international aid. The shipment was the first installment of 500,000 tons in assistance promised by Washington, the World Food Program said.
The aid, however, was not directly related to the ongoing nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang. U.S. officials have repeatedly said they do not use food for diplomatic coercion.
The shipment arrived just days after the North delivered an atomic declaration and blew up the cooling tower at its main reactor site, in a sign of its commitment not to make more plutonium for bombs.
In exchange, the U.S. lifted some economic sanctions and said it would remove the country from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.
State Department spokesman Tom Casey said there was "zero linkage" between progress on nuclear talks and the food delivery's timing. He said the U.S. has spent months working with the WFP to make sure food delivery could be properly monitored.
"We do not link food assistance, whether that's to North Korea or Zimbabwe or any other country, to political considerations. We do that based on humanitarian concerns," Casey said.
Sunday's wheat shipment will be enough for the WFP to expand its operations to feed more than 5 million people, up from 1.2 million people now getting international aid. The WFP hopes to start distributing the U.S.-provided food within two weeks.
U.N. agencies are conducting a food survey expected to be completed in mid-July to determine where to distribute the aid, but the WFP said preliminary reports "indicate a high level of food insecurity."
The country's regular annual shortages were expected to worsen because of floods last summer that devastated the agricultural heartland. The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization has said North Korea's cereal crop will fall more than 1.5 million tons short this year, the largest food deficit since 2001.
Prices at the country's limited markets — where North Koreans who can afford it shop when public rations fall short — have skyrocketed due to shortages.
"Even if the situation is not dramatic right now, it could continue to deteriorate in the months to come so that's why we need to address the situation as quickly as possible," Jean-Pierre de Margerie, the WFP's North Korea country director, told The Associated Press from Pyongyang.
De Margerie said observers had not yet seen evidence of a renewed famine. The North's food shortages in the 1990s — after it lost Soviet aid and poor harvests due to natural disasters and mismanaged farming — are believed to have killed as many as 2 million people.
The North has long bristled at the monitoring requirements of international donors to make sure that the food reaches the needy. In 2005, the government sharply scaled back what foreign aid it would allow and requested only development assistance, saying there was no longer an emergency situation.
Pyongyang agreed to the new aid program Friday, the WFP said, the same day Pyongyang blew up the reactor tower.
The new aid agreement marks a return by the WFP to its earlier levels of assistance, but also with greater access to parts of the country where the agency has not previously worked, de Margerie said.
American relief groups will distribute 100,000 tons of the food in two northwestern provinces, and the WFP the rest.
North Korea also has allowed the WFP to send some 50 more international workers to the country for monitoring, its largest staff presence since starting operations there in 1996.
The U.S. is the largest donor to the WFP's current aid program in North Korea, having pledged $38.9 million.
3. 9 Young Hikers Rescued from Western N.Y. Gorge
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080630/NEWS/80630007/-1/rss01
June 30, 2008
OTTO, N.Y. (AP) -- Nine young hikers were rescued by helicopter from a western New York gorge Monday morning after they were forced to spend the night on a rock ledge because of rising creek waters.
State police Sgt. Thomas Kelly said an Erie County sheriff's helicopter plucked the hikers, ages 17 to 21, from a ledge about 20 feet above the rain-swollen Cattaraugus Creek in the Zoar Valley. The ledge was about 150 below the lip of the gorge, he said.
The helicopter made several trips to take the hikers out two at a time between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., Kelly said.
He said the group from suburban Buffalo was hiking Sunday when rising waters from heavy rainfall cut off their access to a trail leading out of the gorge, a popular hiking area located along the Erie-Cattaraugus county line 30 miles south of Buffalo.
Heavy rains fell Sunday across western New York. When that happens, water levels in the gorge "can rise 3-4 feet quite quickly," Kelly said.
Attempts to reach the group Sunday night were hampered by fog and darkness, and the rescue effort was put off until daylight, he said.
The group included three women and six men from Kenmore, Tonawanda and Williamsville.
The hikers, dressed in T-shirts and shorts, called 911 around 8 p.m. Sunday to report they were trapped in the gorge, Kelly said. Overnight temperatures dipped to the high 50s.
All nine were taken to Tri-County Hospital in Gowanda to be checked out, Kelly said.
4. Tick And Mosquito Repellent Can Be Made Commercially From Pine Oil
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080629080038.htm
ScienceDaily
June 30, 2008
A naturally-occurring compound prepared from pine oil that seems to deter mosquito biting and repels two kinds of ticks has been found by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists.
A patent* was issued on May 27 for the compound, isolongifolenone, and partners are being sought to bring this technology to commercial production.
In laboratory tests, ARS chemist Aijun Zhang in the Invasive Insect Biocontrol and Behavior Laboratory, Beltsville, Md., and his colleagues discovered that the naturally occurring compound deters the biting of mosquitoes more effectively than the widely used synthetic chemical repellent DEET. The compound also repelled two kinds of ticks as effectively as DEET.
Insect repellents are used widely to prevent bites from mosquitoes, sand flies, ticks and other arthropods. For the most part, people apply repellents just to avoid discomfort, but there is a more serious side to the use of these products. Human diseases caused by blood-feeding ticks and mosquitoes represent a serious threat to public health worldwide.
Malaria is the chief threat, killing approximately two million people per year and threatening billions. Other diseases include dengue fever, chikungunya, Lyme disease and typhus. Some segments of the public perceive efficient synthetic active ingredients as somehow more dangerous than botanical compounds, giving additional importance to the discovery of plant-based isolongifolenone.
Zhang's team also developed an easy and efficient method to prepare this repellent. Many natural-product chemicals isolated from plants and essential oils have proven to have repellent effects. Most often, such compounds never attain commercial development and their use is limited or impractical because they are expensive and not available in pure and large quantities.
In contrast, this newly-discovered repellent can be prepared inexpensively from pine oil feedstock in ton quantities for large-scale commercial applications, giving it a significant advantage over many of the other natural-product repellent chemicals.
*Patent number: US 7,378,557 B1
Adapted from materials provided by USDA/Agricultural Research Service.
5. Wales: Recycling Revolution for Your Food Waste
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/06/30/recycling-revolution-for-your-food-waste-91466-21171182/
Jun 30 2008 by David James, South Wales Echo
PLANS to recycle leftover food will turn Cardiff into the “best recycling city in the UK”, the council claimed today.
The city council is planning to become one of the first cities in the UK to bring in weekly food waste recycling.
Residents will be asked to collect all food waste, from potato skins to chicken bones, and set it aside for collection once a week.
But there were immediate concerns raised about the scheme after similar proposals elsewhere led to a series of complaints about hygiene.
The weekly collections are a key part of the council’s hope of hitting the Assembly Government’s target of recycling 40% of all waste by 2010.
The city’s executive member for the environment, Margaret Jones, said every household in the city would receive a small plastic caddy and a supply of bio-degradeable bags.
She said: “It’s a brave move. We are leading the way.
“Every household will be given a kitchen caddy and small biodegradable bags for all their food waste free of charge.”
Several South Wales councils are carrying out trials of food waste collections in certain areas, including Rhondda Cynon Taf and Bridgend.
But Coun Jones said Cardiff would become the first city to introduce a collection service for all residents.
Merthyr Tydfil council introduced a similar food waste recycling scheme last year.
But John Morgan, 57, of Castle Park, said: “During the hot weather we had flies and awful smells. You can wash it out but you’ve still got the flies coming.
“I stopped using it after five weeks because it got so bad. It’s completely unhygienic.”
And photographer Rob Norman, of Magor, noticed a surge in rats when Monmouthshire council introduced an optional scheme.
He said: “You’re supposed to scrape everything in but it stinks. A couple of times we’ve opened it and there have been maggots inside.
“There are no bags so when the blokes come and chuck it in the lorry it doesn’t empty completely.
“We’ve had a rat in the garden and the guy who came to sort it out said there had been many more since the blue box scheme was introduced. He said we might as well serve the food on a plate to them.”
Unlike Monmouthshire, Cardiff’s scheme will use bags inside the caddies.
Food waste recycling is widely seen as the only way for councils across the UK to reduce the amount of rubbish sent to landfill but there are concerns about the cost of collections and how willing residents will be to use the system.
Coun Jones said the biodegradable bags provided would be small enough for a single family meal and would be collected weekly with garden waste, which is currently collected fortnightly.
She said the council did not anticipate problems integrating the increased pick-ups into the city’s current recycling collection systems.
Unemployed Brian Watkins, 26, of Roath, Cardiff, welcomed the introduction of a scheme in the capital.
He said: “It’s a good idea but there needs to be some sort of control to avoid the smells and hygiene issues.
“Rats are here anyway so I don’t think it’s any more of a concern than with black bags.”
The waste collected will be composted at a dedicated recycling centre, called an in-vessel composting system, which will be built at the Lamby Way landfill and run alongside the existing windrow system for composting garden waste.
Coun Jones estimated that if the system was well used, it would help lift the council’s recycling rate to 10%.
All residents in Cardiff will be able to recycle food waste from October 10.
Everyone living in the city will be given a new ‘mini bin’ and asked to put out their leftovers for weekly collections.
But hygiene fears have been raised after residents in areas with similar schemes claimed the bags attracted rats and maggots.
david.james@mediawales.co.uk
What do you think? Email echo.newsdesk@mediawales.co.uk or call us on 029 2058 3622
Honorable Mentions:
1. Researchers are First to Simulate the Binding of Molecules to a Protein
http://www.physorg.com/news134064683.html
30 June 2008
View of the ATP/ADP carrier from the cytoplasm, with the ADP molecule (blue, aqua, red and white spheres) at the entrance, ready to be funneled into the carrier. Image courtesy of Emad Tajkhorshid and Yi Wang, U. of I.
You may not know what it is, but you burn more than your body weight of it every day. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a tiny molecule that packs a powerful punch, is the primary energy source for most of your cellular functions.
Now researchers at the University of Illinois have identified a key step in the cellular recycling of ATP that allows your body to produce enough of it to survive. Without this cycling of ATP and its low-energy counterpart, adenosine diphosphate (ADP), into and out of the mitochondrion, where ADP is converted into ATP, life as we know it would end.
Researchers have for the first time simulated the binding of ADP to a carrier protein lodged in the inner membrane of the mitochondrion. It is the first simulation of the binding of a molecule to a protein. Their findings appear this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
As its name indicates, ATP contains three phosphate groups. The energy produced when one of these groups is detached from the molecule drives many chemical reactions in the cell. This process also yields ADP, which must go through the ADP/ATP carrier (AAC) to get into the mitochondrion to be converted back into ATP.
The AAC acts a lot like a revolving door: For each molecule of ADP going into the mitochondrion, one ATP gets booted out. These two activities are not simultaneous, however. The carrier is either shuttling ADP into the mitochondrion or ejecting ATP into the wider environment of the cell, where it can be put to use.
"The carrier is a reversible machine," said biochemistry professor Emad Tajkhorshid, who led the study which was conducted by biophysics graduate student Yi Wang. "Both ATP and ADP can bind to it and make it to the other side using this transporter."
Previous studies used X-ray crystallography to determine the three-dimensional structure of the carrier when it was ready to accept a molecule of ADP.
In the new analysis, the researchers developed a computer simulation of the interaction of a single molecule of ADP with the carrier protein. Thanks to better simulation software and larger and more sophisticated computer arrays than were available for previous studies, this simulation tracked the process by which ADP is drawn into the carrier. It also showed how ADP orients itself as it travels to the site where it binds to the carrier. (See movie.)
In the simulation, the researchers observed for the first time that ADP disrupts several ionic bonds, called salt bridges, when it binds to the carrier protein. Breaking the salt bridges allows the protein to open – in effect unlocking the door that otherwise blocks ADP's route into the mitochondrion.
The simulation included every atom of the carrier protein and ADP, as well as all of the membrane lipids and water molecules that make up their immediate environment – more than 100,000 atoms in all. It tracked the interaction over a period of 0.1 microseconds, an order of magnitude longer than what had been possible before. "Until two years ago 10 nanoseconds was really pushing it," Tajkhorshid said. "Now we are reaching the sub-microsecond regime, and that's why we are seeing more biologically relevant events in our simulations."
The longer time frame meant that the researchers did not need to manipulate the interaction between the molecules. They simply positioned the ADP at the mouth of the carrier protein, some 25 angstroms from the site where they knew it was meant to bind. (An angstrom is one ten-millionth of a meter. Most molecular binding interactions occur at less than 6 or 7 angstroms.) They even placed the ADP upside-down at the mouth of the protein carrier and saw it flip into an orientation that allowed it to bind to the carrier.
The identified binding pocket for ADP explained a lot of known experimental data, and revealed an unusual feature of the carrier protein: Its binding site and the entryway leading to it had an extremely positive electrical charge.
It had a much greater positive charge than any known protein transporter.
This positive charge appears to serve two functions, Tajkhorshid said. First, it allows the protein carrier itself to nestle tightly in the mitochondrial membrane, which contains a lot of negatively charged lipids. Second, it strongly attracts ADP, which carries a negative charge. More interestingly, through a bioinformatics analysis the researchers show that this unusual electrostatic feature is common to all mitochondrial carriers.
Other negatively charged ions can enter the carrier, Tajkhorshid said, but only a molecule with at least two phosphate groups can disrupt the salt bridges to activate it.
This simulation marks the first time that researchers have been able to describe in molecular detail how a protein binds to the molecule that activates it, Tajkhorshid said.
The findings shed light on a fundamental physiological process, he said.
"Any time you move anything in your body, you use ATP," he said. "Many enzymatic reactions also require ATP. In the central nervous system, the transport of hormones, neurotransmitters or other molecules, these are all ATP-dependent."
"It has been estimated that you burn more than your body weight in ATP every day," he said. "So that's how much ATP you have to carry across the inner mitochondrial membrane every day – through this guy."
Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2. Second Idahoan Qualifies for Beijing Olympics; One More Shoots for Roster Spot Monday Night
http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/429370.html
Staff and wire reports - Idaho Statesman
Edition Date: 06/30/08
Debbie McDonald of Hailey and her 17-year-old Hanoverian mare Brentina, one of the top dressage teams in United States history, are headed to Beijing for their second straight Olympic appearance.
McDonald finished second Sunday at the USEF National Grand Prix Dressage Championships in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
In August, she will return to an Olympic venue, where she helped the Americans win a team bronze at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Greece. She finished fourth in the individual competition.
McDonald is the second Idahoan to qualify for the Beijing Games. Boise cyclist Kristin Armstrong, a former world and national champion, qualified last summer and will be a medal-contending rider in August. She finished eighth in the Athens road race in 2004.
Steffen Peters of San Diego, Courtney King of New Milford, Conn., and Leslie Morse, of Beverly Hills, Calif., also earned Olympic berths in dressage Sunday. Peters and King believe the United States has a good chance to win a medal.
“In an Olympic year, everything is a little unpredictable,” Peters said. “Germany and Holland are very strong, but let’s not forget that New England didn’t win the Super Bowl and Big Brown didn’t win the Triple Crown.”
Added King: “There’s going to be a real fight for the bronze medal. The Danish can be pretty strong. The British can be pretty strong. We can be pretty strong. Steffen said, ’Yeah, that’s why we have to go for silver.’ “
Dressage is a series of sequential skills that trains a horse for riding by developing its athletic and performance abilities. It entered the Olympics at the 1912 Stockholm Games.
SYMMONDS RUNS MONDAY NIGHT
Bishop Kelly High graduate Nick Symmonds will run Monday night for his chance to land a spot on the Beijing team. He is in the finals of the 800 meters at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials in Eugene, Ore.
Symmonds can qualify by finishing in the top three.
The final is scheduled to start at 9:25 p.m. MDT. Two-hour television coverage on the USA Network begins at 9:05 p.m.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
2008: June 29th Good News (Accidental Fungus Leads to Promising Cancer Drug; Heroic Neighbors Save Children from Burning Apartment; more...)
Good Evening all,
I have to update this later. It's been a busy day. Here's what I have so far. Hope you enjoy! :)
Today's Top 5:
1. Accidental Fungus Leads to Promising Cancer Drug (Yahoo News)
2. Cloths Absorb Mercury from Broken Fluorescent Bulbs (Inventorspot.com)
3. Public Invited to See 500 Year Old Artifacts ( The News Herald)
4. "First" in Solar Heater Mandate is Reason for Pride in Hawaii (Honolulu Star Bulletin)
5. The Baby Docs Said was Dead After Ultrasound Blunder (Daily Mirror UK)
Honorable Mentions:
1. Heroic Neighbors Save Children from Burning Apartment (KHQ-Q6 News)
2. Algae From the Ocean May Offer a Sustainable Energy Source of the Future (Science Daily)
Today's Top 5:
1. Accidental Fungus Leads to Promising Cancer Drug
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080629/ts_nm/cancer_nanoparticles_dc
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
8 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A drug developed using nanotechnology and a fungus that contaminated a lab experiment may be broadly effective against a range of cancers, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.
The drug, called lodamin, was improved in one of the last experiments overseen by Dr. Judah Folkman, a cancer researcher who died in January. Folkman pioneered the idea of angiogenesis therapy -- starving tumors by preventing them from growing blood supplies.
Lodamin is an angiogenesis inhibitor that Folkman's team has been working to perfect for 20 years. Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, his colleagues say they developed a formulation that works as a pill, without side-effects.
They have licensed it to SynDevRx, Inc, a privately held Cambridge, Massachusetts biotechnology company that has recruited several prominent cancer experts to its board.
Tests in mice showed it worked against a range of tumors, including breast cancer, neuroblastoma, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, brain tumors known as glioblastomas and uterine tumors.
It helped stop so-called primary tumors and also prevented their spread, Ofra Benny of Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School and colleagues reported.
"Using the oral route of administration, it first reaches the liver, making it especially efficient in preventing the development of liver metastasis in mice," they wrote in their report. "Liver metastasis is very common in many tumor types and is often associated with a poor prognosis and survival rate," they added.
'ALMOST CLEAN' LIVERS
"When I looked at the livers of the mice, the treated group was almost clean," Benny said in a statement. "In the control group you couldn't recognize the livers -- they were a mass of tumors."
The drug was known experimentally as TNP-470, and was originally isolated from a fungus called Aspergillus fumigatus fresenius.
Harvards's Donald Ingber discovered the fungus by accident while trying to grow endothelial cells -- the cells that line blood vessels. The mold affected the cells in a way known to prevent the growth of tiny blood vessels known as capillaries.
Ingber and Folkman developed TNP-470 with the help of Takeda Chemical Industries in Japan in 1990.
But the drug affected the brain, causing depression, dizziness and other side-effects. It also did not stay in the body long and required constant infusions. The lab dropped it.
Efforts to improve it did not work well. Then Benny and colleagues tried nanotechnology, attaching two "pom-pom"-shaped polymers to TNP-470, protecting it from stomach acid.
In mice, the altered drug, now named lodamin, went straight to tumor cells and helped suppress melanoma and lung cancer, with no apparent side effects, Benny said.
All untreated mice had fluid in the abdominal cavity, and enlarged livers covered with tumors. Mice treated with lodamin had normal-looking livers and spleens, the researchers said.
Twenty days after being injected with cancer cells, four out of seven untreated mice had died, while all treated mice were still alive, Benny's team reported.
"I had never expected such a strong effect on these aggressive tumor models," she said. The researchers believe lodamin may also be useful in other diseases marked by abnormal blood vessel growth, such as age-related macular degeneration.
(Editing by Todd Eastham)
2. Cloths Absorb Mercury from Broken Fluorescent Bulbs
http://inventorspot.com/articles/researchers_discover_material_absorbs_mercury_broken_fluorescent_15116
Posted June 29th, 2008
By Lisa Zyga
As more households are turning to fluorescent light bulbs for energy-efficient lighting, some people have been worried about the dangers of the mercury that is released into the air when a bulb breaks.
The 3-5 milligrams of mercury vapor inside the bulbs can pose minor health risks to small children and other susceptible individuals, and the area with the broken bulb needs to be carefully and thoroughly cleaned.
Recently, researchers at Brown University have discovered that a material called nanoselenium absorbs about 99% of mercury vapor. Based on this finding, the team has been creating prototypes of mercury-absorbent cloths and packaging that would make it much easier and safer to clean up broken bulbs.
As Engineering Professor Robert Hurt explains, when the selenium atoms bond with the mercury atoms, they form mercury selenide, which is a stable, benign nanoparticle compound. The mercury selenide could be safely discarded and recycled, without contamination or other environmental consequences.
One of the prototypes the researchers developed is a nanoselenium-coated cloth, encompassed by two exterior layers, that would hold the light bulbs in the box, and fully absorb the mercury if one should break during shipping and handling.
An extra cloth could also be included in the packaging, so that if a bulb should break when being screwed in, for example, people could simply lay the cloth on the spot where the bulb broke. The nanoselenium can absorb mercury on carpets, wood floors, and other surfaces.
Because the material is so effective, only a small amount is needed to capture the mercury vapor, making the researchers hope that the cloths could be relatively inexpensive.
"More work is needed," Hurt said, "but this appears to be an inexpensive solution that can remove most of the safety concerns associated with CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) bulbs."
via: Brown University
3. Public Invited to See 500-year-old Artifacts
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=9039897047310103297&postID=5379989638942367583
BY SHARON McBRAYER
smcbrayer@morganton.com
Sunday, June 29, 2008
MORGANTON - People gathered around a woman and shouts of "hey, hey, hey" went up at the Berry archeological site on Thursday.
David Moore, lead archeologist at the site, was standing about 75 yards away. When he heard the shouts, he made his way over to the group.
What got the crowd excited was a find by Jeane Jones, of Dalton, Ga., of a tiny blue Spanish glass bead believed left behind from the first European settlement in the interior of what is now the United States.
It was the second glass bead found last week. One man found a piece of metal believed to be from the same era.
On July 12, the public will get a chance to take a look at the glass beads and other artifacts found at the site, as well as observe archaeologists at work. Archaeologists will be on hand to discuss the site and lead tours. Primitive skills experts also will demonstrate how native people crafted their weapons and tools.
Warren Wilson College and Western Piedmont Community College Archaeology Field School is sponsoring the open house.
The site will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on July 12. Admission is free.
Archaeologists believe the Berry site to be the location of the native town of Joara, at which the Spaniard Juan Pardo built Fort San Juan in 1567, 20 years before the "Lost Colony," according to information from field school.
The site is also believed to represent an ancestral Catawba Indian town.
The archaeology field school has concentrated on a one-acre area where 16th century Spanish artifacts and the remains of five burned buildings have been located. Archaeologists believe these burned structures may represent the remains of the Spanish compound, Fort San Juan.
For Jones, working at the Berry site and finding an artifact was thrilling. She and her husband, Walter, signed up to work for a week on the site. The couple has a summer home at Montreat in Black Mountain and kept hearing about the dig. She was screening dirt from an area where a compound structure once stood when she found the bead.
Moore said the Spanish used beads to trade with the natives. But Juan Pardo's group wasn't on a trade mission. They were on a work mission, Moore said.
The mission, Moore said, was to go from the east coast of the U.S. to Mexico, pacifying natives along the route, in order to build a road so silver could be transported from Mexico.
The fort in what is now Burke County was sacked and its buildings burned after relations between the Spaniards and natives soured, according to information from the school.
The site is located on Henderson Mill Road. To get there from downtown Morganton, take Green Street, which turns into N.C. 181. From the Kmart plaza, continue north on N.C. 181 4.1 miles to Goodman Lake Road on the right. Take Goodman Lake Road to the end (1.6 miles) and turn right on Henderson Mill Road. Follow Henderson Mill Road 1.9 miles to the Berry site. Turn right and follow parking signs.
4. ‘First’ in Solar-heater Mandate is Reason for Pride in Hawaii
http://starbulletin.com/2008/06/29/editorial/editorial01.html
29 June, 2008
THE ISSUE
The governor has signed into law a bill requiring developers to install solar water heaters in new homes.
The 50th state is the first in the nation to require solar water heaters to be installed on new single-family homes, which certainly would seem logical to the rest of the country.
In fact, residents of the other 49 would have reason to ask why the state with such plentiful sunshine took so long to adopt the renewable resource for a basic advantage.
It's not for lack of trying. Lawmakers have entertained the idea for five years since Kauai Sen. Gary Hooser first introduced legislation. Environmental organizations, principally the Sierra Club of Hawaii, have been lobbying long and hard at the state Capitol to get enough support, tweaking and amending the measure to win acceptance.
But at least some of the success of the bill, which Gov. Linda Lingle signed into law this week, is due to the economics of oil. When Hooser proposed the bill, oil was selling at $40 a barrel. On Friday afternoon, a barrel traded at an incredible $142.
With Hawaii owning the dubious national distinction of paying the most for electricity -- with the ever-soaring fuel surcharges making up nearly half of the tab -- using the sun to heat water makes sense. Solar devices will cut an estimated $40 to $60 in power costs for a family of four or about 30 percent of a homeowner's monthly bill.
Not everyone is pleased, however. The Building Industry Association of Hawaii, representing developers and contractors, complained the law will increase home prices, but buyers will recoup the difference within a few years and save in the long run because electricity costs will continue to go up. Some smart homebuilders, recognizing consumers' desire for renewable energy systems, already include solar water heaters on their residential units.
Gov. Lingle believes the new law will eliminate state tax credits for older homes, but the bill clearly states that homes that were issued building permits -- which were necessary to put up the houses -- before January 2010, when the law takes effect, can still claim the credit.
Solar water heaters make sense for the island and for the environment. Hawaii should be proud of leading the way.
5. The Baby Docs Said was Dead After Ultrasound Blunder
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/06/28/exclusive-the-baby-docs-said-was-dead-after-ultrasound-blunder-89520-20623898/
By Jeremy Armstrong 28/06/2008
Little Leona-Lee Gray has defied all the odds - after her parents were told she had died following a hospital ultrasound blunder.
And yesterday proud mum Catherine Kent and dad Kevin Gray cuddled her and admitted: "She is our little miracle."
Seven weeks into her pregnancy Catherine, 27, who had suffered a miscarriage two years earlier, was told her baby was dead.
She was offered drugs or surgery to remove the foetus, but chose to wait for a miscarriage to happen naturally - a decision that saved Leona-Lee's life. She said: "My instincts were telling me something was wrong - I had the morning sickness and felt pregnant.
"I went back to Sunderland General Hospital and told them my concerns.
"I had another ultrasound. When I looked at the screen, I could make out a shape swimming about in the black and white lines. My baby was alive."
Six months on, Leona-Lee Gray was born weighing a healthy 6 lbs 9 oz and is now settling in at the family home in Houghton-le-Spring, Co Durham.
Her parents say she is the "spitting image" of big sister Chanelle, seven, and brother Kane, four, is "very excited".
Kevin, 28, said: "The baby is just champion. She is healthy as anything. But because we thought she had died it made the pregnancy a hundred times worse because of the stress."
Catherine shudders to think what might have been. "What if I had taken the tablets they offered me?," she said.
"They could have left my baby severely disabled, or it could have died. They could have aborted my baby while it was alive."
City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Trust has launched an inquiry.
Honorable Mentions:
1.Heroic Neighbors Save Children from Burning Apartment
http://www.khq.com/Global/story.asp?S=8550979
Posted: June 24, 2008 07:03 PM
Updated: June 27, 2008 01:16 PM
SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. - A Marine Reservist, a 17-year old teenager and his father are being called heroes after they saved two toddlers from a burning apartment building Tuesday night.
Fire officials say the fire broke out on the second floor of the apartment complex just before 10 p.m. Tuesday, near East 8th Avenue and South Pines.
One mother of two small children, a 2- and 3-year old, was in the shower when she saw smoke coming into the bathroom. She ran to find her kids but the smoke and heat forced her out of the building.
John Higginson, an ex-marine, was across the street at his apartment when he heard a smoke alarm sound and someone screaming, "Someone call 911!" After calling 911 he ran across the street where he heard a woman screaming, "My kids are up there!"
Higginson says he ran to investigate and found 17-year old Alex Suchanek and his father already trying to get into the building.
Suchanek says he'd just finished walking his girlfriend home when he noticed a mass of black smoke outside and heard his neighbor screaming there was a fire, and that her kids were trapped inside. He and his father sprang to action.
The intense heat and smoke inside the building forced the three towards the balcony outside. The marine and the teenager started climbing.
Suchanek broke down an outer door so they could get inside. Then, with a wet towel over his face, using a cell phone as a flashlight, Higginson went into the apartment and found the children by following coughing noises.
Higginson took each child to the balcony where Suchanek was waiting to drop them down to his father below.
Crews say one of the children was not breathing after being rescued, but was resuscitated on-scene and taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center.
One of the children, a girl, is listed in serious condition. The other, a boy, is listed in satisfactory condition. Both are expected to make a full recovery.
When asked what compelled him to risk his life to save the children, Suchanek said, "I was just concerned about the kids. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do something...at least try to help the kids out."
When asked if he was comfortable being called a hero, Higginson chuckled and told reporters, "I served the last ten years in the Marine Corp Reserve. I just got back from Iraq and I still don't accept the title hero for that...I did what anybody should have done, just like Alex."
2.Algae From the Ocean May Offer a Sustainable Energy Source of the Future
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080626145543.htm
ScienceDaily
June 28, 2008
Research by two Kansas State University scientists could help with the large-scale cultivation and manufacturing of oil-rich algae in oceans for biofuel.
K-State's Zhijian "Z.J." Pei, associate professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, and Wenqiao "Wayne" Yuan, assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering, have received a $98,560 Small Grant for Exploratory Research from the National Science Foundation to study solid carriers for manufacturing algae biofuels in the ocean.
Algae are a diverse and simple group of organisms that live in or near water. Certain algal species are high in oil content that could be converted into such fuels as biodiesel, according to Pei and Yuan. Algae also have several environmentally-friendly advantages over corn or other plants used for biofuels, including not needing soil or fresh water to grow.
Pei and Yuan plan to identify attributes of algae and properties of materials that enable growth of certain algae species on solid carriers. Solid carriers float on the water surface for algae to attach to and grow on.
"Not all materials are equally suitable to make these carriers," Yuan said. "Some materials are better for algal attachment and growth than others, and we will be identifying what those 'good' materials are."
The project could help with the design of major equipment for manufacturing algae biofuels from the ocean, including solid carriers, in-the-ocean algae harvesting equipment and oil extraction machines, Pei said.
"This research aims to develop a cost-effective process for growing algae on solid carriers in the ocean for biofuel manufacturing," he said. "If successful, it will greatly benefit the energy security of the United States, as well as society in general."
The research will be conducted with a two-step approach.
"Selected algae species will be grown on solid carriers in a simulated ocean environment and will be evaluated for their ability to attach to solid carriers and grow in seawater, their biomass productivity, and their oil content," Pei said. "Top-ranked species in step one will be selected to test the performance of several carrier materials, including natural organic, synthetic organic and inorganic materials, with the same evaluation parameters as in step one."
Pei said the properties of the highly-ranked carriers also will be analyzed.
Yuan, who has studied biodiesel for several years, said the major problem with making the fuel has been finding sustainable oil and fat sources.
"Algae seems to be the only promising sustainable oil source for biodiesel production," he said. "In my lab, we have several different projects involving algae and we have been trying different ways to grow it. We have already obtained some encouraging results."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adapted from materials provided by Kansas State University, via Newswise.
I have to update this later. It's been a busy day. Here's what I have so far. Hope you enjoy! :)
Today's Top 5:
1. Accidental Fungus Leads to Promising Cancer Drug (Yahoo News)
2. Cloths Absorb Mercury from Broken Fluorescent Bulbs (Inventorspot.com)
3. Public Invited to See 500 Year Old Artifacts ( The News Herald)
4. "First" in Solar Heater Mandate is Reason for Pride in Hawaii (Honolulu Star Bulletin)
5. The Baby Docs Said was Dead After Ultrasound Blunder (Daily Mirror UK)
Honorable Mentions:
1. Heroic Neighbors Save Children from Burning Apartment (KHQ-Q6 News)
2. Algae From the Ocean May Offer a Sustainable Energy Source of the Future (Science Daily)
Today's Top 5:
1. Accidental Fungus Leads to Promising Cancer Drug
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080629/ts_nm/cancer_nanoparticles_dc
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
8 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A drug developed using nanotechnology and a fungus that contaminated a lab experiment may be broadly effective against a range of cancers, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.
The drug, called lodamin, was improved in one of the last experiments overseen by Dr. Judah Folkman, a cancer researcher who died in January. Folkman pioneered the idea of angiogenesis therapy -- starving tumors by preventing them from growing blood supplies.
Lodamin is an angiogenesis inhibitor that Folkman's team has been working to perfect for 20 years. Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, his colleagues say they developed a formulation that works as a pill, without side-effects.
They have licensed it to SynDevRx, Inc, a privately held Cambridge, Massachusetts biotechnology company that has recruited several prominent cancer experts to its board.
Tests in mice showed it worked against a range of tumors, including breast cancer, neuroblastoma, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, brain tumors known as glioblastomas and uterine tumors.
It helped stop so-called primary tumors and also prevented their spread, Ofra Benny of Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School and colleagues reported.
"Using the oral route of administration, it first reaches the liver, making it especially efficient in preventing the development of liver metastasis in mice," they wrote in their report. "Liver metastasis is very common in many tumor types and is often associated with a poor prognosis and survival rate," they added.
'ALMOST CLEAN' LIVERS
"When I looked at the livers of the mice, the treated group was almost clean," Benny said in a statement. "In the control group you couldn't recognize the livers -- they were a mass of tumors."
The drug was known experimentally as TNP-470, and was originally isolated from a fungus called Aspergillus fumigatus fresenius.
Harvards's Donald Ingber discovered the fungus by accident while trying to grow endothelial cells -- the cells that line blood vessels. The mold affected the cells in a way known to prevent the growth of tiny blood vessels known as capillaries.
Ingber and Folkman developed TNP-470 with the help of Takeda Chemical Industries in Japan in 1990.
But the drug affected the brain, causing depression, dizziness and other side-effects. It also did not stay in the body long and required constant infusions. The lab dropped it.
Efforts to improve it did not work well. Then Benny and colleagues tried nanotechnology, attaching two "pom-pom"-shaped polymers to TNP-470, protecting it from stomach acid.
In mice, the altered drug, now named lodamin, went straight to tumor cells and helped suppress melanoma and lung cancer, with no apparent side effects, Benny said.
All untreated mice had fluid in the abdominal cavity, and enlarged livers covered with tumors. Mice treated with lodamin had normal-looking livers and spleens, the researchers said.
Twenty days after being injected with cancer cells, four out of seven untreated mice had died, while all treated mice were still alive, Benny's team reported.
"I had never expected such a strong effect on these aggressive tumor models," she said. The researchers believe lodamin may also be useful in other diseases marked by abnormal blood vessel growth, such as age-related macular degeneration.
(Editing by Todd Eastham)
2. Cloths Absorb Mercury from Broken Fluorescent Bulbs
http://inventorspot.com/articles/researchers_discover_material_absorbs_mercury_broken_fluorescent_15116
Posted June 29th, 2008
By Lisa Zyga
As more households are turning to fluorescent light bulbs for energy-efficient lighting, some people have been worried about the dangers of the mercury that is released into the air when a bulb breaks.
The 3-5 milligrams of mercury vapor inside the bulbs can pose minor health risks to small children and other susceptible individuals, and the area with the broken bulb needs to be carefully and thoroughly cleaned.
Recently, researchers at Brown University have discovered that a material called nanoselenium absorbs about 99% of mercury vapor. Based on this finding, the team has been creating prototypes of mercury-absorbent cloths and packaging that would make it much easier and safer to clean up broken bulbs.
As Engineering Professor Robert Hurt explains, when the selenium atoms bond with the mercury atoms, they form mercury selenide, which is a stable, benign nanoparticle compound. The mercury selenide could be safely discarded and recycled, without contamination or other environmental consequences.
One of the prototypes the researchers developed is a nanoselenium-coated cloth, encompassed by two exterior layers, that would hold the light bulbs in the box, and fully absorb the mercury if one should break during shipping and handling.
An extra cloth could also be included in the packaging, so that if a bulb should break when being screwed in, for example, people could simply lay the cloth on the spot where the bulb broke. The nanoselenium can absorb mercury on carpets, wood floors, and other surfaces.
Because the material is so effective, only a small amount is needed to capture the mercury vapor, making the researchers hope that the cloths could be relatively inexpensive.
"More work is needed," Hurt said, "but this appears to be an inexpensive solution that can remove most of the safety concerns associated with CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) bulbs."
via: Brown University
3. Public Invited to See 500-year-old Artifacts
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=9039897047310103297&postID=5379989638942367583
BY SHARON McBRAYER
smcbrayer@morganton.com
Sunday, June 29, 2008
MORGANTON - People gathered around a woman and shouts of "hey, hey, hey" went up at the Berry archeological site on Thursday.
David Moore, lead archeologist at the site, was standing about 75 yards away. When he heard the shouts, he made his way over to the group.
What got the crowd excited was a find by Jeane Jones, of Dalton, Ga., of a tiny blue Spanish glass bead believed left behind from the first European settlement in the interior of what is now the United States.
It was the second glass bead found last week. One man found a piece of metal believed to be from the same era.
On July 12, the public will get a chance to take a look at the glass beads and other artifacts found at the site, as well as observe archaeologists at work. Archaeologists will be on hand to discuss the site and lead tours. Primitive skills experts also will demonstrate how native people crafted their weapons and tools.
Warren Wilson College and Western Piedmont Community College Archaeology Field School is sponsoring the open house.
The site will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on July 12. Admission is free.
Archaeologists believe the Berry site to be the location of the native town of Joara, at which the Spaniard Juan Pardo built Fort San Juan in 1567, 20 years before the "Lost Colony," according to information from field school.
The site is also believed to represent an ancestral Catawba Indian town.
The archaeology field school has concentrated on a one-acre area where 16th century Spanish artifacts and the remains of five burned buildings have been located. Archaeologists believe these burned structures may represent the remains of the Spanish compound, Fort San Juan.
For Jones, working at the Berry site and finding an artifact was thrilling. She and her husband, Walter, signed up to work for a week on the site. The couple has a summer home at Montreat in Black Mountain and kept hearing about the dig. She was screening dirt from an area where a compound structure once stood when she found the bead.
Moore said the Spanish used beads to trade with the natives. But Juan Pardo's group wasn't on a trade mission. They were on a work mission, Moore said.
The mission, Moore said, was to go from the east coast of the U.S. to Mexico, pacifying natives along the route, in order to build a road so silver could be transported from Mexico.
The fort in what is now Burke County was sacked and its buildings burned after relations between the Spaniards and natives soured, according to information from the school.
The site is located on Henderson Mill Road. To get there from downtown Morganton, take Green Street, which turns into N.C. 181. From the Kmart plaza, continue north on N.C. 181 4.1 miles to Goodman Lake Road on the right. Take Goodman Lake Road to the end (1.6 miles) and turn right on Henderson Mill Road. Follow Henderson Mill Road 1.9 miles to the Berry site. Turn right and follow parking signs.
4. ‘First’ in Solar-heater Mandate is Reason for Pride in Hawaii
http://starbulletin.com/2008/06/29/editorial/editorial01.html
29 June, 2008
THE ISSUE
The governor has signed into law a bill requiring developers to install solar water heaters in new homes.
The 50th state is the first in the nation to require solar water heaters to be installed on new single-family homes, which certainly would seem logical to the rest of the country.
In fact, residents of the other 49 would have reason to ask why the state with such plentiful sunshine took so long to adopt the renewable resource for a basic advantage.
It's not for lack of trying. Lawmakers have entertained the idea for five years since Kauai Sen. Gary Hooser first introduced legislation. Environmental organizations, principally the Sierra Club of Hawaii, have been lobbying long and hard at the state Capitol to get enough support, tweaking and amending the measure to win acceptance.
But at least some of the success of the bill, which Gov. Linda Lingle signed into law this week, is due to the economics of oil. When Hooser proposed the bill, oil was selling at $40 a barrel. On Friday afternoon, a barrel traded at an incredible $142.
With Hawaii owning the dubious national distinction of paying the most for electricity -- with the ever-soaring fuel surcharges making up nearly half of the tab -- using the sun to heat water makes sense. Solar devices will cut an estimated $40 to $60 in power costs for a family of four or about 30 percent of a homeowner's monthly bill.
Not everyone is pleased, however. The Building Industry Association of Hawaii, representing developers and contractors, complained the law will increase home prices, but buyers will recoup the difference within a few years and save in the long run because electricity costs will continue to go up. Some smart homebuilders, recognizing consumers' desire for renewable energy systems, already include solar water heaters on their residential units.
Gov. Lingle believes the new law will eliminate state tax credits for older homes, but the bill clearly states that homes that were issued building permits -- which were necessary to put up the houses -- before January 2010, when the law takes effect, can still claim the credit.
Solar water heaters make sense for the island and for the environment. Hawaii should be proud of leading the way.
5. The Baby Docs Said was Dead After Ultrasound Blunder
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/06/28/exclusive-the-baby-docs-said-was-dead-after-ultrasound-blunder-89520-20623898/
By Jeremy Armstrong 28/06/2008
Little Leona-Lee Gray has defied all the odds - after her parents were told she had died following a hospital ultrasound blunder.
And yesterday proud mum Catherine Kent and dad Kevin Gray cuddled her and admitted: "She is our little miracle."
Seven weeks into her pregnancy Catherine, 27, who had suffered a miscarriage two years earlier, was told her baby was dead.
She was offered drugs or surgery to remove the foetus, but chose to wait for a miscarriage to happen naturally - a decision that saved Leona-Lee's life. She said: "My instincts were telling me something was wrong - I had the morning sickness and felt pregnant.
"I went back to Sunderland General Hospital and told them my concerns.
"I had another ultrasound. When I looked at the screen, I could make out a shape swimming about in the black and white lines. My baby was alive."
Six months on, Leona-Lee Gray was born weighing a healthy 6 lbs 9 oz and is now settling in at the family home in Houghton-le-Spring, Co Durham.
Her parents say she is the "spitting image" of big sister Chanelle, seven, and brother Kane, four, is "very excited".
Kevin, 28, said: "The baby is just champion. She is healthy as anything. But because we thought she had died it made the pregnancy a hundred times worse because of the stress."
Catherine shudders to think what might have been. "What if I had taken the tablets they offered me?," she said.
"They could have left my baby severely disabled, or it could have died. They could have aborted my baby while it was alive."
City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Trust has launched an inquiry.
Honorable Mentions:
1.Heroic Neighbors Save Children from Burning Apartment
http://www.khq.com/Global/story.asp?S=8550979
Posted: June 24, 2008 07:03 PM
Updated: June 27, 2008 01:16 PM
SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. - A Marine Reservist, a 17-year old teenager and his father are being called heroes after they saved two toddlers from a burning apartment building Tuesday night.
Fire officials say the fire broke out on the second floor of the apartment complex just before 10 p.m. Tuesday, near East 8th Avenue and South Pines.
One mother of two small children, a 2- and 3-year old, was in the shower when she saw smoke coming into the bathroom. She ran to find her kids but the smoke and heat forced her out of the building.
John Higginson, an ex-marine, was across the street at his apartment when he heard a smoke alarm sound and someone screaming, "Someone call 911!" After calling 911 he ran across the street where he heard a woman screaming, "My kids are up there!"
Higginson says he ran to investigate and found 17-year old Alex Suchanek and his father already trying to get into the building.
Suchanek says he'd just finished walking his girlfriend home when he noticed a mass of black smoke outside and heard his neighbor screaming there was a fire, and that her kids were trapped inside. He and his father sprang to action.
The intense heat and smoke inside the building forced the three towards the balcony outside. The marine and the teenager started climbing.
Suchanek broke down an outer door so they could get inside. Then, with a wet towel over his face, using a cell phone as a flashlight, Higginson went into the apartment and found the children by following coughing noises.
Higginson took each child to the balcony where Suchanek was waiting to drop them down to his father below.
Crews say one of the children was not breathing after being rescued, but was resuscitated on-scene and taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center.
One of the children, a girl, is listed in serious condition. The other, a boy, is listed in satisfactory condition. Both are expected to make a full recovery.
When asked what compelled him to risk his life to save the children, Suchanek said, "I was just concerned about the kids. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do something...at least try to help the kids out."
When asked if he was comfortable being called a hero, Higginson chuckled and told reporters, "I served the last ten years in the Marine Corp Reserve. I just got back from Iraq and I still don't accept the title hero for that...I did what anybody should have done, just like Alex."
2.Algae From the Ocean May Offer a Sustainable Energy Source of the Future
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080626145543.htm
ScienceDaily
June 28, 2008
Research by two Kansas State University scientists could help with the large-scale cultivation and manufacturing of oil-rich algae in oceans for biofuel.
K-State's Zhijian "Z.J." Pei, associate professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, and Wenqiao "Wayne" Yuan, assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering, have received a $98,560 Small Grant for Exploratory Research from the National Science Foundation to study solid carriers for manufacturing algae biofuels in the ocean.
Algae are a diverse and simple group of organisms that live in or near water. Certain algal species are high in oil content that could be converted into such fuels as biodiesel, according to Pei and Yuan. Algae also have several environmentally-friendly advantages over corn or other plants used for biofuels, including not needing soil or fresh water to grow.
Pei and Yuan plan to identify attributes of algae and properties of materials that enable growth of certain algae species on solid carriers. Solid carriers float on the water surface for algae to attach to and grow on.
"Not all materials are equally suitable to make these carriers," Yuan said. "Some materials are better for algal attachment and growth than others, and we will be identifying what those 'good' materials are."
The project could help with the design of major equipment for manufacturing algae biofuels from the ocean, including solid carriers, in-the-ocean algae harvesting equipment and oil extraction machines, Pei said.
"This research aims to develop a cost-effective process for growing algae on solid carriers in the ocean for biofuel manufacturing," he said. "If successful, it will greatly benefit the energy security of the United States, as well as society in general."
The research will be conducted with a two-step approach.
"Selected algae species will be grown on solid carriers in a simulated ocean environment and will be evaluated for their ability to attach to solid carriers and grow in seawater, their biomass productivity, and their oil content," Pei said. "Top-ranked species in step one will be selected to test the performance of several carrier materials, including natural organic, synthetic organic and inorganic materials, with the same evaluation parameters as in step one."
Pei said the properties of the highly-ranked carriers also will be analyzed.
Yuan, who has studied biodiesel for several years, said the major problem with making the fuel has been finding sustainable oil and fat sources.
"Algae seems to be the only promising sustainable oil source for biodiesel production," he said. "In my lab, we have several different projects involving algae and we have been trying different ways to grow it. We have already obtained some encouraging results."
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Adapted from materials provided by Kansas State University, via Newswise.
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