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.