2008: June 4th Good News (HIV Breakthrough: "Natural Condom" Could Stop HIV; Dog Finds Maternal Instinct Raising Kittens; More...)

Good Morning all,

Well, I'm playing catch up. The last few days have been very busy. On June 2 and 3, we hosted an event here in Seoul that the Secretary of Defense attended. I attempted to post yesterday, but I was so exhausted I fell to sleep on the 4th of today's top 5. So, today I looked up the remaining articles (may post a couple more under honorable mentions later, once I get caught up fully), and prepared the news. :)

Here are your news articles for 4 June 2008. I will post today's news articles next. If I end up with a lot of time, I will try to do historic entries for the 2nd and 3rd of June.

I hope you enjoy today's posts! :) See you tomorrow (really).



Today's Top 5:
1. University of Pennsylvania Receives $50M Gift from Nine West Founder
2. Largest Cambodian Buddha Resurrected in Siem Reap (Xinhua News)
3. Agent in Red Wine Found to Keep Hearts Young (Physorg.com)
4. HIV Breakthrough for Men (The West Australian)
5. Dog Finds Maternal Instincts with Kittens (Honolulu Star Bulletin)



Honorable Mentions:
1. Rat Bones Show First New Zeelanders Settled 700 Years Ago (Earth Times)
2. Steps Being Taken to Safeguard Rock Carvings in Northern Areas of Pakistan (Associated Press of Pakistan)



Today's Top 5:
1. University of Pennsylvania Receives $50M Gift from Nine West Founder
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080604/ap_on_re_us/penn_50_million_gift
Wed Jun 4, 12:40 AM ET

PHILADELPHIA - The founder of women's shoe company Nine West has given $50 million to the University of Pennsylvania, one of the largest donations in school history.

Jerome Fisher, a 1953 Penn alumnus, and his wife Anne donated the funds to help build a biomedical research facility on the university's campus in West Philadelphia. Fisher is the founder and chairman emeritus of the Nine West Group Inc., which makes women's shoes and accessories.

Slated to open in 2010, the Anne and Jerome Fisher Translational Research Center will emphasize an accelerated pace for converting laboratory discoveries into medical therapies.

Each floor will be the size of a football field, dramatically increasing Penn's research space, university officials said. It will house about 100 principal researchers and 900 additional staff.

The donation also includes a professorship in hematology and oncology named in honor of the Fishers' daughter, Jodi Fisher.

It is one of the largest gifts in the history of the Ivy League school and the second-largest to Penn's medical system.

"Anne and I love Penn, and we have long felt that investing in this world-class university is investing in the future of humankind itself," Jerome Fisher said.

The couple's previous gifts to Penn total more than $14 million.




2. Largest Cambodian Buddha Resurrected in Siem Reap
http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/04/content_8311123.htm
2008-06-04 10:56:22

PHNOM PENH, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The largest reclining Buddha in Cambodia, part of the Baphuon Temple at Angkor in Siem Reap province, has just opened to the public, the Mekong Times newspaper said Wednesday.

The Buddha is a 16th century addition to the west face of the 11th century Hindu Baphuon temple, the newspaper said, adding that it marks a religious schism between the Brahmanic Angkor society and the Buddhist culture that arose later.

The Buddha is one of the final stages of the reconstruction of the temple, with the three tiered monument slated to be fully open to the public by the end of 2009.

The restoration of the temple has been an epic journey, begun by the well-known French organization Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient (EFEO) before the civil war in 1970. The project was interrupted by the war and resumed by the EFEO in 1995.

The Reclining Buddha, a representation of the Buddha after attaining enlightenment, is 70 meters long and 12 meters high. The French have undertaken nine years of "complex work" on the statue, which is one of the "most astonishing" archeological remains of the post-Angkorian period, according to a French Embassy press release.




3. Agent in Red Wine Found to Keep Hearts Young
http://www.physorg.com/news131777919.html
05:58 EST, June 04, 2008

How, scientists wonder, do the French get away with a clean bill of heart health despite a diet loaded with saturated fats?

The answer to the so-called "French paradox" may be found in red wine. More specifically, it may reside in small doses of resveratrol, a natural constituent of grapes, pomegranates, red wine and other foods, according to a new study by an international team of researchers.

Writing this week (June 3) in the online, open-access journal Public Library of Science One, the researchers report that low doses of resveratrol in the diet of middle-aged mice has a widespread influence on the genetic levers of aging and may confer special protection on the heart.

Specifically, the researchers found that low doses of resveratrol mimic the effects of what is known as caloric restriction - diets with 20-30 percent fewer calories than a typical diet - that in numerous studies has been shown to extend lifespan and blunt the effects of aging.

"This brings down the dose of resveratrol toward the consumption reality mode," says senior author Richard Weindruch, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of medicine and a researcher at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital. "At the same time, it plugs into the biology of caloric restriction."

Previous research has shown that resveratrol in high doses extends lifespan in invertebrates and prevents early mortality in mice given a high-fat diet. The new study, conducted by researchers from academia and industry, extends those findings, showing that resveratrol in low doses and beginning in middle age can elicit many of the same benefits as a reduced-calorie diet.

"Resveratrol is active in much lower doses than previously thought and mimics a significant fraction of the profile of caloric restriction at the gene expression level," says Tomas Prolla, a UW-Madison professor of genetics and a senior author of the new report.

The group explored the influence of the agent on heart, muscle and brain by looking for changes in gene expression in those tissues. As animals age, gene expression in the different tissues of the body changes as genes are switched on and off.

In the new study - which compared the genetic crosstalk of animals on a restricted diet with those fed small doses of resveratrol - the similarities were remarkable, explains lead author Jamie Barger of Madison-based LifeGen Technologies. In the heart, for example, there are at least 1,029 genes whose functions change with age, and the organ's function is known to diminish with age. In animals on a restricted diet, 90 percent of those heart genes experienced altered gene expression profiles, while low doses of resveratrol thwarted age-related change in 92 percent. The new findings, say the study's authors, were associated with prevention of the decline in heart function associated with aging.

In short, a glass of wine or food or supplements that contain even small doses of resveratrol are likely to represent "a robust intervention in the retardation of cardiac aging," the authors note.

That finding may also explain the remarkable heart health of people who live in some regions of France where diets are soaked in saturated fats but the incidence of heart disease, a major cause of mortality in the United States, is low. In France, meals are traditionally complemented with a glass of red wine.

The new resveratrol study is also important because it suggests that caloric restriction, which has been widely studied in animals from spiders to humans, and resveratrol may govern the same master genetic pathways related to aging.

"There must be a few master biochemical pathways activated in response to caloric restriction, which in turn activate many other pathways," explains Prolla. "And resveratrol seems to activate some of these master pathways as well."

The new findings, according to Weindruch and Prolla, provide strong evidence that resveratrol can improve quality of life through its influence on the different parameters of aging such as cardiac function. However, whether the agent can extend lifespan in ways similar to caloric restriction will require further study, according to the new report's authors.

Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison





4. HIV Breakthrough for Men:
Australian Researchers Say 'Natural Condom' Could Stop HIV
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=158&ContentID=76962
4th June 2008, 15:15 WST

Australian researchers say they have unlocked the key to blocking HIV infection in men in a breakthrough which could arrest the global AIDS epidemic.

The ground-breaking study uses the female hormone, oestrogen, to create a “living condom” in men, shielding them from the virus.

The development is being touted as a critical step in reducing sexually transmitted HIV, particularly in uncircumcised men, who are more at risk of infection.

University of Melbourne researchers Dr Andrew Pask and Professor Roger Short said their discovery had the potential to cut the spread of HIV in half.

And the research underpinning their work could spark calls for a revival of circumcision.

Dr Pask and Prof Short have discovered that by applying oestrogen to the vulnerable inner foreskin they can boost the body's natural defences against HIV.

The oestrogen cream, Oestriol, works by quadrupling the thin layer of keratin, a defensive protein, in the skin.

“By using keratin we can increase the body's natural defence ... and then the virus can't physically inject itself through that barrier to infect the cells underneath,” Dr Pask said.

Circumcision provides up to 80 per cent protection from HIV and oestrogen would fill the gap, he said. In uncircumcised men it is a living barrier against HIV.

“It's not a contraception ... but it is a living condom and a perfect protection against HIV,” Prof Short said.

Forty million people have HIV worldwide.

Every year there are five million new infections and three million people die.

The treatment, details of which appeared today in the medical journal, PLoS ONE, published by the Public Library of Science, has worked in laboratory tests and will undergo clinical trials in Africa, the epicentre of the AIDS epidemic.

“Mathematical models would predict that within say 50 or 60 years that the level of HIV in the world would be significantly reduced as an effect of this,” Dr Pask said.

“The studies that they've shown on circumcision showed that within 50 to 60 years it would be less than half of what we have now, so it is a massive reduction.

“And then of course it would continue to drop exponentially from there until hopefully, if everybody in the world was to be circumcised or was to use the treatment, then eventually the epidemic would just completely disappear.”

Dr Pask said it was a simple, cheap and effective guard against HIV that could be applied once a week in cultures where circumcision and safe sex were not practised.

But it does not protect against sexually transmitted infections. Oestrogen is currently used to treat prolapse in woman and in small, external doses would have virtually no side effects in men.

It could eventually have applications in condoms and lubricants.

MELBOURNE
AAP





5. Dog Finds Maternal Instincts with Kittens
http://starbulletin.com/2008/06/04/news/story04.html
June 4, 2008
Ewa Beach sixth-grader Megumi Schultz was astounded when her cat-hating dog started breast-feeding feral kittens they found in her garden shed.
"I was quite shocked when she started nursing them," she recalled as she related how her dog morphed into a tender, doting mother.

Megumi was walking Snowie, her 3-year-old white Shiba-Inu, one morning when they heard meowing coming from the garden shed.

Snowie sniffed under the shed door and was scratched, apparently by a feral cat. When the girl returned with her father, Frank Schultz, they opened the shed to find a litter of four kittens. The feral mother cat darted away and hasn't returned.

"Snowie normally hates cats," said Frank Schultz. "She goes nuts. When we go for a walk, she'll chase 'em down the road. One time she chased one four blocks up into a tree and then tried to climb the tree. If she's not on the leash, she'll attack them."
The Schultz family took the kittens home and began feeding them with kitten formula via eyedroppers.

Then, "kidding around," Schultz's wife, Miyuki, placed one of the kittens on Snowie's teat.

"She looked shocked," said Schultz. "She was looking at us as to say, 'Huh?'"

Then the other kittens started suckling her.

"Snowie just laid there and let them nurse," said Megumi. Now she is producing milk and feeding the kittens four to six times a day. She has never been pregnant or nursed before, but it is possible for females to lactate from nipple stimulation alone.

"I think it's a miracle because you don't normally see dogs nursing cats," said Megumi.

A Google search revealed similar cases elsewhere.

"It's not terribly unheard of ... there's tigers that will suckle pigs," said Ken Redman, director of the Honolulu Zoo. "So somewhere along the line maternal instinct kicks in."

Kawehi Yim of the Hawaiian Humane Society said there also have been cases of cats adopting puppies.

Dr. Eric Ako of the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association said such cases are "not infrequent," adding, "There's even wider species variations that have been documented ... a monkey has adopted a puppy."

Megumi, who has named the kittens Tabby, Ginger, Momo and Casey, said the accidental mom seems content with her brood.
"She always licks them and follows them everywhere. She protects them. She's really happy, I think, because she doesn't have any companion. I think the kittens will act like dogs, because they are always following her and doing what she does."

Added Frank Schultz: "Usually, we take a long walk at night with Snowie, but now she drags me home so she can take care of the kittens. "

At night, the kittens snuggle up to sleep with Snowie.

Schultz said he's not sure whether they will keep the cats. Some acquaintances have already asked about adopting them when they get big enough, he said.






Honorable Mentions:

1.Rat bones show first New Zealanders settled 700 years ago
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/209653,rat-bones-show-first-new-zealanders-settled-700-years-ago.html
Posted : Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:23:00 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Science (Technology)

Wellington - Humans first settled in New Zealand around the late 13th century and not more than 2,000 years ago as had been thought, according to research published Tuesday that used radiocarbon dating on rat bones. The research in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences rejected earlier radiocarbon dating suggesting the first migrants arrived about 200 BC.

A team of international researchers led by Dr Janet Wilmshurst of New Zealand's Landcare Research spent four years studying bones of the Pacific rat, known to the indigenous Maori people as kiore, and native seeds the animals gnawed.

They said earlier research published in the journal Nature in 1996 that dated rat bones from about 200 BC was faulty and re-examination suggested they originated in the period 1280 to 1300.

"As the Pacific rat or kiore cannot swim very far, it can only have arrived in New Zealand with people on board their canoes, either as cargo or stowaways," Wilmshurst said.

"Therefore, the earliest evidence of the Pacific rat in New Zealand must indicate the arrival of people," she said.

Wilmshurst said the new dating of rat bones was supported by examination of more than 100 woody seeds with distinctive telltale bite marks, which had been preserved in peat and swamp sites on both New Zealand's main islands.

According to Maori legend, the Polynesian people came to New Zealand on a fleet of large canoes from their mythical Pacific homeland of Hawaiki.

Wilmshurst said the new radiocarbon dating was consistent with other evidence suggesting the Maoris arrived in the late 13th century, including the oldest dated archaeological sites, oral legends, widespread forest clearance by fire and the start of declining populations of marine and land-based fauna.




2. Steps Being Taken to Safeguard Rock Carvings in Northern Areas of Pakistan
http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40151&Itemid=2
2 June 2008
Sherry Rehman

ISLAMABAD, Jun 2 (APP): Minister for Culture Ms Sherry Rehman informed the National Assembly on Monday that various steps have been taken for safeguarding rock carvings in various parts of the Northern Areas. Replying to a question from MNA Marvi Memon during the Question Hour, she said that more than 50,000 rock carvings, and over 5000 inscriptions in 39 different languages have been found so far along the Karakoram Highway in the Northern Areas.
The research survey is continuing in various parts of the Northern Areas by the Department of Archaeology and Museums in collaboration with Heidelberg Rock Art Project led by Dr Harald Hauptmann. Sherry Rehman said that WAPDA has allocated Rs 31 million for relocation of carvings. She said that it is estimated that 30,907 rock carvings,including 3,290 inscriptions,will be submerged due to the proposed Basha-Diamir Reservoir. She further said that the Culture Ministry has decided to request the Water and Power Ministry to allocate special funds for payment of compensation and for employment of hi-tech equipment for cutting,performing three dimensional scanning,photography and sketches of the impressions and production of replicas which would be saved in museums in Gilgit and Chilas.

While replying to a question by Abdul Qadir Patel,MNA she said that the Prime Minister has approved establishment of National Film Academy.The academy would train aspirants who would spearhead the direction and production of quality films at home and abroad.

To a question from Palwasha Khan she said that the Department of Archaeology and Museums under the Ministry of Culture is the main custodian of country’s cultural heritage.

She said that the department has protected 401 sites and monuments under the Antiques Act 1975 and established 13 museums in the country.

To a supplementary she said that provincial governments help has been sought for removal of encroachments from archaeological sites and their preservation.

She said that during the current financial year Rs 118.180 million has been allocated in the Annual Development Fund for the 15 ongoing projects prepared by the department for preservation of historic monuments sites.

She said out of these schemes,four would be completed during this financial year while the rest would be completed during next fiscal.

She called for allocation of more funds for Archaeological department so that historic monuments could be preserved as per international standards.