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Week 39
Pandemic flu can infect cells deep
in the lungs, says new research
Pandemic swine flu can infect cells deeper in the lungs than seasonal flu can, according
to a new study published today in Nature Biotechnology. The researchers, from Imperial
College London, say this may explain why people infected with the pandemic strain of
swine-origin H1N1 influenza are more likely to suffer more severe symptoms than those
infected with the seasonal strain of H1N1. They also suggest that scientists should
monitor the current pandemic H1N1 influenza virus for changes in the way it infects cells
that could make infections more serious. Influenza viruses infect cells by attaching to
bead-like molecules on the outside of the cell, called receptors. Different viruses attach
to different receptors, and if a virus cannot find its specific receptors, it cannot get
into the cell. Once inside the cell, the virus uses the cell's machinery to make thousands
more viruses, which then burst out of the cell and infect neighbouring ones, establishing
an infection. Seasonal influenza viruses attach to receptors found on cells in the nose,
throat and upper airway, enabling them to infect a person's respiratory tract. Today's
research, which was funded by the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and the
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, shows that pandemic H1N1 swine flu can
also attach to a receptor found on cells deep inside the lungs, which can result in a more
severe lung infection. The pandemic influenza virus's ability to stick to the additional
receptors may explain why the virus replicates and spreads between cells more quickly: if
a flu virus can bind to more than one type of receptor, it can attach itself to a larger
area of the respiratory tract, infecting more cells and causing a more serious infection.
Professor Ten Feizi, a corresponding author of today's paper from the Division of Medicine
at Imperial College London, said: "Most people infected with swine-origin flu in the
current pandemic have experienced relatively mild symptoms. However, some people have had
more severe lung infections, which can be worse than those caused by seasonal flu. Our new
research shows how the virus does this - by attaching to receptors mostly found on cells
deep in the lungs. This is something seasonal flu cannot do."
Medicine wheel model for nutrition
shows promise for control of type 2 diabetes
American Indian populations experience significant nutrition-related health disparities
compared to other racial and ethnic groups within the US. American Indian adults have the
highest age-adjusted rates for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity of any racial
or ethnic group. Age-adjusted rates of diabetes among Native people vary from 14% to 72%,
which are 2.4 to more than 6 times the rate of the general US population. In a study
published in the September 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association,
researchers from the South Dakota State University, Brookings, report that a
culturally-sensitive educational program based on the Medicine Wheel Model for Nutrition
shows promise in changing dietary patterns in an American Indian population and impacting
glycemic control.During a 6-month period from January 2005 through December 2005,
participants from the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation were randomized to an education
intervention or to a usual care control group. The education group received six nutrition
lessons based on the Medicine Wheel Model for Nutrition, a diet patterned after the
traditional consumption of macronutrients for Northern Plains Indians: protein (25% of
energy), moderate in carbohydrate (45% to 50% of energy) and low in fat (25% to 30% of
energy). The usual care group received the usual dietary education from their personal
providers. The education group experienced a significant weight loss and decrease in body
mass index (BMI) from baseline to completion. The usual care group had no change in weight
or BMI. There were no between group differences due to intervention in energy,
carbohydrate, protein and fat intake and physical activity.
New robot travels across the
seafloor to monitor the impact of climate change on deep-sea ecosystems
Like the robotic rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which wheeled tirelessly across the dusty
surface of Mars, a new robot spent most of July traveling across the muddy ocean bottom,
about 40 kilometers (25 miles) off the California coast. This robot, the Benthic Rover,
has been providing scientists with an entirely new view of life on the deep seafloor. It
will also give scientists a way to document the effects of climate change on the deep sea.
The Rover is the result of four years of hard work by a team of engineers and scientists
led by MBARI project engineer Alana Sherman and marine biologist Ken Smith. About the size
and weight of a small compact car, the Benthic Rover moves very slowly across the
seafloor, taking photographs of the animals and sediment in its path. Every three to five
meters (10 to 16 feet) the Rover stops and makes a series of measurements on the community
of organisms living in the seafloor sediment. These measurements will help scientists
understand one of the ongoing mysteries of the ocean—how animals on the deep seafloor
find enough food to survive.
WUSTL research finds individual
cells isolated from the biological clock can keep daily time, but are unreliable
Alexis Webb enters a small room at Washington University in St. Louis with walls, floor
and ceiling painted dark green, shuts the door, turns off the lights and bends over a
microscope in a black box draped with black cloth. Through the microscope, she can see a
single nerve cell on a glass cover slip glowing dimly. The glow tells her the isolated
nerve cell is busy keeping time. Webb, a graduate fellow in the Neuroscience Ph.D.
Program, working with Erik Herzog, Ph.D., associate professor of biology in Arts &
Sciences; Nikhil Angelo, an undergraduate biology major; and James Huettner, Ph.D.,
associate professor of cell biology and physiology in the School of Medicine, has
demonstrated that individual cells isolated from the biological clock can keep daily time
all by themselves.
Model backs green tea and lemon
claim, lessens need to test animals
An animal study at Purdue University has shown that adding ascorbic acid and sugar to
green tea can help the body absorb helpful compounds and also demonstrates the
effectiveness of a model that could reduce the number of animals needed for these types of
studies. Mario Ferruzzi, associate professor of food science and nutrition, adapted a
digestion model with human intestinal cells to show that adding ascorbic acid to green tea
would increase the absorbability of catechins found in the tea. Catechins, a class of
polyphenols common in tea, cocoa and grape, are antioxidants thought to fight heart
disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and other health problems. Ferruzzi, Elsa Janle, a
Purdue associate research professor of foods and nutrition, and Catrina Peters, a Purdue
graduate student in nutrition, were able to demonstrate that adding ascorbic acid, sucrose
or both together increases by as much as three times the amount of catechins that can be
absorbed into the bloodstream. The results of the in vivo study compared well with those
predicted by the in vitro model. "This model may be used as a pre-emptive screening
tool at very little cost before you do expensive tests on animals or humans," said
Ferruzzi, whose findings were published in the early online edition of the journal Food
Research International. "If you want to get human screening off the ground, it takes
months. If you want to use this model, it takes hours."
Magnetic Fields Play Larger Role in
Star Formation than Previously Thought
The simple picture of star formation calls for giant clouds of gas and dust to collapse
inward due to gravity, growing denser and hotter until igniting nuclear fusion. In
reality, forces other than gravity also influence the birth of stars. New research shows
that cosmic magnetic fields play a more important role in star formation than previously
thought. A molecular cloud is a cloud of gas that acts as a stellar nursery. When a
molecular cloud collapses, only a small fraction of the cloud's material forms stars.
Scientists aren't sure why. Gravity favors star formation by drawing material together,
therefore some additional force must hinder the process. Magnetic fields and turbulence
are the two leading candidates. (A magnetic field is produced by moving electrical
charges. Stars and most planets, including Earth, exhibit magnetic fields.) Magnetic
fields channel flowing gas, making it hard to drawn the gas from all directions, while
turbulence stirs the gas and induces an outward pressure that counteracts gravity.
"The relative importance of magnetic fields versus turbulence is a matter of much
debate," said astronomer Hua-bai Li of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics. "Our findings serve as the first observational constraint on this
issue." Li and his team studied 25 dense patches, or cloud cores, each one about a
light-year in size. The cores, which act as seeds from which stars form, were located
within molecular clouds as much as 6,500 light-years from Earth. (A light-year is the
distance light travels in a year, or 6 trillion miles.) The researchers studied polarized
light, which has electric and magnetic components that are aligned in specific directions.
(Some sunglasses work by blocking light with specific polarization.) From the
polarization, they measured the magnetic fields within each cloud core and compared them
to the fields in the surrounding, tenuous nebula.
Michigan Tech Mathematicians
Identify Genes Linked to Lou Gehrig's Disease
Michigan Technological University researchers have linked three genes to the most common
type of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), generally known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Shuanglin Zhang, who holds the Richard and Elizabeth Henes Professorship in Mathematical
Sciences, leads the team of mathematicians that isolated the genes from the many thousands
scattered throughout human DNA. He notes that their discovery does not mean an end to ALS,
but it could provide scientists with valuable clues as they search for a cure.
Males May Experience Greater
Physical Pain Due To Lower Levels Of A Key Protein, Endothelin
Agonizing physical pain, known as vaso-occlusive pain, can afflict children who have
sickle cell disease (SCD). In some cases infants as young as two months of age suffer
vaso-occlusive pain so severe that opiate medications and hospitalizations are their only
relief. Researchers believe vaso-occlusion is caused by a blockage of the blood vessels
that occurs when sickle shaped red cells attempt to pass through the round blood vessels.
How vaso-occulsion leads to pain, and its impact on males and females are still unknown. A
University of South Carolina research team suggests that a naturally occurring chemical in
the body, endothelin (ET), may play a role. ET is produced by most tissues in the body and
is highly concentrated in blood vessels. It causes blood vessels to contract, which
contributes to pain. ET is the most potent blood vessel constrictor currently known.
Characterized by a molecular structure similar to snake venom, ET can pack the punch of a
bee sting. Researchers Sarah Sweitzer, Federico Perez and Alvin McKelvy, Department of
Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience, University of South Carolina, Columbia have
conducted several studies involving ET and vaso-occlusion pain. They are presenting an
update of their work, “Sexually Dimorphic Nociceptive Priming by Endothelin:
Involvement of the Endothelin B Receptor,” as part of the 11th International
Conference on Endothelin being held September 9-12, 2009 in Montreal, CN.
Common mental disorders may be more
common than we think
The prevalence of anxiety, depression and substance dependency may be twice as high as the
mental health community has been led to believe. It depends on how one goes about
measuring. Duke University psychologists Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi and colleagues
from the United Kingdom and New Zealand used a long-term tracking study of more than 1,000
New Zealanders from birth to age 32 to reach the conclusion that people vastly underreport
the amount of mental illness they've suffered when asked to recall their history years
after the fact. But such self-reporting from memory is the basis of much of what we know
about the prevalence of anxiety, depression, alcohol dependence and marijuana dependence.
Longitudinal studies like the Dunedin Study in New Zealand that track people over time are
rare and expensive, Moffitt said. "If you start with a group of children and follow
them their whole lives, sooner or later almost everybody will experience one of these
disorders," said Moffitt, the Knut Schmitt-Nielsen professor of psychology and
neuroscience at Duke.The Great Smoky Mountains Study, a similar effort based at Duke, has
tracked 1,400 American children from age 9-13 into their late 20s and found similar
patterns, said Jane Costello, a professor medical psychology at Duke who runs the study.
"I think we've got to get used to the idea that mental illness is actually very
common," Costello said. "People are growing up impaired, untreated and not
functioning to their full capacity because we've ignored it." The prevalence of
mental illness has been hotly debated by policy makers and mental health providers for
many years. The pharmaceutical and health insurance industries also have a stake in the
debate, Moffitt said. The best retrospective studies, the US National Comorbidity Surveys
(NCS) and the New Zealand Mental Health Survey, have found the incidence of depression
from ages 18 to 32 at a rate of about 18 percent. But they have been roundly criticized by
some for their rates being too high. The latest analysis from the Dunedin Study found 41
percent of that age range had experienced clinically significant depression. Similarly,
the survey studies have reported a 6 to 17 percent lifetime rate of alcohol dependence
between ages 18-32, versus nearly 32 percent in the Dunedin Study.
Project Camelot interviews Jane
Burgermeister
David and Goliath might be an appropriate
title for this video. Because Jane Bürgermeister, as a committed Christian, possesses an
almost unreasonable amount of courage in her single-handed stand - against what many
perceive as being a giant that few people are equipped to fight. Jane is a young woman
living in Vienna who, while working as a medical editor, was horrified to learn in early
2009 of the fiasco in which a Baxter International research facility in Orth-Donau,
Austria, sent a quantity of human H3N2 viral material to 18 European laboratories. Such a
supply of experimental material would have been totally normal - except that in this
instance the H3N2 had been somehow contaminated with live H5N1... the far more lethal
Avian Flu. As a medical editor, Jane immediately realized the import of what had happened
- and what had nearly happened - and raised the alarm. But no-one in the Austrian media
was interested. She then took matters into her own hands and filed legal charges against
those who she considered the perpetrators to be. Very soon after, Jane was dismissed from
her job without explanation. Undeterred, she sought support on the internet and continued
her campaign. In the months since then she has attracted committed followers - and critics
- all over the world. She is not alone in suspecting that there exists a literally
diabolical plan which is nothing less than the genocide of potentially hundreds of
millions of people worldwide. Project Camelot can understand how she has inspired many
others to wake up and take action: it's a little harder to understand some of her critics.
When we learned that a number of serious accusations had been leveled against her, the
obvious thing to do was to seek her out and talk to her on camera - one of the things that
Project Camelot is equipped to do best. So, this we have done. The result speaks for
itself. We bring you the real Jane Bürgermeister: feisty, determined, passionate,
articulate, and authentic.
Whistleblower Allen Jones/Mental
health screening of kids
Whistleblower Allen Jones gained
international press coverage after uncovering pharmaceutical industry payments to
government officials for the purpose of implementing a national mental health
screening/psychotropic drug treatment plan. In this video interview Jones describes the
pharma funding and psycho/pharma agenda behind mental health "screening" of
schoolchildren. He is a former investigator for the Pennsylvania Office of the Inspector
General.
396 Hz Frequency Liberating Guilt
and Fear
These original sound frequencies were
apparently used in Ancient Gregorian Chants, such as the great hymn to St. John the
Baptist, along with others that church authorities say were lost centuries ago. The chants
and their special tones were believed to impart tremendous spiritual blessings when sung
in harmony during religious masses. These powerful frequencies were rediscovered by Dr.
Joseph Puleo as described in the book Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse by Dr.
Leonard Horowitz. I give honor to both of these gentleman for the part theyve played in
helping return these lost frequencies back to humanity.
The Six Solfeggio Frequencies include:
UT 396 Hz Liberating Guilt and Fear
RE 417 Hz Undoing Situations and Facilitating Change
MI 528 Hz Transformation and Miracles (DNA Repair)
FA 639 Hz Connecting/Relationships
SOL 741 Hz Awakening Intuition
LA 852 Hz Returning to Spiritual Order
For example, the third note, frequency 528,
relates to the note MI on the scale and derives from the phrase "MI-ra gestorum"
in Latin meaning "miracle." Stunningly, this is the exact frequency used by
genetic biochemists to repair broken DNA the genetic blueprint upon which life is based!
Fox News Big Story with Doug
Kennedy on Big Pharma's Lie
Fox News Big Story with Douglas Kennedy on
how Big Pharma leaves out the bad studies and downplays the nasty side effects of their
highly addictive drugs.
The Trap - What Happened To Our
Dreams Of Freedom?
The Lonely Robot” The second episode
reiterated many of the ideas of the first, but developed the theme that drugs such as
Prozac and lists of psychological symptoms which might indicate anxiety or depression were
being used to normalise behaviour and make humans behave more predictably, like machines.
This was not presented as a conspiracy theory, but as a logical (although unpredicted)
outcome of market-driven self-diagnosis by checklist based on symptoms, but not actual
causes, discussed in the previous programme. People with standard mood fluctuations
diagnosed themselves as abnormal. They then presented themselves at psychiatrist’s
offices, fulfilled the diagnostic criteria without offering personal histories, and were
medicated. The alleged result was that vast numbers of Western people have had their
behaviour and mentation modified by SSRI drugs without any strict medical necessity. The
Ax Fight—a famous anthropological study of the Yanomamo people of Venezuela by Tim
Asch and Napoleon Chagnon—was re-examined and its strictly genetic-determinist
interpretation called into question. Other researchers were called upon to verify
Chagnon’s conclusions and arrived at totally opposed opinions. The suggestion was
raised that the presence of a film crew and the handing out of machetes to some, but not
all, tribesmen might have caused them to ‘perform’ as they did. While being
questioned by Curtis, Chagnon was so annoyed by this suggestion that he terminated the
interview and walked out of shot, protesting under his breath. Film of Richard Dawkins
propounding his ultra-strict “selfish gene” analogy of life was shown, with the
archive clips spanning two decades to emphasise how the severely reductionist ideas of
programmed behaviour have been absorbed by mainstream culture. (Later, however, the
documentary gives evidence that cells are able to selectively replicate parts of DNA
dependent on current needs. According to Curtis such evidence detracts from the simplified
economic models of human beings.). This brought Curtis back to the economic models of
Hayek and the game theories of Cold War. Curtis explains how, with the “robotic”
description of humankind apparently validated by geneticists, the game theory systems
gained even more hold over society’s engineers.
Ogilvy Exchange
Earlier this summer, Ogilvy Washington
hosted an Ogilvy Exchange event featuring a panel discussion on the changing media and its
impact on the American public as consumers, voters and community members. We were pleased
to have distinguished panelists including VP and Director of Governance Studies at
Brookings Darrell West, Senior Manager of Global Communications and Public Affairs at
Google Adam Kovacevich, Global Business Writer for USA Today David J. Lynch, Deputy
Director of Pews Project for Excellence in Journalism Amy S. Mitchell, journalist/blogger
for the Washington Examiner Julie Mason, Washington Post business reporter Ylan Mui and
journalist/blogger at U.S. News and World Report Nikki Schwab. The event presented a
robust interpretation of the impact of the changing media landscape on our lives and the
lives of those around us from what now constitutes news to who is actually doing the
reporting.
Waste food at Climate Camp
Campers at Climate Camp 2009 take abandoned
food from shops, all of which is perfectly edible, and turn it into free smoothies to draw
attention to the amount of waste produced in the UK.
School for autistic children breaks
ground in China
The Stars and Rain school is unique in
China -- the country's first school for autistic children. Since it opened in 1993, it has
helped thousands of children. While working with its special needs students, it has a
larger goal -- to encourage acceptance in China of a condition still largely
misunderstood. Duration: 01:44
Oil and wildlife don't mix in
Ecuador's Eden
What harm can a simple road do in a pristine place such as Ecuador's Yasuni National Park,
home to peccaries, tapirs, monkeys and myriad other wildlife species? A great deal, it
turns out. Specifically, it can turn subsistence communities into commercial hunting camps
that empty rainforests of their wildlife, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation
Society and the IDEAS-Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador have found. A study by
WCS field scientists in the park found that the presence of a single road in a protected
area and the subsidies provided by oil companies to local people can fundamentally change
how indigenous communities use their resources by providing both access to deeper parts of
the forest and a cheap means of getting meat to nearby wildlife markets. The study appears
in the most recent issue of the journal Animal Conservation. "We've found that a road
in a forest can bring huge social changes to local groups and the ways in which they
utilize wildlife resources," said WCS and USFQ researcher Esteban Suárez, lead
author of the study. "Communities existing inside and around the park are changing
their customs to a lifestyle of commercial hunting, the first stage in a potential
overexploitation of wildlife."
Finding of genetic region
controlling cardiovascular sensitivity to anesthetic propofol
Researchers at The Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee have identified the genetic
region in rats responsible for cardiovascular collapse during anesthesia. While it is well
known that people have different cardiovascular sensitivity to anesthesia causing some to
collapse even when low doses are administered, the mechanism responsible for this
susceptibility is not clear. "By identifying a genetic susceptibility for
cardiovascular collapse to low dose propofol, our findings may provide a key to better
understand the underlying cause of the mysterious death of Michael Jackson," says
Richard Roman, Ph.D., co author, professor of physiology and director of the Kidney
Disease Center at the College.The study was published in the September 2009, issue of the
Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics with an editorial commentary. To
find the genetic mechanism that causes this reaction, researchers at the Medical College
led by Thomas A. Stekiel, M.D., and Anna Stadnicka, Ph.D., both associate professors of
anesthesiology, administered the anesthetic propofol to a strain of rat (Dah S) that is
very sensitive to anesthetics versus Brown Norway (BN) rats that are quite resistant.
Through extensive genetic analysis, they were able to determine that a small region on
chromosome 13 contained the genetic switch responsible for the difference in the response
of these strains to anesthesia. This region also contains the renin gene, an important
blood pressure controller. "The next step is to identify the exact gene and see if it
is also responsible for cardiovascular collapse with propofol in humans," says Carol
Moreno Quinn, M.D., Ph.D., co-author at the Medical College's Human and Molecular Genetics
Center at the College. "We can then test which persons with this gene would be
sensitive to anesthesia and prevent deaths and accidents due to cardiovascular collapse in
the operating room."
Second-hand smoking results in
liver disease, study finds
A team of scientists at the University of California, Riverside has found that even
second-hand tobacco smoke exposure can result in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD),
a common disease and rising cause of chronic liver injury in which fat accumulates in the
liver of people who drink little or no alcohol. The researchers found fat accumulated in
liver cells of mice exposed to second-hand cigarette smoke for a year in the lab. Such fat
buildup is a sign of NAFLD, leading eventually to liver dysfunction. In their study, the
researchers focused on two key regulators of lipid (fat) metabolism that are found in many
human cells as well: SREBP (sterol regulatory element-binding protein) that stimulates
synthesis of fatty acids in the liver, and AMPK (adenosine monophosphate kinase) that
turns SREBP on and off. They found that second-hand smoke exposure inhibits AMPK activity,
which, in turn, causes an increase in activity of SREBP. When SREBP is more active, more
fatty acids get synthesized. The result is NAFLD induced by second-hand smoke. "Our
study provides compelling experimental evidence in support of tobacco smoke exposure
playing a major role in NAFLD development," said Manuela Martins-Green, a professor
of cell biology, who led the study. "Our work points to SREBP and AMPK as new
molecular targets for drug therapy that can reverse NAFLD development resulting from
second-hand smoke. Drugs could now be developed that stimulate AMPK activity, and thereby
inhibit SREBP, leading to reduced fatty acid production in the liver."
UCLA researchers develop biomarker
for rapid relief of major depression
It is a long, slow slog to treat major depression. Many antidepressant medications are
available, but no single biomarker or diagnostic test exists to predict which one is right
for an individual. As a result, for more than half of all patients, the first drug
prescribed doesn't work, and it can take months to figure out what does. Now, based on the
final results of a nationwide study led by UCLA, clinicians may be able to accurately
predict within a week whether a particular drug will be effective by using a non-invasive
test that takes less than 15 minutes to administer. The test will allow physicians to
quickly switch patients to a more effective treatment, if necessary. The study, called the
Biomarkers for Rapid Identification of Treatment Effectiveness in Major Depression, or
BRITE-MD, measured changes in brain-wave patterns using quantitative
electroencephalography (QEEG), a non-invasive, computerized measurement that recognizes
specific alterations in brain-wave activity. These changes precede improvement in mood by
many weeks and appear to serve as a biomarker that accurately predicts how effective a
given medication will be. The study results appear in two articles published in the
September issue of the journal Psychiatry Research. Nine sites around the country
collaborated on the study, which enrolled a total of 375 people who had been diagnosed
with major depressive disorder (MDD). Each individual was given a baseline QEEG at the
beginning of the trial and then prescribed the antidepressant escitalopram, commonly known
as Lexapro, one of a class of drugs known as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors that
are commonly prescribed for depression. After one week, a second QEEG was taken. The
researchers examined a biomarker called the antidepressant treatment response (ATR) index
— a specific change in brain-wave patterns from the baseline QEEG. Subjects were then
randomly assigned to continue with escitalopram or were given a different drug. A total of
73 patients who remained on escitalopram were tracked for 49 days to see if their results
matched the prediction of the ATR biomarker. The ATR predicted both response and remission
with an accuracy rate of 74 percent, much higher than any other method available. The
researchers also found that they could predict whether subjects were more likely to
respond to a different antidepressant, bupropion, also known as Wellbutrin XL.
Size of fat cells and waist size
predict type 2 diabetes in women
When it comes to assessing risk for type 2 diabetes, not only do waistlines matter to
women, but so does the size of their fat cells. This new discovery by a team of Swedish
researchers was just published online in the FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) and
helps explain why some women of normal weight develop type 2 diabetes, despite not having
any known risk factors. "Increased knowledge of the link between enlarged fat cells
and the development of type 2 diabetes may give rise to new preventive and therapeutic
alternatives," said Malin Lönn, co-author of the study and associate professor in
the department of clinical chemistry at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg,
Sweden. "Our research also identifies the ratio waist-to-height, waist circumference
divided by body height, as a simple tool that can be used to identify women at risk of
developing type 2 diabetes." The data for this discovery were obtained as part of the
"Prospective Study of Women in Gothenburg," performed in Sweden and started in
1968 by Professor Emeritus Calle Bengtsson. For this study, a team of Swedish researchers
invited women to free health examinations over the course of 25 years. In 1974-1975,
scientists collected abdominal fat biopsies from some of the women and tracked who
developed type 2 diabetes. They found that the number of abdominal fat cells remained
relatively constant in women after adolescence, but the size of fat cells could change
considerably throughout life and were larger in women with type 2 diabetes. In addition,
they found that waist-to-height ratio may also be a good indicator of diabetes risk.
Anti-smoking law helps waiters to
quit smoking
Researchers from the Catalan Institute of Oncology have studied the impact of the law
banning smoking in public places such as bars and restaurants on those working in these
places. The results are positive – 5% of waiters have stopped smoking, and the number
of cigarettes smoked by those who still smoke has fallen by almost 9%. On 1 January 2006,
a smoking ban came into force in public places in Spain. More than three years later,
these health measures against tobacco smoking have borne fruit. A new study led by
researchers from the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) has shown that the proportion of
smokers strongly addicted to nicotine has halved as a result of the law. All the effects
observed during this research study, which is published this month in the journal Nicotine
and Tobacco Research, have been "significantly reduced" among waiters in bars
where smoking has been completely banned than among those who work in places with smoking
areas, or where there are no restrictions in place. "Changing the partial ban on
tobacco consumption in bars and restaurants for a total ban would have beneficial effects
on the health of all the workers in this sector", Esteve Fernández, one of the
authors of the study and a researcher at the ICO, tells SINC. The results confirm that 5%
of waiters have stopped smoking and that, among those who continue to smoke, the number of
cigarettes consumed has fallen by almost 9% (almost two cigarettes per day). In addition,
levels of cotinine – a nicotine metabolite used to measure active, and especially
passive, exposure to smoke – in the workers' saliva has fallen by 4.4%.
Scientists discover mechanism to
make existing antibiotics more effective at lower doses
A new study published in the September 11, 2009 issue of Science by researchers at the NYU
School of Medicine reveals a conceptually novel mechanism that plays an important role in
making human pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus anthracis resistant to
numerous antibiotics. The study led by Evgeny A. Nudler, PhD, The Julie Wilson Anderson
Professor of Biochemistry at NYU Langone Medical Center, provides evidence that Nitric
Oxide, or NO, is able to alleviate the oxidative stress in bacteria caused by many
antibiotics and also helps to neutralize many antibacterial compounds. Eliminating this
NO-mediated bacterial defense renders existing antibiotics more potent at lower, less
toxic, doses. With infectious diseases the major cause of death worldwide, the study paves
the way for new ways of combating bacteria that have become antibiotic resistant. NO is a
small molecule composed of one atom of oxygen and one of nitrogen. It was known as a toxic
gas and air pollutant until 1987, when it was first shown to play a physiological role in
mammals, for which a Nobel Prize was later awarded. NO has since been found to take part
in an extraordinary range of activities including learning and memory, blood pressure
regulation, penile erection, digestion and the fighting of infection and cancer. A few
years ago, the Nudler's group from NYU demonstrated that bacteria mobilize NO to defend
against the oxidative stress. The new study from the same group supports the radical idea
that many antibiotics cause the oxidative stress in bacteria, often resulting in their
death, whereas NO counters this effect. This work suggests scientists could use
commercially available inhibitors of NO-synthase, an enzyme producing NO in bacteria and
humans, to make antibiotic resistant bacteria like MRSA and ANTHRAX more sensitive to
available drugs during acute infection.
Replication at DNA damage sites
highlights Fanconi anemia and breast cancer proteins
While Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare and dangerous disease, new laboratory research at The
University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center shows it may lead researchers toward
clues in more common diseases, including highly hereditary types of breast cancer. In a
study published in the Sept. 11 issue of the journal Molecular Cell, scientists report
that recruitment of proteins to DNA damage sites is controlled by replication in both FA
and BRCA cancer proteins. Lei Li, Ph.D, professor in Experimental Radiation Oncology at M.
D. Anderson, and corresponding author of the study, has spent much of his 15-year career
studying how the body repairs DNA damage. He says DNA crosslinks are the most severe type
of DNA damage; they're actually turned against cancer in certain drugs, including
cisplatin.
Blood vessels contribute to their
own growth and oxygen delivery to tissues and tumors
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the
College of Arts & Sciences have identified a new biological process that spurs the
growth of new blood vessels. Vascular networks form and expand by “sprouting,”
similar to the way trees grow new branches. The process allows fresh oxygen and nutrients
to be delivered to tissues, whether in a developing embryo or a cancerous tumor. Up until
now, scientists thought that the molecular signals to form new sprouts came from outside
the vessel. But new research from UNC has shown that signals can also come from within the
blood vessel, pushing new blood vessel sprouts outward. The findings, published in the
Sept. 15 issue of the journal Developmental Cell, could give important insights into the
formation of the vasculature needed to feed new tumors. In experiments using mouse
embryonic stem cells and mouse retinas, the researchers found that defects in a protein
called Flt-1 lead to abnormal sprouts and poor vessel networks. Other research recently
showed that levels of Flt-1 protein are particularly low in the dilated and leaky blood
vessels that supply tumors with oxygen. “The blood vessels themselves seem to
participate in the process guiding the formation of the vascular network,” said
senior study author Victoria L. Bautch, Ph.D., professor of biology at UNC. “They do
not just passively sit there getting acted upon by signals coming from the outside in.
Rather, they produce internal cues that interact with external cues to grow.”
Study Shows Common Pain Cream Could
Protect Heart During Attack
New research from the University of Cincinnati shows that a common, over-the-counter pain
salve rubbed on the skin during a heart attack could serve as a cardiac-protectant,
preventing or reducing damage to the heart while interventions are administered. These
findings are published in the Sept. 14 edition of the journal Circulation. Keith Jones,
PhD, a researcher in the department of pharmacology and cell biophysics, and scientists in
his lab have found that applying capsaicin to specific skin locations in mice caused
sensory nerves in the skin to trigger signals in the nervous system. These signals
activate cellular “pro-survival” pathways in the heart which protect the muscle.
Capsaicin is the main component of chili peppers and produces a hot sensation. It is also
the active ingredient in several topical medications used for temporary pain relief.
Widespread Occurrence of Intersex
Bass Found in U.S. Rivers
Intersex in smallmouth and largemouth basses is widespread in numerous river basins
throughout the United States is the major finding of the most comprehensive and
large-scale evaluation of the condition, according to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
research published online in Aquatic Toxicology. Of the 16 fish species researchers
examined from 1995 to 2004, the condition was most common by far in smallmouth and
largemouth bass: a third of all male smallmouth bass and a fifth of all male largemouth
bass were intersex. This condition is primarily revealed in male fish that have immature
female egg cells in their testes, but occasionally female fish will have male
characteristics as well. Scientists found intersex fish in about a third of all sites
examined from the Apalachicola, Colorado, Columbia, Mobile, Mississippi, Pee Dee, Rio
Grande, Savannah, and Yukon River basins. The Yukon River basin was the only one where
researchers did not find at least one intersex fish. Although intersex occurrence differed
among species and basin, it was more prevalent in largemouth bass in southeastern U.S.,
where it occurred at all sites in the Apalachicola, Savannah, and Pee Dee river basins,
said Jo Ellen Hinck, the lead author of the paper and a biologist at the USGS Columbia
Environmental Research Center. The researchers also documented intersex in channel catfish
for the first time. “Although the USGS has already documented the severity of
intersex in individual basins such as the Potomac, this study reveals the prevalence of
intersex is more widespread than anyone anticipated, said Sue Haseltine, associate
director for biology at the U.S. Geological Survey. “This research sends the clear
message that we need to learn more about the hormonal and environmental factors that cause
this condition in fish, as well as the number of fish afflicted with this condition.”
The study, said Hinck, presents the observed occurrence of intersex in a variety of
freshwater fish species, but not potential causes. “This study adds a lot to our
knowledge of this phenomena, but we still don’t know why certain species seem more
prone to this condition or exactly what is causing it. In fact, the causes for intersex
may vary by location, and we suspect it will be unlikely that a single human activity or
kind of contaminant will explain intersex in all species or regions,” she said.
Mercury Fillings Battle Heats Up in
D.C.
New Study On Secondhand Smoke
Amazes Doctors
There is no safe level of secondhand smoke
or air pollution, KITV4's Dick Allgire explains.
Former NASA Admin Recalls Mars
Pathfinder Mission
Former NASA administrator Daniel Goldin
says solving the dilemma of landing on Mars with the Pathfinder was as simple as defining
the problem, and then forgetting old techniques. Daniel Goldin was the longest-serving
Administrator in NASA's history, presiding over the agency from 1992-2001. He currently
serves as Chairman and CEO of the Intellisis Companies which focus on high-tech consulting
and the development of biologically inspired technologies, including the next generation
of computers and robots. Goldin is credited with transforming NASA into a fiscally
responsible and scientifically innovative agency. Among other accomplishments, he
initiated the Origins Program to study how our solar system formed, how life on Earth
began and to explore whether it exists elsewhere in the universe. He was also a vigorous
proponent for increased exploration to determine if water and life may have ever existed
elsewhere in our own solar system.
Trouble The Water - Official
Trailer
Nominated documentary about the Hurricane
Katrina disaster. To find out more and to get involved, visit
http://www.troublethewaterfilm.com/
Lifestyle linked to breast cancer
risk
Experts have found the strongest evidence
yet that a woman's lifestyle is linked to her risk of developing breast cancer..
How to deal with difficult people
Difficult people can be bad for your health
if you let them stress you out. Mary Bolster, editor of Natural Health Magazine, has some
excellent reminders to help you deal with the difficult people in your life.
Health: The flu and the fall
Using London as the laboratory, HEALTH
examines the new flu, checking up on its potency and on treatments to fight it
Neon Cancer Detector
A San Diego researcher has developed a way
to tag cancer cells for early detection in the blood stream. Professor Michael Sailor
hopes to dramatically change how cancer is treated. He is on a quest to create
nanoparticles that travel the bloodstream, latch onto cancers in their earliest stages and
destroy them. Sailor's project is staging the war on cancer at the nano-level. The armed
forces he is amassing are a thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair
Ice cream may target the brain
before your hips
Blame your brain for sabotaging your efforts to get back on track after splurging on an
extra scoop of ice cream or that second burger during Friday night’s football game.
Findings from a new UT Southwestern Medical Center study suggest that fat from certain
foods we eat makes its way to the brain. Once there, the fat molecules cause the brain to
send messages to the body’s cells, warning them to ignore the appetite-suppressing
signals from leptin and insulin, hormones involved in weight regulation. The researchers
also found that one particular type of fat — palmitic acid — is particularly
effective at instigating this mechanism. “Normally, our body is primed to say when
we’ve had enough, but that doesn’t always happen when we’re eating
something good,” said Dr. Deborah Clegg, assistant professor of internal medicine
atUT Southwestern and senior author of the rodent study appearing in the September issue
of The Journal of Clinical Investigation. “What we’ve shown in this study is
that someone’s entire brain chemistry can change in a very short period of time. Our
findings suggest that when you eat something high in fat, your brain gets ‘hit’
with the fatty acids, and you become resistant to insulin and leptin,” Dr. Clegg
said. “Since you’re not being told by the brain to stop eating, you
overeat.” Dr. Clegg said that in the animals, the effect lasts about three days,
potentially explaining why many people who splurge on Friday or Saturday say they’re
hungrier than normal on Monday.
H1N1 Influenza Responsum –
Thoughts on a “Pandemic”
By Claus Hancke, M.D.
Regarding the threatening or present H1N1
influenza pandemic, I must call for sober-mindedness.
It is a pandemic – which only means
that the disease is highly contagious, and that it is spread throughout the World. It does
not mean that everyone will die from it. The word "pandemic" says NOTHING
about how dangerous the disease is. The H1N1 influenza has calmly spread during the past
six months, and globally it has not even closely reached the casualty numbers seen with an
ordinary, seasonal flu. Thus we are dealing with a flu of reasonable progress and of
relatively low mortality. On average, we are speaking of three days of moderate fever. The
low mortality is probably due to the illness hitting young and middle-aged people. Elderly
people are struck to a much milder degree, as they are likely to have developed some
immunity from the last time they either had or were exposed to this flu in the pandemic of
the late 1950s.
To restrain this influenza, the World's
nations have ordered huge quantities of vaccine, and it is claimed that for logistical
reasons it has been necessary to preserve this vaccine with Thimerosal, which is 58%
mercury. Mercury is the most potent neurotoxin known (among non-radioactive substances)
and it stays in the body for 20-30 years. Therefore, humans and animals easily accumulate
neurotoxic amounts of this harmful substance. The mercury content of the vaccine totally
changes the indication, since this major side effect now has to be taken into
consideration. One should never give a treatment that is worse than the illness.
Preventive measures should be taken but only when the side effects are more than
counterbalanced by the preventive benefits. As a doctor, I have to look at vaccination as
disease prevention for individuals, not as absence prevention within a “societal
production machine.” I therefore cannot give an opinion on the socioeconomic
consequences of avoidance of vaccination, or what is known as “herd immunity.”
A theoretical danger with H1N1 is that the virus mutates or combines with H3N2 or
H5N1. But if this happens we are dealing with a new virus, and the existing vaccine would
probably have no effect.
The really serious danger about this soap
opera is that the World's populations have been frightened and intimidated beyond any
reasonable measure. This campaign of fear is actually life threatening when used on a
relatively mild disease because it makes the World's population become deaf to a pandemic
of a lethal virus when it arrives. The World Health Organization has gambled with World
health by untimely shouting "wolf."
Lyngby, Denmark, September 1, 2009, Claus
Hancke, M.D.
Alex Jones - Obama Set to Give Fed
Total Control & What's in Your Panvax?
A listener from down-under sent us a PDF attachment from the vaccine manufacturer CSL
Group detailing information on Panvax inoculation procedures for healthcare workers. CSL
is one of the main producers of Panvax in the southern hemisphere.
Here
is the link to the PDF posted on their website. After a quick scan of the
Powerpoint presentation, I prepared a list of the more interesting slides.
Slide 3: Refers to targeted groups as herds.
Slides 4 & 5: Lists of priority tiers
Slide 16: What is Panvax? (Note image from presentation below)
Slides 18 to 24: Lists ingredients including thiomersal.
Slide 19: Admits that is causes toxic effects.
Slide 25: Previously — The vaccination course consists of 2 doses of 15ug of antigen
at least 21 days apart. This now no longer applies. The vaccination course consists of 1
dose of 15ug of antigen for those aged 9 years of age and older.
Slide 26: Children aged 6 months to (9 years of age require 2 doses with a minimal
interval of 21 days).
Slide 28: Recommends that children under 10 wait for the thiomersal free vaccine, however
Slide 20 says There is no evidence that thiomersal has caused any developmental or
neurological abnormalities, such as ADHD or Autism.
Slide 47: Shows picture of heavily armed police and ties them to vaccine protection.
Slides 57 to 61: Section titles Who should not get the vaccine?
Slides 66 & 67: List Guillian-Barre Syndrome (GBS) as vaccine side effect.
Slides 76 & 77: Talks about consent. There is plenty of food for thought about the
vaccines, according to Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, (see his Dont Vaccinae! Before You
EducateDont Vaccinate Before You Educate)
From the CSL website:
The CSL Group has a combined heritage of
outstanding contribution to medicine and human health with more than 90 years experience
in the development and manufacture of vaccines and plasma protein biotherapies. With major
facilities in Australia, Germany, Switzerland and the US, CSL has over 10,000 employees
working in 27 countries. http://prisonplanet.tv/
Exotic timber plantations found to
use more than twice the water of native forests
Ecologists have discovered that timber plantations in Hawaii use more than twice the
amount of water to grow as native forests use. Especially for island ecosystems, these
findings suggest that land management decisions can place ecosystems – and the people
who depend on them – at high risk for water shortages. "Scientists used to think
that forests in same environments use water in the same way," says Lawren Sack of The
University of California at Los Angeles, who coauthored the study with graduate student
Aurora Kagawa in the September issue of the ESA journal Ecological Applications. "Our
work shows that this is not the case. We need to know the water budget of our landscape,
from gardens to forests to parks, because water is expensive." Although forests like
these Hawaiian timber plantations can be valuable for their contributions to human
society, such as fiber, fuel and carbon sequestration, they are dominated by non-native
vegetation.
University of Toronto study shows
climate change will lead to less ultraviolet radiation over northern high latitudes
Physicists at the University of Toronto have discovered that changes in the Earth’s
ozone layer due to climate change will reduce the amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation in
northern high latitude regions such as Siberia, Scandinavia and northern Canada. Other
regions of the Earth, such as the tropics and Antarctica, will instead face increasing
levels of UV radiation. “Climate change is an established fact, but scientists are
only just beginning to understand its regional manifestations,” says Michaela
Hegglin, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physics, and the lead author of the
study published in Nature Geoscience on September 6. Using a sophisticated computer model,
Hegglin and U of T physicist Theodore Shepherd determined that 21st-century climate change
will alter atmospheric circulation, increasing the flux of ozone from the upper to the
lower atmosphere and shifting the distribution of ozone within the upper atmosphere. The
result will be a change in the amount of UV radiation reaching the Earth’s surface
which varies dramatically between regions: e.g. up to a 20 per cent increase in UV
radiation over southern high latitudes during spring and summer, and a nine per cent
decrease in UV radiation over northern high latitudes, by the end of the century.While the
effects of increased UV have been widely studied because of the problem of ozone
depletion, decreased UV could have adverse effects too, e.g. on vitamin D production for
people in regions with limited sunlight such as the northern high latitudes.
New Insights Into Cardiac Aging
Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have found that the
conserved protein d4eBP modulates cardiac aging in Drosophila (fruit flies). The team also
found that d4eBP, which binds to the protein dEif4e, protects heart function against
aging. This research enhances our understanding of the TOR and FoxO signaling pathways and
provides a more specific target for further research into cardiac aging. Since the TOR and
FoxO genes are conserved between Drosophila and humans, this work may lead to new,
tissue-specific methods to protect the heart. The paper was published in the journal Aging
Cell. Much research has shown that altering the expression of specific genes can extend
the lifespan of various organisms. Overexpression of dFoxO and reduced expression of dTOR
both work to extend Drosophila lifespan. However, researchers needed to investigate the
mechanisms behind these pathways, as well as how these signaling pathways influence aging
in specific tissues, in this case the heart. “The relationships between these genes
are very complex,” said Rolf Bodmer, Ph.D., who directs Burnham’s Development
and Aging Program. “We wanted to analyze how two opposing genes function and control
their downstream effectors, and we wanted to understand how these aging factors apply to a
specific organ.” The Bodmer laboratory, in collaboration with the laboratory of Sean
Oldham, Ph.D., an expert in TOR signaling, altered the expression levels of dTOR pathway
components in heart tissue and tested the hearts’ stress response. Increased dTOR
activation resulted in higher failure rates, while reductions in dTOR activity promoted
more youthful hearts. Noting that upregulated dFoxO and downregulated dTOR lead to similar
consequences, the laboratory looked for downstream factors that were influenced by both
pathways. One possibility was d4eBP, which reduces messenger RNA translation by binding to
dEif4e. The team found that increased d4eBP levels produced the same healthier hearts as
decreased dTOR activity, while increased dEif4e levels resulted in higher failure rates.
CU-Boulder team identifies DNA
"barcodes to help track illegal trading of wildlife products
Researchers from several institutions including the University of Colorado at Boulder have
sequenced DNA "barcodes" for as many as 25 hunted wildlife species, providing
information that can be used to better monitor the elusive trade of wildlife products, or
bushmeat. Identifying such DNA barcodes can help wildlife officials crack down on illegal
bushmeat trafficking since many animal species are in sharp decline from illegal trade
estimated to be worth $5 billion to $8 billion annually, said Andrew Martin, CU-Boulder
associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and a study co-author. Barcodes
also can help monitor legal harvest of tropical animals as researchers often use the
composition of species in markets as an indication of the health of the wildlife community
in forests. "It's a really amazing study in which science brings together cultures
and people living on separate continents faced with very different challenges," said
Martin. "Barcoding is an essential tool for the identification of natural products
and is becoming the technique of choice for monitoring wildlife trade. The ultimate goal
is to have barcodes for every animal on the planet." The DNA barcodes generated from
the study have been added to an online, open-access repository called the Barcode of Life
Data Systems and to the National Center for Biotechnology Information's GenBank library. A
paper of the findings was published in the September online edition of Conservation
Genetics. The DNA barcode system is valuable for its precision at the level of species,
according to researchers. Without it, processed and prepared meats, hides and other goods
are often unidentifiable once they reach the marketplace. Enforcing wildlife laws such as
those imposed by the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species or the
U.S. Endangered Species Act will still be very difficult, or inefficient at best, said
Martin. Suspected contraband must be confiscated and sent to a laboratory for gene
sequencing, which typically requires days for results.
Daily Bathroom Showers May Deliver
Face Full of Pathogens, Says CU-Boulder Study
While daily bathroom showers provide invigorating relief and a good cleansing for millions
of Americans, they also can deliver a face full of potentially pathogenic bacteria,
according to a surprising new University of Colorado at Boulder study. The researchers
used high-tech instruments and lab methods to analyze roughly 50 showerheads from nine
cities in seven states that included New York City, Chicago and Denver. They concluded
about 30 percent of the devices harbored significant levels of Mycobacterium avium, a
pathogen linked to pulmonary disease that most often infects people with compromised
immune systems but which can occasionally infect healthy people, said CU-Boulder
Distinguished Professor Norman Pace, lead study author. It's not surprising to find
pathogens in municipal waters, said Pace. But the CU-Boulder researchers found that some
M. avium and related pathogens were clumped together in slimy "biofilms" that
clung to the inside of showerheads at more than 100 times the "background"
levels of municipal water. "If you are getting a face full of water when you first
turn your shower on, that means you are probably getting a particularly high load of
Mycobacterium avium, which may not be too healthy," he said. The study appeared in
the Sept. 14 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Co-authors of the study included CU-Boulder researchers Leah Feazel, Laura Baumgartner,
Kristen Peterson and Daniel Frank and University Colorado Denver pediatrics department
Associate Professor Kirk Harris. The study is part of a larger effort by Pace and his
colleagues to assess the microbiology of indoor environments and was supported by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Weeding out marijuana - Researchers
close in on engineering recognizable, drug-free Cannabis plant
In a first step toward engineering a drug-free Cannabis plant for hemp fiber and oil,
University of Minnesota researchers have identified genes producing tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC), the psychoactive substance in marijuana. Studying the genes could also lead to new
and better drugs for pain, nausea and other conditions. The finding is published in the
September issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany. Lead author is David Marks, a
professor of plant biology in the College of Biological Sciences. The study revealed that
the genes are active in tiny hairs covering the flowers of Cannabis plants. In marijuana,
the hairs accumulate high amounts of THC, whereas in hemp the hairs have little. Hemp and
marijuana are difficult to distinguish apart from differences in THC. With the genes
identified, finding a way to silence them—and thus produce a drug-free plant —
comes a step closer to reality. Another desirable step is to make drug-free plants
visually recognizable. Since the hairs can be seen with a magnifying glass, this could be
accomplished by engineering a hairless Cannabis plant. The researchers are currently using
the methods of the latest study to identify genes that lead to hair growth in hopes of
silencing them.
Genes may explain why children who
live without dads have earlier sex
Previous research has found that children raised in homes without a biological father have
sex earlier than children raised in traditional nuclear families. Now a new study that
used a novel and complex design to investigate why this is so challenges a popular
explanation of the reasons. Among prior explanations of why children who live in homes
without fathers have sex earlier are that early childhood stress accelerates children's
physical development, that children who see their parents dating may start dating earlier,
and that it's harder for a single parent to monitor and supervise children's activities
and peers. All of these are environmental explanations. "Our study found that the
association between fathers' absence and children's sexuality is best explained by genetic
influences, rather than by environmental theories alone," according to Jane Mendle,
assistant professor of psychology at the University of Oregon, who led the study.
Conducted by researchers at the University of Oregon, the University of Virginia, the
University of Chicago, the University of Indiana, Columbia University, and the University
of Oklahoma, the study appears in the September/October 2009 issue of the journal Child
Development. Mendle and her colleagues looked at more than 1,000 cousins ages 14 and older
from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The study design tested for genetic
influences as well as factors such as poverty, educational opportunities, and religion. It
compared children who were related in different ways to each other, and who differed in
whether they'd lived with their fathers. The more genes the children shared, the more
similar their ages of first intercourse—regardless of whether or not the children
personally had an absent father. This finding, the researchers say, suggests that
environmental theories don't fully explain the puzzle. Instead, genetic influence can help
us understand the tie between fathers' absence and early sex.
Background TV found to have
negative effect on parent-child interactions
More than a third of American infants and toddlers live in homes where the television is
on most or all the time, even if no one's watching. A new study looks for the first time
at the effect of background TV on interactions between parents and young children—and
finds that the effect is negative. The study, in the September/October 2009 issue of the
journal Child Development, was done by researchers at the University of Massachusetts. The
researchers studied about 50 1-, 2-, and 3-year-olds, each of whom was with one parent, at
a university child study center. Half of the one-hour session, parents and children were
in a playroom without TV; in the other half-hour, parents chose an adult-directed program
to watch (such as Jeopardy!). The researchers observed how often parents and children
talked with each other, how actively involved the parents were in their children's play,
and whether parents and children responded to each other's questions and suggestions. When
the TV was on, the researchers found, both the quantity and the quality of interactions
between parents and children dropped. Specifically, parents spent about 20 percent less
time talking to their children and the quality of the interactions declined, with parents
less active, attentive, and responsive to their youngsters.
Supplementing babies' formula with
DHA boosts cognitive development
Research has shown that children who were breast fed as infants have superior cognitive
skills compared to those fed infant formula, and it's thought that this is due to an
essential fatty acid in breast milk called docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Now a new study has
found that babies fed formula supplemented with DHA have higher cognitive skills than
babies fed regular formula. The study, which used a more sensitive test of the babies'
cognitive abilities and higher concentrations of DHA than previous research, was carried
out by researchers at the Retina Foundation of the Southwest and the University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center. It appears in the September/October 2009 issue of the journal
Child Development. The researchers studied 229 infants, who received either formula
supplemented with DHA or traditional infant formula. The babies were given the different
formulas either shortly after birth, after 6 weeks of breastfeeding, or after 4 to 6
months of breastfeeding. When they were 9 months old, they were given a problem-solving
test in which they had to complete a sequence of steps to get a rattle. Babies who were
fed formula supplemented with DHA were more likely to get the rattle and showed more
intentional behaviors that allowed them to get the rattle. "Currently, there is no
clear consensus on whether infant formula should be supplemented with DHA," notes
lead author James R. Drover, a former postdoctoral fellow at the Retina Foundation of the
Southwest who is now assistant professor of psychology at Memorial University in
Canada."However, our results clearly suggest that feeding infants formula
supplemented with high concentrations of DHA provides beneficial effects on cognitive
development. Furthermore, because infants who display superior performance on the
means-end problem-solving task tend to have superior IQ and vocabulary later in childhood,
it's possible that the beneficial effects of DHA extend well beyond infancy."
In study of low-income toddlers,
spanking found to have negative effects
A new longitudinal study that looks at how low-income parents discipline their young
children has found that spanking 1-year-olds leads to more aggressive behaviors and less
sophisticated cognitive development in the next two years. Verbal punishment is not
associated with such effects, especially when it is accompanied by emotional support from
moms. In addition, 1-year-olds' fussiness predicted spanking and verbal punishment at ages
1, 2, and 3. The study, which explored whether mothers' behaviors lead to problematic
behavior in children, whether children's challenging behaviors elicit harsher discipline,
or both, appears in the September/October 2009 issue of the journal Child Development. It
was conducted by researchers at Duke University, the University of Missouri-Columbia, the
University of South Carolina, Columbia University, Harvard University, and the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Beliefs on spanking vary across cultures. In this study,
the researchers looked at more than 2,500 exclusively low-income White, African American,
and Mexican-American mothers and their young children, interviewing and observing them at
home when the children were 1, 2, and 3 years old. All participants' family incomes were
at or below the federal poverty level. Using their own interpretations of spanking,
mothers reported how often anyone in the home had spanked their children in the past week.
Researchers also made in-home observations of how often mothers verbally punished
(scolded, yelled, or made negative comments) their children during the visits. The study
found that African American children were spanked and verbally punished significantly more
than the other children in the study. The authors speculated that this may be due to
cultural factors, such as belief in the importance of children's respect for elders and in
the value of physical discipline to instill that respect. Moreover, some African American
mothers say that in preparing their children for a harsh, physically dangerous, and
racially discriminating world, there is little room for error in their childrearing.
Treating bone loss in breast cancer
survivors
A key statistic that consumer groups and the media often use when compiling hospital
report cards and national rankings can be misleading, researchers report in a new study.
The statistic is called the mortality index. A number above 1.0 indicates a hospital had
more deaths than expected within a given specialty. Lower than 1.0 means there were fewer
than the expected number of deaths. The study by Loyola University Health System
researchers in the Journal of Neurosurgery illustrates how the mortality index can be
misleading in at least two major specialties -- neurology and neurosurgery. The index
fails to take into account such factors as whether a hospital treats complex cases
transferred from other hospitals or whether a hospital treats lower-risk elective cases or
higher-risk non-elective cases. "A hospital with a lower mortality index may not be a
better hospital for patient care, but rather a place where the patient mix has been
refined or limited," said senior author Dr. Thomas Origitano, chairman of the
Department of Neurological Surgery, Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine. There is
no "definitive or reliable source for rating the quality of overall neurosurgical
care," Origitano and colleagues wrote in the Journal of Neurosurgery, published by
the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Researchers examined neurosurgical
mortality data from 103 academic medical centers in the University HealthSystem
Consortium. Hospitals with the worst mortality index tended to be Level 1 trauma centers
with busy emergency rooms and a high percentage of Medicaid patients. A Level 1 trauma
center with a busy ER is more likely to treat severe and complex cases such as head and
spinal injuries from car accidents, injuries from falls or gunshot wounds. And the reason
a high percentage of Medicaid patients is associated with a high mortality index is likely
because Medicaid patients are more likely to have "poor access to medical care, are
poorly educated in health and hygiene, are uninsured and present only once their symptoms
have become severe," researchers wrote.
Sibel Edmonds Deposition
Just over two weeks ago, FBI
translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds was finally allowed to speak about much of
what the Bush Administration spent years trying to keep her from discussing publicly on
the record. Twice gagged by the Bush Dept. of Justice's invocation of the so-called
"State Secrets Privilege," Edmonds has been attempting to tell her story, about
the crimes she became aware of while working for the FBI, for years. Thanks to a subpoena
issued by the campaign of Ohio's 2nd District Democratic U.S. Congressional candidate
David Krikorian, her remarkable allegations of blackmail, bribery, espionage,
infiltration, and criminal conspiracy by current and former members of the U.S. Congress,
high-ranking State and Defense Department officials, and agents of the government of
Turkey are seen and heard here, in full, for the first time, in her under-oath deposition.
The world biggest
garbage dump is a floating one and has twice the size of the USA.
Pentagon profiling reporters
Tricks for Identifying EMF
Disturbances
The role of genetic factors in
adult ADHD
Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, is one of the most common neuropsychiatric
disorders of childhood. Worldwide, 3??% of children are affected with the disorder. Key
symptoms of ADHD include age-inappropriate hyperactive and impulsive behaviour and/or a
reduced ability to focus attention. Clinically, three different ADHD subtypes are
classified, a primarily inattentive subtype, a primarily hyperactive/impulsive subtype,
and a combined subtype in which patients show deficits in both domains. At the level of
the brain, small aberrations in both structure and activity of specific brain regions, as
well as the connectivity between brain regions have been observed in children and adults
with ADHD (Valera et al., 2007; Schneider et al., 2006; Makris et al., 2008; Pavuluri et
al., 2009; Broyd et al., 2009). Although ADHD has classically been viewed as a disorder of
children, more than half of the patients carry symptoms, or even the full ADHD-diagnosis,
into adulthood (Faraone et al., 2006). The prevalence of ADHD in adults lies between 1%
and 4% (Kessler et al., 2006; Polanczyk et al., 2007; Kooij et al., 2005). Adult patients
have difficulties in the social, educational and professional fields, such as developing
or maintaining stable social relationships, completing educational programmes and holding
down jobs. Untreated adults with ADHD often have chaotic life-styles: They may feel that
it is impossible to get organised, or remember and keep appointments. Unfortunately, many
adults who have the disorder are not aware of this. As symptoms in adults tend to be more
varied than symptoms seen in children, health care professionals need to consider a wider
range of symptoms when assessing adults for ADHD. An expert calls "ADHD […] one
of the costliest medical conditions in the US", the average loss of income for ADHD
adults being $10,000 to $40,000 a year (see also Kessler et al., 2005; Kessler et al.,
2006). In addition, patients are at increased risk of comorbidity, including
aggression-related disorders and addiction. More than 60% of the adult patients have at
least one additional psychiatric diagnosis. Substance abuse disorders are seen in 10??% of
the patients.
The role of genetic factors in
adult ADHD
Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is not merely a child-psychiatric disorder
that persists into young adulthood, but an important and unique manifestation of
psychopathology across the lifespan (Kooij et al., 2005). The majority of patients
affected by ADHD in childhood carry ADHD symptoms, or even the full ADHD-diagnosis, into
adulthood. Since adult ADHD is associated with social and professionalproblems and,
consequently, considerable costs, efforts are needed to increase the detection and
treatment of adult ADHD. The recent expansion of knowledge in genetics, brain imaging, and
behavioural research isleading to a better understanding of the causes of ADHD, and paving
the way for strategies for the development of more effective treatments for all age groups
affected by this disorder andthe prevention of the progression of disease into adulthood.
Major breakthroughs are expected from the currently ongoing International Multicenter
persistent ADHD CollaboraTion (IMpACT), which is investigating the largest clinical
ADHDsample worldwide. The identification of genetic risk factors for ADHD will help to
identify targets for new and improved treatments for ADHD, and contribute to early disease
prevention.
Are the monoamines involved in
shaping conduct disorders?
Apart from psychosocial influences, biological factors have a major influence on
personality traits and behaviour. The aggregation of certain risk factors in the same
individual has been shown to contribute to the development of antisocial behaviour.
Research findings suggest that both the molecular and the psychosocial mechanisms
underlying emotional response and antisocial behaviour may differ between males and
females. Based on gene-environment interactions, the brain monoamine systems play a
crucial role in shaping personality traits and conduct disorder. The MAO genes appear to
be the first genes strongly linked with either antisocial behaviour or conduct disorder.
Individuals with one set of MAO gene variants seem to be virtually independent of
environment for the risk of e.g. antisocial behaviour, and in this way could explain
resilience towards an unfavourable environment. In contrast, those with another set of MAO
gene variants are highly dependent on psychosocial environment and have considerable
vulnerability for antisocial behaviour.
Texas A&M researcher shows
possible link between 1918 El Niño and flu pandemic
Research conducted at Texas A&M University casts doubts on the notion that El Niño
has been getting stronger because of global warming and raises interesting questions about
the relationship between El Niño and a severe flu pandemic 91 years ago. The findings are
based on analysis of the 1918 El Niño, which the new research shows to be one of the
strongest of the 20th century. El Niño occurs when unusually warm surface waters form
over vast stretches of the eastern Pacific Ocean and can affect weather systems worldwide.
Using advanced computer models, Benjamin Giese, a professor of oceanography who
specializes in ocean modeling, and his co-authors conducted a simulation of the global
oceans for the first half of the 20th century and they find that, in contrast with prior
descriptions, the 1918-19 El Niño was one of the strongest of the century. Giese's work
will be published in the current "Bulletin of the American Meteorological
Society," and the research project was funded by NOAA (National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration) and the National Science Foundation. Giese says there were few
measurements of the tropical Pacific Ocean in 1918, the last year of World War I, and the
few observations that are available from 1918 are mostly along the coast of South America.
"But the model results show that the El Niño of 1918 was stronger in the central
Pacific, with a weaker signature near the coast," Giese explains. "Thus the
limited measurements likely missed detecting the 1918 El Niño." Giese adds,
"The most commonly used indicator of El Niño is the ocean temperature anomaly in the
central Pacific Ocean. By that standard, the 1918-19 El Niño is as strong as the events
in 1982-83 and 1997-98, considered to be two of the strongest events on record, causing
some researchers to conclude that El Niño has been getting stronger because of global
warming. Since the 1918-19 El Niño occurred before significant warming from greenhouse
gasses, it makes it difficult to argue that El Niño s have been getting stronger."
The El Niño of 1918 coincided with one of the worst droughts in India, he adds. "It
is well known that there is a connection between El Niño and the failure of the Indian
monsoon, just as there is a well-established connection between El Niño and Atlantic
hurricane intensity," Giese says. In addition to drought in India and Australia, 1918
was also a year in which there were few Atlantic hurricanes.
Immune reaction at tumour site
determines clinical outcome in patients with colorectal cancer
The immune reaction at tumour site determines cancer evolution and clinical outcome in
patients with colorectal cancer, regardless of the local extent and spread of the tumour,
according to the findings of Jérôme Galon, INSERM Research Director, Paris, and
co-workers. The analysis of immunological parameters should therefore be integrated into
the process of staging and clinical decision finding, says Galon at the 2nd European
Congress of Immunology ECI 2009. Colorectal cancer is one of the most common malignancies,
with an estimated annual incidence of one million cases worldwide. The prognosis is
severe, with a 5-year-survival of 55 %. Surgical resection is effective for localized
disease. An additional post-surgical course of chemotherapy is reserved for patients with
lymph node or distant metastases. But also a significant proportion of patients with local
disease (Stage I/II patients) develops recurrence and dies from the disease. “There
is clearly a need to identify novel predictive factors to identify patients with the
potential for colon cancer progression”, Galon stresses. Actually, assessing patient
survival and choosing the optimal therapy are based on the currently used classification.
Staging includes tumour size, local spread and distant metastases. Galon und co-workers
showed that a detailed analysis of local immune reaction would be a better predictor,
especially in identifying high risk patients with minimal invasive tumours.
Doctor says FLU VACCINE will cause
60,000 deaths in France alone
"A vaccine is being developed in
conditions of amateurism such as I have never seen. Lets take the pessimistic hypothesis:
one death among every 1000 patients. There are plans to vaccinate 60 million people, and
you so you already have 60,000 deaths, and this time, young people, children, pregnant
women.
„What you are saying is serious
because many people are getting ready to get the vaccine and you, you are saying:
„You must not get a vaccination!
„YES, it is a vaccine that has been developed at great speed in conditions that put
in danger the public health. There is a need to return back to the obligation that
politicians have right now to protect citizens against the desire of the pharmaceutical
industry to make money with all these vaccines. There is a public health code of law from
2007 which obliges all health professionals who give their opinions to reveal their
interests. That law is ridiculed every day. All the people who you see saying: „the
flu, its very serious, have interests, their lines interests, and that is why they say
what they say. The public health administration is an example to us of a daily violation
of the law. I am a medical specialist and I am against medicines that have no purpose.
This vaccine is not just badly developped: it is not developped!
Dr Marc Girard, a specialist in the side
effects of drugs and a medical expert commissioned by French courts, has said said on
French TV that the "swine flu" vaccine could cause 60,000 deaths in France,
especially among young people, children and pregnant women. He also said that the people
promoting the "swine flu" vaccine are doing so because they have links with the
pharmaceutical company. The problem with the "swine flu" vaccine is that it is
not just "badly developped" but "not developped", he said, adding that
it is being prepared in conditions that endanger the public health.
