Soft drinks tied to increased aggression in kids

Washington, Aug 16 - Heavy soft drink consumption is associated with aggression, attention problems and withdrawal behavior in young children, a new study has found. The study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, University of Vermont, and Harvard School of Public Health assessed approximately 3,000 5-year-old children. The kids were enrolled in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a prospective birth cohort that follows mother-child pairs from 20 large US cities. Mothers reported their child's soft drink consumption and completed the Child Behavior Checklist based on their child's behavior during the previous two months. The researchers found that 43 per cent of the children consumed at least 1 serving of soft drinks per day, and 4 per cent consumed 4 or more. Aggression, withdrawal, and attention problems were associated with soda consumption. Even after adjusting for sociodemographic factors, maternal depression, intimate partner violence, and paternal incarceration, any soft drink consumption was linked to increased aggressive behavior. Children who drank 4 or more soft drinks per day were more than twice as likely to destroy things belonging to others, get into fights, and physically attack people. They also had increased attention problems and withdrawal behavior compared with those who did not consume soft drinks. ÒWe found that the child's aggressive behavior score increased with every increase in soft drinks servings per day,Ó said Shakira Suglia, Mailman School assistant professor of Epidemiology. Although this study cannot identify the exact nature of the association between soft drink consumption and problem behaviors, limiting or eliminating a child's soft drink consumption may reduce behavioral problems, researchers said. The study was published in The Journal of Pediatrics.

New biomarker can spot Alzheimer's years before onset

London, Aug 15 - Scientists have identified a novel potential biomarker, present in cerebral spinal fluid (CSF), that can help detect Alzheimer's disease at least a decade before symptoms appear. This may be the earliest known biomarker associated with the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. ÒIf our initial findings can be replicated by other laboratories, the results will change the way we currently think about the causes of Alzheimer's disease,Ó said Dr Ramon Trullas, research professor at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona and lead author of the study. ÒThis discovery may enable us to search for more effective treatments that can be administered during the preclinical stage,Ó Trullas said. The relationship of currently known biomarkers with the cause of the disease is unclear, making it nearly impossible to diagnose preclinical stages of the disease with any real certainty. The CSIC researchers demonstrated that a decrease in the content of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in CSF may be a preclinical indicator for Alzheimer's disease; furthermore, there may be a directly causative relationship. The hypothesis is that decreased mtDNA levels in CSF reflect the diminished ability of mitochondria to power the brain's neurons, triggering their death. The decrease in the concentration of mtDNA precedes the appearance of well-known biochemical Alzheimer's biomarkers (the A beta 1-42, t-tau, and p-tau proteins), suggesting that the pathophysiological process of Alzheimer's disease starts earlier than previously thought and that mtDNA depletion may be one of the earliest predictors for the disease. Trullas hopes that other laboratories and hospitals will successfully replicate his group's research results, confirming that reduced mtDNA levels should be investigated as a possible cause of Alzheimer's disease. By finding a way to block this degeneration, clinicians may be able to diagnose and treat Alzheimer's disease before symptoms appear. The study was published in journal Annals of Neurology.

White Blood Cells Found in Controlling Red Blood Cell Levels

BRONX, N.Y., March 18, 2013- Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that macrophages – white blood cells that play a key role in the immune response – also help to both produce and eliminate the body's red blood cells (RBCs). The findings could lead to novel therapies for diseases or conditions in which the red blood cell production is thrown out of balance. The study, conducted in mice, is published today in the online edition of the journal Nature Medicine. "Our findings offer intriguing new insights into how the body maintains a healthy balance of red blood cells," said study leader Paul Frenette, M.D., professor of medicine and of cell biology and director of the Ruth L. and David S. Gottesman Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Research at Einstein. "We've shown that macrophages in the bone marrow and the spleen nurture the production of new red blood cells at the same time that they clear aging red blood cells from the circulation. This understanding may ultimately help us to devise new therapies for conditions that lead to abnormal RBC counts, such as hemolytic anemia, polycythemia vera, and acute blood loss, plus aid recovery from chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation." Einstein has filed a joint patent application with Mount Sinai related to this research, which is currently available for licensing and further commercialization. Previous studies, all done in the laboratory, had suggested that macrophages in the bone marrow act as nurse cells for erythroblasts, which are RBC precursors. But just how these "erythroblastic islands" (macrophages surrounded by erythroblasts) function in living animals was unclear. A few years ago, Andrew Chow, a Mount Sinai M.D./Ph.D. student in the laboratories of Drs. Frenette, and Miriam Merad, M.D., Ph.D., professor of oncological sciences and immunology at Mount Sinai found that bone marrow macrophages express a cell surface molecule called sialoadhesin, or CD169 – a target that could be used for selectively eliminating macrophages from bone marrow. Doing so would help pinpoint the role of macrophages in erythroblastic islands in vivo. That's what Drs. Frenette and Merad did in the current study involving mice. They found that selectively eliminating CD169-positive macrophages in mice reduces the number of bone marrow erythroblasts – evidence that these macrophages are indeed vital for the survival of erythroblasts, which develop into RBCs. "What was surprising is that we couldn't see any significant anemia afterward," said Dr. Frenette. The researchers then analyzed the lifespan of the red blood cells and found that they were circulating for a longer time than usual. "After we depleted the macrophages in the bone marrow, we discovered that we had also depleted CD169-positive macrophages present in the spleen and liver. It turns out that the macrophages in these two organs are quite important in removing old red blood cells from the peripheral circulation. Taken together, the findings show that these macrophages have a dual role, both producing and clearing red blood cells," he said. The researchers also examined the role of macrophages in polycythemia vera, a genetic disease in which the bone marrow produces too many RBCs, typically leading to breathing difficulties, dizziness, excessive blood clotting and other symptoms. Using a mouse model of polycythemia vera, they found that depleting CD169-positive macrophages in bone marrow normalizes the RBC count. "This points to a new way to control polycythemia vera," said Dr. Frenette. "Right now, the standard of care is phlebotomy [periodic blood removal], which is cumbersome." The title of the paper is "CD169+ macrophages provide a niche promoting erythropoiesis under homeostasis and stress." The first author of the paper is Dr. Andrew Chow. Other co-authors of the study include Matthew Huggins, Daniel Lucas, Ph.D., Jalal Ahmed, B.S., Sandra Pinho, Ph.D., Yuya Kunisaki, M.D., Ph.D., and Aviv Bergman, Ph.D., of Einstein, and Daigo Hashimoto, M.D., Ph.D., Clara Noizat and Marylene Leboeuf of Mount Sinai, New York, NY. The study was done in collaboration with Nico van Rooijen at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Masato Tanaka at RIKEN Research Center for Allergy and Immunology, Yokohama, Japan, and Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, Tokyo, Japan; and Zhizhuang Joe Zhao, Ph.D., at University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK. The study was supported by grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01 HL097700, R01HL069438, and R01HL116340); the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK056638); and the National Cancer Institute (R01CA112100), all part of the National Institutes of Health. Albert Einstein College of Medicine Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University is one of the nation's premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. In 2012, Einstein received over $160 million in awards from the NIH for major research centers at Einstein in diabetes, cancer, liver disease, and AIDS, as well as other areas. Through its affiliation with Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital for Einstein, and six other hospital systems, the College of Medicine runs one of the largest residency and fellowship training programs in the medical and dental professions in the United States.

UK surgeons perform first 'warm liver' transplant

 London, Mar 16 - In a medical advance that can hugely benefit transplant surgeries of vital organs, surgeons in Britain have successfully performed two liver transplants using a device that can keep organs ÒwarmÓ and less prone to damages outside the body.

A group of scientists from Oxford University have invented a machine which preserves human livers outside the body for up to 24 hours making 'warm liver' transplants a reality.

Two liver tranplants were carried out last month at King's College Hospital in London and both the patients are recovering well, surgeons and Oxford scientists told here yesterday.
ÒI was impressed to see how quickly each liver started to function following the transplant. This technology has the potential to be hugely significant and could save lives,Ó said Dr Wayel Jassem, the transplant surgeon who performed both operations.

The new advance is set to revolutionise organ transplants as it offers the potential to increase the number of viable organs available to patients and also gives enough time to doctors to organise surgery.
ÒIt provides an environment where the donor liver hardly knows it has left the body. Instead of cooling it to slow its metabolism we keep it functioning at normal temperature and with oxygen and nutrition,Ó said Professor Peter Friend of the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences at Oxford University.

After being removed from the donor, the liver is placed in the machine and tubes are connected to the main blood vessels.

Oxygenated blood and nutrients are pumped through the liver which continues to function and produce bile.
The Oxford inventors say their machine allows the liver to recover from damage it has sustained and enables medical staff to test the viability of the organ to see whether it is likely to work before being transplanted into the patient.

ÒIn experiments we have shown we can preserve a liver and monitor its function outside the body for periods up to 24 hours. By contrast livers kept on ice have to be transplanted with 10-12 hours at most,Ó Prof Coussios explained.

At present many donor livers are rejected for transplantation because they are damaged.
Some have been deprived of oxygen while others contain too much fat and do not survive the cooling process.

But the team stresses that it is too early to draw any firm conclusions as to the benefits of Òwarm liverÓ transplantation.

A further eight patients will receive livers using the new technique at King's College Hospital and after this initial safety trial, a broader study across three European countries is planned.
It may be several years before liver specialists can tell whether the technique has proven benefits.
The same concept is also being tested on heart and lung transplants.

Mindfulness can improve self-knowledge

 Washington, Mar 16 - Mindfulness may help you learn more about your own personality, according to a new study. The study published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, explores one potential strategy for improving self-knowledge: mindfulness.

Mindfulness a technique often recognised for its positive effects on mental health involves paying attention to your current experience (eg, thoughts, feelings) and observing it in a non-judgmental manner.
Recent research has highlighted the fact that people have many blind spots when it comes to understanding their patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

Despite our intuition that we know ourselves the best, other people have a more accurate view of some traits (eg, intellect) than we do.

In some cases, blind spots in self-knowledge can have negative consequences, such as poor decision-making, poor academic achievement, emotional and interpersonal problems, and lower life satisfaction.
In the new study, psychological scientist Erika Carlson of Washington University in St Louis said that two components of mindfulness, attention and nonjudgmental observation, can overcome the major barriers to knowing ourselves.

She argued that the motivation to see ourselves in a desirable way is one of the main obstacles to self-knowledge.
For instance, people may overestimate their virtuous qualities to ward off negative feelings or boost self-esteem.

However, non-judgmental observation of one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviour, might reduce emotional reactivity such as feelings of inadequacy or low self-esteem that typically interferes with people seeing the truth about themselves.

Lack of information is another barrier to self-knowledge in some situations, people might not have the information they would need to accurately assess themselves.

For instance, we have a hard time observing much of our nonverbal behaviour, so we may not know that we’re grimacing or fidgeting during a serious conversation.

Mindfulness could also help in this domain, as research has shown that mindfulness training is associated with greater bodily awareness.

New cancer diagnostic technique developed

Washington, Mar 16 - Researchers have devised a new molecular sensor that can detect high levels of lactate - a telltale sign of cancer - in individual cells.

Cancer cells break down sugars and produce the metabolic acid lactate at a much higher rate than normal cells. This phenomenon signals that cancer is present, via diagnostics such as PET scans, and possibly offers an avenue for novel cancer therapies.

Now, a team of Chilean researchers at The Centro de Estudios Cientificos (CECs), with the collaboration of Carnegie’s Wolf Frommer, has devised a molecular sensor that can detect levels of lactate in individual cells in real time.

Prior to this advance, no other measurement method could non-invasively detect lactate in real time at the single-cell level.
The work, published in the journal PLOS ONE, is a boon to understanding how different types of cells go awry when cancer hits.

ÒOver the last decade, the Frommer lab at Carnegie has pioneered the use of Forster Resonance Energy Transfer, or FRET, sensors to measure the concentration and flow of sugars in individual cells with a simple fluorescent colour change,Ó said Alejandro San Martin, lead author of the study.

ÒUsing the same underlying physical principle and inspired by the sugar sensors, we have now invented a new type of sensor based on a transcriptional factor. A molecule that normally helps bacteria to adapt to its environment has now been tricked into measuring lactate for us,Ó Martin said.

ÒStandard methods to measure lactate are based on reactions among enzymes, which require a large number of cells in complex cell mixtures,Ó said Felipe Barros, leader of the project.

ÒThis makes it difficult or even impossible to see how different types of cells are acting when cancerous. Our new technique lets us measure the metabolism of individual cells, giving us a new window for understanding how different cancers operate,Ó Barros said in a statement.

Researchers turned the sensor on in three cell types: normal brain cells, tumour brain cells, and human embryonic cells. The sensor was able to quantify even very low concentrations of lactate, providing an unprecedented sensitivity and range of detection.

The researchers found that the tumour cells produced lactate 3-5 times faster than the non-tumour cells.
ÒThe high rate of lactate production in the cancer cell is the hallmark of cancer metabolism,Ó said Frommer.

New Drugs May Improve Quality of Life for People with Parkinson's Disease

SAN DIEGO, March 15, 2013 - Three studies released today present possible positive news for people with Parkinson's disease. The studies, which will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013, report on treatments for blood pressure problems, the wearing-off that can occur when people have taken the main drug for Parkinson's for a long time, and for people early in the disease whose symptoms are not well-controlled by their main drugs. "All of these treatments are promising news for people with Parkinson's disease, which is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's disease," said Robert A. Hauser, MD, MBA, of the University of South Florida in Tampa and a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, who was an author of all three studies. The first study dealt with the rapid drop in blood pressure that people with Parkinson's can experience when standing up, which can lead to dizziness, fainting and falls. The problem, which affects about 18 percent of people with the disease, occurs because the autonomic nervous system fails to respond to changes in posture by releasing enough of the chemical norepinephrine. In the study, 225 people were randomized to receive either eight weeks of stable dose treatment with a placebo or the drug droxidopa, which converts to norepinephrine. After one week of stable treatment, those who received the drug had a clinically meaningful, two-fold decrease in the symptoms of dizziness and lightheadedness, when compared to placebo. They also had fewer falls, or 0.38 falls per patient per week, compared to 1.73 for those receiving a placebo on average over the entire 10-week study duration. The second study looked at treatment with a new drug for "wearing-off" that occurs with people who have been taking levodopa for several years. As each dose wears off, people experience longer periods of time where the motor symptoms do not respond to levodopa. For the study, 420 people who were experiencing an average of six hours of "off" time per day received a placebo or one of four dosages of the drug tozadenant in addition to their levodopa for 12 weeks. People receiving two of the dosages of the drug had slightly more than an hour less off time per day at the end of 12 weeks than they had at the start of the study. They also did not have more troublesome involuntary movements during their "on" time, called dyskinesia, that can occur. The third study looked at 321 people with early Parkinson's disease whose symptoms were not well-controlled by a dopamine agonist drug. For the 18-week study, the participants took either the drug rasagiline or a placebo in addition to their dopamine agonist. At the end of the study, those taking rasagiline had improved by 2.4 points on a Parkinson's disease rating scale. In addition, rasagiline was well tolerated with adverse events similar to placebo. The blood pressure study was supported by Chelsea Therapeutics. The "wearing-off" study was supported by Biotie Therapies, Inc., The early Parkinson's disease study was supported by Teva Pharmaceuticals. Learn more about Parkinson's disease at http://www.aan.com/patients. The American Academy of Neurology, an association of more than 25,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer's disease, stroke, migraine, multiple sclerosis, brain injury, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.

Boeing Provides Details on 787 Battery Improvements

EVERETT, Wash., March 15, 2013 - Boeing (NYSE: BA) announced today that a comprehensive set of improvements that will add several layers of additional safety features to the lithium-ion batteries on 787 commercial jetliners are in production and could be ready for initial installation within the next few weeks. New enclosures for 787 batteries also are being built and will be installed in airplanes in the weeks ahead. These improvements, which continue to undergo extensive certification testing, will allow operators to resume commercial flights with their 787s as soon as testing is complete and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other international regulators grant their final approval. The improvements include enhanced production and operating processes, improved battery design features and a new battery enclosure. "As soon as our testing is complete and we obtain regulatory approvals, we will be positioned to help our customers implement these changes and begin the process of getting their 787s back in the air," said Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Ray Conner. "Passengers can be assured that we have completed a thorough review of the battery system and made numerous improvements that we believe will make it a safer, more reliable battery system." Battery system changes include changes to the battery itself, the battery charging unit and the battery installation. Earlier this week the FAA approved Boeing's certification plan, which lays out the discrete testing to be done to demonstrate that the battery improvements address the conditions laid out in the Airworthiness Directive that has suspended 787 commercial operations. Development Team Created Solution The enhancements to the battery system address causal factors identified by the Boeing technical team as possible causes of battery failure. The technical team's findings also were verified by an independent group of lithium-ion battery experts from a number of industries, universities and national laboratories. "We've come up with a comprehensive set of solutions that result in a safer battery system," said Mike Sinnett, vice president and chief project engineer, 787 program, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "We have found a number of ways to improve the battery system and we don't let safety improvements go once they are identified. We incorporate them into our processes and products." Enhanced Production Controls and Operating Processes The first layer of improvements is taking place during the manufacture of the batteries in Japan. Boeing teamed with Thales, the provider of the integrated power conversion system, and battery maker GS Yuasa to develop and institute enhanced production standards and tests to further reduce any possibility for variation in the production of the individual cells as well as the overall battery. "We've all developed a better understanding of the sensitivities of this technology to variations during the manufacturing process," said Sinnett. "And we all feel the need to increase monitoring of this process on an ongoing basis." Four new or revised tests have been added to screen cell production, which now includes 10 distinct tests. Each cell will go through more rigorous testing in the month following its manufacture including a 14-day test during which readings of discharge rates are being taken every hour. This new procedure started in early February and the first cells through the process are already complete. There are more than a dozen production acceptance tests that must be completed for each battery. Boeing, Thales and GS Yuasa have also decided to narrow the acceptable level of charge for the battery, both by lowering the highest charge allowed and raising the lower level allowed for discharge. Two pieces of equipment in the battery system – the battery monitoring unit and the charger are being redesigned to the narrower definition. The battery charger will also be adapted to soften the charging cycle to put less stress on the battery during charging. Improved Battery Design Features Changes inside the battery will help to reduce the chances of a battery fault developing and help to further isolate any fault that does occur so that it won't cause issues with other parts of the battery. To better insulate each of the cells in the battery from one another and from the battery box, two kinds of insulation will be added. An electrical insulator is being wrapped around each battery cell to electrically isolate cells from each other and from the battery case, even in the event of a failure. Electrical and thermal insulation installed above, below and between the cells will help keep the heat of the cells from impacting each other. Wire sleeving and the wiring inside the battery will be upgraded to be more resistant to heat and chafing and new fasteners will attach the metallic bars that connect the eight cells of the battery. These fasteners include a locking mechanism. Finally, a set of changes is being made to the battery case that contains the battery cells and the battery management unit. Small holes at the bottom will allow moisture to drain away from the battery and larger holes on the sides will allow a failed battery to vent with less impact to other parts of the battery. New Battery Enclosure The battery case will sit in a new enclosure made of stainless steel. This enclosure will isolate the battery from the rest of the equipment in the electronic equipment bays. It also will ensure there can be no fire inside the enclosure, thus adding another layer of protection to the battery system. The enclosure features a direct vent to carry battery vapors outside the airplane. New titanium fixtures are being installed in the electronics equipment bays to ensure the housing is properly supported. "Our first lines of improvements, the manufacturing tests and operations improvements, significantly reduce the likelihood of a battery failure. The second line of improvements, changes to the battery, helps stop an event and minimize the effect of a failure within the battery if it does occur. And the third line of improvements, the addition of the new enclosure, isolates the battery so that even if all the cells vent, there is no fire in the enclosure and there is no significant impact to the airplane," said Sinnett. Testing Status Testing to gain FAA approval of the battery enhancements has already started, with the FAA's permission. During engineering testing, which occurs prior to certification testing, the team demonstrated that the new housing could safely contain a battery failure that included the failure of all eight cells within the battery. The "ultimate" load is the equivalent of 1.5 times the maximum force ever expected to be encountered during a battery failure. The housing easily withstood this pressure and did not fail until the pressure was more than three times the ultimate load. Through another test, the team demonstrated that fire cannot occur within the new enclosure. Its design eliminates oxygen, making the containment unit self-inerting. Inerting is a step above fire detection and extinguishing as it prevents a fire from ever occurring. The design also vents all vapors by venting directly outside of the airplane rather than into the equipment bay. "We put this new design through a rigorous set of tests. We tried to find a way to introduce a fire in the containment but it just wouldn't happen. Even when we introduced a flammable gas in the presence of an ignition source, the absence of oxygen meant there was no fire. "We drew from the new industry standard, DO311, established by RTCA, to establish our testing plan," said Sinnett. "These standards weren't available when we set the testing plan for the baseline battery and they helped us ensure the new design is robust and safe. We intend to show, during certification, that the 787 battery meets all objectives of DO-311 and only deviates from specific requirements where the 787-unique items are not covered by the standards." RTCA is a not-for-profit organization that serves as a federal advisory committee in establishing guidelines for the aviation industry. Working towards Resuming Flights "We are following all of the necessary protocols to get our new design fully approved and properly installed so that we can help our customers start flying as soon as possible. We're simultaneously moving out on an effort to resume deliveries but completing our certification work and getting the delivered fleet flying again is our first priority," said Conner. "Our customers and their passengers have been incredibly patient as we have worked through this process and we thank them very sincerely for their continued support and confidence in the 787. "The more-electric architecture of the 787 brings real value not just to the airlines but to our industry. By reducing fuel use, we are reducing our environmental footprint. This battery technology is an important part of the more-electric architecture, which is helping us to cut fuel use by more than 10 billion gallons of fuel over the life of this program. "New technologies require extra attention and hard work, but the benefits are real."

Sensing Wind Speed with Kites

Kites have a storied history in meteorological research -- think of Benjamin Franklin and his study of electricity -- including being used to carry aloft sensors that measure wind speed. Previously, however, these sensors, because they were exposed to direct sunlight, were prone to temperature errors that affected their accuracy. Now researchers at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom have developed a way to use a kite itself to measure wind speed.

The researchers, professor of atmospheric physics Giles Harrison and applied meteorologist Kieran Walesby, describe their device in the AIP's Review of Scientific Instruments. The instrument consists of a 2-meter-long and 1-meter-wide Rokkaku-type kite -- a simple-to-construct Japanese kite design with "good stability, reasonable load-carrying capacity, and a low sink rate when the wind speed drops," Harrison says -- attached to a ground-based strain gauge that monitors the tension in the kite's tether line. That line tension, Harrison and Walesby found, is linearly related to wind speed.

"The kite method is portable and cheap, and removes the need for a mast to support an anemometer," Harrison says. "A particular use is to provide measurements above those reached by masts" -- although, he adds, "it will work less well at low levels, or in very turbulent conditions. We expect to refine the kite design to allow operation in a wider range of conditions, and to encourage wider adoption of our approach."

The article, "A thermally stable tension meter for atmospheric soundings using kites" by K. T. Walesbya and R. G. Harrison was published online in the journal Review of Scientific Instruments on July 21, 2010. See: http://rsi.aip.org/rsinak/v81/i7/p076104_s1

More Oil Spills to Come, Says Anthropologist

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is not simply a random accident. There will be more of these spills to come, as the days of easy oil are over, says an anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis.

“BP and other oil companies have tried to portray this spill as an accident or an aberration, but in fact there are spills on off-shore and on-shore sites around the world, increasingly,” says Bret Gustafson, PhD, associate professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences. Gustafson teaches a course on “Oil Wars: America and the Cultural Politics of Global Energy.”

A rig sank off the coast of Venezuela in May. Last October, a rig spilled oil for two months into the Timor Sea off of Australia. There are recurring spills in virtually every oil region, such as the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon and Nigeria.

“These environmental and public health catastrophes are almost always accompanied by corruption and violence tied to oil activities,” Gustafson says. In the United States, which is more of a consumer than producer of oil, we are generally ignorant about this reality of oil until something like this comes home to roost.”

“Oil has always been destructive, but it is worsening because the days of easy oil are over,” says Gustafson, who currently is studying Bolivia's natural gas boom and the cultural politics of energy resources in Bolivia and neighboring Brazil, which consumes most of Bolivia's gas.

“In combination with weak regulation and intensifying competition, which explains why companies are willing to cut so many corners, oil is in more difficult places, both environmentally, politically and socially,” Gustafson says. “The point is that it is only going to get worse, and that the message by some commentators and the oil companies that we should just get on with business as usual is, quite frankly, almost criminal.”

Gustafson suggests that along with policies to transition us beyond oil and changes in our culture of consumption, we might also debate whether state control of oil companies, popular in other nations around the world, could work in the United States.

At least that way, Gustafson suggests, benefits would accrue to America’s public needs, rather than to multinational firms like BP. “Right now, the American people are subsidizing Big Oil, not benefitting from it,” he says.

“The press and public are only now debating the benefits or costs of regulation, but in fact the United States is the odd-man out in the world, where regulation goes along with government ownership and control,” Gustafson says. “Nearly all oil-producing countries, and not just third world ones, have government run oil companies, called National Oil Companies (NOCs). In places like Norway and Brazil, these contribute greatly to social benefits. Even the World Bank sees NOCs as a potential contributor to economic development. This is not a radical idea.”

Gustafson finds it curious that “our own culture of oil has largely silenced debate on whether or not having a national oil company would address both the environmental and regulatory concerns, as well as some of our other economic needs. Ideally, public and environmental concerns, rather than profit, would be the motivating logic behind oil operations.”

“The cultural addiction we have to oil contributes to both our relative ignorance about its negative effects and our relative willingness to accept these negative effects when they happen,” Gustafson says. “Despite the fact that most of us distrust big oil companies — we vilify them in our movies, our literature and our daily conversations — we are also generally complacent about what they do. When something like oil is so pervasive, it easily becomes invisible or at least very durable and resistant to cultural reflection and change.”

The one benefit of the spill, despite its catastrophic effects, may be, says Gustafson, that more of these issues are being brought into public discussion.

Study Provides a Better Understanding of How Mosquitoes Find a Host

The potentially deadly yellow-fever-transmitting Aedes aegypti mosquito detects the specific chemical structure of a compound called octenol as one way to find a mammalian host for a blood meal, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists report.

Scientists have long known that mosquitoes can detect octenol, but this most recent finding by ARS entomologists Joseph Dickens and Jonathan Bohbot explains in greater detail how Ae. aegypti--and possibly other mosquito species--accomplish this.

Dickens and Bohbot, at the ARS Invasive Insect Biocontrol and Behavior Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., have shown that Ae. aegypti taps into the "right-handed" and "left-handed" structural nature of octenol, which is emitted by people, cattle and other mammals. This ability to detect the "handedness" of molecules has been shown in mammals, but the discovery is the first case of scientists finding out how it works in an insect, according to the researchers.

When they hunt for a blood meal, mosquitoes hone in on a variety of chemicals, including carbon dioxide, lactic acid, ammonia and octenol. Octenol is one of many carbon-based compounds that have a molecular structure that can take on either a "right-handed" or "left-handed" form. Each form is a mirror image of the other, and a form's "handedness" is determined by how its molecular bonds are assembled.

The scientists used frog eggs to help them make their discovery. They injected RNA from Ae. aegypti into the frog eggs, allowing the egg membranes to mimic the mosquito's ability to detect octenol. Then they attached microelectrodes to the frog egg cell membranes, passed octenol over them and recorded the electrical signals stimulated by the odors.

They ran the tests using both the right- and left-handed forms of octenol. The scientists found heightened electrical activity when the membrane was exposed to the right-handed form, and weakened activity when it was exposed to the left-handed form.

There are many natural compounds that can take on either a right-handed or left-handed form. While the effects of those differences on many plants and animals remains a mystery, the report, published in PLoS ONE, shows the effects of octenol's dual structure on the yellow fever mosquito and adds to scientists' understanding of how mosquitoes sense the world around them. It also may open the door to speedier development of better mosquito repellents and traps, according to Dickens.

The team's research is being funded by the Department of Defense Deployed War Fighter Protection Research Program.

ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice), or (202) 720-6382 (TDD).

Nominations Wanted for Jacobson Award for Physician Excellence


The Vascular Disease Foundation is seeking nominations for the 2010 Julius H. Jacobson II Award for Physician Excellence. The deadline for nominations is Friday, January 29, 2010.

The Julius H. Jacobson II MD Award for Physician Excellent is awarded annually by the Vascular Disease Foundation. This prestigious annual award recognizes outstanding contributions to physician education, leadership, or patient care in vascular disease. Dr. Jacobson is a pioneer in microsurgery and was the first physician to bring a microscope into the operating room. His work led to such advances as coronary artery surgery and limb reimplantation. Dr. Jacobson also developed the first microscope that allowed the surgeon and the first assistant to view the operative field simultaneously. This award is endowed through a donation from Dr. Jacobson.

Candidates for the Jacobson Award will be screened by a committee of peers independent of Dr. Jacobson. Nomination criteria are:

• Must be a licensed physician in good standing
• Has made significant contributions that have advanced the science or clinical
practice for the prevention and treatment of vascular disease or who has made exceptional contributions to vascular education programs, either to health professionals or patients.
• Must be a person of recognized personal and professional integrity.
• Must not be a current member of the Board of Directors of the Vascular Disease Foundation.

This year’s recipient was Dr. Jess R. Young. Dr. Young is one of the pioneers of vascular medicine and a premier educator in the field, training an entire generation of vascular medicine fellows. Dr. Young was pivotal in establishing the vascular diagnostic laboratory at the Cleveland Clinic. Perhaps one of the greatest visions by Dr. Young was the establishment of the first multi-specialty vascular intervention programs in the United States in the early 1990s. He also served as primary editor for the first edition of "A Textbook of Peripheral Vascular Disease," which remains one of the finest clinical textbooks of its kind. He has over 100 publications showing his depth of contribution to the field.

New Chromosomal Abnormality Identified in Leukemia Associated with Down Syndrome

Study led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators expands understanding of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children with Down syndrome, fueling hope for new treatment

Researchers identified a new chromosomal abnormality in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that appears to work in concert with another mutation to give rise to cancer. This latest anomaly is particularly common in children with Down syndrome.

The findings have already resulted in new diagnostic tests and potential tools for tracking a patient's response to treatment. The research, led by scientists from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, also highlights a new potential ALL treatment. Clinicians are already planning trials of an experimental medication targeting one of the altered genes.

"A substantial proportion of children with ALL lack one of the previously identified, common chromosomal abnormalities. Also, children with Down syndrome have an increased risk of ALL, but the reasons why are unclear," said Charles Mullighan, M.D., Ph.D., assistant member in the St. Jude Department of Pathology. Mullighan is senior author of the study, which involved scientists from 10 institutions in the U.S. and Italy. "Our results have provided important data regarding the mechanisms contributing to leukemia in these cases," he said.

Instead of the normal pairs of 23 chromosomes, individuals with Down syndrome inherit an extra copy of one chromosome, in this case chromosome 21. Chromosomes are made of DNA and carry the genes that serve as the assembly and operations manual for life. Down syndrome is associated with a variety of medical and developmental problems, including a 10-to-20--fold increased risk of ALL. But patients with Down syndrome rarely have the genetic and chromosomal alterations commonly associated with childhood ALL. Until recently the genetic basis of the elevated risk for these patients was unknown.

The new gene alteration was identified by St. Jude scientists following up on an earlier observation. They had previously found a recurring deletion in a region of DNA duplicated on the X and Y chromosomes. The region is known as pseudoautosomal region 1 or PAR1.

The PAR1 deletion was found only in patients with a subtype of ALL known as B-progenitor ALL. It was most common in children with both B-progenitor ALL and Down syndrome. In this study, investigators screened almost 400 children with ALL, including 75 patients with Down syndrome. The deletion was present in 7 percent of patients with B-progenitor ALL, but in more than half of the patients with both B progenitor and Down syndrome.

The deletion results in a fusion of two genes, P2RY8 and CRLF2. The fusion puts CRLF2 expression under the control of the P2RY8 promoter. As a result, CRLF2 expression jumps as much as 10 fold.

"CRLF2 over-expression identifies a group of ALL cases which were not previously well characterized, and suggests some novel treatment approaches that may improve patient survival. Patients with Down syndrome are particularly vulnerable to complications from standard chemotherapy, and could therefore benefit from novel therapies," said Karen Rabin, M.D., of Texas Children's Cancer Center and a study co-author. She is a Baylor College of Medicine assistant professor of pediatric hematology/oncology.

The CRLF2 protein normally forms part of a receptor where a small growth factor known as a cytokine binds to white blood cells known as lymphocytes. Both the cytokine, thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), and CRLF2 are known to play important roles in the development of immune cells known as T lymphocytes as well as in inflammation and allergic disease. They had not previously been linked to leukemia.

CRFL2 is the second gene implicated in development of B-progenitor ALL in patients with Down syndrome. The first, a gene called JAK2, was identified in 2008. JAK2 belongs to a family of genes that produce enzymes called kinases. If permanently switched on, kinases can trigger the uncontrolled cell growth that is a hallmark of cancer.

JAK mutations have also been linked to other cancers. Drugs targeting JAK kinases are already in clinical trials against a variety of blood disorders in adults. Additional trials are being planned against other subtypes of childhood ALL.

In this study, researchers reported a significant association between alterations in both the CRFL2 and JAK2 genes. Almost all JAK mutations were observed in patients with CRLF2 alterations. Almost 28 percent of children with Down syndrome and ALL had changes in both the CRFL2 and JAK genes.

"It has been a mystery as to why the JAK mutations in Down syndrome ALL are different from those seen in other cancers," Mullighan said. "Here we show that the JAK mutations in ALL are almost always observed together with a chromosomal alteration that results in over- expression of CRLF2."

When both the JAK mutation and increased CRLF2 production were introduced into white blood cells growing in the laboratory, those cells were transformed and no longer needed cytokines to grow. Neither genetic alteration on its own produced the same effect. Researchers also reported their impact could be weakened by the addition of drugs that target JAK mutations.

"We showed that the two proteins, CRLF2 and mutant JAK2, physically interact, and together transform white blood cells. This work has identified a new pathway contributing to the development of leukemia," Mullighan said. A next step is to determine if these mutations also interact in mouse models of ALL.

Other authors of this paper include J. Racquel Collins-Underwood, Letha A.A. Phillips, Wei Liu, Jing Ma, Elaine Coustan-Smith, Richard T. Williams, Jinjun Cheng, Ching-Hon Pui, Susana Raimondi and James Downing, all of St. Jude; Michael L. Loudin of Baylor; Jinghui Zhang of the National Cancer Institute (NCI); Richard Harvey and Cheryl Willman, of the University of New Mexico; Fady Mikhail and Andrew Carroll, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham; Nyla Heerema of Ohio State University; Giuseppe Basso, of the University of Padua, Padua, Italy; and Andrea Pession of the University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.

The work was supported in part by National Cancer Institute, the Bear Necessities Pediatric Research Foundation, the Children's Cancer Research Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and ALSAC.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is internationally recognized for its pioneering work in finding cures and saving children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Founded by late entertainer Danny Thomas and based in Memphis, Tenn., St. Jude freely shares its discoveries with scientific and medical communities around the world. No family ever pays for treatments not covered by insurance, and families without insurance are never asked to pay. St. Jude is financially supported by ALSAC, its fundraising organization. For more information, please visit www.stjude.org.

Neutrinos are coming on Earth from Failed supernovae

spectacular supernovae (Fig. 1). The temperatures and pressures generated in these events are so intense they create a large burst of particles called neutrinos, which eventually reach Earth.

Now, Cecilia Lunardini at Arizona State University and RIKEN BNL Research Center in Upton, USA, has calculated that lots of neutrinos may also reach Earth from ‘failed supernovae’—huge stars that collapse without exploding to produce black holes1.

The neutrino contribution from these failed supernovae could greatly increase the total flux of neutrinos reaching Earth from millions of collapsing stars throughout the universe. Lunardini calls this total the ‘diffuse supernova neutrino flux’.

“In the diffuse flux, the contribution of each supernova is very small, but the total is detectable,” she says. “We only need to reach the right experimental sensitivity to start detecting it.”

Unfortunately, neutrinos are notoriously difficult to detect because they barely interact with other matter. One of the world’s best detectors is the Super-Kamiokande (‘Super-K’) neutrino observatory, situated in a mine beneath Gifu prefecture Japan, and even it requires 50,000 tons of ultra-pure water to scatter the neutrinos.

Lunardini decided to calculate whether a device like Super-K could detect neutrinos from supernovae collapsing into black holes.

“The idea that neutrinos are emitted in black-hole-forming collapses is not new,” she says. “The novelty of my work is in showing that these neutrinos can build up to a significant diffuse flux, thus adding to the flux from successful supernovae.”

In fact, Lunardini calculated that the Earth may receive up to one neutrino per square centimeter per second from failed supernovae. This is even more than the flux from successful supernovae, but probably beyond the detection limit of Super-K.

There is growing support in the scientific community to build larger, more sensitive neutrino detectors containing up to a million tons of water. Once these bigger detectors are built, Lunardini thinks it is only a matter of time before the diffuse neutrino flux can be measured. The results could reveal some fascinating new physics.

“[Failed supernovae] are very difficult to study with telescopes due to the fact that they do not explode but just disappear from the sky without much emission other than neutrinos,” says Lunardini. “The possibility to get information on these objects—even just to test their presence and how many there are in the universe—with neutrinos is exciting.”

Reference

1. Lunardini, C. Diffuse neutrino flux from failed supernovae. Physical Review Letters 102, 231101 (2009).

The corresponding author for this highlight is based at the RIKEN BNL Research Center Theory Group

Meningitis Bacteria penetrate the Blood-Brain Barrier


A specific protein on the surface of a common bacterial pathogen allows the bacteria to leave the bloodstream and enter the brain, initiating the deadly infection known as meningitis. The new finding, which may guide development of improved vaccines to protect those most vulnerable, including young infants and the elderly, is now available online in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

"Streptococcus pneumoniae, commonly known as pneumococcus, is responsible for half the cases of bacterial meningitis in humans," said the study's senior author, Victor Nizet, MD, professor of pediatrics and pharmacy at the University of California, San Diego’s School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. “As many as 30 percent of patients can die from this rapidly progressing infection, while half of survivors may be left with permanent neurological problems including deafness, seizures, intellectual deficits or motor disabilities.”

Meningitis develops when bacteria penetrate the "blood-brain barrier." Comprised of a single layer of highly specialized microvascular endothelial cells, the blood-brain barrier prevents most large molecules from entering into the cerebrospinal fluid, preserving an optimal biochemical environment for brain function.

The UC San Diego team investigated the functions of a protein known as NanA in order to discover how an entire bacterium can breech the blood-brain barrier and gain access to the central nervous system. NanA is produced by all strains of pneumococcus and displayed prominently on the bacteria's outer surface.

Through genetic manipulations, the researchers were able to remove the entire NanA protein, or just specific sections of the molecule, from the pathogen. They found that while normal pneumococci were able to bind, enter and penetrate through human brain microvascular endothelial cells, mutant bacteria lacking the NanA protein –or those expressing only a truncated version of the protein – largely lost these abilities. Conversely, when the full-length pneumococcal NanA protein was cloned and expressed on the surface of a nonpathogenic laboratory strain, the transformed bacteria gained the ability to bind and enter the same endothelial cells.

“Our tissue culture studies showed that the NanA protein was both necessary and sufficient for bacterial penetration of the blood brain barrier endothelial cells,” said Satoshi Uchiyama, MD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Nizet Laboratory and lead author on the study. “After infecting mice intravenously, we also found that far fewer NanA-deficient bacteria left the bloodstream and entered the brain, in comparison to mice infected with the normal pneumococcus.”

NanA is best known as an enzyme that cleaves and releases the sugar molecule known as sialic acid, which is present in abundance on the surface of all human cells. While this enzymatic activity played a small part in promoting NanA-mediated blood-brain barrier interactions, a much stronger role was identified for the outer tip of the protein. This tip seems to directly attach to the brain microvascular endothelial cells and then stimulate them to take in the pneumococcus.

“Antibodies directed against the NanA protein also strongly inhibited the ability of pneumococcus to attach to and invade the blood-brain barrier cells,” said Kelly Doran, PhD, an assistant professor at both UC San Diego School of Medicine and San Diego State University, who jointly supervised the project with Nizet.

Because NanA is expressed on the surface of all pneumococcal strains, it is an attractive candidate to include in a universal protein-based vaccine against pneumococcal infection according to Nizet, who is also on the medical staff of Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego. Currently, infants and the elderly are immunized with vaccines comprised of surface capsule sugars from 7 to 23 of the most common strains of pneumococcus.

“Our immune system generates antibodies more readily against protein rather than sugar vaccine antigens,” said Nizet. “Since at least 80 different pneumococcal capsule types exist, not all strains can be represented in the capsule sugar-based vaccines. An added benefit of an effective NanA vaccine would be to reduce the risk of pneumococcus spreading into the brain to cause meningitis.”

Ongoing research in the Nizet and Doran labs will seek to characterize the receptor on the blood-brain barrier cells to which NanA binds, and to explore whether similar processes contribute to the ability of other meningitis pathogens – such as group B streptococcus – to pass through the blood-brain barrier.

Additional contributors to the project were co-lead author Aaron Carlin, MD, PhD, Arya Khosravi, Shannon Weiman, Darin Quach, and George Hightower of the Department of Pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine; Timothy Mitchell, PhD, of the University of Glasgow; and Anirban Banerjee, PhD, of the Department of Biology at San Diego State University. The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund and the Taylor Thomas Foundation.

Oxytocin in Mammals and Mesotocin in Birds

What do flocks of birds have in common with trust, monogamy, and even breast milk? According to a new report in the journal Science, they are regulated by virtually identical neurochemicals in the brain, known as oxytocin in mammals and mesotocin in birds.

Neurobiologists at Indiana University showed that if the actions of mesotocin are blocked in the brains of zebra finches, a highly social songbird, the birds shift their social preferences. They spend significantly less time with familiar individuals and more time with unfamiliar individuals. The birds also become less social, preferring to spend less time with a large group of same-sex birds and more time with a smaller group. Conversely, if birds are administered mesotocin instead of the blocker, the finches become more social and prefer familiar partners.

Perhaps most striking is the fact that none of the treatments affect males -- only females.

According to James Goodson, lead author on the study, the sex differences in birds provide important clues to the evolutionary history of oxytocin functions in humans and other mammals. "Oxytocin is an evolutionarily descendant of mesotocin and has long been associated with female reproductive functions -- things such as pair bonding with males, giving birth, providing maternal care and ejecting milk for infants," said Goodson.

Goodson and colleagues have found hints of similar processes in fish, and he speculates that oxytocin-like neuropeptides have played special roles in female affiliation ever since the peptides first evolved. That was sometime around 450 million years ago, about the same time that jaws evolved.

"The ancient properties of this system appear to be retained in all major vertebrate groups, and date back to our common ancestor with sharks," says co-author Marcy Kingsbury, associate scientist at IU Bloomington.

But if all vertebrates possess similar neuropeptide circuits, why don't they all live in big groups -- flocks, schools or herds? A possible answer to that question is provided in the second part of the Science study. The authors speculated that the behavioral actions of mesotocin may differ across species depending upon the distribution of "receptors" for the chemical in the brain -- that is, places where mesotocin can attach to brain cells and alter their activity.

Using a radioactive compound that attaches to oxytocin-like receptors, the authors mapped the distribution of receptors in three finch species that form flocks and two species that are territorial and highly aggressive. What they found was that the flocking species had many more receptors in a part of the brain known as the lateral septum. And when they blocked those receptors in female zebra finches, the birds became less social.

According to Goodson, these findings suggest that it is actually the concentration and location of receptors that determines whether an individual prefers spending time in large groups. Natural selection could act to increase the number of receptors expressed by certain lateral septum neurons, or by altering the regions where receptor genes are expressed, depending on whether female sociality is favored or not among the individuals of a species.

If Goodson's discovery holds true for other birds and even mammals, the concentration of receptors for mesotocin (and oxytocin) in the lateral septum could accurately predict whether an individual is naturally gregarious.

"The lateral septum is structurally very similar in reptiles, birds and mammals," Goodson said. "To our knowledge, it plays an important role in the social and reproductive behaviors of all land vertebrates."

What might be next for Goodson's research group?

"We still don't understand why mesotocin and oxytocin are so potent in females, but not always in males," Goodson said. "And we also don't fully understand how the lateral septum functions to influence sociality." But he is convinced that his group's ongoing studies of songbirds will soon provide the answers.



IU Bloomington Associate Scientist Marcy Kingsbury, postdoctoral fellow David Kabelik, research associate Sara Schrock and Ph.D. student James Klatt also contributed to this research. It was funded with a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIMH).

Researchers Make Stem Cells from Developing Sperm
The promise of stem cell therapy may lie in uncovering how adult cells revert back into a primordial, stem cell state, whose fate is yet to be determined. Now, cell scientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have identified key molecular players responsible for this reversion in fruit fly sperm cells. Reporting online this week in Cell Stem Cell, researchers show that two proteins are responsible redirecting cells on the way to becoming sperm back to stem cells.
“We knew from our previous work that cells destined to be sperm could revert back to being stem cells, but we didn't know how,” says Erika Matunis, Ph.D., an associate professor of cell biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Since, dedifferentiation is an interesting phenomenon probably occurring in a lot of different stem cell populations, we wanted to know more about the process.“
Like all stem cells, each of the nine stem cells in the fly testis divides to form two daughter cells: One stays a stem cell and the other differentiates into an adult cell, in this case, a sperm cell. To figure out what might cause sperm cells to revert or dedifferentiate, Matunis’s research team genetically altered the flies so that both cells become sperm, reducing the stem cell population in the testis to nothing.
About a week later, the team examined these fly testes and found that the stem cells had been repopulated.
To figure out how this was happening, the researchers first suspected two proteins—Jak and STAT—known to act together to help stem cells maintain their stem cell-ness. The team genetically altered flies to reduce the activity of Jak and STAT in the testis. Counting the number of cells, they found that the loss of Jak-STAT caused fewer cells to revert to stem cells; only 60 percent of testes regained stem cells compared to 97 percent in normal Jak-STAT-containing testes.
“We now know that in the fly testis, interfering with Jak-STAT signaling interferes with the process of dedifferentiation,” says Matunis.
Next, Matunis would like to figure out how Jak and STAT control dedifferentiation. “We don't know if a cell is just reversing all of the steps to go back to being a stem cell or if it is doing something totally new and different, but we’re eager to find out,” she says.

Plastics That Convert Light to Electricity Could Have a Big impact

Researchers the world over are striving to develop organic solar cells that can be produced easily and inexpensively as thin films that could be widely used to generate electricity.
But a major obstacle is coaxing these carbon-based materials to reliably form the proper structure at the nanoscale (tinier than 2-millionths of an inch) to be highly efficient in converting light to electricity. The goal is to develop cells made from low-cost plastics that will transform at least 10 percent of the sunlight that they absorb into usable electricity and can be easily manufactured.
A research team headed by David Ginger, a University of Washington associate professor of chemistry, has found a way to make images of tiny bubbles and channels, roughly 10,000 times smaller than a human hair, inside plastic solar cells. These bubbles and channels form within the polymers as they are being created in a baking process, called annealing, that is used to improve the materials' performance.
The researchers are able to measure directly how much current each tiny bubble and channel carries, thus developing an understanding of exactly how a solar cell converts light into electricity. Ginger believes that will lead to a better understanding of which materials created under which conditions are most likely to meet the 10 percent efficiency goal.
As researchers approach that threshold, nanostructured plastic solar cells could be put into use on a broad scale, he said. As a start, they could be incorporated into purses or backpacks to charge cellular phones or mp3 players, but eventually they could make in important contribution to the electrical power supply.
Most researchers make plastic solar cells by blending two materials together in a thin film, then baking them to improve their performance. In the process, bubbles and channels form much as they would in a cake batter. The bubbles and channels affect how well the cell converts light into electricity and how much of the electric current actually gets to the wires leading out of the cell. The number of bubbles and channels and their configuration can be altered by how much heat is applied and for how long.
The exact structure of the bubbles and channels is critical to the solar cell's performance, but the relationship between baking time, bubble size, channel connectivity and efficiency has been difficult to understand. Some models used to guide development of plastic solar cells even ignore the structure issues and assume that blending the two materials into a film for solar cells will produce a smooth and uniform substance. That assumption can make it difficult to understand just how much efficiency can be engineered into a polymer, Ginger said.
For the current research, the scientists worked with a blend of polythiophene and fullerene, model materials considered basic to organic solar cell research because their response to forces such as heating can be readily extrapolated to other materials. The materials were baked together at different temperatures and for different lengths of time.
Ginger is the lead author of a paper documenting the work, published online last month by the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters and scheduled for a future print edition. Coauthors are Liam Pingree and Obadiah Reid of the UW. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Ginger noted that the polymer tested is not likely to reach the 10 percent efficiency threshold. But the results, he said, will be a useful guide to show which new combinations of materials and at what baking time and temperature could form bubbles and channels in a way that the resulting polymer might meet the standard.
Such testing can be accomplished using a very small tool called an atomic force microscope, which uses a needle similar to the one that plays records on an old-style phonograph to make a nanoscale image of the solar cell. The microscope, developed in Ginger's lab to record photocurrent, comes to a point just 10 to 20 nanometers across (a human hair is about 60,000 nanometers wide). The tip is coated with platinum or gold to conduct electrical current, and it traces back and forth across the solar cell to record the properties.
As the microscope traces back and forth over a solar cell, it records the channels and bubbles that were created as the material was formed. Using the microscope in conjunction with the knowledge gained from the current research, Ginger said, can help scientists determine quickly whether polymers they are working with are ever likely to reach the 10 percent efficiency threshold.
Making solar cells more efficient is crucial to making them cost effective, he said. And if costs can be brought low enough, solar cells could offset the need for more coal-generated electricity in years to come.
"The solution to the energy problem is going to be a mix, but in the long term solar power is going to be the biggest part of that mix," he said.

Breaking News: Major breakthrough in organ replacement regenerative therapies


Research group headed by Takashi Tsuji demonstrates in regenerating
bioengineered “fully functional organ (tooth)”

Substantial advance in the development of next-generationA research group led by Takashi Tsuji (Professor in the Research Institute for Science
and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, and Director of Organ Technologies Inc.) has
demonstrated in growing new organs in adult mice. Tsuji is a research team member in
“Health Labor Sciences Research Grant: Research on Regenerative Medicine for Clinical
Application (Domain Leader: Professor Akira Yamaguchi of Tokyo Medical and Dental
University)”, and “Priority Domain Research: Bio-engineering (Domain Leader: Professor
Toshio Fukuda of Nagoya University)”. In transplantation experiments using the tooth as a
model, a bioengineered tooth germ develops into a fully functioning bioengineered tooth with
sufficient hardness for mastication and a functional responsiveness to mechanical stress in the
maxillofacial region. The research also provided the results that the nerve fibers that have
re-entered the pulp and periodontal ligament (PDL) tissues of the bioengineered tooth have
proper perceptive potential in response to noxious stimulations such as orthodontic treatment
and pulp stimulation.
This research is expected to substantially advance in the development of “tooth
regenerative therapy”, which have potential as next-generation regenerative therapies for
replacing diseased or damaged teeth with bioengineered teeth. Specifically it will not only
promote “tooth regenerative therapy”, whereby organ germs of bioengineered teeth are
transplanted into the jaw bone to grow “3rd generation tooth”, but is expected to evolve into a
wide variety of organ regenerative technologies for liver, kidney and other organs.
This research outcome was the fruit of joint research with Professor Teruko
Takano-Yamamoto (Division of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Graduate School
of Dentistry, Tohoku University, Japan) and Professor Shohei Kasugai (Oral and Maxillofacial
Surgery, Department of Oral Restitution, Division of Oral Health Sciences, Graduate School,
Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan). It was announced in an Advance Online
Publication of the US scientific journal “Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.”

“organ replacement regenerative therapies”

New Tools For Discovering DNA Variations In Crop Genomes

The study of human genetics has been a successful venture for researchers in recent years. Several million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been identified from the whole-genome resequencing of multiple individuals, which have served as genetic markers to pinpoint genes controlling common human diseases. In contrast, the genome of a single cultivar or line has yet to be sequenced in its entirety for most crops of economic or societal importance. This slow pace of genomic progress can be mostly explained by the high costs and technical difficulties associated with sequencing crop genomes, which tend to be large in size and complex—containing a high amount of repetitive DNA and duplicated genes that are highly similar in sequence.

With the advent of high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies, it is now possible to cheaply and rapidly sequence hundreds of millions of bases in a matter of hours. A team of scientists at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), the United States Department of Agriculture-Agriculture Research Service (USDA-ARS), Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (Cold Spring Harbor, NY), Roche Applied Science Corp. (Indianapolis, IN) and 454 Life Sciences (Branford, CT), have developed molecular and computational tools for the efficient and accurate identification of gene-enriched SNPs in crops. The large, complex genome of maize was used to evaluate these tools.

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Roche Applied Science Corp., and the USDA-ARS. Results from the study were published in the July 2009 issue of The Plant Genome.

In this research collaboration, an existing molecular technique was modified to enable gene-enrichment and resequencing of maize inbred lines B73 and Mo17 with massively parallel pyrosequencing. In addition, a custom computational pipeline was developed to analyze and assemble short reads, identify correctly mapped reads, and call high quality SNPs. With the implementation of these methods, the authors identified 126,683 gene-enriched SNPs between B73 and Mo17 at high accuracy.

“Next-generation sequencing technologies will greatly accelerate the resequencing of multiple to numerous individuals for every major crop species,” says Michael Gore, first co-author of the study. “Such efforts will facilitate the construction of SNP datasets on the order of millions that can be used in whole-genome association studies to assess the contribution of SNPs—common or rare—to complex traits. What we have learned from this pilot study will help us to construct a community SNP resource in maize that is comparable in scale to that of the human haplotype map”.

Although the majority of SNPs do not contribute to phenotypic variation, plant breeders and geneticists alike are interested in using SNPs as genetic markers. As a genetic marker, SNPs can be used for studies of genetic diversity and in the selection of superior plants. The SNPs identified in this study can be used for high-resolution genetic mapping of agronomic traits, which could eventually lead to the development of improved commercial maize hybrids.