Science & Technology

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (UPI) -- A U.S.-Russian study shows only 25 to 34 Far Eastern, or Amur, leopards -- the world's most endangered cat -- are still alive.

The February-March census was conducted by the World Wildlife Fund, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Russian Academy of Science.

Approximately 1,900 square miles of land in the southwest Primorye region -- close to the border between Russia, China and North Korea -- were transected, and tracks left by the leopards in the snow were counted. Scientists were able to determine the number of the leopards by examining the shape, size and patterns.

"The recent census confirmed once again the Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) survives on very shaky ground," said Pavel Fomenko, biodiversity conservation program coordinator for the WWF in Russia.

Fomenko said encroaching civilization, new roads, poaching, exploitation of forests and climate change all have contributed to the leopards' plight.

"From my perspective, the leopards' exact number is not the big question." Fomenko said. "What is really important is that the predator is on the brink of extinction. And still a unified protected area with national park status has not been established, which is the most important thing for the leopards' survival."

First image-guided surgical robot created

CALGARY, Alberta (UPI) -- Canadian scientists say surgery is about to change with the introduction of the world's first image-guided surgical robot system.

The robot, developed at the University of Calgary, is designed to revolutionize neurosurgery and other branches of operative medicine by liberating them from the constraints of the human hand.

The new robot is the creation of neurosurgeon Dr. Garnette Sutherland and colleagues who said they have designed a machine "that represents a milestone in medical technology."

"Many of our microsurgical techniques evolved in the 1960s, and have pushed surgeons to the limits of their precision, accuracy, dexterity and stamina," said Sutherland, a professor of neurosurgery. "NeuroArm dramatically enhances the spatial resolution at which surgeons operate, and shifts surgery from the organ toward the cell level."

Designed to be controlled by a surgeon from a computer work station, NeuroArm operates in conjunction with real-time magnetic resonance imaging, providing surgeons with what's said to be unprecedented detail and control, enabling them to manipulate tools at a microscopic scale.

Advanced surgical testing of NeuroArm is currently under way.

New crew assumes space station duties

HOUSTON (UPI) -- Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin has officially assumed command of the International Space Station.

A change-of-command ceremony was conducted Tuesday afternoon, with Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin and civilian astronaut Charles Simonyi -- the millionaire inventor of Microsoft Word -- to return to Earth Saturday aboard a Soyuz spacecraft.

The Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft is to land one day later than originally scheduled -- and at an alternative site -- because of spring flooding on the Russian steppes.

Expedition 15 flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams will remain aboard the ISS with Yurchikhin. They are scheduled to be joined by U.S. astronauts Clayton Anderson, who is to be launched aboard the space shuttle Endeavor in June 28, and Daniel Tani, who is to arrive aboard space shuttle Discovery in September, National Aeronautics and Space Administration controllers in Houston said.

Sleep enforces memory temporal sequence

LUBECK, Germany (UPI) -- German scientists have determined how the brain keeps track of the temporal sequence of memories.

People usually have good memories of some past events, but it's not been clear how the brain keeps track of the temporal sequence of memories -- did Paul spill his glass of wine before or after Mary left the party?

Jan Born and colleagues at the University of Lubeck have confirmed the theory that long-term memories are formed during sleep, while the brain replays recently encoded experiences.

Born and colleagues determined sleep not only strengthens the content of a memory, but also the order in which a memory was experienced, probably by a replay of the experiences in "forward" direction.

Students were asked to learn triplets of words presented one after the other. Then some slept while a control group remained awake. The students were then presented the words and asked which came before and which came after during the learning session.

The researchers discovered sleep enhanced the rested students' word recall, but only when they were asked to reproduce the learned words in a forward direction.

The study appears in the current issue of the online journal PLoS ONE.

BALTIMORE (UPI) -- A study of adults admitted to Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital shows those from nursing homes were likely to be infected with drug-resistant bacteria.

The study was intended to grasp the extent of one of the lesser known hospital superbugs -- multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter.

Results showed patients who had been in nursing homes, either admitted to Hopkins directly from a long-term care facility or transferred from home or another community hospital, were 12 times more likely than other patients to be carriers of the bacterium. Rates were even higher, 22 times, among those patients who were wheelchair- or bed-bound because their legs were paralyzed.

As a result of the study, Johns Hopkins Hospital officials will begin this summer to test all patients who have spent time in a nursing home, looking for drug-resistant bacteria at the outset of their hospital admission, while also using isolation precautions until the test results are known.

The study was presented Monday in Baltimore during a meeting of the Society of Health Care Epidemiology.

Some Natural Balance pet food recalled

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Natural Balance Pet Foods has halted the sale of some of its dry dog and cat food products.

The FDA said the company does not know the cause of the problems but has received reports of animals vomiting and experiencing kidney problems after eating the firm's Venison & Brown Rice Dry Dog Food or Venison & Green Pea Dry Cat Foods.

Although the company said the problems seem to be focused on one particular lot, as a precautionary measure it is pulling all dates of the pet foods from store shelves and advises consumers to discontinue using the items.

The FDA said there was no immediate indication whether the problem is related to ongoing pet food recalls. Additional information is available at naturalbalanceinc.com.

The ESA considers scientific proposals

PARIS (UPI) -- The European Space Agency said it has moved one step closer to defining its scientific program for 2015-2025.

ESA officials said they have received more than 60 letters of intent from European space-science teams, presenting preliminary concepts for the 10-year space program.

The mission concepts included the exploration of Jupiter and its satellite, Europa; a study of radiation from the Big Bang; testing theories concerning the inflation of the universe; missions studying near-Earth asteroids; satellites looking for liquid water on the Saturn moon Enceladus, and a study of Earth's gravity.

Detailed mission proposals are to be submitted by June 29. Then, beginning in October, the ESA will assess the proposals and pre-select three class-M missions and three class-L missions.

Class-M missions are medium-size projects, in which the costs to the ESA do not exceed $406 million (300 million euros). Class-L missions are larger projects, with cost envelopes not exceeding $879 million (650 million euros).

By the end of 2011, one class-M and one class-L mission will be adopted for implementation, with launches set for 2017 and 2018, in that order.

FDA approves first U.S. bird flu vaccine

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- A vaccine designed to protect humans against the H5N1 influenza virus, known as bird flu, has been approved for the first time in the United States.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the approval Tuesday. Officials said the vaccine could be used in the event of an influenza pandemic to provide early limited protection in the months before a vaccine tailored to a specific pandemic strain of the virus could be produced.

"The threat of an influenza pandemic is, at present, one of the most significant public health issues our nation and world faces," said Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, commissioner of food and drugs. "The approval of this vaccine is an important step forward in our protection against a pandemic."

Officials said the vaccine was obtained from a human strain and is intended for immunizing people 18 through 64 years of age who could be at increased risk of exposure to the H5N1 influenza virus contained in the vaccine.

The manufacturer, Sanofi Pasteur Inc., will not sell the vaccine commercially. Instead, the vaccine has been purchased by the federal government for inclusion within the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile for distribution by public health officials, if needed.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (UPI) -- A major U.S. university has announced it is finalizing plans as to how it will prepare for, and react to, an influenza pandemic.

Purdue University's planning committee, led by Carol Shelby, senior director of environmental health and public safety, and James Westman, director of the Purdue Student Health Center, prepared the plans.

The committee, among other things, is deciding how Purdue would feed its students if no mass gatherings are allowed, the manner in which a potential quarantine would be handled, how health services would be staffed around the clock, how buildings would be maintained, and how to maintain animal care and continue research projects.

All university offices have been asked to identify essential personnel who would need access to campus in the event of a quarantine.

The committee said the Internet would be an important source of information for faculty, staff and students and the university's Office of Information Technology is developing plans for redundant servers.

Cause found for Mars spacecraft loss

GREENBELT, Md. (UPI) -- A NASA investigative panel determined the probable cause of the mysterious disappearance of the Mars Global Surveyor was battery failure.

The panel said the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's orbiter apparently succumbed to battery failure caused by a sequence of events involving the onboard computer memory and ground commands that left it unable to control its orientation.

The determination was announced in a preliminary report by a NASA internal review board formed to determine why the spacecraft went silent Nov. 2, 2006.

"The loss of the spacecraft was the result of a series of events linked to a computer error made five months before the likely battery failure," said board Chairwoman Dolly Perkins, deputy director-technical of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

On Nov. 2, after being ordered to perform a routine adjustment of its solar panels, the spacecraft reported a series of alarms but indicated it had stabilized. That was its final transmission.

The board said the Surveyor's programmed safety system didn't include making sure the spacecraft orientation was thermally safe.

Additional information about the report and Surveyor's mission is available at: nasa.gov/mission_pages/mgs.

Scientists set submillimeter wave record

LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- U.S. engineers have set a world record in the generation of high-frequency submillimeter waves.

Researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles said their achievement will pave the way for a new generation of sensing and imaging devices.

The scientists' record-setting 324-gigahertz frequency was accomplished using a voltage-controlled oscillator in a 90-nanometer complementary metal-oxide semiconductor, or CMOS, integrated circuit -- a technology used in chips such as microprocessors.

The signal generator, which produces frequencies nearly 70 percent faster than other CMOS oscillators, is expected to result in new submillimeter devices that might someday be used in high-resolution sensors on spacecraft and on Earth in a new class of highly integrated and lightweight imagers that could literally cut through fog and see through clothing and fabrics.

Since frequency ultimately means bandwidth, "The higher frequency increases the available bandwidth," said Professor Frank Chang, who led the research. That greater bandwidth translates into faster communication speeds.

Chang and researchers Daquan Huang, Tim LaRocca and colleagues have applied for government grants to use the technology to design lightweight, low-power and highly integrated signal generators that can produce signals at frequencies up to 600 GHz.

Brain tumor vaccine trial shows promise

SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) -- A U.S. trial involving a brain tumor vaccine has shown promise in preliminary data.

The vaccine for treating glioma -- a recurrent and fatal cancer of the central nervous system that occurs primarily in the brain -- is being evaluated in a clinical trial at the University of California-San Francisco.

Findings from a group of 12 study patients showed vitespen vaccination (trademarked as Oncophage) was effective in stimulating the patients' immune systems to attack the tumor cells, a function that is known medically as tumor-specific immune response. All the patients had recurrent, high-grade glioma and all showed the immune response from the vaccine that is made from the patient's own tumor.

"In this trial, we have observed a correlation between immune response as a result of vitespen vaccination and potential clinical benefit," said lead investigator Dr. Andrew Parsa. "We are encouraged by the prolonged improvement in overall survival rates, although this (combined phase one and two) study is not designed to primarily evaluate efficacy."

The results of the clinical trial conducted by the University of California-San Francisco Brain Tumor Research Center were presented Monday in Washington during the 75th annual meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.

BERLIN (UPI) -- Teenage girls in Germany will be urged to get free cervical cancer vaccines under a new public health campaign.

Germany's Standing Commission for Vaccination recommended that the nation's 3 million girls between 12 and 17 be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus, The Times of London Reported.

The HPV virus causes about 70 percent of cervical tumors. Germany has sold the vaccines since last year but the commission's approval means they will be covered by state insurance companies for teenage girls.

"It not only prevents cancer," Dr. Lutz Gissman of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg told The Times, "it also takes away the fear of many thousands of women waiting for the outcome of tests for the illness.

MRI creator Paul C. Lauterbur dead at 77

URBANA, Ill. (UPI) -- Nobel Prize winner Paul C. Lauterbur, who helped develop magnetic resonance imaging, has died at 77 of kidney disease in Urbana, Ill.

Lauterbur worked at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill., for 22 years. He died Tuesday, The New York Times reported.

His work with MRIs has helped revolutionize medicine, allowing for a good look inside the human body without cutting it open. It helps avoid unnecessary surgery and cuts out the radiation of X-rays.

"Paul's influence is felt around the world every day, every time an MRI saves the life of a daughter or a son, a mother or a father," said Richard Herman, chancellor of the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois.

Dinosaur impact on mammals disputed

ATHENS, Ga. (UPI) -- U.S. and European researchers are challenging the idea that the mass extinction of dinosaurs played a major role in the evolution of mammals.

The report, published in the journal Nature, contains a new evolutionary tree for mammals that puts the major diversification of today's mammals long after a die-off of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago.

"We have found that when you fuse all of the molecular trees with the fossil evidence, the timing does not work," University of Georgia Institute of Ecology Director John Gittleman said in a release. "The preponderance of mammals really didn't take off until 10 (million) to 15 million years after the demise of the dinosaurs."

Scientists combined more than 2,500 partial "trees" constructed using molecular data and the fossil record to create the first virtually complete mammalian tree.

Lead author Olaf Bininda-Emonds of the University of Jena, Germany, says

the mammals we know today "are actually quite old and just flew under the radar of everything that was out there."

Beef may cause lower sperm count

LONDON (UPI) -- A U.S. study says high beef consumption by pregnant women may reduce the sperm count in their sons.

Researchers say anabolic steroids and other chemicals fed to North American cattle may be to blame, Britain's Telegraph reported.

The study, published in the journal Human Reproduction, looked at men born in United States between 1949 and 1983. It found that sons born to women who ate beef more than seven times a week while pregnant had a 24 percent lower sperm count than men whose mothers ate less beef.

Researchers said other contaminants and lifestyle factors that correlate with greater beef consumption may also have played a role.

Lead author Shanna Swan of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry said the study needs to be repeated in men born in Europe after 1988 "when growth promoters were no longer permitted in beef sold or produced there."

PARIS (UPI) -- A European Space Agency study has discovered experimental evidence of magnetic reconnection occurring in turbulent plasma fields surrounding the Earth.

Using measurements obtained by the four ESA Cluster satellites, the researchers -- led by Alessandro Retino of the Swedish Institute of Space Physics in Uppsala, Sweden -- confirmed predictions of such reconnections.

Magnetic reconnection, a phenomenon by which magnetic field lines become interconnected and reconfigure themselves, is a universal process in space that plays a key role in various astrophysical phenomena such as star formation. Reconnection has been observed at large-scale boundaries between different plasma environments where reconnection had been predicted via modeling.

Retino's study marks the first time that phenomenon has been observed.

The research by Retino and colleagues is published in the current issue of the journal Nature Physics.

Giant 256-slice CT scanner is tested

BALTIMORE (UPI) -- U.S. scientists at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have started a three-month safety and clinical test of a 256-slice computed tomography scanner.

The new Japanese-made, 2-ton device -- believed to be the world's most advanced CT imaging software and machine -- has four times the detector coverage of its immediate predecessor, the 64-CT.

The Aquilion beta 256, with a sticker price of more than $1 million, is expected to win approval for general clinical use within a year.

Dr. Joao Lima, a Johns Hopkins cardiologist who is leading the study, said the device can cover, in a single scan, four times the area of current CT devices, capturing an image about 5 inches in diameter -- a slice thick enough to image most individual organs in one swoop, including the brain and heart, entire joints, and most of the lungs and liver.

Scientists said the new, faster device will also make it possible to scan patients with arrhythmia, acquiring a full image in the time it takes for just one heart beat.

Nanoscience: a chance for blind students

MADISON, Wis. (UPI) -- U.S. scientists are creating large unique models of nano-sized structures to teach nanoscience to blind students.

The smallest object we can see with our eyes is thousands of times larger than a typical nano-sized structure -- even the most powerful microscopes can't peer into the nanoscale directly.

"The fact is, we're all blind at the nanoscale," said Andrew Greenberg of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and that's why nanoscale experiments offer great opportunities to teach blind and visually impaired students about nanoscience.

To give blind students a literal feel of nanoscience and technology, Greenberg, the director of the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, and biochemistry student Mohammed Farhoud, are building three-dimensional models of nano-surfaces large enough to be explored with the hands.

Their first attempt replicates "NanoBucky," a nanoscale version of the UW-Madison mascot that's so small 9,000 of them could fit on the head of a pin. The plaster 3-D models are tens of thousands of times larger, faithfully reproducing every NanoBucky nanofiber.

Greenberg and Farhoud presented their work Tuesday in Chicago during the 233rd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Animal to human transplants considered

BETHESDA, Md. (UPI) -- A U.S. scientist said the creation of genetically modified pigs has rekindled hopes of successful xenotransplantation -- interspecies organ transplants.

Given the shortage of donor organs, researchers have been trying to find a way to transplant animal organs into humans. The major stumbling block, said Dr Muhammad Mohiuddin of the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, is that the immune system in the animal receiving the organ tends to reject the transplant.

But he said the recent development of genetically modified pigs that are more compatible with humans has reinstated hope for the success of xenotransplantation.

However, he cautioned such research is a long way from being relevant to humans, mainly because of the risks of immune rejection and the transmittal of viruses and other pathogens from one species to another.

Mohiuddin discusses xenotransplantation issues in the journal PLoS Medicine.

NEW YORK (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists have determined immunity to cancer stem cells might help protect people with a precancerous condition from developing the disease.

Although stem cells hold great promise in the fight against certain diseases, mounting evidence suggests a tumor's growth may depend on cancer stem cells that comprise only a very small subset of the tumor.

But research by scientists at Rockefeller University suggests such cells could be an important target for cancer vaccines.

About 3 percent of adults age 40 years or more test positive for a condition known as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, or MGUS. That condition is relatively benign but in a small number of cases it progresses into multiple myeloma, a cancer of blood plasma cells.

Despite the fact MGUS and myeloma cells are genetically similar, researchers have been unable to determine why most MGUS patients never develop the cancer.

Associate Professor Madhav Dhodapkar and colleagues have determined MGUS patients who naturally develop an immune response to an embryonic stem cell protein called SOX2 appear to be protected against the development of myeloma.

The study appears in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

System might lead to surgery without scars

DALLAS (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have invented a system they say might lead to surgical procedures that don't produce scars.

University of Texas researchers created the technique -- still in the developmental stage -- that allows the magnetic maneuvering of laparoscopic surgical tools inserted into the abdominal cavity through a patient's naval or throat.

Dr. Jeffrey Cadeddu, an associate professor of urology and radiology at the UT Southwestern Medical Center, said he got the idea while watching a television show featuring teenagers who used magnets to hold studs on their lips to avoid lip piercing.

The system uses magnets positioned outside the abdomen to attract magnets attached to laparoscopic instruments inside the abdomen. Surgeons move the outside magnets to position an internal camera or to move a surgical instrument.

In animal studies, surgeons have been able to remove a kidney using the system.

Cadeddu and colleagues describe the new surgical concept, called the Magnetic Anchoring and Guidance System, in the March edition of the journal Annals of Surgery.

Scientists create new form of glass

CINCINNATI (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have created a new form of glass that spontaneously forms from sugar and oil.

Carlos Co and colleagues at the University of Cincinnati said the glass might be the starting point for a whole new class of materials with unique properties.

The researchers explored oil as an alternative to water as the medium for forming emulsions. They put sugar in oil, along with surface-active molecules, heated the mixture until the sugar melted and allowed the substance to cool.

They found the transparency and solid consistency of the resulting glasses that formed belie the inclusion of more than 50 volume percent of oil. The oil gives these materials liquid-like behavior, which, combined with their solid-like characteristics, provide a new set of properties.

The researchers believe the new glasses might find applications as sensors and optical devices, particularly in the pharmaceutical and food industry. And, since they are so different from anything else, the scientists believe the glasses might even inspire applications that do not yet exist.

The research is detailed in the journal Nature Materials.

Study: Batteries may work on sugar sources

CHICAGO (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have developed a fuel cell battery that runs on nearly any sugar source -- from soft drinks to tree sap -- and operates more efficiently.

The St. Louis University researchers said such batteries have the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than do conventional lithium ion batteries.

The new battery, which is also biodegradable, might eventually replace lithium ion batteries in many portable electronic applications, including computers, the scientists said.

"This study shows that renewable fuels can be directly employed in batteries at room temperature to lead to more energy-efficient battery technology than metal-based approaches," said study leader Shelley Minteer, an electrochemist at St. Louis University. "It demonstrates that by bridging biology and chemistry, we can build a better battery that's also cleaner for the environment."

The study was presented Sunday in Chicago, during the 233rd national meeting of the American Chemical Society.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (UPI) -- NASA and European Space Agency scientists have found Saturn's moon Enceladus affects Saturn's magnetic field, making it rotate slower than the planet.

That phenomenon, said astronomers, makes it nearly impossible to measure the length of the Saturn day.

"No one could have predicted the little moon Enceladus would have such an influence on the radio technique that has been used for years to determine the length of the Saturn day," said Don Gurnett of the University of Iowa, principal investigator of the radio-plasma wave science experiment onboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Cassini spacecraft.

A new study of Cassini data determined previous calculations of the length of the Saturn day are incorrect. Cassini has been measuring not the length of the Saturn day, but rather the rotational period of the planet's plasma disc.

At present, there is no technique that can accurately measure Saturn's rotation since the gaseous planet has no surface or fixed point to clock its rotation rate, the ESA said.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the ESA and the Italian Space Agency.

Study gives new insight into preeclampsia

SYDNEY, Australia (UPI) -- Australian scientists have found that a reduction of the blood flow to the uterus and placenta in pregnant baboons causes several signs of human preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia is a hypertensive disorder affecting 5 percent of pregnancies, resulting in both maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. There is no treatment other than induced delivery of the baby, with the causes and mechanisms of preeclampsia undetermined.

Now Angela Makris and colleagues at Heart Research Institute and University of Sydney have offered new insight into the condition with a primate model of preeclampsia induced by tying one of the uterine arteries.

The researchers found the resulting low blood flow causes increased blood pressure and protein in the mother's urine, both of which are important features of preeclampsia.

Makris said the study suggests a reduction in placental blood perfusion might result in the development of the condition.

The research appears in the current issue of the journal Kidney International.

ESA prepares the Jules Verne for launch

PARIS (UPI) -- The European Space Agency says Jules Verne, the first of five Automated Transfer Vehicles, is nearly ready for flight.

The spacecraft's inaugural mission, set for the second half of this year, follows three years of testing. The Jules Verne is the most complex spaceship developed in Europe.

For the first time in history, three space control centers -- in Moscow, Houston and Toulouse, France -- must work together, the ESA said. Specific procedures have been developed, allocating the tasks to be performed sequentially at the space centers.

The ESA said Jules Verne should be ready for shipment to its Kourou, French Guiana, launch site this summer.

No launch date has been set, mainly because of recent technical delays encountered by European and Russian test teams, as well as the delay in the latest launch of NASA's space shuttle Atlantis because of hail damage.

But ESA officials said the Jules Verne could launch in September, with the possibility of a schedule slip to November depending on the resolution of the Atlantis launch rescheduling and the priority given to the ATV to resupply the International Space Station with about six tons of cargo.

Mutant gene might cut colon cancer risk

PHILADELPHIA (UPI) -- U.S. cancer biologists have identified a gene mutation that can reduce the number of colon polyps, thereby potentially cutting the risk of colon cancer.

Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University's Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia used mice genetically prone to develop polyps and discovered that animals carrying one copy of the damaged gene, Atp5a1, had about 90 percent fewer polyps in their small intestine and colon.

Since people with large numbers of such polyps are at significantly higher risk to develop colon cancer, the researchers said their study might lead to new ways to diagnose, prevent and treat colon cancer.

The study, led by Associate Professors Linda Siracusa and Arthur Buchberg, is reported online in the journal Genome Research

BATON ROUGE, La. (UPI) -- A U.S.-led study of prehistoric hurricane activity suggests the chance of a category 4 or 5 storm hitting a Gulf of Mexico location is 0.3 percent a year.

Louisiana State University Professor Kam-biu Liu became interested in the subject during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when a national debate was sparked concerning hurricane intensity patterns and cycles.

"People were discussing the probability of a category 5 hurricane making direct impact on New Orleans," said Liu. "That's tricky, because it's never actually happened in history. Even Katrina, though still extremely powerful, was only a category 3 storm at landfall."

Liu and colleagues studied the result of prehistoric storm surges using radiocarbon analysis and other dating techniques to develop a chronology of prehistoric storms.

They determined evidence from the Gulf Coast drill sites shows hurricanes of catastrophic magnitude directly hit each location only approximately 10 to 12 times during the past 3,800 years.

"That means the chances of any particular Gulf location being hit by a category 4 or category 5 hurricane in any given year is around 0.3 percent," said Liu.

The study appears in the March issue of the journal American Scientist.

Termites' food selection ability studied

CANBERRA, Australia (UPI) -- Australian scientists have discovered termites can identify what sort of material their food is made of without having to actually touch the food source.

The finding by researchers at the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization and the University of New South Wales could provide improvements in termite control.

The scientists found that when offered a choice of normal wooden blocks and specially designed blocks made of wood and other materials, the termites always preferred the blocks containing the most wood, even when they could not touch or see the other materials.

The researchers said the ability to differentiate between food sources is based on the vibrations of the food the termites are eating, although the exact mechanism for that ability has not yet been determined.

"If we understand how they use vibrations to assess their food, we might be able to exploit this to manipulate their feeding habits, and address the very significant problem of termite damage in buildings and other structures," said lead investigator Ra Inta.

The study appears in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

Radiation resistant bacterium is studied

BETHESDA, Md. (UPI) -- U.S. researchers have discovered a protective mechanism used by a radiation-resistant bacterium that might lead to new protections from radiation exposure.

The discoveries by researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences -- the United States' only fully accredited federal school of medicine -- could lead to new avenues of exploration for radiation protection in diverse settings.

Associate Professor Michael Daly and colleagues found the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans can protect itself from high doses of ionizing radiation.

The scientists said their study will likely shift D. radiodurans research from DNA damage and repair toward a potent form of protein protection.

The researchers said their findings, after further exploration, could eventually influence how individuals are treated for exposure to chronic or acute doses of radiation, how cancer patients can be protected from the toxic effects of radiation therapy and how to better enable efforts to contain toxic runoff from radioactive Cold War waste sites.

The study is detailed in the current edition of PLoS Biology.

Spacecraft reveals complex solar processes

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (UPI) -- NASA has released never-before-seen images that show the sun's magnetic field is much more turbulent and dynamic than previously known.

The international spacecraft Hinode, formerly known as Solar B, took the images.

Hinode was launched Sept. 23 to study the sun's magnetic field and its explosive energy. National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists said the spacecraft's uninterrupted high-resolution observations of the sun are expected to have an impact on solar physics comparable to the Hubble Space Telescope's impact on astronomy.

"For the first time, we are now able to make out tiny granules of hot gas that rise and fall in the sun's magnetized atmosphere," said Dick Fisher, director of NASA's Heliophyics Division. "These images will open a new era of study on some of the sun's processes that effect Earth, astronauts, orbiting satellites and the solar system."

Hinode is a collaborative mission led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and includes the European Space Agency and Britain's Particle Physics Astronomy Research Council.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., managed the development of the Hinode's scientific instrumentation provided by industry and federal agencies.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (UPI) -- U.S. government scientists are experimenting with polymers and organic molecules in projects designed to create more efficient light-emitting diodes.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in collaboration with the University of Tennessee, believe the thin films of polymers will improve the next generation of LED devices.

LEDs are most commonly used in traffic signals, vehicle taillights, cell phone displays and other small-screen devices.

At ORNL, researchers are developing electrodes composed of carbon nanotubes and magnetic nanowires to enhance the light emission from polymer-based organic LEDs -- those made from carbon-based molecules and not semiconductors.

In early tests, carbon nanotubes improved the electroluminescence efficiency of polymer LEDs by a factor of four and reduced the energy required to operate them. Magnetic nanowires and dots have been shown to help control the spin of electrons injected into the LEDs to further improve efficiency and reliability.

The researchers hope to create a technology that consumes less than half the power of today's LEDs and opens the door for their practical use in household lighting.

FDA OKs drug to treat rare blood disorder

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Soliris (eculizumab), the first drug produced for the treatment of a rare blood disorder.

The disorder, paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, or PNH, can lead to disability and premature death. Soliris is classified as an orphan drug -- a pharmaceutical developed to treat fewer than 200,000 people. Orphan status gives the drug's manufacturer a seven-year period in which to exclusively market the compound.

Soliris, is manufactured by Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Cheshire, Conn.

"This product is important in that it offers a treatment other than blood transfusion that may help this small population of patients who are often very ill," said Dr. Steven Galson, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

PNH, which usually develops in adults, is a disease characterized by red blood cells that develop abnormally Depending upon the severity of the disorder, patients with PNH may experience pain, fatigue, debilitating weakness, blood clots, and life-threatening or fatal strokes, heart attacks and intestinal disease. They often need frequent blood transfusions.

Soliris does not cure PNH, but treats the breakdown of red blood cells.

Interplanetary supply chains considered

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (UPI) -- U.S. scientists engaged in NASA-funded research have created a software tool for modeling interplanetary supply chains.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers Olivier de Weck and David Simchi-Levi created SpaceNet, a tool designed to help the National Aeronautics and Space Administration establish a long-term human presence on the moon.

To make such a scenario possible, a reliable stream of consumables such as fuel, food and oxygen and spare parts would have to be transported from the Earth to the moon as predictably as in an Earth-based delivery system.

"Increasingly, there is a realization that crewed space missions, such as the International Space Station or the buildup of a lunar outpost, should not be treated as isolated missions but rather as an integrated supply chain," said de Weck.

A reliable supply chain, he said, would improve exploration capability and the quality of scientific results, while minimizing transportation costs and reducing risks to crew members.

SpaceNet evaluates the capability of vehicles to carry pressurized and unpressurized cargo; simulating the flow of vehicles, crew and supply items through the trajectories of a space supply network.

SpaceNet information is available at spacelogistics.mit.edu.

ESA produces greenhouse gas movies

BREMEN, Germany (UPI) -- European scientists have used satellite data to produce the first movies showing the global distribution of the most important greenhouse gases.

Researchers used three years of data from the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite to depict the distribution of carbon dioxide and methane, the two most important contributors to global warming.

The SCIAMACHY -- Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartogra -- instrument is the first space sensor capable of measuring the most important greenhouse gases with high sensitivity down to the Earth's surface.

The movie was produced for the ESA by Michael Buchwitz and Oliver Schneising of the Institute of Environmental Physics at the University of Bremen in Germany, led by Professor John Burrows, from SCIAMACHY observations taken 2003-05.

The research is among several studies concerning greenhouse gases to be featured next month during the 2007 Envisat Symposium in Montreux, Switzerland.

BLACKSBURG, Va. (UPI) -- A U.S. scientist is designing a type of robot that uses "whole skin locomotion" to function on much the same principle as an amoeba's pseudopod foot.

The director of Virginia Tech's Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, Dennis Hong, said experiments show such a robot can easily squeeze between obstacles or under a collapsed ceiling, using all of its contact surfaces for traction.

Hong, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is designing his whole skin locomotion mechanism's cylindrical shape and expanding and contracting actuating rings so it can turn itself inside out in a single continuous motion, mimicking the motion of the cytoplasmic tube an amoeba generates for propulsion.

Hong said he hopes his research will help promote the concept of bio-inspiration in robot design. "The mechanism also has the potential for use in medical applications -- such as robotic endoscopes, for example, where a robot must maneuver in tight spaces."

NASA: Global sunscreen has likely thinned

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- NASA scientists believe the Earth's "sunscreen" -- a layer of aerosol particles such as dust that counters greenhouse gas warming -- has become thinner.

A National Aeronautics and Space Administration study found the Earth's "sunscreen" has become thinner since early 1990s. And in a related study, scientists found the opposing forces of global warming and the cooling from aerosol-induced "global dimming" can occur at the same time.

"When more sunlight can get through the atmosphere and warm Earth's surface, you're going to have an effect on climate and temperature," said lead author Michael Mishchenko of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. "Knowing what aerosols are doing globally gives us an important missing piece of the big picture of the forces at work on climate."

The study used the longest uninterrupted satellite record of aerosols in the lower atmosphere dating to 1978. The resulting data showed large, short-lived spikes in global aerosols caused by major volcanic eruptions in 1982 and 1991, but a gradual decline since about 1990. By 2005, global aerosols had dropped as much as 20 percent from the relatively stable level between 1986 and 1991.

The study appears in the journal Science.

Preeclampsia proteins identified

March 19 (UPI) -- A U.S.-led team of scientists has identified proteins released by the placenta that might damage blood vessels in women with preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia is a complication of pregnancy linked with life-threatening increases in high blood pressure after 20 weeks gestation. It has long been recognized that substances called "microparticles" released by the placenta in preeclampsia damage maternal blood vessels.

Yale University researchers, led by Seth Guller, sought to detect whether specific proteins were found in microparticles.

The team, including researchers from Berne, Switzerland, studied placentas obtained from patients with preeclampsia who had uncomplicated pregnancies delivered at term by Caesarean section.

"In this study, we demonstrate for the first time that microparticles released by the placenta may contain factors that damage maternal blood vessels in preeclampsia," said Guller, an associate professor.

Guller said his team only detected whether specific proteins were found in microparticles. "In the future, we will determine whether they are biologically active -- promote damage in vessel culture models -- and whether they are present in the blood of women with preeclampsia," said Guller.

The study was presented Saturday in Reno, Nev., during a meeting of the Society for Gynecologic Investigation.

Scientists study infant perception

NEW YORK (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists have determined infants are able to detect at least some three-dimensional images.

New York University researcher Sarah Shuwairi and colleagues used pictures or illusions of three-dimensional images that do not make any visual sense -- deceptions that result from our ability to create three-dimensional objects from two-dimensional images.

Inevitably, people end up staring at such images for several moments, attempting to make sense of the impossible.

To determine when humans develop the ability to perceive coherence in three-dimensional objects, the researchers placed 30 4-month-old infants in front of computer screens displaying alternating "possible" and "impossible" 3-D images and recorded how long the infants looked at each of the objects.

The result was that infants looked significantly longer at impossible figures, suggesting humans have the ability as young as 4 months of age to detect at least some three-dimensional features that give rise to the perception of object coherence.

Shuwairi says the finding provides important insights into how infants develop an understanding of the physical world around them.

The study appears in the journal Psychological Science.

STANFORD, Calif. (UPI) -- Rising temperatures have caused annual losses of about $5 billion a year in major food crops between 1981 and 2002, U.S. researchers said Friday.

The total production of wheat, corn and barley was reduced by 40 million metric tons per year, said the researchers from the Carnegie Institution and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The study, which was to be published Saturday in the online journal Environmental Research Letters, said the decline is due to human-caused increases in global temperatures.

"Most people tend to think of climate change as something that will impact the future," said Christopher Field, co-author on the study and director of Carnegie's Department of Global Ecology in Stanford, Calif. "But this study shows that warming over the past two decades has already had real effects on global food supply."

No mouth-to-mouth necessary in CPR

TOKYO (UPI) -- Heart attack victims do twice as well with chest compressions alone as with traditional CPR, Japanese researchers reported.

The report "should lead to a prompt revision of the guidelines for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest," Dr. Gordon A. Ewy of the University of Arizona College of Medicine wrote in an editorial accompanying a study published in the journal Lancet, The Los Angeles Times reported.

The Times reported that up to 75 percent of bystanders witnessing a heart attack don't perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation because they fear catching something, so the study from Surugadai Nihon University Hospital in Tokyo could have an impact.

The study only applied to people collapsing from heart attacks. People suffering from respiratory arrest -- a drowning or drug overdose victim, for example -- would still require conventional CPR, the Times said.

The researchers reviewed the cases of 4,068 adults who had heart attacks in front of witnesses. Those who'd received chest compressions alone did twice as well as those who'd received conventional CPR, the researchers reported, the Times said.

New York City hospital worker had TB

NEW YORK (UPI) -- Hundreds of Bronx hospital patients, including infants, and their relatives were exposed to tuberculosis by a staffer, said New York City health officials.

The Health Department is tracking down anyone treated in the maternity, baby nursery, neonatal intensive care and psychiatric units of St. Barnabas Hospital between Nov. 1, 2006 and Jan. 24.

"This health care worker has a strain that ... responds to the most common tuberculosis medications," Dr. Sonal Munsiff, assistant commissioner for TB control at the city Health Department, told the New York Daily News. "This means we can give effective treatment to exposed people to prevent them from getting active TB."

The New York Post said the Health Department and the hospital went public with its search for patients because they had not been able to reach many of them. Of 571 patients or family members initially identified and contacted by mail -- including 238 infants - only 260 have been tested, the Post reported.

Three adults and no infants have tested positive for tuberculosis exposure, but not active TB, the Post said.

In space, trash can't go to the curb

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (UPI) -- Taking out the trash is no simple chore on the International Space Station, where some junk is carefully hurled into the Earth's atmosphere to burn.

"It's really only a measure of last resort," Nicholas Johnson, head of NASA's orbital debris program told USA Today of the space trash technique. "We don't want to create debris even if it's short-lived, unless it's overwhelmingly necessary."

USA Today reported that in April, astronaut James Reilly is scheduled to toss five sun protection covers into space during a spacewalk. Later this year, astronaut Clay Anderson is scheduled to throw a storage tank into space, the newspaper reported.

Such disposal takes careful planning and good aim so the trash doesn't hit the space station or a visiting shuttle. The debris should burn within weeks or months.

Tossing trash into space is "a lot of fun," astronaut William McArthur told USA Today. He threw out an electric-charge sensor in 2005.

"Maybe it's like the first time you ever parallel-park a car," he told the newspaper. "Until you've actually done a physical task, there are doubts."

AUSTIN, Texas (UPI) -- More than 30 of the world's leading polar ice experts are preparing for a discussion concerning the fate of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

The scientists want to seek greater scientific consensus on one of the world's major uncertainties involving future sea-level rise during the March 26-28 meeting at the University of Texas at Austin. They are to issue a public statement after the meeting. The ice sheet contains the potential to raise the global sea level by several feet, thereby increasing the risk of flooding for tens of millions of people living along the world's coastal regions, scientists said.

A recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change didn't include the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, with scientists acknowledging they needed greater consensus on the subject.

The first two days of the Texas meeting will be private, with scientists combining knowledge and latest research on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. They are to focus on the Amundsen Sea embayment, which represents one third of the ice sheet and its most rapidly changing drainage basin.

This workshop is an International Polar Year event.

New mammalian species discovered

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- A team of U.S. and Chinese paleontologists has discovered a new species of mammal that lived 125 million years ago in China.

The researchers say the discovery also provides first-hand evidence of early evolution of the mammalian middle ear -- one of the most important features for modern mammals.

"This early mammalian ear from China is a Rosetta stone type of discovery which reinforces the idea that development of complex body parts can be explained by evolution, using exquisitely preserved fossils," said H. Richard Lane of the U.S. National Science Foundation, which funded the research.

Named Yanoconodon allini after the Yan Mountains in China's Hebei province, the fossil is the first Mesozoic Era mammal recovered from Hebei. The fossil site is about 190 miles from Beijing.

The researchers say the skull of Yanoconodon revealed a middle ear structure that is an intermediate step between those of modern mammals and those of near relatives of mammals, also known as mammaliaforms.

The discovery is reported in the current issue of the journal Nature.

Migraine prophylactic ups job productivity

PHILADELPHIA (UPI) -- A U.S. study confirms taking a daily medication to prevent migraine headaches can reduce lost job productivity.

Researchers led by Jennifer Lofland of Thomas Jefferson University analyzed data on 325 working adults with a history of migraine attacks.

Half of the workers were assigned to daily prophylactic treatment with topiramate (Topamax), while the other half took an inactive placebo. The analysis was based on previous studies showing topiramate's effectiveness in reducing the frequency of migraine attacks.

Treatment with topiramate had only a small effect on work absenteeism, the researchers reported. But the drug had a much greater effect on "presenteeism" -- days an employee was at work, but performing at less than full capacity because of a migraine attack.

When reductions in presenteeism and absenteeism were combined, total lost productive time per month decreased for workers taking topiramate -- from 14.6 hours before treatment to 5.1 hours during treatment.

Lost productive time also decreased for workers taking the inactive treatment, reflecting a significant placebo effect. Nevertheless, the researchers said the gain in productivity remained higher with topiramate -- especially in terms of reduced presenteeism.

The study appears in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

U.S. school children name ISS module

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (UPI) -- National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials have announced the International Space Station's Node 2 module will be named "Harmony."

NASA announced the new name during ceremonies Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center, where the module is being prepared for launch later this year.

The name was chosen from an academic competition involving more than 2,200 kindergarten through high school students from 32 states. The competition required students to write an essay explaining their proposed name for the module.

Six schools submitted the name "Harmony." A panel of NASA educators, engineers, scientists and senior agency management selected that name, saying it symbolizes the spirit of international cooperation embodied by the space station, as well as the module's specific role in connecting the international partner modules.

The winning schools were Browne Academy, Alexandria, Va.; Buchanan Elementary School, Baton Rouge, La.; League City Intermediate School, League City, Texas; Lubbock High School, Lubbock, Texas; West Navarre Intermediate School, Navarre, Fla.; and the World Group Home School, Monona, Wis.

Harmony is the first U.S. section of the space station named by people outside of NASA.

BOULDER, Colo. (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have developed a technique to generate laser-like X-ray beams, moving science closer to building a tabletop X-ray laser.

For nearly half a century, scientists have been trying to figure out how to build a cost-effective and reasonably sized X-ray laser to provide super-high imaging resolution in biological and medical research projects. Now a team led by University of Colorado-Boulder physics Professors Henry Kapteyn and Margaret Murnane have overcome a major hurdle.

The researchers say most of today's X-ray lasers require so much power that they rely on fusion laser facilities the size of football stadiums, making their use impractical.

"We've come up with a good end run around the requirement for a monstrous power source," Kapteyn said. If the technology can be extended into the hard X-ray region of the electromagnetic spectrum, the scientists say it might make it possible to improve X-ray imaging resolution by a thousand times, with impacts in medicine, biology and nanotechnology.

The research appears in the current issue of the journal Nature Physics.

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ESA prepares for BepiColombo

PARIS (UPI) -- The European Space Agency's Science Program Committee has officially approved the BepiColombo mission to explore the planet Mercury.

The ESA says the mission will now start its industrial implementation phase in preparation for launch in August 2013.

BepiColombo will be implemented in collaboration with Japan. A satellite "duo" consisting of an orbiter for planetary investigation and one for magnetospheric studies will reach Mercury after a six-year journey. The satellites will perform the most extensive and detailed study of the planet so far, the ESA said.

The Mercury Planetary Orbiter will be under ESA responsibility, while the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter will be under the responsibility of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The Mercury Transfer Module, also under ESA control, will provide the electrical and chemical propulsion required to perform the cruise to Mercury. The three modules assembled together for the launch and cruise phase make up a single composite spacecraft.

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Japanese scientists grow Petri dish teeth

CHIBA, Japan (UPI) -- Japanese scientists say they have become the first to successfully replace natural teeth in mice with teeth that were created in a Petri dish.

Takashi Tsuji and colleagues at the Tokyo University of Science said they started with the two cell types that develop into a tooth -- mesenchymal and epithelial cells. First they grew each cell type separately to obtain larger quantities of cells and then injected them into a drop of collagen -- a substance that "glues" cells together in an organism.

The cells developed into a budding tooth with high efficiency and, when transplanted into the cavity of an extracted tooth in a mouse, developed normally and showed the same composition and structure as natural teeth.

The researchers say that method can be applied to any organ that develops from those cell types.

The experiment is described online in the journal Nature Methods.

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Safety of prostate cancer therapy pondered

BOSTON (UPI) -- U.S. scientists are questioning the safety of androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer, saying it might increase the risk of heart disease.

The study by researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital and other institutions say the therapy might increase the risk of death from heart disease in patients over age 65.

Although the findings need to be confirmed in clinical trials, the researchers say oncologists should weigh the benefits of androgen deprivation therapy against the risk of heart problems in older prostate cancer patients.

"Androgen deprivation therapy is associated with elevated body mass index, increased body fat deposits and diabetes, all of which raise the risk of death from heart disease," said the study's lead author, Dr. Henry Tsai.

The researchers presented their study during the weekend at the Prostate Cancer Symposium in Orlando, Fla., sponsored by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology and the Society of Urologic Oncology.