Study endorses wood as ‘green’ building material

A new report concludes that wood is one of the most environmentally-sensitive building materials for home construction — it uses less overall energy than other products, causes fewer air and water impacts and does a better job of the carbon ”sequestration” that can help address global warming. The research showed that wood framing used 17 percent less energy than steel construction for a typical house built in Minnesota, and 16 percent less energy than a house using concrete construction in Atlanta. And in these two examples, the use of wood had 26-31 percent less global warming potential.

Drug shown to block mutant protein causing blood disease

Scientists have prolonged the lives of mice with a rare blood disorder by using an experimental drug that blocks signals promoting runaway growth of blood cells. The researchers also tested the drug, PKC412, in a patient with the hard-to-treat disease, called Myeloproliferative Disease (MPD), and saw her symptoms improve. PKC412, like the spotlight drug Gleevec, is a highly specific ”targeted” drug that disables a switch in cancer cells that has become jammed in the ”on” position because of a genetic mutation. The glitch allows a continuous stream of signals to prod blood cells into an uncontrolled frenzy of division and growth. The overproduction of white blood cells in MPD damages organs and generally turns into an acute leukemia that can be fatal.

Researchers Discover ‘Hole’ in Global Warming Predictions

In the future, global warming might not be as severe in the central United States as in other parts of the country, according to scientists at Saint Louis University and Iowa State University. Using a detailed regional climate model, these researchers estimate summertime daily maximum temperatures will not climb as high in a Midwestern region — centered on the Missouri/Kansas border — as anywhere else in the United States. The hole stretches for hundreds of miles and includes Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients massively under-treated

Approximately half of patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) fail to receive the recommended dose and schedule of chemotherapy, reducing their chances for remission or cure. The study of 4,522 patients in 567 oncology practices nationwide, led by the University of Rochester Medical Center, is the largest of its kind to date. It found that 48 to 53 percent of NHL patients received less than 85 percent of the recommended chemotherapy dose intensity due to treatment delays of at least one week or dose reduction.

Peer to peer

If you find your Professor or supervisor intimidating and don’t want to lose face asking seemingly naive questions about a course or your research, who can you turn to? A peer mentor might be the answer. Peer-mentoring schemes have been around since ancient times, they even get a mention in Greek texts, but today they are becoming increasingly popular in academic environments as educators begin to recognise the benefits for their students of learning with a little help from their friends.

Read David Bradley Science Writer on P2P for scientists

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Termites could hold the key to self-sufficient buildings

Mounds built by highly-evolved African termites could inspire new types of building that are self-sufficient, environmentally friendly and cheap to run. The mounds provide a self-regulating living environment that responds to changing internal and external conditions. A multidisciplinary team of engineers and entomologists is looking at whether similar principles could be used to design buildings that need few or no mechanical services (e.g. heating and ventilation) and so use less energy and other resources than conventional structures.

Certain genes boost fish oils’ protection against breast cancer

Researchers who found that fish oils appear to reduce breast cancer risk have now discovered that the oils may especially benefit women with particular genetic makeups. The protective effects of fish oils, called marine n-3 or omega-3 fatty acids, are linked to the cancer-fighting properties of the oil’s byproducts, propose investigators from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and the National University of Singapore. The study in Carcinogenesis was published early online through the journal’s Web site. Moreover, researchers believe that women whose bodies do a poor job of getting rid of the fish oils’ byproducts are the ones who benefit most from consuming the oils.

Researchers eliminate leukemia in mice

Scientists have corrected a flaw in cancer cells that lets them evade the normal cell-death process, and as a result they eliminated leukemia cells from mice. With this achievement, the researchers confirm that a key anti-cell-death molecule called BCL-2 is required by many types of cancer cells to survive, and that silencing it with designer drugs may prove to be an effective new avenue for cancer therapy. Using drugs to manipulate apoptosis, or ”programmed cell death” in cancers ”is a new paradigm that hasn’t been well explored yet.”

‘Fossil genes’ reveal how life sheds form and function

Reading the fossil record, a paleontologist can peer into evolutionary history and see the surface features that plants and animals and, occasionally, microbes have left behind. Now, scouring the genome of a Japanese yeast, scientists have found a trackway of fossil genes in the making, providing a rare look at how an organism, in response to the demands of its environment, has changed its inner chemistry and lost the ability to metabolize a key sugar.

Nuclear power helps protect Japan from rising oil prices

Nuclear power contributes to Japan’s energy security by reducing the economic impact of an oil price shock, a new study concludes. The study estimates that in the absence of nuclear power, the cumulative impact of a single oil price shock (25-percent change in oil prices) could result in a loss of up to 2 trillion yen (U.S. $18.2 billion) in gross domestic product. On a per-megawatt basis, this places the value of nuclear power at roughly 42 million yen (U.S. $382,000) per megawatt of installed nuclear capacity. That’s about 15.7 percent of the capital cost of a nuclear plant in Japan.

Glaciers Surge When Ice Shelf Breaks Up

Since 2002, when the Larsen B ice shelf broke away from the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, scientists have witnessed profound increases in the flow of nearby glaciers into the Weddell Sea. These observations were made possible through NASA, Canadian and European satellite data. Two NASA-funded reports used different techniques to arrive at similar results. Researchers said the findings prove ice shelves act as ”brakes” on the glaciers that flow into them. The results also suggest climate warming can rapidly lead to rises in sea level. Large ice shelves in the Antarctic Peninsula disintegrated in 1995 and 2002, as a result of climate warming.

Central corneal thickness impacts glaucoma treatment

In a new study, researchers have demonstrated the significance of central corneal thickness on the clinical management of patients with glaucoma and those suspected to have glaucoma. While confirming previous research about the relevance of CCT in glaucoma management, this study represents one of the first attempts to determine exactly how great an impact CCT has on a patient’s intraocular pressure (IOP), fluid build-up inside the eye that is a glaucoma risk factor. Results found that CCT affected more than half of the patients in the study. ”We were astounded to find that so many of the glaucoma patients in our study needed an IOP adjustment, based on their CCT measurement.”

Modified linseed produces healthier omega 3 and 6 fatty acids

In research reported this month in The Plant Cell, scientists succeeded in producing genetically modified linseed plants that accumulate significant levels of very long chain poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in seed. This is the first report of the successful engineering of very long chain PUFA into an oilseed crop, and is an excellent example of how genetic engineering of agronomically important species can provide real benefits to human health and nutrition and the environment.

Obese trauma patients more likely to die of their injuries

Critically injured obese trauma patients have higher rates of death than nonobese trauma patients. According to a new study, 18.9 percent of the U.S. population is obese, defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher. Obesity can interfere with the body’s response to injury — obese patients have reduced lung capacity and a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease. Obesity also makes surgery more difficult and risky, and radiographic images less reliable, the article states.