University Of California Irvine

Co-ordination between home, preschool, school key to child’s progress

May 14, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 14 (ANI): Co-ordination between home, preschool, and school is fundamental to child’s progress, a new study claims.

Robert Crosnoe, associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, analysed more than 1,300 children living in 10 locations in the United States to reach the conclusion.

The kids were followed from birth in the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development.

It was carried out under the auspices of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, Tufts University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of California, Irvine, the University of Virginia, and the NICHD Early Child Care Research Network.

Crosnoe said: ” The study has implications for policy as Congress reauthorizes the No Child Left Behind Act. Our findings point to the importance of improving coordination among parents, preschool classrooms, and elementary schools to boost children”s achievement.”

The experts evaluated children”s homes and child care/preschool settings when the children were 4-1/2 years old, studied their first grade classrooms, and evaluated reading and math test scores through fifth grade.

In doing so, they gauged whether the links between various combinations of cognitive stimulation and children”s achievement were simply due to the socioeconomic circumstances of the children”s families, or whether children from different socioeconomic backgrounds got more or less, academically, from each combination.

Crosnoe added: “The ultimate payoff of attempts to improve one context of early childhood depends in part on whether related contexts are improved, too.”

Moreover, even though children from advantaged families are more likely to experience this convergence of support for learning across the contexts of their lives, the study found that low-income children may benefit more from it.

Crosnoe further briefed: “Helping children, especially those from poor families, get off to a good start in elementary school has become a major focus of education policy. These policy interventions typically target one setting—the home, preschool, or elementary school—but rarely the intersection of all three.”

He ended: “To do so, policymakers must put renewed focus on the home-preschool partnerships often advocated by early intervention programs and the family-school partnerships advocated by No Child Left Behind, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.” (ANI)

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Engineers design sensors to monitor pipes after earthquakes

August 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 19 (ANI): Engineers at UC (University of California) Irvine are planning to outfit the local water system with sensors that monitor pipes after earthquakes and other disasters.

The sensors will alert officials when and where pipes crack or break, hastening repair, thanks to nearly 5.7 million dollars over three years from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and several local water groups.

“When an earthquake occurs and infrastructure systems fail, continued service of the water network is most critical,” said Masanobu Shinozuka, lead project investigator and civil and environmental engineering chair.

“Before anything happens, I’d like to have a pipe monitoring system in place to let us know when and where damage occurs. It could minimize misery and save lives,” he added.

About 240,000 water-main breaks occur per year in the US, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

For example, in December, a burst sent about 150,000 gallons of water per minute onto a busy Maryland road, stranding motorists in the icy deluge.

Water system failures are estimated to waste up to 6 billion gallons of drinking water every day.

Shinozuka and Pai Chou, electrical engineering and computer science associate professor, have created CD-sized sensing devices that attach to the surface of pressurized (drinking water) and nonpressurized (wastewater) pipes.

They will detect vibration and sound changes that could indicate pipe problems.

Through antennae, the sensors will relay information wirelessly over long distances to a central location for recording, processing and diagnostic analysis.

Initially, the sensor network will cover about one square mile of the local water system. Eventually, it could encompass more than 10 square miles – the largest of its kind to date.

A small-scale pressurized water pipe network designed and built by UCI researchers has confirmed that this type of damage identification works well.

The research team now is designing a system that functions underground as well as over a larger area.

As the research progresses, the team plans to develop methods of rapidly repairing pipe damage at joints and other vulnerable locations. (ANI)

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Coastal whales threatened by ‘bycatch whaling’

June 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, June 24 (ANI): In a new study, scientists have warned that a new form of unregulated whaling, called ‘bycatch’, is becoming a growing threat to whales along the coastlines of Japan and South Korea.

According to Scott Baker, associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, DNA analysis of whale-meat products sold in Japanese markets suggests that the number of whales actually killed through this “bycatch whaling” may be equal to that killed through Japan’s scientific whaling program – about 150 annually from each source.

The study, by Baker, a cetacean expert, and Vimoksalehi Lukoscheck of the University of California-Irvine, found that nearly 46 percent of the minke whale products they examined in Japanese markets originated from a coastal population, which has distinct genetic characteristics, and is protected by international agreements.

Their conclusion was that as many as 150 whales came from the coastal population through commercial bycatch whaling, and another 150 were taken from an open ocean population through Japan’s scientific whaling.

“In some past years, Japan only reported about 19 minke whales killed through bycatch, though that number has increased recently as new regulations governing commercial bycatch have been adopted,” Baker said.

Japan is now seeking International Whaling Commission (IWC) agreement to initiate a small coastal whaling program, a proposal which Baker said should be scrutinized carefully because of the uncertainty of the actual catch and the need to determine appropriate population counts to sustain the distinct stocks.

Whales are occasionally killed in entanglements with fishing nets and the deaths of large whales are reported by most member nations of the IWC.

Japan and South Korea are the only countries that allow the commercial sale of products killed as “incidental bycatch.”

“The sheer number of whales represented by whale-meat products on the market suggests that both countries have an inordinate amount of bycatch,” Baker said.

“The sale of bycatch alone supports a lucrative trade in whale meat at markets in some Korean coastal cities, where the wholesale price of an adult minke whale can reach as high as 100,000 dollars,” he added.

“Given these financial incentives, you have to wonder how many of these whales are, in fact, killed intentionally,” he pondered. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: coastal population, dna analysis, entanglements, fishing nets, Genetic Characteristics, International Whaling Commission, japanese markets, marine mammal, meat products, Member Nations, minke whale, minke whales, open ocean, oregon state university, scientific whaling, scott baker, sheer number, university of california irvine, whale meat, whale products, whaling program

Body clock, metabolism link could lead to cancer treatment

March 13, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 13 (ANI): Researchers at University of California, Irvine, have found that circadian rhythms, our own body clock, regulate energy levels in cells.

According to researchers, the findings could provide greater insights into the bond between the body’s day-night patterns and metabolism. They said that the discovery could help create new ways to treat cancer, diabetes, obesity and a host of related diseases.

Also, Paolo Sassone-Corsi, Distinguished Professor and Chair of Pharmacology, and his colleagues found that the proteins involved with circadian rhythms and metabolism are intrinsically linked and dependent upon each other.

“Our circadian rhythms and metabolism are closely partnered to ensure that cells function properly and remain healthy. This discovery opens a new window for us to understand how these two fundamental processes work together, and it can have a great impact on new treatments for diseases caused by cell energy deficiencies,” Sassone-Corsi said.

Sassone-Corsi had already identified that the enzyme protein CLOCK is an essential molecular gear of the circadian machinery and interacts with a protein, SIRT1, which senses cell energy levels and modulates aging and metabolism.

In the new study, Sassone-Corsi and his colleagues show that CLOCK works in balance with SIRT1 to direct activity in a cell pathway by which metabolic proteins send signals called the NAD+ salvage pathway.

In turn, a key protein in that pathway, NAMPT, helps control CLOCK levels, creating a tightly regulated codependency between our circadian clock and metabolism.

“When the balance between these two vital processes is upset, normal cellular function can be disrupted. And this can lead to illness and disease,” Sassone-Corsi said.

He said that the findings suggest that proper sleep and diet may help maintain or rebuild this balance, and also help explain why lack of rest or disruption of normal sleep patterns can increase hunger, leading to obesity-related illnesses and accelerated aging.

The specific interaction between CLOCK and SIRT1 and the NAD+ salvage pathway also presents a starting point for drug development aimed at curbing cell dysfunction and death, thereby helping to solve major medical problems such as cancer and diabetes.

Their study appears online in Science Express. (ANI)

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Sea level rise to threaten 1 in 10 humans in low-lying coastal areas by 2100

March 11, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, March 11 (ANI): New research has indicated that rising sea levels due to global warming would have major impacts around the world, with a maximum rise of one meter by 2100 endangering one in ten humans in low lying coastal areas.

The research, presented at the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change in Copenhagen shows that the upper range of sea level rise by 2100 could be in the range of about one meter, or possibly more.

In the lower end of the spectrum, it looks increasingly unlikely that sea level rise will be much less than 50 cm by 2100.

This means that if emissions of greenhouse gases is not reduced quickly and substantially, even the best case scenario will hit low lying coastal areas housing one in ten humans on the planet hard.

New insights reported include the loss of ice from the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets.

According to Dr John Church of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, “The oceans are continuing to warm and expand, the melting of mountain glacier has increased and the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are also contributing to sea level rise.”

“As a result of the acceleration of outlet glaciers over large regions, the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are already contributing more and faster to sea level rise than anticipated. If this trend continues, we are likely to witness sea level rise one meter or more by year 2100,” said Eric Rignot, Professor of Earth System Science at the University of California Irvine.

“Unless we undertake urgent and significant mitigation actions, the climate could cross a threshold during the 21st century committing the world to a sea level rise of meters,” said John Church.

The impacts of sea level rise, even in the lower ranges of the current predictions, looks to be severe.

Approximately ten percent of the world’s population – 600 million people – live in low lying areas in danger of being flooded.

A previously released study led by John Church, shows that even a modest sea level rise of 50 centimeters will result in a major increase in the number of coastal flooding events.

“Our study centered on Australia showed that coastal flooding events that today we expect only once every hundred years will happen several times a year by 2100″, said Church. (ANI)

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Climate researchers discuss rising sea levels

March 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Copenhagen – Fast rising sea levels that pose a future threat to populations living in coastal regions was one of the topics debated Tuesday when hundreds of international researchers gathered to a three-day meeting in Denmark.

The opening of the meeting was attended by among others Rajendra K Pachauri, chairman of the United Nations climate body the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for work on climate change.

Research presented Tuesday included forecasts based on satellite imagery on rising sea levels. By the year 2100 sea levels could rise up to one metre – but could also be less than 0.50 metres.

Some 600 million people are estimated to live in low-lying regions at risk during flooding.

The meeting was part of the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference that Denmark is to host in December. The conference aims to seek an agreement on a new international treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol on curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

“The oceans are continuing to warm and expand, the melting of mountain glacier has increased and the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are also contributing to sea level rise,” Dr John Church, lead speaker in the session on sea levels, said.

Church is with the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research based on Tasmania, and called for “urgent and significant mitigation actions.”

The IPCC in 2007 forecast sea levels rising some 18 to 59 centimetres, but at the time said “there was a lot of uncertainty about ice sheets,” Professor Eric Rignot at the University of California Irvine said. (dpa)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Australian Weather, Climate Change Conference, Climate Change Research, Climate Research, Climate Researchers, Dr John Church, Eric Rignot, greenhouse gas emissions, intergovernmental panel on climate change, intergovernmental panel on climate change ipcc, International Researchers, kyoto protocol, Mitigation Actions, Mountain Glacier, Nobel Peace Prize, rising sea levels, satellite imagery, sea level rise, university of california irvine, Weather And Climate

Traffic-induced air pollution worsens asthma in kids

February 17, 2009 By admin 1 Comment

Washington, Feb 17 (ANI): Traffic-related air pollution affects asthma severity in kids, resulting in repeated hospital encounters, says a new study.

The research has been published in Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).

To reach the conclusion, Ralph J. Delfino, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues, studied records for 2,768 children from two hospitals in northern Orange County, California.
eginning with the first hospital encounter, investigators analyzed children’s estimated exposures at their home addresses to the traffic-related air pollutants nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO).

They estimated the risk of recurrent hospital encounters from exposure to air pollution using recurrent proportional hazards analysis, adjusting for sex, age, health insurance, census-derived poverty, race/ethnicity, residence distance to hospital, and season.

“Traffic-related NOx and CO were associated with repeated hospital encounters for asthma in children, suggesting that local traffic-generated air pollution near the home affects asthma symptom severity,” the researchers write. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: acaai, age health, air pollutants, air pollution, allergy asthma, annals of allergy, asthma severity, asthma symptom, delfino, hazards analysis, home addresses, nitrogen oxides, northern orange county, nox, orange county california, proportional hazards, season traffic, sex age, symptom severity, university of california irvine

Astronauts in space lose greater rate of bone strength than previously believed

January 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Jan 27 (ANI): A study has found that astronauts spending months in space lose greater rate of bone strength than previously believed, making them increasingly at risk for fractures later in life.

The study, which was led by researchers at UC (University of California) Irvine and UC San Francisco, evaluated 13 astronauts who spent four to six months on the International Space Station and found that, on average, astronauts’ hipbone strength decreased 14 percent.

Three astronauts experienced losses of 20 percent to 30 percent, rates comparable to those seen in older women with osteoporosis.

These results alarmed researchers because they revealed a greater rate of bone deterioration than previously measured using less powerful technologies.

“If preventive measures are not taken, some of our astronauts may be at increased risk for age-related fractures decades after their missions,” said study leader Joyce Keyak, UCI orthopedic surgery and biomedical engineering professor.

Researchers have long studied why the microgravitational environment of space makes astronauts’ bones more fragile.

While previous studies looked at bone mineral density, this study is the first to specifically evaluate bone strength.

Keyak and her colleagues used a novel computer program she developed over the past 20 years to identify hipbone fracture risk in people with osteoporosis.

The study team used this program to analyze structurally the hipbone CT scans of one female and 12 male International Space Center crewmembers.

According to Keyak, the decrease in bone strength measured between 0.6 percent and 5.0 percent for each month of service on the station, which was noticeably greater than monthly reductions in bone mineral density of 0.4 percent to 1.8 percent observed in previous studies on the same subjects.

Orthopedic researchers looking into the effects of long-duration spaceflight usually study the hipbone or spine.

The hip experiences the greatest rate of bone loss in space, and a hip fracture almost always requires hospitalization and major surgery.

It can impair a person’s ability to walk unassisted and may cause prolonged or permanent disability or even death.

Fractures of the vertebra also have serious consequences, including loss of height, severe back pain and deformity. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: Astronauts, biomedical engineering, bone deterioration, bone loss, bone mineral density, bone strength, computer program, fracture risk, fractures, international space station, keyak, older women, orthopedic surgery, osteoporosis, preventive measures, space center, study leader, uc san francisco, uci, university of california irvine

Termite insecticide is a potent greenhouse gas that can stick around longer than believed

January 22, 2009 By Rajesh 1 Comment

Washington, Jan 22 (ANI): A new research has found that an insecticide used to fumigate termite-infested buildings is a strong greenhouse gas that lives in the atmosphere nearly 10 times longer than previously thought.

The research, by University of California Irvine (UCI) researchers, discovered that Sulfuryl fluoride stays in the atmosphere at least 30-40 years and perhaps as long as 100 years.

Prior studies estimated its atmospheric lifetime at as low as five years, grossly underestimating the global warming potential.

According to study authors Mads Sulbaek Andersen, Donald Blake and Nobel Laureate F. Sherwood Rowland, sulfuryl fluoride exists for decades, and evidence indicates that its levels have nearly doubled in the last six years.

“Sulfuryl fluoride has a long enough lifetime in the atmosphere that we cannot just close our eyes,” said Sulbaek Andersen, a postdoctoral researcher in the Rowland-Blake laboratory and lead author of the study.

“The level in the atmosphere is rising fast, and it doesn’t seem to disappear very quickly,” he added.

Kilogram for kilogram, sulfuryl fluoride is about 4,000 times more efficient than carbon dioxide at trapping heat, though much less of it exists in the atmosphere.

Its climate impact in California each year equals that of carbon dioxide emitted from about 1 million vehicles. About 60 percent of the world’s sulfuryl fluoride use occurs in California.

Sulfuryl fluoride blocks a wavelength of heat that otherwise could easily escape the Earth, the scientists said. Carbon dioxide blocks a different wavelength, trapping heat near the surface.

“The only place where the planet is able to emit heat that escapes the atmosphere is in the region that sulfuryl fluoride blocks,” said Blake.

“If we put something with this blocking effect in that area, then we’re in trouble – and we are putting something in there,” he added.

The chemists worry that emissions will increase as new uses are found for sulfuryl fluoride – especially given the ban of methyl bromide, an ozone-depleting pesticide regulated under the Montreal Protocol.

Sulfuryl fluoride emissions are not regulated, though officials do consider it a toxic contaminant.

The insecticide is pumped into a tent that covers a termite-infested structure. When the tent is removed, the compound escapes into the atmosphere.

According to the researchers, a suitable replacement should be found, one with less global warming potential. (ANI)

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Termite insecticide is a potent greenhouse gas that can stick around longer than believed

January 22, 2009 By Rajesh Leave a Comment