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Roads made of solar panels may solve energy crisis

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, September 9 (ANI): The U.S. Department of Transportation is funding a new research project aimed at replacing asphalt with solar panels as the basic material for making roads, in a bid to solve the crisis of electricity.

As part of the scheme, a U.S. firm called Solar Roadways has won a grant of 100,000 dollars from the Government to carry on with its work on a prototype glass solar cell panel that may one day turn motorways into major energy sources.

It is expected that these panels will be capable of generating enough power to support local communities, according to reports.

The panels would also be covered with a mosaic of small lights, which could be illuminated to provide road markings, and warning messages to drivers.

They could also be embedded with heaters to keep the road clear by melting snow and ice.

The company believes that a four-lane, one-mile stretch of road made from the 12 ft by 12 ft panels, each capable of producing 7.6 kilowatt hours of electricity each day, can generate enough power for 500 homes.

Solar Roadways plans to develop its idea to allow the energy produced to be channelled into the national grid, as well as sold to drivers of electric cars on the roadside.

“This feature packed system will become an intelligent highway that will double as a secure, intelligent, decentralised, self-healing power grid which will enable a gradual weaning from fossil fuels,” the Telegraph quoted the company as saying in a statement. (ANI)

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Oregano, garlic essential oils can be effective barriers against E. coli

September 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 6 (ANI): Essential oils from common spices like oregano, allspice and garlic can act as a natural barrier against bacteria like E-Coli, Salmonella and Listeria, according to a new US government study.

Oregano oil has been found to be the most effective antimicrobial, followed by allspice and garlic.

Researchers at Processed Foods Research and Produce Safety and Microbiology units of Western Regional Research Centre from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) investigated the effectiveness of the oils by incorporating them in thin, tomato-based antimicrobial coatings known as edible films.

In addition to its flavour properties, tomatoes are reported to possess numerous beneficial nutritional and bioactive components that may benefit human health.

Edible tomato films containing antimicrobials may protect food against contamination by pathogenic microorganisms.

The findings revealed that oregano oil consistently inhibited the growth of all three bacteria.

Although garlic oil was not effective against E. coli or Salmonella, but was effective against Listeria.

Vapour tests of oregano and allspice oils indicated that these two oils diffuse more efficiently through the air than through direct contact with the bacteria.

Listeria was less resistant to EO vapors while E. coli was more resistant.

“The results show that apple-based films with allspice, cinnamon or clove bud oils were effective against the three bacteria. The essential oils have the potential to provide multiple benefits to consumers,” said lead researcher R. J. Avena-Bustillos.

The study appears in Journal of Food Science. (ANI)

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Here’s how exposure to diesel fumes causes cancer

September 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 3 (ANI): American scientists have for the first time shown how exposure to diesel fumes causes cancer.

Qinghua Sun, an assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Ohio State University, says that diesel exhaust has the ability to induce the growth of new blood vessels that serve as a food supply for solid tumours.

The researchers found that in both healthy and diseased animals.

According to them, more new blood vessels sprouted in mice exposed to diesel exhaust than did in mice exposed to clean, filtered air.

They say that this finding indicates that previous illness is not required to make humans susceptible to the damaging effects of the diesel exhaust.

The researchers say that inhaled diesel particles are very tiny in size, which is why they can penetrate the human circulatory system, organs, and tissues.

This suggests that diesel fumes can cause damage just about anywhere in the body, they add.

Diesel exhaust exposure levels in the study were designed to mimic the exposure people might experience while living in urban areas and commuting in heavy traffic.

The levels were lower than or similar to those typically experienced by workers who use diesel-powered equipment, who tend to work in mines, on bridges and tunnels, along railroads, at loading docks, on farms and in vehicle maintenance garages, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

“The message from our study is that exposure to diesel exhaust for just a short time period of two months could give even normal tissue the potential to develop a tumour,” said Qinghua Sun, senior author of the study.

“We need to raise public awareness so people give more thought to how they drive and how they live so they can pursue ways to protect themselves and improve their health. And we still have a lot of work to do to improve diesel engines so they generate fewer particles and exhaust that can be released into the ambient air,” Sun added.

A research article on the study, supported by Health Effects Institute awards and grants from the National Institutes of Health, has been published in the online edition of the journal Toxicology Letters. (ANI)

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Scientists use titanium dioxide nanoparticles to kill cancer cells, sparing healthy ones

August 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 20 (ANI): Scientists in America have developed a way to target brain cancer cells using inorganic titanium dioxide nanoparticles bonded to soft biological material.

This achievement is a result of the joint efforts of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) and the University of Chicago’s Brain Tumor Center.

Thousands of people die from malignant brain tumours every year, and the tumors are resistant to conventional therapies.

The researchers say that their nano-bio technology may eventually provide an alternative form of therapy, which targets only cancer cells and does not affect normal living tissue.

“It is a real example of how nano and biological interfacing can be used for biomedical application. We chose brain cancer because of its difficulty in treatment and its unique receptors,” said scientist Elena Rozhkova with the DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory.

The novel approach relies upon a two-pronged approach.

The researchers describe titanium dioxide as a versatile photoreactive nanomaterial that can be bonded with biomolecules.

When linked to an antibody, they say, nanoparticles recognize and bind specifically to cancer cells.

When focused visible light is shined onto the affected region, the researchers add, the localized titanium dioxide reacts to the light by creating free oxygen radicals that interact with the mitochondria in the cancer cells.

Mitochondria act as cellular energy plants, and when free radicals interfere with their biochemical pathways, mitochondria receive a signal to start cell death.

“The significance of this work lies in our ability to effectively target nanoparticles to specific cell surface receptors expressed on brain cancer cells,” said Dr. Maciej S. Lesniak, Director of Neurosurgical Oncology at University of Chicago Brain Tumor Center.

“In so doing, we have overcome a major limitation involving the application of nanoparticles in medicine, namely the potential of these agents to distribute throughout the body. We are now in a position to develop this exciting technology in preclinical models of brain tumours, with the hope of one day employing this new technology in patients,” Lesniak added.

Using X-ray fluorescence microscopy at Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source, the researchers have also found that the tumours’ invadopodia, actin-rich micron scale protrusions that allow the cancer to invade surrounding healthy cells, can be also attacked by the titanium dioxide.

The researchers have thus far carried out tests on cells in a laboratory setting, but animal testing is planned for the next phase.

Results show an almost 100 percent cancer cell toxicity rate after six hours of illumination, and 80 percent after 48 hours.

Also, since the antibody only targets the cancer cells, surrounding healthy cells are not affected, unlike other cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Rozhkova said that a proof of concept is demonstrated, and other cancers can be treated as well using different targeting molecules.

The expert, however, admits that the research is presently in the early stages. (ANI)

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Migraines more common in women than men

June 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, June 26 (ANI): Next time your wife complaints about migraine pain, don’t think of it as an excuse for not cooking food, for the most common type of headache that sends patients running to their doctor’s office is more common in women than men, says a new study.

Migraines occur when constricting blood vessels in the brain cause intense, recurring vascular headaches.

Approximately three out of four migraine sufferers are women and researchers have often cited hormones as a possible explanation.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, over half of migraines in women transpire right before, during or after a woman has her menstrual period.

And while some women experience migraines throughout their cycle, menstrual-related migraines could be one trigger of the condition.

Right before a woman’s cycle begins, the levels of oestrogen and progesterone drop sharply.

Such a drop in hormone levels may initiate migraine headaches because oestrogen is known to control brain chemicals that affect pain sensation in women.

“Like in all neurological diseases, a combination of genetics and environment play a role. One environmental factor is oestrogen but a genetic predisposition has been firmly established,” said Richard Pearl, MD, a clinical neurologist in Suffolk County, N.Y.

While hormones cannot give a clear picture behind the phenomenon, a recent study has revealed that women with a history of migraines may be less likely to develop breast cancer than other women.

As breast cancer is linked to higher lifetime exposure to oestrogen, the fact that migraines are more common when there is a drop in oestrogen could support the hormone theory. (ANI)

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NASA uses satellite to improve global crop forecasting

May 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 27 (ANI): NASA researchers are using satellite data to cultivate the most accurate estimates of soil moisture, which would improve global crop forecasting.

Soil moisture is essential for seeds to germinate and for crops to grow. But, record droughts and scorching temperatures in certain parts of the globe in recent years have caused soil to dry up, crippling crop production.

The falling food supply in some regions has forced prices upward, pushing staple foods out of reach for millions of poor people.

Now, NASA researchers are using satellite data to deliver a kind of space-based humanitarian assistance.

They are cultivating the most accurate estimates of soil moisture and improving global forecasts of how well food will grow at a time when the world is confronting shortages.

In this context, NASA scientist John Bolten described a new modeling product that uses data from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) sensor on NASA’s Aqua satellite to improve the accuracy of West African soil moisture.

The group produced assessments of current soil moisture conditions, or “nowcasts,” and improved estimates by 5 percent over previous methods.

“Though seemingly small and incremental, the increase can make a big difference in the precision of crop forecasts,” Bolten said.

The modeling innovation comes at a time when crop analysts at agencies like the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are working to meet the food shortage problem head on.

They combine soil moisture estimates with weather trends to produce up-to-date forecasts of crop harvests.

Those estimates help regional and national officials prepare for and prevent food crises.

“The USDA’s estimates of global crop yields are an objective, timely benchmark of food availability and help drive international commodity markets,” said Bolten, a physical scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.

Crop analysts must estimate root-zone soil moisture, the amount of water beneath the surface available for plants to absorb.

But estimating the amount of water in soil has posed challenges and data gaps.

Under a new NASA-USDA collaboration known as the Global Agriculture Monitoring Project, Bolten and colleagues from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service are using AMSR-E to fill the data gaps with daily soil moisture “snapshots.”

Since its launch in 2002, the instrument has “seen” through clouds, and light vegetation like crops and grasses to detect the amount of soil moisture beneath Earth’s surface.

Bolten says that results from AMSR-E are just a precursor to dramatic new improvements in data and prediction accuracy researchers expect from the Soil Moisture Active and Passive satellite, slated to launch in 2013. (ANI)

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Privacy activists condemn ‘virtual strip search’ security system at airport

May 19, 2009 By admin 2 Comments

Washington, May 19 (ANI): Privacy activists are planning to call for a ban on the use of whole-body imaging, the airport security technology that they say performs ‘a virtual strip search’ and produces ‘naked’ pictures of passengers.

Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said that the national campaign, which will gather signatures from organizations and relevant professionals, is set to be launched this week to urge the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to suspend the use of the technology.

However, Kristin Lee, spokeswoman for Transportation Security Administration (TSA), said in a written statement that the machines “detect both metallic and nonmetallic threat items to keep passengers safe. It is proven technology, and we are highly confident in its detection capability.”

Lee said that so far, the testing phase has been promising. When given the choice, “over 99 percent of passengers choose this technology over other screening options,” she said.

Using millimeter wave technology, the machine scans a traveller and a robotic image is generated that allows security personnel to detect potential threats.

TSA officials said that privacy concerns are addressed in a number of ways.

The system uses a pair of security officers. The one working the machine never sees the image, which appears on a computer screen behind closed doors elsewhere; and the remotely located officer who sees the image never sees the passenger.

Lee said that as part of further protection, a passenger’s face is blurred and the image as a whole ‘resembles a fuzzy negative.’

She also said that the officers monitoring images aren’t allowed to bring cameras, cell phones or any recording device into the room, and the computers have been programmed so they have ‘zero storage capability’ and images are ‘automatically deleted.’

However, Coney said she’s seen whole-body images captured by similar technology dating back to 2004 that were much clearer than what’s represented by the airport machines.

“What they’re showing you now is a dumbed-down version of what this technology is capable of doing. Having blurry images shouldn’t blur the issue,” CNN quoted her as saying. (ANI)

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Medical experts sceptical of China’s organ transplantation practices

April 24, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 23 (ANI): A majority of doctors have expressed concerns over the organ transplantation practices in China.

According to a report, over 95 percent of organ donors in China are prisoners.

Globalization of medical and surgical technology has increased the capacity for countries worldwide to perform organ transplantation.

However, geographic variation in the availability of organs for transplantation and a parallel discrepancy in financial resources for healthcare have increasingly led desperate patients to transplant tourism.

The practice of transplant tourism has been condemned by numerous national and international healthcare organizations, who have cited serious concerns about clandestine international brokers, surreptitious payment, coercion of organ donors (and/ or donor families).

Moreover, substandard medical and surgical practices may lead to lower success rates and higher risk for transmission of infectious disease.

The majority of doctors surveyed said that they would provide post-transplantation care for patients who underwent liver transplantation at another domestic centre, in a foreign country or in China. However, respondents who suspected unethical procurement practices in China were more reluctant to do so.

They have also raised concerns over the unethical use of organs. International ethical guidelines exist to ensure that the donation of organs is voluntary, both in life and after death.

But not all countries adhere to these ethical guidelines. When travelling from one country to another country for organ transplant surgery, patients risk using an organ obtained in an unsafe or unethical manner.

In 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported the transplantation of 66,000 kidneys, 21,000 livers and 6,000 hearts. Approximately 10 percent of these procedures occurred via transplant tourism.

The leading destination countries for transplant tourism include China, India, the Philippines and Pakistan.

Transplant tourism to China has been isolated as particularly controversial. Organ procurement from executed prisoners in China has been reported by the U.S. Department of State, non-governmental investigative reports and in medical literature.

“Physicians caring for patients in need of organ transplantation must balance the duty to the individual patient vs. the duty to society,” said Dr. Scott Biggins of the University of California San Francisco, which conducted a survey on healthcare professionals.

“We aim to raise awareness of the need for adherence to international accepted ethical standards for procurement of organs and regulation of transplant tourism by international regulatory and credentialing bodies,” he added.

The report appears in Clinical transplantation. (ANI)

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Medical experts sceptical of China’s organ transplantation practices

April 23, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 23 (ANI): A majority of doctors have expressed concerns over the organ transplantation practices in China.

According to a report, over 95 percent of organ donors in China are prisoners.

Globalization of medical and surgical technology has increased the capacity for countries worldwide to perform organ transplantation.

Moreover, substandard medical and surgical practices may lead to lower success rates and higher risk for transmission of infectious disease.

They have also raised concerns over the unethical use of organs. International ethical guidelines exist to ensure that the donation of organs is voluntary, both in life and after death.

The leading destination countries for transplant tourism include China, India, the Philippines and Pakistan.

The report appears in Clinical transplantation. (ANI)

Q+A: How the U.S. Navy ended Somali pirate drama

April 13, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – U.S. Navy special forces shot dead three Somali pirates on a lifeboat off Somalia and freed American cargo ship captain Richard Phillips on Sunday in a dramatic end to a five-day standoff, officials said.

Here are answers to some key questions about the incident, mainly from information provided to reporters by Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, head of the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet.

HOW DID THE NAVY END THE STANDOFF?

Navy SEALs, elite special operations troops, on the USS Bainbridge shot dead the pirates in the lifeboat after the Bainbridge’s captain determined that Phillips’ life was in imminent danger because a pirate pointed an AK-47 rifle at him.

Navy sailors then sailed to the lifeboat in a small inflatable craft and rescued Phillips, who was tied up inside the 18-foot-long lifeboat. He was later transferred to the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship.

A U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said special operations forces had tried to approach the lifeboat earlier in the standoff, but the pirates had fired at them.

A fourth pirate who surrendered before the end of the standoff was aboard the Bainbridge when Phillips was freed.

The pirate had sought medical treatment for a stab wound to the hand, inflicted by a member of the Maersk Alabama’s crew when the gang tried to hijack the ship, the official said.

The pirate was being transferred to the Boxer.

HOW WERE SEA CONDITIONS AT THE TIME?

Conditions were deteriorating and the USS Bainbridge was towing the lifeboat in search of calmer waters at the time of the incident. The lifeboat was about 80 to 100 feet away from the Bainbridge when the Navy SEALs opened fire on the pirates.

The lifeboat was about 20 miles off the coast of Somalia when the standoff ended. U.S. military officials were determined to prevent the lifeboat from reaching the Somali shore.

WHAT IS PHILLIPS’ CONDITION?

Phillips is in good health, Gortney said. The former hostage declined an offer of food after his rescue and has called home. President Barack Obama also called the Boxer to speak to him.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE FOURTH PIRATE?

The Navy says it is working with the U.S. Department of Justice to determine how to hold the pirate accountable for his crimes. He could be prosecuted in the United States or in Kenya, Gortney said.

WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE INCIDENT?

U.S. officials insist they did not want the stand-off to end violently. Somali pirates have generally not harmed their hostages and officials fear they could now act more violently.

“This could escalate violence in this part of the world, no question about it,” Gortney told reporters at the Pentagon on a conference call from his headquarters in Bahrain.

(Reporting by Andrew Gray, Editing by Stacey Joyce)

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PRESS DIGEST – South Korean newspapers – April 13

April 13, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

SEOUL, April 13 (Reuters) – The following is a summary of major South Korean newspapers on Monday, prepared by Reuters in Seoul. Reuters has not checked the stories and does not guarantee their accuracy.

CHOSUN ILBO

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s brother-in-law Jang Song-taek, who was recently appointed to a powerful military post, visited France, Italy and Switzerland last month for what seemed to be meetings with doctors who allegedly treated Kim or to purchase yachts for Kim’s family, a source familiar with North Korean issues said.

U.S. website Spaceflight Now claimed the North Korean rocket launched earlier this month successfully flew several hundred miles further than previously believed and used more advanced steering than was demonstrated by the North before.

MAEIL BUSINESS NEWSPAPER

Shinhan Financial Group (055550.KS) plans to sell its stake in unit SH and C Life Insurance to BNP Paribas to focus on another unit, Shinhan Life Insurance, according to the company.

Ship engine parts maker STX Enpaco may be the first IPO on South Korea’s main board this year, while Hankuk Cement and Ssangyong Material are also seeking listings, according to securities industry sources.

THE KOREA TIMES

South Koreans accounted for the largest share of foreign students in the United States for the third year in a row, numbering 127,185 or 15 percent of the total, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

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US envoy Mulford briefs Indian Government on Holbrooke’s visit

February 11, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Feb.11 (ANI): U.S. Ambassador to India, David C Mulford, said on Wednesday that President Barack Obama’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard C. Holbrooke, would visit New Delhi soon.

“We just had a meeting to discuss preparation for the Holbrooke visit, but also the visit of the United States congregational delegation with its special guests Martin Luther King Junior-III, Andrew Young former Mayor of Atlanta and the musicians who are coming along. So, there is quite a lot of other issues that we are discussing,” Mulford told reporters here after a meeting with External Affairs Ministry officials.

On Wednesday, Holbrooke visited the Mohmand tribal Agency in north west Pakistan, where security forces face an intensifying Islamist insurgency.

Holbrooke arrived in Pakistan late on Monday at the beginning of his first visit since his appointment as envoy to a region moving to centre stage of U.S. foreign policy.

President Barack Obama named Holbrooke as his special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan last month, handing one of the most arduous U.S. security challenges to the man who brokered the 1995 agreement that ended the Bosnian war.

Holbrooke faces a host of challenges in dealing with the war in Afghanistan and an intensifying insurgency in northwest Pakistan while trying to ensure renewed tension between old rivals India and Pakistan doesn’t exacerbate the problems.

The US Embassy’s portal said the U.S. Department of State will support February 2009 celebrations in India to commemorate the tour by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 50 years ago to study Mahatma Gandhi.

This tour deeply influenced the American civil rights movement.

The delegation, including Martin Luther King, III; civil rights movement veteran Rep. John Lewis; and legendary jazz musician Herbie Hancock, along with other distinguished Americans, will meet with counterparts in India to underscore the enduring importance of the King and Gandhi legacies. (ANI)

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Roads made of solar panels may solve energy crisis

Oregano, garlic essential oils can be effective barriers against E. coli

Here’s how exposure to diesel fumes causes cancer

Scientists use titanium dioxide nanoparticles to kill cancer cells, sparing healthy ones

Migraines more common in women than men

Privacy activists condemn ‘virtual strip search’ security system at airport

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