'Fish technology' draws renewable energy from slow water currents

A very interesting concept illustrating a new method of generating power from slow-moving ocean and river currents. The estimated cost of this power source is 5.5 cents per kwh. Wind energy costs 6.9 cents a kilowatt hour. Nuclear costs 4.6, and solar power costs between 16 and 48 cents per kilowatt hour depending on the location.

"If we could harness 0.1 percent of the energy in the ocean, we could support the energy needs of 15 billion people.", Michael Bernitsas, a professor in the University of Michigan, Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, who developed the concept claimed.

K.S.Parthasarathy



Public release date: 21-Nov-2008

Contact: Nicole Casal Moore
ncmoore@umich.edu
734-647-1838
University of Michigan
'Fish technology' draws renewable energy from slow water currents

IMAGE: An artist's illustration of an array of VIVACE converters on the ocean floor.
Click here for more information.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Slow-moving ocean and river currents could be a new, reliable and affordable alternative energy source. A University of Michigan engineer has made a machine that works like a fish to turn potentially destructive vibrations in fluid flows into clean, renewable power.

The machine is called VIVACE. A paper on it is published in the current issue of the quarterly Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering.

VIVACE is the first known device that could harness energy from most of the water currents around the globe because it works in flows moving slower than 2 knots (about 2 miles per hour.) Most of the Earth's currents are slower than 3 knots. Turbines and water mills need an average of 5 or 6 knots to operate efficiently.

VIVACE stands for Vortex Induced Vibrations for Aquatic Clean Energy. It doesn't depend on waves, tides, turbines or dams. It's a unique hydrokinetic energy system that relies on "vortex induced vibrations."

Vortex induced vibrations are undulations that a rounded or cylinder-shaped object makes in a flow of fluid, which can be air or water. The presence of the object puts kinks in the current's speed as it skims by. This causes eddies, or vortices, to form in a pattern on opposite sides of the object. The vortices push and pull the object up and down or left and right, perpendicular to the current.

These vibrations in wind toppled the Tacoma Narrows bridge in Washington in 1940 and the Ferrybridge power station cooling towers in England in 1965. In water, the vibrations regularly damage docks, oil rigs and coastal buildings.

"For the past 25 years, engineers---myself included---have been trying to suppress vortex induced vibrations. But now at Michigan we're doing the opposite. We enhance the vibrations and harness this powerful and destructive force in nature," said VIVACE developer Michael Bernitsas, a professor in the U-M Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.

Fish have long known how to put the vortices that cause these vibrations to good use. "VIVACE copies aspects of fish technology," Bernitsas said. "Fish curve their bodies to glide between the vortices shed by the bodies of the fish in front of them. Their muscle power alone could not propel them through the water at the speed they go, so they ride in each other's wake."

This generation of Bernitsas' machine looks nothing like a fish, though he says future versions will have the equivalent of a tail and surface roughness a kin to scales. The working prototype in his lab is just one sleek cylinder attached to springs. The cylinder hangs horizontally across the flow of water in a tractor-trailer-sized tank in his marine renewable energy laboratory. The water in the tank flows at 1.5 knots.

Here's how VIVACE works: The very presence of the cylinder in the current causes alternating vortices to form above and below the cylinder. The vortices push and pull the passive cylinder up and down on its springs, creating mechanical energy. Then, the machine converts the mechanical energy into electricity.

Just a few cylinders might be enough to power an anchored ship, or a lighthouse, Bernitsas says. These cylinders could be stacked in a short ladder. The professor estimates that array of VIVACE converters the size of a running track and about two stories high could power about 100,000 houses. Such an array could rest on a river bed or it could dangle, suspended in the water. But it would all be under the surface.

Because the oscillations of VIVACE would be slow, it is theorized that the system would not harm marine life like dams and water turbines can.

Bernitsas says VIVACE energy would cost about 5.5 cents per kilowatt hour. Wind energy costs 6.9 cents a kilowatt hour. Nuclear costs 4.6, and solar power costs between 16 and 48 cents per kilowatt hour depending on the location.

"There won't be one solution for the world's energy needs," Bernitsas said. "But if we could harness 0.1 percent of the energy in the ocean, we could support the energy needs of 15 billion people."

The researchers recently completed a feasibility study that found the device could draw power from the Detroit River. They are working to deploy one for a pilot project there within the 18 months.

###

This work has been supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, the Detroit/Wayne County Port Autrhority, the DTE Energy Foundation, Michigan Universities Commercialization Initiative, and the Link Foundation. The technology is being commercialized through Bernitsas' company, Vortex Hydro Energy.

The paper is called "VIVACE (Vortex Induced Vibration for Aquatic Clean Energy): A New Concept in Generation of Clean and Renewable Energy from Fluid Flow." Other authors are Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering graduate students Kamaldev Raghavan, Yaron Ben-Simon and Elizabeth M.H. Garcia.

For more information:
Michael Bernitsas: http://www.engin.umich.edu/dept/name/faculty_staff/bernitsas/Main.htm
Vortex Hydro Energy: http://www.vortexhydroenergy.com/

Michigan Engineering: The University of Michigan College of Engineering is ranked among the top engineering schools in the country. At more than $130 million annually, its engineering research budget is one of largest of any public university. Michigan Engineering is home to 11 academic departments and a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center. The college plays a leading role in the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute and hosts the world class Lurie Nanofabrication Facility. Find out more at http://www.engin.umich.edu/.

EDITORS: Watch and link to a video at: http://www.ns.umich.edu/podcast/video.php?id=499
Photos are available at http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6841

Magic solar milestone reached

Solar voltaic cell has achieved the highest efficiency of 25 %. Credit for this goes to the researchers at the University of South Wales (UNSW)'s ARC Photovoltaic Centre of Excellence.


K.S.Parthasarathy


Contact: Peter Trute
p.trute@unsw.edu.au
61-293-851-933
University of New South Wales
Magic solar milestone reached
UNSW claims 25 percent solar cell efficiency title

UNSW's ARC Photovoltaic Centre of Excellence has again asserted its leadership in solar cell technology by reporting the first silicon solar cell to achieve the milestone of 25 per cent effiency.

The UNSW ARC Photovoltaic Centre of Excellence already held the world record of 24.7 per cent for silicon solar cell efficiency. Now a revision of the international standard by which solar cells are measured, has delivered the significant 25 per cent record to the team led by Professors Martin Green and Stuart Wenham and widened their lead on the rest of the world.

Centre Executive Research Director, Scientia Professor Martin Green, said the new world mark in converting incident sunlight into electricity was one of six new world records claimed by UNSW for its silicon solar technologies.

Professor Green said the jump in performance leading to the milestone resulted from new knowledge about the composition of sunlight.

"Since the weights of the colours in sunlight change during the day, solar cells are measured under a standard colour spectrum defined under typical operational meteorological conditions," he said.

"Improvements in understanding atmospheric effects upon the colour content of sunlight led to a revision of the standard spectrum in April. The new spectrum has a higher energy content both down the blue end of the spectrum and at the opposite red end with, dare I say it, relatively less green."

The recalibration of the international standard, done by the International Electrochemical Commission in April, gave the biggest boost to UNSW technology while the measured efficiency of others made lesser gains. UNSW's world-leading silicon cell is now six per cent more efficient than the next-best technology, Professor Green said. The new record also inches the UNSW team closer to the 29 per cent theoretical maximum efficiency possible for first-generation silicon photovoltaic cells.

Dr Anita Ho-Baillie, who heads the Centre's high efficiency cell research effort, said the UNSW technology benefited greatly from the new spectrum "because our cells push the boundaries of response into the extremities of the spectrum".

"Blue light is absorbed strongly, very close to the cell surface where we go to great pains to make sure it is not wasted. Just the opposite, the red light is only weakly absorbed and we have to use special design features to trap it into the cell," she said.

Professor Green said: "These light-trapping features make our cells act as if they were much thicker than they are. This already has had an important spin-off in allowing us to work with CSG Solar to develop commercial 'thin-film' silicon-on-glass solar cells that are over 100 times thinner than conventional silicon cells."

ARC Centre Director, Professor Stuart Wenham said the focus of the Centre is now improving mainstream production. "Our main efforts now are focussed on getting these efficiency improvements into commercial production," he said. "Production compatible versions of our high efficiency technology are being introduced into production as we speak."

The world-record holding cell was fabricated by former Centre researchers, Dr Jianhua Zhao and Dr Aihua Wang, who have since left the Centre to establish China Sunergy, one of the world's largest photovoltaic manufacturers. "China was the largest manufacturer of solar cells internationally in 2007 with 70 per cent of the output from companies with our former UNSW students either Chief Executive Officers or Chief Technical Officers", said Professor Green.

###

Media Contact: Professor Martin Green | 9385 4018 | 0411 492 416 | m.green@unsw.edu.au

UNSW Media Office: Peter Trute | 02 9385 1933 | 0410 271 826 | p.trute@unsw.edu.au

Hydrogen sulfide discovered to be a major player in the regulation of blood pressure

This news item reveals how intricate and complicated are the biochemical mechanisms which control and keep in harmony various processes in our body.

K.S.Parthasarathy


The heart.org

http://www.theheart.org/viewArticle.do?primaryKey=913773&nl_id=tho23oct08

HEARTWIRE

Hydrogen sulfide discovered to be a major player in the regulation of blood pressure
October 23, 2008 | Michael O'Riordan
Baltimore, MD - Twenty years after US scientists won the Nobel Prize for discovering that nitric oxide (NO) is an important signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system, findings that helped identify the determinants of blood pressure, new research has uncovered yet another gas, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), that acts as a major physiologic vasodilator and regulator of blood pressure.
"Nitric oxide is unique in that it's a gas, and since mediators in the body come in chemical classes, others have wondered whether other gases could do the same sort of thing," said Dr Solomon Snyder (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD), one of the investigators from the study published in the October 24, 2008 issue of Science.
Made by bacteria in the intestine, H2S has been known for some time to lower blood pressures in animals injected with the gas. Investigators, however, wanted to determine the exact role of H2S as a physiologic vasorelaxant and determinant of blood-pressure levels. Speaking with heartwire, Snyder explained that researchers, including senior investigator Dr Rui Wang (Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON), speculated H2S might be made by cystathionine -lyase (CSE), leading to the development of a mouse model in which the gene for CSE was knocked out.
Once the gene for CSE was depleted, the researchers discovered that H2S levels in the serum, heart, aorta, and other tissues were markedly reduced.
"We discovered that in most of the body, except for the brain, hydrogen-sulfide production vanished in the knockout mice," said Solomon. "So we said, 'Aha!' We were then able to characterize these mice to see what changed about them, and of course, the first big question was: Does anything happen to the blood pressure? Sure enough, their blood pressure is markedly elevated, at least as much, if not more so, in mice in which we knock out the gene for making nitric oxide."
Compared with normal mice, blood pressure in the mutant mice peaked at 135 mm Hg when the mice were 12 weeks of age, almost 18 mm Hg higher than in the control mice.
Next steps involved testing how the mesenteric arteries of the mutant mice responded to methacholine, a neurotransmitter that is part of the relaxation pathway. When methacholine was added to the vessels of normal mice, the arteries relaxed. When it was added to the vessels of CSE-knockout mice, however, there was no relaxation of the mesenteric arteries.
"We're going to have to do a lot of work, in lots of blood vessels, and in lots of species of animals, to pin down the relative importance of nitric oxide and hydrogen sulfide, but from our work it is very clear that hydrogen sulfide is a pretty major determinant of how your blood vessels function and your blood pressure," said Snyder.
Although the two gases appear to perform similar functions, Snyder said they are unsure if nitric oxide and H2S work together or are mutually exclusive, a question that will require continued research. In terms of potential long-term clinical implications, H2S could be chemically linked with another molecule, put into a pill, and then released to regulate blood pressure, he added.
Snyder told heartwire the discovery was fascinating and that he could hardly believed the results worked out. "It was just a theory, and we kept doing lots of different experiments, with Rui Wang's lab and with my own lab, and every experiment kept coming out positive. In good science, you do all sorts of experiments to disprove your hypothesis, but nothing disproved this one."
Source
1. Yang G, Wu L, Jiang B, et al. H2S as a physiologic vasorelaxant: hypertension in mice with deletion of cystathionine -lyase. Science 2008; 322:587-590.


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Scientists identify gene that may contribute to improved rice yield

Public release date: 28-Sep-2008

Contact: Barbara K. Kennedy
science@psu.edu
814-863-4682
Penn State
Scientists identify gene that may contribute to improved rice yield
The researchers created transgenic lines of rice (G-2 and G-8) in which the GIF1 gene was overexpressed.

A team of scientists, including Penn State Distinguished Professor of Biology Hong Ma, has identified a gene in rice that controls the size and weight of rice grains. The gene may prove to be useful for breeding high-yield rice and, thus, may benefit the vast number of people who rely on this staple food for survival. "Our work shows that it is possible to increase rice's yield by enhancing the expression of a particular gene," said Ma. The team's results will be published on 28 September 2008 in an early online edition of the journal Nature Genetics, and in the November print issue of the journal.

The researchers first searched for and identified mutant strains of rice that exhibited underweight grains. "We found a particular mutant that is defective in its ability to produce normal-sized grains," said Zuhua He, a biology professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the leader of the team. The group then examined the mutant and found that it carried a mutation within the GIF1 gene. "The GIF1 gene is responsible for controlling the activity of the enzyme invertase, which is located in the cell wall and converts sucrose to substances that then are used to create starch," said He. "Invertase is important in the formation of starch within developing grains of rice. If invertase is not active, the rice plant cannot produce edible grains."

Next, to test the ability of the GIF1 gene to control the production of invertase, the team measured the activity of invertase within a normal strain of rice, in which the GIF1 gene lacked any mutations, and within a mutant strain of rice, in which the GIF1 gene contained a mutation that caused a defect in the invertase activity. The scientists found that invertase activity in the mutant strain was only 17 percent of the activity that was observed in the normal strain, suggesting that the GIF1 gene does, indeed, control invertase activity. The team then created transgenic lines of rice in which the GIF1 gene is overexpressed and found that, compared with normal strains, the transgenic rice had larger and heavier grains.

According to Ma, the team was surprised to find that the GIF1 gene was so specialized in controlling invertase activity in a particular part of the grain -- the vascular tissue, which transports nutrients, including sugars generated by invertase, to the developing grain. "The expression pattern was not expected, in part, because invertase is a general enzyme that is used by many cell types. In fact, the corresponding gene in wild rice is not expressed specifically."

The team also found that the GIF1 gene is one of the genes that were selected during the domestication of rice. "By selectively growing only those strains of rice with heavier grains, humans for thousands of years unknowingly have been increasing the frequency of rice populations that had modifications in the GIF1 gene," said Ma. "This process has caused GIF1 to be expressed specifically in the vascular tissue and, thus, to produce larger rice grains," said Ma.

The scientists hope that their findings will help others to create hybrid varieties of rice that produce even larger grains. In the meantime, they plan to perform additional analyses that will help them to understand how other genes might be involved in the process of improving rice yield. "The goal is to understand what controls grain weight and other factors, and to look for ways to increase yield," said Ma.

###

This research was supported by grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the National Science Foundation of China, and the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences.

[ Sara LaJeunesse ]

CONTACTS
Hong Ma: (+1) 814-863-6414, hxm16@psu.edu
Zuhua He: zhhe@sibs.ac.cn
Barbara Kennedy (PIO): (+1) 814-863-4682, science@psu.edu

IMAGE
A high-resolution image related to this story is on the Web at: http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Ma9-2008.htm
After the embargo lifts, image captions and the text of this press release will be posted there, as well. For your convenience in preparing your stories in advance of the embargo date, the image caption is provided below:

CAPTION AND CREDIT FOR IMAGE:
The researchers created transgenic lines of rice (G-2 and G-8) in which the GIF1 gene was overexpressed. Compared to normal strains (WT), they found that the transgenic rice had larger and heavier grains. In this figure, the grains on the top are from white rice and the grains on the bottom are from brown rice.
Credit: Zuhua He, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Idaho National Laboratory researchers meet major hydrogen milestone

Idaho National Laboratory reports this week a notable achievement in hydrogen producing technology.

K.S.Parthasarathy




Public release date: 18-Sep-2008

Contact: Teri Ehresman
Teri.Ehresman@inl.gov
208-520-6252
DOE/Idaho National Laboratory
Idaho National Laboratory researchers meet major hydrogen milestone

A team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory earlier this month reached a major milestone with the successful production of hydrogen through High-Temperature Electrolysis (HTE).

The milestone was reached when the Integrated Laboratory Scale experiment started producing hydrogen at a rate of 5.6 cubic meters per hour.

The achievement was recognized at a media event in Idaho Falls Sept. 18.

"This is by far the biggest achievement we've had," said Carl Stoots, the experiment's principal investigator.

High-Temperature Electrolysis is a system of producing hydrogen very efficiently by using technology originally developed for solid oxide fuel cells. HTE is a significant improvement over the more conventional methods to produce hydrogen. HTE uses an electric current through water to separate it into hydrogen and oxygen. Combined with a clean power source such as a next-generation nuclear plant, HTE could produce hydrogen at 45 to 55 percent efficiency.

There are several potential applications of hydrogen from high-temperature electrolysis, all of which are closer to being actualized now that HTE has proven itself capable of producing hydrogen at such an advanced level. Hydrogen is commonly used to help produce liquid fuels. INL Laboratory Fellow Steve Herring, who heads the HTE project, said it could also prove helpful in upgrading fuel from the Athabasca Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada, because producing gasoline and diesel fuel from such heavy oil deposits requires extensive amounts of hydrogen and steam.

September's achievement is a major scale-up from earlier INL experiments on a small scale. Herring said his team wanted it to match the final product closely.

With this milestone met, the HTE plant is on its way to opening many doors for innovation in energy production, contributing to the Department of Energy's overarching goal of a "hydrogen economy." Eventually, HTE could provide pure hydrogen for fuel cell-powered cars, Herring said – "but that's a long way off."

###

The HTE plant is located in the Bonneville County Technology Center, 101 Technology Drive in Idaho Falls, across the street from the INL Research Center.

Study shows pine bark naturally reduces knee osteoarthritis

Public release date: 3-Sep-2008

Contact: Melanie Nimrodi
mnimrodi@mww.com
312-546-3508



MWW Group
Study shows pine bark naturally reduces knee osteoarthritis
Third clinical trial reconfirms strong evidence pycnogenol lowers joint pain, symptoms; May now have lasting effect on joints following cessation of the extract

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis, is on the rise. A new study published in the August journal of Phytotherapy Research, reveals Pycnogenol, bark extract from the French maritime pine tree, reduced overall knee osteoarthritis (OA) symptoms by 20.9 percent and lowered pain by 40.3 percent. To date, this is the third clinical trial on osteoarthritis treatment with Pycnogenol. This study investigated what happens to joint symptoms after treatment with Pycnogenol is terminated and the results show that no relapse occurred after two weeks. Pycnogenol acts as potent anti-inflammatory and the lasting effects found in this study suggest that Pycnogenol may help the joints to recover.

With osteoarthritis cases on the rise, many are seeking non-traditional medication to help ease the pain and reduce the amount of traditional medication taken. The CDC estimates osteoarthritis affects 34 percent of all adults over the age of 65. In 2005, an estimated 26.9 million adults in the U.S. had osteoarthritis, which was up from 21 million in 1990. While there's no known cure for osteoarthritis, treatments such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or analgesics can help reduce pain and also maintain joint movement, to help the quality of life for people living with the disease. In more severe cases, cortisone shots and joint replacement surgery are used to treat OA.

"The current study is in accordance with the two previous Pycnogenol studies for osteoarthritis," said Dr. Peter Rohdewald, one of the researchers of the study. "Again the pain is gradually decreasing during the course of three months treatment with Pycnogenol. An improvement is found after the first month and a further improvement is seen after two months, where values are significantly different to the placebo group. This study again showed that patients required significantly less analgesic medication while supplementing with Pycnogenol, whereas this was not the case with the placebo-treated control group."

The study was held at Slovakia's Comenius University School of Medicine. One hundred patients with stage I or II OA were included in the study and were randomly allocated to either a Pycnogenol or placebo group. Patients were supplemented with 150 mg Pycnogenol or placebo per day over a period of three months. They were allowed to continue taking their NSAID or analgesics prescribed before the study but had to record every pill taken. The established Western Ontario McMaster questionnaire for joint function was employed to rate the pain level, and obtain measures of joint stiffness and to what extent the arthritis affects participation in daily activities. Patients were investigated in two week intervals over the treatment period of three months and a final time two weeks after discontinuation of medication.

The overall score, summarizing pain, stiffness and daily activities, improved statistical significantly by 20.9 percent in the Pycnogenol group. Interestingly, the joint improvement achieved with Pycnogenol persisted after intake of Pycnogenol was discontinued for four weeks. The joint pain decreased by 40.3 percent after completion of the three months supplementation with Pycnogenol and two weeks later the pain was still 36.1 percent lower than at baseline. Furthermore, 38 percent of patients in the Pycnogenol group required less NSAID's or other analgesic medication for joint pain.

"The anti-inflammatory potency of Pycnogenol explains the success in lowering joint pain and stiffness for arthritic joints," said Rohdewald. "After three recent clinical studies on osteoarthritis, Pycnogenol continues to demonstrate its effectiveness for osteoarthritis symptoms making it a viable, natural and safe alternative for individuals. This is the first study that investigated whether a relapse of symptoms occurs after taking Pycnogenol is stopped. The results show a lasting effect after discontinuation which suggest the anti-inflammatory mechanisms of Pycnogenol has allowed the joints to recover."

In another study this year (also published in the journal of Phytotherapy Research), Pycnogenol was shown to reduce osteoarthritis symptoms by 56 percent. Moreover, patients required 58 percent less standard pain medication, which greatly improved the gastrointestinal complications resulting from the pain medication by 63 percent. Last year, a study on osteoarthritis carried out at the University of Arizona Tucson (published in Nutrition Research) discovered that Pycnogenol was effective for improving pain and joint function. After three months in the Pycnogenol group, there was a reduction of 43 percent in pain, 35 percent in stiffness and 52 percent in physical function subscales, respectively. The placebo group showed no significant scores throughout the entire study.

###

Horphag Research, the exclusive worldwide distributor of Pycnogenol has filed for several patents for Pycnogenol's application for COX-1 and COX-2 inhibition and treatment of osteoarthritis.

About Pycnogenol®

Pycnogenol® is a natural plant extract originating from the bark of the maritime pine that grows along the coast of southwest France and is found to contain a unique combination of procyanidins, bioflavonoids and organic acids, which offer extensive natural health benefits. The extract has been widely studied for the past 35 years and has more than 220 published studies and review articles ensuring safety and efficacy as an ingredient. Today, Pycnogenol® is available in more than 600 dietary supplements, multi-vitamins and health products worldwide. For more information, visit www.pycnogenol.com.

Natural Health Science Inc. (NHS), based in Hoboken, New Jersey, is the North American distributor for Pycnogenol® (pic-noj-en-all) brand French maritime pine bark extract on behalf of Horphag Research. Pycnogenol® is a registered trademark of Horphag Research Ltd., Guernsey, and its applications are protected by U.S. patents #5,720,956 / #6,372,266 and other international patents. NHS has the exclusive rights to market and sell Pycnogenol® in North America and benefits from more than 35 years of scientific research assuring the safety and efficacy of Pycnogenol® as a dietary supplement. For more information about Pycnogenol® visit our Web site at www.pycnogenol.com.

Researchers discover atomic bomb effect results in adult-onset thyroid cancer

Public release date: 29-Aug-2008

Contact: Jeremy Moore
Jeremy.moore@aacr.org
267-646-0557
American Association for Cancer Research
Researchers discover atomic bomb effect results in adult-onset thyroid cancer

PHILADELPHIA – Radiation from the atomic bomb blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, likely rearranged chromosomes in some survivors who later developed papillary thyroid cancer as adults, according to Japanese researchers.

In the September 1, 2008, issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, the scientists report that subjects who lived close to the blast sites, were comparably young at the time, and developed the cancer quickly once they reached adulthood, were likely to have a chromosomal rearrangement known as RET/PTC that is not very frequent in adults who develop the disease.

"Recent in vitro and in vivo studies suggest that a single genetic event in the MAP kinase-signaling pathway may be sufficient for thyroid cell transformation and tumor development," said the study's lead author, Kiyohiro Hamatani, Ph.D., laboratory chief, Department of Radiobiology and Molecular Epidemiology at the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF) in Hiroshima.

"Thyroid cancer is associated with exposure to external or internal ionizing radiation.Elucidation of mechanisms of radiation-induced cancer in humans, especially early steps and pathways, has potential implications for epidemiological risk analyses, early clinical diagnosis, and chemopreventive interventions," Hamatani said.

He adds that there are several irradiated populations worldwide that have been shown to have an increase in thyroid cancer, and that children exposed to radioactive fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident who develop papillary thyroid cancer have also been found to have RET/PTC rearrangements, although they are slightly different.

This study is part of the foundation's long running follow-up research on 120,000 atomic bomb survivors. During 1958 to 1998, the study found about 470 thyroid cancer cases of which the estimated number of excess cases attributable to radiation is 63. About 90 percent of thyroid cancer among the survivors is of the papillary type.

Hamatani and colleagues from across Japan made a comparison between adult-onset papillary thyroid cancers with RET/PTC rearrangements and those with a BRAF mutation. More than 70 percent of adult onset papillary thyroid cancer in non-exposed patients is associated with mutations in the BRAF gene.

The researchers looked at the genetic profile of cancer patients in the RERF's follow-up study--50 patients who were exposed to atomic bomb radiation and 21 patients who were not. Three factors were found to be independently associated with the development of adult-onset papillary thyroid cancer with RET/PTC rearrangements. They were greater radiation dose, shorter time elapsed since radiation exposure, and younger age at the time of the bombings, Hamatani says.

"That means that a younger person living close to the bombing site would be more likely to have adult onset thyroid cancer having RET/PTC rearrangements," he said. "This is the first time this has been shown."

The findings also suggest that in childhood papillary thyroid cancer RET/PTC rearrangements may be much less clearly associated with radiation exposure, compared with adult-onset cancer, because RET/PTC rearrangements are frequent in childhood papillary thyroid cancer patients regardless of history of radiation exposure.

The researchers do not know exactly how radiation is involved in the occurrence of RET/PTC rearrangements. "It could be either by direct DNA damage or by other pathways such as a result of radiation-induced genomic instability," Hamatani said.

###

The mission of the American Association for Cancer Research is to prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1907, AACR is the world's oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research. The membership includes more than 28,000 basic, translational and clinical researchers; health care professionals; and cancer survivors and advocates in the United States and 80 other countries. AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise from the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer through high-quality scientific and educational programs. It funds innovative, meritorious research grants. The AACR Annual Meeting attracts more than 17,000 participants who share the latest discoveries and developments in the field. Special conferences throughout the year present novel data across a wide variety of topics in cancer research, treatment and patient care. AACR publishes five major peer-reviewed journals: Cancer Research; Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Its most recent publication and its sixth major journal, Cancer Prevention Research, is dedicated exclusively to cancer prevention, from preclinical research to clinical trials. The AACR also publishes CR, a magazine for cancer survivors and their families, patient advocates, physicians and scientists. CR provides a forum for sharing essential, evidence-based information and perspectives on progress in cancer research, survivorship and advocacy.

Researchers find high levels of toxic metals in herbal medicine products sold online

This paper is similar to the one published by the lead author and his colleagues in JAMA in 2005.I have followed it up with a feature article in the PTIFEATURE published by the Press Trust of India, the premier news agency of India

K.S.Parthasarathy





Public release date: 26-Aug-2008


Contact: Michelle Roberts
michelle.roberts@bmc.org
617-638-8491
Boston University
Researchers find high levels of toxic metals in herbal medicine products sold online

Boston, MA--Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that one fifth of both U.S.-manufactured and Indian-manufactured Ayurvedic medicines purchased via the Internet contain lead, mercury or arsenic. These findings appear in the August 27th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Ayurveda is a form of medicine that originated in India more than 2,000 years ago and relies heavily on herbal products. In India, an estimated 80 percent of the population practices Ayurveda. In the United States, Ayurvedic remedies have increased in popularity and are available from South Asian markets, health food stores, and on the Internet. Ayurvedic medicines are divided into two major types: herbal only and rasa shastra. Rasa shastra is an ancient practice of deliberately combining herbs with metals, minerals and gems. Ayurvedic experts in India believe that if Rasa Shastra medicines made with metals such as lead and mercury are properly prepared and administered, they will be safe and therapeutic.

Using an Internet search, the researchers identified 25 Web sites featuring 673 Ayurvedic medicines. They randomly selected and purchased 193 products made by 37 different manufacturers for analyses. Overall, 20.7 percent of Ayurvedic medicines contained detectable lead, mercury and/or arsenic. U.S. and Indian manufactured products were equally likely to contain toxic metals. Rasa shastra compared with non-rasa shastra medicines were more than twice as likely to contain metals and had higher concentrations of lead and mercury. Among products containing metals, 95 percent were sold by U.S. Web sites and 75 percent claimed Good Manufacturing Practices or testing for heavy metals. All metal-containing products exceeded one or more standards for acceptable daily intake of toxic metals.

"This study highlights the need for Congress to revisit the way dietary supplements are regulated in the U.S.," said lead author Robert Saper, MD, MPH, Director of Integrative Medicine in the Family Medicine Department at BUSM. Saper first published on this topic in December, 2004 (JAMA). In that study he and his colleagues found 20% of Ayurvedic medicines produced in South Asia only and available in Boston area stores contained potentially harmful levels of lead, mercury, and/or arsenic. "Our first priority must be the safety of the public. Herbs and supplements with high levels of lead, mercury, and arsenic should not be available for sale on the Internet or elsewhere," he said.

Saper adds, "We suggest strictly enforced, government mandated daily dose limits for toxic metals in all dietary supplements and requirements that all manufacturers demonstrate compliance through independent third-party testing."

"The medicines which are supposed to cure sickness should not promote another illness due to the presence of toxic materials such as lead," said co-author Venkatesh Thuppil, PhD, Director of the National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning in India, as well as a Professor at St. John's Medical College in India.

###


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Biochemists manipulate fruit flavor enzymes

Public release date: 20-Aug-2008
Contact: Robert Cahill
Robert.Cahill@uth.tmc.edu
713-500-3042
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Biochemists manipulate fruit flavor enzymes

Would you like a lemony watermelon? How about a strawberry-flavored banana? Biochemists at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston say the day may be coming when scientists will be able to fine tune enzymes responsible for flavors in fruits and vegetables. In addition, it could lead to environmentally-friendly pest control.

In the advance online publication of Nature on Aug. 20, UT Medical School Assistant Professor C.S. Raman, Ph.D., and his colleagues report that they were able to manipulate flavor enzymes found in a popular plant model, Arabidopsis thaliana, by genetic means. The enzymes—allene oxide synthase (AOS) and hydroperoxide lyase (HPL)—produce jasmonate (responsible for the unique scent of jasmine flowers) and green leaf volatiles (GLV) respectively. GLVs confer characteristic aromas to fruits and vegetables.

Green leaf volatiles and jasmonates emitted by plants also serve to ward off predators. "Mind you plants can't run away from bugs and other pests. They need to deal with them. One of the things they do is to release volatile substances into the air so as to attract predators of the bugs," Raman said.

"Genetic engineering/modification (GM) of green leaf volatile production holds significant potential towards formulating environmentally friendly pest-control strategies. It also has important implications for manipulating food flavor," said Raman, the senior author. "For example, the aroma of virgin olive oil stems from the volatiles synthesized by olives. By modifying the activity of enzymes that generate these substances, it may be possible to alter the flavor of the resulting oils."

According to Raman, "Our work shows how you can convert one enzyme to another and, more importantly, provides the needed information for modifying the GLV production in plants." The scientists made 3-D images of the enzymes, which allowed them to make a small, but specific, genetic change in AOS, leading to the generation of HPL.

AOS and HPL are part of a super family of enzymes called cytochrome P450. P450 family enzymes are found in most bacteria and all known plants and animals. Although AOS or HPL are not found in humans, there are related P450 family members that help metabolize nearly half of the pharmaceuticals currently in use. In plants, AOS and HPL break down naturally-occurring, organic peroxides into GLV and jasmonate molecules. "Each flavor has a different chemical profile," Raman said.

"A notable strength of this manuscript is the combined use of structural and evolutionary biology to draw new insights regarding enzyme function. These insights led to the striking demonstration that a single amino acid substitution converts one enzyme into another, thereby showing how a single point mutation can contribute to the evolution of different biosynthetic pathways. This begins to answer the long-standing question as to how the same starting molecule can be converted into different products by enzymes that look strikingly similar," said Rodney E. Kellems, Ph.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the UT Medical School at Houston.

The study dispels the earlier view that these flavor-producing enzymes are only found in plants, Raman said. "We have discovered that they are also present in marine animals, such as sea anemone and corals. However, we do not know what they do in these organisms."

###

The study is titled "Structural insights into the evolutionary paths of oxylipin biosynthetic enzymes." The lead authors were Dong-Sun Lee, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the UT Medical School at Houston, and Pierre Nioche, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the Université Paris Descartes. Mats Hamberg, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medical chemistry in the Division of Physiological Chemistry, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, collaborated on the research.

The research is supported by Pew Charitable Trusts through a Pew Scholar Award, The Robert A. Welch Foundation, The National Institutes of Health, a Beginning Grant in Aid from the American Heart Association, and an INSERM Avenir Grant sponsored by La Fondation pour la Recherche Medicale.

Water refineries

Public release date: 31-Jul-2008
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Contact: Josh Chamot
jchamot@nsf.gov
703-292-7730
National Science Foundation
Water refineries?
New method extracts oxygen from water with minimal energy, potentially boosting efforts to develop solar as a 24-hour energy source
A snapshot showing the new, efficient oxygen catalyst in action in Dan Nocera's laboratory at MIT.
Click here for more information.

Using a surprisingly simple, inexpensive technique, chemists have found a way to pull pure oxygen from water using relatively small amounts of electricity, common chemicals and a room-temperature glass of water.

Because oxygen and hydrogen are energy-rich fuels, many researchers have proposed using solar electricity to split water into those elements--a stored energy source for when the sun goes down. One of the chief obstacles to that green-energy scenario has been the difficulty of producing oxygen without large amounts of energy or a high-maintenance environment.

Now, Massachusetts Institute of Technology chemist Daniel Nocera and his postdoctoral student Matthew Kanan have discovered an efficient way to solve the oxygen problem. They announced their findings July 31, 2008, online in the journal Science.

"The discovery has enormous implications for the large scale deployment of solar since it puts us on the doorstep of a cheap and easily manufactured storage mechanism," said Nocera. "The ease of implementation means that this discovery will have legs. I have great faith in my chemistry, materials science and engineering colleagues in the community to drive this discovery hard and hopefully their work, along with our continued studies will yield viable technologies within 10 years."

While a home-based energy source using this technique could be a decade away, the breakthrough is a major step forward.

"This study demonstrates how research is critical for driving American competitiveness in the global energy marketplace. By funding fundamental research in water and renewable energy, we are investing in both our economic and environmental futures," said Arden L. Bement, Jr., director of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

To produce oxygen, Nocera and Kanan added cobalt and phosphates to neutral water and then inserted a conductive-glass electrode. As soon as the researchers applied a current, a dark film began to form on the electrode from which tiny pockets of oxygen began to appear, eventually building into a stream of bubbles.

After analyzing the electrode, the researchers concluded that a cobalt-phosphate mixture, possibly combined with phosphate, had deposited as a film.

Nocera and Kanan believe the film is the catalyst that helps break apart the water molecules to create oxygen gas. The protons (hydrogen nuclei) released from the process pick up electrons and convert back into hydrogen at a partner electrode.

Nocera and Kanan also found evidence that the catalyst seems to refresh itself, a mechanism that would make maintenance of such oxygen-extracting systems far simpler than alternatives, although that finding needs confirmation from additional experiments.

"The simplicity of this process is amazing," said Luis Echegoyen, director of NSF's Chemistry Division. "Using common and affordable elements, and a glass of water, these chemists may have given us a future way to efficiently obtain oxygen by splitting water."

Despite the straightforward experimental setup, the exact mechanism driving the reactions is still unknown. For direct conversion of solar energy into hydrogen and oxygen, researchers will need to study the new research results and incorporate the mechanisms into a larger system that also cleanly produces hydrogen.

Nocera is a member of NSF's Powering the Planet, a partnership that NSF forged between MIT, Caltech and several other institutions as an NSF Chemical Bonding Center in 2005. In his role as a co-investigator with the center, Nocera has been pursuing sustainable energy technology through a broader effort to learn from, and apply, the lessons of photosynthesis and other natural processes.

"When we support fundamental research we never know where that investment will lead. In this instance, it may lead to new opportunities for sustainable energy," said Tony Chan, assistant director for NSF's Mathematics and Physical Sciences Directorate.

###

FDA Preliminary1 Public Health Notification: Possible Malfunction of Electronic Medical Devices Caused by Computed Tomography (CT) Scanning

USFDA has issued a very important preliminary notification on possible malfunction of medical devices caused by CT scanning.The number of patients who carry medical devices in India is not known. Since such devices are very expensive the patients carrying them may be very few. According to sun-sentinel.com, in US,tens of millions of patients are outfitted with these technologies, which use electrical currents to help various organs overcome functional deficits.

K.S.Parthasarathy


FDA Preliminary1 Public Health Notification: Possible Malfunction of Electronic Medical Devices Caused by Computed Tomography (CT) Scanning

Date July 14, 2008
Dear Healthcare Professional:
This is to alert you to the possibility that the x-rays used during CT examinations may cause some implanted and external electronic medical devices to malfunction, and to provide recommendations to reduce the potential risk.

Most patients with electronic medical devices undergo CT scans without any adverse consequences. However, FDA has received a small number of reports of adverse events in which CT scans may have interfered with electronic medical devices, including pacemakers, defibrillators, neurostimulators, and implanted or externally worn drug infusion pumps. There have been similar reports in the literature.2-4
It is possible that this interference is being reported more frequently now because of the increased utilization of CT, the higher dose-rate capability of newer CT machines, an increase in the number of patients with implanted and externally worn electronic medical devices, and better reporting systems.
We are continuing to investigate this issue while working with device manufacturers and raising awareness in the healthcare community. To date, no patient deaths have been reported from CT scanning of implanted or externally worn electronic medical devices.
Adverse events
In the reports received by FDA, the following adverse events were likely to have been caused by x-rays from CT scans:
• Unintended “shocks” (i.e., stimuli) from neurostimulators
• Malfunctions of insulin infusion pumps
• Transient changes in pacemaker output pulse rate
Note that malfunctions of this kind, which can result from direct exposure of the medical device to the high x-ray dose rates generated by some CT equipment, are different from those related to MRI scanning, which are caused by strong electric and magnetic fields.
Recommendations
Before beginning a CT scan, the operator should use CT scout views to determine if implanted or externally worn electronic medical devices are present and if so, their location relative to the programmed scan range.
For CT procedures in which the medical device is in or immediately adjacent to the programmed scan range, the operator should:
• Determine the device type;
• If practical, try to move external devices out of the scan range;
• Ask patients with neurostimulators to shut off the device temporarily while the scan is performed;
• Minimize x-ray exposure to the implanted or externally worn electronic medical device by:
o Using the lowest possible x-ray tube current consistent with obtaining the required image quality; and
o Making sure that the x-ray beam does not dwell over the device for more than a few seconds;
Important note: For CT procedures that require scanning over the medical device continuously for more than a few seconds, as with CT perfusion or interventional exams, attending staff should be ready to take emergency measures to treat adverse reactions if they occur.
After CT scanning directly over the implanted or externally worn electronic medical device:
• Have the patient turn the device back on if it had been turned off prior to scanning.
• Have the patient check the device for proper functioning, even if the device was turned off.
• Advise patients to contact their healthcare provider as soon as possible if they suspect their device is not functioning properly after a CT scan.
Background
Experimental studies with anthropomorphic phantoms have demonstrated the potential for high dose rate CT irradiation to affect implanted cardiac rhythm management devices.3,4 Some occurrences in patients, which involved neurostimulator and pacemaker devices, have also been reported to FDA and appear in the literature.3,5
Electronic medical devices that theoretically could be affected by CT x-rays include, but are not limited to:
• cardiac pacemakers,
• implantable cardiac defibrillators,
• neurostimulators,
• drug infusion pumps, including insulin pumps,
• cochlear implants, and
• retinal implants.
While theoretically possible, reports of CT interference with cochlear implants and retinal implants have not been received to date.
Problems with electronic medical devices that might be caused by CT scanner interference include:
• generation of spurious signals, including cardiac defibrillation pulses
• misinterpretation of signals produced by the x-rays as actual biological signals
• missed detection of actual biological signals
• resetting or reprogramming of device settings
The type of effect, if any, is likely to depend on the device type, the manufacturer and the model.
Reporting to FDA
FDA requires hospitals and other user facilities to report deaths and serious injuries associated with the use of medical devices. If you suspect that a reportable adverse event was related to the use of CT equipment, you should follow the reporting procedure established by your facility.
We also encourage you to report adverse events that do not meet the requirements for mandatory reporting. You can report directly to MedWatch, the FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting program. You may submit reports online at www.fda.gov/MedWatch/report.htm, by phone 1-800-FDA-1088, or by returning the postage-paid FDA form 3500 which may be downloaded from www.fda.gov/MedWatch/getforms.htm by mail to MedWatch, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20852-9787 or fax 1-800-FDA-0178.
Getting More Information
If you have questions about this Notification, please contact Issues Management Staff, Office of Surveillance and Biometrics (HFZ-510), 1350 Piccard Drive, Rockville, Maryland, 20850, by Fax at 240-276-3356, or by e-mail at phann@cdrh.fda.gov. You may also leave a voicemail message at 240-276-3357 and we will return your call as soon as possible.

FDA medical device Public Health Notifications are available on the Internet at http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/safety.html. You can also be notified through email on the day the safety notification is released by subscribing to our list server. To subscribe, visit: http://service.govdelivery.com/service/subscribe.html?code=USFDA_39.
Sincerely yours,

Daniel G. Schultz, MD
Director
Center for Devices and Radiological Health
Food and Drug Administration

1 CDRH Preliminary Public Health Notifications are intended to quickly share device-related safety information with healthcare providers when the available information and our understanding of an issue are still evolving. We will revise this Notification as new information merits and so encourage you to check this site for updates.
2 “Does High-Power Computed Tomography Scanning Equipment Affect the Operation of Pacemakers?,” Yamaji, S., et al., Circulation Journal 70:190-197 (2006).
3 “Effects of CT Irradiation on Implantable Cardiac Rhythm Management Devices,” McCollough, C., et al., Radiology 243 (3):766-774 (2007).
4 “Hazard Report—CT Scans Can Affect the Operation of Implanted Electronic Devices,” ECRI Institute Problem Reporting System, Health Devices 36 (4):136-138 (2007).
5 MedSun is the FDA's Medical Product Safety Network of 350 hospitals spread throughout the United States. Information from 132 of these facilities indicated that they have not experienced any CT medical device interference, while 3 have had from 1 to 3 events that may have been CT scan induced. Fifteen MedSun facilities indicated they take some precautionary steps when CT scanning patients who have electronic medical devices.
Updated July 14, 2008

New electrostatic-based DNA microarray technique could revolutionize medical diagnostics

U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has invented a technique in which DNA or RNA assays — the key to genetic profiling and disease detection — can be read and evaluated without the need of elaborate chemical labeling or sophisticated instrumentation. Based on electrostatic repulsion — in which objects with the same electrical charge repel one another — the technique is relatively simple and inexpensive to implement, and can be carried out in a matter of minutes.

The news release is prepared very carefully highlighting areas which are yet to be practically realized into the realm of reality!

K.S.Parthasarathy



Contact: Lynn Yarris
lcyarris@lbl.gov
510-486-5375
DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
New electrostatic-based DNA microarray technique could revolutionize medical diagnostics
DNA microarrays can be easily interrogated with only the naked eye using a new electrostatic imaging technique developed in the laboratory of Jay Groves, a chemist with Berkeley Lab,...
Click here for more information.

BERKELEY, CA — The dream of personalized medicine — in which diagnostics, risk predictions and treatment decisions are based on a patient's genetic profile — may be on the verge of being expanded beyond the wealthiest of nations with state-of-the-art clinics. A team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has invented a technique in which DNA or RNA assays — the key to genetic profiling and disease detection — can be read and evaluated without the need of elaborate chemical labeling or sophisticated instrumentation. Based on electrostatic repulsion — in which objects with the same electrical charge repel one another — the technique is relatively simple and inexpensive to implement, and can be carried out in a matter of minutes.

"One of the most amazing things about our electrostatic detection method is that it requires nothing more than the naked eye to read out results that currently require chemical labeling and confocal laser scanners," said Jay Groves, a chemist with joint appointments at Berkeley Lab's Physical Biosciences Division and the Chemistry Department of the University of California (UC) at Berkeley, who led this research. "We believe this technique could revolutionize the use of DNA microarrays for both research and diagnostics."
A new method for reading DNA (or RNA) microarrays is based on measuring the electrostatic repulsion between silica microspheres and hybridized DNA. Surface areas containing double-stranded DNA (red) or single-stranded...
Click here for more information.

Groves, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator, and members of his research group Nathan Clack and Khalid Salaita, have published a paper on their technique in the journal Nature Biotechnology, which is now available online. The paper is entitled "Electrostatic readout of DNA microarrays with charged microspheres."

In their paper, Groves, Clack, and Salaita describe how dispersing a fluid containing thousands of electrically-charged microscopic beads or spheres made of silica (glass) across the surface of a DNA microarray and then observing the Brownian motion of the spheres provides measurements of the electrical charges of the DNA molecules. These measurements can in turn be used to interrogate millions of DNA sequences at a time. What's more, these measurements can be observed and recorded with a simple hand-held imaging device — even a cell phone camera will do.

"The assumption has been that no detection technique could be more sensitive than fluorescent labeling, but this is completely untrue, as our results have plainly demonstrated," said Groves. "We've shown that changes in surface charge density as a result of specific DNA hybridization can be detected and quantified with 50-picometer sensitivity, single base-pair mismatch selectivity, and in the presence of complex backgrounds. Furthermore, our electrostatic detection technique should render DNA and RNA microarrays sufficiently cost effective for broad world-health applications, as well as research."

Your susceptibility to a given disease and how your body will respond to drugs or other interventions is unique to your genetic makeup. Under a personalized medicine plan, treatment effectiveness is maximized and risks are minimized by tailoring disease treatments specifically to you. This requires the precise diagnostic tests and targeted therapies that can stem from assays using a DNA microarray — a thumbnail-sized substrate containing thousands of microscopic spots of oligonucleotides (stretches of DNA about 20 base pairs in length) laid out in a grid.

Often referred to as "gene chips," DNA microarray assays and their RNA counterparts have become one of the most powerful tools for gene-expression profiling, the identification of mutations, and the detection of multiple pathogens in patients afflicted either by multiple diseases or drug-resistant strains of diseases. Aside from their potential future role in personalized medicine, the widespread use of DNA microarray assay devices could have an immediate and profound impact on the treatment of diseases today. For example, according to a report two years ago from the Global Health Diagnostics Forum, 400,000 lives could be saved each year from death by tuberculosis through the use of DNA microarray assays rather than the standard TB diagnostic test, which is known to miss nearly half of all cases.

Until now, however, the use of DNA microarray assays has been limited because current techniques typically depend upon fluorescence detection, a demanding methodology that requires time-consuming chemical labeling, high-power excitation sources, and sophisticated instrumentation for scanning. Such demands are generally well beyond the capabilities of individual laboratories or clinics, especially in developing countries. While label-free DNA detection strategies do exist, they require either complex device fabrication or sophisticated instrumentation for readouts, and in addition none are compatible with conventional DNA microarrays, where up to one million sequences are available for interrogation in a single experiment.

"We have demonstrated parallel sampling of a microarray surface with micron-scale resolutions over centimeter-scale lengths," said Groves. "This is four orders of magnitude larger than what has been achieved to date with conventional scanning-electrostatic-force microscopy."

In a typical experiment, a microarray is prepared and mounted in a well chamber and the DNA is hybridized (a standard technique in which complementary single strands of DNA bind to form double-stranded DNA "hybrids"). A suspension of negatively-charged silica microspheres is then dispersed through gravitational sedimentation over the microarray surface, a process which takes about 20 minutes. Because the substrate or background surface of the microassay is positively charged, the silica microspheres will spread across the entire surface and adhere to it. However, on surface areas containing double-stranded DNA, which is highly negatively charged, and on areas containing single-stranded DNA, also negatively charged but to a lesser degree than double-stranded DNA, the microspheres will levitate above the substrate surface, stacking up in "equilibrium heights" that are dictated by a balance between gravitational and electrostatic forces.

These electrostatic interactions on the microarray surface result in charge-density contrasts that are readily observed. Surface areas containing DNA segments take on a frosted or translucent appearance, and can be correlated to specific hybridizations that reveal the presence of genes, mutations and pathogens.

"Our technique is essentially a millionfold parallel version of the classic experiment used by Robert Millikan almost 100 years ago, when he determined the charge of a single electron by observing the positions of oil droplets levitated above a charged plate," said Groves.

There are a number of short-term "next steps" for this research, Groves said, including testing its application in high-density arrays and pushing its ultimate resolution limits.

"Since the resolution of electrostatic-based imaging is determined by the number of particle-observations rather than by the diffraction limit of light, our readouts could serve as a form of ultramicroscopy," he said. "The real grand challenge for this technology, however, will be for us to find suitable industrial partners with whom we can work to see that useful new products actually make it to market."

###

The electrostatic detection technology is now available for licensing through Berkeley Lab's Technology Transfer Department; visit their website at http://www.lbl.gov/Tech-Transfer/index.html.

This research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science through its Office of Basic Energy Sciences.

Berkeley Lab is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory located in Berkeley, California. It conducts unclassified scientific research and is managed by the University of California. Visit our website at www.lbl.gov.

crude 'oil' from pig manure

Chemists at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)have developed a method to make crude oil from pig manure!Not surprising any more as the price of petrol is currently $4 gallon in USA. Pigsty owners will be delighted to supply the "raw material" without any hindrance!The trouble is that "Whatever the pigs eat, from dirt to nutritional supplements, ends up in the oil". Scientists concede.

NIST researchers found that pig manure crude contains at least "83 major compounds, including many components that would need to be removed, such as about 15 percent water by volume, sulfur that otherwise could end up as pollution in vehicle exhaust, and lots of char waste containing heavy metals, including iron, zinc, silver, cobalt, chromium, lanthanum, scandium, tungsten and minute amounts of gold and hafnium".

May be the farmers must subsidize the process to make usable crude from pig manure!


K.S.Parthasarathy





Public release date: 12-Jun-2008

Contact: Laura Ost
laura.ost@nist.gov
303-497-4880
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
NIST chemists get scoop on crude 'oil' from pig manure
To watch NIST chemist Tom Bruno talk about his research on crude oil made from pig manure, go to http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/techbeat/tb2008_0610.htm#crude
Click here for more information.

After a close examination of crude oil made from pig manure, chemists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are certain about a number of things.

Most obviously, "This stuff smells worse than manure," says NIST chemist Tom Bruno.

But a job's a job, so the NIST team has developed the first detailed chemical analysis revealing what processing is needed to transform pig manure crude oil into fuel for vehicles or heating. Mass production of this type of biofuel could help consume a waste product overflowing at U.S. farms, and possibly enable cutbacks in the nation's petroleum use and imports. But, according to a new NIST paper,* pig manure crude will require a lot of refining.

The ersatz oil used in the NIST analyses was provided by engineer Yuanhui Zhang of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Zhang developed a system using heat and pressure to transform organic compounds such as manure into oil.

As described in the new paper, Bruno and colleagues determined that the pig manure crude contains at least 83 major compounds, including many components that would need to be removed, such as about 15 percent water by volume, sulfur that otherwise could end up as pollution in vehicle exhaust, and lots of char waste containing heavy metals, including iron, zinc, silver, cobalt, chromium, lanthanum, scandium, tungsten and minute amounts of gold and hafnium. Whatever the pigs eat, from dirt to nutritional supplements, ends up in the oil.

While the thick black liquid may look like its petroleum-based counterparts, the NIST study shows that looks can be deceiving. "The fact that pig manure crude oil contains a lot of water is unfavorable. They would need to get the water out," Bruno says.

The measurements were made with a new NIST test method and apparatus, the advanced distillation curve, which provides highly detailed and accurate data on the makeup and performance of complex fluids. A distillation curve charts the percentage of the total mixture that evaporates as a sample is slowly heated. Because the different components of a complex mixture typically have different boiling points, a distillation curve gives a good measure of the relative amount of each component in the mixture. NIST chemists enhanced the traditional technique by improving precision and control of temperature measurements and adding the capability to analyze the chemical composition of each boiling fraction using a variety of advanced methods.

NIST researchers analyzed the graphite-like char remaining after the distillation by bombarding it with neutrons, a non-destructive way of identifying the types and amounts of elements present. Two complementary neutron methods detected the heavy metals listed above.

Bruno and colleagues currently spend much of their time analyzing military jet fuels and are not planning a major foray into pig manure. But Bruno concedes that the effort may have a payoff. "Who knows, it might help decrease the nuisance of manure piles."

###

For more on the process of making pig waste crude, see "Converting Manure to Oil: U of I Lays Groundwork for One-of-a-Kind Pilot Plant". http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/news/stories/news3557.html

To view a video clip of Tom Bruno describing the work, please go to: http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/techbeat/tb2008_0610.htm#crude

* L.S. Ott, B.L. Smith and T.J. Bruno. Advanced distillation curve measurement: Application to a bio-derived crude oil prepared from swine manure. Fuel (2008), doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2008.04.038.

Nuclear power generation slipped 1.9% last year, though there is news that the technology is poised for growth in many countries

K.S. Parthasarathy






Nuclear Policies
Nuclear generation drops 1.9% in 2007
09 June 2008

Figures from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) show that nuclear power generation worldwide was 50 TWh lower in 2007 than in 2006, mainly due to cutbacks in three countries.


Kashiwazaki Kariwa
Kashiwazaki Kariwa is the biggest
nuclear power plant in the world.
Its extended outage has dented global
generation figures (Image: Tepco)
This 1.9% drop, from 2658 to 2608 TWh, was the first significant decline in world nuclear output in four years.


In Japan, the closure of 8000 MWe of capacity at Tokyo Electric Power Company's (Tepco's) Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant in Niigata prefecture following the earthquake on 16 July had a marked influence. The plant's closure led to Japan's nuclear electricity production dropping by almost 25 TWh to 267.3 TWh in 2007, despite no damage having been found to the reactors.


In the UK, the four oldest reactors - at Dungeness A and Sizewell A - were retired at the end of 2006 and then two larger ones - Hartlepool 2 and Heysham 1 - were laid up with boiler (steam generator) problems, leading to a drop in output of almost 12 TWh.


In Germany, there was a drop of 25 TWh due to the Brunsbuttel and Krummel nuclear power plants being shut down in June due to short circuits in the electricity grid, removing about 2000 MWe of capacity. In addition, the Biblis A and B nuclear plants, totalling 2400 MWe, remained offline due to regulatory issues for part of the year.

However, several countries reported increases in nuclear generation: Bulgaria (up 32% to 13.7 TWh); China (up 14.5% to 59.3 TWh); Russia (up 2.5% to 148.0 TWh); South Africa (up 24.7% to 12.6 TWh); and the USA (up 2.5% to 806.6 TWh) - the last amounting to 19.4 TWh.


France remained the country most reliant on nuclear energy for its electricity, producing some 420 TWh, accounting for almost 77% of its total electricity output. Lithuania followed, with 9 TWh of nuclear electricity accounting for almost 65% of its total electricity output.


According to the IAEA's Power Reactor Information System (PRIS) database, three new nuclear power reactors were connected to the grid in 2007: Kaiga 3 in India, Tianwan 2 in China and Cernavoda 2 in Romania. In addition, the Browns Ferry 1 reactor in the USA returned to service after a long-term shut down.


Also in 2007, construction of five reactors commenced: Qinshan II-4 and Hongyanhe 1 in China; Shin Kori 2 and Shin Wolsong 1 in South Korea; and the Flamanville 3 unit in France. Construction of two floating reactors was also begun in Russia. In addition, construction was also resumed in 2007 of the USA's Watts Bar 2 unit.

Theft in Trombay, Chernobyl

A week ago thieves stole a swathe of telephone cables connecting Anushaktinagar, (the residential complex in which most of the scientists working in various units of the Department of Atomic Energy live) with the outside world. The Banks at the premises and schools and a few other institutions did not have phone service for a week

Almost two weeks earlier the following news appeared in the Russian paper RIA Novosti 30 May


Chernobyl chopper café plan thwarted
A gang has been arrested in Ukraine for planning to smuggle contaminated wood and scrap metal, including a helicopter, from the 18-mile exclusion zone surrounding the damaged Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In a statement, the country's security service reported that it had "identified and put a stop to the unlawful activities of a criminal gang, which had been illegally removing from Chernobyl radioactive scrap metal, automobile spare parts and timber." The statement said that the timber was usually reprocessed at covert plants and later sold as construction materials, while the metal items were usually melted down for scrap. However, the security service said the gang had also "tried to take an Mi-8 helicopter out of the exclusion zone to use it as an original coffee shop in one of Ukraine's cities." The Mi-8 helicopter was the workhorse of the Soviet armed forces and is capable of carrying up to 28 people. It was not made clear how many customers the gang had been hoping to seat.

Interesting nuclear news!!

Modified electron microscope identifies atoms

A new electron microscope recently installed in Cornell's Duffield Hall enables scientists for the first time to form images that uniquely identify individual atoms in a crystal and see how those atoms bond to one another. And in living color.

K.S.Parthasarathy



Public release date: 21-Feb-2008
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Contact: Blaine Friedlander
bpf2@cornell.edu
607-254-8093
Cornell University Communications
Modified electron microscope identifies atoms

A new electron microscope recently installed in Cornell's Duffield Hall is enabling scientists for the first time to form images that uniquely identify individual atoms in a crystal and see how those atoms bond to one another. And in living color.

"The current generation of electron microscopes can be thought of as expensive black and white cameras where different atoms appear as different shades of gray," explained David Muller, Cornell associate professor of applied and engineering physics. "This microscope takes color pictures -- where each colored atom represents a uniquely identified chemical species."

The instrument is a new type of scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), built by the NION Company of Kirkland, Wash., under an instrument-development award to Cornell from the National Science Foundation (NSF). John Silcox, the David E. Burr Professor of Engineering at Cornell, and Ondrej Krivanek of NION are co-principal investigators on the project.

The microscope incorporates new aberration-correction technology designed by Krivanek that focuses a beam of electrons on a spot smaller than a single atom -- more sharply and with greater intensity than previously possible. This allows information previously hidden in the background, or "noise," to be seen. It also provides up to a hundredfold increase in imaging speed.

The capabilities of the new instrument in analyzing a test sample are described in an article in the Feb. 22 issue of the journal Science by Muller, Silcox, Krivanek and colleagues at Cornell and in Korea and Japan.

It allows scientists to peer inside a material or a device and see how it is put together at the atomic scale where quantum effects dominate and everyday intuition fails. One of the most important applications of the new instrument will be to conduct what Silcox calls "materials pathology" to aid researchers in their development of new materials to use in electronic circuits, computer memories and other nanoscale devices. "We can look at structures people have built and tell them if they've built what they thought they did," Silcox explained.

A STEM shoots an electron beam through a thin-film sample and scans the beam across the sample in subatomic steps. In addition to forming an image, the new microscope can identify atoms in its path by a process called electron energy-loss spectrometry. Atoms in the path of the beam absorb energy from some of its electrons to kick their own electrons into higher orbits. The amount of energy this takes is different for each kind of atom.

The detector that collects electrons emerging from the sample measures the energy losses, and from this the atoms in the path of the beam can be identified. The detector can simultaneously produce multiple images -- one for every different species of atom in the sample, and these can be color-coded, each color representing a different electron energy signature.

The method also can show how atoms are bonded to one another in a crystal, because the bonding creates small shifts in the energy signatures. In earlier STEMS, many electrons from the beam, including those with changed energies, were scattered at wide angles by simple collisions with atoms. The new STEM includes magnetic lenses that collect emerging electrons over a wider angle. Previously, Silcox said, about 8 percent of the emerging electrons were collected, but the new detector collects about 80 percent, allowing more accurate readings of the small changes in energy levels that reveal bonding between atoms.

More complete collection and a brighter and a more sharply focused beam also allow the new microscope to scan much faster. In early tests it collected a 4,096-pixel image in about 30 seconds, 50 to 100 times faster than in conventional STEMs.

To demonstrate the capability of the new instrument, Muller examined a sample consisting of layers of two different materials: lanthanum-strontium-manganese oxide and strontium-titanate. This was done as part of a research project on which he is collaborating with scientists in Korea and Japan. "It's an artificial structure that will have interesting magnetic and electrical properties," he said, "but for it to work properly we have to make atomically sharp interfaces between the layers. It's really important to know if a few atoms leaked across the interface."

In the color image from the new STEM, where manganese appears red and titanium blue, a line of purple shows mixing at the edge between the two layers. "We've learned that there's room for improvement," Muller says, adding "This wasn't our best sample, but if we had put that one in it would have been a fairly boring image."

The new instrument arrived at Cornell in October, and is still undergoing calibration and testing.

The problems that limited electron imaging were identified as long ago as 1935, Silcox said, and ideas for overcoming them were outlined in 1947. But it was not until very recently that the engineering obstacles to putting them into practice were overcome. Largely, he said, this is because the problem required advanced computing, including computers to design the instrument, computer-controlled machinery to manufacture parts to fine tolerances, and computers to control the instrument itself.

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Remarkable new clothing may someday power your iPod

It is appropriate that technologists are trying to make "small" power generators for use with cell phones and IPODS. Once perfected they will have a huge market. The report published in the February issue of Nature explains an effort in that direction.

K.S.Parthasarathy




Public release date: 13-Feb-2008
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Contact: Diane Banegas
dbanegas@nsf.gov
703-292-4489
National Science Foundation
Remarkable new clothing may someday power your iPod
The promise of piezoelectric fiber pairs
A schematic illustration of a "bottle-brush " structure shows nanowires arranged around a fiber. The relative "scrubbing " of the two brushes generates electricity.
Click here for more information.

Nanotechnology researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are developing a shirt that harvests energy from the wearer's physical motion and converts it into electricity for powering small electronic devices worn by soldiers in the field, hikers and other users.

The research, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and described in the Feb. 14 issue of Nature, details how pairs of textile fibers covered with zinc oxide nanowires generate electricity in response to applied mechanical stress. Known as "the piezoelectric effect," the resulting current flow from many fiber pairs woven into a shirt or jacket could allow the wearer's body movement to power a range of portable electronic devices. The fibers could also be woven into curtains, tents or other structures to capture energy from wind motion, sound vibration or other mechanical energy.
The Georgia Tech research team for fiber nanogenerators: (left to right) Zhong Lin Wang, Xudong Wang and Yong Qin.
Click here for more information.

"The two fibers scrub together just like two bottle brushes with their bristles touching, and the piezoelectric-semiconductor process converts the mechanical motion into electrical energy," Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "Many of these devices could be put together to produce higher power output."

Wang and collaborators Xudong Wang and Yong Qin have made more than 200 of the fiber nanogenerators. Each is tested on an apparatus that uses a spring and wheel to move one fiber against the other. The fibers are rubbed together for up to 30 minutes to test their durability and power production.

The researchers have measured current of about four nanoamperes and output voltage of about four millivolts from a nanogenerator that included two fibers that were each one centimeter long. With a much improved design, Wang estimates that a square meter of fabric made from the special fibers could theoretically generate as much as 80 milliwatts of power.

So far, there is only one wrinkle in the fabric, so to speak - washing it. Zinc oxide is sensitive to moisture, so in real shirts or jackets, the nanowires would have to be protected from the effects of the washing machine.

###

The research was funded by NSF's Division of Materials Research through grant #0706436. "This multi-disciplinary research grant enables materials scientists and engineers from varied backgrounds to work together towards translating basic and applied research into viable technologies," said NSF Program Manager Harsh Deep Chopra. The research also was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Emory-Georgia Tech Nanotechnology Center for Personalized and Predictive Oncology.

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Iron banded worms drying out of blood could be linked to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's

A very interesting paper from scientists in India and the UK
K.S.Parthasarathy



Public release date: 9-Feb-2008
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Contact: Peter Sadler
p.j.sadler@warwick.ac.uk
44-024-765-23653
University of Warwick
Iron banded worms drying out of blood could be linked to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's
Professor Sadler with diagram of iron banded fibril.
Click here for more information.

Researchers at the University of Warwick and the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur have discovered that the mechanism that we rely on to transport iron safely through our blood stream can, in certain circumstances, collapse into a state which grows long worm-like “fibrils” banded by lines of iron rust. This process could provide the first insight into how iron gets deposited in the brain to cause some forms of Parkinson’s & Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases.

Human blood relies on a protein called transferrin to safely transport iron through the bloodstream to points were it can be usefully and safely used in the body. In most other circumstances exposed iron contains many dangers for human cells. When deposited in such a state in the brain it can play a role in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s

Transferrin takes up iron out of bloodstream and transports it by a method that combines it with carbonate to bind to two sites on the surface of the transferrin protein. It then curls around the iron and seals it in, almost like a Venus flytrap plant, to prevent it from interacting with anything else until it reaches where it is needed and can safely be used.

The research team led by Professor Peter Sadler from the University of Warwick, and Professor Sandeep Verma from the Indian Institute of Technology, found that if they took transferrin and left it to dry out on a surface, molecules of the safe transporter of iron assembled themselves into tendril - or worm-like fibrils. Even more interestingly the iron that was once safely wrapped up inside the transferrin now appeared to be settling along the length of these fibrils plating them in a series of spots or bands along the length of the tendril shape. This leaves the iron dangerously exposed and available to interact in ways that could cause cell damage.

Deposits of iron exposed in this way and found in the brain are a possible cause of some forms of Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases. Until now there has been no real idea as to how iron becomes deposited there in such a dangerous way. As it is essential for the brain to have iron safely delivered to it, this observation could provide the first real clue as to how that iron comes to be deposited there in such a dangerous way. The research chemists who led this study hope that neurology researchers will be able to build on this work to gain more understanding of how these forms of Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s occur and how they can be countered.

###

The full research paper entitled Periodic Iron Nanomineralization in Human Serum Transferrin Fibrils, by Surajit Ghosh, Arindam Mukherjee, Peter J. Sadler, Sandeep Verma, has just been published in the online edition of Angewandte Chemie. The lead authors are Professor Peter Sadler from the University of Warwick, and Professor Sandeep Verma from the Indian Institute of Technology.

For further information please contact:

Professor Peter Sadler, Department of Chemistry University of Warwick Tel: +44 (0)24 7652 3653
Mobile/cell : +44 (0)7824 540980
Email: p.j.sadler@warwick.ac.uk

Professor Sandeep Verma, Department of Chemistry IIT Kanpur, Kanpur-208016 (UP), India
Tel: +91-(0512)-2597643 sverma@iitk.ac.in

Peter Dunn, Press and Media Relations Manager, Communications Office, University of Warwick,
+44 (0)24 76 523708 or mobile/cell +44 (0)7767 655860
email: p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk

High res Picture of Professor Sadler with diagram of Iron banded fibril available at:
http://mms.warwick.ac.uk/mms/getMedia/D509EDCC89CDF37B01ECED6D8D8020BE.jpg

PET outperforms CT in characterization of lung nodules

While screening healthy volunteers, specialists found that 7 percent of 1000 persons had between one or three nodules.In patients with an untreated and undiagnosed solitary pulmonary nodules (SPN) between 7 and 30 millimeters, PET provides better identification of malignant nodules that require a more aggressive treatment approach. PET in combination with CT can also provide good identification of those nodules that are most likely to be benign, suggesting that a ‘watch and wait’ strategy can be adopted in lieu of unnecessary invasive—and expensive—procedures such as needle biopsy or surgery.

K.S.Parthasarathy



Public release date: 6-Feb-2008
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Contact: Kathryn Wiley
kwiley@snm.org
703-326-1184
Society of Nuclear Medicine
PET outperforms CT in characterization of lung nodules
Multi-institutional study comparing the diagnostic accuracy of PET and CT is featured in February Journal of Nuclear Medicine

Reston, Va.—Researchers involved in a large, multi-institutional study comparing the accuracy of positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) in the characterization of lung nodules found that PET was far more reliable in detecting whether or not a nodule was malignant.

“CT and PET have been widely used to characterize solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs) as benign or malignant,” said James W. Fletcher, professor of radiology at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Ind. “Almost all previous studies examining the accuracy of CT for characterizing lung nodules, however, were performed more than 15 years ago with outdated technology and methods, and previous PET studies were limited by small sample sizes,” he noted.

“Detecting and characterizing SPNs is important because malignant nodules represent a potentially curable form of lung cancer. Identifying which SPNs are most likely to be malignant enables physicians to initiate the proper therapy before local or distant metastases develop,” said Fletcher.

In a head-to-head study addressing the limitations of previous studies, PET and CT images on 344 patients were independently interpreted by a panel of experts in each imaging modality, and their determination of benign and malignant nodules were compared to pathologic findings or changes in SPN size over the next two years.

The researchers found that when PET and CT results were interpreted as “probably” or “definitely” benign, the results were “strongly associated with a benign final diagnosis”—in other words, the modalities were equally good at making this determination. PET’s superior specificity (accuracy in characterizing a nodule as benign or malignant), however, resulted in correctly classifying 58 percent of the benign nodules that had been incorrectly classified as malignant on CT. Furthermore, when PET interpreted SPNs as definitely malignant, a malignant final diagnosis was 10 times more likely than a benign.

SPNs are commonly encountered in both primary and specialty settings, often showing up on chest X-rays obtained for some other purpose than cancer screening and are often the first manifestation of lung cancer. The question for these patients then becomes whether to undergo surgery, undergo a needle biopsy or “watch and wait” to find out if the nodule is benign or malignant but treatable.

“In patients with an untreated and undiagnosed SPN between 7 and 30 millimeters, PET provides better identification of malignant nodules that require a more aggressive treatment approach,” said Fletcher. “PET in combination with CT can also provide good identification of those nodules that are most likely to be benign, suggesting that a ‘watch and wait’ strategy can be adopted in lieu of unnecessary invasive—and expensive—procedures such as needle biopsy or surgery,” he added.

According to the American Cancer Society, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and women in the United States, with approximately 155,000 deaths each year. Although the survival rate is 49 percent for cases detected when the disease is still localized, only 16 percent of lung cancer cases are diagnosed at this early stage. Recently, almost 7 percent of 1,000 healthy volunteers in New York who participated in the Early Lung Cancer Action Project were found to have between one and three nodules on baseline screening X-rays.

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Co-authors of “A Comparison of the Diagnostic Accuracy of F18-FDG PET and CT in the Characterization of Solitary Pulmonary Nodules” include Fletcher; Steven M. Kymes, department of ophthalmology and visual sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo.; Michael Gould, department of Veterans Affairs, Palo Alto Health Care System and department of medicine; George Segall, department of Veterans Affairs, Palo Alto Health Care System and department of radiology, Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif.; Naomi Alazraki, department of radiology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Ga.; R. Edward Coleman, department of radiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, N.C.; Val. J. Lowe, department of radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.; Charles Marn, department of radiology and Lyn A. Thet, department of medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, Madison, Wis.; Kelvin Lee, department of Veterans Affairs, Cooperative Studies Program Coordinating Center, Palo Alto, Calif.

Credentialed media: To obtain a copy of this article—and online access to the Journal of Nuclear Medicine— please contact Kathryn Wiley by phone at (703) 326-1184 or send an e-mail to kwiley@snm.org. Current and past issues of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine can be found online at http://jnm.snmjournals.org. Print copies can be obtained by contacting the SNM Service Center, 1850 Samuel Morse Drive, Reston, VA 20190-5316; phone (800) 513-6853; e-mail servicecenter@snm.org; fax (703) 708-9015. A subscription to the journal is an SNM member benefit.

About SNM—Advancing Molecular Imaging and Therapy

SNM is an international scientific and professional organization of more than 16,000 members dedicated to promoting the science, technology and practical applications of molecular and nuclear imaging to diagnose, manage and treat diseases in women, men and children. Founded more than 50 years ago, SNM continues to provide essential resources for health care practitioners and patients; publish the most prominent peer-reviewed journal in the field (Journal of Nuclear Medicine); host the premier annual meeting for medical imaging; sponsor research grants, fellowships and awards; and train physicians, technologists, scientists, physicists, chemists and radiopharmacists in state-of-the-art imaging procedures and advances. SNM members have introduced—and continue to explore—biological and technological innovations in medicine that noninvasively investigate the molecular basis of diseases, benefiting countless generations of patients. SNM is based in Reston, Va.; additional information can be found online at http://www.snm.org.


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