Drug may prevent lung cancer, study finds

(Reuters) – A drug approved to treat a range of conditions may also work to prevent lung cancer in people who have given up smoking, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

The drug, called iloprost, is approved in inhaled forms to treat pulmonary hypertension, when blood pools near the lungs, a connective tissue disease called scleroderma and a nerve condition called Raynaud’s phenomenon.

Dr. Robert Keith of the Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center and colleagues tested an oral version to see if it might prevent lung cancer in smokers and former smokers.

“Oral iloprost showed promise for preventing lung cancer in former, but not current, smokers in a phase II clinical trial,” they wrote in a summary presented to a meeting of the American Thoracic Society in New Orleans.

Iloprost is a version of prostacyclin, a drug in the prostaglandin class that prevents lung cancer in mice.

Keith, who has been testing several drugs to prevent lung cancer, looked at biopsies taken from the lungs of 125 current and former smokers.

They treated half with placebo and half with iloprost, and then performed bronchoscopy examinations to assess precancerous changes in the lungs.

Six months later, “former smokers showed significant improvements on all measures, indicating that treatment with iloprost may reduce the risk of developing lung cancer among former smokers,” the researchers said.

“Interestingly, current smokers did not show any significant improvements,” they added.

“Oral iloprost significantly improves endobronchial dysplasia in former smokers and deserves further study to determine if it can prevent the development of lung cancer.”

ITALIAN RESEARCH

Swiss drug maker Actelion markets inhaled iloprost under the brand name Ventavis.

It is also sold in an intravenous form under the trade name Ilomedin by Schering, acquired by Merck.

In April, researchers said a natural supplement derived from food, called myo-inositol, seems to stop the precancerous changes that lead to lung cancer.

Cigarette smoke causes 90 percent of all cases of lung cancer, which kills 1.2 million people a year globally. But only about 10 percent of smokers ever develop lung cancer, although they often die of other causes like heart disease, stroke or emphysema.

Separately, Italian researchers reported that advanced lung cancer patients given the targeted therapy drug Tarceva as so-called maintenance treatment — after they finished a course of standard chemotherapy — lived a little bit longer.

Federico Cappuzzo from Ospedale Civile di Livorno in Italy and colleagues did a phase 3 trial in 889 patients who had already had chemotherapy and whose tumors had not come back.

They received either Tarceva, a drug sold by Roche and OSI Pharmaceuticals and known generically as erlotinib, or a placebo until they got worse or died.

The patients who got Tarceva lived a little longer without their tumors growing — 12 weeks versus 11 weeks on average and they lived a month longer on average — 12 months versus 11 months.

This was seen even among patients who did not have the EGFR genetic mutation that Tarceva targets, they reported in Lancet Oncology.

Fewer than half of all lung cancer patients who do well after a first course of chemotherapy get more treatment, but the Italian group said their study shows this is worth doing.

Reference Link
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64H5MR20100518?feedType=nl&feedName=ushealth1100

Courtesy
Thomson Reuters

Teen brain wired to take risks

Teenagers do crazy things, and the chemistry of their brains might explain why, say researchers.

The adolescent brain is extra sensitive to reward signals when pay-off for a risk is higher than expected, say cognitive neuroscientist Dr Russell Poldrack, from the University of Texas, Austin and colleagues.

They say the discovery might help explain why teens take risks that don’t seem worth it to adults – from driving too fast to experimenting with drugs.

“Teenagers seek out these sorts of rewarding experiences, and this provides a little explanation for that,” says Poldrack, whose research is published in this week’s Nature Neurosciece.

“In the long run, it may help us understand how addictions start and develop.”

Prediction error

To zero in on the neuroscience behind risk-taking behaviour in adolescents, Poldrack and colleagues focused on a concept called prediction error, which describes the difference between what a person expects to happen and what actually happens.

If you anticipate a rich sip of full-bodied espresso, for example, but you end up gulping weak, watery, and burnt coffee, that’s a negative prediction error.

If you expect nothing from a friend for your birthday but he gives you $20, that’s a positive error – far better than expected.

To test the brain’s reaction to positive prediction errors at different stages of life, the scientists enlisted 45 people, ranging in age from 8 to 30.

Each participant was shown a series of abstract kaleidoscopic images and challenged to categorise the figures as logos belonging to one of two fictional colleges.

When they got an answer right, participants earned a small amount of money and they all gradually learned which logos went with which colleges and which ones were worth more than others.

There were a few twists, though: Sometimes, an answer that should’ve been correct was judged as wrong.

Sometimes, a wrong answer was rewarded as a correct one. And sometimes, the reward was larger or smaller than the exercise indicated it should be.

With a mathematical model, the researchers were able to determine how much money each person expected to get with each answer and compare that with what they actually received. At the same time, fMRI’s showed what was happening in the brain.

Dopamine release

Previous research has shown a surge of activity in a brain region called the ventral striatum when reality exceeds a person’s expectations.

In the new study, the region’s response was highest in participants between 14 and 19 years old when they received more money than anticipated.

Brain activity in the ventral striatum is related to the release of dopamine, a nerve-signalling molecule that helps the brain process rewards and can be involved in addictions.

With more dopamine flowing, a teenager is likely to feel that a risky behaviour – when it ends well – is so much more rewarding than it might seem to a child or adult.

So, for example, the social rewards of staying out past curfew might outweigh the likelihood of getting in trouble for an adolescent.

And the physical pleasure of getting drunk might outweigh the dangers, including the next day’s hangover.

Besides providing insight into how addictions might begin in adolescence, the new study might help parents channel their teens into more positive risk-taking activities, like playing sports or acting in school plays, suggests Dr Adriana Galvan, a developmental cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“Adolescents are uniquely sensitive to the uncertainty in the world,” says Galvan. “Perhaps their willingness to engage in uncertainty is driven by the potential rewards that might result from that uncertainty. For them, the rewards loom so much bigger than the potential negatives.”

Reference Link
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/05/18/2902619.htm?site=science&topic=latest

Courtesy
ABC

First day in Commons for youngest MP Pamela Nash

Ms Nash previously worked as a researcher for John Reid

“Luckily I am one of the few new MPs who have been working in Westminster for the last couple of years so I am currently the tour guide for all the new Scottish MPs,” laughed Pamela Nash.

At 25 years old, as well as being among the 14 new Scottish MPs taking up their seats on the green benches for the first time, she is also the UK’s youngest MP.

She worked as a parliamentary researcher for the man she has replaced, John Reid, before being selected to stand as the new Labour candidate for the Airdrie and Shotts constituency.

“I think, like any business, the parliament needs new blood, as well as experience. It is this mixture that will enrich parliament,” she said.

“Young people have been under-represented at Westminster for a very long time and I feel it’s important that the parliament should be representative of the whole community and this means that we need MPs in their 20s to represent young people.”

“That said, I won’t just be representing young people, I will be representing everyone in Airdrie and Shotts.”

I will fight to bring Labour back into government Pamela Nash MP

Ms Nash hails from the former mining village of Chapelhall in Lanarkshire and grew up in the area she now represents.

Her seat is safe, in a Labour stronghold, secured with a majority of more than 12,000 votes.

She thinks her party must now concentrate on winning back confidence and votes south of the border.

“I have lived through a New Labour government. I remember the Tories from my childhood but I am also a product of New Labour. I will fight to bring Labour back into government,” she stated.

In the coming Labour leadership contest Ms Nash has already publicly backed David Miliband.

Views heard

She said: “For a while now it has been him I have looked to for leadership.

“New Labour is not so new anymore and we now have to reach out to middle England, to the voters that we have lost, as well as the core voters that we have left behind.

There are 14 new Scottish MPs taking up their seats at Westminster

“It is time for the next stage of the Labour project and I believe that David Miliband is the best person to move us forward.”

New members of the House of Commons arrived last week to collect their security passes and take part in a series of sessions designed to help them settle in at Westminster.

They have now now been getting down to business joining their other, more seasoned, colleagues to elect a speaker.

Ms Nash said at the forefront of what she hopes to achieve as one of the newest members of the parliament is ensuring that people her age get their say.

“I have spoken to a lot of young people during the last few weeks and months of campaigning who want their views heard in parliament and I am looking forward to representing those views.”

Reference Link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8689311.stm

Courtesy
BBC News

Meeting Millennium Development Goals

Aisha goes to school and wants to be a lawyer when she grows up

As part of a series assessing whether Bangladesh is on track to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, the BBC’s Alastair Lawson visits a slum in the capital, Dhaka, to find out why the country has made such remarkable progress on getting children into primary education.

Aisha, nine, is part of the Bangladesh success story when it comes to primary education.

She is a resident of the Mogh Bazaar slum in central Dhaka – and in contrast to other children in this series – she is one of the country’s 16.4 million primary school children aged between six and 10.

So why is she at school – learning English, history, Bengali and maths – when an estimated 3.3 million of her contemporaries across the country work full or part time?

Poor people rely on small children as breadwinners so they literally cannot afford to send them to school Shumata Begum, teacher

“I come here because my parents say it is important for me to get an education if I am to do well in life,” she says.

“I want to be a lawyer when I grow up because I have seen so many people go to prison unjustly and I would like to help free them.

“I enjoy it here and have many friends. I want to be able to read and write when I am older. My mother says it will help me to get a better job.”

‘Food incentives’

Aisha’s teacher, Shumata, says that in poorer parts of urban Bangladesh it is a constant battle to persuade parents to send their children to school.

Like my friends, I want to work hard and do well in life Aisha

“It is a conflict between short-term gains versus long-term benefits,” she explains. “The advantages of an education will not be seen straight away whereas money provided by a son or daughter who are working is immediate.

“Parents need to be convinced that educating their children is a worthwhile option. In some cases they need cash or food incentives to drop their children off at school. That is especially the case with poorer and less well educated children.”

The government and the UN say that the country’s success in getting children into primary schools – there is a 90% enrolment rate – is a significant achievement and puts the country well on target towards meeting its MDG target of universal primary education.

There are 365,925 primary schools in the country and more than 88,000 secondary schools.

“The number of of enrolled students increased from 12 million in 1990 to over 16 million in 2008,” says UNDP spokesman Sakil Faizullah.

“Similarly the net enrolment rate was boosted from 60% in 1990 to 90.8% today.

“Furthermore the level of gender equality has also improved, with the number of girl pupils and female teachers steadily increasing in recent years.”

‘Particularly vulnerable’

But despite the progress, key challenges remain.

THE EIGHT MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty Achieve universal primary education Promote gender equality and empower women Reduce child mortality Improve maternal health Combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases Ensure environmental sustainability Develop a global partnership for development

These include improving the quality of education and making education more inclusive, especially in remote rural areas of the country.

“Disadvantaged children – such as children with disabilities or from ethnic minorities – are particularly vulnerable to exclusion from educational opportunities,” a recently published UN report says.

“There are many children who are not going to school but who could attend if schools were more inclusive and child friendly.”

Experts say that the quality of teachers needs to be improved.

Approximately 25% of teachers in government primary schools are untrained and memorising facts still remains the dominant way of teaching in many schools.

“Furthermore there is little emphasis on developing analytical, practical skills,” said Mr Faizullah.

“This results in several issues such as low achievement rates, high drop-out and high repetition rates. Currently it takes an average of 8.6 years for a child to complete the five-year primary school cycle.”

Other problems cited by education officials include poor contact hours between pupils and teachers. These average half the international standard of 900-1,000 hours a year.

Ninety per cent of schools in the country are double shift, meaning that students in grades one and two attend in the morning and students from grades three to five in the afternoon.

Improving sanitary conditions has also been cited by the government and the UN as a priority for primary schools.

While the number of toilets has increased, an acute shortage remains. In 2008, 5% of schools reported having no toilet at all, while 14.7% said that they had only one. On average, primary schools have 150 pupils for every toilet.

“Similarly, poor functioning tube wells and access to water, including water free from naturally occurring arsenic, continue to challenge schools and impact on the retention and drop-out rates of children,” the UN report says.

Reference Link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8587387.stm

Courtesy
BBC News

Bladeless Wind Turbine – Inspired by Nikola Tesla

A research company in New Hampshire recently patented its bladeless wind turbine, which is based on a patent issued to Nikola Tesla in 1913. This wind turbine is christened as the Fuller Wind Turbine. This turbine is developed by Solar Aero. The specialty of Fuller Wind Turbine is it has only one rotating part, known as the turbine-driveshaft. The entire machinery is assembled inside a housing. Wind turbines are often disliked by environmentalists because they kill birds and bats and often generate noise for the residents living nearby.

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The wind industry is trying to find a solution to the problem by working with environmental groups, federal regulators, and other interested parties. They are trying to develop methods of measuring and mitigating wind energy’s effect on birds. The Fuller Wind Turbine offers hope to bird lovers and environmentalists.

Fuller Wind Turbine has several advantages over the traditional ones having blades. Fuller Wind Turbine has a screened inlet and outlet. If you try to get a closer look at this wind turbine you can see the only movement visible is as it adjusts to track the wind. This wind turbine can be utilized by the military surveillance and radar installations because there are no moving blades to cause difficulties.

Another plus attached to this wind turbine is that it won’t cost a heaven when you get its power. According to manufacturers this turbine is expected to deliver power at a cost at par with the coal-fired power plants. If you want to probe deeper, its good news that total operating costs over the lifetime of the unit are expected to be about $0.12/kWh.

If we take the maintenance angle it won’t cause much headache because it’s a bladeless turbine. The turbine maintenance requirements are not colossal and it would result in lower lifetime operating costs. The turbine is mainly supported on magnetic bearings. Another advantage is all of the generating equipments are kept at ground level. This will lead towards easy maintenance of equipments. The company comes out with encouraging figures and proclaims “final costs will be about $1.50/watt rated output, or roughly 2/3 the cost of comparable bladed units.”

If we take a look at the Tesla turbine patented in 1913, it operates using the viscous flow of a fluid to move the turbine and as a result generates energy. The Tesla turbine has a set of smooth disks fitted with nozzles that send out a moving gas to the edge of the disk. The gases drag on the disk by following the principle of viscosity and the adhesion of the surface layer of the gas. As the gas slows and adds force to the disks, it twirls in to the center exhaust. Because the rotor has no projections, it is very strong and sturdy. One has to be careful about the disk space because disks in the turbine need to be closely spaced so that they can trap the viscous flow. The Tesla turbine has extremely thin disks to reduce turbulence at the edges and that makes them effective. In 1913, Tesla was unable to find metals of adequate quality to make this work effectively. But now almost a century later, those limitations have been surmounted.

Solar Aero’s current prototype is a modest trailer-mounted unit. But inventor says that their other models “should be capable of 10kW output with no problem.” If this technology takes off smoothly it would remove many hurdles attached with conventional wind turbines and more environment friendly.

Reference Link
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/bladeless-wind-turbine-inspired-by-nikola-tesla/

Courtesy
AE News Network