Mereja

Author: Serkadis

  • Vitamin D is nutritional key for prevention of breast cancer

    The cancer industry still refuses to teach women about vitamin D. Ever wonder why?

    The following is a compilation of expert quotations on vitamin D and breast cancer, cited from some of the most authoritative books and authors in the world. Feel free to share what you learn here with others who may also be suffering from breast cancer.

    Vitamin D and breast cancer
    Sunlight triggers the formation of vitamin D in the skin, which can be activated in the liver and kidneys into a hormone with great activity. This activated form of vitamin D causes “cellular differentiation” – essentially the opposite of cancer. The following evidence indicates that vitamin D might have a protective role against breast cancer: Synthetic vitamin D-like molecules have prevented the equivalent of breast cancer in animals.

    Two equally effective sources of vitamin D in humans are derived from plant ergosterol, which is converted to ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) and cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) by the action of sunlight on the skin. The body uses vitamin D3 for normal immune system function, to control cellular growth, and to absorb calcium from the digestive tract. Vitamin D3 can inhibit the growth of malignant melanoma, breast cancer, leukemia, and mammary tumors in laboratory animals. Vitamin D3 can also inhibit angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels that permit the spread of cancer cells through the body.
    – Permanent Remissions by Robert Hass, M.S.

    There’s surprising new evidence that older women who skimp on foods rich in vitamin D are more likely to develop breast cancer, according to Frank Garland, Ph.D., of the Department of Community and Family Medicine at the University of California at San Diego. This may also help explain fish’s anticancer protection, because fatty fish is packed with vitamin D. Specifically, Dr. Garland finds that dietary vitamin D wards off postmenopausal breast cancer in women over fifty, but not in women who get cancer at younger ages.
    – Food Your Miracle Medicine by Jean Carper

    In animals fed a high fat diet, which normally would produce a higher incidence of colon cancer, supplements of calcium and vitamin D blocked this carcinogenic effect of the diet. Vitamin D inhibits the growth of breast cancer in culture, and also seems to subdue human breast cancer. Cells from human prostate cancer were put into a “…permanent nonproliferative state”, or shut down the cancer process, by the addition of vitamin D. Human cancer cells have been shown to have receptor sites, or stereo specific “parking spaces” for vitamin D.
    – Beating Cancer with Nutrition by Patrick Quillin

    Even though vitamin D is one of the most powerful healing chemicals in your body, your body makes it absolutely free. No prescription required. Diseases and conditions caused by vitamin D deficiency: Osteoporosis is commonly caused by a lack of vitamin D, which impairs calcium absorption. Sufficient vitamin D prevents prostate cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, depression, colon cancer, and schizophrenia. “Rickets” is the name of a bone-wasting disease caused by vitamin D deficiency.
    – Natural Health Solutions by Mike Adams

    George’s Hospital Medical School in London finds local production of vitamin D in breast tissue reduces the risk for breast cancer. For women with low breast tissue levels of vitamin D the risk for breast cancer rose by 354%! This study suggests women sunbathe with breast tissue exposed to the sun to enhance local vitamin D production. The provision of 400 IU of vitamin D per day has been found to reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer by 43%.
    – You Don’t Have to be Afraid of Cancer Anymore by Bill Sardi

    Taken together, these facts suggest that vitamin D and its derivatives may play a role in regulating the expression of genes and protein products that prevent and inhibit breast cancer. The cancer-stopping power of vitamin D has been documented in osteosarcoma (bone cancer), melanoma, colon cancer, and breast cancer. These cancer cells contain vitamin-D receptors that make them susceptible to the anticancer effects of this vitamin-hormone made by the skin when it is exposed to sunlight. Vitamin D-rich foods include salmon, tuna, fish oils, and vitamin D-fortified milk and breakfast cereals.
    – Permanent Remissions by Robert Hass, M.S.

    Low levels of vitamin D may also increase the proliferation of white blood cells and may accelerate the arthritic process in rheumatoid arthritis. Vitamin D supplements are likely to be useful in retarding these adverse effects of alterations in metabolism. Low levels of vitamin D have been linked to several cancers including those of the colon, prostate and breast. Laboratory experiments show that vitamin D can inhibit the growth of human prostate cancer and breast cancer cells. Lung cancer and pancreatic cancer cells may also be susceptible to the effects of vitamin D.
    – The New Encyclopedia of Vitamins, Minerals, Supplements and Herbs by Nicola Reavley

    Laboratory experiments show that vitamin D can inhibit the growth of human prostate cancer and breast cancer cells. Lung cancer and pancreatic cancer cells may also be susceptible to the effects of vitamin D. Sunlight also seems to be protective against several types of cancer including ovarian, breast and prostate cancers; and this effect may be mediated by vitamin D levels. Synthetic vitamin D-type compounds are being investigated for their potential as anticancer drugs.
    – The New Encyclopedia of Vitamins, Minerals, Supplements and Herbs by Nicola Reavley

    If mutations aren’t corrected or if a cell has already undergone malignant transformation, activated vitamin D can team up with other proteins to stimulate programmed death of abnormal cells. This evidence, along with animal studies, suggest that a girl who lacks adequate vitamin D during puberty years will have abnormal breast development. This, in turn, may increase a woman’s susceptibility to risk factors such as alcohol for breast cancer development. In other words, the window of greatest opportunity for vitamin D to reduce breast cancer risk may be during childhood and puberty.
    – The Vitamin D Cure by James Dowd and Diane Stafford

    A key development for vitamin D was the appearance of increasing evidence that experts had detected a strong relationship between vitamin D and breast cancer risk. The important Nurses Health Study found a 30 percent lower risk of breast cancer in pre-menopausal women when comparing the highest to the lowest intakes of vitamin D, calcium, and low-fat dairy, especially skim milk.
    – The Vitamin D Cure by James Dowd and Diane Stafford

    Out of every 100 women who might get breast cancer, 50 of them can avoid breast cancer by simply getting adequate levels of vitamin D in their body, and that’s available free of charge through sensible exposure to natural sunlight, which produces vitamin D. This vitamin, all by itself, reduces relative cancer risk by 50 percent, which is better than any prescription drug that has ever been invented by any drug company in the world. Combine that with green tea, and your prevention of breast cancer gets even stronger.
    – Natural Health Solutions by Mike Adams

    There’s so much more to vitamin D than enhancing calcium absorption; its anticancer benefit is just one other possibility. Most of 63 recently reviewed studies found a protective effect between vitamin D status and cancer risk. A study presented at the 2006 American Association for Cancer Research meeting suggested that an increase in vitamin D lowered the risk of developing breast cancer by up to 50 percent. How might vitamin D help?
    – Food Synergy: Unleash Hundreds of Powerful Healing Food Combinations to Fight Disease and Live Well by Elaine Magee

    Place sunshine or vitamin D pills on your list of preventive or therapeutic measures. A daily intake of 2,600 units of vitamin D (65 mcg) is recommended to attain blood concentrations that will optimally protect against disease. There is no way the diet can provide this much vitamin D. Sun-starved females are at great risk for breast cancer, particularly women living in northern latitudes where wintertime sun exposure produces little vitamin D because of a decline in UV radiation in solar light.
    – You Don’t Have to be Afraid of Cancer Anymore by Bill Sardi

    Sunlight produces vitamin D in humans. A deficiency of vitamin D is linked with breast cancer. Was the increase in male breast cancer caused by magnetic fields or by lack of vitamin D? These are the types of questions that make it difficult to ascertain if there is a link between EMF exposure and cancer. To make matters worse, a cell biologist doing work on EMFs for the Department of Energy, faked data linking cancer to electromagnetic fields in order to gain $3.3 million worth of grants for scientific research.
    – You Don’t Have to be Afraid of Cancer Anymore by Bill Sardi

    The dosage of vitamin D required to inhibit the growth of prostate cancer may be much higher than the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of 400 international units per day. Since vitamin D can be toxic in doses that greatly exceed this value, researchers have developed synthetic analogues of vitamin D that retain the ability to inhibit cancer cell growth without the toxicity associated with high doses. These analogs have been successfully used in animal models of leukemia and breast cancer. Vitamin D may be related to other cancers.
    – Permanent Remissions by Robert Hass, M.S.

    Sunlight exposure, which leads to an increased level of vitamin D, correlates with a reduced risk of breast cancer. I usually recommend small amounts of vitamin D (400 to 1,000 IU) for those people without sunlight exposure, especially during the winter. I also occasionally recommend cod liver oil during the winter months as a source of vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids. Vitamin D deficiency is very common in the elderly and in people who live in parts of the world with little sunlight; it is also one of the major contributing factors to osteoporosis.
    – Herbal Medicine, Healing and Cancer: A Comprehensive Program for Prevention and Treatment by Donald R. Yance, j r.,C.N., M.H., A.H.G., with Arlene Valentine

    But how does vitamin D actually work? For many years that was a mystery. The “revolution of information” on vitamin D began in 1968, when J.W. Blunt and colleagues discovered the form of vitamin D that actually circulates in the blood (25-OH-D3). This hormonal form of the vitamin, created in the kidneys, is ultimately responsible for the classical action of the vitamin. At the molecular level, some cancer cells appear to have receptors on their surfaces that are capable of receiving the vitamin D molecule. Scientists studied cancer cells from 136 patients with breast cancer.
    – Cancer Therapy: The Independent Consumer’s Guide To Non-Toxic Treatment and Prevention by Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.

    Symptoms of vitamin D toxicity include anorexia, disorientation, dehydration, fatigue, weight loss, weakness, and vomiting. New analogues of vitamin D3 allow cancer victims to take high doses of the vitamin without fear of elevating calcium in the blood to dangerous levels. These new forms of vitamin D have very high potency in controlling cell proliferation and differentiation. One of these, calci-potriol, can be used topically to treat psoriasis and inhibit the growth of metastatic breast cancer in patients with whose tumors have vitamin D receptors.
    – Permanent Remissions by Robert Hass, M.S.

    In an investigation into the relationship of breast density as measured by mammography to serum-vitamin D levels, it was found that there was a strong inverse correlation; the higher the density, the lower the vitamin D levels. Does the blood level of vitamin D at the time of diagnosis of breast cancer make a difference in a woman’s time of survival? Yes, it does.
    – The Clinician’s Handbook of Natural Healing by Gary Null, Ph.D.

    Although not part of the study, outdoor exercise where you are getting some (but not too much) sun exposure also raises vitamin D levels. Low levels of vitamin D have been associated with a greater risk of cancer. Relaxation techniques such as writing, meditation, yoga, or massage therapy can aid in battling breast cancer. There is a clear link between alcohol consumption and an increased risk of breast cancer. A study reported in The New England journal of Medicine has stated that consuming as few as three alcoholic drinks a week increases the potential for breast cancer by 50 percent.
    – Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs and Food Supplements by Phyllis A. Balch, CNC

  • UCLA researcher invents new tools to manage ‘information overload’ threatening neuroscience

    Before the digital age, neuroscientists got their information in the library like the rest of us. But the explosion of neuroscience research has resulted in the publication of nearly 2 million papers — more data than any researcher can read and absorb in a lifetime.

     
    That’s why a UCLA team has invented research maps. Easily accessible through an online app, the maps help neuroscientists quickly scan what is already known and plan their next study.

     
    The Aug. 8 edition of the journal Neuron describes these new tools. 

     
    “Information overload is the elephant in the room that most neuroscientists pretend to ignore,” said principal investigator Alcino Silva, a professor of neurobiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. “Without a way to organize the literature, we risk missing key discoveries and duplicating earlier experiments. Research maps will enable neuroscientists to quickly clarify what ground has already been covered and to fully grasp its meaning for future studies.”
     
    Silva collaborated with Anthony Landreth, a former UCLA postdoctoral fellow, to create maps that offer simplified, interactive and unbiased summaries of research findings designed to help neuroscientists in choosing what to study next. As a testing ground for their maps, the team focused on findings in molecular and cellular cognition.

     
    UCLA programmer Darin Gilbert Nee also created a Web-based app to help scientists expand and interact with their field’s map.

     
    “We founded research maps on a crowd-sourcing strategy in which individual scientists add papers that interest them to a growing map of their fields,” said Silva, who started working on the problem nearly 30 years ago as a graduate student and who wrote, along with Landreth, an upcoming Oxford Press book on the subject. “Each map is interactive and searchable; scientists see as much of the map as they query, much like an online search.”
     
    According to Silva, the map allows scientists to zero in on areas that interest them. By tracking published findings, researchers can determine what’s missing and pinpoint worthwhile experiments to pursue.

     
    “Just as a GPS map offers different levels of zoom, a research map would allow a scientist to survey a specific research area at different levels of resolution — from coarse summaries to fine-grained accounts of experimental results,” Silva said. “The map would display no more and no less detail than is necessary for the researcher’s purposes.”

     
    Each map encodes information by classifying it into categories and scoring the weight of its evidence based on key criteria, such as reproducibility and “convergence” — when different experiments point to a single conclusion.

     
    The team’s next step will be to automate the map-creation process. As scientists publish papers, their findings will automatically be added to the research map representing their field.

     
    According to Silva, automation could be achieved by using journals’ existing publication process to divide an article’s findings into smaller chapters and build “nano-publications.” Publishers would use a software plug-in to render future papers machine-readable.

     
    A more direct approach would add special fields into the templates for journal article submission. The data resulting from these fields could be published in a public database, which would provide the foundation for research maps.

     
    “Western societies invest an enormous amount into science, and research maps will optimize that investment,” Silva said. “One day, we will look back on the pre-map era of experiment planning with the same incredulity we now reserve for research conducted prior to statistics.”

     
    The study was privately supported by The Discovery Fund.
     
    The UCLA Department of Neurobiology is a leading force in neuroscience discovery and education at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and worldwide. With diverse backgrounds in cellular and molecular biology, psychology, and engineering, faculty members utilize the most sophisticated technologies available to enhance understanding of the brain and its role in health and disease.
     
    The UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA is the home of faculty who are experts in the origins and treatment of disorders of complex human behavior. The department is part of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, a world-leading interdisciplinary research and education institute devoted to the understanding of human behavior and the causes and consequences of neuropsychiatric disorders.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • California Health Interview Survey releases new 2011-12 data on health of Californians

    The California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) today released new data based on interviews with more than 44,000 households in California. The survey, conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, covered hundreds of topics affecting state residents’ health and well-being. (See a complete list of topics here.)
     
    Data on nearly 200 of these topics were released today on AskCHIS, the center’s award-winning, free, easy-to-use Web tool that provides data by state, region, county and some service-planning areas in Los Angeles and San Diego counties. Even more data were released through free, downloadable public-use files from the CHIS website.

    Additional data will be released through AskCHIS in the coming months.

    The data represent a two-year (2011–12) effort to survey a representative sample of Californians in all 58 counties. CHIS is the largest state health survey in the nation and one of the few to provide robust samples of many typically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.
     

    Health care reform questions
     
    The latest survey asked many questions that will be important in measuring the implementation of health care reform in California, among them: 
    • How many Californians are uninsured?
    • Who is eligible to participate in Medi-Cal?
    • Who is eligible to participate in Covered California, the state’s new health insurance exchange?
    • How many Californians are signing up for high-deductible health plans? 
    In addition, the 2011–12 survey asked new questions of Californians with individually-purchased insurance plans about how easy it was to secure coverage, the affordability of the plans they secured, and whether or not they received adequate assistance in getting coverage.

    “CHIS will be an invaluable measurement tool in assessing the impact and success of health care reform implementation in California,” said Ninez Ponce, the survey’s principal investigator and a professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “These data provide clarity on the first and largest state health care reform effort in the nation.”

    New topics

     
    Aside from data on health care reform, CHIS 2011–12 features dozens of questions on important health topics, ranging from obesity, diabetes and access to care, to the health of elders and children and much more. The latest data include new questions on whether and how Californians use the Internet to seek health information, whether they are able to make an appointment with their provider in a timely manner, and, for teen respondents, whether their school situation is stable or they move from school to school, among other topics. 
     
    The survey also brings back some topics that have not been addressed in several iterations of the survey, including questions about stroke and arthritis that were last asked in 2005. 
     
    Diverse data
     
    Conducted in five languages — English, Spanish, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin dialects), Korean and Vietnamese — the survey is one of the most diverse sources of health data in the world and is used by researchers as far away as Korea to examine the health of key ethic and racial groups. Of note, CHIS 2011–12 collected a particularly large amount of data on American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/AN). These data will be especially valuable to AI/AN communities when linked with the decennial U.S. Census.
     
    “CHIS tells stories that few other data sources can tell and does so at the local level, which is almost unheard of in other states,” said David Grant, who directs the survey. “These data allow counties to truly take their pulse, as well as measure trends over time.”

    The survey is conducted by telephone, and the 2011–12 survey includes a much larger cell phone sample (over 20 percent) than previous cycles (6.4 percent in CHIS 2009).

    CHIS provides data free of charge via AskCHIS or through public-use files available for download here (a one-time registration or login is required). Public-use files contain even more variables than those available on AskCHIS. In addition, access to even more — and confidential — CHIS data is available through the Center for Health Policy Research’s Data Access Center (DAC). The DAC can also provide access to one-year samples of CHIS data.

    CHIS is conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research in collaboration with the California Department of Public Health and the Department of Health Care Services and is supported by several public and private funders committed to improving the health of Californians.

    Learn more about CHIS.

    See a brief tutorial on how to use AskCHIS.
     
    The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research is one of the nation’s leading health policy research centers and the premier source of health-related information on Californians.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • Orange Is The New Black Season 2: ‘Pornstache’ Should Be Back

    Season 2 of Netflix’s much-talked-about Orange is the New Black is currently in the filming stage. It began last week. Meanwhile, many of the cast members are doing interviews with various media outlets.

    Typically, these actors and actresses discuss what it’s been like working on the show, and things of that nature, but sometimes the interviewers try to drag out hints about the forthcoming season. It will likely be the better part of a year before we actually get to see Season 2, so there’s plenty of time to get a general sense of where it might be going before we actually get to find out for sure.

    So far, (MINOR SPOILER) we’ve learned that Daya (played by Dascha Polanco) could be pregnant, or could be “just sick with the flu”.

    Okay, that really just brings up more questions than answers, but at least it’s something to think about.

    Now, Yahoo TV has interviewed Pablo Schreiber, who plays Pornstache. Toward the end of the interview, the discussion briefly turns toward the second season.

    Orange is the New Black14 days ago

    That stache means business. #OITNB

    Powered by socialditto  1,000+ likes ·  238 comments

    Here’s the relevant part of the Q&A:

    His storyline is left up in the air at the end of the season. Can we assume we will see him in Season 2?

    I think you can assume you will see him. Beyond that, I can’t really speak about what will happen to Pornstache and everybody else.

    Given that filming has already started, it seems likely that he’d know if he wasn’t going to be included. He appears to be one of the fan favorites as well (at least in a “love to hate” sense), so a lot of fans would no doubt be pretty disappointed if he didn’t return.

    I don’t know why there would be much doubt about his return, but in case you’re worried, I wouldn’t be.

  • Etsy Greatly Expands Its Direct Checkout Feature

    Etsy announced on Tuesday that it is expanding its Direct Checkout feature into nine new currencies and fifteen new markets.

    A spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews, “With 25+ million members in 200 countries, it is a top priority for us to make it as easy as possible for buyers to find, connect and purchase from Etsy shops even if buyer and seller are on opposite sides of the world.”

    Over the course of the next month, the feature will be extended into the following currencies: GBP, CAD, AUD, EUR, NOK, SEK, CHF, DKK, and NZD. It will also launch in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

    WIth the Direct Checkout feature, users can pay for items with their credit or debit cards or Etsy gift cards without being directed away from the site.

    “This international expansion is significant because it will enable more than 90% of our 25 million members to transact in their own currency,” the spokesperon says. “Unlike other marketplaces, which limit buyers and sellers to transacting in the same currency as each other, this will eliminate many of the friction points that come along with that model.”

    That’s good news for buyers in the growing Etsy marketplace. It’s also good news for sellers, as buyers who check out with credit cards spend 13% more, on average, than those who check out with other payment methods, according to Etsy. On top of that, the Etsy Gift Cards, which just launched this pasty October, have resulted in $3.9 million in buying.

    Etsy discusses the news further in a blog post.

  • Google Places Dashboard Now Lets You Remove Listings

    In the new Google Places Dashboard, businesses can now delete listings.

    The dashboard was first announced back in early April. Since then, it has been updated a number of times with various features and improvements. This Google forum post chronicles the updates as they were made.

    Google’s Jade Wang made note of the news about listing removals in a Google+ post on Monday:

    Jade Wang

    Jade Wang18 hours ago

    Remove a listing now available for new Places dashboard users

    From our forum post (http://goo.gl/A4mM2 ) 
    Users of the new Places dashboard can now remove listings from their accounts (http://goo.gl/SwxLvO). Please note, you cannot undo removing a listing from your account. 

    If your business is closing, make sure you first report it as closed using Report a Problem (http://goo.gl/lGwPSS). If you'd also like to remove the business from displaying in your dashboard, first access the dashboard for the business you wish to remove. Select the Gear icon, then select Remove this listing.

    Note that Google may continue to show businesses that have been removed from your account on Google Maps, Search, and other Google properties as closed, moved, or open, depending on the information we’ve received about the business. 

    13    3 Powered by socialditto

    [via Search Engine Roundtable]

  • Localized wind power blowing more near homes, farms & factories

    Americans are increasingly installing wind turbines near their homes, farms and businesses to generate their own energy, concludes a new report released today.

    The 2012 Market Report on Wind Technologies in Distributed Applications is the first comprehensive analysis on a growing field called distributed wind, which involves generating wind energy close to where it will be used instead of purchasing power from large, centralized wind farms. Distributed wind can range from a small, solitary turbine in someone’s backyard to several large turbines that power a manufacturing facility or a neighborhood.

    “The public often pictures large wind projects with long rows of turbines when they think of wind power,” said the report’s lead author Alice Orrell, an energy analyst at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “But this report provides detailed data that shows this image is incomplete. Many of the nation’s turbines are for distributed, not centralized, wind projects.”

    PNNL wrote the report for DOE with support from energy consulting firm eFormative Options, the Distributed Wind Energy Association and the American Wind Energy Association.

    Some of the report’s findings include:

    • 68 percent of all wind turbines installed in U.S. between 2003-2012 were distributed wind turbines, representing about 69,000 turbines that can generate 812 megawatts combined
    • About a third of all wind turbines installed in the U.S. in 2012 were distributed wind turbines, representing about 3,800 turbines that can generate 175 megawatts combined
    • While the total number of distributed wind turbines installed in 2012 declined by nearly 50 percent, the amount of power those new turbines could potentially produce increased by 62 percent.
    • This shift is mainly because more large turbines are being used in distributed wind projects.

    More information can be found in the full report and at DOE’s news release.

  • Team finds gene mutation that increases risk of schizophrenia, learning impairment

    A collaborative team of researchers including scientists from UCLA has uncovered evidence that a specific genetic alteration appears to contribute to disorders of brain development, including schizophrenia. They also found that schizophrenia shares a common biological pathway with Fragile X mental retardation syndrome, a disorder associated with both intellectual impairment and autism.
     
    A disruption of the gene known as TOP3B was associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia as well as impairment in intellectual function, the researchers said, and TOP3B’s interaction with a protein called FMRP was found to be responsible for Fragile X syndrome.
     
    The findings, published Aug. 4 in the online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience, suggest a previously unsuspected link between the two disorders.
     
    Although the past two decades have revealed a wealth of information about the genetics of disease, little is known about the biology behind schizophrenia, said Dr. Nelson Freimer, a UCLA professor of psychiatry and a senior author of the research.
     
    “This collaborative effort has uncovered a promising biological pathway that appears to underlie schizophrenia and may contribute to the cognitive impairment that is an important component of the disorder,” he said.
     
    For the study, the researchers drew from a database that facilitates research on the genetically unique population of northeast Finland, where people have lived in relative isolation for several centuries. This population has three times the frequency of schizophrenia of the rest of Finland and a higher rate of intellectual impairment. The team used the database to sift through genomic data for genetic deletions or mutations that are relatively common in this region but are rare elsewhere in the world.
     
    They discovered a rare genetic deletion affecting TOP3B that increases a person’s susceptibility to schizophrenia; they also found that this deletion was associated with an increased frequency of other disorders of brain development, including intellectual impairment.
     
    Having identified a link between TOP3B and schizophrenia, the researchers sought to understand why disrupting this gene might increase susceptibility to disease. For this, they investigated the function of the protein that TOP3B encodes. They found that the protein encoded by TOP3B interacts with another protein known as FMRP. The deactivation or disruption of FMRP is responsible for Fragile X syndrome, which is associated with autism and learning difficulties, primarily in men.
     
    Within the northern Finnish population, the team identified four people who did not have a functioning copy of the TOP3B gene. All four were diagnosed as having cognitive impairments and/or schizophrenia, solidifying the evidence that this gene is important in these brain disorders and that they are biologically linked.
     
    “Although schizophrenia and Fragile X may seem drastically different, cognitive impairment is frequently associated with both conditions,” said Freimer, who directs the UCLA Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics. “So it is not unexpected that they could share some of the same biological processes.
     
    “What is interesting about this study is that through investigations in an isolated corner of Finland, we are contributing to concerted international efforts that are beginning to unravel the genetic root of schizophrenia, a debilitating disorder that affects so many people throughout the world. Potentially, this may someday lead to new drug targets against these disorders.”
     
    There were multiple authors and institutions involved in the study, and multiple funding organizations. Please see the published paper for details.
     
    The UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences is the home within the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA for faculty who are experts in the origins and treatment of disorders of complex human behavior. The department is part of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, a world-leading interdisciplinary research and education institute devoted to the understanding of complex human behavior and the causes and consequences of neuropsychiatric disorders.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • Four PNNL staff selected for state academy membership

    Four scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have been selected to join the Washington State Academy of Sciences.

    Steven Ashby, Ted Bowyer, Allison Campbell and Ruby Leung will join other scientists and engineers from across the state being recognized for outstanding scientific achievement and leadership. Academy members provide expert scientific and engineering analysis to inform public policy-making, and work to increase the role and visibility of science in Washington state.

    The academy was created in 2005 and consists of more than 180 members from diverse academic disciplines and industries, including aerospace, agriculture, computer, science, energy, engineering, ecology and transportation. PNNL now has eight current staff members in the academy, including the four new inductees. Additionally, current academy president-elect Subhash Singhal is a retired PNNL engineer who now serves as an independent consultant to the laboratory.

    The new members will be honored at the academy’s annual meeting in Seattle in September.

    Steven Ashby
    Ashby is PNNL’s deputy director for Science and Technology, overseeing integration of PNNL’s science and technology capabilities to address critical challenges in science, energy, the environment and national security. The academy recognized him for both his research accomplishments, and his scientific leadership in computational science. His research achievements include developing scalable numerical methods and software for the modeling of real-world challenges-such as groundwater contamination-on parallel computing systems. He has been an advocate for computational science through various professional society activities, including organizing a now-biannual technical conference and founding the Center for Applied Scientific Computing at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

    Ted Bowyer
    Bowyer is a PNNL Laboratory Fellow and manager of the laboratory’s Nuclear Explosion Monitoring and Policy program. He is recognized internationally for his groundbreaking research and development of new methods and systems to detect the signatures of nuclear weapons material production and nuclear detonations. He has served as a scientific advisor on issues related to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization; and as an advisor to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.S. State Department, the National Academy of Sciences and at the Conference on Disarmament.

    Allison Campbell
    Campbell is the director of EMSL, DOE’s Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a national scientific user facility located at PNNL. EMSL provides integrated experimental and computational resources to more than 700 scientists from around the world each year for discovery and technological innovation in the environmental molecular sciences. This includes support for advancements in terrestrial ecosystem science, energy materials and processes, biosystem design and aerosol science. She is nationally recognized for her individual research efforts in the field of biomaterials, including co-inventing a process for producing biologically-compatible coatings for the surface of artificial joint implants that reduce the risk of rejection and extend the life of the implant.

    Ruby Leung
    Leung is a PNNL Laboratory Fellow and an internationally recognized leader in regional climate modeling. Her innovative research on modeling regional climate change and its impacts guides national policy makers on decisions relating to water, agriculture, energy, public health and national security. She has organized key workshops sponsored by environmental agencies, served on panels that define future priorities in climate modeling and hydroclimate research, and has developed regional climate models that are used globally.

  • A crystal of a different color

    Chemists have unexpectedly made two differently colored crystals – one orange, the other blue – from one chemical in the same flask while studying a special kind of molecular connection called an agostic bond. The discovery, reported in Angewandte Chemie International Edition on July 29, is providing new insights into important industrial chemical reactions such as those that occur while making plastics and fuels.

    “We were studying agostic bonds in a project to make liquid fuels like methanol from carbon dioxide to replace fuels we get from oil,” said chemist Morris Bullock at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “We knew the molecule we were making would have an agostic bond, but we had no idea there’d be two flavors of these metal complexes.”

    While chemists have studied these bonds in chemicals in liquid form, no one had crystallized one chemical with multiple forms of its agostic bonds. And no one expected different forms to give rise to different colors.

    Bonds come in many varieties in molecules. They string atoms together, sometimes forming a trunk and branches of atoms like a tree. But the trunk and branches of chemicals often fold up into a more compact shape, requiring additional weaker bonds to hold the shape in place. An agostic bond is one of these additional bonds, a shape-holder. They occur between a metal and a distant carbon-hydrogen bond along some chain, folding the chain back to the metal and pinning it there.

    First discovered in the 1980s, agostic bonds frequently occur in catalysts because catalysts usually contain metals. This work will help researchers get a better handle on some catalytic reactions found in common industrial processes such as making plastic or fuels.

    Heart of the Matter

    The metal in a catalyst is usually the reactive heart of the molecule. Bullock and postdoctoral chemist Edwin van der Eide knew an agostic bond in their catalyst would help protect the reactive metal from working at the wrong time: The carbon-hydrogen bond blocks the reactive metal until conditions are right, which in turn would help the scientists better control the catalytic reactions. So van der Eide set about producing and crystallizing catalysts that contain a metal atom — in this case, molybdenum.

    In the lab, van der Eide’s flask of chemicals held a molybdenum-containing molecule that turned the solution violet. He added another liquid to coax the molybdenum complex to crystallize, just as salt crystallizes from seawater to form flakes at the seashore. Some crystals formed at the bottom of the flask and others formed near the top of the violet solution.

    Oddly, the crystals were two different colors.

    Orange crystals formed at the bottom of the flask and blue above. If van der Eide dissolved either the orange or blue crystals in a fresh flask of the original solvent, the violet color returned, with the same properties as the original violet solution. These results suggested that either molecule in the two colored solids could give rise to both structures in liquid, where they easily change back and forth.

    The researchers examined the differently colored crystals to determine their structures. The molecule forms a shape like a piano stool: a ringed section forms a stool seat on top of the molybdenum atom, with multiple legs connecting to the molybdenum at the bottom.

    One of the legs, however, is longer than the others and contains a chain of three carbon atoms, each with at least one protruding hydrogen. The team found that the long leg was involved in the agostic bonds, with the middle carbon atom involved in the orange crystals and an end carbon involved in the blue crystals.

    PNNL’s Ping Yang at EMSL, DOE’s Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory on the PNNL campus, took to EMSL’s supercomputer Chinook to perform theoretical calculations on the orange and blue structures. Chemically, the two structures were almost equally likely to form, with the blue one having a slight edge. The analysis also revealed why the crystals were different colors, which is due to subtleties within the structures.

    This work was supported by the Department of Energy Office of Science.

    Reference: Edwin F. van der Eide, Ping Yang, and R. Morris Bullock. Isolation of Two Agostic Isomers of an Organometallic Cation: Different Structures and Colors, Angewandte Chemie. July 29, 2013, DOI 10.1002/anie.201305032.

    The Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

  • Boomers hit hardest by ‘Great Recession’

    A new study shows what many middle-aged Californians privately suspect: They are the first to lose their jobs and the health benefits that come with those jobs when hard times hit.
     
    The analysis by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research looked at California data on the uninsured between 2007 and 2009 and found that of the approximately 700,000 Californians to lose health insurance during this time, the greatest increase was among residents between the ages of 45 and 64.  
     
    “Whether because mid-career workers are viewed as too expensive or because there is a deeper bias against older workers, the data suggests the axe is first to fall on the baby boom generation,” said Shana Alex Lavarreda, lead author of the study and the center’s director of health insurance studies. “This might open the door for policymakers to question the fairness of hiring and firing in the next economic cycle.”

    The findings are part of a larger study that looks at the staggering job losses during the “Great Recession” and their impact on individual California counties. 

    Between 2007 and 2009, the number of people in the state without health insurance surged by more than 10 percent, to 7.1 million, the researchers found. During that same period, the jobless rate in the state more than doubled, from 5.5 percent to 12.3 percent, causing a steep drop in the number of people receiving health insurance through their employer.

    Using data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), the study’s authors examined economic variations by county, creating a “recession index” that takes into account increases in unemployment and decreases in household income. They then divided the state’s 58 counties into four categories that gauge the impact of the recession: low, moderate, medium and high.

    This index found at least one silver lining in the economic clouds: The “high impact” counties, such as Imperial, Merced and San Joaquin, saw a modest 1 percent decline in the number of uninsured people (ages 0–64), from  22.5 percent in 2007 to 21.5 percent in 2009. This was attributed in large part to the safety net provided by public programs such as Medi-Cal and Healthy Families.
     
    “The safety net did its job during the Great Recession,” Lavarreda noted. “Programs such as Medi-Cal and Healthy Families kept the problem from getting worse and demonstrated once again the importance of public programs during economic downturns.”
     
    Paradoxically, wealthier counties that were less impacted by the recession, such as Marin and San Francisco, saw a 1.7 percent increase in the number of uninsured, from 19.1 to 20.8 percent.
    But the hardest hit were the “medium impact” counties, which saw a significant 5.4 percent increase in the number of uninsured people, from 20.8 percent in 2007 to 26.2 percent in 2009. These counties include Monterey, San Bernardino and Tulare, among others.
     
    These “medium” counties were likely “not poor enough to tap into public programs yet not wealthy enough to survive the economic storm,” Lavarreda noted.
    Statewide, the uninsured population became older on average following the start of the recession, with significant growth in the number of uninsured individuals between the ages of 45 and 64 in three of the four county groups examined.

    The state’s uninsured population also grew poorer, on average. Much of the growth in the uninsured was the result of job loss and a subsequent decline in job-based coverage. Between 2007 and 2009, the percentage of Californians who were uninsured, unemployed and looking for work more than doubled in all counties. For example, in the “medium impact” group, this category grew from 6.6 percent in 2007 to 21.9 percent in 2009.

     
    The authors say that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medi-Cal expansion may help a larger number of people than was initially anticipated. Many post-recession workers make minimum wage, making them eligible for Medi-Cal under health care reform legislation. Enrollment in public health insurance programs will likely grow even as jobs return and California climbs out of recession.
     
    The study used data from the 2007 and 2009 California Health Interview Survey, as well data from the California Employment Development Department.
     
    Development of the study was supported by the California Endowment and the California Wellness Foundation.
     
     
    The California Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation, was established in 1996 to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians.
     
    The California Wellness Foundation‘s mission is to improve the health of the people of California by making grants for health promotion, wellness education and disease prevention.
     
    The California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) is the nation’s largest state health survey and one of the largest health surveys in the United States.  
     
    The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research is one of the nation’s leading health policy research centers and the premier source of health-related information on Californians.  
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • Two PNNL scientists chosen as ACS Fellows

    Two researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have been selected for the rank of Fellow in the American Chemical Society.

    Sam Bryan and Dave Koppenaal join the 2013 class of Fellows being recognized by ACS for “outstanding achievements in and contributions to science and the profession of chemistry.”

    Sam Bryan

    Bryan is an internationally recognized expert on environmental contamination monitoring processes and controls. His research focuses on the development of methods to identify radioactive and non-radioactive components in flowing liquids, resulting in the development of new sensors as well as the adaptation of existing technologies for use in monitoring highly radioactive environments, such as waste storage tanks on the Hanford Site in Washington state. Additionally, he has been recognized for significant educational outreach and is active in developing technical programs for ACS meetings.

    Bryan has twice won the ACS ChemLuminary Award that recognizes members’ efforts to promote chemistry and the chemical sciences in local areas. He earned a doctorate and a master’s degree in inorganic chemistry from Washington State University in Pullman, and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Boise State University.

    Dave Koppenaal

    Koppenaal is a PNNL Laboratory Fellow and the chief technology officer for EMSL, DOE’s Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory located at PNNL. He is responsible for directing the development and scientific application of new, transformational instruments and tools for EMSL. His research has focused on low-level, ultra-trace detection and analysis of metals and radionuclides for environmental or nonproliferation purposes. He is also active in the new field of metallomics, which details the collective role and function of metal and metalloid species in biological systems.

    Koppenaal has been active in ACS and is completing a four-year rotation on the Executive Council of the Analytical Division of the organization. He was chair of the division in 2012 and is currently completing his role as past chair. Koppenaal also holds the rank of Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He earned a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Missouri and bachelor’s degrees in both environmental chemistry and mathematics from Southwest Missouri State University — now Missouri State University.

    The 2013 ACS Fellows will be honored at a special ceremony during the ACS National Meeting in Indianapolis in September.

  • Teens test parents’ brains during UCLA course for budding neuroscientists

    WHAT:
    Outfitted in lab coats, stethoscopes and UCLA badges, local teens between the ages of 12 to 17 will learn how to perform a neurological exam by practicing on willing guinea pigs: their parents. Parents will also don “concussion goggles,” which simulate the double vision and poor balance of a sports-related brain injury and will attempt to play catch and walk in a straight line while wearing the distorted lenses.
     
    The neurological exam will include:
    • Testing knee-jerk reflexes with a rubber hammer.
    • Shining a penlight into each eye to measure pupil response.
    • Sounding a tuning fork near each ear to test hearing.
    • Measuring blood pressure with an arm cuff and stethoscope.
    Co-sponsored by the UCLA Department of Neurosurgery and the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center, the practice exam is part of a two-day course designed to teach students from local middle and high schools about the brain and to pique their interest in careers in neurology, neurosurgery and neuroscience research.
     
    WHO:
    Participants will include:
    • Mayumi Prins, Ph.D., director of the neuroscience education program and associate professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
    • Students and their parents from Culver City High School, Grover Cleveland High School magnet program, Harvard–Westlake School, New West Charter and Venice High School.
    WHEN:
    10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 30
     
    WHERE:
    UCLA Center for Health Sciences (map)
    10833 Le Conte Ave. (Room 12-407), Los Angeles, Calif. 90095 
     
    PARKING:
    Please contact the media contact by July 30 at 9 a.m. to reserve complimentary parking passes and obtain directions. Spaces for oversized trucks must be arranged by July 29 at 4 p.m.
     
    MEDIA CONTACT:
    Elaine Schmidt | [email protected] | 310-794-2272 

  • Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA and Doheny Eye Institute pursue long-term affiliation

    The Jules Stein Eye Institute, part of the UCLA Health System and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and the Doheny Eye Institute announced July 29 that they have entered into exclusive negotiations under a signed letter of intent for a long-term affiliation to create the nation’s preeminent centers for ophthalmic patient care, vision research and education.

     

    The proposed affiliation would preserve each organization’s identity and mission, seek to combine clinical operations that would expand patient access in Los Angeles, and align strengths that have factored into world recognition for each in advancing ophthalmology through research, outreach, education and patient care. Both organizations are in the top 10 of the most recent U.S. News & World Report Best Hospital Rankings for ophthalmology, with the Jules Stein Eye Institute ranked No. 5 and the Doheny Eye Institute ranked No. 9, based on feedback from fellow ophthalmology specialists on challenging cases and procedures.

     

    “We are honored to work with the Doheny Eye Institute board in developing a plan to improve patient care throughout Southern California and at the same time extend the Jules Stein Eye Institute’s research and education efforts, which hold immense value for the nation and world,” said Dr. David Feinberg, president of the UCLA Health System, CEO of the UCLA Hospital System and associate vice chancellor of the Geffen School of Medicine. “This is a rare and unique opportunity to strengthen relationships with our distinguished colleagues at Doheny, many of whom have long collaborated with us in serving the Los Angeles community.”

     

    “Since our establishment in 1947, the Doheny Eye Institute has worked to become the premier vision research and education eye institute in the world through the discovery of new knowledge, innovative eye-care therapies and the education of the leaders of ophthalmology and vision science,” said Ed Landry, chairman of the Doheny Eye Institute board of directors. “With UCLA and the Jules Stein Eye Institute, we have identified a partner whose mission statement is complementary to ours and who shares our values and high standards for education, patient care and research. We look forward to fruitful negotiations.”

     

    The UCLA Health System has for more than half a century provided the best in health care and the latest in medical technology to the people of Los Angeles and the world. Comprising Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center; UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica; the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA; Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA; and the UCLA Medical Group, UCLA Health, with its wide-reaching system of primary care and specialty care offices throughout the region, is among the most comprehensive and advanced health care systems in the world. For information about clinical programs or help in choosing a personal physician, call 800-UCLA-MD1 or visit www.uclahealth.org. (Facebook | Twitter)

     

    The Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA is a vision science campus dedicated to the preservation and restoration of vision through its global programs in innovative research, quality patient care, and multidisciplinary and integrative education. The institute’s community outreach efforts range from its Mobile Eye Clinic, which travels to schools, shelters, health fairs and other organizations that assist homeless and low-income families, to programs like Vision IN-School, for vision education; Shared Vision, for the collection and donation of used eyeglasses; the Preschool Vision Screening program; and the Indigent Children and Families program. For more information or to make an appointment, call 310-825-5000 or visit www.jsei.org.

     

    The Doheny Eye Institute, established in 1947, is a top-ranked nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation, improvement and restoration of human eyesight. Doheny Eye Institute is recognized as a preeminent center for vision research, education, clinical care and breakthrough innovation.

     

    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • Be happy: Your genes may thank you for it

    A good state of mind — that is, your happiness — affects your genes, scientists say. In the first study of its kind, researchers from UCLA’s Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology and the University of North Carolina examined how positive psychology impacts human gene expression.
     
    What they found is that different types of happiness have surprisingly different effects on the human genome.
     
    People who have high levels of what is known as eudaimonic well-being — the kind of happiness that comes from having a deep sense of purpose and meaning in life (think Mother Teresa) — showed very favorable gene-expression profiles in their immune cells. They had low levels of inflammatory gene expression and strong expression of antiviral and antibody genes.
     
    However, people who had relatively high levels of hedonic well-being — the type of happiness that comes from consummatory self-gratification (think most celebrities) — actually showed just the opposite. They had an adverse expression profile involving high inflammation and low antiviral and antibody gene expression.
     
    The report appears in the current online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
     
    For the last 10 years, Steven Cole, a UCLA professor of medicine and a member of the UCLA Cousins Center, and his colleagues, including first author Barbara L. Fredrickson at the University of North Carolina, have been examining how the human genome responds to stress, misery, fear and all kinds of negative psychology.
     
    In this study, though, the researchers asked how the human genome might respond to positive psychology. Is it just the opposite of stress and misery, or does positive well-being activate a different kind of gene expression program?
     
    The researchers examined the biological implications of both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being through the lens of the human genome, a system of some 21,000 genes that has evolved fundamentally to help humans survive and be well.
     
    Previous studies had found that circulating immune cells show a systematic shift in baseline gene-expression profiles during extended periods of stress, threat or uncertainty. Known as conserved transcriptional response to adversity, or CTRA, this shift is characterized by an increased expression of genes involved in inflammation and a decreased expression of genes involved in antiviral responses.
     
    This response, Cole noted, likely evolved to help the immune system counter the changing patterns of microbial threat that were ancestrally associated with changing socio-environmental conditions; these threats included bacterial infection from wounds caused by social conflict and an increased risk of viral infection associated with social contact.
     
    “But in contemporary society and our very different environment, chronic activation by social or symbolic threats can promote inflammation and cause cardiovascular, neurodegenerative and other diseases and can impair resistance to viral infections,” said Cole, the senior author of the research.
     
    In the present study, the researchers drew blood samples from 80 healthy adults who were assessed for hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, as well as potentially confounding negative psychological and behavioral factors. The team used the CTRA gene-expression profile to map the potentially distinct biological effects of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being.
     
    And while those with eudaimonic well-being showed favorable gene-expression profiles in their immune cells and those with hedonic well-being showed an adverse gene-expression profile, “people with high levels of hedonic well-being didn’t feel any worse than those with high levels of eudaimonic well-being,” Cole said. “Both seemed to have the same high levels of positive emotion. However, their genomes were responding very differently even though their emotional states were similarly positive.
     
    “What this study tells us is that doing good and feeling good have very different effects on the human genome, even though they generate similar levels of positive emotion,” he said. “Apparently, the human genome is much more sensitive to different ways of achieving happiness than are conscious minds.”
     
    Other authors on the study included Jesusa M.G. Arevalo and Jeffrey Ma, both of UCLA, and Karen M. Grewen, Kimberly A. Coffey, Sara B. Algoe and Ann M. Firestine of the University of North Carolina.
     
    The research was supported by National Institutes of Health grants R01NR012899, R01CA116778 and P30AG107265.
     
    The UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology encompasses an interdisciplinary network of scientists working to advance the understanding of psychoneuroimmunology by linking basic and clinical research programs and by translating findings into clinical practice. The center is affiliated with the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • Field test could lead to reducing CO<sub>2</sub> emissions worldwide

    An injection of carbon dioxide, or CO2, has begun at a site in southeastern Washington to test deep geologic storage. Battelle researchers based at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are injecting 1,000 tons of CO2 one-half mile underground to see if the greenhouse gas can be stored safely and permanently in ancient basalt flows.

    Boise Inc. teamed with Battelle, which operates PNNL for the U.S. Department of Energy, and Praxair, Inc. to conduct the CO2 injection phase of the pilot project. Injection is occurring on Boise property in deep basalt — the same massive ancient lava flows that underlie major portions of Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The joint research is conducted under the Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership, which is led by Montana State University and funded by DOE and a consortium of industrial partners. It is one of seven regional partnerships throughout the United States aimed at finding safe and economical ways to permanently store the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.

    “We have been conducting laboratory tests on basalts from the region for several years that have conclusively demonstrated the unique geochemical nature of basalts to quickly react with CO2 and form carbonate minerals or solid rock, the safest and most permanent form for storage in the subsurface,” said Battelle project manager Pete McGrail. “However convincing the laboratory data may be, proving the same processes operate deep underground can only be done by conducting a successful field demonstration. We have taken the very first steps to do that here in Wallula.”

    During the next two to three weeks, Battelle scientists will work with Praxair technicians to inject into porous layers of basalt CO2 that has been compressed into a liquid-like state. Thick and impermeable layers of rock above these porous layers will act as barriers or seals to prevent the CO2 from travelling vertically upward.

    Over the next 14 months, fluid samples will be extracted from the injection well. Scientists will look for changes in chemical composition in comparison to baseline data compiled prior to injection. Scientists will also compare results to predictions made using PNNL’s supercomputer. At the end of the monitoring period, rock samples will be taken from the well. They are expected to exhibit the formation of limestone crystals as a result of CO2 reacting with minerals in the basalt.

    The Boise pulp and paper mill, located in the Columbia Basin between the Tri-Cities and Walla Walla, Wash., sits atop dozens of volcanic lava flows, extending down 8,000 feet or more. Like a stack of pancakes, these geologic layers were formed as volcanic lava flowed and cooled, one on top of the other.

    In 2009, an injection well was drilled at the site confirming that basalt flows located immediately above and below the injection zone were nearly impermeable. Additional research conducted at the site in late 2012 indicated that the location is well suited for the pilot test.

    “Boise is pleased to have worked with Battelle in recent years and to be a partner for this research that advances the science of geologic carbon sequestration,” said Rich Garber, Boise environmental director. “At Boise Inc. we believe wisely using energy and resources is good for business and for our environment. Through various other means, we’ve reduced our greenhouse gas emissions 27 percent since 2004 at our manufacturing facilities. This collaborative effort with Battelle is an additional opportunity for us to build on that progress and demonstrate our commitment toward continuous environmental improvement.”

    According to recent DOE estimates, the United States and portions of Canada have enough potential capacity in geologic formations to store as much as 900 years of CO2 emissions. If the Wallula demonstration is successful, basalt flows in many parts of the world may serve as storage locations to store CO2 emissions from a variety of industrial facilities.

    “Boise has been a fantastic partner and there is no question that this field research could not have been done without their unwavering support,” said McGrail.

    The demonstration is approximately 80 percent funded through DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory. To date, approximately, $12 million has been committed to the pilot project. Other contributors include Schlumberger, Royal Dutch Shell, Boise Inc., and Portland General Electric.

    Click here for more information on PNNL’s carbon storage research, field projects and capabilities.

    Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, Boise Inc. manufactures a wide variety of packaging and paper products. Boise’s range of packaging products includes linerboard and corrugating medium, corrugated containers and sheets, and protective packaging products. Boise’s paper products include imaging papers for the office and home, printing and converting papers, and papers used in packaging, such as label and release papers. Our employees are committed to delivering excellent value while managing our businesses to sustain environmental resources for future generations. Boise Inc. has set voluntary goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, water use and energy use and uses the ISO 14001 international standard to establish targets for continuous improvement of environmental performance at its paper mills.

    Led by Montana State University, the Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership (BSCSP) is one of seven partnerships involved in the US Department of Energy’s Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership program. The BSCSP relies on existing technologies from the fields of engineering, geology, chemistry, biology, geographic information systems and economics to develop novel approaches for both geologic and terrestrial carbon storage in our region. The BSCSP region encompasses Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, South Dakota, eastern Washington and Oregon.

  • Scientists ID compounds that target amyloid fibrils in Alzheimer’s, other brain diseases

    UCLA chemists and molecular biologists have for the first time used a “structure-based” approach to drug design to identify compounds with the potential to delay or treat Alzheimer’s disease, and possibly Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease and other degenerative disorders.
     
    All of these diseases are marked by harmful, elongated, rope-like structures known as amyloid fibrils, linked protein molecules that form in the brains of patients.
     
    Structure-based drug design, in which the physical structure of a targeted protein is used to help identify compounds that will interact with it, has already been used to generate therapeutic agents for a number of infectious and metabolic diseases.
     
    The UCLA researchers, led by David Eisenberg, director of the UCLA–Department of Energy Institute of Genomics and Proteomics and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, report the first application of this technique in the search for molecular compounds that bind to and inhibit the activity of the amyloid-beta protein responsible for forming dangerous plaques in the brain of patients with Alzheimer’s and other degenerative diseases.
     
    In addition to Eisenberg, who is also a professor of chemistry, biochemistry and biological chemistry and a member of UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute, the team included lead author Lin Jiang, a UCLA postdoctoral scholar in Eisenberg’s laboratory and Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher, and other UCLA faculty.
     
    The research was published July 16 in eLife, a new open-access science journal backed by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society and the Wellcome Trust.
     
    A number of non-structure-based screening attempts have been made to identify natural and synthetic compounds that might prevent the aggregation and toxicity of amyloid fibrils. Such studies have revealed that polyphenols, naturally occurring compounds found in green tea and in the spice turmeric, can inhibit the formation of amyloid fibrils. In addition, several dyes have been found to reduce amyloid’s toxic effects, although significant side effects prevent them from being used as drugs.
     
    Armed with a precise knowledge of the atomic structure of the amyloid-beta protein, Jiang, Eisenberg and colleagues conducted a computational screening of 18,000 compounds in search of those most likely to bind tightly and effectively to the protein.
     
    Those compounds that showed the strongest potential for binding were then tested for their efficacy in blocking the aggregation of amyloid-beta and for their ability to protect mammalian cells grown in culture from the protein’s toxic effects, which in the past has proved very difficult. Ultimately, the researchers identified eight compounds and three compound derivatives that had a significant effect.
     
    While these compounds did not reduce the amount of protein aggregates, they were found to reduce the protein’s toxicity and to increase the stability of amyloid fibrils — a finding that lends further evidence to the theory that smaller assemblies of amyloid-beta known as oligomers, and not the fibrils themselves, are the toxic agents responsible for Alzheimer’s symptoms.
     
    The researchers hypothesize that by binding snugly to the protein, the compounds they identified may be preventing these smaller oligomers from breaking free of the amyloid-beta fibrils, thus keeping toxicity in check.
     
    An estimated 5 million patients in the U.S. suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia. Alzheimer’s health care costs in have been estimated at $178 billion per year, including the value of unpaid care for patients provided by nearly 10 million family members and friends.
     
    In addition to uncovering compounds with therapeutic potential for Alzheimer’s disease, this research presents a new approach for identifying proteins that bind to amyloid fibrils — an approach that could have broad applications for treating many diseases.
     
    Co-authors on the research included Cong Liu, David Leibly, Meytal Landau, Minglei Zhao and Michael Hughes.
     
    The research was funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institute of Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health (grant AG-029430).
     
    UCLA is California’s largest university, with an enrollment of more than 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university’s 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer 337 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Six alumni and six faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • Is sexual addiction the real deal?

    Controversy exists over what some mental health experts call “hypersexuality,” or sexual “addiction.” Namely, is it a mental disorder at all, or something else? It failed to make the cut in the recently updated Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5, considered the bible for diagnosing mental disorders. Yet sex addiction has been blamed for ruining relationships, lives and careers.
     
    Now, for the first time, UCLA researchers have measured how the brain behaves in so-called hypersexual people who have problems regulating their viewing of sexual images. The study found that the brain response of these individuals to sexual images was not related in any way to the severity of their hypersexuality but was instead tied only to their level of sexual desire.
     
    In other words, hypersexuality did not appear to explain brain differences in sexual response any more than simply having a high libido, said senior author Nicole Prause, a researcher in the department of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.
     
    “Potentially, this is an important finding,” Prause said. “It is the first time scientists have studied the brain responses specifically of people who identify as having hypersexual problems.”
     
    The study appears in the current online edition of the journal Socioaffective Neuroscience and Psychology.
     
    A diagnosis of hypersexuality or sexual addiction is typically associated with people who have sexual urges that feel out of control, who engage frequently in sexual behavior, who have suffered consequences such as divorce or economic ruin as a result of their behaviors, and who have a poor ability to reduce those behaviors.
     
    But, said Prause and her colleagues, such symptoms are not necessarily representative of an addiction — in fact, non-pathological, high sexual desire could also explain this cluster of problems.
     
    One way to tease out the difference is to measure the brain’s response to sexual-image stimuli in individuals who acknowledge having sexual problems. If they indeed suffer from hypersexuality, or sexual addiction, their brain response to visual sexual stimuli could be expected be higher, in much the same way that the brains of cocaine addicts have been shown to react to images of the drug in other studies.
     
    The study involved 52 volunteers: 39 men and 13 women, ranging in age from 18 to 39, who reported having problems controlling their viewing of sexual images. They first filled out four questionnaires covering various topics, including sexual behaviors, sexual desire, sexual compulsions, and the possible negative cognitive and behavioral outcomes of sexual behavior. Participants had scores comparable to individuals seeking help for hypersexual problems.
     
    While viewing the images, the volunteers were monitored using electroencephalography (EEG), a non-invasive technique that measures brain waves, the electrical activity generated by neurons when they communicate with each other. Specifically, the researchers measured event-related potentials, brain responses that are the direct result of a specific cognitive event.
     
    “The volunteers were shown a set of photographs that were carefully chosen to evoke pleasant or unpleasant feelings,” Prause said. “The pictures included images of dismembered bodies, people preparing food, people skiing — and, of course, sex. Some of the sexual images were romantic images, while others showed explicit intercourse between one man and one woman.”
     
    The researchers were most interested in the response of the brain about 300 milliseconds after each picture appeared, commonly called the “P300” response. This basic measure has been used in hundreds of neuroscience studies internationally, including studies of addiction and impulsivity, Prause said. The P300 response is higher when a person notices something new or especially interesting to them.
     
    The researchers expected that P300 responses to the sexual images would correspond to a person’s sexual desire level, as shown in previous studies. But they further predicted that P300 responses would relate to measures of hypersexuality. That is, in those whose problem regulating their viewing of sexual images could be characterized as an “addiction,” the P300 reaction to sexual images could be expected to spike.
     
    Instead, the researchers found that the P300 response was not related to hypersexual measurements at all; there were no spikes or decreases tied to the severity of participants’ hypersexuality. So while there has been much speculation about the effect of sexual addiction or hypersexuality in the brain, the study provided no evidence to support any difference, Prause said.
     
    “The brain’s response to sexual pictures was not predicted by any of the three questionnaire measures of hypersexuality,” she said. “Brain response was only related to the measure of sexual desire. In other words, hypersexuality does not appear to explain brain responses to sexual images any more than just having a high libido.”
     
    But debate continues over whether sex addiction is indeed an addiction. A study published in 2012 by Prause’s colleague Rory Reid, a UCLA assistant professor of psychiatry, supported the reliability of the proposed DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for hypersexual disorder. However, Prause notes, that study was not focused on the validity of sex addiction or impulsivity, and did not use any biophysiological data in the analysis.
     
    “If our study can be replicated,” she said, “these findings would represent a major challenge to existing theories of a sex ‘addiction.’ “
     
    Other authors on the study included Dr. Timothy Fong, associate professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and director of the UCLA Impulse Control Disorders Clinic; Vaughn R. Steele of the University of New Mexico; and Cameron Staley of Idaho State University. Funding was provided by an Idaho State University Graduate Student Committee grant (Staley).
     
    The UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences is the home within the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA for faculty who are experts in the origins and treatment of disorders of complex human behavior. The department is part of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, a world-leading interdisciplinary research and education institute devoted to the understanding of complex human behavior and the causes and consequences of neuropsychiatric disorders.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • How well-designed cities keep us healthy

    Ten years ago, the American Journal of Public Health published a special issue, “Built Environment and Health,” that launched a new movement exploring how the physical design of our neighborhoods influences our health.
     
    In a new AJPH article, Dr. Richard Jackson, chair of environmental health sciences at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, examines what has changed and what lies ahead for the field.
     
    “The past 10 years have witnessed enormous growth in research, teaching and policy related to health and the built environment,” said Jackson, a nationally recognized advocate for smarter community design that takes into account issues of public health. “This has become an established field of academic inquiry, sparking multidisciplinary collaboration and a rise in published studies.”

    Other trends he has observed from the past decade:

     
    • At least 21 universities now offer courses on health and the built environment, and 14 offer joint degrees in urban planning and public health. At UCLA, students may earn a dual master’s degree through a partnership between the Fielding School of Public Health and the Luskin School Public Affairs. 
    • Demographic shifts have fueled interest in livable cities. Driving this trend are members of Generation Y, who tend to prefer mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods and short commutes; childless couples who often favor urban settings; and aging baby boomers who often cannot drive and need access to services.  
    • Environmental and social campaigns have spurred advances in architecture and urban planning, including at the government level, that promote healthy design. Community planners’ use of health-impact assessments, which incorporate health-impact assessments into built-environment decision-making, have reached an all-time high.
     
    Much more needs to be done, according to Jackson, who is also a faculty member at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, Luskin School of Public Affairs, and Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.

    “Los Angeles has the finest climate in the world, yet UCLA faculty, staff and students can’t easily bike into campus,” Jackson noted. “The most outrageous example of poor planning is CalTrans’ and Metro’s $1 billion-plus upgrade of the Wilshire Boulevard/405 underpass with no cycling capacity. Angelenos deserve protected bike routes connecting Santa Monica, Culver City and Hollywood to the UCLA campus.”

    He cited Manhattan’s waterfront greenway bike path, one of the most heavily used bikeways in the United States, as a prime example of smart city design. “Ten years ago,” he said, “this cycling route would have been unthinkable.” 

    Long Beach’s efforts to transform itself into a bike-friendly haven are another success story, he added.

    Jackson’s distinguished career has included serving as head of the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has called attention to the high incidence of asthma, cancer, obesity, diabetes and depression among children and other vulnerable populations living in environments that expose them to harmful contaminants and discourage physical activity.

    “We need more research to fully understand how to reap benefits for our neurodevelopment and physical, mental and respiratory health from the built environment,” said Jackson, who produced a four-part PBS series on designing healthy communities. “We need to identify the populations most affected by substandard housing and intervene — by translating what we’ve learned into the creation and operation of cities that foster wellness.”

    Read more about Jackson and his work on the UCLA Newsroom and in UCLA Magazine and UCLA Today.

    The UCLA Fielding School of Public Health is dedicated to enhancing the public’s health by conducting innovative research; training future leaders and health professionals; translating research into policy and practice; and serving local, national and international communities.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • A constitutional right to health care

    Uruguay has it. So does Latvia, and Senegal. In fact, more than half of the world’s countries have some degree of a guaranteed, specific right to public health and medical care for their citizens written into their national constitutions.
     
    The United States is one of 86 countries whose constitutions do not guarantee their citizens any kind of health protection. That’s the finding of a new study from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health that examined the level and scope of constitutional protection of specific rights to public health and medical care, as well as the broad right to health.
     
    The study examined the constitutions of all United Nations member states and found the results to be mixed, despite the fact that all U.N. members have universally recognized the right to health, which is written into the original foundational document establishing the international body in 1948.The researchers reviewed the constitutions of all the member states as amended to two points in time: August 2007 and June 2011.
     
    The report appears in the July issue of the journal Global Public Health.
     
    The study also calls for regular and long-term monitoring of all countries’ protection of health rights, whether or not such rights are written into specific country’s constitutions.
     
    That’s because a constitutional definition of what health protection actually is varies widely between nations. Further, how such protections have been implemented varies widely, said the study’s first author, Dr. Jody Heymann, dean of the Fielding School of Public Health.
     
    “With respect to specific rights to health, the status of the world’s constitutions can be described as either half empty or half full,” Heymann said.
     
    The study found that 73 U.N. member countries (38 percent) guaranteed the right to medical care services, while 27 (14 percent) aspired to protect this right in 2011. When it came to guaranteeing public health, the global performance was even poorer: Only 27 countries (14 percent) guaranteed this right, and 21 (11 percent) aspired to it.
     
    But doing the math doesn’t provide a comprehensive picture, said Heymann.
     
    “There also exists gaps between individual countries that may have strong constitutional protections but poor records of implementing health rights on the ground,” she said. “On the other hand, there are countries that lack constitutional provisions that have excellent health care systems in place.”
     
    The latter is particularly true in the case of older constitutions that have not been significantly amended since constitutional rights to health became common, she noted.
     
    The good news, Heymann said, is the clear trend toward greater constitutional protection of health rights overtime. While only 33 percent of the constitutions adopted prior to 1970 addressed at least one health right, 60 percent of those introduced between 1970 and 1979 included the right to health, public health and/or medical care. Three-quarters of the constitutions introduced in the 1980s, and 94 percent of those adopted in the 1990s, protected at least one of these rights. Only one of the 33 constitutions adopted between 2000 and 2011 did not protect at least one health right.
     
    “The global recognition of a right to health is a powerful step in guaranteeing health as a fundamental human right for all people,” said Heymann. “But it is important to ensure this moral right moves from the philosophical to the practical. That will require a kind of transparency and accountability where the public can readily access information on which countries are implementing these guarantees.
     
    “The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June 2012 to uphold the Affordable Care Act was based on viewing the legislation as legal,” said Heymann. “While the acknowledgement that Congress can provide for health is a step in the right direction, it is a long way from a guaranteed constitutional right to public health and medical care. The U.S., unfortunately, lags far behind many of the world’s nations.”
     
    Other authors of the study included Amy Raub of UCLA, and Adele Cassolab and Lipi Mishrab of McGill University in Canada. Funding was provided by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
     
    The UCLA Fielding School of Public Health is dedicated to enhancing the public’s health by conducting innovative research; training future leaders and health professionals; translating research into policy and practice; and serving local, national and international communities.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.