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Knitting Times
Strong, shining and neatly-trimmed hair denotes strength, expresses individuality and exudes allure. This has been so at least since biblical times. In the Old Testament the supposedly invincible Samson was reduced to a weakling, when his beloved Delilah chopped off his hair as he slept. As per the cliche, a dramatic change of hairstyle reflects a similar change in one's life; men prefer to use hair restorers which threaten the libido, rather than go bald; and in the military, heads are shorn to counter individuality. Hair, along with flawless white teeth, is one of the strongest forms of natural body adornment.........
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Cancer survivors may have suicidal thoughts
The suicidal symptoms were reported by more than 12 percent -- a greater proportion than had been expected -- of patients seen at a clinic providing care for adult cancer survivors, the scientists write in the August 20 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The findings should prompt providers at survivor clinics to consider the interaction of physical and emotional factors in their follow-up evaluations of patients, they said.
"Most people are doing fine, but there is a serious concern about the minority of survivors who have thoughts of ending their lives," said Christopher Recklitis, PhD, MPH, a psychology expert and director of research in the Perini Family Survivors' Center at Dana-Farber. He is lead author of the paper.
The senior author is Lisa Diller, MD, chief medical officer of Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Care and clinical director of Pediatric Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital Boston.
Prior studies have noted a temporary rise in suicidal thoughts among patients in the months after a cancer diagnosis. The new study is the first to substantiate a significant level of suicidality a number of years or even decades after therapy for childhood cancers, and to suggest a link with physical functioning in the survivorship period.........
Posted by: Ethen Permalink Source
Hubble Sees Faintest Stars
ancient globular star cluster NGC 6397
Globular clusters are spherical concentrations of hundreds of thousands of stars. Seeing the whole range of stars in this area will yield insights into the age, origin, and evolution of the cluster.
These clusters formed early in the 13.7-thousand-million-year-old universe. The cluster observed by Hubble, called NGC 6397, is one of the closest globular star clusters to Earth.
Eventhough astronomers have conducted similar observations since Hubble was launched, a team led by Harvey Richer of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, is reporting that they have at last unequivocally reached the faintest stars. Richer's team announced their findings on 17 August at the 2006 International Astronomical Union General Assembly in Prague, Czech Republic, and in the 18 August edition of the journal Science.
"We have run out of hydrogen-burning stars in this cluster. There are no fainter such stars waiting to be discovered," said Richer. "We have discovered the lowest-mass stars capable of supporting stable nuclear reactions in this cluster. Any less massive ones faded early in the cluster's history and by now are too faint to be observed".........
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Exam nerves affects students' immune system
While diseases like asthma and allergies are becoming increasingly common in the West, many people believe that we are living ever stressful lives. A new study from Karolinska Institutet backs up what many people have suspected: that there are important links between mental stress and the complex physical inflammation reactions characteristic of allergies.
In order to understand the link between stress and allergy, the scientists have examined how a major medical exam at Karolinska Institutet affects feelings of stress, stress hormone levels, the immune system and lung function amongst students with and without allergies. The extensive tests were made on two occasions, first with the students during a calm period of study with no exam in sight, and then shortly before a major exam. Twenty two students with hayfever and/or asthma and 19 healthy students took part.
For the first time on record, scientists were able to show that a group of cells that are central to the human immune system known as regulatory T cells appear to increase sharply in number in response to mental stress. A regulatory T cell is a kind of white blood cell that controls the activity of a number of other types of immune cell. This increase was observed in both groups of students.........
Posted by: Ethen Permalink Source
MIT-Beijing design studio plans for urban future
Students' design for urban green space
The work marked the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Urban Design Studio, a joint program between the schools of architecture and planning at MIT and at Tsinghua University. Since 1985, close to 400 students and faculty have taken part in the studio, making it one of the world's most enduring academic programs between the United States and China.
The goal of the studio is to foster international understanding of urban issues by undertaking joint city planning and design projects involving important, often controversial sites in Beijing. Conducted every other summer, the studio has received the Irwin Sizer Award from MIT for outstanding innovation in education.
The studio opened with a major exhibition at the Beijing Planning Exhibition Center near Tiananmen Square, commemorating the history of the studio and displaying 20 years of work on sites across the city.
At the opening, Adèle Naude Santos, dean of the School of Architecture and Planning, and Wenyi Zhu, dean of architecture at Tsinghua University, signed an agreement establishing the Urbanization Laboratory, which will build on the work of the studio through a continuing agenda of joint research and projects focused on the challenges of rapid urbanization.........
Posted by: Beverly Permalink Source
Deng Seeks Peace In Sudanese War Of Identities
Francis Deng
"That is a good question. The answer will shock you," said Deng, who was born in the Abyei area of Sudan, an isolated area bordered by the Arab-influenced Muslim north and the African Christian-influenced south. His father, as his grandfather and great-grandfather before him, was a "paramount chief" of the Ngok Dinka tribe.
"My father, by the time he died, had over 200 wives," Deng explained. Thus, he had close to 1,000 brothers and sisters, all part of a structured, extended family.
Deng and some of his brothers were the first in the family to attend local primary school; Deng went on to study at the University of Khartoum, Oxford University in England and Yale University before embarking on a distinguished academic and diplomatic career. Deng is now a fellow at the Brookings Institution and director of the Center for Displacement Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Appointed in May as a Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow at CIS, Deng will conduct research and help to raise awareness about Sudan, a country wracked by genocidal violence that is rooted, Deng believes, in differing perceptions of national identity.........
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Regional Storage Facilities Could Handle Nuclear Waste
"My hope is that over time, the administration will rethink its priorities in this area," says Richard Lester, professor of nuclear engineering and director of the Industrial Performance Center.
In a recent article published in Issues in Science and Technology, Lester argued that the Bush administration's plan, known as GNEP (Global Nuclear Energy Partnership), is not the best way to encourage further development of nuclear energy.
GNEP, which President Bush announced earlier this year, is meant to stimulate the nuclear industry by coming up with better ways to manage spent nuclear fuel. The plan focuses on reprocessing spent fuel, but Lester believes the administration should focus on finding regional storage facilities for the nuclear waste.
Right now, uncertainty over how to deal with spent fuel, which remains radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years, is one of the major obstacles to the construction of new plants. Thousands of spent fuel rods are now stored in secure pools or concrete casks located near nuclear plants, which is not considered a long-term solution.........
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Astronomers proclaim Pluto is a planet
And it's about to be joined by several more, thanks to a new definition of the word "planet" announced recently by the world's astronomers through the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
The seven-person international panel that spent two years defining the difference between planets and smaller "solar system bodies" such as comets and asteroids includes an MIT astronomer.
If the definition is approved this week at the IAU General Assembly in Prague, our solar system will include 12 planets, with more to come. They include the eight classical planets that dominate the system, three planets in a new and growing category of "plutons" - Pluto-like objects - and Ceres. Pluto remains a planet and is the prototype for the new category of plutons.
"It's time to rewrite the textbooks," said Richard Binzel, an MIT professor of planetary science in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences.
According to the new draft definition, two conditions must be satisfied for an object to be called a planet. First, the object must be in orbit around a star, while not being itself a star. Second, the object must be large enough (or, to be more technically correct, massive enough) for its own gravity to pull it into a nearly spherical shape.........
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Trial Of New Asthma Treatment Calls For Volunteers
The trial, the first test of the procedure in the United States, focuses on a procedure called bronchial thermoplasty to treat asthma. Early patient data from trials outside the United States suggest it may hold promise for moderate and severe asthmatic patients.
"This is an exciting trial because for the first time ever in the U.S., we are looking at a non-pharmacological therapy for asthma," says Mario Castro, M.D., principal investigator of the study at the School of Medicine and associate professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. "Currently, if you suffer from asthma, medicine is the only therapy available to you for relief, so there is the potential this clinical trial may change the way we care for millions of asthma sufferers".
Asthma is one of the most common and costly diseases in the world. It affects more than 20 million people in the United States alone, with an estimated 2 million emergency room visits and 5,000 deaths per year. The prevalence of asthma is on the rise, and there is no cure.........
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Technology For Brain Cooling Unlikely To Help Trauma Patients
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis used rats to validate a "cold shielding" effect of blood flow that they previously predicted theoretically. The shielding effect, created by large quantities of warm blood that continually perfuse brain tissue, prevents a drop in temperatures around the head from penetrating beyond a certain depth in the brain.
A number of ongoing clinical trials try to reduce brain temperatures through cooling units incorporated into hats or other devices that surround the head. However, the new findings, published online this month in the Journal of Applied Physiology, suggest in most patients such techniques will be unable to defeat the natural temperature regulation built into the brain via the blood system.
"In adult humans, the characteristic length that this kind of cold assault appears to penetrate is approximately a tenth of an inch, leaving the temperature of approximately 6 inches of brain tissue unchanged," says senior author Dmitriy Yablonskiy, Ph.D., professor of radiology at the School of Medicine and of physics in Arts and Sciences. "Our findings suggest that the reason trials of this kind have so far produced inconsistent results is because we're not cooling enough of the brain".........
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