UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News
Published: July 23, 2007 at 5:44 PM
ISS crew conducts another spacewalk
HOUSTON, July 23 (UPI) -- Two International Space Station crew members Monday successfully conducted a 7-hour, 41-minute spacewalk.
Astronaut Clay Anderson and Cmdr. Fyodor Yurchikhin removed and jettisoned a refrigerator-sized ammonia reservoir, installed a television camera stanchion, reconfigured a power supply for an antenna assembly, and performed several other tasks.
Riding on the end of the space station's robotic arm maneuvered by cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, Anderson jettisoned the ammonia unit by shoving it away from the station's direction of travel.
After the spacewalk, the docked Progress 25 cargo craft's thrusters were fired, raising the station's orbit. National Aeronautics and Space Administration controllers in Houston said that provided the proper phasing for an upcoming Progress 26 docking, as well as the arrival next month of space shuttle Endeavour and its STS-118 crew.
New drugs fight metastatic breast cancer
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 23 (UPI) -- Canadian scientists have determined newer drug therapies, especially aromatase inhibitors, improve the survival of women with metastatic breast cancer.
The study -- led by Dr. Stephen Chia of the University of British Columbia -- is the first to demonstrate that drugs available since the 1990s have had a significant impact on population-based metastatic breast cancer survival rates.
The research confirms clinical trials that showed survival improved by approximately 30 percent as systemic therapy became more widely used.
Currently, women with metastatic breast cancer survive an average of approximately 24 months. That marks a significant improvement from the estimated 18-month survival noted during the early 1980s, the researchers said.
"Our population-based study of a large cohort of women with a recent diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer is the first to demonstrate a significant improvement in survival over time," the scientists wrote. "While the study does not definitively attribute these improvements to a single therapy, the greatest differences in survival were associated with the introduction of the aromatase inhibitors, docetaxel and trastuzumab in the later two cohorts."
The research is reported online in the journal Cancer and will appear in the Sept. 1 print issue.
Molecules in nanospaces may be stronger
CHICAGO, July 23 (UPI) -- A U.S. study has determined tightly packed molecules have the ability to lend unexpected strength to sheets of material that are just 50 atoms in thickness.
Research by scientists at the University of Chicago and the Argonne National Laboratory revealed methods that can drastically change the properties of certain materials by confining their molecules in nanospaces.
"It's an amazing little marvel," said University of Chicago Professor Heinrich Jaeger. "This is not a very fragile layer, but rather a robust, resilient membrane."
Even when suspended over a tiny hole and poked with an ultrafine tip, the membrane boasts the equivalent strength of an ultrathin sheet of plexiglass that maintains its structural integrity at relatively high temperatures.
The researchers said the material's characteristics make it a promising candidate for use as a highly sensitive pressure sensor in precision technological applications.
The characteristics of the nanoparticles are described in the July 22 issue of the journal Nature Materials in a paper written by Jaeger and Argonne physicist Xiao-Min Lin, along with Klara Mueggenburg, a graduate student in physics at the University of Chicago, and Rodney Goldsmith, an undergraduate student at Xavier University in New Orleans.
Bird brain growth is focus of study
SEATTLE, July 23 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have discovered at least one species of songbird relies on steroids to increase the size of its song-producing brain areas.
University of Washington Professor Eliot Brenowitz and colleagues showed the white-crowned sparrow uses testosterone, a natural steroid, to trigger the seasonal growth of its song-producing brain regions. The University of Washington scientists also determined such growth doesn't require hearing or high levels of singing.
"This is surprising to a lot of people because many thought seasonal growth of song nuclei was related to the rate of singing," said Brenowitz. "This study suggests playing tapes of recorded speech to try to help a person recover language after a stroke might not be productive. But perhaps we could use neutrophins -- growth-inducing proteins whose synthesis by brain neurons is stimulated by testosterone."
In sparrows, brain areas are directly stimulated by these hormones to grow and one day such hormones might possibly help repair brain damage caused by strokes or neurodegenerative diseases, he said.
The study, which included Professor Edwin Rubel and researcher Karin Lent, appeared in last month's issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
HOUSTON, July 23 (UPI) -- Two International Space Station crew members Monday successfully conducted a 7-hour, 41-minute spacewalk.
Astronaut Clay Anderson and Cmdr. Fyodor Yurchikhin removed and jettisoned a refrigerator-sized ammonia reservoir, installed a television camera stanchion, reconfigured a power supply for an antenna assembly, and performed several other tasks.
Riding on the end of the space station's robotic arm maneuvered by cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, Anderson jettisoned the ammonia unit by shoving it away from the station's direction of travel.
After the spacewalk, the docked Progress 25 cargo craft's thrusters were fired, raising the station's orbit. National Aeronautics and Space Administration controllers in Houston said that provided the proper phasing for an upcoming Progress 26 docking, as well as the arrival next month of space shuttle Endeavour and its STS-118 crew.
New drugs fight metastatic breast cancer
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 23 (UPI) -- Canadian scientists have determined newer drug therapies, especially aromatase inhibitors, improve the survival of women with metastatic breast cancer.
The study -- led by Dr. Stephen Chia of the University of British Columbia -- is the first to demonstrate that drugs available since the 1990s have had a significant impact on population-based metastatic breast cancer survival rates.
The research confirms clinical trials that showed survival improved by approximately 30 percent as systemic therapy became more widely used.
Currently, women with metastatic breast cancer survive an average of approximately 24 months. That marks a significant improvement from the estimated 18-month survival noted during the early 1980s, the researchers said.
"Our population-based study of a large cohort of women with a recent diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer is the first to demonstrate a significant improvement in survival over time," the scientists wrote. "While the study does not definitively attribute these improvements to a single therapy, the greatest differences in survival were associated with the introduction of the aromatase inhibitors, docetaxel and trastuzumab in the later two cohorts."
The research is reported online in the journal Cancer and will appear in the Sept. 1 print issue.
Molecules in nanospaces may be stronger
CHICAGO, July 23 (UPI) -- A U.S. study has determined tightly packed molecules have the ability to lend unexpected strength to sheets of material that are just 50 atoms in thickness.
Research by scientists at the University of Chicago and the Argonne National Laboratory revealed methods that can drastically change the properties of certain materials by confining their molecules in nanospaces.
"It's an amazing little marvel," said University of Chicago Professor Heinrich Jaeger. "This is not a very fragile layer, but rather a robust, resilient membrane."
Even when suspended over a tiny hole and poked with an ultrafine tip, the membrane boasts the equivalent strength of an ultrathin sheet of plexiglass that maintains its structural integrity at relatively high temperatures.
The researchers said the material's characteristics make it a promising candidate for use as a highly sensitive pressure sensor in precision technological applications.
The characteristics of the nanoparticles are described in the July 22 issue of the journal Nature Materials in a paper written by Jaeger and Argonne physicist Xiao-Min Lin, along with Klara Mueggenburg, a graduate student in physics at the University of Chicago, and Rodney Goldsmith, an undergraduate student at Xavier University in New Orleans.
Bird brain growth is focus of study
SEATTLE, July 23 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have discovered at least one species of songbird relies on steroids to increase the size of its song-producing brain areas.
University of Washington Professor Eliot Brenowitz and colleagues showed the white-crowned sparrow uses testosterone, a natural steroid, to trigger the seasonal growth of its song-producing brain regions. The University of Washington scientists also determined such growth doesn't require hearing or high levels of singing.
"This is surprising to a lot of people because many thought seasonal growth of song nuclei was related to the rate of singing," said Brenowitz. "This study suggests playing tapes of recorded speech to try to help a person recover language after a stroke might not be productive. But perhaps we could use neutrophins -- growth-inducing proteins whose synthesis by brain neurons is stimulated by testosterone."
In sparrows, brain areas are directly stimulated by these hormones to grow and one day such hormones might possibly help repair brain damage caused by strokes or neurodegenerative diseases, he said.
The study, which included Professor Edwin Rubel and researcher Karin Lent, appeared in last month's issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
© 2007 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
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