Nanodiamond: a most promising material
ARGONNE, Ill., Sept. 13 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory says the newest promising material for advanced technology applications is diamond nanotube.
Argonne researcher Amanda Barnard, a theorist in the Center for Nanoscale Materials, is working with colleagues at two Italian universities producing innovative diamond-coated nanotubes.
Researchers said diamond-coated nanotubes resemble a stick of rock candy, holding a layer of diamond 20 nanometers to 100 nanometers thick. A nanometer is one-millionth of a millimeter -- about as long as the period at the end of this sentence.
The technology, now in its fledgling state, has already caught the eye of the electronics industry for possible use in ultra thin television sets at a fraction of today's current flat panel television costs.
Researchers say nanodiamonds also offer an amazing array of medical and technological possibilities.
Barnard is currently on a fellowship at Oxford University, but is continuing to conduct research at the Center for Nanoscale Materials, now under construction with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science and the State of Illinois, each of which is contributing $35 million for the facility.
Study: Paclitaxel stents more effective
NEW YORK, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Researchers say stents that release the medication paclitaxel reduce the risk of an artery re-narrowing nine months following angioplasty.
Drug-eluting stents have revolutionized the treatment of atherosclerotic coronary artery disease, but enrollment in the trials was restricted to relatively simple stenoses, although more than 55 percent of lesions currently treated with the bioactive devices may fall outside that range.
Lead author Dr. Gregg Stone of Columbia University Medical Center and colleagues investigated the safety and efficacy of a paclitaxel-eluting stent in a patient population with more complex coronary lesions than previously studied.
"Compared with bare metal stents, implantation of paclitaxel-eluting stents reduced the 9-month rate of target lesion revascularization from 15.7 percent to 8.6 percent and target vessel revascularization from 17.3 percent to 12.1 percent," the authors wrote.
"Among patients receiving the paclitaxel-eluting stent compared with a bare metal stent, the rate of in-stent restenosis was reduced with from 31.9 percent to 13.7 percent and analysis segment angiographic restenosis was reduced from 33.9 percent to 18.9 percent," they said.
The study appears in the Sept. 14 issue of JAMA.
Turkish earthquake deaths were preventable
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Purdue University scientists analyzed the 2003 Turkish earthquake and concluded the deaths of 168 people, many of them children, could have been prevented.
The report, recently prepared for the National Science Foundation, details how the quake caused extensive damage to 180 buildings, including 48 schools and four dormitories in the eastern Turkish city of Bingol.
Although Turkey has modern building codes, the report concluded: "There is a striking gap between the requirements of these codes and actual construction practice -- both in the rural and the urban areas."
Engineering professors Mete Sozen and Julio Ramirez said the school buildings that failed had a feature called captive columns.
"This occurs when you build a reinforced-concrete column, which is nice and slender, and then you build a wall right next to the column, but not as high as the column," said Sozen. "That makes the unsupported portion of the column very rigid and brittle so that earthquake forces concentrate on the column, causing it to break."
After one column breaks, the weight of the building causes the remaining columns to collapse, he added.
The 6.4 magnitude Bingol earthquake struck in a region where the North and East Anatolian Faults converge.
DR Congo hippos face extinction
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Hippopotamuses living in the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo reportedly are facing extinction.
The Worldwide Fund for Nature said the decline in the number of hippos has led to a decline of fish stocks and the international conservation group told the BBC there are fewer than 900 hippos left in the park. Thirty years ago there were 29,000 hippopotami living in the eastern Democratic Republic Congo park. Conservationists blame poaching for the decline.
The figures are the result of a survey by the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, the European Union and the WWF, the BBC said.
The decline of the hippo population has affected thousands of fishermen living around Lake Edward, located inside the national park. Hippopotamus dung provides nutrients for fish, and the reduced number of hippos has led to a rapid decline of the lake's fish stocks.
"If the government does not take the hippo situation in Virunga seriously, this will not only lead to an environmental disaster, but also to an economic crisis for local communities," Marc Languy of the WWF told the BBC.
