Study: Falling icebergs harming ecosystem
CAMBRIDGE, England, July 18 (UPI) -- Scientists in Britain have discovered a new global warming threat to marine life in Antarctica -- breakaway icebergs that destroy any life in their path.
Shallow habitats of species such as giant sea spiders, Antarctic worms, sea urchins and corals face growing risk from icebergs as they tear up the sea floor, The Times of London reported Friday.
The findings indicate climate change risks go beyond rising ocean temperatures, the British Antarctic Survey team said. Although near-shore ecosystems routinely take a pounding by icebergs, the destruction rate is rising as a warmer climate shrinks the winter sea ice that otherwise contain the icebergs.
"The whole balance of the ecosystem could be affected, with consequences that are very difficult to predict," said Dan Smale, who led the study for the Cambridge institution. "The focus of research has all been on rising temperatures, but what has been overlooked is that it isn't just warming of the water that changes the structure of the ecosystem. The distribution of species is likely to be just as important, and that is going to be affected by iceberg (breakaways)."
Findings of the five-year study, conducted at South Cove on the Antarctic Peninsula, were published in the journal Science.
Hay fever pill may aid Alzheimer's patient
LONDON, July 18 (UPI) -- A potential new weapon against Alzheimer's is nothing to sneeze at because it's a hay fever medication, British doctors said.
The antihistamine dimebon improved brain function and memory in patients with early- to mid-stage Alzheimer's, The Sun reported Friday.
The Alzheimer's Research Trust, which assists many of the 500,000 British Alzheimer's patients, told the British newspaper no approved drug resulted in the improvements seen with Dimebon.
Dr. Rachelle Doody, who led research in Houston, told The Lancet medical journal, "There were clear benefits."
Researchers link obesity, exhaustion
CHAPEL HILL, N.C., July 18 (UPI) -- Pure exhaustion could be tagged as another contributor to obesity, British and U.S. researchers said.
A study found people were more likely to gain excessive weight -- at least 5 percent of their body weight -- if they record a high score when measuring vital exhaustion, Canwest News Service reported Friday.
Vital exhaustion, characterized by fatigue, irritability and feelings of demoralization, has been found to dramatically increase the risk of heart attacks, the news service said.
Mental stress and heart disease have been associated with obesity and researchers said they wanted to know whether vital exhaustion linked as well.
"In other words, you have those feelings, those feelings lead to weight gain and that weight gain leads to cardiac events," says co-author June Stevens, Nutrition Department chairwoman in the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The study, published in Obesity, studied 13,727 white and African-American men and women, age 45 to 64. Researchers found white women who scored high on vital exhaustion were 34 percent more likely to gain excess weight during the course of the study.
Understanding the link could lead to better targeted treatments to reduce vital exhaustion, prevent further weight gain and improve weight-loss therapies, researchers said.
iTunes simplifies PDF filing, study shows
SHANGHAI, July 18 (UPI) -- iTunes not only allows music lovers to save music files but also radiologists to manage and organize their PDF files, Chinese researchers said.
Many published medical papers are available on the Internet in a PDF format, but ordinarily can't be stored by multiple-subject topics, the American Roentgen Ray Society said in a news release.
"For radiologists, these electronic papers provide richer information (through cases, reviews and images) than conventional textbooks and can be easily found and downloaded for further reading via online databases. However, managing PDF files is troublesome and it is difficult to find software designed for organizing them," said Dr. Li Jun Qian, who led the team of researchers from Renji Hospital and Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine in China.
Study authors found iTunes can address the multi-subject filing question because of its search and sort functions, its ability to remember user favorites and its capability to support customized shortcuts.
"One day I just happened to drag and drop a PDF into iTunes and was surprised to find that it was supported by iTunes. This means that you can search, describe, and rate PDFs just like you do the music files," Qian said.
