UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

Ancient volcano caused 10-year winter

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., July 8 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists said they have determined the eruption of Indonesia's Toba volcano about 74,000 years ago triggered a decade-long severe winter.

Previous studies suggested the massive eruption produced a 1,000-year episode of ice sheet advance, as well as a "volcanic winter," which most likely would have drastically reduced the human population at the time.

To investigate additional mechanisms that might have enhanced and extended the effects of the Toba eruption, Rutgers University Professor Alan Robock and colleagues conducted six climate model computer simulations using state-of-the-art models that include vegetation death effects and stratospheric chemistry feedback that might affect the lifetime of the volcanic cloud.

The researchers said they used a variety of aerosol injection simulations ranging up to 900 times that of the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines.

The scientists said none of the models initiated glaciation, but they did produce a decade of severe volcanic winter that would likely have devastated humanity and global ecosystems.

The study that included Georgiy Stenchikov Caspar Ammann, Samuel Levis, Luke Oman and Drew Shindell appears in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres.

Brain topography study may aid diagnoses

CHICAGO, July 8 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they are mapping the dimensions of human brain structures to improve the diagnosis of mental disorders such as schizophrenia.

Northwestern University Professor John Csernansky, who is leading the study sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health, said the research will involve 100 participants, half with early-stage schizophrenia and half who are healthy.

During the two-year study the researchers plan to regularly map participants' brain topography with magnetic resonance imaging. The scientists said differences between schizophrenic and normal brains might allow them to identify schizophrenia during its early stages, and help determine if medicines halt the advance of the disease.

"Understanding what changes in brain structure occur very early in the course of schizophrenia and how medication may or may not affect these structures as time goes by will help us reduce the uncertainty of psychiatric diagnosis and improve the selection of treatments," Csernansky, chairman of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the university's Feinberg School of Medicine, said. "Like every other illness, psychiatric illnesses don't blossom in their full form overnight. They come on gradually. A biomarker of the schizophrenic brain structure would help us define it, especially in cases where the symptoms are mild or fleeting."

Study tracks English language change

UPPSALA, Sweden, July 8 (UPI) -- A Swedish doctoral student has tracked changes in English language usage, examining the world "million" and how its usage has morphed.

Donald MacQueen of Uppsala University said he used historical collections that include everything ever written in a dozen U.S. and British newspapers, including news, features, editorials and classified advertisements.

In his English linguistics dissertation, MacQueen examined the word "million," especially how language usage shifted from the previously nearly totally dominant "5 millions of inhabitants" to today's "5 million inhabitants."

He said he determined the modern construction occurred in U.S. newspapers during the middle 1880s and in Britain only during the mid-1910s. That, he said, suggests usage in U.S. newspapers influenced the shift in the British newspapers.

He said the transition occurred about the same time the U.S. economy overtook the British economy, an event MacQueen suspects was an impetus for the change.

"Another discovery I made … is that when the use of the two constructions began to be roughly equal in frequency, the newspapers chose quite simply to avoid using such constructions, writing numeral expressions instead," he said. "After World War II, when there was no longer any doubt which construction was the 'right' one, the newspapers reverted to writing number-word expressions again."

MacQueen defended his dissertation June 8.

Glutamic acid may lower blood pressure

CHICAGO, July 8 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers suggest a protein found in vegetables -- glutamic acid -- may lower blood pressure.

The study, published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, found a 5 percent higher dietary intake of glutamic acid as a percentage of total dietary protein was correlated with small reductions in blood pressure.

Lead author Dr. Jeremiah Stamler of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago said it is estimated that reducing a population's average systolic blood pressure by 2 millimeters of mercury could cut stroke death rates by 6 percent and reduce mortality from coronary heart disease by 4 percent.

The study involved 4,680 adults in China, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, who were enrolled in the International Study on Macro/Micronutrients and Blood Pressure. Each had eight blood pressure tests, four diet recall surveys and two 24-hour urine collections.

Stamler added there no data exists on taking glutamic acid as a supplement, but suggested improved habitual food intake instead of "popping pills."

Common sources of vegetable protein include beans, whole grains -- including whole grain rice, pasta, breads and cereals -- and soy products such as tofu, Stamler said.

Durum wheat, which is used to make pasta, is also a good source of vegetable protein.