UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

Ocean warming affecting fish populations

WOODS HOLE, Mass., Nov. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. marine scientists say they've discovered about half of 36 fish stocks in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean have been moving northward due to warming waters.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers said the northward shift of the fish populations, many of commercially valuable species, has been ongoing for about four decades, with some stocks nearly disappearing from U.S. waters.

"During the last 40 years, many familiar species have been shifting to the north where ocean waters are cooler, or staying in the same general area, but moving into deeper waters than where they traditionally have been found," said researcher Janet Nye at NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Mass., and the study's lead author. "They all seem to be adapting to changing temperatures and finding places where their chances of survival as a population are greater."

Nye and co-authors Jason Link, Jonathan Hare and William Overholtz said their findings are another example of the need for an ecosystem-based management approach to our fisheries.

"Many factors, temperature among them, influence the status of a fish stock, and we need to be aware of all of those factors and consider them in management decisions," said Link. "Looking at 'the big picture' helps put each piece of the puzzle in perspective."

The study appears in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.

17,000 children died with no insurance

BALTIMORE, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A lack of health insurance may have led or contributed to the deaths of 17,000 hospitalized children in the last 20 years, U.S. medical researchers said.

Study co-investigator David Chang of the Johns Hopkins Children's Center said the researchers used data from more than 23 million hospital records in 37 states from 1988-2005.

Researchers compared the risk of death in children with health insurance and in those with no health insurance.

Other factors being equal, the study, published in the Journal of Public Health, found that uninsured children were 60 percent more likely to die in the hospital than those with insurance.

In the study, 104,520 patients died -- 0.47 percent -- out of 22.2 million insured hospitalized children, compared to 9,468 -- 0.75 percent -- who died among the 1.2 million uninsured ones.

"If you are a child without insurance, if you're seriously ill and end up in the hospital, you are 60 percent more likely to die than the sick child in the next room who has insurance," lead investigator Dr. Fizan Abdullah said in a statement.

The analysis shows a powerful link between health insurance and risk of dying in children, the researchers said.

Scientists create diabetic fruit flies

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Nov. 3 (UPI) -- University of Maryland medical researchers say they have created fruit fly models of diabetes to study the genetics involved in the disease.

While sedentary lifestyles and diets high in sugar and fat contribute significantly to the rise in diabetes rates, genetic factors may make some people more vulnerable than others to developing diabetes, researchers said.

Associate Professor Leslie Pick and his team said they altered genes in fruit flies to model the loss of insulin production as seen in human Type 1 diabetes.

"These mutant flies show symptoms that look very similar to human diabetes," Pick said. "They have the hallmark characteristic, which is elevated blood sugar levels. They are also lethargic and appear to be breaking down their fat tissue to get energy, even while they are eating -- a situation in which normal animals would be storing fat, not breaking it down.

"We can use these genetically manipulated flies as a model to understand defects underlying human diabetes and to identify genes and target points for pharmacological intervention," said Pick, who is also using flies to study Type 2 diabetes and other syndromes of insulin resistance.

The study that included researchers Hua Zhang, Jingnan Liu and Caroline Li, Associate Professor Bahram Momen and former Johns Hopkins University Associate Professor Ronald Kohanski appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Lunar Lander Challenge winners announced

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Masten Space Systems of Mojave, Calif., has been declared the first-place winner of NASA's Lunar Lander Challenge, sponsored by the Northrop Grumman Corp.

Second prize in the competition, part of NASA's Centennial Challenges program, was captured by Armadillo Aerospace of Rockwall, Tex. Masten will received $1 million for its achievement, while Armadillo Aerospace will be awarded $500,000.

The companies will be recognized Thursday during an award ceremony for successfully simulating landing a spacecraft on the moon and lifting off again. The ceremony for the competition, which was managed by the X-Prize Foundation, will be held at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington.

The Lunar Lander Challenge involved building and flying a rocket-powered vehicle that simulates the flight of a vehicle on the moon, NASA said. The lander had to take off vertically and then travel horizontally, demonstrating both power and control before landing accurately at another spot. The same vehicle then had to take off again, travel horizontally back to its original takeoff point and land successfully, all within 2 hours and 15 minutes.

In addition the rocket's engine had to be started twice within a short time with no ground servicing other than refueling.

The average landing accuracy determined which teams would receive first and second place prizes. The Masten team achieved an average accuracy of 7.5 inches, while Armadillo Aerospace's average accuracy was 34 inches.