World oil production might peak in 2014
SAFAT, Kuwait, March 15 (UPI) -- Kuwaiti scientists say they have calculated the world's conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014 -- nearly a decade earlier than predicted.
The researchers, led by Associate Professor Ibrahim Nashawi at Kuwait University, said their finding might speed efforts to conserve oil and intensify the search for alternative fuel sources.
Nashawi and his team said scientists have developed several models to predict when oil production will reach a maximum and then decline. Some models put the date at 2020 or later. One of the most famous forecast models, called the Hubbert model, accurately predicted U.S. oil production would peak during 1970.
That model has since gained in popularity, but recent studies show it is insufficient to account for more complex oil production cycles of some countries. Those cycles can be heavily influenced by technology changes, politics and other factors, the scientists say.
In their recent research, Nashawi and his colleagues describe a new version of the Hubbert model that follows production trends of 47 major oil-producing countries that supply most of the world's conventional crude oil.
They said it predicts worldwide conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014. The scientists also showed the world's oil reserves are being depleted at a rate of 2.1 percent a year.
The research is presented in the journal Energy & Fuels.
Progress reported in 'war on cancer'
WASHINGTON, March 15 (UPI) -- Cancer mortality has declined since initiation of the "war on cancer," in 1971, an American Cancer Society study found.
American Cancer Society epidemiologist Ahmedin Jemal and colleagues used nationwide cancer mortality data for 1970-2006. They found for all cancers combined, death rates per 100,000 in men increased from 249.3 in 1970 to 279.8 in 1990, and then decreased to 221.1 in 2006, yielding a relative decline of 21 percent from 1990 -- peak year -- and a drop of 11 percent since 1970 -- baseline year.
Similarly, the death rate from all cancers combined in women increased from 163.0 in 1970 to 175.3 in 1991, and then decreased to 153.7 in 2006, a relative decline of 12 percent and 6 percent from the 1991 and 1970 rates, respectively.
Some reports have cited limited improvement in death rates as evidence that the war on cancer, which was initiated in 1971, has failed. However, many of these analyses fail to account for the dominant and dramatic increase in cancer death rates due to tobacco-related cancers in the latter part of the 20th century, the study said.
"Contrary to the pessimistic news from the popular media, overall cancer death rates have decreased substantially in both men and women whether measured against baseline rates in 1970/71 when the National Cancer Act was signed by President Richard Nixon or when measured against the peak rates in 1990/91," the researchers said.
New types of bandages and wraps developed
DALLAS, March 15 (UPI) -- Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas say they have created a unique cloth that can be used for therapeutic bandages and wraps.
The scientists, led by Professor Kenneth Balkus Jr. and doctoral student Harvey Liu, said the cloth releases nitric oxide gas, making it a potential therapy as, among other things, therapeutic socks for diabetics and a wrap to help preserve organs harvested for transplantation.
The researchers said nitric oxide helps increase blood flow and regulates a range of other body functions. They said they discovered zeolites -- a microporous material used in commercial absorbents -- soak up and store large amounts of gases, such as nitric oxide.
The scientists describe their development of the new bandage that's composed of nitric oxide-absorbing zeolites embedded in a water-repellant polymer in the American Chemical Society's journal Chemistry of Materials.
Cells in amniotic fluid become stem cells
NEW YORK, March 15 (UPI) -- Scientists at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York say they've found skin cells in human amniotic fluid can become embryonic-like stem cells.
The researchers led by Assistant Professor Katalin Polgar found when compared to cultured adult skin cells, the amniotic fluid skin cells formed stem cell colonies in about half the time and yielded nearly a 200 percent increase in number.
"There remains today a need in stem cell research for an easily reprogrammable cell type," Polgar said. "Our study shows that reprogramming of cultured, terminally differentiated amniotic fluid cells results in pluripotent stem cells that are identical to human embryonic stem cells, and that it is much easier, faster and more efficient than reprogramming neonatal and adult cells."
Amniotic fluid skin cells can be safely obtained from pregnant women undergoing amniocentesis at about 15 weeks of pregnancy as part of a diagnostic workup for chromosome aberrations and other genetic diseases, the researchers said. About 99 percent of cells found in amniotic fluid are terminally differentiated cells mostly from fetal skin, which are shed into the amniotic fluid as a fetus develops.
Such cells, they said, could become an important source for generating stem cells for basic research and future therapies.
The study appears in the ahead-of-print online edition of the journal Cellular Reprogramming (formerly Cloning and Stem Cells).
