Study: Arctic ice at record low point
COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 3 (UPI) -- A U.S.-led group of international scientists says it has determined less ice now covers the arctic region than at any time in recent geologic history.
The team led by Ohio State University compiled what it said is the first comprehensive history of arctic ice. For decades, scientists have collected sediment cores from the difficult-to-access Arctic Ocean floor, to discover what the arctic was like in the past. The study's goal was to bring a long-term perspective to the recent ice loss.
"The ice loss that we see today -- the ice loss that started in the early 20th century and sped up during the last 30 years -- appears to be unmatched over at least the last few thousand years," said Leonid Polyak, a research scientist at the university's Byrd Polar Research Center and a lead author of the study.
"The newest satellite techniques and field observations allow us to see that the volume of ice is shrinking much faster than its area today," Polyak said. "The picture is very troubling. We are losing ice very fast."
The study that included Canadian, Danish, Swedish and British researchers is to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Quarternary Science Reviews.
Quit smoking post-surgery, help healing
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 3 (UPI) -- Patients who avoid tobacco for six weeks after surgery for a fracture have fewer post-operative complications, researchers in Sweden found.
Dr. Hans Nasell, senior surgical consultant at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, said earlier research indicated quitting smoking prior to surgery resulted in better healing and fewer postoperative complications.
In this study, conducted at three Stockholm hospitals, daily smokers who had emergency surgery for an acute fracture were offered a six-week smoking cessation program within two days of surgery.
The smoking cessation program included one or two in-person meetings, regular telephone contact with a nurse trained in the cessation program and free nicotine substitution.
Before this study, many physicians thought patients needed to stop smoking prior to surgery to gain any benefit, Nasell said.
"It was surprising, and encouraging, to see that even stopping smoking following surgery for a period of time can offer significant benefits, including nearly a 50 percent reduction in wound complications," Nasell said in a statement. "The smoking cessation program requires only about 2 to 3 hours of support from the nursing staff, which is significantly less time than would be required for the treatment of side effects such as poor wound healing which can occur as a side effect of smoking."
The study is published in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.
New supercomputing center to be built
BOULDER, Colo., June 3 (UPI) -- The National Center for Atmospheric Research says it intends to break ground for a center that will house one of the world's fastest supercomputers.
NCAR and its managing organization, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, said the groundbreaking ceremony will be held June 15 in Cheyenne, Wyo.
"The NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center will provide advanced computing services to scientists across the nation in a broad range of disciplines, including weather, climate, oceanography, air pollution, space weather, computational science, energy production and carbon sequestration," officials said in a statement. "It will also house a premier data storage and archival facility that will hold, among other scientific data, unique historical climate records."
The center is a partnership of NCAR, the National Science Foundation, the University of Wyoming, the state of Wyoming, the Cheyenne-Laramie County Corp. for Economic Development, the Wyoming Business Council, and Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power.
The new supercomputing center, to be operational by early 2012, is expected to cost about $70 million to construct, officials said. The supercomputer, with a budget estimate of $35 million, is to be acquired through open competition during the next couple of years.
Gene therapy created for heart failure
NEW YORK, June 3 (UPI) -- Mount Sinai School of Medicine scientists in New York say they've developed a gene therapy that's safe and effective in reversing advanced heart failure.
The researchers said the therapy, called Mydicar, is designed to stimulate production of an enzyme that enables the failing heart to pump more effectively. In a Phase II study, injection of the gene SERCA2a through a routineroutine, minimally invasive cardiac catheterization was safe and showed clinical benefit in treating and decreasing the severity of heart failure.
"SERCA2a met the primary endpoints and appears to be safe and effective in people with advanced heart failure," said trial investigator Dr. Jill Kalman, a trial investigator and director of the medical school's cardiomyopathy program. "There is a significant unmet need for treatments in this patient population, and these data indicate SERCA2a is a promising option for them."
The data was presented this week in Berlin during the Heart Failure Congress of the European Society of Cardiology.
