Oxygen Treatment Improves Odds For Extreme Preemies

Treating very premature infants with high oxygen levels to improve their ability to breathe appears to boost their chances of surviving into toddlerhood, a new US National Institutes of Health study found.
According to HealthDay, the report is a follow-up to a 2010 study that found higher immediate survival rates among babies who were born between 24 and 27 weeks’ gestation who were given high oxygen treatment. That study found that when given highly saturated oxygen (from 91 percent to 95 percent), premature infants fared better than those given relatively low saturated oxygen (from 85 percent to 89 percent).
But concern about long-term survival, as well as a related risk for severe vision impairment, led the research team to continue tracking the infants until they reached the age of 18 months to 22 months after their original due date (the date they would have been born if carried to full term, which is generally considered about 40 weeks’ gestation).
Study senior author Dr. Rosemary Higgins, of the pregnancy and perinatology branch of the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said in an institute news release that “higher oxygen targets improve survival and don’t appear to threaten survivors’ vision in the longer term.”
Higgins and her colleagues report the results in the Dec. 27 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
To assess the relative benefits of high or low oxygen treatment, the authors focused on toddler survival and developmental status among 1,300 preterm infants who had been born sometime between 2005 and 2009.

Rented Drones Follow Intruders

A small, helicopter-like drone could be the best defense against an intruder.
Japanese security company Secom has announced that they’ll be renting out camera-equipped drones capable detecting intruders, following them and taking their pictures, Discovery News reported.
The drones, which are 24 inches wide and weigh only 3.5 pounds, can accomplish this task automatically or via a dispatcher.
The idea is to let managers of large buildings like factories monitor areas that aren’t covered well by conventional security cameras. And even in areas that are covered, a drone can get closer to the action and provide more details.
Each drone, the company says, is programmed to remain a constant distance from whatever it’s following, either a person or a car, for safety reasons.
If communications with the drone are interrupted, it automatically lands in a safe place to avoid damaging itself.
The system might be a better sell in the United States rather than Japan, since crime of any sort in Japan--including break-ins--is relatively rare.
Japanese companies can rent the drone as part of Secom’s online security system for around 5,000 yen ($58) a month some time after April 2014, though a company spokesperson said Secom wants to expand that to other countries eventually.

Iran Produces Fire-Resistant Adhesive

Iranian researchers have developed fire-resistant glues with applications in gluing steel and fiberglass parts, using zinc oxide nanoparticles.
Arezou Pishdadi, project manager, told Mehr News Agency that zinc oxide nano-powder has found extensive application in health and cosmetics industries as an antibacterial and sunscreen respectively.
It is also used in the food industry as a micronutrient additive.
“The substance is also used in the plastics industry for making plastic parts,” she added.
“New products are developed based on zinc oxide nano-powder.”
The heat-resistant glue can tolerate temperatures of 150-200 degree Celsius.
“High adhesion is one of the product’s main advantages” she said, noting that the glue can be used for attaching steel surfaces to fiberglass and aluminum.
Pishdadi also said due to its fire-resistance, the glue may find extensive usage in the aerospace industry.

Irano-Afghan University Planned

Minister of Science, Research and Technology Kamran Daneshjou announced the upcoming establishment of a joint university by Iran and Afghanistan to undertake scientific and research works.
In a meeting with Afghan Minister of Higher Education Obaidullah Obaid, Daneshjou referred to cultural, historical and religious commonalities and said Iran is ready to make its experience in the area of higher education available to Afghanistan, IRNA reported.
Pointing to Iran’s top position in science generation in the region and the country’s 16th scientific ranking in the world, the Iranian minister added that it has managed to gain self-sufficiency in fields like aerospace, nanotechnology, biotechnology and nuclear sciences.
“The West’s main problem with Iran is scientific achievements,” he said, noting that they cannot tolerate the county’s advancement in various fields.
“We are ready to undertake joint technical and engineering projects involving both states’ experts, which will benefit the two nations.”
He also voiced Iranian universities’ readiness to grant scholarships to Afghan students.
Daneshjou rther proposed the establishment of Persian language and literature centers and Islamic studies centers in Afghan universities.
Obaid hailed the scientific exchanges between the two universities and said, “Our Iranian brethren have never left the Afghan nation alone.”
He hoped that mutual cooperation, especially in the field of higher education, will further improve.
Obaid welcomed Daneshjou’s proposals for granting scholarships to Afghan students and promoting cooperation among universities and said Afghan students are eager to continue studies in Iran given its scientific facilities and social situation.
“Currently, 4.5 million students are studying in Iran,” he said, adding that that he is in Tehran to get acquainted with Iran’s scientific advancements and transfer the Islamic Republic’s scientific experience to his country.

Human Activity Changing Ocean Salt Levels

One of the biggest effects of climate change has been to alter the chemistry of Earth’s oceans: areas with the highest salt content are getting saltier while those with fresher water are getting fresher.
According to LiveScience, what is causing the change in salinity--and what, or who, is responsible--is a problem that researchers are working to solve.
Salinity plays an important part in the circulation of water between the earth’s surface and atmosphere, and therefore global weather.

Salinity and Temperature
A team from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif. and, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, using models covering 11,000 years and data from 50 modern years, have concluded that the changes in salinity and temperature must be anthropogenic--caused by human activity.
“It doesn’t correlate with anything else,” said David Pierce, one of the investigators. “It is not at all likely it could be (due to) natural cycles.”
The nature of the changes depends on where in the oceans scientists look, he said.
“It’s varied across the Earth. The Atlantic has been getting saltier while the Pacific, especially the north Pacific and western tropical Pacific, have been getting fresher. The change over the past 50 years has been about 0.2 psu (practical salinity units) which is about 0.5 percent.”
The Atlantic normally is saltier than the Pacific, mostly because the trade winds blow evaporated, salt-free water from the Atlantic to the Pacific, mostly at the Isthmus of Panama.
Oceans make up 71 percent of the Earth’s surface. The salinity of the oceans is driven by evaporation, rainfall, and the flow of rivers into the sea. This complex mechanism is linked to air and water temperatures.
Natural cycles in the water itself, including El Niño, the Southern Oscillation, and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, which are patterns of temperature and pressure change that occur regularly in the oceans, also alter the amount of salt in the oceans. But Pierce and his colleagues found that the changes in ocean salinity are independent of those cycles.
The researchers took salinity and temperature records from 1955-2004 which measured the top 2,300 feet in the equatorial and temperate oceans. The data were strongest for the top 82 feet, Pierce said. They then compared what they found to 20 of the newest computer models of the last 11,000 years of climate--essentially the best estimates of what happened over that time.

Human Link
“Changes were consistent with those expected from human effects on the climate, which arise primarily from anthropogenically induced changes in greenhouse gases and aerosols,” the team wrote.
Temperatures showed the same effect, and “an even stronger signature of human forcing on the ocean emerges”.
The study of the relationship between climate and oceans is undergoing a bit of a golden age with satellites and floating monitors, part of the Argo project, now scouring the oceans of the world collecting data.
“The salinity study is a key piece of that relationship,” said Paul Durack at Lawrence, one of the co-authors on the study.
“It’s important because, while we live on only 29 percent of the world’s surface, rainfall, drought and temperatures on land are all dependent on the water cycle, and salinity is a part of that cycle.
“If we use models, we understand the relationship between salinity and the water cycle, then we get an understanding of the global system and regional patterns in the future on the land.”
Also affected is the intensity of storms. Warm air holds more water and that provides the fuel for storms, said Ray Schmitt, an oceanographer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. That will produce more intense hurricanes and tornadoes, while bringing drought to other parts of the world.

Photographer Captures Ghostly Fogbow

It may look like a gateway into another world, but these are the incredible images of a ghostly white fogbow.
The rare phenomenon was spotted by Mikhail Baevsky during a recent expedition to Chatyr-Dag mountain region, in Crimea, southern Ukraine, Daily Mail said.
Baevsky was part of a trekking group in the mountainous region when he spotted the watery apparition. He was stunned to see it was completely white and quickly grabbed his camera to capture the moment.
The 61-year-old, from Russia, said, “I often visit the mountain range in search of the perfect image.
“When I spotted the rainbow, it felt really surreal. I am a scientist and I do understand the physics of all these processes but when you are high in the mountains and there are only clouds below you and this white rainbow in front of you it’s like looking at a gateway to another world.
“I feel stunned and amazed by nature’s diversity and beauty, that’s why I can’t stop going to mountains, it’s full of so many amazing photo opportunities.”
A fog bow made from the same configuration of sunlight and moisture as a rainbow, but is made up by far smaller water droplets, which are less than 0.05mm across.
This means they are too small to refract light in the same way as in raindrops, which creates the multi-colored effect. With a fogbow the diffraction (bending and spreading out of light waves) dominates, which robs the bow of its color making it look white and washed out.
Fogbows are frequently seen over Arctic waters and are called sea-dogs by mariners, but they have also been spotted in mountain regions.
Despite sub-freezing temperatures--sometimes plummeting as low as--15 degrees--keen photographer Baevsky, who also teaches chemistry at a university, spends most weekends climbing the mountain range in search of the perfect image.

Comet Could Outshine Moon In 2013

Astronomers around the world are tracking with eager anticipation the arrival of a comet next year, which could even outshine the moon in the night sky.
Comet ISON is expected to draw millions into the dark to witness what is likely to be the most brilliant comet seen in many generations, Press Trust of India said.
It is visiting the inner solar system for what is thought to be the first time and is set to put on spectacular views for the Northern Hemisphere across November and December as it heads towards the sun.
It may prove to be brighter than any comet of the last century--visible even in daylight--and this may end up being its one and only trip to the solar system, as its trajectory may see it plunge into the sun in a fiery death.
It is currently moving inwards from beyond Jupiter, and as it approaches the Earth, the “dirty snowball” could produce a dazzling display, burning brighter than the moon and potentially being visible in broad daylight.
Astronomer Dr. David Whitehouse, writing in The Independent, says the comet will be visible to the naked eye in the night sky by late November.

Virtual Tech Lets You Swap Bodies

Despite improvements in telepresence, most virtual ‘traveling’ amounts to little more than staring at a screen and listening to headphones.
In an effort to provide a more immersive sensory experience, the Ikei Laboratory at the Tokyo Metropolitan University Graduate School of System Design is developing what it calls “virtual body technology”, Gizmag wrote.
Unveiled at the Digital Contents Expo 2012 in Tokyo last October, the system claims to use all five senses to provide a virtual experience akin to inhabiting another person’s body.
The system is more virtual puppeteer than virtual reality with the user passively experiencing the pre-defined stimul--hence the creators likening the system to inhabiting someone else’s body. But providing someone with a virtual body still requires more than just putting on a helmet with stereo displays inside. It means being able to smell, feel the wind and have the sensation of walking on the ground. That means a very elaborate rig.
Ikei Laboratory’s system consists of a 3D monitor, headphones, a fan for breezes and odors, a chair that leans back and forth and vibrates, and foot pedals to provide a sensation of walking and running. How taste enters into the experience remains unclear.
“The chair will move to provide directional and vestibular sensations,” said Professor Yasushi Ikei. “The legs will move to create a sense of actually walking or running and a sense of moving in parallel or up and down, or to create a sensation as if the feet are touching the ground. Extremely large vibrations are felt when you are running, so it is possible to create vibrations from the shins to the knees. When you walk in the city there are various scents and breezes, and these are also recreated.”
The setup isn’t likely to appeal to control freaks who might be uncomfortable with the lack of user input. But Ikei Laboratory is developing the system with aging users in mind, who might want to travel, but are no longer able to do so.

Brain Scans

Brain imaging can identify young people at risk for bipolar disorder, a new study says.