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National Deficit Outlook Unchanged Under Obama: UMD Policy Analysis

By Guest PostSeptember 9, 2012Economy, Politicsaccumulation, afghanistan, alternative, budget control act, bush era tax, cbo, congress, congressional budget office, debt, deficit, democrats, election policy, fact check, finance, fiscal cliff, fiscal scenario, gdp, george bush, Iraq, key, national debt, philip joyce, policy issue, President Obama, presidential campaign, public policy, republican, social security, university of maryland, war, wealthy american

Public Policy’s Philip Joyce Offers Election Policy Fact Check

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – From a public policy point of view, the national debt accumulation since President Obama took office is largely a result of policies put in place prior to his inauguration, says a new analysis by University of Maryland expert Philip Joyce. He adds that Obama’s policies will make little impact in the debt over the next decade.

“The best that can be said about presidential fiscal policies thus far is that they would slow the bleeding, but they neither would stop it nor would they do much to heal the patient,” Joyce says.

The size of the debt has been one of the biggest issues of the presidential campaign, with Republicans arguing that the President has allowed the debt to rise out of control and Obama saying that he inherited the policies that led to an increase in debt and deficits. (more…)

UMD Finding May Hold Key to Gaia Theory of Earth as Living Organism

By Guest PostMay 16, 2012Scienceatmosphere, dimethylsulfide, dimethylsulfide emission, dimethylsulfoniopropionate, earth, gaia hypothesis, gaia theory, geochemist, harry oduro, isotopic composition, james farquhar, james lovelock, kathryn van alstyne, key, living organism, lynn margulis, ocean, oxidation, sulfur compound, sulfur cycle, umd finding, university of maryland, western washington university

Discovery ultimately could lead to better climate understanding and prediction

COLLEGE PARK, Md. Is Earth really a sort of giant living organism as the Gaia hypothesis predicts? A new discovery made at the University of Maryland may provide a key to answering this question. This key of sulfur could allow scientists to unlock heretofore hidden interactions between ocean organisms, atmosphere, and land — interactions that might provide evidence supporting this famous theory.

The Gaia hypothesis — first articulated by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis in the 1970s — holds that Earth’s physical and biological processes are inextricably connected to form a self-regulating, essentially sentient, system.

One of the early predictions of this hypothesis was that there should be a sulfur compound made by organisms in the oceans that was stable enough against oxidation in water to allow its transfer to the air. Either the sulfur compound itself, or its atmospheric oxidation product, would have to return sulfur from the sea to the land surfaces. The most likely candidate for this role was deemed to be dimethylsulfide. (more…)

Consumers Willing to Buy Sustainable U.S. Cotton, MU Researchers Find

By Guest PostFebruary 8, 2012Economyapparel, apparel industry, brand, consumer sale, cotton, environmental impact, jung ha brookshire, key, pamela norum, pesticide, sustainable manner, sustainable practice, transparency, united states, university of missouri, us cotton

*Studies show importance of transparency in U.S. apparel production*

COLUMBIA, Mo. – As the interest in environmentally responsible business practices grows globally, researchers are interested in how that interest translates into consumer sales. Researchers from the University of Missouri have found that United States consumers are more willing to buy clothing made from sustainably grown U.S. cotton than apparel produced using conventional practices in an unknown location. Jung Ha-Brookshire, an assistant professor in the textile and apparel management department in the College of Human Environmental Sciences at MU, says transparency is the key. (more…)

Researchers Discover How Key Drug Kills Worms in Tropical Diseases

By Guest PostNovember 11, 2010Health, Scienceanti filarial drug, anti parasitic drug, black flies, breakthrough, charles mackenzie, elephantiasis, elephantitis, equatorial africa, filarial diseases, flubendazole, humans, immune system, ivermectin, key, lymphatic filariasis, merck & co, mosquitoes, onchocerciasis, parasitic worms, pharmaceutical firm, reproductive tract, river blindness, tim geary, veterinary, worms, yovany moreno

Charles Mackenzie, a professor of veterinary pathology, works with elephantiasis patients in Tanzania. Image credit: Michigan State University

EAST LANSING, Mich. — In a major breakthrough that comes after decades of research and nearly half a billion treatments in humans, scientists have finally unlocked how a key anti-parasitic drug kills the worms brought on by the filarial diseases river blindness and elephantitis.

Understanding how the drug ivermectin works has the potential to lead to new treatments for the diseases, in which the body is infected with parasitic worms, said Charles Mackenzie, a professor of veterinary pathology in the College of Veterinary Medicine and researcher on the project. The diseases afflict about 140 million people worldwide, doing much of their damage in equatorial Africa.

“Ivermectin is one of the most important veterinary and human anti-parasitic agents ever,” Mackenzie said. “Knowing specifically how it interacts with the body’s own immune system and kills parasitic worms opens up whole new treatment avenues.”

The research appears in the current edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (more…)

Tag Archives: key

National Deficit Outlook Unchanged Under Obama: UMD Policy Analysis

UMD Finding May Hold Key to Gaia Theory of Earth as Living Organism

Consumers Willing to Buy Sustainable U.S. Cotton, MU Researchers Find

Researchers Discover How Key Drug Kills Worms in Tropical Diseases