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UCLA doctors successfully ‘vacuum’ 2-foot blood clot out of patient’s heart

First in state to perform minimally invasive alternative to open-heart surgery

Todd Dunlap, 62, arrived at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center’s emergency room on Aug. 8 suffering from shortness of breath, fatigue and extreme cold. When a CT scan revealed a 24-inch clot stretching from his legs into his heart, doctors feared the mass could break loose and lodge in his lungs, blocking oxygen and killing him instantly.
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Food Insecurity Continues to Grow

Missouri trends mirror the national picture; MU scientist offers policy suggestions to fight hunger issues

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The 2013 Missouri Hunger Atlas, issued by the University of Missouri’s Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security, shows that more than one in five Missouri households with children are food insecure, meaning they worry about not having enough food. One author of the Hunger Atlas said that patterns in Missouri reflect what is happening at the national level, and offers suggestions for actions from government policy makers and individuals to provide some relief. (more…)

American Families Taking ‘Divergent Paths,’ Study Finds

Inequality Linked to ‘Marriage-Go-Round’ Among Some Groups

COLUMBUS, Ohio – After a period of relative calm during the 1990s, rapid changes in American families began anew during the 2000s, a new analysis suggests. (more…)

NABU-Kernforderungen zur Bundestagswahl 2013

Kernforderungen des NABU für die Umwelt- und Naturschutzpolitik in der nächsten Legislaturperiode des Deutschen Bundestags.

1. Biologische Vielfalt wirksam schützen

Das Ziel, den Verlust der biologischen Vielfalt bis zum Jahr 2010 zu stoppen, ist klar gescheitert und durch die europäischen Staats- und Regierungschefs auf 2020 verschoben worden. Um dieses Ziel nun tatsächlich erreichen zu können, muss das Bundesprogramm Biologische Vielfalt finanziell gestärkt und bis zum Jahr 2016 auf ein Volumen von 100 Millionen Euro aufgestockt werden. Das Programm ist zudem so zu entwickeln, dass die relevanten Akteure bei der Umsetzung prioritärer und besonders dringlicher Naturschutzaufgaben wirksam unterstützt werden können. (more…)

Undersea mountains provide crucial piece in climate prediction puzzle

A mystery in the ocean near Antarctica has been solved by researchers who have long puzzled over how deep and mid-depth ocean waters are mixed.

They found that sea water mixes dramatically as it rushes over undersea mountains in Drake Passage – the channel between the southern tip of South America and the Antarctic continent. Mixing of water layers in the oceans is crucial in regulating the Earth’s climate and ocean currents.

The research provides insight for climate models which until now have lacked the detailed information on ocean mixing needed to provide accurate long-term climate projections. The study was carried out by the University of Exeter, the University of East Anglia, the University of Southampton, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the British Antarctic Survey and the Scottish Association for Marine Science and is published in the journal Nature. (more…)

Giving refuge, advancing research

Yale Stress Center head promotes healing of the body, mind, and brain

Rajita Sinha, Ph.D., says that the emotional expressiveness of the Indian classical dance studies of her youth laid the foundation for a lifelong interest in the brain-body tango that regulates mood and behavior. As an undergraduate in her native Delhi, she studied biopsychology, conducting research on the effects of marijuana and working at a counseling center. For her graduate work at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, she studied how emotion is manifested physiologically, a thread that she has carried through her subsequent work on the brain-altering effects of drugs and alcohol. (more…)

Emotional attachment to robots could affect outcome on battlefield

Too busy to vacuum your living room? Let Roomba the robot do it. Don’t want to risk a soldier’s life to disable an explosive? Let a robot do it.

It’s becoming more common to have robots sub in for humans to do dirty or sometimes dangerous work. But researchers are finding that in some cases, people have started to treat robots like pets, friends, or even as an extension of themselves. That raises the question, if a soldier attaches human or animal-like characteristics to a field robot, can it affect how they use the robot? What if they “care” too much about the robot to send it into a dangerous situation? (more…)

Politikwechsel für mehr Natur- und Umweltschutz

Die Energiewende muss nach der Wahl verlässlich weitergeführt werden

Angesichts der bislang schleppenden Umsetzung der Energiewende, des anhaltenden Verlusts der biologischen Vielfalt und der notwendigen Neuausrichtung des vorbeugenden Hochwasserschutzes hält der NABU einen Kurswechsel in der Bundespolitik für mehr Natur- und Umweltschutz für überfällig. Der NABU fordert die Kandidatinnen und Kandidaten für den Deutschen Bundestag dazu auf, eine naturverträgliche Energie- und Ressourcenpolitik in den Mittelpunkt zu rücken und wirksame Maßnahmen von der neuen Bundesregierung einzufordern.

Wichtigstes bundespolitisches Thema bleibt die verlässliche Fortführung der Energiewende. Der gesetzlich verbindliche Ausstieg aus der Atomenergienutzung sei die einzig richtige Reaktion auf die Fukushima-Katastrophe gewesen. Nun torpediere aber vor allem die FDP mit ihren Forderungen nach einem Ausbaustopp für erneuerbare Energien die Energiewende. „Die steigenden Stromkosten werden politisch instrumentalisiert, um unter dem Deckmantel des Wettbewerbs erneuerbare Energien auszubremsen und den angeblich günstigeren Atom- und Kohlekraftwerken die Absatzmärkte zu sichern“, so NABU-Präsident Olaf Tschimpke. Mit dem Kostenargument solle gezielt die hohe Akzeptanz der Energiewende in der Bevölkerung untergraben werden. (more…)