SOGONMASBOG CRSS-CDS 290108

//////////////////24/01/08,18:52, Elsevier Global Medical News By Damian McNamara

Researchers Find Unexpected Symmetry in Progression of Knee Osteoarthritis
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (EGMN) – Symmetrical bilateral progression of knee osteoarthritis was a significant and surprising result of a genetic study of people with hand osteoarthritis and their relatives.

“The most surprising [finding] was that progression occurred in a similar manner on both sides. This indicates to me that there is probably a strong genetic factor for progression,” Dr. Virginia Byers Kraus said in an interview during a poster session at the World Congress on Osteoarthritis.



/////////////////////MRI Seen as Alternative to Chest X-Rays in Children With Lung Disease
CHICAGO (EGMN) - Optimised low-field magnetic resonance imaging has the potential to replace plain chest radiographs in the assessment of lung disease in children, according to results of a poster study presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

“The goal is to reduce radiation exposure for these very young patients - many with cystic fibrosis - while visualizing pathologies such as pneumonia and atelectasis,” Dr. Joachim Bernhardt, lead author, said in an interview. “We achieved that goal in about half of the 12 children involved in our study.”




////////////////////////////dg=The Anthropocene: Have Humans Created a New Epoch in the Planet's History?
No one can realistically argue that humans haven’t dramatically transformed the face of the planet. But now scientists propose that humankind has so altered the Earth that that we have brought about an end to one epoch and entered a new age. They suggest humans have so changed the Earth that it’s time the Holocene epoch was officially ended. The new epoch of Earth’s history is being called the Anthropocene, meaning “man-made”.

Geologists from the University of Leicester, Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams, and their colleagues on the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London say that humankind has entered a phase where we are so rapidly transforming the planet that a new era has started. Duke University soil scientist Daniel Richter agrees. He says the dirt under our feet is being so changed by humans that it is now appropriate to call this epoch the Anthropocene Age.



/////////////////////////////////////dg=January 28, 2008
The Ocean’s Biological Deserts are Growing
I have just been introduced to a new term that I am trying wrap my head around: “biological desert” refers to the lack of biodiversity and biomass, in an area other than that typically looked at as a desert. My introduction to the term comes with an even more difficult landscape in which for a desert to exist; the ocean.

But according to researchers, biological deserts cover 40% of the Earth’s surface, so regardless of my inexperience with this phenomenon; it is indeed an issue worthy of our attention.



///////////////////////////////