Feasibility of using mycoherbicides to control illicit drug crops is uncertain

ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2011) — The effectiveness of using specific fungi as mycoherbicides to combat illicit drug crops remains questionable due to the lack of quality, in-depth research, says a new report from the National Research Council. Questions about the degree of control that could be achieved with such mycoherbicides, as well as uncertainties about their potential effects on nontarget plants, microorganisms, animals, humans, and the environment must be addressed before considering deployment. The report states that additional research is needed to assess the safety and effectiveness of proposed strains of mycoherbicides.

Mycoherbicides, created from plant pathogenic fungi, have been proposed as one tool to eradicate illicit drug crops. Congress requested an independent examination of the scientific issues associated with the feasibility of developing and implementing naturally occurring strains of these fungi to control the illicit cultivation of cannabis, coca, and opium poppy crops.

As an initial step, the report recommends research to study several candidate strains of each fungus in order to identify the most efficacious under a broad array of environmental conditions. The resulting information would guide decisions regarding product formulation, the appropriate delivery method, and the scale required to generate enough mycoherbicide product to achieve significant control. However, conducting the research does not guarantee that a feasible mycoherbicide product will result. Furthermore, countermeasures can be developed against mycoherbicides, and there are unavoidable risks from releasing substantial numbers of living organisms into an ecosystem.

Multiple regulatory requirements would also have to be met before a mycoherbicide could be deployed. Additional regulations and agreements might also be needed before these tools could be used internationally, as approval to conduct tests in countries where mycoherbicides might be used has been difficult or impossible to obtain in the past.

The study was sponsored by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. They are independent, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under an 1863 congressional charter. Panel members, who serve pro bono as volunteers, are chosen by the Academies for each study based on their expertise and experience and must satisfy the Academies' conflict-of-interest standards. The resulting consensus reports undergo external peer review before completion.

Report.

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Using radiation to sterilize insect pests may protect California fruits and vegetables

ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2011) — A new study published in the Journal of Economic Entomology shows that radiation can be used to effectively sterilize the light brown apple moth (LBAM), an insect pest found in Australia, New Zealand, California, Hawaii, Sweden, and the British Isles. The light brown apple moth, Epiphyas postvittana (Walker), feeds on apples, pears, stonefruits, citrus, grapes, berries and many other plants. A native of Australia, it has been found in California since 2007. The California Department of Food and Agriculture has spent more than $70 million in CDFA and USDA funds to eradicate the LBAM, and estimates that failure to eradicate it could cost California growers over $133 million per year.

Using similar methodologies in two different laboratories, the authors coordinated radiation biology studies between two geographically isolated LBAM populations from Australia and New Zealand. The results showed that for both populations, an irradiation dose of 250 Gy administered to LBMA pupae induced >95% sterility in females and >90% sterility in males. These results can be used to initiate a suppression program against the LBMA where sterile males are released, mate with wild females, and no offspring are produced. If successful, this technique can largely eliminate the need for pesticides.

"These results suggest that a sterile insect technique (SIT) or F1 sterility program can be applied to control an infestation of Epiphyas postvittana, but these would still be reliant on complementary information such as physical fitness and modeling of overflooding ratios." according to the authors. "The challenge now is to identify the dose of radiation that would provide a balance between insect sterility and field competitiveness."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Entomological Society of America.

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Rajendra Soopaya, Lloyd D. Stringer, Bill Woods, Andrea E. A. Stephens, Ruth C. Butler, Ian Lacey, Amandip Kaur, and David M. Suckling. Radiation Biology and Inherited Sterility of Light Brown Apple Moth (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae): Developing a Sterile Insect Release Program. J. Econ. Entomol., 104(6): 1999?2008 (2011) DOI: 10.1603/EC11049

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Age-old remedies using white tea, witch hazel and rose may be beneficial, study suggests

ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2011) — Age-old remedies could hold the key to treating a wide range of serious medical problems, as well as keeping skin firmer and less wrinkled, according to scientists from London's Kingston University. A collaboration between the university and British beauty brand Neal's Yard Remedies has seen experts discover that white tea, witch hazel and the simple rose hold potential health and beauty properties which could be simply too good to ignore.

The research suggests a number of naturally-occurring substances may offer the hope of new treatments to block the progression of inflammation. It is credited with a major role in both the initiation and development of diseases ranging from cancer, diabetes and arthritis through to neuro-degenerative conditions and cardiovascular and pulmonary problems.

"For thousands of years people used natural remedies to try -- and sometimes succeed -- in curing their ailments and preserving their youth," Professor Declan Naughton, from the University's School of Life Sciences, said. "Now the latest research we have carried out suggests a number of naturally-occurring substances may offer the hope of new treatments to block the progression of inflammation."

Inflammation is credited with a major role in both the initiation and development of diseases ranging from cancer, diabetes and arthritis through to neuro-degenerative conditions and cardiovascular and pulmonary problems. It is also implicated in premature aging and early death. "Inflammation is a secret killer -- helping arrest its development, or being able to stop it happening at all, would clearly be of benefit," Professor Naughton explained.

The new study builds on work undertaken by Professor Naughton and Kingston University PhD student Tamsyn Thring, along with the technical team from Neal's Yard. They tested 21 plant extracts for evidence of their efficiency in fighting cancer and also in the battle against aging. Of the 21 extracts, three -- white tea, witch hazel and rose -- showed considerable potential, with white tea displaying the most marked results. "Indeed it appeared that drinking a simple cup of white tea might well help reduce an individual's risk of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis or even just age-associated wrinkles," Professor Naughton said.

Spurred on by their laboratory findings, the team members decided to take the work further to see if they could replicate the results in human skin cells, looking more closely at the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant activity of the three extracts.

Using human skin cells as their model, the researchers added three different concentrations of white tea (freeze dried powder), witch hazel (dried herb) and rose extract (in a medicinal tincture form) to see what effect the mixtures might have on suppressing rogue enzymes and oxidants which play a key role in helping inflammation develop, as well as aging the skin. "As the largest organ in the body, the skin provides a barrier against UV radiation, chemicals, microbes and physical pollutants," Ms Thring said. "Challenges like this can contribute to both inflammation and skin aging.

"We also know that when inflammation starts -- be it a simple cut to a finger or in an arthritic joint -- the body starts producing a compound called interleukin 8, which helps the process along. We began wondering if there was a way we could switch that signal off, thereby blocking the inflammation's progress."

Even though the team's previous research had intimated there might be some promising results ahead, the experts were astonished to see just how good the various concentrations of the three extracts were at doing the job.

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Tamsyn SA Thring, Pauline Hili, Declan P Naughton. Antioxidant and potential anti-inflammatory activity of extracts and formulations of white tea, rose, and witch hazel on primary human dermal fibroblast cells. Journal of Inflammation, 2011; 8 (1): 27 DOI: 10.1186/1476-9255-8-27

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Astronomers discover new exoplanet similar in size to Earth; Planet Kepler-21b found using space and ground-based observations

ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2011) — The NASA Kepler Mission is designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way Galaxy to discover Earth-size planets in or near the "habitable zone," the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist, and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets. It now has another planet to add to its growing list.

A research team led by Steve Howell, of NASA's Ames Research Center, has shown that one of the brightest stars in the Kepler star field has a planet with a radius only 1.6 that of Earth's radius and a mass no greater that 10 Earth masses, circling its parent star with a 2.8-day period. With such a short period, and such a bright star, the team of over 65 astronomers -- which included David Silva, Ken Mighell and Mark Everett of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) -- needed multiple telescopes on the ground to support and confirm their Kepler observations. These included the 4-meter Mayall telescope and the WIYN telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.

With a period of only 2.8 days, this planet, designated Kepler-21b, is only about 6 million kilometers away from its parent star. By comparison Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, has a period of 88 days and a distance from the sun almost ten times greater, or 57 million km. So Kepler 21b is far hotter than any place humans could venture. The team calculates that the temperature at the surface of the planet is about 1900 K, or 2960 F. While this temperature is nowhere near the habitable zone in which liquid water might be found, the planet's size is approaching that of Earth.

The parent star, HD 179070, is quite similar to our sun: its mass is 1.3 solar masses, its radius is 1.9 solar radii, and its age, based on stellar models, is 2.84 billion years (or a bit younger than the sun's 4.6 billion years). HD 179070 is spectral type F6 IV, a little hotter and brighter than the sun. By astronomical standards, HD 179070 is fairly close, at a distance from the sun of 352 light years. While it cannot be seen by the unaided eye, a small telescope can easily pick it out.

Part of the difficulty in detecting this planet is the realization, from the Kepler mission, that many stars show short period brightness oscillations. The effect of these must be removed from the stellar light in order to uncover the regular, but very small, dimming caused by the planet passing in front of the star. The Kepler mission observed this field for over 15 months, and the team combined the observations to enable them to detect this tiny, periodic signal. They also relied on spectroscopic and imaging data from a number of ground based telescopes.

The results of this work have been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.

NOAO is operated by Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc. (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.

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High tech detection of breast cancer using nanoprobes and SQUID

ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2011) — Mammography saves lives by detecting very small tumors. However, it fails to find 10-25% of tumors and is unable to distinguish between benign and malignant disease. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Breast Cancer Research provides a new and potentially more sensitive method using tumor-targeted magnetic nanoprobes and superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) sensors.

A team of researchers from University of New Mexico School of Medicine and Cancer Research and Treatment Center, Senior Scientific, LLC, and the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies facility at Sandia National Laboratories created nanoprobes by attaching iron-oxide magnetic particles to antibodies against HER-2, a protein overexpressed in 30% of breast cancer cases. Using these tiny protein-iron particles the team was able to distinguish between cells with HER-2 and those without, and were able to find HER-2 cancer cells in biopsies from mice. In their final test the team used a synthetic breast to determine the potential sensitivity of their system.

Dr Helen Hathaway explained, "We were able to accurately pinpoint 1 million cells at a depth of 4.5 cm. This is about 1000x fewer cells than the size at which a tumor can be felt in the breast and 100x more sensitive than mammographic x-ray imaging. While we do not expect the same level of nanoparticle uptake in the clinic, our system has an advantage in that dense breast tissue, which can mask traditional mammography results, is transparent to the low-frequency magnetic fields detected by the SQUID sensors."

Future refining of the system could allow not only tumor to be found but to be classified according to protein expression (rather than waiting for biopsy results). This in turn could be used to predict disease progression and refine treatment plans and so improve patient survival.

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Helen J Hathaway, Kimberly S Butler, Natalie L Adolphi, Debbie M Lovato, Robert Belfon, Danielle L Fegan, Todd C Monson, Jason E Trujillo, Trace E Tessier, Howard C Bryant, Dale L Huber, Richard S Larson and Edward R Flynn. Detection of breast cancer cells using targeted magnetic nanoparticles and ultra-sensitive magnetic field sensors. Breast Cancer Research, 2011; 13: R108 DOI: 10.1186/bcr3050

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Forex Trading Tutorial – The Advantage of Using Forex Tutorial in the Currency Trade

Forex Trading Tutorial

In the first and foremost place, there is a bickering regarding the intro-mission of trading robots presently in the trading industry. One of the most fundamental truths these types of traders do not understand is that such forex application didn’t just appear about, some of the trading software took nearly 38 years of development. Forex Trading Tutorial

To boot, well-celebrated loyalists in the trading region have modernized a large amount of these Forex automation, they undergo gained eminent experience and vast skills in the trading market. For example, one trading robot-the Forex Megadroid, that was made by cement industry gurus. Megadroid was contrived with the purpose to make Forex trading uncomplicated, more agile, and accurate. In addition, Megadroid features the capacity of assisting traders pay heed to other business concerns while the trading tool advances trade for them with backed up information that exercises precise live trade. Forex Trading Tutorial

Megadroid engineers, (John Grace and Albert Perrie) allotting to the Megadroid internet site page critiques, the software contends trade outstandingly well. It constitutes a foretelling power of about 95% precise. The scheme processes an algorithm technique that can assure future trade applying previous accomplished techniques. Albeit, Megadroid blusters of a trading success of almost 1,384.84% full gains-with only 8 months in the Forex. With these outcomes, Megadroid discoverers have guaranteed traders of utmost returns. For example, they’ve ascertained returns of 4 dollars per every single dollar vested. Forex Trading Tutorial

Amidst the most of all important things you will get freely in a foreign trade business, is the Forex tutorial that is available at the Megadroid’s software and this cast of trading does not require the substitution of whatsoever palpable product. In the foreign exchange, trade often happens electronically and is regarded as inter-bank proceedings or-over the counter trading. Forex Trading Tutorial

This apparently implies you don’t have to be corporeally in a central financial institution for you to participate in trading. All you would require is your computer and a cyberspace access. To boot, Forex Megadroid ensures well-detailed client service support. Megadroid besides features plug and play capability, installation takes approximately five minutes. And finally it also features simple tutorial schemes for unfledged investors who still can not comprehend how the market operates. Stop what you are doing RIGHT NOW and get your Life Changing Forex Trading Tutorial Program. It’ll change your Life Forever!

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Forex Trading Alerts – Using Forex Trading Alert Software For Fast And Effective Trading

Forex Trading Alerts

Forex trading alert software continuously monitor the market for high-probability real-time buy and sell opportunities. Based on approach algorithm the alert tool make precise trade entry and exit signals and automated trailing stop-losses. If you have subscribed to one such forex trading alert software services, it will send you an alert or notification by email or SMS in your cell phone. Forex trading alert software, in many cases are offered as a free service to the customers of an automated forex trade execution platform.

Forex trading alert software prepares real-time alert to buy or sell a specific currency pair. Depending on a buy or sell alerts and either email or SMS notification you can make your trading decisions.

The alert may also include a stop-loss and limit information. So you can avoid continuous monitoring of the market as the auto trading platform would execute your trades which you have already set. These alerts often come at the very beginning of a currencies movement or when key support or resistance levels are broken and tested.

Some forex trading alert software needs installation in your system. Once installed, this software automatically monitors the parent network and notifies you of any new report. These alerts are generated after detailed research, application of different technical analysis, like Fibonacci or Elliot waves, and after obtaining feedbacks from other market indicators.
Forex Trading Alerts
Forex trading alert software should have systems for fast notifications, auto-update, and instant access to market reports and information. The alert software, in many cases, prepares targeted information bulletin for longer term, positional trader, day traders, and average traders.

Before major economic announcements, which may influence the market, the forex trading alert software should ideally send you a pop-up message reminding you of the release.

Forex trading alert software can be customized to receive trade alerts for the currency pairs of your choice. You can enable or disable entry points to your mobile phone.

Many forex trading alert software allows you to add more than one email id or mobile phone numbers and you can receive the notifications in all of them. You can turn the alerts on or off at any time. Forex trading alert software may come with light flashes which are easy to follow and execute. Stop what you are doing RIGHT NOW and get your Life Changing Forex Trading Alerts Program. It’ll change your Life Forever!

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