Investigational drug, RI-BPI, in combination with the drug Gleevec, effective against acute lymphoblastic leukemia

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• Investigational drug, RI-BPI, in combination with the drug Gleevec, effective against acute lymphoblastic leukemia
• Bihar medicos divided on private practice by government staff
• Edgy, quirky music in Anurag Kashyap's 'Shaitan'
• MIT commercial property price index posts flat result for first quarter
• Sandia Labs partners with UA Engineering to boost energy, water, climate research in the Southwest
• Kepler's astounding haul of multiple-planet systems
• Even rich, educated abort second girl child, shows study
• Cheaper, greener, alternative energy storage at Stevens
• Stevens biomedical engineering students fight hypothermia on the battlefield
• Stevens Center for Science Writings gives Green Book Award to James Hansen

Investigational drug, RI-BPI, in combination with the drug Gleevec, effective against acute lymphoblastic leukemia Posted: 24 May 2011 06:25 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) In a significant breakthrough, investigators at Weill Cornell Medical College and the University of California, San Francisco, have been able to overcome resistance of a form of leukemia to targeted therapy, demonstrating complete eradication of the cancer in cell and animal studies. Their study, published in the May 19 issue of Nature, shows that an investigational drug, RI-BPI, developed at Weill Cornell, in combination with the drug Gleevec shut down stem cells responsible for about one-third of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a cancer of white blood cells that affects young children as well as older adults. This form of ALL has the so-called Philadelphia chromosome, which is also found in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). But while Gleevec has greatly improved survival in CML, it has had a less dramatic effect in ALL, and most patients still die within a relatively short timeframe. That desperate prognosis may radically change given these results, says co-senior investigator Dr. Ari Melnick, associate professor of medicine and director of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Center for Biomedical and Physical Sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College, and a hematologist-oncologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "I am surprised, and extremely glad, to see that RI-BPI has such strong activity in a leukemia. This opens up the possibility that the agent will have similar beneficial effects in other tumor types," says Dr. Melnick. Dr. Melnick and his colleagues developed RI-BPI and they have shown its potent effects in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) with no toxicity to normal cells. The drug targets the transcription factor BCL6, a master regulator of hundreds of genes that provides strong growth signals to NHL cells. The new study demonstrated that BCL6 is also active in ALL driven by the Philadelphia chromosome (Ph+ ALL), and that a combination of RI-BPI and Gleevec virtually shuts... http://www.rxpgnews.com

Bihar medicos divided on private practice by government staff Posted: 24 May 2011 06:04 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Patna, May 24 - Medicos in Bihar are divided over the issue of a ban on private practice by government doctors. The Bihar branch of Indian Medical Association - and the Bihar State Health Services Association - are up against each other, with the latter favouring curbs on private practice by government doctors. 'We have urged the state government not to ban private practice - and make it only optional,' said Shahjanand Prasad Singh, vice president of the state IMA. Singh said that government doctors who want to continue private practice should be allowed to do so. 'The ban could be applicable only in the case of those doctors who are involved in jobs and opt for non-practising allowance,' he said. The BSHSA has threatened to launch an agitation in June first week if private practice by government doctors was not banned. 'We will be forced to launch an agitation,' said Ajay Kumar, general secretary of the BSHSA. The state IMA has also demanded the enactment of a medical professional protection law on the lines of a legislation in Andhra Pradesh. The Bihar IMA's demand for the legislation is linked to its claim that there has been an increase in incidents of violence against doctors and their property. http://www.rxpgnews.com

Edgy, quirky music in Anurag Kashyap's 'Shaitan' Posted: 24 May 2011 08:46 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Film: 'Shaitan'; Music Directors: Prashant Pillai, Amar Mohile, Ranjit Barot, Anupam Roy and Bhayanak Maut; Singers: K.S Krishnan, Preeti Pillai, Kalloist, Farhad Bhiwandiwalla, Hitesh Modak, Prashant Pillai, Bindu Nambiar, Colin Terence, Abhishek, Shradha, Suraj Jgan, Suman Shridhar, Kirti Sagathia, Chandan Shive, Ranjit Barot and Suzanne D'Mello; Rating: ** and 1/2. Just like its promos, the music of upcoming film 'Shaitan' is also edgy, quirky and quite away from the realms of a typical Bollywood venture. The album has been put together by four composers and a music band with a variety of singers behind the mike. The soundtrack of the film that is about a group of five youngsters boasts of 14 tracks. The album kickstarts with a short instrumental called 'Enter' composed by Prashant Pillai. Next comes in 'Bali-the sound of shaitan' that has been doing the rounds of channels for some time now. Composed by Pillai, most of the song's lyrics sound gibberish except a few lines here and there, but the music is cutting edge and catches the attention of the listener instantly, owing to its quirky nature. It has been crooned by K.S Krishnan, Preeti Pillai, Kalloist, Farhad Bhiwandiwalla and Hitesh Modak. Then there is 'Nasha' churned out by Pillai again. The song has been inspired by the bond of friendship. It is moderately paced but orchestration is reasonably strong. A lot of experimentation with sound is witnessed in this track that has vocals by the composer himself along with Bindu Nambiar. The song also has a rock and soul version where Pillai has been replaced by Ranjit Barot and Farhad Bhiwandiwalla for the vocals. 'Josh' composed by Amar Mohile and sung by colin Terence, Abhishek and Shradha starts with English rap and then goes on to Hindi lyrics. The song is contemporary from the word go and has majorly used the saxophone in the composition. Then there is 'Fareeda', a slow-paced, free flowing track with a slight rock... http://www.rxpgnews.com

MIT commercial property price index posts flat result for first quarter Posted: 24 May 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Transaction prices of commercial properties sold by major institutional investors were nearly flat in the first quarter of this year, posting a return of negative 0.07 percent and leaving the price index 19.2 percent above its 4Q2009 low-point, according to an index developed and published by the MIT Center for Real Estate (MIT/CRE). The first quarter performance represents a bit of a breather in the recovery of the institutional commercial property market that the index has been tracking since mid-2009, said Professor David Geltner, Director of Research at the Center. NCREIF sales volume was down sharply from last year's fourth quarter activity, with sales down from 91 to 70 by count and from $4.1 billion to $2.5 billion by dollar volume. Measured on a total return basis, including net cash flow generated by the properties (as well as the price change), the first quarter result was positive 1.05 percent. The price index level now stands at 165.95, and the cumulative total return index including income reinvested is at 729.76, in both cases based on a value of 100 at the beginning of 1984. Among the four property sectors tracked by the index, the apartment sector turned in the best performance, up 2.5 percent in the first quarter to bring it to 25 percent above its 2009 low point and now within about 15 percent of its 2007 peak. Geltner noted that: the apartment sector has benefited from relatively strong fundamentals as well as a relatively favorable financing environment since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can provide capital to the sector. The worst performing sector in the first quarter was retail property with a negative 1.34 percent return, though this still gives that sector a recovery of 19 percent (some 21 percent below its peak). Office and industrial properties were both down about 0.7 percent in the quarter putting their post-crisis recoveries at 15 and 14 percent respectively. The MIT/CRE not only... http://www.rxpgnews.com

Sandia Labs partners with UA Engineering to boost energy, water, climate research in the Southwest Posted: 24 May 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) TUCSON, Ariz. and ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (May 24, 2011) -- The University of Arizona and Sandia National Laboratories have agreed to collaborate on engineering aspects of four critical environmental research areas in a new partnership that will initially focus on research involving management of these resources in the Southwestern U.S. The driving force behind the new collaboration is to increase investigations of the relationships between energy, water climate and sustainability -- especially in the Southwest -- through new research into the interrelationships between these areas. Under the agreement, research experts in these individual areas, plus materials science, will team to explore how strategies in one environmental area affect the other areas. By understanding these interrelationships, we can then engineer better materials, systems, devices and management strategies, said Jeff Goldberg, dean of the UA College of Engineering. The initial stages of the plan involve research teams from the University of Arizona College of Engineering -- including faculty, students, grad students and staff -- collaborating with teams from the New Mexico-based Department of Energy national laboratories. Glenn Schrader, associate dean of research at the UA College of Engineering, says the unique aspect of this agreement is its focus on using teams of researchers to tackle these areas, rather than individuals or individual labs, providing additional research opportunities for UA students and faculty. Joint proposals developed from the new partnership are expected to increase the amount of research funding opportunities at the UA, as well as increasing the amount of sponsored research awarded to the university as a whole. For Sandia, the partnership is expected to open up new research opportunities across many levels, including: allowing Sandia to capitalize on its core technical strengths; improving access to key university facilities,... http://www.rxpgnews.com

Kepler's astounding haul of multiple-planet systems Posted: 24 May 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) NASA's Kepler spacecraft is proving itself to be a prolific planet hunter. Within just the first four months of data, astronomers have found evidence for more than 1,200 planetary candidates. Of those, 408 reside in systems containing two or more planets, and most of those look very different than our solar system. In particular, the Kepler systems with multiple planets are much flatter than our solar system. They have to be for Kepler to spot them. Kepler watches for a planet to cross in front of its star, blocking a tiny fraction of the star's light. By measuring how much the star dims during such a transit, astronomers can calculate the planet's size, and by observing the time between successive events they can derive the orbital period - how long it takes the planet to revolve around its star. To see a transit, the planet's orbit must be edge-on to our line of sight. To see multiple transiting planets, they all must be edge-on (or nearly so). We didn't anticipate that we would find so many multiple-transit systems. We thought we might see two or three. Instead, we found more than 100, said Smithsonian astronomer David Latham (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics). Latham presented the findings today in a press conference at the 218th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. In our solar system, some planet orbits are tilted by up to 7 degrees, meaning that an alien astronomer looking for transits wouldn't be able to detect all eight planets. (In particular, they would miss Mercury and Venus.) The systems spotted by Kepler are much flatter, with orbits tilted less than 1 degree. Why are they so flat? One clue comes from the planets themselves. The multiplanet systems found by Kepler are dominated by planets smaller than Neptune. They lack Jupiter-sized gas giants. Scientists believe that a gas giant's powerful gravity tends to disrupt planetary systems, tilting the orbits of neighboring worlds. Jupiters are the... http://www.rxpgnews.com

Even rich, educated abort second girl child, shows study Posted: 23 May 2011 11:29 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) New Delhi, May 23 - Even rich and educated Indian families with a girl as the first child choose to abort their second child if prenatal test shows it to be a girl, said a study released by Centre for Global Health Research - here Tuesday. According to the study: 'Analysis of the trends examined from the statistics of the census of year 2011, 2001, 1991 note a sharp decline in the girl-to-boy sex ratio for second order births when the first-born was a girl, sex ratio falling by an average of about 0.5 percent annually between the year 1990-2005.' 'These declines are greater in educated and in richer households than in illiterate and poorer households,' said the study, to be published in the medical journal Lancet May 24. The study, led by Prabhat Jha of the CGHR and joined by professors from foreign universities and former registrar-general of India Jayant K. Banthia, said: 'The girl-boy ratio fell from 906 girls per 1,000 boys in 1990 to 836 per 1,000 boys in 2005, showing an annual decline of 0.52 percent.' 'The declines were much greater in mothers with 10 or more years of education than in mothers with no education, and in wealthier households compared with poorer households,' it said. According to census 2011, the child sex ratio has dropped to 914 females against 1,000 males - the lowest since Independence. 'The estimated number of selective abortions in the 1980s were around two million, the number rose to around four million in the 1990s, and was between 3.1 to six million in the 2000s. Each 1 percent decline in girl-to-boy sex ratio at ages 0-6 years translates to 1.2 to 3.6 million more selective female abortions,' the study said. The data suggested that selective abortion has spread from a handful of states to most parts of the country. S.V. Subramanian from the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, said: 'The demand for sons among wealthy parents is being satisfied by the medical community through the... http://www.rxpgnews.com

Cheaper, greener, alternative energy storage at Stevens Posted: 23 May 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Every year, the world consumes 15 Terrawatts of power. Since the amount of annual harvestable solar energy has been estimated at 50 Terrawatts, students at Stevens Institute of Technology are working on a supercapacitor that will allow us to harness more of this renewable energy through biochar electrodes for supercapacitors, resulting in a cleaner, greener planet. Supercapacitors are common today in solar panels and hydrogen fuel cell car batteries, but the material they use to store energy, activated carbon, is unsustainable and expensive. Biochar, on the other hand, represents a cheap, green alternative. The Chemical Engineering Senior Design team of Rachel Kenion, Liana Vaccari, and Katie Van Strander has designed biochar electrodes for supercapacitors, and is looking to eventually bring their solution to market. The group is advised by Dr. Woo Lee, the George Meade Bond Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. For their project, the team designed, fabricated, and tested a prototype supercapacitor electrode. The group demonstrated biochar's feasibility as an alternative to activated carbon for electrodes, which can be used in hybrid electric automobile batteries or home energy storage in solar panels. While the team's findings are preliminary, the approach taken by us represents a small, but potentially very important step in realizing sustainable energy future over the next few decades, says Dr. Lee. Biochar is viewed as a green solution to the activated carbon currently used in supercapacitor electrodes. Unlike activated carbon, biochar is the byproduct of the pyrolysis process used to produce biofuels. That is, biochar comes from the burning of organic matter. As the use of biofuels increases, biochar production increases as well. With our process, we are able to take that biochar and put it to good use in supercapacitors. Our supply comes from goldenrod crop, and through an IP-protected process, most... http://www.rxpgnews.com

Stevens biomedical engineering students fight hypothermia on the battlefield Posted: 23 May 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A Biomedical Engineering Senior Design team at Stevens Institute of Technology is working with the U.S. Army and New Jersey physicians to develop a new device to combat hypothermia among wounded soldiers. Team Heat Wave is composed of seniors Walter Galvez, Amanda Mendez, Geoffrey Ng, and Dalia Shendi, in addition to Biomedical Engineering graduate student Maia Hadidi. The team's faculty advisor is Dr. Vikki Hazelwood and consulting physician is Dr. Herman Morchel from Hackensack University Medical Center. Additional expert support from industry and military was provided by Jan Skadberg, RN, Colonel Boots Hodges, Stevens Burrows, and Major Jim Fulton. Stevens unique Senior Design approach gave students real-world experience developing a practical technology in collaboration with the military, says Dr. Hazelwood. This is a fantastic project with a life-saving application as well as entrepreneurial potential. Developing a portable device to re-warm patients suffering from hypothermia has the potential to substantially impact battlefield medicine. Loss of blood after trauma is the number one cause of combat fatalities in the United States armed forces. Hypothermia complications associated with loss of blood are shown to reduce the rate of survival after severe trauma by 22.5%. Current methods for fighting hypothermia in combat zones are to use an IV drip and wool blanket, says Geoffrey. With these means it takes up to 16 hours to increase the core body temperature to a more stable point. The Heat Wave system uses heated, humidified air delivered through an oxygen mask to capitalize on the patient's respiratory system. Capitalizing on the fact that the entire blood volume passes through the lungs, this heat is rapidly transferred to the blood via convection. Tests of their system show it is more effective than current treatments. We can decrease the time needed to resuscitate a hypothermic patient to just four hours, a 75%... http://www.rxpgnews.com

Stevens Center for Science Writings gives Green Book Award to James Hansen Posted: 23 May 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) On April 27, the Center for Science Writings (CSW) at Stevens Institute of Technology presented its annual Green Book Award to leading climatologist Dr. James Hansen, for his 2010 book Storms of My Grandchildren. Following the award presentation by CSW Director John Horgan, Dr. Hansen treated the standing-room-only crowd of students, faculty, and guests to a lecture on the latest in climate science, Facing the Truth about Global Warming. James Hansen is at the white-hot center of the debate on global warming, said Horgan during the award presentation. I think the book is extremely important, and so do many other scientists and scholars. Dr. Hansen is director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and the world's foremost scientific authority on global climate change. Hansen has been a highly-visible, polarizing figure in the global warming debate since testifying before Congress in 1988. Recognized for his apolitical stance, commitment to hard science in the study of global warming, and promotion of nuclear energy, he has relentlessly shared his data and vision with both policy makers and the general public. Hansen's first book, Storms of My Grandchildren, presents a startling call-to-action while also recounting his personal journey from shy scientist to public speaker and activist. As the title implies, the book was inspired by Hansen's grandchildren and a fear that they might inherit a world without the comforts and privileges that previous generations have enjoyed. The CSW Green Book Award acknowledges this distinctive combination of memoir and science used to spark readers in a global cause. A starred review in the American Library Association's Booklist says of Storms of My Grandchildren: Rich in invaluable insights into the geopolitics as well as the geophysics of climate change, Hansen's guaranteed-to-be-controversial manifesto is the most comprehensible,... http://www.rxpgnews.com

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