China
Rapid urbanization in southeastern China in the past 25 years is responsible for an estimated warming rate much larger than previous estimates for other periods and locations, according to a new study funded by NASA.
Researchers led by the Georgia Institute of Technology report that the mean surface temperature in the region has risen 0.09 degrees Fahrenheit (0.05 degrees Celsius) per decade since 1979. Also, nighttime low temperatures have risen much faster than the daytime high temperatures. The average reduction of the day-to-night temperature range was 0.24 degrees F (0.132 degrees C) per decade.
A combination of new technology and time-tested tracking techniques has yielded encouraging news for the world's panda lovers. The latest census of giant pandas living in the wild finds that 50 percent more pandas actually live in China than were previously thought to exist. China is the only place in the world where pandas live in the wild.
A review of previously published studies suggests that among patients with chronic health conditions, Tai Chi appears to have beneficial effects on balance, flexibility, and cardiovascular health. Tai Chi is a traditional Chinese martial art that has been practiced in China for centuries. Tai Chi combines deep breathing with relaxation and postures that flow from one to another through slow movements. Tai Chi is practiced to promote good health, memory, concentration, digestion, balance, and flexibility and is thought to improve anxiety and depression.
A major study in China addresses the controversy over abortion and the birth weight of subsequent pregnancies. Until now, few studies have investigated this. To assess the effect of a medical abortion on a subsequent pregnancy's birth weight, researchers analysed approximately 13,000 live term births over a 31-month period. The researchers compared the rates of Low Birth Weights in the first subsequent pregnancy of women with a history of 1 medically-induced abortion and those with no abortion history.
For centuries, the herb Chinese gastrodine has been used in China to treat disorders such as dizziness, headache and even ischemic stroke. Research presented at the American Heart Association's Second Asia Pacific Scientific Forum shows treatment with a gastrodine compound granule is effective in improving impaired memory, orientation, language and other effects of stroke in patients who were diagnosed with mild to moderate vascular dementia (VaD) after their stroke.
Recent results of a joint experiment conducted by 460 physicists from 57 research institutions in 12 countries strongly indicate that the scientists have succeeded in reproducing matter as it first appeared in the universe; this matter is called the quark-gluon plasma. The experiment, called PHENIX and conducted at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York, has brought together physicists from Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Sweden and the United States. The Israeli team is led by Prof. Itzhak Tserruya, head of the Weizmann Institute's Particle Physics Department. Tserruya and his colleagues have designed and built unique particle detectors that are a central part of PHENIX's detecting system.
New research findings on the ability of a fetus to recognize its mother's voice and even distinguish it from other female voices confirms what scientists have speculated about for more than 20 years - that experiences in the womb help shape newborn preferences and behaviour. Dr. Barbara Kisilevsky, a Queen's University professor of nursing along with a team of psychologists at Queen's and obstetricians in Hangzhou, China, found that fetuses are capable of learning in the womb and can remember and recognize their mother's voice before they are even born.
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced agreement with Chinese Vice Premier and Health Minister Wu Yi to increase collaboration with China toward improved detection and management of infectious diseases. The agreement stems from President Bush's pledge to Chinese President Hu Jintao to provide resources necessary to help stem the SARS epidemic in China.
On March 30 the UCLA Medical Institutional Review Board (MIRB) issued its determination regarding a complaint about Dr. John Fahey and allegations that he participated in malariotherapy research at UCLA. The MIRB determined that Fahey, while not personally involved in the clinical trials, was involved in evaluating data and biological samples brought to UCLA from China by Dr. Xiao Peng Chen under the Fogarty International Program. Since Chen's work was performed as part of the Fogarty Program at UCLA and was under Fahey's supervision, the MIRB determined that Fahey was engaged in human subjects research. Chen had tested a theory that infecting HIV-positive patients with malaria could help the patient's body fight off the AIDS-causing disease.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said the minister of health of the People's Republic of China agreed today to increase cooperation with the United States and global health officials to combat and learn more about the spread and origin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). In a 45-minute telephone conversation with Health Minister Zhang Wenkang, M.D., Secretary Thompson said the United States and HHS are "truly committed to this being a collaborative effort with China."
Defense Department personnel may make only mission-essential trips to China and Hong Kong because of the threat of severe acute respiratory syndrome, U.S. Pacific Command officials said today. "All Hong Kong port visits by U.S. Navy ships will be deferred until the restriction has been lifted," Pacific Command spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Jensin Sommer said. The restriction is consistent with recommendations made by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U.S. State Department has also issued a travel advisory citing the disease. The travel advisory includes China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Hanoi, Vietnam.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have helped identify a large, undetected epidemic of the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia in China. The new findings appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The collaboration involving UNC, the University of Chicago and researchers in China points to a chlamydia epidemic that developed in that country during the last 20 years ? and represents the first nationwide study of its kind to combine reported behavior with physical evidence of the consequences of sexual activity.
A small study showed that a ginseng compound improved memory scores of people suffering from stroke-induced dementia, Chinese researchers reported today at the American Stroke Association's 28th International Stroke Conference. The American Stroke Association is a division of the American Heart Association. Researchers caution that larger clinical trials are needed to establish the efficacy and safety of the compound. Memory loss, or dementia, may occur after stroke and is a growing problem in China, says lead researcher Jinzhou Tian, M.D., a professor in the Department of Care of the Elderly at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Dongzhimen Hospital in Beijing, China.
A remote camera clicked the first known photograph of a wild Siberian or Amur tiger in northern China last week, providing strong evidence that tigers are crossing from the Russian Far East to repopulate previous tiger strongholds. The tiger was photographed in Jilin Province's Hunchun Nature Reserve. Staff members at the reserve set up the camera-trap after a local farmer reported that a predator killed a mule. The next day, they retrieved the film and discovered the image of an adult tiger feeding on the carcass.
An immense grassland in Mongolia ? an area likened to the long-gone prairies of the American West, complete with staggering migrations of hundreds of thousands of animals ? is threatened by a proposal to build a road through its center, according to scientists with the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society. The road proposal is part of the "Millennium Highway," which plans to connect Mongolia to China and the Russian Far East.
