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Research finds evidence tropical cyclones have climate-control role

05-31-2007 · EurekAlert!

Purdue University researchers have found evidence that tropical cyclones and hurricanes play an important role in the ocean circulation patterns that transport heat and maintain the climate of North America and Europe. These findings suggest that there is an additional factor to be included in climate models that may change predictions of future climate scenarios.

Keywords: research, evidence, tropical, cyclones, climate-control, role, cyclone, climate, control

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Advance in understanding of blood pressure gene could lead to new treatments
02-04-2007 · EurekAlert!
Research by scientists at UCL (University College London) has clearly demonstrated for the first time the structure and function of a gene crucial to the regulation of blood pressure. The discovery could be important in the search for new treatments for illnesses such as heart disease, the UK's biggest killer. In a paper published online today in Nature Medicine, the team, led by Professor Patrick Vallance and Dr James Leiper, UCL Department of Medicine, reveal the role of the human gene dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH), showing that loss of DDAH activity disrupts nitric oxide (NO) production. NO is critical in the regulation of blood pressure, nervous system functions and the immune system. The role of DDAH is to break down modified amino acids (Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and monomethyl arginine (L-NMMA)) that are produced by the body and have been shown to inhibit NO synthase. These molecules accumulate in various disease states including diabetes, renal failure and pulmonary and systemic hypertension, and their concentration in plasma (the fluid component of blood) is strongly predicative of cardiovascular disease and death. In a healthy human body, the majority of ADMA is eliminated through active metabolism by DDAH. Scientists have hypothesised that if DDAH function is impaired, NO production is reduced, and that this could be an important feature of increased cardiovascular risk. To examine this pathway in more detail, the researchers deleted the DDAH gene in mice. These mice went on to develop hypertension, or high blood pressure. They also designed specific inhibitors (small molecules) which bind to the active site of human DDAH. These small molecule inhibitors also induced hypertension in mice, confirming the importance of DDAH in the regulation of blood pressure. Dr Leiper, UCL Medicine, said: “These genetic and chemical approaches to disrupt DDAH showed remarkably consistent results, and provide compelling evidence that loss of DDAH function increases the concentration of ADMA and thereby disrupts vascular NO signalling. “There has been considerable scientific interest in this pathway and the role of ADMA as a novel risk factor, but so far there's been little evidence to support the idea that it's a cause of disease, rather than just a marker. Genes and their pathways are crucial to our understanding of cardiovascular disease and a better understanding of DDAH-1 could lead to important new treatments. “It could help us to establish if genetic variation predisposes certain people to these diseases, or whether environmental factors exert some of their effects through modulation of DDAH activity. “Our research also shows that this pathway could be harnessed therapeutically to limit production of NO in certain situations where too much nitric oxide is a bad thing; for example, hypotension and septic shock. These are some of the biggest problems in intensive care medicine and there is a huge unmet need for drug treatments.” The study, which was carried out at UCL's Rayne Institute, was funded by grants from the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "The unexpected finding in the 1980s that a simple gas, nitric oxide (NO), is made by cells in the blood vessel wall and is a powerful control of blood vessel relaxation led to the award of the Nobel Prize in 1998 to its discoverers. "More recently, there has been increasing evidence that impairment of NO production is likely to be an important factor in the development of heart and circulatory disease, but the mechanisms responsible are not fully understood. "This study suggests for the first time that the loss of the activity of the enzyme DDAH-1 leads to reduced NO production and may cause heart and circulatory disease. These findings are likely to be important in the search for new ways to optimise the health of our blood vessels." ### Notes for Editors 1. For more information, please contact Ruth Metcalfe in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9739, mobile: +44 (0)7990 675 947, out of hours: +44 (0)7917 271 364, e-mail: r.metcalfe@ucl.ac.uk2. 'Disruption of methylarginine metabolism impairs vascular homeostasis' is published in the February issue of the journal Nature Medicine. Advance online publication is embargoed to 18.00 GMT (13.00 US Eastern) Sunday 4 February 2007. Journalists can obtain copies of the paper by contacting the UCL Media Relations Office.3. The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. About UCL Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence. UCL is the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2006 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi (Laws 1889, Indian political and spiritual leader); Jonathan Dimbleby (Philosophy 1969, writer and television presenter); Junichiro Koizumi (Economics 1969, Prime Minister of Japan); Lord Woolf (Laws 1954, Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales); Alexander Graham Bell (Phonetics 1860s, inventor of the telephone), and members of the band Coldplay.
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Woods Hole Research Center debuts new image mosaic that will strengthen global forest monitoring
11-27-2007 · EurekAlert!
Much of the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Bali will focus on monitoring tropical deforestation and the critical role of remote sensing systems in REDD mechanism development. Using data acquired by the Japanese Advanced Land Observing Satellite, WHRC scientists have completed the first-of-its-kind image mosaic for part of the Amazon. Images acquired globally over narrow timeframes provide for "snapshots" of deforestation, giving leverage to monitoring programs that hinge on timely, accurate forest observations.
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Confirmed -- Deforestation plays critical climate change role
05-11-2007 · EurekAlert!
New research confirms that avoiding deforestation can play a key role in reducing future greenhouse gas concentrations. Dr Pep Canadell, from the Global Carbon Project and CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, says today in the journal Science that tropical deforestation releases 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon each year into the atmosphere.
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AGU journal highlights -- Aug. 1, 2007
08-01-2007 · EurekAlert!
The following articles are featured in the upcoming issue of the Geophysical Research Letters: "Surface warming and the solar cycle"; "Humans in China 1 million years ago"; "Alternative mechanism for recent Martian volcanism"; "Estimating tropical cyclone numbers in North Atlantic before satellites"; "Satellites detect deformation from Sumatra-Andaman earthquakes"; "Ocean supergyre in southern hemisphere"; "Mechanisms for major climate shifts"; "30,000-year record of sea surface temperatures"; "Aseismic creep in Mexico"; "Saturn’s plasma-depleted flux tubes"; "Soil moisture and remote sensing"; "North Atlantic climate and deep-ocean flow speed"; and "Comparing polar mesosphere summer echoes."
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Satellites play vital role in understanding the carbon cycle
04-25-2007 · European Space Agency (ESA)
The global carbon cycle plays a vital role in climate change and is of intense importance to policy makers, but significant knowledge gaps remain in our understanding of it. Several scientists at the Envisat Symposium this week have highlighted research projects using ESA satellites to understand better this complex process.
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Cave records provide clues to climate change
09-26-2007 · EurekAlert!
Using stalagmites found in two different caves in Borneo, Georgia Tech researchers found that the tropical Pacific may play a much more active role in historic climate change events than was previously thought.
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Revealing estrogen's secret role in obesity
08-20-2007 · EurekAlert!
Research on the effects of the female sex hormone estrogen in the brain lend credence to what many women have suspected about the hormonal changes that accompany aging: Menopause can make you fat. In animal experiments, researchers showed how estrogen receptors in the brain serve as a master switch to control food intake, energy expenditure and body fat distribution. The study will be presented in August at the American Chemical Society national meeting in Boston.
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News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
01-08-2008 · EurekAlert!
The following articles will be featured in the upcoming issue of the Journal of Neuroscience: "Role of TRP3C Channels in Motor Control"; "Long-Range Axonal Targeting in the Adult CNS"; "pH-Mediated Negative Feedback in Inhibitory-Surround Formation"; and "Evidence for Dopamine Toxicity in Neurodegeneration."
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CGIAR climate change research
12-04-2006 · EurekAlert!
The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), in consultation with the global environmental change science community, is refining a comprehensive climate change agenda that is already generating climate-resilient innovations, including crops bred to withstand heat, salt, waterlogging and drought, and more efficient farming techniques to help poor farmers better use increasingly scarce water and fragile soil. Researchers are also focusing on boosting agriculture's role in reducing climate-altering greenhouse gases.
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Scientists: As rainfall changes, tropical plants may acclimate
05-07-2007 · EurekAlert!
Tropical plants may be more adaptable than commonly thought to changing rainfall patterns expected to accompany a warming climate, new research shows.
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