Chemical link to otter penis problem

24 February 2013 Last updated at 02:00 By Michelle Warwicker BBC Nature

Otters' reproductive organs may be affected by chemicals in our waterways, according to scientists.

Experts studying the reproductive health of the mammals in England and Wales were concerned to find a decrease in the weight of otters' penis bones.

Other health problems in males included an increase in undescended testicles and cysts on sperm-carrying tubes.

Experts suggest that, based on previous research, the changes could be linked to hormone-disrupting chemicals.

The study, funded by the Environment Agency, was co-authored by the Chemicals, Health and Environment (CHEM) Trust and the Cardiff University Otter Project, and features on BBC One series Countryfile.

"We were surprised to see the reduction in the baculum weight," said co-author Dr Elizabeth Chadwick, project manager at the Cardiff University Otter Project, referring to the bone found in males' penises.

"[It's] certainly something that needs further investigation."

During the 1970s, England's otter population plummeted, the decline attributed to high levels of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in rivers. However contaminants such as organochlorine pesticides have mostly since been banned, and otter populations have steadily increased.

Scientists examined hundreds of dead otters in a post-mortem laboratory to test if existing traces of POPs in rivers were still having an effect on the animals' health.

But they found no association between these old chemicals and the animals' penis bones becoming lighter over time.

Instead the report speculates that some modern contaminants could be causing the abnormalities. Previous studies have linked Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) to changes in animals' reproductive organs, such as male penis size.

"It's from that that we're drawing a possible inference that some of these Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals may be the reason that baculum weight has changed," Dr Chadwick explained.

EDCs are a range of synthetic and natural chemicals that can affect animals' hormone systems, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Dr Chadwick said: "With many of these contaminants, there can be all sorts of different sources... so it might be things like drugs that we're taking and they flush through our sewerage systems and end up in the rivers."

She added that dust from industrial production travelling into the atmosphere could also carry contaminants that end up in rivers as rainfall, even travelling long distances between countries.

"Fantastic indicator species"

The current report adds to some scientists' concern about the feminisation of male animals, according to CHEM Trust.

For example, previous studies in the UK have linked now-restricted POPs with male fish producing eggs in their testes and female egg-yolk protein.

As top predators in the UK's river systems, otters are a "fantastic indicator species", explained Countryfile director Anna Jones, who has been following urban otters in Bristol for the programme.

"The health of an otter can reveal a lot about the health of the environment they live in, and the health of the fish," she said.

Continue reading the main story

PENIS BONE FACTS

• Humans do not have bones in their penises but many other primates do, including gorillas and chimpanzees
• All male rodents have bones in their penises
• The fossilised baculum of an extinct walrus was discovered in 2007 and measured 1.2m

Dr Chadwick added that health problems found in otters "could be a warning for all mammals really, which include us humans".

"People are very quick to say: otters are in our rivers. That must mean rivers are perfect, they're so clean, everything's fine again? but it's not really that simple," said Ms Jones.

"It's not just a clear-cut, rosy picture that all is well for otters just because they're back. There are still challenges."

In order to prove the link, scientists will now need to measure the EDCs present in the otters and their habitat.

Countryfile airs on BBC One on Sunday 24 February at 1900 GMT.

Join BBC Nature on Facebook and Twitter @BBCNature.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21534742

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Adele Electrifies Oscars With 'Skyfall' Performance

Backed by a full orchestra, singer performed the James Bond theme during Sunday night's telecast.
By Jocelyn Vena

Adele performs at the 2013 Oscars
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702519/adele-skyfall-oscars.jhtml

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UCSF Study: California's Tobacco Control Program Generates Huge Health Care Savings

Additionally, the study -- covering the beginning of the program in 1989 to 2008 -- found that the state program helped lead to some 6.8 billion fewer packs of cigarettes being sold that would have been worth $28.5 billion in sales to cigarette companies.

The study was designed to calculate the fiscal impact of California's large public health program on smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption. The new research shows that tobacco control funding is directly tied to reductions in both the prevalence of smoking and cigarette consumption per smoker - and generates significant savings in overall health care expenditures.

"These health care cost savings began to appear almost immediately after the program started and have grown over time, reaching more than $25 billion a year in 2008," said first author James Lightwood, PhD, a UCSF associate professor of clinical pharmacy.

The study will be published online Feb. 13, 2013 in the journal PLOS ONE.

Every year, an estimated 443,000 people in the United States die from smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Another 8.6 million people suffer from a serious smoking-related illness. Annually, costs associated with smoking-related illness account billions in medical expenses and lost productivity, and 5.1 million years of potential life lost in the United States, the CDC reports.

Source-Eurekalert

Source: http://www.medindia.net/news/ucsf-study-californias-tobacco-control-program-generates-huge-health-care-savings-114367-1.htm

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Former Wagner College basketball player Terrance Bailey in good company

The question was simple enough.

Who is the all-time career scoring leader in the Northeast Conference?

Could it still be Wagner?s Terrance Bailey, an Island hoop fan wanted to know?

Bailey, the explosive guard of the mid-80s, led the nation in scoring with a 29.4 point per game average in his junior season of 1985-86.

A quick look in the record books confirmed that Bailey is still at the head of the class.

More than a quarter-century after his college career ended, Bailey sits atop the all-time NEC scoring list by a more-than-comfortable margin of almost 300 points (2,591 compared to 2,301 for St. Francis, Pa., Joe Anderson).

The finding prompted another question.

How many other Division I conferences, it was wondered, have career scoring leaders of such long standing?

And that is where things became really interesting.

The answer, it turns out, is just five. And three of those chart-toppers are truly bold-face names. ?

LIST OF LEGENDS? ?

How would you like to be included on a short list of players along with the great Joe Dumars (Southland Conference, McNeese State), the greater Bill Bradley (Ivy League, Princeton), and among the greatest, Pistol Pete Maravich (SEC, Louisiana State)?

It turns out, not surprisingly, that Bailey liked being included with those Hall of Famers a whole lot.

?Wow,? the 47-year-old said after hearing the list over the phone Tuesday night in his Trenton home. ?It?s the kind of thing you don?t think about until someone tells you, but that?s pretty great company to be in.?

And the other two names, former NBAer Alfredrick Hughes (Horizon Conference, Loyola-Chicago) and great early ?80s Centenary star Willie Jackson (Atlantic Sun), aren?t exactly slouches

Now, Bailey obviously wasn?t the transformative Maravich, who averaged an astounding 44 points per game for LSU in the late 60s while changing the game with his off-the-bounce pull-ups and dazzling dribbling displays.

Or the super-cerebral Bradley, who scored 2,503 points in three seasons at Princeton despite shooting far less than Tigers coach Butch Van Breda Kolff would have liked.

But in terms of a player, what was the burly 6-foot-1 rim-rattling Trenton-area product, who averaged 23.6 points per game in 110 career games for the Seahawks, keeping in mind he amassed those numbers despite having the boost of the 3-point line for only his senior season?

?He was a super athlete, and he was fearless,? recalled then-Wagner coach Neil Kennett. ?I remember seeing him in high school, and being stunned at how good he was.? ?

RECRUITING LUCK? ?

So, then, how did he wind up at little Wagner on Grymes Hill?

?Terrance slipped through the cracks,? Kennett explained. ?He didn?t qualify academically until the very end of his senior year, and his high school team was so good, he?d only play half of most games.?

Kennett stuck with recruiting Bailey from the first moment he saw the Ewing High School star catch a Rutgers-bound guard from behind at the end of what looked to be an easy fast break and pin the shot to the backboard.

?Wagner would never get him today,? said the former coach, now retired in Spring Lake, N.J. ?He is so much better than anyone else I?ve ever seen in that conference that I am still convinced he would have been a star at any school in the country.?

Bailey is a warehouseman for the Mercer County waterworks these days. He lives in Trenton with his chocolate lab, Kobie, and sometimes coaches local rec-league teams. His last foray into competitive basketball was the over-35s in the Ewing Township night league.

?We won it about five years in a row, and I stopped playing,? he laughed.

To this day, Bailey holds just about every career and single-season scoring record at Wagner. In many cases he holds both first and second place in the single-season section of the record book.

In his junior season, prior to the institution of the 3-point shot, he went for 49 points against Brooklyn and 46 vs. Marist.

And as a senior he scored 45 in a one-point loss to Morehead State.

?Back then everything was about getting to the rack,? said Bailey, who was famous for his power dunks over post players half a foot taller. ?I didn?t really become a good 3-point shooter until after I was out of college.?

Bailey is not only Wagner?s career scoring leader, he is sixth all-time in steals and eighth in assists. But scoring was what he did best. Dunks, jumpers, leaners, rebound put-backs.

Single, double, triple-teamed. The result was pretty much always the same.

?His eyes get big when he has the ball in his hands,? former Nets guard and Robert Morris coach Jarrett Durham used to say admiringly.

?I was blessed to be able to put the ball in the hole,? Bailey says now.

Following college, Bailey played in Europe and the Philippines for half-dozen years. That after being cut by the Mike Fratello-coach

ed Atlanta Hawks as a second-round draft choice.

?I would have liked to play in the league just to prove to myself that I could,? he said. ?But there were factors like guaranteed contracts that I had no control over.? ?

HALLEY?S COMET? ?

The bottom line is the guy who made the same list as Bradley, Dumars and Maravich has few regrets.

?When I was going for the scoring title during my junior year is the only time I ever felt any real pressure,? he said, looking back on his career. ?And that was more for the school and the conference than it was about me.?

How did he cope with the constant scrutiny?

?Getting on the court and playing,? said Bailey. ?That?s what I always loved to do, and where I was in my comfort zone.?

Back when Bailey was playing on Grymes Hill, the school?s sports information director, an erudite North Carolinian named John Stallings, would watch one highlight-tape play after another, and remark, ?For Wagner, Terrance Bailey is like Halley?s Comet; he might only come around every 75 years.?

Who knew back then how right Stallings might prove to be? ?

Source: http://www.silive.com/colleges/index.ssf/2013/02/former_wagner_college_basketba.html

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BlackBerry tries for patents on concertina-like keyboards in smartphones

When we think of hidden keyboards on our phones, our thoughts usually turn to thick sliders -- notwithstanding the occasional wacky twister. BlackBerry has filed for a pair of patents that would be even subtler by hiding the keys inside of a phone's main body. Looking somewhat like concertinas in practice, the concepts would pivot keys into place as the phone owner pulls out a retractable section to start typing. BlackBerry suggests it could work for both conventional smartphones (what you see above) as well as a not-entirely-practical design with keys on opposite sides of a display, much like a single-screen LG Doubleplay. We're not expecting BlackBerry to ship related products anytime soon when the Q10 represents its immediate future in hardware keyboards, but it's tough to rule out the ideas altogether when they could slim keyboarded phones without losing that coveted stealthiness. They might stand a better chance of reaching the market than some of BlackBerry's more outlandish experiments.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Blackberry

Comments

Source: USPTO (1), (2)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/07/blackberry-tries-for-patents-on-concertina-like-keyboards/

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