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Monday, January 30, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
'The Grey': Is film's portrayal of wolves as man-killers too dramatic?
Most North American wolves are exceedingly shy. But given starvation, territorial incursions and habituation with humans, attacks can ? and do ? happen. Wolf attack scenes in 'The Grey' nevertheless have?drawn criticisms from animal rights groups.
Any casual reader of Jack London will get a stab of recognition from the portrayal in the movie ?The Grey? of battered survivors defending with flaming torches against snarling, snapping wolves.
Skip to next paragraphAfter all, the opening stanza of Mr. London's classic ?White Fang? details the struggle of two frontiersmen against a hungry pack of wolves, using some of the same savage imagery that confronts ?The Grey? star Liam Neeson in the movie, which opens today.
But is it a fair portrayal?
RECOMMENDED:?Delisting of wolves raises hackles
To be sure, the perception of wolves as man-killers goes back millennia, representing perhaps humankind's most primal fear: becoming prey.
But animal rights activists, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), have called for a boycott of the movie, saying the portrayal is misguided and couldn't come at a worst time: when packs of wolves, reintroduced by federal wildlife biologists, are desperately trying to regain footholds across some of America's northern reaches. The movie's premiere comes as a radio-collared wild wolf known as OR-7 has drawn the attention of many fans as wildlife officials track it from Idaho through Oregon and into northern California.
?The Grey portrays these intelligent, family-oriented animals the same way in which Jaws portrays sharks,? PETA writes in a statement. ?The writers paint a pack of wolves living in the Alaskan wilderness as bloodthirsty monsters, intent on killing every survivor of a plane crash by tearing each person limb from limb. Yet wolves aren't aggressive animals, and as Maggie Howell, the managing director of America's Wolf Conservation Center, says, 'Wolves don't hunt humans?they actually shy away from them.'?
PETA also took offense that the filmmakers, talent and crew ate wolf meat as part of a bonding ritual as they tackled the filming.
For their part, the filmmakers say they meant to build drama, not animosity towards wild canines that once roamed nearly all corners of the globe, but have dwindled dramatically in numbers as they've been hunted and squeezed into restricted territories
"I don't think the film will make people fear wolves, but I'd like to make them respect wolves and by extension, nature itself more,? writer/director Joe Carnahan tells the Greenspace blog at the Los Angeles Times. ?I'd like the movie to remind people that we're just visitors here."
While thousands of Europeans were killed by wolves between the 1500s and 1800s, the number dwindled to 21 reported fatal wolf attacks since 2000. Most have been in rural Russia, but recent attacks also include one wolf-related death in Saskatchewan, Canada, and one in Alaska -- the 2010 mauling death of teacher Candice Berner, who was out jogging near Chignik Lake, Alaska.
Historically, North American wolves are more reluctant to approach humans than in Europe. The likely reason is that American settlers were usually armed, so wolves, as a group, learned to avoid them. In Europe, usually only the elites had guns, meaning wolves had less to fear.
Today, territorial threats and starvation are likely the two chief reasons for wolf attacks, but some researchers posit that wild wolves can, in fact, begin to explore humans as prey under certain other conditions.
?Wolves will explore humans as alternative prey, even if there's no food shortage, if they continually come in close contact with humans and habituate,? writes Valerius Geist, an environmental science professor at the University of Calgary, in a recent research paper.
Mr. Geist and others have posited that so-called ?inefficient hunting,? essentially pestering, of wolf packs is the most surefire protection against wolves becoming interested in attacking humans. But drawing on his own experience in the field, Geist's advice seems to mirror the aggressive stance taken by Mr. Neeson's character as he marshals a group of plane crash victims in ?The Grey.?
?It is not the act of hunting or shooting that makes wolves ... wary, but the confident, self-assured manners of armed persons,? he writes, adding, ?What must be avoided in the presence of wolves is running away, stumbling, limping, as well as any sign of weakness. Making and keeping up eye contact is essential.?
It's not clear from the previews if all the crash survivors in "The Grey" got that memo.
RECOMMENDED:?Delisting of wolves raises hackles
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Gerard Butler on Alleged Hookup: "Who's Brandi Glanville?"
So much for their sex being an 11 out of 10!
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Test Might Predict Risk of Lung Cancer's Return (HealthDay)
THURSDAY, Jan. 26 (HealthDay News) -- A new industry-funded study suggests that a molecular test can provide insight into whether patients are at high risk of a relapse after surgical treatment for a form of lung cancer.
The test, which is currently available, could help doctors decide whether the patients should undergo chemotherapy to prevent the cancer from returning.
There are caveats: The test is expensive, and researchers don't yet know whether patients determined to be at high risk will live longer if they undergo chemotherapy.
Still, "this may be one of the very first examples of where we understood enough about the molecular biology of a cancer to truly personalize the treatment of patients and actually improve the cure rate for that cancer," said study co-author Dr. Michael Mann, an associate professor of surgery at the University of California, San Francisco.
At issue is non-small-cell lung cancer, by far the most common kind of lung cancer. Even if tumors are diagnosed early and removed, the cancer will spread and kill 35 percent to 50 percent of patients.
In these cases, "even when the tumor is small and they got it all, microscopic disease has spread around the body," said Dr. John Minna, co-author of a commentary accompanying the study. He is a cancer researcher and professor of medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Scientists are trying to find a way to predict what will happen to patients after surgery so they can figure out if chemotherapy treatment is a good idea.
In the new study, researchers gave the molecular test to 433 lung cancer patients in California and 1,006 patients in China. The researchers found that the test helped them to predict the likelihood that patients would survive for five years.
Conceivably, physicians could adjust the treatment of patients after surgery to coincide with the risk of a recurrence of their cancer. For now, though, that's not proven. The research "doesn't tell you that if you had a bad prognosis and you were treated with chemotherapy, then you'd do better," Minna said.
Still, information about the risks faced by a patient could help doctors make choices about treatments, said Minna, who called the test "promising."
Study co-author Mann agreed: "There may be an important conversation that you can have with your oncologist about potential benefit from additional therapy to reduce the likelihood of the cancer coming back."
Mann said the test -- which is currently available -- could cost several thousand dollars. Minna, the commentary co-author, said any cost over a few hundred dollars could be an issue for insurors.
The research was funded by the firm that developed the molecular test, and several of the study authors serve as consultants to the firm.
The study appears in the Jan. 27 online issue of The Lancet.
More information
For more about lung cancer, try the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
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Bedwetting can be due to undiagnosed constipation
ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2012) ? Bedwetting isn't always due to problems with the bladder, according to new research by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Constipation is often the culprit; and if it isn't diagnosed, children and their parents must endure an unnecessarily long, costly and difficult quest to cure nighttime wetting.
Reporting online in the journal Urology, researchers found that 30 children and adolescents who sought treatment for bedwetting all had large amounts of stool in their rectums, despite the majority having normal bowel habits. After treatment with laxative therapy, 25 of the children (83 percent) were cured of bedwetting within three months.
"Having too much stool in the rectum reduces bladder capacity," said lead author Steve J. Hodges, M.D., assistant professor of urology at Wake Forest Baptist. "Our study showed that a large percentage of these children were cured of nighttime wetting after laxative therapy. Parents try all sorts of things to treat bedwetting -- from alarms to restricting liquids. In many children, the reason they don't work is that constipation is the problem."
Hodges said the link between bedwetting and excess stool in the rectum, which is the lower five to six inches of the intestine, was first reported in 1986. However, he said the finding did not lead to a dramatic change in clinical practice, perhaps because the definition of constipation is not standardized or uniformly understood by all physicians and lay people.
"The definition for constipation is confusing and children and their parents often aren't aware the child is constipated," said Hodges. "In our study, X-rays revealed that all the children had excess stool in their rectums that could interfere with normal bladder function. However, only three of the children described bowel habits consistent with constipation."
Hodges explained that guidelines of the International Children's Continence Society recommend asking children and their parents if the child's bowel movements occur irregularly (less often than every other day) and if the stool consistency is hard.
"These questions focus on functional constipation and cannot help identify children with rectums that are enlarged and interfering with bladder capacity," said Hodges. "The kind of constipation associated with bedwetting occurs when children put off going to the bathroom. This causes stool to back up and their bowels to never be fully emptied. We believe that treating this condition can cure bedwetting."
Children in the study ranged from 5 to 15 years old. The constipated children were treated with an initial bowel cleanout using polyethylene glycol (Miralax?), which softens the stools by causing them to retain water. In children whose rectums remained enlarged after this therapy, enemas or stimulant laxatives were used.
Hodges cautioned that any medical therapy for bedwetting should be overseen by a physician.
The study used abdominal X-rays to identify the children with excess stool in their rectums. Hodges and radiologists at Wake Forest Baptist developed a special diagnostic method that involves measuring rectal size on the X-ray. He said rectal ultrasound could also be used for diagnosis.
"The importance of diagnosing this condition cannot be overstated," Hodges said. "When it is missed, children may be subjected to unnecessary surgery and the side effects of medications. We challenge physicians considering medications or surgery as a treatment for bedwetting to obtain an X-ray or ultrasound first."
The study involved reviewing the charts of 30 consecutive patients treated for bedwetting. The authors cautioned that some cases may have improved on their own over time. They said a more accurate measure of the treatment's success would be to randomly assign constipated children to laxative therapy or an inactive therapy, an approach that would identify true response from cases that would resolve over time.
Hodges' co-author on the research is Evelyn Y. Anthony, MD, a radiologist at Wake Forest Baptist.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, via Newswise.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Steve J. Hodges, Evelyn Y. Anthony. Occult Megarectum?A Commonly Unrecognized Cause of Enuresis. Urology, 2011; DOI: 10.1016/j.urology.2011.10.015
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120127135757.htm
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nbcsandiego: Have you ever been whale watching here in Southern California? If so, what is the coolest thing you?ve ever seen? http://t.co/1E4PUHe7
Have you ever been whale watching here in Southern California? If so, what is the coolest thing you?ve ever seen? Source: http://twitter.com/nbcsandiego/statuses/162766787065286656
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