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Symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) occur with an intriguing frequency in children who snore throughout much of the night, a new study finds.http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com
Problems with hyperactivity and inattention also occur excessively in boys and girls up to age 14 who are regularly sleepy during the day, report neurologist Ronald D. Chervin of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and his coworkers.http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com
These findings, published in the March Pediatrics, don't show that snoring and sleep problems cause ADHD. In fact, hyperactivity may preclude a good night's sleep and lead to increased daytime sleepiness. However, Chervin's group suspects that frequent snoring paves the way to ADHD for at least some kids.
Chervin and his colleagues surveyed the parents of 469 boys and 397 girls, ages 2 to 14, treated at either of two local pediatric clinics. The data indicate that among boys age 8 and younger, 30 percent of those who snored most of the time while asleep exhibited hyperactivity and attention problems, compared with 9 percent of those who snored a little or not at all. This contrast held regardless of whether the boys were sleepy during the day.http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com
Overall in the group, hyperactivity and inattention characterized 22 percent of heavy snorers and 12 percent of the rest. Frequent snoring was reported for 16 percent of the children and for comparable proportions of boys and girls.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
evolution 5.evo.9929 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
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The battle that has raged over creationism and evolution in the United States is likely to spread to the Islamic world, a scholar of science and religion argues in a new essay. But author Salman Hameed writes that the opening of a new front in the battle gives scientists an opportunity to reframe the debate. Better education, the spread of Internet access and news about U.S. controversies over evolution are provoking some Muslims worldwide to start to ask whether Islam is compatible with evolutionary theory, Hameed said. “Now is the time that these ideas are going to be solidified. We can shape it. There are positive ways to shape these ideas in which we can avert a mass rejection of evolution,” Hameed said [LiveScience].
The most fundamentalist form of creationism in the United States is based on a literal reading of the Bible, which implies that the earth and all its creatures were created by God in their present form over the course of six days; creationists say this narrative is in direct conflict with the idea that organisms slowly evolved over billions of years. However, Hameed notes that the Koran may be more compatible with evolutionary theory. One of the big evolution problems from the US creationist perspective is the age of the Earth. Logically speaking, if you believe in a 6000 or 10,000 year-old Earth, then you have to reject evolution. In the Muslim countries, young Earth creationism is nonexistent. The Koran is very vague about creation stories, specifically regarding the creation of the universe. If you accept an old Earth, then it makes it relatively easier to accept evolution [New Scientist].
In his essay in Science [subscription required], Hameed explains that evolution is taught in high schools in many Muslim countries. http://louis5j5sheehan5esquire.wordpress.com/ Still, today, only 25 percent of adults in Turkey agree that human beings developed from earlier species of animals, whereas 40 percent of people in the United States agree with this scientific fact, Hameed writes. And Turkey is one of the most secular and educated of Muslim countries [LiveScience]. He worries that evolution is becoming increasingly linked with atheism in the Islamic world, and it also sometimes viewed as a symbol of Western ideas and imperialism. Hameed says these association may cause many people to reject evolution out of hand. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
No discussion of creationism in the Islamic world would be complete without a mention of Adnan Oktar, the wealthy Turkish autodidact who self-publishes glossy books that he claims disprove evolution, and has sent them, unsolicited, to thousands of academics and media outlets in Europe and the United States. Oktar has also feuded with Richard Dawkins, the British proponent of evolution and atheism: Oktar successfully brought a case against Mr Dawkins to a Turkish court, claiming that his website contained blasphemous and defamatory content. http://louis5j5sheehan5esquire.wordpress.com/ Internet users in Turkey can no longer access the site. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
The battle that has raged over creationism and evolution in the United States is likely to spread to the Islamic world, a scholar of science and religion argues in a new essay. But author Salman Hameed writes that the opening of a new front in the battle gives scientists an opportunity to reframe the debate. Better education, the spread of Internet access and news about U.S. controversies over evolution are provoking some Muslims worldwide to start to ask whether Islam is compatible with evolutionary theory, Hameed said. “Now is the time that these ideas are going to be solidified. We can shape it. There are positive ways to shape these ideas in which we can avert a mass rejection of evolution,” Hameed said [LiveScience].
The most fundamentalist form of creationism in the United States is based on a literal reading of the Bible, which implies that the earth and all its creatures were created by God in their present form over the course of six days; creationists say this narrative is in direct conflict with the idea that organisms slowly evolved over billions of years. However, Hameed notes that the Koran may be more compatible with evolutionary theory. One of the big evolution problems from the US creationist perspective is the age of the Earth. Logically speaking, if you believe in a 6000 or 10,000 year-old Earth, then you have to reject evolution. In the Muslim countries, young Earth creationism is nonexistent. The Koran is very vague about creation stories, specifically regarding the creation of the universe. If you accept an old Earth, then it makes it relatively easier to accept evolution [New Scientist].
In his essay in Science [subscription required], Hameed explains that evolution is taught in high schools in many Muslim countries. http://louis5j5sheehan5esquire.wordpress.com/ Still, today, only 25 percent of adults in Turkey agree that human beings developed from earlier species of animals, whereas 40 percent of people in the United States agree with this scientific fact, Hameed writes. And Turkey is one of the most secular and educated of Muslim countries [LiveScience]. He worries that evolution is becoming increasingly linked with atheism in the Islamic world, and it also sometimes viewed as a symbol of Western ideas and imperialism. Hameed says these association may cause many people to reject evolution out of hand. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
No discussion of creationism in the Islamic world would be complete without a mention of Adnan Oktar, the wealthy Turkish autodidact who self-publishes glossy books that he claims disprove evolution, and has sent them, unsolicited, to thousands of academics and media outlets in Europe and the United States. Oktar has also feuded with Richard Dawkins, the British proponent of evolution and atheism: Oktar successfully brought a case against Mr Dawkins to a Turkish court, claiming that his website contained blasphemous and defamatory content. http://louis5j5sheehan5esquire.wordpress.com/ Internet users in Turkey can no longer access the site. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Thursday, December 4, 2008
chemist 44.che.0001 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
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Lab and field tests hint that dairy whey, a lactose-rich by-product of the dairy industry, could be used to clean up underground water supplies tainted with the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), an industrial degreaser.
Consuming TCE or inhaling its fumes can cause liver and kidney damage, affect heart function, and possibly cause cancer (SN: 5/29/99, p. 343: http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc99/5_29_99/fob6.htm). The chemical is in groundwater at more than half of the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund sites.
To treat the tainted groundwater, engineers often pump hydrogen-yielding substances such as sodium lactate into the ground, where they react with TCE by removing its chlorine atoms. That turns it into a relatively harmless hydrocarbon, says Elizabeth S. Semkiw, a chemist at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. http://louissheehan.bravejournal.com
Her team's tests indicate that a slurry of whey pumped into the ground may do the same trick, if sufficient numbers of bacteria are added. Whey-munching microbes generate lactate compounds as well as acetates, butyrates, and other substances that can strip chlorine atoms from TCE. http://louissheehan.bravejournal.com
In the lab, a whey-microbe mix eliminated a 10-parts-per-million concentration of the pollutant from simulated groundwater in less than 2 weeks, says Semkiw. Also, field tests showed that groundwater laced with TCE, after flowing through a subterranean curtain of whey, contained breakdown products of the chemical.
Further tests will assess whether remediation with whey is more cost-effective than the use of chemicals such as sodium lactate, says Semkiw.
Lab and field tests hint that dairy whey, a lactose-rich by-product of the dairy industry, could be used to clean up underground water supplies tainted with the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), an industrial degreaser.
Consuming TCE or inhaling its fumes can cause liver and kidney damage, affect heart function, and possibly cause cancer (SN: 5/29/99, p. 343: http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc99/5_29_99/fob6.htm). The chemical is in groundwater at more than half of the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund sites.
To treat the tainted groundwater, engineers often pump hydrogen-yielding substances such as sodium lactate into the ground, where they react with TCE by removing its chlorine atoms. That turns it into a relatively harmless hydrocarbon, says Elizabeth S. Semkiw, a chemist at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. http://louissheehan.bravejournal.com
Her team's tests indicate that a slurry of whey pumped into the ground may do the same trick, if sufficient numbers of bacteria are added. Whey-munching microbes generate lactate compounds as well as acetates, butyrates, and other substances that can strip chlorine atoms from TCE. http://louissheehan.bravejournal.com
In the lab, a whey-microbe mix eliminated a 10-parts-per-million concentration of the pollutant from simulated groundwater in less than 2 weeks, says Semkiw. Also, field tests showed that groundwater laced with TCE, after flowing through a subterranean curtain of whey, contained breakdown products of the chemical.
Further tests will assess whether remediation with whey is more cost-effective than the use of chemicals such as sodium lactate, says Semkiw.
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