哈密包茎过长手术多少钱(哈密男子做精液检查) (今日更新中)

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- A new study examining weather patterns around the worldwide pandemics of influenza, which caused widespread death and illness in 1918, 1957, 1968 and 2009, finds that each of them was preceded by La Nina conditions in the equatorial Pacific. The study findings are published online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.The study's authors -- Jeffrey Shaman of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and Marc Lipsitch of the Harvard School of Public Health -- note that the La Nina pattern is known to alter the migratory patterns of birds, which are thought to be a primary reservoir of human influenza. The scientists theorize that altered migration patterns promote the development of dangerous new strains of influenza.To examine the relationship between weather patterns and influenza pandemics, the researchers studied records of ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific in the fall and winter before the four most recent flu pandemics emerged. They found that all four pandemics were preceded by below-normal sea surface temperatures -- consistent with the La Nina phase of the El Nino- Southern Oscillation.The authors cite other research showing that the La Nina pattern alters the migration, stopover time, fitness and interspecies mixing of migratory birds. These conditions could favor the kind of gene swapping or genetic reassortment that creates novel and therefore potentially more variations of the influenza virus."We know that pandemics arise from dramatic changes in the influenza genome. Our hypothesis is that La Nina sets the stage for these changes by reshuffling the mixing patterns of migratory birds, which are a major reservoir for influenza," says Shaman.Changes in migration not only alter the pattern of contact among bird species, they could also change the ways that birds come into contact with domestic animals like pigs. Gene-swapping between avian and pig influenza viruses was a factor in the 2009 swine flu pandemic.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's progress in meeting a development goal on children's health can serve as an inspiration to other countries working towards the same objective, Dr. Renee Van de Weerdt, chief of maternal, newborn and child health at the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) told Xinhua in an interview Friday.Van de Weerdt said that "the example of China is very encouraging because it means it can be done, even in a very big country with a very big population."China is on track to meet the fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDG), one of the eight development targets that the international community has pledged to meet by 2015. MDG 4 requires that each country reduce its rate of mortality for children under age five to two-thirds of what it was in 1990.According to Van de Weerdt, most deaths of children under five take place in the first month of life. After the first month, the most prevalent causes of death are pneumonia and diarrhea.ACHIEVING THE GOAL WORLDWIDEThe international community has been doing "relatively well" in working towards achieving MDG 4, Van de Weerdt said.The UN Interagency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (IGME) stated in their 2011 Report on Levels and Trends in Child Mortality that the number of under-five deaths worldwide has dropped from more than 12 million in 1990 to 7.6 million in 2010."We really continue to see progress," Van de Weerdt said. "The number of children that die every year continues to drop so we are really pleased to see that progress. Unfortunately, the progress isn't sufficient to really be able to say that if we continue at this pace we would achieve MDG 4 by 2015."Some regions, according to Van de Weerdt, like Latin America and parts of Asia are making more headway towards the goal than others that are currently lagging behind.

WELLINGTON, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese lanterns or life from a distant planet?New Zealand meteorologists said Monday they were opting for the former and other mundane explanations after being inundated with reports of UFOs since the start of the New Year.WeatherWatch.co.nz said it normally received "a handful" of eyewitness reports of meteors and lights in the sky, with about 10 reports on a busy day.However, since Sunday, the reports of "floating orbs" and UFOs had been flooding in from around the world at a rate of about 10 each hour.WeatherWatch.co.nz weather analyst Philip Duncan said the reports ranged from "normal meteor sightings to the strange and unusual.""Many people around the world have been outside celebrating the New Year," said Duncan in a statement."In the U.S., where most of the sightings came from, conditions were fairly mild and dry in many areas - so more people were outside to see things. Finally, it's 2012, the year the world is supposed to end according to the Mayans and it seems many are already worrying."One report from Ireland on the weather information company's website said, "At half ten new years eve as My mother and I were heading out of our house to go to town we both saw a strange orange pulsing light. My first guess was it could be a Chinese lantern but it was moving very fast in a perfect straight line. There was no wing and a lantern would sway a little and go up not straight across. The light then began to slow and slightly fade. After a few seconds it got brighter and sped up again until we lost sight of it behind our house. My mother saw the same thing around ten past twelve later that night in the same general area."The statement quoted other reports, including one from Spain: " My father and I saw them in Spain at 00:45 am, but there were 5 or 6 of them all in a vertical line quite close to the earth.""Susana" wrote from an unknown location, "yesterday around 1230 or 1245 there were some red brownish lights first i saw one of them and kind of got my attention and of the sudden there were a BUNCH of them i couldnt count them but i can say there were around 30 lights UFO'S OR CANDLE LIGHTS who knows all i know i saw those lights and were beautiful. Are we ready for the 2012? are we enough educated not to panic?"The WeatherWatch.co.nz statement branded the reports "2012 hysteria.""WeatherWatch.co.nz believes most people witnessed meteors, or shooting stars, Chinese lanterns (which appear as slow moving orange lights) and other normal aircraft such as helicopters and planes," it said.

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Russia's Phobos-Grunt probe and China's Yinghuo-1 satellite were launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Zenit-2SB rocket at 00:16 am Moscow time Wednesday (2016 GMT Tuesday).The main aim of the Phobos-Grunt unmanned mission is to bring back the first ever soil sample from Phobos, the larger of Mars' two moons.Russia had spent about 5 billion rubles (about 161 million U.S. dollars) preparing for the three-year mission, which would include drilling Phobos' surface and returning 200 grams of soil back to Earth, according to Russian state space agency Roscosmos.The mission would also collect bacteria samples for two Russian and one U.S. biological experiments.In the meantime, China's first Mars probe Yinghuo will go into orbit around Mars and observe the planet itself.Phobos-Grunt is planned to reach Mars in 2012, then deploy its lander for Phobos in 2013 and return the soil sample back to Earth in August 2014.The Chinese probe, which would not land on Mars nor return to the Earth, is expected stay permanently in the space and communicate with the ground control directly via satellites.The Chinese probe is 75 cm long, 75 cm wide and 60 cm high. It weighs 115 kilograms and was designed for a two-year life to discover why water disappeared from Mars and shed light on other environmental changes on the planet.Victor Khartov, chief designer and director general of Lavochkin Research & Production Association, told Xinhua that the three-year mission is highly complicated."It consists of eight sub-missions: launch, travel to Mars vicinities, separation with the Chinese probe YH-1, landing on Phobos, soil collection, launch from Phobos, way back to the Earth, and final landing. Failure of any one of them could doom the entire project," he said.The launch of Phobos-Grunt and Yinghuo-1, originally scheduled for October 2009 on a Russian carrier rocket, has been postponed until 2011 due to "technical reasons" on the Russian side.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- An inexpensive drug that treats Type 2 diabetes has been shown to prevent a number of natural and man-made chemicals from stimulating the growth of breast cancer cells, according to a newly published study by a Michigan State University researcher. The research, led by pediatrics professor James Trosko and colleagues from South Korea's Seoul National University, provides biological evidence for previously reported epidemiological surveys that long-term use of the drug metformin for Type 2 diabetes reduces the risk of diabetes-associated cancers, such as breast cancers.The research appeared online this week in PLoS One.For the study, Trosko and colleagues focused on the concept that cancers originate from adult human stem cells and that there are many natural and man-made chemicals that enhance the growth of breast cancer cells. Using culture dishes, they grew miniature human breast tumors, or mammospheres, that activated a certain stem cell gene. Then the mammospheres were exposed to natural estrogen -- a known growth factor and potential breast tumor promoter -- and man-made chemicals that are known to promote tumors or disrupt the endocrine system.The team found that estrogen and the chemicals caused the mammospheres to increase in numbers and size. However, with metformin added, the numbers and size of the mammospheres were dramatically reduced. While each of the chemicals enhanced growth by different means, metformin seemed to be able to inhibit their stimulated growth in all cases."While future studies are needed to understand the exact mechanism by which metformin works to reduce the growth of breast cancers, this study reveals the need to determine if the drug might be used as a preventive drug and for individuals who have no indication of any existing cancers," Trosko said.

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