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WASHINGTON, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Coastal communities along the U. S. East Coast may be at risk to higher sea levels accompanied by more destructive storm surges in future El Nino years, according to a new study published Friday by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).The study was prompted by an unusual number of destructive storm surges along the East Coast during the 2009-2010 El Nino winter.The study, led by Bill Sweet, from NOAA's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services, examined water levels and storm surge events during the "cool season" of October to April for the past five decades at four sites representative of much of the East Coast: Boston, Atlantic City, Norfolk and Charleston.From 1961 to 2010, it was found that in strong El Nino years, these coastal areas experienced nearly three times the average number of storm surge events (defined as those of one foot or greater). The research also found that waters in those areas saw a third-of-a-foot elevation in mean sea level above predicted conditions."High-water events are already a concern for coastal communities. Studies like this may better prepare local officials who plan for or respond to conditions that may impact their communities," said Sweet. "For instance, city planners may consider reinforcing the primary dunes to mitigate for erosion at their beaches and protecting vulnerable structures like city docks by October during a strong El Nino year."El Nino conditions are characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific that normally peak during the Northern Hemisphere "cool season." They occur every three to five years with stronger events generally occurring every 10-15 years. El Nino conditions have important consequences for global weather patterns, and within the U.S., often cause wetter-than- average conditions and cooler-than-normal temperatures across much of the South.

CANBERRA, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Australia's new chief medical officer, Professor Chris Baggoley, on Wednesday said Australian should not be worried about reports that a mutant strain of the deadly bird flu virus is spreading across Asia and beyond.On Monday, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said a mutant strain of the deadly avian influenza virus was spreading in Asia and issued a warning that the bird flu could spread from poultry to humans. It urged "heightened readiness and surveillance" as the mutant strain posed "unpredictable risks to human health."But Professor Baggoley, who took office on Tuesday, said Australia is well served by strict testing and customs regimes, adding that avian migration patterns also mean infected birds are highly unlikely to arrive in Australia."I don't think we should be worried," Prof Baggoley told Sky News."The country and the Australian government is certainly vigilant in relation to bird flu."Prof. Baggoley insisted the H5N1 virus remains overwhelmingly a disease of birds and it is very uncommon for humans to catch it. It is also exceedingly rare for humans to spread it among themselves.He said that even if bird flu did arrive and affected humans, Australia is ready to respond to any new and significant developments in bird flu."Australia tests migratory wild birds, looking for H5N1, and has been doing this for some years and has never found it," he said."On the human side of things, Australia has been preparing for a possible outbreak of H5N1 since 2004."We've got the laboratory capacity to diagnose influenza; we've got arrangements in place for a rapid production of an H5N1 vaccine for humans, and we've got ready access to antivirals."There have been no outbreaks of bird flu in Australia to date.The UN said the latest human death from bird flu occurred earlier this month in Cambodia, which has registered eight cases of human infection this year, all of them fatal.H5N1 has infected 565 people since it first appeared in 2003, killing 331.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Hewlett-Packard's tablet TouchPad has become the hottest consumer electronics device on Monday after HP launched a fire sale for the discontinued product line over the weekend."It was like a stampede and they went quick," a Best Buy employee in San Diego told technology news website Betanews, describing the line waiting to buy TouchPad. He said the discontinued tablet was sold out five minutes after the store opened.The device is also getting snatched up at a lighting speed online and increasingly difficult to find.The TouchPad is no longer listed on Bestbuy.com in the United States, which last week was reportedly sitting on 270,000 unsold TouchPads and was hoping HP would buy them back.On Amazon, TouchPad tops the world's largest online retailer's electronics sales list, beating out the electronic reader Kindle and iPod touch.Last Thursday, HP announced that it will completely shut down its webOS operations, specifically the TouchPad tablet and webOS phones.The 16 GB TouchPad currently is only 99.99 U.S. dollars, compared to the original price of 399 dollars. The 32 GB model, which used to be 485.99 dollars, is now priced at 149.99 dollars.

WELLINGTON, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Scientists in New Zealand have developed a new drug to fight previously untreatable hypoxic cancer tumors, which form in areas of the body starved of oxygen.The researchers at the Auckland University have entered an agreement for the clinical development of CEN-209, which was developed over 10 years of research, said a statement from the university Tuesday.CEN-209 was designed to enhance the effectiveness of radiotherapy and chemotherapy in solid hypoxic tumors, which were resistant to standard cancer therapies, said the statement. In lung cancer patients for example, about half of tumors had hypoxic regions.The new drug worked by damaging the DNA of hypoxic cancer cells, while leaving normal, healthy tissues alone.CEN-209 was designed and created by researchers at the university's Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre (ACSRC), using computer models of drug transport within tumors to accurately predict the anti-tumor activity of the drugs."Our computer models of drug transport developed in-house allowed the synthetic chemists to test their design theories and considerably shortened the discovery process," said Associate Professor Michael Hay, who led the ACSRC research chemists."CEN-209 improves markedly on previous agents in this class in terms of its ability to penetrate tumors, and this is reflected by its improved activity in the laboratory, when combined with long or short courses of radiotherapy," said researcher Professor Bill Wilson.Under the agreement between the university's Auckland UniServices Ltd. and California-based Centella Therapeutics, Inc., a subsidiary of Varian Medical Systems, Inc., Centella will have exclusive rights to CEN-209, which it will develop and trial with Cancer Research UK.The work on CEN-209 is the culmination of a program initiated with funding from the U.S. National Cancer Institute, and more recently from the Maurice Wilkins Centre for Biodiscovery. Ongoing preclinical research on CEN-209 and a backup compound was funded by grants from the Auckland Medical Research Foundation, Genesis Oncology Trust and Health Research Council of New Zealand, said the statement.

LOS ANGELES, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Eating earth may protect the stomach against toxins, parasites and pathogens, a new study suggests.To examine the possible benefits from eating earth, researchers at Cornell University analyzed reports from missionaries, plantation doctors, explorers, and anthropologists to put together a database of more than 480 cultural accounts of geophagy -- the eating of earth.The database includes as many details as possible about the circumstances under which earth was consumed, and by whom. The researchers could then use patterns in the data to evaluate each potential explanation.Studies in the database indicate that geophagy is common even when food is plentiful. Moreover, when people eat dirt they tend to eat only small quantities that are unlikely to fill an empty stomach.The database shows that geophagy is documented most commonly in women in the early stages of pregnancy and in pre-adolescent children. Both categories of people are especially sensitive to parasites and pathogens, according to the researchers.In addition, geophagy is most common in tropical climates where foodborne microbes are abundant. Finally, the database shows that people often eat earth during episodes of gastrointestinal stress.It's unlikely the intestinal problems are caused by the dirt itself because the type of clay people usually eat comes from deep in the ground, where pathogens and parasites are unlikely to contaminate it. Plus, people usually boil the clay before eating it.More study would be helpful to confirm the protection hypothesis, the researchers say, but the available data at this point clearly support it over the other explanations for eating earth."We hope this paper stimulates (more) research," said Sera Young, a researcher at Cornell University and the study's lead author. "More importantly, we hope readers agree that it is time to stop regarding geophagy as a bizarre, non-adaptive gustatory mistake.""With these data, it is clear that geophagy is a widespread behavior in humans ...that occurs during both vulnerable life stages and when facing ecological conditions that require protection."The study is appearing in the June issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology.

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