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A.
A Researcher Studies Astronaut Bone Loss for Space Biology Agency
Narrator: This is Science Today. A University of California , San Francisco research fellow at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center has been chosen to study astronaut bone loss for the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. Dr. Robert Long will focus on the causes and possible methods of treating bone loss, which results from the prolonged weightlessness of space travel. In particular, he'll look at a hormone involved in bone growth called IGF-1.
Long: So, what we'd like to do is come up with the means in which we can stimulate the bones so they can respond to IGF-1, regain some of these bone strength, prevent the bone loss associated with weightlessness.
Narrator: This type of bone loss, called skeletal unloading, does not respond to IGF-1, so Long says he'll be looking at ways to jumpstart this hormone.
Long: So, in the model we have created, we can apply these loads to limbs and to bones so it mimics to some degree what's normally found in a walking individual and see if that is enough of a stimulus to regain the IGF-1.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
The Value of Studying Model Organisms in Biology
Narrator: This is Science Today. Biologists at the University of California , San Diego have demonstrated that fruit flies can be used to study the link between the biochemical activities and physiological effects of anthrax toxins. Ethan Bier, a senior author of the study, explains the value of such model organisms in biology.
Bier: I think there is an important place for model organisms that include fruit flies and nematode worms and yeast, even, to look at the function of genes that have been highly conserved during the course of evolution in terms of understanding their mechanism of action. And once those mechanisms are understood, one can then hopefully translate some of that knowledge into a vertebrate system or mammalian system to see what relevance it has to the actual course of a human disease.
Narrator: Bier and colleagues found anthrax toxins that cause disease and death in mammals have similar toxic effects in fruit flies – an important step, which may lead to new therapeutic strategies in humans. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Ethics Consultations Useful in Resolving Conflicts about Care
Narrator: This is Science Today. At some point in our lives, many of us will be faced with difficult and confusing decisions about medical treatment for a seriously ill loved one or for ourselves. To help us make those decisions, every hospital offers professional guidance in the form of an ethics consultation. Felicia Cohn, director of medical ethics at the University of California , Irvine , participated in a study that found ethics consultations were beneficial for intensive care patients.
Cohn: What ethics consultations are designed to do is to help families, patients, and health care team members make difficult decisions about treatment plans.
Narrator: Ethics consultations are also useful in resolving disputes that may result in inappropriately prolonged, non-beneficial or unwanted treatments.
Cohn: We come in and assess the medical situation and the preferences of everyone involved to determine if it's ethically appropriate to withdraw certain treatments in a particular situation.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Satellite Imagery May Change the Future of Remote Sensing
Narrator: This is Science Today. Geography professors and students at the University of California , Santa Barbara will have virtually unlimited access to previously inaccessible high resolution satellite imagery of North American data sets. David Siegel, who directs the campus' Institute for Computational Earth System Science, says the campus has partnered with a private company in Santa Barbara called Terra Image USA.
Siegel: They could see that there weren't any new students being trained to use it and there weren't professors using it and they went through and looked at why and it's because the costs are just exorbitant.
Narrator: Siegel says access could change the way UC Santa Barbara, a leader in earth remote science, teaches remote sensing.
Siegel: We could redesign our curriculum so that the way that the one year sequence works in remote sensing, the first is how to look at aerial photography; the second one is how satellites work; and the third is doing digital remote sensing in the laboratory. We have the ability to task the satellite to sample where we want and so you can order an image. So there's this huge opportunity.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E. Why Employers Should Recognize Employees with Job Burnout
Narrator: This is Science Today. One of the hallmarks of job burnout is cynicism. Social psychologist Christina Maslach, a pioneering researcher in the field at the University of California , Berkeley , says cynicism often starts as a functional response, but ends too far in the negative direction.
Maslach: It's not just you've had a bad day and you're coming back and you recharge. You don't recharge. When I first started doing the research, I would get a lot of stuff from people in organizations saying, “look, I'm not running a country club, so they're having a bad day – big deal. We're running an organization, we're running a company here and we just got to get to work.
Narrator: But Maslach's research revealed that outcomes of job burnout went beyond simply “having a bad day”.
Maslach: The quality of the work changes; low morale. Absenteeism goes up, turnover goes up. Burnout – it's not just that you have symptoms, but it can be infectious. In other words, if people are working together in a group or as a team, if one is really beginning to have problems, there's this negative spiral that can get going.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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