Evidence of oceanic 'green rust' offers hope for the future

ScienceDaily (June 27, 2012) ? A rare kind of mineral which scientists hope could be used to remove toxic metals and radioactive species from the environment played a similar, crucial role early in Earth's history.

Research carried out by an international team of leading biogeochemists suggests for the first time that 'green rust' was likely widespread in ancient oceans and may have played a vital role in the creation of our early atmosphere.

Led by Newcastle University, UK, the study shows that during the Precambrian period, green rust 'scavenged' heavy metals such as nickel out of the water. Nickel availability is linked to the production of methane by anaerobic organisms, which is a major sink for oxygen produced during photosynthesis, and thus green rust played a crucial role in the oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere.

Only discovered in the last decade, green rust is a highly reactive iron mineral which experts hope could be used to clean up metal pollution and even radioactive waste.

Newcastle University's Professor Simon Poulton said this latest discovery -- published this month in the academic journal Geology -- demonstrated the effectiveness of green rust as an environmental cleaner.

"Because it is so reactive, green rust has hardly ever been found before in nature and never in a water system like this," explains Professor Poulton, who led the research team involving experts from the Universities of Newcastle, Nancy, Southern Denmark, Leeds, Brussels and Kansas, and the Canadian Light Source and Indonesian Institute of Sciences.

"The discovery of green rust in Lake Matano, Indonesia, where we carried out our experiments shows for the first time what a key role it played in our ancient oceans -- scavenging dissolved nickel, a key micronutrient for methanogenesis."

Dr Sean Crowe of the University of Southern Denmark explains: "We still know relatively little about green rust but our research shows that it is likely to be much more prevalent in the environment than has previously been recognized and the role it plays in cycling elements such as nickel and other metals is significant.

"Understanding the important role it played in our past and its effectiveness at removing metals from the environment will help us to understand how we might be able to use it to clean up polluted land and water in the future."

The high reactivity of green rust is the reason it could be so much help in cleaning up polluted sites. The rust reduces elements like chromium, uranium and selenium, significantly reducing their solubility and mobility in the environment, and in some cases absorbing them into the rust's molecular structure.

Professor Poulton adds: "Green rust has received a lot of attention recently due to its possible role as a pollutant mediator, but it is particularly exciting to think that this may have been a natural process throughout huge periods of ancient Earth history."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Newcastle University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. A. Zegeye, S. Bonneville, L. G. Benning, A. Sturm, D. A. Fowle, C. Jones, D. E. Canfield, C. Ruby, L. C. MacLean, S. Nomosatryo, S. A. Crowe, S. W. Poulton. Green rust formation controls nutrient availability in a ferruginous water column. Geology, 2012; 40 (7): 599 DOI: 10.1130/G32959.1

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Cross Blog: Red Cross news and views from Oregon and beyond ...

Welcome to the Weekly Worldwide Wrap-Up, in which we consolidate the international Red Cross and Red Crescent news into one list of bite-sized links for you.? It's a non-comprehensive sampling of the larger and/or more intriguing aspects of our global work...

UGANDA:? The Uganda Red Cross Society has been assisting in the search and rescue operations following a landslide in the Bududa district of the country which left an estimate 18 people dead and hundreds displaced.? Thousands more are said to be at risk of further landslides caused by floods in the region. ? Rapid assessments by local Red Cross staff indicate that 3,368 people are at high risk and need to be relocated immediately.

SYRIA:? Last weekend Bashar al-Youssef, a 23 year old volunteer for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, was shot while on first-aid duty.? This is the fourth killing of this kind in Syria over the past year.? The IFRC and ICRC have condemned these acts, that highlight the difficulties faced by the Syrian Red Crescent Society, the only Syrian humanitarian organization operating in areas affected by violence.

BRAZIL:? Last week was the Rio +20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil.? In conjunction with Rio +20 was the People?s Summit for Social and Environmental Justice, in which the IFRC hosted a 90-minute discussion on the role of youth and women in advancing the food security agenda.? To demonstrate the importance of both youth and volunteering, the Brazilian Red Cross had a 100-strong team working 12 hours a day at three first aid posts throughout the People?s Summit.

LIBYA:? The Libyan Armed Forces and the ICRC signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this week, under which the ICRC will provide support for the integration of the rules of international humanitarian law in the army?s training and operations.? The ICRC has considerable expertise in promoting respect for the basic rules of international humanitarian law, having carried out humanitarian operations in armed conflicts for almost one and a half centuries.

GLOSSARY:

ICRC = International Committee of the Red Cross
IFRC = International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

PHOTO:
Staff and volunteers from the Uganda Red Cross Society undertaking search and rescue operations in the village of Bunakasala. (Uganda Red Cross)

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Do you have pets? - Baexpats - Community of Expatriates in Buenos ...

Well, I couldn't select more than one option so I selected other

More than I can count. At home, we have 3 outdoor dogs (2 filas and a rescue dog) that live in the barn. One JRT that is a house dog. And 2 indoor cats and 5 outdoor cats. Plus many, many horses although those aren't "pets" per se as they're all for sale.

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FDA Probing Safety of Metal-on-Metal Hip Implants

TUESDAY, June 26 (HealthDay News) -- While thousands of Americans have benefited from hip replacements over the years, problems with metal-on-metal implants can lead to troubles requiring surgery to replace defective devices, experts say.

Specifically, experts say, tiny fragments of metal can shear off from these joints, causing chronic pain or infection and raising levels of metals in the bloodstream. Experts estimate that more than 500,000 Americans have received a metal-on-metal hip joint, mostly between 2003 and 2010.

Worry over the failure rate of the implants, and the speed at which they were initially approved for the U.S. market, has led to a special two-day session, beginning Wednesday, by experts at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"Data from recent studies and from FDA's own review show some patients experiencing complications, including the need for additional surgeries, which could be attributed to metal-on-metal hip implant devices," said FDA spokeswoman Michelle Bolek.

Since 1999, almost 17,000 problems with these devices have been reported to the FDA. Of these, more than 12,000 were reported last year alone.

According to the agency, the problems with metal-on-metal implants are about the same as those seen with polyethylene and ceramic implants, except for the specific risks caused by the metal itself.

But others say that when it comes to complications, metal-on-metal implants are in a class of their own. Writing earlier this month in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Joshua Rising of the Pew Charitable Trusts, and colleagues said that "there is now compelling evidence that these implants fail at a higher rate than hip prostheses made of other materials; indeed, one type of metal-on-metal hip has a failure rate of nearly 50 percent at 6 years."

Responding to these concerns, the FDA panel is considering the risks and benefits of metal-on-metal implants and what might be needed to monitor the health of patients who have them.

Of the estimated 400,000 hip replacements done in the United States each year, 27 percent involve metal-on-metal devices, according to the FDA.

Critics, including an independent panel of experts at the Institute of Medicine, have noted that metal-on-metal implants may have been approved too quickly under the FDA's "fast-track" program for medical devices.

Responding to concerns, in May 2011 the FDA ordered manufacturers to carry out "post-market" studies, tracking the safety of metal-on-metal hip implants in recipients. But in the NEJM article, Rising and colleagues noted that most of these studies have yet to begin and their first results will take years to arrive.

The FDA's Bolek made it clear that the advisory panel meeting is not a regulatory meeting and is not intended to look at the process that brought the devices to the market, or to deal with any planned or current post-marketing studies.

Metal-on-metal devices have already been recalled twice. In 2008, a device from manufacturer Zimmer, the Durom Acetabular Component, was recalled because instructions were not clear.

And in 2010 a device from DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. was recalled because more patients than expected had to have new surgeries, according to the FDA.

Earlier this month, a device called the R3 Acetabular System from Smith & Nephew was taken off the market because the company said it was "not satisfied with the clinical results of this component."

In Europe these concerns have led to calls to ban metal-on-metal hip replacement devices. Writing in March in the journal The Lancet, British researchers concluded that "metal-on-metal stemmed articulations give poor implant survival compared with other options and should not be implanted." Metal-on-metal implants had a five-year failure rate of more than 6 percent, three times higher that seen with ceramic or plastic joints.

Banning metal-on-metal joints isn't an option being considered by the FDA panel at this time.

"During the panel meeting, FDA will discuss failure rates and modes for these devices, as well as any local and systemic complications that could result from metal debris and metal ion levels in the bloodstream from the device," Bolek said.

The panel will also discuss metal ion testing and soft tissue imaging, tools that can potentially be used in the clinical management of patients who have these devices, Bolek said.

"We will also review specific risk factors for specific patient populations and considerations for post-implant follow-up," she added.

Mindy Tinsley is a spokeswoman for metal implant maker DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., which is owned by Johnson & Johnson. She said that "DePuy believes that no single bearing surface meets the needs of all patients, and metal-on-metal implants provide the potential benefit of greater function and a lower risk of dislocation for some patients."

Tinsley also said that all metal-on-metal implants are not alike and they should not be grouped together if problems arise.

One orthopedic expert agreed. Dr. Joshua Jacobs, first vice president of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, said that "metal-on-metal devices are not all the same. You have to go down to the individual product to fully understand the result. When you lump metal-on-metal together you miss a lot of important differences."

According to Jacobs, who is chairman of the department of orthopaedic surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, the advantages of metal-on-metal implants are that there is typically less wear on the joint, leading to less loosening and less bone loss over time.

In addition, he said, metal allows for a thinner, larger socket and head, which makes it less likely the hip will dislocate after surgery, which is a common failure of other types of hip replacement.

Still, given the problems with these devices, Jacobs agrees that patients need to be monitored.

"We are trying to learn the optimal way of monitoring patients with metal-on-metal implants, so we can understand when it is appropriate to intervene," he said. "Right now we are amassing clinical data to understand that better."

More information

For more on hip replacement, visit the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

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Kayak Is Worth $850 Million But Google Is A Big Concern - Travel Blog

Travelzoo Stock Should Be At Least $30 Trefis Team Contributor Kayak Shoots Into Rapid Revenue Growth As Surging Site Traffic Drives Ad Revenues Trefis Team Contributor What?s Delaying Kayak?s IPO? Trefis Team Contributor Google Hotel Finder Rocks The Boat For Kayak, Priceline Trefis Team Contributor

Image via CrunchBase

Kayak is a travel search company whose website and mobile applications facilitate easy research and comparison of fares as well as other related information collected from various supplier websites and online travel agencies. The company seems to have put its IPO plans on hold after the Facebook debacle as it wants to wait for market conditions to improve before it goes ahead with the public listing.

The outlook for Kayak depends on the performance of travel industry as a whole and due to the discretionary nature of leisure travel, revenues for online travel service providers depend entirely on macroeconomic conditions such as employment levels, inflation rates, fuel prices, forex rates, etc. Apart from economic variables, there are several other factors that can considerably impact Kayak?s future outlook. Here we provide a comprehensive view on some of those factors.

See Our Complete analysis for Kayak?s stock here

Acquisition Of ITA Software By Google Could Pose A Threat

In July 2010, Google announced an agreement to acquire ITA Software. ITA licenses its airfare search and pricing software to Kayak under an agreement which expires in December 2013. The faring software accounts for 42% of Kayak?s overall airfare query results and airline travel queries account for 85% of total searches performed on Kayak?s websites and mobile applications.

With the regulatory approval of the acquisition in April 2011, Google can create its own flight search tool which enables people to find comparable flight information on the Internet without using Kayak?s services.

Alternatively, Google may not renew ITA?s current agreements with the online travel agencies such as Kayak, or do so at unfavorable terms. Kayak admits that it is unable to replace ITA with a comparable technology. Hence a loss of access to ITA?s software could have a significant adverse impact of the comprehensiveness of query results and, consequently, on the revenues and operating margins of Kayak.

Rising Internet Penetration To Benefit Online Travel Agencies & Portals Like Kayak

Given the increasing worldwide online penetration, the Internet has become an integral part of the overall travel planning process as it enables travelers to refine searches, compare destinations and view real-time pricing.

According to PhoCusWright?s Global Online Travel Overview (April 2011), the global online leisure and unmanaged business travel segment is expected to grow twice as fast as the total global travel market, with gross booking in the online segment expected to surpass $300 billion globally in 2012.

Global Internet penetration is currently estimated at 29% (77% in North America, 58% in Europe, 35% in Latin America and 21% in Asia). With rising affluence in emerging economies of South Asia and increased adoption of Internet and e-commerce, the proportion of travel bookings over the Internet is expected to rise in the future. This trend favors online travel providers such as Expedia, Priceline, Travelocity and Orbitz among others, in turn benefiting portals such as Kayak.

Expansion In Hotel Markets in Europe and Asia To Provide An Added Opportunity

The hotel markets in Europe and Asia are much more fragmented with smaller, independent lodgings compared to the U.S., where the hotel market is dominated by large hotel chains. Large hotel chains are more likely to offer online bookings through their own websites while online travel agencies are more appealing to small, independent hotels outside the U.S. Additionally, travel agencies stand to make higher revenue margins from independent budget hotels under their merchant business model. Hence, expansion into hotels markets in Asia and Eastern Europe presents a growth opportunity for online travel services providers.

Hotel bookings offer markedly higher revenue margin (revenue earned by the travel service provider as a percentage of the size of the booking) at close to 25% compared to air ticket bookings (~3%) and cruises and car rentals (less than 10%). Hotel referral fees contribute close to 29% to our price estimate for Kayak, and hence leveraging the growth in Europe and Asia could benefit the company?s valuation in the long term.

Increase in Online Advertising Spend

With growing economic stability, the global travel market is bound to witness an increase in the years ahead. We therefore believe that travel providers and travel related advertisers will continue to devote significant resources to advertise their travel products and services. With the projected growth in online advertising market, an increasing amount of travel advertising spending is expected to migrate from traditional offline advertising channels to online advertising opportunities.

IDC estimates that the annual expenditures for global online travel advertising was over $5 billion in 2011 and forecasts the same to grow at a compound annual rate of 15% through 2014. Since Kayak derives over 50% of its value from advertising, we feel the trend will do well for the company?s future valuation.

On the flip side, traffic obtained through online advertising has increased as a percentage of total demand since the same consumer visits several websites before making a purchase. This increased shopping behavior has reduced advertising efficiency and effectiveness as traffic obtained through online advertising becomes less likely to result in purchase on the web site. Therefore, online advertising expenses have increased at a faster rate than gross profit, a trend which is expected to continue.

We estimate Kayak?s eqity value price to be worth $850 million, or approximately $25.16 based on our current estimated share count.

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COLLECTOR CAR LEADER RK MOTORS TAPS BILL PARK TO ...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. ? June 27, 2012 ? RK Motors, a premier restorer, re-seller and servicer of classic, muscle and high-performance cars, has hired automotive industry veteran Bill Park as the company?s vice president of service. Mr. Park will oversee all internal and external services delivered through the RKM Performance Center, which will open a new Mooresville, N.C., facility in August.

?RK Motors has built a stellar reputation for offering world-class collectible vehicles,? said Joseph Carroll, president and CEO of RK Motors. ?This success created a need to expand our service and restoration group, which meant we needed a savvy veteran to lead the division?s development and growth. Bill Park has the credentials to both strengthen and deepen our capabilities.?

Park has experience in all facets of business development including start-ups, process development, financial literacy, acquisitions and operational restructuring. ?Most recently president and CEO of Big Sky Autobody in Ariz., he has trained and consulted with businesses in the automotive industry for more than 20 years.? With a passion for adding value, Park founded and operated several businesses himself over the years, ranging from small, two-three person entities to a medium-sized, 100-employee corporation. ?He has also been very involved in top industry groups such as SEMA.

?I?m impressed with the tremendous expertise at RK Motors,? stated Park. ??This talented crew can service everything from T4 transmissions to adjusting a ZR1?s air/fuel mixture. ?I look forward to leveraging my experience to build the team and give even more customers the opportunity to enjoy the incredible RKM Performance Center service experience.?

The RKM Performance Center is full service classic car care facility that offers complete mechanical capabilities, interior design and installation, custom fabrication and performance upgrades.? The RKM Performance Center will serve as the service facility for RK Motors Charlotte, which is one of the leading classic car dealerships in the country.

Each vehicle offered for sale by RK Motors Charlotte will first be inspected by the RKM Performance Center to be sure the vehicle meets the high standards of the dealership. ?When the vehicle is sold through RK Motors Charlotte, it is also eligible to undergo a Test and Tune or have a comprehensive RKM Performance Certification completed prior to being delivered to the new owner.

The RKM Performance Center will also offer restoration services that combine the latest technology with old world craftsmanship, while providing customers with a world-class experience. The restoration experts will handle body and paintwork, motor and transmission rebuilds, as well as final assembly of the restored vehicles. ?RK Motors has been restoring premium vehicles in Mentor, Ohio, for years; it will move the award-winning facility to the Charlotte area.

Those interested in learning more about RK Motors Charlotte and its team members, can visit www.rkmotorscharlotte.com or call (704) 596-5211.

About RK Motors Charlotte

RK Motors Charlotte is the country?s leading retailer of investment-grade classic and collector cars. Founded in 2010 by Robert Kauffman, co-owner of Michael Waltrip Racing, and Joseph M. Carroll, founder of Best of Show Automotive, RK Motors Charlotte?s 80,000 sq./ft. facility features a 200-vehicle, state-of-the-art showroom complete with digital media studio, full restoration / customization shop and a full service area. Additional information is available at www.RKMotorsCharlotte.com. Media can contact Jennifer Pullen at (713) 855-9312 or at jpullen@tprm.com.

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Video: Barrett?s double slap in the face

PBT: Durant always destined for this moment

PBT: Kevin Durant reaching the NBA finals was never a question of if, but rather when. And now, after scoring 34 points in rallying the Thunder to a 107-99 win to eliminate the Spurs in six games, this is his time.

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