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Climate Change: Are New Policies An Opportunity Or Barrier To The Biofuel, Renewable Chemicals Industries?
Pending climate change legislation and regulations for the Renewable Fuel Standard are creating an uncertain environment for investment in advanced biofuels and biobased chemicals. The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) announced that executives of biofuel and industrial biotechnology companies as well as representatives of NGOs will offer their views on how the industry might fare under carbon accounting rules during the 2009 World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing, to be held July 19-22, 2009 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
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Births To Unmarried Women Increasing In U.S., Driven By Women In 20s, 30s, Report Shows
Almost 40% of U.S. births in 2007 occurred among unmarried women, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention"s National Center for Health Statistics, the Washington Post reports. About 1.7 million infants were born to unmarried women in 2007, representing a 26% increase over the 1.4 million in 2002 and more than double the number in 1980. Unmarried women accounted for 39.7% of all U.S. births in 2007, up from 34% in 2002 and more than double the percentage in 1980, according to the report, which studied birth certificates nationwide.Women in their 20s and 30s are the biggest drivers of the trend, with out-of-wedlock births in this age group increasing from a rate of 13% to 34% between 2002 and 2006, according to the report (Stein/St. George, Washington Post, 5/14). For example, the birthrate for unmarried women ages 30 to 34 rose by 34% in 2007 compared with 2002 (Harris, New York Times, 5/14). Sixty percent of births to women ages 20 to 24 were to unmarried women, compared to 52% in 2002. In addition, 32% of births to women 25 to 29 were to unmarried women, compared to 25% in 2002, the report shows (Jayson, USA Today, 5/14). Overall, women in their 20s made up 60% of U.S. unmarried births in 2007, while teens accounted for 23% and women ages 30 and older accounted for 17% (New York Times, 5/13). Unmarried Hispanic women gave birth at a rate of 106 births per 1,000 unmarried women. The rate was 72 per 1,000 for blacks, 32 per 1,000 for whites and 26 per 1,000 for Asians. The rates for blacks and Hispanics rose the fastest, according to the report (Washington Post, 5/14). Compared with other countries, the U.S. rate of unmarried births was near the middle of the 14 countries included in the report (USA Today, 5/14).Although researchers did research the reasons for the trend, they cited several factors that in combination likely affected the rate, including a decrease in the social stigma surrounding out-of-wedlock births, an increasing number of couples putting off or forgoing marriage, and growing numbers of financially independent, older or single women who choose to have children on their own (Washington Post, 5/14). Researchers noted that most of the increase in these births was among parents who live together but are not married (New York Times, 5/13)."I think this is the tipping point," Rosanna Hertz of Wellesley College said, adding, "This is becoming increasingly the norm. The old adage that "first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage" just no longer holds true." Hertz added, "Women can have children on their own, and it"s not going to destroy your employment, and it"s not going to mean that you"ll be made a pariah by the community. It"s much more socially acceptable." Sarah Brown of the National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy said, "I look at this and say, maybe this trend is what young adults want or stumble into, but it"s not in the best interest of children" (Washington Post, 5/14).
News of the day
The Department Of Health And Human Services Teams Up With The White House And The Ad Council To Launch New Fatherhood Public Service Campaign
Just in time for Father"s Day weekend, the Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced a new public service campaign today promoting fatherhood that features a PSA by President Obama. The campaign, sponsored by the department"s Administration for Children and Families and the Advertising Council, can be found at http://www.fatherhood.gov. The public service announcements and supporting campaign materials highlight the critical role fathers play in their children"s lives.
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Signs Of Diabetes Can Be Detected Years Before

Researchers in the UK found that changes in glucose concentrations, insulin sensitivity, and insulin secretion can be detected as early as 3 to 6 years before diagnosis of diabetes and hope that the discovery will lead to more accurate risk prediction as part of regular check ups. The study was led by a team at University College London and was published in the 8 June early online issue of The Lancet. It was also presented at the 69th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association that took place in New Orleans, Louisiana earlier this week. Although we know quite a lot about glucose metabolism and insulin, the hormone that helps us use glucose for energy and goes awry in diabetes, we don"t know very much about the timing of the changes that lead up to diabetes, wrote the researchers. For this study they followed changes in glucose (before fasting and after eating), insulin sensitivity, and insulin secretion in 6,538 British civil servants who took part in the Whitehall II study. 71 per cent of the participants were white, 91 per cent were male, and none had diabetes at the start of the investigation, which followed them for a median of 9.7 years. Over the course of the study, 505 of the participants developed diabetes (about half of them diagnosed using an oral glucose tolerance test), so the researchers looked back at the data that had been collected on those individuals from up to 13 years earlier and plotted the changes in levels of particular metabolic markers. They also looked at the same data for those who did not develop diabetes during the study. The metabolic markers included: fasting and postload glucose (the latter taken 2 hours after eating), insulin sensitivity and beta-cell function. The last two were assessed using a method called HOMA (short for Homeostatic Model Assessment), a way of calculating insulin resistance which is often used in larger studies instead of the "gold standard" Hyperinsulinemic Glucose Clamp. Beta-cells are the cells in the pancreas that produce and release insulin. After adjustment for age, sex and ethnic origin, the results showed that: *All the metabolic markers (nearly 11,000 measurements) showed a steady linear increase in the non-diabetic group, except insulin secretion which did not change during the period of the study. *However, in the diabetic group (over 800 measurements) fasting glucose went up in a linear fashion at first but was then followed by a steep quadratic (upward curved) increase that started about 3 years before diagnosis of diabetes. *In this group, the 2-hour postload glucose measure also showed a rapid increase that started about 3 years before diagnosis, and HOMA insulin sensitivity fell sharply during 5 years before diagnosis. *Also, in this group, the HOMA beta-cell function went up between 4 and 3 years prior to diagnosis (from 85 to 92.6 per cent) and then fell until diagnosis (to 62.4 per cent). The study suggests that changes in the biomarkers of diabetes such as glucose concentrations, insulin sensitivity, and insulin secretion take place between 3 to 6 years before diagnosis. The researchers wrote that: "The description of biomarker trajectories leading to diabetes diagnosis could contribute to more-accurate risk prediction models that use repeated measures available for patients through regular check-ups." "Trajectories of glycaemia, insulin sensitivity, and insulin secretion before diagnosis of type 2 diabetes: an analysis from the Whitehall II study." Adam G Tabç¡k, Markus Jokela, Tasnime N Akbaraly, Eric J Brunner, Mika Kivimç¤ki, Daniel R Witte. The Lancet, Early Online Publication, 8 June 2009 doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60619-X Additional s: diabetesincontrol.com.. Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD Copyright: Medical News Today Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today


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