Granular materials not so puzzling after all

Understanding the physics of granular materials is important in industries that handle and process large amounts of these materials, such as pills and powders in the pharmaceutical and food industries and sand in the construction business. But the problem of how to model granular materials has perplexed physicists.

In particular, they’d like to know how the temperature within an assemblage affects the system’s dynamics. That understanding will help scientists determine whether the scientific principles that apply to systems at equilibrium also are valid for systems that are far from equilibrium, such as living organisms.

In research published in the Aug. 21 issue of the journal Nature, a multinational team that includes U-M physicist Franco Nori used a device called a torsion oscillator—a wire with a conical probe at the end—as a sort of thermometer in an experimental model of a non-equilibrium system. When the oscillator was immersed in a continuously shaken container of tiny beads, the beads bombarded the probe, causing the wire to oscillate back and forth like a clock spring. By looking at the resulting motion of the wire, the scientists were able to determine whether the measured “temperature”—a reflection of the beads’ motion—followed rules one would expect in an equilibrium system.

To their surprise, they found that the temperature did follow the expected rules, leading them to conclude that even for a non-equilibrium system, key parameters such as temperature can be used to extract essential information concealed in the disordered motion of billions of particles.

Three human needs that enhance quality of life

People are far more likely to be satisfied with their lives when their environment supports three basic needs: the ability to understand and explore, to feel they make a difference, and to feel competent and effective, according to two U-M environmental psychology researchers writing in the September issue of American Journal of Public Health.

The three needs—far more important to people than acquiring wealth, control or power—apply to a wide range of contexts, including both the natural and built environment, home and work, and even the social environment.

Professors Stephen and Rachel Kaplan have psychology appointments at U-M. He also is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and she is the Samuel T. Dana Professor of Environment and Behavior in the School of Natural Resources and Environment.

Since the 1960s, they have collaborated in their research on the role of environmental factors in human well-being. The Kaplans, who are married, have provided guidance for planners and environmental designers on ways to make communities and work places more satisfying and more conducive to mental health.

Rachel Kaplan notes: “The belief that money brings satisfaction, although popular in our materialistic society, is not supported by research. The emphasis on avoiding greed, characteristic of many religions and cultures, turns out to be well-founded.”
—Joseph Serwach, News Service

Racial, ethnic disparities found in all types of pain

No matter what its cause, pain of any kind can place a serious burden on a person’s ability to work, play and live life. But this burden is heavier for some than for others—and a new research paper finds that members of racial and ethnic minorities often bear the worst of it.

The paper, written by a panel of top pain experts and based on a survey of more than 180 studies from a broad range of specialties, documents a phenomenon that pain specialists long have suspected but don’t understand fully.

The authors pulled together research on racial and ethnic disparities in the perception, diagnosis and treatment of pain in locations ranging from the emergency department to the cancer clinic, and in conditions ranging from chronic pain to acute pain induced in laboratory experiments. Researchers and pain specialists who also are members of the American Pain Society (APS) published their findings in the current issue of the journal Pain Medicine.

“Across the board, and consistently, there are racial and ethnic differences in pain,” says lead author Dr. Carmen Green, an anesthesiologist and pain management specialist at the U-M Health System. “There’s much we still don’t understand about why these health disparities based upon race and ethnicity exist, so more research is needed. We hope our work will increase awareness of this issue among patients and providers alike.” Green chairs the APS Special Interest Group on racial and ethnic disparities in pain.

The paper’s other authors include: Dr. Knox Todd of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, Karen Anderson of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Roger Fillingim of the University of Florida College of Dentistry, Raymond Tait of the St. Louis University School of Medicine, Tamara Baker of the U-M School of Public Health, Lisa Campbell of the Duke University Medical Center, Sheila Decker of the University of Iowa School of Nursing, Dr. Donna Kaloukalani of Washington University, Kathryn Lasch of the New England Medical Center, Cynthia Myers of the University of California, Los Angeles, and April Vallerand of the Wayne State University College of Nursing.
—Kara Gavin, UMHS Public Relations

Lost manufacturing jobs may be gone for good

Despite new initiatives by the Bush administration to address long-time job declines in U.S. manufacturing, a U-M economist says the outlook for American factory jobs remains bleak.

If output and productivity growth in the next five years matches the levels enjoyed during the economic boom of the last decade, manufacturing employment would only amount to 15.4 million jobs, down 13 percent from its 1990s peak of more than 17.6 million jobs in 1998—and up just 5 percent from today’s levels, says Donald Grimes, an economist at the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, which is directed by the Business School and School of Social Work.

“This is an optimistic scenario,” Grimes says. “Instead, I think we will be doing well if the manufacturing sector has as many jobs five years from now as it does today.”

Manufacturing jobs now number a little more than 14.5 million, down nearly 10 percent since the beginning of the recession in March 2001.

Grimes says employment in manufacturing has been in overall decline since 1979, when it reached its all-time high of 19.5 million jobs. Since then, he adds, the United States has lost about 5 million factory jobs— 3 million since 1998.

“The acceleration of job losses recently reflects the impact of the recession, but more importantly the increased imports of apparel, textiles and leather products from Third World countries and the fact that manufacturing productivity is now growing relatively rapidly,” he says.

Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Grimes found that employment in most manufacturing sectors rose between 1993 and 1998, except among apparel, textiles, leather, paper, chemicals, and petroleum and coal products industries. But since 1998, all manufacturing industries have lost jobs.
—Bernie DeGroat, News Service

Protein appears crucial to breast cancer

Like a killer charged with more than one murder, a tiny protein that already has been linked to deadly prostate cancer now is being implicated in lethal breast cancer. And it soon may help doctors tell cancer patients just how dangerous their tumors are.

The double-duty offender, called EZH2, appears to help cancer cells invade nearby tissue and form colonies, according to a study in the Sept. 30 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). This makes it crucial for aggressive, metastatic forms of breast and prostate cancers, both of which are regulated by steroid hormones.

But like many killers who get caught, EZH2 also leaves “fingerprints”—copies of the protein that easily can be detected in cancerous tissue. In the study, led by scientists from the Comprehensive Cancer Center, levels of EZH2 in a patient’s tumor corresponded to the tumor’s level of danger. The more EZH2 there was, the deadlier the cancer and the worse the patient’s outcome.

The results linking EZH2 to breast cancer, and describing the mechanism of its role in its spread, are based on exhaustive analysis of tissue samples and medical records from 280 U-M breast cancer patients, and studies in cell cultures.

The results were published in September in the online version of PNAS by a team from U-M, the University of Amsterdam and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Celina Kleer, an assistant professor of pathology at U-M Medical School, was lead author. The study’s other authors are: senior author Dr. Arul Chinnaiyan, assistant professor of pathology and urology; U-M co-lead authors Qi Cao and Sooryanarayana Varambally; U-M co-authors Ronglai Shen, Ichiro Ota, Scott Tomlins, Debashis Ghosh, Daniel Hayes, Michael Sabel, Donna Livant and Stephen Weiss; Richard Sewalt and Arie Otte of the Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences at the University of Amsterdam; and Mark Rubin of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University.

The research was funded by grants from the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health, a Munn grant from U-M, and by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the Mary Kay Ash Foundation and the V Foundation.
—Kara Gavin, UMHS Public Relations

Religion serves as spiritual, mental comfort for African Americans

A comprehensive study of nearly 20 years of research shows conclusively that for African Americans, religion is the greatest determinant of personal assessments of the quality of life and overall health.

U-M researchers Robert Joseph Taylor and Linda Chatters, and scientist and author Jeff Levin, released these findings in a book—the first of its kind to document empirically the range, patterns, functions and consequences of religious involvement for representative samples of the population. They spent nearly 20 years tapping into data about religion and African Americans from various researchers.

“Both individually and collectively, religious African Americans and Black churches have been a force for good in the lives of people as expressed in individual-level indicators (lower rates of depressive symptoms in churchgoers) and in population-level indicators (mortality and morbidity profiles) of health and well-being,” says Chatters, an associate professor in the School of Public Health and School of Social Work, where Taylor is a professor and associate dean for research.

The book, “Religion in the Lives of African Americans: Social, Psychological and Health Perspectives,” analyzes different forms of religious involvement, including formal religious participation and private devotional activities. To read more about the book, visit http://www.sagepub.com/book.aspx?pid=9747.
—Jared Wadley, News Service

Delays in heart attack care erode mortality difference between two therapies

In a perfect world, heart attack patients would get to the hospital within minutes after their symptoms start. And most immediately would get sent for an emergency angioplasty, which uses a tiny balloon to clear blood clots that are clogging arteries.

Study after study has shown that quick access to this life-saving treatment, also called percutaneous coronary intervention, surpasses fibrinolytic (clot-busting) drugs in emergency heart attack care. But in the real world, the difference between the two therapies may not be so simple.

According to a new analysis by researchers from the Cardiovascular Center, angioplasty only beats clot-busters in saving lives if there’s less than a one-hour difference between the time it takes to get patients from the emergency room door to the angioplasty suite, and the time it takes to start clot-busting drugs.

And in the real world, that swift access to angioplasty doesn’t happen nearly as often as it should, says Dr. Eric Bates, professor of cardiovascular medicine at U-M and senior author of the new study published in the October American Journal of Cardiology. Most hospitals still don’t have the staff and equipment needed to do angioplasty, and it can take more than an hour to transfer a patient to a hospital that does.

The result? “A delay to get an angioplasty means it may not get you all the benefits you read about,” Bates says. “If you can’t get angioplasty right away, get medical therapy with clot-busting drugs, and then transfer for angioplasty afterward.”

Bates, who performs angioplasties on hundreds of patients a year, conducted the meta-analysis of 21 heart attack treatment studies with cardiovascular fellow Dr. Brahmajee Nallamothu. It is the largest analysis of its kind ever done.
—Kara Gavin, UMHS Public Relations

Policy makers given picture of Michigan environment

While great environmental gains have been made throughout Michigan since the early 1970s, issues including habitat loss and invasive species remain serious threats to the state’s natural ecological systems, according to the authors of a chapter in a new book that examines challenges facing the state.

“Better understanding of the state of Michigan’s environment will help the governor and Legislature formulate their priorities for environmental efforts in coming years,” says Gloria Helfand, associate professor at the School of Natural Resources and Environment and co-author of the chapter with John Wolfe of Limno-Tech Inc., an Ann Arbor environmental consulting firm specializing in water quality issues. “Our findings detail where the state has made environmental progress and where it needs to step up its efforts.”

Wolfe says evidence shows that these ecological threats “are accelerating, even as some other measures of environmental quality are gradually improving.”

The book, “Michigan at the Millennium,” gives state policy makers a rare, comprehensive picture of Michigan’s environmental condition. It examines economic and fiscal challenges facing Michigan and policy options worthy of consideration. The book is an updated version of its predecessor, “Michigan’s Fiscal and Economic Structure,” published in 1982.

The book was written and edited by faculty from U-M, Michigan State University and Wayne State University, along with colleagues from other universities, government and research organizations including Citizens Research Council and the Upjohn Institute.

The editors are Charles Ballard, MSU professor of economics; Paul N. Courant, provost, executive vice president for academic affairs and professor of economics at U-M; Douglas Drake, associate director of the State Policy Center in the College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs at Wayne State University; Ronald Fisher, professor of economics and director of the Honors College at MSU; and Elisabeth Gerber, public policy professor and director of the U-M Center for Local, State and Urban Policy at the Ford School of Public Policy.
—Lara Magouirk, SNRE

Drug may help millions as treatment for cancer, autoimmune diseases

An anti-angiogenesis drug developed at U-M is showing promise in studies of three different disease families, including multiple forms of cancer. The drug, tetrathiomolybdate or TM, essentially wages war against copper, which serves to choke off tumor growth, fibrosis and inflammation.

U-M researcher Dr. George Brewer, who developed the drug, presented his findings to date and reported on ongoing basic and clinical TM research at the 226th American Chemical Society national meeting Sept. 10 in New York.

TM began as a treatment for Wilson’s disease, a rare genetic disease that causes toxic build-ups of copper. Recent phase III clinical data show TM is more effective than other treatments at reducing the disease’s effects. Realizing the key role of copper in angiogenesis, Brewer and colleagues then began exploring treatments for cancer, including breast cancer, kidney cancer and liver cancer.

But it doesn’t end there. Brewer and colleagues also are looking into the effect of TM on inflammatory fibrosis diseases such as cirrhosis and cystic fibrosis.

“TM has the potential to be a powerful tool in fighting a wide range of diseases. While it has literally saved the lives of young people with Wilson’s disease, Wilson’s is a rare disease. If early results in cancer and inflammatory diseases hold their promise through the next phase of trials, there’s potential for this to impact a lot of people,” says Brewer, Morton S. and Henrietta K. Sellner Emeritus Professor of Human Genetics at the Medical School.
—Nicole Fawcett, UMHS Public Relations