From Wastewater News:
USGS Study Links Estrogen to Fish Immunity
Exposure to estrogen reduces production of immune-related proteins in fish. This suggests that certain compounds, known as endocrine disruptors, may make fish more susceptible to disease.
The research may provide new clues for why intersex fish, fish kills, and fish lesions often occur together in the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers. The tests were conducted in a lab by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey.
The study, led by USGS genomics researcher Laura Robertson, Ph.D., revealed that largemouth bass injected with estrogen produced lowered levels of hepcidin, an important iron-regulating hormone in mammals that is also found in fish and amphibians. This is the first published study demonstrating control of hepcidin by estrogen in any animal.
Besides being an important iron-regulating hormone, researchers also suspect that hepcidin may act as an antimicrobial peptide in mammals, fish, and frogs. Antimicrobial peptides are the first line of defense against disease-causing bacteria and some fungi and viruses in vertebrate animals.
"Our research suggests that estrogen-mimicking compounds may make fish more susceptible to disease by blocking production of hepcidin and other immune-related proteins that help protect fish against disease-causing bacteria," said Robertson.
[The study, Identification of centrarchid hepcidins and evidence that 17ß-estradiol disrupts constitutive expression of hepcidin-1 and inducible expression of hepcidin-2 in largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), was just published in the journal, Fish & Shellfish Immunology. The authors are USGS scientists Laura Robertson, Luke Iwanowicz and Jamie Marie Marranca. |
= = =
The rescue begins below and continues in the jump.
Turkana wrote a wonderful tribute to Luke Cole (1962-2009): "It is with broken heart that I report the death of one of this nation's most important and innovative environmental attorneys. Luke Cole graduated with honors from Stanford, and cum laude from Harvard Law School. He could have done anything. He could have gone to work for any law firm in the country, and made a fortune. Instead, he moved to San Francisco and co-founded the non-profit Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment.
...Cole was well-known for his work on numerous leading environmental justice cases, including as counsel for the Native Village of Kivalina in its pathbreaking case seeking damages from large greenhouse gas emitters from the melting away of their Alaskan village. If that sounds like he was tilting at windmills, you didn't know Luke. He wouldn't have pursued such a case if he hadn't believed he could win it. His successful pioneering work, taking on the California dairy industry, made him the cover boy of the February, 2002 issue of California Law Magazine, in an article titled: Got Manure? How Environmental Lawyer Luke Cole Brought Dairy Construction in the San Joaquin Valley to a Standstill."
seesdifferent also wrote about Luke Cole.
The Electrical Worker promoted the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in IBEW Green-Job Training Facilities Around the Country Open Doors to Public: "With renewable energy looking to be the wave of the future, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is letting everyone know that its members are the best-trained green-work force around. ... [For example] More than 200 apprentices from Richmond, Va., Local 666 are learning specialized skills in solar and wind that could become one of the fastest growing job-sectors in central Virginia. ‘We're the best kept secret in the industry,’ Business Manager Jim Underwood told WWBT-TV during the local's open house."
The Overnight News Digest is posted and includes the story, Dear Leader Kim Jong Il’s successor Kim Jong Un is a Schwarzenegger fan
Haole in Hawaii told us he posts his wonderful photo diaries to give us respite from the tough day. Ain’t that photo on the right restful? See Sharks and Sunsets.
A Siegel wrote about another in his Energy COOL series, Snap Into Place Dew Collection for Agricultural Irrigation: "Sometimes the most interesting things come from people contemplating natural processes and ancient practices, turning the problem around and around, and figuring out how to make those techniques work in our techno-heavy world. People have been looking to dew collection (as a path for clean water supplies in the desert. For millenium, rock piles have provided liquid supplies keeping alive plants -- even supporting agriculture in very arid regions. Tal-Ya Water Technologies looks to have come up with a snap and play system that will make child's play of improving arid regions' agricultural water supply and practices."
coolobserver , the Daily Kos moniker of Mickey Z., conducted an interview with Pattrice Jones in his diary, Animal rights, ecofeminism, and rooster rehab: " Pattrice Jones is an ecofeminist educator, activist, and writer. She is the author of Aftershock: Confronting Trauma in a Violent World: A Guide for Activists and Their Allies and co-founder of the Eastern Shore Sanctuary and Education Center. Founded in a rural region of Maryland dominated by the poultry industry, the sanctuary provides a haven for hens, roosters and ducks who have escaped or been rescued from the meat and egg industries or other abusive circumstances, such as cockfighting. Not surprisingly, pattrice and company take things further than your average sanctuary. ‘We work within an ecofeminist understanding of the interconnection of all life and the intersection of all forms of oppression,’ she explains. ‘Thus we welcome and work to facilitate alliances among animal, environmental, and social justice activists.’"
Kaid at NRDC wrote again about Village Green: Revitalizing Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine (Part 2 - the Neighborhood's Assets): "One of the main reasons that I have much hope for Over-the-Rhine is that it has some tremendous neighborhood assets to build a recovery upon, starting not just with historic architecture but also with a resilient existing community of residents. My impression when visiting last month was that, poverty and problems notwithstanding, OTR feels like a real neighborhood and a real community. It will be critical that the neighborhood’s restoration includes these residents at every step. And its physical assets are also considerable."
Macca's Meatless Monday is the ongoing series by beach babe in fl: "Did you know that If all Americans didn't eat meat for just one day a week, this would save the same CO2 emissions as 90 million plane tickets from New York to LA or from LA to New York. ... One of my favorite quick meals is pita because you can do so much with it. You can stuff it, use it as a pizza base and even make croutons out of it. Here are some recipes I use often."
California Lt. Gov. JohnGaramendiCA argued that Yes, We Can Stop what the LA Times Calls "a Dubious Deal on Offshore Oil Drilling": " I’m not prepared to see decades of environmental safeguards undermined, and I don’t think you are either. The impact goes far beyond a single oil lease off the coast of Santa Barbara; at stake is a precedent-setting showdown on the legitimacy of environmental protection in the country’s most trendsetting state. We must not catch a wave toward environmental ruin."
randallt told us about what has become a regular visitor in Da Bear: "This will be short, but I wanted to share. We've lived in the rural mountains of Western North Carolina for seventeen years and have seen our share of bears roaming through the yard, crossing back roads and getting into park trash. But now we have one who seems to want to move in. She likes it here."
Boston, New York could see sea levels rise by over four feet reported Eternal Hope: "A new report from Geophysical Research Letters shows that New York and Boston could see their sea levels rise by as much as four feet by the year 2100. ... The Geophysical study did not take into account Antarctica, which means that this four-foot estimate for New York and Boston may be low."