Breakthroughs Today

To some organisms in nature, even a diaper waste can be raw materials for human food. APPARENTLY there are two current problems that used diapers can help solve: reduction of urban solid waste and availability of high protein food sources. Or so it seems, as what four Mexican researchers from the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana found out. But used diapers cannot do it all alone. They need a fungus commonly known as oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) to perform biodegradation on the disposable diaper materials such as polyethylene, polypropylene and a superabsorbent polymer. Its main component, however, is cellulose, a plant structural material that degrades slowly. Polyethylene is the most widely used plastic today. It is primarily used in packaging materials such as plastic bag. While polypropylene is the more heat-stable kind. It is used in plastic parts and automotive components.  It only takes... [ Read more. ]   This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 25 May

On 20 May 2011 (Friday), the First Division of the Philippine Court of Appeals dismissed the plea that Julie Balarbar, wife of 15 years of House Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III, filed questioning the November 25, 2010 decision of the Makati Regional Court declaring the marriage null and void on the ground that Balarbar had been diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). Pyschiatric evaluation show a diagnosis of NPD with anti-social features, from her involvement in a shoplifting incident, her closeness to and trips abroad with her male students, and a kissing incident with a co-professor. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder Fourth Edition (DSM IV-TR) enumerated nine indicators of NPD, with only five of them needed for the diagnosis. It is not clear however which indicators have been found in the case of the Tañada annulment case. The Archdiocese of Manila also declared their canonical marriage void ab initio (void from the start) due to "gra

The last people to fault drunkards from drinking themselves to death are those who do not brush their teeth regularly. And studies discussed in this article tell you why. LAWRENCE Welk said: “For a while we had trouble trying to get the sound of a champagne cork exploding out of the bottle. I solved the problem by sticking my finger in my mouth and popping it out.” Non-drinkers can assure any person they can get on without a bottle of champagne or beer. But even they might not be able to get away from the scourge that plagues heavy drinkers—oral, laryngeal or pharyngeal cancer. The culprit is acetaldehyde (ALDH), a byproduct of alcohol oxidation that causes disarray of genetic materials eventually leading to cancer. A less known study in 2001 found that even people with normal levels of ALDH (deficiency in ALDH builds up acetaldehyde in the mouth after drinking alcohol) can develop oral cancer because of acetaldehyde. In their report published in “Alcohol,” S. Vakevainen, J. Tillone

A GOOD part of me loves to read fiction. But only recently I got myself introduced to the writings of female authors. Call it gender bias, but I judge a book by its story, not by its cover, although occasionally by its author. So I got books written by Barry Eisler, William Brodrick, Michael Alexander Eisner, David Hewson, and of course Tom Clancy and a few of Arthur Conan Doyle. My first book by a female author was Phyllis Whitney’s Rainbow in the Mist (1989). I bought it in 1999 while doing some research on fictional literature that deals with the paranormal. And the ease of flow and dynamic way she told the story impressed me a lot. Well, I got my first Kay Scarpetta novel in June 2010. Patricia Cornwell wrote the book Blow Fly (2003) to tell the story of a retired chief medical examiner from Virginia who can use bluebottle (Calliphora vicina), a blow fly capable of giving clues in determining the time of death. So it is reading about “post-mortem” autopsies in a snap. I had ass

SOMETIMES we can appreciate how much we let our minds go out of control when a certain weird sickness captures us, such as the so-called “white coat hypertension.” The American Heart Association defines this condition as: “You may have what’s called ‘white coat hypertension’; that means your blood pressure goes up when you’re at the doctor’s office.” A funny name that works as much like the healing effect of an inert substance called placebo, bringing forth the term “placebo effect” into common use. Another term that American doctors coined not long ago was the condition called “pre-hypertension.” By its name alone, you can guess the meaning of this condition as not yet hypertension. This new interim condition came up when... [ Read more. ]  This article appears in Sun.Star Cebu on 4 May 2011.