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期发表海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿于《北极》杂志的一篇论文详细介绍了这起发海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿生于2010年7月的北极海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿熊同类残杀事件。该论文联合作者伊海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿安-斯特林是加拿大环境部的一位北海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿极熊研究专家。当时，罗斯坐在小船上，慢海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿慢靠近这只成年北极熊。透过远距摄影镜头，她能够看到成年北极海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿熊在吃肉。但当摄影师靠得海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿更近时才发现原来它在撕咬一只海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿北极熊幼仔的尸体。成年北极海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿熊杀死北极熊幼仔的海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿方法与它捕猎海豹的方法完全相同，利用海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿尖利的牙齿咬住猎物的头部海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿。罗斯回忆当时的情景说，“当成年北极熊注意到有一艘小船海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿正在靠近它时，它本能地站起海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿来注视着不速之客。海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿它立即跨在北极熊海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿幼仔的尸体上，似乎是在声明海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿它已完全控制猎物，这是属海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿于它自己的食物。然后，海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿它用嘴咬住猎物，利用颈部和嘴部的力量将北极熊幼仔的尸体从一块浮冰上拖到海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿另一块浮冰上。海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿最后，当它认为距离已足够安全时海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿，就停下来慢慢享海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿用大餐。当时，该区域还有另外一只北极熊，海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿估计是这只死亡北极熊幼仔的母亲
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　　海航圈钱迷局：净资产99亿元负债高达868亿
　　海圈钱，海花钱，海航戏法
　　二十年来，海航如何从1000万起步变成1000亿，从一个航空公司变成一个有五百多家企业的金融平台？
　　回顾海航集团的扩张史，几乎每次大规模的并购，都是以金额庞大的飞机采购为先导。
　　飞机的故事正被复制到桥梁、道路上，这一次，海航拉上了地方政府，它梦想着以此支撑其五年资产超万亿的超级X计划。
　　在连续多年暴风骤雨式激进收购之后，上个月，海航集团（微博）接连遭遇了两次失败。
　　这反映出资本市场对其的担心与疑虑。此前多年，海航就像一个谜。它收购的资产如此琳琅满目，以致市场人士们将其投资风格形容为“八爪鱼”。
　　作为海南航空（5.34,0.00,0.00%）（股票代码：600221）的控股股东，海航集团扮演的角色是“大胃王”。2009到2011三年间，海航集团在国内市场至少斥资近百亿元大举收购，包括上市公司金海重工、九龙山（4.17,0.12,2.96%）（微博）及借壳上市的渤海租赁（12.27,0.06,0.49%），还有超市、地产、保险等。
　　而在国际市场上，海航集团越来越像个“大型国际投资者”，除了购买38架波音高端客货飞机外，其收购目标更是包括匈牙利航空公司、土耳其航空公司、GE SeaCo、法兰克福建筑公司机场资产及高端连锁酒店集团安缦居及NH酒店公司，涉及金额高达数百亿元。
　　事实上，海航集团的家底并不宽裕。据2011年12月1日渤海租赁收购海航香港的报告显示，海航集团截至2010年底净资产为99亿元，资产总额1111.18亿，但负债总额却高达868.6亿之巨，资产负债率高达78%。
　　随着越来越多并购消息的传出，外界的疑问也越来越大——海航集团出手如此阔绰，这么庞大的收购资金从何而来？
　　海航集团就像一个越滚越大的谜团。正如海航集团董事长陈峰在多个场合所言，“中国没有人看得懂海航”。南方周末记者向海航集团发出了采访提纲，但至截稿时止，海航集团仍未接受采访。
　　“石头里蹦出来的黑孩子”
　　海航一开始就缺钱，只能在创业初期靠“讲故事”获得融资，以维系生存。到了国有三大航大举兼并重组地方航空之时，海航为保持独立，又不得不借助金融杠杆四处收购，壮大规模。
　　在海航集团成立十周年的纪录片中，集团董事陈文理用一句话形容了这家航空企业的诞生历程，“海航就是一个石头子儿里蹦出来的黑孩子”。
　　从无到有的海南航空，几乎从一诞生就被注入了金融的基因。
　　1989年，陈峰从民航总局南下创办海南航空，当时只从海南省政府那里获得了1000万元财政资金支持，“只够买个飞机零件”。直到1993年在STAQ系统上市后，才通过法人股募资获得2.5亿元融资（其中有1亿元为国资）和6亿元银行贷款，购买了一架飞机。
　　据一位海航内部人士介绍，当时的银行甚至不知道抵押贷款怎么做，“按说贷款买了飞机，产权就得抵押给银行，结果银行稀里糊涂还把产权算成海航的，海航就拿这架飞机又去抵押，一变二……”
　　在创业初期，海航主要的融资手段就是靠创始人陈峰等人四处“讲故事”：跟银行讲、跟索罗斯讲，讲海南岛的发展前景，讲航空公司的市场需求。结果银行贷款了，索罗斯的资金也跟随着进来了。 在这一过程中，陈峰的另一位搭档起到了关键作用，那就是今天海航集团的“二把手”——副董事长王健。这位在海航集团内部号称与董事长陈峰“一体两面”的副董事长，至今仍是决定集团战略发展的核心人物。在陈峰四处应付外界事务时，几乎从未在公众面前出现的王健则深处集团内部，管控着集团的全部事务。
　　据公开资料显示，王健与陈峰曾同在民航总局任职。在进入海航之前，他曾任中国兴南（集团）公司主要负责人，这家公司正是海南省在国内外融资的重要平台之一，早在1980年代公司资产规模就达30亿元。
　　兴南集团曾是海航最早的法人股东之一，也是海航在创立早期的重要融资平台，但对于王健何时离开兴南，并最终成为海航的“二老板”，即使公司内部人士也所知不详。
　　可以知道的是，在海航的发展初期，深通金融之道的王健与陈峰多方筹谋，令海航在1990年代中后期得以陆续发行B股、A股和H股，并不断扩大融资渠道与规模。1999年，海南航空在A股上市融资9亿多元。
　　“大”的哲学
　　在那场惊心动魄的全国性行业重组之后，海航集团的管理层开始深刻地意识到，在中国航空市场中“如果不做大，就会被吃掉”。
　　也正是从此时开始，海航展开了自创办以来的第一次大规模收购。
　　从2000年8月到2001年7月期间，海航先后收购重组了长安航空、新华航空及山西航空，合计出资约20亿元。2000年8月，海航出资7.8亿控股海口美兰机场；2002年6月，受海南省政府委托运营管理海南机场股份有限公司及三亚凤凰国际机场。
　　在完成了这一系列收购后，原本作为上市公司母公司而存在的海航集团有限公司，也于2001年正式升格为企业集团。
　　而海航在2000年之后连续展开收购重组的背景是，当时三大国有航空公司正在推动一场航空业重组大潮。海航若不能迅速通过收购兼并壮大规模，将难免被三大国有航空公司兼并。
　　在这种情况下，海航几乎是不计代价地推动着一系列并购的进程。据一位海航内部人士回忆，当时神华集团托管的新华航空准备转让，“东航也想要，海航也想要。人家都快签约了，海航一下派进几十个人的工作组，认识谁就请谁吃饭。”结果把新华航空从中层到高层“一夜之间搞定”，最终获得了新华航空的控股权。
　　这场“不计代价”的收购战很快显示出了它的成果：在2002年民航总局推动下，以三大航空公司为主体的行业重组中，几乎所有的地方航空公司都被兼并殆尽，而创建不久的海航却奇迹般地成为了硕果仅存的少数几家独立航空公司之一。可以说，没有2000年之后的大举收购，今天“中国四大航空企业”之一的海航集团很可能已不复存在。
　　正是在那场惊心动魄的全国性行业重组之后，海航集团的管理层开始深刻地意识到，在中国航空市场中“如果不做大，就会被吃掉”。海航只有通过不断扩张，才能赢得自身生存的空间与时间。
　　但正是在这一系列大规模收购之后，海航集团于2003年前后陷入了空前的资本危机之中。
　　就在海航集团资金链面临“弹尽粮绝”之际，旗下上市公司海南航空适时“救主”，而2003年意外爆发的SARS疫情成了一根“救命稻草”：在2003年年报里，上市公司海南航空宣布由于SARS疫情影响等原因，公司2003年巨亏14.74亿元——亏损比例足足超出其他三大航空公司的5倍以上，几乎将公司组建以来所有盈利吞噬殆尽。
　　这一亏损之谜直到2005年中国证监会调查时才揭开谜底，原来“因财务处理不当”，海南航空不仅在2003年增加了4000多万元亏损，而且还隐藏了与集团公司的4.4亿元关联交易，并存在多处财务错误。
　　而经由上市公司的相助，此时的海航集团已经摆脱了财务危机——在2003年旗下上市公司财务巨亏时，海航集团2004年过上了空前的“好日子”，用一位内部员工的话说，当时发奖金“数钱都数到手酸”。
　　从大新华残局解围
　　在举债收购带来的沉重资本压力下，海航集团开始尝试以金融控股为核心的多元化“突围”；而2006年之后以房地产价格暴涨为标志的资产重估，为海航的收购扩张模式提供了强大的资本支撑。
　　就在此时，深感依靠上市公司这一融资平台“独木难支”的海航集团管理层，开始向金融领域伸出了触角。据有关资料显示，自2003年开始，海航便接触过西部证券、吉林信托等二十多家金融证券类项目，而在早期收购西安民生（5.94,-0.02,-0.34%）等零售业上市公司时，除了看重零售业的现金流外，还在盯着其背后商业银行的业务。
　　然而这场刚刚开始的尝试在2004年便遇到了空前的阻力：这一年“德隆事件”的爆发极大地震撼了资本市场和监管层，各监管部门开始联手严查国内企业的“类金融控股”模式。此前因大规模融资收购而引起市场关注的“海航系”同样也在调查之列。
　　在这样的背景下，2004年夏天，海航集团副董事长王健对外界表示：“海航将止步金融。”
　　而一位海航内部高层向南方周末记者表示，他感受最深的就是2004年海航董事长陈峰在一次接受采访时，忍痛说“我们不做金融”。“但其实我们都知道他心里想做。”
　　在国内市场的金融扩张受阻之后，海航管理层开始把目光投向了境外市场。2004年7月，海航集团与扬子江投资共同出资5亿元，设立了“新华航空控股有限公司”（即未来的“大新华航空”），开始了新一轮的“讲故事”。
　　在公司内部，管理层讲的是海航运营资金成本太高，需要有一个新的载体来承担并消化这些负债，而预计到香港上市融资的大新华航空正是这么一个“壳”；对政府，管理层讲的是地方航空的重组阻力重重，必须有一个更有公信力的平台，才能顺利推进几家地方航空公司的重组；同时集团管理层再度找上索罗斯基金，这次讲的是一个国际化中国航空公司的美妙前景……
　　于是从2005年开始，海南省发展控股（省属国有公司）的15亿资金进来了；索罗斯基金的后续投资进来了；同时与集团实际控制人有着千丝万缕关系的多家关联企业也悄悄地进来了。
　　2007年底大新华航空上市前夕，海航集团董事长陈峰辞去了多年来一直兼任的海南航空董事长一职，公开理由是为了符合监管层关于“股东单位董事长不得担任上市公司董事长”的规定。但一位海航内部人士告诉南方周末记者，其实当时大家都已经知道，在完成了大新华航空上市这一“金蝉脱壳”之后，“海南航空已经不重要了”。
　　然而因为上市模式及所有人结构的争议，加上2008年国际金融危机爆发，大新华航空上市最终功亏一篑，反而将海航集团推入了空前的债务危机之中。这些债务的来源包括，2002年到2007年，海航集团及关联企业在大新华持股比例从15%增加到50%以上，均靠新增资本投入实现。而在大新华航空上市前，海航集团还发了28亿企业债，置换海口新城的土地。
　　“如果不是四万亿的救市政策和此前房地产价格的暴涨，海航集团很可能活不过2008年。”一位深悉海航内情的投资界人士对南方周末记者这样说。
　　2006年全国房地产价格的上涨，令海航在收购美兰机场后获得的9000亩位于市中心区的老机场土地，在持有了长达10年之后，终于变成了一笔难以估量的财富，陈峰也因此被集团内部许多人视为“投资天才”。
　　利用这一不断上涨的土地价格，海航集团不但完成了自身增资40亿元及向海航股份定向增资28亿元等一系列资本运作，并利用与上市公司之间的资产腾挪，制造了集团自身的盈利。
　　以北京科航大厦项目为例，2004年及2005年集团下属海南航空及西安民生投入6亿多元参与前期建设，然后分别于2007年底和2008年将工程以成本价转让给海航集团。而到了2008年12月，海南航空又以17.28亿元的价格向集团收购了科航大厦95%的股权。
　　上市公司海南航空因此于2008年再度爆出14.24亿元巨亏，而海航集团业绩则从巨亏转为盈利9699万，并得以在随后发行了28亿元公司债，拯救了因大新华航空上市失败而濒临断裂的资金链。
　　买飞机的秘密
　　外界所知不多的是，融资租赁模式正是海航集团在过去十多年中实现并购扩张的“秘密武器”。
　　2011年5月，一家名为ST汇通的上市公司突然宣布了被收购重组的消息，收购方正是海航集团旗下的海航实业及其关联公司。
　　收购报告书中显示，在2011年2月更名为“海航资本（微博）控股有限公司”的海航实业，旗下拥有渤海租赁、长江租赁等六家租赁融资企业。在将渤海租赁的全部资产以定向增发方式注入ST汇通后，这家原本净资产仅为数亿元的水电设施企业，摇身一变成为了净资产六十多亿的“融资租赁第一股”。两个月后，重组完成的渤海租赁正式上市，随即投入巨资收购海航香港股权。
　　而外界所知不多的是，融资租赁模式正是海航集团在过去十多年中实现并购扩张的“秘密武器”。
　　早在海航创业时将飞机“一变二”的时代，当时的管理层就从国际投资者那里掌握了飞机融资租赁的“核心机密”：那就是在将飞机作为固定资产抵押贷款的同时，还可以将有关航线的未来收益权以“期货”方式再度抵押贷款。由于国内银行早期一般只接受固定资产抵押，所以航线收益“期权”抵押一般是由经验丰富的外资投行来完成。
　　在这种“一机两吃”的结构性融资模式下，海航将飞机采购变成了一个规模庞大的融资平台。到2000年前后已经获得了中外金融机构超过150亿元的融资额度，为其后的大规模并购提供了充足的资金保障。其出色的融资业绩曾获当年“亚洲最佳交易”和“年度融资创新”两项大奖。
　　由于飞机采购贷款的融资年限长达10至15年，获得了超额融资的海航集团得以从容地将长期贷款投入各项短期收购之中，并以后续融资的资金来偿还前期融资。
　　在这一“长贷短投”的融资租赁模式下，海航集团长期被业界视为激进的“反周期运力扩张”模式，意外地获得了新的解释：集团在市场低迷之际大规模的飞机和航材采购，不仅是扩充运力，更是偿还前期借贷和展开后续收购的重要金融杠杆。
　　回顾海航集团的扩张史，可以发现，几乎每次大规模的并购扩张，都是以金额庞大的飞机采购为其先导。而在海南航空2010年的年报中，与飞机租赁业务相关的长期借款和应付款项依然高达数百亿元。
　　据海航集团内部人士介绍，海航的采购部门“买飞机压力很大”，常常为飞机预付款和租金的周转而焦虑不安。“但老板不管，只要来了飞机，就拿去变成钱。”海航工作的重要考核指标之一，就是各部门的融资情况，“借的钱越多越好”。
　　而在过去数年中国土地和房地产价格暴涨的大背景下，海航集团以高额融资成本所收购的大量资产项目，几乎无需经营便可轻易地获取高额的资产增值溢价，更令尝到了甜头的管理层欲罢不能。
　　超级X计划
　　从飞机租赁融资到基础设施租赁，海航集团将融资租赁模式演绎到了极致，为自身打造了一个潜力无穷的金融与融资平台。通过与地方政府的合作，海航集团雄心勃勃地制定了五年内集团资产规模超万亿元的超级X计划。
　　在不断的收购扩张过程中，海航集团管理层敏锐地注意到了地方政府的某些“特殊需求”：掌握着大量土地资源的地方政府急欲推出大规模基础设施建设，但由于宏观调控政策的影响，使他们在“铁公机”（铁路、公路、机场）等基础施设建设融资方面处处受限。
　　一位海航人士向南方周末记者这样解释他的发现：“我觉得中国的航空业就像美国19世纪的西进运动一样，可能航线本身不赚钱，但是地方政府为了开通航线而拨给你的土地就值大钱了。”该人士表示，海航曾经向国外投资者宣扬这个理念，“但他们不接受”。
　　这一类似当年高铁建设的“圈地模式”，使海航集团迅速找到了与地方政府的“双赢之道”：集团以融资租赁的方式向地方政府提供资金，共同投资基础设施建设。在这一合作过程中，地方政府避开信贷政策限制，获得了大规模资金投入；而海航集团则在搭建起这一规模空前的土地融资平台之后，获得更多的收购资本与投资机会。
　　作为这一模式的先行“试点”，渤海租赁已经于2011年7月21日获得银监会批复同意，与芜湖市建设投资有限公司共同筹建“皖江金融租赁有限公司”，公司注册资本30亿元，预计投资方向正是芜湖市的市政建设投资等项目。
　　渤海租赁在借壳上市前的短短两年内，便以项目抵押等方式融资近150亿元，将母公司海航实业的资产负债收购殆尽，一举解决了海航集团的“后顾之忧”。上市后又再度出资收购海航香港全部股权，将集团在飞机采购中的负债也一并承担下来。
　　之所以有如此底气，是因为海航集团已经在前期与上百家地方政府签订合作协议，随着合作项目的大规模推出，资产规模急剧膨胀的渤海租赁不难消化掉此前收购带来的债务。
　　在这一规模空前庞大的“大故事”背景下，海航集团雄心勃勃地制定了五年内集团资产规模超万亿元的超级X计划，并将当年崛起于美国通用公司旗下的GE金融集团视为自己仿效的榜样。
　　然而曾经担任GE金融亚洲副总裁的管维立，对此却持保留态度。他对南方周末记者强调，无论是通用公司还是GE金融，本身就是企业发展的一个特例，“不是说模仿就可以模仿的”。
　　在管维立看来，中国企业的发展从过去计划经济下的过度单一，走到今天的过度多元化，已经走到了另一个极端。“中国企业应该牢牢地记住，‘资本运营’本身是个错误的概念，蕴含着非常大的风险与危险性。”
(转载)

When your brain encounters sensory stimuli, such as the scent of your morning coffee or the sound of a honking car, that input gets shuttled to the appropriate brain region for analysis. The coffee aroma（芳喷鼻） goes to the olfactory（嗅觉的） cortex, while sounds are processed in the auditory cortex. That division of labor suggests that the brain’s structure follows a predetermined, genetic blueprint. However, evidence is mounting that brain regions can take over functions they were not genetically destined to perform. In a landmark 1996 study of people blinded early in life, neuroscientists showed that the visual cortex could participate in a nonvisual function — reading Braille.Now, a study from MIT neuroscientists shows that in individuals born blind, parts of the visual cortex are recruited for language processing. The finding suggests that the visual cortex can dramatically change its function — from visual processing to language — and it also appears to overturn the idea that language processing can only occur in highly specialized brain regions that are genetically programmed for language tasks.”Your brain is not a prepackaged kind of thing. It doesn’t develop along a fixed trajectory（轨道） , rather, it’s a self-building toolkit（东西包） . The building process is profoundly influenced by the experiences you have during your development,” says Marina Bedny, an MIT postdoctoral associate in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and lead author of the study, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of Feb. 28.

Scientists have identified digoxin（地高辛） as a possible therapy for prostate cancer, using a combination of laboratory science and epidemiology that is unprecedented in its cooperative nature. “Epidemiologists and basic scientists often do not understand each other, as we often are only clear on our own strengths and the other’s weaknesses,” said Elizabeth Platz, Sc.D., M.P.H, professor of epidemiology and the Martin D. Abeloff, M.D., scholar in cancer prevention at Johns Hopkins University.For the current paper, published in Cancer Discovery, the newest journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, which will debut at the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011, Platz shares authorship with Srinivasan Yegnasubramanian, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins. Platz said the multidisciplinary team of scientists had come together to identify existing drugs that could be used to treat prostate cancer in a process called drug repositioning.”If you use drugs that are already available then you have a long history of safety research that does not necessarily need to be redone, and we can move more quickly to testing whether the drug will actually work in a new setting,” said Platz.The idea of drug repositioning has been offered before, but each branch of scientific inquiry had enough flaws that it had not previously gained substantial traction. “When we combined the basic science and the epidemiology approaches, the flaws were not the same and were covered by their respective strengths,” she said.Platz, Yegnasubramanian and colleagues from Johns Hopkins and Harvard combined a high-throughput laboratory-based screen and a large, prospective cohort study.In the first stage, the laboratory scientists conducted an in vitro prostate cancer cell toxicity screen of 3,187 compounds, and digoxin, a known heart failure drug emerged as a leading candidate due to its potency in inhibiting cell proliferation in vitro（在体外） .In the second stage, the epidemiology team observed the drug’s use in a cohort of 47,884 men who were followed from 1986 to 2006. Regular digoxin users had a 24 percent lower risk of prostate cancer, while those who had used the drug for more than 10 years had a 46 percent reduced risk.Platz said this multidisciplinary team is now working toward identifying the pathways digoxin targets in prostate cancer. Knowing the targets will help inform the design of a trial that will confirm whether digoxin or molecules acting on the same targets has utility as a prostate cancer treatment.

Pigeons may not instill（灌输，滴注） the same aura（光环，气味） of fear as a Tyrannosaurus rex, but they inherited their sense of smell from such prehistoric killers.Birds are known more for their flying abilities and their senses of vision and balance than for their sense of smell. According to conventional wisdom, the sense of smell declined during the transition from dinosaurs to birds as the senses of vision and balance were improved for flight. But new research published today by scientists at the University of Calgary, the Royal Tyrrell Museum and Ohio University suggests that millions of years ago, the winged critters（生物） also boasted a better sense for scents than their dinosaur ancestors.”It was previously believed that birds were so busy developing vision, balance and coordination for flight that their sense of smell was scaled way back,” says Dr. Darla Zelenitsky, Assistant Professor of Paleontology in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Calgary and lead author of the paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. “Surprisingly, our research shows that the sense of smell actually improved during the dinosaur-bird transition, just like vision and balance.”The research team used state-of-the-art CT scan technology to examine the skulls of dinosaurs and extinct birds to determine the size of the creatures’ olfactory bulbs, a part of the brain involved in the sense of smell. Among modern-day birds and mammals, larger bulbs correspond to a heightened sense of smell.”Of course the actual brain tissue is long gone from the fossil skulls,” says study co-author Lawrence Witmer, Chang Professor of Paleontology at the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine. “But we can use CT scanning to visualize the cavity that the brain once occupied and then generate 3D computer renderings of the olfactory bulbs（嗅球） and other brain parts.”The study of fossils revealed interesting details about the evolution of the sense of smell among early birds.”The oldest known bird, Archaeopteryx（鼻祖鸟） , inherited its sense of smell from small meat-eating dinosaurs about 150 million years ago,” says co-author Dr. François Therrien, Curator of Dinosaur Palaeoecology at the Royal Tyrrell Museum. “Later, around 95 million years ago, the ancestor of all modern birds evolved even better olfactory capabilities.”The combination of a keener sense of smell, good vision and coordination in early modern-day birds have may proved advantageous to orient themselves when flying and to look for food, mates, or suitable habitats.The team was able to compare some ancient and modern-day animals under study. They discovered that ancient birds, like Archaeopteryx, had a sense of smell similar to pigeons. “Turkey vultures and albatrosses are birds well known for their keen sense of smell, which they use to search for food or navigate over large areas,” says Zelenitsky. “Our discovery that small Velociraptor-like dinosaurs, such as Bambiraptor, had a sense of smell as developed as these birds suggests that smell may have played an important role while these dinosaurs hunted for food.”The notion that birds have a poor sense of smell may have been influenced by the birds we are most familiar with. The study found that among modern-day birds, the more primitive species, such as ducks and flamingos（火烈鸟） , have pretty large olfactory bulbs while the birds with the smallest olfactory bulbs are the ones we see every day— the perching birds (crows, finches)— at our feeders and the parrots in our bird cages. It may be no coincidence that the latter are also the cleverest birds, suggesting that enhanced smarts may decrease the need for a powerful sniffer.

Battling an illness, lack of sleep and strange surroundings can make any hospital patient feel out of sorts（表情不佳，身体不适） . For seniors, hospitalizations actually may cause temporary memory loss and difficulty in understanding discharge instructions, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study.The seniors go back to normal one month after the hospital stay, the study found. But immediately following a hospitalization is a critical time in which seniors may need extra support from healthcare professionals and family, according to Lee Lindquist, the lead author of the study, published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, March 2011.Lindquist, M.D., is an assistant professor of geriatrics（老年病学） at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.”A helper on the day of discharge could make sure a senior understands discharge instructions and help her get home and follow instructions safely,” Lindquist said. “If a patient is by herself the day of a hospital discharge, it’s possible that she won’t comprehend complicated medical instructions, increasing medication errors and chances of re-hospitalization.”More than 200 seniors, age 70 and older, who lived on their own in the Chicago area and were not diagnosed with dementia（痴呆） or other cognitive problems, took part in the study.At the time of discharge, cognition tests were administered to examine mental status. Almost one-third had low cognition that was previously unrecognized. One month later, 58 percent of those patients no longer had low cognition. They had significant improvement in areas of orientation, registration, repetition, comprehension, naming, reading, writing and calculation.Healthcare professionals need to be more aware of seniors’ thought processes on the day they are released from the hospital, Lindquist said. Screening all seniors for low cognition before they leave any hospital could help doctors and nurses flag patients in need of specialized transitional care with more frequent follow-ups in the days after hospitalization.”When the senior is no longer sick enough to be in the hospital, it doesn’t mean they’re 100 percent ready to be on their own,” Lindquist said. “It’s a critical time and they need extra support and understanding from healthcare professionals and family.”

For the first time, scientists have made star-shaped, biodegradable polymers（聚合物，高分子） that can self-assemble into hollow, nanofiber spheres, and when the spheres are injected with cells into wounds, these spheres biodegrade, but the cells live on to form new tissue. Developing this nanofiber sphere as a cell carrier that simulates the natural growing environment of the cell is a very significant advance in tissue repair, says Peter Ma, professor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and lead author of a paper about the research scheduled for advanced online publication in Nature Materials. Co-authors are Xiaohua Liu and Xiaobing Jin.Repairing tissue is very difficult and success is extremely limited by a shortage of donor tissue, says Ma, who also has an appointment at the U-M College of Engineering. The procedure gives hope to people with certain types of cartilage（软骨） injuries for which there aren’t good treatments now. It also provides a better alternative to ACI, which is a clinical method of treating cartilage injuries where the patient’s own cells are directly injected into the patient’s body. The quality of the tissue repair by the ACI technique isn’t good because the cells are injected loosely and are not supported by a carrier that simulates the natural environment for the cells, Ma says.To repair complex or oddly shaped tissue defects, an injectable cell carrier is desirable to achieve accurate fit and to minimize surgery, he says. Ma’s lab has been working on a biomimetic strategy to design a cell matrix—a system that copies biology and supports the cells as they grow and form tissue—using biodegradable nanofibers.Ma says the nanofibrous hollow microspheres are highly porous, which allows nutrients to enter easily, and they mimic the functions of cellular matrix in the body. Additionally, the nanofibers in these hollow microspheres do not generate much degradation byproducts that could hurt the cells, he says.The nanofibrous hollow spheres are combined with cells and then injected into the wound. When the nanofiber spheres, which are slightly bigger than the cells they carry, degrade at the wound site, the cells they are carrying have already gotten a good start growing because the nanofiber spheres provide an environment in which the cells naturally thrive.This approach has been more successful than the traditional cell matrix currently used in tissue growth, he says. Until now, there has been no way to make such a matrix injectable so it’s not been used to deliver cells to complex-shaped wounds.During testing, the nanofiber repair group grew as much as three to four times more tissue than the control group, Ma says. The next step is to see how the new cell carrier works in larger animals and eventually in people to repair cartilage and other tissue types.

The Antarctic Peninsula has warmed rapidly for the last half-century or more, and recent studies have shown that an adjacent（邻近的） area, continental West Antarctica, has steadily warmed for at least 30 years, but scientists haven’t been sure why. New University of Washington research shows that rising sea surface temperatures in the area of the Pacific Ocean along the equator and near the International Date Line drive atmospheric circulation that has caused some of the largest shifts in Antarctic climate in recent decades.The warmer water generates rising air that creates a large wave structure in the atmosphere called a Rossby wave train, which brings warmer temperatures to West Antarctica during winter and spring.Antarctica is somewhat isolated by the vast Southern Ocean, but the new results “show that it is still affected by climate changes elsewhere on the planet,” said Eric Steig, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences and director of the UW Quaternary Research Center.Steig is the corresponding author of a paper documenting the findings that is being published April 10 in the journal Nature Geoscience. The lead author is Qinghua Ding, a postdoctoral researcher in the UW Quaternary Research Center. Co-authors are David Battisti, a UW atmospheric sciences professor, and Marcel Küttel, a former UW postdoctoral researcher now working in Switzerland.The scientists used surface and satellite temperature observations to show a strong statistical connection between warmer temperatures in Antarctica, largely brought by westerly winds associated with high pressure over the Amundsen Sea adjacent to West Antarctica, and sea surface temperatures in the central tropical Pacific Ocean.They found a strong relationship between central Pacific sea-surface readings and Antarctic temperatures during winter months, June through August. Though not as pronounced, the effect also appeared in the spring months of September through November.The observed circulation changes are in the form of a series of high- and low-pressure cells that follow an arcing path from the tropical Pacific to West Antarctica. That is characteristic of a textbook Rossby wave train pattern, Ding said, and the same pattern is consistently produced in climate models, at least during winter.Using observed changes in tropical sea surface temperatures, the researchers found they could account for half to all of the observed winter temperature changes in West Antarctica, depending on which observations are used for comparison.”This is distinct from El Niño,” Steig said. That climate phenomenon, which affects weather patterns worldwide, primarily influences sea-surface temperatures farther east in the Pacific, nearer to South America. It can be, but isn’t always, associated with strong warming in the central Pacific.Steig noted that the influence of Rossby waves on West Antarctic climate is not a new idea, but this is the first time such waves have been shown to be associated with long-term changes in Antarctic temperature.The findings also could have implications for understanding the causes behind the thinning of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which contains about 10 percent of all the ice in Antarctica.Steig noted that the westerly winds created by the high pressure over the Amundsen Sea pushes cold water away from the edge of the ice sheet and out into the open ocean. It is then replaced by warmer water from deeper in the ocean, which is melting the seaward（临海位置） edge of the ice sheet from below.

New research suggests that people who are exposed to low levels of sunlight coupled with a history of having a common virus known as mononucleosis（单核细胞增多症） may be at greater odds of developing multiple sclerosis (MS多发性硬化) than those without the virus. The research is published in the April 19, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “MS is more common at higher latitudes, farther away from the equator,” said George C. Ebers, MD, with the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. “Since the disease has been linked to environmental factors such as low levels of sun exposure and a history of infectious mononucleosis, we wanted to see whether the two together would help explain the variance in the disease across the United Kingdom.”Infectious mononucleosis is a disease caused by the Epstein-Barr virus, which is a Herpes virus that is extremely common but causes no symptoms in most people. However, when a person contracts the virus as a teenager or adult, it often leads to infectious mononucleosis. The body makes vitamin D when exposed to ultraviolet B (UVB) light.For the study, researchers looked at all hospital admissions to National Health Service hospitals in England over seven years. Specifically, they identified 56,681 cases of multiple sclerosis and 14,621 cases of infectious mononucleosis. Scientists also looked at NASA data on ultraviolet intensity in England.The study found that adding the effects of sunlight exposure and mononucleosis together explained 72 percent of the variance in the occurrence of MS across the United Kingdom. Sunlight exposure alone accounted for 61 percent of the variance.”It’s possible that vitamin D deficiency may lead to an abnormal response to the Epstein-Barr virus,” Ebers said.He noted that low sunlight exposure in the spring was most strongly associated with MS risk. “Lower levels of UVB in the spring season correspond with peak risk of MS by birth month. More research should be done on whether increasing UVB exposure or using vitamin D supplements and possible treatments or vaccines for the Epstein-Barr virus could lead to fewer cases of MS.”

Women who choose among different breast cancer treatment options make smarter choices when getting the information and making decisions in small doses rather than all at once, as is customary, a University of Michigan study found. It’s long been known that people who aren’t good with numbers have a harder time understanding the risk information they need to make good medical decisions, says Brian Zikmund-Fisher, assistant professor at the U-M School of Public Health and a research assistant professor at the U-M Health System.Zikmund-Fisher and co-authors Peter Ubel and Andrea Angott of Duke University tested whether asking women to make a series of simpler choices rather than one complex decision would help them understand when aggressive post-surgery therapies, such as chemotherapy, actually yield larger benefits.The researchers found that the group of women in the study who weren’t good with numbers became confused when faced with as few as four treatment options at once, and chose chemotherapy regardless of whether their benefit would be 1 percent or 5 percent.A different group of women in the study received the same treatment options divided into two separate decisions. They first decided whether to take hormonal therapy, and if they said yes, they then decided whether or not to add chemotherapy. More of the women who made decisions incrementally（递增地） chose the chemotherapy only if it gave them a large benefit.”It’s obvious that you should be more interested in chemotherapy if you’re going to get a 5 percent benefit versus only a 1 percent benefit,” Zikmund-Fisher said. “That wasn’t always true for people who got all of the risk information at once. But, when we let women make their hormonal therapy choices separately from chemotherapy choices, more people wanted the treatment if it was a 5 percent benefit.”Zikmund-Fisher says the findings send a clear message about physician-patient communication.”What that tells me is that it doesn’t take very much information to be too much, especially with patients who have trouble with numbers,” he said. “When we try to provide patients with full and complete information, we often end up overwhelming them.”Even women who are good with numbers benefit from having information presented piece-by-piece because they can better understand how much benefit comes from each treatment option, Zikmund-Fisher says.He says that parceling out（分派） information to make decision-making simpler doesn’t necessarily mean more work for doctors or longer visits.”I believe that having patients make decisions one at a time might make doctors’ visits shorter rather than longer,” Zikmund-Fisher said. “When you make things simpler, you don’t have to explain it again and again.”