News Briefs

500-year-old seeds germinate

An international team led by UCLA scientists germinated lotus
seeds nearly 500 years old from lotus fruits recovered from an
ancient lotus lake in northeastern China ““ the first time new
plants have been raised from parents so old.

“The cultivation of offspring from old seeds radiocarbon
dated at between 200 and 500 years of age is a first in plant
biology,” said UCLA research biologist Jane Shen-Miller, lead
author of the research, published in the February issue of the
American Journal of Botany.

Shen-Miller led a team that traveled in 1996 to the village of
Xipaozi in Pulandian, Liaoning province, China, to search for
ancient lotus seeds.

New procedure for heart defect

Cardiologists at UCLA’s Mattel Children’s Hospital
announced Feb. 21 that they are one of the first approved sites
nationwide ““ and the only center in the Los Angeles region
““ to provide patients with a dramatically less-invasive
alternative to open-heart surgery for patients with atrial septal
defects (ASD), a common and potentially fatal congenital heart
abnormality.

The American Heart Association estimates that annually 40,000
people are born with heart defects.

Of that number, an estimated 10 percent have an ASD ¾, an
opening in the septum, or wall, dividing the heart’s upper
chambers.

“The Amplatzer Septal Occluder is an extremely safe and
effective treatment for this common heart defect in both pediatric
and adult patients,” said Dr. John Moore, professor of
pediatrics, UCLA School of Medicine and director of pediatric
cardiac catheterization, Mattel Children’s Hospital at
UCLA.

“And, because it’s a minimally invasive procedure,
patients will find it a welcome alternative to open-heart
surgery.”

Most commonly diagnosed in infants and children, ASD causes
increased blood flow into the heart’s right side, forcing it
to work harder than normal.

Left untreated, ASD can lead to heart arrhythmias, heart
failure, high blood pressure, stroke, even death.

The Amplatzer Septal Occluder is a self-expanding device
designed to occlude ““ or close ““ ASD.

Activist speaks for veganism

Advocating veganism and denouncing the Animal Welfare Act,
animal rights activist Gary Yourofsky spoke in Bruin Plaza
yesterday at the Students for Animal Liberation event for animal
rights. 

Yourofsky cited environmental and health concerns with eating
meat, and said humans are not natural carnivores. 

Eating meat is a learned behavior, he said, telling the small
crowd to explore alternatives like soy and tofu.

Yourofsky who calls himself “the most outspoken and
radical activist in the state of Michigan,”Â said he does
not support the AWA because it encourages scientists to say
“leave us alone, we’re in complete compliance with the
AWA.”

Students submit business plans

The National Social Venture Competition, a partnership of the
Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley,
Columbia Business School, and The Goldman Sachs Foundation, has
attracted 77 business plan submissions for its spring 2002
competition ““ a 140 percent increase from last year ““
from 31 business schools.

The National Social Venture Competition is the only business
school competition to foster the creation of for ““ profit and
nonprofit ventures that incorporate both financial sustainability
or profitability and quantifiable social or environmental returns
into their business missions.

The competition began in 1999 as a student ““ organized
nationwide social venture competition at the Haas School of
Business. It was expanded nationally in 2001 in order to build a
national platform for social entrepreneurship.

With reports from Daily Bruin staff and wire services.