A group of faculty members, headed by Nancy Kinner '80G, professor of civil engineering, has founded the UNH Bedrock
Bioremediation Center in hopes of harnessing the chemical-eating
bacteria for bioremediation of contaminated bedrock. The civil
engineers, microbiologists and earth scientists who make up the team are
among the first in the nation to make a systematic study of this process. The project has $1.6 million
in federal funding, secured with the help of U.S. Rep. John E. Sununu.
Bioremediation has been used many times to clean up hazardous waste
in soil and groundwater, but rarely in bedrock. In fact, it's nearly
impossible to clean up bedrock. "Trying to find and remove contaminants
from fractured bedrock," explains Kinner, "is like trying to operate a
tiny remote-controlled vehicle through a very complex underground maze
while you are standing 50 or 100 feet above." Yet a large percentage of
the nation's population relies on bedrock aquifers for drinking water,
and hazardous waste sites pose a serious threat to those supplies.
Kinner and her team are working at a hazardous waste site at the Pease International
Tradeport in Portsmouth, N.H. TCE was used as a degreasing agent at
the former air base, and it overflowed from a storage tank and seeped
into the ground. The civil engineers are drilling six test wells up to
100 feet into bedrock in areas with varying degrees of contamination.
They will monitor the flow of water and contaminants and study fractures
and rock surfaces in the cores of bedrock extracted from the wells.
Preliminary chemical evidence suggests that the bacteria there are
already working, albeit slowly, since the chemical has begun to degrade.
UNH microbiologist Frank Caccavo will be identifying the bacteria and
determining how the bioremediation process can be accelerated.
Although hazardous man-made substances may seem like an odd choice
of diet for bacteria, Caccavo says plants actually manufactured similar
compounds long before humans had the idea. So it wasn't much of a
stretch for bacteria to evolve with an appetite for TCE.
How could it be that TCE-devouring bacteria just happen to be
located at a place where someone just happened to spill TCE? According
to Caccavo, many kinds of bacteria survive in unexpected places -- even
thousands of feet under the ground -- in a dormant, shrunken state known
as "very ultra microbacteria," just waiting for the right meal to
appear. As a famous Danish microbiologist, Baas Becking, once said about
microbes, "Everything is everywhere. The environment selects." UNH
scientists and engineers hope to add their own phrase to the maxim: "The
environment selects. Researchers enhance."
UNH sociologist Heather Turner believes those stereotypical responses
reflect a significant difference in socialization for girls and boys.
And that difference could make girls more susceptible to depression when
they get older.
Turner's theory, discussed in a recent issue of the
Journal of
Health and Social Behavior, is one of several current explanations
for the fact that women suffer depression at higher rates than men do.
She suggests that as girls grow up, they learn to look to others to
evaluate how they are doing and how "good" they are. Boys, on the other
hand, tend to focus on tangible goals, such as athletic or academic
achievement, and to assess themselves on the basis of their performance.
"Scholars have long acknowledged differences in socialization for
girls and boys," she says. "These differences include a tendency for
girls to be more concerned with external assessments of self and have a
greater desire to please and be liked by others." As a result, Turner
suggests, girls depend more on the opinions of others to maintain their
self-esteem. While this "emotional reliance" appears to emerge at
relatively young ages, Turner also believes these gender differences are
reinforced in adulthood, putting women at greater risk for depression.
Turner teamed with other researchers to interview 1,393 adults
between the ages of 18 and 55 in Toronto, Canada. The researchers were
interested not only in gender and measures of emotional reliance, but
also in other factors including education, marital status, occupation
and household income. They found that the women in the study not only
demonstrated higher levels of emotional reliance than the men, but that
emotionally reliant women were far more likely to experience depression
than emotionally reliant men.
Turner also found that women with limited education, working in
low-paying, low-status jobs, are most disadvantaged by emotional
reliance and most at risk for experiencing symptoms of depression. She
found a shift away from emotional dependence among women with higher
levels of education. "This suggests that status in the adult world can
offset some of the early socialization that encourages dependency among
females."
"I see this as just one piece of the larger puzzle of why women have
higher rates of depression than men," says Turner. "It adds to our
understanding of the social origins of depression and how roles and
statuses affect mental health."
Though eyesight often changes with maturity, Celentano's research
goal is to determine whether eating certain fruits and vegetables can
extend strong vision into old age. Her research focuses on carotenoids:
the pigments that give certain fruit and vegetables their color and that
also have antioxidant power.
The part of the eye that makes it possible to read, recognize
someone's face and differentiate among colors is called the macular
region, which is located in the retina. This is the place where AMD
affects vision and where macular pigment is deposited. Macular pigment
is composed of the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin. Lutein is
plentiful in green leafy vegetables, such as collards, kale, spinach and
broccoli, while zeaxanthin is prevalent in yellow and orange fruits and
vegetables.
"We are looking at dietary and lifestyle factors that enhance
pigment deposition. Ultimately the research will try to determine if
there is a link between pigment deposition and disease," Celentano says.
Since the late '80s, Celentano has measured the carotenoid levels in
the blood and diet of many healthy volunteers. She works in
collaboration with UNH professor of psychology Kenneth Fuld, a vision
scientist who measures the macular pigment of the research participants.
"While diet is important, it is obviously not the only factor
affecting long-term vision health. We are trying to understand what
influences macular pigment density and to determine if macular pigment
is directly or indirectly related to disease risk," Celentano explains.
"This is going to help us to understand the physiological effects of
dietary carot-enoids, and it may help us to understand more about the
risk of eye disease."
Because more than 13 million Americans have some level of
age-related macular degeneration, which has no real cure, it is
important to determine if simple lifestyle changes can prolong vision
health. Not smoking is one way to do that: scientists have shown a
direct link between tobacco use and macular disease and cataracts. It
looks as though increasing carotenoid intake from food or supplements
may help, too.
"I'm totally comfortable in saying an increased consumption of
fruits and vegetables is good advice for maintaining health as we age.
In addition, it may actually help prolong long-term vision health,"
Celentano says. "This is just one more reason to give spinach a try."
Editor's note: Celentano needs volunteers between the ages of 52 and
65 to assist in her research. To volunteer, contact Ph.D. candidate
Joanne Burke at jburke@cisunix.unh.edu or call
(603) 862-3182.
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