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By Judy Siegel, The Jerusalem Post

Bringing back 3,500 Israeli scientists and researchers and 20,000 hi-tech professionals who have left the country must be an urgent national target, Science and Technology Minister Ghaleb Majadleh said in the Knesset on Monday in a special session of the Knesset Science and Technology Committee.

The session was held to mark the fifth anniversary of the death of Israel’s first astronaut, Col. Ilan Ramon, in the failed Columbia space shuttle mission with colleagues from the US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Two NASA astronauts – Sunita Williams and Michael Lopez-Alegria – were present at the meeting along with European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Gerhard Thiele, NASA scientist Nagin Cox and family members of fallen American astronauts.

NUL-NRP MK Benny Elon asked the astronauts to help Israel in getting another Israeli admitted to the NASA space program.

NASA astronauts flank Science and Technology Minister Ghaleb Majadleh.
Photo: Sasson Tiram

Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik asked what astronauts eat during their flights when they spent half a year or more in a space station. She was told that a supply ship arrives periodically and brings fresh fruit and vegetables, along with other staples. “It is fresh produce that we miss the most,” said Williams.

Thiele disclosed that talks about cooperation between the ESA and the Israel Space Agency were taking place.

Ramon’s widow Rona, who has maintained much interest and links with NASA astronauts, said that the “joint tragedy has turned us into a warm and loving family.”

By ISRAEL 21ST Century, www.Israel21c.com

The devastating Hurricane Katrina may not have been preventable back in 2005, but if a new concept developed in Israel to zap the strength from hurricanes proves functional, it could prevent future natural disasters from wreaking such extensive damage.

According to noted Israeli weather specialist Prof Daniel Rosenfeld of Hebrew University, seeding a hurricane with microscopic dust could sharply reduce its force.

Satellite view of Hurricane Katrina

The findings of his study – which showed that dust dropped into the lower part of Hurricane Katrina would have reduced wind speeds and diverted its course – were presented last month at the European Conference on Severe Storms in Trieste, Italy.

Rosenfeld’s concept, which was developed with several colleagues, builds on empirical research which shows that large dust clouds from Africa tend to hinder the formation deep storm clouds and hinder the formation of hurricanes when tropical systems are crossing the Atlantic.

He showed in computer simulations that sowing tiny moisture-seeking particles into the lower reaches of a hurricane would prevent the formation of rain and reduce temperatures, starving the storm of its source of energy.

The process “creates clouds with a large number of small drops that fall very slowly, floating with air molecules, and are less likely to collide with each other and coalesce into rain drops,” Rosenfeld told AFP.

Rosenfeld first tested his model in a control run in an attempt to recreate the conditions of Katrina, which was successful. When he then factored in the effect of cloud seeding – taking into account the impact of sea spray, which would reduce the desired effect – the radius of hurricane-force winds shrunk by at least 25 percent, with wind speeds reduced throughout the hurricane.

“That would affect mainly the sea surge, which means less rising of the water, which might have made the difference in New Orleans,” Rosenfeld said.

The simulated path of the weakened storm curved north as compared to Katrina, and would have made landfall about 130 miles east of New Orleans.

According to Rosenfeld, it would take five to 10 Lockheed C-130s cargo planes to disperse some 200 tons per hour of particles so small – less than one millionth of a metre across – that they would be emitted in the form of smoke. The planes would be hundreds of miles from the eye of the hurricane.

Trying to extend the practice of cloud seeding – commonly used both to make or impede precipitation – to hurricanes, has been a scientific endeavor since the 1960s, when the US government ran a series of experiments called ‘Stormfury’ that attempted to decrease hurricane force by artificially stimulating convection – the vertical transfer of heat and moisture – outside the wall which encases the eye of the storm. The idea, which was abandoned after four tests, was to expand the size of the eye, typically 10 to 40 miles in diameter, and thus slow the destructive winds that swirl around the eyewall.

“I tried to fix some of the problems that prevented Stormfury from working,” he said, adding that he was inspired ain after observing that smoke from forest fires can prevent warm rain from tropical clouds.

Rosenfeld, who has won many awards for his work, including the Schaefer and Thunderbird awards from the Weather Modification Association and the Verner Suomi Medal of the American Meteorological Society, has been studying this field for many years. In 2000 he used satellite data to show that urban pollution was reducing the size of water droplets inside clouds and proposed that this would reduce precipitation from short-lived clouds in hilly regions.

In a follow-up study carried out with Chinese researchers, Rosenfeld discovered that airborne particulate pollution from China’s factories and vehicles is seriously reducing rainfall in hilly areas of the country, a phenomenon that will have dire consequences for water resources.

By Julie Stahl, Cybercast News Service Jerusalem Bureau Chief

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – Some Israeli lawmakers are seizing on archeology as a way to fight Prime Minister Olmert’s apparent plan to divide the city of Jerusalem.

The Knesset members see archeological digs as the best way to illustrate the link between the Jewish people, Jerusalem and the Land of Israel — and to mobilize public opinion against the division of Jerusalem.

The revival of the archeology lobby in the last few weeks comes ahead of the U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian summit, which is supposed to take place in Annapolis, Maryland, before the end of the year.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has indicated that he is willing to divide Jerusalem, keeping Jewish neighborhoods under Israeli control and giving Arab neighborhoods to the control of a future Palestinian state.

The archeology lobby wants to steer Israeli citizens against the idea, said Yigal Amitay, a spokesman for Knesset Member Uri Ariel of the rightwing National Union/National Religious Party.

In almost every place where archeological digging is taking place throughout Israel, archeologists are uncovering Jewish artifacts and history. But there is no place in the entire country where Palestinian history is unearthed, said Amitay.

The more archeological artifacts that are uncovered, Amitay said, the harder it will be for Olmert to gain Jewish support for making a deal on Jerusalem, he said.

Ten of the 13 lobby members toured archeological sites in and around the ancient Old City of Jerusalem.

Outside the Old City, the lawmakers visited the two-month-old excavation of Jerusalem’s ancient water system. The system was not only used to carry away rainwater. According to the writings of Josephus Flavius, it also was a hiding place and escape route for Jews fleeing the Roman destruction of the city around 70 A.D, said archeologist Eli Shukron. [see related story, Dec ’06 Levitt Letter, pg. 11]

Inside the Old City, opposite the Western Wall, the Knesset members visited one of the largest excavations carried out by the official Israel Antiquities Authority in the last 20 years. The excavation dates to the Roman colonization of Jerusalem (70-292 A.D.), said IAA Archeologist Jon Seligman.

Rabbi Nissim Ze’ev from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which is currently a coalition partner in Olmert’s government, said the stones themselves “testify to the history of the Jewish people in this place.”

“The Jewish people were here a long time before the Palestinians arrived,” Ze’ev told Cybercast News Service. But that is not the way that the Palestinians want to view it. They insist that the Jews arrived in 1948 when the State of Israel was created, he said.

Palestinian officials, starting with former PLO leader Yasser Arafat, have claimed that Jewish Temples never stood on the Temple Mount. In fact, two successive Jewish temples were located there before and during the time of Jesus.

Palestinian denials are seen by many people as an attempt to de-legitimize Israel’s right to exist. If the Jewish people have no historical connection to the land, then there would have been no reason to establish a Jewish state here, the argument goes.

Archeologists also have criticized the Israeli government for failing to stop renovations by Islamic religious authorities on the Temple Mount. They say the renovations have led to the destruction of countless antiquities.

The lawmakers’ visit to the Old City digs “has everything to do with Annapolis and nothing to do with Annapolis,” said Knesset member Arieh Eldad, a member of the rightwing National Union/National Religious Party.

“We step on remains of more than 4,000 years of our history. My ability to be part of the Jewish nation is based on the stones that we step on,” said Eldad. Olmert has no mandate to give up Jerusalem in the name of the Jewish people, he said.

“The U.S. is making a huge mistake because they are trying to push a very short-sighted political achievement when they try to press Israel to [make] concessions in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria [West Bank],” said Eldad.

If Israel turns over more land in the West Bank, it will lead to the creation of a second Hamas state there, he warned.

Eldad charged that Israel should not listen to the advice of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, since she has twice pressured Israel into making concessions that turned out to be disastrous.

When she was National Security Advisor, Rice pressed Israel to allow Hamas to take part in Palestinian elections. Hamas won a stunning victory (and eventually took over the Gaza Strip).

Rice also was the key player in drafting an agreement that forced Israel to pull out of the Rafah passage between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. That has led to massive smuggling of weapons, explosives and Iranian training and know-how into the Gaza Strip, Israeli military officials say.

“Her previous advice in this area [was] a fiasco,” said Eldad. “Why should we listen this time?”

By Nicky Blackburn, www.Israel21c.com

The best thing to do if you suffer peripheral arterial disease (PAD), a chronic condition that happens when a plaque blockage occurs in a peripheral artery in the legs or pelvis, is to walk. Walk, and walk, and walk. The act of walking enlarges and expands the small blood vessels around the artery, ensuring that you receive a steady flow of blood to the lower extremities despite the plaque blockage.

For some patients with PAD, however, walking just isn’t possible. Perhaps they have an injury or swelling, perhaps they are elderly or diabetic. The upshot is that oxygen-rich blood does not reach the lower limbs. This causes pain, changes in skin color, ulcers and difficulty in walking. But if the plaque blockage — made of fats and cholesterol — grows large enough to completely block the artery or ruptures to form a blood clot, the result is a total loss of circulation to the legs and feet, which can cause gangrene and amputation.

Nearly 12 million Americans now suffer from PAD, and experts predict this number will rise to 19 million. While there are existing treatments including angioplasty, atherectomy, or bypass for some of these people, for the 750,000 patients whose condition has deteriorated into critical limb ischemia (CLI), there is no existing therapy. These ‘no-option’ patients are not candidates for conventional treatments, have an alarming mortality rate, and face imminent amputation. Every year in America some 187,000 no-option patients undergo amputation of a lower limb.

Now Israeli start-up PerAssist has developed a new treatment that may give these no-option patients a chance to save their limbs. The company’s innovative peri-arterial booster device called PeriBoost improves blood flow to the lower limbs of PAD patients in much the same way that walking does.

A PeriBoost sleeve is fitted around a major, intact, healthy blood vessel — usually the femoral or iliac arteries — near the diseased peripheral region using a minimally invasive laparoscopic procedure. A balloon is then inserted between the artery and the sleeve, and is held in place by the sleeve. The balloon is inflated and deflated in synchronization with the patient’s heart beat. An external control device includes an ECG.

The PeriBoost enlarges and expands the small blood vessels around the artery, ensuring that you receive a steady flow of blood to the lower extremities despite the plaque blockage.

This pumping action squeezes the blood downstream, ensuring that blood flow in the artery is maximized. By doing this it enlarges the small arteries around the blockage, bringing more blood down to the lower limbs.

“We aren’t treating the block,” says Roni Bibi, the CEO of PerAssist, “We are bringing more blood downstream, enlarging the velocity and flow to the small arteries by about 90 percent, to recover the leg and avoid amputation.”

The treatment, which has not yet undergone clinical trials and is designed for the legs only, is designed to be carried out daily for three hours over three months. It is not painful, according to Bibi, and the patient can function normally throughout the procedure.

“The blood vessel is not like a muscle, it has no sensors or nerves. All we are doing is pushing it and this does not cause any pain,” Bibi tells ISRAEL21c. “The patient can eat, sleep, read – whatever they want. They won’t feel a thing.”

PeriBoost compares well to existing treatments. For example, it does not require arteries to be incised or perforated, and therefore does not damage artery walls. In one treatment, a doctor will drill inside the artery, remove the blockage and clean the artery from the inside. This is major invasive surgery, can only be carried out in the upper leg, and often ends up as nothing more than temporary relief as the same area becomes quickly blocked again. Stents and bypass surgery are also significant surgical events, and very problematic for the elderly or diabetic.

PeriBoost is likely to be much cheaper than any of these existing treatments, and it can be left in place for future use if peripheral vessels become re-occluded. The only main drawback to PeriBoost is that treatment is slow — three months, rather than a few days of recovery after one surgery.

The idea for PeriBoost came from Dr. Aaron Hoffman, the company’s chief medical officer and director of the department of vascular surgery and transplantation at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, and a friend of his, water engineer, Gaby Weizman. Hoffman, who is also an associate professor at the faculty of medicine at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and has been involved in cutting-edge vascular medicine for over 20 years, recognized the problems in this field for no-option patients and turned to his friend to see if they could come up with a joint solution. In 2005 PerAssist was set up at the Misgav Venture Accelerator. Bibi joined the company as its CEO.

In the last two years the company has taken its device through successful animal trials. “It was the first medical device proven to increase the Ankle Brachial Index [ABI the golden standard for PAD diagnosis] on a large animal model,” says Bibi.

The company now plans to raise an additional investment of $1.5 million to fund it through clinical trials, which are expected to be held in Switzerland, Germany and Italy. The company aims to receive CE approval in the first stage, and afterwards look for FDA approval. If all goes according to plan, the product could be out in the European market by the end of next year, and in the US in 2009.

“This is a good project and it can help a lot of people,” says Bibi. “For so many patients there is no solution today except amputation. We are holding out the promise of an alternative.”