A biometric security system which had been developed by specialists of the Scientific Production Association “INFORMATION” was awarded the best innovation product title at the 12th International Exhibition “Guarding, Security and Fire Protection MIPS-2006”. The system’s peculiarity lies in utilization of a 3D image of the face for identification of a person. Only within a second and a half, the turnstile equipped by this system would create and analyze such image, and take a decision based on rec
The Science and Development Network (SciDev.Net) today launches a new online BIRD FLU DOSSIER designed to keep readers up-to-date on the latest information on bird flu and developing nations.
Since originating in Asia, the H5N1 bird flu virus has spread widely and is causing problems in many developing countries. The human flu pandemic that the virus could trigger will also hit these countries hardest.
There is urgent need for policymakers to make informed decisions, for scien
How do public administrations actually know what end users want and expect of their public services so as to set about satisfying their needs? An exhaustive European-wide survey of citizens’ real needs regarding services such as e-government, e-health and e-learning, goes a long way towards answering this question.
The IST-sponsored eUSER project behind the survey gathered vital data from 10 European countries on a wide range of topics. This included access technologies, use of Infor
The healthcare services of the future will place heavy demands on medical universities and the education they provide. This is the starting point for a unique training initiative between Karolinska Institutet and Harvard Medical School for people in charge of quality assurance and medical course design in wide variety of countries.
The newly started “International Design Strategies for Medical Curricula Across the Continuum” leadership programme is the first of its kind ever, and is to be
Using an entirely new technology, a research team from Umeå University in Sweden has succeeded in controlling and converting energy from the random movement of atoms.
“You could say that we have found a detox cell where drunken atoms can sober up,” says physicist Peder Sjölund. The findings are being published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
We are surrounded by random, staggering, movements. We don’t notice it, but particles collide with each other in an uncont
Until a couple of years ago, scientists thought the dark equatorial regions of Titan might be liquid oceans.
New radar evidence shows they are seas — but seas of sand dunes like those in the Arabian or Namibian Deserts, a University of Arizona member of the Cassini radar team and colleagues report in Science (May 5).
Radar images taken when the Cassini spacecraft flew by Titan last October show dunes 330 feet (100 meters) high that run parallel to each other for hund
While Earth’s ozone layer is slowly being replenished following an international 1987 agreement banning CFCs, the recovery is occurring in a changing atmosphere and is unlikely to stabilize at pre-1980 levels, says a new University of Colorado at Boulder study.
The recovery is a result of the 1987 Montreal Protocol banning chlorine pollutants from the atmosphere, said Betsy Weatherhead, a researcher with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, a
The vast loop of winds that drives climate and ocean behavior across the tropical Pacific has weakened by 3.5% since the mid-1800s, and it may weaken another 10% by 2100, according to a study led by University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) scientist Gabriel Vecchi. The study indicates that the only plausible explanation for the slowdown is human-induced climate change. The findings appear in the May 4 issue of Nature.
The Walker circulation, which spans almost half the cir
A Mayo Clinic study comparing femtosecond (bladeless) and mechanical microkeratome LASIK surgeries has found equal results from both types six months post-surgery, using a variety of vision and eye health measurements. The study’s findings will be presented next week in three abstracts at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
LASIK (Laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis) involves treating nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmati
A new radiation protection technique can significantly reduce physician radiation exposure during coronary angiography, according to a researcher at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, MD.
Using the new device, physicians monitor patients’ angiograms and control exam table movement from behind a lead plastic shield. A newly developed extension bar allows the physician to remain safely behind the shield and still retain table control for panning, acco
The repeated copying of a small segment of DNA in the genome of a primeval fish may have been crucial to the transition of ancient animals from sea to land, or to later key evolutionary changes in land vertebrates. The discovery is “tantalizing evidence” that copied DNA elements known as retroposons could be an important source of evolutionary innovations, says the director of the research, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator David Haussler.
“The big question is whether this
Malignant glioma cells in mice die by autophagy
An engineered virus tracks down and infects the most common and deadly form of brain cancer and then kills tumor cells by forcing them to devour themselves, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The modified adenovirus homed in on malignant glioma cells in mice and induced enough self-cannibalization among the cancer cells — a
Getting beaten up by the neighborhood bully so your buddy can spend time with the ladies may seem like a rough life, but that strategy not only works for some lizards, it also gives a fascinating peek into hard-wired altruism in evolutionary biology.
Side-blotched lizards spend their year on earth looking to reproduce, and their strategies have lessons about evolution. An article in the May 9 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides the first genetic
New research shows shoppers are much less likely to buy an article of clothing if they think another person has already touched it.
“Consumer contact with products is a double-edged sword. Prior research has shown people like to touch products, but now we’ve found that they really don’t like it if someone else has touched them first,” said Dr. Jennifer Argo a professor in the University of Alberta School of Business.
Argo and her colleagues found that not only
C-reactive protein might be a plausible mediator of the association
Researchers found that pregnant women with periodontitis had 65 percent higher C-reactive protein (CRP) levels compared to periodontally healthy women. This study appears in the May issue of the Journal of Periodontology (JOP).
CRP levels are a marker of systemic inflammation and are associated with periodontal disease, a chronic bacterial infection found in the gums of the mouth. CRP has also been asso
Engineers have created carpets made of tiny cylinders called carbon nanotubes to enhance the flow of heat at a critical point where computer chips connect to cooling devices called heat sinks, promising to help keep future chips from overheating.
Researchers are trying to develop new types of “thermal interface materials” that conduct heat more efficiently than conventional materials, improving overall performance and helping to meet cooling needs of future chips that will produce m
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