The new standard for broadcasting digital video to future mobile phones, PDAs and laptops, DVB-H, is now almost complete. The next step is to begin testing the technology, and here the INSTINCT project will continue its key role.
Many industry observers see the broadcasting of video to mobile phones as the next logical development for the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) standard. Broadcasting digital video over the existing wireless telecom networks brings a number of technica
As Hurricane Wilma barrels towards the Florida coast, a last-minute acquisition by a unique instrument aboard ERS-2 is helping strengthen weather forecasters’ final predictions of its future course and strength.
The ERS-2 radar scatterometer data shown here was acquired by the satellite on 04:30 UTC this morning (06:30 CEST), then relayed via the ground station of the Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing (CSTARS) at the University of Miami to be speedily p
Scientists have discovered that schizophrenia sufferers are not fooled by a visual illusion and are able to judge it more accurately than non-schizophrenic observers. The study by UCL (University College London) and King’s College London suggests that in everyday life, schizophrenics take less account of visual context. If this is part of a more general failure to deal appropriately with context, it could explain why some sufferers might misattribute people’s actions or feel persecuted.
With a quarter of the Earth’s land surface affected, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification regards desertification as a worldwide problem. Delegates from the 170-plus signatories to the Convention currently gathered in Nairobi have been briefed by ESA representatives and national partners on how satellites are being used to track desertification in Europe.
The Seventh Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 7) of the United Nations Convention to Comb
Hip replacement outcomes could become far more predictable thanks to a revolutionary virtual surgery system developed by European researchers.
The IST-funded MULTISENSE project combined virtual reality, force-feedback systems, tissue profiling and stereoscopic vision to create virtual patients that mimic the tissue of real patients. Surgeons can now perform a hip-replacement operation on a virtual copy of their real patient.
More importantly, after the virtual surgery doc
A new device that uses near-infrared light to non-invasively monitor the oxygenation of the brain during surgery appears to be a promising alternative to the more invasive techniques currently in use, according to a new study by Duke University Medical Center anesthesiologists.
The researchers said their findings offer the potential for accurate and reliable monitoring of brain oxygenation during cardiac surgeries, to more effectively protect the brain against reduced oxygen l
White-tailed deer, it seems, are homebodies.
That is the upshot of an intensive study of the traveling behaviors of 173 radio-collared white-tailed deer in south central Wisconsin. The new results, which surprised researchers by revealing how little deer move about the landscape, are important because they may help researchers and wildlife managers better understand how chronic wasting disease (CWD) spreads.
“They are using small home ranges and not traveling long distan
How does a wound in certain plants like roses and grapevines develop into a tumor? The answer appears to lie in a common soil bacterium that is able to “smell” the wound and speed up the infection process.
Cornell University microbiologist Steve Winans says that the pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens enters the wound where it copies the genes required for infection, which can slip into the plant’s cells and their nuclear DNA, causing a cancer-like disease called crown gall. The
Nanorobot fabrication makes ultrasmall sensors possible
How do you build an infrared (IR) camera that is small enough to fit on a mini-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) without cryogenic cooling? Call in the nanobots.
Researchers working with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) have developed a way to build extremely small sensors using nanorobot fabrication. This new process, created by Harold Szu and James Buss of ONR and implemented by Xi Ning of Michigan State University, a
Cocaine causes specific alterations in the brain’s circuitry at a genetic level, including short-term changes that result in a high from the cocaine, as well as long-term changes seen in addiction, researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
Such findings suggest possible new directions for treatments for addiction to the drug, they said.
In a study available online and in the Oct. 20 issue of Neuron, UT Southwestern researchers used rodents to pinp
You fill up your “empty” fuel tank at the gas station and the pump charges you for more gallons than the tank’s rated capacity. Are you being deliberately overcharged?
Unauthorized tampering with pumps does happen, even though state and local weights and measures officials regularly check gasoline pumps to ensure their accuracy. But there are also legitimate reasons for a discrepancy between the amount of fuel metered by a gas pump and an automobile’s rated fuel ta
Lidocaine and similar local anesthetics are effective for treating pain that emanates from damaged nerves, according to a systematic review of current evidence.
Neuropathic pain, which can occur with chronic diseases or conditions, is frequently unresponsive to treatment and worsens over time.
“Intravenous lidocaine and oral derivatives relieve pain from damage to the nervous system,” found authors Ivo W. Tremont-Lukats, M.D., of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Hou
Ten genes that may make patients more or less susceptible to a common anesthetic agent have been identified by researchers using tiny worms and sophisticated technology that eliminates the activity of individual genes.
“We are anesthetizing 25 million patients a year in the United States alone; we put them to sleep and wake them up and we still don’t know a lot about why it happens,” said Dr. Steffen E. Meiler, vice chair of research for the Medical College of Georgia Departmen
Inhaling a small dose of nitric oxide gas may one day help sickle cell patients avoid pain crises and live healthier lives, researchers say.
Nitric oxide may help normalize a sickle cell patient’s hemoglobin by restoring the natural charge and shape to the oxygen-carrying component of red blood cells, Medical College of Georgia researchers have found.
“Hemoglobin S plus nitric oxide behaves much like normal adult hemoglobin, which does not sickle,” says Dr. C. Alvin
Although exercise can trigger asthma attacks in some people, a new review of studies has found that exercise improved cardiopulmonary fitness in people with asthma.
“It’s safe for patients with asthma to exercise regularly,” according to lead reviewer Felix S.F. Ram, M.D., of Massey University in New Zealand. “In our study, those who did showed an increased ability to take up oxygen. They improved their ventilation, which led to improved cardiopulmonary fitness. We found n
Scientists find structure relevant to cell growth and cancer
Researchers discovered a special type of molecular structure that helps keep genes properly turned off until the structure is ejected from those genes in a regulated manner to help turn the genes on. The discovery is reported in the Oct. 21 issue of the journal Cell by scientists from the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah.
In all organisms, the genome is split into chromosomes (compressed long
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