In one of the most important moves to bring together national supercomputing infrastructures to advance science and technology in Europe, several leading European HPC centres devised an innovative strategy to build a terascale supercomputing facility with continental scope, called Distributed European Infrastructure for Supercomputing Applications (DEISA).
Led by IDRIS-CNRS (France) the DEISA project started its activities in May 2004 with eight partners: FZJ and RZG in Germany, CI
The numbers of people suffering from stroke and dementia continue to rise as the population of the UK ages, but at present our ability to repair a damaged brain is limited. Now a new centre at King’s College London brings leading clinical researchers and basic scientists under one roof, with the aim of developing treatments for age-related diseases.
The Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, opened by HRH The Princess Royal on 9 November 2004, houses world experts in brain develo
A revolutionary new invention in optics which will lead to the production of energy efficient, low cost, high performance, large flat screens for information displays, educational displays and ultimately home cinema/TV, could soon be on the way thanks to NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) – the organisation that champions UK creativity and innovation.
A small Cambridge-based start-up, CamFPD, have received an investment of £150,000 from NESTA to he
An environmentally-friendly method of recycling tyres, which would help solve a growing waste problem across the globe, could soon be on the way thanks to some new technology supported by NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) – the organisation that champions UK innovation and creativity.
NESTA have invested £70,000 from its Invention and Innovation programme, in UTDR Research, based in Flintshire, North Wales, who are developing the new recycling sy
A new modeling framework suggests that climate change alone could cause a 4.5% increase in the number of summer ozone-related deaths across the New York metropolitan region by the year 2050, according to a study published today in the November issue of the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP). When population growth and projected growth in greenhouse gas emissions are factored in, the model predicts a 59.9% increase in summer ozone-related deaths by 2050.
Long-term exposure to a synthetic estrogen at levels below those currently found in the environment may have a major impact on fish populations, according to a study accepted today for publication in the December issue of the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP). The study shows that ethynylestradiol, a potent form of estrogen used in oral contraceptives, can produce sexually compromised males.
Researchers exposed zebrafish to low concentrations of the horm
A new study finds tobacco may act as an environmental trigger for patients with an inherited genetic predisposition to pancreatic cancer. The authors of the report say the findings underscore the importance of strongly counseling patients with a family history of pancreatic cancer to avoid smoking. The study will be published in the December 15, 2004 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. A free abstract of this study will be available via the CANCER News Room
A new study finds surgery to transplant an ovary to the upper arm is feasible and preserves hormonal function in women undergoing treatment for cervical cancer. The report details the technical procedure and outcome of only the second successful human ovarian autotransplantation in the world. The study will be published in the December 15, 2004 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. A free abstract of this study will be available via the CANCER News Room upon o
Gaining 15 pounds or more over several years is the major contributor to progression of risk factors for heart disease and development of metabolic syndrome, while maintaining a stable weight — even in individuals considered obese – significantly reduces those risks, according to a study led by a Northwestern University researcher.
Donald Lloyd-Jones, M.D., assistant professor of preventive medicine and of medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, pr
Chemists at the University of California, San Diego have developed a method that uses dust-sized chips of silicon to surround and precisely direct the motion of molecules, cells, bacteria and other miniscule objects within a tiny drop of liquid.
Their development of these tiny silicon “chaperones,” detailed today in an advance online publication in a forthcoming issue of the journal Nature Materials, represents an important new achievement in the emerging field of “microfluidic
While the placement of stents in newly reopened coronary arteries has been shown to reduce the need for repeat angioplasty procedures, researchers from the Duke Clinical Research Institute have found that stents have no impact on mortality over the long term.
In the largest such analysis of its kind, the Duke researchers said their findings have important economic and clinical implications for physicians who are deciding whether their heart patients should receive coronary arte
As middle-aged men’s weight goes up, so do their monthly costs for prescription drugs to treat heart disease risk factors and weight-related conditions, according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2004. In a study of 328 men who participated in a health screening, normal-weight men spent an average of $22.84 per month at the pharmacy. Overweight men averaged $39.27 per month, and obese men spent $80.31 per month – about 3.5 times what their n
Air pollution may trigger and accelerate narrowing of carotid arteries, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2004.
Researchers found an association between long-term air pollution exposure and the early stages of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). “We knew that people in more polluted areas die earlier from cardiovascular disease, but it was not clear how early in the disease process air pollution contributes. Our stu
In what could be termed a truly seminal discovery, researchers have shown that when females are more promiscuous, males have to work harder — at the genetic level, that is. More specifically, they determined that a protein controlling semen viscosity evolves more rapidly in primate species with promiscuous females than in monogamous species. The finding demonstrates that sexual competition among males is evident at the molecular level, as well as at behavioral and physiological levels.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have shown that genetic testing can be effectively used to distinguish between heart failure patients who suffer from ischemic or nonischemic forms of the disease. Using groupings or clusters of a patient’s gene expression to compare to a diseased “test” set that identifies the cause of heart failure, the Hopkins team assembled a 90-gene profile to determine which type of heart failure had most likely developed. Results showed the test profile to be highly accu
Finding by Emory University scientists has implications for vaccines, antiviral therapies and cancer treatment
Immune T cells that respond to chronic viral infections do not acquire the same “memory” capabilities of T cells that respond to acute viral infections, according to research by scientists at Emory University. The finding may explain why people lose their immunity to some viruses after chronic infections are controlled. It could guide scientists in developing better ther
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