An innovative yarn tension measuring instrument which could help cut textile makers’ costs, has been unveiled at the University of Leeds.
Yarn tension directly affects the quality of cloth, so the device is important for textile manufacturers, in particular for British firms, many of which are specialising in the increasingly important technical textiles market.
The novelty of the instrument is that it is does not need to touch the yarn, so machines do not need to be stopped and mea
Waste is a life and death issue in less-developed countries, where poor rubbish collection and sanitation affects life expectancy. Expertise from the University of Leeds’ civil engineering department is helping transform lives by transferring knowledge on low-cost public sanitation.
Every year 1.8 million people die from diarrhoea, 90% of them children under five, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO says improved sanitation could bring these cases down by 37.5%. Translate tha
The University of Leicester has developed a new ‘air fingerprinting’ technique which can detect, in less than a minute, the ‘ingredients’ of air including that of an individual’s breath or perfume.
This technique revolutionises the speed and accuracy by which air composition can be tested and has potential applications in the environmental, industrial and medical worlds.
Scientists also believe the new development may have applications in the forensic field. For example, decomposing
Eric Drexler, known as the father of nanotechnology, today (Wednesday, 9th June 2004) publishes a paper that admits that self-replicating machines are not vital for large-scale molecular manufacture, and that nanotechnology-based fabrication can be thoroughly non-biological and inherently safe.
Talk of runaway self-replicating machines, or “grey goo”, which he first cautioned against in his book Engines of Creation in 1986, has spurred fears that have long hampered rational public debate ab
Manx shearwaters marry for life and share the incubation and feeding of their single chick. Dr Keith Hamer of Leeds University’s School of Biology has discovered that males consistently provide more food than their wives, but it’s not because they’re better parents – they just don’t listen.
By dangling microphones into burrows of nesting shearwaters, Dr Hamer and Cardiff University colleagues Petra Quillfeldt and Juan Masselo found differences in the way shearwaters respond to the begging ca
Route directions prove particularly useful for the visually impaired
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed a unique guidance system for mobile phones, directed and directing by voice. The system provides relief for the everyday life of the visually impaired, in particular for their use of public transportation, but is also suitable for guiding consumers with normal eyesight and people travelling a lot in their work.
The benefit of the guidance system develop
Making Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) less ‘nerdy’ and more fun can help increase the number of women who use computers. However more needs to be done to make women feel wanted in ICT design and development jobs. These are some of the findings of a major study known as SIGIS (Strategies of Inclusion: Gender and the Information Society).
SIGIS, made possible by a grant of €928,000 from the Information Society Technology (IST) Programme of the European Union’s Framework Prog
Global collaboration between private sector, conservation groups and academia seek practical solutions to fight global warming while conserving biodiversity and alleviating poverty
The first ever set of standards certifying land use projects that reduce global warming while conserving the environment and alleviating poverty have been opened up for global peer review and comment by the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA).
This “multiple benefit” approach which incorpor
Adolescents from five different countries had similar frequencies of violence-related behaviors, including fighting and weapon carrying, according to an article in the June issue of The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
According to information in the article, aggressive and violent behavior is a significant public health problem worldwide. The authors write: “In the United States, physical assault is the sixth leading cause of nonfatal injury
It’s readily apparent that handling two things at once is much harder than handling one thing at a time. Spend too much time trying to juggle more than one objective and you’ll end up wanting to get rid of all your goals besides sleeping. The question is, though, what makes it so hard to process two things at once?
Two theories try to explain this phenomenon: “passive queuing” and “active monitoring.” The former says that information has to line up for a chance at being processed
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have developed a blood test that can detect amplification of a certain gene found in circulating cells associated with breast cancer.
If further clinical studies bear out its effectiveness, researchers say the blood test could be used as a standard operating procedure to monitor genetic changes for which a treatment is available.
“Cancer is a moving target, and the oncologist has to know which bullet to put in his gun,” said
For one caterpillar, eating an unusual fruit may be the key to an easy food supply and protection against parasites, according to a team of Penn State researchers.
The Heliothis subflexa caterpillar is a specialist herbivore that eats only the fruit of Physalis plants which include ground cherry, tomatillo and Chinese lantern. H. subflexa’s choice of food turns out to have unusual benefits in the three-way struggle between herbivores, their predatory wasps and the plants.
“We
Using a common worm as a model, researchers from Duke University Medical Center have identified specific genes within Salmonella that give the bacteria its ability to infect host cells.
They said their findings could ultimately lead to improved drugs to prevent or treat Salmonella infections.
The researchers found four genes related to the Salmonella’s “molecular syringe” that are required for the bacteria to have maximum potency in infecting the worm, known as Caenorhabditis
NMH cardiac patients already reaping benefits of new cardiovascular institute
Just 60 days into the launch of the Northwestern Cardiovascular Institute, patients are already benefiting from its unique offering of innovative diagnostic and treatment options, including a pain relief pump and a revolutionary new magnetic resonance (MR) technology.
Cardiac patients at the Northwestern Cardiovascular Institute are among the first in the country to benefit from a pump dispense sys
Findings may explain mood and behavior changes in women
Medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), a synthetic form of the naturally occurring steroid hormone progesterone widely used in contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy (HRT), increases aggression and anxiety and reduces sexual activity in female monkeys, according to a study published in the June edition of The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. The investigators, from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago are launching a clinical trial to determine whether a drug commonly used for diabetes might be effective in treating multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that affects 350,000 Americans.
In an animal model of the disease, the researchers found that the drug reduced the inflammation of nervous tissue that occurs with multiple sclerosis and prevented the aberrant immune response that ends up destroying the body’s own brain and spina
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