The ROBOTIKER Technological Centre is undertaking a Project involving Recognition of the Person and Adaptation to the Environment
The interacting of users with intelligent environments can be divided into three phases: recognising the person, adapting to the person and interacting with them. The ADAPTA project, being developed by ROBOTIKER Technological Centre, involves the first two phases of interacting with intelligent environments, i.e. recognition of the person and adaptation to
Tomorrow, on June 8, beginning shortly after 5 hrs UT, a large part of the world will be sharing a unique sight never seen by any person now living. During a little more than six hours, planet Venus will cross the face of the Sun, offering a wonderful show for everybody to admire. Nobody should miss the opportunity to witness this great event! And – good luck! – it appears that the observing condition prospects are rather favourable in large areas of the world.
Nevertheless, should you be as
Samples of diesel exhaust particles (DEP) collected from automobiles and forklifts varied widely in both their composition and their toxicity, according to a pair of studies published today in the June issue of the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP). The studies show that the two samples of DEP have different physical and chemical properties, as well as different mutagenic effects in bacteria and pulmonary toxicity effects in mice. The results confirm that DEP can be highl
When ESA’s Huygens spaceprobe, travelling on board NASA’s Cassini spacecraft en route to Saturn, lands on the planet’s largest moon Titan in January 2005, not only will it carry a variety of scientific instruments, but also music ‘made in Europe’.
Four musical themes composed by French musicians Julien Civange and Louis Haéri were placed on board ESA’s Huygens probe in October 1997. After a seven-year and 4000 million kilometre journey, the music will reach Titan on 14 January 200
When it comes to outdoor recreation, men and women differ not just in the activities they choose, but also in the way they perceive questions about how they spend their free time, according to Penn State researchers.
“We know there are differences in the way men and women respond to questions about outdoor activities,” says Laurlyn K. Harmon, graduate student in leisure studies. “But do they also differ in the way they are interpreting the questions? A simple question could result in systema
Proteins critical for compacting DNA in preparation for cell division actually interact with the double helix to fashion it into a kind of “molecular Velcro,” researchers have discovered.
The proteins, called condensins, are important for a variety of housekeeping processes in chromosomes, but the mechanics behind their function have been largely unknown. When the researchers alternately stretched and compressed a single molecule of DNA with condensins attached, they found that the DNA exten
In a remarkable collaboration between engineers, physicists and biologists, Princeton scientists have invented a device that rapidly sorts microscopic particles into extremely fine gradations of sizes, opening a range of potential uses.
The researchers have used the device to sort particles ranging in size from bacterial cells to large segments of DNA and reported their results in the May 14 issue of Science. The technology could greatly accelerate the work of sequencing genomes and could f
By exploiting the weird quantum behavior of atoms, physicists at the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a new technique that someday could be used to save weeks of measurements needed to operate ultraprecise atomic clocks. The technique also could be used to improve the precision of other measurement processes such as spectroscopy.
The technique, described in today’s issue of Science, effectively turns atoms into better frequency s
Dementia in AIDS patients is caused by a large, late invasion of HIV-infected macrophages–large, long-lived cells of the immune system that travel throughout the body and ingest foreign antigens to protect against infection–into the brain, according to researchers at Temple University’s Center for Neurovirology and Cancer Biology (http://www.temple.edu/cnvcb/), debunking a longstanding “Trojan Horse” theory that early infection by macrophages remains latent until the latter stages of AIDS.
One of the most common challenges facing oncologists today is determining the best course of treatment for their patients – one that would be effective and have the fewest possible side effects. In a study presented today at the 40th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in New Orleans, Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers have identified genetic markers in the blood that can help predict a patient’s response to and side effects from irinotecan, a common chemotherapy drug fo
Survival, toxicity greater in Japanese patients, “common arm” analysis shows
A chemotherapy regimen commonly used to treat non-small cell lung cancer is both more effective and more toxic in Japanese patients than in American patients, researchers reported Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists. The first of its kind, this analysis underscores the importance of genetic variations in medicine and points to a need for increased international colla
Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have identified a biomarker that can predict how well individual colon cancer patients will respond to a common chemotherapy regimen. This finding is a significant step forward in the goal of personalizing cancer treatment. Medical oncologist Neal J. Meropol, M.D., director of the gastrointestinal cancer program at Fox Chase, presented the study today in New Orleans at the 40th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
The study invo
Researchers at the Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine and the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University and the Ireland Cancer Center at University Hospitals of Cleveland report progress toward the goal of employing gene therapy to help protect the bone marrow cells of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Stanton Gerson, M.D., professor of medicine, has been leading the effort to introduce a gene into bone marrow cells that would protect the cells a
A new and experimental breast cancer drug called lapatinib inhibited tumor growth in nearly half of women who took it for eight weeks in a national Phase I clinical trial, according to results of a study being presented at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in New Orleans.
Kimberly Blackwell, M.D., an oncologist from the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, presented data showing that 46 percent of breast cancer patients who took the oral drug for eight weeks had stable d
Early testing of an experimental human monoclonal antibody showed a striking benefit in patients with advanced melanoma, say researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, who presented their findings at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Of 39 patients given a single injection of CP-675,206 (known as CP-675), tumors disappeared in three patients, shrunk in a fourth patient, and cancer stopped growing in five other patients. These response
A University of Arizona graduate student may be the first eyewitness to the birth of a new species. Her new findings, appearing in the June 7, 2004 Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, could help biologists identify and understand the precise genetic changes that lead a species to evolve into two separate species.
Laura K. Reed and her advisor, Regents’ Professor Therese Markow, made the discovery by observing breeding patterns of fruitflies that live among rotting cacti in wester
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