Collaborative project promises new approach to battling fires
Someday fire fighters will be able to manage wildfires by computer.
Rochester Institute of Technology recently won a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to translate remote-sensing data about wildfires into real-time “mini-movies” that fire managers can download on laptop computers at the scene of a blaze. The model and visualization will predict the fire’s behavior for the following hour.
Deep brain stimulation via electrodes implanted on both sides of the brain markedly improves the motor skills of patients with advanced Parkinson’s Disease, says a new long-term study by researchers at the University of Toronto and Toronto Western Hospital.
“We saw a pronounced decrease in the motor scores associated with Parkinson’s Disease – the tremors, stiffness and slowness – and this benefit was persistent through the course of the long-term followup,” says Dr. Anthony Lang,
Discovery holds immediate promise for diagnosis & treatment of hereditary spastic paraplegia
A single mutation in a single gene is enough to slowly rob people of their ability to walk, scientists from the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania report today.
And while the inherited defect itself is rare, its discovery may help researchers unravel the mysteries of much more common paralyzing conditions, from spinal cord injury to Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Scientists used to think that fibroblasts – the cells that form basic tissue structures – were little more than scaffolding on which more important cells would climb. But University of Rochester Medical Center scientists have discovered that certain fibroblasts have highly specialized duties and play a major role in how scars form, fat accumulates, and harmful inflammation arises in humans.
The research is published in The American Journal of Pathology, October 2003 edition. The work may he
When biologists want to compare different sequences of DNA or protein, it’s as simple as plugging the information into a browser and pressing enter. Within 15 seconds, an online software tool contrasts one sequence of DNA with up to 18 million others catalogued in public databases. Now, a software tool developed by Whitehead Institute scientists promises to apply this same computational muscle to the far more intricate world of protein interaction networks, giving researchers a new view of the comple
This year’s Antarctic ozone hole is the second largest ever observed, according to scientists from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). The Antarctic ozone “hole” is defined as thinning of the ozone layer over the continent to levels significantly below pre-1979 levels. Ozone blocks harmful ultraviolet “B” rays. Loss of stratospheric ozone has been linked to skin cancer in humans and other adverse biological effects on plants
Scientists at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) at the University of Southampton are nearing the end of the first phase of a study to assess whether the use of mobile phones has any adverse effect on the hearing of healthy young adults.
The study into Potential Adverse Effects of GSM Cellular Phones on Hearing (known by the acronym GUARD) is part of a joint European project funded by the European Commission being carried out simultaneously in several countries across Europ
A highly durable and moreover self-lubricating material has seen the light of day at a thin film laboratory at Linköping University.
It is an alloy of boron suboxide and yttrium, BOY, and was grown by the physicist Denis Music. The discovery is put forward in his doctoral dissertation.
The element boron and its compounds have many interesting properties, but they have been difficult to exploit industrially because production involves extreme process conditions. To produce a crystal
Research published in Genome Biology this week has uncovered 25 genes that are expressed at different levels in worker and soldier termites. As one of the first molecular studies on termites, it paves the way for investigations into how termite larvae can develop into workers, soldiers or reproductive adults depending on the colony’s needs.
The eastern subterranean termite, Reticulitermes flavipes, exists in colonies, whose members share work and resources among themselves. Different castes
Der kultur- und sozialwissenschaftlich arbeitende Sonderforschungsbereich 537 analysiert Prozesse der institutionellen Gründung, Stabilisierung und Wandlung sozialer Ordnungen von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Das “Institutionelle” von Kommunikations- und Handlungsordnungen wird in Mechanismen und Strukturen gesehen, durch die grundlegende Prinzipien (z.B. Leitideen, Wertemuster) einer Handlungs- und Kommunikationsordnung in symbolischen Formen (z.B. auch in Ritualen) sichtbar gemacht werden. Die so entsteh
For over a decade ESA has used satellites to bounce radar pulses off the Earth and precisely measure the height of ocean and land surfaces. But inland lakes and rivers have been effective blind spots for radar altimetry – at least until now.
Next week ESA previews a new product range called River and Lake Level from Altimetry that provides previously inaccessible information on water levels of major lakes and rivers across the Earth’s surface, derived from Envisat and ERS radar altimete
Malignant cells are dependent on novel activated form of molecular chaperone
A newly identified biochemical difference between malignant cells and normal cells points to a novel molecular target for the development of selective anti-cancer drugs, according to research published today in the journal Nature by scientists from Conforma Therapeutics. Conforma scientists have shown that Heat-Shock Protein 90 (Hsp90), a molecular “chaperone” that maintains the stability and functional shape
Managers about to add new computer-based systems should be aware: a technology that fosters access and coordination will be embraced by workers while one that controls behavior to increase productivity will be rejected, say two Penn State researchers who studied how workers adopted IT tools such as software, cell phones and other Internet applications.
“We have this production view of the world in which new software will improve workers’ efficiencies and effectiveness, but new technolo
Survival figures for cancer in Europe show large differences between countries – more than can reasonably be accounted for by artefact, bias or chance, according to the authors of the EUROCARE-3 study “Cancer survival in Europe at the end of the 20th century”.
A preview of some highlights of the study, which was co-ordinated by the Epidemiology Unit of the Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan, Italy and is due to be published by Annals of Oncology shortly – was presented today (Thursday 25 Septe
Yet study finds that even with greater efficiency, supply of organs will not meet transplant demand
Last year, fewer than 6,200 people in the United States donated organs though more than 80,000 waited for organ transplantations. Each day, an average of 17 people die while waiting for a transplant.
Even though the need for transplantable organs far outweighs the supply, the number of organs donated could be more than doubled–saving thousands of lives every year–if the proc
For the first time a material now exists that is not only a semiconductor but also exhibits exploitable magnetic properties at room temperature. Researchers at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden, have taken the lead in an international race to find the technology of tomorrow.
Today’s computers process information using semiconductor chips and store it on magnetic discs. Tomorrow’s technology may mean that these parts merge into a single chip. This is based on the so
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