Issued by EPSRC on behalf of the UK e-Science Programme

A UK e-Science project has won a top award at SC05, the world’s premier supercomputing conference in Seattle this week. SPICE (Simulated Pore Interactive Computing Environment) achieved success in the HPC Analytics Challenge for demonstrating the use of innovative techniques in rigorous data analysis and high-end visualisation to solve a complex, real-world problem.

“SPICE shows how the power of supercomputers on bot

College is becoming a requirement for more and more jobs. But are the programs in place to motivate and move more kids from high school to higher education? Are those programs serving the students who need them? Are the programs getting the needed oversight?

A recent study of all 50 states contains both good news and cause for concern, according to Debra Bragg, a professor of educational organization and leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the study&#1

New findings may help with social interaction

New brain imaging research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill indicates that when people with autism look at a face, activity in the brain area that responds is similar to that of people without autism.

The finding is surprising, as it is widely known that autistic individuals tend to avoid looking directly at faces. The research also counters previous published reports that the face-processing area at the back

Haphazard activation of secondary signaling pathways may fuel cancer’s genesis

When found at abnormally high concentrations, two proteins implicated in many human cancers have the potential to spur indiscriminate biochemical signaling inside cells, chemists at Harvard University have found. Their finding may expand scientists’ current understanding of oncogenesis — that cancer arises when an oncoprotein becomes overactive, ramping up the biochemical pathways that it n

For weight loss in obese adults

A new study shows that treatment with a lifestyle modification program of diet, exercise and behavioral therapy when used in combination with the weight loss medication sibutramine (Meridia®) resulted in significantly greater weight loss among obese adults than treatment with the medication alone. The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, appears in the November 17, 2005 issue of The New England Journal of Medi

USC study finds common pollutants linked to fetal growth retardation

Babies born to women exposed to high ozone levels during pregnancy are at heightened risk for being significantly underweight, according to researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

Women who breathe air heavily polluted with ozone are at particular risk for having babies afflicted with intra uterine growth retardation-which means babies only fall within the

Assay powerfully identifies patients’ short-term risk of death

A large-scale international study has demonstrated the usefulness of a blood test to confirm or exclude the diagnosis of acute heart failure in emergency room patients and shows that the test also can identify patients at a higher risk for death. The report from investigators in the U.S., the Netherlands, Spain and New Zealand also clarifies the importance of age-specific levels of a protein called NT-proBNP t

After more than two months of intense preparation, secondary schools across Kent are now less than two weeks away from the regional finals of the FIRST LEGO League competition, which will be held at the University of Kent’s Sports Centre (Canterbury campus) on Thursday 24 November.

FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is an international programme for children aged 10 – 16 years that combines a hands-on, interactive robotics programme with a sports-like atmosphere using the LEGO Mindstorms

Jenny Billings, Research Fellow in the Centre for Health Services Studies at the University of Kent, has responded to the current controversy surrounding the legal challenge to a law that allows young girls to have abortions without parental knowledge by saying, ‘Confidentiality is at the forefront of teenagers’ minds when they are using sexual health services.’

Billings, an experienced researcher and lecturer with a special interest in health service research and evaluation, p

Domesticated cattle in central and northern Europe are more closely related on the father’s side with the primordial oxen that once populated Europe than with the cattle that the first farmers brought with them up through Europe during the Great Migration. This provides a new picture of the transition from a hunting and gathering society to agrarian culture. The findings are being presented in an article by research from Uppsala University in Sweden in the latest issue of Proceedings of the Royal So

A crippling condition that can result in sufferers losing their fingers is to be investigated by scientists in one of the most detailed studies into the genetic causes of the disease ever carried out.

Dupuytren’s disease or contracture, a condition that affects the hands and sometimes the feet and penis, occurs gradually, beginning with a small, sometimes tender lump in the palm.

Over time, tough bands of tissue or cords can form that force the fingers, most commonly t

A new study suggests that hamsters may suffer from symptoms of anxiety and depression during the dark days of winter, just as some humans do.

Using a variety of tests, researchers found more symptoms of depression and anxiety in adult hamsters that were housed for weeks in conditions with limited daylight, as they would find in winter, when compared to hamsters who had days with longer daylight.

The research also examined whether hamsters that developed prenatally and the

The drug gefitinib (Iressa) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 2003 under the agency’s accelerated approval program for the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had failed two or more courses of chemotherapy. Consistent with the requirements of accelerated approval, the sponsoring company continued to study the drug to verify the expected clinical benefit. In December 2004, the FDA released a statement notifying the failure of a large cli

OHSU/VAMC study shows mice consuming fewer calories experience boost in essential neurochemical

A new Oregon Health & Science University and Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center study suggests that early-stage Parkinson’s disease patients who lower their calorie intake may boost levels of an essential brain chemical lost from the neurodegenerative disorder.

The study by Charles Meshul, Ph.D., associate professor of behavioral neuroscience in the OHSU Schoo

Discovery may result in faster ways to test immunotherapies

Using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center were able to observe – in real time – how the immune system initially recognizes cancer and mobilizes to fight the disease.

The UCLA study is expected to lead to new ways to test immune-based therapies for cancer and other immune system-related diseases and to monitor human response to cancer treatments much more qui

Robots that ’feel’ objects and their texture could soon become a reality thanks to the innovative and interdisciplinary research of the AMouse, or artificial mouse, project.

But even more important, perhaps, are the lessons researchers learned about robot design and artificial intelligence. The project funded by the Future and Emerging Technologies initiative of the IST programme even developed new insights into biological brain function.

Researchers from Italy, Ge