Creating, storing and transmitting visual images has become increasingly easy. Yet the same problem always arises – how to categorise or classify visual images automatically without using external metadata or image thumbnails? There now may be an answer.
Researchers in the IST project LAVA have developed a method of automatically categorising the content of digital images, providing an effective means of storing and retrieving digital image content without having to rely
Two infant boys whose bodies were overloaded with excess fluid have led UCSF pediatricians to the discovery of a new genetic disease. In the process, they have discovered a rare type of mutation where different substitutions in a single amino acid cause two different, opposite genetic disorders.
The new disorder, called Nephrogenic Syndrome of Inappropriate Antidiuresis (NSIAD), is described in the May 5 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. “This discovery gives bett
Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have found promising new molecular targets and treatment approaches for some of the most malignant brain tumors.
Results of three separate studies were presented at the World Federation of NeuroOncology meeting and the European Association for NeuroOncology meeting, both in Edinburgh, Scotland, on May 6 and 7. The research involved glioblastoma multiforme, the most common form of brain tumor and the least curable of
Public authorities have long needed the equivalent of the enterprise management system – as used by leading companies around the world – but seldom had the resources to afford it. Now a new collaborative-working platform developed under the ICTE-PAN project may hold the solution.
Starting in the mid-1990s, public authorities began making significant investments into IT infrastructures capable of supporting their need to manage large amounts of relatively unstructured data. Howe
Medical researchers are using satellites to track massive dust storms blowing across Africa’s Sahel belt. The aim is to learn more about lethal meningitis epidemics that often follow in the dust’s wake.
“Meningitis outbreaks take place after a period without rain, low humidity and lots of dust in the air,” explained Isabelle Jeanne of the Niger-based Centre de Recherche Médicale et Sanitaire (CERMES), associated with the international network des Instituts Pasteur and a
In a spectacular kick-off to its first season of prime ring viewing, which began last month, the Cassini spacecraft has confirmed earlier suspicions of an unseen moon hidden in a gap in Saturn’s outer A ring. A new image and movie show the new moon and the waves it raises in the surrounding ring material.
The moon, provisionally named S/2005 S1, was first seen in a time-lapse sequence of images taken on May 1, 2005, as Cassini began its climb to higher inclinations in orbit ar
Solar physicists have observed the smallest ever coronal mass ejection (CME) – a type of explosion where plasma from the Sun is thrown out into space, sometimes striking the Earth and damaging orbiting satellites. The observation has come as a great surprise to scientists and has turned previous ideas up-side-down.
To date studies of these phenomena have focussed on large explosions which are easier to detect and which have massive footprints on the Sun, sometimes covering thousan
The NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini spacecraft has confirmed earlier suspicions of an unseen moon hidden in a gap in Saturn’s outer A ring. A new image shows the new moon and the waves it raises in the surrounding ring material.
The moon, provisionally named S/2005 S1, was first seen in a time-lapse sequence of images taken on 1 May 2005, as Cassini began its climb to higher inclinations in orbit around Saturn. A day later, an even closer view was obtained, which allowed the moon’
Despite dozens of interceptions at U.S. ports, a public enemy has infiltrated the nation’s borders. Taken captive in Fulton County, N.Y., and identified by a Cornell University expert, the adult female alien is the only one of its kind ever discovered in the eastern United States.
The discovery of a single specimen of Sirex noctilio Fabricius, an Old World woodwasp, raises red flags across the nation because the invasive insect species has devastated up to 80 percent of p
Patients with type 2 diabetes who participate in group education programs to manage their disease show measurable improvement and require less medication, according to a systematic review of current evidence.
Group-based education resulted in improved diabetes control as reflected by blood glucose levels and patients’ knowledge of diabetes. Evidence also suggested that participants in diabetes group education programs may reduce their blood pressure and body weight and increase se
A new type of light was detected from a recent gamma-ray burst, as discovered by Los Alamos National Laboratory and NASA scientists using both burst-detection satellites and a Los Alamos-based robotic telescope.
In a paper published in the May 12 issue of Nature, Los Alamos scientists and NASA announced the detection of a form of light generated by the same process that drives the gamma ray burst itself, yielding new insights about these enigmatic cosmic explosions — the most pow
Owing to the system now being developed at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and that was presented this week at an international conference on biobanks, the university’s biobank will now be based on informatics as well as tissue and blood samples. The system will enable researchers to seek biobank samples linked to the vast databases of phenotype and genotype information on the individual donors and to a variety of other data sources.
The existence of large national epidemiological d
From the P&O Cruise Ferry, the Pride Of Bilbao, The Biscay Dolphin Research Programme (BDRP) has gathered a great deal of data on the distribution and abundance of whales & dolphins (collectively known as cetaceans). This wealth of data has demonstrated the importance of this area as a feeding and breeding ground for many different species with more than a quarter of all cetacean species being recorded in the area.
On a recent crossing of the Bay of Biscay in April 2005, Clive Ma
Opening Europe’s inland waterways to a new generation of travellers is a new system for the tourism sector. Due to undergo a test demonstration at the end of May, it will provide up-to-date, location-based information on everything from good restaurants to nearby emergency services.
Developed under the EurEauWeb IST project combines mobile communications, location sensing and detailed information and, if successful, could become the platform of choice for hundreds of other g
Scientists have for the first time mapped multiple complex biological interactions in a yeast cell in a simple graphical form, enhancing our understanding of how the networks of interaction by which components of a cell influence one another. New research published in the Open Access journal Journal of Biology shows that such maps can also reveal cryptic interactions and enable accurate predictions about interactions that haven’t been observed experimentally.
A living cell contains
Fifty years after his death, Albert Einstein’s work still provides new tools for understanding our universe. An international team of astronomers has now used a phenomenon first predicted by Einstein in 1936, called gravitational lensing, to determine the shape of stars. This phenomenon, due to the effect of gravity on light rays, led to the development of gravitational optics techniques, among them gravitational microlensing. It is the first time that this well-known technique has b
New images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) aboard ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, show a large depression called Iani Chaos and the upper reaches of a large outflow channel called Ares Vallis.
To see images go to: www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMIKO0DU8E_0.html
Image strips were taken in October 2004, during three orbits from a 350-kilometre altitude, with a
A multibeam Doppler radar that can scan tornadic storms every 5 to 10 seconds is prowling the Great Plains through June 30 in search of its first close-up tornado. Engineers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder helped build the Rapid-Scan Doppler on Wheels (DOW).
Together with a powerful analysis technique pioneered by NCAR scientist Wen-Chau Lee, the radar–newly enhanced for its first full spring of thunderstorm tracking–promises the most complete picture
Biological assays on computer study molecular basis of cellular behavior
Scientists at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory have constructed a computer simulation that allows them to study the relationship between biochemical fluctuations within a single cell and the cell’s behavior as it interacts with other cells and its environment.
The simulation, called AgentCell, has possible applications in cancer research, drug development and combating b
A car that can automatically alert emergency services in the event of an accident, giving its precise location and the health status of occupants would save thousands of lives each year. Thanks to the work of AIDER such a vehicle is a step closer to becoming reality.
Developed over three years by 10 partners under the European Commission’s IST programme, the AIDER system has been completely tested in the field and, from the car maker’s perspective, contributes towards meeting the
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