COLUMBIA, Mo. –Many older adults lose their independence as their health declines and they are compelled to move into assisted care facilities. Researchers at the University of Missouri and TigerPlace, an independent living community, have been using motion-sensing technology to monitor changes in residents' health for several years. Now, researchers have found that two devices commonly used for video gaming and security systems are effective in detecting the early onset of illness and fall risk in seniors.
Tech
Researchers at Michigan State University have unraveled the mystery of how microbes generate electricity while cleaning up nuclear waste and other toxic metals. Details of the process in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences could benefit sites forever changed by nuclear contamination, said Gemma Reguera, MSU microbiologist.
Researchers at the University of Warwick and Oxford University have developed a form of crystal that can deliver highly accurate temperature readings, down to individual milli-kelvins, over a very broad range of temperatures: from -120 to +680 degrees centigrade.
MADISON, WI, SEPTEMBER 6, 2011 -- Measuring the emission of greenhouse gases from croplands should take into account the crops themselves.
A protective delivery vehicle that shuttles friendly bacteria safely through the stomach to the intestines could provide a major boost for the probiotics industry. The new technology could also be used for the delivery of certain drugs and even increase calcium absorption, according to research presented at the Society for General Microbiology's Autumn Conference at the University of York this week.
Hamilton, ON (September 05, 2011) – You may think your lack of resolve to get off the couch to exercise is because you're lazy, but McMaster University researchers have discovered it may be you are missing key genes.
The researchers made their unexpected finding while working with healthy, specially-bred mice, some of which had two genes in muscle essential for exercise removed. The genes control the protein AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), an enzyme that is switched on when you exercise.
In a detailed assessment of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, researchers led by a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have determined that the blown-out Macondo well spewed oil at a rate of about 57,000 barrels a day, totaling nearly 5 million barrels of oil released from the well between April 20 and July 15, 2010, when the leak was capped. In addition, the well released some 100 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas.
Ten variants of the deadly Escherichia coli strain from Germany in May 2011 have been sequenced across the world - which may speed insight into how the outbreak arose.
Kyoto, Japan -- Detecting specific gases in the air is possible using a number of different existing technologies, but typically all of these suffer from one or more drawbacks including high energy cost, large size, slow detection speed, and sensitivity to humidity.
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. – Chemists at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences have developed the world's first single molecule electric motor, a development that may potentially create a new class of devices that could be used in applications ranging from medicine to engineering.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – A catastrophic infestation of the goldspotted oak borer, which has killed more than 80,000 oak trees in San Diego County in the last decade, might be contained by controlling the movement of oak firewood from that region, according to researchers at the University of California, Riverside.
Northwestern University rsearchers have created a new kind of cloaking material that can render objects invisible, even in the terahertz range, which means we are creeping closer to an invisibility cloak for the visible spectrum - but until then, this could have use in diagnostics, security, and communication.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Ten years after 9/11, researchers at Purdue University are continuing work that could lead to safer steel structures such as buildings and bridges and also an emerging type of nuclear power plant design.
The researchers are using a custom heating system and a specialized laboratory for testing large beams and other components and have created models that could be used in designs to improve fire safety.
Medical students who practiced on a patient simulator before assisting in real vaginal deliveries scored significantly higher on final exams than students who only received a lecture at the start of an obstetric clerkship.
University of South Florida researchers did a randomized, controlled trial and found that students receiving the simulation training were initially more confident of their ability to perform a vaginal delivery. The differences narrowed over time as all students participated in actual deliveries.
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– A new paradigm in quantum information processing has been demonstrated by physicists at UC Santa Barbara. Their results are published in this week's issue of Science Express online.
UCSB physicists have demonstrated a quantum integrated circuit that implements the quantum von Neumann architecture. In this architecture, a long-lived quantum random access memory can be programmed using a quantum central processing unit, all constructed on a single chip, providing the key components for a quantum version of a classical computer.