Month: July 2011
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Grad Student Improves Solar Collector, Starts Company
A masters degree candidate at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands developed a new type of hybrid solar collector with higher efficiency and longer lifespan than the current hybrid systems. Stefan Roest, who recently completed his degree in sustainable energy technology at Delft, also helped start Eternal Sun, a company to bring solar test…
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Wood Products Offered As Part of Carbon Control Strategy
Taking advantage of the full life-cycle of forests and wood products offers opportunities for greater control of carbon emissions, according to an analysis by a team of researchers from the U.S. and Sweden. Their paper appears in the June issue of the journal Carbon Management. The review, by Bruce Lippke, University of Washington professor emeritus…
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Researchers Develop Low-Energy Cardiac Defibrillation
Scientists from Germany, France, and the U.S. have developed a new process to regulate dangerous fluctuations in heart rhythms with far less energy and pain than current methods. The team’s findings appear in the current issue of the journal Nature (paid subscription required). The regular human heartbeat is controlled by the heart’s electrical system. An…
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Grant Awarded for Mind-Machine Engineering Research Center
National Science Foundation announced an $18.5 million grant to establish an Engineering Research Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering based at University of Washington in Seattle. The grant is for five years of funding, with an option for another five years. The new center is expected to research robotic devices that interact with, assist, and understand…
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Challenge Seeks Sensor to Monitor Ligament, Tendon Repair
A new challenge from InnoCentive in Waltham, Massachusetts offers a $30,000 prize for a design of an implanted micro-sensor that reports displacement and mechanical load on healing ligament or tendon tissues. The deadline for submissions is 22 September 2011. InnoCentive conducts open-innovation challenge competitions for company or organization sponsors. The sponsor of this challenge is…
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Rice Bolstered for Climate Impacts by Fungus Spores
Rice can become adapted to climate change by colonizing its seeds or plants with the spores of tiny naturally occurring fungi, according to new research led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The study is published online in the journal PLoS One. Rice, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, feeds half of the…
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Chemical Particles in Diesel Fumes Pose Cardiac Risk
Researchers at University of Edinburgh in the U.K. and colleagues in the Netherlands and Sweden have found that ultrafine particles from the burning of diesel fuel can increase the chances of blood clots forming in arteries, leading to a heart attack or stroke. Their findings appear in the current issue of the European Heart Journal.…
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Engineers Develop Nanotech Solar Thermal Fuel Cell
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a process for storing solar energy in the form of heat with a material based on carbon nanotubes. A description of the process by engineering professor Jeffrey Grossman and postdoc Alexie Kolpak appears online in the journal Nano Letters (paid subscription required). Grossman and Kolpak’s methods involve…
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FDA Issues Draft Guidance on Diagnostic/Therapy Companions
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a draft of guidance to encourage the development and review of diagnostics tests to help health care professionals determine if a patient should receive a particular drug therapy or its dosage. The agency is seeking public input on the draft guidance for 60 days. The draft document…
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Individualized Medical Cost-Effectiveness Metric Proposed
A physician and health economist at Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto have devised a way to tailor a common measure of medical cost effectiveness for individual decision-making. Their findings appear in the current issue of the journal PLoS Medicine. John Ioannidis, chief of the Stanford Prevention Research Center, and health economist Alan…