Tag: university
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Earthquake Model Helps Assess Building Vulnerabilities
Engineers and earth scientists at University of California in Berkeley built a physical earthquake fault model in the lab that can assess the vulnerabilities of buildings and other structures when an earthquake happens. The study reporting on the model, first-authored by Gregory McLaskey now at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, appears in…
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Solar Cell Developed from Carbon-Based Nanotech Materials
Researchers at Stanford University in California developed a solar cell made entirely of carbon, instead of silicon and more expensive materials found in current solar cells. The team that included contributors from University of Rochester in New York and Nankai University in China published their findings today in the online issue of the journal ACS…
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Cambridge Univ. Spin-Off Creates Drug Testing Stem Cells
A spin-off company from Cambridge University in the U.K. is commercializing a technology to convert adult stem cells into human liver cells suitable for drug testing. The technology, say its developers from Cambridge’s Anne McLaren Laboratory for Regenerative Medicine, can also test for a number of inherited liver diseases and has the potential to accelerate…
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Trial Shows Synthetic Cannabinoid Effective on Nerve Pain
Researchers at University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada find the drug nabilone, prescribed to treat nausea in chemotherapy patients, helps treat diabetic neuropathy, or nerve pain. The findings of Cory Toth and colleagues at Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute are reported in the October issue of the journal Pain (paid subscription required). Diabetic neuropathy results from…
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Study to Boost High-Speed Railroad Ties’ Durability
Research underway at Kansas State University in Manhattan aims to improve the durability of railroad ties designed for high speed rail systems in the U.S. and elsewhere. The work led by Kansas State engineering professor Kyle Riding is funded in part by a $1.2 milion grant from the Federal Railroad Association, an agency of the…
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Lab-On-A-Chip Device Built for Visual Evaluation
Chemical researchers at Brigham Young University in Utah created a microfluidics device for lab tests that indicates the presence and concentrations of target substances with the naked eye. The findings of the team led by chemistry professor Adam Woolley appear online in the journal Analytical Chemistry (paid subscription required). Woolley’s team designed the device on…
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Mobile Phones Enhanced to Transmit Emphasis, Emotions
Computer scientists at University of Helsinki in Finland developed enhancements to mobile phones that enable callers to express their emotions during calls through tactile sensory devices. A team led by postdoctoral researcher Eve Hoggan in Helsinki’s Institute of Information Technology described the technology they call ForcePhone at ACM’s User Interface Software and Technology symposium in…
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Life Sciences Can Generate Start-Ups, With a Little Help
A case study of innovation in the life sciences in San Francisco shows academic researchers, with the right kind of support, can generate a high number of start-up companies producing new products for the marketplace. The study focuses on the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) and its entrepreneurial programs, which appears in this week’s…
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Public Domain Name Services Found Slowing Web Performance
Computer scientists at Northwestern University in Illinois found the global trend toward public domain name systems (DNSs) — to look up Internet addresses before making connections — is slowing down the Web for many visitors. A team led by Northwestern computer science professor Fabián Bustamante (pictured left) will discuss these findings at the ACM Internet…
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Online Prostate Cancer Patient Tracking Database Launches
An online database to help men track the progression of their prostate cancer started yesterday to help patients avoid complications from overtreatment. The new program is part of the National Proactive Surveillance Network, a joint project of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The database…