Tag: university
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To Grow Economies with Small Businesses, Think Local
Economists at Pennsylvania State University have found that small, locally owned businesses and start-ups tend to generate higher incomes for people in a community. Stephan Goetz and graduate student David Fleming from the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development at Penn State published their findings in the August issue of the journal Economic Development Quarterly…
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System Being Developed to Watch for Airport Runway Debris
A German consortium of companies, university, and Fraunhofer institutes are developing a system with multiple technologies to monitor the presence of debris on airport runways that can make them unsafe for aircraft. A piece of metal that fell off another airplane is blamed for the crash of the supersonic Concorde jet that followed on the…
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Nanotech Coating Helps Reduce Flames in Polyurethane Foam
Researchers from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Texas A&M University in College Station have developed carbon nanofiber-filled coatings that outperform conventional flame retardants used in the polyurethane foam found in upholstered furniture and mattresses. Their findings appear in a recent issue of the journal Polymer (paid subscription required). Ignition of soft furnishings…
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Candidate Drug Starves Cancer Cells of Energy Source
Researchers from the U.S., Canada, and New Zealand have identified a compound that deprives some cancer cells of their energy source, the sugar glucose. The compound is packaged in a drug candidate licensed for pre-clinical testing to a company founded by one of the study’s senior authors. The findings appear in the 3 August issue…
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Hopkins to Study Creating Blood Platelets from Stem Cells
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland have begun a study of inherited blood clotting abnormalities focusing on the potential creation of human platelet cells from stem cells. The study is funded by a $9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The grant is part of an overall NIH initiative on genetic…
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Oxford, Illumina to Sequence 500 Human Genomes
Oxford University in the U.K. and Illumina Inc. in San Diego will collaborate on a project to sequence the whole genomes of 500 people with a range of life-threatening diseases. The research will explore how whole-genome sequencing can improve diagnosis and treatment decisions for individual patients. Illumina is a developer and manufacturer of genomic analysis…
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Universities to Study Food Security in Appalachia
Virginia Tech in Blacksburg is collaborating with West Virginia University and North Carolina State University to develop, implement, and evaluate a food security strategy for the southern Appalachian region. The three-year, $2 million study is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.…
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Univ. Research Leads to Mobile Transaction Security Advances
Research by Georgia Institute of Technology engineering faculty has led to a new layer of security on transactions by mobile phones. The work of engineering professor Steven McLaughlin is also being commercialized by Whisper Communications, a company he co-founded to take the technology to market. The ability of smart phones and other mobile devices to…
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University Profs. Develop, Commercialize Food-Bite Counter
Two Clemson University faculty members have developed a device worn on the wrist that can help people monitor the amounts of food they consume. Psychology professor Eric Muth and engineering professor Adam Hoover have also started a company to take their patent-pending device to market. The Bite Counter, as Muth and Hoover call their device,…
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Bio-Engineered Spinal Disc Implants Tested in Animals
A team of engineers and neurosurgeons at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and New York City have developed and tested in rats a biologically based implant to replace intervertebral discs in the spinal column. Their findings appear online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (paid subscription required). Spinal discs are…