EurekAlert! - Mathematics and Statistics
Sun May 9 22:29:54 EDT 2010
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DFG to fund the research center 'Matheon' for another 4 years - (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) The DFG Research Center "Matheon: Mathematics for key technologies" in Berlin will receive funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for another four-year period.

Virginia Tech mathematician wins international award - (Virginia Tech) John A. Burns will receive the W. T. and Idelia Reid Prize in Mathematics from the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics. The prize recognizes outstanding research in the broadly defined areas of differential equations and control theory. Burns is currently working on computational problems associated with the design and control of high performance energy efficient buildings.

UH engineers to improve test for cardiovascular disease - (University of Houston) Two University of Houston professors are working to help keep your heart beating stronger and longer simply by monitoring the temperature of your fingertip. VENDYS, a device mechanical engineering professors Stanley Kleis and Ralph Metcalfe helped develop, is allowing doctors to monitor how changes in blood flow affect finger temperature to measure an individual's risk for cardiovascular disease. They recently published a paper about it in the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering.

New York City security may be underfunded - (Northwestern University) Budget allocation models developed at Northwestern University suggest that New York City appears underfunded for protection against terrorist threats. The study also shows Chicago as underfunded while Los Angeles appears overfunded. The researchers found the US Department of Homeland Security funding received by New York in 2009 was around 30 percent of the total money allocated to 10 major urban areas. According to the models, the funding should have ranged between 33 and 49 percent.

Rice team talks the walk - (Rice University) The team of Rice seniors Jon Stanley, Ashley Hill and Laura Leim delivered the Trek Tracker, a high-tech video camera on a trolley that automates the process of videotaping a patient's gait, from the perfect angle, while the patient walks.

Educator uses history to bring math to life for girls and women - (Florida State University) When it comes to math, Kathy Clark can get pretty emotional.

Combination of direct antivirals may be key to curing hep C - (University of Illinois at Chicago) A combination of antiviral drugs may be needed to combat the drug resistance that rapidly develops in potentially deadly hepatitis C infections, a new study using sophisticated computer and mathematical modeling has shown.

Purple is the new green - (University of Miami) Purple bacteria seem to have the best structural solution for harvesting solar energy. Neil Johnson, a physicist and head of the interdisciplinary research group in complexity in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Miami, thinks its cellular arrangement could be adapted for use in solar panels and other energy conversion devices to offer a more efficient way to garner energy from the sun. The findings are published in Physical Review Letters.

Symposium spotlights new paradigms in genomics, celebrates AIDS-fighting drug at 25 years - (Brown University) Samuel Broder, the former director of the National Cancer Institute who presided over the successful testing of the AIDS-fighting drug AZT, will speak on the AIDS pandemic and how AZT changed public attitudes toward the disease. Broder will be among 17 distinguished scientists visiting Brown May 3-7, 2010, for a symposium on advances in genomics, honoring the legacy of physicist and computer pioneer John von Neumann.

Densest dice packing and computing with molecules - (American Physical Society) Physicists have made two new breakthroughs -- discovering a shape that packs more efficiently than any other known, and completing a high speed quantum calculation thousands of times faster than possible with conventional computation.

Global Alliance of Technological Universities (GlobalTech) to tackle 'Grand Challenges' - (Nanyang Technological University) Senior representatives and dozens of scholars from seven founding universities of the Global Alliance of Technological Universities (GlobalTech) came together on May 3, 2010, at Shanghai Jiao Tong University to hold the 2010 GlobalTech Steering Committee Meeting and the First Workshop on Sustainable Urban Solutions. The latter coincides with the theme of World Expo 2010 -- "Better City, Better Life." Senior representatives discussed the role of technological universities in the 21st century, and put forward an action plan for GlobalTech for the next couple years.

Cancer cells show rewired, fragmented microRNA networks - (Ohio State University Medical Center) This new study shows that in healthy cells molecules of microRNA work together in single, well-connected networks that resemble a family tree with dozens to hundreds of members. In cancer cells, however, the networks are rewired and fragmented, with small detached clusters. The research introduces a new way of discovering cancer genes and identifies new microRNAs that can be used as targets for drug development and pinpoints possible new cancer-related proteins.

ASU mathematics educator receives NSF Career Award - (Arizona State University) Impacting how middle school students learn statistical reasoning, and how their teachers teach such reasoning, is the aim of a National Science Foundation-funded research project by Arizona State University mathematics educator Luis Saldanha.

European innovation tackles power cuts - (EUREKA) The new generation of automated fault-fixing technology developed by the partners of EUREKA Project E! 3452 DINAS remotely locates and isolates an electrical fault wherever it occurs in a power distribution network and restores the current in seconds, making lengthy and inconvenient power cuts potentially a thing of the past.

New HIV model suggests killer T cell for vaccine - (Institute of Physics) A new improved modeling system, developed by Chinese researchers, which attempts to incorporate more of the HIV virus' random behavioral dynamics, suggests that a particular type of T cell could be useful in the development of an AIDS vaccine.

WPI researchers study feasibility of giant deep-ocean wind turbines - (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) With a three-year, $300,000 award from the National Science Foundation, a research team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute is studying the feasibility of placing large wind turbines on deep-ocean platforms. The research, which combines sophisticated computer simulations and water tank studies using physical models, may point the way toward an environmentally friendly source of energy that could potentially fill a significant portion of the electricity needs of 26 coastal states.

NIST develops 'dimmer switch' for superconducting quantum computing - (National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)) Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed the first "dimmer switch" for a superconducting circuit linking a quantum bit (qubit) and a quantum bus -- promising technologies for storing and transporting information in future quantum computers. The NIST switch is a new type of control device that can "tune" interactions between these components and potentially could speed up the development of a practical quantum computer.

Locating tsunami warning buoys - (Inderscience Publishers) Australian researchers describe a mathematical model in the International Journal of Operational Research that can find the ten optimal sites at which tsunami detection buoys and sea-level monitors should be installed. The model could save time and money in the installation of a detection system as well as providing warning for the maximum number of people should a potentially devastating tsunami occur.

Ben-Gurion U. research confirms that hand-clapping songs improve motor and cognitive skills - (American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) A researcher at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev conducted the first study of hand-clapping songs, revealing a direct link between those activities and the development of important skills in children and young adults, including university students.

72 new members chosen by Academy - (National Academy of Sciences) The National Academy of Sciences today announced the election of 72 new members and 18 foreign associates from 14 countries in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

Dynamic Nimbus cloud deployment wins Challenge Award at Grid5000 conference - (DOE/Argonne National Laboratory) The Nimbus toolkit, developed by researchers at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago as an open source set of software tools for providing cloud computing implementations, played a major role at the Grid5000 conference in France.

Where comets emit dust - (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research identify the active regions on the surface of comets.

Shoe power generator earns Louisiana Tech professor national attention - (Louisiana Tech University) Dr. Ville Kaajakari, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Louisiana Tech University, is being featured by MEMS Investor Journal, for developing a technology that harvests power from a small generator embedded in the sole of a shoe.

Nobel laureates to speak at NAS Annual Meeting April 26 - (National Academy of Sciences) During the 147th annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, six NAS members who have won a Nobel Prize in their fields, five in 2009, will participate in a roundtable discussion about their award-winning work as well as their family background, early education and the factors that led them to pursue a career in science. The audience will include scientists, students from local high schools, and general public.

Eyjafjallajokull's global fallout - (Northwestern University) To gauge Eyjafjallajokull's global impact, Northwestern University researchers studied the worldwide air transportation network before and after 27 major European airports were closed. They found mobility patterns in places far from Europe -- including the United States, India and southeast Asia -- were significantly affected by the European disruption, to the surprise of the team. At the top of the list of most affected airports still operating were Singapore, Hong Kong and Beijing.