Tech

ARLINGTON, Va.--The Office of Naval Research (ONR) showcased a number of technologies Jan. 11-13 at the annual Surface Navy Association (SNA) symposium that could influence the total ownership cost of surface ships as well as enhance warfighting capabilities.

A review of research evidence produced by researchers from the Peninsula Technology Assessment Group, part of the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, has played a pivotal role in the decision by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to extend the availability of donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine and memantine for Alzheimer's disease announced today (18th January 2011).

A significant portion of the U.S. population does not have access to trauma care within an hours' drive, with certain vulnerable groups at higher risk of worse access, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are the first to develop a curvilinear camera, much like the human eye, with the significant feature of a zoom capability, unlike the human eye.

The "eyeball camera" has a 3.5x optical zoom, takes sharp images, is inexpensive to make and is only the size of a nickel. (A higher zoom is possible with the technology.)

Sakhalin Energy Investment Company – part owned by Shell – has announced plans to build a major oil platform near crucial feeding habitat of the Western North Pacific gray whale population.

Only around 130 whales of the critically endangered Western population exist today, and their primary feeding habitat – off Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East – is already besieged by multiple oil and gas exploration and development projects.

The Estero de Domingo Rubio wetland, located near the Marismas del Odiel Natural Area in the Huelva estuary, is regionally, nationally and internationally protected thanks to its ecological value. However, its tributary rivers and the Ría de Huelva estuary pump manmade pollutants into it, which could affect its water quality and ecosystem.

The unusually cold weather this winter has been caused by a change in the winds.Instead of the typical westerly winds warmed by Atlantic surface ocean currents, cold northerly Arctic winds are influencing much of Europe.

A simple, automated method of tracking E. coli uses a laser to detect and monitor the microbe in potentially contaminated bodies of water or waterways. The technique described this month in the International Journal of Computational Biology and Drug Design could reduce the incidence of waterborne disease outbreaks.

PITTSBURGH—The fruit fly has evolved a method for arranging the tiny, hair-like structures it uses to feel and hear the world that's so efficient a team of scientists in Israel and at Carnegie Mellon University says it could be used to more effectively deploy wireless sensor networks and other distributed computing applications.

The continental crust is the principal record of conditions on the Earth for the last 4.4 billion years. Its formation modified the composition of the mantle and the atmosphere, it supports life, and it remains a sink for carbon dioxide through weathering and erosion. The continental crust therefore has had a key role in the evolution of the Earth, and yet the timing of its generation remains the topic of considerable debate.