Tech

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Idaho National Laboratory (INL) scientists have set a new world record with next-generation particle fuel for use in high temperature gas reactors (HTGRs).

The Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) Fuel Program, initiated by the Department of Energy in 2002, used INL's unique Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) in a nearly three-year experiment to subject more than 300,000 nuclear fuel particles to an intense neutron field and temperatures around 1,250 degrees Celsius.

ORLANDO, Nov. 16 – Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients who were screened for depression after surgery and then cared for by a nurse-led team of health care specialists via telephone reported improved quality of life and physical function compared to those who received their doctors' usual care, according to a study from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Study findings, to be published in the Nov.

Patients who received telephone-delivered collaborative care for treatment of depression after coronary artery bypass graft surgery reported greater improvement in measures of quality of life, physical functioning and mood than patients who received usual care, according to a study in the November 18 issue of JAMA. The study is being released early online because of its presentation at an American Heart Association scientific conference.

Rib cartilage from human donors is well tolerated as a grafting material in nasal plastic surgery and yields positive functional, structural and cosmetic results, even in complex cases, according to a report in the November/December issue of Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite known as "TRMM" has the ability to measure rainfall from space, and assessed the heavy rainfall from last week's coastal low pressure area, formerly known as "Ida" that drenched the U.S. east coast.

PITTSBURGH—Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute have converted a 2001 Scion xB into an electric commuter vehicle that will serve as a test bed for a new community-based approach to electric vehicle design, conversion and operations.

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 16, 2009 – Small amounts of oil leave a fluorescent sheen on polluted water. Oil sheen is hard to remove, even when the water is aerated with ozone or filtered through sand. Now, a University of Utah engineer has developed an inexpensive new method to remove oil sheen by repeatedly pressurizing and depressurizing ozone gas, creating microscopic bubbles that attack the oil so it can be removed by sand filters.

BOULDER, Colo.— Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated the first "universal" programmable quantum informationprocessor able to run any program allowed by quantum mechanics—the rules governing the submicroscopic world—using two quantum bits (qubits) of information. The processor could be a module in a future quantum computer, which theoretically could solve some importantproblems that are intractable today.

Researchers in MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering believe they have pinpointed a pathway by which arsenic may be contaminating the drinking water in Bangladesh, a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists, world health agencies and the Bangladeshi government for nearly 30 years. The research suggests that human alteration to the landscape, the construction of villages with ponds, and the adoption of irrigated agriculture are responsible for the current pattern of arsenic concentration underground.

Satellite imagery and weather ground station readings today along the Mid-Atlantic indicate "Ida the coastal low pressure area" is finally moving away from the U.S. east coast.

Coral reefs support some of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet, yet they thrive in a marine desert. So how do reefs sustain their thriving populations?

Survival among patients in intensive care units in England has improved significantly since the implementation of the NHS Plan in 2000, finds new research published on bmj.com today.

Changes under the NHS Plan included increased funding for additional beds, the introduction of critical care outreach services in hospitals, the adoption of clinical guidelines, and the establishment of regional networks of hospitals to enhance cooperation.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12, 2009—Scientists and curiosity seekers who want to know what a partially or completely cloaked object would look like in real life can now get their wish -- virtually. A team of researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany has created a new visualization tool that can render a room containing such an object, showing the visual effects of such a cloaking mechanism and its imperfections.

CHICAGO (November 12, 2009) – New research published in the November issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons shows that African-American patients with colorectal cancer are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced disease and are less likely to undergo surgical procedures compared with Caucasians, suggesting that improvements in screening and rates of operation may reduce differences in colorectal cancer outcomes for African-Americans.

Designers of high-speed silicon chips have often had to compromise on performance levels for their integrated circuit designs because of physical weaknesses appearing during design verification or even in production. This has necessitated building redundancy into chip designs to allow for the imperfect environments of production and use that vary from the ideal of the design workbench. Issues such as voltage variations, thermal heat effects, electrostatic discharge, internal radiation and crosstalk can all downgrade the performance and reliability of a perfect design.