Tech

Scientists are working on a new range of materials characterisation analysers and techniques that could help unlock the value contained in Australia's mineral deposits and improve processing performance, according to the October issue of Process.

Machine-mounted sensors, being developed through CSIRO Minerals Down Under Flagship, could help locate ore deposits, characterise the mining environment, and differentiate ore grades.

Boston, MA (Sep 29, 2009)—Expanding health coverage might not cost as much as policymakers assume.

New findings from researchers at Harvard Medical School demonstrate that individuals who were either continuously or intermittently uninsured between the ages of 51 and 64 cost Medicare more than those who had continuous insurance coverage in the years prior to Medicare eligibility.

STANFORD, Calif. - In a city the size of New York, starting a vaccination campaign a few weeks earlier could save almost 600 lives and over $150 million, according to a study by scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

The study, to be published online Oct. 6 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, modeled a pandemic in a hypothetical urban area with a population and demographic characteristics mirroring New York City's.

Iron is a micronutrient essential to the survival of both humans and disease-causing microbes. Changes in iron levels therefore affect the severity of infectious diseases. For example, individuals with mutations in their HFE gene have exceedingly high levels of iron in their liver and are more susceptible to infection with a number of microbes.

Routine use of electronic health records may improve the quality of care provided in community-based primary care practices more than other common strategies intended to raise the quality of medical care, according to a new study by RAND Corporation researchers.

Studying 305 groups of primary care physicians in Massachusetts, researchers found that practices that used multifunctional electronic health records were more likely to deliver better care for diabetes and provide certain health screenings than those that did not.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Small bits of metal may play a new role in solar power.

Researchers at Ohio State University are experimenting with polymer semiconductors that absorb the sun's energy and generate electricity. The goal: lighter, cheaper, and more-flexible solar cells.

They have now discovered that adding tiny bits of silver to the plastic boosts the materials' electrical current generation.

Patients who participate in a structured telephone program to manage their depression appear to experience significant benefits and only a moderate increase in health care costs when compared with those who receive usual care, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

SEATTLE—When people get brief, structured, phone-based cognitive behavioral psychotherapy soon after starting on antidepressant medication, significant benefits may persist two years after their first session, with only modest rises in cost. Over two years, this treatment is cost-effective, according to a randomized trial in the October 2009 Archives of General Psychiatry.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 -- Criminals are having a harder time hiding their faces, thanks to new software that helps witnesses recreate and recognize suspects using principles borrowed from the fields of optics and genetics.

Next week, Christopher Solomon of the University of Kent in Canterbury, England will present the software, called the EFIT-V system, at the Optical Society's (OSA) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO), which will take place Oct. 11-15 in San Jose, Calif.

LOS ANGELES—October 5, 2009—A recent study from the latest issue of Personal Relationships shows that individuals who have experienced violence at an early age may have trouble adjusting to healthy, adult romantic relationships and are at a higher risk to experience marital difficulties. The research reveals that early exposure to a violent environment is likely to lead to domestic violence situations later in life. Feelings of insecurity, abandonment anxiety, and intimacy issues are also likely to plague these romantic connections.

Exploiting quantum mechanics for transmitting information is a tantalizing possibility because it promises secure, high speed communications. Unfortunately, the fragility of methods for storing and sending quantum information has so far frustrated the enterprise. Now a team of physicists in Sweden and Poland have shown that photons that encode data have strength in numbers. Their experiment is reported in Physical Review Letters and Physical Review A and highlighted in the October 5 issue of Physics.

The car of the future will have lots of smart assistants onboard – helping to park the car, recognize traffic signs and to warn the driver of blind spot hazards. Many driver assistance systems incorporate high-tech cameras which have to meet a wide range of requirements. They must be able to withstand high ambient temperatures and be particularly small, light and robust. What's more, they have to reliably capture all the required images and should cost as little as possible. Nowadays CMOS sensors are used for most in-car systems.

Take a look at the chocolate powered car at IMPACT! World www.impactworld.org.uk

Can the idea of 'green motorsport' actually work? Yes, according to EPSRC funded researcher, Dr Kerry Kirwan at the University of Warwick, who led the research team which designed and built the worldfirst fully sustainable Formula 3 racing car.

A recent study by researchers from the University of Colorado looked at post-transplant care to determine whether primary care physicians (PCPs) or hepatologists are better suited to manage the overall health care of patients who received a liver transplant (LT). Researchers learned that hepatologists believe metabolic complications to be common in LT patients, but not well controlled. The hepatologists surveyed also felt that PCPs should be responsible for managing these conditions, but that this group was not taking an active role.

Controlling huge electromagnetic forces that have the potential to destroy the next generation of particle accelerators is the subject of a new paper by a University of Manchester physicist.

So-called 'wake fields' occur during the process of acceleration and can cause particles to fly apart.

The particles are travelling at extremely high energies – and if they are subjected to these wake fields, they can easily destroy the accelerators.