It’s late May in the freshly tilled soil of a three-plus-acre organic farm on the U of M St. Paul campus. Horticulture student Lindsay Mayer kneels, wearing purple gloves and an orange bandanna to keep the sweat out of her eyes as she plants shallot after shallot. (more…)
Two scientists from NASA and NOAA have developed a new space-based technique for monitoring the ice cover of the Great Lakes that is so accurate it can identify a narrow channel of open water cut through the ice by an icebreaker — even at night.
“In the dark, it’s difficult to read a map that’s right in front of you,” said Son Nghiem of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., one of the developers of the new technique. “Yet we now have a way to use satellite radars almost 500 miles [800 kilometers] out in space to see through clouds and darkness and map ice across the Great Lakes.” (more…)
Lack of cyber security skills a major inhibitor to adoption of emerging technologies like cloud, mobile, cognitive and social networks
ARMONK, N.Y – 15 Nov 2013: IBM today announced that it is adding eleven additional schools to its more than 200 partnerships with universities around the globe, focusing on collaborating to bring cyber security skills into the classroom. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment in the cyber security field is expected to grow rapidly, increasing 22 percent by 2020. As organizations transmit and store more sensitive information electronically, the need for employees with experience in cyber security will be imperative in order to protect data in the cloud, mobile devices and traditional computing. (more…)
Research provides new insights into bone biology
Bone marrow, the spongy tissue inside long bones, produces new blood cells and helps the lymphatic system work properly. But it may also turn out to be a progressively hostile microenvironment that induces vascular dysfunction and ossification, or hardening, of blood vessels.
Rhonda Prisby, who is using a rat model to study bone vascular physiology and morphology, was recently surprised when she used light microscopy to look at bone marrow vessels. (more…)
Das Atomkraftwerk Gundremmingen in Bayern weist nach einer Studie des ehemaligen Leiters der deutschen Atomaufsicht, Professor Wolfgang Renneberg, gravierende Sicherheitsmängel auf. Dennoch hat der AKW-Betreiber RWE eine Leistungsausweitung der beiden Siedewasserreaktoren beantragt, über deren Genehmigung in den kommenden zwei Wochen entschieden werden könnte.
Wolfgang Renneberg, Professor am Institut für Sicherheits- und Risikowissenschaften der Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, listet mit großer Detailkenntnis Probleme beim Reaktor und bei dem Genehmigungsverfahren zur Leistungserhöhung auf. Besonders bedenklich: Das AKW Gundremmingen hat nicht die von den kerntechnischen Sicherheitsregeln geforderten ausreichenden Notkühlsysteme. Auch ist die Atomanlage nicht gegen den Absturz heutiger großer Verkehrsflugzeuge ausgelegt. Schon der jetzige Betrieb verstößt erheblich gegen kerntechnische Sicherheitsvorschriften. Die Leistungsausweitung kann nach geltenden Vorschriften nicht genehmigt werden. (more…)
ANN ARBOR — When water is scarce, Ecuador laurel trees ramp up their investment in a syrupy treat that sends resident ant defenders into overdrive, protecting the trees from defoliation by leaf-munching pests.
The water-stressed tropical forest trees support the production of more honeydew, a sugary excretion imbibed by the Azteca ants that nest in the laurels’ stem cavities. In return, ant colonies boost their numbers and more vigorously defend the life-sustaining foliage. (more…)
If you look at the lives of singles there are many who are seen busy planning for things like dating. With the advent of a number of online dating sites, the idea of dating has become simpler and accessible by all. Earlier people feared approaching a girl or a boy however, with anonymity over the web you do not hesitate in approaching women/men for dating. However, whether you happen to be an expert or a novice in online dating one thing is sure, you are bound to make mistakes. The experts might commit fewer mistakes while the newbie would do more. Before you consider yourself as an over confident fellow for being an online dating expert, make sure you check certain mistakes even the seasoned dating guys commit. The following are the big 5 mistakes which experts commit. Let’s check them out:
1). Posting old pictures and inaccurate details
When it comes to making a profile for online dating, many seasoned people are seen committing a mistake of putting inaccurate information on it along with posting older pictures or photos of their friends and other people. Make sure you list down the exact information as you never know you may lose a good person just for uttering a lie over your profile or for the picture you have posted. It is a big mistake, which even experts commit in online dating by starting a relationship with a lie. Never do this. (more…)
A growing body of evidence suggests that the brain plays a key role in glucose regulation and the development of type 2 diabetes, researchers write in the Nov. 7 ssue of the journal Nature. If the hypothesis is correct, it may open the door to entirely new ways to prevent and treat this disease, which is projected to affect one in three adults in the United States by 2050.
In the paper, lead author Dr. Michael W. Schwartz, UW professor of medicine and director of the Diabetes and Obesity Center of Excellence, and his colleagues from the universities of Cincinnati, Michigan, and Munich, note that the brain was originally thought to play an important role in maintaining normal glucose metabolism With the discovery of insulin in the 1920s, the focus of research and diabetes care shifted to almost exclusively to insulin. Today, almost all treatments for diabetes seek to either increase insulin levels or increase the body’s sensitivity to insulin. (more…)
