Tag Archives: brown university

Transactional Memory: An Idea Ahead of Its Time

By Guest PostApril 10, 2012Science, Technologyamherst, ars technica, blue gene, brown university, buzz, computer, computer scientist, computing technology, core processor, eliot moss, hardware architecture, hardware computing, haswell, ibm, maurice herlihy, mike cohea, parallel processor, q supercomputer, richard lewis, transactional memory, university of massachusetts

Nearly 20 years ago, two Brown University computer scientists were working on a largely theoretical problem: How could multiple parallel processors make changes to shared resources safely and efficiently? Their proposal — transactional memory — is sparking fresh interest as a new generation of processors seeks improved power and speed.

In 1993, Maurice Herlihy and a colleague published a paper on transactional memory — a new, clever tactic in computing to deal with handling shared revisions to information seamlessly and concurrently. Few noticed.

Nearly 20 years later, transactional memory is an idea that’s now the rage in hardware computing, and Herlihy, computer science professor at Brown University, has morphed into a prophet of sorts, a computing pioneer who was far ahead of his time. Intel recently announced that transactional memory will be included in its mainstream “Haswell” hardware architecture by next year. IBM has adopted transactional memory in the Blue Gene/Q supercomputer. The original paper by Herlihy and Eliot Moss has been cited more than 1,300 times. (more…)

Newly Found Protein Helps Cells Build Tissues

By Guest PostApril 2, 2012Scienceantibody, bmps, bone morphogenic proteins, brown university, enzyme, fruit flies, gbb, gbb38, glass bottom boat, guillermo marques, kristi wharton, molecule, protein, signaling molecule, takuya akiyama, wing tissue

University biologists have found a new molecule in fruit flies that is key to the information exchange needed to build wings properly. They have also uncovered evidence that an analogous protein may exist in people and may be associated with problems such as cleft lip, or premature ovarian failure.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — As they work together to form body parts, cells in developing organisms communicate like workers at a construction site. The discovery of a new signaling molecule in flies by Brown University biologists not only helps explain how cells send many long-haul messages, but also provides new clues for researchers who study how human development goes awry, for instance in cases of cleft lip and palate. (more…)

Touch of Gold Improves Nanoparticle Fuel-Cell Reactions

By Guest PostMarch 13, 2012Scienceadvanced electron microscopy, brown university, carbon monoxide, catalyst, co, crystal structure, crystallization, feptau, formic acid, fuel cell reaction, gold, gold atom, helmets, huiyuan zhu, japanese firefighters, mass activity, metallic nanoparticle, nanoparticle catalyst, np, organic material, oxidation, palladium, sen zhang, shaojun guo, shouheng sun, tetragonal, trimetallic nanoparticle

Chemists at Brown University have created a triple-headed metallic nanoparticle that reportedly performs better and lasts longer than any other nanoparticle catalyst studied in fuel-cell reactions. The key is the addition of gold: It yields a more uniform crystal structure while removing carbon monoxide from the reaction. Results published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Advances in fuel-cell technology have been stymied by the inadequacy of metals studied as catalysts. The drawback to platinum, other than cost, is that it absorbs carbon monoxide in reactions involving fuel cells powered by organic materials like formic acid. A more recently tested metal, palladium, breaks down over time. (more…)

Will a Genetic Mutation Cause Trouble? Ask Spliceman

By Guest PostMarch 5, 2012Scienceaaa, ata, brown university, chimpanzees, david orenstein, dna sequences, gene, genetic mutation, human genome mutation database, humans, kian huat lim, messenger rna, Rhesus monkeys, shamil sunyaev, spliceman, web based program, william fairbrother

New, free Web-based software described in the journal Bioinformatics analyzes DNA sequences to determine if mutations are likely to cause errors in splicing of messenger RNA. When gene splicing goes awry, a wide variety of diseases can result.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In a brief paper in the journal Bioinformatics, Brown University researchers describe a new, freely available Web-based program called Spliceman for predicting whether genetic mutations are likely to disrupt the splicing of messenger RNA, potentially leading to disease.

“Spliceman takes a set of DNA sequences with point mutations and computes how likely these single nucleotide variants alter splicing phenotypes,” write co-authors Kian Huat Lim, a graduate student, and William Fairbrother, assistant professor of biology, in an “application note” published in advance online Feb. 10. It will appear in print in April. (more…)

Ross Levine: Finance and Baseball

By Guest PostMarch 1, 2012Economyballs and strikes, baseball, brown university, deborah baum, economist, electronic monitoring, federal reserve, financial crises, financial markets, financial meltdown, gerard caprio, grand poobahs, guardians of finance, home crowd, homicide, james r barth, l jon wertheim, public, regulatory agencies, ross levine, scorecasting, the sentinel, tobias j moskowitz, united states

In Guardians of Finance, economists Ross Levine, James R. Barth, and Gerard Caprio Jr. argue that the financial meltdown of 2007 to 2009 was no accident — it was negligent homicide. Levine speaks with Deb Baum about how that happened, what can be done, and why the home team always seems to win.

A new book co-authored by Brown University economist Ross Levine argues that the reason the United States suffers financial crises time and time again is because the major regulatory agencies — the so-called “guardians of finance” — do not work for the public. Instead, they frequently work in the best interests of the financial services industry, the very entities they are supposed to be regulating. Guardians of Finance: Making Regulators Work for Us, published in February by MIT Press, goes beyond telling us what went wrong. The authors also suggest reforms needed to prevent the next crisis. (more…)

Researchers Make Living Model of Brain Tumor

By Guest PostFebruary 20, 2012Science3 d characteristics, 3 d model, 3d glioma model, agarose hydrogel mold, anti therapeutic agent, aruna sigdel, blood vessel, brain tumor, brown university, chenjie xu, concept, diameter, diffusion, don ho, endothelial cell, glioma, iron oxide nanoparticles, jeffrey morgan, magnetic resonance imaging, microns, microtissues, nanocarrier, nathan kohler, petri dish, raghu kalluri, rat, rg2 cell gliomas, richard lewis, shouheng sun, tissue culture, tissue model, tumstatin

*Researchers have created a living 3-D model of a brain tumor and its surrounding blood vessels. In experiments, the scientists report that iron-oxide nanoparticles carrying the agent tumstatin were taken by blood vessels, meaning they should block blood vessel growth. The living-tissue model could be used to test the effectiveness of nanoparticles in fighting other diseases. Results appear in Theranostics.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Brown University scientists have created the first three-dimensional living tissue model, complete with surrounding blood vessels, to analyze the effectiveness of therapeutics to combat brain tumors. The 3-D model gives medical researchers more and better information than Petri dish tissue cultures.

The researchers created a glioma, or brain tumor, and the network of blood vessels that surrounds it. In a series of experiments, the team showed that iron-oxide nanoparticles ferrying the chemical tumstatin penetrated the blood vessels that sustain the tumor with oxygen and nutrients. The iron-oxide nanoparticles are important, because they are readily taken up by endothelial cells and can be tracked by magnetic resonance imaging. (more…)

Biochip Measures Glucose in Saliva, Not Blood

By Guest PostJanuary 22, 2012Sciencealec roelke, americans, biochip, biological device, blood, brown university, chip, convergence, diabetics, domenico pacifici, environmental substances, glucose concentration, glucose levels, grooves, human hair, human saliva, interaction of electrons, interference, jing feng, light, light intensity, maxima and minima, measure, microfluidic channels, milligrams per deciliter, Nanotechnology, ocean waves, photons, plasmonic interferometers, steve rhieu, surface plasmon polariton, surface plasmon waves, surface plasmonics, tayhas palmore, vihang mehta, vince siu, wavelength

*Engineers at Brown University have designed a biological device that can measure glucose concentrations in human saliva. The technique could eliminate the need for diabetics to draw blood to check their glucose levels. The biochip uses plasmonic interferometers and could be used to measure a range of biological and environmental substances. Results are published in Nano Letters.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — For the 26 million Americans with diabetes, drawing blood is the most prevalent way to check glucose levels. It is invasive and at least minimally painful. Researchers at Brown University are working on a new sensor that can check blood sugar levels by measuring glucose concentrations in saliva instead.

The technique takes advantage of a convergence of nanotechnology and surface plasmonics, which explores the interaction of electrons and photons (light). The engineers at Brown etched thousands of plasmonic interferometers onto a fingernail-size biochip and measured the concentration of glucose molecules in water on the chip. Their results showed that the specially designed biochip could detect glucose levels similar to the levels found in human saliva. Glucose in human saliva is typically about 100 times less concentrated than in the blood. (more…)

North American Mammal Evolution Tracks with Climate Change

By Guest PostJanuary 1, 2012Environment, Nature, Science65 million years, anthropogenic climatic change, borja figueirido, brown university, changes in climate, christine janis, climate changes, deep sea microorganisms, diversity, early middle eocene fauna, early miocene epoch, evolutionary biologists, evolutionary faunas, fossil record, future climactic changes, global paleotemperatures, herbivores, history, immigration events, jack sepkoski, juan perez claros, levels of atmospheric oxygen, life on earth, mammal species, miocene fauna, natural history, North America, paleocene fauna, paleontologist, paul palmqvist, potential connection, quantitative analysis, rise and fall, savannah, six waves of species diversity, species migrations, university of chicago, vegetation, warming and cooling periods, waves, woodland

*Climate changes profoundly influenced the rise and fall of six distinct, successive waves of mammal species diversity in North America over the last 65 million years, shows a novel statistical analysis led by Brown University evolutionary biologists. Warming and cooling periods, in two cases confounded by species migrations, marked the transition from one dominant grouping to the next.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — History often seems to happen in waves — fashion and musical tastes turn over every decade and empires give way to new ones over centuries. A similar pattern characterizes the last 65 million years of natural history in North America, where a novel quantitative analysis has identified six distinct, consecutive waves of mammal species diversity or “evolutionary faunas.” What force of history determined the destiny of these groupings? The numbers say it was typically climate change.

“Although we’ve always known in a general way that mammals respond to climatic change over time, there has been controversy as to whether this can be demonstrated in a quantitative fashion,” said Christine Janis, professor of evolutionary biology at Brown University. “We show that the rise and fall of these faunas is indeed correlated with climatic change — the rise or fall of global paleotemperatures — and also influenced by other more local perturbations such as immigration events.” (more…)