Tag Archives: database

Training Your Robot the PaR-PaR Way

Berkeley Lab and JBEI Researchers Develop a Biology-Friendly Robot Programming Language

Teaching a robot a new trick is a challenge. You can’t reward it with treats and it doesn’t respond to approval or disappointment in your voice. For researchers in the biological sciences, however, the future training of robots has been made much easier thanks to a new program called “PaR-PaR.”

Nathan Hillson, a biochemist at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), led the development of PaR-PaR, which stands for Programming a Robot. PaR-PaR is a simple high-level, biology-friendly, robot-programming language that allows researchers to make better use of liquid-handling robots and thereby make possible experiments that otherwise might not have been considered. (more…)

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Large Bacterial Population Colonized Land 2.75 Billion Years Ago

There is evidence that some microbial life had migrated from the Earth’s oceans to land by 2.75 billion years ago, though many scientists believe such land-based life was limited because the ozone layer that shields against ultraviolet radiation did not form until hundreds of millions years later.

But new research from the University of Washington suggests that early microbes might have been widespread on land, producing oxygen and weathering pyrite, an iron sulfide mineral, which released sulfur and molybdenum into the oceans. (more…)

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Q&A: Libraries Turn New Page into Digital Age

Michael Dula recently began his appointment as chief technology officer for the Yale University Library, which is one of the largest university libraries in North America. In this newly created role, he will develop a technology strategy for the University’s 18 different libraries, which house over 12.5 million volumes.

Prior to coming to Yale, Dula worked at Pepperdine University, where he began as a consultant. In 2006, he accepted a full-time position at Pepperdine as director of digital initiatives for the university’s libraries. In addition to managing central library technology systems, he was actively engaged in implementing new tools for research and learning, including digital content collections, scholarly publishing, podcasting, and social computing models. (more…)

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Global Health: Students Build Wiki of Medical Devices Designed for Low-Income Countries

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— In parts of the world without reliable electricity, a pedal-powered nebulizer could provide life-saving asthma treatments. Small wax-filled sleeping bags could keep premature infants warm. A salad spinner centrifuge for blood samples could help clinicians diagnose anemia.

University of Michigan researchers have cataloged more than 100 such technologies in a new wiki of medical devices designed for resource-limited settings. The Global Health Medical Device Compendium, an open-source inventory, is hosted by the popular appropriate technology wiki Appropedia. It is expected to serve as an important communication vehicle for end users, non-governmental organizations, researchers and others to help advance such technologies. (more…)

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A Passion for Privacy: Three Chief Privacy Officers Reflect on a Decade of Work Creating a More Trustworthy Computing Ecosystem

*As the proliferation of devices and cloud services expands the amount of data becoming available globally, Microsoft’s chief privacy officers have focused on developing policies, processes and technologies to help protect users’ personal information.*

REDMOND, Wash. — A mountain climber turned database whiz. A customer loyalty manager for one of the world’s largest banks. A quality assurance and risk management consultant.

The career arcs that led Richard Purcell, Peter Cullen and Brendon Lynch to Microsoft couldn’t have been more different. Yet, in their own unique way, each path was preparation for serving as the corporate privacy officer of one of the world’s largest software and services companies. (more…)

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