Tag Archives: model

Migrants strangle France alive

By Guest PostDecember 29, 2012Politicsalien ideology, arab countries, bankrupt, colonies of france, crime, eu citizens, euro, Europe, european values, france, francois hollande, french interior minister, french policy, french taxpayers, french treasury, global competitiveness report, immigrant benefits, international factors, job search, manuel valls, migration policy, model, muslim countries, new immigration rules, nicolas sarkozy, number of migrants, presidential campaign, problems of migrants, social behavior, unemployment

It seems that migration policies of a leading country in Europe, France, are seriously changing. The country is no longer able to hold back the crowd of migrants, many of whom do not want to integrate into the social and economic life of their new home country. The upcoming radical changes for migrants were announced by French Interior Minister Manuel Valls.

After a meeting on the National Immigration and Integration, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls announced significant changes in the country’s migration policy. The government will reduce financial assistance to immigrants, and this reduction will be substantial. Starting March 1 of next year, French immigrant benefits will be reduced by 83 percent. The amount of compensation to immigrants who voluntarily want to return home will be also reduced. If earlier the government paid 300 euros for every adult and 100 euros for every minor, in March of 2013 these amounts will be reduced to 50 and 30 euros, respectively. (more…)

New Research Underscores Vulnerability of Wildlife in Low-Lying Hawaiian Islands

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2012Environment, Natureblack footed albatross, bonin petrel, climate change, crystal m krause, curt storlazzi, global sea level, habitat loss, island biodiversity, jamie carter, karen n courtot, kure atoll, laysan albatross, laysan island, low lying island, michelle h reynolds, migratory wildlife species, model, multifaceted assessment, national wildlife refuge, northwestern hawaiian islands, nwhi, over fished ocean, pacific ocean, paul berkowitz, prediction, sea-level rise, topographic data, trend, tropical seabird rookery, U.S. Geological Survey, wave action, World Heritage Site

HONOLULU, Hawaii — If current climate change trends continue, rising sea levels may inundate low-lying islands across the globe, placing island biodiversity at risk. A new U.S. Geological Survey scientific publication describes the first combined simulations of the effects of sea-level rise and wave action in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, offering the most detailed and multifaceted assessment available of how island biodiversity may be affected by climate change.

The publication, “Predicting Sea-Level Rise Vulnerability of Terrestrial Habitat and Wildlife of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands,” by Michelle H. Reynolds, Paul Berkowitz, Karen N. Courtot, Crystal M. Krause, Jamie Carter, and Curt Storlazzi is available online. (more…)

Hearty Organisms Discovered in Bitter-Cold Antarctic Brine

By Guest PostNovember 26, 2012Environmentammonia, anoxic brine, antarctic ice, aquatic environment, brine, cryo environment, earth, east antarctica, ecosystem, europa, extreme environment, frozen environment, hearty microbes, jupiter, lake vida, life, mcmurdo dry valleys, michigan state university, microbial life, microbial metabolism, model, moon, nathaniel ostrom, nitrogen, nitrous oxide, permanent darkness, subzero temperature, sulfur, supersaturated, vacation destination, water, zoologist

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Where there’s water there’s life – even in brine beneath 60 feet of Antarctic ice, in permanent darkness and subzero temperatures.

While Lake Vida, located in the northernmost of the McMurdo Dry Valleys of East Antarctica, will never be a vacation destination, it is home to some newly discovered hearty microbes. In the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Nathaniel Ostrom, Michigan State University zoologist, has co-authored “Microbial Life at -13ºC in the Brine of an Ice-Sealed Antarctic Lake.” (more…)

Not-So-Permanent Permafrost

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2012Environmentalaska, arctic permafrost, atmosphere, carbon, chemical cycles, climate change, climate prediction, climate warming, director, earth, ecosystems, Environment, fairbanks, frozen ground, gelisols, geological survey, jennifer harden, lakes, marcia mcnutt, mikhail kanevsiy, model, nitrogen, organic matter, peaty, rivers, scenarios, scientist, soil scientist, university, US, usgs, warmer planet, warming phenomenon, water resources

MENLO PARK, Calif. — As much as 44 billion tons of nitrogen and 850 billion tons of carbon stored in arctic permafrost, or frozen ground, could be released into the environment as the region begins to thaw over the next century as a result of a warmer planet according to a new study led by the U.S. Geological Survey. This nitrogen and carbon are likely to impact ecosystems, the atmosphere, and water resources including rivers and lakes. For context, this is roughly the amount of carbon stored in the atmosphere today.

The release of carbon and nitrogen in permafrost could exacerbate the warming phenomenon and will impact water systems on land and offshore according to USGS scientists and their domestic and international collaborators. The previously unpublished nitrogen figure is useful for scientists who are making climate predictions with computer climate models, while the carbon estimate is consistent and gives more credence to other scientific studies with similar carbon estimates. (more…)

Bounce, Skid, Wobble: How Huygens Landed on Titan

By Guest PostOctober 11, 2012Science17th century, analysis, astronomer, cassini spacecraft, christiaan huygens, direction, dutch, earth, erich karkoschka, european, evaporate, friction, hazy atmosphere, horizon, huygens data, huygens impact, huygens probe, institute, lower atmosphere, max planck, methane, model, moon, moon surface, motion, mud like, NASA, nicolas altobelli, organic aerosols, ralph lorenz, saturn, space agency, splat, stefan schroder, substance, titan, titan atmosphere, undisturbed terrain

Piecing together the events of the farthest touchdown a manmade spacecraft has ever made on an alien world reveals new clues about Titan’s surface and helps plan future missions to moons and planets.

The Huygens probe, ferried to Saturn’s moon Titan by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, bounced, slid and wobbled its way to rest in the 10 seconds after touching down on Titan in January 2005, a new analysis reveals. The moon’s surface is more complex than previously thought.

Scientists reconstructed the chain of events by analyzing data from a variety of instruments that were active during the impact, in particular changes in the acceleration experienced by the probe. The probe was supplied by the European Space Agency and named after the Dutch 17th century astronomer Christiaan Huygens. (more…)

Berkeley Lab Scientists Create First 3-D Model of a Protein Critical to Embryo Development

By Guest PostSeptember 21, 2012Science3d model, aebp2, alessio maiolica, angstroms, arm1, arm2, berkeley lab, birth defect, cancer, chromatin environment, claudio ciferri, complex, complex 2, crystal structure, DNA, electron microscopy, eva nogales, franz herzog, function, gabriel lander, human, mass spectrometry, mechanism, model, molecular architecture, nucleosome, polycomb, prc2, progression, protein, protein biochemistry, repressive, ruedi aebersold, therapeutic drug

The first detailed and complete picture of a protein complex that is tied to human birth defects as well as the progression of many forms of cancer has been obtained by an international team of researchers led by scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Knowing the architecture of this protein, PRC2, for Polycomb Repressive Complex 2, should be a boon to its future use in the development of new and improved therapeutic drugs.

“We present a complete molecular organization of human PRC2 that offers an invaluable structural context for understanding all of the previous biochemical and functional data that has been collected on this complex,” says Berkeley Lab biophysicist Eva Nogales, an electron microscopy expert who led this research. “Our model should also be an invaluable tool for the design of new experiments aimed at asking detailed questions about the mechanisms that enable PRC2 to function and how those mechanisms might be exploited.” (more…)

Researchers Devise More Accurate Method for Predicting Hurricane Activity

By Guest PostSeptember 14, 2012Environmentalok choudhary, cross validation, factor, forecasting, fredrick semazzi, historical data, humidity, hurricane season, method, model, motif based, nagiza samatova, network, north atlantic, north Carolina, seasonal hurricane, state university, statistical method, temperature, united states, william hendrix, zhengzhang chen

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new method for forecasting seasonal hurricane activity that is 15 percent more accurate than previous techniques.

“This approach should give policymakers more reliable information than current state-of-the-art methods,” says Dr. Nagiza Samatova, an associate professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the work. “This will hopefully give them more confidence in planning for the hurricane season.” (more…)

Engineered Microvessels Provide a 3-D Test Bed for Human Diseases

By Guest PostMay 31, 2012Science3 d test bed, abraham stroock, abundant protein, bioengineering, blood clots, bloodstream, cancer, chemical factor, collagen, cornell university, disease, endothelial cells, honeycomb, human, human blood vessels, human cancer, human cell, jose lopez, mechanical, mice and monkeys, michael craven, model, petri dish, samuel totorica, shear stress, tumor progression, university of washington, ying zheng

Mice and monkeys don’t develop diseases in the same way that humans do. Nevertheless, after medical researchers have studied human cells in a Petri dish, they have little choice but to move on to study mice and primates.

University of Washington bioengineers have developed the first structure to grow small human blood vessels, creating a 3-D test bed that offers a better way to study disease, test drugs and perhaps someday grow human tissues for transplant.

The findings are published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (more…)