Tag Archives: model

Plastic Pollution

By Guest PostMay 2, 2012Environmentalgae, bacteria, dylan meyer, environmental group, factor, giora proskurowski, historical weather data, kara lavendar law, liver function, mathematical model, model, north atlantic expedition, ocean, pacific garbage patch, plastic marine debris, plastic particles, plastic pollution, pollutant, recipe, skye moret ferguson, teresa messmore, tobias kukulka, university of delaware, university of washington, wind

Wind pushes plastics deeper into oceans, driving trash estimates up

Decades of research into how much plastic litters the sea may have only skimmed the surface. A new study reveals that wind drives confetti-sized pieces of plastic debris deeper underwater than previously believed, more than doubling earlier estimates of the pollutant’s presence in oceans.

“In windy conditions the traditional approach to measuring plastic marine debris captures only a small fraction of plastic pieces,” said Tobias Kukulka, assistant professor of physical ocean science and engineering in the University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. “Our study helps to better understand how much plastic there is and where, as well as the complexity of the ocean dynamics at work.” (more…)

Geologists Correct a Rift in Africa

By Guest PostMarch 26, 2012Scienceafrica today, australia, climate change, earth crust, east africa, east african rift, eric roberts, ethiopia, geological sciences, giant arc, great rift valley, human evolution, human species, james cook university, Kenya, malawi, michael gottfried, michigan state university, model, nancy stevens, nature geoscience, ohio university, plate boundary, rukwa rift, system, tectonic forces, uganda, vertebrate fossils, volcanic ash

EAST LANSING, Mich. — The huge changes in the Earth’s crust that influenced human evolution are being redefined, according to research published today in Nature Geoscience.

The Great Rift Valley of East Africa – the birthplace of the human species – may have taken much longer to develop than previously believed.

“We now believe that the western portion of the rift formed about 25 million years ago, and is approximately as old as the eastern part, instead of much younger as other studies have maintained,” said Michael Gottfried, Michigan State University associate professor of geological sciences. “The significance is that the Rift Valley is the setting for the most crucial steps in primate and ultimately human evolution, and our study has major implications for the environmental and landscape changes that form the backdrop for that evolutionary story.” (more…)

Scholars Say Global Governance Overhaul Needed For Earth’s Sustainability

By Guest PostMarch 19, 2012Environmentearth, environmental change, environmental institution, environmental scholar, frank biermann, geo engineering, global governance, model, Nanotechnology, reform, rio de janeiro, societal change, steven bernstein, subsystem, sustainable development, synthetic biology, un, united nations

A group of the world’s leading environmental scholars are sounding the alarm that human societies need to transform their national and international environmental institutions into a more coherent and robust planetary stewardship model to steer away from rapid and irreversible changes to the Earth’s subsystems.

University of Toronto political scientist Steven Bernstein is one of the authors of a paper which appears in Science on March 16, 2012. (more…)

New Method For Estimating Parameters May Boost Biological Models

By Guest PostMarch 11, 2012Sciencebest, biological systems, bowl, cranos williams, cycle in mammals, cyclical nature, frequency, functional set, key challenges, model, modeling, objective function, optimal fit, optimization, optimization algorithms, oscillatory systems, parameter, parameter estimation, periodic cycles, seyedbehzad nabavi, system oscillations

Modeling biological systems can provide key insights for scientists and medical researchers, but periodic cycles that repeat themselves – so-called oscillatory systems – pose some key challenges. Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new method for estimating the parameters used in such models – which may advance modeling in research areas ranging from cancer to fertility. (more…)

High Population Density is Greatest Risk Factor For Water-Linked Diseases

By Guest PostFebruary 17, 2012Healthbo lu, c k shum, central africa, dengue fever, diarrhea, disease transmission, doug alsdorf, e coli, eastern brazil, environmental change, environmental condition, gideon, global analysis, hazards, hot spots, infectious disease, insect bite, jeffrey lejeune, kun yang, latin america, legionella, malaria, model, northern india, ohio state database, population density, risk factor, routes, schistosomiasis, song liang, southeast asia, surface area, trypanosomiasis, water associated, water bodies, western europe

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Water-associated infectious disease outbreaks are more likely to occur in areas where a region’s population density is growing, according to a new global analysis of economic and environmental conditions that influence the risk for these outbreaks.

Ohio State University scientists constructed a massive database containing information about 1,428 water-associated disease outbreaks that were reported between 1991 and 2008 around the world. By combining outbreak records with data on a variety of socio-environmental factors known about the affected regions, the researchers developed a model that can be used to predict risks for water-associated disease outbreaks anywhere in the world. (more…)

MU Unveils 3-D Visual Immersion Laboratory

By Guest PostDecember 20, 2011Science3 d, active shutter, bimal balakrishnan, design studio curriculum, designing buildings, experiential tool, glasses, high definition projection screens, icon lab, iel, ilab, immersive 3 d technology, immersive environments lab, model, penn state university, rooms, smart board, Technology, three dimensional space, university of missouri

*New “iLab” will allow undergraduate students to design projects in a 3-D environment*

COLUMBIA, Mo. – One of the most difficult tasks architects and interior designers face when designing buildings and rooms is visualizing exactly what their projects will look like when they are finished. Now, the University of Missouri architectural studies department has developed the Immersive Visualization Lab (iLab) to help students visualize their designs more accurately. Bimal Balakrishnan, an assistant professor of architectural studies in MU College of Human Environmental Sciences, says the iLab will be one of few labs in the country to allow undergraduate students to get hands-on experience using immersive 3-D technology to complete and test their designs as part of their design studio curriculum.

“Most university immersion labs are reserved primarily for graduate students to use for research purposes,” Balakrishnan said. “While the MU iLab will be used for research, it will also serve as an excellent teaching and experiential tool for undergraduate students.” (more…)

New Study to Test Unusual Hypothesis on Beta Brainwaves

By Guest PostDecember 4, 2011Sciencebasal ganglia, beta, beta brainwaves, beta oscillations, brown university, christopher moore, cortex, david orenstein, hypothesis, key brain circuit, model, moore and jones, neurons, neuroscientists, optogenetics, parkinsonian symptoms, parkinsons disease, physical brain, predictions, sensory information, somatosensory system, stephanie jones, thalamocortical circuit, thalamus, touch, touch perception circuit

Beta oscillations are tightly linked to Parkinson’s disease and the ability to process sensory information, such as touch. Two neuroscientists have brought their collaboration to Brown University and won funding from the National Science Foundation to see if they can finally provide a definitive, if unorthodox, explanation for beta brainwaves.

Before she could seek to convince the world that her computer model of a key brain circuit explains a fundamental, 80-year-old mystery of neuroscience with potential relevance to Parkinson’s disease, Stephanie Jones sought to convince Christopher Moore. The new Brown neuroscience professors are now close collaborators, but when they first started talking about the beta oscillations of the cortex, Moore thought Jones was plain wrong, if not a bit nuts. (more…)

A Tailored Pair of Genes

By Guest PostNovember 22, 2011Scienceagriculture, alfalfa like legume, ancestor of legumes, ancestral genes, ancient plants, asteroid, backbone of protein, bacteria, beans, cretaceous period, crop plants, demise of the dinosaurs, dinosaurs, disaster, earth, eggs, fertilizers, genes, genetically engineer legumes, genomes, humans, legumes, living together, major nutrient, medicago truncatula, model, nevin young, nitrogen, nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer, nitrogen fixation, nitrogen fixing bacteria, nonsynthetic nitrogen fertilizer, peanuts, peas, sequencing genome, soybeans, sperm, synthetic fertilizer, university of minnesota

*For ancient plants, two genes were definitely better than one*

In the wake of the disaster that killed the dinosaurs, the ancestors of today’s crop plants reinvented themselves.

They doubled their genomes, and in that single act set the stage for feeding the world 60 million years later.

In a study published in the Nov. 16 issue of the journal Nature, researchers from the University of Minnesota and other institutions recount how sequencing the genome of a model, alfalfa-like legume revealed the monumental benefits that flowed when the ancestor of legumes acquired an extra copy of every gene. (more…)