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Paper Offers Framework for Amazon Oil and Gas Development

By Guest PostMay 12, 2013Environment, Generalamazonian hydrocarbon exploration, amazonian region, analysis, bill powers, blue moon fund, clinton jenkins, critical ecosystems, cultural diversity, dynamic hydrocarbon zones, earth, emergency, environmental state, erd, etech international, extended reach drilling, future conflicts, gas, key component, matt finer, national geographic society, negative impact, north Carolina, northern peru, oil, production, state university, technique, tropical forest environment, vital watersheds, western amazon

Oil and gas development continues to press into the most remote corners of the western Amazon, one of the most biologically and culturally diverse zones on Earth. Now a study proposes a new 10-point, best-practice framework that combines technical engineering criteria with consideration of ecological and social concerns to reduce the negative impacts of Amazonian hydrocarbon exploration and production.

The researchers say, for example, that by using extended reach drilling (ERD), a technique to reach a larger subsurface area from one surface drilling location, it is possible to greatly reduce the total number of needed drilling platforms and access roads for a given project. (more…)

Older Is Wiser: Study Shows Software Developers’ Skills Improve Over Time

By Guest PostMay 9, 2013Technologychanging technology, data, django to silverlight, emerson murphy hill, ios, north Carolina, older is wiser, patrick morrison, programming interests, programming issues, reputation score, skills of programmers, smartphone operating systems, software developer, stackoverflow, state university, windows phone

There is a perception in some tech circles that older programmers aren’t able to keep pace with rapidly changing technology, and that they are discriminated against in the software field. But a new study from North Carolina State University indicates that the knowledge and skills of programmers actually improve over time – and that older programmers know as much (or more) than their younger peers when it comes to recent software platforms.

“We wanted to explore these perceptions of veteran programmers as being out of step with emerging technologies and see if we could determine whether older programmers are actually keeping up with changes in the field,” says Dr. Emerson Murphy-Hill, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of a paper on the research. “And we found that, in some cases, veteran programmers even have a slight edge.” (more…)

New Algorithm Helps Evaluate, Rank Scientific Literature

By Guest PostMay 5, 2013Scienceallan peter davis, biocurators, bioinformatician, carolyn mattingly, cindy murphy, code, computer program, ctd, evaluate, jean lay, new algorithm, north Carolina, public database, rank, robin johnson, scientific literature, sophisticated algorithm, state university, thomas wiegers

Keeping up with current scientific literature is a daunting task, considering that hundreds to thousands of papers are published each day. Now researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a computer program to help them evaluate and rank scientific articles in their field.

The researchers use a text-mining algorithm to prioritize research papers to read and include in their Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD), a public database that manually curates and codes data from the scientific literature describing how environmental chemicals interact with genes to affect human health. (more…)

Research Finds Invasive Kudzu Bugs May Pose Greater Threat Than Previously Thought

By Guest PostApril 29, 2013Natureagricultural pest, alejandro, asia, crop damage, del pozo valdivia, dominic reisig, entomology, generation a, georgia, invasive kudzu bug, megacopta cribraria, nc state, north Carolina, soybean crops, state university, united states, virginia

The invasive kudzu bug has the potential to be a major agricultural pest, causing significant damage to economically important soybean crops. Conventional wisdom has held that the insect pests will be limited to areas in the southern United States, but new research from North Carolina State University shows that they may be able to expand into other parts of the country.

Kudzu bugs (Megacopta cribraria) are native to Asia, and were first detected in the U.S. in Georgia in 2009. They have since expanded their territory as far north as Virginia. The bugs have an interesting life cycle, which has been thought to be a limiting factor on far they can spread. (more…)

Foundations of Carbon-Based Life Leave Little Room for Error

By Guest PostApril 2, 2013Sciencealpha particles, carbon, carbon 12, carbon based life, dean lee, deutsche forschungsgemeinschaft, electron volts, elementary particles, elements, evgeny epelbaum, helium 4 nuclei, hermann krebs, hoyle state, juelich supercomputer centre, kev, light quark mass, north Carolina, numerical lattice, oxygen, quarks, room for error, specific energy, state university, timo laehde, ulf g

Life as we know it is based upon the elements of carbon and oxygen. Now a team of physicists, including one from North Carolina State University, is looking at the conditions necessary to the formation of those two elements in the universe. They’ve found that when it comes to supporting life, the universe leaves very little margin for error.

Both carbon and oxygen are produced when helium burns inside of giant red stars. Carbon-12, an essential element we’re all made of, can only form when three alpha particles, or helium-4 nuclei, combine in a very specific way. The key to formation is an excited state of carbon-12 known as the Hoyle state, and it has a very specific energy – measured at 379 keV (or 379,000 electron volts) above the energy of three alpha particles. Oxygen is produced by the combination of another alpha particle and carbon. (more…)

New Technique Creates Stronger, Lightweight Magnesium Alloys

By Guest PostMarch 29, 2013Scienceaerospace industries, automobile, conventional, gadolinium, hot rolling technology, lightweight magnesium alloys, nano spaced, nc state, new technique, north Carolina, silver, specific strength, stacking faults, state university, suveen mathaudhu, us army research, yttrium, yuntian zhu, zirconium

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique for creating stronger, lightweight magnesium alloys that have potential structural applications in the automobile and aerospace industries.

Engineers constantly seek strong, lightweight materials for use in cars and planes to improve fuel efficiency. Their goal is to develop structural materials with a high “specific strength,” which is defined as a material’s strength divided by its density. In other words, specific strength measures how much load it can carry per unit of weight. (more…)

Researchers Solve Riddle of What Has Been Holding Two Unlikely Materials Together

By Guest PostMarch 23, 2013Sciencebi2te3, bismuth telluride, bonds, electricity, electronics, gaas, gallium arsenide, heat into electricity, houston dycus, james lebeau, jonathan pierce, molecules, north Carolina, rama venkatasubramanian, rti international, state university, super x, thin films, van der waals, weak electrical forces

For years, researchers have developed thin films of bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) – which converts heat into electricity or electricity to cooling – on top of gallium arsenide (GaAs) to create cooling devices for electronics. But while they knew it could be done, it was not clear how – because the atomic structures of those unlikely pair of materials do not appear to be compatible. Now researchers from North Carolina State University and RTI International have solved the mystery, opening the door to new research in the field.

“We’ve used state-of-the-art technology to solve a mystery that has been around for years,” says Dr. James LeBeau, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper on the research. “And now that we know what is going on, we can pursue research to fine-tune the interface of these materials to develop more efficient mechanisms for converting electricity to cooling or heat into electricity. Ultimately, this could have applications in a wide range of electronic devices.” (more…)

Stemming Russia’s HIV Epidemic

By Guest PostMarch 21, 2013Healthblood borne pathogens, bmc public health, clean syringes, disease, district level, drug users, factor, hiv epidemic, hiv prevalence, hiv-positive, pharmacies, public health, public health sector, robert heimer, russia, sex partners, social costs, social structures, st. petersburg, state university, transmission, unsafe injection practices, virus, yale school

Clean Syringes Often Unavailable in St. Petersburg, YSPH Research Finds

Russia’s HIV epidemic is among the fastest growing in the world and injection drug users who often share needles and other supplies are hardest hit. This occurs even though pharmacies are a legal source for clean syringes and can sell them without restriction.

A recent study led by the Yale School of Public Health and St. Petersburg State University mapped the city’s 965 pharmacies and compared their locations and density to HIV prevalence at the district level. (more…)

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