Tag Archives: university of arizona

For Some Medical Residents, Empathy Declines With Long-Call

By Guest PostJanuary 31, 2012Generalburnout, chris segrin, concern, damage, degradation, diagnostic ability, domino effect, environmental stressors, fatigue, health care provider, heavy workload, long call, medical resident, one way street, patient care, physician, potential of litigation, residency program, sleep deprivation, stacey passalacqua, survey, tough situation, trait empathy, university of arizona

*In a newly published study, researchers found the majority of medical residents surveyed experienced a decline in empathy over the course of the oft-used “long-call” shift.*

Fatigue and sleep deprivation are undisputed job descriptors for medical residents, but results from a new study indicate the common “long-call” shift may have adverse effects not only for residents, but also their patients.

University of Arizona alumna Stacey Passalacqua, now a visiting assistant professor at James Madison University’s School of Communication, surveyed nearly 100 medical residents at several different hospitals. (more…)

Photo from NASA Mars Orbiter Shows Wind’s Handiwork

By Guest PostJanuary 25, 2012Scienceball aerospace, Environment, hirise camera, image, impact crater, mars reconnaissance orbiter, martian landscape, meteorite, NASA, noachis terra, planet, seasonal frosts, southern mars, university of arizona, wind

Some images of stark Martian landscapes provide visual appeal beyond their science value, including a recent scene of wind-sculpted features from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The scene shows dunes and sand ripples of various shapes and sizes inside an impact crater in the Noachis Terra region of southern Mars. Patterns of dune erosion and deposition provide insight into the sedimentary history of the area. (more…)

Scientists Prepare to Take First-Ever Picture of a Black Hole

By Guest PostJanuary 16, 2012Scienceabyss of space, albert einstein, alma, arizona, astrophysicists, atacama large millimeter array, atmosphere, black hole, black void, center of milky way, Chile, cosmic traffic jam, dan marrone, daniel stolte, dimitrios psaltis, earth, einstein, event horizon, event horizon telescope, extreme environment, field of gravity, game changer, general relativity, global array, hawaii, haystack observatory, maelstroms, mass, massachusetts institute of technology, mauna kea, mercury, Mexico, MIT, mt graham, nothingness, optical telescopes, plasma, radio telescopes, radio waves, shadow, sheperd doeleman, south pole, space and time, steward observatory, sun, supermassive black hole, theory of general relativity, tucson, ultra precise timing, universe, university of arizona, virtual telescope, water vapor, wavelengths

*The Event Horizon Telescope is an Earth-sized virtual telescope powerful enough to see all the way to the center of our Milky Way, where a supermassive black hole will allow astrophysicists to put Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity to the test.*

Astronomers, physicists and scientists from related fields across the world will convene in Tucson, Ariz. on Jan. 18 to discuss an endeavor that only a few years ago would have been regarded as nothing less than outrageous.

The conference is organized by Dimitrios Psaltis, an associate professor of astrophysics at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory, and Dan Marrone, an assistant professor of astronomy at Steward Observatory. (more…)

Meteorite Shockwaves Trigger Dust Avalanches on Mars

By Guest PostDecember 18, 2011Scienceairblast, alfred mcewen, atmosphere, basketball court, craters on mars, dark streaks, dust avalanches, dusty surface, equator, erosion, hirise camera, impact crater, jay melosh, kaylan burleigh, mars global surveyor orbiter, martian surface, meteorite, olympus mons, plate tectonic processes, red planet, shock wave, solar system, tallest mountain, university of arizona

Dust avalanches around impact craters on Mars appear to be the result of the shock wave preceding the actual impact, according to a study led by an undergraduate student at the UA.

When a meteorite careens toward the dusty surface of the Red Planet, it kicks up dust and can cause avalanching even before the rock from outer space hits the ground, a research team led by an undergraduate student at the University of Arizona has discovered.

“We expected that some of the streaks of dust that we see on slopes are caused by seismic shaking during impact,” said Kaylan Burleigh, who led the research project. “We were surprised to find that it rather looks like shockwaves in the air trigger the avalanches even before the impact.” (more…)

In Glowing, Swirling Dust, New Stars are Born

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2011Scienceadam block, astronomy picture of the day, astrophotographer, block, cosmic dust, daniel stolte, light years, mount lemmon skycenter, NASA, phil plait, schulman telescope, sh2 239, stellar nebula sh2 239, stellar nursery, university of arizona, visible light

An image taken by UA astrophotographer Adam Block, chosen by NASA as Astronomy Picture of the Day, brings us the best yet glimpse into a stellar nursery about 450 light years away from Earth.

An image of a stellar nursery about 450 light years away featured as NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day on Dec. 8 reveals the beauty and violent story of Sh2-239, a region where stars are being born and ignite the cosmic dust with their new-found energy.

According to University of Arizona astrophotographer Adam Block, who captured the image, it is one of the most detailed and visually appealing pictures obtained of the object, which astronomers have observed and studied for decades. (more…)

With ‘Google Earth’ for Mars, Explore the Red Planet from Home

By Guest PostDecember 8, 2011Science, Technologyanaglyph image file, arizona, bradford castalia, crater on mars, data mapper, desktop, geologic feature, gigabyte size, hirise, hirise imagery, hiview, image file format, images, jpeg2000, layered deposits, local storage space, martian landscape, mesas, monument valley, orbit around mars, oval mesa, photoshop, pictures are beautiful, red planet, rodney heyd, Science, shelley littin, software tool, statistics tool, surface of mars, terabytes, university of arizona, utah, waves

A new software tool developed by the HiRISE team in the UA’s Lunar and Planetary Lab allows members of the public to download high-resolution images of the Martian landscape almost instantaneously and explore the surface of the Red Planet from their own desktops.

Imagine zooming in over the surface of Mars, sweeping over sand dunes and circling around the rims of craters – all from your home desktop.

With HiView, the image-viewing tool recently released by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, team at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Lab, you can do just that. (more…)

At a Loss for Words

By Guest PostNovember 20, 2011Health, Scienceaphasia, aphasia research project, biological and cognitive processes, brain, brain damage, brain impairs, bullet, celeste barajas, communication impairments, gabrielle giffords, human communication problems, inability to speak or write, language and hearing sciences, language impairment, language recovery, loss of phonology, magnetic resonance imaging, mechanisms of recovery, mri, national institutes of health, network of brain regions, neuroimaging, pelagie beeson, pima county, rehabilitation, scanner, speech, speech language pathology, steven rapcsak, stroke, traumatic brain injury, university of arizona

*Research into aphasia – the inability to speak or write well-formulated sentences and words – is strong at the UA. Researchers have received $2 million toward the study of the condition.*

The National Institutes of Health have awarded the University of Arizona’s Aphasia Research Project in the department of speech, language and hearing sciences a $2 million grant to research communication impairments in adults who have suffered brain injury.

Aphasia – the inability to speak or write well-formulated sentences and words – is a common result of a stroke or a traumatic brain injury such as the one suffered by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head earlier this year. The bullet damaged regions of the brain that are critical for language and control of the right side of the body. (more…)

Astrophysicists Find Evidence of Black Holes Ripping Stars Apart

By Guest PostOctober 17, 2011Scienceaccretion disk, active galactic nuclei, astrophysicists, black holes, chaotic orbits, cosmologists, dennis zaritsky, destroying stars, evidence of black holes, intermediate mass, johns hopkins university's, large galaxies, sdss, sloan digital sky survey, steward observatory, super-massive black hole, suvi gezari, university of arizona

*Sifting through observation data obtained of more than 2 million galaxies, a research team including UA astronomer Dennis Zaritsky has discovered phenomena telling of stars dying a violent death.

Astrophysicists at the University of Arizona and elsewhere have found evidence of black holes destroying stars, a long-sought phenomenon that provides a new window into general relativity.

The research, reported in the latest issue of the Astrophysical Journal, also opens up a method to search for the possible existence of a large population of presently undetectable “intermediate mass” black holes, which are hypothesized to be precursors to the super-massive black holes at the centers of most large galaxies. (more…)