Republican claims of political corruption in North Carolina’s Democratic Party have made little impact on public opinion among potential voters in the state, according to new polling data analyzed by North Carolina State University researchers. The findings show that highlighting actual corruption is not necessarily an effective electoral strategy. (more…)
Blake Simmons (left) and Harvey Blanch of the Joint BioEnergy Institute led the development of a technoeconomic model for optimizing biorefinery operations. Image cedit: Roy Kaltschmidt, Berkeley Lab Public Affairs
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have created a technoeconomic model that should help accelerate the development of a next generation of clean, green biofuels that can compete with gasoline in economics and well as performance. This on-line, wiki-based model enables researchers to pursue the most promising strategies for cost-efficient biorefinery operations by simulating such critical factors as production costs and energy balances under different processing scenarios.
“The high production cost of biofuels has been the main factor limiting their widespread adoption,” says JBEI’s Daniel Klein-Marcuschamer. “We felt that a model of the biorefinery operation that was open, transparent about the assumptions it uses, and updatable by the community of users could aid in guiding research in the direction where it is most likely to reduce the production cost of biofuels.” (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— One-fifth of the world’s vertebrate species are threatened with extinction, but the situation would be worse if not for current global conservation efforts, a new study finds. (more…)
One of the most terrible consequences of offshore quakes is giant tsunami waves, sweeping everything on their way. Until now, scientists cannot answer a simple question: why in some cases they happen, and in others they do not? If it was established, then a tragedy like the one that has recently occurred in Indonesia could have been avoided.
An earthquake measuring 7.5 points, which occurred late on Monday, October 25 in Indonesia, caused a tsunami, which affected Mentawai islands in the western part of the country. Interestingly, the epicenter of the aftershocks of this earthquake was located 78 km west of the South Island Pagai of the Mentawai archipelago, at a depth of 20 km below the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Apparently, this is why the first few minutes after the earthquake the Indonesian government reported the tsunami threat, but later canceled the alert. (more…)
Announcing a new Windows Live Photo Gallery experience on foursquare that helps users discover some of the best photo spots in their city
About the image: Yerba Buena Gardens. Located at Fourth and Mission Streets in San Francisco, Yerba Buena Gardens features public art and five acres of gardens. Image credit: Microsoft (more…)
A highly skillful and delicate method of sharpening and retouching stone artifacts by prehistoric people appears to have been developed at least 75,000 years ago, more than 50,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The new findings show that the technique, known as pressure flaking, took place at Blombos Cave in South Africa during the Middle Stone Age by anatomically modern humans and involved the heating of silcrete — quartz grains cemented by silica — used to make tools. Pressure flaking takes place when implements previously shaped by hard stone hammer strikes followed by softer strikes with wood or bone hammers are carefully trimmed on the edges by directly pressing the point of a tool made of bone on the stone artifact. (more…)
The discovery of six new isotopes, reaching in an unbroken chain of decays from element 114 down to rutherfordium, is a major step toward better understanding how to explore the region of enhanced stability thought to lie in the vicinity of element 114—and possibly beyond.” (more…)
*Digital health innovation center is first step of a joint healthcare effort in Wuxi, China.*
REDMOND, Wash., and WUXI, China — Oct. 29, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. and iSoftStone Information Technology (Group) Co. Ltd. have signed an agreement that enables iSoftStone to introduce Microsoft HealthVault technology to the Chinese market. 
HealthVault, a personal health application platform, enables individuals to store and manage their health information in a personal, online account. Initially focused on Wuxi, in the province of Jiangsu, the vision of the Microsoft-iSoftStone relationship is to enable citizens to connect to various health systems and services run by government organizations, physicians, hospitals, pharmacies and even fitness facilities for a comprehensive view of their personal health information. iSoftStone will be the exclusive operator of HealthVault in Wuxi and will develop and offer the HealthVault-based services to developers, application providers and device manufacturers to provide citizens with tools that will help foster dynamic, trusted and personalized healthcare. (more…)
