Planet

"Clinical Use of Pediatric Diagnostic Tests"
This completely updated reference work aims to fullfill the needs of pediatricians, family practitioners, students, residents, pathologists, nurses, practitioners and laboratory technicians. Laboratory tests are an integral part in the diagnosis of diseases in the pediatric age group and are commonly an essential part of the diagnostic workup, which is important for selecting the most appropriate treatment. Many new techniques and laboratory studies have been introduced in the last few years and many have replaced older methods that have become obsolete.

Keele University has launched a new postgraduate degree examining the contemporary city in local, regional and global contexts. The Masters degree in Urban Futures and Sustainable Communities addresses issues such as regeneration, urban problems, policy making and multiculturalism across four week-long modules.

The real forces that drive elephant poaching are being obscured by squabbles over whether stockpiled ivory should be sold legally, says Tom Milliken

Arguments over whether to allow one-off sales of ivory stockpiles have dominated the opening of a two-week summit on trade in endangered species

"The Earthscan Reader in Poverty and Biodiversity Conservation"
In the last decade biodiversity loss and persistent poverty in developing countries have been recognised as major international problems that require urgent attention. However, the nature and scale of the links between these two problems, and between efforts to address them, has been the subject of much heated debate. Understanding the different elements of this debate is critical if we are to move towards constructive solutions. This Reader provides a guide to, and commentary on, the different strands of the current conservation-poverty debate through a selection of key readings from both the conservation and development literature including policy documents, journal articles and reports. The breadth of material will help readers, including both students and professionals, to locate current debates within their wider contexts.

Kina vil anlægge højhastighedsjernbane gennem Asien mod at få adgang til områdernes naturressourer.

For a number of years now, the IXA group of the Faculty of Information Technology at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) has been undertaking research aimed at developing semi-automatic systems of benefit to the Basque language (Euskara). Amongst these systems are found the automatic treatment of mistakes in Basque and the tools that enable the learning of the language with IT means. In her PhD thesis presented at the UPV/EHU, Ms. Larraitz Uria, member of the IXA group, has set out the bases for the development of these two systems, through the establishment of several criteria for the analysis of errors and deviations.

After the quake of Concepción, the remaining gap in the north of Chile now holds potential for a comparable strong quake and is, thus, moving more and more into the focus of attention.

16/04/2010 — 20/04/2010, Barcelona, Spain
Some of the most controversial issues in urology will be discussed by leading experts during the five-day 25th Annual Congress of the European Association of Urology (EAU) in the Fira Barcelona congress venue in Barcelona (ES). From April 16 to 20, close to 12,000 participants and 3,000 company representatives are expected to gather in one of the world's biggest annual professional meetings in urology.

Images from the recent flyby of Phobos, on 7 March 2010, are released today. The images show Mars' rocky moon in exquisite detail, with a resolution of just 4.4 metres per pixel. They show the proposed landing sites for the forthcoming Phobos-Grunt mission.

In the beginning is the fertilized egg cell. Following numerous cell divisions, it then develops into a complex organism with different organs and tissues. The largely unexplained process whereby the cells simply “know” the organs into which they should later develop is an astonishing phenomenon. Scientists from the Center for Plant Molecular Biology (ZMBP) of the University of Tübingen and the University of Wageningen, in cooperation with colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, have investigated how this process is controlled. Based on their studies of the thale cress, Arabidopsis thaliana, they have succeeded in demonstrating how the plant forms its first roots: the root founder cell in the tiny group of cells contained in the seed is activated by a combination of a plant hormone and a transcription factor. These insights could contribute to the breeding of plants with a particularly effective root system in the future. (Nature, advance online publication on March 10, 2010)

The Svelvik Ridge in southern Norway could quite literally become a green laboratory later this year: a unique tool for scientists who are developing the technology needed for secure underground storage of captured CO2.

Opsendelsen af rumfærgen Discovery kan blive udsat i længere tid på grund af en defekt heliumventil i rumfærgens højre styresystem. Skal ventilen udskiftes, må rumfærgen køres tilbage til samlehallen.

Shaking hands with a robotic arm could be a new way to help stroke patients learn to use their arms again. Researchers writing in BioMed Central’s open access Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation report a pilot trial of the ‘Braccio di Ferro’ (Iron arm) robot in 10 patients.

Automatic bleeding based on machine vision and robot technology: Norway is now operating the first salmon slaughter line in the world to use such techniques.The innovation makes for more rational operation, says the system’s pilot operator.

Forskere på universiteterne i Aalborg og Århus har konstrueret en nanostruktur af brint, som kan sikre det båndgab, der gør graphen egnet som halvledermateriale til hurtigere computere og ekstra følsomme sensorer.

For some people, horror films are literally agonising to watch. Finding out why could reveal the roots of compassion

For the first time, an international research team from the universities of Stuttgart, Innsbruck and Nottingham have succeeded in describing a quantum simulator realizable with current technology. The theoretical physicists around Hendrik Weimer and Hans Peter Büchler from Stuttgart and Peter Zoller from Innsbruck present their results in Nature Physics.

Hur kommer älgen i fjällvärlden att påverkas av klimatförändringen och turismen? Och hur kan formerna för samverkan mellan forskning och samhälle utvecklas? Det frågar sig forskarna i projektet ICEMOOSE som långsiktigt tänker studera älgens förhållanden i arktiska Sverige.

Science will only become an election issue if the voters care about it, says Nick Dusic