Search Results for: Research

BY DEIRDRE MASON
IT may never equal the four-fold rise in the price of a barrel of crude oil that took place between 1973 and 1974, but this year’s hike to more than US$60 a barrel has given all those industries dependent on the stability of fuel prices a severe shock, and the aviation industry is one of those reeling from the increases.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MINES and minerals ministers of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed wide-ranging cooperation plans to promote their respective mining sectors. At the first of a series of ministerial meetings, (in Sarawak, Malaysia), an ASEAN Minerals Cooperation Action Plan (AMCAP) 2005-2010, containing 19 actions was approved.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission’s directorate general (DG) for enterprise and industry is asking accounting and audit firms to tender for Euro 5 million’s worth of business in Brussels. The Commission wants to finance independent audits of contractors benefiting from DG enterprise and industry funding.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE RELEASE from a Belarus jail of a local professor specialising in the Chernobyl disaster has been welcomed by the European Union (EU), which has pressed for his freedom. A political prisoner of Belarus’ authoritarian regime, Prof Yuri Bandazhevsky was in “good spirits and good health and eager to continue his research” said the EU.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A SWISS research unit has developed a solar power reactor storing the power of the sun in zinc batteries. The Paul Scherrer Institute’s system concentrates the sun’s rays via mirrors onto zinc oxide ore, with a catalyst such as coal and coke.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
EVERYDAY exposure to naturally occurring asbestos increases the risk of developing lung cancer, according to research from the University of California’s, UC Davis college. The study, to be published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, could have implications for damage claims over manufactured asbestos exposure.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MINERALS and mines ministers of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed wide-ranging cooperation plans to promote their respective mining sectors. At the first of a series of ministerial meetings, (in Sarawak, Malaysia), an ASEAN Minerals Cooperation Action Plan (AMCAP) 2005-2010, containing 19 actions was approved.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
EXPOSING teens to anti-tobacco advertising in the United States has been proved to reduce smoking rates and increased anti-smoking attitudes, according to a study published in the USA’s Archives of Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Research indicated that 18.6% of students in states where anti-smoking ads were frequently shown reported having smoked in the past 30 days compared with 26.7% of those in markets with no exposure to anti-tobacco advertisements.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and MONICA DOBIE
A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-sponsored research project has been launched to create practical cell-factories producing a genetically-modified haemogoblin, the key element of blood that carries oxygen around the body. The Euro Blood Substitutes initiative wants to use ‘Aspergillus niger’ fungus and ‘Escherichia coli’ bacteria to create super-charged haem proteins, helping create reliable supplies of alternative blood products.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
A RECENT Irish study has found that whilst nurses responded to a hospital campaign to increase hand-washing, almost half of affected doctors still failed to take this basic cleanliness precaution. According to the Oxford-based Journal of Advanced Nursing, only 51% of Ireland hospital staff surveyed followed hand-washing guidelines before a hygiene campaign was launched.…