Search Results for: Research

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded project has developed a technical system to search and retrieve the increasing amount of information held in digital moving image video, still photograph or audio archives. Its coordinators say that the project will be very useful for museums and research institutes who store such material.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE LARGEST museum in the world and – arguably – the grandest of them all, the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is returning to its roots. In the middle of a long and painstaking modernisation process, the Russian museum is striving, in addition to the urgent physical restoration required to bring the museum into the 21st century, to recapture the ambience of its Imperial origins, when its vast palaces were the residence of the Tsars.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TECHNOLOGY being developed by a European Commission funded research project should allow curators to effectively monitor environmental pollution that can damage ancient treasures in museums and galleries. The MIMIC (microclimate indoor monitoring in cultural heritage preservation) project is using a range of sophisticated devices to deduce the effect of changes in humidity, temperature, light and pollutant levels (nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrous acid and ozone).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A CALL has been made to energy researchers across the European Union (EU) to submit informal proposals for grants from the EU Sixth Framework Programme on research, as part of a de facto review of the Euro 16.2 billion scheme.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
RESEARCHERS monitoring the health of Walkerton, Ontario, residents in the wake of the May 2000 E-coli drinking water disaster, have discovered new medical problems that can be traced to the contamination. Findings from the second year of a seven-year health study have showed increased incidence of kidney problems producing abnormally high volumes of urine containing protein, suggesting structural damage to kidneys.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THERE is evidence that wild blueberries, native to the USA’s Maine, Atlantic Canada and Quebec, can lower the risks of cardiovascular disease. A University of Maine study is the first using rats to demonstrate a relationship between consumption of whole wild blueberries and calming reactions that can lead to high blood pressure.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A FRANCO-ITALIAN research team have developed a faster and cheaper manufacturing process for fine aluminium rings used in rocket boosters, replacing existing vertical lathes and milling machines with a single system. The old process involves moving rings between machines, requiring additional equipment to secure them during shaping.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
NEW research from the USA’s Livestock Behaviour Research Unit has shown it is possible to track salmonella infections in living piglets and adult pig tissue after slaughter by treating the bacteria to give off light. This development involving so-called biophotonics would allow farmers to stop the spread of infection before pigs are transported and sold.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have welcomed the European Commission’s environment and health strategy for 2004-2010, approving its initial focus on childhood respiratory diseases, asthma, allergies; neuro-developmental disorders; child cancer and endocrine disrupters.

Ministers called on the Commission to develop research models to assess the health impact of public policies, (and associated socio-economic affects), especially on children and other vulnerable groups.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have welcomed the European Commission’s plan to develop the EU’s first environment and health strategy (for 2004-2010), calling on Brussels officials to develop research models assessing the health impact of public policies, (and associated socio-economic affects).…