Search Results for: Research

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission wants to help the European Union’s (EU) textile industry increase its reliance on added-value high-end products to prepare for the oncoming liberalisation of the world’s textile trade in 2005.

With the scrapping of import quota controls through the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Textiles and Clothing opening the gates to cheap textile imports from developing countries, a new Commission Communication (policy paper) called for increased research and development in the sector.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE 19th century saw imperial rivalry create the “Great Game”, when Russia and the British Empire tweaked one another’s tails in the region that following Russia’s Bolshevik revolution became known as Soviet Central Asia. The old Great Game was tied to control of India, and to gems and gold.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PAN-EUROPEAN research & development network EUREKA has developed a piglet feed improving their digestion when adults, to overcome anticipated health difficulties should the European Union ban anti-biotics in pig feed.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE DISHWAHER, that symbol of the modern household, appears to have provided a crucial breakthrough in minimising the impact of oil slicks on birdlife. According to a University of California study, two brands of dishwashing detergents, “Dawn” from Proctor and Gamble, and Birdwash, marketed as a joint bird and dish washer detergent in New Zealand by Tergo, are the ideal agents for cleaning the birds.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THERE is strong optimism in north America that an animal vaccine could soon be developed for the deadly strain of E coli bacteria sometimes referred to as hamburger disease. A US-Canada team has found positive results in research studies where vaccinated cattle showed a 59 per cent reduction of E coli O157:H7 in their manure compared with unvaccinated cattle in a University of Nebraska research facility in tests carried out during the summers of 2002 and 2003.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INTERNET related networks designed to boost security in the wake of the September 11 attacks should be scrapped if they are excessively eroding privacy, a report from the European Union’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has claimed. Ordered by the European Parliament, the study “Security and Privacy for the Citizen in the Post-September 11 Digital Age: A Prospective Overview” suggests that “privacy-invasive” measures resulting from the Al Qaeda assault should be “temporary and limited”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NEW advanced carbon-fibre composites have been developed by a European Union research project that can be used to strengthen decaying and historic buildings, allowing contractors to avoid using more cumbersome traditional methods. The international COMREHAB project has created high resistance synthetic fibres from epoxy or polyester resin matrixes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE 40th birthday of EU Institute for Transuranium Elements, part of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, has been celebrated. Marking the event, visiting EU research Commissioner Philippe Busquin stressed the institute’s current studies into nuclear waste disposal, which includes the behaviour of spent fuel in deep underground burial sites.…

BY PHILIP FINE

RESEARCHERS at the US Agricultural Research Service have successfully developed a new variety of corn that is high in Vitamin E. The team helped isolate an enzyme responsible for producing the vitamin in cereal grains. When they added it to corn plants, the kernels’ vitamin E content increased six-fold.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Brisbane
A NEW technique for drying timber using microwave technology has been developed by researchers at Australia’s Cooperative Research Centre for Wood Innovations. It reduces the time needed to dry hardwood from around one year to one day.…