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71 articles from SUNDAY 15.1.2012
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SUNDAY 15. JANUARY, 2012
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06:00
Mass. General researchers find novel way to prevent drug-induced liver injury
Massachusetts General Hospital investigators have developed a novel strategy to protect the liver from drug-induced injury and improve associated drug safety. In their report receiving advance online publication in Nature Biotechnology, the team reports that inhibition of a type of cell-to-cell communication can protect against the damage caused by liver-toxic drugs such as acetaminophen. -
06:00Hundreds of times during a baseball game, the home plate umpire must instantaneously categorize a fast-moving pitch as a ball or a strike. In new research from the University of Chicago, scientists have pinpointed an area in the brain where these kinds of visual categories are encoded.
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06:00With its use of stable isotopes as tracers, MIMS has opened the door for biomedical researchers to answer various biological questions, as two new studies have demonstrated.
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06:00Scientists working at the Medical Research Council have identified changes in the patterns of sugar molecules that line pre-cancerous cells in the esophagus, a condition called Barrett's dysplasia, making it much easier to detect and remove these cells before they develop into esophageal cancer. These findings have important implications for patients and may help to monitor their condition and prevent the development of cancer.
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06:00Rutgers University and Massachusetts General Hospital investigators have developed a novel strategy to protect the liver from drug-induced injury and improve associated drug safety. The team reports that inhibiting a type of cell-to-cell communication can protect against damage caused by liver-toxic drugs such as acetaminophen.
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06:00Killer T-cells in the human body which help protect us from disease can inadvertently destroy cells that produce insulin, new research has uncovered.
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06:00Telomeres, the very ends of chromosomes, become shorter as we age. New research published in BioMed Central's open-access journal Arthritis Research & Therapy shows that cells from osteoarthritic knees have abnormally shortened telomeres and that the percentage of cells with ultra short telomeres increases the closer to the damaged region within the joint.
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01:28
The importance of observing
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01:01
The human eye's ability to focus is a complex function even advanced cameras struggle to replicate. Not for much longer…
We take it for granted, but the human ability to focus instantly on particular objects in our field of vision, near or far, is a remarkable skill. As camera manufacturers have learned, it is not easy to replicate artificially. Even the most advanced digital cameras use autofocus mechanisms that are far from perfect. But now two US scientists have developed a simple algorithm that looks set to revolutionise the way autofocus works, allowing for greater speed and accuracy in digital photography.
The development emerged from a study of the human eye. Johannes Burge, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas and his adviser Wilson Geisler wanted to understand how our eyes are able to focus so much more efficiently than a digital camera.
Most autofocus mechanisms, Burge tells me, use contrast levels to determine how in or out of focus an image is. "The camera computes the contrast of an image, changes the distance that the lens is focused and computes the contrast again. If the contrast is higher, the camera knows it's going in the correct direction." This process of guessing and checking continues until the contrast is highest. It takes time and uses up battery power, says Burge, "and it also rests on the false assumption that best contrast equals best focus".
A second autofocus system called phase detection, used by higher-end cameras, is more accurate, Burge adds, but it has problems of its own: for one, it relies on bulky and expensive hardware.
The system developed by Burge and Geisler requires no before-and-after comparison, and could be incorporated into a simple point-and-shoot camera. It works by taking an inventory of the features in a scene. In their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they found that humans and other animals extract key features from a blurry image and use that information to work out their distance from an object. Then the eye focuses accordingly.
"Many small predatory animals use 'defocus' as their primary depth cue," says Burge. "When a chameleon tracks a fly with its eye, there are muscles in the back of the eye that determine what the focus distance is."
Burge and Geisler's breakthrough is based on the same principle. Using well known mathematical equations, they created a computer simulation of the human visual system. When the simulation was presented with real photographs of scenes from nature, even though the images varied widely, the patterns of focus remained the same.
The algorithm hasn't been tested in an actual camera yet, but Burge is confident that it will work – and have applications in other areas too, such as neuroscience. The pair are applying for a patent on the technology and they've already had interest from a major electronic imaging company. Later this month, they will be presenting their work at a International Society for Optics and Photonics conference in San Francisco. If their work follows through to the marketplace, a future generation of digital cameras may be able to focus accurately in as few as 10 milliseconds. Killian Fox
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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00:58
Say Hello to the 'Oozing' Exoplanet
There's a veritable menagerie of alien worlds out there, and astronomers may have spotted the weirdest yet: An exoplanet that 'oozes.' -
00:22
Geothermal Project to Tap into Volcano for Energy Production (ContributorNetwork)
ContributorNetwork - According to USA Today, Seattle-based geothermal energy developer AltaRock Energy is planning on pumping 24 million gallons of water into Newberry Volcano, a dormant volcano near Bend, Ore., this summer. The project looks to tap into a new green energy source with the hopes that the water will return to the surface hot enough to generate energy. -
00:03Reuters - Nigerian unions and President Goodluck Jonathan met late into the night Saturday but failed to reach a compromise over the removal of fuel subsidies that has raised fears of a shutdown of Nigeria's oil industry, a union leader said.
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