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Scientific Challenges (scientific + challenge)
Selected AbstractsNitrogen: the essential public enemyJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2003Howard Dalton Summary 1Increased demand for food and energy is leading to changes in the global nitrogen cycle. These changes are resulting in increasing levels of nitrogen in the environment in its pollutant forms with consequences for both biodiversity and human health. In this paper, we discuss the impacts in the UK and give examples of the steps that are being taken by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to tackle these problems. 2Over 70% of the UK land area is farmland. The farmed environment is composed of a wide range of semi-natural habitats including heather moorland, chalk downland, wet grasslands farm woodlands and hedgerows. As a result, much of the UK's cherished biodiversity is an integral part of agriculture and therefore vulnerable to changes in farming practices. 3Defra's overall goal is to build a sustainable future for the UK. With regard to nitrogen pollution, this involves finding ways of continuing to meet our food and energy requirements whilst causing little or no harm to the environment. 4Defra's science programme has a central role to play in the development of its nitrogen pollution policies. These pollution policies provide a key input to the Department's evidence base for policy formulation, and support international negotiations on pollution targets. 5The Department's science programme has addressed the major components of the nitrogen cycle associated with harmful impacts on the environment and human health. The main aims have been the understanding and quantification of impacts through monitoring and modelling and the development of abatement measures. 6Synthesis and application. It is becoming increasingly apparent that whilst advances can and have been made in the reduction of emissions from combustion processes, the problem of nitrogen pollution from agriculture is far more intractable. This scientific challenge, when taken together with emerging regulatory initiatives, will require imaginative solutions if the UK Government is to forge a sustainable way forward1, 2. [source] Skeletal muscle tissue engineeringJOURNAL OF CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR MEDICINE, Issue 4 2004A. D. Bach Abstract The reconstruction of skeletal muscle tissue either lost by traumatic injury or tumor ablation or functional damage due to myopathies is hampered by the lack of availability of functional substitution of this native tissue. Until now, only few alternatives exist to provide functional restoration of damaged muscle tissues. Loss of muscle mass and their function can surgically managed in part using a variety of muscle transplantation or transposition techniques. These techniques represent a limited degree of success in attempts to restore the normal functioning, however they are not perfect solutions. A new alternative approach to addresssing difficult tissue reconstruction is to engineer new tissues. Although those tissue engineering techniques attempting regeneration of human tissues and organs have recently entered into clinical practice, the engineering of skletal muscle tissue ist still a scientific challenge. This article reviews some of the recent findings resulting from tissue engineering science related to the attempt of creation and regeneration of functional skeletal muscle tissue. [source] Humanoids and personal robots: Design and experimentsJOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS (FORMERLY JOURNAL OF ROBOTIC SYSTEMS), Issue 12 2001Paolo Dario This paper addresses the field of humanoid and personal robotics,its objectives, motivations, and technical problems. The approach described in the paper is based on the analysis of humanoid and personal robots as an evolution from industrial to advanced and service robotics driven by the need for helpful machines, as well as a synthesis of the dream of replicating humans. The first part of the paper describes the development of anthropomorphic components for humanoid robots, with particular regard to anthropomorphic sensors for vision and touch, an eight-d.o.f. arm, a three-fingered hand with sensorized fingertips, and control schemes for grasping. Then, the authors propose a user-oriented design methodology for personal robots, and describe their experience in the design, development, and validation of a real personal robot composed of a mobile unit integrating some of the anthropomorphic components introduced previously and aimed at operating in a distributed working environment. Based on the analysis of experimental results, the authors conclude that humanoid robotics is a tremendous and attractive technical and scientific challenge for robotics research. The real utility of humanoids has still to be demonstrated, but personal assistance can be envisaged as a promising application domain. Personal robotics also poses difficult technical problems, especially related to the need for achieving adequate safety, proper human,robot interaction, useful performance, and affordable cost. When these problems are solved, personal robots will have an excellent chance for significant application opportunities, especially if integrated into future home automation systems, and if supported by the availability of humanoid robots. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source] Multi-wavelength fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy: a new approach to the study of endogenous fluorescence in living cells and tissuesLASER PHYSICS LETTERS, Issue 3 2009D. Chorvat Jr. Abstract The study of biological systems in their real environmental conditions is crucial to decipher the true image of structures and processes underlying their functionality. In this regard, development of non-invasive optical techniques that do not require labelling, such as the investigation of tissue endogenous fluorescence, is particularly important and, as reflected in the increasing number of contributions published recently on this subject, was recognized by many leading groups. Multi-spectral and lifetime detection of fluorescence provides an effective experimental tool to discriminate between multiple naturally-occurring fluorophores in living tissues. At the same time, however, data analysis allowing us to understand the spectral, temporal and spatial information gathered, describing individual molecules involved in the autofluorescence of intact biological systems, represents a tough scientific challenge that has not yet been fully resolved. In this review, we discuss the latest advances in technologies that record and assess spectrally-resolved fluorescence lifetime data as well as their biological and clinical applications. We show how these methods provide efficient sensing of molecules correlated with changes in the mitochondrial metabolic redox state in pathological conditions and/or of cell ultrastructures in diseased tissue, based on the presence of oxidation/reductionsensitive fluorophores and/or cell-specific chromophores. Future directions are also outlined. (© 2009 by Astro Ltd., Published exclusively by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA) [source] A Framework for Unifying Formal and Empirical AnalysisAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2010Jim Granato An important disconnect exists between the current use of formal modeling and applied statistical analysis. In general, a lack of linkage between the two can produce statistically significant parameters of ambiguous origin that, in turn, fail to assist in falsifying theories and hypotheses. To address this scientific challenge, a framework for unification is proposed. Methodological unification leverages the mutually reinforcing properties of formal and applied statistical analysis to produce greater transparency in relating theory to test. This framework for methodological unification, or what has been referred to as the empirical implications of theoretical models (EITM), includes (1) connecting behavioral (formal) and applied statistical concepts, (2) developing behavioral (formal) and applied statistical analogues of these concepts, and (3) linking and evaluating the behavioral (formal) and applied statistical analogues. The elements of this EITM framework are illustrated with examples from voting behavior, macroeconomic policy and outcomes, and political turnout. [source] Alcohol research and the alcoholic beverage industry: issues, concerns and conflicts of interestADDICTION, Issue 2009Thomas F. Babor ABSTRACT Aims Using terms of justification such as ,corporate social responsibility' and ,partnerships with the public health community', the alcoholic beverage industry (mainly large producers, trade associations and ,social aspects' organizations) funds a variety of scientific activities that involve or overlap with the work of independent scientists. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the ethical, professional and scientific challenges that have emerged from industry involvement in alcohol science. Method Source material came from an extensive review of organizational websites, newspaper articles, journal papers, letters to the editor, editorials, books, book chapters and unpublished documents. Results Industry involvement in alcohol science was identified in seven areas: (i) sponsorship of research funding organizations; (ii) direct financing of university-based scientists and centers; (iii) studies conducted through contract research organizations; (iv) research conducted by trade organizations and social aspects/public relations organizations; (v) efforts to influence public perceptions of research, research findings and alcohol policies; (vi) publication of scientific documents and support of scientific journals; and (vii) sponsorship of scientific conferences and presentations at conferences. Conclusion While industry involvement in research activities is increasing, it constitutes currently a rather small direct investment in scientific research, one that is unlikely to contribute to alcohol science, lead to scientific breakthroughs or reduce the burden of alcohol-related illness. At best, the scientific activities funded by the alcoholic beverage industry provide financial support and small consulting fees for basic and behavioral scientists engaged in alcohol research; at worst, the industry's scientific activities confuse public discussion of health issues and policy options, raise questions about the objectivity of industry-supported alcohol scientists and provide industry with a convenient way to demonstrate ,corporate responsibility' in its attempts to avoid taxation and regulation. [source] Academic Entrepreneurship in France: the promotion of economic returns of public research and its political and scientific challengesEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, Issue 3 2008CHRISTELLE MANIFET Emphasising the level of the observation of university configurations and the example of academic entrepreneurship, the author analyses the drivers of economic returns of public research in France. Based on the study of national public policy in this field since 1999 and a general survey of the paths of researchers-entrepreneurs, the article highlights the weight of political and scientific logics. It also shows that behind the justification of promoting the knowledge economy lies a commercialisation of knowledge that underpins a process to defend the interests of a public research sector in support of mixed mercantile, managerial and professional and scientific logics. [source] Abstracts from the 2003 international conference on eating disorders clinical and scientific challenges: The interface between eating disorders and obesity May 29,31, 2003 Omni Interlocken Resort, Denver, COINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EATING DISORDERS, Issue 1 2003Article first published online: 21 MAY 200 First page of article [source] The importance of being cratered: The new role of meteorite impact as a normal geological processMETEORITICS & PLANETARY SCIENCE, Issue 2 2004Bevan M. French It also identifies some exciting scientific challenges for future investigators: to determine the full range of impact effects preserved on the Earth, to apply the knowledge obtained from impact phenomena to more general geological problems, and to continue the merger of the once exotic field of impact geology with mainstream geosciences. Since the recognition of an impact event at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary, much current activity in impact geology has been promoted by traditionally trained geoscientists who have unexpectedly encountered impact effects in the course of their work. Their studies have involved: 1) the recognition of additional major impact effects in the geological record (the Chesapeake Bay crater, the Alamo breccia, and multiple layers of impact spherules in Precambrian rocks); and 2) the use of impact structures as laboratories to study general geological processes (e.g., igneous petrogenesis at Sudbury, Canada and Archean crustal evolution at Vredefort, South Africa). Other research areas, in which impact studies could contribute to major geoscience problems in the future, include: 1) comparative studies between low-level (,7 GPa) shock deformation of quartz, and the production of quartz cleavage, in both impact and tectonic environments; and 2) the nature, origin, and significance of bulk organic carbon ("kerogen") and other carbon species in some impact structures (Gardnos, Norway, and Sudbury, Canada). [source] Theology and the Crisis in DarwinismMODERN THEOLOGY, Issue 2 2002Anthony D. Baker In the past decade, the scientific challenges to "orthodox Darwinism" have multiplied rapidly, such that it is no longer unthinkable that natural selection's days as a universal law are numbered. But if this is the case, theologians have their work cut out for them. If Darwin's law proves to be historically and scientifically false, a new horizon appears for the discourse between theology and natural science. What will orthodox Christianity make of the crisis in Darwinism? This article, which follows the methodological imperative of "Radical Orthodoxy", employs Aquinas and contemporary "post-Darwinian" science to trace a space for a theological discourse beyond both natural selection and natural theology. [source] Individual differences in weight change , scientific challenges or personal frustrations?OBESITY REVIEWS, Issue 6 2009See corresponding article on pp. [source] Life, the universe and everything, with GAIAASTRONOMY & GEOPHYSICS, Issue 5 2001Gerry Gilmore Great things are expected of the GAIA Observatory, currently expected to launch in 2011. Gerry Gilmore explains how it will provide accurate measurements that will help us understand the formation of the Milky Way and the distribution of dark matter. The GAIA Observatory, ESA's Cornerstone 6 mission, addresses the origin and evolution of our galaxy, and a host of other scientific challenges. GAIA will provide unprecedented positional and radial velocity measurements with the accuracies needed to produce a stereoscopic and kinematic census of about one billion stars in our galaxy and throughout the Local Group, about 1% of the galactic stellar population. Combined with astrophysical information for each star, provided by on-board multicolour photometry, these data will have the precision and depth necessary to address the three key questions which underlie the GAIA science case: l when did the stars in the Milky Way form? l when and how was the Milky Way assembled? l what is the distribution of dark matter in our galaxy? The accurate stellar data acquired for this purpose will also have an enormous impact on all areas of stellar astrophysics, including luminosity calibrations, structural studies, and the cosmic distance scale. Additional scientific products include detection and orbital classification of tens of thousands of extrasolar planetary systems, a comprehensive survey of objects ranging from huge numbers of minor bodies in our solar system, including near-Earth objects, through galaxies in the nearby universe, to some 500 000 distant quasars. GAIA will also provide several stringent new tests of general relativity and cosmology. [source] | ||||||||||||||||