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Some energy services and industrial processes-such as long-distance freight transport, air travel, highly reliable electricity, and steel and cement manufacturing-are particularly difficult to provide without adding carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere. Rapidly growing demand for these services, combined with long lead times for technology development and long lifetimes of energy infrastructure, make decarbonization of these services both essential and urgent. We examine barriers and opportunities associated with these difficult-to-decarbonize services and processes, including possible technological solutions and research and development priorities. A range of existing technologies could meet future demands for these services and processes without net addition of CO2 to the atmosphere, but their use may depend on a combination of cost reductions via research and innovation, as well as coordinated deployment and integration of operations across currently discrete energy industries.

Developed democracies are settling an increased number of refugees, many of whom face challenges integrating into host societies. We developed a flexible data-driven algorithm that assigns refugees across resettlement locations to improve integration outcomes. The algorithm uses a combination of supervised machine learning and optimal matching to discover and leverage synergies between refugee characteristics and resettlement sites. The algorithm was tested on historical registry data from two countries with different assignment regimes and refugee populations, the United States and Switzerland. Our approach led to gains of roughly 40 to 70%, on average, in refugees' employment outcomes relative to current assignment practices. This approach can provide governments with a practical and cost-efficient policy tool that can be immediately implemented within existing institutional structures.

Unprecedented global effort is under way to facilitate the testing of countermeasures in infectious disease emergencies. Better understanding of the various options for trial design is needed in advance of outbreaks, as is preliminary global agreement on the most suitable designs for the various scenarios. What would enhance the speed, validity, and ethics of clinical studies of such countermeasures? Focusing on studies of vaccine efficacy and effectiveness in emergencies, we highlight three needs: for formal randomized trials— even in most emergencies; for individually randomized trials—even in many emergencies; and for six areas of innovation in trial methodology. These needs should inform current updates of protocols and roadmaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on point-of-care testing (POCT) which is used in chronic disease management, antibioterrorism, and emergency response and medical rescue. Topics discussed include definition of POCT, characteristics and applications of POCT in the clinic, health management and emergency, and trends in POCT.

The article discusses the financing and managing of the U.S. National Science Foundation's (NSF's) National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). An overview of the NEON's role in conducting research in ecology, including in regard to the professor and NEON manager Scott Ollinger's frustrations in managing the project, is provided.

The article discusses issues related to increased use of antimicrobials in livestock which has been linked to drug-resistant infections in animals and humans. It is noted that the use of large quantity of antimicrobials in animal production is the primary driver for the accumulation of harmful resistance genes in the animal reservoir and there is an urgent need for global regulations on veterinary antimicrobial use.

No other scientific meeting provides the scope of science, engineering, and technology from the world's leading researchers that can be found at the AAAS Annual Meeting. At this truly interdisciplinary [...]

Voyager 1 (V1) began measuring precursor energetic ions and electrons from the heliospheric termination shock (TS) in July 2002. During the ensuing 2.5 years, average particle intensities rose as V1 penetrated deeper into the energetic particle foreshock of the TS. Throughout 2004, V1 observed even larger, fluctuating intensities of ions from 40 kiloelectron volts (keV) to ≥ 50 megaelectron volts per nucleon and of electrons from >26 keV to ≥ 350 keV. On day 350 of 2004 (2004/350), V1 observed an intensity spike of ions and electrons that was followed by a sustained factor of 10 increase at the lowest energies and lesser increases at higher energies, larger than any intensities since V1 was at 15 astronomical units in 1982. The estimated solar wind radial flow speed was positive (outward) at ~ +100 kilometers per second (km [s.sup.-1]) from 2004/352 until 2005/018, when the radial flows became predominantly negative (sunward) and fluctuated between ~ -50 and 0 km [s.sup.-1] until about 2005/110; they then became more positive, with recent values (2005/179) of ~ +50 km [s.sup.-1]. The energetic proton spectrum averaged over the postshock period is apparently dominated by strongly heated interstellar pickup ions. We interpret these observations as evidence that V1 was crossed by the TS on 2004/351 (during a tracking gap) at 94.0 astronomical units, evidently as the shock was moving radially inward in response to decreasing solar wind ram pressure, and that V1 has remained in the heliosheath until at least mid-2005., We present data suggesting that Voyager 1 (V1) encountered the heliospheric termination shock (TS) as the TS apparently moved radially inward over the spacecraft on 2004/351 (2004.956) at a radial [...]

'Spintronics,' in which both the spin and charge of electrons are used for logic and memory operations, promises an alternate route to traditional semiconductor electronics. A complete logic architecture can be constructed, which uses planar magnetic wires that are less than a micrometer in width. Logical NOT, logical AND, signal fan-out, and signal cross-over elements each have a simple geometric design, and they can be integrated together into one circuit. An additional element for data input allows information to be written to domain-wall logic circuits., Conventional microelectronic integrated circuits (ICs) work by controlling the flow of electrons through transistor switches. Digital signals are represented in the IC by the presence or absence of electrical charge [...]

The brain keenly depends on glucose for energy, and mammalians have redundant systems to control glucose production. An increase in circulating glucose inhibits glucose production in the liver, but this negative feedback is impaired in type 2 diabetes. Here we report that a primary increase in hypothalamic glucose levels lowers blood glucose through inhibition of glucose production in rats. The effect of glucose requires its conversion to lactate followed by stimulation of pyruvate metabolism, which leads to activation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-sensitive potassium channels. Thus, interventions designed to enhance the hypothalamic sensing of glucose may improve glucose homeostasis in diabetes., Diabetic hyperglycemia is due in part to an inappropriately elevated rate of liver glucose production (1). This is paradoxical, since hyperglycemia should restrain glucose production (2-4). Hypothalamic glucose sensing plays [...]

This fall, on a mountaintop in southeastern Arizona, astronomers from around the globe will celebrate first light at the world's most powerful optical telescope. They will also toast John Schaefer, [...]

With increasing pressure for a more ecological approach to marine fisheries and environmental management, there is a growing need to understand and predict changes in marine ecosystems. Biogeochemical and physical [...]

The world is in the midst of a major transition in water resource development, management, and use. This transition is long overdue. The construction of massive infrastructure in the form [...], Twentieth-century water policies relied on the construction of massive infrastructure in the form of dams, aqueducts, pipelines, and complex centralized treatment plants to meet human demands. These facilities brought tremendous benefits to billions of people, but they also had serious and often unanticipated social, economical, and ecological costs. Many unsolved water problems remain, and past approaches no longer seem sufficient. A transition is under way to a 'soft path' that complements centralized physical infrastructure with lower cost community-scale systems, decentralized and open decision-making, water markets and equitable pricing, application of efficient technology, and environmental protection.

KLAMATH FALLS, OREGON--As a cold February night settles in, Rip Shively wades into the icy waters of Upper Klamath Lake near the Oregon-California border and hauls ashore a squirming, meter-long [...]

WINNIPEG, CANADA -- Everybody in this prairie city seems to know local architect Jim Orzechowski. With his big moustache, shock of gray hair, and booming voice, he cuts a striking [...]

Femtosecond high-resolution pump-probe experiments have been used together with theoretical ab initio quantum calculations and wave packet dynamics simulations to decode an optimal femtosecond pulse that is generated from adaptive learning algorithms. This pulse is designed to maximize the yield of the organometallic ion CpMn[(CO).sub.5] while hindering the competing fragmentation. The sequential excitation and ionization of the target ion are accomplished by an optimized field consisting of two dominant subpulses with optimal frequencies and time delays., With the advent of lasers in the 1960s, great hopes arose for achieving mode selectivity in chemical reactions. However, the rapid internal vibrational redistribution (IVR) makes it difficult to use [...]

SECTIONS: * Growth in Appeal * Why Outsource? * The Need to Be Nimble * Key Assets * Contract Research ... * ... And Manufacturing * Satisfactory Spin-Offs * Specialist [...]

BOARDMAN, OREGON--'Warning,' says the sign on the interstate. 'Blowing Dust Area Next 45 Miles.' The drylands of northeast Oregon, an almost treeless region with an annual rainfall of just 20 [...]

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA--The stark message from the black box on the conference table left many of the dozen or so scientists visibly shaken. 'It would be very easy for this Administration [...]

World governments have committed to halting human-induced extinctions and safeguarding important sites for biodiversity by 2020, but the financial costs of meeting these targets are largely unknown. We estimate the cost of reducing the extinction risk of all globally threatened bird species (by ⩾1 International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List category) to be U.S. $0.875 to $1.23 billion annually over the next decade, of which 12% is currently funded. Incorporating threatened nonavian species increases this total to U.S. $3.41 to $4.76 billion annually. We estimate that protecting and effectively managing all terrestrial sites of gLobaL avian conservation significance (11,731 Important Bird Areas) would cost U.S. $65.1 billion annually. Adding sites for other taxa increases this to U.S. $76.1 billion annually. Meeting these targets will require conservation funding to increase by at least an order of magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Program Committee 2002 AAAS Annual Meeting Program Committee Peter H. Raven Missouri Botanical Garden 2002 Program Committee Chair Floyd Bloom Scripps Research Institute 2003 Program Committee Chair Dorothy F. Bainton [...]

The rediscovery of remnant Florida panthers (Puma concolor coryi) in southern Florida swamplands prompted a program to protect and stabilize the population. In 1995, conservation managers translocated eight female pumas (P. c. stanleyana) from Texas to increase depleted genetic diversity, improve population numbers, and reverse indications of inbreeding depression. We have assessed the demographic, population-genetic, and biomedical consequences of this restoration experiment and show that panther numbers increased threefold, genetic heterozygosity doubled, survival and fitness measures improved, and inbreeding correlates declined significantly. Although these results are encouraging, continued habitat loss, persistent inbreeding, infectious agents, and possible habitat saturation pose new dilemmas. This intensive management program illustrates the challenges of maintaining populations of large predators worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2002, world leaders committed, through the Convention on Biological Diversity, to achieve a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. We compiled 31 indicators to report on progress toward this target. Most indicators of the state of biodiversity (covering species' population trends, extinction risk, habitat extent and condition, and community composition) showed declines, with no significant recent reductions in rate, whereas indicators of pressures on biodiversity (including resource consumption, invasive alien species, nitrogen pollution, overexploitation, and climate change impacts) showed increases. Despite some local successes and increasing responses (including extent and biodiversity coverage of protected areas, sustainable forest management, policy responses to invasive alien species, and biodiversity-related aid), the rate of biodiversity loss does not appear to be slowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]