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New approach for simulating supernovas

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A computer simulation of one octant of a core collapse supernova, using SNSPH. (Credit: Dr. Carola Ellinger)

Jan. 8, 2013 — Two University of Texas at Arlington researchers want to bridge the gap between what is known about exploding stars and the remnants left behind thousands of years later. So they're trying something new -- using SNSPH, a complex computer code developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

On January 8, Carola I. Ellinger, a post-doctoral researcher at UT Arlington, and Sangwook Park, an assistant professor in the College of Science's physics department, were scheduled to present their research on "3D Simulations of Supernovae into the Young Remnant Phase" at the national meeting of...

Researchers work to counter spear phishing attacks

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Jan. 8, 2013 — The email resembled the organization's own employee e-newsletter and asked recipients to visit a website to confirm that they wanted to continue receiving the newsletter. Another email carried an attachment it said contained the marketing plan the recipient had requested at a recent conference. A third email bearing a colleague's name suggested a useful website to visit.

None of these emails were what they pretended to be. The first directed victims to a website...

Computer, electrical engineers working to help biologists cope with big data

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Liang Dong is developing an instrument that will allow plant scientists to simultaneously study thousands of plants grown in precisely controlled conditions. (Credit: Photo by Bob Elbert)

Jan. 8, 2013 — Liang Dong held up a clear plastic cube, an inch or so across, just big enough to hold 10 to 20 tiny seeds.

Using sophisticated sensors and software, researchers can precisely control the light, temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide inside that...

Keeping to your New Year resolutions with PiFace

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Jan. 8, 2013 — After a festive period of excess, a January diet is one of the most common New Year resolutions for many people.

Sticking to it, however, is harder, with temptation around every corner and inside every cupboard.

Now University of Manchester scientists have come up with a unique deterrent -- a talking, tweeting chicken guarding your cupboards to shame hungry dieters into abstaining.

The chicken, which not only barks out orders to sneaky snackers, but...

More changes in health care needed to fulfill promise of health information technology

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Jan. 7, 2013 — Despite wide investments nationally in electronic medical records and related tools, the cost-saving promise of health information technology has not been reached because the systems deployed are neither interconnected nor easy to use, according to a new RAND Corporation analysis.

The potential of health information technology to both improve patient care and reduce spending are unlikely to be realized until health care providers reengineer their processes to...

The reason we lose at games: Some games simply too complex for the human mind to understand

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If you have ever wondered why you never seem to win at skill-based games such as poker or chess, there might be a very good reason. Scientists have discovered that some games are simply impossible to fully learn, or too complex for the human mind to understand. (Credit: © gosphotodesign / Fotolia)

Jan. 7, 2013 — If you have ever wondered why you never seem to win at skill-based games such as poker or chess, there might be a very good reason.

Writing in...

Smart search engines for news videos

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NewsHistory makes the most of user knowledge, searching through video databases to find video sequences with identical content. (Credit: © Fraunhofer IDMT)

Jan. 7, 2013 — Searching for video recordings regularly pushes search engines to their limit. The truth of the matter is that purely automatic algorithms are not enough; user knowledge has to be harnessed, too. Now, researchers are making automated engines smarter.

Anyone who has visited one of the...

Computer scientists find vulnerabilities in Cisco VoIP phones

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Cui designed the device above to plug into a Cisco phone and download malware. (Credit: Image courtesy of Columbia University Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science)

Jan. 4, 2013 — Columbia Engineering's Computer Science PhD candidate Ang Cui and Computer Science Professor Salvatore Stolfo have found serious vulnerabilities in Cisco VoIP (voice over internet protocol) telephones, devices used around the world by a broad range of networked...

When will genomic research translate into clinical care -- and at what cost? New study applies quantitative modeling to genomics

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Jan. 4, 2013 — Genomic research is widely expected to transform medicine, but progress has been slower than expected. While critics argue that the genomics "promise" has been broken -- and that money might be better spent elsewhere -- proponents say the deliberate pace underscores the complexity of the relationship between medicine and disease and, indeed, argues for more funding.

But thus far, these competing narratives have been based mostly on anecdotes. Ramy Arnaout, MD...