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| Saturday, 17 July 2004 |
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Image of Europe Ravisara Kariyawasam reports from Germany Universities told to look east Universities in the UK are told they should be doing more to attract academics from eastern Europe, as the European Union expands. A report funded by the Economic and Social Research Council says UK Universities should be recruiting talented eastern European academics. At present, academics from the countries set to join the EU are more likely to go to Germany and Austria. The study by Professor Louise Ackers of Leeds University says the UK needs to catch up with the efforts of other countries within the European Union to recruit academics from these countries. Higher salaries in western Europe Universities are seen as a way of attracting staff from countries with a strong record of academic excellence - and a way of tackling skills shortages in areas such as science and maths. Boost for TV style internent ads You could soon be seeing a lot more TV style video ads appearing on the web. Advertisers have been encouraged by the results of initial trials of technology which offers broadcast quality video, regardless of connection speed. The company behind the trials said that people found the commercials much less irritating than other ads on the web. The video commercials are the result of a collaboration between online ad developers, Unicast and software giant, Microsoft. It tested a number of video ads over six weeks on leading sites such as About.com, CBS Sportsline, Gamespot, Village and Lycos. An online survey of more than 3,500 users who saw the ads found that just 28 per cent said they were annoying. It also found that the video commercials had a much bigger impact than other forms of net advertising. Last week the company said that several leading web publishers, among them Forbes.com and weather.com had signed up for the video commercials. Stem cells 'can reverse baldness' Scientists believe they may have found a new way to reverse baldness and treat conditions like alopecia. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have identified stem cells or master cells in the hair follicles of mice. They found that these cells grow into hair ollicles and produce hair when transplanted into skin. The researchers found certain genes were activated in the stem cells that were not activated in other hair follicle or skin cells. They are now planning further research to identify these genes in humans. They said developing drugs to affect these genes could lead to new ways of controlling hair growth. While the discovery could lead to new treatments for baldness and conditions like alopecia, the researchers believe it may also help burn victims. Scientists have long-suspected that hair follicles contained stem cells. However, it has proved difficult to isolate these cells in humans. This latest study raises hopes that they can now track these genes and identify stem cells in human hair follicles. Barriers disappear in high-tech world The Cebit information technology trade fair was inaugurated on 18.3.2004 in Hannover Germany. Many companies will be present and expose their newest gadgets. The lines between the PC and audio-visual markets have been blurring for years. Now, portable devices are entering into the equation. Many products that marry mobile devices with the TV, for example, will be on display this week at stands throughout the halls of Cebit. Including portable devices in the convergence creates tremendous opportunities for the industry and its customers, executives and analysts say, considering there are 1.2 billion mobile phone users worldwide, as well as millions of PDAs, gaming devices and portable computers. But that doesn't mean it is getting any easier. For years, companies like Sony and Philips have struggled to do it all and get it right. Sony has owned movie and music content for some 15 years, yet has not been able to fully leverage it, many observers agree. Sony also said on 17.3, that it was designing a new content service for mobile phones that would allow users to create their own personal radio stations. Mobile phone companies, which want to do the same thing, are right behind Sony. In the future, uses would be able to transfer digital pictures, video clips and messages from their mobile phones, store them on the Image album and then view and edit them on their TV. Images can be transferred wearilessly from some models of mobile phones using Bluetooth or infrared technology, but the device an also receive and store images from regular digital cameras or rom memory cards using a USB port. To that end Phillips is displaying at Cebit a variety of devices that marry mobile devices with the TV. Phillips is showing off a flat-panel display TV that has integrated wireless Internet access. It also has TVs with ports that allow the transfer of images from portable devices onto the TV. And it plans to introduce TV sets with slots so that consumers can slide in the memory cards from their digital cameras to view the pictures on their television sets. A doctor puts his message of hope into writing Literary history is full of doctors who have taken up the writing cure. Dr. Jerome Groopman, a professor at the Harvard Medical School and the chief of experimental medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is such an example. Seven years ago, he began publishing books and writing long articles in The New Yorker about medicine. Groopman's third book, "The Anatomy of Hope," is about the power of hope to heal and to assuage pain. In it, he makes a case for the connection between the patient's spiritual state and the outcome of illness. The book, released in January, is a series of accounts of grievously ill patients Groopman has known who, buoyed by hope, have either found a cure or have at least been able to end their lives in peace and serenity. In 1979, he ruptured a disk. He tried surgery. It failed. Nineteen years of agony followed. Then in 1999, he consulted a rehabilitation doctor at New England Baptist Hospital who prescribed exercises that, he said, would initially cause even more pain but would "re-educate" the memory of it, enabling Groopman to "work through it." At first, the exercises were excruciating. |
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