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For more information on these science news and feature story tips, please contact the public information officer at the end of each item at (703) 292-8070. Editor: Peter West Contents of this News Tip:
California Researchers Devise Quick Vision TestResearchers supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) have developed a quick, reliable and promising computer-based tool to diagnose a variety of eye diseases and even certain types of brain tumors. Physicist Wolfgang Fink of the California Institute of Technology and his colleague, ophthalmologist Alfredo Sadun of the University of Southern California, developed the "3-D Computer- Based Threshold Amsler Grid Test" to allow medical personnel to evaluate human visual functions with minimally invasive techniques. The five-minute vision test uses a standard desktop computer. Patients use a touch-sensitive computer screen displaying a grid pattern and a central bright spot to take the test. Staring at the central spot with one eye closed, the patients trace a finger around the portions of the grid they can see, and the computer records the tactile information. It then generates a three-dimensional graph of the test results for physicians to analyze. The test is sensitive enough to allow an ophthalmologist to diagnose visual disorders such as macular degeneration, a common eye disease associated with aging that gradually destroys sharp, central vision. But it also can effectively discriminate between visual disorders with subtly different symptoms. The test can also be used to detect, characterize and even locate several types of brain tumors. [Amber Jones] For more information, see: http://www.wfbabcom5.com/wf335.htm National Archives and NSF Forge Partnership on Federal Data StorageThe National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is working cooperatively with NSF’s National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI), based at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, to preserve the federal government’s electronic records and to insure they remain accessible as technology advances and changes. A cooperative agreement signed by NSF and NARA calls for research into the problems of storing and retrieving the massive amounts of digital information for which NARA is responsible. NPACI is developing software to let NARA rapidly archive voluminous amounts of data in "open-standard" formats that will not become obsolete over time or otherwise become inaccessible.One key standard the project has adopted is the use of the Extensible Markup Language (XML), which is increasingly used on Web sites across the Internet. Despite its simplicity, XML is a powerful tool for managing data such
as geographic information systems, office application files, images and
e-mail. These data-archiving techniques pioneered at NPACI for computational
scientists are central to the new NARA applications. For more information, see: http://www.cise.nsf.gov/acir "Cool" Science is on the WebWorking collaboratively, NSF’s Education and Human Resources directorate and the Office of Polar Programs every year send groups of K-12 teachers into the Arctic and to Antarctica to accompany scientists into the field under the auspices of the Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic (TEA) program. TEA participants assist scientists in conducting research and learn exactly how demanding it can be to gather data in extreme climates. That experience pays off when teachers bring that hard-earned expertise back to their classrooms. But for school districts that aren’t fortunate enough to send a teacher to the Polar regions, a TEA Web site, maintained at Rice University, offers a comprehensive list of suggested lesson plans and activities created by TEA teachers that are based on science conducted in the unique Polar environments. The activities, grouped in such categories as "archeology" and "explorations and humans in extreme environments," are designed to allow classroom teachers to offer students experiences that both draw on the TEA experience and also meet national standards for science education. [Peter West] For more information see: http://tea.rice.edu/tea_classroommaterials.html
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