User:Wikiwide/Major Contributions
 US biologists from the Universities of Pittsburgh and Vermont have found that social spiders of species Anelosimus studiosus exhibit apparent group selection, determining a trait affecting the colony's survival. According to one of the researchers, this is the first experimental evidence of group selection in wild populations driving adaptation to local conditions. The study was published in journal Nature on Wednesday. Contribution: found in news, written text, with sources, links and categories. Problem: vague, needs clarification. |
 Researchers from Australia's University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the United Kingdom's University of York and University of Aberdeen have measured face matching aptitude of 49 Australian passport-issuing officers and compared it against a control group of 38 students from UNSW. In the test given to both groups, both had a roughly 20% error rate. The study "Passport Officers' Errors in Face Matching" was published in PLOS ONE this Monday. Contribution: found in news, written text, with sources, links and categories. Problem: too long, plus distance from source. |
 Researcher team from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has found that near-Earth asteroid (29075) 1950 DA with a mean diameter of 1.1 km is held together by van der Waals forces between the fine grains of regolith similar to the material on the surface of the Moon. They show that the rotation rate is higher than could be possible in presence of gravity and friction alone, and cohesive forces prevent shedding and breakup of the asteroid. Their study "Cohesive forces prevent the rotational breakup of rubble-pile asteroid (29075) 1950DA" was published this Wednesday in Nature. Contribution: found in Eurekalert!, written text, with sources, links and categories. |
 India strongly opposes the use of any kind of force and backs the freedom of navigation with due acceptance of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Contribution: Edited text for style (expanding it); added sources, links, categories, template |
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Remote manipulation of floating objects
Research team from the Australian National University have generated complex surface flows driven by three-dimensional waves. Contribution: found in Eurekalert!, written text, with sources, links and categories. |
 A research team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering has developed a robot that assembles itself within four minutes from a flat sheet into a 3D (three-dimensional) moving structure. Unlike previous self-folding machines, the robot can function autonomously. Contribution: found in Eurekalert!, written text, with sources, links and categories. |
 On Tuesday, the Australian Cabinet approved the "Counter Terrorism Foreign Fighters Bill" which is to be introduced into the Australian Parliament between August 26 and September 4. The bill follows after the "National Security Legislation Amendment Bill" which was introduced into the Parliament on July 16 and is now before the Australian Senate. Attorney-General George Brandis mentioned at a joint press conference in Canberra on Tuesday, he has "been asked to develop — in consultation with relevant stakeholders, in particular, in the telecommunications sector — a system of mandatory data retention. That legislation has been approved in principle and is in development from today and is to be introduced into Parliament later in the year". As Tony Abbott mentioned, "the Government’s proposals to change 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act [...] are now off the table". Contribution: found in news, written text, with sources, links and categories. |
 Coauthor Malte Stuecker of the University of Hawaii Meteorology Department reports that "Our study documents that some of the largest tropical and subtropical climate trends of the past 20 years are all linked: Strengthening of the Pacific trade winds, acceleration of sea level rise [three times faster than the global average] in the western Pacific, eastern Pacific surface cooling, the global warming hiatus, and even the massive droughts in California". His colleague cauthor Fei-Fei Jin adds, "We are just starting to grasp the scope of the impacts of this global atmospheric reorganization and of the out-of phase temperature trends in the Atlantic and Pacific regions". Contribution: found in Eurekalert!, written text, with sources, links and categories. |
 Concentrations of lead on the Antarctic continent have declined after the 1990s, but remain around three times higher than before industrialization, despite banning of leaded petrol and similar emissions regulations. As McConnell said, "Our measurements indicate that approximately 660 tonnes [1.5 million pounds] of industrial lead have been deposited on the snow-covered surface of Antarctic during the past 130 years [...] While recent contamination levels are lower, clearly detectable industrial contamination of the Antarctic continent persists today, so we still have a ways to go." Contribution: found in Eurekalert!, written text, with sources, links and categories. |
 Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan died from Ebola virus on Tuesday afternoon at Kailahun treatment centre in Sierra Leone. Dr. Khan led the response in Sierra Leone to the current Ebola outbreak there and treated dozens of patients. On Thursday, Sierra Leone declared a state of emergency, quarantining Ebola epicentres. Contribution: found in news (if I remember correctly), written text, with sources, links and categories. |
 The mutation considered in this study was identified last year as the molecular marker of artemisinin-resistant malaria. The current study found the mutation, located in the propeller domain of a Kelch protein on human chromosome 13, predicted when parasite clearance half-life would exceed five hours with 91.8% sensitivity and 88.4% specificity — usually correct in predicting both when long half-life would occur, and when it wouldn't. The study found a six-day treatment course effective against artemisinin-resistant malaria. Contribution: found in Eurekalert!, written text, with sources, links and categories. |
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Depending on region and crops, the yields may be primarily sensitive to ozone —in the case of wheat— or heat —in the case of maize— alone, providing a local estimation of relative benefits of climate change adaptation versus ozone regulation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture notes, "Ground-level ozone causes more damage to plants than all other air pollutants combined", highlighting the importance of air quality for agriculture. Results of NCLAN studies, published in a paper by AS Heagle in 1989, show dicot species, such as soybean, cotton, and peanut, lose more yield from ozone than do monocot species such as sorghum, field corn, and winter wheat. The researchers found that ozone pollution caused 46 percent of previously heat-attributed damage to soybean crops. Contribution: found in Eurekalert!, written text, with sources, links and categories. |
During the last week, through Friday, there have been several incidents of firing at the India–Pakistan border, causing deaths on both sides: members of India's Border Security Force (BSF) and Pakistani citizens, suspected by India to be infiltrators. Both India and Pakistan have accused the opposite side of initiating the ceasefire violation. Contribution: found one-line in Wikinews, written text, with sources, links and categories. |
In the capital city Peshawar of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan, unidentified armed men targeted security guards at the Hayatabad Industrial Estate on Sunday. At the time, two security guards were checking vehicles entering the estate, while others were praying. Police said guard Akhtar Zaman died at the scene, while guard Imran Zaman was taken to Hayatabad Medical Complex and died shortly thereafter. Contribution: found one paragraph in Wikinews, expanded text, with sources, links and categories. |
 Space scientists located on three continents have published a survey of hot flow anomalies (HFAs) observed at the bow shock of Venus, in Journal of Geophysical Research on Tuesday. HFAs, discontinuities in the solar wind, were found to have much larger repercussions for Venus than for Earth. While the common HFA space weather phenomenon is deflected by the Earth's magnetosphere, Venus does not have such a reliable protection against the constant solar wind. Venus's ionosphere is generally in a sensitive balance with the outside pressure from the solar wind, and is regularly disrupted by the anomalies. Contribution: found in Eurekalert!, written text, with sources, links and categories. |
 On Friday afternoon, amateur shooters were briefed about a three-year-long trial of hunting in national parks of New South Wales, Australia. The meeting was held in Griffith near Cocopara Nature Reserve, where the first shooting operation of the trial was to occur on Saturday, targeting the feral goats. The National Parks Wildlife Service (NPWS) has used aerial culls and baiting to reduce Cocoparra's goat population, but there are said to be thousands of goats at the reserve. The feral animals to be hunted in other reserves may include cats, deer, dogs, and pigs, beside goats — depending on the reserve. Contribution: found in news, written text, with sources, links and categories. |
 Australian solar racing team Sunswift paraded their fifth car, eVe, on the Kensington campus of the University of New South Wales, Sydney, yesterday. They are leaving for the 2013 World Solar Challenge this weekend. Both staff and students came to the send-off event in the early afternoon. eVe, the latest car built by the Sunswift team, was designed for the new Cruiser class of the competition, and thus meets regulations for normal roads-worthy vehicles. While its predecessor IVy weighed under 150 kg, eVe weighs approximately 300 kg, with light carbon fiber monocoque construction and 15 kWh batteries weighing only 63 kg. However, eVe has achieved a similar drag coefficient, despite different overall shape and larger frontal area. Contribution: original reporting, written a short text with many photographs, with sources, links and categories. |
