United States

9/11 anniversary: Most Americans says US is fully prepared for terror attacks

Third 9/11 World Trade Center tower fell due to fire: Report New York, Sept. 11: Only a third of Americans think that another terrorist attack on the United States is likely, but a majority of the country’s citizens also believe that the United States is prepared for such an attack should it occur. According to a CBS poll, 52 percent of those polled said they thought the U. S. was adequately prepared, compared to 39 percent who said the U. S. was not prepared.

This is the first time since March 2003 - right after the U. S. invasion of Iraq - that a majority held that opinion.

Soon, a virtual reality treadmill for the wheelchair-bound

Washington, Sept 11 (: Exercising for the wheelchair bound may soon turn out to be fun, thanks to ‘TrekEase’, an arcade driving game of sorts, which is being developed by the University of Texas alumnus and students.

University of Texas at Austin alumnus, Chris Stanford (MSEE ''91), and Electrical & Computer Engineering undergraduates are working on testing their ideas for a virtual reality treadmill for the disabled.

Magma chamber beneath Mount Vesuvius rises towards the surface

Washington, September 11 : A new study has indicated that the magma reservoir beneath Mount Vesuvius in Italy has been migrating toward the surface over the past 20,000 years, which might result in a mild eruption.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the finding may be good news for some three million people living under the active volcano’s shadow in Italy’s Campania region, where Vesuvius’s famous A. D. 79 cataclysm buried Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Magma pools at shallower depths are less volatile and less likely to produce violent eruptions, according to a research team led by Bruno Scaillet of the Universite d’Orleans in France.

Old growth forests are valuable “carbon sinks”

Washington, September 11 : A new analysis has suggested that old growth forests are usually valuable “carbon sinks”, and they continue to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and mitigate climate change for centuries.

The analysis of 519 different plot studies, by researchers from Oregon State University (OSU) and several other institutions, found that about 15 percent of the forest land in the Northern Hemisphere is unmanaged primary forests with large amounts of old growth, and that rather than being irrelevant to the Earth’s carbon budget, they may account for as much as 10 percent of the global net uptake of carbon dioxide.

May 12 China earthquake could trigger another major quake in the region

China fears quake lakes bursting in devastated Sichuan Washington, September 11 : A team of researchers have determined that the magnitude 7.9 earthquake in China’s Sichuan province on May 12 has brought several nearby faults closer to failure and could trigger another major quake in the region.

Researchers analyzing the May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake have found that geological stress has significantly increased on three major fault systems in the region.

Chromosomal abnormality behind broad range of disorders in kids uncovered

Washington, September 11 : A collaborative study has revealed a submicroscopic aberration in a particular region of human chromosome 1q21.1 that is associated with a variety of developmental disorders in children.

Dr. Heather C. Mefford, acting assistant professor of Paediatrics at the University of Washington, and Dr. Andrew J. Sharp of the University of Geneva Medical School in Switzerland say that the aberration can manifest itself as unexplained mild or moderate mental retardation, growth retardation, learning disabilities, seizures, autism, heart defects, other congenital abnormalities, cataracts, small head size, unusual facial features, hand deformities, or skeletal problems.

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