CORDIS EXPRESS

CORDIS Express this week brings news related to losing weight, health and innovation. EU-funded researchers have made an interesting discovery about diet and keeping off the kilos. A new study notes that loss of biodiversity may have an effect on human health. EU research and industry ministers have issued a statement on investing for the future. EU-funded research may help save lives in fire rescue missions. The P-CUBE project is helping to speed up drug development. Three new energy infrastructure projects have been approved for EU funding. In Finally and Briefly learn about European land use and zoning regulations, Neolithic-style.

How a high protein diet is the secret to losing weight

EU-funded researchers have discovered what it takes to lose weight. People should maintain a high protein diet with plenty of lean meat, low-fat dairy products and beans, and eat fewer finely refined starch calories, such as white bread and white rice, according to the Danish-led research. The study, the world's largest to focus on diet, was funded in part by the EU to the tune of EUR 15 million. The findings are published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers of the large-scale random study, called Diogenes, investigated the optimum diet for preventing and treating obesity. The scientists, headed by the Faculty of Life Sciences (LIFE) at the University of Copenhagen, compared the official dietary recommendations in Europe with a diet based on the latest knowledge about the importance of proteins and carbohydrates for appetite regulation.

Biodiversity loss puts health at risk

A new UK-US study shows that the loss of biodiversity, including mammals and beneficial bacteria, puts human health at risk. Presented in the journal Nature, the research highlights the important relationship between conservation and disease. The loss of species in ecosystems triggers the rise of pathogens, disease-causing organisms. To reduce the likelihood of subsequent infectious diseases jumping form wildlife to livestock and humans, the authors are calling for better monitoring of areas containing large numbers of domesticated animals. The researchers found that the flora, fauna and microbes most likely to disappear, as biodiversity is lost, are often those that buffer infectious disease transmission. Those that remain tend to be species that magnify the transmission of infectious diseases like West Nile virus, Lyme disease, and Hantavirus.

Prioritise investments to safeguard growth and jobs, ministers say

The EU must prioritise investment in education, training, research (fundamental and applied), development and innovation as well as key technologies if it is to safeguard its sources of future growth and jobs, according to EU research and industry ministers. The recommendation is one of many contained in the conclusions on the 'Innovation Union' initiative issued by participants at the latest Competitiveness Council, which took place in Brussels, Belgium on 25 and 26 November. The Innovation Union is one of a number of flagship initiatives launched under the banner of the Europe 2020 strategy. In their conclusions, the ministers stress : 'Scientific excellence and basic and applied research, supported by world-class infrastructures, life-long learning, training and higher education, in particular in science and engineering, as well as incentives for commercialisation of results, are preconditions for an efficient innovation system.'

Novel forecast technology to help firefighters in rescue missions

Watching a building being engulfed in flames is already a terrifying experience. Not knowing exactly when and how the blaze will spread can make the experience even more traumatic for those seeking to protect lives and surrounding buildings. Aware of the value of the power to predict, an EU-funded team of researchers has developed a new technique that forecasts how a blaze will spread. This innovative technology is presented in the Fire Safety Journal. Developed by researchers at the University of Edinburg in the UK, the new technique can feed data obtained from sensors located in burning buildings into computer models, giving rescue teams the information they need to predict the potential spread of fire.

New technique to speed up drug development

Scientists working at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Grenoble, France have developed a new technique that enables them to introduce up to 15 fluorescent markers to a mammalian cell in one go. They say their findings could help speed up drug development and screening. The study was funded in part by the 'Protein production platforms' (P-CUBE) project, which has clinched EUR 6.6 million through the Research Infrastructures budget line of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). EMBL's Imre Berger previously developed a technique that allowed scientists to create the equivalent of a make-up brush that is applied only once and highlights different features simultaneously. So cells could be given fluorescent labels to mark various cellular components in different colours.

Three new energy research infrastructures get green light

Three new European energy research infrastructures have been given the go-ahead by European research ministers and the European Commission. The announcement was made at the Infrastructures for Energy Research conference (ENERI 2010) in Brussels, Belgium on 29 and 30 November. The new infrastructures are a wind research facility in Denmark, a concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in Spain and a nuclear research reactor in Belgium. All three appear in the updated roadmap of the ‘European strategy forum on research infrastructures’ (ESFRI ), which is scheduled for publication before the end of the year. Under the newly launched Innovation Union initiative, the EU has set itself the challenge of launching 60% of the research infrastructures identified by ESFRI by 2015.

Eleventh Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation, Noordwijk, the Netherlands

This edition of the Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation will take place between 12 and 15 April 2011 in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Technological needs in the fields of automation and robotics (AR) and space technologies are increasing. Missions such as the ExoMars rover and the newly-established Mars robotic exploration programme (MREP) are leading development in the field. Interest in a European lunar exploration mission and the prolongation of the life of the international space station are also creating additional opportunities. The conference is planned to be a forum where state-of-the-art developments in European space automation and robotics community are presented and discussed.

Conference on paperless freight transport logistics, Munich, Germany

A conference on paperless freight transport logistics will take place on 10 and 11 May 2011 in Munich, Germany. Making better use of pre-existing infrastructure and transport resources will help the European freight transport sector improve its competitiveness while meeting demands for increasing volumes and sustainability. E-freight is a term for the vision of a paper-free, electronic flow of information associating the physical flow of goods with a paperless trail built by information and communication technologies. It includes the ability to track and trace freight along its journey across transport modes and to automate the exchange of cargo-related data for regulatory or commercial purposes. To move the sector forward, cooperation is needed between the key transport stakeholders including users (shippers), transport integrators, carriers and terminal operators.

Call for expressions of interest for the ‘ESPON 2013 Knowledge Support System’

The European Commission has published a call for expressions of interest for the ‘ESPON 2013 Knowledge Support System’. Within the framework of Priority 1 of the European Observation Network, Territorial Development and Cohesion (ESPON) 2013 Programme, a Knowledge Support System (KSS) has been set up to make sure that projects of applied territorial research have a sound scientific base and meet a sufficient degree of scientific quality. The ESPON 2013 Programme will apply research on territorial potential and challenges focusing on opportunities of success for the development of regions and cities. Cross-thematic applied research will be a major activity, integrating existing thematic analysis and adding future analysis of new themes. The impact of EU policies will be an additional important area of analysis.

Environmental impact study of industrial activity within residential areas

The Triangle Research and Development Centre in Kufur Qari, Israel is looking for partners to study the impact and response to exposure to environmental pollution in urban environments with industrial plants and workshops operating among residential buildings. Since the 1970s, industrial activity in Israeli Arab settlements have developed and expanded. Factors related to the availability of industrial land and the infrastructure which supports industrial production are critical to the industrialisation process. While settlements have increased in size, the availability of land for industrial activity has not increased proportionately. Environmental issues, pollution, noise and other nuisances generated in residential areas by industry and workshops are major sources of concern for the urban population. One of the goals of the study would be to review environmental issues that seem to have major impacts on a locality's quality of life.

Studying the societal impact of low cost airlines

The ‘Where we fly’ ('Low cost carrier journeys and locations and their roles in promoting european intercultural dialogue, shaping European representations and establishing social networks') project will identify and study the role played by low cost airlines in changing the European sense of social and cultural space and promoting intercultural dialogue. The expansion of low cost airlines to all parts of Europe has made it easier, and cheaper, for all types of people to travel. The project will look at the identification and motivation (including both push and pull factors) for travel, whether for leisure or business. Where we fly will also look at how destinations and trips are represented in marketing materials and popular culture. The project will examine new forms of disparity, disadvantage, resentment and prejudice within Europe's border region destinations.

Admiring Neolothic civic planning

Civic space planning policies and local zoning regulations are about the last thing that one would think of when asked about Neolithic-age Europe.

A recent study, though, says that a roughly equivalent system functioned thousands of years ago and had a significant impact on how and when Europe was settled.