Tuesday, November 17, 1998
Community briefs
Bubbles could threaten space travel
Bubbles the size of footballs could wreak havoc on a plumbing
system – especially one aboard a spacecraft halfway between here
and Mars.
That is one of the reasons a team of researchers at the UCLA
School of Engineering and Applied Science is taking part in a $6
million NASA research program to examine the effects of boiling in
space.
Headed by Vijay Dhir, chairman of the Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering Department, researchers will examine what happens when
liquids change state and become vapor. The research is essential
for future space exploration missions to Mars and beyond.
Although boiling water on earth is a relatively mundane exercise
– producing few, if any, surprises – it can effect everything from
power systems to life support fluids aboard a spacecraft.
Dhir’s team will be studying both the positive and negative
effects of the phenomenon.
While on one hand, boiling is a very efficient mode of heat
transfer to produce power, formation of large bubbles can have
negative impact on life-supporting liquids and on energy conversion
system’s performance.
UCSF works on new arthritis treatment
To accelerate the introduction of more effective, safer
treatments for arthritis, the UC San Francisco has established a
special research center for testing promising experimental drugs
for the disease.
The Rosalind Russell New Arthritis Treatment Program offers
patients innovative therapies that target specific cells known to
promote inflammation and joint damage.
The program was established with major financial support from
the Rosalind Russell Arthritis Center, which has played a key role
in funding research on arthritis at UCSF for twenty years.
Arthritis, the world’s number one crippler, afflicts more than
40 million Americans and that figure is expected to grow
dramatically as baby boomers age.
Current treatments, such as medications, are only partially
effective and they can cause serious, sometimes even fatal, side
effects.
"The kinds of treatments we’re testing represent the first real
potential for genuine breakthroughs in more than a generation,"
according to UCSF-Stanford Health Care rheumatologist David Wofsy,
UCSF professor of medicine and director of the New Arthritis
Treatment Program.
"The revolutionary developments in molecular and cell biology
over the last 10 to 15 years are finally beginning to pay off in a
new generation of arthritis treatments that promise fewer side
effects and greater effectiveness," Wofsy said.
Orange County quality of life rates highly
With Orange County among the fastest-growing counties in the
nation, many fear that it is losing its suburban character or
becoming "just like Los Angeles".
UC Irvine’s first 1998 Orange County Annual Survey shows that
despite its rapid growth and change, Orange County is not becoming
more like Los Angeles. Orange County residents give higher ratings
than Los Angeles County residents on a number of measures,
including their quality of life, local public services, job
opportunities and county government.
"Many people think that Orange County has grown and changed so
much in recent decades that its suburban quality is gone. That fear
has been best expressed in the view that Orange County has become
‘just like Los Angeles,’" said Mark Baldassare, UCI professor of
urban and regional planning.
Compiled from Daily Bruin wire reports.
Comments, feedback, problems?
© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board[Home]