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indianexpress: THE Public Concern For Governance Trust (PCGT), formed by B G Deshmukh, Julio Rebeiro and R K Anand in Mumbai in April 2002 to promote honesty, accountability and transparency in governance and to make the country a value-based, corruption-free society, will be conducting a Sensitivity Training Workshop for Pune Police staff.

Satish Khot, Member of PCGT’s Advisory Council, said the two-day training is for constables and police officers who are in direct contact with citizens. It aims to inculcate in them a better way to interact with citizens.

The participants will be trained for better communication skills, change in attitude, understanding human behaviour, stress management and envisioning a humane approach to policing.

The training will be held at the Police Recreation Club, Shivajinagar on Monday and Tuesday. The course will be inaugurated by former Punjab police chief Juleo Ribeiro at 10:30 am on Monday. Former Maharashtra Director General of Police B J Misar will be the chief guest at the inaugural function.

indianexpress: THE Traffic Watch group of Centre for Youth Development and Activities (CYDA) has planned to organise an array of programmes from April 23 to 29 when the United Nations Road Safety week will be observed across the globe.

The campaign focuses on bringing a positive change in the traffic situation. The group plans to hold panel discussions, sticker and badge distribution, campaigning at chowks, street plays, film festival, road show and a cycle rally.

The panel discussion will be conducted at VSS hall, Dyaneshwar Paduka chowk on April 23 at 6 pm while stickers and badges will be distributed at various chowks of the city on April 24. The CYDA group will run campaigns regarding traffic rules at Balgandharva and Good Luck chowk on April 25.

Street plays will be performed at Pune Railway Station, Swargate, Sarasbaug and Sambhaji garden on April 26. A film festival has been organised on April 27 while a road show will be organised on April 28 during the Walking Plaza. The campaign will conclude with a cycle rally on April 29 at 9.30 am on Jangli Maharaj Road.

The CYDA feels the necessity for a campaign in the city as according to official statistics, more than 1.26 lakh people lost their lives in road accidents across the country in 2004-05 and over 3.74 people were injured.

dailytech: A new study authored by a Stanford University professor questions the “greenness” of ethanol-based fuel

A recent study from the Environmental Science and Technology journal raises some new concerns about ethanol-based E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) which can be used in automobiles. The study finds that if much of the country’s fuel supply would switch from gasoline to E85, the number of deaths from respiratory failure (due to ozone) in the United States would rise from 4,700 people a year to nearly 4,900 per year.

“It’s not green in terms of air pollution,” said study author Mark Jacobson, a Stanford University environmental engineering professor and author of the study. “If you want to use ethanol, fine, but don’t do it based on health grounds. It’s no better than gasoline, apparently slightly worse.”

Jacobson used computer models to determine the effects of an increased use of ethanol in automobiles and how they would impact air pollution. The models determined than an increased reliance on E85 would result in increased smog levels — especially in Los Angeles and major cities in the Northeast.

Jacobson contends that the increase in smog levels is due to the fact that more hydrocarbons are released into the atmosphere from the combustion of ethanol than from gasoline. Jacobson also notes that ethanol produces less nitrogen oxide which most often is a positive side effect. However, in smog-filled areas like Los Angeles the decreased nitrogen oxide levels can be harmful to the atmosphere.

Matt Hartwig, a spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association, says that he respect’s Jacobson’s work but takes issues with some of his findings and methodology. Hartwing notes that when using real-world data instead of computer models “ethanol is a greener fuel than gasoline.”

technews: Doctors and scientists from the University of Washington will get a glimpse of what it would be like to do remote surgery in space when a portable medical robot they created will be tested next month in an underwater environment designed by NASA to simulate zero gravity.

The portable robot, which can be controlled over the Internet by a human surgeon many miles away, is being developed with money from the U.S. Defense Department to be used to treat wounded soldiers on a battlefield, to perform complicated surgery on patients in remote areas of the developing world and to help sick astronauts in space.

Dr. Mika Sinanan demonstrates(hands shown), Raven, right background, the robotic surgeon at the University of Washington Electrical Engineering building in Seattle on Wednesday, April 18, 2007. Raven will participate in NASA’s mission to submerge a surgeon and robotic gear in a simulated spaceship. (AP Photo/Kevin P. Casey) (Kevin P. Casey - AP)
 
The difference between the robot surgeon demonstrated at the University of Washington on Wednesday and others that are being used today in American hospitals involves portability and communications, said Professor Blake Hannaford, co-director of the UW BioRobotics Lab.

All the portable parts of this device weigh about 50 pounds and can be transported and reconstructed by non-engineers at remote sites. Robot surgeons currently being used in hospitals weigh several thousand pounds, are not portable and can’t be easily broken down and reconstructed.

Current medical robots also were not designed to be controlled from miles away.

When the mobile surgical robot called Raven is in the Aquarius Undersea Laboratory off the coast of Florida, its robotic arms holding surgical instruments will be operated by doctors in Seattle sitting in front of a computer screen and holding onto moveable metal arms.