uni.news

10th Bielefeld Conference: International meeting for librarians

A library as just a collection of books is a thing of the past. Information is increasingly being stored and presented digitally – either as a multimedia product, an online catalogue, or in a data cloud. The need for new information structures is more urgent than ever before. The 10th International Bielefeld Conference 2012 will be presenting visions of such future structures. Hosted by Bielefeld University library, librarians from Europe and beyond will be gathering from the 24th to the 26th of April at the Stadthalle in Bielefeld to discuss ‘Shaping Future INFO-Structures. Feeding Data, Designing Information Services and Constructing ICT-Infrastructure for a Digital Natives World’. Conference languages are English and German.[Weiterlesen]

Free programme for iPhones and Android smartphones

The illustrated trilingual dorm dictionary is now available as an app. Students attending the ‘Vorsicht Mobile Marketing!‘ course at Bielefeld University have developed a digital version of the dictionary for smartphones and tablets. Called ‘idormdict‘ (International Dorm Dictionary for students), the programme is designed to help international students find their way through daily dorm life – just like the printed version that has been distributed to more than 60,000 students in several regional and one transregional editions. The new app runs on iPhones, Android smartphones, and tablets such as iPads. You can now download this short programme free of charge from the Internet under www.idormdict.de [Weiterlesen]

Bielefeld University honours Professor Bernd Fischer's 75th birthday

Today (12 March), Bielefeld University is welcoming 180 mathematicians from 15 different countries to the 'Groups 2012' conference. They have been invited by the Bielefeld Collaborative Research Centre 701 'Spectral Structures and Topological Methods in Mathematics' and the Faculty of Mathematics to honour the 75th birthday of Professor em. Dr. Dr. h.c. Bernd Fischer, one of the first and most distinguished professors at the Faculty. Until Friday (16th March), the participants will be discussing the use of groups in different parts of mathematics and presenting the latest developments on the structure theory of groups. The conference is being held in English.[Weiterlesen]

Biologists at Bielefeld University have developed a new method for quantifying the effect of non-native species on ecosystem functioning

Invasive species are prolific non-native plants or animals that, when introduced to an ecosystem, may imbalance the system and disrupt its natural functioning. Biologists at Bielefeld University in the team of Junior Professor Dr. Christiane Werner in cooperation with the University of Lisbon have developed non-invasive method for quantifying the spatial impact of such exotic species on the ecosystems which they invade. They can estimate whether native plants in the neighbourhood of invasive species incorporate the nitrogen fixed by the latter. The biologists examined the Sydney Golden Wattle (Acacia longifolia), an Australian shrub that has established itself in Mediterranean climates worldwide. They found that the invasive species threatens native ecosystems not only through its prolific growth but also by fertilizing the surrounding soil with nitrogen – this effect markedly extended beyond the area occupied by the invader. This innovative method (called 15N isoscapes) is being published today (13 March) in the renowned journal "Ecology Letters".[Weiterlesen]

Researchers at Bielefeld University and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga release the initial results of an online surve

'I am more spiritual than religious' - half of the respondents agreed with this statement, regardless of whether they belonged to a church or not. This is one of the findings from an intercultural study by Bielefeld University and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, USA. The research project aims to explain what people understand by the terms spirituality and religiosity, how this understanding relates to their personality and biography, and what it means for their lives. The project is running until the end of 2012. One part of the project is an online survey of a total of 1,886 participants in Germany and the USA. Initial analyses of this survey are now available, and one finding has surprised the researchers: an amazingly large number of people who do not belong to a religious community, including many who see themselves as atheists, describe themselves as spiritual.

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Bielefeld research team studies the health behaviour of youth in North Rhine-Westphalia

According to a new study, every third boy and every fourth girl living in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia says that they have already been drunk at least twice by the age of 15. The study 'Health Behaviour in School-aged Children" (HBSC) is being run by a research team at Bielefeld University headed by Professor Dr. Petra Kolip from the Faculty of Health Sciences.[Weiterlesen]

Professor Andreas Dress honoured in Peking

The Bielefeld mathematician Professor Dr. Andreas Dress has been honoured with the 'International Science and Technology Cooperation Award' for his scientific achievements and for setting up the Max Planck Partner Institute for Computational Biology in Shanghai. This award, considered to be China's top award for international scientific cooperation, was given to Andreas Dress in a ceremony held on the 14th of February in Peking's Great Hall of the People. Andreas Dress taught and researched at Bielefeld University from its foundation in 1969 until his retirement in 2003. His scientific interests range from topology and classical algebra across structure formation processes and visualization procedures, to the application of combinatorics in biology and chemistry.[Weiterlesen]

Biologists at Bielefeld University and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics identify the genome sequence of the sugar beet

Success for researchers at Bielefeld University's Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec) headed by Professor Dr. Bernd Weisshaar and at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin headed by Dr. Heinz Himmelbauer: They have decoded the genome sequence of the sugar beet. What makes the sugar beet such an interesting case is its only distant relationship to previously decoded plants. This should generate completely new knowledge on plant construction and function.

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Biologists at Bielefeld University make new discovery in zebra finches

The behavioural scientists Dr. Tobias Krause and Dr. Barbara Caspers from Bielefeld University have discovered that songbirds use their sense of smell for social communication and can apply this to distinguish relatives from non-relatives. The scientists' study is being published today (4 January) in the online version of the journal Biology Letters published by the renowned British Royal Society. Only recently, the two biologists were able to confirm that songbirds – in contrast to previous claims in the textbooks – have a sense of smell.

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Bielefeld biologist's research team develop method for isolating and cultivating adult stem cells

A research team headed by the cell biologist Professor Dr. Barbara Kaltschmidt from Bielefeld University has successfully cultivated stem cells from the human nose and transformed them into nerve, bone, fat, and cartilage cells. The researchers report that one advantage of their method is that it can be used to produce large numbers of cells in a very short time. This can lead to new treatments of acute and chronic face injuries. They have now published their findings in the journals "Stem Cells and Development" and "European Cells & Materials".

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