ASU’s TweetTracker helps make sense of social media
ASU’s TweetTracker tool is helping people to track, analyze and understand the massive amount of activity on Twitter by identifying the who, what, where and when of social media usage. TweetTracker is a web-based system that collects and visualizes social media data. It allows users to track events as they happen, collecting data from social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and VKontakte. It also provides visualization capabilities such as graphs and maps to allow the user to understand properties of the events they track, such as which geographic regions are talking about each topic, and who the top users are in the context of the event. Read on Full Circle
ASU study: Cities need to limit parking to decrease automobile use and encourage public transit
If burgeoning cities wish to decrease automobile use to relieve congestion, reduce air pollution, and encourage public transit they need to develop strategies to reduce the number of parking spaces. A research project led by Arizona State University, in partnership with UCLA and Georgia Tech, analyzed the change in the types of spaces, number of spaces, and location of spaces in Los Angeles from 1900 to present. The researchers found that most parking was constructed between 1950 and 1980 and there are currently 18.6 million spaces, or 3.3 spaces for each of the 5.6 million vehicles. Read on Full Circle
Laser technology, nanomaterials combine to offer promising body tissue repair technique
Kaushal Rege, an associate professor of chemical engineering, has been using gold nanorods as a key ingredient in a new kind of body tissue sealant. Using near-infrared laser light to heat a nanocomposite of gold nanorods embedded in a matrix of polypeptides (chains of amino acids that can fuse with ruptured tissues), Rege’s laboratory team can process the mixture of materials into a “nanosolder” for sealing tissues separated by rupture or surgical incisions. The technique could in many cases improve on or at least supplement conventional stitches and sutures used in tissue repair. Read on Full Circle
