Melbourne-based Swinburne University has launched a unique online treatment clinic for people with anxiety disorder.
The online assessment and treatment clinic has been developed by the University’s National eTherapy Centre and is said to be one of its kind in the world. “Anxiety Online is the first full-service online psychology clinic in the world,” David Austin, Co-Director of the National eTherapy Centre said in a statement.

“It is the first to offer a complete service online, from assessment through to clinical treatment, in the convenience of a person’s own home” he said. The service includes free online psychological assessments, diagnoses and educational information on anxiety disorders such as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Social Phobia.

“The service can be accessed by people from remote and regional areas anywhere in the world, people who don’t have a choice in regards to accessing face-to-face psych services because they simply don’t exist,” Austin said.

Austin also expects the online treatment service will appeal to people who aren’t comfortable visiting a therapist face-to-face

Noted astrophysicist Jayant Narlikar has urged that the moon be scanned for micro-organisms in its environment, especially in areas where traces of water have been found.
Speaking during a lecture on ‘Searching for micro-life in the earth’s atmosphere’ in Goa Sunday, Narlikar said that the discovery of water on the moon called for a fresh perspective on the issue of life on the moon.
“If we have found water on the moon, then we must look for signs of life there,” Narlikar, a Padma Vibhushan award winner, said. He added that there were traces of life even 41 km above the earth.
“Experiments by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and other scientific institutes in India have found micro-life in forms which are not found on the earth’s surface,” he said.
Referring to two successful balloon tests conducted in 2001 and 2005 under the aegis of ISRO, the founder-director of the Inter-university Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCCA) said that air samples collected by releasing the balloons up to a height of 41 km had confirmed the presence of micro-organisms not known otherwise on earth.
“Air was pumped into stainless steel tubes 41 km from the earth’s surface. Examination of the contents were then carried out by testing laboratories in Cardiff, UK and in India. We found three new bacteria which were not found on earth,” he said, adding that the new bacteria were immune to bombardment by ultra violet rays, unlike bacteria found on earth.
Narlikar added that the new bacteria, two of which were named after Indian astronomer Aryabhatta and ISRO, could have slipped into the earth’s atmosphere, after coming in contact with the tail of a comet travelling through space. “These new life forms could have been trapped into the comet’s tail as they travelled through space and found their way into the earth’s atmosphere when they passed alongside,” he said.

ConeXware the third release candidate of the archiving program PowerArchiver 11.6 released. This program can handle common types such as zip archive, 7z, cab, lha tar, gzip, bzip2, rar, arj, arc and ace. This program can handle common types such as zip archive, 7z, cab, lha tar, gzip, bzip2, rar, arj, arc and ace. It may also CD or DVD-read images such as iso, bin, img and nrg. It may also read CD or DVD images such as iso, bin, img and nrg. PowerArchiver is available in two versions: a standard and a professional edition. PowerArchiver is available in two versions: a standard edition and a professional. The first contains everything we PowerArchiver accustomed to the old, the other can also CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs burn ISO files and also create a virtual drive mount, and can finally be as ftp client used. The first contains everything we PowerArchiver accustomed to the old, the other can also CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray disc burn ISO files and also create a virtual drive mount, and can finally be used as ftp client. This third release candidate has been altered to the CD and DVD burning functionality: This third release candidate has been altered to the CD and DVD burning functionality:

PA 2010 11.60 Preview # 3 – improved burner experience … PA 2010 11.60 Preview # 3 – improved burner experience …

Heads up to all users that use our burner – burning experience we have improved in 11.60 Preview # 3 with addition of burning through SPTD layer. Heads up to all users that use our burner – burning experience we have improved in 11.60 Preview # 3 with addition of burning through SPTD layer. It basically lets multiple software use same device without any conflicts (something that ASPI and SPTI dont methods). It basically lets multiple software use same device without any conflicts (something that ASPI and SPTI dont methods). For some people it should improve their experience, make their burners work better with PowerArchiver and we also observed 20% faster burning speed on our test computer (might different from your experience, all burners are different). For some people it should improve their experience, make their burners work better with PowerArchiver and we also observed 20% faster burning speed on our test computer (might different from your experience, all burners are different).

We have tried to make it simple – as SPTD drivers add 2 MB of the installation, and not everyone uses burner (or is Pro user), we incorporated these drivers inside PAVD installation in version 1.03.04 or PAVD (available now). We have tried to make it simple – as SPTD drivers add 2 MB of the installation, and not everyone uses burner (or is Pro user), we incorporated these drivers inside PAVD installation in version 1.03.04 or PAVD (available now). As soon as you install that update, PowerArchiver will automatically use SPTD layer for burning. As soon as you install that update, PowerArchiver will automatically use SPTD layer for burning. We have added this as automatic selection option in Config> Misc there so you can change it if you see that you get better results with SPTI (old school), for whatever reason. We have added this as automatic selection option in Config> Misc there so you can change it if you see that you get better results with SPTI (old school), for whatever reason.

Need money to recharge your mobile phone and don’t have any? Just steal a bunch of bananas and sell it to buy a recharge coupon – that is what poor youths in Bihar’s Raghopur area are doing to keep their mobiles ringing.

With some cellular companies providing free SIM cards along with cell phones, many poor youths have purchased mobiles. But they don’t have money to keep the chatting going.

They have started sneaking into banana fields and stealing bunches of the fruit to pay for the coupons.

This new phenomena is giving sleepless nights to banana cultivators in Raghopur diara, riverine area in Vaishali district, known for its large banana fields.

The youths steal bananas and sell them at throwaway prices to recharge cell phones, said Mahendra Rai, a major cultivator in Raghopur diara.

“Cellphone ka naya maza lene wale mazdoor aur charwahe adhikansh yuva warg ke, kela ka than chori kar ke usi paise se recharge karwatein hain (the youths, mostly labourers, are stealing bananas to recharge their cell phones),” said Santosh Rai, a middle-aged banana farmer.

The theft of bananas has forced Ramji Rai, another cultivator, to deploy guards in his big field.

Usually, a single large banana bunch is sold by farmers between Rs 25 to Rs 40, depending on the quality. However, the youths are selling the fruit at throwaway prices.

“A recharge coupon is available for Rs 10 to Rs 50. Selling a bunch of bananas gives the youths enough money to purchase the coupons,” said Rajesh Kumar, a local businessman.

Till date nearly 50 cases of banana theft have been detected, but only one case has been reported in the local police station.

Raghopur is represented by former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi in the state assembly. The area is considered a stronghold of Rabri and her husband, Mr Lalu Prasad, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and former railway minister.

The world’s first floating full-scale offshore wind turbine has been inaugurated in the North Sea off the coast of Norway, the Norwegian energy giant StatoilHydro said on Tuesday.

The turbine known as Hywind, which is 65 m tall and weighs 5,300 tonnes, lies some 10 km off the island of Karmoey near the Scandinavian country’s southwestern coastline, the company said.

It rests upon a floating stand that is anchored to the seabed by three cables. Water and rocks are placed inside the stand to provide balast.

StatoilHydro plans to test Hywind over the next two years before it looks to set up any more floating wind turbines with international partners.

StatoilHydro sees Japan, South Korea, California, the east coast of the United States and Spain as some of the potential markets to where this technology could be exported.

Hywind can be used in waters from 120 m to 700 m deep allowing it to be placed much further away from the shore than static wind turbines already in operation.

StatoilHydro’s Anne Stroemmen Lycke said that the floating turbine has “great advantages.”

“It is not so easily seen from the coast, it can be placed in areas not used by others,” she said.

“We could use such wind turbines in countries where coastal waters are very deep or where there is little space left for land-based turbines,” Stroemmen Lycke added.

A total of 400 million kroner ($66 million) has been invested in the 2.3-megawatt floating turbine, making it a far more expensive option than its fixed counterpart.

“Our goal is to bring down the price to the level of fixed wind turbines that are currently installed in waters some 60 m deep,” Stroemmen Lycke said.

France’s Technip and Germany’s Siemens both worked with the Norwegian energy giant on the Hywind project.

It is set to start producing electricity in the next few weeks, StatoilHydro said.

State-run BHEL is believed to have finalised France’s Alstom as the technological partner for its proposed joint venture with Nuclear Power Corporation of India to undertake nuclear power projects.

“The global technology partner in the proposed BHEL-NPCIL JV in all likelihood would be Alstom,” a source close to the development said.

Alstom’s induction is likely to be formally announced next month. The technological partner may be offered equity in the JV, but details were not available.

State-run power equipment maker BHEL and NPCIL signed an agreement in April 2008 to form a joint venture for providing engineering, procurement and construction services in nuclear power sector.

BHEL is focusing on nuclear power generation and is exploring technology tie-ups for manufacturing turbine and generator sets. The turbines would be manufactured at the company’s Bhopal unit.

The company is manufacturing nuclear heat exchangers for the JV company, which has already tied-up with GE-Hitachi for making nuclear reactors.

The space shuttle Discovery undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday after delivering supplies and equipment to boost the capacity of the orbiting laboratory.

Pilot Kevin Ford backed Discovery away from the station at 7.26 pm GMT for the trip back to Earth. The shuttle is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Thursday.

The crew of six US and a Swedish astronaut brought two “racks” for scientific experiments and a freezer to store experiments set to be sent back to Earth. One of the racks will be used to conduct research on metals, semiconductors, crystal, glass and other materials in microgravity. The other will be used to study liquids and gels in space.

During three spacewalks, astronauts removed an empty ammonia tank and installed a new one and made other repairs.

The Lost Orphan Mine below the Grand Canyon hasn’t produced uranium since the sixties, but radioactive residue still contaminates the area. Now a study is examining how sulphate-reducing bacteria can convert radioactive metal to inert substances.

Cleaning the region takes an expensive process that is only done in extreme cases, but Judy Wall of the University of Missouri (U-M) College of Agriculture, is studying bacteria that are bio-corrosives and can change the solubility of heavy metals.

Wall, a bio-chemistry professor, and researchers from the Lawrence Berkley National Lab in California are investigating the bacterium’s basic genetics and hope to determine its growth limits and activity in natural settings, including how to make its interactions with metals sustainable.

They have already identified a few genes that are critical to converting uranium. They can take uranium and convert it to uraninite, a nearly insoluble substance that will sink to the bottom of a lake or stream.

Wall is looking into the bacteria’s water cleansing ability and how long the changed material would remain inert.

The research could also be beneficial to heavy metal pollution from storage tanks and industrial waste. The bacteria are already present in more than 7,000 heavy metal contaminated sites, but they live in a specific range of oxygen and temperature, making them difficult to control.

“Our research must be done in the absence of air,” Wall said. “Obviously, none but the most committed – and stubborn – will work with them.”

Even if an oxygen-tolerant strain were developed, there are still multiple factors that would make applying the bacteria challenging, and these microbes can contribute to massive iron corrosion, according to an university release.

“Knowledge of the way bacteria live in the environment, in microbial communities, is still in its infancy,” Wall said. “We just don’t know a lot about the communication systems among microbes.”

Wall’s research has been published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Nucleic Acids Research and Environmental Microbiology

Nasa’s plans to fly to the moon and Mars are under threat from a lack of funds and the space agency needs another $3 billion for its dreams to become reality, a presidential panel said.

In a 12-page summary report released on Tuesday offering a bleak assessment of plans to send astronauts back to the moon, the committee said the space agency would need the three billion dollars on top of its $18 billion-budget to meet its ambitious targets.

“Space operations become all the more difficult when means do not match aspirations,” the committee wrote. “Such is the case today.”

As US president in 2004, George W. Bush launched a program dubbed Constellation with the goal of returning to the moon by 2020 and then establishing a lunar launchpad for a first trip to Mars.

But in an executive summary of its report, a White House commission named by Bush’s successor Barack Obama to review the US manned space program, said the current schedule was unachievable.

The committee recommended a “flexible path” that could explore the inner solar system with a “possible rendezvous with Mars’ moons or human lunar return by the mid to late 2020s.”

A full report was due to be released later this month.

Nasa offered various scenarios for a possible continuation of the program, but cautioned that “whatever space program is ultimately selected it must be matched with the resources needed for its execution.”

The report also urged the US space agency to enlist other countries in human space exploration as a possible way to finance its programs, as well as possible ventures launched with private companies.

“Actively engaging international partners in a manner adapted to today’s multi-polar world could strengthen geopolitical relationships, leverage global resources and enhance the exploration enterprise,” it said.

Leading a “bold” effort to work with other countries in the space exploration effort could lead to “substantial benefits to foreign relations,” the report added.

Working with commercial partners would also lead to cost-cutting, the panel said, and could spur the US space effort with technology innovation.

Guaranteed contracts awarded by the federal government may also prompt a surge in private interest in the field.

Such a move “has the potential to stimulate a vigorous and competitive commercial space industry,” the report said, noting that the agency’s ability to focus on “cutting edge technologies and concepts.”

If appropriately funded, the committee recommended a program to “re-engage the minds” at US universities and in the private space industry.

Other questions addressed by the panel deal with the future of the soon-to-be-retired US space shuttles, which at present are due to be permanently grounded sometime in 2011, although the panel said that period could be extended to 2015.

The report also explores the future of the International Space Station and the feasibility of space exploration beyond low-Earth orbit.

Television buffs may now have a reason to smile for a new study has found that some TV shows could increase intellegence by helping viewers better understand politics and develop ideas.

Television shows, such as the ‘Simpsons’, ‘Lost’ and ’24,’ help viewers to understand politics and develop ideas, research suggest.

The study carried out jointly by the universities of Surrey in Britain and Illinois in America, examined the ability of 170 viewers in the US, Netherlands and Greece to acquire new political insights and also studied the effects of watching these programmes on the viewer’s psyche, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The researchers found that nearly one in four viewers claimed they had a better understanding of political issues after watching the shows.

And nine-in-ten among those questioned said that they had discussed topics from the programmes with friends and family leading them to examine and adapt their own political or ethical stance.

Dr Tereza Capelos, from the University of Surrey, said, “While shows like The Simpsons and Lost may never be seen as educational or mind-expanding, the enjoyment and relaxation they provide can make viewers more receptive to new information and ideas.”

The research also suggested that a fifth of viewers consider fictional TV programmes just as believable and reliable as news programmes as sources of information.