Geo software aims to avoid ski resort eco-disasters

THE last thing on your mind as you zoom down the piste this winter will probably be, "Oh no, I'm damaging a fragile alpine environment!" But it's just one of the things developers will be able to consider when deciding where to site future resorts -thanks to some smart location analysis software that can predict the problems likely to befall winter sports resorts before they are built.

Mountain communities struggling to cope with the loss of industries such as copper mining can see winter sports as a potential lifeline, says Jordan Silberman, a geographer at the University of Delaware in Newark. But it doesn't always work out. Some prospective resorts have suffered severe soil erosion due to the mass felling of trees to create multiple ski runs. And the threat to wildlife habitats increases as holiday traffic begins snaking up slim mountain passes not designed to take such a volume of traffic. "Increased traffic volume in one [US] county wiped out a large herd of elk," reports Silberman.

Some prospective resorts have suffered severe soil erosion due to the mass felling of trees

Eager developers might also overlook the fact that snowfall alone is no guarantee of success. If local humidity is consistently too high, you get "wet, heavy snow rather than the dry, fluffy powder snow" so beloved of skiers and snow boarders, he says. Slope geometry can also affect the risk of avalanches.

In the January edition of Applied Geography, Silberman and colleague Peter Rees reveal software that identifies the best candidate locations for winter sports (DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2009.10.005). To use their geographical information system (GIS) you first enter the type of business model the developer is seeking: a small, exclusive resort, or a large, mass market venue.

The software then homes in on the preferred general region and seeks out those locations with the combinations of available land and humidity levels most likely to produce powder snow. Among many other factors, it also analyses accessibility by road, slope steepness - to work out the risk of avalanches - and the likely erosion from tree felling. A key factor is the ready availability of electricity to power the ski lifts.

"This lets us rank the locations for skiing, snowboarding, ice-climbing and snowmobiling," says Silberman.

In the recession, resort developers are focusing on small scale backcountry resorts, says Ryan Bidwell, director of environmental group Colorado Wild. "So this GIS model may be better suited to investigating what, if any, additional expansion of existing ski areas may be justified," he says.

CFS patients in UK show no signs of suspect virus

he theory that chronic fatigue syndrome could be caused by a virus that jumped from mice to people has been dealt a blow by a British study that has found no evidence of the virus in people diagnosed with CFS.

Scientists are also warning people with the condition of the dangers of dosing themselves with antiretroviral drugs.

CFS affects more than a million people in the US and a quarter of a million in the UK. Its symptoms include persistent, severe tiredness, but its cause remains mysterious and contentious.

The debate on its origins took a new twist in October, when DNA from xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus (XMRV) was found in the blood of about two-thirds of 101 people with CFS, compared with just 4 per cent of healthy people (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1179052). The researchers, led by Judy Mikovits of the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Reno, Nevada, suggested that XMRV might be causing CFS.

Missing virus

Now a second study, led by Myra McClure of Imperial College London, has failed to find XMRV in blood samples from 186 people in the UK with CFS. "We do not share the conviction that XMRV may be a contributory factor in the pathogenesis of CFS, at least in the UK," McClure's team says.

XMRV is a retrovirus, and viruses of this type have a history of claims linking them to diseases, which have later been questioned – about 25 at the last count.

Mikovits stands by the conclusions in her paper. She suggests that XMRV may be less common in Europe and so might not be causing cases of CFS there.

At least one US lab is offering to test people with CFS for XMRV, while websites are abuzz with reports from patients who say they have been tested and queries about how to obtain zidovudine (AZT), the antiretroviral drug used to combat HIV.

Health warnings

"These are folks who've just gone and had the test done in a private lab," says Charles Shepherd, medical adviser to the ME Association in the UK, which provides support to people with CFS.

In lab experiments reported last month, AZT was found to block replication of XMRV (Virology, DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2009.11.013). But Richard Baker, head of the group that wrote the official UK guidelines on CFS, warns patients against taking AZT, which can have side effects. "Anyone who uses it on themselves is taking a real risk with their health," he says. Mikovits says it is unlikely to be effective against CFS.

Negative hints

Other researchers are trying to further establish whether there is a link between XMRV and CFS, but have not yet published the results. There are hints that these results may also be negative.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Berlin, Germany, is also examining the link between XMRV and CFS. In November, its collaborators posted a short statement on the web saying that CFS patients had so far "rarely" tested positive for the virus. They later removed the statement.

According to Norbert Bannert, one of the virologists at the RKI, the statement was correct, but he adds: "It's not fair to give numbers when you're at the beginning of the investigation, and the first results have not yet been confirmed by an alternative test." He declines to give further details

McClure has also hinted that several studies due to be published soon have also found no link.

People with CFS who say they have been tested are less restrained. On one online message board, a handful of people have reported mixed results: none of 10 patients who used one company's test said they turned up positive for the virus, while six out of 12 people who took another set of tests offered by another lab said they were positive for XMRV.

If the virus link is not borne out, people with CFS are going to feel seriously disappointed, Shepherd warns. "I think people are going to feel very, very let down to put it mildly," he says.

गुगलको मोबाइल प्रतीक्षा सकिँदै

सान फ्रान्सिस्को, पुस २२ - मंगलबार साँझ गुगलले नयाँ व्यापारिक क्षेत्रमा कदम राख्दैछ, नेक्सस वानबाट। इन्टरनेट सर्च इन्जिनमा सबैलाई पछार्दै शीर्षस्थान कब्जा गरिरहेको कम्पनीले स्मार्टफोनमा कतिलाई धक्का दिने हो, सबैको नजर कम्पनीको हेर्डक्वाटतर एकत्रित भइरहेको छ। अहिलेसम्म मोबाइल प्रयोगकर्ताले गुगल एप्लिकेसन्स एप्पलको आइफोन, रिम व्ल्याकवे र केही अन्य मोबाइल सेटमा पाउँदै आएका छन्। कम्पनीको हेर्डक्वाटर सिलिकन भ्यालीले मंगलबार आफ्नै एप्लिकेसन्ससहितको सेट सार्वजनिक गर्दैछ। गुगलले यसलाई वायरलेस बजारको सम्भावनामात्र सुरु भएको,' बताएको छ। एन्ड्रोइड अपरेटिङ सिस्टम समावेश भएको नेक्सस वान इन्टरनेट ब्राउजिङका लागि अहिलेसम्मकै पछिल्लो प्रविधि हुनेछ। गुगलसँग नजिक रहेको एचटीसी कम्पनीसँग मिलेर गुगलका इन्जिनियरहरुले तयार पारेको यो बहुप्रतिक्षित मोबाइल ३ दशमलब ७ इन्च स्क्रिनको रहने बताइएको छ। ५ सय १२ मेगावाइट र्‍याम रहने स्मार्टफोन अहिलेसम्म बजारमा उपलव्धमध्ये सबैभन्दा छिटो चल्ने सेट हुनेछ।

विश्लेषकहरुले मोबाइल कम्प्युटिङको युग परिवर्तनकै रुपमा पनि यसलाई लिएका छन्। त्यसैले पनि ग्याजेट्सप्रेमीको ध्यान यतिखेर गुगलको कर्पोरेट हेर्डक्वाटतर खिचिएको छ। यहीबाटै मोबाइल सार्वजनिक हुने बताइएको छ। थोरै टेक्ट टाइप गरेर कम्प्युटरबाट अर्बौ डलर कमाइरहेको गुगलका लागि स्मार्टफोन अवसरमात्र होइन ठूलो चुनौति पनि हो। 'मोबाइलको भविष्य देखेर हामी धेरै नै उत्साही भएका छौं,' गुगलको इन्जिनियरिङ क्षेत्रका उपाध्यक्ष भिक गुनडोट्राले सोमबार न्युयोर्कटाइम्ससँगको अन्तर्वातामा भने, 'हामीले आवश्यकता अनुसार यसमा लगानी गरेका छौं। र, हामीले कम्प्युटिङ मोबाइलको अनुभव गर्दैछौं।'