From the database of
Essential
Science IndicatorsSM, this list of Emerging Research
Fronts has been generated by a comparison of the data sets for the current
period of July 2002-June 30, 2008, and the previous period of May
2002-April 30, 2008 (sliding 6-year period). Of the 6,452 Research Fronts
in the July 2002-June 30, 2008, a total of 817 (12.6%) were new.
View a list of just Emerging
Research Front Maps -or- a
Site-Wide list of all Research Front
Maps within ScienceWatch.com (listed by field).
This symbol indicates that the author(s) of the comments
below have also sent along accompanying images/descriptions of their
work.
Field
Research Front Name
Description
Agricultural
Sciences
FUNCTIONAL FOOD HEALTH CLAIMS; ISSUES SURROUNDING HEALTH
CLAIMS; PRODUCT-SPECIFIC HEALTH CLAIM PROCESSES
Clinical data demonstrate that the consumption of barley
products is effective for lowering total and LDL
cholesterol.
Biology &
Biochemistry
PROTEIN TYROSINE NITRATION; NO-DEPENDENT PROTEIN NITRATION;
NITRIC OXIDE-MEDIATED PROTEIN MODIFICATIONS
The occurrence of protein tyrosine nitration under disease
conditions represents a shift from the signal transducing
physiological actions of nitric oxide to oxidative and
potentially pathogenic pathways.
Nanoclusters are now becoming of widespread use in various
applications, ranging from medicine (DNA-sequencing), to
memory storage (nano-magnets), optics
(quantum dots), and catalysis
(fuel
cells).
WORK ABSENTEEISM INVOLVING NECK PAIN; COMMON NONSURGICAL
NECK PAIN TREATMENTS; WHIPLASH-ASSOCIATED DISORDERS (WAD)
A synthesis to establish a baseline of the current best
evidence on the epidemiology, assessment and classification
of neck pain, as well as interventions and prognosis for
this symptom.
Quantification of messenger ribonucleic acids using
real-time polymerase chain reaction is being extensively
used in neurosciences, developmental biology, and medical
diagnostics.
Economics &
Business
CONDITIONAL LIKELIHOOD RATIO TEST; WEAK INSTRUMENTS;
OPTIMAL TWO-SIDED INVARIANT SIMILAR TESTS; INSTRUMENTAL
VARIABLES REGRESSION
Various procedures are now available for detecting and
handling weak instruments in the linear instrumental
variables model and, to a lesser degree, in nonlinear
generalized method of moments.
In a specific analysis implementation, nanochannel array
gating is applied to capillary electrophoresis separations,
allowing selected separated components to be isolated for
further manipulation.
Environment/
Ecology
WILD VERTEBRATE POPULATIONS; EVOLUTIONARY
GENETICS; SEXUAL CONFLICT; REPRODUCTIVE SENESCENCE
A mosaic pattern of senescence challenges the generality of
the association between decreased extrinsic mortality and
delayed senescence and invites consideration of more
derived theories for the evolution of senescence.
TRANSPORT PROCESSES USING HYDRUS; ADVANCED VADOSE ZONE
SIMULATIONS; MODELING NONEQUILIBRIUM FLOW; LONG-TERM
URANIUM TRANSPORT FOLLOWING PHOSPHORUS FERTILIZATION
Various approaches for modeling preferential and
non-equilibrium flow and transport in the vadose zone.
Immunology
ANTITUMOR T CELLS; ANTI-VACCINE T CELLS; HUMAN T CELL
RESPONSES; MELANOMA PATIENT VACCINATED
Melanoma patients usually mount a spontaneous T cell
response against their tumor. But at some point, the
responder T cells become ineffective, probably because of a
local immunosuppressive process occurring at the tumor
sites.
Optical waveguide lightmode spectroscopy is a highly
sensitive technique that is capable of real-time monitoring
of molecular interactions and is useful for accurate
bioaffinity sensing, which is a key issue in the
development of new drugs.
Growth mixture modeling represents unobserved heterogeneity
among the subjects using a finite-mixture random effects
model.
Microbiology
20 16S RRNA SEQUENCE RECORDS CURRENTLY HELD;
HIGH-THROUGHPUT RRNA ANALYSIS; RIBOSOMAL DATABASE PROJECT
(RDP-II)
The Ribosomal Database Project provides the research
community with aligned and annotated ribosomal ribonucleic
acid gene sequences, along with analysis services and a
phylogenetically consistent taxonomic framework for these
data.
UCSC GENOME BROWSER DATABASE; HUMAN GENOME BROWSER
A mature web tool for rapid and reliable display of any
requested portion of the genome at any scale, together with
several dozen aligned annotation tracks, is provided.
With recent research emphasizing ways to reduce tissue
damage by both vascular and cell-based mechanisms, the
spotlight is now shifting towards the study of how blood
vessels and brain cells communicate with each other.
Pharmacology &
Toxicology
P21-ACTIVATED KINASE CANCER BIOLOGY;
ACETAMIDE (OSU-03012) CELECOXIB DERIVATIVE
P21-activated kinases serve as important regulators of
cytoskeletal dynamics and cell motility, transcription
through mitogen-activated protein kinase cascades, death
and survival signaling, and cell-cycle progression.
TIME-DEPENDENT DENSITY FUNCTIONAL THEORY;
EXCITED ELECTRON-ION DYNAMICS; MANY-BODY
GREEN'S-FUNCTION APPROACHES
An alternative approach to calculating electronic
excitations is the time-dependent density-functional
theory, which offers the important practical advantage of a
dependence on density rather than on multivariable Green's
functions.
ARABIDOPSIS GLUCOSE SENSOR HXK1;
CARBON-DEPRIVED ARABIDOPSIS SEEDLINGS; GLOBAL
TRANSCRIPTION PROFILING REVEALS MULTIPLE SUGAR SIGNAL
TRANSDUCTION MECHANISMS
Plants use hexokinase as a glucose sensor to interrelate
nutrient, light, and hormone signaling networks for
controlling growth and development in response to the
changing environment.
VISUAL PERCEPTUAL LEARNING; REVERSE
HIERARCHY THEORY; FRAGMENT-BASED HIERARCHY; VISUAL
SYSTEM
A new coherent conceptual framework, Reverse Hierarchy
Theory, is applied to behavioral, electrophysiological, and
imaging data of perception and perceptual learning.
GERMAN HEALTH INTERVIEW; ADOLESCENTS (KIGGS); GERMAN
ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY
The aim of this nationwide interview and examination survey
was to collect, for the first time, comprehensive and
nationwide data on the health status of children and
adolescents in Germany, aged 0 to 17 years.
Space
Science
LARGE STELLAR EVOLUTION DATABASE; VICTORIA-REGINA STELLAR
MODELS; LOW-MASS WHITE DWARFS; WHITE DWARF COOLING SEQUENCE
Tables are used to convert several sets of Padova
isochrones into the corresponding absolute magnitudes and
colors, providing a useful database for several
astrophysical applications.