Using “virtual peers” -- animated life-sized children that simulate the behaviors and conversation of typically developing children -- Northwestern University researchers are developing interventions designed to prepare children with autism for interactions with real-life children.

Justine Cassell, professor of communication studies and electrical engineering and computer science, recently presented a preliminary study on the work at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

“Children with high-functioning autism may be able to give you a lecture on a topic of great interest to them but they can’t carry on a ‘contingent’ -- or two-way -- conversation,” said Cassell, director of Northwestern’s Center for Technology and Social Behavior.

One thing has long been clear. Not thinning forests has been a disaster for the environment. Groups normally at loggerheads have reached a consensus on responsible forest management and it identifies the potential volume of wood resources available from more than 2 million acres of Arizona forests, representing the first major agreement among groups typically at odds over the issue of forest thinning.

The “Wood Supply Analysis” report identifies a potential supply of up to 850 million cubic feet of wood and 8 million tons of biomass from branches and timber residue for such commercial uses as pallets, firewood, poles, lumber, mulch and stove pellets.

A team of researchers at the University of Alberta, including a scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, have discovered a gene that is able to block HIV, and thought to in turn prevent the onset of AIDS.

Dr. Stephen Barr, a researcher in the Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology at the U of A, says his team identified a human gene called TRIM22 that can block HIV infection in a cell culture by preventing the assembly of the virus.

Barr says “interestingly, when we prevent cells from turning on TRIM22, the normal interferon response (a natural defense produced by our cells to fight infection by viruses such as HIV) is useless at blocking HIV infection.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have identified a gene in Asian monkeys that may have evolved as a defense against lentiviruses, the group of viruses that includes HIV. The study suggests that AIDS is not a new epidemic.

The gene, called TRIM5-CypA, well characterized elsewhere (AIDS, 2007; PNAS, 2008), is a hybrid of two existing cellular genes, TRIM5 and CypA. The combination produces a single protein capable of blocking infection by viruses closely related to HIV. Surprisingly, this is actually the second time researchers have identified a TRIM5-CypA gene in monkeys. The other hybrid gene, called TRIMCyp, was discovered in 2004 in South American owl monkeys.

On Feb. 13, 2008, the president signed a $168 billion stimulus package designed to give $300, $600 or $1,200 checks to more than 100 million Americans. It was the second time in seven years that lawmakers agreed to return additional tax money in hopes that people would spend it to stimulate a sluggish economy. A key question: Will those receiving checks spend enough to have the desired effect?

Economic theory says "yes" -- give people money and they will spend it. But Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business, says the actual answer depends on more than simply giving people more money.

Brent Christner, LSU professor of biological sciences, in partnership with colleagues in Montana and France, recently found evidence that rain-making bacteria are widely distributed in the atmosphere. These biological particles could factor heavily into the precipitation cycle, affecting climate, agricultural productivity and even global warming.

Christner’s team examined precipitation from global locations and demonstrated that the most active ice nuclei – a substrate that enhances the formation of ice – are biological in origin. This is important because the formation of ice in clouds is required for snow and most rainfall. Dust and soot particles can serve as ice nuclei, but biological ice nuclei are capable of catalyzing freezing at much warmer temperatures.