Study determined it’s a warning to potential predators

UA researcher finds reason millipedes glow

Tom Beal Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 12:00 am

Entomologist Paul Marek considers himself fortunate to have a wife who can fabricate millipedes.

Marek and colleagues published a paper Monday in the journal Current Biology that demonstrates the first evidence that glow-in-the-dark millipedes evolved that trait to warn predators that they are noxious creatures.

Marek tested his hypothesis with an experiment that involved live millipedes and clay models, made with a cast developed by his wife, artist Charity Hall.

There are 12,000 known species of millipede, but the eight that Marek studies are the only ones known to luminesce, using a protein that produces a cold, green light.

They are blind and nocturnal creatures who live exclusively in several forests in California, and have a fondness for decaying leaves from live oak trees.

Bobardier to add 200 jobs here

Inside Tucson Business | Posted: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 11:44 am

Aircraft manufacturer Bombardier announced today that it plans to expand its Tucson maintenance facility workforce by as many as 200 jobs.

The jobs include airplane mechanics, production line and other highly-skilled technical positions.

The Montreal, Canada-based company employs 630 people locally, according to a Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities news release.

Bombardier has 29,500 employees worldwide, according to its website.

The Tucson facility originally opened in 1976 as a Learjet aircraft production and services facility. Bombardier bought Learjet and the Tucson facility in 1990.

Gov. Jan Brewer and Bombardier vice president Gary Martin made the announcement Tuesday (Sept. 27) at the Arizona Commerce Authority meeting in Phoenix.

U of A Office of University Research Parks

Media Release

September 23, 2011

Media inquiries

Jessa B. Turner ? Media & Public Relations Coordinator ? (520) 382-2485 ?jbturner@uatechpark.org

UA Office of University Research Parks Receives National Recognition for Excellence in UEconomic Development

(Tucson, Arizona) The UA Office of University Research Parks received national recognition for Excellence in Economic Development from the International Economic Development Council (IEDC)

The Office of University Research Park received honorable mention in two categories. One for Innovation Day at the UA in the category of Special Events and another for Vail Academy and High School in the category of Sustainable & Green Development for communities with populations over 500,000.

The honor was presented at an awards ceremony on Tuesday, September 20 during the IEDC Annual Conference, September 18-21 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Tucson tech: Green Valley’s La Posada to generate power, heat water

David Wichner Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 12:00 am

The Tucson area will soon become home to a new solar-energy technology that combines photovoltaics and solar water heating to get the best of both worlds.

La Posada, a 700-resident retirement community in Green Valley, will soon install a system made by California-based Cogenra Solar that harvests sunlight to make both electricity and hot water.

The system will be the first of its kind in Arizona and one of a handful of systems installed by Cogenra since its founding about a year ago.

La Posada’s system, expected to be installed around late November, will be comprised of two separate installations on the continuing-care community’s campus at 350 E. Morningside Road.

Modification brings Raytheon contract to $1.5B

Inside Tucson Business | Posted: Monday, September 19, 2011 1:01 pm

Raytheon received a contract modification worth $285.8 million for work on Standard Missile-3 Block IA missiles.

The contract with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency brings the total value of the work to $1,554,928,730.

The company will manufacture an additional 23 additional missiles at its manufacturing facility in Tucson.

Raytheon data link ‘bridges gap’ with NATO

David Wichner Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Saturday, September 17, 2011 12:00 am

A new data link that will allow NATO ships to launch U.S. missile interceptors was among the developments Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems announced at a major defense conference this week in London.

Other developments Raytheon announced at the Defence & Security Equipment international conference included initial deliveries of a new jamming decoy for Air Force testing.

SM-3 data link for NATO

Raytheon said it has completed design and testing of a prototype dual-band data link that will enable interoperability between the Standard Missile series of interceptors and naval radars used by NATO allies.

Taylor Lawrence, president of Raytheon Missile Systems, said in prepared remarks that the new data link will allow for greatly expanded NATO participation in the European Phased Adaptive Approach – the U.S. plan to create a missile shield for Europe using Raytheon’s SM-3 missile interceptors.

Former Utah senator named C-Path foundation president

Inside Tucson Business | Posted: Friday, September 16, 2011 1:02 pm

Critical Path Institute (C-Path) announced Friday (Sept. 16) the launch of the Critical Path Foundation and the Foundation’s executive leadership team.

Former Senator Robert (Bob) F. Bennett, R-Utah, will lead the foundation as its president. Bennett plans to visit Tucson Monday (Sept. 19) through Wednesday (Sept. 21) to meet key members of the Southern Arizona community.

A 501(c)(3) charitable organization, the Foundation’s purpose is to generate the philanthropy needed to support C-Path’s programs and mission.

Continued philanthropic support is essential for C-Path to execute its mission to improve health and save lives by accelerating the development of safe, effective medical products, according a news release.

“The financial support C-Path receives from grants and philanthropy enables its global consortia to develop the tools that are needed to get therapies to patientsmore quickly and reliably.” Raymond Woosley, M.D., Ph.D., president and CEO of C-Path, said in a release.

Tucson tech: UA forges ahead on subsonic wind tunnel for $3M

David Wichner Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 12:00 am

About a year ago, a hypersonic wind tunnel proposed for the University of Arizona became a political football when its $7 million congressional earmark to fund the project was criticized as pork-barrel spending.

The wind-tunnel earmark died in committee – along with many other earmarks – amid federal budget-tightening efforts, and the chance of federal funding for the project anytime soon is dim.

But the UA is forging ahead with a new, subsonic wind tunnel funded partly with federal earmark funding from a couple of years ago.

Wind tunnels are used to test aerodynamic effects on objects such as aircraft, typically using much smaller scale models, and sometimes individual components.

Rebranding aims to provide clearer university identity

UA-linked hospitals get new names

Stephanie Innes Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Friday, September 9, 2011 12:00 am

Two local hospitals are getting new names as part of a “rebranding” effort by Southern Arizona’s largest health-care organization.

University Medical Center is now called the University of Arizona Medical Center-University Campus.

And University Physicians Healthcare Hospital at Kino will now be known as the University of Arizona Medical Center-South Campus.

Both hospitals are part of the University of Arizona Health Network, which is the new name for the entity that formed in the summer of 2010 when University Medical Center Corp. merged with University Physicians Healthcare. Until now, the network had been working under the name UA Healthcare.

Along with its new name, the network has a new circular red, white and blue logo that features the rod of Asclepius, an ancient symbol associated with medicine and healing.

Tucson tech: UA team out to expose ‘phishers’

David Wichner Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Tuesday, September 6, 2011 12:00 am

“Phishers” – fraud artists who try to gain personal information like bank-account numbers from unsuspecting Internet users – are constantly trolling for their next catch.

A new technology developed at the University of Arizona is attracting some attention as a way to blunt one big phish-hook: fake websites.

A team led by current and former members of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the UA’s Eller College of Management has developed a prototype system to automatically detect fake sites.

When tested against other existing, commercial systems, the UA system resulted in more effective and more accurate detections of spoof sites, spotting them better than a human can.

The project has gotten some major exposure in MIS – management information systems – circles.