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TrafficCast Announces Additions to Sales, Development Teams

April 15, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Paul Misticawi and Mac McDonough join from Econolite and Navteq
MADISON, Wis.–(Business Wire)–
TrafficCast International, Inc., a leading provider of travel time data and
advanced traffic monitoring technology, announced two additions to its growing
team.

Paul Misticawi has been named Vice President and Director of Public Sector
Sales. Paul will lead TrafficCast initiatives targeting state departments of
transportation and other agencies for data provision and sales of BlueTOAD,
TrafficCast`s innovative system for monitoring travel times, road speeds and
route behaviors by detection of Bluetooth signals from passing vehicles.

Prior to joining TrafficCast, Paul was the National ITS Business Development
Manager at Econolite, responsible for managing new business development in North
America. Previously, Paul was a member of the technical sales and marketing team
at Autoscope. Paul graduated in Civil Engineering from Northeastern University
and will be based in Atlanta, GA.

Mac McDonough is joining TrafficCast as Senior Software Architect to manage
high-level software design, technical standards, and coding platforms across the
TrafficCast product portfolio. Mac comes to TrafficCast with over 20 years of
experience in software engineering and architecture at Dash Navigation, Navteq,
Tamsco and McDonnell Douglas. Mac was a Captain in the United States Air Force,
and holds an MS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and a BS from
the University of Washington.

“It goes without saying how excited I am to have Paul and Mac on-board,” noted
Neal Campbell, CEO of TrafficCast. “They are great additions to our team as we
engage new customers and launch new products in mobile navigation and the public
sector. They have the energy and experience that will help us win.”

About TrafficCast International, Inc.

TrafficCast is the leader in travel time forecasting and traffic information,
developing technology, applications and content based on advanced digital
traffic data. TrafficCast powers both MotionX-GPS and TomTom, the top two
traffic-enabled navigation apps on the iPhone, as well as a range of providers
serving the interactive, mobile, enterprise and public sector markets, including
Yahoo Maps, DeCarta, and Maptuit. TrafficCast BlueTOAD integrates innovative
technologies to monitor travel times, road speeds and route behaviors by
detection of Bluetooth signals from passing vehicles, with the most recent
installations in Missouri, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. The company is based in
Madison, Wisconsin. For more information, see www.trafficcast.com.

TrafficCast
Nick Kiernan
+1 608-268-3927
n.kiernan@trafficcast.com

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Autoscope, Business Development Manager, cornell university, Data Provision, Departments Of Transportation, Developing Technology, Douglas Mac, Econolite, Innovative System, Level Software, madison wis, Monitoring Technology, New Business Development, Road Speeds, Software Architect, Tamsco, Technology Applications, Traffic Monitoring, Travel Time Data, United States Air Force

Growing portion sizes in ‘Last Supper’ paintings indicate growing appetites

April 1, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 1 (ANI): After observing almost four dozen depictions of Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’, scientists have claimed that the sizes of the portions and plates in all the adaptations of the famous work have gradually grown bigger in the past 1,000 years, indicating growing appetites among people.

The finding from researchers at Cornell University suggests that the phenomenon of serving bigger portions on bigger plates – which pushes people to overeat – has occurred gradually over the millennium.

“We took the 52 most famous paintings of the Last Supper (from the book ”Last Supper,” 2000) and analyzed the size of the entrees, bread and plates, relative to the average size of the average head in the painting,” said Brian Wansink.

The study found that the size of the entrees in paintings of the Last Supper, which according to the New Testament occurred during a Passover evening, has progressively grown 69 percent; plate size has increased 66 percent and bread size by about 23 percent, over the past 1,000 years.

The analysis was aided by computer-aided design technology that allowed items in the paintings to be scanned, rotated and calculated regardless of their orientation in the painting.

The researchers started with the assumption that the average width of the bread is twice the width of the average disciple”s head.

“The last thousand years have witnessed dramatic increases in the production, availability, safety, abundance and affordability of food. We think that as art imitates life, these changes have been reflected in paintings of history”s most famous dinner,” said Wansink.

The study has been published in The International Journal of Obesity (April 2010), a peer-reviewed publication. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: abundance, adaptations, affordability, Appetites, Art Imitates Life, brian wansink, computer aided design, cornell university, design technology, disciple, Dramatic Increases, Famous Paintings, international journal of obesity, Leonardo Da Vinci, new testament, Paintings Of The Last Supper, Passover, portion sizes, Production Availability, Supper Paintings

New maths model explains how coral dies in warming waters

March 30, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, March 30 (ANI): Scientists at Cornell University, US, have created mathematical models to unveil the bacterial community dynamics behind afflictions that bleach and kill coral.

Warming waters are triggering coral bleaching and disease in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Great Barrier Reef off the Australian coast.

Now, new mathematical models explain for the first time how beneficial bacteria on coral suddenly give way to pathogens when waters warm.

“Before this study, we just had observations but little understanding of the mechanism” for what causes coral disease and bleaching, according to Laura Jones, Cornell senior research associate in ecology and evolutionary biology.

Jones conducted the research as an undergraduate in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering.

The model reveals how a healthy normal microbial community in the coral surface mucus layer protects corals from disease by preventing invasion and overgrowth by pathogenic bacteria.

But when corals are stressed, for example by elevated temperatures (a heat spell), the community of microbes suddenly switches.

Species associated with a healthy coral organism – “resident species” – decline as pathogens associated with coral disease take their place.

The researchers used models to simulate bacterial community dynamics within the surface coral mucus, under normal conditions, and under the warming conditions that lead to a sudden shift from beneficial bacteria to pathogens on the coral’s surface.

“There’s a critical threshold where the system jumps to a pathogen-dominated state,” said Jones.

They also found that the models replicated a pattern others have observed: once the disease-causing microbes establish themselves, they persist even if the water cools down enough to favor the beneficial bacteria.

The coral is then often too damaged to recover, and the reefs begin to die.

“Preventing oceans from warming will require people to curb climate change, and may be unavoidable in the short term,” said Jones.

“But reducing poor water quality, which stresses the coral and makes the oceans more hospitable to pathogens, could perhaps ward off the sudden shift to pathogens dominating the coral surface,” she added. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Afflictions, Beneficial Bacteria, Community Dynamics, Coral Disease, cornell university, critical threshold, evolutionary biology, great barrier reef, Information Engineering, Laura Jones, Little Understanding, Mathematical Models, microbes, Microbial Community, Mucus Layer, Pathogenic Bacteria, Resident Species, Species Decline, Sudden Shift, warming waters

‘Fat clue’ to TB discovered

March 29, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, March 29 (ANI): In a major breakthrough that may pave the way for innovative strategies for treating tuberculosis, scientists in the US claim to have found a ‘fat clue’ to the progression of the disease.

The factors instrumental in triggering latent tuberculosis (TB) infection to progress into active disease have long remained elusive to researchers. Now, Professor David Russell and his group at Cornell University in New York, USA, have demonstrated that TB-causing bacteria are able to hijack fat metabolism in the host to drive the progression of the disease.

The research shows that Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is able to stimulate macrophages – the immune cells the bacterium infects – to accumulate fat droplets, turning them into “foamy” cells. This cellular transformation can trigger a reawakening of the TB infection from its latent state.

Following initial infection by Mtb, the infected immune cells in the body can clump together in the lungs in a cellular mass that is surrounded by a fibrous cuff.

This containing structure, called a tubercle, physically protects the bacteria from being destroyed by the immune system.

This allows them to persist inside the host for years during a latent period in which the host shows no symptoms.

The respiratory infection is reactivated only in a small percentage of individuals in whom it progressively destroys lung tissue. Very little is known about the exact causes of reactivation and the relative roles of the host and the pathogen.

Russell”s group discovered that inside the tubercle, surface molecules of Mtb prompted host macrophage cells to take up vast quantities of cholesterol-type lipids from the surrounding blood vessels.

“We think that the lipids in the newly-formed foamy cell are then expelled into the cellular environment, which contributes to the collapse of the tubercle,” he said.

Once freed from their containing structure, the infectious bacteria are able to leak out into the airways where they can progressively destroy lung tissue.

“If our model is correct, it has huge implications for vaccines and chemotherapy programmes. A more detailed knowledge of the bacterium”s life cycle and its host interactions will allow us to spot new targets for drugs – opening up new possibilities for treatment,” said Russell.

The team presented the research at the Society for General Microbiology”s spring meeting in Edinburgh. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Cellular Environment, Cellular Transformation, cornell university, David Russell, Foamy Cells, immune cells, Infectious Bacteria, Initial Infection, Latent Period, Latent State, Latent Tuberculosis, lung tissue, new york usa, professor david, Relative Roles, respiratory infection, Surface Molecules, tb infection, Tubercle, tuberculosis tb

Oddest book title of the year: ‘Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes’!

March 26, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

London, March 26 (ANI): ‘Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes’ has won the Diagram Prize, which rewards the oddest book title of the year.

Dr Daina Taimina, a mathematician at Cornell University in New York, who wrote the book, won with 42 percent of the public vote.

“I have never received a prize. My career has been quite bizzare so I do think that this award really reflects it – I am proud,” the Telegraph quoted Taimina as saying.

‘What Kind of Bean is this Chihuahua?’ by Tara Jansen-Meyer, and ‘Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich’ by James Yannes were also in the running.

Taimina confessed that she had not decided the title of her book.

She said: “Since I was expecting the publisher to come up with a great title for marketing purposes I told him to put whatever he wanted and this seemed very appropriate.

“We published a joint paper on crocheting on hyperbolic planes and he got all the emails.

“People gave him all the credit – the usual misconceptions of a woman not having a brain – but I thought that at least the crocheting credit could have been left to me. Well, I suppose now it is finally!”

Horace Bent, of The Bookseller magazine, the man behind the awards, said: “When the credit crunch began to bite British publishing, I feared oddly-titled books would suffer in a climate that was prompting publishers to focus on more bankable works – like frankly lamentable biographies of Z-list “celebrities” and those depressing white books with doleful children on the cover.

“But I am delighted that oddly-titled books proved recession-resistant, and I believe Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes is a worthy champion.”

The first Diagram Prize was awarded to ‘Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice’ in 1978. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: biographies, Bookseller Magazine, Chihuahua, Collectible Spoons, cornell university, credit crunch, Daina, Horace, International Workshop, Jansen, london march, mathematician, mice, misconceptions, Oddest Book Title, paper planes, public vote, recession, third reich, White Books

Last Supper growing by Biblical proportions

March 24, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

The question of how the Last Supper would look if it were painted according to today’s appetites has been answered by two academics in the US.

They analysed 52 of the most famous paintings of the Last Supper painted between the years 1000 and 2000 and found that the portions of food placed before Jesus and his disciples grew markedly.

Using computer-aided design technology, the pair scanned the main dish, bread and plates and calculated the size of portion relative to the size of the average head in the painting.

Over 1,000 years, the size of the main dish progressively grew by 69.2 per cent, plate size by 65.6 per cent and bread size by 23.1 per cent.

The growing size reflects the success of agriculture over the past 10 centuries, say the researchers.

“The last 1,000 years have witnessed dramatic increases in the production, availability, safety, abundance and affordability of food,” said Brian Wansink, a professor of marketing and applied economics at Cornell University in New York.

“We think that as art imitates life, these changes have been reflected in paintings of history’s most famous dinner.”

The study, published in Britain’s International Journal of Obesity, is co-authored by Wansink’s brother, Craig, a professor of religious studies at Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk, Virginia, and an ordained Presbyterian minister.

According to the New Testament, the Last Supper took place on an evening of the Jewish festival of Passover, the day before Christ’s betrayal and subsequent crucifixion, although it makes no mention of what was eaten.

The main dishes depicted in the paintings contained fish or eel (18 per cent), lamb (14 per cent) and pork (7 per cent). The remaining paintings had no discernible main dish.

- AFP

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Appetites, art history, Art Imitates Life, arts-and-entertainment, Biblical Proportions, brian wansink, brother craig, Christianity, community-and-society, computer aided design, cornell university, Crucifixion, Dramatic Increases, Famous Paintings, international journal of obesity, Jesus Disciples, Jewish Festival, new testament, Norfolk Virginia, painting, Paintings Of The Last Supper, Presbyterian Minister, Production Availability, religion-and-beliefs, Religious Studies, United States, Virginia Wesleyan College

Growing portion sizes in ‘Last Supper’ paintings indicate growing appetites

March 23, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 23 (ANI): After observing almost four dozen depictions of Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’, scientists have claimed that the sizes of the portions and plates in all the adaptations of the famous work have gradually grown bigger in the past 1,000 years, indicating growing appetites among people.

The finding from researchers at Cornell University suggests that the phenomenon of serving bigger portions on bigger plates – which pushes people to overeat – has occurred gradually over the millennium.

The analysis was aided by computer-aided design technology that allowed items in the paintings to be scanned, rotated and calculated regardless of their orientation in the painting.

The researchers started with the assumption that the average width of the bread is twice the width of the average disciple”s head.

The study has been published in The International Journal of Obesity (April 2010), a peer-reviewed publication. (ANI)

End 2012 Said by Astronomer busts Mayan calendar’s dire prediction

November 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Nov 14 (IANS) The world won’t be coming to an end on December 21, 2012, as said to be darkly predicted by the Mayan calendar, says an astronomer.

Ann Martin, doctoral candidate in Cornell University astronomy department, points out that the Mayan calendar was designed to be cyclical, so the fact that the long count comes to an end in December 2012 is really of no consequence.

Simply, it is the end of great calendar cycle in Mayan society, much like our modern society celebrated the new millennium. It does not mean that the ‘world will end’, says Martin.

In fact, the Mayan calendar does not end then and there is no evidence to suggest that the Mayans — or anyone for that matter — has knowledge of the world’s demise, says Martin.

For the past three years, Martin has been a volunteer with Cornell’s ‘Curious? Ask an Astronomer’ service, a website founded by astronomy graduate students in 1997, says a varsity release.

Curious? Ask an Astronomer features the answers to over 750 frequently asked astronomy questions, and readers who can’t find their answers there can submit a new question and receive an answer from a graduate student volunteer.

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: astronomer, Astronomy Graduate Students, Astronomy Questions, Busts, Calendar Cycle, consequence, cornell university, December 21 2012, demise, doctoral candidate, graduate student, mayan calendar, Mayan Society, Mayans, New Millennium, new question, Student Volunteer, University Astronomy Department

Long working hours make parents compromise on food choices

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 10 (ANI): Long work hours and irregular schedules are forcing people to compromise on food choices for themselves and their children, suggests a new study.

The research team from Cornell University measured food choice coping strategies in low- to middle-income families in five categories: (1) food prepared at/away from home; (2) missing meals; (3) individualizing meals (family eats differently, separately, or together); (4) speeding up to save time; and (5) planning.

They found that fathers who worked long hours or had nonstandard hours and schedules were more likely to use take-out meals, miss family meals, purchase prepared entrees, and eat while working.

Similarly, mothers were also likely to purchase restaurant meals or prepared entrees or missed breakfast.

About a quarter of mothers and fathers said they did not have access to healthful, reasonably priced, and/or good-tasting food at or near work.

The findings suggest that better work conditions may be associated with more positive strategies such as more home-prepared meals, eating with the family, keeping healthful food at work, and less meal skipping.

“This study examined how work conditions are related to the food choice coping strategies of low- and moderate-income parents,” said Dr Carol M. Devine, RD, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, and colleagues.

“Study findings will enhance understanding of social and temporal employment constraints on adults’ food choices and may inform workplace interventions and policies…The importance of work structure for employed parents’ food choice strategies is seen in the associations between work hours and schedule and food choice coping strategies, such as meals away from home and missed family meals.

“Long work hours and irregular schedules mean more time away from family, less time for household food work, difficulty in maintaining a regular meal pattern, and less opportunity to participate in family meals; this situation may result in feelings of time scarcity, fatigue, and strain that leave parents with less personal energy for food and meals,” the researchers added.

The study appears in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. (ANI)

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New nanocrystal shows potential for cheaper and more versatile lasers

May 11, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 11 (ANI): Scientists at the University of Rochester, along with researchers at the Eastman Kodak Company, have created a nanocrystal that constantly emits light, which has potential for the development of cheaper and more versatile lasers and brighter LED lighting.

Many molecules, as well as crystals just a billionth of a meter in size, can absorb or radiate photons. But, they also experience random periods when they absorb a photon, but instead of the photon radiating away, its energy is transformed into heat.

These “dark” periods alternate with periods when the molecule can radiate normally, leading to the appearance of them turning on and off, or blinking.

“A nanocrystal that has just absorbed the energy from a photon has two choices to rid itself of the excess energy-emission of light or of heat,” said Todd Krauss, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Rochester and lead author on the study.

“If the nanocrystal emits that energy as heat, you’ve essentially lost that energy,” he added.

Krauss worked with engineers at Kodak and researchers at the Naval Research Laboratory and Cornell University to discover the new, non-blinking nanocrystals.

Krauss and Keith Kahen, senior principal scientist of Kodak, were exploring new types of low-cost lighting similar to organic light-emitting diodes, but which might not suffer from the short lifespans and manufacturing challenges inherent in these diodes.

Kahen, with help from Megan Hahn, a postdoctoral fellow in Krauss’ laboratory, synthesized nanocrystals of various compositions.

Xiaoyong Wang, another postdoctoral fellow in Krauss laboratory, inspected one of these new nanocrystals and saw no evidence of the expected blinking phenomenon.

Remarkably, even after four hours of monitoring, the new nanocrystal showed no sign of a single blink-unheard of when blinks usually happen on a scale of miliseconds to minutes.

After a lengthy investigation, Krauss and Alexander Efros from the Naval Research Laboratory concluded that the reason the blinking didn’t occur was due to the unusual structure of the nanocrystal.

Normally, nanocrystals have a core of one semiconductor material wrapped in a protective shell of another, with a sharp boundary dividing the two.

The new nanocrystal, however, has a continuous gradient from a core of cadmium and selenium to a shell of zinc and selenium.

That gradient squelches the processes that prevent photons from radiating, and the result is a stream of emitted photons as steady as the stream of absorbed photons.

With blink-free nanocrystals, Krauss believes lasers and lighting could be incredibly cheap and easy to fabricate. (ANI)

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Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak comes closer to reality

May 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, May 1 (ANI): Scientists have made yet another advancement in bringing invisibility cloak closer to reality by developing a material that renders objects invisible to near-infrared light.

Previous “cloaks” had metals in their structure, which resulted in imperfect cloaking due to loss of light.

In the new study, researchers from New York’s Cornell University and the University of California at Berkeley have developed a carpet-based cloak using a dielectric – or insulating material – which absorbs far less light.

This “carpet” design was based on a theory first described by John Pendry, from Imperial College London, in 2008.

Michal Lipson and her team at Cornell University demonstrated a cloak based on the concept.

Xiang Zhang, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, led the other team.

“Essentially, we are transforming a straight line of light into a curved line around the cloak, so you don’t perceive any change in its pathway,” The BBC quoted Zang as saying.

The new material negates the distortion produced by the bulge of the object under it, bending light around it, and giving the illusion of a flattened surface.

According to Zhang, the cloak “changes the local density” of the object it is covering.

“When light passes from air into water it will be bent, because the optical density, or refraction index, of the glass is different to air.

“So by manipulating the optical density of an object, you can transform the light path from a straight line to to any path you want,” the expert said.

The new material does this via a series of minuscule holes – which are strategically “drilled” into a sheet of silicon.

“Where the holes are more dense, there is more air than silicon, so the optical density of the object is reduced,” Zhang said. (ANI)

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Two highly complex organic molecules detected in space

April 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Berlin, April 21 (ANI): Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, Cornell University, USA, and the University of Cologne, Germany, have detected two of the most complex molecules yet discovered in interstellar space: ethyl formate and n-propyl cyanide.

Their computational models of interstellar chemistry also indicate that yet larger organic molecules may be present – including the so-far elusive amino acids, which are essential for life.

The IRAM 30 m telescope in Spain was used to detect emission from molecules in the star-forming region Sagittarius B2, close to the center of our galaxy.

The two new molecules were detected in a hot, dense cloud of gas known as the “Large Molecule Heimat”, which contains a luminous newly-formed star.

The new molecules ethyl formate (C_2 H_5 OCHO) and n-propyl cyanide (C_3 H_7 CN) represent two different classes of molecule – esters and alkyl cyanides – and they are the most complex of their kind yet detected in interstellar space.

Atoms and molecules emit radiation at very specific frequencies, which appear as characteristic “lines” in the electromagnetic spectrum of an astronomical source.

Recognizing the signature of a molecule in that spectrum is rather like identifying a human fingerprint.

“The difficulty in searching for complex molecules is that the best astronomical sources contain so many different molecules that their “fingerprints” overlap, and are difficult to disentangle,” said Arnaud Belloche, scientist at the Max Planck Institute.
“Larger molecules are even more difficult to identify because their “fingerprints” are barely visible: their radiation is distributed over many more lines that are much weaker,” said Holger Muller, researcher at the University of Cologne.

Out of 3700 spectral lines detected with the IRAM telescope, the team identified 36 lines belonging to the two new molecules.

The researchers then used a computational model to understand the chemical processes that allow these and other molecules to form in space.

The computational models suggest that the more complex molecules form section by section, using pre-formed building blocks that are provided by molecules, such as methanol, that are already present on the dust grains.

The computational models show that these sections, or “functional groups”, can add together efficiently, building up a molecular “chain” in a series of short steps.

The two newly-discovered molecules seem to be produced in this way.

“There is no apparent limit to the size of molecules that can be formed by this process – so there’s good reason to expect even more complex organic molecules to be there, if we can detect them,” said Garrod. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: amino acids, astronomical sources, atoms and molecules, Atoms Molecules, bonn germany, characteristic lines, Cologne Germany, Complex Organic Molecules, computational models, cornell university, cyanides, dense cloud, electromagnetic spectrum, ethyl formate, holger muller, human fingerprint, interstellar chemistry, interstellar space, max planck institute, max-planck, Organic Molecules, radio astronomy

Does love at first sight actually happen?

April 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 8 (ANI): Does love at first sight actually happen? Well, scientists say that the answer to this ever-existing query lies in geneticists.

In a study on fruit flies, American and Australian researchers have discovered that some males and females are more compatible than others at the genetic level.

In their opinion, this compatibility plays an important role in mate selection, mating outcomes, and future reproductive behaviours.

The researchers say that the experiments conducted by them have shown that before mating, females experience something called “genetic priming”, which makes them more likely to mate with certain males over others.

“Our research helps to shed light on the complex biochemistry involved in mate selection and reproduction,” said Mariana Wolfner, Professor of Developmental Biology at Cornell University and the senior scientist involved in the study.

She added: “These findings may lead to ways to curb unwanted insect populations by activating or deactivating genes that play a role in female mating decisions.”

For the study, scientists mated two different strains of fruit fly females to males either from their own strain or to males from the other strain.

They noted the males with which females of each strain tended to mate, and then examined whether the females showed differences in behaviour soon after mating and in reproduction-related activities, such as how many offspring were produced and how many sperm were stored.

They also analysed females’ RNA to compare the genes expressed in females mated to males of different strains.

It was found that despite observed differences in mating behaviours and reproduction activities in females mated to different strains of males, there were only negligible mating-dependent differences in gene expression between the groups.

Based on their observations, the researchers came to the conclusion that genetic changes involved in mate choice and reproduction existed before mating began.

The study has been published in the latest issue of the journal Genetics. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: australian researchers, behaviours, biochemistry, cornell university, developmental biology, fly females, fruit fly, gene expression, genes, Genetic changes, genetic level, geneticists, insect populations, Love At First Sight, males and females, mate choice, mate selection, priming, rna, strains, unwanted insect

Now, a computer that can work like a scientist to derive natural laws

April 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 3 (ANI): Researchers at Cornell University, US, using a computer, have developed an algorithm which can derive natural laws from observed data, just like scientists.

What the researchers have done is to teach a computer to find regularities in the natural world that become established laws – yet without any prior scientific knowledge on the part of the computer.

They have tested their method, or algorithm, on simple mechanical systems and believe it could be applied to more complex systems ranging from biology to cosmology and be useful in analyzing the mountains of data generated by modern experiments that use electronic data collection.

Their process begins by taking the derivatives of every variable observed with respect to every other – a mathematical way of measuring how one quantity changes as another changes.

Then, the computer creates equations at random using various constants and variables from the data.

It tests these against the known derivatives, keeps the equations that come closest to predicting correctly, modifies them at random and tests again, repeating until it literally evolves a set of equations that accurately describe the behavior of the real system.

Technically, the computer does not output equations, but finds “invariants” – mathematical expressions that remain true all the time.

“Even though it looks like it’s changing erratically, there is always something deeper there that is always constant,” said Hod Lipson, Cornell associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

“That’s the hint to the underlying physics. You want something that doesn’t change, but the relationship between the variables in it changes in a way that’s similar to what we see in the real system,” Lipson explained.

Once the invariants are found, potentially all equations describing the system are available.

“All equations regarding a system must fit into and satisfy the invariants,” Schmidt said. “But of course we still need a human interpreter to take this step,” he added.

The researchers tested the method with apparatus used in freshman physics courses: a spring-loaded linear oscillator, a single pendulum and a double pendulum.

Given data on position and velocity over time, the computer found energy laws, and for the pendulum, the law of conservation of momentum.

Given acceleration, it produced Newton’s second law of motion.

The researchers point out that the computer evolves these laws without any prior knowledge of physics, kinematics or geometry.

According to researchers, computers will not make scientists obsolete, but will take over the grunt work, helping scientists focus quickly on the interesting phenomena and interpret their meaning. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: Aerospace Engineering, algorithm, April, associate professor, biology, complex systems, Computer Scientist, constants and variables, cornell university, cosmology, derivatives, electronic data collection, hod lipson, interp, mathematical expressions, mechanical systems, mountains, physics, relationship, scientific knowledge, Scientists

Family demands steer women away from math/science careers

March 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 15 (ANI): Women opt out of math/science careers not because they lack mathematical ability, but due to family demands, says a new study.

The research led by Cornell University revealed that women choose non-math-intensive fields for their careers because they want flexibility to raise children, or they prefer less math-intensive fields of science.

“A major reason explaining why women are underrepresented not only in math-intensive fields but also in senior leadership positions in most fields is that many women choose to have children, and the timing of child rearing coincides with the most demanding periods of their career, such as trying to get tenure or working exorbitant hours to get promoted,” said lead author Stephen J. Ceci, professor of human development at Cornell.

The study showed that women with advanced math abilities choose non-math fields more often than men with similar abilities.

According to co-author Wendy M. Williams, Cornell professor of human development, the drop out rate of women in scientific fields – especially math and physical sciences is high, particularly as they advance, because of their need for greater flexibility and the demands of parenting and caregiving,

“These are choices that all women, but almost no men, are forced to make,” she said.

For the study, the researchers conducted an integrative analysis of 35 years of research on sex differences in math.

The authors concluded that hormonal, brain and other biological sex differences were not primary factors in explaining why women were underrepresented in science careers, and that studies on social and cultural effects were inconsistent and inconclusive.

They also reported that although “institutional barriers and discrimination exist, these influences still cannot explain why women are not entering or staying in STEM careers,” said Ceci.

“The evidence did not show that removal of these barriers would equalize the sexes in these fields, especially given that women’s career preferences and lifestyle choices tilt them toward other careers such as medicine and biology over mathematics, computer science, physics and engineering,” he added.

The authors recommended that universities and companies create options for women with math talents who want to pursue math-intensive careers.

These could include deferred start-up of tenure-track positions and part-time work that segues to full-time tenure-track work for women who are raising children, and courtesy appointments for women unable to work full time but who would benefit from use of university resources (e-mail, library resources, grant support) to continue their research from home.

The study appears in the American Psychological Association’s Psychological Bulletin. (ANI)

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Wishful betting can be contagious in financial markets

March 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 12 (ANI): Wishful bettors, who make overly optimistic investments, not only harm themselves financially but contaminate the entire markets as well, say researchers.

The research team from the University of Texas at Austin and Cornell University showed how wishful betting could harm beliefs throughout markets, as other market participants assume that wishful bettors possess more favourable information than they do.

As a result, investors who initially held accurate beliefs become overly optimistic about stock values.

“The findings of our studies contradict what many people assume about markets, that wishful thinkers will be identified and disciplined by more sophisticated investors,” said Nicholas Seybert, an assistant professor of finance at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.

“Instead, investors fail to recognize the existence of wishful betting even though most of them do it. As a result, wishful thinking can be contagious in financial markets,” he added.

Seybert and co-author Robert Bloomfield, a professor of management and accounting at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management sought to determine whether investors with accurate beliefs about intrinsic stock values would invest in accordance with those beliefs.

“Our research sounds a note of caution to those who assume that market prices are always a sound basis for drawing conclusions about fundamentals,” said Bloomfield.

“Traders in our study observe price movements driven by what Keynes called ‘animal spirits,’ conclude that those price movements actually reflect news, and end up exacerbating market swings by their own responses.

“The cure lies in encouraging investors to engage in more fundamental analysis, rather than in outsourcing that analysis to the market,” he added.

The researchers believe that this contagion problem could contribute to stock market bubbles as well as other market anomalies.

The research will be published in a forthcoming issue of Management Science. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: animal spirits, author robert, bettors, contagion, cornell university, drawing conclusions, fundamental analysis, graduate school of management, johnson graduate school, johnson graduate school of management, Market Anomalies, market participants, market swings, mccombs school of business, robert bloomfield, seybert, sophisticated investors, sound basis, Stock Market Bubbles, stock values, university of texas at austin, wishful thinkers

Forcing kids to ‘clean their plates’ can turn them into overeaters

March 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 7 (ANI): Forcing your kid to eat cold, mushy veggies may do more harm than good, according to a new study.

According to a research from Cornell University, although parents have good intentions about forcing their kids to finish their broccoli, this approach may backfire the very next day.

“We found that the more controlling the parents were about telling their child to clean their plate, the more likely the kids, especially the boys, were to request larger portions of sweetened cereal at daycare,” says lead author Brian Wansink at the keynote address of the Carolinas HealthCare System Obesity 2009 Conference in Charlotte, NC.

To reach the conclusion, researchers asked 63 mothers of preschool-age children the extent to which they tell their children to clean their plates at meals. The researchers then asked the children how many Fruit Loops they would like for their morning snack at day-care.

Children were able to fill their bowl until they indicated they had received enough and the bowl of cereal was weighed.

“Parents who force their kids to clean their plates at meals, may be interfering with the development of self-control that children have around food,” said co-author Collin Payne of New Mexico State University.

“When children have little control over what they eat- or don’t eat, they may react by acting out and overeating when away from home,” the expert added.

“Preschool-age children are at a vulnerable age, and are forming eating habits that will follow them throughout their life” says Wansink, author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. (ANI)

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Newfound moon may be source of Saturn’s G ring

March 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, March 4 (ANI): NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has found within Saturn’s G ring an embedded moonlet that appears as a faint, moving pinprick of light, which scientists believe is the main source of the G ring and its single ring arc.

Cassini imaging scientists analyzing images acquired over the course of about 600 days found the tiny moonlet, half a kilometer (about a third of a mile) across, embedded within a partial ring, or ring arc, previously found by Cassini in Saturn’s tenuous G ring.

“Before Cassini, the G ring was the only dusty ring that was not clearly associated with a known moon, which made it odd,” said Matthew Hedman, a Cassini imaging team associate at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

“The discovery of this moonlet, together with other Cassini data, should help us make sense of this previously mysterious ring,” he added.

Saturn’s rings were named in the order they were discovered. Working outward they are: D, C, B, A, F, G and E. The G ring is one of the outer diffuse rings.

Within the faint G ring there is a relatively bright and narrow, 250-kilometer-wide (150-miles) arc of ring material, which extends 150,000 kilometers (90,000 miles), or one-sixth of the way around the ring’s circumference.

The moonlet moves within this ring arc.

Scientists imaged the moonlet on August 15, 2008, and then they confirmed its presence by finding it in two earlier images.

They have since seen the moonlet on multiple occasions, most recently on Feb. 20, 2009.

The moonlet is too small to be resolved by Cassini’s cameras, so its size cannot be measured directly.

However, Cassini scientists estimated the moonlet’s size by comparing its brightness to another small Saturnian moon, Pallene.

Hedman and his collaborators also have found that the moonlet’s orbit is being disturbed by the larger, nearby moon Mimas, which is responsible for keeping the ring arc together.

This brings the number of Saturnian ring arcs with embedded moonlets found by Cassini to three. The new moonlet may not be alone in the G ring arc.

According to Carl Murray, a Cassini imaging team member and professor at Queen Mary, University of London, “The moon’s discovery and the disturbance of its trajectory by the neighboring moon Mimas highlight the close association between moons and rings that we see throughout the Saturn system”.

“Hopefully, we will learn in the future more about how such arcs form and interact with their parent bodies,” he added. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: arc, august 15, cassini imaging team, cassini scientists, cassini spacecraft, circumference, collaborators, cornell university, dusty ring, hedman, ithaca, main source, moon mimas, mysterious ring, NASA, nearby moon, pinprick, ring arcs, ring material, single ring

Cotton candy may help create blood vessels

February 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Feb 14 (ANI): The traditional cotton candies have been an attraction to kids for many years, and US researchers have now found a new role for the candy floss – it can help create small and intricate blood vessels.

The study led by Jason Spector of New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Leon Bellan of Cornell University has shown that cotton candies can be used as a template to grow artificial vascular networks inside engineered tissue, needed especially during transplants.

During the study, the researchers placed some candy in a non-stick mould, and poured over a polymer-resin mix that set hard after a day.

They then dissolved away the sugar using water and alcohol to leave a solid cube shot through with a network of channels.

The researchers found that the channels were similar in dimensions to real networks of capillaries, reports New Scientist magazine.

To demonstrate that blood could flow easily through the material, the researchers pumped rat blood with fluorescent labeling through the network.

The researchers are now working on creating casts using a biodegradable resin mixed with cells of a particular tissue, and coating the cast’s channels with blood vessel cells.

As the cells grow, the biodegradable resin should gradually disappear to leave an artificial tissue sample with its own blood vessel network. (ANI)

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