Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/FMlshAkdgZ0/130726131300.htm
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শনিবার, ২৭ জুলাই, ২০১৩
Is Facebook actually making communication about products and brands more interesting?
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Communication channels such as Facebook may be leading consumers to discuss more interesting products, according to a new study.
শুক্রবার, ২৬ জুলাই, ২০১৩
Fossil shows fish had sucker on its back
[unable to retrieve full-text content]A 30 million year-old fossil has revealed how remoras -- also called sharksuckers -- evolved the sucker that enables them to stick to other fishes and 'hitch a ride'.
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Glowing robots: New skin lights up when touched
Scientists have created an interface much like a smartphone touchscreen, but pliable.?
In this artistic illustration of an interactive e-skin device, the intensity of the emitted light corresponds to how hard the surface is pressed.
Ali Javey and Chuan Wang
EnlargeTouch a future robot, and it might glow.
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Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have developed the first user-interactive sensor network on flexible plastic. That differs from the touchscreens on smartphones in that this material is thin and pliant, able to be wrapped around and adhered to a variety of objects.
And the material also differs from skin in that it, well, lights up. The so-called electronic skin, or e-skin, responds to touch with light: more intense pressure yields brighter light.
?We have made the "skin" interactive,? said Ali Javey, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley and the leader of the research team on the e-skin project. ?Where the surface is touched, it lights up with the brightness quantifying the magnitude of pressure.?
To make the e-skin, described in Nature Materials, engineers first hardened a thin layer of polymer on top of a slice of silicon, a semiconductor material. Once the polymer had toughened, the engineers ran it through with the same materials used in current touchscreens ? organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDS), pressure sensors, and transistors. They then peeled the wired-up plastic from the silicon base. That left a plastic film thinner than a standard sheet of paper and embedded with a sensor network.
The project, which receives funding from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), joins surging investment in developing robotic skin, keeping pace with mounting developments in robotics that have given those metal robots ever more useful, albeit skinless, hands and feet.
Most robotic skin projects have been modeled on human skin. Our sense of touch is received from our somatosensory system, wherein four different kinds of receptors in our skin feed information to our neurons and then to the brain. And so robotic skin would consist of sensors that communicate to the robot how much force to use in handling various objects.
It?s a simple request of a robot ? don?t manhandle innocent things ? but how to get a robot to feel its way through the world, as opposed to just seeing its way, has been a complicated, vexing problem in robotics.
In 2010, Javey and colleagues debuted pressure sensitive electronic material made of nanowires that could clothe a robots hands ? the basis for his new, interactive material. In April, Georgia Tech released a robotic skin covered in thousands of nanowire transistors that respond to pressure, and the next month, ROBOSKIN, an EU-funded collaborative project between European researchers, debuted the prototypes for electronic sensors that could be applied to various robot?s touch points.?
Those projects have mainly focused on bringing humans into safe contact with robots, but other researchers have veered toward developing the ?super skin? that robots would need to roar into disaster zones. In 2011, Stanford researcher Zhenan Bao and colleagues prototyped a skin-like material that can detect not only extremely light pressure but also various chemicals. Her lab has also described a pressure-sensitive, electronic material ? a nickel and polymer blend ? that can self-heal, replicating human skin?s ability to do so.
Javey says that the new e-skin could have applications in addition to robotics. With some imagination, the pliable skin could be applied all over our world to make a huge variety of surfaces interactive, responsive to just a soft tap of the hand.
?Our vision for e-skin is beyond just robotic or prosthetic applications,? said Javey. ?We are developing a new human-machine interfacing concept that consists of large-area sensor networks on thin flexible substrate that can be laminated on walls, tables, and all around us.?
Researchers at the lab are now hoping to develop an e-skin that can respond to light and heat, broadening the possible applications of the interactive interface.
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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৫ জুলাই, ২০১৩
Chinese austerity, sort of
China has banned the construction of government offices for the next five years, ratcheting up an austerity campaign that has already taken a toll on the economy.
The State Council, China?s cabinet, and the Communist party late on Tuesday said the ban, which takes immediate effect, would also apply to the expansion of existing buildings.
They seem to mean it, and in part they wish to improve the moral image of Chinese government.? Here is a bit of background:
Beijing has previously tried to stop local governments from building massive new offices, but only with limited success. Even in poorer parts of China, cities and villages have built monolithic offices, replicas of the US Capitol building and faux-European palaces. In one notorious case, the government of the poor Yingquan district in Anhui province spent a third of its budget on a White House replica.
Under the new ban, renovations of outdated offices will be permitted, but the approval process will be extremely strict and there will be no tolerance for ?luxurious decorations?.
The full FT story is here.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/marginalrevolution/feed/~3/lt9nHYP_NSA/chinese-austerity-sort-of.html
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বুধবার, ২৪ জুলাই, ২০১৩
Going through the motions improves dance performance
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Public release date: 23-Jul-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Anna Mikulak
amikulak@psychologicalscience.org
202-293-9300
Association for Psychological Science
Expert ballet dancers seem to glide effortlessly across the stage, but learning the steps is both physically and mentally demanding. New research suggests that dance marking loosely practicing a routine by "going through the motions" may improve the quality of dance performance by reducing the mental strain needed to perfect the movements.
The new findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggest that marking may alleviate the conflict between the cognitive and physical aspects of dance practice, allowing dancers to memorize and repeat steps more fluidly.
Researcher Edward Warburton, a former professional ballet dancer, and colleagues were interested in exploring the "thinking behind the doing of dance."
"It is widely assumed that the purpose of marking is to conserve energy," explains Warburton, professor of dance at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "But elite-level dance is not only physically demanding, it's cognitively demanding as well:
Learning and rehearsing a dance piece requires concentration on many aspects of the desired performance."
Marking essentially involves a run-through of the dance routine, but with a focus on the routine itself, rather than making the perfect movements.
"When marking, the dancer often does not leave the floor, and may even substitute hand gestures for movements," Warburton explains. "One common example is using a finger rotation to represent a turn while not actually turning the whole body."
To investigate how marking influences performance, the researchers asked a group of talented dance students to learn two routines: they were asked to practice one routine at performance speed and to practice the other one by marking.
The routines were relatively simple, designed to be learned quickly and to minimize mistakes. Yet differences emerged when the judges looked for quality of performance.
Across many of the different techniques and steps, the dancers were judged more highly on the routine that they had practiced with marking their movements on the marked routine appeared to be more seamless, their sequences more fluid.
The researchers surmise that practicing at performance speed didn't allow the dancers to memorize and consolidate the steps as a sequence, thus encumbering their performance.
"By reducing the demands on complex control of the body, marking may reduce the multi-layered cognitive load used when learning choreography," Warburton explains.
While marking is often thought of as a necessary evil allowing dancers a "break" from dancing full out the large effect sizes observed in the study suggest that it could make a noticeable difference in a dancer's performance:
"Marking could be strategically used by teachers and choreographers to enhance memory and integration of multiple aspects of a piece precisely at those times when dancers are working to master the most demanding material," says Warburton.
It's unclear whether these performance improvements would be seen for other types of dance, Warburton cautions, but it is possible that this area of research could extend to other kinds of activities, perhaps even language acquisition.
"Smaller scale movement systems with low energetic costs such as speech, sign language, and gestures may likewise accrue cognitive benefits, as might be the case in learning new multisyllabic vocabulary or working on one's accent in a foreign language."
###
Co-authors on this research include Margaret Wilson, Molly Lynch, and Shannon Cuykendall of the University of California, Irvine.
For more information about this study, please contact: Edward C. Warburton at tedw@ucsc.edu.
The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "The Cognitive Benefits of Movement Reduction: Evidence From Dance Marking" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Anna Mikulak at 202-293-9300 or amikulak@psychologicalscience.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 23-Jul-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Anna Mikulak
amikulak@psychologicalscience.org
202-293-9300
Association for Psychological Science
Expert ballet dancers seem to glide effortlessly across the stage, but learning the steps is both physically and mentally demanding. New research suggests that dance marking loosely practicing a routine by "going through the motions" may improve the quality of dance performance by reducing the mental strain needed to perfect the movements.
The new findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggest that marking may alleviate the conflict between the cognitive and physical aspects of dance practice, allowing dancers to memorize and repeat steps more fluidly.
Researcher Edward Warburton, a former professional ballet dancer, and colleagues were interested in exploring the "thinking behind the doing of dance."
"It is widely assumed that the purpose of marking is to conserve energy," explains Warburton, professor of dance at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "But elite-level dance is not only physically demanding, it's cognitively demanding as well:
Learning and rehearsing a dance piece requires concentration on many aspects of the desired performance."
Marking essentially involves a run-through of the dance routine, but with a focus on the routine itself, rather than making the perfect movements.
"When marking, the dancer often does not leave the floor, and may even substitute hand gestures for movements," Warburton explains. "One common example is using a finger rotation to represent a turn while not actually turning the whole body."
To investigate how marking influences performance, the researchers asked a group of talented dance students to learn two routines: they were asked to practice one routine at performance speed and to practice the other one by marking.
The routines were relatively simple, designed to be learned quickly and to minimize mistakes. Yet differences emerged when the judges looked for quality of performance.
Across many of the different techniques and steps, the dancers were judged more highly on the routine that they had practiced with marking their movements on the marked routine appeared to be more seamless, their sequences more fluid.
The researchers surmise that practicing at performance speed didn't allow the dancers to memorize and consolidate the steps as a sequence, thus encumbering their performance.
"By reducing the demands on complex control of the body, marking may reduce the multi-layered cognitive load used when learning choreography," Warburton explains.
While marking is often thought of as a necessary evil allowing dancers a "break" from dancing full out the large effect sizes observed in the study suggest that it could make a noticeable difference in a dancer's performance:
"Marking could be strategically used by teachers and choreographers to enhance memory and integration of multiple aspects of a piece precisely at those times when dancers are working to master the most demanding material," says Warburton.
It's unclear whether these performance improvements would be seen for other types of dance, Warburton cautions, but it is possible that this area of research could extend to other kinds of activities, perhaps even language acquisition.
"Smaller scale movement systems with low energetic costs such as speech, sign language, and gestures may likewise accrue cognitive benefits, as might be the case in learning new multisyllabic vocabulary or working on one's accent in a foreign language."
###
Co-authors on this research include Margaret Wilson, Molly Lynch, and Shannon Cuykendall of the University of California, Irvine.
For more information about this study, please contact: Edward C. Warburton at tedw@ucsc.edu.
The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "The Cognitive Benefits of Movement Reduction: Evidence From Dance Marking" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Anna Mikulak at 202-293-9300 or amikulak@psychologicalscience.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/afps-gtt072213.php
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Two granted probation in tornado looting case
JOPLIN, Mo. ? A Jasper County judge granted probation Monday to two defendants convicted of stealing copper wire on the streets of Joplin in the aftermath of the tornado in May 2011.
Co-defendants Nycoa K. Kracht, 32, of Laurel, Ind., and Timothy M. Silveria, 45, of Joplin, pleaded guilty May 20 in Jasper County Circuit Court to a charge of stealing wire from a public utility.
Circuit Judge David Dally assessed Kracht and Silveria seven years in prison at sentencing hearings Monday, but suspended execution of the sentences and placed them both on supervised probation for five years.
Kracht, Silveria and Dennis B. Ray, 34, of Joplin, were arrested May 25, 2011, in the 100 block of East 22nd Street with a load of copper wire in the bed of a truck bearing a sticker and logo of a food distribution company.
The wire had been cut from nearby Empire District Electric Co. utility poles in the portion of the city ravaged by the tornado. A police officer testified in July 2011 that Silveria was outside the truck with a pair of bolt cutters and Ray was loading wire into the truck when the officer pulled up.
A detective who came to the scene to assist the officer told the court that Silveria initially claimed to have obtained permission from another police officer to gather wire from debris that was pushed to the curb along the streets in the tornado zone. Kracht, who was sitting inside the truck, denied that they were stealing wire and told the detective that they intended to donate whatever money they might get for the copper to tornado victims.
During booking procedures at the city jail, Ray?s cellphone was obtained by investigators, and a text message was discovered on it that read: ?I?m going scrappin? tom and getting me a bus ticket to Ten.?
Third defendant
DENNIS RAY, a co-defendant of Timothy Silveria and Nycoa Kracht, also pleaded guilty to stealing wire from a public utility and was sentenced in December to three years in prison, with credit for time served in jail.
Source: http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x1538948618/Two-granted-probation-in-tornado-looting-case
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