Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors jlms qkw, Bentliberal, wader, Oke, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, ScottyUrb, Interceptor 9, and Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, guest editors maggiejean and annetteboardman, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment.
Between now and the end of the primary/caucus season, Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday will highlight the research stories from the public universities in each of the states having elections and caucuses during the week (or in the upcoming weeks if there is no primary or caucus that week). Tonight's edition features the science, space, environment, and energy stories from universities in the states of California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin.
This week's featured stories come from the University of Texas at Dallas, NASA Television on YouTube, Space.com via MSNBC, and University of Wisconsin.
Sky Watchers Await a Rare Celestial Experience
Venus Won't Make a Similar Pass Between Sun and Earth Again for Another 105 Years
May 31, 2012
On June 5, sky watchers will be in for a rare treat as Venus passes directly between Earth and the sun, an astronomical alignment that won’t occur again for another 105 years.
During the transit of Venus – the astronomical term for the event – the silhouette of the planet will appear as a tiny black spot moving across the disk of the sun. It’s an event that scientists and astronomy enthusiasts worldwide will watch closely.
“Astronomical phenomena like this transit and eclipses are events that ordinary people can see, it’s not just a chosen few who have access to them,” said Dr. Mary Urquhart, a planetary scientist and head of the Department of Science and Mathematics Education at UT Dallas. “The Web makes it possible for people to participate regardless of location or local weather.”
Observing events are also being held at
Texas A&M and
University of Wisconsin. None of them will have as good a view as Don Petit, as detailed in
ScienceCasts: ISS Transit of Venus
High above Earth, astronaut Don Pettit is about to become the first human to witness and photograph a transit of Venus from space. His images and commentary will be streamed to Earth during the crossing.
The day before will also be eventful.
Check out the partial lunar eclipse on Monday
Pacific Rim residents will have best shot at seeing event — weather permitting
By Joe Rao
updated 6/1/2012 1:38:51 PM ET
The full moon of June will dip through Earth's shadow early Monday in a partial lunar eclipse that promises to impress skywatchers graced with good weather.
Eclipses of the sun and moon always come in groups. A solar eclipse is always accompanied by a lunar eclipse two weeks before or after it, since over those two weeks the moon travels halfway around in its orbit and is likely to form another almost straight line with the Earth and sun. If the solar eclipse is a “central” one — that is, either total or annular — the lunar eclipse is likely to be one where the moon will only partially interact with the shadow of the Earth.
And so it is that two weeks after casting its shadow over eastern Asia and western North America in the annular solar eclipse of May 20-21, next Monday’s full moon will swing around to skim through the northern edge of the earth’s own shadow. Those regions of our globe that enjoyed views of the solar eclipse will again be favored for a view of the upcoming lunar eclipse.
Put simply: if you missed out on the eclipse of the sun, you’re probably going to have to take a pass on the upcoming moon show as well. For North America, keep in mind that this is a pre-sunrise happening, coming during the early morning hours of Monday morning.
Here's the NASA Television video.
ScienceCasts: Partial Eclipse of the Strawberry Moon
On Monday, June 4th, the Moon will pass through the shadow of Earth, producing a partial lunar eclipse visible across the Pacific from China to the United States.
Finally, some political news.
Reminder: Guidelines on campus political activities
May 29, 2012
With political activity intensifying around the state, students, faculty and staff of all affiliations are engaged in expressing their views on upcoming state and national issues.
However, by campus and UW System policy, not every campus building is an appropriate space for political activity. The following information provides guidance from UW–Madison on where political activity, including the circulation of petitions, is permissible on campus grounds.
Be sure to follow the rules, everyone, but don't forget to play your role in the following movie.
More stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
The Sea of Cortez - Paradise Lost?
by Desert Scientist
The Daily Bucket - a small paddle into the marsh
by Polly Syllabic
This week in science: Spin me round
by DarkSyde
Slideshows/Videos
NASA Television on YouTube: Dragon's Back on This Week @NASA
The first commercial spacecraft to journey to the International Space Station returns safely to Earth. Also, new milestones for other commercial crew/cargo spacecraft; John Glenn awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom at White House; and more!
Astronomy/Space
University of Texas at Austin: Astronomers Probe ‘Evaporating’ Planet Around Nearby Star with Hobby-Eberly Telescope
May 31, 2012
FORT DAVIS, Texas — Astronomers from The University of Texas at Austin and Wesleyan University have used the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at UT Austin’s McDonald Observatory to confirm that a Jupiter-size planet in a nearby solar system is dissolving, albeit excruciatingly slowly, because of interactions with its parent star. Their findings could help astronomers better understand star-planet interactions in other star systems that might involve life.
The work will be published in the June 1 edition of The Astrophysical Journal in a paper led by Wesleyan University postdoctoral researcher Adam Jensen. The team includes University of Texas astronomers Michael Endl and Bill Cochran, as well as Wesleyan professor Seth Redfield.
The star, HD 189733, lies about 63 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula, the little fox.
University of California: Astronomer wins prestigious Kavli and Shaw prizes
May 31, 2012
UCLA's David Jewitt, who earlier this week was awarded the Shaw Prize in astronomy, has also won the 2012 Kavli Prize in astrophysics for his role in the 1993 discovery of the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune, it was announced today. Each prize comes with a $1 million award.
The discovery of the Kuiper Belt, which contains more than a billion objects and was once believed to be empty space, has fundamentally changed the modern perception of the solar system.
That the Shaw and Kavli prize committees independently made the same choice in the same week is "pretty excellent," Jewitt said.
Montana State University: MSU students earn medals, kudos for robot's showing at Kennedy Space Center
May 30, 2012
BOZEMAN - Eight Montana State University students who built a robot for a national competition at the Kennedy Space Center returned to Montana with two medals, as well as praise for last-minute adjustments said to be risky and bold.
One of 60 teams in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 21-26, MSU took first place in the Systems Engineering Paper category, earning $750 and an all-expense-paid trip for one MSU student to present the paper at an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference.
NASA's annual Lunabotics Mining Competition involves student-built robots vying to collect the most simulated moon dirt in an arena sprinkled with boulders and craters. Student teams are also judged on their robot's mining performance, team spirit, a slide presentation, an engineering paper and public outreach. MSU won the inaugural competition in 2010.
Evolution/Paleontology
University of Texas at Austin: Vertebrates Share Ancient Neural Circuitry for Complex Social Behaviors, Biologists Find
May 31, 2012
AUSTIN, Texas — Humans, fish and frogs share neural circuits responsible for a diversity of social behavior, from flashy mating displays to aggression and monogamy, that have existed for more than 450 million years, biologists at The University of Texas at Austin found.
“There is an ancient circuitry that appears to be involved in social behavior across all vertebrates,” said Hans Hofmann, associate professor of integrative biology. “On a basic level, this tells us something about where we came from. A lot of the neural circuits that our brain uses for social behavior are actually quite old.”
Hofmann and graduate student Lauren O’Connell published their research in this week’s Science.
Biodiversity
Rutgers University: Some Good News About the Ocean from Rutgers
The near-shore ocean is in better shape than scientists had thought
Undated
Rutgers marine scientists have discovered that creatures living in seafloor sediments near the New Jersey coast are doing better than scientists had believed. Researchers Patricia Ramey, Michael Kennish, and Rose Petrecca have conducted a comprehensive community assessment, and constructed a “biotic index” – a measure of an environment’s health – by cataloging invertebrate animals living in the ocean bottom from Sandy Hook to Cape May, from the beach to three miles offshore.
The scientists' grab sampler on the deck of a research vessel. Michael Kennish, Patricia Ramey and Rose Petrecca used it to gather bottom-dwelling invertebrates -- 113,000 animals from 273 species -- to assess the ecological health of New Jersey's near-shore ocean in 2007, 2009 and 2010.
Their report casts doubt on the usefulness of dissolved oxygen as the only criterion for assessing the health of coastal ocean waters. In 2002 and 2004, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the United States Environmental Protection Agency declared the near-shore waters 70 percent (2002) and 100 percent (2004) impaired based on levels of dissolved oxygen below 5 milligrams per liter of water. And yet, Kennish, the Rutgers lead investigator of the project, noticed there were no reports of massive fish kills or loss of bottom-dwelling animal life off the coast in those years.
“We wanted to find out what effect hypoxia (insufficient oxygen) was having on benthic invertebrates,” Kennish said. “The DEP had declared the near-shore ocean 100 percent impaired in 2004 based on the level of dissolved oxygen, but we didn’t really know how this would affect the animals living in those waters.”
New Mexico State University: NMSU researchers ask: have you seen this owl?
May 31, 2012
The burrowing owl has been expanding its habitat and researchers at New Mexico State University are asking the public to help them locate nests so they can learn more about the creature’s nesting grounds in the local area.
The bird in question is brown in color and usually about nine inches tall. Martha Desmond, head of NMSU’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Ecology, said the burrowing owls are usually fairly visible, will perch on walls and fence posts or sometimes lurk under sidewalks, drainages and irrigation canals. While the birds are most active at night, they can frequently be seen during the day.
“They often nest in recently disturbed locations and are associated with new developments like the Sonoma Ranch area,” Desmond said. “People don’t realize these owls nest underground in burrows and sometimes they get bulldozed over.”
Local researchers are interested in the burrowing owl because although it is native to grasslands, populations have increased in the south over the last few decades, particularly in human dominated environments.
Montana State University: MSU research leads to new lines of winter wheat
May 29, 2012 -- MSU News Service
BOZEMAN - Scientists at Montana State University's College of Agriculture have developed two new lines of Clearfield herbicide-tolerant winter wheat, which are available for licensing.
The lines, known as MTCL1067 and MTCL1077, were derived from the Yellowstone variety and retain the Clearfield two-gene resistance to the imidazolinone family of herbicides.
Tested at locations across Montana, both of the new lines are similar to Yellowstone and to each other in performance, end-use quality, and disease reaction. The first of the new varieties, MTCL1076, grows to maturity earlier and is taller than the Yellowstone variety.
Biotechnology/Health
University of Texas at Austin: 50-Year Cholera Mystery Solved by Scientists at The University of Texas at Austin
May 29, 2012
AUSTIN, Texas — For 50 years scientists have been unsure how the bacteria that gives humans cholera manages to resist one of our basic innate immune responses. That mystery has now been solved, thanks to research from biologists at The University of Texas at Austin.
The answers may help clear the way for a new class of antibiotics that don’t directly shut down pathogenic bacteria such as V. cholerae, but instead disable their defenses so that our own immune systems can do the killing.
Every year cholera afflicts millions of people and kills hundreds of thousands, predominantly in the developing world. The infection causes profuse diarrhea and vomiting. Death comes from severe dehydration.
“If you understand the mechanism, the bacterial target, you’re more likely to be able to design an effective antibiotic,” says Stephen Trent, associate professor of molecular genetics and microbiology and lead researcher on the study.
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center: Researchers identify mechanism that maintains stem-cell readiness
DALLAS – May 31, 2012 – An immune-system receptor plays an unexpected but crucially important role in keeping stem cells from differentiating and in helping blood cancer cells grow, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center report today in the journal Nature.
“Cancer cells grow rapidly in part because they fail to differentiate into mature cells. Drugs that induce differentiation can be used to treat cancers,” said Dr. Chengcheng “Alec” Zhang, assistant professor in UT Southwestern’s departments of physiology and developmental biology. “Our research identified a protein receptor on cancer cells that inhibits differentiation, and knowing the identity of this protein should facilitate the development of new drugs to treat cancers.”
The family of proteins investigated in the study could help open a new field of biology integrating immunology with stem cell and cancer research, he added.
Galveston County Daily News: Miracle Berry changes the way foods taste
By Norbert Herzog and David Niesel
Contributor
Published May 29, 2012
As intriguing as its name is, the Miracle Berry’s effect on the tongue is even more fascinating. Minutes after popping the luscious red berry in the mouth and swirling its pulp around, a shot of Tabasco sauce will suddenly taste like sweet doughnut glaze.
The magical little fruit changes the way taste buds perceive certain flavors, especially sour, acidic foods. The cranberry-sized fruit comes from a plant called Synsepalum dulcificum, native to West Africa, where people have enjoyed its properties for centuries. Yet, until recently, no one knew why it is able to change the taste of sour foods into deliciously sweet treats.
Forty years ago, scientists discovered a protein appropriately named miraculin is the active ingredient in the berry. Though they couldn’t be sure, scientists guessed the protein binds to sweet taste receptors on the tongue, changing the way sour foods taste.
A study led in part by Ayako Koizumi, from the University of Tokyo, not only confirmed this hunch but uncovered the specifics of the protein’s mechanisms.
Texas A&M University: Is there a ‘healthy’ obesity gene?
Researchers investigate how gene/enzyme may benefit some obese people
May 31, 2012
COLLEGE STATION – Why is it that some obese people are healthier than others? This was one of the main questions Dr. Chaodong Wu of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences — Texas A&M University System — and a group of researchers tried to answer in a recent study.
The study, which will appear in a July issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, used genetically modified mice to investigate the genetic aspects of why some obese people do not develop certain medical problems typically associated with obesity, especially Type 2 diabetes.
...
“Previous research had indicated that a regulatory enzyme which is encoded by the gene PFKFB3 protects against diet-induced fat tissue inflammation and systemic insulin resistance,” said Wu, who also has a Texas AgriLife Research appointment. “Increasing evidence shows that fat deposition, or amount, is not directly associated with the inflammation or insulin resistance in the development of obesity-related metabolic diseases.”
University of Wisconsin: Breast Stem Cell Findings - Teamwork Among Receptors and New Pathways
May 29, 2012
Madison, Wisconsin - Breast-cancer researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found that two related receptors in a robust signaling pathway must work together as a team to maintain normal activity in mammary stem cells.
Mammary stem cells produce various kinds of breast cell types. They may also drive the development and growth of malignant breast tumors.
Published recently in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the research also suggests that a new signaling pathway may be involved, a development that eventually could take cancer-drug manufacturers in a new direction.
University of Wisconsin: Wisconsin Residents Are Living Longer, But Not Better
May 29, 2012
Madison, Wisconsin - The good news is that we're living longer. The bad news? People in Wisconsin are reaching old age more overweight, less wealthy and still drinking too much alcohol.
Those are some conclusions of the Wisconsin Health Trends: Progress Report (pdf), the first comprehensive look at trends in the state's health indicators over the past decade. Among the findings:
- All age groups show a reduction in death rates
- Rates of obesity are increasing rapidly, at more than three percent per year
- Rates of smoking and births to teenaged mothers are declining
- More babies are being born at low birth weights
- Economic indicators of health are declining, as more people drop out of high school, have no jobs, have no insurance, live in poverty and are exposed to violent crime and air pollution
- Self-reports of good health have declined
University of Wisconsin: New stem cell technique promises abundance of key heart cells
by Terry Devitt
May 28, 2012
Cardiomyocytes, the workhorse cells that make up the beating heart, can now be made cheaply and abundantly in the laboratory.
Writing this week (May 28, 2012) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of Wisconsin scientists describes a way to transform human stem cells — both embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells — into the critical heart muscle cells by simple manipulation of one key developmental pathway. The technique promises a uniform, inexpensive and far more efficient alternative to the complex bath of serum or growth factors now used to nudge blank slate stem cells to become specialized heart cells.
...
The ability to make the key heart cells in abundance and in a precisely defined way is important because it shows the potential to make the production of large, uniform batches of cardiomyocytes routine, according to Palecek. The cells are in great demand for research, and increasingly for the high throughput screens used by the pharmaceutical industry to test drugs and potential drugs for toxic effects.
University of California: Alcohol may trigger serious palpitations in heart patients
June 1, 2012
The term "holiday heart syndrome" was coined in a 1978 study to describe patients with atrial fibrillation who experienced a common and potentially dangerous form of heart palpitation after excessive drinking, which can be common during the winter holiday season. The symptoms usually went away when the revelers stopped drinking.
Now, research from UCSF builds on that finding, establishing a stronger causal link between alcohol consumption and serious palpitations in patients with atrial fibrillation, the most common form of arrhythmia.
In a paper scheduled to be published Aug. 1 in the American Journal of Cardiology, the UCSF researchers report that people with atrial fibrillation had almost a four and a half times greater chance of having an episode if they were consuming alcohol than if they were not.
University of California: Study details how cells communicate with each other
May 31, 2012
During early development in humans and other multicellular organisms, immature cells need to talk to each other to make critical decisions about what types of cells they should become, as well as when and where to become those cell types.
A signaling system known as Notch allows these cells to communicate directly with one another and thereby develop into the cells that make up the brain, blood, muscles and organs and nearly every other cell type in the body.
Now, researchers from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center show for the first time that the mechanical force produced by cell-cell interactions is critical for programming by the Notch signaling system.
Climate/Environment
Examiner.com: Warmest spring in Detroit history
Vince Lamb
Detroit Science News Examiner
Detroit just completed the warmest spring in recorded history, according to the National Weather Service Forecast Office for Detroit and Pontiac. The average temperature from March 1 through May 31 was 55.2 degrees F, more than two degrees warmer than the previous record warm spring in 2010 and at least five degrees warmer than normal. The record includes the warmest March in Detroit's history, which the NWS Forecast Office called "the most unusual climate event to ever be recorded in Southeast Michigan" as well as record high temperatures for several days in May, including 94 degrees F on Memorial Day, breaking the previous record by two degrees.
...
Record warmth has also been the experience of the rest of the United States, according to NOAA. The first four months of 2012 have been the warmest first four months of any year for the contiguous United States, with an average temperature of 45.4 degrees F, 5.4 degrees F above the long-term average. Twenty-six states, all east of the Rockies, recorded their highest averages for the four-month period, and an additional 17 states had temperatures for the period among their ten warmest.
In addition, the twelve consecutive months ending in April 2012 were the warmest in U.S. history. The twelve-month running average temperature for the contiguous U.S. was 55.7 degrees F, which is 2.8 degrees F above the Twentieth Century average. These months included the second hottest summer, fourth warmest winter, and warmest March ever recorded for the contiguous United States. Twenty-two states set records for highest average temperatures during the 12-month period, and an additional nineteen states experienced temperatures among the ten highest in their histories.
University of Texas at Austin: Groundwater Depletion in Semiarid Regions of Texas and California Threatens U.S. Food Security
May 29, 2012
AUSTIN, Texas — The nation's food supply may be vulnerable to rapid groundwater depletion from irrigated agriculture, according to a new study by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and elsewhere.
The study, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, paints the highest resolution picture yet of how groundwater depletion varies across space and time in California's Central Valley and the High Plains of the central U.S. Researchers hope this information will enable more sustainable use of water in these areas, although they think irrigated agriculture may be unsustainable in some parts.
"We're already seeing changes in both areas," said Bridget Scanlon, senior research scientist at The University of Texas at Austin's Bureau of Economic Geology and lead author of the study. "We're seeing decreases in rural populations in the High Plains. Increasing urbanization is replacing farms in the Central Valley. And during droughts some farmers are forced to fallow their land. These trends will only accelerate as water scarcity issues become more severe."
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston: Researchers find flame retardant in food samples, according to UTHealth study
HOUSTON - (June 1, 2012) - Researchers at The University of Texas School of Public Health Dallas Regional Campus discovered the presence of a widely-used flame retardant, hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), in food purchased in the United States.
"We believe food may be an important contributor to the levels of HBCD seen in recent human exposure studies," said Arnold Schecter, M.D., M.P.H., professor of environmental health at The University of Texas School of Public Health, part of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
The study is published in the online edition of the Environmental Health Perspectives, a journal of the National Institutes of Health. Schecter believes this is the first study to compile detailed analysis of HBCD found in U.S. food.
HBCD is a brominated flame retardant used in home insulation materials and electrical equipment. According to Schecter, health concerns of HBCD exposure include potential alterations in immune and reproductive systems, neurotoxic effects in children and endocrine disruption.
University of California: Computer model fuels efficient carbon capture
May 29, 2012
BERKELEY — When power plants begin capturing their carbon emissions to reduce greenhouse gases — and to most in the electric power industry, it's a question of when, not if — it will be an expensive undertaking.
Current technologies would use about one-third of the energy generated by the plants — what's called "parasitic energy" — and, as a result, substantially drive up the price of electricity.
But a new computer model developed by University of California, Berkeley, chemists shows that less expensive technologies are on the horizon. They will use new solid materials like zeolites and metal oxide frameworks (MOFs) that more efficiently capture carbon dioxide so that it can be sequestered underground.
Geology
University of California: Meteorite hunt goes on, needs public's help
May 25, 2012
A University of California, Davis, geologist is appealing for public help in tracking down pieces of the meteorite that blew up over El Dorado County on April 22.
The meteorite, about the size of a minivan, was the rarest type to hit the Earth — a "carbonaceous chondrite" containing dust and grains, thrown from nearby stars, that went on to form the planets of our solar system billions of years ago, said Professor Qing-Zhu Yin of the UC Davis Department of Geology.
By studying fragments of the meteorite, Yin hopes to learn more about exactly how and when the Earth, Mars and other planets formed. His lab at UC Davis is one of a few in the country equipped to make the most accurate measurements of the age and composition of meteorites.
Studying the meteorite could also give insight into the origins of life on Earth, as this type of meteorite is known to contain amino acids, sugars and other organic molecules that are the basic building blocks of life.
California State University, Northridge: CSUN Professor Rides California’s Seismic Waves to More Than $500,000 in National Science Foundation Funding
(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., May. 21st, 2012) -- California State University, Northridge marine seismologist and geological science professor Dayanthie Weeraratne’s passion for geophysics radiates like an earthquake’s P wave traveling deep into the Earth.
Weeraratne’s passion recently led to a National Science Foundation CAREER grant with an intended total of more than $516,000. Her project, entitled, “CAREER: Geodynamic Study of Earth’s Mantle Asthenosphere and Core Formation” will, among other things, address cutting-edge questions about plate tectonics and the Earth’s core formation, and includes the development of the Geological Experience for Minority Students (GEMS) educational program, designed to increase the number of underrepresented students within the discipline.
“Although plate tectonics was accepted in the 60s and 70s, we still don’t know why plates move or the physical properties of the asthenosphere (the layer beneath the plates) that provides the lubrication for plate motion,” said Weeraratne. “My research will use marine seismic tomography and geophysical fluid dynamics to investigate the physical properties of the asthenosphere and determine what allows plate motion.”
Weeraratne’s research also aims to understand how the Earth’s iron core was formed.
Psychology/Behavior
University of California: Open-fire cooking may stunt child cognitive development
May 31, 2012
RIVERSIDE — Children exposed to open-fire cooking in developing countries experience difficulty with memory, problem-solving and social skills, according to researchers at the University of California, Riverside, and Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif.
Research in the past decade has identified numerous health risks to children who are exposed regularly to smoke from open fires used in cooking. But until now, no one has associated smoke from cooking fires with deficits in cognitive development, said Mary Gauvain, professor of psychology at UC Riverside. She and Robert L. Munroe from Pitzer College co-authored "Exposure to open-fire cooking and cognitive performance in children," which appears in the International Journal of Environmental Health Research.
Their research comes as international public and private agencies advocate, through the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, the use of clean and efficient cooking stoves in the developing world. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is among the alliance's supporters because of the impacts of open-fire cooking on child health and global warming.
University of California: Eyewitness ID reforms may have unintended results
May 30, 2012
RIVERSIDE — New research by a University of California, Riverside, psychologist raises serious questions about eyewitness identification procedures that are being adopted by police departments across the United States.
These new procedures are designed to reduce the kinds of false identification errors that can lead to wrongful convictions of innocent people.
While it has long been held that these changes reduce false identifications with little or no loss of correct identifications, UC Riverside psychology professor Steven E. Clark suggests that that is not the case.
University of California: Freecycling's viral effect on community spirit
May 29, 2012
BERKELEY — Reinforcing that the best things in life are free, a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that online freebie-exchange communities such as "Freecycle" and "Couchsurfing" foster greater team spirit among their members than do cash-for-goods websites.
The results, published earlier this month in the journal Administrative Science Quarterly, may help explain why a growing number of recession-weary Americans are participating less in monetary-based consumerism in favor of "gift economies" built on freebies and community spirit.
"We found that being active in online gift-giving communities like Freecycle generates strong feelings of solidarity and identification, which in turn drive people to give more gifts in the system," said Robb Willer, assistant professor of sociology and psychology at UC Berkeley. "This dynamic may help explain why the membership of sites like Freecycle and Couchsurfing has taken off in recent years."
Archeology/Anthropology
University of Texas at Austin: Historical Survey Wiki Offers Austinites a Chance to Identify and Catalog Historic Sites
June 1, 2012
The Austin Historical Survey Wiki will offer site visitors an overview of historic buildings, properties and landscapes that tell the history of Austin.
The project is a partnership of The University of Texas at Austin schools of Architecture and Information and the City of Austin, which hope the interactive site will be able to provide a more comprehensive look at the cultures and people of the city.
By definition, a wiki invites public input. The Historical Survey Wiki provides Austin residents the opportunity to share their knowledge of historic properties with preservation professionals, which, in turn, improves transparency, accuracy and timeliness of historic site information. Online visitors are able to look up information using interactive maps and query tools, share information about historic sites, and access and upload photographs.
Galveston County Daily News: Crews unearth part of original seawall at UTMB
By James Barrett
Special to The Daily News
Published May 27, 2012
GALVESTON — Construction crews at the University of Texas Medical Branch recently uncovered a part of the past at the future site of the new Jennie Sealy Hospital.
Excavators using heavy equipment found part of the original Galveston seawall buried under several feet of dirt at the construction site.
The seawall segment is about 100 to 150 feet long. It was built in 1904 after the disastrous 1900 Storm that killed at least 8,000 people.
“We knew it was here somewhere, but we weren’t exactly sure where it was,” said Jake Wolf, senior project manager for the medical branch.
annetteboardman is taking the week off.
Physics
University of California: Grants further exploration of interface of physics, biology
May 29, 2012
SANTA BARBARA — Imagine being able to mathematically describe the process by which an embryo develops into an animal, assigning numbers to its every function and dysfunction. Such capability holds enormous implications for medicine, pointing to the potential for determining when and where things go developmentally awry — and paving the way to possible solutions.
This sort of breakthrough is one of the long-term goals of theoretical physicists and experimental biologists at UC Santa Barbara, where the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) is uniting researchers from the disparate disciplines in joint study. Two new grants, together totaling $2 million, are giving those interdisciplinary efforts a big boost.
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has awarded KITP $1.6 million for its ongoing interdisciplinary biology initiatives, including workshops, postdoctoral fellowships, and plans for a new summer program — the Santa Barbara Advanced School for Quantitative Biology (SBASQB) — aimed squarely at the interface of physics and biology. A $400,000 grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund will go exclusively toward the latter endeavor.
Chemistry
University of Texas at Dallas: Event to Explore Latest on Microelectronics Materials
May 31, 2012
Tomorrow’s breakthroughs in advanced materials for microelectronics and green energy systems will be presented starting Sunday at the 2012 Physical Electronics Conference held at UT Dallas.
The conference, hosted by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, will draw experts from throughout North America and the world on the cutting edge of research into the physics and chemistry of surfaces and interfaces.
“Most of the work presented is unpublished, so attendees have a leg up on what’s coming next in the field,” said Dr. Yves Chabal, chair of the conference and head of the department.
Energy
University of Texas at El Paso: $3.3 Million Collaboration Focuses on Solar Energy
By Laura Acosta
UTEP News Service
May 31, 2012
Echegoyen’s efforts to organize the UTEP Solar Group have resulted in a $3.3 million award from the National Science Foundation to create a collaborative research and education program between UTEP and the University of California, Santa Barbara. The program will combine materials science and engineering research to develop new materials for photovoltaic applications, or solar panels.
The award is from the NSF Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) grant program that will establish a long-term partnership between UTEP and the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Materials Research Laboratory: an NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center.
The UTEP-UCSB PREM program will enhance the participation and advance degree attainment of under-represented minorities, primarily Hispanic students, in materials science and engineering. As part of the program, UTEP students will be able to participate in research internships at UCSB and vice versa. The program also allows UCSB and UTEP faculty to jointly teach advanced educational courses remotely to students at both campuses.
North Texas E-News: Moving cotton land to bioenergy crops may be ‘green’ in more ways than one
By Texas A&M
Jun 1, 2012
VERNON - What happens when traditional cotton country is converted to grow bioenergy crops?
That’s what a team of Texas AgriLife Research scientists will determine in a new U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture-funded project. The team, led by Dr. Nithya Rajan, AgriLife Research agronomist in Vernon, has been awarded a $500,000 Agriculture and Food Research
Initiative bioenergy grant.
In the study, Rajan said they will help analyze how a change from the traditional cotton in the southwestern Cotton Belt to a switchgrass or biomass sorghum would affect the carbon balance, hydrologic cycle and greenhouse gas emissions.
The bioenergy grants are being offered to help ensure the U.S. can reach the goal outlined in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The act requires the U.S. to produce 36 billion gallons per year of biofuels by 2022, according to the USDA.
University of Wisconsin: New early career awards support biofuels research
By Jill Sakai and Renee Meiller
May 31, 2012
A young generation of researchers are seeking biofuels in some unlikely sounding places: toxic algae blooms and cow stomachs.
Two University of Wisconsin-Madison professors are drawing on these robust yet simple natural systems in search of new, sustainable sources for alternative fuels to satisfy U.S. transportation demands and reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil.
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
American Medical News: Most doctors headed for penalty over Medicare quality reporting
Growing numbers of physicians are earning reporting bonuses, but hundreds of thousands still have not participated in a program that turns punitive in 2013.
By Charles Fiegl, amednews staff.
Posted May 28, 2012.
Washington
Absent a significant change in the trajectory of Medicare’s physician quality reporting system, a large majority of doctors will set themselves up for future rate cuts by failing to report enough quality measures to the federal government in 2013.
A recent trends report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services shows that fewer than 200,000 physicians, out of the more than 600,000 who were eligible for the incentive program, reported PQRS measures in 2010. More than 125,000 physicians reporting as individuals met enough of the requirements to share a total of nearly $400 million in bonuses, but hundreds of thousands of eligible doctors did not attempt to meet the pay-for-reporting criteria. More than 50,000 tried for the bonuses but did not report enough quality measures to hit the minimum.
The lack of participation has physician organizations concerned that a huge segment of those caring for Medicare patients soon will take a hit when CMS begins not only withholding bonuses from doctors who don’t participate in the PQRS but also cutting their pay rates. Physicians can consider 2012 to be their final year to try reporting risk-free: A 1.5% noncompliance penalty won’t be assessed until 2015, but that payment adjustment will be based on whether physicians report quality measures in 2013.
University of Texas at Dallas: Prof's Studies of Corruption in Asia are in Demand Worldwide
Prof's Studies of Corruption in Asia are in Demand Worldwide
A UT Dallas management professor's findings on corruption in Asia are in demand by business universities around the world.
May 29, 2012
Two articles by Dr. Seung-Hyun Lee, an associate professor in the Naveen Jindal School of Management, examine how bribery and other types of corruption influence business and profits in Asian countries. Lee, of the school's Organizations, Strategy and International Management area, also analyzes how U.S. firms fare when competing in such environments.
“Bribery is a reality of doing business in most Asian countries,” Lee said. “Bribery is almost like paying a tax in many countries.”
Since the papers appeared in the Asia Pacific Journal of Management in 2007 and 2010, Lee has frequently received requests to use them from various universities, including the Singapore campus of INSEAD, one of the world’s foremost graduate business universities.
University of Wisconsin: Health Care Costs Drop if Adolescent Substance Abusers Use 12-Step Programs
May 31, 2012
Madison, Wisconsin - The use of 12-step programs, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, by adolescents with a history of drug and alcohol abuse not only reduces the risk of relapse but also leads to lower health care costs, according to research by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
The study, which appears in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, is the first to examine the cost implications of 12-step programs for adolescents.
...
Past research has shown that adolescents with drug and alcohol problems are at risk for a number of negative outcomes, including poor academic performance, violence, depression and suicide, and chronic medical conditions such as asthma.
According to Dr. Marlon Mundt, assistant professor of family medicine, for each 12-step meeting attended, medical costs were reduced by an estimated 4.7 percent or $145 per year for hospital inpatient days, psychiatric visits, and alcohol and drug treatment.
Rutgers University: Teens and Drinking: A Proposed Law for Overdose Victims
Under the 'Good Samaritan' law, reporting an alcohol or drug overdose exempts callers from punishment
By Carrie Stetler
June 01, 2012
Last month, the New Jersey Assembly approved a new bill, that if passed by the Senate, would guarantee that witnesses who get help for victims of drug and alcohol overdose won’t be prosecuted.
The Rutgers Center for Alcohol Studies has endorsed the bill, known as the “Good Samaritan Overdose Response Act,’’ which center director Robert Pandina believes will save lives. All too often, he says, young people panic when a friend consumes dangerous amounts of drugs or alcohol and fail to get help for fear of reprisals.
Critics of the bill, however, argue that it tacitly condones drug and alcohol use, particularly among high school and college students.
Rutgers University: Rutgers-Camden Law Professor says Congress has Authority to Protect Viability of Private Health Insurance
May 25, 2012
CAMDEN — While health care policy continues to be debated across the nation, a Rutgers–Camden law professor says Congress has the authority to ensure the viability of private health care insurance in the United States.
David M. Frankford, a professor at the Rutgers School of Law–Camden, is a widely published expert on health law and policy who has spent 28 years researching and teaching health care finance and regulation.
Much of the current debate on health care reform surrounds the Affordable Care Act, now under review by the U.S. Supreme Court to determine the constitutionality of the law’s requirement of Americans to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.
Opponents of the act say Congress lacks authority to force people to buy a product, but Frankford challenges that notion.
“The idea that the federal government, that Congress, lacks authority to maintain the viability of a private insurance system is quite surprising,” says Frankford, of Wynnewood, Pa. “A private insurance system is commerce under the constitution. Without these sorts of reform, it will continue to spiral downward. It has been eroding now over the course of a number of decades, a trend that accelerated over the last ten years. Congress has authority to protect the continued viability of this commerce and it has the discretion to choose among reasonable means of doing so.”
University of Montana: Report Finds Number Of Montana Children Raised By Relatives, Family Friends Doubles Over Decade
May 24, 2012
MISSOULA -What do President Barack Obama, Sen. Olympia Snowe and Oprah Winfrey have in common?
They, like more than 2.7 million children in America, were raised by grandparents or other relatives at some point in their lives. This longtime practice, known as kinship care, has become more prevalent in the past decade, which has seen an 18 percent increase nationally in children living with relatives or close family friends because their parents can no longer care for them, according to a new national KIDS COUNT report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. An estimated 9 percent of youth will live with extended family for at least three consecutive months at some point before age 18.
“In Montana, the number of children in kinship care more than doubled over the past decade, a period that also saw a reduction in the child population in the state,” says Thale Dillon, director of Montana KIDS COUNT at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at The University of Montana. “It is estimated that close to 4 percent of Montana children under age 18, or 7,600 kids, are in the care of relatives other than their parents.”
The rise of this practice warrants immediate attention, according to the report, “Stepping Up for Kids: What Government and Communities Should Do to Support Kinship Families.” Many family members and friends who take on parental responsibilities with their often-limited incomes struggle to meet the basic needs of children, a problem that could be alleviated with increased access to and awareness of government and community programs.
Science Education
University of Texas at Austin: New Study Confirms Benefits of a Research University to Student Success
May 30, 2012
AUSTIN, Texas — About 89 percent of all undergraduate students and 94 percent of seniors participate in some type of research while at The University of Texas at Austin, according to a new study released this month from the Office of Assessment for the university’s Division of Student Affairs. Based on a survey of 13,120 undergraduates, the report reveals that 71 percent of students agree that the university is strongly committed to undergraduate education.
“The University of Texas at Austin and the Research University Advantage” report is based on data from the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) survey, a 2011 national survey that included other top-tier research universities such as the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“Most of our undergraduate students do participate in research, be it in class or out of class, and do so at higher rates than is typical at most college campuses across the United States,” said Gale Stuart, director of assessment for the division.
Texas A&M University: A&M Prominently Cited In Prestigious Magazine About Value Of A Flagship University Education
May 29, 2012
Choosing a college certainly matters monetarily — be it choosing between an elite private school and a top public institution or between a flagship state university and a regional public university — according to an extensive article in the current online edition of The Atlantic. Texas A&M University figures prominently — and positively — in the article in the prestigious magazine.
In the “Does It Matter Where You Go to College” article, the writer, Jordan Weissmann, leaves little doubt that he thinks it does matter, and he cites a current Bloomberg Businessweek/Payscale survey in which Texas A&M fares quite well in assessing a graduate’s “return on investment”— what the graduate earns compared to the cost of his or her college education. Weissmann also cites a 2009 scholarly paper by Texas A&M Economics Professor Mark Hoekstra, who conducted an experiment to, in his words, “solve the elite college question.”
Hoekstra, recounts the writer, compared the earnings of white, male students who had barely missed the admissions cut-off for an “unnamed public flagship university” to those of students who had barely been accepted.
“Although the subjects were roughly similar in academic terms, the differences in their future earnings were profound,” Weissmann states. “Enrolling at the flagship increased wages by 20 percent.” He included a chart that he notes “illustrated vividly” the divide.
University of Texas at El Paso: UTEP, China ‘Swap’ Chemistry Undergrads
By Daniel Perez
UTEP News Service
May 29, 2012
Chinese foreign exchange student Laiwu Chen did not mince words when asked to share his initial impressions of UTEP and El Paso.
“I think the buildings are amazing, but the weather is too dry,” he said as he pointed to his chapped lips.
Chen is one of three students from Shantou University in southeast China who will immerse themselves in chemistry research during the next 10 weeks at The University of Texas at El Paso. They will be joined by eight other students, seven from other countries – Colombia, Germany, Mexico, and Poland. The German student will join the group in early June. There also is a U.S. student from Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan.
...
Meanwhile on the other side of the world, three UTEP students are conducting research at Shantou University, a 30-year-old institution located in the coastal Guangdong Province near the China Sea. The Miners at Shantou are senior chemistry majors Javier Grajeda, Gustavo Hernandez and Karen Ventura.
New Mexico State University: NMSU’s Confucius Institute helps high school student shine in competition
May 29, 2012
At just 15 years of age, Ruben Mena successfully went head-to-head against older high school students in a prestigious Chinese-language competition thanks to his confidence in his abilities and New Mexico State University’s Confucius Institute.
Earlier this month, Ruben placed second in the Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition held at the University of California, Los Angeles. His reward for finishing in the top two of the regional competition at UCLA is an invitation to attend the international tournament in Beijing in October. The Confucius Institute at NMSU will be paying for Ruben’s trip.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled by Ruben’s performance at the UCLA competition,” said Elvira Hammond, co-director of the Confucius Institute at NMSU. “Ruben came to us with a solid foundation in Chinese, but we were able to take him to that next level by preparing him for the Chinese Bridge competition.”
University of Houston: Student Researchers Seek to Develop New Therapies for Cancer
Center Led by Jan-Åke Gustafsson Announces Trio of Awards, First Ph.D. Graduate
May 29, 2012
Four University of Houston (UH) students are well on their way to emerging cancer research careers upon achieving significant milestones this spring in their work toward new therapies for prostate and breast cancer.
All studying at the UH Center for Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling (CNRCS), these students are examining what allows a person’s DNA to be read and expressed, which is vital in developing treatments for cancer. Established in 2009, the CNRCS is one of the focal points of the UH Health initiative, with its researchers involved in examining the many functions and behaviors of nuclear receptors, a class of proteins that regulate genes in response to hormones.
Three students studying prostate cancer in assistant professor Daniel Frigo’s lab recently were selected for a trio of awards. As a principal investigator at the CNRCS, Frigo leads the research technicians, postdoctoral fellows and students in his lab to pursue a better understanding of the function of nuclear receptors in cancer through interdisciplinary research.
New Mexico State University: Desert Data Jam: Local high school students apply creativity to data analysis
June 1, 2012
What could be better than bar graphs and pie charts for representing scientific data?
Stephanie Bestelmeyer and her colleagues at the Asombro Institute for Science Education decided high school science students ought to have what it takes to answer that question.
They created the first ever Desert Data Jam, a scientific poster competition for local high school science students, and presented the idea to area science teachers. Several teachers agreed that developing a data-driven poster project this spring would help their students better understand the value of scientific data and get them ready for the rigors of college-level science courses.
Science Writing and Reporting
Scientific American: What a Plant Knows
How does a Venus flytrap know when to snap shut? Can it actually feel an insect’s tiny, spindly legs? And how do cherry blossoms know when to bloom? Can they actually remember the weather?
Science is Cool
University of Houston: UH Students Develop Prototype Device That Translates Sign Language
Award-winning MyVoice Combines Vision of Engineering Technology and Industrial Design Students
May 30, 2012
Too often, communication barriers exist between those who can hear and those who cannot. Sign language has helped bridge such gaps, but many people are still not fluent in its motions and hand shapes.
Thanks to a group of University of Houston students, the hearing impaired may soon have an easier time communicating with those who do not understand sign language. During the past semester, students in UH’s engineering technology and industrial design programs teamed up to develop the concept and prototype for MyVoice, a device that reads sign language and translates its motions into audible words. Recently, MyVoice earned first place among student projects at the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) - Gulf Southwest Annual Conference.
...
MyVoice’s concept focuses on a handheld tool with a built-in microphone, speaker, soundboard, video camera and monitor. It would be placed on a hard surface where it reads a user’s sign language movements. Once MyVoice processes the motions, it then translates sign language into space through an electronic voice. Likewise, it would capture a person’s voice and can translate words into sign language, which is projected on its monitor.
Texas A&M University: Internet culture in China thrives despite censorship
May 31, 2012
One of China’s most popular microblogging services recently instituted a stringent user contract that penalizes bloggers for any comments that are judged to be offensive. Despite this kind of censorship, Texas A&M communication assistant professor Cara Wallis says that new media in China reflect changing values and are an important part of the way young users build their identities and social networks.
Today there are an estimated 513 million internet users and 975 million mobile phone subscribers in mainland China. Still, Wallis believes that people in other countries remain unaware of how lively the internet culture is in the world’s most populous nation. Instead, they focus on the government’s attempts to control the internet.
“Most westerners would be surprised how much discussion is going on,” Wallis said in a recent interview.
According to her research, the majority of internet users in China are unfazed by the reality of censorship. She says most people don’t seek information outside of the “Great Firewall” enough to care about being censored.
South Dakota State University: Harvey Dunn’s ‘Depictions of Weather’ on display at SD Art Museum
Friday, May 25, 2012
Rich and vibrantly colored prairie paintings by artist Harvey Dunn illustrate his “Depictions of Weather,” a collection of paintings on exhibit at the South Dakota Art Museum.
Seventeen large, oil-on-canvas paintings in the museum’s collection of more than 100 Dunn paintings, illustrate seasonal weather. His weather paintings will be on display until Dec. 2.
Dunn’s portrayal of weather demonstrates the ever changing, South Dakota conditions detailed in his prairie homestead images.