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- Plan to get clean water in poorer homes
Faculty and students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are setting out to discover whether applying business principles to public health problems can result in solutions that will save lives in developing countries with limited access to safe drinking water. The Carolina Global Water Partnership has been established to bring together experts from UNCs School of Public Health, Kenan-Flagler Business School and Kenan Institute-Asia. They will focus on increasing the availability and usage of water therapy technologies that can be used in homes in the developing world that do not have clean running water. The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 2 million children die each year from diarrhea and related illnesses caused by unsafe drinking water and inadequate hygiene and sanitation........
Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:01:15 GMT - Physicists Tackle Knotty Puzzle
Electrical cables, garden hoses and strands of holiday lights seem to get themselves hopelessly tangled with no help at all. Now research initiated by an undergraduate student at the University of California, San Diego has resulted in the first model of how knots form. The study, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, investigated the likelihood of knot formation and the types of knots formed in a tumbled string. The scientists say they were interested in the problem because it has a number of applications, including to the biophysics research questions their group commonly studies........
Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:01:15 GMT - Toll charges reduce travel time
A smart introduction of a variable toll charge, with different rates at different departure times, reduces traffic jams. Even small toll charges can exert a large effect on the total travel time, concludes Dutch researcher Dusica Joksimovic. Joksimovic developed a simulation model that can help policy makers to estimate the consequences of various toll charges. The model predicts, where, when and how much toll must be charged for the desired policy outcomes, such as reducing the total travel time of all travellers or maximising the toll incomes (revenues). Based on a toll value entered, the model iteratively calculates the impacts on road congestion and the total toll incomes and searches for an optimal composition of the toll charge........
Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:01:15 GMT - Online game feeds music search engine project
UC San Diego electrical engineers and computer researchers are working together on a computerized system that will make it easy for people who are not music experts (like the senior authors mom) to find the kind of music they want to listen to without knowing the names of artists or songs. In a new paper, the scientists demonstrate that the online music game they created provides crucial data for building the back-end of a music search engine that allows users to type in words in order to find songs........
Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:01:15 GMT - How consumers miscalculate sale prices
Quick: Youre walking by a store window and you see a sign that says, 20% off the original price plus an additional 25% off the already reduced sale price. So, how much is the discount" Consumers often mistakenly think the total discount is 45% off the original price when, in fact, the true discount is 40%. A thought-provoking new study from the recent issue of the Journal of Consumer Research explores why consumers frequently think a double discount is a better deal than a single discount of the same total magnitude........
Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:01:15 GMT - Skyscrapers: past, present, future
Soon after the World Trade Center's twin towers were brought down by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, some observers questioned whether tall buildings - now viewed as potential targets for future attacks - would continue to be built. Among those who predicted the world's skylines would not yield to such threats was University of Illinois architecture professor Mir Ali........
Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:01:15 GMT - Biodegradable polymers to deliver genes
In work that could lead to safe and effective techniques for gene treatment, MIT scientists have found a way to fine-tune the ability of biodegradable polymers to deliver genes. Gene treatment, which involves inserting new genes into patients' cells to fight diseases like cancer, holds great promise but has yet to realize its full potential, in part because of safety concerns over using viruses to carry the genes........
Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:01:15 GMT - Multi-million research project on rice epigenetics
Using a novel "deep sequencing" technology that can in one fell swoop decode 50 million sequences representing well over a billion bases of DNA, a research team led by University of Delaware researchers is working to unmask where, why and how certain genes are switched on or off in rice--a crop vital to the world's food supply........
Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:01:15 GMT - converting poultry litter into bio-oil
Foster Agblevor, associate professor of biological systems engineering, is leading the team of scientists in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (www.cals.vt.edu) at Virginia Tech (www.vt.edu) developing transportable pyrolysis units that will convert poultry litter into bio-oil, providing an economical disposal system while reducing environmental effects and biosecurity issues........
Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:01:15 GMT - Humans mispredict their emotions after decision making
Behavioral research over the past 15 years has confirmed what anyone who has purchased a house or dumped a significant other could tell you: When people make decisions, they anticipate that they may regret their choices. It is important that we maintain this ability, because as the aforementioned house-buyers and spouse-dumpers know, regret can be a terrible feeling........
Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:01:15 GMT - Hollywood movies hurt students' understanding of science
Movies such as Spiderman 2 and Speed generate excitement among audiences with their cool special effects. But they also defy the laws of physics, contributing to students ignorance about science. Two University of Central Florida professors show just how poorly Hollywood writers and directors understand science in an article reported in the German journal Praxis der Naturwissenschaften Physik. Common sense may indicate that people should know the stunts in movies are just make believe, but the professors say thats not necessarily true........
Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:01:15 GMT - Marital violence among Asian-American couples
UC Davis research is shining new light on a neglected issue: marital violence in Asian Americans. In a new analysis, the scientists observed that, as expected, violence is more common among Asian-American couples who report marital distress. But UC Davis psychology professor Nolan Zane and graduate student Manveen Dhindsa observed that three other factors also stood out as significant risks for marital violence. Independent of marital distress, violence was more likely to occur if a family lacked closeness or if a spouse suffered from an anxiety disorder or stress correlation to acculturation into American society........
Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:01:15 GMT - A New Wrinkle in Thin Film Science
A remarkably simple experiment devised by researchers yields important information about the mechanical properties of thin films--nanoscopically thin layers of material that are deposited onto a metal, ceramic or semiconductor base. The research results, funded by the National Science Foundation and performed at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, appears in the August 3, 2007, issue of Science........
Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:01:15 GMT - Why do some teens get more out of youth activities?
A University of Illinois study confirms what has long been thought about the benefits of organized youth activities: Its not enough to appear in the yearbooks Pep Club picture or show up for the really big games. To maximize the benefits of any youth activity, teens must invest time and energy in them, participate because they truly enjoy the activity, and take on a leadership role........
Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:01:15 GMT - Forecasts on 401(k) retirement saving behaviors
A Dartmouth economist, working with colleagues from Harvard and MIT, has developed projections of future levels of retirement wealth to address what some analysts have called a perfect storm of events that threatens the retirement security of future retirees. Over the past 25 years, weve seen a fundamental shift in the way Americans save for retirement, says Steven Venti, professor of economics at Dartmouth. Traditional pension plans based on salary and years of service are withering away while self-directed personal savings plans such as 401(k) plans are growing rapidly. At the same time, the large baby boom population is entering their retirement years. This raises two big concerns. If the retiring boomers all decide to cash out their pensions at the same time, will an asset-selling frenzy lead to a financial market crisis and will the next generation of retirees have enough wealth to retire"........
Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:01:15 GMT
