What does your handwriting say about you?

Recently the National Pen Company in the U.S announced their research about handwriting suggesting personal personalities and creates graphic references for the personal traits links to handwriting.

People with small handwriting tend to be shy, studious and meticulous, whereas outgoing people who love attention will have larger handwriting.
People with small handwriting tend to be shy, studious and meticulous, whereas outgoing people who love attention will have larger handwriting.

The type of looping created by the letters 'l' and 'e' can suggest a person's nature, for example, wide loops means someone is relaxed and spontaneous as well as open minded. People who write narrow loops tend to be skeptical of others and may restrict themselves from certain activities, which causes feelings of tension

If the dot of a letter is situated high above the base it suggests the writer has a great imagination. If the dot is close to the base, they are organised and empathetic. Procrastinators tend to dot their 'i's and 'j's to the left of the base letter, while child-like personality types will draw their dots as circles Long crosses on 't's suggests someone who is determined and enthusiastic, but also stubborn. Short crosses tend to be written by someone who is lazy.

Is Einstein’s speed limit theory right?

In the past 100 years, Albert Einstein’s assertion that there’s an ultimate speed limit – the speed of light – is widely accept and withstood countless tests. But recently some argue that that is not absolutely right. Postdoc Michael Hohensee and graduate student Nathan Leefer from University of California, Berkeley again cheched whether some particles break this law.

The team’s first attempt to test this fundamental tenet of the special theory of relativity demonstrated once again that Einstein was right, but Leefer and Hohensee are improving the experiment to push the theory’s limits even farther – and perhaps turn up a discrepancy that could help physicists fix holes in today’s main theories of the universe.

The team’s first attempt to test this fundamental tenet of the special theory of relativity demonstrated once again that Einstein was right, but Leefer and Hohensee are improving the experiment to push the theory’s limits even farther – and perhaps turn up a discrepancy that could help physicists fix holes in today’s main theories of the universe.

Hohensee, Leefer and Dmitry Budker, a UC Berkeley professor of physics, conducted the test using a new technique involving two isotopes of the element dysprosium. By measuring the energy required to change the velocity of electrons as they jumped from one atomic orbital to another while Earth rotated over a 12-hour period, they determined that the maximum speed of an electron – in theory, the speed of light, about 300 million meters per second – is the same in all directions to within 17 nanometers per second. Their measurements were 10 times more precise than previous attempts to measure the maximum speed of electrons.

The UC Berkeley physicists and colleagues at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, who provided crucial theoretical calculations, published their results this week in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Oalib

Solitary confinement causes psychology problems

Prisoners in solitary confinement almost spend all day in solitary units with no contacting with others. Because solitary confinement is wildly adopted at the discretion of prison administration, many inmates spend years, even decades, cut off from any real social interaction.

Inmates who are sent to solitary are not all the “worst of the worst”, like rapists and murders who continue their violent way even behind bars. But in fact many are placed in solitary for nonviolent offenses, and some are not even criminals, having been arrested on immigration charges. Others are thrown into isolation cells “for their own protection” because they are homosexual or transgendered or have been raped by other inmates.

Whatever the reasons, such extreme isolation and sensory deprivation can take a severe, sometimes permanent, toll on emotional and mental health. Researchers have found that prisoners in solitary quickly become withdrawn, hypersensitive to sights and sounds, paranoid, and more prone to violence and hallucinations. Craig Haney, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has documented several cases of individuals with no prior history of mental illness who nonetheless developed paranoid psychosis requiring medical treatment after prolonged solitary confinement. As damaging as the consequences are for otherwise healthy adults, they are even worse for adolescents, whose brains are still in their final stages of development, and the mentally ill, who already struggle to maintain a solid grasp on reality. About half of all prison suicides occur in isolation cells.

The mystery of molecules control through potassium channels

The mystery how the functions of potassium ion channels transform from inactivate state into activate state has been unveiled. This discovery will have various affections ranging from fundamental biology to the design of pharmaceuticals

The findings were published online July 28 in Nature.

"Our research clarifies the nature of this previously mysterious inactivation state. This gives us better understanding of fundamental biology and should improve the rational design of drugs, which often target the inactivated state of channels" said Benoît Roux, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Chicago.

Potassium channels, present in the cells of virtually living organisms, are core components in bioelectricity generation and cellular communication. Required for functions such as neural firing and muscle contraction, they serve as common targets in pharmaceutical development.

These proteins act as a gated tunnel through the cell membrane, controlling the flow of small ions into and out of cells. After being activated by an external signal, potassium channels open to allow ions through. Soon after, however, they close, entering an inactive state and are unable to respond to stimuli for 10 to up to 20 seconds.

The cause of this long recovery period, which is enormously slow by molecular standards, has remained a mystery, as structural changes in the protein are known to be almost negligible between the active and inactivated states -- differing by a distance equivalent to the diameter of a single carbon atom.

To shed light on this phenomenon, Roux and his team used supercomputers to simulate the movement and behavior of every individual atom in the potassium channel and its immediate environment. After computations corresponding to millions of core-hours, the team discovered that just 12 water molecules were responsible for the slow recovery of these channels.

They found that when the potassium channel is open, water molecules quickly bind to tiny cavities within the protein structure, where they block the channel in a state that prevents the passage of ions. The water molecules are released slowly only after the external stimulus has been removed, allowing the channel to be ready for activation again. This computer simulation-based finding was then confirmed through osmolarity experiments in the laboratory.

"Observing this was a complete surprise, but it made a lot of sense in retrospect," Roux said. "Better understanding of this ubiquitous biological system will change how people think about inactivation and recovery of these channels, and has the potential to someday impact human health."

oalib via ScienceDaily

Overweight students are less likely to be accepted to university than their thinner counterparts

A long time preparation is the key to enter universities, and now American scientists believe how much you weigh could influence whether you are accepted.

Researchers at Bowling State University found that overweight students, especially girls, are less likely to get into university than thinner students.

The group of psychologists studied almost a thousand applications for postgraduate courses and found that academics favoured thin candidates in face to face interviews.

However, there was no significant difference in success rates when conversations were carried out over the phone or when credentials were assessed remotely.

Psychologist Jacob Burmeister and colleagues at the university asked 97 applicants for psychology graduate programmes at more than 950 universities in the US whether they had an interview in person or on the phone, and whether or not they received an offer.

Dr Burmeister said: 'When we looked at that we could see a clear relation between their weight and offers of admission for those applicants who had had an in person interview.

'The success rate for people who had had no interview or a phone interview was pretty much equal, but when in-person interviews were involved, there was quite a bit of difference, even when applicants started out on equal footing with their grades, test scores and letters of recommendation.'
The study, which was published in the journal Obesity, also suggested the weight bias was stronger for female applicants.

Oalib

World’s first flying bicycle was made

Almost every child in his or her childhood dreams of driving a vehicle down the street, over your house and past the sky. Well, that fantasy can be reality with the invention of the Paravelo flying bicycle.

A pair of flight enthusiasts, John Foden, 37, and Yannick Read, 42, have devised a two-wheeled bike -- christened the XploreAir Paravelo -- that transforms into an aircraft. The British inventors say it is the world's first fully functional flying bicycle.

The machine can travel at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour on the road and 25 miles per hour in the air, reaching altitudes of up to 4,000 feet.

"The Wright brothers were former bicycle mechanics so there's a real connection between cycling and the birth of powered flight that is recaptured in the spirit of the Paravelo," says so-creator John Foden.

The flying bicycle looks like a conventional bike connected to a lightweight trailer, which houses a giant fan, fuel for the contraption's engine and the flexible fold-away wing. Both the airframe and bike are made from aircraft grade aluminum.

The bicycle can be disconnected from its trailer for inner city use, then docks to form a 'para-trike' for take-off. In order to fly, the bike and trailer are fastened together, the wing is unfurled and an electric starter fires the biofuel-powered 249cc motor. Tired Tour de France competitors might want to consider this option before taking on a particularly daunting hill climb.

The Paravelo needs a long stretch of open ground, clear of obstructions for takeoff. Once airborne, it can stay in the air for up to three hours. Once it's in the air, the flying bicycle's inventors say that it controls like a conventional fan-powered paraglider.

The fan can also be detached entirely from its housing and strapped directly onto your back. Worn like this, no license is required to fly it in many countries -- including the U.S. and the UK -- but the United States Powered Paragliding Association strenuously recommends proper training.

So unless you have done it before, jumping off the closest cliff in your new Paravelo is not recommended.

The bicycle is small enough to be taken on public transport, and the entire vehicle can be stowed in a garage or carried up stairs and stored at home.

Oalib via CNN

Arguments on designation of big nonbanks to be SIFIs

Normally a policy just published is controversial because a variety of people beneficially involved. But this list which has not been actually a policy attracts wide attention among people.

Recently AIG and Prudential, two insurers confirmed they are designated as “systemically important financial institutions” (SIFIs) by the new Financial Stability Oversight Council, a regulatory department. And so did GE Capital, the big group GE’s financial arm. These firms and perhaps others, have joined America’s largest banks and clearinghouses in being labeled as “SIFIs”. These on the list of being designated SIFIs will be regulated by the Fed and subjected to tougher capital and operational requirements. Jack Lew, the treasury secretary, said the designations would “protect taxpayers, reduce risk in the financial system, and promoted financial stability."This signals because they are thought to be significant to effect America’s economy, they should get special attention. Some are worried about it. Putting these institutions in the charge of the Fed will inevitably undermine their ability to innovate, says Peter Wallison, a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute. And joining the group of entities perceived to be too big to fail means they will enjoy an implicit government guarantee. That will put them at a funding advantage against smaller companies, he says, and imply that their products are government-backed, a huge help for insurers in particular.

Oalib

Malpractice claims should not hold up in court

Analysis about patients suing doctors for malpractice may improve information management system.

A study shows that the most common reason patients give for their doctors is a delay or failure to diagnose a disease.

The study reviewed information on medical malpractice claims against primary care doctors in the United States, Australia, France and Canada and found that the most frequently missed disease were cancer and heart attacks in adults and meningitis in children.

The second most common reason for a lawsuit was medication errors, such as prescription-related errors or adverse drug reactions.

Although the majority of the medical malpractice claims should not hold up in court, understanding malpractice suits can help doctors identify situations that may result in adverse events for patients, as well as systems that can be put into place to help prevent errors from happening.

Ultimately the study analyzing malpractice claims can contribute to improving the quality of medical practice. For example the doctor who received malpractice claims might talk it to other doctors.

The new study may also help identify areas of medicine that may benefit from better risk management systems, such as computer systems that let doctors check what medications a patient is already taking before prescribing another drug.

by Oalib

Material with record-breaking surface area was made

Material with record-breaking surface area was made

A new material with world record-breaking surface area and other properties has been synthesized by researchers from Uppsala University, Sweden, which was thought to be impossible. The magnesium carbonate material was formed in an unexpected way and the results have been published in PLOS ONE.

For the past 100 years, it has been claimed in the scientific literature that magnesium carbonate with disordered form is extremely hard to make.

"A Thursday afternoon in 2011, we slightly changed the synthesis parameters of the earlier employed unsuccessful attempts, and by mistake left the material in the reaction chamber over the weekend. Back at work on Monday morning we discovered that a rigid gel had formed and after drying this gel we started to get excited," says Johan Goméz de la Torre.

The magnesium carbonate material that has been given the name Upsalite is foreseen to reduce the amount of energy needed to control environmental moisture in the electronics and drug formulation industry as well as in hockey rinks and ware houses. It can also be used for collection of toxic waste, chemicals or oil spill and in drug delivery systems, for odor control and sanitation after fire.

Lock-in effect may not exist

Today a researcher put on his blog that the fact underwater borrowers have been locked out of moving to new jobs may be not true. It is highly recognized that the housing market has had a lot to do with the size and stubborn nature of the Great Recession. A lock-in effect for underwater borrowers was used to explain the inner relationship. A lock-in effect is the phenomenon that people could not move because homeowners are underwater borrowers and unwilling to face the costs. He said in fact , being underwater might lead people to feel liberated from their houses.

He argued with a done paper by by Yuliya Demyanyk, Dmytro Hryshko, María José Luengo-Prado, and Bent E. Sørensen that the most locked in homeowners are those that have only a small amount of equity in their houses. Those with lots of equity are more likely to move to another city than those with little equity when their local economies receive a positive employment shock, and very slightly less likely to move when their local economies received a negative shock. But those with negative equity are more likely to move under all circumstances. Perhaps such people feel like they have nothing to lose, so they might as well move.

Perceiving a 4 year old body leads to child’s memory

Mel Slater of the University of Barcelona in Spain and his team did a experiment in which they put 30 people in a virtual reality environment in the body of a 4-year-old child. They thought they had the body of a 4-year-old child. For example, they believed they were tall as the child. The virtual body moving in sync with movements of the real body, could be viewed from a first-person perspective and in a mirror in the virtual reality environment. In the virtual environment all objects are bigger than they actually were, but they judged their body to be as a 4-year-old child.

It suggests that we reference our own body size to judge the size of the environment we are in. The researchers also has shown that these illusion may has the same effect on higher-level cognitive process, like memory of childhood.

The team’s previous research shows that when a person acquires a body type they have never experienced, social and cultural expectations often influence how they relate to the new body.

Things we experience in a virtual landscape can also have profound effects on our behaviour in the real world: in a separate study by researchers at Stanford University in California, giving people superhero powers in a virtual environment made them behave in a more helpful manner in real life.

The researchers say that brain imaging studies would help them to understand the reorganisation that occurs when assimilating a new body. The motivation springs from a project looking at how to embody people in child-sized robots. "We thought we ought to look at the consequences of that first," says Slater.

What contribute to air pollution responsible for more than 2 million deaths each year

Climate changes are the central issues when people argue air pollution. New study suggested that a changing climate can strengthen the effects of air pollution and increase death rates, but this is a small effect and only accounts for a small proportion of current deaths related to air pollution.

The study has been published on 12 July, in IOP Publishing’s journal Environmental Research Letters.

The study showed that around 2.1 million deaths are caused each year by human-caused increases in fine particulates matter (PM2.5) and 470,000 because of human-caused increases in ozone. And many of these deaths are assumed to happen in East Asia and South Asia, where population is high and air pollution is severe.

Based on the study, the number of these deaths that can be attributed to changes in the climate since the industrial era is, however, relatively small. It estimates that a changing climate results in 1500 deaths due to ozone and 2200 deaths related to PM2.5 each year.

Climate change affects air quality in many ways, possibly leading to local increases or decreases in air pollution. For instance, temperature and humidity can change the reaction rates which determine the formation or lifetime of a pollutant, and rainfall can determine the time that pollutants can accumulate.

Higher temperatures can also increase the emissions of organic compounds from trees, which can then react in the atmosphere to form ozone and particulate matter.

Asian Origins of Native American Dogs Confirmed by DNA

Native American dogs were thought to have been extinct because early Europeans brought diseases to them. According to recent research that traces these breeds to ancient Asia orgins and they are preserved and they are thriving.

The arrival of Europeans in the Americas has generally been thought to have led to the extinction of indigenous dog breeds; but a comprehensive genetic study has found that the original population of native American dogs has been almost completely preserved, says Peter Savolainen, a researcher in evolutionary genetics at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

In fact, American dog breeds trace their ancestry to ancient Asia, Savolainen says. These native breeds have 30 percent or less modern replacement by European dogs, he says.

"Our results confirm that American dogs are a remaining part of the indigenous American culture, which underscores the importance of preserving these populations," he says.

Savolainen's research group, in cooperation with colleagues in Portugal, compared mitochondrial DNA from Asian and European dogs, ancient American archaeological samples, and American dog breeds, including Chihuahuas, Peruvian hairless dogs and Arctic sled dogs.

They traced the American dogs' ancestry back to East Asian and Siberian dogs, and also found direct relations between ancient American dogs and modern breeds.

"It was especially exciting to find that the Mexican breed, Chihuahua, shared a DNA type uniquely with Mexican pre-Columbian samples," he says. "This gives conclusive evidence for the Mexican ancestry of the Chihuahua."

May greed has an evolutionary advantage?

Religion and science have litter agreements, but they share this view: greed is not good for you. The definition of greed is that An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth. Greed tells you to think you have more than what you have got."Greed never allows you to think you have enough; it always destroys you by making you strive ever harder for more," Rabbi Benjamin Blech writes in "Taking Stock: A Spiritual Guide to Rising Above Life's Ups and Down."

Not many people think greed is good. But might it have some evolutionary advantage?

Paul Zak, , might understand. He talked about greed as part of a lecture series titled "Science and the Seven Deadly Sins" at the New York Academy of Sciences.

"The seven deadly sins are still deadly because they separate us from other people," he said. "They are all about putting 'me' first, and that is maladaptive for social creatures like us."

Zak , a neuroeconomist and professor at Claremont Graduate University has done studies that have manipulated brain chemistry in human beings to show that oxytocin causes people to be moral.

Zak said that his research suggests that people who are greedy have brains that work differently. "Their character traits are similar to those of psychopaths. They simply do not care about others the way most people do, and the dysfunctional processing of oxytocin in their brains appears to be one reason for this."

It's hard to find a positive slant on greed if you mean the moral aspect of greed.

Evidences show time of birth has relationship with health of babies

It seems to be unthinkable babies conceived at certain times of the year appear healthier than those conceived during other times. Now scientists have shown that the unimaginable phenomenon is actually true. And they may know why it happens.

Since the 1930s, researchers have noticed that children born in winter were more prone to health problems later in life: slower growth, mental illness, poor health status, and early death. Among the proposed explanations were diseases, harsh temperatures, and higher pollution levels associated with winter, when those expectant mothers and near-term fetuses might be most vulnerable. However, as economists looked at demographics, the picture got more complicated. Mothers who are nonwhite, unmarried, or lack a college education are more likely to have children with health and developmental problems. They are also more likely to conceive in the first half of the year. That made it hard to tease out the socioeconomic effects from the seasonal ones.

May is the most unfavorable time to get pregnant, study conducted by Economists Janet Currie and Hannes Schwandt finds. Babies conceived this month (and thus delivered in winter) were 13% more likely to be born premature, and their gestation time was almost a week below the average, Currie and Schwandt report.

"Healthy" Foods are not as they are labeled

People tend to choose larger portions of food if they are labeled as being “healthier”, even if they have the same number of calories, according to a new study.

That misconception can lead to people eating larger portions of so-called healthy foods, and therefore more calories.

whether health and nutrition claims had any influence on people choosing portion sizes of these foods? A study led by Barbara Livingstone, a professor at the University of Ulster, uncovered the question.

The researchers asked 186 adults to assess the appropriate portion sizes of foods. Given a bowl of coleslaw, the participants served themselves more of the coleslaw labeled “healthier” than the coleslaw labeled “standard.” For instance, obese men served themselves 103 grams of healthy coleslaw and 86 grams of standard coleslaw.

In reality, the healthy-labeled coleslaw had just as many calories—941 kilojoules (or 224 calories) for every 100 grams—as the “standard” coleslaw, which had 937 kilojoules (or 223 calories).

Additionally, people tended to underestimate how many calories were in a serving for the “healthier” coleslaw. The participants most often thought the “healthier” coleslaw contained 477 kilojoules, or 113 calories. In contrast, they were not far off in estimating the calories in the “standard” coleslaw.

Why one can not keep a secret

Unlike what we usually think about the brain, it doesn’t have one central driver. Instead, the brain consists of a lot of competing strength that are trying to drive the ship. In fact one is not one thing. In the brain, there are different political parties which form a parliament that decide what you do. This is why people often find it is hard to decide and cajole themselves and contract with themselves. It’s because these strengths are all trying to be in control.

This sheds light on a lot of issues about human behavior. One of them is about why one can’t keep a secret. You may say it could be a toaster or something like that. Maybe you need to take over rivals framework to understand what a secret is, which is that a part of your brain wants to tell something and another part of your brain doesn’t want to because of the social consequences of it. You need multiple parts of the brain that are in competition with one another. If all these different parts want to tell the story, then it’s just a good story. And if none of the parts want to tell it, then it’s just something you don't do. It’s that tension that you get from different populations in the brain, that's what constitutes a secret.

The math in the twelve-tone

First number the pitches in order from 0 to 11 to name the intervals of twelve in the circle with twelve referring dots. When you draw lines connecting the first and the last intervals of a serial, which are both minor thirds, you can have several parallel lines with arrows on them. If we don’t move the dots and rotate the lines by 180 degrees, the blue line between D and C# would end up being line from G# to G with the arrow pointing the other direction. The same thing is true for all the other lines. This is not an accident. It is the principle with triton of twelve-tone.

Study shows that an Avatar teaches you how to lose weight

A study, published in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology recently looked into how that effect relates to weight loss--but used virtual people in place of real ones.

In the small study, women who watched virtual behaviors of themselves ended up exercising more in real-life, too.

It sounds pretty unbelievable, but the study suggests that watching virtual people work out could help you lose weight.

In psychology, there's a term "social cognitive theory." Part of that theory illustrates that when good things happen to people who behaved a certain way, observers are more likely to imitate that behavior, especially if the observer and the observed look alike. Seeing your twin sister drawing? Probably helpful. Watching movie stars do it? Maybe not so much.

The team of researchers made an avatar that looked like each woman in a group of eight. After that, the researchers had the women make a weekly clinic visit, where they watched a video of their avatar making healthy choices. One week the women saw the virtual person choosing the right portion size; another week the well-disciplined virtual person walked at an appropriate speed across a treadmill. After four weeks, the eight women lost a modest average of 3.5 pounds, which is about what you'd expect when adhering to standard dieting practices. 3.5 pounds might not sound that much, but the process could lead to more weight loss, larger studies have shown.

How to Learn a Language Quickly

Researches and simulations show that one can learn the meaning of words rapidly if he or she assume that every object has only one word.

Richard Blythe from the University of Edinburgh in the UK look into the problem. Small-scale lab tests have shown that children and adults use mutual exclusivity to determine word meaning. But researchers don’t know how effective this strategy is compared with others when dealing with hundreds or thousands of words.

To solve this question, Blythe and his colleagues used a physics analogy like others in the past. They assume word learning resembles some problems in nonequilibrium statistical physics, where a large number of entities (such as molecules and atoms) interact, and the probability distributions for certain states evolve over time. In language learning, a word like “cup” will start off with many confounders, and so the probability of “cup” meaning cup will be low. But over time this probability—and that of other word-meaning pairs—will grow to one, analogous to the system approaching equilibrium.

The researchers figure it out that the mutual exclusivity assumption is extremely effective.

Linda Smith, a cognitive scientist from Indiana University in Bloomington, says that mutual exclusivity is a common theme in brain studies. “Competition is how the brain works—in all domains, at all levels,” she says. If the brain forms an oassociatin between a word and an object, this will inhibit other words from forming a similar association with the same object. She expects some psychologists will take issue with the idea that learners retain a set of confounders for each word from one utterance to the next, but she says that similar kinds of ambiguity are included in theories of the brain’s memory retrieval.