June 9, 2008, 8:43 PM CT

Interfering with the Global Positioning System

You can't always trust your GPS gadget. As researchers have long known, perplexing electrical activity in the upper atmospheric zone called the ionosphere can tamper with signals from GPS satellites.

Now, new research and monitoring systems are clarifying what happens to disruptive clouds of electrons and other electrically charged particles, known as ions, in the ionosphere. The work may lead to regional predictions of reduced GPS reliability and accuracy.

One team of scientists has recently observed Earth's aurora, which is a prominent manifestation of ionospheric electrical activity, in the act of disrupting GPS equipment. Other researchers have successfully tested a way to forecast GPS disturbances for marine users, with likely extension to users on land.

Some research groups are turning the tables and employing GPS receivers as tools with which to conduct basic research on the electrical-current structures of the ionosphere.

The scientific reports on these and other recent developments are available in a special section of Space Weather: The International Journal of Research and Applications, a publication of the American Geophysical Union, or AGU.

A magazine-style article that introduces the section was posted online Friday, June 6. It summarizes past research and operational developments regarding ionospheric effects on GPS, and discusses potential future improvements in the field......... Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

June 4, 2008, 10:51 PM CT

Road traffic deaths in China have soared

The number of road traffic deaths in China has soared almost 100% in two decades, reveals a study reported in the journal Injury Prevention.

The pattern was not restricted to areas of major urbanisation and development, but was also seen in rural locations and sparsely populated areas, the findings show.

In 1990, road traffic injuries became the ninth leading cause of death and disability worldwide. They are set to shoot up to third place by 2020.

In China, the largest developing country in the world, road traffic injuries are already the leading cause of death in people up to the age of 45.

The authors used national statistics on transport and deaths police reports, and data on regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP), road quality, and the number of vehicles in each of the 31 provinces to inform their analysis and map the geographic distribution of road deaths between 1985 and 2005.

The findings showed that road traffic deaths increased 95% from 3.9 to 7.6 per 100 000 of the population between 1985 and 2005.

During this time, the number of cars on the road increased 9-fold, and the number of other vehicles, principally motorcycles, jumped by a factor of 54.

There was no link between the rate of deaths and regional GDP, road quality, or the average number of road vehicles in the province......... Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

May 22, 2008, 10:24 PM CT

Taking care of business shouldn't be just for men

Studies reveal that in the dog-eat-dog, look-out-for-No. 1, highly competitive business world, only the aggressive, risk-taking alpha male can expect to succeed as an entrepreneur. That statement may sound sexist, but it represents a usually held gender stereotype. A team led by a University of Missouri researcher observed that these stereotypes influence whether or not men and women decide to pursue entrepreneurship as a viable career option.

Perception may limit both men and women in the decision to become entrepreneurs, said Daniel Turban, professor and chair of the Department of Management in the Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business. One sex is not inherently more qualified than the other; unfortunately, the underlying societal stereotypes associating entrepreneurship with masculine characteristics may influence peoples intentions to pursue entrepreneurial careers. An interesting result of our study is that both men and women reported similar intentions when entrepreneurship was presented as gender neutral. This suggests that common gender stereotypes can be nullified.

Eventhough entrepreneurship is a masculine-stereotyped domain, Turban said a number of of the characteristics thought to beimportant to entrepreneurial success also are traditionally feminine. For example, caring and nurturing, building relationships with others, and humility are typically attributed to females, but also characterize good entrepreneurship......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

May 19, 2008, 9:13 PM CT

Widespread airbag use could result in dramatic cost savings

As per research reported in the recent issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, the new generation of airbags not only helps protect motor vehicle collision (MVC) victims from injury and death, but also are linked to dramatic cost saving to trauma centers. The study shows that the deployment of airbags in MVCs, especially in conjunction with the use of a seatbelt, significantly reduce injuries to the brain, face, spine and chest; as well as lower in-hospital mortality rates, injury severity and hospital-acquired infections for MVC victims.

The study suggests that the optimal use of airbags could potentially reduce the use of resources at trauma centers, thus lowering costs. As per the researchers, if all unrestrained MVC victims reviewed in the study had used both an airbag and a seatbelt, the estimated cost savings in terms of infection-related deaths and saved hospital days would be more than $60 million over a period of 11 years.

Injury is the leading cause of death among persons age 45 years and younger, and motor vehicle collisions are the most common cause of injury. The original airbag, which was widely available in the 1980s, was linked to injury and death, especially in young children and drivers of small stature. Depowered, or second-generation airbags, were mandated 1998 in response to evidence that the original airbags were linked to increased risk of injury due to deployment at a very high velocity. This is the first study to evaluate the potential impact of the use of airbags on a Level I trauma center......... Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

May 18, 2008, 9:46 PM CT

Item! Candidates are buying your vote

Mention the words vote buying and modern-day political villains Jack Abramoff and Tony Rezko probably come to mind, or perhaps special interest groups that donate to a politicians campaign and expect support when relevant bills come to vote. It may shock American sensibilities to learn that, in an economic sense, our votes are bought with every election in the form of campaign promises that are paid later at a cost to the voter in the form of taxes. While the Tama number of Hall era of beer and sandwiches campaigns has passed, campaign promises are a central strategy in securing voters in the center of the electorate. In a daring new article for the Journal of Political Economy, Vote Buying: General Elections, economists Eddie Dekel (Tel Aviv and Northwestern), Matthew O. Jackson (Stanford), and Asher Wolinsky (Northwestern) explore a theoretical voting system where, in addition to the already accepted campaign promises, votes can be bought and sold, free of stigma. Election strategy is often in comparison to strategic games, and Dekel and his co-authors provide the model for calculating the economics of the various forms of vote buying. In doing so, they shed light on the economics of our approaching general election.

Building on work showing a connection between the decline of direct vote buying and the rise of government spending on social programs, Dekel and his co-authors look at the mechanics of different vote buying strategies and calculate the economic costs of both systems by imagining a scenario where both systems are allowed without moral weight given to either side. In this model, the politician may either guarantee a vote through an up-front payment or make a campaign promise of a later pay-off, with no guarantee of a later vote. The authors find that direct vote buying tends to involve only a small outlay of money and a small group of people. Conversely, when parties compete only through campaign promises, the total payments received by voters tend to be substantially higher than under up-front vote buying. The authors also observed that when parties compete only through campaign promises, the voters whose preferences matter are a specific subset near the median voter, whereas a simple bought vote requires no commitment after the election and does not consider voter preference at any point......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

Sun, 18 May 2008 23:59:00 GMT

Types of Port Wine

Ports vary in color, taste, and complexity based on the grapes used to produce them and the material used in the aging process. Among the most commonly found types of port are:

Tawny Port - Tawny port is made from red wine grapes, aged in wood. A reserve tawny is one that has been aged at least seven years. Tawny ports are usually light yellow in color and have a slightly "nutty" taste. Tawny ports made from a single vintage are called "colheitas" and indicate the vintage year on the bottle.

Ruby Port - Just as the name indicates, ruby ports are deep red in color. These are the least expensive ports and are made with red wine grapes and aged in stainless steel to preserve the color. Generally, ruby ports are aged from three to five years.

Vintage Port - The finest kind of port wine, vintage port comes from a single year's grape production. Not every year is declared a vintage year in Portugal and, as with fine Bordeaux or Burgundy wines, some years' growing conditions create a better product. Vintage ports are aged a maximum of 2 1/2 years before bottling.

LBV Port - LBV or "Late Bottle Vintage" ports were originally crafted to be vintage ports. However, due to lack of demand or other factors, they are left in the barrel longer than allowed for a vintage port. Generally, LBV ports are lighter in color and texture than the vintage cousins.

(photo © eurodrifter/cc license) Posted by: Sandy Mitchell      Read more     Source

Sat, 17 May 2008 02:10:59 GMT

Bad day for this fish

What you see above is getting to be a regular sight when we go out to Roundrock these days. The unfortunate fish in that poor photo (on extreme zoom for my little camera) was trapped against the overflow screen when the lake was pouring through it. (Looks like another inch of movement and it might have found a way through the screen and onto the adventure of the intermittent pond.)

All those years when the lake was just a muddy puddle at the base of the dam left me thinking that if only I could have a full lake, all would be right in the world. And all those years when the lake was just a muddy puddle at the base of the dam left me thinking that I would never get to stock fish in it. (Had I been able to stock the lake with fish five years ago, you can just imagine the fish stories I would be telling you now!)

This spring, I get to see the other side of the matter. The lake is so full that the overflow drain is getting clogged with debris and the spillway is eroding dangerously. And I seem to have so many fish that they are clogging the system with their mortality.

I thought a full lake would be a pastoral water feature, passive and lovely and really requiring no intervention on my part. I guess not.

Missouri calendar:

• Dewberries bloom.

Today in Missouri history:

• Willard Preble Hall was born on this date in 1820. As governor he lead the state in the closing months of the Civil War after having been nearly captured by Confederate troops.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

May 14, 2008, 8:34 PM CT

Racism not an issue in firing of NBA coaches

Race is not a factor in the firing of NBA coaches, eventhough white coaches with losing records had somewhat longer tenures before being fired than African-American coaches with more losses than wins, a new study shows.

The University of Michigan study looked at differences between firing of African-American and white coaches in the National Basketball Association. The study found no difference in "technical efficiency" by race of coach, and found no evidence that there are differences in firings based on race, says lead researcher Rodney Fort, U-M professor in the Division of Kinesiology.

"The only strange thing about race that we came up with is that of the coaches who were fired, white coaches seemed to have a little bit longer tenure," Fort said. In other words, losing white coaches may get a slight benefit of the doubt relative to African-American coaches. Fort stressed this as an area for future research.

Fort said the NBA is the most integrated professional sport, so the results are not all that surprising, but they are significant.

The market for coaches in the NBA works like any other healthy labor market is ideally supposed to work--coaches must perform. By using the same scoring method scientists used, owners can calculate their current coach's value, or technical efficiency, by how a number of wins were produced. It appears that a number of owners already use the score system, since the league average score was about 13 percent higher than the average score of fired coaches, as per the paper. This is a valuable tool when setting salaries, Fort said......... Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

May 14, 2008, 8:28 PM CT

Aiming to sway voters

The 2004 presidential candidates reached out to voters across the political aisle but not in a genuinely conciliatory spirit, as per a new analysis which says that George W. Bush and John Kerry sought to peel away voters from the opposing party using hot-button issues. The strategy leads to fragmentation, say political scientists, as candidates focus on multiple controversial issues, such as stem cell research or immigration, often communicating different priorities in an effort to gain votes.

D. Sunshine Hillygus, Frederick S. Danziger Associate Professor of Government in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, and Todd G. Shields, professor of political science at the University of Arkansas, extensively studied campaign strategy during the 2004 general election, work that may illuminate strategy in the current presidential race. The research has been published in a new book, "The Persuadable Voter: Wedge Issues in Presidential Campaigns" (Princeton University Press, 2008).

We were surprised by the number of different issues that candidates took a stand on, and the individualization of messages to each voter, Hillygus says. By microtargeting these wedge issues, someone from the opposite party might be convinced to vote for the candidate on the basis of that issue. However, in emphasizing different controversial issues to different voters, it becomes more difficult for the rest of the electorate to understand the real priorities of the candidate......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

May 14, 2008, 7:45 PM CT

Estimated 3.2 Million Burmese Potentially Affected

As a number of as 3.2 million Burmese are estimated to be affected by the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis, as per geographic risk models developed by scientists from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Lehman College, CUNY. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the scientists calculated the likely distribution of the population of Burma (also known as Myanmar) and developed maps of the regions at greatest risk from the storm's effects. The maps and a summary of the current humanitarian situation are available at www.jhsph.edu/burmacyclone.

"We estimate that 20 percent of the population in the four affected administrative divisions could be affected by Cyclone Nargis," said Shannon Doocy, PhD, an assistant professor with the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response, who developed the vulnerability estimates with colleagues from the Bloomberg School's Center for Public Health and Human Rights, and from Lehman College. "These are rough estimates, but our calculations could be of great help to relief agencies that are trying to provide aid on the ground." As per the calculations, the Ayeyarwady region was hardest hit, with 1.8 million people affected; another 1.1 million were potentially affected in the Yangon administrative division. At least 100,000 people in both the Bago East and Mon divisions were also affected. The United Nations estimates that as a number of as 220,000 are missing following the cyclone and that 63,000 to 101,000 people were killed......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source