- February 9, 2010
- 06:50 AM
- 2 views
How many words for Red?
by Sean Roberts in The Adventures of Auck
The distribution of colour terms on Wikipedia correlates with the human Just Noticable Difference Curve.... Read more »
Long F, Yang Z, & Purves D. (2006) Spectral statistics in natural scenes predict hue, saturation, and brightness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 103(15), 6013-8. PMID: 16595630
- February 9, 2010
- 05:37 AM
- 6 views
Intrusive images and intrusive verbal thoughts are different phenomena
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
The vivid, intrusive visual images that are a hallmark of post-traumatic disorder (PTSD) are based on a separate memory system from intrusive verbal thoughts. That's according to a new study that claims to provide empirical support for psychologist Chris Brewin's dual-representation theory of PTSD.Brewin's theory posits two memory systems, one that's largely sensation-based, inflexible and automatically accessed and another that's more deliberately accessible, containing material that is contextualised and can be easily put into words. By this account, a traumatic event can end up lodged in the sensation-based memory system, leading to sensory intrusions - 'flashbacks' - of the event being easily triggered by sights, sounds and smells that are reminiscent of the original experience.The new study involved 79 participants watching traumatic video footage of car crash scenes, including commentary on the accidents and people involved. Crucially, some of the participants were told to keep still while they watched the footage and others were hypnotised so that they couldn't move. Past research has shown that keeping still cranks up the trauma simulation, perhaps because it is reminiscent of being frozen in terror or trapped. A final group were free to move. For a week after watching the car-crash videos the participants kept a diary of intrusive verbal thoughts and visual images associated with the videos. The key finding was that participants who had to keep still while watching the videos had significantly more intrusive visual images than the participants who were allowed to move. By contrast, the number of intrusive verbal thoughts did not differ between the groups.A second study largely replicated the first, except rather than some participants being allowed to move while others kept still, this time some participants watched a neutral film while others watched the traumatic car-crash film. The traumatic film led to more intrusive visual images, but not more intrusive verbal thoughts, than the neutral film.In both studies, participants who reported feeling more anxious and horrified after the traumatic videos tended to also experience more intrusive visual imagery. In contrast, intrusive verbal thoughts were not connected to mood effects in this way.Taken altogether Hagenaars and her team said their findings suggest that intrusive visual imagery is a separate phenomenon from intrusive verbal thoughts and can be manipulated independently. 'Understanding these basic processes is likely to be valuable in developing more effective treatments for PTSD that focus on maximising change in verbal thoughts and intrusive images separately,' they concluded._________________________________Hagenaars, M.A., Brewin, C.R., van Minnen, A., Holmes, E.A., & Hoogduin, K.A.L. (2010). Intrusive images and intrusive thoughts as different phenomena: Two experimental studies. Memory, 18 (1), 76-84 DOI: 10.1080/09658210903476522Image credit: Symphonie
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Hagenaars, M., Brewin, C., van Minnen, A., Holmes, E., & Hoogduin, K. (2010) Intrusive images and intrusive thoughts as different phenomena: Two experimental studies. Memory, 18(1), 76-84. DOI: 10.1080/09658210903476522
- February 9, 2010
- 05:20 AM
- 8 views
Evolutionary origins of religion: weak relation to morality
by Björn Brembs in bjoern.brembs.blog
It is a long-standing argument among religious believers that religiosity were necessary for morality. In a recent Trends in Cognitive Sciences article (requires subscription), Pyysiäinen and Hauser argue that morality can arise and indeed can be found without and before any religious education and thus religion is a by-product of pre-existing cognitive properties of the brain. Indeed, religion is not ubiquitous, as for instance the Hadza's religion has been described as 'minimal', and yet, cooperation and morality are - as in all human cultures - thriving. In fact, there is a clear negative correlation between socioeconomic status and supernatural beliefs, further arguing that religiosity is not really all that important for morality to evolve or to persist. Pyysiäinen and Hauser cite a series of studies in moral psychology showing that moral judgments for unfamiliar moral dilemmas are unaffected in individuals without any religious background. In their press release, the authors conclude: "This supports the theory that religion did not originally emerge as a biological adaptation for cooperation, but evolved as a separate by-product of pre-existing cognitive functions that evolved from non-religious functions," says Dr. Pyysiäinen. "However, although it appears as if cooperation is made possible by mental mechanisms that are not specific to religion, religion can play a role in facilitating and stabilizing cooperation between groups."Perhaps this may help to explain the complex association between morality and religion. "It seems that in many cultures religious concepts and beliefs have become the standard way of conceptualizing moral intuitions. Although, as we discuss in our paper, this link is not a necessary one, many people have become so accustomed to using it, that criticism targeted at religion is experienced as a fundamental threat to our moral existence," concludes Dr. Hauser.This leaves open some other, less social cognitive factors contributing to the origin of religiosity, to which to authors allude towards the middle of their article: "[...] the concept of God is based on extending to non-embodied agents the standard capacity of attributing beliefs and desires to embodied agents. According to this view, religious beliefs are a by-product of evolved cognitive mechanisms." The authors are referring to 'theory of mind'. Besides this, still social capacity, there are several other factors contributing to the origins of religion. One such factor is of course our concept of causality and our hunt for last causes. However, the factor that is, of course, closest to my own field of research is that religion works as an operant behavior. This means that religion, for instance, can provide us with a feeling of control where, ultimately, there is none (think rain dance). This is not counter-intuitive and so I'm not the only person who has realized that this may be an important contributing cognitive factor. There is even prior evidence that when experiencing or remembering an experience of lack of control, these cognitive capacities for imagining control and order are enhanced.These insights leave us with a set of pre-existing cognitive abilities providing a fertile ground on which the evolution of religion could occur as a by-product: Our capacity to detect agency (so helpful in our social interactions that we see it even in non-living objects), together with the concept of causality imply that everything happens for a reason and that this reason is the intention of someone. This someone can be controlled using certain rituals as evidenced, for instance, by the rain occurring after a rain-dance. This someone obviously punishes you if you do not perform these rituals, so of course this someone will also punish you if you do not cooperate or otherwise violate the rules of the in-group. In this way, religion provides you with a sense of order and controllability in an uncontrollable world which, in turn, keeps you sane, your society functioning and thus competitive and alive. As one of the commenters on the press release noted, 'competitive' may be the key word here, with religion providing a further tool for promoting self-sacrifice and suicidal fighting which might have provided some particularly religious groups with a competitive advantage.Methinks it's about time for someone to develop a computer model for the evolution of religion, the data are starting to provide enough parameters for such a project.Also in reply to one of the comments on the authors' press release, a very pertinent video via Pharyngula:Ilkka Pyysiäinen, & Marc Hauser (2010). The origins of religion: evolved adaptation or by-product? Trends in Cognitive Sciences : 10.1016/j.tics.2009.12.007... Read more »
Ilkka Pyysiäinen, & Marc Hauser. (2010) The origins of religion: evolved adaptation or by-product?. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. info:/10.1016/j.tics.2009.12.007
- February 9, 2010
- 02:08 AM
- 9 views
Optimal Target for Deep Brain Stimulation for Depression
by Dr Shock in Dr Shock MD PhD
The strongest evidence exists for Broadman Area 25 in the subcallosal cingulate gyrus (SCG) as target for deep brain stimulation in treatment resistant depression. This area in the brain is depicted in the figure above and is from the most important publication about DBS and depression in Neuron march 2005 by Helen Mayberg. Functional neuroimaging [...]
Related posts:Deep Brain Stimulation for Treatment Resistant depression New data are being published about deep brain stimulation...
New Kind of Brain Stimulation for Treatment Resistant Depression In a recent online publication about another form of...
New Innovations in Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery A great step forward, patients don’t have to be...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.... Read more »
Hamani, C., Mayberg, H., Snyder, B., Giacobbe, P., Kennedy, S., & Lozano, A. (2009) Deep brain stimulation of the subcallosal cingulate gyrus for depression: anatomical location of active contacts in clinical responders and a suggested guideline for targeting. Journal of Neurosurgery, 111(6), 1209-1215. DOI: 10.3171/2008.10.JNS08763
- February 8, 2010
- 07:48 PM
- 17 views
Pediatric Perplexity #001
by sandnsurf in Life in the Fast Lane
A 7 year-old girl was brought to hospital with lethargy, irritability and vomiting. A week previously she developed chicken pox, and was treated with regular aspirin and paracetamol for fever and discomfort.... Read more »
Glasgow JF, & Middleton B. (2001) Reye syndrome--insights on causation and prognosis. Archives of disease in childhood, 85(5), 351-3. PMID: 11668090
Schrör K. (2007) Aspirin and Reye syndrome: a review of the evidence. Paediatric drugs, 9(3), 195-204. PMID: 17523700
- February 8, 2010
- 06:02 PM
- 30 views
Be religious and be free (or at least, let off with a lighter sentence)
Cherie Booth was in the news this week for giving a suspended prison sentence to a man who broke another guy's jaw in an assault, apparently on the grounds that he was religious. Here's the offending quote: “I am going to suspend this sentence for the period of two years based on the fact you are a religious person and have not been in trouble before," she told him at Inner London Crown Court. "You caused a mild fracture to the jaw of a member of the public standing in a queue at Lloyds Bank. You are a religious man and you know this is not acceptable behaviour.” Now, what a judge should say in these circumstances is that the defendant is a man of good character. By switching that for the term 'religious' she's implying that the two are synonymous, and that, by implication, non-religious people are not.So it was a verbal gaffe. But it got me thinking: perhaps she's on to something. Is religion an indicator of good behaviour?Let's start with prison populations. In the UK, as in the US, there are very few atheists in prison. But what there are is a lot of 'non-religious' or 'don't knows'.In other words, this seems like a classic case of the 'U-shape', where firm atheists and firm religious are unlikely to be offenders. The problem lies with the people in the middle.So what about some proper social science then? Well, there's a lot of it out there, but not a lot of it is very convincing.There really isn't anything to link religiosity in an individual to risk for crime. What there is tends to look at the population level, and try to figure out if areas with more religious people have fewer crimes (after adjusting for other factors).Overall, religious attendance seems to be associated on a population level with less property crime. But the evidence is pretty mixed. What's more the evidence is correlational, which leads to the question of causality.In the only study to date that seems to have tackled this, Paul Heaton of the University of Chicago looked at US counties. He found that, sure enough, there was a small effect: more religious counties had fewer property crimes (although there was no difference in violent crimes).So then he looked to see what the relationship was between crime today and religiosity back in 1916. What he found was that the counties with more crime today had seen a relatively larger drop in numbers of religious people.What this suggests is that high crime rates actually cause a decrease in religiosity. Why this should be is an open question.It doesn't seem to be that pro-social people move away from areas of high criminality. When he looked only at counties where the population is relatively static, he found something similar.He also looked at the effect of Easter, a point in the calendar when Church attendance goes up. There was no effect of this on crime rates, which supports the idea that suffusing the population with religious messages doesn't help to reduce crime.This is by no means the end of the story. But it does give a flavour of just how uncertain the social effects of religion still are. And of course none of it supports Booth's apparent belief that religious people deserve lighter sentences!Heaton, P. (2006). Does Religion Really Reduce Crime?* The Journal of Law and Economics, 49 (1), 147-172 DOI: 10.1086/501087 This article by Tom Rees was first published on Epiphenom. It is licensed under Creative Commons.
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Heaton, P. (2006) Does Religion Really Reduce Crime?*. The Journal of Law and Economics, 49(1), 147-172. DOI: 10.1086/501087
- February 8, 2010
- 05:00 PM
- 16 views
Science, Cookies, and Pizza
by Allison in Dormivigilia
With a departmental initiative to hire new tenure-track neuroscientists/psychopathologists, I highlight today's job seminar given by Dr. Jilla Sabeti of The Scripps Institute and attach her respective paper. ... Read more »
Sabeti, J., & Gruol, D. (2008) Emergence of NMDAR-independent long-term potentiation at hippocampal CA1 synapses following early adolescent exposure to chronic intermittent ethanol: Role for sigma-receptors. Hippocampus, 18(2), 148-168. DOI: 10.1002/hipo.20379
- February 8, 2010
- 04:02 PM
- 15 views
A diagnosis of prostate cancer ups the risk of fatal heart attack or suicide
by Helen Jaques in In Sickness and In Health
Receiving a diagnosis of prostate cancer is a very stressful and upsetting event, so much so that some men go on to have a fatal heart attack or kill themselves.
Two pieces of research by the same study group, one conducted in 340,000 men in the US and the other in 170,000 men from Sweden, have [...]
... Read more »
Fall, K., Fang, F., Mucci, L., Ye, W., Andrén, O., Johansson, J., Andersson, S., Sparén, P., Klein, G., Stampfer, M.... (2009) Immediate Risk for Cardiovascular Events and Suicide Following a Prostate Cancer Diagnosis: Prospective Cohort Study. PLoS Medicine, 6(12). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000197
Fang, F., Keating, N., Mucci, L., Adami, H., Stampfer, M., Valdimarsdottir, U., & Fall, K. (2010) Immediate Risk of Suicide and Cardiovascular Death After a Prostate Cancer Diagnosis: Cohort Study in the United States. JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute. DOI: 10.1093/jnci/djp537
- February 8, 2010
- 03:56 PM
- 11 views
Mean Streets
by Roberta Kwok in Journal Watch Online
Roadkill numbers in upstate New York look grim
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Barthelmess, E., & Brooks, M. (2010) The influence of body-size and diet on road-kill trends in mammals. Biodiversity and Conservation. DOI: 10.1007/s10531-010-9791-3
- February 8, 2010
- 03:10 PM
- 12 views
Racehorse Research Identifies Speed Gene
by GrrlScientist in Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
tags: evolutionary biology, molecular biology, Thoroughbred race horses, horses, aerobic capacity, muscle development, myostatin, MSTN, myostatin-suppressing C variant, myostatin-suppressing T variant, Horse Genome Project, Equinome, bpr3.org/?p=52,peer-reviewed research, peer-reviewed paper
Emerging from the mist is Rachel Alexandra, a champion American Thoroughbred who excels at winning both long and short distance races.
Image: Rob Carr, 2009, Associated Press [larger view]
If you've worked at or been around a racetrack very much, as I have, you'll quickly realize that everyone there has their own pet idea for picking winners. Horse breeders have always relied on pedigree analysis and studying the horse's conformation to predict whether a particular racehorse is better suited for running short or longer distances. But this is an inexact science that can waste valuable time, money and sometimes, horses. Which makes one wonder whether modern molecular biology can be applied to the challenge of identifying specific genes that make a particular horse better suited to running sprints or distances?
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Hill, E., Gu, J., Eivers, S., Fonseca, R., McGivney, B., Govindarajan, P., Orr, N., Katz, L., & MacHugh, D. (2010) A Sequence Polymorphism in MSTN Predicts Sprinting Ability and Racing Stamina in Thoroughbred Horses. PLoS ONE, 5(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0008645
- February 8, 2010
- 02:49 PM
- 14 views
Diminishing the Double Digital Divide
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
To wrap up my notes on Social Media Week, I thought I would pursue a comment made by Meebo CEO and co-founder Seth Sternberg during the Social Graph Optimization panel. He suggested that without proper education on the use of digital tools, we would see the a growing divide between two technological classes increase: those with access to information would be at a greater advantage than those
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Hargittai, E. (2002) Second-level digital divide: Differences in people’s online skills. First Monday, Peer-reviewed journal of the Internet, 7(4). info:/
Jung, J. (2008) Internet Connectedness and its Social Origins: An Ecological Approach to Postaccess Digital Divides. Communication Studies, 59(4), 322-339. DOI: 10.1080/10510970802467387
- February 8, 2010
- 02:34 PM
- 17 views
Barnacle Sex
by Kelsey in Mauka to Makai
Sad but true: Barnacles (critters who spend the majority of their lives with their heads glued to a hard surface) may be getting more action than you are.
Of course, that depends on how you quantify “action.” Barnacles have a fairly short mating season—compared to our non-stop mating season—but they cram a whole lotta nooky into [...]... Read more »
HOCH, J. (2008) Variation in penis morphology and mating ability in the acorn barnacle, Semibalanus balanoides. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 359(2), 126-130. DOI: 10.1016/j.jembe.2008.03.002
Hoch, J. (2009) ADAPTIVE PLASTICITY OF THE PENIS IN A SIMULTANEOUS HERMAPHRODITE. Evolution, 63(8), 1946-1953. DOI: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2009.00668.x
Murata, A., Imafuku, M., & Abe, N. (2001) Copulation by the barnacle Tetraclita japonica under natural conditions. Journal of Zoology, 253(2), 275-280. DOI: 10.1017/S0952836901000243
Neufeld, C., & Palmer, A. (2008) Precisely proportioned: intertidal barnacles alter penis form to suit coastal wave action. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 275(1638), 1081-1087. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.1760
- February 8, 2010
- 01:56 PM
- 15 views
Mazel tov! You should have such long telomeres
by ouroboros in Ouroboros: Research in the biology of aging
A study of Ashkenazi Jewish centenarians by Atzmon et al. has revealed that telomere length is correlated with longer lifespan and slower biological aging (reflected in measurements of several biomarkers of aging). Both lifespan and telomere length are, in turn, correlated with polymorphisms at the hTERT and hTERC loci, two genes that respectively encode the [...]... Read more »
Atzmon, G., Cho, M., Cawthon, R., Budagov, T., Katz, M., Yang, X., Siegel, G., Bergman, A., Huffman, D., Schechter, C.... (2009) Evolution in Health and Medicine Sackler Colloquium: Genetic variation in human telomerase is associated with telomere length in Ashkenazi centenarians. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(suppl_1), 1710-1717. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0906191106
- February 8, 2010
- 01:49 PM
- 11 views
Methods Monday: Maximum Likelihood in SAS using PROC NLP
by Ryan in Evidence-Based Public Health
I've been working on fitting some excess relative risk (ERR) models to case-control data on occupational exposures lately. ERR models are of the form:RR=1+β*XIn SAS, unfortunately, we don't have unlimited freedom in defining the form of the model we want to fit, but a recent paper by Langholz and Richardson [behind firewall] describes a way that we can solve for parameters once we specify the likelihood function. (For those interested, the likelihood function can be thought of as the function that would be most likely to give rise to the data. We define it with some variables, and then try to solve for the variable(s) that maximize the likelihood function. This falls into the class of methods called maximum likelihood estimation.)The general conditional logistic likelihood is pretty simple (phi represents the odds or rate ratio function) :The best way to conceptualize this equation is as: divide the data you observed by all possible permutations of the data.This function is then maximized with respect to beta (for the mat-inclined, an iterative process minimizes the derivative of the log of the function to look for the global maximum).The method described by Langholz and Richardson makes use of a nifty little SAS procedure called PROC NLP (the NLP stands for non-linear programming). It basically does exactly what I just described: you can specify a function and host of parameters, and it will iteratively search for a maximum value of the function, and spit out the parameters that yield the maximum.A cool extension of this is that you can define complex "mixture models" that contain two distinct models that are each exponentiated: one to alpha, one to 1-alpha. You then multiply the two exponentiated models together. If you then maximize the likelihood, including the parameter alpha, you get a neat little value that tells you the relative importance of each of the two models in the full mixture model. For example:RR=[(βX)^α]*[(exp(βX))^(1-α)]PROC NLP lets you specify this model form and get an estimate of which model (linear or exponential) fits better, depending on whether alpha is closer to zero or one.Langholz, B., & Richardson, D. (2009). Fitting General Relative Risk Models for Survival Time and Matched Case-Control Analysis American Journal of Epidemiology, 171 (3), 377-383 DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwp403... Read more »
Langholz, B., & Richardson, D. (2009) Fitting General Relative Risk Models for Survival Time and Matched Case-Control Analysis. American Journal of Epidemiology, 171(3), 377-383. DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwp403
- February 8, 2010
- 01:32 PM
- 18 views
How do you establish who will do well with pain management?
by Adiemusfree in Healthskills: Skills for Healthy Living
Some people just won’t do well with pain management. In just the same way as a surgeon selects good candidates for surgery, so people need to be selected for self management. Although there is some truth that getting even a little pain management is good for everyone, the cost of doing so in staff energy [...]... Read more »
Foster, N., Thomas, E., Bishop, A., Dunn, K., & Main, C. (2009) Distinctiveness of psychological obstacles to recovery in low back pain patients in primary care. Pain. DOI: 10.1016/j.pain.2009.11.002
McCracken, L., & Zhao-O’Brien, J. (2010) General psychological acceptance and chronic pain: There is more to accept than the pain itself. European Journal of Pain, 14(2), 170-175. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpain.2009.03.004
- February 8, 2010
- 12:16 PM
- 60 views
MolBio Pick of the Week!: Tumour cell ecosystems, electrical crayfish and fluorescing corals
This week, I'm hosting the MolBio Pick Of the Week, usually hosted on the MolBio Research Highlights Blog. The picks of the week are taken from researchblogging.org, which contains a number of great science blog posts from all areas, however this post only chooses topics aggregated under 'biology'1) Tumour cells are cells in the body that have escaped the control system of the surrounded cells and are therefore about to diversify and mutate to a far greater extent than the cells surrounding them. Iayork at Mystery Rays From Outer Space discusses the ecosystem within tumours that is created by this lack of control:"A tumor, by the time we can detect it, is a collection of many cells, at least billions of them, and those cells are not all the same... Even cells that are unambiguously cancerous are very different within a tumor."The appreciation of different cell types within a tumour creates new considerations for treatment. Rather than targeting the 'average' cell within a tumour, treatments can be geared towards the most dangerous cells, the ones most likely to lead to metastasis or spreading of the tumour.2) Different animals use different systems to detect their surroundings. Recent research by Patullo and Macmillan into explores the idea that Crayfish use electrical signals to interact with their environment, making them one of the smallest fish to use electrical impulses as signals. So far, research has shown that Crayfish can respond to biologically relevant electrical signals (such as those produced by tadpoles, which they prey on) although as yet there is no neuronal data to support this. Marmorkrebs blog discusses this in detail.3) Coral reefs are some of the largest and most beautiful symbiotic structures on earth. Lucas Brouwers explains that even those corals without much colour can still look beautiful: by producing fluorescence:"When some of these corals are exposed to light of the right wavelength, they return the favor by fluorescing with amazing colours. The diversity of colours displayed by these fluorescent corals is remarkable, ranging from azure blue to a deep crimson red."A recent study by Field and Matz looked at the evolution of these different fluorescent proteins, and created some amazing phylogenic trees drawn with fluorescing bacteria on Petri dishes.That's it from me this week!---Some of the articles discussed in this week's selected posts:Patullo, B., & Macmillan, D. (2010). Making sense of electrical sense in crayfish Journal of Experimental Biology, 213 (4), 651-657 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.039073Park SY, Gönen M, Kim HJ, Michor F, & Polyak K (2010). Cellular and genetic diversity in the progression of in situ human breast carcinomas to an invasive phenotype. The Journal of clinical investigation, 120 (2), 636-44 PMID: 20101094Field, S., & Matz, M. (2009). Retracing Evolution of Red Fluorescence in GFP-Like Proteins from Faviina Corals Molecular Biology and Evolution, 27 (2), 225-233 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msp230... Read more »
Patullo, B., & Macmillan, D. (2010) Making sense of electrical sense in crayfish. Journal of Experimental Biology, 213(4), 651-657. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.039073
Park SY, Gönen M, Kim HJ, Michor F, & Polyak K. (2010) Cellular and genetic diversity in the progression of in situ human breast carcinomas to an invasive phenotype. The Journal of clinical investigation, 120(2), 636-44. PMID: 20101094
Field, S., & Matz, M. (2009) Retracing Evolution of Red Fluorescence in GFP-Like Proteins from Faviina Corals. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 27(2), 225-233. DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msp230
- February 8, 2010
- 11:58 AM
- 21 views
Wanted: The Tomb of the Father of Modern Astronomy
by Promega Corporation in Promega Connections
What do Swedish war booty, the Frombork Cathedral in Poland, and Napoleon all have in common? Answer: Nicholaus Copernicus. While much is known about the cleric and astronomer, the location of his burial site and the identity of his possible remains were cloaked in mystery. Over the last 200 years, many have searched for Copernicus’s [...]... Read more »
Bogdanowicz W, Allen M, Branicki W, Lembring M, Gajewska M, & Kupiec T. (2009) Genetic identification of putative remains of the famous astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106(30), 12279-82. PMID: 19584252
- February 8, 2010
- 11:55 AM
- 22 views
Nintendo Wii - Is It Really Physical Activity?
by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea
Last Friday, Peter wrote a post about Wii-related injuries which generated some interesting discussion. Essentially, some readers felt that we were being too hard on the Wii, with one commenter going so far as to suggest that the post was "anti-Wii" (hard to dispute, given that the post was focused on Wii-related injuries!). Although we've mentioned the Wii in passing on Obesity Panacea before, we've never had a full discussion of the pros and cons, and I thought that this would be an excellent opportunity to do so. So - should we really consider the Nintendo Wii as a form of physical activity?... Read more »
Graves, L., Stratton, G., Ridgers, N., & Cable, N. (2007) Comparison of energy expenditure in adolescents when playing new generation and sedentary computer games: cross sectional study. BMJ, 335(7633), 1282-1284. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.39415.632951.80
Daley, A. (2009) Can Exergaming Contribute to Improving Physical Activity Levels and Health Outcomes in Children?. PEDIATRICS, 124(2), 763-771. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2008-2357
- February 8, 2010
- 09:35 AM
- 28 views
All Current Evidence for Second Life in Business and Education
by Richard Landers in Thoughts of a Neo-Academic
I decided to examine the full extent of scholarly literature supporting (or not) the use of virtual worlds for education and training. It's not a long list.... Read more »
DELUCIA, A., FRANCESE, R., PASSERO, I., & TORTORA, G. (2009) Development and evaluation of a virtual campus on Second Life: The case of SecondDMI. Computers , 52(1), 220-233. DOI: 10.1016/j.compedu.2008.08.001
Jarmon, L., Traphagan, T., Mayrath, M., & Trivedi, A. (2009) Virtual world teaching, experiential learning, and assessment: An interdisciplinary communication course in Second Life. Computers , 53(1), 169-182. DOI: 10.1016/j.compedu.2009.01.010
Jamaludin, A., Chee, Y., & Ho, C. (2009) Fostering argumentative knowledge construction through enactive role play in Second Life. Computers , 53(2), 317-329. DOI: 10.1016/j.compedu.2009.02.009
Lester, P.M. . (2009) Analog vs. Digital Instruction and Learning: Teaching Within First and Second Life Environments. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14(3), 457. info:/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01449.x
Good, J., Howland, K., & Thackray, L. (2008) Problem-based learning spanning real and virtual words: a case study in Second Life. ALT-J, 16(3), 163-172. DOI: 10.1080/09687760802526681
Edirisingha, P., Nie, M., Pluciennik, M., & Young, R. (2009) Socialisation for learning at a distance in a 3-D multi-user virtual environment. British Journal of Educational Technology, 40(3), 458-479. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.00962.x
Herold, D. (2010) Mediating Media Studies – Stimulating critical awareness in a virtual environment. Computers , 54(3), 791-798. DOI: 10.1016/j.compedu.2009.10.019
McVey, M. (2008) Observations of expert communicators in immersive virtual worlds: implications for synchronous discussion. ALT-J, 16(3), 173-180. DOI: 10.1080/09687760802526673
Livingstone, D., Kemp, J., & Edgar, E. (2008) From Multi-User Virtual Environment to 3D Virtual Learning Environment. ALT-J, 16(3), 139-150. DOI: 10.1080/09687760802526707
Dickey, M. (2005) Three-dimensional virtual worlds and distance learning: two case studies of Active Worlds as a medium for distance education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 36(3), 439-451. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2005.00477.x
- February 8, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 16 views
Species vulnerability to climate change: sharks and sting rays in the Great Barrier Reef
by Rob Goldstein in Conservation Maven
Scientists have developed an innovative model for predicting the vulnerability of multiple species in a geographic area to climate change. They tested the model on sharks and sting rays in the Great Barrier though the approach really is applicable to a wide range of ecosystems...... Read more »
CHIN, A., KYNE, P., WALKER, T., & McAULEY, R. (2010) An integrated risk assessment for climate change: analysing the vulnerability of sharks and rays on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Global Change Biology. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.02128.x
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