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Mathematics/Statistics
Key: Meeting Journal Funder Dissertation
Public Release: 30-Nov-2012
Computers and Electronics in Agriculture
A digital portrait for grapes indicates their ripeness
Researchers at the University of Seville (Spain) have developed a technique for estimating grape composition and variety using computer imaging. They have also put forward an index for identifying the ripeness of seeds without the need for chemical analysis. This new method can help to decide the best moment for picking.

Contact: SINC
info@agenciasinc.es
34-914-251-820
FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
International Journal of Research in Marketing
Marketing analytics ups Fortune 1000 return on assets 8 percent, says operations research study
Fortune 1000 companies that increase their use of marketing analytics improve their return on assets an average 8 percent and as much as 21 percent, with returns ranging from $70 million to $180 million in net income, according to a paper written by two key members of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

Contact: Barry List
barry.list@informs.org
443-757-3560
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics
Math detects contamination in water distribution networks
A paper published earlier this month in the SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics considers the identification of contaminants in a water distribution network as an optimal control problem within a networked system.
German Research Foundation

Contact: Karthika Muthukumaraswamy
karthika@siam.org
267-350-6383
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
How infidelity helps nieces and nephews
A University of Utah study produced new mathematical support for a theory that explains why men in some cultures often feed and care for their sisters' children: where extramarital sex is common and accepted, a man's genes are more likely to be passed on by their sister's kids than by their wife's kids.
University of Utah

Contact: Lee J. Siegel
lee.siegel@utah.edu
801-581-8993
University of Utah

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
To get the best look at a person's face, look just below the eyes, according to UCSB researchers
They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. However, to get a real idea of what a person is up to, according to UC Santa Barbara researchers Miguel Eckstein and Matt Peterson, the best place to check is right below the eyes. Their findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Contact: Sonia Fernandez
sonia.fernandez@ia.ucsb.edu
805-637-3726
University of California - Santa Barbara

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012
Acta Biotheoretica
Model sheds light on the chemistry that sparked the origin of life
The question of how life began on a molecular level has been a longstanding problem in science. However, recent mathematical research sheds light on a possible mechanism by which life may have gotten a foothold in the chemical soup that existed on the early Earth.

Contact: Robin Ann Smith
rsmith@nescent.org
919-668-4544
National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent)

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012
Digital Journalism
Scientists analyze millions of news articles
Researchers in the UK have used artificial intelligence algorithms to analyze 2.5 million articles from 498 different English-language online news outlets over ten months.

Contact: Joanne Fryer
joanne.fryer@bristol.ac.uk
44-011-733-17276
University of Bristol

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012
Physical Review Letters
Modeling the breaking points of metallic glasses
Metallic glass alloys (or liquid metals) are three times stronger than the best industrial steel, but can be molded into complex shapes with the same ease as plastic. These materials are highly resistant to scratching, denting, shattering and corrosion. Mathematical methods developed by a Berkeley Lab scientists will help explain why liquid metals have wildly different breaking points.

Contact: Linda Vu
lvu@lbl.gov
510-495-2402
DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Public Release: 22-Nov-2012
Learning and Instruction
Star Trek Classroom: The next generation of school desks
Researchers designing and testing the 'classroom of the future' have found that multi-touch, multi-user desks can boost skills in mathematics. New results from a three-year project working with over 400 pupils, mostly eight-10 year olds, show that collaborative learning increases both fluency and flexibility in maths. It also shows that using an interactive 'smart' desk can have benefits over doing mathematics on paper.
Economic and Social Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Contact: Carl Stiansen
c.r.stiansen@durham.ac.uk
44-019-133-46077
Durham University

Public Release: 22-Nov-2012
Science
Study reveals the proteins expressed by human cytomegalovirus
New findings reveal the surprisingly complex protein-coding capacity of the human cytomegalovirus and provide the first steps toward understanding how the virus manipulates human cells during infection. The related study appears in the Nov. 23 issue of the journal Science, which is published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.

Contact: Natasha Pinol
npinol@aaas.org
202-326-6440
American Association for the Advancement of Science

Public Release: 21-Nov-2012
Nature
New structures self-assemble in synchronized dance
With self-assembly guiding the steps and synchronization providing the rhythm, a new class of materials forms dynamic, moving structures in an intricate dance. Researchers from the University of Illinois and Northwestern University have demonstrated tiny spheres that synchronize their movements as they self-assemble into a spinning microtube. Such in-motion structures, a blending of mathematics and materials science, could open a new class of technologies with applications in medicine, chemistry and engineering.
National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy, US Army Research Office

Contact: Liz Ahlberg
eahlberg@illinois.edu
217-244-1073
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Public Release: 21-Nov-2012
Strengthening Canada's research capacity: The gender dimension
A newly released report by the Council of Canadian Academies entitled, Strengthening Canada's Research Capacity: The Gender Dimension provides an assessment of the the factors that influence university research careers of women. This authoritative assessment has found that although there has been progress in the representation of women in the university research ranks, there are still gender equity challenges that must be overcome and the passage of time will not be enough to ensure parity.

Contact: Cate Meechan
cathleen.meechan@scienceadvice.ca
613-567-5000 x228
Council of Canadian Academies

Public Release: 19-Nov-2012
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Happy youngsters more likely to grow into wealthy adults, study finds
The first in-depth investigation of whether youthful happiness leads to greater wealth in later life reveals that, even allowing for other influences, happy adolescents are likely to earn more money as adults.

Contact: Ed Nash
ed.nash@ucl.ac.uk
44-020-310-83845
University College London

Public Release: 19-Nov-2012
Physical Review Letters
BaBar experiment confirms time asymmetry
Digging through nearly 10 years of data from billions of BaBar particle collisions, researchers found that certain particle types change into one another much more often in one way than they do in the other, a violation of time reversal symmetry and confirmation that some subatomic processes have a preferred direction of time.
US Department of Energy

Contact: Bronwyn Barnett
bronwynb@slac.stanford.edu
65-092-648-580
DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Public Release: 18-Nov-2012
Nature Neuroscience
A better thought-controlled computer cursor
Stanford researchers have designed the fastest, most accurate algorithm yet for brain-implantable prosthetic systems that can help disabled people maneuver computer cursors with their thoughts. The algorithm's speed, accuracy and natural movement approach those of a real arm, and the system avoids the long-term performance degradations of earlier technologies.
Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Foundation, National Science Foundation, National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, Stanford Graduate Fellowships, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Contact: Andrew Myers
admyers@stanford.edu
650-736-2245
Stanford School of Engineering

Public Release: 16-Nov-2012
PLOS ONE
Basketball teams offer insights into building strategic networks
What started out as a project to teach undergraduate students about network analysis, turned into an in-depth study of whether it was possible to analyze a National Basketball Association basketball team's strategic interactions as a network. Arizona State University researchers discovered it is possible to quantify both a team's cohesion and communication structure.

Contact: Sandra Leander
sandra.leander@asu.edu
480-965-9865
Arizona State University

Public Release: 15-Nov-2012
Transportation Research
Study: Cellphone bans associated with fewer urban accidents
Cellphones and driving go together like knives and juggling. But when cellphone use is banned, are drivers any safer? It depends on where you're driving, a study by University of Illinois researchers says. The study found that, long-term, enacting a cellphone ban was associated with a relative decrease in the accident rate in urban areas. However, in very rural areas, cellphone bans were associated with higher accident rates than would otherwise be expected.

Contact: Liz Ahlberg
eahlberg@illinois.edu
217-244-1073
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Public Release: 15-Nov-2012
Environmental Science and Technology
Airborne particles smuggle pollutants to far reaches of globe
Pollution from fossil fuel burning and forest fires reaches all the way to the Arctic, even though it should decay long before it travels that far. Now, lab research can explain how pollution makes its lofty journey: rather than ride on the surface of airborne particles, pollutants snuggle inside, protected from the elements on the way. The results will help scientists improve atmospheric air-quality and pollution transport models.
Department of Energy

Contact: Mary Beckman
mary.beckman@pnnl.gov
509-375-3688
DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Public Release: 15-Nov-2012
Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Meteorites reveal warm water existed on Mars
Meteorites reveal warm water existed on Mars Hydrothermal fractures around Martian impact craters may have been a habitable environment for microbial life.

Contact: Ather Mirza
pressoffice@le.ac.uk
01-162-523-335
University of Leicester

Public Release: 15-Nov-2012
Risk Analysis
How 'black swans' and 'perfect storms' become lame excuses for bad risk management
Instead of reflecting on the unlikelihood of rare catastrophes after the fact, Stanford risk analysis expert Elisabeth Pate-Cornell prescribes an engineering approach to anticipate them when possible, and to manage them when not.

Contact: Andrew Myers
admyers@stanford.edu
650-736-2245
Stanford School of Engineering

Public Release: 14-Nov-2012
International Journal of Innovative Computing and Applications
Enhancing breast cancer detection
Straightforward imaging with an infrared, thermal, camera for detecting breast cancer early without the discomfort or inconvenience of mammography or biomolecular tests, according to a study to be published in the International Journal of Innovative Computing and Applications.

Contact: Albert Ang
press@inderscience.com
Inderscience Publishers

Public Release: 13-Nov-2012
Supercomputing 2012
PNNL expertise highlighted at Supercomputing
PNNL research describing new and improved ways to crunch massive amounts of data will be presented at the Supercomputing 2012 conference. Papers to be presented include how to use matching approximation to find similar patterns in different data sets and a new software that helps speed up parallel computations by automatically translating MPI code.

Contact: Franny White
frances.white@pnnl.gov
509-375-6904
DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Public Release: 13-Nov-2012
European Space Agency conference on Earth Observation and Cryosphere Science
Environmental Research Letters
Warming temperatures will change Greenland's face
Global climate models abound. What is harder to pin down, is how a warmer global temperature might affect any specific region on Earth. Dr. Marco Tedesco, associate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, and a colleague have made the global local. Using a combination of climate models, they predict how different greenhouse gas scenarios would change the face of Greenland and impact sea level rise.
National Science Foundation

Contact: JESSA NETTING
jnetting@yahoo.com
212-650-7615
City College of New York

Public Release: 13-Nov-2012
Journal of Consumer Research
Do consumers evaluate cell phones differently if the warranty is expressed in years or days?
Different units can be used to describe product features, but what may seem a rather arbitrary choice may have profound consequences for consumer product evaluations, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Contact: Mary-Ann Twist
JCR@bus.wisc.edu
608-255-5582
University of Chicago Press Journals

Public Release: 13-Nov-2012
Advances in Architectural Geometry Conference in Paris
Choreographing light
Researchers at EPFL's Computer Graphics and Geometry Laboratory found a way to control "caustics", the patterns that appear when light hits a water surface or any transparent material. Thanks to an elaborate algorithm, they can shape a transparent object so that it reflects an organized and coherent image.

Contact: Mark Pauly
mark.pauly@epfl.ch
41-788-832-560
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne