10 most dangerous web search terms revealed

Melbourne, June 3 (ANI): Web searches including terms like lyrics, free music downloads are most likely to put your computer at risk of virus or even malicious software, for security firm McAfee, Inc. has listed these words as some of the most dangerous search terms on the internet.
In a recent report, McAfee has revealed Web search terms that put users most at risk for accidentally downloading unwanted or malicious software.
The report, titled 'The Web's Most Dangerous Search Terms', reveals that the researchers analysed over 2,600 of the most popular search terms of 2008 from a range of sources, including the Google Zeitgeist and the Yahoo! 2008 Year in Review.Search engines are our on-ramp, our highway and our off-ramp -- they're everything for Web travel. The hacking community is very smart-they can spot a trend as well as any trendspotter," the Telegraph quoted Shane Keats, the research analyst with McAfee who led the study, as saying.
After analysing the search terms, the researchers found that hackers looking for crowds.
They are also attacking Internet surfers who are ready to take an online action, like downloading a ringtone or logging in to a site with a name, address and social security number.
For example, people searching for free music downloads are easy targets for hackers because they are expecting to download an mp3.
In order to evaluate the risk associated with each keyword, the researchers looked at the search results generated by each keyword, and then calculated the percentage of links that would take users to Web sites with unwanted adware, spyware or other malicious software.
For example, the term "lyric," had an average risk of 14.8 percent, meaning that nearly 15 out of 100 search results would take users to risky sites.
The most dangerous categories of search terms include online games, free downloads, song lyrics, and screensavers.
Search terms involving online games were among the riskiest because online games often prompt users to install plug-ins or register with a name or e-mail address.
Keywords that include lyrics were risky because Web sites featuring the words to songs sometimes host links that take users to sites with unwanted pop-up ads or spyware.
The 10 Most Dangerous Web Searches in the United States are:
1. Word Unscrambler
2. Lyrics
3. MySpace
4. Free Music Downloads
5. Phelps, Weber-Gale, Jones and Lezak Wins 4x 100m Relay
6. Free Music
7. Game Cheats
8. Printable Fill in Puzzles
9. Free Ringtones
10. Solitaire (ANI)

Antibiotic resistant bacteria found in fertilizer

Washington, May 29 (ANI): Scientists have found Vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE), an antibiotic resistant bacteria in sewage sludge, a by-product of waste-water treatment frequently used as a fertilizer.
Leena Sahlstrom, from the Finnish Food safety Authority, worked with a team of researchers from the Swedish National Veterinary Institute to study sewage sludge from a waste-water treatment plant in Uppsala, Sweden.
“Antimicrobial resistance is a serious threat in veterinary medicine and human healthcare. Resistance genes can spread from animals, through the food-chain, and back to humans. Sewage sludge may act as one link in this chain,” she said.
The researchers collected sludge from the plant every week for four months, for a total of 77 samples. Of these, 79 percent tested positive for the drug resistant superbugs.
Although VRE themselves are not generally considered to be highly pathogenic, the danger is that they may pass on their resistance genes to other bacteria.
“Our results demonstrate a need for more efficient hygienic treatment of sewage sludge, in order to avoid possible spread of antimicrobial resistance through use of sewage sludge on arable land,” Sahlstrom concluded. (ANI)

Nominees named for British Renewable Energy Awards

The Renewable Energy Association (REA) has released its shortlist of nominees for the fourth annual British Renewable Energy Awards.
The awards, which recognise achievement in the UK renewable energy industry, will be presented 11 June in an awards diner at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower in London on the 11th June 2009.
“These awards honor outstanding achievement in the British renewable energy sector and act as recognition of exceptional contribution, innovation and excellence in the industry,” said Philip Wolfe, REA’s executive director. “The considerable number of high-quality nominees builds on last year’s success and displays the scope of talent and originality that exists within this industry.”
This year’s nominees include:

• For the Advocate Award, which recognises the NGO, campaign, publication or association that has done most to enhance awareness of renewables in the public and/or key opinion formers: Carbon and sustainability reporting (Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership), Ecobuild (IBE Ltd), Infinis Energy Challenge, Institute of Domestic Energy Assessors, The RE-Charge Scheme (Kirklees Council), Renewable Energy Tariff Campaign (FoE et al.), Renewable opportunity audits (Onsite Renewables), “Sustainable Energy - without the hot air” (David J C MacKay);


• For the Champion Award, which recognises an executive, academic, minister, civil servant, consultant or other individual: John Baldwin (CNG Services), Mervyn Bowden (Marks & Spencer), Ian Irvine (SgurrEnergy), Phil Maud (Morrisons) ,Rt Hon. Ed Miliband MP, Alan Simpson MP;


• For the Company Award, which goes to an industry participant that has done most during the year to advance UK renewables: BiogenGreenfinch, Dulas Ltd., EarthEnergy Limited, Eco2 Limited, Kensa Engineering Ltd., Microgeneration Ltd., Plug into the Sun, ScottishPower Renewables, SgurrEnergy, Solarcentury;


• For the Developer Award, which honours innovative development plans for a new renewable energy project, process or plant that is well advanced through the design and consenting process, but not yet in operation: The San Carlos Bioenergy Project (Bronzeoak Ltd), The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (Buro Happold), Enviroparks Hirwaun, SeaGen (Marine Current Turbines Ltd.), Hammerfest Strom (ScottishPower Renewables);


• For the Installer Award, which recognises a completed renewable energy project, process or plant that has entered into operation: Birmingham City Council Care Homes (Future Heating Ltd.), Plymstock Library and Apartments (N G Bailey & Co Ltd.), Jesmond swimming pool Solar Project, Moorlands Community Centre (Southern Solar Ltd.);


• For the Innovator Award, which goes to any innovative new renewable energy device, invention or application: Glycerine CHP (Aquafuel), OYSTER® (Aquamarine Power Limited), Radars at windfarms (BAE Systems Integrated System Technologies), Good Energy HotROCs, Fuel cell aeroplane (Intelligent Energy), Third generation biofuels (Oxford Catalysts), PV concentrator system (Silicon CPV), Power Purchase Agreement (Utilyx);


• For the Region Award, which honours an initiative or policy by local authorities or regional agencies to encourage the take-up of renewable energy in a specific region of the UK: Community Energy Scotland, Future Energy Yorkshire, One NorthEast Regional Development Agency, United Welsh (Upper Wood Street), Wear Valley District Council;
  For the Pioneer Award, which recognises an organisation outside the sustainable energy industry that is pioneering the use of renewable fuels, heat or power: The Co-operative Group, Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc, Rural Development Initiatives Ltd., South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust Northern Ireland, Thomas Vale Construction;


• For the Product Award, a new award category that goes to any innovative new renewable energy product that has been introduced onto the market since the start of 2008: ORC Electricity Generating Equipment (Freepower Ltd), AGC water turbine control (DEIF UK Ltd.), Liquid Bio Methane (Gasrec Ltd.), Ecodan air source heat pump (Mitsubishi Electric), Naturalwatt Microgrid® Controller ,ST1 solar collector (Solaesthetic).

Ancient Mudstones Could Provide Alternative Source Of Energy

A new study carried out at the University of Leicester reveals that an alternative to oil could be found in ancient sea deposits dating 300 million years ago.

Shale gas sourced in mudstones in shallow water seaways could provide the future alternative to fuel modern society in the wake of demands to find new energy sources, according to the doctoral research. These mudstones, now exposed across central and northern England, contain up to 14% carbon.
Jennifer Graham, a postgraduate researcher in the Department of Geology, University of Leicester, will present her research at the Festival of Postgraduate Research which is taking place on Thursday 25th June at the University of Leicester. She will demonstrate her findings titled: “Mudstones: their variability and hydrocarbon potential.”
“Fissile mudstones (shales) can yield three to four times as much gas as conventional sandstone reservoirs,” said Graham.
“The mudstones studied in this research were deposited in a shallow-water seaway that extended from Canada across Europe approximately 317 million years ago. ... This project has the involvement of Exxon Mobil and in the future could potentially attract interest from other companies working to find alternative and unconventional sources of energy as oil supplies decline.”
According to her study, the understanding of these mudstones by exploring their character will be significant. However, exploiting ‘shale gas’ is a considerable challenge because the distribution and character of mudstones are not well known as conventional sandstone gas reservoirs.

Male Or Female? Coloring Provides Gender Cues

Our brain is wired to identify gender based on facial cues and coloring, according to a new study published in the Journal of Vision. Psychology Professor Frédéric Gosselin and his Université de Montréal team found the luminescence of the eyebrow and mouth region is vital in rapid gender discrimination.
“As teenagers, dimorphism (systematic difference between sexes) increases in the nose, chin, mouth, jaw, eyes and general shape of faces,” says Nicolas Dupuis-Roy, lead author of the study. “Yet we aren’t conscious of how our brain recognizes those differences.”
To discover those reference points, Dupuis-Roy and colleagues showed photos of 300 Caucasian faces to some 30 participants. Subjects were asked to identify gender based on images where parts of faces were concealed using a technology called Bubbles.
The investigation found that eyes and mouths, specifically their subtle shading or luminance, are paramount in identifying gender. Unlike previous studies, which found the gap between the eyelid and eyebrow as essential in gender ID, this investigation found the shades of reds and greens around mouths and eyes led to faster gender discrimination.
“Studies have shown that an androgynous face is considered male if the skin complexion is redder, and considered female if the complexion is greener,” says Dupuis-Roy. “However, it is the opposite for the mouth. A woman’s mouth is usually redder. Our brain interprets this characteristic as female.”

Indian scientists clone another buffalo named Garima

Scientists in the Indian state of Haryana have cloned a buffalo using foetal tissue, according to a report.
The female calf named Garima weighed 43 kilograms (95 pounds) and was born at the National Dairy Research Institute in the city of Karnal in northern India, according to a newspaper.
“Garima is absolutely healthy and we are fully optimistic about her survival,” institute director AK Srivastava was quoted as saying.
India cloned the world’s first buffalo in February, but it died of pneumonia within a week of its birth after being created from the ear tissue of a female buffalo.
Scientists cloned Garima using tissue from a foetus as part of a “hand-guided cloning technique” which allows the sex of the calf to be chosen.
Srivastava said India has the largest population of buffaloes in the world and that cloning would increase the percentage of elite animals in the species.

Hummingbirds ‘faster than jets’

Male hummingbirds, swooping in an effort to impress females, achieve speeds “faster than fighter jets”, according to a study.
A US researcher has captured the birds’ dives with super-fast cameras. He lured them into their impressive displays using stuffed models of female birds.
The feathered acrobats reached speeds of almost 400 body lengths per second.
The findings are reported in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Christopher Clark from the University of California Berkeley filmed the courtship dives of male Anna’s hummingbirds on cameras able to capture 500 frames per second.
When measured relative to the length of their bodies, the birds’ top speed, he said, was “greater than [that] of a fighter jet with its afterburners on, or the space shuttle during atmospheric re-entry”.
Jet fighters, however, are able to out-accelerate the little birds.
In the latter stages of their dives, when they spread their wings to pull up, the hummingbirds’ “instantaneous acceleration” was, said Mr Clark, “greater than any organism previously recorded undergoing aerial manoeuvres”.
And that was all without the help of a powerful jet engine.

Speeding up brain networks might boost IQ

For decades scientists have tried, mostly in vain, to explain where intelligence resides in our brains. The answer, a new study suggests, is everywhere.
After analysing the brain as an incredibly dense network of interconnected points, a team of Dutch scientists has found that the most efficiently wired brains tend to belong to the most intelligent people.
And improving this efficiency with drugs offers a tantalising – though still unproven – means of boosting intelligence, say researchers.
The concept of a networked brain isn’t so different from the transportation grids used by cars and planes, says Martijn van den Heuvel, a neuroscientist at Utrecht University Medical Center who led the new study.
“If you’re flying from New York to Amsterdam, you can do it in a direct flight. It’s much more effective than going from New York, then to Washington, and then to Amsterdam. It’s exactly the same idea in the brain,” he says.
Intelligence indicator
Instead of airports, van den Heuvel’s team mapped the communications between tiny slivers of brain measured by a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine. Rather than scan the brains of subjects performing mental tasks, as most fMRI studies do, researchers took 8-minute-long snapshots of the brains of 19 volunteers, as they did nothing in particular.
The subjects’ brains, of course, didn’t go completely quiet, and the researchers reasoned that any brain activity they measured represented underlying connectivity between brain regions, near and far.
This allowed van den Heuvel’s team to build connectivity networks for each volunteer, and to measure the efficiency of each network. “It more or less reflects how many steps a [brain] region has to take to send information from one region to another,” he says.
This measure proved a decent predictor of each person’s IQ, explaining about 30 per cent of the differences between subjects, van den Heuvel says.
Intriguingly, the researchers found no link between the total number of connections in a subject’s brain network and their IQ. “We show that more intelligent people don’t have more connections, but they have more efficiently placed connections,” he says.

Female Water Striders Expose Their Genitalia Only After Males 'Sing'

Chang Seok Han and Piotr Jablonski at Seoul National University, Korea have found that by evolving a morphological shield to protect their genitalia from males' forceful copulatory attempts, females of an Asian species of water strider seem to "win" the evolutionary arms race between the sexes. Instead, females only expose their genitalia for copulation after males produce a courtship "song" by tapping the water surface.

150 years after the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, Han and Jablonski used common insects, water striders, to study the intricacies of evolutionary conflict between males and females. The mechanisms for the way Darwinian natural selection, acting separately on males and females, result in different traits in males than in females (for example, different body sizes to guarantee the highest number of offspring during an individual's lifetime) are already quite well understood.
Sometimes, however, a behavioral trait, such as mating frequency, depends on both the male and the female characteristics. Natural selection favors higher mating frequency in males than in females in many animals, including humans. This leads to an evolutionary "arms race" where males evolve adaptations that force females to mate, while females evolve defenses against males' attempts.
As in the arms races between countries and political powers, it is rare for one sex to "win" in this evolutionary race.
However, in the study by Han and Jablonski, carried out at the Laboratory of Behavioral Ecology and Evolution at Seoul National University, females of an Asian species of water striders, Gerris gracilicornis, do seem to win this race as they have evolved a morphological shield behind which their genitalia are hidden from males, protecting them against the males' forceful attempts to mate.
In an apparent response to the female adaptation, after the violent mounting onto the female's back (typical in water striders), males of this species produce courtship signals by tapping the water surface with their middle legs. It is only after receiving the male's "song" that females expose their genitalia for copulation.

Baby Stars Finally Found In Jumbled Galactic Center

Astronomers have at last uncovered newborn stars at the frenzied center of our Milky Way galaxy. The discovery was made using the infrared vision of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

The heart of our spiral galaxy is cluttered with stars, dust and gas, and at its very center, a supermassive black hole. Conditions there are harsh, with fierce stellar winds, powerful shock waves and other factors that make it difficult for stars to form. Astronomers have known that stars can form in this chaotic place, but they're baffled as to how this occurs. Confounding the problem is all the dust standing between us and the center of our galaxy. Until now, nobody had been able to definitively locate any baby stars.
"These stars are like needles in a haystack," said Solange Ramirez, the principal investigator of the research program at NASA's Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "There's no way to find them using optical light, because dust gets in the way. We needed Spitzer's infrared instruments to cut through the dust and narrow in on the objects."
The team plans to look for additional baby stars in the future, and ultimately to piece together what types of conditions allow stars to form in such an inhospitable environment as our galaxy's core.
"By studying individual stars in the galactic center, we can better understand how stars are formed in different interstellar environments," said Deokkeun An of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech, lead author of a paper submitted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. "The Milky Way galaxy is just one of more than hundreds of billions of galaxies in the visible universe. However, our galaxy is so special because we can take a closer look at its individual stellar components." An started working on this program while a graduate student at Ohio State University, Columbus, under the leadership of Ohio State astronomer Kris Sellgren, the co-investigator on the project.
The core of the Milky Way is a mysterious place about 600 light-years across (light would take 600 years to travel from one end to the other). While this is just a fraction of the size of the entire Milky Way, which is about 100,000 light-years across, the core is stuffed with 10 percent of all the gas in the galaxy -- and loads and loads of stars.
Before now, there were only a few clues that stars can form in the galaxy's core. Astronomers had found clusters of massive adolescent stars, in addition to clouds of charged gas -- a sign that new stars are beginning to ignite and ionize surrounding gas. Past attempts had been unsuccessful in finding newborn stars, or as astronomers call them, young stellar objects.
Ramirez and colleagues began their search by scanning large Spitzer mosaics of our galactic center. They narrowed in on more than 100 candidates, but needed more detailed data to confirm the stars' identities. Young stellar objects, when viewed from far away, can look a lot like much older stars. Both types of stars are very dusty, and the dust lying between us and them obscures the view even further.
To sort through the confusion, the astronomers looked at their candidate stars with Spitzer's spectrograph – an instrument that breaks light apart to reveal its rainbow-like array of infrared colors. Molecules around stars leave imprints in their light, which the spectrograph can detect.
The results revealed three stars with clear signs of youth, for example, certain warm, dense gases. These youthful features are found in other places in the galaxy where stars are being formed.
"It is amazing to me that we have found these stars," said Ramirez. "The galactic center is a very interesting place. It has young stars, old stars, black holes, everything. We started mining a catalog of about 1 million sources and managed to find three young stars -- stars that will help reveal the secrets at the core of the Milky Way."
The young stellar objects are all less than about 1 million years old. They are embedded in cocoons of gas and dust, which will eventually flatten to disks that, according to theory, later lump together to form planets.
Other collaborators include Richard Arendt of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; A. C. Adwin Boogert of NASA's Herschel Science Center, Caltech in Pasadena; Mathias Schultheis of the Besancon Observatory in France; Susan Stolovy of NASA's Spitzer Science Center, Caltech in Pasadena; Angela Cotera of SETI Institute, Mountain View, Calif.; and Thomas Robitaille and Howard Smith of Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.

How Do We See? A Simple Explanation

Lectured by -- Honorary Professor Leonard Shaw
We are surrounded by Electro-magnetic radiation, from all objects which have a temperature above 0 degrees Kelvin. Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution, of Great Britain, Albemarle Street, London, 170 years ago, discovered the Electro and the Magnetic components. A radio receiver ‘tuned’ to the frequency of the broadcast station this can receive the Electro phase in a wire loop aerial, or the Magnetic’ phase in a ferrite rod. The broadcast station modulates the transmission with sound and the radio circuit separates this so we can hear it. In a similar way, the sun at 5000 degrees centigrade, emits Direct Light electro-magnetic radiation with both phases.
Day Light is the electro potential of sunlight and it radiates in a capacitive linear manner in all directions at the speed of light. We receive it by the vibration of free electrons through the crystal lattice of glass or the lens of our eyes and we can not see it. It can be modulated by electrons in the view by quantum discharges.
Direct Light has both electro-magnetic components in phase and is attenuated as the square of the distance over which it travels. It generally moves in straight lines and can be continuously captured by mass. During the time after it has modulated Day Light, it is attenuated as the square of the distance over which this has traveled before it is captured by the eye retina and used to focus the eye lens on the view.

Summary.
Day Light, is a potential without mass, which travels at the speed of light. It expands in all directions and is attenuated with distance in a linear capacitive manner. It can be modulated with Direct Light which has both the electro and magnetic components in phase from quantum discharge of electrons in the view. The energy of Direct Light can be continuously captured by mass, and is attenuated as the square of the distance over which it travels. The amount of time, after it's modulation of Day Light, but before capture by the retina, increases the observed distance and area of the view.


Human Memory Loss

These instructions may reverse the conditions which lead to memory breakdown. Our memory becomes less as we age and worry or stress may be a problem. I use the herb valerian to reduce this although I now realise our variety contains lemon balm, a sleeping aid! A Guernsey Healthspan product, 'Valerian Ultra Plus' with a few minutes sleeping dose, enabled my patient to accept rapid changes of view. Any herb or pill should be taken when awake ONCE, only and the effects observed. If good effects are seen, do not repeat or harm may be done. The exact repeat dose rate required. (if any) is checked during the next few days. I did not know this, so I was fooled by both VegEPATM and the Memory pill (www.svensson.be) which were given for a few days before I found this was doing harm to my patient. Herbs or pills with a bad or no effect, must not be taken again. Babs had a good nights sleep on Sat 29.4.6, during our holiday at the Palais de Muro as after a pleasant day, the bedroom was cool.
The next night, the worst ever, was after our return on the 30.4.6. to the bedroom there which was too warm. My patient’s remarks just before sleep in bed, explained this, but were not understood. 'Valerina' Day Time valerian herb tablets prevent stress, and must be correct for the patient in amount and time. Quarter pills last about 90 minutes. After cutting, quarter pills are stored in small air tight bottles and ingested by mouth with a drink of water. After a long course of herbal ‘eyebrite' treatment is ended. this must not be resumed at a later date. No wine is taken, as it has a depressing effect. Use decaffeinated coffee or tea. Hot drinks can be taken before pills but not soon afterwards. An Aloe Vera dose, say once a week, needs careful attention of the effect on the patient. 26.6.6. It took almost a year to learn that no pills must be given until the patient is awake and conscious. If pills are given before, a system takes over which knows nothing. When pills were taken at 10.30 am, Babs gave an exhibition dance, (Fantastic), at 5.30 pm. If during the night, the patient visits the bathroom using long term memory while asleep, be very careful to use only kind words to lead them back to bed, to sleep and awake in a natural way. Patience is needed with a complete absence of push or rush.
We are conscious when aware of time and every day life.In dreams, we do not have this experience, so time is chaotic.Dreams clear the brain for action when we awake. Here. if my patient awakes during the night, a photo cell WAOC SF provides light to and from the toilet. My own good health, apart from antibiotics, although I am disabled, has been helped by diet additions of zinc, Q10, acidophilus, 'Minalka’ mineral pills, vitamins, Fishermen's Friends and strong human friends. Aloe Vera cured the old bad effects of antibiotics. The patient, my wife, aged 80 years is happy, enjoys a phone call to friends and sings songs. She presented me with a superb birthday card at 6.00am on my 93rd birthday, July 13, 2005.

A Robot That Reads Your Intention?

European researchers in robotics, psychology and cognitive sciences have developed a robot that can predict the intentions of its human partner. This ability to anticipate (or question) actions could make human-robot interactions more natural.

The walking, talking, thinking robots of science fiction are far removed from the automated machines of today. Even today's most intelligent robots are little more than slaves – programmed to do our bidding.
Many research groups are trying to build robots that could be less like workers and more like companions. But to play this role, they must be able to interact with people in natural ways, and play a pro-active part in joint tasks and decision-making. We need robots that can ask questions, discuss and explore possibilities, assess their companion's ideas and anticipate what their partners might do next.
The EU-funded JAST project (http://www.euprojects-jast.net/) brings a multidisciplinary team together to do just this. The project explores ways by which a robot can anticipate/predict the actions and intentions of a human partner as they work collaboratively on a task.
Who knows best?
You cannot make human-robot interaction more natural unless you understand what 'natural' actually means. But few studies have investigated the cognitive mechanisms that are the basis of joint activity (i.e. where two people are working together to achieve a common goal).
A major element of the JAST project, therefore, was to conduct studies of human-human collaboration. These experiments and observations could feed into the development of more natural robotic behaviour.
The researchers participating in JAST are at the forefront of their discipline and have made some significant discoveries about the cognitive processes involved in joint action and decision-making. Most importantly, they scrutinised the ways in which observation plays an important part in joint activity.
Scientists have already shown that a set of 'mirror neurons' are activated when people observe an activity. These neurons resonate as if they were mimicking the activity; the brain learns about an activity by effectively copying what is going on. In the JAST project, a similar resonance was discovered during joint tasks: people observe their partners and the brain copies their action to try and make sense of it.
In other words, the brain processes the observed actions (and errors, it turns out) as if it is doing them itself. The brain mirrors what the other person is doing either for motor-simulation purposes or to select the most adequate complementary action.
Resonant robotics
The JAST robotics partners have built a system that incorporates this capacity for observation and mirroring (resonance).
“In our experiments the robot is not observing to learn a task,” explains Wolfram Erlhagen from the University of Minho and one of the project consortium's research partners. “The JAST robots already know the task, but they observe behaviour, map it against the task, and quickly learn to anticipate [partner actions] or spot errors when the partner does not follow the correct or expected procedure.”
The robot was tested in a variety of settings. In one scenario, the robot was the 'teacher' – guiding and collaborating with human partners to build a complicated model toy. In another test, the robot and the human were on equal terms. “Our tests were to see whether the human and robot could coordinate their work,” Erlhagen continues. “Would the robot know what to do next without being told?”
By observing how its human partner grasped a tool or model part, for example, the robot was able to predict how its partner intended to use it. Clues like these helped the robot to anticipate what its partner might need next. “Anticipation permits fluid interaction,” says Erlhagen. “The robot does not have to see the outcome of the action before it is able to select the next item.”
The robots were also programmed to deal with suspected errors and seek clarification when their partners’ intentions were ambiguous. For example, if one piece could be used to build three different structures, the robot had to ask which object its partner had in mind.
From JAST to Jeeves
But how is the JAST system different to other experimental robots?
“Our robot has a neural architecture that mimics the resonance processing that our human studies showed take place during joint actions,” says Erlhagen. “The link between the human psychology, experimentation and the robotics is very close. Joint action has not been addressed by other robotics projects, which may have developed ways to predict motor movements, but not decisions or intentions. JAST deals with prediction at a much higher cognitive level.”
Before robots like this one can be let loose around humans, however, they will have to learn some manners. Humans know how to behave according to the context they are in. This is subtle and would be difficult for a robot to understand.
Nevertheless, by refining this ability to anticipate, it should be possible to produce robots that are proactive in what they do.
Not waiting to be asked, perhaps one day a robot may use the JAST approach to take initiative and ask: “Would you care for a cup of tea?”
The JAST project received funding from the ICT strand of the EU’s Sixth Framework Programme for research.

Computer-Related Injuries On The Rise: Young Children Particularly At Risk

While back pain, blurred vision and mouse-related injuries are now well-documented hazards of long-term computer use, the number of acute injuries connected to computers is rising rapidly. According to a study published in the July 2009 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers from the Center for Injury Research and Policy and The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital; and The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus have found a more-than-sevenfold increase in computer-related injuries due to tripping over computer equipment, head injuries due to computer monitor falls and other physical incidents.
According to data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System database, over 78,000 cases of acute computer-related injuries were treated in U.S. emergency departments from 1994 through 2006. Approximately 93% of injuries occurred at home. The number of acute computer-related injuries increased by 732% over the 13-year study period, which is more than double the increase in household computer ownership (309%).
Injury mechanisms included hitting against or catching on computer equipment; tripping or falling over computer equipment; computer equipment falling on top of the patient; and the straining of muscles or joints. The computer part most often associated with injuries was the monitor. The percentage of monitor-related cases increased significantly, from 11.6% in 1994 to a peak of 37.1% in 2003. By 2006, it had decreased to 25.1%. The decrease since 2003 corresponds to the replacement of heavier cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors with smaller and easier-to-lift liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors.
Children aged <5 years had the highest injury rate of all age groups. The most common cause of injury was tripping or falling by patients aged <5 years (43.4%) and ≥60 years (37.7%) and hitting or getting caught on computer equipment for individuals of all other ages (36.9% of all cases). While injuries to the extremities were most common (57.4%), children aged <10 years most often had injuries to the head (75.8% for those aged <5 years and 61.8% for those aged 5–9 years).
According to Lara B. McKenzie, PhD, MA, Nationwide Children’s Hospital Center for Injury Research and Policy, Columbus, “Future research on acute computer-related injuries is needed as this ubiquitous product becomes more intertwined in our everyday lives. More information is needed on the types of computers and equipment used, the layout of these systems, and the furniture utilized in order to develop household-safety practices in this area…Given the large increase in acute computer-related injuries over the study period, greater efforts are needed to prevent such injuries, especially among young children.” - ScienceDaily (June 9, 2009)

Most Distant Water in the Universe Found

The spectrum -- a radio "fingerprint" that revealed radio emission from water masers in the distant quasar MG J0414+0534. The background image is an infrared image of the quasar, made with the Hubble Space Telescope. The quasar appears broken up into four components by a foreground galaxy (diffuse object in the center), acting as a gravitational lens and strengthening the signal by a factor of 35. The inset with the galaxy M87 shows how the quasar might be seen from nearby. Image: Milde Science Communication, STScI, CFHT, J.-C. Cuillandre, Coelum.

Using the giant, 100-meter-diameter radio telescope in Effelsberg, Germany, and the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, the scientists detected a telltale radio "fingerprint" of water molecules in the distant galaxy.

The soggy galaxy, dubbed MG J0414+0534, harbors a quasar -- a supermassive black hole powering bright emission -- at its core. In the region near the core, the water molecules are acting as masers, the radio equivalent of lasers, to amplify radio waves at a specific frequency.

The astronomers say their discovery indicates that such giant water masers were more common in the early Universe than they are today. MG J0414+0534 is seen as it was when the Universe was roughly one-sixth of its current age.

At the galaxy's great distance, even the strengthening of the radio waves done by the masers would not by itself have made them strong enough to detect with the radio telescopes. However, the scientists got help from nature in the form of another galaxy, nearly 8 billion light-years away, located directly in the line of sight from MG J0414+0534 to Earth. That foreground galaxy's gravity served as a lens to further brighten the more-distant galaxy and make the emission from the water molecules visible to the radio telescopes.

"We were only able to discover this distant water with the help of the gravitational lens," said Violette Impellizzeri, an astronomer with the Max-Planck Institute for Radioastronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn, Germany. "This cosmic telescope reduced the amount of time needed to detect the water by a factor of about 1,000," she added.

The astronomers first detected the water signal with the Effelsberg telescope. They then turned to the VLA's sharper imaging capability to confirm that it was indeed coming from the distant galaxy. The gravitational lens produces not one, but four images of MG J0414+0534 as seen from Earth. Using the VLA, the scientists found the specific frequency attributable to the water masers in the two brightest of the four lensed images. The other two lensed images, they said, are too faint for detecting the water signal.

The radio frequency emitted by the water molecules was Doppler shifted by the expansion of the Universe from 22.2 GHz to 6.1 GHz.

Water masers have been found in numerous galaxies at closer distances. Typically, they are thought to arise in disks of molecules closely orbiting a supermassive black hole at the galaxy's core. The amplified radio emission is more often observed when the orbiting disk is seen nearly edge-on. However, the astronomers said MG J0414+0534 is oriented with the disk almost face-on as seen from Earth.

"This may mean that the water molecules in the masers we're seeing are not in the disk, but in the superfast jets of material being ejected by the gravitational power of the black hole," explained John McKean, also of MPIfR.

Impellizzeri and McKean worked with Alan Roy, Christian Henkel, and Andreas Brunthaler, also of the Max-Planck Institute; Paola Castangia of the Max-Planck Institute and the INAF Astronomical Observatory of Cagliari in Italy; and Olaf Wucknitz of the Argelander Institute for Astronomy in Bonn, Germany. The scientists reported their results in the December 18 issue of the scientific journal Nature.

Provided by National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Boom in tiny bedbugs is causing big trouble

WASHINGTON — The biggest bedbug outbreak since World War II has sent a collective shudder among apartment dwellers, college students and business travelers across the nation.The bugs — reddish brown, flat and about the size of a grain of rice — suck human blood.

They resist many pesticides and spread quickly in certain mattress-heavy buildings, such as hotels, dormitories and apartment complexes.

Two shelters have closed temporarily in Charlotte, N.C. , because of bedbugs, a Yahoo chat group dedicates itself to sufferers and countless bedbug blogs provide forums for news, tips and commiseration. State inspectors say that more emphasis may be needed to tackle the creatures.

Federal officials have taken notice of the resurgence. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency held its first-ever bedbug summit, and now a North Carolina congressman wants to take on the insect.

Democratic Rep. G.K. Butterfield just introduced legislation that would authorize $50 million that's already in the Department of Commerce budget to train health inspectors how to recognize signs of the insects.

The Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2009 also would require public housing agencies to submit bedbug inspection plans to the federal government. It would add bedbugs to a rodent and cockroach program in the Department of Health and Human Services . It also would require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research bedbugs' impact on public mental health.

Butterfield's letter to congressional colleagues about the legislation attracted lots of attention: It was topped with a full-color picture of the insect sitting on human skin.

"Unfortunately, in recent years, the United States has seen a resurgence in bedbugs," the letter reads. "That's right — they're back in the sack — and biting.

"Bedbugs have hit hotels and homes in every state. The creatures are amazing hitchhikers, experts say, and easily travel in suitcases, boxes or packages. They can live for up to a year without food.

Apparently no state has a central reporting system for bedbugs, according to Butterfield's office, and since the bug carries no known diseases, many health departments don't consider it a public health threat.

That leaves the critters falling through the cracks among regulators, said Michael Potter , an entomologist at the University of Kentucky and one of the country's bedbug experts.

"Most health departments say, 'Hey, we don't deal with bedbugs,' " Potter said.

Those who've suffered outbreaks say that the anxiety it induces can be debilitating. Potter said many sufferers tossed out furniture and could spend thousands of dollars on repeated treatments from pesticide companies. They call him about anxiety, insomnia, shame and the incessant annoyance of itchy red welts on their skin.

"They're, like, ready to blow their brains out," Potter said. "It's emotionally distressing. Anyone that has never had a bedbug problem is not one to judge whether we're dealing with a medical, emotional public health issue.

"In Congress , Butterfield first introduced his bill a year ago after hearing from a constituent who'd brought bedbugs into her home from a hotel trip. The bill died in committee last year, but Butterfield aides say they hope that higher attention will help the measure this year.The co-sponsors include Reps. Don Young , R- Alaska , Ben Chandler , D- Ky. , Bobby L. Rush , D- Ill. , Betty McCollum , D- Minn. , Corrine Brown , D- Fla. , Steve Cohen , D- Tenn. , Brad Miller , D- N.C. , and Eddie Bernice Johnson , D- Texas .

Butterfield also has received support from the National Pest Management Association , which says that bedbug calls to pest control companies are up 70 percent in the past five years.Greg Baumann , a Raleigh, N.C. , pest control expert and the vice president of technical services for the National Pest Management Association , said that a decade ago few pest control companies dealt routinely with bedbugs."Now it's everyone today," he said.

Baumann said companies could use pesticides on the bugs but that they also tried such alternatives as extreme heat, freezing and isolating the insects through mattress covers.Since the EPA restricted the use of several effective pesticides in the 1980s, bedbugs have built resistance to the chemicals that now are on the market, said Potter, the University of Kentucky entomologist. Public education is important, he said, but the industry also needs a good insecticide.

"Whether that bill is going to solve the problem — certainly it's a start," he said.