“Biology and Gaming Hardware Innovate Visual Systems - Softpedia” plus 4 more |
- Biology and Gaming Hardware Innovate Visual Systems - Softpedia
- Music and Speech Based on Human Biology, New Evidence Shows - Science Daily
- Love hurts: Why emotional pain really affects us - EurekAlert
- Pacific Biosciences Named 2010 Technology Pioneer by World Economic ... - PR Inside
- UW-Madison soil science professor receives national teaching award - UW Madison
| Biology and Gaming Hardware Innovate Visual Systems - Softpedia Posted: 03 Dec 2009 05:24 AM PST Endowing computers with artificial vision is something that robotics experts have been after for a long time. However, this is a very complex task that has left many research teams puzzled over how to defeat the numerous challenges ahead. Now, researchers at the Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say that they managed to exceed the limitations, by combining molecular biology with advances in high-performance gaming hardware. The team says that genetic screening techniques were also key in providing a way to build better artificial visual systems. Humans have the innate ability to recognize objects they see, or at least infer some basic characteristics of those they've never met before. But the biological and mental processes that underlie this ability are still a mystery. Researchers admit that they've only begun to probe the depths of the human brain and of the visual cortex. Since they don't know how the human eye works, they find it terribly difficult to mimic this trait inside artificial systems (robotic eyes). A breakthrough in this stall came once experts started using Graphics Processing Units (GPU) for their investigations.These are the same processors used by the gaming industry to accelerate new computer games, which have tremendous requirements of video cards. The investigators recently published their advancements, which were based on using GPUs as well, in the November 26 issue of the open-access scientific journal PLoS Computational Biology. The work was conducted by Harvard Visual Neuroscience Group expert and principal investigator David Cox, who collaborated closely with MIT PhD candidate Nicolas Pinto, who works in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Institute. "Reverse-engineering a biological visual system – a system with hundreds of millions of processing units – and building an artificial system that works the same way is a daunting task. It is not enough to simply assemble together a huge amount of computing power. We have to figure out how to put all the parts together so that they can do what our brains can do," Cox says. "While studying the brain has yielded critical information about how the brain is wired, we currently don't have enough information to build a computer system that works like the brain does. Even if we take all of the clues that we have available from experimental neuroscience, there is still an enormous range of possible models for us to explore," Pinto adds. "GPUs are a real game-changer for scientific computing. We made a powerful parallel computing system from cheap, readily available off-the-shelf components, delivering over hundred-fold speed-ups relative to conventional methods. With this expanded computational power, we can discover new vision models that traditional methods miss," Pinto concludes. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Music and Speech Based on Human Biology, New Evidence Shows - Science Daily Posted: 03 Dec 2009 06:29 AM PST ScienceDaily (Dec. 3, 2009) — A pair of studies by Duke University neuroscientists shows powerful new evidence of a deep biological link between human music and speech. The two new studies found that the musical scales most commonly used over the centuries are those that come closest to mimicking the physics of the human voice, and that we understand emotions expressed through music because the music mimics the way emotions are expressed in speech. Composers have long exploited the perception of minor chord music as sad and major chord music as happy, now the Duke team thinks they know why. In a paper appearing in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA), the Duke team, led by Dale Purves, a professor of neurobiology, found that sad or happy speech can be categorized in major and minor intervals, just as music can. So your mother was right: It's not only the words you say, but how you say them. In a second paper appearing Dec. 3 in the online journal PLOS One, Kamraan Gill, another member of the team, found the most commonly used musical scales are also based on the physics of the vocal tones humans produce. "There is a strong biological basis to the aesthetics of sound," Purves said. "Humans prefer tone combinations that are similar to those found in speech." This evidence suggests the main biological reason we appreciate music is because it mimics speech, which has been critical to our evolutionary success, said Purves, who is also director of Duke's Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders Program and executive director of the A*STaR Neuroscience Research Partnership at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore. To study the emotional content of music, the Duke team collected a database of major and minor melodies from about 1,000 classical music compositions and more that 6,000 folk songs and then analyzed their tonal qualities. They also had 10 people speak a series of single words with 10 different vowel sounds in either excited or subdued voices, as well as short monologues. The team then compared the tones that distinguished the major and minor melodies with the tones of speech uttered in the different emotional states. They found the sound spectra of the speech tones could be sorted the same way as the music, with excited speech exhibiting more major musical intervals and subdued speech more minor ones. The tones in speech are a series of harmonic frequencies, whose relative power distinguishes the different vowels. Vowels are produced by the physics of air moving through the vocal cords; consonants are produced by other parts of the vocal tract. In the PLOS One paper, the researchers argue the harmonic structure of vowel tones forms the basis of the musical scales we find most appealing. They show the popularity of musical scales can be predicted based on how well they match up with the series of harmonics characteristic of vowels in speech. Although there are literally millions of scales that could be used to divide the octave, most human music is based on scales comprised of only five to seven tones. The researchers argue the preference for these particular tone collections is based on how closely they approximate the harmonic series of tones produced by humans. Though they only worked with western music and spoken English, there is reason to believe these findings are more widely applicable. Most of the frequency ratios of the chromatic musical scale can be found in the speech of a variety of languages. Their analysis included speakers of Mandarin Chinese, said Duke neuroscience graduate student Daniel Bowling, who is the first author on the JASA paper, and this showed similar results. "Our appreciation of music is a happy byproduct of the biological advantages of speech and our need to understand its emotional content," Purves said. It would be hard to say whether singing or speech came first, but graduate student Dan Bowling supposes "emotional communication in both speech and music is rooted in earlier non-lingual vocalizations that expressed emotion." Story Source: Adapted from materials provided by Duke University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Love hurts: Why emotional pain really affects us - EurekAlert Posted: 03 Dec 2009 06:07 AM PST ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small} Public release date: 3-Dec-2009[ | E-mail |  Share ] Contact: Steve Pogonowski Have you ever felt overly upset by a social snubbing? Your genetics, not your friends, may be at fault. Scientists have long known that opium-like painkillers, called opioids, relieve not only physical pain, but also some forms of emotional stress. Now, a new study reviewed by Faculty of 1000 Biology member Markus Heilig shows that small genetic differences in the gene for the opioid receptor can determine the intensity of people's responses to social rejection. In the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles questioned people about their responses to social rejection, which is a form of emotional stress. They also performed brain scans on people playing a video game in which they were excluded from tossing a ball with computer-generated players. The results showed that people with a certain mutation in their opioid receptor reacted more strongly to social rejection than those with a normal opioid receptor. Dr Heilig says that "strengthening the conclusions from this study is the fact that a similar polymorphism [genetic difference] has independently arisen in the rhesus macaque." The same portion of the brain that is responsible for the response to physical pain became activated as a result of social rejection, suggesting that, to our brains, emotions really can "hurt." Media Contact
Notes to Editors 1. Markus Heilig, Faculty Member for F1000 Biology, is Chief of the Laboratory of Clinical and Translational Studies at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, USA http://f1000biology.com/about/biography/1956078281016833 2. The full text of this article is available free for 90 days at http://www.f1000biology.com/article/pmpyrt2d5bgt27n/id/1166319 3. An abstract of the original paper Variation in the micro-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) is associated with dispositional and neural sensitivity to social rejection is at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/19706472?dopt=Abstract&holding=f1000,f1000m,isrctn 4. Please name Faculty of 1000 Biology in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the website 5. Faculty of 1000, http://f1000.com, is a unique online service that helps you stay informed of high impact articles and access the opinions of global leaders in biology. Our distinguished international Faculty select and evaluate key articles across medicine, providing a rapidly updated, authoritative guide to the biomedical literature that matters 6. Please contact Steve Pogonowski, PR Manager, for a complimentary journalist subscription to Faculty of 1000 press@f1000.com [ | E-mail | Share ]
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| Pacific Biosciences Named 2010 Technology Pioneer by World Economic ... - PR Inside Posted: 03 Dec 2009 06:50 AM PST 2009-12-03 15:50:50 -
Pacific Biosciences, a private company developing a disruptive technology platform for real-time detection of biological events at single molecule resolution, today announced that it has been named a 2010 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum. The 2010 WEF Technology Pioneers include 26 innovative start-up companies expected to have a critical impact on the future of business and society. To be selected as a Technology Pioneer, a company must be involved in the development of a life-changing technology innovation and have the potential for long-term impact on business and society. In addition, it must demonstrate visionary leadership and show all the signs of a long-standing and sustainable market leader – and its technology must be proven.Pacific Biosciences was nominated for the award by best-selling business strategy author and MDV Venture Partner, Geoffrey Moore. "DNA sequencing is a fundamental enabling technology in the biotechnology revolution, and Pacific Biosciences has developed a way to break through the previous ceilings on the potential of this technology to transform the practice of medicine, improve agriculture, and develop greener energy solutions," said Mr. Moore. Pacific Biosciences is scheduled to introduce its Single Molecule Real Time (SMRT) DNA sequencing technology to the market in the second half of 2010. "We believe our single molecule, real-time technology will radically change the way scientists perform DNA sequencing, and will ultimately become a routine part of patient care," said Hugh Martin, Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Biosciences. "We are grateful to Geoff Moore and the WEF for recognizing our achievements to date." Previous WEF Technology Pioneers include 23andme (2008), Amyris Biotechnologies (2006), Dr Reddy Laboratories (2001), Google (2001), Gridpoint (2008), Kaspersky Lab (2001), Mozilla Corporation (2007), Nanosolar (2007), Recyclebank (2009), and Silver Spring Networks (2008). More information about the Technology Pioneers program, including a complete list of winners, is available at www.weforum.org/techpioneers : More information about Pacific Biosciences is available at www.pacificbiosciences.com :
About Pacific Biosciences Pacific Biosciences' mission is to transform the way humankind acquires, processes, and interprets data from living systems. The company has developed a disruptive technology platform for the real-time detection of biological events at single molecule resolution. Single Molecule Real Time (SMRT™) Biology promises to revolutionize the life sciences by revealing the underlying networks that define living systems. The first application for the SMRT Biology platform is a paradigm changing approach to DNA sequencing. The SMRT Sequencing System will ultimately make it possible to sequence individual genomes as part of routine medical care. DNA sequencing is expected to be the first of many transformative SMRT Biology applications that will benefit society by driving radical advances in fields such as personalized medicine, agriculture, clean energy, and global health.
For Pacific BiosciencesNicole Litchfield, 415-945-9905 nicole@bioscribe.com : mailto:nicole@bioscribe.com This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| UW-Madison soil science professor receives national teaching award - UW Madison Posted: 03 Dec 2009 07:12 AM PST Dec. 3, 2009 Teresa Balser, associate professor of soil science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has received the 2009 National Teaching Award from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). The award recognizes outstanding faculty members for their classroom teaching, use of innovative teaching methods, service to students and their profession, and scholarship. Balser teaches upper-level soils and honors biology courses, a large introductory environmental studies class and graduate seminar courses for professional and instructional development. She is a sought-after speaker for outreach activities with growers and citizens interested in soil ecology and is co-writing an introductory environmental studies textbook. Balser is also involved in a wide range of efforts to help other teachers improve their craft. She directs the UW-Madison Institute for Cross-College Biology Education, is a member of the UW-Madison Teaching Academy and is an affiliate of the university's Office of Human Resource Development. She serves as the leadership development coordinator for the American Society of Agronomy and regularly presents workshops on teaching and professional development. "I love teaching, and mentoring young faculty is a way to teach at a different level," Balser says. "It's also a way to make things less stressful for them. We're taught to do research, but not how to teach a class. So I'm keen on helping them see that they can do it, that it's not so scary." Balser was awarded a National Science Foundation Early Career award in 2006, was the 2007 UW System Teaching Fellow for the Madison campus, and is a 2008-09 National Biology Scholar. The APLU also honored Michel Wattiaux, UW-Madison associate professor of dairy science, with its 2009 Regional Teaching Award. The APLU commended Wattiaux's strong focus on experiential learning, noting that "his courses place students in the driver's seat and he challenges them to think critically and from multiple perspectives. " Wattiaux teaches an undergraduate seminar, a dairy husbandry practicum, courses on ruminant nutrition and environmental impact of livestock management, and an international agricultural seminar that includes a study tour in Mexico. He also co-teaches a graduate-level course on learning theories and effective teaching strategies, and has presented at teaching conferences. Wattiaux has also received the UW-Madison Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award, the UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Jung Teaching Award and the American Dairy Science Association Excellence in Dairy Science Teaching Award. "Both Teri and Michel represent college-level teaching at its best," says Irwin Goldman, interim dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. "With their passion for teaching, eagerness to innovate in the classroom and efforts to help other teachers improve their skills, they raise the quality of teaching not just in their own classrooms, but across campus and beyond. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
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