Friday, January 29, 2010

“ROGER BEACHY TO DELIVER DINNER SPEECH AT USDA'S 2010 AGRICULTURAL ... - USDA.gov (press release)” plus 3 more

“ROGER BEACHY TO DELIVER DINNER SPEECH AT USDA'S 2010 AGRICULTURAL ... - USDA.gov (press release)” plus 3 more

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ROGER BEACHY TO DELIVER DINNER SPEECH AT USDA'S 2010 AGRICULTURAL ... - USDA.gov (press release)

Posted: 29 Jan 2010 08:27 AM PST

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29, 2010 - USDA's Office of the Chief Economist announced today that Roger Beachy, director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and USDA chief scientist, will be the dinner speaker at the 2010 Agricultural Outlook Forum on Feb. 18, at 6:30 p.m., in Arlington, Va.

Beachy's speech, "The New Consensus: Science, Sustainability and Society" will address how research and advanced technologies look to solve issues of sustainable agriculture in relation to environmental, economic and trade competitiveness.

As Director of NIFA, Beachy oversees awarding extramural funds for research, extension and education for the U.S. Department of Agriculture; as chief scientist, he is responsible for coordinating science activities across the department. Beachy joined the Obama Administration on Oct. 5, 2009.

Beachy was the founding president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, a not-for-profit research institute with a mission to improve the human condition through plant science, in St. Louis, Mo. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and internationally known for his groundbreaking research on developing virus-resistant plants through biotechnology.

From 1991 to 1998, Beachy headed the Division of Plant Biology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. He was also Professor and Scripps Family Chair in Cell Biology and co-director of the International Laboratory for Tropical Agricultural Biotechnology at Scripps.

The theme of this year's Outlook Forum is "Sustainable Agriculture: The Key to Health & Prosperity." Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will deliver the Forum's keynote address.

The Forum will be held at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Va. It begins at 8 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 18. A full roster of speakers, topics and registration is available at www.usda.gov/oce/forum. Registration is $375. Plenary speeches will be Webcast after 6 p.m. EST on Feb. 18, and speech and PowerPoint presentations will be posted online after 6 p.m. on Feb. 19.

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice), or (202) 720-6382 (TDD).

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'Squeaker' Catfish Communicate Across Generations - Redorbit.com

Posted: 29 Jan 2010 07:37 AM PST

Posted on: Friday, 29 January 2010, 09:41 CST

It has been thought that young fish, lacking well-developed hearing organs, could not perceive the sounds made by their larger, older relatives. Now, researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Biology have used a combined fish tank and sound-proof chamber to show for the first time that catfish of all ages can communicate with one another.

Walter Lechner and a team of researchers from the University of Vienna studied the catfish Synodontis schoutedeni, which, by rubbing the spines of its pectoral fins into grooves on its shoulder, is able to create a 'squeaking' sound. He said, "This study is the first to demonstrate that absolute hearing sensitivity changes as catfish grow up. This contrasts with prior studies on the closely related goldfish and zebrafish, in which no such change could be observed. Furthermore, S. schoutedeni can detect sounds at all stages of development, again contrasting with previous findings".

The catfish use the squeaking sound to warn of predators and during competition between members of the species. By investigating the animals in specially modified tanks, Lechner and his colleagues were able to record the sounds made and perceived by fish of various sizes, from very young to adult. He said, "We found that as fish get larger, the sounds they make increase in level and duration. Hearing sensitivities increase with growth, but even the youngest fish are capable of communicating over short distances".

Reference: Ontogenetic development of auditory sensitivity and sound production in the squeaker catfish Synodontis schoutedeni. Walter Lechner, Lidia Eva Wysocki and Friedrich Ladich. BMC Biology

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Image 1: This is a Synodontis schoutedeni catfish. Credit: Oliver Drescher

Image 2: This is an auditory evoked potential recording. Credit: Lechner et al., BMC Biology

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Bees Can Be Trained to Recognize Face-Like Patterns - US News and World Report

Posted: 29 Jan 2010 09:03 AM PST

FRIDAY, Jan. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Bees can learn to recognize human faces, as long as they think the faces are odd-shaped flowers, a new study reports.

In a series of experiments, researchers from Australia and France determined that bees could be trained to recognize face-like patterns when they were rewarded with a sweet treat for doing so.

However, this doesn't mean that bees can learn to recognize individual human faces. Instead, the bees are able to learn the relative arrangements of features that create a face-like pattern, the study authors explained. Bees may use this same strategy to learn about and recognize different objects in their environment.

The study findings are published in the Jan. 29 issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology.

It's amazing that the microdot-sized brain of a bee can achieve this type of image analysis, said the researchers, who noted that humans have entire regions of the brain dedicated to this task. The bees' approach to face recognition may prove useful in the development of facial recognition systems, the study authors suggested.

More information

The University of Queensland, Australia has more about bees' brains.

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Former TSU professor barred for research fraud - Nashville Tennessean

Posted: 29 Jan 2010 08:35 AM PST

WASHINGTON -- A former nursing school professor at Tennessee State University has been barred for three years from receiving funding from the U.S. government after school officials found that he had falsified the results of a study paid for with a federal grant.

James G. Linn was debarred for committing "misconduct in science and research misconduct" during a project using funding from the National Institutes of Health, according to a notice posted Thursday in the Federal Register by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Research Integrity.

According to the notice, Linn "knowingly and intentionally" falsified data for a study published in Cellular and Molecular Biology in 2003 regarding the effects of an intervention program to reduce sexual risk behaviors in high-risk, impaired homeless men with mental illness. Linn was found to have reported false values in a table and provided a disc containing falsified data to support his analysis for the article to the school's Institutional Research Investigation Committee.

Linn had asked for a hearing to dispute the charges but dropped that request in December.

According to an abstract of research paper, Linn recruited homeless men from two shelters in Nashville for the study.

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