SCIFI: How to bake a working robot in your home kitchen. Really.

Credit: Courtesy of the researchers

Before-and-after stills from the video "An End-to-End Approach to 

Making Self-Folded 3D Surface Shapes by Uniform Heating." 

The left image shows the self-folding sheet for a humanoid shape, 

while the right image shows the completed self-folded humanoid shape.

I can't cook.  Don't pretend to know how.  But, given the recipe to bake an actual working robot in the oven of my home kitchen?  I'm into it.  You may feel that the eggheads at MIT rarely come up with anything useful, and perhaps they rarely do, but bake a robot?  One that could walk the dog or make the bed?  Or better yet, clean the cat's box?  Wowzers, Batman.  How cool would this be?

The story:

New algorithms and electronic components could enable printable robots that self-assemble when heated. Printable robots — those that can be assembled from parts produced by 3-D printers — have long been a topic of research in Computer Science labs at MIT. Now researchers introduce a

Printable robots -- those that can be assembled from parts produced by 3-D printers -- have long been a topic of research in the lab of Daniela Rus, the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT.

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At this year's IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Rus' group and its collaborators introduce a new wrinkle on the idea: bakable robots.

In two new papers, the researchers demonstrate the promise of printable robotic components that, when heated, automatically fold into prescribed three-dimensional configurations.

One paper describes a system that takes a digital specification of a 3-D shape -- such as a computer-aided design, or CAD, file -- and generates the 2-D patterns that would enable a piece of plastic to reproduce it through self-folding.

The other paper explains how to build electrical components from self-folding laser-cut materials. The researchers present designs for resistors, inductors, and capacitors, as well as sensors and actuators -- the electromechanical "muscles" that enable robots' movements.

"We have this big dream of the hardware compiler, where you can specify, 'I want a robot that will play with my cat,' or 'I want a robot that will clean the floor,' and from this high-level specification, you actually generate a working device," Rus says. "So far, we have tackled some subproblems in the space, and one of the subproblems is this end-to-end system where you have a picture, and at the other end, you have an object that realizes that picture. And the same mathematical models and principles that we use in this pipeline we also use to create these folded electronics."

Both papers build on previous research that Rus did in collaboration with Erik Demaine, another professor of computer science and engineering at MIT. This work explored how origami could be adapted to create reconfigurable robots.

All the angles
The key difference in the new work, explains Shuhei Miyashita, a postdoc in Rus' lab and one of her co-authors on both papers, is a technique for precisely controlling the angles at which a heated sheet folds. Miyashita sandwiches a sheet of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) between two films of a rigid polyester riddled with slits of different widths. When heated, the PVC contracts, and the slits close. Where edges of the polyester film press up against each other, they deform the PVC.

Imagine, for instance, a slit in the top polyester film and another parallel to it in the bottom film. But suppose, too, that the slit in the top film is narrower than that on the bottom. As the PVC contracts, the edges of the top slit will press against each other, but there will still be a gap between the edges of the bottom slit. The entire sheet will then bend downward until the bottom edges meet as well. The final angle is a function of the difference in the widths of the top and bottom slits.

But producing the pattern of slits is not as simple as just overlaying them on an origami crease pattern and adjusting the widths accordingly, Rus says. "You're doing this really complicated global control that moves every edge in the system at the same time," she says. "You want to design those edges in such a way that the result of composing all these motions, which actually interfere with each other, leads to the correct geometric structure."

Researchers describe using a polyester coated with aluminum to create foldable electronic components. Miyashita designed those components by hand, since it was necessary to prescribe not just their geometric properties but also their electrical properties. The sensor Miyashita designed looks kind of like a small accordion. Each of the accordion folds contains a separate resistor, and when the folds are compressed, the total resistance changes proportionally, with a measurable effect on a current passing through the sensor.

The actuator -- which would enable a robot to move -- is a foldable coil, which would need to be augmented with a pair of iron cylinders that could be magnetized by an electrical current. Aluminum isn't a good enough conductor to yield an actuator that exerts much force, but a copper-coated polyester should do the trick.

To see the bakable robot in action:  The bakable robot

Okay, so the take and bake model is a few years off. But one day in the not-too-distant future?  Pop'n Fresh Robots in your dairy case.

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Story Source:  Materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, written by Larry Hardesty. "New printable robots could self-assemble when heated." ScienceDaily

CRIME: Breakthrough uncovers fingerprints on ATM receipts

Source:  www.nides.cz

The Hot Print System is a new development to automatically and 

consistently develop fingerprints on thermal paper such as till receipts.

In the real world as in fiction, it's getting harder and harder to be a successful bad guy.  Admittedly, many if not most criminals are, to be polite, dolts, and, according to other research released in the past year, opportunists rather than thoughtful.  Still, technology is making it harder for both the opportunists and the meticulous.  For example ~

A new technology in the fight against theft and fraud, developed by Dr John Bond OBE from the University of Leicester's Department of Chemistry, uses a specially tailored UV light source to visualize fingerprints not possible to see on 'thermal paper' using any other technique, specifically the paper used for receipts and statements from ATMs.

Historically, the process of visualizing fingerprints on thermal paper has been impossible, as the solvent used in the chemical treatment can color the dye and turn the whole paper black, making thermal paper a 'problem surface' from which to recover fingerprints.

The Hot Print System
Several years ago, Dr Bond reported a method of fingerprint recovery from thermal paper by applying heat to the paper. This has been developed into commercial equipment, manufactured in the UK and sold worldwide as the Hot Print System (HPS). However, the HPS manufacturer recently reported that the properties of thermal paper seemed to vary between countries, particularly in the US and China, which led Dr Bond to invent this latest crime-fighting technique.

According to Dr Bond, "This new technology offers a new way of easily looking for fingerprints on an increasing source of paperwork that criminals are likely to handle when committing a variety of offences.

Actual fingerprint recovered on

thermal paper by the Hot Print

System technology.

"When I started researching fingerprint recovery from thermal paper, I didn't realize that not all thermal papers are the same. In this latest development the light source provides non-invasive examination of thermal paper and can be carried out very quickly with the minimum of training to locate fingerprints. The HPS can then be used to develop the fingerprint to enable capture as a digital image.  If development with the HPS is faint, the light source can be used to illuminate faint prints to enhance digital capture. This latest technology therefore complements my other work in this area and the HPS.

"Techniques like this are preferred by the police as they offer quick and easy examination of forensic items for fingerprints. Like all this work, the bottom line is helping the police to lock up the bad guys."

The device was recently presented at the Forensics Europe Expo, an adjunct to the Counter Terrorism Expo, which took place 29 -- 30 April, Olympia, London.

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Dr Bond also presented at the Expo on a second device, used for storing a used firearm shell in a sterile container that ensures minimal contact with the outer surface of the casing, which is where extraneous DNA or fingerprints would be picked up under normal circumstances.

Dr Bond explained: "Current recovery and storage methods invariably mean there is frictional contact with the packaging that can smudge or remove any material present which, as we know, is only in small amounts to start with so anything that better preserves this evidence is to be welcomed.

"This invention is a natural extension to look at all aspects of evidence recovery, storage and processing rather than just focusing on evidence processing. Having done the job for 20 years, you get an appreciation for the whole process and where the weaknesses are; this is often not appreciated by researchers who just focus on the processing part."

The technology could lead to better retention of DNA and fingerprint material from crime scenes involving the discharge of a firearm.

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Story Source:  Materials provided by University of Leicester. "Breakthrough technology uncovers fingerprints on ATM bills and receipts." ScienceDaily.

ROMANCE: People tend to choose a spouse with similar DNA

Source: short-sharp-shock.blogspot.com

I find this result fascinating.  People tend to choose partners with similar DNA?  How do we do this?  Is it smell?  Appearance?  Some psychic connection?

Scientists already knew that people tend to marry others who have similar characteristics, including religion, age, race, income, body type and education, among others. Scientists now show that people also are more likely to pick mates who have similar DNA.  As the researchers state, "Individuals are more genetically similar to their spouses than they are to randomly selected individuals from the same population."

Thinks about this: if you've had a bad relationship that left you scarred, and that person was genetically similar to you, what does that tell you about yourself?  Do you also have the traits that led to the situation?  There is much to consider in this finding, something writers might consider in their personal lives and their fiction.

In the new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists show that people also are more likely to pick mates who have similar DNA. While characteristics such as race, body type and even education have genetic components, this is the first study to look at similarities across the entire genome.

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"It's well known that people marry folks who are like them," said Benjamin Domingue, lead author of the paper and a research associate at CU-Boulder's Institute of Behavioral Science. "But there's been a question about whether we mate at random with respect to genetics."

For the study, Domingue and his colleagues, including CU-Boulder Associate Professor Jason Boardman, used genomic data collected by the Health and Retirement Study, which is sponsored by the National Institute on Aging.

The researchers examined the genomes of 825 non-Hispanic white American couples. They looked specifically at single-nucleotide polymorphisms, which are places in their DNA that are known to commonly differ among humans.

The researchers found that there were fewer differences in the DNA between married people than between two randomly selected individuals. In all, the researchers estimated genetic similarity between individuals using 1.7 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms in each person's genome.

The researchers compared the magnitude of the genetic similarity between married people to the magnitude of the better-studied phenomenon of people with similar educations marrying, known as educational assortative mating. They found that the preference for a genetically similar spouse, known as genetic assortative mating, is about a third of the strength of educational assortative mating.

The findings could have implications for statistical models now used by scientists to understand genetic differences between human populations because such models often assume random mating.

The study also forms a foundation for future research that could explore whether similar results are found between married people of other races, whether people also choose genetically similar friends, and whether there are instances when people prefer mates whose DNA is actually more different rather than more similar.

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Story Source: Materials provided by University of Colorado at Boulder. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Benjamin W. Domingue, Jason Fletcher, Dalton Conley, and Jason D. Boardman. Genetic and educational assortative mating among US adults. PNAS, May 19, 2014

CRIME: fMRI Brain scans: Far better than the polygraph

From the trailer for the movie, "Meet the Parents",
starring Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller. 

fMRI brain scans are 99 percent accurate in identifying 

when a person is lying in response to questions.

If conventional lie detector machines, polygraphs, have been endlessly debunked and shown not to provide admissible nor even valid evidence, then the 21st Century tool of choice for reading the minds of witnesses and suspected criminals may be the brain scanner. More specifically, the kind of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that can seemingly probe our inner selves and reveal the flow of blood in the different regions of the brain that light up when we lie.

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In England and Wales, there have been legal experiments undertaken at the pre-charge stage using both conventional polygraphs with suspected criminals of low risk who have volunteered to be assessed using these technologies. The benefits for the police being that they might accelerate the charging process or more quickly dismiss a suspect for which evidence is scant and the questioning during an fMRI brain scan does not point to guilt. Research suggests that fMRI is 99 percent accurate in identifying when a person is lying in responding to questions.

Researchers point out that the use of fMRI in a legal context "is potentially groundbreaking," they note that it might be possible for witness testimony to be validated by fMRI. It could even be used to detect juror bias in a trial.

"The assistance to the defense that could be provided by neuroscientific evidence could further balance the equality of arms in an adversarial justice system," the team suggests. "There [now] needs to be consideration of how the results of neuroscientific analysis will be presented to the jury.

Science is moving at a great speed and these techniques are likely to become more refined and advanced in the future. As such, due regard must be paid to both the due process rights of defendants and the impact of this evidence on the adversarial notion of our criminal justice system.

"Indeed, for the sake of our adversarial criminal justice system, it is important for the law to keep up," the team concludes.

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Story Source: Materials provided by Inderscience. Edward Johnston, Daniel Jasinski. Neuroscientific evidence: a criminal justice dream, or an adversarial nightmare? International Journal of Liability and Scientific Enquiry, 2013

Favored by God in warfare? How WWI sowed seeds for future international conflicts

World War I -- the “war to end all wars” -- in fact sowed seeds for future international conflicts in a way that has been largely overlooked: through religion, says a historian and author. Widespread belief in the supernatural was a driving force during the war and helped mold all three of the major religions -- Christianity, Judaism and Islam -- paving the way for modern views of religion and violence, he said.

World War I -- the "war to end all wars" -- in fact sowed seeds for future international conflicts in a way that has been largely overlooked: through religion, says a Baylor University historian and author.

As the 100th anniversary of the war's beginning approaches, Philip Jenkins, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor, says that attitudes prevalent then have influenced how global powers see each other today, often viewing themselves as favored by God.

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During World War I, which began on July 28, 1914, Germany saw itself as a religious force on a "messianic mission," while Russia saw itself not just as "a" Christian state, but as "the" Christian state, Jenkins said in a recent interview with Interfaith Voices, a public radio religion news magazine. Jenkins is the author of "The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade."

Those seeing the war as a religious crusade were "not just elite thinkers or a few crazy bishops and pastors . . . Religion dominated propaganda messages and the way people thought about the war, wrote about the war, made films about the war," Jenkins said. "Religion was part of the air they breathed . . . The enemy was an evil satanic foe."

He noted that angels and the Virgin Mary were reported as appearing regularly on battlefields, and the apocalypse was on the minds of many during the war, in which more than 9 million soldiers were killed.

"If you don't see this, and if you don't treat it seriously the way people of the time did, you're not going to get a sense of what people really were fighting about" and why they stayed in a "long, horrendous war" that initially was expected to last only a few months, Jenkins said in the interview.
Widespread belief in the supernatural was a driving force during the war and helped mold all three of the major religions -- Christianity, Judaism and Islam -- paving the way for modern views of religion and violence, he said.

"Jihads and holy wars broke out after the war across the world, and most of that movement came out of World War I," Jenkins said.

The notion of being part of a holy war "cast a very long shadow" into the 1920s, the 1930s and even into the 1940s, when popular secular movements such Nazism, fascism and communism used similar rhetoric, he said.

But if Germany saw itself as fighting a holy war in World War I, they had to ask themselves why they lost, Jenkins said.

"Their answer was that the devil's agents were among them. That goes a long way to explaining the vicious and homicidal anti-Semitism."

Jenkins is co-director of the Program on Historical Studies of Religion in Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion. He also is the author of "Laying Down the Sword" and "Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 Years."

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Story Source: Materials provided by Baylor University."Favored by God in warfare? How WWI sowed seeds for future international conflicts." ScienceDaily.

Were our ancestors stoners? Could be. Or not.

Unlike most modern humans, the prehistoric people of Europe did not use mind-altering substances simply for their hedonistic pleasure. At least, that is the theory of Elisa Guerra-Doce of the Universidad de Valladolid in Spain based on her research.

The use of alcohol and plant drugs -- such as opium poppies and hallucinogenic mushrooms -- was highly regulated and went hand-in-hand with the belief system and sacred burial rituals of many preindustrial societies.

Guerra-Doce contends that their use was an integral part of prehistoric beliefs, and that these substances were believed to aid in communication with the spiritual world. Guerra-Doce's research appears in Springer's Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory.

Despite the fact that the consumption of these substances is as ancient as human society itself, it is only fairly recently that researchers have started to look into the historical and cultural contexts in which mind-altering products were used in Europe.

Guerra-Doce systematically documented the cultural significance of consuming inebriating substances in these cultures.  In the research, four different types of archaeological documents were examined:

• the macrofossil remains of the leaves, fruits or seeds of psychoactive plants; 
• residues suggestive of alcoholic beverages; 
• psychoactive alkaloids found in archaeological artifacts and skeletal remains from prehistoric times; and 
• artistic depictions of mood-altering plant species and drinking scenes.

These remnants include bits of the opium poppy in the teeth of a male adult in a Neolithic site in Spain, charred Cannabis seeds in bowls found in Romania, traces of barley beer on several ceramic vessels recovered in Iberia, and abstract designs in the Italian Alps that depict the ritual use of hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Because Guerra-Doce mainly found traces of sensory-altering products in tombs and ceremonial places, she believes such substances are strongly linked to ritual usage. They were consumed in order to alter the usual state of consciousness, or even to achieve a trance state.

The details of the rituals are still unclear, but the hypothesis is that the substances were either used in the course of mortuary rites, to provide sustenance for the deceased in their journey into the afterlife, or as a kind of tribute to the underworld deities.

She adds that the right to use such substances may have been highly regulated given that they were a means to connect with the spirit world, and therefore played a sacred role among prehistoric European societies.

"Far from being consumed for hedonistic purposes, drug plants and alcoholic drinks had a sacred role among prehistoric societies," says Guerra-Doce. "It is not surprising that most of the evidence derives from both elite burials and restricted ceremonial sites, suggesting the possibility that the consumption of mind-altering products was socially controlled in prehistoric Europe."

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Story Source: Elisa Guerra-Doce. The Origins of Inebriation: Archaeological Evidence of the Consumption of Fermented Beverages and Drugs in Prehistoric Eurasia. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 2014

Humans and apes share personality traits. Which can explain a lot.

It's common knowledge that the shared ancestor of humans and the chimpanzee lived about six million years ago.  Recent research shows that not only do chimps and humans have almost identical personality traits, each trait is structured identically.  Talk about close cousins.

This, from researchers at Georgia State University.  The research also shows some of those traits have a neurobiological basis, and that those traits vary according to the biological sex of the individual chimpanzee.  Does this mean that our personalities are genetically transmitted?  Likely so.

"Our work also demonstrates the promise of using chimpanzee models to investigate the neurobiology of personality processes," said Assistant Professor Robert Latzman of Psychology, who led the research team. "We know that these processes are associated with a variety of emotional health outcomes. We're excited to continue investigating these links."

The team, which also included Professor William Hopkins of Neuroscience, started with a common tool for analyzing chimp personalities called the Chimpanzee Personality Questionnaire.

The questionnaire is filled out by the chimpanzees' caregivers, who rate individual chimps in 43 categories based on their observation of the animals' daily behavior. Is the chimp excitable? Impulsive? Playful? Timid? Dominant? The questionnaire records it all.

The researchers analyzed complete questionnaires for 174 chimpanzees housed at the Yerkes National Primate Center at Emory University. They ran extensive individual analyses to find out which traits tend to go together, and which combine to make more basic, fundamental "meta-traits."

The analysis showed that the most fundamental personality trait for chimpanzees is dominance -- that is, whether an animal is a generally dominant and undercontrolled "Alpha," or a more playful and sociable "Beta."

But those two big categories can be broken down statistically into smaller personality traits in ways that echo the personality structures researchers have repeatedly found in child and adult human subjects.

Alpha personalities, for example, statistically break down into tendencies toward dominance and disinhibition. Beta personalities, on the other hand, show low dominance and positive emotionality.

Further analysis shows these lower order traits also can be statistically broken down into their constituent parts. The research team identified five personality factors that combine differently in each individual chimpanzee: conscientiousness, dominance, extraversion, agreeableness and intellect. This echoes a well-known five-factor model of the human personality, although the specific factors are slightly different.

Now, for the neurobiology: many of those chimpanzee traits statistically correlate with the function of a neuropeptide called vasopressin. Chimps who were born with a common variant in the genes that control vasopressin behaved differently than their peers, the males showing more dominance and more disinhibition, but the females less of both.

This research shows not only a neurobiological basis for personality, but an evolutionary basis as well. The neurobiological bases of personality can vary according to the biological sex of the subject, at least in chimpanzees. Chimpanzee personality appears to have almost the same ingredients as human personalities, and that similarity seems to arise from the species' similar neurobiology.

"These results are particularly significant in light of the striking parallels between the major dimensions of personality found between chimpanzees and humans," said Sam Gosling, professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and an internationally known researcher in cross-species personality research.

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Story Source:  Materials provided by Georgia State University. Robert D. Latzman, William D. Hopkins, Alaine C. Keebaugh, Larry J. Young. Personality in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): Exploring the Hierarchical Structure and Associations with the Vasopressin V1A Receptor Gene. PLoS ONE, 2014

Crime: Older eye witnesses less reliable

The criminal investigative technique of putting an eye witness on the stand to positively identify a criminal is proving through research to be fairly unreliable, frequently causing innocent people to be charged with a crime despite the care investigators take to not prejudice an identification.

Now, according to new research out of Britain, older people are more likely to make mistakes in identifying suspects in police line-ups.

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One hundred thirty four people (aged 22 to 66 years old) watched video footage of a mugging in which two men scuffled over a bag.  Participants were then asked to identify suspects from two different video line-ups. In the first line-up the perpetrator was present, but in the second he was absent. In both scenarios it was made clear that the suspect may or may not be present. How confident participants were that they had identified the suspect in both line-ups was then assessed.

The results showed that older people were more likely to mistakenly identify the suspect in the second line-up, even though he was actually absent.

Dr Kaye said: "It's interesting that older people felt more confident about their selection when they were wrong -- to the point where they had imagined someone to be in the line-up who wasn't there. As we age our accuracy as an eye-witness changes which is something police professionals should take into consideration in these circumstances."

So should the authors of crime fiction.

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Story Source:  Materials provided by British Psychological Society (BPS). "Older eyewitnesses make mistakes identifying suspects in police line-ups." ScienceDaily

The Simpsons Crazy Cat Lady and Her Psychiatric Illness

Well, the writers and producers of the Simpsons show have done it again.  Identified a bizarre behavior, turning it in a readily identifiable character that any of us recognizes on some level.

We're speaking of Crazy Cat Lady, a recurring character on the eternally running Simpsons television program.  Who is the Crazy Cat Lady?  Before her breakdown, she was Dr Eleanor Abernathy MD JD,  (left, at age 24) now a mentally-ill woman who surrounds herself with a large number of cats.  She's not just a hoarder, she is an Animal Hoarder, and that is recognized as a psychiatric disorder in its own right.

When she was eight, Eleanor Abernathy was a smart and ambitious young girl who wanted to be both a lawyer and a doctor "because a woman can do anything". She was studying for law school at 16, and by 24, she had earned an MD from Harvard Medical School and a JD from Yale Law School. However, by 32, suffering from burnout, she had turned to alcohol, became obsessed with her pet cat, and would randomly take to cutting pieces of her own hair. By the time she was 40, she had assumed her present state, suffering from the defined psychiatric illness of animal hoarding.*

Animal hoarding is a psychiatric disorder that consists of accumulating large numbers of animals at home, usually cats and dogs, without providing them with a minimal standard of care. The disorder is largely unknown despite its negative effect on the health of both the people who suffer from it and the animals involved.

Currently, when a case is detected, the animals are removed but no attention is given to the person suffering the disorder.  We all tut and tsk, and are outraged at a person doing this to animals.  To the animal hoarder, his pets are well cared for, he or she does not realize is that his or her animals are in poor health and so, soon begins to hoard them again. It's heartbreaking to see animals found obviously suffering malnutrition, dehydration and parasitic infestation, with illnesses or uncontrolled breeding, all in a very unhygienic space.  Yet to the person suffering the disorder, why anyone would take the "pets" they love and care for bewilders them.  It is a symptom of their disorder, perhaps part of their overall delusion.

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The researchers believe that this disorder has implications for mental health, animal welfare and public health and therefore that recognizing its presence in our society is the first step in identifying and detecting cases early and dealing with them in the most efficient possible way. 

As writers, we can help spread the word about this disorder through our fiction and non-fiction, blogs and comments.  So Write On!, and spread the word.  Thanks to the creators and writers of the Simpsons for providing a convenient point of reference for getting this message to the people.

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This is the first study to provide data on this syndrome in Europe and it has been possible thanks to the relationships of the researchers with organizations dedicated to the protection of animals. This put them in contact with various cases of the disorder and aroused their interest in the issue. Seeing that there was a vacuum in Europe they decided to contact the National Association of Friends of Animals (ANAA) and to retrospectively analyze the cases that they had collected in their database between 2002 and 2011. They created a questionnaire for the experts who had participated in these cases and all the information that the organization had available was classified and standardized.

Until now all existing research on the issue has been carried out in the US, Canada and Australia, but with this study it has been demonstrated for the first time that this mental disorder also occurs in Europe and with similar characteristics. For the time being the data is not sufficient to know the percentage of the population which suffers from the disorder, nor to better understand the profile of those who hoard.

Story Source:  Materials provided by IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute).  P Calvo, C Duarte, J Bowen, A Bulbena, J Fatj. Characteristics of 24 cases of animal hoarding in Spain. Animal Welfare, 2014

*  Illustration and information source:  simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Eleanor_Abernathy

Story idea: Nightmares may signal a child is being bullied

One of the sadder things I've read of late is this:  children who are bullied often suffer in silence. The trauma can lead to anxiety, depression, psychotic episodes and even suicide.

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"Nightmares are relatively common in childhood, while night terrors occur in up to 10 percent of children," said lead author Suzet Tanya Lereya, PhD, research fellow at University of Warwick. "If either occurs frequently or over a prolonged time period, they may indicate that a child/adolescent has or is being bullied by peers. These arousals in sleep may indicate significant distress for the child."

Researchers analyzed data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, which examined the determinants of development, health and disease during childhood and beyond. Children were enrolled at birth, and 6,438 were interviewed at ages 8 and 10 years about bullying and at age 12 about parasomnias, including nightmares, night terrors and sleep walking.

Survey results showed that at age 12 years, 

• 1,555 (24.2 percent) of children had nightmares, 
• 598 (9.3 percent) had night terrors, 
• 814 (12.6 percent) reported sleep walking and 
• 2,315 (36 percent) had at least one type of parasomnia (nightmares, night terrors and sleep walking).

After adjusting for confounders (e.g., any psychiatric diagnosis, family adversity, IQ, internalizing and externalizing problems, sexual or physical abuse, domestic violence, and nightmares before 8 years), children who were victimized at 8 or 10 years were significantly more likely to have nightmares, night terrors or sleep walking at age 12. 

Moreover, those who were both a victim and a bully were much more likely to have any parasomnia, but bullies were not at increased risk of a sleep disturbance.

"Our findings indicate that being bullied is a significant stress/trauma that leads to increased risk of sleep arousal problems, such as nightmares or night terrors," said Dr. Wolke, professor of developmental psychology and individual differences at University of Warwick. "It is an easily identifiable indicator that something scary is being processed during the night. Parents should be aware that this may be related to experiences of being bullied by peers, and it provides them with an opportunity to talk with their child about it.

You may want to read:  Effects of being bullied lasts a lifetime

Nightmares create feelings of sadness ~ not fear


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Story Source:  Materials provided by American Academy of Pediatrics. American Academy of Pediatrics. "Nightmares may signal a child is being bullied." ScienceDaily

Four myths about your privacy

Many privacy discussions follow a similar pattern, and involve the same kinds of arguments. It's commonplace to hear that privacy is dead, that people -- especially kids -- don't care about privacy, that people with nothing to hide have nothing to fear, and that privacy is bad for business. "These claims are common, but they're myths," said Neil M. Richards, JD, privacy law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

"These privacy myths are not only false, they get in the way of the kind of important conversations we need to have about personal information in a digital age. If we continue to believe privacy myths, if we think about privacy as outdated or impossible, our digital revolution may have no rules at all, a result that will disempower all but the most powerful among us.

"Our understandings of privacy must evolve; we can no longer think about privacy as merely how much of our lives are completely secret, or about privacy as hiding bad truths from society. How we shape the technologies and data flows will have far-reaching effects for the social structures of the digital societies of the future."

In an article, "Four Privacy Myths," available online via the Social Science Research Network, Richards explained why four of the most common privacy myths persist -- and how we can avoid them. His arguments in brief:

• "First, privacy cannot be dead because it deals with the rules governing personal information; in an age of personal information, rules about how that information can flow will be more important than ever.
• Second, people (and young people) do care deeply about privacy, but they face limited choices and limited information about how to participate in the processing of their data.
• Third, privacy isn't just for people with dark secrets; it's for all of us. Not just because we all have things we'd prefer weren't publicly broadcast, but more fundamentally because information is power and personal information is personal power.
• Finally, privacy is not always bad for business. One of the best hopes for meaningful privacy protection in the future is for businesses to compete on privacy, and there is some evidence that this is starting to happen."

Richards noted that clearing away the myths is an essential first step to talking about privacy in a helpful and constructive way.

"It's only when we clear away the myths that we can have the essential conversations we need to have about how personal information is shaping our society, now and in the future. We may ultimately decide that we want less privacy, less control of our personal information. But the privacy myths are stopping that conversation, those decisions, from happening. Clearing away the privacy myths is an important first step to let us decide as a society what kind of digital future we want to live in."

*  *  *  *  *

Story Source: Materials provided by Washington University in St. Louis. Richards, Neil M. Four Privacy Myths. SSRN, April 22, 2014

The Maya would have loved Facebook

Credit: Cover photo by Justin Kerr

The cover of Sarah Jackson's book, "Politics of the Maya Court" includes

an image of what appears to be a Mayan ruler talking with a mirror.

The ancient Maya lived in a virtual world much like people of today who live on Facebook or Twitter.

The Mayan perspective on the material world has been explored in science, and begins to uncover parallels with today's online culture. The Maya believed that part of your identity could inhabit material objects. Maya might even name these objects, talk to them or take them to special events. They considered these items to be alive. The practice of sharing your identity with material possessions might seem unusual in a modern context. But is it this different from today's selfie-snapping, candy-crushing online culture, where social media profiles can be as important to a person's identity as his or her real-world interactions?

If Facebook were around 1,400 years ago, the ancient Maya might have been big fans of the virtual self according to research by University of Cincinnati assistant professor Sarah Jackson who is beginning to uncover some interesting parallels between ancient Maya and modern-day views on materiality.

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"This relates to a lot of things that people are feeling out right now about virtual realities and dealing with computers and social lives online," says Jackson, an anthropological archaeologist. "These things start to occupy this uncomfortable space where we question, 'Is it real, or is it not real?' I look at the Maya context and consider, 'How different is that from some of the concerns we have now?' There are some parallels in terms of preoccupation with roles that objects play and how attached we are to things."

The Maya perspective
For her research, Jackson uses hieroglyphic textual evidence to help her understand how the Maya might have viewed the material world. She's building a database of Maya material terminology and tracking certain property qualifiers -- visual markings on glyphs indicating from what material an object is made, like wood or stone.

Key to the process is trying to look at these property qualifiers from the Maya perspective. Jackson has found that the Maya applied property qualifiers in a broad manner, including some unexpected areas of divergence from literal interpretation.

For example, to the Maya, a temple might have "stony" qualities but so might a calendar or different things related to time. Other known Maya behaviors suggest belief in the concepts of object agency and partible personhood, meaning objects have the power to act in their own right and that the identity can be split into sections which can live outside the body.

So when Jackson analyzes a glyph that appears to show a Maya ruler having a conversation with his mirror or another that depicts a sculptor carving a "living" statue, it's important for her to overcome her own material assumptions.

"There are some really interesting possibilities if we can try to incorporate at least some kind of reconstructed understanding of how the Maya would have seen these materials, not just how we see them," Jackson says.

*  *  *  *  *

Story Source: Materials provided by University of Cincinnati, written by Tom Robinette. "Ancient Maya and virtual worlds: Different perspectives on material meanings." ScienceDaily.

How true to life was Scrooge's change?

Allister Sim as Scrooge in the classic film, A Christmas Carol (1951)

Some years ago, I took a screenwriting class from Cynthia Whitcomb, a screenwriter with a list of produced scripts as long as my left arm, in which the transformative power of film and fiction was a main topic.

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by Cynthia Whitcomb
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Her point being that people enjoy stories in which the main character learns something about themselves and becomes a better person because of it.  Think of movies such as Casablanca.  In the beginning, the main character, Rick, is obviously miserable, pushing away all but his longtime buddy, Sam.  He especially pushes women away.  Why?  

Well, that's the story.  When Ilsa, his lost love, comes back into his life Rick is forced to confront his pain, and while he chooses to give up the girl, he ends up regaining his sense of self and a purpose in life.  The story of Casablanca is the story of Rick's catharsis.  People love that movie and this, according to Cynthia, is why.

Another example from the past is Harold and Maude, now a cult classic.  When Harold, an 18 year old who lives through the death of others, meets Maude, who is 79 going on 80, his life is dramatically transformed. (Plus it's a funny, funny movie.)

Another is Groundhog's Day, in which the main character, an arrogant twit played by Bill Murray, is forced to relive the same day over and over and over again until he, finally, get's it.  And the girl.  

The list goes on and on.

Here's a story that confirms that observation:

Scrooge's transformation parallels 

real life-changing experiences

Psychologists studied 14 people who had sudden life-changing experiences. They say Ebenezer Scrooge's transformation fits right in. George Bailey from "It's a Wonderful Life" is another realistic movie character who embodies sudden change.

"Bah, humbug!" is the line most closely associated with Ebenezer Scrooge, the famous miser from "A Christmas Carol." But the authors of a new study on life-changing experiences give author Charles Dickens high marks for his portrayal of Scrooge's sudden switch to saintliness.

Former grad student Jon Skalski and Brigham Young University psychology professor Sam Hardy conducted an in-depth study of 14 people who experienced profound, sudden and lasting change. They say the fictional Scrooge would fit right in.

"Like our participants, Scrooge was suffering," Skalski said. "There was disintegration. There was a world that was ripe for change because of suffering going on."

Though Scrooge had money, he hit rock bottom in terms of relationships. Orphaned as a child and broken-hearted from a failed engagement, Scrooge's pains intensify each Christmas Eve, the anniversary of the death of his only friend, Jacob Marley.

In the story, Marley appears seven years after his death as a voice of warning. Though a ghost, the role he plays is true to life. Most study participants described the presence of a trusted other person during their experience.

"Just by their presence, a trusted friend can open up possibilities and a sense of faith in what's possible that one can't see," Skalski said.

Skalski and Hardy's research will appear in the January issue of The Humanistic Psychologist. Finding people that fit the criteria was no easy task. To do so, they employed ads on Craigslist in Illinois and Utah.

Notably, the experiences shared by the participants were not recent events. On average, nine years had passed between the transformation and their interview. Most of them could remember the exact time of day when the turning point occurred.

"I've often thought about this, whether these transformations are really sudden or gradual," Skalski said. "It's like water boiling -- you can look at that as a discontinuous change from not boiling to boiling, but there are certain elements going on beneath the surface that allow for the dramatic change to take place."

For an entrepreneur referred to as Kevin in the study, the preceding turmoil arose because his identity as a successful businessman crashed along with his failed ventures. Like Scrooge, he had neglected relationships and said his psyche was "in a very dark place."

But with his breakthrough moment, life instantly took on a whole new meaning for Kevin.

"I say it's the best thing that could've happened, because my life is so much more rewarding than it once was. You can't put a price tag on certain…events that I maybe missed before -- certain events, and a marriage, and a family, birthdays, you know? Certain things that are just really fun to be a part of are more meaningful, and it is happiness -- the kind that lasts. I know these truths have been around forever. But for me they're new."

Similarly, another participant's world crumbled because she based her worth on how well she did in school. Like Scrooge and Kevin, she emerged with a focus on other people.

"Now I measure success by my -- how much time I spend serving and doing those things, because those -- serving and being with people -- are really what bring me satisfaction now."

Each of the study participants experienced overwhelming stress prior to their breakthrough. Hardy, an expert in human development, wonders whether hitting rock bottom is a necessary ingredient for such positive transformations.

"That led me to think, well, is there a way that people can capitalize on these mechanisms of change and initiate them themselves instead of bottoming out," Hardy said. "Can you self-initiate this kind of change?"

Skalski sees another holiday parallel with his research in the film "It's a Wonderful Life." After planning to end his life, George Bailey realizes how other people depend on him in Bedford Falls, prompting his famous line, "I want to live again!"

"Those stories are stuck within our culture," Skalski said. "We all know deep down inside that human beings can and do change in profound and significant ways."

*  *  *  *  *

Story Source:  Materials provided by Brigham Young University. "Psychologists: Scrooge's transformation parallels real life-changing experiences." ScienceDaily

Lucrezia Borgia, Adulteress, Poisoner, Entrepreneur

Who was Lucrezia Borgia?  Tradition has it that she may have poisoned her second husband, Giovanni Sforza.  Rumor of the day had it that Lucretia had incestuous relations with both her father, Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope Alexander VI, and her brother, Cesare Borgia.  

What is know for certain is that Lucretia was the illegitimate daughter of Rodrigo, then a cardinal of the Catholic Church, and his mistress, Vannozza dei Cattanei.  It is known that she was married three times, the first being annulled as never being consummated (despite her giving birth a few months after the annulment).  The second marriage ended in the death of her husband, Giovanni, and her third to Alfonso d'Este, son of the powerful Duke of Ferrera.  This was also to be Alfonso's third marriage, which ended when Lucrezia dies ten days after she gave birth to a stillborn daughter.  She also had affairs (as did her husbands) with several political figures of the day, and even gave birth to the daughter of one lover.

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Sound like a soap opera?  There's more, a tale filled with political intrigue and treachery.

How did Lucrezia get such a bad reputation?  In part, it's due to the political infighting and power politics of Rennaisance Italy, where rumor and innuendo was common, and partly because she was reportedly a beautiful woman whose story attracted the attention of later novelists, who twisted her tale to create bestsellers.  In both film and print, Lucrezia is depicted as the ultimate femme fatale, using her position, beauty and sexual favors to get what she and her family wanted.  And today, Lucrezia Borgia is a character in the popular video game, Assassin's Creed.

However, in recent studies of her personal financial records, Lucrezia comes across as quite the entrepreneur with a personal fortune of her own creation in an age when women were not allowed to hold property or wealth in their own names, but through a protector. 

She is known to given freely of her personal wealth, becoming known as "Good Duchess" of Ferrara, even acting as de factor ruler in her husband's absence.  

Research published in 2008 by USC historian Diane Yvonne Ghirardo reveals that the only sister of Machiavelli's Prince, Cesare Borgia, was less interested in political intrigue than business, undertaking massive land development projects that "stand alone in the panorama of early sixteenth-century projects, not only those initiated by women." Forced by an economic downturn to cut expenses and become an entrepreneur, Lucrezia eventually would control between 30,000 and 50,000 acres in northern Italy.

"This is a classic case of seeing only what you're looking for and not getting the whole picture," Ghirardo says of the centuries-old mystery surrounding how Lucrezia accumulated her vast personal wealth. Ghirardo notes that historians have long dismissed Lucrezia as "stupida" because no record exists of her collecting art or antiquities, even though records showed she supported a number of writers and artists from her personal funds.

"The information was there in the archives, but because she was a woman, scholars only looked at transactions for clothes, for jewelry, or for works of art. Nobody looked at the other entries in the account registers," says Ghirardo of the research project that took her more than seven years to complete.

In essence, according the Ghirardo's research, Lucrezia turned seemingly worthless swampland into reclaimed land used to cultivate grains, barley, beans and olive trees; to grow flax for spinning into linen; to pasture livestock for milk, meat, wool and hides; and for vineyards.

"That's really a capitalist attitude: to leverage capital by getting the basic good — in this case, land — at the cheapest cost," Ghirardo says.

For example, Ghirardo details Lucrezia's first business venture with her husband's cousin Don Ercole d'Este. The Don gave Lucrezia title to half his land in Diamantia, a large marshy district west of Ferrara. In exchange, Lucrezia agreed to fund improvements to the land, including drainage, building embankments and digging canals.

As Ghirardo explains: "Lucrezia grasped the untapped potential of thousands of acres of marginal, waterlogged land, but she was too shrewd to employ her own resources to purchase it unless absolutely necessary."

Surviving documents also indicate Lucrezia's knowledge of contract terms, border disputes and even the skill of various hydraulic engineers, according to Ghirardo. Other records show her pawning an extremely valuable ruby-and-pearl piece of jewelry in order to buy more water buffaloes (especially to produce mozzarella).

"It's not just what Lucrezia did and how she did it, but the immensity of her enterprises, that stands out," Ghirardo says. "Nobody else was doing this on such a large scale, not even men. Nobody was prepared to put in that kind of money."

Notably, Lucrezia held titles to the land she acquired in her own name, not in her husband's. Profits from Lucrezia's entrepreneurial activities were also for her use alone, according to Ghirardo.

"She could have purchased property that was already arable, but instead she got land that wasn't useful and transformed it," Ghirardo says. "I really believe that she thought of this as her Christian duty, to transform the land and make it better, and then to use money to help fund her spiritual and religious interests."

In account registers that the Duke of Ferrara would not have seen, Ghirardo found indication of significant cash gifts to Lucrezia's confessors, preachers and other religious figures, as well as unexplained cash dispersals, possibly for a love child.

"It's a little like trying to reconstruct a life from a credit card statement. There's a lot you can tell, but a lot that remains obscure," Ghirardo says.

Lucrezia Borgia — widely described by her contemporaries as beautiful and blond, with a sunny disposition — died at 39 following complications from the birth of her eighth child. Three decades would pass before another comparable land reclamation project emerged in northern Italy.

As Ghirardo says: "Lucrezia defied the conventions of her class and her gender."

*  *  *  *  *

Story Source:  Materials provided by University of Southern California. Ghirardo et al. Lucrezia Borgia as Entrepreneur. Renaissance Quarterly, 2008

Effects of being bullied lasts a lifetime - in a bad way

Credit: © kmiragaya / Fotolia

This is a frightening report - of the first ever study of the effects of being bullied over a lifetime.  

This is also useful information for any author or screenwriter to use in character development and back story.

Here's the report:

Impact of childhood bullying

still evident after 40 years

The negative social, physical and mental health effects of childhood bullying are still evident nearly 40 years later, according to new research by King's College London. This study is the first to look at the effects of bullying beyond early adulthood.

The findings come from the British National Child Development Study which includes data on all children born in England, Scotland and Wales during one week in 1958. The study published today includes 7,771 children whose parents provided information on their child's exposure to bullying when they were aged 7 and 11. The children were then followed up until the age of 50.

Dr Ryu Takizawa, lead author of the paper from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, says: "Our study shows that the effects of bullying are still visible nearly four decades later. The impact of bullying is persistent and pervasive, with health, social and economic consequences lasting well into adulthood."

Just over a quarter of children in the study (28%) had been bullied occasionally, and 15% bullied frequently -- similar to rates in the UK today.

Individuals who were bullied in childhood were more likely to have poorer physical and psychological health and cognitive functioning at age 50. Individuals who were frequently bullied in childhood were at an increased risk of depression, anxiety disorders, and suicidal thoughts.

Individuals who were bullied in childhood were also more likely to have lower educational levels, with men who were bullied more likely to be unemployed and earn less. Social relationships and well-being were also affected. Individuals who had been bullied were less likely to be in a relationship, to have good social support, and were more likely to report lower quality of life and life satisfaction.

Professor Louise Arseneault, senior author, also from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's adds: "We need to move away from any perception that bullying is just an inevitable part of growing-up. Teachers, parents and policy-makers should be aware that what happens in the school playground can have long-term repercussions for children. Programs to stop bullying are extremely important, but we also need to focus our efforts on early intervention to prevent potential problems persisting into adolescence and adulthood."

Bullying is characterized by repeated hurtful actions by children of a similar age, where the victim finds it difficult to defend themselves. The harmful effect of bullying remained even when other factors including childhood IQ, emotional and behavioural problems, parents' socioeconomic status and low parental involvement, were taken into account.
Professor Arseneault adds: "40 years is a long time, so there will no doubt be additional experiences during the course of these young people's lives which may either protect them against the effects of bullying, or make things worse. Our next step is to investigate what these are."

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Story Source: Materials provided by King's College London. Ryu Takizawa, Barbara Maughan, Louise Arseneault. Adult Health Outcomes of Childhood Bullying Victimization: Evidence From a Five-Decade Longitudinal British Birth Cohort. American Journal of Psychiatry, 2014

Write as a hobby? It improves your job performance.

Are you a writer with a full-time job?  A "hobby" writer?

New research out of San Francisco State demonstrates that your writing improves your job performance by making you more creative and have better relationships with co-workers.

Plus, you're having fun (I hope), and just maybe you'll write the great American million-selling novel.

Here's the report:

Creative activities outside work 

can improve job performance

Employees who pursue creative activities outside of work may find that these activities boost their performance on the job, according to a new study by an organizational psychologist. 

Creative pursuits away from work seem to have a direct effect on factors such as creative problem solving and helping others while on the job, said Eschleman, an assistant professor of psychology.

The study examined whether creative activity might have an indirect impact on employees' performance by 

• providing them with a way to recover from the demands of their job, 
• by restoring them through relaxation, 
• increasing their sense of control, or 
• challenging them to lean to new skills that can be transferable to one's job.

But the findings reported in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology suggest that creative activity seems to also improve job performance outside of its effect on these traditional types of recovery.

"It can be rare in research to find that what we do in our personal time is related to our behaviors in the workplace, and not just how we feel," Eschleman said.

The employees in the study were free to define creative activities however they wished. In previous studies, Eschleman noted, people say they spend creative time doing everything from writing short stories to playing video games.

Despite this diversity, "they usually describe it as lush, as a deep experience that provides a lot of things for them," he said. "But they also talk about this idea of self-expression and an opportunity to really discover something about themselves, and that isn't always captured with the current recovery experience models."

The study included data on 341 employees from a major national survey who answered questions about their creative activities, recovery experiences like taking charge of their downtime schedules, and their own ratings of how creative they had been on the job and how they had supported their organization and coworkers.

It also included a second group of 92 active duty U.S. Air Force captains, who were surveyed on similar items about creative activity and recovery but were evaluated on their job performances by coworkers and subordinates.

Many studies of recovery have focused on employees working in notably stressful jobs in healthcare and the military, said Eschleman, who worked as a civilian researcher with the Air Force before coming to SF State. But he cautioned that the need for recovery is something that all employees may face at different times, during quarterly deadlines or organizational changes, for instance.

Eschleman said that employers can encourage their employees to engage in more creative activities outside work, but the encouragement has to strike the right tone.

"One of the main concerns is that you don't want to have someone feel like their organization is controlling them, especially when it comes to creative activities," he said, "because intrinsic motivation is part of that unique experience that comes with creative activity."

Instead, employees can encourage their employees to bring their creative activities into work, whether through a department cake baking contest or a program like the one used by Zappos, Inc., where employees bring in personal artwork to decorate their offices. Eschleman also suggested that companies could provide discounts to local art studios and other outlets for creative work.

"A lot of organizations carve time out where they talk about physical heath and exercise and eating habits, but they can also include in that a discussion of mental health and the importance of recovery and creative activity," he said.

*  *  *  *  *

Story Source: Materials provided by San Francisco State University.  Kevin J. Eschleman, Jamie Madsen, Gene Alarcon, Alex Barelka. Benefiting from creative activity: The positive relationships between creative activity, recovery experiences, and performance-related outcomes. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 2014