K- NEWS

The Utimate Solution to Ebola

2014-10-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

"History repeats itself" you've heard it before.

The first Ebola outbreak caused by Ebola virus took place on 26 August 1976. The following precautions were taken by the government of Democratic Republic of Congo to solve ebola outbreak:

No one should was permitted to enter or leave the infected area. Roads, waterways, and airfields were halted. Even schools, businesses and social organizations were closed. And, the infected areas were n designated as quarantine zone"

The outbreak lasted 26 days. Within two weeks after the above precautions were taken, ebola had disappeared.That researchers speculated the disappearance for the disease to be precautions taken by locals.

Therefore, although Ebola has claimed headlines in major newspapers around the globe, and people are seeking a cure from science, it history has it that a simple precaution to the "deadly Ebola" can put the disease to an end.

Image: by CDC/Cynthia Goldsmith

How Plants Communicate

2014-08-17T07:05:00.000-07:00

A new way of communication between plants may have been unraveled by Jim Westwood, a professor who works in the fields of plant pathology, physiology, and weed science at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. For the experiment, a parasitic plant Dodder was introduced to the host plants tomato and arabidopsis.

The parasite uses a specialized appendages to wrap itself around its host, before penetrating and harvesting nutrients from the hosts. A team of scientist writes, "Movement of RNAs between cells of a single plant is well documented, but cross-species RNA transfer is largely unexplored. Cuscuta pentagona (dodder) is a parasitic plant that forms symplastic connections with its hosts and takes up host messenger RNAs (mRNAs). These findings demonstrate that parasitic plants can exchange large proportions of their transcriptomes with hosts, providing potential mechanisms for RNA-based interactions between species and horizontal gene transfer." The discovery of the mRNA exchange could potentially lead to new discoveries in the fields of agriculture and plant genetics. The study was published in the Aug. 15 issue of the journal Science.
Photo courtesy: Virginia Tech

A123 Systems, Inc. (AONEQ) SHARES TO NO HAVE VALUE

2013-02-05T00:05:00.000-08:00

The stock is indicated by the company website to get delisted from the OTC Board after the completion of bankruptcy filing. It also clearly states that the current stock shares have no value whatsoever,however, 13 m shares were traded as of the 4th of February,2013. If the bankruptcy filing gets completed the shareholders may try to sue the company for the total loss of their shares. However, that may just be justified by the court as shareholders fault for holding shares that have no value at all. In addition, there is a full proof of the warning what may come in the future soon enough once the bankruptcy filing is completed. Here is a useful link to the websites from where you can get further details. Link: http://www.loganandco.com/adhocdocs/ASI/FAQ%20for%20Shareholders.pdf Disclosure: I hold no shares in this company, and my notes are not to be taken as an investment advise but an opinion.

AN EXPERIMENT WITH TIME PERCEPTION

2012-11-16T20:39:00.000-08:00

EFFECT OF COLOR AND STIMULUS ANIMATION ON TIME PERCEPTION KARMA GURUNG AND TED JAEGER Westminster College Abstract This study examined the impact of color and stimulus animation on the perception of short term intervals. Grey and yellowish green stimuli were presented in either steady or flickering for a period of 3 or 6 seconds. It is predicted that colored or highly animated stimulus will seem longer time than animated stimulus less movement or no movement. The result showed that the effect of animated stimulus with greater movement had a significant lengthening effect on the perceptual time. There was no significant effect of color on perceived time. This study demonstrates that the perceived time is affected by the amount of movement of things that we see. This may occur because of the effect of stimulus on the magnocellular neurons which detect motion stimuli. Keywords: time, chromatic, achromatic, interval, light, duration, variation, perception, static, motion, flicker EFFECT OF COLOR AND STIMULUS ANIMATION ON TIME PERCEPTION The notion of time dates back to the beginning of everything; evolution, universe and the human civilization. However, Time has remained as one of the most mysterious topics in almost every field of study, even today. Time is mischievous as it has been confusing philosophers, physicists, psychologists and the general public for centuries. One challenge to understanding time is that there is no identifiable stimulus or sensory organ that corresponds to our perception of time. Moreover, the meaning and the existence of time also seem to vary as we go from one discipline to another as following. Physics Physicists have been able to calculate time with such preciseness that they even calculated the speed of light and can predict the planetary motions. Yet, questions such as "Does time exist?" often lead scientists to confusions to whether it does or does not exist. On one hand, the study of time beyond the "Plank Time" suggests that time may not exist in a physical way. On the other hand, Quantum Mechanics requires time. However, General Relativity state that time is relative to the observer and supports the non existence of global time (Craig, 2010). To resolve the issue on the existence of time, in the late 1960s, when physicists John Wheeler and Bryce DeWitt attempted to rewrite Einstein’s equations for gravity in the same way as the quantum theory of electromagnetism had been developed, the symbol of time t completely vanished from the equation (Craig, 2010). In other words, time did not seem to exist according to John and Bryce’s equation (Wheeler-DeWitt equation). According to physics, time may not exist in the physical world. If that is the case, why do we feel constricted to carry some form of clock every day, finish our work in time and if time does not exist, for god’s sake why do we grow? This may lead to the interpretation that time may be more bio-psychological than physical. Biology From the biological point of view, although at first it may seem that biological processes have nothing to do with our notion of time; several biological experiments have shown that there is a strong correlation between the perception of time and pacemakers such as heart beats, metabolism, and body temperature. An interesting demonstration of the biological clock was done by Hoagland (1933). He showed that at higher body temperature, physical activity increased, the biological pacemaker ticked faster. While his wife was sick and was asked to interpret the time, she consistently interpreted a one minute time interval longer as her body temperature increased. A study on alteration of body temperature in rats shows similar results (Shurtleff, Raslear, & Simmons, 1990). Psychology From a psychologist’s point of view, time is an aspect of our perceptual world rather than being a physical condition such as atoms, waves, or dark matter. However, most perceptual experiences are more or less related to some physical stimulus. Since we have a conscious sense of the passage of time, psychologists conclude that it is clearly a perceptual experience. Incorporating the knowledge of the three disciplines, Physics, Biology, and Psychology related to time; we know that in Physics time is the measurement of change, and that in Biology, the sensory organs detect the changes, and that in Psychology the physical stimulus is not always fully or accurately represented in experience. The following illustration gives an example of how the physical world, the biological world, and the psychological world are intertwined to give a sense of how time is perceived. Change (stimulus) --> detection (sensation) --> perception (experience) The above illustration suggests that sensation (detection) of change plays a crucial role in determining perceived duration or time to understand the perpetual flow of time. However, change (stimulus) can only be sensed by sensory organs. Sensory organs play a vital role in the determination of time and the rate of its flow. However, we don’t really know precisely how stimulus variation such as a slow moving body and a fast flickering light (either colored or black and white) can impact our perception of short term interval. On one hand, the parvocellular neurons which are spread throughout retina of an eye are well suited to detect visual details and are responsive to color. On the other hand, the magnocellular neurons are the large bodies with larger cell bodies and receptive fields. The magnocellular neurons are distributed fairly evenly throughout retina and are strongly responsive to moving stimuli and to large over all patterns but not to details. However, they are not color sensitive (Kalat, 1998). In this experiment, we are using yellowish-green color as chromatic stimulus and black & white (grey) as achromatic stimulus to test the effect of ocular stimulus variation in the perception of short term time interval. In addition, Brigner's (1980) experiment, "Effect of perceived brightness on perceived time" shows that when light intensity demarcating a 1-sec. interval was increased, there was an increase in the perceived duration of the interval. The increase in perceived duration remained unaffected whether the intensity of light was increased by perceptual means or physically. The research on “Effect of Color and Stimulus Animation on Time Perception” will further help to give insight on Brigner’s experiment, it will explore how motion and flicker in color and non color stimulus can change the effect of increase in the intensity of light can affect the perception of short term duration. The purpose of this research project is to understand the impact of stimulus variation on the perception of short term intervals. This research project will help to understand how we as human beings perceive time for slow moving objects and colored objects. The hypotheses are that greater stimulus variation leads to a perception of longer time interval for short term stimulus. In addition, the six seconds interval is perceived longer than the three seconds interval and the chromatic stimuli (yellowish green) creates a perceptually longer interval than the achromatic (blackish white) stimuli. Method Participants Twenty participants were tested in the experiment out of which 10 were male and 10 were female. Participants were randomly chosen Psychology students and volunteers ranging from age 18-25 years. Materials Dell computer with Super Lab software and a key board is used for the experiment. Yellowish-green, blackish-white and flickering block images are incorporated to make animation videos. The yellowish-green and blackish-white block videos run at the rate of eight frames per second, and the flickering block image video runs at sixteen frames per second. The animation videos are displayed on the computer screen to the participants will be dealt as optical stimulus for the experiment. Finally, the clock used to make time estimation is a different animation video made under similar principle that runs a yellowish-green irregular block images that runs at a varying rate of frames per second. The spacebar on the dell key board is used as a control to judge interval and to end interval, thus making an estimation of how long one of the yellow-green or black-white stimuli lasted. Design and Procedure The study utilizes a 3 x 2 x 2 design with three levels of stimulus variation a static image (Steady), moving image (Block), or flickering image (Flicker). The variable is crossed with the two time duration, three seconds and six seconds and crossed with two levels of stimuli, chromatic and achromatic (Figure 1). Figure 1 The experiment for each participant is carried out anytime from 2-4 pm on Wednesday or on Thursday. The experiment test is done consecutively from male to female participant on Wednesday and consequently from female to male on Thursday. The participants during the research experiment will observe the variables (static, moving and flickering image videos) either yellowish-green or blackish-white on a computer screen. Each variable is presented to the participant for 3 seconds and then 6 seconds. The participants will then estimate the duration of time taken for each variable by starting and stopping the clock (animation video with irregular block images). Results In conclusion, the t-test value of color motion stimulus was 0.007 and black and white motion stimulus was 0.085. Therefore, the t-test value was significant for color motion stimulus and while the black and white motion stimulus was marginally significant. The result supports our hypothesis that greater stimulus variation leads to a greater perceptual interval of time. Significance Table Color Static 0.350 Color Motion 0.007 Color Flicker 0.130 Black and White Static 0.514 Black and White Motion 0.085 Black and White Flicker 0.210 Discussion Brigner's (1980) study of "Effect of Light Intensity on Time Perception" shows that higher light intensity increases the length of perceptual time. From our study, we now know that stimulus animation can also make significant differences in time estimation. The effect of stimulus in motion was significant since the estimated value of time interval exceeded far greater than the original time interval the stimulus had been exposed. While comparing the effect of stimulus animation in between three seconds and six seconds time intervals the result of the experiment indicates that the longer time interval gives similar effect but in greater amount. The static or steady stimulus had the least amount of effect on the time interval, and was most accurate while estimating the time interval of the stimulus presented. Hence, one could interpret that anything that is static or has the least amount of change could be a better frame of reference for time judgment than any random stimulus in motion. In addition, since greater amount of animated stimulus resulted in longer estimation, this means that when our eyes see greater movements we perceive an event being longer. Reference Brigner, W. L. (1986). Effect of perceived brightness on perceived time. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 63427-430. Chin-Chiuan, L. (2003). EFFECTS OF ILLUMINATION, VIEWING DISTANCE, AND LIGHTING COLOR ON PERCEPTION TIME. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 96(3), 817. James, W.K. (2007). Biological Psychology (9th ed.). Canada: Thomson Learning, Inc. Geddes, L. (2011). The clock in your head. New Scientist, 212(2833), 44. Callender, C. (2010). Is Time an ILLUSION?. Scientific American, 302(6), 58-65.

ONE HOT STOCK FOR THE WEEK

2012-07-27T15:31:00.004-07:00

Oil industry has been going down. Good thing! The stocks have become cheap by now. Well, Isn't the formula of winning a stock market, "Buy low, sell high?" The economy has shown signs of growth potential and EU leaders seem to be finally co-operating to solve the Euro problems. So the oil and gas stocks have started to pick up slowly. Also, the amount of fuel imported to US is also being reduced with the improvement of oil industry and technology within US. There are several oil and gas stocks whose price rose today by few percents. However, there was one particular stock that I benefited the most. The stock was Avalon Oil and Gas Inc (AOGND). There is a possibility that the stock could rise even more on Monday. The stock increased by 114.29% today. The fact that it was at low price and its growth rate being 66% , I got attracted to buy the stock. Of course, there were more variables that I had to make sure it was worth its price. Since, the price is still low, I consider the stock to be one of the hottest penny stocks, and could double or even quadruple in the following days.

For more information, refer to: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/avalon-oil-and-gas-inc/index.html

Disclosure: I acquire shares in this stock and my words should not be taken as a form of an advice. It is important for one to do one's own research before buying any stocks.

FACEBOOK FAILS TO MEET PUBLIC EXPECTATION

2012-07-26T13:43:00.003-07:00

Facebook reported its earnings today with 1.18 billion revenue and 12 cents a share. The average revenue estimates of analysts was topped by 0.02 billion, and by 2 cents a share. The number of facebook members increased to 955 million. The stock fell down by sixteen percent, dragging down zynga slightly. The earning estimates were lowered due to Facebook's unpopularity since its IPO debut. The earnings exceeded estimates, however Facebook stock went down. This indicates that public expectation was higher than analysts' estimates. The stock could remain highly volatile on Friday morning, and possibly close low in the evening.

HOUSE ON FIRE IN LINDELL, SAINT LOUIS

2012-07-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

As I was sitting in my room using my computer in St. Louis. A friend of mine pointed out to one of the old buildings in Lindell Ave, Central West End apartment. It was caught on fire. Smoke was coming out of its chimney. We were just a few buildings away. First, the 197-unit apartment building was just burning inside with intense smoke escaping from its chimney on the roof. There were no sign of any firefighters. They could have been on their way since there were people watching the smoke from the road. After about half an hour, the fire started rising in the air burning down the chimney and taking over the roof. Inside my room, a friend of mine was constantly checking the news and updating us about what was being known. She was saying that no one got hurt, which was good. After about fifteen minutes, I still could not see any firefighters, and the fire went on burning from one roof top to another one. After about an hour firefighters came, the building was evacuated, and started pouring down the water on top of the roof. The whole roof top was gone by Wednesday and I could see that the firefighters were still watering the remaining fire in the morning. By Wednesday evening the building was surrounded by news reporters, visitors and gazers who were making news, or, shocked, or even amazed by the incident. One of them could have been me.

WHY FACEBOOK HAS BEEN OVERVALUED RIGHT NOW

2012-07-06T08:40:00.002-07:00

Despite the fact that Facebook stock has been going down, the company has been very active over the few days. Good thing, they have been doing the important stuffs. There are four things that is enough to change the face of facebook to become bigger than apple. 1. Developing a "Want" button: The "Want" button could become a universal digital "buy" button just as we "like" 2. Mobile transaction: It was announced today that Facebook has tied up with the European telecom, telefornica. This allows users to buy online. It seems that facebook is heading towards a direction. 3. Online store: Facebook is like apple, but with 850 million members and no products to sell. Facebook will get bigger than apple one day if it starts to develop an online store like itunes. 4. Products: Facebook has zynga, spotify and yelp but they are not products that belong to facebook. If facebook develops platform, and products to sell such as songs, movies, digital devices, books and so on, with 850 million customers facebook is likely to become the top company in no time. In conclusion, if you put all the threads together it does make sense why facebook has been overvalued right now, doesn't it? - Karma Gurung Questions may be submitted to (KGurung.13@westminster-mo.edu)

FOUR THINGS TO CHANGE THE FACE OF FACEBOOK TO BECOME BIGGER THAN APPLE

2012-07-06T08:34:00.000-07:00