WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is rallying union workers by painting a bleak portrait of America's infrastructure. He blames Republicans for focusing on tax cutting rather than creating jobs by updating and rebuilding highways, railroads and airports.
Obama tells the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO that U.S. highways are clogged, railroads are no longer the fastest in the world and airports are congested. Yet, he says, Republicans have repeatedly voted against his initiatives to create jobs by spending on construction projects.
Union members greeted him with chants of "Four more years." He urged House Republicans to pass a stalled transportation bill.
Obama says: "Republicans in Congress would rather put fewer of you to work rebuilding America than ask millionaires and billionaires to live without massive new tax cuts."
Well, that's an interesting end to all those legal tussles. Microsoft and bookseller Barnes and Noble have decided to buddy-up in the face of competitors like Amazon and Apple. The strategic partnership -- Microsoft loves 'em -- would come in the form of a new Barnes and Noble subsidiary that deals with all things Nook, in addition to its education business. The bookseller would hold onto the lion's share at 82.4 percent, with the remaining 17.6 percent in Microsoft's control. The first benefit posited would be a Nook app for the incoming Windows 8. Barnes and Noble's Nook Study software would also benefit from a friendly boost on all that Windows hardware. Maybe all those other legal matches will resolve in similar warm-and-fuzzy business hook-ups -- but we doubt it.
Global warming refuge discovered near at-risk Pacific island nation of KiribatiPublic release date: 30-Apr-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Cheryl Dybas cdybas@nsf.gov 703-292-7734 National Science Foundation
Ocean currents may mitigate warming near handful of equatorial islands
Scientists predict ocean temperatures will rise in the equatorial Pacific by the end of the century, wreaking havoc on coral reef ecosystems.
But a new study shows that climate change could cause ocean currents to operate in a way that mitigates warming near a handful of islands right on the equator.
Those islands include some of the 33 coral atolls that form the nation of Kiribati. This low-lying country is at risk from sea-level rise caused by global warming.
Surprisingly, these Pacific islands within two degrees north and south of the equator may become isolated climate change refuges for corals and fish.
"The finding that there may be refuges in the tropics where local circulation features buffer the trend of rising sea surface temperature has important implications for the survival of coral reef systems," said David Garrison, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research.
Here's how it could happen, according to the study by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists Kristopher Karnauskas and Anne Cohen, published today in the journal Nature Climate Change.
At the equator, trade winds push a surface current from east to west.
About 100 to 200 meters below, a swift countercurrent develops, flowing in the opposite direction.
This, the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC), is cooler and rich in nutrients. When it hits an island, like a rock in a river, water is deflected upward on an island's western flank.
This upwelling process brings cooler water and nutrients to the sunlit surface, creating localized areas where tiny marine plants and corals flourish.
On color-enhanced satellite maps showing measurements of global ocean chlorophyll levels, these productive patches of ocean stand out as bright green or red spots--for example, around the Galapagos Islands in the Eastern Pacific.
But as you gaze west, chlorophyll levels fade like a comet tail, giving scientists little reason to look closely at scattered low-lying coral atolls in that direction.
These islands are easy to overlook because they are tiny, remote, and lie at the far left edge of standard global satellite maps that place continents in the center.
Karnauskas, a climate scientist, was working with coral scientist Cohen to explore how climate change would affect central equatorial Pacific reefs.
When he changed the map view on his screen in order to view the entire tropical Pacific at once, he saw that chlorophyll concentrations jumped up again exactly at the Gilbert Islands on the equator.
Satellite maps also showed cooler sea surface temperatures on the west sides of these islands, part of Kiribati.
"I've been studying the tropical Pacific Ocean for most of my career, and I had never noticed that," he said. "It jumped out at me immediately, and I thought, 'there's probably a story there.'"
So Karnauskas and Cohen began to investigate how the EUC would affect the equatorial islands' reef ecosystems, starting with global climate models that simulate effects in a warming world.
Global-scale climate models predict that ocean temperatures will rise nearly 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in the central tropical Pacific.
Warmer waters often cause corals to bleach, a process in which they lose the tiny symbiotic algae that live in them and provide vital nutrition.
Bleaching has been a major cause of coral mortality and loss of coral reef area during the last 30 years.
Even the best global models, with their planet-scale views and lower resolution, cannot predict conditions in areas as small as these small islands, Karnauskas said.
So the scientists combined global models with a fine-scale regional model to focus on much smaller areas around minuscule islands scattered along the equator.
To accommodate the trillions of calculations needed for such small-area resolution, they used the new high-performance computer cluster at WHOI called "Scylla."
"Global models predict significant temperature increases in the central tropical Pacific over the next few decades, but in truth conditions can be highly variable across and around a coral reef island," Cohen said.
"To predict what the coral reef will experience in global climate change, we have to use high-resolution models, not global models."
The model predicts that as air temperatures rise and equatorial trade winds weaken, the Pacific surface current will also weaken by 15 percent by the end of the century.
The then-weaker surface current will impose less friction and drag on the EUC, so this deeper current will strengthen by 14 percent.
"Our model suggests that the amount of upwelling will actually increase by about 50 percent around these islands and reduce the rate of warming waters around them by about 0.7 C (1.25 F) per century," Karnauskas said.
A handful of coral atolls on the equator, some as small as 4 square kilometers (1.54 square miles) in area, may not seem like much.
But Karnauskas' and Cohen's results say that waters on the western sides of the islands will warm more slowly than at islands 2 degrees, or 138 miles, north and south of the equator that are not in the path of the EUC.
That gives the Gilbert Islands a significant advantage over neighboring reef systems.
"While the mitigating effect of a strengthened Equatorial Undercurrent will not spare corals the perhaps-inevitable warming expected for this region, the warming rate will be slower around these equatorial islands," Karnauskas said.
"This may allow corals and their symbiotic algae a better chance to adapt and survive."
If the model holds true, even if neighboring reefs are hard-hit, equatorial island coral reefs may survive to produce larvae of corals and other reef species.
Like a seed bank for the future, they might be a source of new corals and other species that could re-colonize damaged reefs.
"The globe is warming, but there are things going on underfoot that will slow that warming for certain parts of certain coral reef islands," said Cohen.
"These little islands in the middle of the ocean can counteract global trends and have a big effect on their own future," Karnauskas said, "which I think is a beautiful concept."
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Global warming refuge discovered near at-risk Pacific island nation of KiribatiPublic release date: 30-Apr-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Cheryl Dybas cdybas@nsf.gov 703-292-7734 National Science Foundation
Ocean currents may mitigate warming near handful of equatorial islands
Scientists predict ocean temperatures will rise in the equatorial Pacific by the end of the century, wreaking havoc on coral reef ecosystems.
But a new study shows that climate change could cause ocean currents to operate in a way that mitigates warming near a handful of islands right on the equator.
Those islands include some of the 33 coral atolls that form the nation of Kiribati. This low-lying country is at risk from sea-level rise caused by global warming.
Surprisingly, these Pacific islands within two degrees north and south of the equator may become isolated climate change refuges for corals and fish.
"The finding that there may be refuges in the tropics where local circulation features buffer the trend of rising sea surface temperature has important implications for the survival of coral reef systems," said David Garrison, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research.
Here's how it could happen, according to the study by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists Kristopher Karnauskas and Anne Cohen, published today in the journal Nature Climate Change.
At the equator, trade winds push a surface current from east to west.
About 100 to 200 meters below, a swift countercurrent develops, flowing in the opposite direction.
This, the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC), is cooler and rich in nutrients. When it hits an island, like a rock in a river, water is deflected upward on an island's western flank.
This upwelling process brings cooler water and nutrients to the sunlit surface, creating localized areas where tiny marine plants and corals flourish.
On color-enhanced satellite maps showing measurements of global ocean chlorophyll levels, these productive patches of ocean stand out as bright green or red spots--for example, around the Galapagos Islands in the Eastern Pacific.
But as you gaze west, chlorophyll levels fade like a comet tail, giving scientists little reason to look closely at scattered low-lying coral atolls in that direction.
These islands are easy to overlook because they are tiny, remote, and lie at the far left edge of standard global satellite maps that place continents in the center.
Karnauskas, a climate scientist, was working with coral scientist Cohen to explore how climate change would affect central equatorial Pacific reefs.
When he changed the map view on his screen in order to view the entire tropical Pacific at once, he saw that chlorophyll concentrations jumped up again exactly at the Gilbert Islands on the equator.
Satellite maps also showed cooler sea surface temperatures on the west sides of these islands, part of Kiribati.
"I've been studying the tropical Pacific Ocean for most of my career, and I had never noticed that," he said. "It jumped out at me immediately, and I thought, 'there's probably a story there.'"
So Karnauskas and Cohen began to investigate how the EUC would affect the equatorial islands' reef ecosystems, starting with global climate models that simulate effects in a warming world.
Global-scale climate models predict that ocean temperatures will rise nearly 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in the central tropical Pacific.
Warmer waters often cause corals to bleach, a process in which they lose the tiny symbiotic algae that live in them and provide vital nutrition.
Bleaching has been a major cause of coral mortality and loss of coral reef area during the last 30 years.
Even the best global models, with their planet-scale views and lower resolution, cannot predict conditions in areas as small as these small islands, Karnauskas said.
So the scientists combined global models with a fine-scale regional model to focus on much smaller areas around minuscule islands scattered along the equator.
To accommodate the trillions of calculations needed for such small-area resolution, they used the new high-performance computer cluster at WHOI called "Scylla."
"Global models predict significant temperature increases in the central tropical Pacific over the next few decades, but in truth conditions can be highly variable across and around a coral reef island," Cohen said.
"To predict what the coral reef will experience in global climate change, we have to use high-resolution models, not global models."
The model predicts that as air temperatures rise and equatorial trade winds weaken, the Pacific surface current will also weaken by 15 percent by the end of the century.
The then-weaker surface current will impose less friction and drag on the EUC, so this deeper current will strengthen by 14 percent.
"Our model suggests that the amount of upwelling will actually increase by about 50 percent around these islands and reduce the rate of warming waters around them by about 0.7 C (1.25 F) per century," Karnauskas said.
A handful of coral atolls on the equator, some as small as 4 square kilometers (1.54 square miles) in area, may not seem like much.
But Karnauskas' and Cohen's results say that waters on the western sides of the islands will warm more slowly than at islands 2 degrees, or 138 miles, north and south of the equator that are not in the path of the EUC.
That gives the Gilbert Islands a significant advantage over neighboring reef systems.
"While the mitigating effect of a strengthened Equatorial Undercurrent will not spare corals the perhaps-inevitable warming expected for this region, the warming rate will be slower around these equatorial islands," Karnauskas said.
"This may allow corals and their symbiotic algae a better chance to adapt and survive."
If the model holds true, even if neighboring reefs are hard-hit, equatorial island coral reefs may survive to produce larvae of corals and other reef species.
Like a seed bank for the future, they might be a source of new corals and other species that could re-colonize damaged reefs.
"The globe is warming, but there are things going on underfoot that will slow that warming for certain parts of certain coral reef islands," said Cohen.
"These little islands in the middle of the ocean can counteract global trends and have a big effect on their own future," Karnauskas said, "which I think is a beautiful concept."
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
People who are interested in and paying close attention to each other begin to speak more alike, a psychologist says.
iStockphoto.com
People who are interested in and paying close attention to each other begin to speak more alike, a psychologist says.
On a recent Friday night, 30 men and 30 women gathered at a hotel restaurant in Washington, D.C. Their goal was love, or maybe sex, or maybe some combination of the two. They were there for speed dating.
The women sat at separate numbered tables while the men moved down the line, and for two solid hours they did a rotation, making small talk with people they did not know, one after another, in three-minute increments.
I had gone to record the night, which was put on by a company called Professionals in the City, and what struck me was the noise in the room. The sound of words, of people talking over people talking over people talking. It was a roar.
?
What were these people saying?
And what can we learn from what they are saying?
That is why I called James Pennebaker, a psychologist interested in the secret life of pronouns.
About 20 years ago Pennebaker, who's at the University of Texas at Austin, got interested in looking more closely at the words that we use. Or rather, he got interested in looking more closely at a certain subset of the words that we use: Pennebaker was interested in function words.
For those of you like me ? the grammatically challenged ? function words are the smallish words that tie our sentences together.
The. This. Though. I. And. An. There. That.
"Function words are essentially the filler words," Pennebaker says. "These are the words that we don't pay attention to, and they're the ones that are so interesting."
According to the way that Pennebaker organizes language, the words that we more often focus on in conversation are content words, words like "school," "family," "live," "friends" ? words that conjure a specific image and relay more of the substance of what is being discussed.
"I speak bad Spanish," Pennebaker explains, "and if I'm in a conversation where I'm listening to the other person speak, I am just trying to find out what they are talking about. I am listening to 'what, where, when' ? those big content heavy words. All those little words in between, I don't listen to those because they're too complex to listen to."
In fact, says Pennebaker, even in our native language, these function words are basically invisible to us.
"You can't hear them," Pennebaker says. "Humans just aren't able to do it."
But computers can, which is why two decades ago Pennebaker and his graduate students sat down to build themselves a computer program.
The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program that Pennebaker and his students built in the early 1990s has ? like any computer program ? an ability to peer into massive data sets and discern patterns that no human could ever hope to match.
And so after Pennebaker and his crew built the program, they used it to ask all kinds of questions that had previously been too complicated or difficult for humans to ask.
Some of those questions included:
Could you tell if someone was lying by carefully analyzing the way they used function words?
Looking only at a transcript, could you tell from function words whether someone was male or female, rich or poor?
What could you tell about relationships by looking at the way two people spoke to each other?
Which brings us back to speed dating.
See, one of the things that Pennebaker did was record and transcribe conversations that took place between people on speed dates. He fed these conversations into his program along with information about how the people themselves were perceiving the dates. What he found surprised him.
"We can predict by analyzing their language, who will go on a date ? who will match ? at rates better than the people themselves," he says.
Specifically, what Pennabaker found was that when the language style of two people matched, when they used pronouns, prepositions, articles and so forth in similar ways at similar rates, they were much more likely to end up on a date.
"The more similar [they were] across all of these function words, the higher the probability that [they] would go on a date in a speed dating context," Pennebaker says. "And this is even cooler: We can even look at ... a young dating couple... [and] the more similar [they] are ... using this language style matching metric, the more likely [they] will still be dating three months from now."
This is not because similar people are attracted to each other, Pennebaker says; people can be very different. It's that when we are around people that we have a genuine interest in, our language subtly shifts.
"When two people are paying close attention, they use language in the same way," he says. "And it's one of these things that humans do automatically."
They aren't aware of it, but if you look closely at their language, count up their use of "I," and "the," and "and", you can see it. It's right there.
Pennebaker has counted words to better understand lots of things. He's looked at lying, at leadership, at who will recover from trauma.
But some of his most interesting work has to do with power dynamics. He says that by analyzing language you can easily tell who among two people has power in a relationship, and their relative social status.
"It's amazingly simple," Pennebaker says, "Listen to the relative use of the word "I."
What you find is completely different from what most people would think. The person with the higher status uses the word "I" less.
To demonstrate this Pennebaker pointed to some of his own email, a batch written long before he began studying status.
First he shares an email written by one of his undergraduate students, a woman named Pam:
Dear Dr. Pennebaker:
I was part of your Introductory Psychology class last semester. I have enjoyed your lectures and I've learned so much. I received an email from you about doing some research with you. Would there be a time for me to come by and talk about this?
Pam
Now consider Pennebaker's response:
Dear Pam -
This would be great. This week isn't good because of a trip. How about next Tuesday between 9 and 10:30. It will be good to see you.
Jamie Pennebaker
Pam, the lowly undergraduate used "I" many times, while Pennebaker didn't use it at all.
Now consider this email Pennebaker wrote to a famous professor.
Dear Famous Professor:
The reason I'm writing is that I'm helping to put together a conference on [a particular topic]. I have been contacting a large group of people and many have specifically asked if you were attending. I would absolutely love it if you could come... I really hope you can make it.
Jamie Pennebaker
And the return email from famous professor:
Dear Jamie - Good to hear from you. Congratulations on the conference. The idea of a reunion is a nice one ...and the conference idea will provide us with a semi-formal way of catching up with one another's current research... Isn't there any way to get the university to dig up a few thousand dollars to defray travel expenses for the conference?
With all best regards,
Famous Professor
Pennebaker says that when he encountered these emails he was shocked to find that he himself obeyed this rule. He says he thought of himself as a very egalitarian person, and assumed he would never talk to people differently because of their status.
But in retrospect he says it makes sense. We use "I" more when we talk to someone with power because we're more self-conscious. We are focused on ourselves - how we're coming across - and our language reflects that.
So could we use these insights to change ourselves? Like Eliza Dolittle in My Fair Lady, could we bend our personalities by bending the words we use? Could we become stronger? More powerful? Healthier?
After 20 years of looking at this stuff, Pennebaker doubts it.
"The words reflect who we are more than drive who we are," he says.
You can't, he believes, change who you are by changing your language; you can only change your language by changing who you are. He says that's what his research indicates.
Pennebaker has collected some of this research in a book called The Secret Life of Pronouns, but says he feels the practice of using computers to count and categorize language is really just a beginning.
It's like we just invented the telescope, he tells me, and there are a million new places to look.
Virginia Tech announces 2012 football helmet ratings; 2 more added to the 5-star markPublic release date: 1-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lynn Nystrom tansy@vt.edu 540-231-4371 Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, Va., May 1, 2012 - Virginia Tech released today the results of its 2012 rating for adult football helmets that is designed to assess a helmet's ability to reduce the risk of concussion. A total of three helmets achieved a "5 star" mark, which is the highest rating awarded by the Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings. In addition to the Riddell Revolution Speed, which was the only helmet to receive 5 stars last year, the Rawlings Quantum Plus and Riddell 360 also earned 5 stars as the best available helmets.
The process used for evaluating the head protector involves performing 120 impacts on each helmet model at multiple locations and impact energies. To date, the Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings for adult football include 15 helmet models that were evaluated using more than 2000 laboratory tests. The ratings, first introduced in 2011, utilize the STAR Evaluation System to assess helmet performance. The STAR, an acronym for the Summation of Tests for the Analysis of Risk, evaluation system was developed using data collected from over 1.8 million head impacts experienced by football players throughout an eight-year span.
"This is a perfect example of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded project resulting in translational research. The NIH supported the development of the sensors and data collection that provided the foundation for our rating system. Specifically, you can see Riddell and Rawlings using this research to develop the very best helmets," said project director Stefan Duma, the Harry C. Wyatt Professor and Department Head of the Virginia Tech Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences (SBES).
A total of five new adult football helmet models by Rawlings, Riddell, and Xenith have been released since the Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings were first made available in 2011. The Riddell 360 (5 stars), Rawlings Quantum Plus (5-stars), Rawlings Impulse (4-stars), and Rawlings Quantum (4 stars) were new models that are recommended by the researchers. "We recommend any of the 4 or 5 star helmets for players. The specific helmet a player chooses will be dependent on other factors such as a fit and comfort," said Duma. The remaining new helmet model included in the 2012 ratings was the Xenith X2, which earned a 3 star rating.
Seven helmets are now rated with 4 stars in the 2012 Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings: Schutt ION 4D, Schutt DNA Pro+, Rawlings Impulse, Xenith X1, Riddell Revolution, Rawlings Quantum, and Riddell Revolution IQ. The remaining five football helmet models were rated with 3 stars or less. The complete ratings are publicly available online www.SBES.vt.edu/nid so that consumers can make educated decisions when purchasing football helmets.
"The three lowest rated helmets from last year are now all off the market. It is encouraging to see this positive shift towards better head protection," said Steven Rowson, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Virginia Tech. Rowson was responsible for the development of the STAR Evaluation System and testing of the helmets. "Four of the five new helmet models introduced in the last year earned a 4 or 5 star rating. This helps demonstrate that a data-driven approach can be utilized to optimize helmet design to reduce concussion risk," he said.
In the future, the researchers will expand the Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings to include other sports as well as youth football helmets. To this end, Duma and his team collected the first dataset on head impacts experienced by youth football players last year. In the fall of 2012, researchers at Virginia Tech and Wake Forest will expand this dataset by instrumenting over 300 youth football players from ages 6 to 18 in what is called the KIDS study (Kinematics of Impact Data Set). "As we learn more about youth head impact exposure, we can begin to develop methods to evaluate youth-specific helmet designs," Duma added.
The Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings are independent of any helmet manufacturer and utilized funding from private donations, the School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences,
and the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science. Detailed downloadable reports that outline the methodology and resulting data are available on the web site. As noted on the data sheets, any player may sustain a concussion with even the best equipment, Duma said.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Virginia Tech announces 2012 football helmet ratings; 2 more added to the 5-star markPublic release date: 1-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lynn Nystrom tansy@vt.edu 540-231-4371 Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, Va., May 1, 2012 - Virginia Tech released today the results of its 2012 rating for adult football helmets that is designed to assess a helmet's ability to reduce the risk of concussion. A total of three helmets achieved a "5 star" mark, which is the highest rating awarded by the Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings. In addition to the Riddell Revolution Speed, which was the only helmet to receive 5 stars last year, the Rawlings Quantum Plus and Riddell 360 also earned 5 stars as the best available helmets.
The process used for evaluating the head protector involves performing 120 impacts on each helmet model at multiple locations and impact energies. To date, the Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings for adult football include 15 helmet models that were evaluated using more than 2000 laboratory tests. The ratings, first introduced in 2011, utilize the STAR Evaluation System to assess helmet performance. The STAR, an acronym for the Summation of Tests for the Analysis of Risk, evaluation system was developed using data collected from over 1.8 million head impacts experienced by football players throughout an eight-year span.
"This is a perfect example of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded project resulting in translational research. The NIH supported the development of the sensors and data collection that provided the foundation for our rating system. Specifically, you can see Riddell and Rawlings using this research to develop the very best helmets," said project director Stefan Duma, the Harry C. Wyatt Professor and Department Head of the Virginia Tech Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences (SBES).
A total of five new adult football helmet models by Rawlings, Riddell, and Xenith have been released since the Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings were first made available in 2011. The Riddell 360 (5 stars), Rawlings Quantum Plus (5-stars), Rawlings Impulse (4-stars), and Rawlings Quantum (4 stars) were new models that are recommended by the researchers. "We recommend any of the 4 or 5 star helmets for players. The specific helmet a player chooses will be dependent on other factors such as a fit and comfort," said Duma. The remaining new helmet model included in the 2012 ratings was the Xenith X2, which earned a 3 star rating.
Seven helmets are now rated with 4 stars in the 2012 Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings: Schutt ION 4D, Schutt DNA Pro+, Rawlings Impulse, Xenith X1, Riddell Revolution, Rawlings Quantum, and Riddell Revolution IQ. The remaining five football helmet models were rated with 3 stars or less. The complete ratings are publicly available online www.SBES.vt.edu/nid so that consumers can make educated decisions when purchasing football helmets.
"The three lowest rated helmets from last year are now all off the market. It is encouraging to see this positive shift towards better head protection," said Steven Rowson, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Virginia Tech. Rowson was responsible for the development of the STAR Evaluation System and testing of the helmets. "Four of the five new helmet models introduced in the last year earned a 4 or 5 star rating. This helps demonstrate that a data-driven approach can be utilized to optimize helmet design to reduce concussion risk," he said.
In the future, the researchers will expand the Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings to include other sports as well as youth football helmets. To this end, Duma and his team collected the first dataset on head impacts experienced by youth football players last year. In the fall of 2012, researchers at Virginia Tech and Wake Forest will expand this dataset by instrumenting over 300 youth football players from ages 6 to 18 in what is called the KIDS study (Kinematics of Impact Data Set). "As we learn more about youth head impact exposure, we can begin to develop methods to evaluate youth-specific helmet designs," Duma added.
The Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings are independent of any helmet manufacturer and utilized funding from private donations, the School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences,
and the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science. Detailed downloadable reports that outline the methodology and resulting data are available on the web site. As noted on the data sheets, any player may sustain a concussion with even the best equipment, Duma said.
###
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) finally got its will today. According to a ruling by Britain's High Court, UK Internet providers must now block access to Swedish file-sharing site The Pirate Bay. The BBC reports that the BPI had asked British ISPs to voluntarily block access to the site in November 2011. At that time, though, the ISPs said they wouldn't do so unless ordered by a court. That court order has now arrived. Five UK ISPs (Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media) have already announced that they will comply with this order. BT asked the court for more time to consider its position.
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Public release date: 30-Apr-2012
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