Tag Archives: brown university

Teens Tell Different Tales about Themselves Depending on Gender, Says MU Researcher

By Guest PostSeptember 6, 2012Culture, General, Healthadolescence, autobiographical narrative, brown university, emory university, emotional state, gender, jennifer bohanek, missouri, negative stories, parent, personal identity, reflect, robyn fivush, sally grapin, self, sense, transition, university, widaad zaman, young people

Parents can use knowledge to help steer teens through life changes

COLUMBIA, Mo. — During adolescence, the stories young people tell about themselves reflects their development of a personal identity and sense of self, and those autobiographical narratives vary depending on the teens’ gender, according to a University of Missouri psychologist and her colleagues. Parents can use this knowledge of how teens talk about themselves to help understand the tumultuous transitions of their children into adults.

“Autobiographical stories tell us details about adolescent psychology that questionnaires and observations of behavior cannot,” said Jennifer Bohanek, assistant professor of psychological sciences in the College of Arts and Science. “Narratives provide information about how adolescents interpret memories as well as how they come to know themselves. Other people then come to know the teens by the stories they tell about themselves. The differences between study participants’ stories suggest there may be differences in the way male and female teens understand themselves and present themselves to the world.” (more…)

Chemists Advance Clear Conductive Films

By Guest PostAugust 8, 2012Sciencebisacetylacetonatedichloride, brown university, chemist, conductive films, conductivity, conductivity performance, cross section, david paine, electron microscopy, guanglai li, indium acetylacetonate, indium tin oxide, ito, ito crystals, jonghun lee, melissa petruska, nanocrystal solution, polyimide, shouheng sun, solar cells, spinning, sunghwan lee

Thin, conductive films are useful in displays and solar cells. A new solution-based chemistry developed at Brown University for making indium tin oxide films could allow engineers to employ a much simpler and cheaper manufacturing process.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In a touch-screen display or a solar panel, any conductive overlay had better be clear. Engineers employ transparent thin films of indium tin oxide (ITO) for the job, but a high-tech material’s properties are only half its resume. They must also be as cheap and easy to manufacture as possible. In a new study, researchers from Brown University and ATMI Inc. report the best-ever transparency and conductivity performance for an ITO made using a chemical solution, which is potentially the facile, low-cost method manufacturers want.

“Our technology is already at the performance level for application in resistive touch screens,” said Jonghun Lee, a Brown chemistry graduate student and lead author of the paper posted online Aug. 1 by the Journal of the American Chemical Society. (more…)

Experiments Inform Study of Crowd Motion

By Guest PostJuly 29, 2012Scienceannual pilgrimage, brown university, crowd behavior, crowd cohesion, crowd motion, electromagnetism, experiment, laws, mathematics, mecca, sayles hall, sayles swarm, school of fish, the haj, william warren

To determine how crowd behavior emerges from individual actions, William Warren, professor of cognitive, linguistic, and psychological sciences, assembled his own crowds and engaged them in an unusual four-day experiment in Sayles Hall. The subjects were equipped with motion capture markers affixed like antennae to bike helmets.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — What must the staid-faced University luminaries in those portraits around Sayles Hall have thought while they watched this scene play out for four days last week? Over and over, two to 20 young men and women in bike helmets adorned with what appeared to be five large antennae walked back and forth across a cardboard-covered floor. En route to goals marked by numbers just beneath the portraits, they dodged each other and arrangements of cardboard pillars. Each time they generated patterns of foot traffic. (more…)

El Zotz Masks Yield Insights into Maya beliefs

By Guest PostJuly 19, 2012Culture, Science3d image, ancient america, archaeological site, boris beltran, brown university, cast, cultural heritage, diablo pyramid, dupee family, edwin roman, el zotz, guatemala, hieroglyphic text, kinich ajaw, maya belief, maya civilization, Mexico City, night sun, pre colombian mesoamerica, sarah newman, stephen houston, stuccos, sun god, temple, tikal

A team of archaeologists led by Stephen Houston has made a new discovery at the Maya archaeological site in El Zotz, Guatemala, uncovering a pyramid believed to celebrate the Maya sun god. The structure’s outer walls depict the god in an unprecedented set of images done in painted stucco. In 2010, the team uncovered a royal tomb filled with artifacts and human remains at the same site. Researchers believe the pyramid was built to link the deceased lord to the eternal sun.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A team of archaeologists led by Brown University’s Stephen Houston has uncovered a pyramid, part of the Maya archaeological site at El Zotz, Guatemala. The ornately decorated structure is topped by a temple covered in a series of masks depicting different phases of the sun, as well as deeply modeled and vibrantly painted stucco throughout.

The team began uncovering the temple, called the Temple of the Night Sun, in 2009. Dating to about 350 to 400 A.D., the temple sits just behind the previously discovered royal tomb, atop the Diablo Pyramid. The structure was likely built after the tomb to venerate the leader buried there. (more…)

Training Improves Recognition of Rapid-Fire Objects

By Guest PostJuly 12, 2012Scienceattentional blink, attentional function, brain activity, brown university, fmri machine, gibberish character, hoon choi, Kazuhisa Shibata, li hung chang, perception, rapid fire objects, sequence, Takeo Watanabe, visual perception

“Attentional blink” is the term psychologists use to describe our inability to recognize a second important object if we see it less than half a second after a first one. It always seemed impossible to overcome, but in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Brown University psychologists report they’ve found a way.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — So far it has seemed an irreparable limitation of human perception that we strain to perceive things in the very rapid succession of, say, less than half a second. Psychologists call this deficit “attentional blink.” We’ll notice that first car spinning out in our path, but maybe not register the one immediately beyond it. It turns out, we can learn to do better after all. In a new study researchers now based at Brown University overcame the blink with just a little bit of training that was never been tried before. (more…)

Diagnostic Technique Uses Immune Cell DNA

By Guest PostJuly 10, 2012Scienceafrican american, bladder cancer, blood samples, brock christensen, brown university, carmen marsit, cd4, cell carcinoma, cell membrane, chemical alteration, devin koestler, DNA, granulocyte leukocytes, immune cell, karl kelsey, leukocytes, methylation, ovarian cancer, t lymphocytes

By looking at signature chemical differences in the DNA of various immune cells called leukocytes, scientists have developed a way to determine their relative abundance in blood samples. The relative abundance turns out to correlate with specific cancers and other diseases, making the technique, described in two recent papers, potentially valuable not only for research but also for diagnostics and treatment monitoring.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — When a person is sick, there is a tell-tale sign in their blood: a different mix of the various types of immune cells called leukocytes. A group of scientists at several institutions including Brown University has discovered a way to determine that mix from the DNA in archival or fresh blood samples, potentially providing a practical new technology not only for medical research but also for clinical diagnosis and treatment monitoring of ailments including some cancers. (more…)

A SMART(er) Way to Track Influenza

By Guest PostJune 12, 2012Scienceaartik sarma, amplification, andrew artenstein, anubhav tripathi, biological debris, brown assay, brown university, carmichael ong, DNA, first aid kit, flu detection test, genetic sequence, H1N1, hiv, influenza rna, influenza rna sequence, iPhone, magnetics, memorial hospital, microfluidics, nasba, nucleic acid sequence, pigs, polymerase chain reaction, prototype, rhode island, rna partners, rna probe, rna strand, smart, smart detector, stephanie mccalla, steven opal, swine flu, tb, tracking of influenza, tuberculosis, united states, virus in mexico

Brown University researchers have created a reliable and fast flu-detection test that can be carried in a first-aid kit. The novel prototype device isolates influenza RNA using a combination of magnetics and microfluidics, then amplifies and detects probes bound to the RNA. The technology could lead to real-time tracking of influenza. Results are published in the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In April 2009, the world took notice as reports surfaced of a virus in Mexico that had mutated from pigs and was being passed from human to human. The H1N1 “swine flu,” as the virus was named, circulated worldwide, killing more than 18,000 people, according to the World Health Organization. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States said it was the first global pandemic in more than four decades. (more…)

More Seniors Being Held for Observation

By Guest PostJune 10, 2012General, Healthaffordable care act, brad wright, brown university, david orenstein, elderly patients, emergency departments, gerontologists, health affairs, hospitals, medicare, vincent mor, zhanlian feng

A new study finds that more elderly patients in the emergency departments of hospitals are being held for observation rather than admitted as inpatients. Pressure from Medicare to reduce unnecessary hospitalization may be driving the trend. But being classified as an outpatient, rather than being admitted, can increase out-of-pocket costs for patients. The study is reported in the June edition of Health Affairs.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Nobody wins when patients stay in the hospital unnecessarily, so the federal government in recent years has pushed hospitals to be careful about admitting Medicare recipients as inpatients. The apparent result is that more patients are being “held for observation” instead, according to a new study by Brown University gerontologists. While the shift in how hospitals care for elderly patients in the emergency department may reduce costs to Medicare, it can also increase out-of-pocket expenditures for patients. (more…)