New model predicts when people are willing to try new things
A new model to predict when people are most likely to try different products has been developed by scientists at UCL and dunnhumby, a customer science company. (more…)
Tag Archives: predict
Researchers predict material with record-setting melting point
Using advanced computers and a computational technique to simulate physical processes at the atomic level, researchers at Brown University have predicted that a material made from hafnium, nitrogen, and carbon would have the highest known melting point, about two-thirds the temperature at the surface of the sun. (more…)
Seafloor holds 15 million years of monsoon history
Clues about rainfall in the distant past — from river mud to tiny seashells — come to rest on the ocean floor. Sampling layers of sediment from the Indian Ocean will help researchers build an accurate picture of Indian monsoon activity going back 15 million years or more.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — When the research vessel JOIDES Resolution returned to port in late January after a two-month cruise, it had harvested more than 550 sediment cores from deep beneath the Indian Ocean. Locked within those tubes of muck is a record of monsoon rainfall dating back millions of years. Brown geologist Steven Clemens, co-chief scientist on the expedition, says this glimpse of monsoons past could help scientists predict what may become of the rains in the future. (more…)
Skin colouring of rhesus macaque monkeys linked to breeding success
Skin colour displayed amongst one species of monkey provides a key indicator of how successfully they will breed, a new study has shown.
The collaborative international research also shows that skin colouration in male and female rhesus macaques is an inherited quality – the first example of heritability for a sexually-selected trait to be described in any mammal. (more…)
Forelimb bone data predicts predator style
In their quest to understand what kind of hunter the extinct marsupial thylacine was, two paleobiologists built a dataset of forelimb bone measurements that predict the predation style of a wide variety of carnivorous mammals. They describe the data in a study posted online in the Journal of Morphology.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — At the start of their research, paleobiologists Christine Janis and Borja Figueirido simply wanted to determine the hunting style of an extinct marsupial called thylacine (also known as the “marsupial wolf” or the “Tasmanian tiger”). In the end, the Australian relic, which has a very dog-like head but both cat- and dog-like features in the skeleton, proved to be uniquely unspecialized, but what emerged from the effort is a new classification system that can capably predict the hunting behaviors of mammals from measurements of just a few forelimb bones. (more…)
Brain responses to emotional images predict PTSD symptoms after Boston Marathon bombing
The area of the brain that plays a primary role in emotional learning and the acquisition of fear – the amygdala – may hold the key to who is most vulnerable to post-traumatic stress disorder.
Researchers at the University of Washington, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Boston University collaborated on a unique opportunity to study whether patterns of brain activity predict teenagers’ response to a terrorist attack. (more…)
Early warning system predicts dengue fever risk during the Brazil World Cup
University of Exeter scientists have helped develop an early-warning system to predict the risk of dengue fever outbreaks in Brazil during the forthcoming World Cup.
The study, developed by a team of European scientists, estimates the chances of outbreaks of the mosquito-borne infection disease in Brazil’s administrative areas – or microregions – during this summer’s festival of football. (more…)
Salamanders Help Predict Health of Ecosystems on U.S. Golf Courses, MU Researchers Find
Study finds that improved turf management techniques help golf course ecosystems succeed.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Currently, there are more than 18,300 golf courses in the U.S. covering over 2.7 million acres. The ecological impacts of golf courses are not always straightforward with popular opinion suggesting that environmentally, golf courses have a negative impact on ecosystems. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have determined that golf courses can offer a viable habitat for stream salamanders, and enhanced management practices may be beneficial to ecosystems within golf courses. (more…)