First 2000-year-long temperature reconstructions for individual continents

Apr. 19, 2013 ? Past climate change varied remarkably between regions. This is demonstrated in a new study coordinated by the international Past Global Changes (PAGES) project, which reconstructed temperature over the past 1000 to 2000 years.

It is the first comprehensive temperature reconstruction on a continental scale. One of its main findings is that a general cooling trend, caused by different factors (e.g. orbital-driven insolation and changes in solar and volcanic activity), was ubiquitous across all continental-scale regions and was reversed by a distinct warm trend beginning at the end of the 19th century.

The scale of this project is impressive. Some 80 researchers from all over the world collaborated on the study, which has just been published in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience. In one of the widest-ranging efforts yet undertaken to reconstruct climate across the globe, the international author team evaluated data from all continents to track the evolution of temperatures over the past one to two millennia.

This major project was initiated and coordinated by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) organization. PAGES was established in 1991 to facilitate international research into understanding climatic and environmental dynamics by studying the past. The program receives funding mainly from the Swiss and US national science foundations. In 2006, ambitious scientists in the PAGES network decided to organize an initiative to reconstruct the climate of the last 2000 years in unprecedented quality.

The first results of the collective effort have now been published. "A key aspect of the consortium effort was to engage regional experts who are intimately familiar with the evidence for past climate changes within their regions," says Heinz Wanner, emeritus professor at the University of Bern and one of the original architects of the PAGES 2k Network.

"Several mathematical procedures were applied to reconstruct the continental temperature time series and they were compared to assess the extent to which the main conclusions of the study stood up to the different analytical approaches." Previous attempts to reconstruct temperature changes focused on hemispheric or global-scale averages, which are important, but overlook the pronounced regional-scale differences that occur along with global changes, he points out.

Natural climate archives and documentary sources

For the present study, "Continental-scale temperature variability during the last two millennia," the researchers drew up temperature curves for large regions at seven continents, using 511 local temperature records. These were based on the analysis of tree rings, pollen, corals, lake and marine sediments, ice cores and stalagmites as well as historical documents.

In most cases the data used were highly resolved, attesting to short-term variations over decades or less, rather than smoothing over centuries. In Africa, there were too few records to accurately determine long-term temperature changes for that continent. Nevertheless, the expansive new dataset will undoubtedly be used in future studies, including for comparisons with the output of climate models used to help project future climate change.

The evolution of temperature across all the continents was noticeably more similar within the hemispheres than between the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. "Distinctive periods, such as the Medieval Warm Period or the Little Ice Age stand out, but do not show a globally uniform pattern," says professor Heinz Wanner.

By around 1500 AD temperatures did indeed fall below the long-term mean everywhere. However, in the Arctic, Europe and Asia this temperature drop occurred several decades earlier than in North America and the Southern Hemisphere. These new findings will certainly stimulate vibrant discussions within the research community, Wanner believes.

Long-term cooling trend reversed

The most consistent feature across the regions over the last 2000 years was a long-term cooling trend, which was likely caused by a combination of factors such as an overall increase in volcanic activity, a decrease in solar irradiance, changes in land cover, and slow changes in earth's orbit. This cooling only came to an end toward the end of the 19^th century.

The warming during the last century has reversed this long-term cooling, the study found. It remained cold only in Antarctica. An analysis of the average temperatures over 30-year periods indicates that interval from 1971-2000 was probably warmer than any other 30-year period in the last 1400 years.

Cooler 30-year periods between the years 830 and 1910 AD were particularly pronounced during weak solar activity and strong tropical volcanic eruptions. Both phenomena often occurred simultaneously and led to a drop in the average temperature during five distinct 30- to 90-year intervals between 1251 and 1820.

Warming in the 20^th century was on average twice as large in the northern continents as it was in the Southern Hemisphere. During the past 2000 years, some regions experienced warmer 30-year intervals than during the late 20^th century. For example, in Europe the years between 21 and 80 AD were possibly warmer than the period 1971-2000.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Bern.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Moinuddin Ahmed, Kevin J. Anchukaitis, Asfawossen Asrat, Hemant P. Borgaonkar, Martina Braida, Brendan M. Buckley, Ulf B?ntgen, Brian M. Chase, Duncan A. Christie, Edward R. Cook, Mark A. J. Curran, Henry F. Diaz, Jan Esper, Ze-Xin Fan, Narayan P. Gaire, Quansheng Ge, Jo?lle Gergis, J Fidel Gonz?lez-Rouco, Hugues Goosse, Stefan W. Grab, Nicholas Graham, Rochelle Graham, Martin Grosjean, Sami T. Hanhij?rvi, Darrell S. Kaufman, Thorsten Kiefer, Katsuhiko Kimura, Atte A. Korhola, Paul J. Krusic, Antonio Lara, Anne-Marie L?zine, Fredrik C. Ljungqvist, Andrew M. Lorrey, J?rg Luterbacher, Val?rie Masson-Delmotte, Danny McCarroll, Joseph R. McConnell, Nicholas P. McKay, Mariano S. Morales, Andrew D. Moy, Robert Mulvaney, Ignacio A. Mundo, Takeshi Nakatsuka, David J. Nash, Raphael Neukom, Sharon E. Nicholson, Hans Oerter, Jonathan G. Palmer, Steven J. Phipps, Maria R. Prieto, Andres Rivera, Masaki Sano, Mirko Severi, Timothy M. Shanahan, Xuemei Shao, Feng Shi, Michael Sigl, Jason E. Smerdon, Olga N. Solomina, Eric J. Steig, Barbara Stenni, Meloth Thamban, Valerie Trouet, Chris S.M. Turney, Mohammed Umer, Tas van Ommen, Dirk Verschuren, Andre E. Viau, Ricardo Villalba, Bo M. Vinther, Lucien von Gunten, Sebastian Wagner, Eugene R. Wahl, Heinz Wanner, Johannes P. Werner, James W.C. White, Koh Yasue, Eduardo Zorita. Continental-scale temperature variability during the past two millennia. Nature Geoscience, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/NGEO1797

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/fzlybpPOjQw/130421152401.htm

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North Korea moves two more missile launchers: report

By Jane Chung

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has moved two short-range missile launchers to its east coast, apparently indicating it is pushing ahead with preparations for a test launch, a South Korean news agency reported on Sunday.

South Korea and its allies have been expecting some sort of North Korean missile launch during weeks of heightened hostility on the Korean peninsula.

An unidentified South Korean military source told the South's Yonhap news agency that satellite imagery showed that North Korean forces had moved two mobile missile launchers for short-range Scud missiles to South Hamgyeong province.

"The military is closely watching the North's latest preparations for a missile launch," the source said.

The North moved two mid-range Musudan missiles in early April and placed seven mobile launchers in the same area, Yonhap said. A North Korean show of force could be staged to coincide with the anniversary of the founding of its army on April 25.

A South Korean Defense Ministry official said he could not confirm the news report and said there had been no sign of unusual activity in North Korea. North Korea fairly regularly test-fires short-range missiles in the sea off its east coast.

North Korea stepped up its defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions in December when it launched a rocket that it said had put a scientific satellite into orbit. Critics said the launch was aimed at developing technology to deliver a nuclear warhead mounted on a long-range missile.

The North followed that in February with its third test of a nuclear weapon. That brought new U.N. sanctions which in turn led to a dramatic intensification of North Korea's threats of nuclear strikes against South Korea and the United States.

The tension has eased over recent days with the North at least talking about dialogue in response to calls for talks from both the United States and South Korea.

On Saturday, North Korea reiterated that it would not give up its nuclear weapons, rejecting a U.S. condition for talks although it said it was willing to discuss disarmament.

(Editing by Robert Birsel and Sanjeev Miglani)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-moves-two-more-missile-launchers-report-035049930.html

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Science surprise: Toxic protein made in unusual way may explain brain disorder

Friday, April 19, 2013

A bizarre twist on the usual way proteins are made may explain mysterious symptoms in the grandparents of some children with mental disabilities.

The discovery, made by a team of scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School, may lead to better treatments for older adults with a recently discovered genetic condition.

The condition, called Fragile X-associated Tremor Ataxia Syndrome (FXTAS), causes shakiness and balance problems and is often misdiagnosed as Parkinson's disease. The grandchildren of people with the disease have a separate disorder called Fragile X syndrome, caused by problems in the same gene. The new discovery may also help shine light on that disease, though indirectly.

In a new paper published in the journal Neuron, the U-M-led team presents evidence that a toxic protein they've named FMRpolyG contributes to the death of nerve cells in FXTAS ? and that this protein is made in a very unusual way.

Normally, DNA is transcribed into RNA, and then a part of the RNA is translated into a protein that performs its function in cells. Where this translation process starts on the RNA is usually determined by a specific sequence called a start codon.

The gene mutation that causes FXTAS is a repeated DNA sequence that is made into RNA but normally is not made into protein because it lacks a start codon. However, the investigators discovered that when this repeat expands, it can trigger protein production by a new mechanism known as RAN translation.

Corresponding author Peter Todd, M.D., Ph.D., notes that this unusual translation process appears to stem from a long chain of repeated DNA "letters" found in the genes of both grandparents and kids with Fragile X mutations. Todd is the Bucky and Patti Harris Professor in the U-M Department of Neurology

"Essentially, we've found that a sequence of DNA which shouldn't be made into protein is being made into protein ? and that this causes a toxicity in nerve cells," he explains. "We believe that the protein forms aggregates, and that this is a major contributor to toxicity and symptoms in FXTAS."

The U-M group went on to show how this RAN translation occurs in FXTAS and demonstrated that blocking it prevents the repeat mutation from being toxic, suggesting a new target for future treatments.

Fragile X tremor/ataxia syndrome or FXTAS was only discovered a decade ago. It may affect as many as one in every 3,000 men and one in 20,000 women, who have a repeat mutation in the gene known as FMR1. However, these patients don't usually develop symptoms until late middle age, allowing them to pass the mutation on to their daughters, who can then have children where the DNA repeat that has grown much longer. In those children, especially in boys, it can cause severe intellectual disability and autism-like symptoms as the FMR1 gene shuts down and none of the normal protein is produced.

In fact, says Todd, it's often only after a child is diagnosed with Fragile X syndrome through genetic testing that their grandfather or grandmother finds out that their own symptoms stem from FXTAS. Doctors in U-M's Neurogenetics clinic for adults, and the Pediatric Genetics Clinic at U-M's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, routinely work together to address the needs of Fragile X families.

"We have some treatments for the symptoms that FXTAS patients have, but we do not yet have a cure," says Todd, who regularly sees patients with FXTAS and related disorders. "Better treatments are needed ? and this new discovery might help lead to novel strategies for clearing away or preventing the buildup of this toxic protein."

In addition, he says, the discovery that Fragile X ataxia results in part from RAN translation could have significance both for other diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also called Lou Gehrig's disease) and certain forms of dementia that are caused by DNA repeats. It can also aid our understanding of basic biology. "This may represent a new way in which translational initiation events occur, and may have importance beyond this one disease," he notes. Further research on how RAN translation occurs, and why, is needed.

The idea that proteins can be created without a "start site" flies in the face of what most students of biology have learned in the last century. "In biology, we're finding that the rules we once thought were hard and fast have some wiggle room," Todd says.

###

University of Michigan Health System: http://www.med.umich.edu

Thanks to University of Michigan Health System for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127821/Science_surprise__Toxic_protein_made_in_unusual_way_may_explain_brain_disorder

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Prosecutors move quickly to build Marathon case

Investigators work near the location where the previous night a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings was arrested, Saturday, April 20, 2013, in Watertown, Mass. Police captured Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect, in a backyard boat after a wild car chase and gun battle earlier in the day left his older brother dead. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Investigators work near the location where the previous night a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings was arrested, Saturday, April 20, 2013, in Watertown, Mass. Police captured Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect, in a backyard boat after a wild car chase and gun battle earlier in the day left his older brother dead. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

A sign with the photographs of Sean Collier, bottom left, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology officer killed, and Richard Donohue, a Boston Police officer who was shot and critically wounded, is seen at a makeshift memorial on Boylston Street, near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, Saturday, April 20, 2013, in Boston. Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured late Friday evening in Watertown, Mass. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration has a range of legal options in the Boston Marathon bombings, and they could include seeking the death penalty against the 19-year-old suspect in the case.

The administration has indicated it intends to move quickly to build a criminal case against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. But investigators plan to first question him without informing him of his legal rights to remain silent and have an attorney present.

Several Republican lawmakers on Saturday criticized the administration's approach because they said it would afford Tsarnaev more rights than he deserves. The federal public defender for Massachusetts called for the quick appointment of a lawyer to represent Tsarnaev because of serious issues involving his interrogation in the absence of a lawyer.

Prosecution of Tsarnaev in federal court would seem a natural course for an administration that previously won a life sentence against Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab of Nigeria for trying to blow up a packed jetliner using a bomb sewn into his underwear on Christmas Day 2009.

The administration also will put Osama bin Laden's son-in-law on trial in January on charges that he conspired to kill Americans in his role as al-Qaida's chief spokesman.

As a U.S. citizen, Tsarnaev could not be tried by a military commission under current law; the only option for prosecuting an American is in civilian courts. A federal official with knowledge of the case said Tsarnaev was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in September 2012. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about details of the case and requested anonymity.

Tsarnaev was under armed guard at a Boston hospital and was reported in serious condition and unable to be interrogated Saturday. He has yet to be charged but prosecutors appear to have no shortage of federal laws at their disposal.

The most serious charge would be the use of a weapon of mass destruction to kill people, which carries a possible death sentence. Three people died in the twin explosions in Boston and more than 180 were injured.

Massachusetts does not have the death penalty, and it remains to be seen whether the administration would try to persuade a jury to sentence Tsarnaev to death. The state could try to bring charges against him, including for the death of Sean Collier, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer who authorities say was killed by Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan.

An early question that arose after Tsarnaev's capture on Friday was how to conduct his initial interrogation.

The administration said it would not immediately inform him of legal protections known as the Miranda rights. Instead, prosecutors planned to invoke a public safety exception created by the need to protect police and the public from immediate danger.

The American Civil Liberties Union's executive director, Anthony Romero, said the exception applies only when there's a continued threat to public safety, like whether there is imminent danger from other bombs, and is "not an open-ended exception" to the Miranda rule.

The federal public defender for Massachusetts, Miriam Conrad, said her office expects to represent Tsarnaev after he is charged and that he needs a lawyer appointed as soon as possible because there are "serious issues regarding possible interrogation."

But several congressional Republicans said Tsarnaev's rights should be even more restricted than the administration intends.

"I am disappointed that it appears this administration is once again relying on Miranda's public safety exception to gather intelligence which only allows at best a 48-hour waiting period that may expire since the suspect has been critically wounded," Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement hours after Tsarnaev was captured.

Chambliss' concerns were echoed by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., as well as Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.

"A decision to not read Miranda rights to the suspect was sound and in our national security interests," the four said in a statement. "However, we have concerns that limiting this investigation to 48 hours and exclusively relying on the public safety exception to Miranda, could very well be a national security mistake. It could severely limit our ability to gather critical information about future attacks from this suspect."

But Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a former federal prosecutor and member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the administration should ignore "hasty calls to treat the suspect as an enemy combatant."

"This is not a foreign national caught on an enemy battlefield, but an American citizen arrested on American soil," Schiff said. "The Justice Department has demonstrated a far greater ability to successfully prosecute suspected terrorists in federal courts than the military commissions have thus far been able to show. Nothing must be done to compromise the public safety, the ability of prosecutors to seek justice for the victims or our constitutional principles."

While the Republicans asserted that Tsarnaev can be held as an enemy combatant, the Supreme Court has never resolved whether citizens or foreign nationals arrested on U.S. soil can be held by the military, as opposed to civilian authorities.

The court twice was prepared to take up that question in recent years, once while George W. Bush was president and once since Barack Obama became took office. Both times, the administration moved the suspected terrorists, U.S. citizen Jose Padilla and graduate student Ali al-Marri, from a military brig to civilian confinement to head off the high court case.

___

Associated Press writers Denise Lavoie in Boston and Donna Cassata and Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-20-Boston%20Marathon-Suspects-Legal/id-63341bd0939e4fa69caa138e463759df

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Google Reports Mixed Q1 2013 Earnings: Revenue Up 31 Percent To $14B, Net Income Of $3.35B, Beats EPS Estimates

Google last two earnings releases were made even more notable than usual because of the unexpected events that preceded them, but today?s release of the company?s fiscal Q1 2013 financials was as almost as straightforward as it used to be. For this past quarter, the search giant reported revenues of $14 billion (that?s up 31% from Q1 2012), non-GAAP earnings of $11.58 per share, and net income of $3.35 billion. That means that this quarter, while mostly strong, was a mixed bag in terms of beating expectations. According to the slew of analysts polled by Bloomberg Businessweek, Google was expected to report earnings of $10.70 per share on $14.3 billion in revenues -- Google handily came out ahead on earnings, but didn't quite meet the Street's revenue forecasts.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/AJg7JHOzxzk/

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Silly phone game puts illiterate Pakistanis in touch with potential employers

Public release date: 18-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Byron Spice
bspice@cs.cmu.edu
412-268-9068
Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon and Lahore University research project goes viral

PITTSBURGHA silly telephone game that became a viral phenomenon in Pakistan has demonstrated some serious potential for teaching poorly educated people about automated voice services and provided a new tool for them to learn about jobs, say researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Pakistan's Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).

The game, called Polly, is simplicity itself: a caller records a message and Polly adds funny sound effects, such as changing a male's voice to a female voice (or vice versa), or making the caller sound like a drunk chipmunk. The caller can then forward the message to one or more friends, who in turn can forward it along or reply to it.

Polly may not sound like a research project, but Roni Rosenfeld, professor in Carnegie Mellon's Language Technologies Institute, said it is pioneering the use of entertainment to reach illiterate and low-literate people and introduce them to the potential of telephone-based services. Such phone services could help non-affluent, poorly educated people find jobs, find or sell merchandise, become politically active, create speech-based mailing lists and even support citizen journalism.

But people can't use these services if they don't know how.

Even though most people in Pakistan have access to a phone, many don't understand the technology behind an automated telephone-based service, said Agha Ali Raza, a Ph.D. student in language technology and a native Pakistani. "They expect to talk to a person on the other end of the line," he explained. "When they hear, 'Press 1 to do this,' or 'Press 2 to do that,' they don't press anything; they just start talking."

With Polly, Rosenfeld, Raza and Umar Saif, an associate professor of computer science at LUMS, have shown that if the training is fun, people will not only learn how to use phone-based services, but will eagerly spread the word and even show each other how to use it. Polly was launched in Lahore, Pakistan in May 2012 by giving its phone number to five poor, low-skilled workers. By mid-September, 85,000 people had used it almost half a million times.

Though budget pressures forced researchers to begin limiting calls to Polly in September, the total number of users climbed to more than 160,000 people, including some non-Pakistanis, as of mid-April. Overall, the system has handled almost 2.5 million calls. The project continues to run.

What's more, Polly doesn't just deliver funny messages; it also includes job listings. "We daily scan Pakistani newspapers for advertisements for jobs that are appropriate for low-skilled, low-literate workers, record them in the local language and make them available for audio-browsing during the interaction with Polly," Rosenfeld said. As of mid-April, the ads had been listened to more than 380,000 times and had been forwarded more than 21,000 times.

Raza, the lead author, will present results of the research on May 1 at CHI 2013, the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, in Paris, where the report has received a Best Paper award.

Rosenfeld said the entertainment value of Polly helped it spread rapidly, but can't sustain it over time, noting game play dropped rapidly as its novelty wore off. But adding services, such as the job ads, can keep people calling in.

"We found that users took to the job information in large numbers and that many of them started calling Polly specifically for that service exactly the result we had hoped for," he said.

The researchers now are determining whether the system can be scaled up to serve a larger population base over an extended period of time and be made more cost efficient. They also hope to use Polly to train people in other countries.

###

More information, as well as video demonstrations, is available on the project website, http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~Polly/.

The project is sponsored in part by the U.S. Agency for International Development under the Pakistan-U.S. Science and Technology Cooperation Program, the U.S. State Department's Fulbright Program and the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. The Language Technologies Institute is part of CMU's School of Computer Science. Follow the school on Twitter @SCSatCMU.

About Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 11,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. The university is in the midst of "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements.

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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.

Public release date: 18-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Byron Spice
bspice@cs.cmu.edu
412-268-9068
Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon and Lahore University research project goes viral

PITTSBURGHA silly telephone game that became a viral phenomenon in Pakistan has demonstrated some serious potential for teaching poorly educated people about automated voice services and provided a new tool for them to learn about jobs, say researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Pakistan's Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).

The game, called Polly, is simplicity itself: a caller records a message and Polly adds funny sound effects, such as changing a male's voice to a female voice (or vice versa), or making the caller sound like a drunk chipmunk. The caller can then forward the message to one or more friends, who in turn can forward it along or reply to it.

Polly may not sound like a research project, but Roni Rosenfeld, professor in Carnegie Mellon's Language Technologies Institute, said it is pioneering the use of entertainment to reach illiterate and low-literate people and introduce them to the potential of telephone-based services. Such phone services could help non-affluent, poorly educated people find jobs, find or sell merchandise, become politically active, create speech-based mailing lists and even support citizen journalism.

But people can't use these services if they don't know how.

Even though most people in Pakistan have access to a phone, many don't understand the technology behind an automated telephone-based service, said Agha Ali Raza, a Ph.D. student in language technology and a native Pakistani. "They expect to talk to a person on the other end of the line," he explained. "When they hear, 'Press 1 to do this,' or 'Press 2 to do that,' they don't press anything; they just start talking."

With Polly, Rosenfeld, Raza and Umar Saif, an associate professor of computer science at LUMS, have shown that if the training is fun, people will not only learn how to use phone-based services, but will eagerly spread the word and even show each other how to use it. Polly was launched in Lahore, Pakistan in May 2012 by giving its phone number to five poor, low-skilled workers. By mid-September, 85,000 people had used it almost half a million times.

Though budget pressures forced researchers to begin limiting calls to Polly in September, the total number of users climbed to more than 160,000 people, including some non-Pakistanis, as of mid-April. Overall, the system has handled almost 2.5 million calls. The project continues to run.

What's more, Polly doesn't just deliver funny messages; it also includes job listings. "We daily scan Pakistani newspapers for advertisements for jobs that are appropriate for low-skilled, low-literate workers, record them in the local language and make them available for audio-browsing during the interaction with Polly," Rosenfeld said. As of mid-April, the ads had been listened to more than 380,000 times and had been forwarded more than 21,000 times.

Raza, the lead author, will present results of the research on May 1 at CHI 2013, the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, in Paris, where the report has received a Best Paper award.

Rosenfeld said the entertainment value of Polly helped it spread rapidly, but can't sustain it over time, noting game play dropped rapidly as its novelty wore off. But adding services, such as the job ads, can keep people calling in.

"We found that users took to the job information in large numbers and that many of them started calling Polly specifically for that service exactly the result we had hoped for," he said.

The researchers now are determining whether the system can be scaled up to serve a larger population base over an extended period of time and be made more cost efficient. They also hope to use Polly to train people in other countries.

###

More information, as well as video demonstrations, is available on the project website, http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~Polly/.

The project is sponsored in part by the U.S. Agency for International Development under the Pakistan-U.S. Science and Technology Cooperation Program, the U.S. State Department's Fulbright Program and the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. The Language Technologies Institute is part of CMU's School of Computer Science. Follow the school on Twitter @SCSatCMU.

About Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 11,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. The university is in the midst of "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements.

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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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/cmu-spg041813.php

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Brent climbs above $100 after selloff; demand worries stay

By Jessica Jaganathan

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Brent crude rebounded above $100 per barrel on Wednesday as a steep drop over the past five sessions attracted bargain hunters, while hopes the U.S. Federal Reserve will maintain its monetary stimulus after recent weak data also supported prices.

But concerns about oil demand growth stemming from bleak economic reports from the world's top oil consumers the United States and China, which pushed Brent to below $100 for the first time since July in the previous session, capped gains.

Brent crude for June delivery gained 33 cents to $100.24 a barrel by 0515 GMT, after dropping to a session low of $98 on Tuesday, the weakest since July 2012.

U.S. crude for May delivery slipped 3 cents to $88.69 a barrel, off a 4-month low of $86.06 hit on Tuesday.

"I think at this stage we are seeing a bit of bargain hunting," said Ben Le Brun, analyst at OptionsXpress in Sydney.

"But oil prices are going to be dictated by economic data that we see coming out of the U.S. and obviously the (Federal Reserve) quantitative easing program is still in place so that should at least underpin some support for commodity prices."

He added that broader concerns on the state of the global economy remained in the market, capping oil price gains.

U.S. consumer prices fell in March for the first time in four months and factory output slipped, strengthening the argument for the Federal Reserve to maintain its monetary stimulus to speed up economic growth.

A rise in U.S. March housing starts to the highest since 2008 was a bright spot, but insufficient to turn oil sentiment bullish.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday trimmed projections for global economic growth for this year and next to take into account sharp government spending cuts in the United States and the latest struggles of recession-stricken Europe.

While it said economic prospects had improved in recent months with a fading of financial risks, it warned Europe against relaxing efforts to combat its debt crisis given the messy bailout in Cyprus and a political stalemate in Italy.

Brent crude shed almost 6 percent over the past five sessions -- biggest 5-day drop since September last year -- in a wider commodities rout after data showed economic growth in China, the world's second-largest oil consumer, had slowed unexpectedly in the first three months of 2013.

Gold and other metals, including copper, later bounced back.

While further weakness in Brent crude prices in the near term is not ruled out, oil prices will unlikely fall below the $100 a barrel mark past the second quarter, Barclays said in a note on Tuesday.

"Progressing through the tail end of Q2 and into the second half of 2013, we see strong indications for demand growth developing which will keep the call on crude elevated."

A pick-up in hedging activity from consumers who have been waiting on the sidelines for better entry points for their hedging programmes could help support prices, Barclays added.

"The second layer of support is likely to come through market expectations surrounding comfort levels for OPEC producers to continue producing above their target, below the $100/bbl, which they have lately mentioned as appropriate for both consumers and producers," it said.

Oil prices could also be bolstered late in the second quarter once refineries are back from maintenance and as geopolitical risks still remain, the analyst added.

Societe Generale said it was keeping its Brent forecast for the second half of the year at $112-113 a barrel, adding that the recent weakness in oil prices was seasonal and temporary.

Prices should trend sideways to lower for another month or so, before starting to recover in May, SocGen analyst Michael Wittner said in a note on Tuesday.

U.S. INVENTORY

Data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed total weekly U.S. crude stocks dropped by 6.7 million barrels, in contrast to a Reuters survey in which analysts forecast a rise of 1.3 million.

Brent crude and U.S. crude prices moved higher in post-settlement trading after the report was released.

The more closely watched data from the U.S. government agency, the Energy Information Administration, will be released Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EDT

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brent-climbs-above-100-selloff-demand-worries-stay-063916909--finance.html

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