Nicki also declares fellow 'Idol' judge Mariah Carey 'has met her match,' on premiere of 'My Truth' on E!
By Rob Markman
Nicki Minaj in "My Truth"
Photo: E!
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1696738/nicki-minaj-my-truth-recap-rihanna-vma-rumors.jhtml
The brain holds in mind what has just been seen by synchronizing brain waves in a working memory circuit, an animal study supported by the National Institutes of Health suggests. The more in-sync such electrical signals of neurons were in two key hubs of the circuit, the more those cells held the short-term memory of a just-seen object.
Charles Gray, Ph.D., of Montana State University, Bozeman, a grantee of NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and colleagues, report their findings Nov. 1, 2012, online, in the journal Science Express.
"This work demonstrates, for the first time, that there is information about short term memories reflected in in-sync brainwaves," explained Gray.
"[One major goal]of neuroscience has been to understand how and where information is encoded in the brain. This study provides more evidence that large scale electrical oscillations across distant brain regions may carry information for visual memories," said NIMH director Thomas R. Insel, M.D.
Prior to the study, scientists had observed synchronous patterns of electrical activity between the two circuit hubs after a monkey saw an object, but weren't sure if the signals actually represent such short-term visual memories in the brain. Rather, it was thought that such neural oscillations might play the role of a traffic cop, directing information along brain highways.
To find out more, Gray, Rodrigo Salazar Ph.D., and Nick Dotson of Montana State and Steven Bressler, Ph.D., at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, recorded electrical signals from groups of neurons in both hubs of two monkeys performing a visual working memory task. To earn a reward, the monkeys had to remember an object ? or its location ? that they saw momentarily on a computer screen and correctly match it. The researchers expected to see the telltale boost in synchrony during a delay period immediately after an object disappeared from the screen, when the monkey had to hold information briefly in mind.
The degree of synchronous activity, or coherence, between cells in the areas was plotted for different objects the monkeys saw.
Brain waves of many neurons in the two hubs, called the prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex, synchronized to varying degrees ? depending on an object's identity (see picture below). This and other evidence indicated that neurons in these hubs are selective for particular features in the visual field and that synchronization in the circuit carries content-specific information that might contribute to visual working memory.
The researchers also determined that the parietal cortex was more influential than the prefrontal cortex in driving this process. Previously, many researchers had thought that the firing rate of single neurons in the prefrontal cortex, the brain's executive, is the major player in working memory.
Since synchronized oscillations between populations of cells distinguished between visual stimuli, it's theoretically possible to determine the correct answers for the matching tasks the monkeys performed simply by reading their brain waves. Similarly, synchrony between cell populations in the two hubs also distinguished between locations. So the location of visual information, like object identity, also appears to be represented by synchronous brain waves. Again, researchers previously thought that these functions had mostly to do with the firing rates of neurons.
So the new findings may upturn prevailing theory.
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NIH/National Institute of Mental Health: http://www.nimh.nih.gov
Thanks to NIH/National Institute of Mental Health for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125028/In_sync_brain_waves_hold_memory_of_objects_just_seen
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Read all the election coverage. Sooner Democrats really love their pets and really like the Philbrook Museum of Art.
Oklahoma Republicans really love their churches and the great outdoors.
And they all love QuikTrip and Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford.
As the final hours of the election campaign tick away, political workers on both sides of the aisle may be looking for new ideas to get inside the minds of the voters.
Jerry Rackley, executive in residence at the Oklahoma State University Spears School of Business marketing department, said he'd be surprised if a closer reading of Facebook profiles isn't a common political tool in the near future.
"I don't doubt that they will use this information at all," Rackley said. "I think it's logical, it makes sense and it's so easy to use and sensible. I don't think anyone is using it yet only because I suspect they don't know about it."
Facebook is a huge social network with more than 1 billion active users worldwide.
"It's the largest database in the world of consumer preferences," said Rackley, a 51-year-old consultant who has brought his years of corporate and independent marketing work into the OSU classroom. "The problem is, we've never been able to get at them."
Rackley uses the Wisdom Professional social intelligence application as a tool for drilling into that Facebook universe.
The Wisdom application is a voluntary network within Facebook that gives marketers an enormous sample group for testing out ideas, he said.
Some 16.1 million Facebook users around the world have agreed to share their Facebook information with Wisdom analysts, he said. About a third of those people are in the United States and Canada.
"This basically allows you to use Facebook as an on-demand focus group that you can ask unlimited questions of," he said.
Creating a comparable sample size for study through traditional marketing methods would be incredible difficult and expensive, he said.
Peering into the Wisdom audience, Rackley found there were some 100,000 Democrats and 78,000 Republicans, but delving further into the details he found there were 869 Oklahoma Republicans and 836 Oklahoma Democrats, still a pretty good-size sample for marketing, he said.
Some of the interesting results from Rackley's efforts:
Oklahoma Democrats on Facebook are more likely to describe themselves as pet lovers than any other trait. They do so at an affinity level of 6.2, meaning they are 6.2 times more likely to have that trait than others in the Wisdom universe.
Republicans, on the other hand, describe themselves as religious people more often than any other trait, an affinity level of 8.3.
Both Republicans and Democrats describe themselves strongly as social activists (although Rackley suspects they may have different definitions of that term), deal hunters and budget shoppers.
But Democrats are more likely to thinks of themselves as food lovers, while Republicans are self-described outdoor enthusiasts.
"What do you do with this data? If I were running for office on the Republican ticket I might look at this and say, 'I need to go campaign outside of Petsmart or Petco and try to win over the hearts of these people who are pet lovers,' " he said.
Some of the partisan affinities aren't that surprising.
Republicans link to Gov. Mary Fallin, U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn and pundit Bill O'Reilly. Democrats are high on state Rep. Al McAffrey, former candidate for governor Jari Askins and the Comedy Central mock news program "The Daily Show."
But some other connections are a little more puzzling.
"I can't figure this one out - The Philbrook Museum - people who are Democrats in Oklahoma in this sample are 886 times more likely to have the affinity with The Philbrook Museum than everyone else," Rackley said. "Explain that to me. I can't.
"The other thing is, I don't know what's up with this but Sam Bradford's got 399 affinity. By the way, he's equally loved by Republicans and Democrats."
Both sides also love the Oklahoma City Thunder and the QuikTrip brand of convenience stores.
"What's with QuikTrip?" he said. "QT is a fantastic corporation with a strong brand I admire. I simply find it curious that it has so much affinity with both groups. The folks at QT should be delighted. I just wish I could explain the connection. I can't."
On Tuesday, regular voting at precinct polling places is set for 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. You can locate your polling place online on the State Election Board's web site: tulsaworld.com/votinglocator.
Voters should bring a government- or tribal-issued, photo identification with them. To be valid, the ID must have an expiration date and must not have expired. Alternatively, a county election board-issued voter card is acceptable identification. Voters who do not have an acceptable voter ID can still vote by signing an affidavit attesting to their identity and completing a provisional ballot.
All Oklahoma voters will have a presidential race pitting electors for President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney, a congressional race, a retention ballot for 12 appellate-level judges and six state questions on their ballot.
Many voters also will have legislative and local races to decide, but there are no statewide state offices on the ballot this year.
In Tulsa County, there are no county offices on the ballot, but elsewhere some voters will decide races for sheriff, county clerk, court clerk and county commissioner.
Tulsa County voters also will decide the fate of Vision2, a two-part, $748.8 million 0.6 percent sales tax question with the funding for economic development projects and quality-of-life improvements throughout the county.
In Tulsa's City Council Districts 1 and 7, City Council races also will appear on the ballot.
Original Print Headline: Facebook used for political sampling
Source: http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/articlepath.aspx?articleid=20121105_16_A1_AnOSUf807480&rss_lnk=1
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Waking up to be greeted by a weighing scale that tells you to stand up straight and buck up your ideas might not be everyone's ideal morning, but we do love Withings' gear. The company's latest, the WS-30, has meandered over from Europe and is now available to order from today in the US of A. It'll set you back $130, but that's a small price to pay if you're planning to make a few positive life changes before the winter forces you to stay inside.
Continue reading Withings WS-30 anti-slouch connected weighing scales arrive in the US for $130
Withings WS-30 anti-slouch connected weighing scales arrive in the US for $130 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Nov 2012 18:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/05/withings-ws-30-us-launch/
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Sadly, we're not overly surprised by this news, but it still disappoints us nevertheless. Spanish retailer Phone House -- Spain's answer to the UK's Carphone Warehouse -- has announced via its Facebook page that they're suspending all plans to sell the new LG Nexus 4. The reason? LG is reportedly going to be selling the device to retailers at a much higher price than Google will be offering direct from the Play Store. The statement reads like this -- albeit a slightly shaky translated version:
Madrid, November 2, 2012Phone House, the largest independent chain of telecommunications in Europe and Spain, it will release the new Google Nexus 4 and LG, whose launch was scheduled for November 13 in the catalog of this month
Phone House has decided to suspend the sale of this product after finding that the recommended retail price by LG of 599 € and conditions offered for commercialization are worse than the MSRP published by Google on its website and does not maintain the commitment with customers and offer the lowest price guarantee that characterizes Phone House.
Spain is lucky enough to be one of the few nations worldwide that can purchase devices directly from the Google Play Store, so at least eager Spanish Nexus fans won't be left completely out in the cold. From Google, the Nexus 4 will be sold for €299/€349 for the 8GB and 16GB versions respectively. Phone House claims that LG want to sell the devices to them with a recommended retail price of €599. Yowzas. Without saying which version that price relates to, it equates to a minimum increase of €250 over the Google prices.
According to The Next Web, the same situation is presenting itself in other European countries such as Italy and Austria. However, unlike Spain, neither of these two nations are supported for device purchases from Google Play at this time. Angry potential customers have been taking to the LG Mobile Facebook page to voice their opinions. But, without a way to purchase at the lower price from Google, it seems at the moment as they are in a tough place if these prices turn out to be correct.
Over in the UK however, Phone House's counterpart, Carphone Warehouse, is still offering pre-orders for the Nexus 4. These are only on contract at this time with a varying price structure, but at this moment the retailer is not offering a SIM free price option for the Nexus 4. If you want to wade in on this, be sure to head on into the LG Nexus 4 Forums and share your thoughts with us.
Source: The Next Web
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/5jUbVnop1Pk/story01.htm
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