Heating oil continues to rise in Rhode Island

Home heating oil prices in Rhode Island jumped for the third week in a row, up to an average of $3.81 a gallon, or 14 cents higher than the prior week, according to a survey of 41 dealers by the state Energy Office.

The price is now the highest it's been since last May 2.

The Energy Information Office estimates the average household cost of oil from Oct. 1 to March 31 will increase by 8 percent over last year. There are 150,000 Rhode Islanders families, or two of every five households, who heat their homes with oil.

Propane averaged $3.50 a gallon and kerosene averaged $4.41 a gallon, according to the Energy Office.

Source: http://news.providencejournal.com/business/2012/01/heating-oil-continues-to-rise-in-rhode-island.html

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Scientists map the frontiers of vision

Friday, January 6, 2012

There's a 3-D world in our brains. It's a landscape that mimics the outside world, where the objects we see exist as collections of neural circuits and electrical impulses.

Now, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies are using new tools they developed to chart that world, a key step in revolutionizing research into the neurological basis of vision.

For the first time, the scientists have produced neuron-by-neuron maps of the regions of the mouse brain that process different kinds of visual information, laying the groundwork for decoding the circuitry of the brain using cutting-edge, genetic research techniques only possible in mice.

"In the field of cognitive research, this puts the mouse on the map - by putting the map on the mouse," says James Marshel, a Salk research associate. Marshel and Marina Garrett, a graduate student at University of California San Diego, were lead authors on a paper reporting the advance in the December 22 issue of Neuron.

To understand the extraordinarily complex computations of the human brain, including those behind visual cognition, scientists have mostly relied on studies on primates, such as monkeys, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, and the most like us in terms of cognitive ability.

Researchers have identified what portions of the primate brain process different aspects of the sensory information they gather from the outside world. In particular, a great deal is known about what regions of the primate brain process certain visual information, helping them identify objects and follow their movements in three-dimensional space.

"We've learned a lot about how our eyes feed information to our brains, and a huge portion of our brain is devoted to processing this information," says Edward Callaway, a professor in Salk's Systems Neurobiology Laboratory, whose laboratory conducted the research. "Vision is a terrific system for understanding how the brain works and, ultimately, for studying mental diseases and consciousness."

Powerful new scientific tools are emerging that could allow scientists to better understand the human brain by studying the relatively simpler brains of mice. These methods allow scientists to alter genes, the instructions in DNA that control the behavior of cells - including the neurons that form brain circuits. By using genetic methods for mapping brain connections and controlling the activity of cells, scientists hope to generate detailed wiring diagrams of the brain and probe how these circuits function.

"While mice can not replace the work that is being done in monkeys, these research techniques are much further along in mice than in monkeys," Callaway says. "The ability to modify neural activity using genetic tools and to study the resulting changes in brain and nerve activity is revolutionizing neuroscience."

Although such genetic engineering techniques in mice offer huge potential, little was known about what areas of the mouse visual cortex - the high-level brain region that computes the meaning of signals from the eyes - were responsible for processing different elements of the visual information.

To remedy this, Callaway and his colleagues set out to chart a map of the mouse's visual processing system. They injected mice with a calcium-sensitive fluorescent dye that glows when exposed to a certain color of light. The amount of calcium in nerve cells varies depending on the activity level of the neurons, so the scientists could measure the activity of brain cells based on how brightly they glowed.

The scientists then displayed different types of visual stimulus on a television monitor and recorded what parts of the brain glowed. To make the recordings, they used a high-resolution camera capable of discerning the activity of individual nerve cells.

They found that a mouse's visual field, the area of three-dimensional space visible through its eyes, is represented by a corresponding collection of neurons in its brain. The researchers precisely recorded which neurons were associated with which area of the animal's visual field.

The scientists studied seven different areas of the animal's visual cortex containing full neuronal "maps" of the visible outside world, and found that each area has a specialized role in processing visual information. For instance, certain areas were more sensitive to the direction objects move in space, while other areas were focused on distinguishing fine detail.

With these maps of brain function in hand, the Salk researchers and others now have a baseline against which they can compare the brain function of mice in which circuit function is manipulated using genetic methods. Ultimately, Callaway says, understanding in detail how the mouse brain works will illuminate the workings of the human mind.

"This gives us new ways to explore the neural underpinnings of consciousness and to identify what goes wrong in neural circuits in the case of diseases such as schizophrenia and autism," Callaway said.

###

Salk Institute: http://www.salk.edu

Thanks to Salk Institute 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/116523/Scientists_map_the_frontiers_of_vision

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JC Chasez Saves Baby from Flying Beach Umbrella

When it comes to protecting our nation's children, we now have a new line of defense: former N'SYNC members. JC Chasez, now a judge on America's Best Dance Crew, was vacationing on Miami Beach on New Year's Day when he reportedly saved the life of a 1-year-old child.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/jc-chasez-saves-baby-flying-beach-umbrella/1-a-416198?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Ajc-chasez-saves-baby-flying-beach-umbrella-416198

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For The 5th Year In A Row, Apple Wins CES. Before It Starts. Without Showing Up.

Are you ready for CES? I know I am. The PR emails are flowing in and I'm going to respond to every single one of them. I can't wait to hear about Samsung's social media stuff. And Vizio's new thingy. I can't wait to get my hands on that one thing made by those guys who did that other thing last year that no one bought. It's gonna be fantastic. So pumped. ... No, I'm not going to CES. I've never been to CES. I doubt I'll ever go to CES. Why would I?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/2yM13OGtBik/

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Super Bowl ads are expensive, but worth it

Chrysler

Chrysler felt so strongly about what a Super Bowl ad could do the company bought two minutes of time for just one spot featuring Eminem in last year's game. Will other advertisers follow the long-form trend?

By Rob Neill

Another year, another record. The ad space available for next month's broadcast of Super Bowl XLVI has sold out and will likely top last year's take.?Experts say companies will line up to pay millions again?next year and the year after that for the privilege of being part of Super Sunday.

When will making a big buy in the Big Game stop being cost-effective? Probably never. Or at least not until people stop drinking, snacking and most importantly, watching TV.

For marketers, "it?s a huge investment, but it?s also one of the best ways to maximize their time? in front of an audience, said Brian Steinberg, television editor for Advertising Age.??Fewer TV properties have that reach thanks to DVR and the Web. The Super Bowl is increasing, rather than losing, its audience.?

This year viewers are likely to see more long-form ads (longer than the traditional 30 seconds)?and more linking to social networks.

NBC will be broadcasting the game Feb. 5 from Indianapolis. The network said this week that all available time during the game is sold out, although some spots in the pregame were still available. The?network coyly will not?say how much advertisers are being?charged, but The Associated Press puts the price at?$3.5 million to $4 million for 30 seconds. Less than 20 years ago, a half-minute of Super Bowl ad time cost less than $1 million.

That money now buys the largest TV audience in the U.S. Last year a record of more than 111 million Americans watched the Green Bay Packers beat Pittsburgh Steelers, and many paid close attention to the dozens of commercials aired during game breaks.

This year analysts expect viewership to set another record.

(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

?There?s nothing to compare it to. Maybe the Oscars or some of the music (awards) shows, but not really,? said Stephen Master, head of sports for Nielsen, which tracks viewership.

Master notes an upward trend that began with the 2001 game pitting the New York Giants against?the Baltimore Ravens ? two of the country?s largest media markets.

?Now go to last year. You have Green Bay against Pittsburgh. Two storied football programs, but not (among the largest) population areas, and you still have (double-digit) growth. That?s phenomenal,? Master said.

?The Super Bowl works for different kinds of companies. It?s a wonderful venue for companies with a new product since it builds brand awareness so quickly. But it also allows the ability to rebuild or?to recast a brand,? said Tim Calkins, professor of marketing at Northwestern University.

Cadillac?s two-minute ?Imported From Detroit? spot featuring rap star Eminem in last year?s game was a good example of the latter, Calkins said.

Steinberg said the success of the long ad?could influence how advertisers approach the game this year.

?It probably got people (at companies) thinking ?I can do that.? ?

After flirting with social media, expect advertisers to go all in this year, trying to tie their spots heavily to Facebook and Twitter. It?s part of the reason advertisers are ?leaking? their ads to YouTube weeks in advance of the game.?The extended conversation increases the reach of the?ad buy.

The recent spike in interest in the game ? there was actually a?lull in the late '80s and early '90s ? is attributable to two things, Nielsen?s Master said.

?More women are watching. It?s not 50/50 yet, but it?s growing,? he said.

The other factor is the emergence of a?Hispanic population interested in American football, a fast-growing?demographic group that has been heavily courted by the?NFL.

This year NBC plans to webcast the Super Bowl live, marking the?first?legal Internet broadcast of the game. The much-anticipated ads also will be available for online viewing, but not until?after they air on the conventional broadcast.

The live webcast is expected to be more of a novelty than a major shift in the way people view the game. In previous sporting events where live?webcasting has drawn large audiences, such as World Cup soccer and early rounds of March Madness college basketball, those events have featured multiple games during working hours for most Americans.

The Super Bowl is still very much a ?communal activity,? Steinberg said.

?Maybe people will be watching on tablets in their attic someday,? he said.

Related:

Check out last year's best and worst Super Bowl ads

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/06/9983972-despite-4-million-price-tag-marketers-clamor-for-super-bowl-ads

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1510wlac: TotalTrafficBNA: #PriestLake accident on MURFREESBORO PIKE at HAMILTON CHURCH RD as reported by... http://t.co/ReoK1GOp @TotalTrafficBNA

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TotalTrafficBNA: #PriestLake accident on MURFREESBORO PIKE at HAMILTON CHURCH RD as reported by... bit.ly/xb0iXY @TotalTrafficBNA Il y a environ 2 heures via dlvr.it

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