Smart dust computers are no bigger than a snowflake

Thousands of tiny computers that scavenge power from their surroundings could one day be used to monitor your world

THOUGHT your smartphone or tablet packed a big punch for its size? Pah, that's nothing. The next generation of computers will be able to carry out complex calculations but will be little bigger than a snowflake.

Such tiny computers ? nicknamed smart dust ? would work much like their larger cousins, says Prabal Dutta at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. They will have tiny CPUs that run programs on a skeleton operating system and be able to access equally small banks of RAM and flash memory. The plan is for such sensor-packed machines to be embedded in buildings and objects in their hundreds or even thousands, providing constant updates on the world around us.

Dutta's group is creating the first prototypes, which they have dubbed Michigan Micro Motes. These devices, a cubic millimetre in size, come equipped with sensors to monitor temperature or movement, say, and can send data via radio waves.

But how do you charge something so small? "The vision of blanketing the world with smart sensors is very compelling," says Joshua Smith, head of the Sensor Systems Laboratory at the University of Washington in Seattle. "But a lot of sensor networks researchers found themselves surrounded by mountains of depleted batteries and dead sensor nodes."

So, like microscopic Robinson Crusoes, the motes will live off the power they can scavenge from their surroundings. A mote near a light source might use a tiny solar panel, while a mote running somewhere with greater temperature extremes can be built to tap into that, by converting the heat energy that flows between hot and cold into electricity.

So what will be smart dust's killer app? The Michigan team says Micro Motes could be used to monitor every tiny movement of large structures like bridges or skyscrapers. And motes in a smart house could report back on lighting, temperature, carbon monoxide levels and occupancy. With motes embedded in all of your belongings it might be possible to run a Google search in the physical world. For example, asking Google "where are my keys?" would give you the right answer if they have been fitted with a mote.

Smart dust computers could make efficient medical implants too. The idea is that motes placed inside the body would monitor a patient's vital signs. For example, in as-yet-unpublished research, the Michigan team has implanted a Micro Mote inside a mouse tumour so that it can report back on its growth.

Smith is also working on miniature computing, with his wireless identification and sensing platforms (WISPs). Further along in development than Micro Motes ? albeit larger ? WISPs communicate via radio frequency identification devices, using the same computer language that your next-generation credit card uses. Like Micro Motes, WISPs don't need batteries and only consume what they can scavenge ? stray signals from a nearby TV tower might do the trick, for instance.

But communication remains a key bottleneck for the next wave of computer miniaturisation, says Dutta. For the same chunk of energy a mote could perform 100,000 operations on its CPU but only transmit one bit of information to the outside world, he says.

This article appeared in print under the headline "A sprinkling of smart dust"

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Sprint sets tentative date for investor vote for SoftBank deal

LONDON, April 26 (Reuters) - Arsenal will keep with tradition and form a guard of honour for new Premier League champions Manchester United when the sides meet at The Emirates on Sunday. "That is part of the tradition of English football and I want that, of course, to be respected," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger told a news conference on Friday. "I'm French, I work in England and the English tradition should be respected. When you work somewhere abroad you have to respect the culture of the country," he added. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sprint-sets-tentative-date-investor-vote-softbank-deal-190250732.html

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Increased brain activity predicts future onset of substance use

Apr. 17, 2013 ? Do people get caught in the cycle of overeating and drug addiction because their brain reward centers are over-active, causing them to experience greater cravings for food or drugs?

In a unique prospective study Oregon Research Institute (ORI) senior scientist Eric Stice, Ph.D., and colleagues tested this theory, called the reward surfeit model. The results indicated that elevated responsivity of reward regions in the brain increased the risk for future substance use, which has never been tested before prospectively with humans. Paradoxically, results also provide evidence that even a limited history of substance use was related to less responsivity in the reward circuitry, as has been suggested by experiments with animals.

The research appears in the May 1, 2013 issue of Biological Psychiatry.

In a novel study using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Stice's team tested whether individual differences in reward region responsivity predicted overweight/obesity onset among initially healthy weight adolescents and substance use onset among initially abstinent adolescents. The neural response to food and monetary reward was measured in 162 adolescents. Body fat and substance use were assessed at the time of the fMRI and again one year later.

"The findings are important because this is the first test of whether atypical responsivity of reward circuitry increases risk for substance use," says Dr. Stice. "Although numerous researchers have suggested that reduced responsivity is a vulnerability factor for substance use, this theory was based entirely on cross-sectional studies comparing substance abusing individuals to healthy controls; no studies have tested this thesis with prospective data."

Investigators examined the extent to which reward circuitry (e.g., the striatum) was activated in response to receipt and anticipated receipt of money. Monetary reward is a general reinforcer and has been used frequently to assess reward sensitivity. The team also used another paradigm to assess brain activation in response to the individual's consumption and anticipated consumption of chocolate milkshake. Results showed that greater activation in the striatum during monetary reward receipt at baseline predicted future substance use onset over a 1-year follow-up.

Noteworthy was that adolescents who had already begun using substances showed less striatal response to monetary reward. This finding provides the first evidence that even a relatively short period of moderate substance use might reduce reward region responsivity to a general reinforcer.

"The implications are that the more individuals use psychoactive substances, the less responsive they will be to rewarding experiences, meaning that they may derive less reinforcement from other pursuits, such as interpersonal relationships, hobbies, and school work. This may contribute to the escalating spiral of drug use that characterizes substance use disorders," commented Stice.

Although the investigators had expected parallel neural predictors of future onset of overweight during exposure to receipt and anticipated receipt of a palatable food, no significant effects emerged. It is possible that these effects are weaker and that a longer follow-up period will be necessary to better differentiate who will gain weight and who will remain at a healthy weight.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Oregon Research Institute, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Journal Reference:

1. Eric Stice, Sonja Yokum, Kyle S. Burger. Elevated Reward Region Responsivity Predicts Future Substance Use Onset But Not Overweight/Obesity Onset. Biological Psychiatry, 2013; 73 (9): 869 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.11.019

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/gnD24aukvZ8/130418100152.htm

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Stocks fall on signs of slowing global economy

NEW YORK (AP) ? Stocks fell sharply Wednesday for the second time this week as investors continued to worry about how much the global economy is slowing.

Commodities such as oil and copper fared even worse than stocks. Government bonds were a big winner as money flowed in from investors seeking safety. That drove prices higher, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to its low for the year at one point.

Technology, energy and bank stocks led the market lower. Apple dropped as traders worried about iPhone sales, Bank of America slid after its earnings failed to meet up to Wall Street's forecasts and energy stocks fell as crude oil continued a weeklong drop.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 22 points, or 1.4 percent, to 1,553. Just one week ago the index hit an all-time high of 1,593. It's down 2.5 percent since then.

Small-company and technology stocks did worse than the overall market.

The Nasdaq composite fell the most of the major indexes, 1.8 percent. It lost 59.96 points to 3,204.67. Apple, which makes up 8 percent of the index, slumped 5.5 percent to $402.80, after a supplier hinted at a slowdown in iPhone and iPad production.

The Russell 2000 of small-company stocks also fell 1.8 percent, to 906.

The Dow Jones Industrial average of 30 large stocks fell 138 points, or 0.9 percent, to 14,618.59 Wednesday, wiping out most of the gain it made Tuesday. The Dow, which hit its own record of 14,865 last Thursday, is down 1.7 percent this week after slumping 265 points on Monday.

The price of crude oil dropped for the fourth day in five, falling $2.04, or 2.3 percent, to $86.68 per barrel, based on expectations that global demand will fall. Copper fell 11.8 cents to an 18-month low of $3.19 a pound.

As stock prices sank, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.70 percent from 1.73 percent. It went as low as 1.68 percent, matching its lowest level of the year.

The stock market had its worst day in five months on Monday after China reported economic growth that was slower than economists had expected. Metals, energy and other commodities have been hit hard this week and that has dragged down the stocks of miners and drillers and companies that provide services to them. Gold fell the most in 30 years on Monday.

Despite the big drops this week, the Dow is still 11.6 percent higher this year, the S&P 500 8.8 percent. And while falling energy prices may hurt energy stocks now, in the long run they are good for most companies and will put more money into the pockets of consumers and drive spending.

Stocks surged during the first three months of the year on optimism that a recovery in the housing market would boost the economy. But the stock market has struggled this month. Reports of weak hiring and retail sales suggested the economy may be cooling off.

"You've had numerous economic data points that have been, not really disastrous, but, not really as robust as people might like," said Cam Albright, director of asset allocation at Wilmington Trust Investment Advisors. "When you have a market as extended as this, you almost need perfect information to make it continue to go up."

Reports this week have added to a picture of slowing global growth.

New car sales in Europe fell 10 percent in the first quarter, the European automakers association said Wednesday, as high unemployment saps demand for big purchases. Britain said Wednesday that unemployment rose to 7.9 percent during the three months ending in February, an increase of 0.2 percent from the previous three months.

On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund lowered its outlook for global growth this year to 3.3 percent from 3.5 percent, saying government spending cuts will slow the U.S. and European economies. And on Monday China said its economic growth slowed in the first three months of the year to 7.7 percent, below the 8 percent level anticipated by markets.

Bank of America fell 4.7 percent to $11.70, leading a broad decline in financial stocks, after reporting a first quarter profit of $2.3 billion that fell short of analysts' expectations.

Corporate earnings for the first quarter suggest that growth has been slow and steady, rather than robust as investors had hoped, said Kevin Mahn, president of Hennion and Walsh Asset Management. Consumers and businesses are still reluctant to ratchet up spending.

"We're moving ahead, but begrudgingly and very slowly," said Mahn, "I don't think that the plow horse is going to start stepping backwards but it certainly doesn't have the capacity to start speeding up, at least right now."

Analysts expect first-quarter earnings to rise by 1.6 percent, compared with growth of 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter, according to data from S&P Capital IQ. So far, 56 companies have reported earnings this year and 35 have beaten expectations.

Stocks stayed lower Wednesday even after the Federal Reserve reported that a strengthening housing recovery and robust auto sales contributed to moderate economic growth across the United States in late February and March.

Among other stocks making big moves, Textron, a maker of small aircraft, plunged $3.94, or 14 percent, to $25.41 after the company cut its outlook for business jet deliveries. Fairway climbed 34 percent to $17.35 on its stock market debut, even after the grocery store chain priced its initial public offering above expectations.

Gold edged lower Wednesday, falling $4.70, or 0.3 percent, to $1,382.70 an ounce. The metal has stabilized after dropping $140 an ounce, or 9 percent, on Monday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-fall-signs-slowing-global-economy-194841978--finance.html

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