2,368 research outputs found
SETI reloaded, Next Generation Radio Telescopes, Transients and Cognitive Computing
The Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) using radio telescopes
is an area of research that is now more than 50 years old. Thus far, both
targeted and wide-area surveys have yet to detect artificial signals from
intelligent civilisations. In this paper, I argue that the incidence of
co-existing intelligent and communicating civilisations is probably small in
the Milky Way. While this makes successful SETI searches a very difficult
pursuit indeed, the huge impact of even a single detection requires us to
continue the search. A substantial increase in the overall performance of radio
telescopes (and in particular future wide-field instruments such as the Square
Kilometre Array, SKA), provide renewed optimism in the field. Evidence for this
is already to be seen in the success of SETI researchers in acquiring
observations on some of the world's most sensitive radio telescope facilities
via open, peer-reviewed processes. The increasing interest in the dynamic radio
sky, and our ability to detect new and rapid transient phenomena such as Fast
Radio Bursts (FRB) is also greatly encouraging. While the nature of FRBs is not
yet fully understood, I argue they are unlikely to be the signature of distant
extra-terrestrial civilisations. As astronomers face a data avalanche on all
sides, advances made in related areas such as advanced Big Data analytics, and
cognitive computing are crucial to enable serendipitous discoveries to be made.
In any case, as the era of the SKA fast approaches, the prospects of a SETI
detection have never have been better.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Acta Astronautica 201
No ifs, ands or butts: Illinois casinos lost revenue after smoking banned
Gambling industry ; Tobacco industry ; Illinois
Casino revenue and the Illinois smoking ban
Smoking was banned in all Illinois casinos in January 2008. We explore the effects that the smoking ban has had on Illinois casino revenue and attendance. Our empirical methodology extends and enhances that of previous literature in that we observe a natural experiment in comparing the performance of Illinois casinos with out-of-state casinos (no smoking ban) that share a market with Illinois casinos. Estimates suggest that revenue and admissions at Illinois casinos declined by more than 20 percent (200 million.Gambling industry ; Tobacco industry ; Illinois
Annual revision of metro jobs data shows little change from earlier reports
Federal Reserve District, 8th ; Employment
Does consumer sentiment predict regional consumption?
This paper tests the ability of consumer sentiment to predict retail spending at the state level. The results here suggest that, although there is a significant relationship between sentiment measures and retail sales growth in several states, consumer sentiment exhibits only modest predictive power for future changes of retail spending. Measures of consumer sentiment, however, contain additional explanatory power aside from the information available in other indicators. We also find that by restricting our attention to fluctuations in retail sales that occur at the business cycle frequency we can uncover a significant relationship between consumer sentiment and retail sales growth in many additional states. In light of these results, we conclude that the practical value of sentiment indices to forecast consumer spending at the state level is, at best, limited.Consumer behavior ; Consumption (Economics) ; Economic indicators
Visualizing classification of natural video sequences using sparse, hierarchical models of cortex.
Recent work on hierarchical models of visual cortex has reported state-of-the-art accuracy on whole-scene labeling using natural still imagery. This raises the question of whether the reported accuracy may be due to the sophisticated, non-biological back-end supervised classifiers typically used (support vector machines) and/or the limited number of images used in these experiments. In particular, is the model classifying features from the object or the background? Previous work (Landecker, Brumby, et al., COSYNE 2010) proposed tracing the spatial support of a classifier’s decision back through a hierarchical cortical model to determine which parts of the image contributed to the classification, compared to the positions of objects in the scene. In this way, we can go beyond standard measures of accuracy to provide tools for visualizing and analyzing high-level object classification. We now describe new work exploring the extension of these ideas to detection of objects in video sequences of natural scenes
MicroRNAs sound off
The message is loud and clear. MicroRNA-96, one in a cluster of three related neurosensory microRNAs, is crucial to the development and maintenance of inner ear hair cells and hearing in mice and humans. Two recent studies show that mutations in the critical seed region of the microRNA underlie the cause of hair cell degeneration and progressive hearing loss. Other recent reports reveal the general requirement of microRNAs for sensory epithelial development and maintenance in Dicer knockout mouse ear. The challenge begins to determine whether microRNAs will resonate as therapeutic agents or target molecules to preserve or restore hearing
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