Scientists who engage with society perform better academically

Most scientific institutions acknowledge the importance of opening the so-called 'ivory tower' of academic research through popularization, industrial collaboration or teaching. However, little is known about the actual openness of scientific institutions and how their proclaimed priorities translate into concrete measures. This paper gives an idea of some actual practices by studying three key points: the proportion of researchers who are active in wider dissemination, the academic productivity of these scientists, and the institutional recognition of their wider dissemination activities in terms of their careers. We analyze extensive data about the academic production, career recognition and teaching or public/industrial outreach of several thousand of scientists, from many disciplines, from France's Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. We find that, contrary to what is often suggested, scientists active in wider dissemination are also more active academically. However, their dissemination activities have almost no impact (positive or negative) on their careers

In-Flight CCD Distortion Calibration for Pushbroom Satellites Based on Subpixel Correlation

We describe a method that allows for accurate inflight calibration of the interior orientation of any pushbroom camera and that in particular solves the problem of modeling the distortions induced by charge coupled device (CCD) misalignments. The distortion induced on the ground by each CCD is measured using subpixel correlation between the orthorectified image to be calibrated and an orthorectified reference image that is assumed distortion free. Distortions are modeled as camera defects, which are assumed constant over time. Our results show that in-flight interior orientation calibration reduces internal camera biases by one order of magnitude. In particular, we fully characterize and model the Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre (SPOT) 4-HRV1 sensor, and we conjecture that distortions mostly result from the mechanical strain produced when the satellite was launched rather than from effects of on-orbit thermal variations or aging. The derived calibration models have been integrated to the software package Coregistration of Optically Sensed Images and Correlation (COSI-Corr), freely available from the Caltech Tectonics Observatory website. Such calibration models are particularly useful in reducing biases in digital elevation models (DEMs) generated from stereo matching and in improving the accuracy of change detection algorithms

Auditory smiles trigger unconscious facial imitation

Smiles, produced by the bilateral contraction of the zygomatic major muscles, are one of the most powerful expressions of positive affect and affiliation and also one of the earliest to develop [1]. The perception-action loop responsible for the fast and spontaneous imitation of a smile is considered a core component of social cognition [2]. In humans, social interaction is overwhelmingly vocal, and the visual cues of a smiling face co-occur with audible articulatory changes on the speaking voice [3]. Yet remarkably little is known about how such 'auditory smiles' are processed and reacted to. We have developed a voice transformation technique that selectively simulates the spectral signature of phonation with stretched lips and report here how we have used this technique to study facial reactions to smiled and non-smiled spoken sentences, finding that listeners' zygomatic muscles tracked auditory smile gestures even when they did not consciously detect them

Measuring Damages in Survival Actions for Tortious Death

Survival statutes have been adopted to avoid the effect of common law rules preventing claims for the tortious death of a human being. These statutes give the personal representative such causes of action on behalf of the decedent\u27s estate as the decedent would have had were he still alive. The question the statutes do not answer, however, is the effect of the death of a party on the measure of damages. The Washington Supreme Court\u27s decision in Warner v. McCaughan illustrates the problem. Warner arose out of the death of a twenty-one year old college student. Alleging that the death was caused by improper diagnosis and care and by administration of unsafe drugs, her parents, individually, and her father, as administrator of her estate, brought suit for damages against the doctor, hospital, and pharmaceutical company on the grounds of negligence and breach of warranty. The parents\u27 individual claims were dismissed because the parents were not dependents of the decedent, but the estate\u27s claim was entertained. One of the items of damage claimed by the estate was disability in consequence of a medical condition caused by the defendants\u27 tortious acts and resulting in the decedent\u27s death. This claim presented the major issue of the case: whether the prohibition in the general survival statute against recovery for pain and suffering7 prohibited recovery for the decedent\u27s disability. The court rejected the defendants\u27 argument that the statutory prohibition meant that all claims personal to the decedent abated with her death8 and held that the statute allows the broad common-law claim for personal injury, except for pain and suffering. The principal question remaining, which the Warner court did not fully answer, is how these damages for physical injury are to be measured in a tortious death case. The purpose of this article is to discuss the factors relevant to the damages issue and to suggest appropriate standards for measuring them

Influence of pretreatments for extraction of lipids from yeast by using supercritical carbon dioxide and ethanol as cosolvent

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the most studied and industrially exploited yeast. It is a non-oleaginous yeast whose lipids are mainly phospholipids. In this work, the extraction of yeast lipids by supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2) and ethanol as a co-solvent was studied. In particular our attention was focused on the selectivity toward triglycerides, and in a subsequent extraction of the phospholipids present in the yeast. Indeed CO2 is a non-polar solvent and is not an efficient solvent for the extraction of phospholipids. However, SCCO2 can be used to extract neutral lipids, as triglycerides, and the addition of polar co-solvents like ethanol, at different compositions, allows a more efficient extraction of triglycerides, and also an extraction–fractionation of phospholipids. In this work SCCO2extractions of a specific membrane complex of S. cerevisiae, obtained from an industrial provider, were carried out at 20 MPa and 40 °C, using ethanol as a co-solvent (9%, w/w). It was shown that different pretreatments are necessary to obtain good extraction yields and have a great impact on the extraction. The kinetic of the extractions were successfully modeled using Sovova's model. From the fitting of the main parameters of the model it was possible to compare the effects of the pretreatments over the yeast material, and to better understand the extraction process. Among the seven tested pretreatments the more appropriate was found to be an acid hydrolysis followed by a methanol maceration