February 12, 2007, 9:46 PM CT

Finding survivors, protecting drivers

At the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Symposium, Assistant Professor Hossein Hashemi of the USC Ming Hsieh department of electrical engineering will discuss two radar chips created in his laboratory, both of which detect and generate radio signals, parallel to chips used in cell phones and other wireless devices.

But the new devices also accurately scan, accurately focusing precise beams in specific directions, and also do the reverse, detect, accurately determining the direction of incoming signals.

And unlike other high performance chips with these functions, the USC researchers' designs use ordinary CMOS silicon bases, allowing extremely economical fabrication in standard chip foundries.

As per Hashemi, one chip operating in the 24 GHz range uses an ingenious architecture that combines the functionality of multiple coherent transmitters-receivers ('transceivers'), making it much more compact than prior arrays.

This chip has already attracted the attention of General Motors for possible use in car radar, because ten such devices could be installed in a car for a little more than $100 - less than a tenth of what single devices now in use for car self-parking and blind spot detection systems cost.

These chips can guide parking, and not only detect other vehicles but also pedestrians......... Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

February 12, 2007, 9:44 PM CT

Whose tastes do you trust more?

Whose tastes do you trust more? The person who loves the same things you love? Or the person who hates the same things you hate? Turns out, when were looking for advice, positivity reigns. A new study reveals that we trust those who love the same things we love more than those who hate the same things we hate. As the researchers explain in the recent issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, "There are few ways that products are loved, but many ways that they are hated".

Through a series of experiments, Andrew D. Gershoff (University of Michigan), Ashesh Mukherjee (McGill University), and Anirban Mukhopadhyay (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) reveal that we are more willing to take the advice of someone with shared likes than someone with shared dislikes because of "attribute ambiguity." That is, consumers find it hard to isolate exactly what the recommender didnt like the offending characteristic of a movie, say, could be plot, acting, special effects, or any number of other factors.

"For a loved product, most people tend to love everything about it, and tend to hate nothing. But for a hated product, some people hate everything about it, some hate just one aspect while liking other aspects, and some like all the aspects individually, but hate how they go together," the authors explain......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

February 12, 2007, 9:38 PM CT

Which products sell better?

Does whitening toothpaste whiten teeth better than toothpaste that whitens and prevents cavities? Does a printer/fax/copy machine make lower-quality printouts than a standalone printer? In the recent issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, a fascinating new study by Alexander Chernev (Northwestern University) reveals that people perceive products that emphasize a single feature to be more effective than products with multiple features.

"The current research breaks new ground by showing that a product that specializes on a single attribute is perceived to be superior on that attribute relative to an all-in-one optioneven when the description of the specialized and the all-in-one options on the focal attribute is exactly the same," Chernev explains.

Chernev points to the "zero-sum heuristic" in consumer attitudes to explain this phenomenon. In other words, consumers believe that options are balanced against one another, such that advantages in one aspect (cavity defense) are likely to be compensated by disadvantages in another area (less whitening capability).

Interestingly, though, when the multi-function product was priced higher than the single-function product, it was no longer perceived to be inferior to the single function product. As Chernev writes: "The findings reported in this research also imply that the widely use strategy of pricing specialized and all-in-one options at parity might, in fact, be sub-optimal"......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

February 12, 2007, 9:21 PM CT

Come up with a good story

A new paper from the recent issue of the Journal of Consumer Research distinguishes between the two ways we think of ourselves or, self-reference -- when we view ads. Jennifer Edson Escalas (Vanderbilt University) finds that narrative self-reference almost always leads to favorable evaluations of the ad, even if the ads logic is shaky. In contrast, analytical self-reference can lead to negative responses if the ads message is not well-reasoned.

Narrative self-reference has been linked in other studies to autobiographical memory processing. We create behavioral scenarios, similar to stories, in which we are the main character, Escalas explains. Not only are we "transported" by the process of narrative self-referencing, but we get so wrapped up in the story that we overlook weak arguments.

Though traditional psychological manipulations have had a hard time "turning off" transportation, Escalas proposes a mechanism to move people from narrative to analytical self-reference. She points out that we can also engage in self-reference by trying to make connections between the product and ourselves, a process known as cognitive elaboration.

"Transportation is not a lack of thought," Escalas writes. "It is a distinct process from analytical thought. Therefore to moderate transportation, we need to change the thought process involved, and move people from being caught up in a story to critically evaluating the ad"......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

February 12, 2007, 9:16 PM CT

Ambivalent about who to vote for?

In the first study to propose a model for how information is processed by people with differing levels of ambivalence, scientists from Columbia University and Austral University in Argentina find that ambivalent people are more likely to be persuaded by disreputable sources. Those who are strong in their opinions are more likely to evaluate the reliability of the messages source before deciding whether to accept it.

"In recent years, the widespread use of the Internet has made other peoples opinions readily available to consumers. People surfing the web can access third party evaluations about almost anything, from products and services to political issues or candidates," write Martin R. Zemborain (Austral University, Buenos Aires) and Gita Johar (Columbia University) in the recent issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.

"However, little research has examined the conditions under which others opinions affect a consumers attitudes," they continue. "Given the ubiquity of others opinions, this is an important issue".

The scientists performed three experiments on more than 250 undergraduates. The first asked the test subjects to rate their opinions of Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich. The test subjects were then exposed to an additional message about the Congressman either a positive one lauding him for winning a Gandhi Peace Prize, or a negative one accusing him of flip-flopping to court voters. The subjects were told that the source of these statements was either a friend or a radio program......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

February 12, 2007, 9:13 PM CT

Be around friends to impair your memory

Youre watching a basketball game with some buddies and decide to order pizza during the commercial. Researchers from Indiana University found that people in a group setting exposed to brand information such as an ad for Pizza Hut -- have a hard time recalling the brands competitors. In other words, being around friends when deciding where to order takeout might cause you to forget completely about that local pizza place youve been wanting to try.

"When groups of individuals are exposed to brands in the shopping environment, their memory for other brands within the same product category is impaired," write Charles D. Lindsey and H. Shanker Krishnan (Indiana University). "The current research examines retrieval in a collaborative group setting, which is a novel context for brand memory research".

Appearing in the recent issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, the study found that this effect is magnified for very familiar brands. Lindsey and Krishnan argue that this happens because individuals in the group are exposed not only to the advertisement but also to mentions of the brand by other members of the group.

"The practical implications of this research imply that a group premium (over and above the standard market share premium) seems to exist for advertising brands during programming where a higher percentage of viewers are group-based," conclude the authors......... Posted by: Sean      Read more         Source

February 12, 2007, 9:04 PM CT

American Culture in Conflict with Hispanic Male Immigrants

Traditional family values may be strongest among immigrant men in one of the fastest growing populations of American society. A recent study by scientists at the University of Missouri-Columbia is one of the first to intently interview Hispanic immigrant men in focus groups about their opinions and concerns toward family planning in the United States. The study observed that family values are central to the culture of Hispanic male immigrants and recommends that this concept be used by family planning services to foster communication and safe-sex between a husband and wife.

"Family planning is a sensitive topic," said Marjorie Sable, associate dean of the MU School of Social Work in the College of Human Environmental Sciences. "One of the things that we found with the men that we interviewed was their focus on building on their cultural value of 'familismo' and their desire to protect their families".

Sable said this would translate into encouraging condom use and husbands speaking openly with wives on the future expectations of the family. Several respondents in the study said they understood family planning was important and that couples should agree on how a number of children they can support.

Whereas men reported struggling with their cultural definition of masculinity and its association with large families, they understood that having fewer children meant they could provide better education and livelihood to each. Some respondents were defensive toward the perceived stereotype of a lack of equality in the family. One participant said "We aren't a herd of machismos [male chauvinists] anymore"......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

February 8, 2007, 8:58 PM CT

Calm Your Car's Rattling

Scientists at Purdue University are getting close to eliminating those rattling and squeaking noises in your car's headrest and other components, major sources of consumer dissatisfaction that automakers would like to eliminate.

The headrest and its seemingly simple adjusting mechanism have proved surprisingly complex, said Douglas Adams, an associate professor of mechanical engineering. He and doctoral student Janette Jaques have applied mathematical models that simulate rattling headrests for analyses aimed at reducing vibration and enabling designs that eliminate the annoyance.

Noise and vibration are important factors in customer satisfaction, Adams said.

"If you are driving down the street and something is rattling or squeaking, the perception is that the vehicle is of poor quality," he said. "So, quality and noise and vibration sort of go hand-in-hand. Virtually every car has headrests, so this problem is especially interesting".

The same modeling and experimental techniques developed for the research could be used to reduce squeaking and rattling in other components, such as instrument panels, seats, transmission gears, suspension components and seatbelt mechanisms.

"A car has thousands of parts," Adams said. "Any time you have one component sitting next to another and they're not welded together, you've got the potential for them to hit one another, causing rattling. It's an industrywide problem".........

Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

February 7, 2007, 4:26 PM CT

Boycott CNN

Anyone who has tuned to CNN would have watched the miserable allergy causing ad about Headon. I, like everyone else was thinking this would go away. But it keeps getting worse and keeps repeating this ridiculous ad as if to hammer the message to our brain. I think it is time to react from the consumer side.

Every time I see this ad I feel like vomiting and change the channel to some other channel. I think we all should boycott CNN for perpetuating such an awful ad. Let's all do this: every time a Headon ad is shown we all should change the channel from CNN to some other channel and don't return to CNN for the whole day. If CNN does not learn a lesson from this we would boycott CNN completely. Who are all with me?........

Posted by: Tom      Read more

February 7, 2007, 4:53 AM CT

Cold storage solution for global warming?

Scientists from the University of Leicester and the British Geological Society (BGS) have proposed storing CO2 in huge underground reservoirs as a way of reducing emissions- and have even identified sites in Western Europe that would be suitable.

Their research, reported in the journal, Planet Earth, reveals that CO2 can be contained in cool geological aquifers or reservoirs, where it can remain harmlessly for a number of thousands of years.

PhD research student, Ameena Camps, is working with Professor Mike Lovell at the University's Department of Geology and with Chris Rochelle at BGS, investigating the storage of CO2.

Storing the gas in a solid form as a gas hydrate, or as a pool of liquid CO2 below a cap of hydrate cemented sediments, is believed to offer an alternative method of geological sequestration to the current practices of storage in warm, deep sediments in the North Sea.

Recently quoted in Planet Earth Ameena Camps explained: "Hydrates (also known as clathrates) are ice-like crystalline minerals that look like normal ice and form when gas and water freeze together at low temperature and high pressure. They are made of a cage of frozen water molecules with the gas molecules trapped inside".

Eventhough gas hydrates were first discovered two centuries ago, the possible use of carbon dioxide hydrate as a means to help resolve problems of global climate change, and of naturally occurring methane hydrate as a future source of energy, have only recently been suggested.........

Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source