Health and Fitness Talk ? Tips to Making Your Resolutions Stick

by Kimberly Allen, RN

It?s that time of year again.? In the midst of planninf for Christmas?we also come to the realization the year is coming to an end.? Along?with this realization many people look back on the previous year at?what they have or have not accomplished and think ahead about the?future and what they hope to accomplish.? Many look at the future and?decide to make a commitment to do something by making a ?New Years?Resolution.?

People have been making New Years resolutions since?ancient times when the Babylonians made promises to their gods at the?beginning of every year.? Research indicates that 45% of Americans?make New Years resolutions regularly, however, of that 45% only 8% are?successful in achieving their goal.

Many people make New Years resolutions regarding their health.? They?vow to eat better, exercise more, lose weight etc.? However, if you?set goals that sound good and make you feel better rather than goals?that are attainable your chances of success are not good.? For example?if you decide you need to start exercising setting a goal of running 5?miles a day is more unrealistic than commiting to walk for 20 minutes?everyday.? It?s much easier to keep your commitment and achieve your?goal when your goal is realistic and attainable.

Another key to?success is to not wait until New Years Eve to make your resolution.?Plan ahead, know what you want to commit to in advance and have a?plan.? Planning ahead can help you figure out how you?re going to deal?with temptation.? there are bound to be days when you?re tired and?don?t feel like taking that walk.? How are you going to overcome the?temptation to skip that walk?? There are several ways to approach?temptation.? Have a walk buddy to encourage you, practice positive?thinking, remind yourself why you are doing it.

Keeping a written?list of the pro?s and con?s with you that you can look at for?motivation and encouragement is a good way to stick to your?resolution.? I know some people that make New Years resolutions but?refuse to tell anyone what they are because they don?t want anyone to?know if/when they fail.? That?s the wrong way to think about it, in?some ways you?re planning your failure.? Tell everyone, your family,?friends and coworkers they can be a great support and encourage you?when you need it and celebrate with you when you achieve your goal.

Don?t be afraid to reward yourself now and then.? That doesn?t mean if?you?re tired you shouldn?t still take that walk but you could get a?new pair of shoes or go out to dinner.? Don?t let your reward?interfere with your resolution.? It?s important to keep track of how?you are progressing.? It?s much easier to set short term goals on the?way to a long term goal.? Maybe you want to run a marathon someday.?Instead of concentrating on the marathon concentrate on running that?first mile, then when you are able to run a mile without difficulty?look at 2 miles etc.? It?s also important to understand everyone has a?bad day, don?t get down and beat yourself up if you slip up, keep at?it.? Don?t give up.? Experts estimate it takes at least 21 days for a?new activity to become a habit and about 6 months for it to become a?part of you and your daily life.

Kimberly Allen is a registered nurse with an AND in nursing. She has worked in ACF, LCF and psychiatric facilities, although she spent most of her career as a home health expert. She is now a regular contributor to HealthAndFitnessTalk.com, dispensing advice and knowledge about medical issues and questions. You can reach her with any comments or questions at? mussatti3@gmail.com.

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Source: http://www.healthandfitnesstalk.com/tips-to-making-your-resolutions-stick/

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Powerful typhoon kills at least 74 in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) ? At least 43 villagers and soldiers drowned in a southern Philippine town Tuesday when torrents of water dumped by a powerful typhoon cascaded down a mountain, engulfing emergency shelters and an army truck, officials said. The deaths raised the toll from one of the strongest storms to hit the country this year to at least 74.

Gov. Arturo Uy said rain from Typhoon Bopha accumulated atop a mountain and then burst down on Andap village in New Bataan town in hard-hit Compostela Valley province. The victims included villagers who had fled from their homes to a school and village hall, which were then swamped by the flash flood. An army truck carrying soldiers and villagers was washed away, according to Uy and army officials.

"They thought that they were already secure in a safe area, but they didn't know the torrents of water would go their way," Uy told DZBB radio.

He said the confirmed death toll in the town was likely to rise because several other bodies could not immediately be retrieved from floodwaters strewn with huge logs and debris.

Bopha slammed into Davao Oriental province region at dawn, its ferocious winds ripping roofs from homes and its 500-kilometer (310-mile) -wide rain band flooding low-lying farmland.

The storm, packing winds of 140 kilometers (87 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 170 kph (106 mph), toppled trees, triggered landslides and sent flash floods surging across the region's mountains and valleys.

Two entire provinces lost power and more than 100 domestic flights were canceled. About 60,000 people fled to emergency shelters.

Twenty-three people drowned or were pinned by fallen trees or collapsed houses in Davao Oriental province's coastal town of Cateel, which had the most deaths after New Bataan, Davao Oriental Gov. Corazon Malanyaon told the ABS-CBN TV network, citing police reports.

Some towns in the province were so battered that no roofs remained on buildings, Malanyaon said.

The other deaths included three children who were buried by a wall of mud and boulders that plunged down a mountain in Marapat village, also in Compostela Valley. Their bodies were wrapped in blankets by their grieving relatives and placed on a stage in a basketball court.

"The only thing we could do was to save ourselves. It was too late for us to rescue them," said Valentin Pabilana, who survived the landslide.

In Davao Oriental, a poor agricultural and gold-mining province about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) southeast of Manila, an elderly woman was killed when her house was struck by a falling tree, said Benito Ramos, who heads the government's disaster-response agency.

The other victims either drowned or were hit by trees, he said, adding that the death toll was expected to rise.

While some 20 typhoons and storms normally lash the archipelago nation annually, the southern provinces battered by Bopha are unaccustomed to fierce typhoons, which normally hit the northern and central Philippines.

A rare storm last December killed more than 1,200 people and left many more homeless and traumatized, including in Cagayan de Oro city, where church bells pealed relentlessly on Tuesday to warn residents to scramble to safety as a major river started to swell.

Officials were taking no chances this year, and President Benigno Aquino III appealed on national TV on Monday for people in Bopha's path to move to safety and take storm warnings seriously.

In Compostela Valley, authorities halted mining operations and ordered villagers to evacuate to prevent a repeat of deadly losses from landslides and the collapse of mine tunnels in previous storms.

Bopha, a Cambodian word for flower or a girl, is the 16th weather disturbance to hit the Philippines this year. Forecasters say at least one more storm may strike the country before Christmas.

___

Associated Press writer Teresa Cerojano contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/powerful-typhoon-kills-least-74-philippines-163844828.html

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Squirrels and birds inspire researchers to create deceptive robots

Public release date: 3-Dec-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jason Maderer
maderer@gatech.edu
404-385-2966
Georgia Institute of Technology

Using deceptive behavioral patterns of squirrels and birds, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed robots that are able to deceive each other. The research is funded by the Office of Naval Research and is led by Professor Ronald Arkin, who suggests the applications could be implemented by the military in the future. The research is highlighted in the November/December 2012 edition of IEEE Intelligent Systems.

Arkin and his team learned by reviewing biological research results that squirrels gather acorns and store them in specific locations. The animal then patrols the hidden caches, routinely going back and forth to check on them. When another squirrel shows up, hoping to raid the hiding spots, the hoarding squirrel changes its behavior. Instead of checking on the true locations, it visits empty cache sites, trying to deceive the predator.

Arkin and his Ph.D. student Jaeeun Shim implemented the same strategy into a robotic model and demonstration. The deceptive behaviors worked. The deceiving robot lured the "predator" robot to the false locations, delaying the discovery of the protected resources.

"This application could be used by robots guarding ammunition or supplies on the battlefield," said Arkin, a Regents Professor in Georgia Tech's School of Interactive Computing. "If an enemy were present, the robot could change its patrolling strategies to deceive humans or another intelligent machine, buying time until reinforcements are able to arrive."

Click here to see a lab video of the demonstration.

Arkin and his student Justin Davis have also created a simulation and demo based on birds that might bluff their way to safety. In Israel, Arabian babblers in danger of being attacked will sometimes join other birds and harass their predator. This mobbing process causes such a commotion that the predator will eventually give up the attack and leave.

Arkin's team investigated whether a simulated babbler is more likely to survive if it fakes or feigns strength when it doesn't exist. The team's simulations, based on biological models of dishonesty and the handicap principle, show that deception is the best strategy when the addition of deceitful agents pushes the size of the group to the minimum level required to frustrate the predator enough for it to flee. He says the reward for deceit in a few of the agents sometimes outweighs the risk of being caught.

"In military operations, a robot that is threatened might feign the ability to combat adversaries without actually being able to effectively protect itself," said Arkin. "Being honest about the robot's abilities risks capture or destruction. Deception, if used at the right time in the right way, could possibly eliminate or minimize the threat."

From the Trojan Horse to D-Day, deception has always played a role during wartime. In fact, there is an entire Army field manual on its use and value in the battlefield. But Arkin is the first to admit that there are serious ethical questions regarding robot deception behavior with humans.

"When these research ideas and results leak outside the military domain, significant ethical concerns can arise," said Arkin. "We strongly encourage further discussion regarding the pursuit and application of research on deception for robots and intelligent machines."

This isn't the first time Arkin has worked in this field. In 2010, he and Georgia Tech Research Institute Research Engineer Alan Wagner studied how robots could use deceptive behavior to hide from humans or other intelligent machines.

###

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 3-Dec-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jason Maderer
maderer@gatech.edu
404-385-2966
Georgia Institute of Technology

Using deceptive behavioral patterns of squirrels and birds, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed robots that are able to deceive each other. The research is funded by the Office of Naval Research and is led by Professor Ronald Arkin, who suggests the applications could be implemented by the military in the future. The research is highlighted in the November/December 2012 edition of IEEE Intelligent Systems.

Arkin and his team learned by reviewing biological research results that squirrels gather acorns and store them in specific locations. The animal then patrols the hidden caches, routinely going back and forth to check on them. When another squirrel shows up, hoping to raid the hiding spots, the hoarding squirrel changes its behavior. Instead of checking on the true locations, it visits empty cache sites, trying to deceive the predator.

Arkin and his Ph.D. student Jaeeun Shim implemented the same strategy into a robotic model and demonstration. The deceptive behaviors worked. The deceiving robot lured the "predator" robot to the false locations, delaying the discovery of the protected resources.

"This application could be used by robots guarding ammunition or supplies on the battlefield," said Arkin, a Regents Professor in Georgia Tech's School of Interactive Computing. "If an enemy were present, the robot could change its patrolling strategies to deceive humans or another intelligent machine, buying time until reinforcements are able to arrive."

Click here to see a lab video of the demonstration.

Arkin and his student Justin Davis have also created a simulation and demo based on birds that might bluff their way to safety. In Israel, Arabian babblers in danger of being attacked will sometimes join other birds and harass their predator. This mobbing process causes such a commotion that the predator will eventually give up the attack and leave.

Arkin's team investigated whether a simulated babbler is more likely to survive if it fakes or feigns strength when it doesn't exist. The team's simulations, based on biological models of dishonesty and the handicap principle, show that deception is the best strategy when the addition of deceitful agents pushes the size of the group to the minimum level required to frustrate the predator enough for it to flee. He says the reward for deceit in a few of the agents sometimes outweighs the risk of being caught.

"In military operations, a robot that is threatened might feign the ability to combat adversaries without actually being able to effectively protect itself," said Arkin. "Being honest about the robot's abilities risks capture or destruction. Deception, if used at the right time in the right way, could possibly eliminate or minimize the threat."

From the Trojan Horse to D-Day, deception has always played a role during wartime. In fact, there is an entire Army field manual on its use and value in the battlefield. But Arkin is the first to admit that there are serious ethical questions regarding robot deception behavior with humans.

"When these research ideas and results leak outside the military domain, significant ethical concerns can arise," said Arkin. "We strongly encourage further discussion regarding the pursuit and application of research on deception for robots and intelligent machines."

This isn't the first time Arkin has worked in this field. In 2010, he and Georgia Tech Research Institute Research Engineer Alan Wagner studied how robots could use deceptive behavior to hide from humans or other intelligent machines.

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/giot-sab120312.php

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Ideas For Finding Your Way To A Happier Life! | iNeedInfotips.com

Thousands of Americans of all ages would like to become better at something or improve upon one of their personal qualities. Some people want to become better fathers or spouses, while others want to be a workplace hero. There are some insights here that will help you, regardless of which area of personal development you are interested in.

Always try do do the best you can at whatever you do. The passions you have should always make you want to achieve greatness. Do not worry if you are not the best at what you do: the important part is to enjoy it and inspire others. You should always try to be the best you can be in your profession; your self-esteem will rise as a result.

Find people you can relate to. This will help to boost your self-esteem as well as give you a bit of a break from the kind of people that spend their time badmouthing your dreams and goals every chance that they get.

When engaging in personal development, tell yourself that you want to be better because you deserve better. Repeat this statement to yourself every day, ?I owe it to myself to strive for the best?. In the end, you will know that you did all that you can and you will not have any regrets.

An extremely important key to self improvement is knowing what you want to do with your life. Long-term goals are a tremendous thing to have and can make a big difference in your perspective.

Read good articles about self improvement. When you read a really good personal development book, you may come away with life-changing advice and ideas. Look for a book that is backed by very positive and very credible reviews because certain personal development books are written terribly.

Humility is key. We are but a cog in our universe. You still have so much to learn and discover. When you fully grasp this concept, you can truly open yourself to new ideas. Keeping an open mind will allow you to learn from other people.

Make all self improvement goals specific so that they will lead you to success. With your specific goals, success can come. If you are focused on your goals, then the obstacles between you and them will be easier to overcome.

Find a book that you can turn to for encouragement. Whether it is a religious book or a favorite novel, find a book that inspires you. A book functions as a concrete object you can use to find support and useful advice when you need it.

Be nice to your body to better your self improvement. Listen to what your body is saying to you, so if it is exhibiting hunger, thirst, etc., then it?s up to you to rectify that situation quickly. A healthy body provides you with the basis for pursuing a course of self improvement. Failing to heed your body?s warnings can set you up for disappointment later on.

Exercising is not only a way to lose weight. There are tons of reasons to exercise. When you exercise, your body makes a variety of chemicals that assist in relaxing you.

Every champion needs a coach, so get someone to help you. A coach is necessary to advise and keep the bigger picture in mind. All of us are expected to show others the way. Without someone to teach them the right way of doing things, it?s impossible to expect them to be able to properly succeed. Everyone who is great at something has had help getting to where they are.

Perhaps you have always wanted to accomplish some life changes but were not quite sure how to do it. There are good insights in this article that can assist you in getting started, but do keep in mind that your dedicated effort is still required. You?ll discover ways to keep your motivation and drive from waning by referring back to these suggestions periodically.

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Source: http://ineedinfotips.com/health/ideas-for-finding-your-way-to-a-happier-life/

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Risk is at heart of debate on troop withdrawal

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The debate over how many U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan after 2014 comes down to risky business.

There is a risk that leaving too few troops after 2014 would stop or stall the already slow development of the Afghan army and police, whose competence ? and that of the Afghan government as a whole ? is crucial to ending the war successfully.

On the other hand, keeping too many foreign troops beyond 2014 might only prolong Afghanistan's dependence upon them, while Western forces absorb even more casualties. Perhaps the greatest risk is that a wrong calculation by the U.S. on troop levels could enable the Taliban and affiliated insurgents to regain lost territory and influence.

President Barack Obama has pledged to wind down the 11-year-old war, even as Congress presses for an accelerated withdrawal. The intent, approved by NATO in 2010, is to remove combat forces by the end of 2014 but to continue yet-to-be-defined security assistance.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has described the broad outlines of a post-2014 plan that amounts to a scaled-down version of what U.S. and NATO forces are already doing: fighting terrorists, training and assisting the Afghan forces, and providing logistical support.

Panetta won't say how many forces would be needed for that set of missions, but analysts estimate as many as 10,000 to 15,000.

Military commanders have laid out options for a post-2014 force ranging from about 6,000 to 15,000, and Panetta and other members of Obama's national security team are debating that issue now, with a decision expected by the end of the year.

But the final number for the end of 2014, and how quickly the military gets to that level, depends on how the White House assesses the political and military risks of having too few troops there to keep the terrorists at bay, or having too many to satisfy war-weary and budget-conscious Americans.

Underlying that debate is perhaps the starkest risk ? that by pulling out troops too quickly, Obama would become the president who lost the war and enabled another devastating attack on America.

There are currently about 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and commanders would like to maintain as big a force as possible through most of 2013. But others argue that as support for the war continues to erode in Congress and across America, significant cuts must be made at some point next year.

A Pew Research Center poll in early October found that 60 percent of respondents favored removing U.S. troops from Afghanistan as soon as possible, with 35 percent saying they should stay until the country is stable. That's a nearly complete reversal from a September 2008 Pew Research poll that showed 33 percent wanted troops out as soon as possible and 61 percent said they should stay until the country has stabilized.

"You don't want to keep everything in place and then fall off a cliff at the end of 2014," former Pentagon policy chief Michele Flournoy said in an interview with The Associated Press. "You want to gradually step down your residual presence so you have confidence in it, and so you've had a chance to work through some of the issues and challenges that emerge as we go into the latter stages of transition."

Flournoy, who has been mentioned as a possible defense secretary after Panetta steps down, said the military will likely reduce the force in several steps next year, leaving time between cuts to reposition troops.

Any substantial reductions are likely to take place early in the year and again toward the fall, so that the military can maintain a consistent troop strength during the peak fighting season that runs from roughly April to October.

"It's very hard to be repositioning your force as you're fighting. So they'll argue for having a plateau during the fighting season and then taking a steeper drawdown," Flournoy said.

The troop totals also depend on several outside factors, including the commitment of NATO partners and the desires of the Afghan government.

So far, Obama has revealed little of his thinking about the drawdown. But during an October presidential debate he signaled an inclination for a deep reduction, saying, "There's no reason why Americans should die when Afghans are perfectly capable of defending their own country."

Panetta's description this week of the three missions he would like U.S. troops to continue after 2014 suggests a need for a fairly substantial presence.

Some experts argue that the U.S. would have to maintain as many as 30,000 troops in order to continue targeting the terror groups that ? if left unchallenged ? could regain territory and once again become a threat to the U.S. and other Western nations.

Military analysts Frederick and Kimberly Kagan lay out a case for keeping such a large counterterrorism force, complete with drones, airstrikes and special operations forces bolstered by enough support troops to provide protection on the bases.

Michael O'Hanlon, a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said that arguments for maintaining a force of 30,000 beyond 2014 are unrealistic in light of other Obama administration priorities. He said it's important to let the Afghans know that the U.S. will not abandon them, but also noted that how much progress Afghan forces make over the next year will also be an important factor.

If they improve, he said, there may be a greater inclination to stick with the mission, but if they don't, "you could ask yourself why do we waste more time, resources and blood over achieving gains that are probably going to be ephemeral and fleeting anyway."

Army Maj. Gen. James Huggins, who returned in September from a one-year tour as commander of allied forces in southern Afghanistan, said fears of abandonment are real.

Huggins recalled a former district governor in the Afghan province of Kandahar, who fought with the U.S.-supported mujahedeen against the Soviets in the 1980s, telling him last year that the Taliban was able to seize power in 1996 because the U.S. abandoned Afghanistan shortly after the Soviet army withdrew in defeat.

At a public symposium on the war on Friday, Huggins said the number of allied troops in his sector fell from a peak of 25,000 to 13,800 as of Oct. 1. He said he was "a little concerned" with that lower number. He did not express a view on the prospect of further reductions in 2013.

Members of Congress want to accelerate the troop withdrawal. The Senate voted 62-33 on a non-binding resolution that would speed up the pullout by an unspecified amount. And while the House voted in May to maintain a force of 68,000, there have been indications more recently that support for that may be faltering.

In September, Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., a defense hawk and chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees defense spending, said the U.S. should withdraw its forces from Afghanistan.

"We're killing kids who don't need to die," Young said.

___

Associated Press writer Donna Cassata contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/risk-heart-debate-troop-withdrawal-083147996--politics.html

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Use the Nesting Method to Save Space When Packing a Small Bag

When packing a small bag for a trip, you can save a lot of space by treating your stuff like a bunch of matryoshka dolls. Simple nest smaller items inside of larger ones, and continue doing that until everything is packed. This way you'll actually pack your things instead of a bunch of air.

Redditor please_please_smee figured this out when packing shoes and socks:

When packing with limited space, stuff your shoes with two pairs of balled socks. Helps shoes maintain their shape and also saves space.

This tip works with many other items as well. Chargers fit in shoes, too. Rolling shirts inside of rolled up pants not only saves space but prevents wrinkles as well. It's easy enough to roll up cables and other little peripherals with your clothing as well. If something is moderately fragile, this can provide cushioning as well. Basically, when packing a bag you should consider what items you can combine and nest inside each other rather than simply putting everything side by side.

When packing with limited space, stuff your shoes with two pairs of balled socks | Reddit

Photo by EzykronHD.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/BBYFzAjH4S4/use-the-nesting-method-to-save-space-when-packing-a-small-bag

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Oil and water: An icy interaction when oil chains are short, but steamy when chains are long

ScienceDaily (Dec. 3, 2012) ? Water transforms into a previously unknown structure in between a liquid and a vapor when in contact with alcohol molecules containing long oily chains, according to Purdue University researchers. However, around short oily chains water is more icelike.

Water plays a huge role in biological processes, from protein folding to membrane formation, and it could be that this transformation is useful in a way not yet understood, said Dor Ben-Amotz, the professor of chemistry who led the research.

Ben-Amotz's research team found that as they examined alcohols with increasingly long carbon chains, the transformation occurred at lower and lower temperatures.

When in contact with a chain seven carbon atoms long, the water molecules became much looser and more vaporlike at a temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about halfway between the melting and boiling points.

"For oils with chains longer than four carbons, or about one nanometer in length, we saw the water transform into a completely new structure as the temperature rose," Ben-Amotz said. "If the trend we saw holds true, then this transformation could be happening at body temperature around important physiological molecules like proteins and phospholipids."

Water responds very sensitively in its structure to small changes, he said.

"Water's versatility is what makes it so special," he said. "For instance, the surfaces of proteins have both oily and charged regions; and water changes itself to accommodate these very different components and everything in between. We are learning more about exactly how it does this."

The researchers found that water molecules interacting with the oil always formed a more ordered, icelike structure at lower temperatures, while the bulk of the water remained liquid. This ice-like structure would melt away as the temperatures increased and in longer molecules a new structure would appear, he said.

A paper detailing the National Science Foundation-funded work is published in the current issue of Nature and is also highlighted in a news and views article in the same issue. In addition to Ben-Amotz, co-authors include Purdue graduate student Joel Davis and postdoctoral fellows Kamil Gierszal and Ping Wang.

The team's observations add to a more than 70-year debate over the interaction of oil and water, with some studies suggesting that water forms little icebergs around the oil molecules, while others point to a more disordered, vaporlike water structure.

"This question was really up for grabs until we introduced an experimental method that could see these subtle changes in water structure," Ben-Amotz said. "Surprisingly, we found that both sides are right, and it depends on the size of the oil."

The challenge of the experiment was that the team needed to see the very small number of water molecules that are in contact with the oil chains in the presence of a very large number of other water molecules.

The team combined Raman scattering and multivariate curve resolution to create an analysis method capable of managing an unprecedented signal-to-noise ratio of 10,000-to-1.

"Most people never take a spectrum with a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 100-to-1, but if we performed this experiment that way we wouldn't see anything," Ben-Amotz said. "We needed to have a higher signal-to-noise ratio because we were looking for a needle in a mountain-sized haystack."

Raman scattering involves shooting a beam of light containing photons into a sample. As the photons hit molecules within the sample, they lose or gain energy. Such measurements create a spectrum of peaks that reveal the vibrational motions of the molecules present in the sample. Shifts in the peaks' shapes can show changes in the strength of bonds between water molecules and whether the molecules are becoming more or less ordered.

"With Raman scattering the bulk of the water creates a mountainous peak in the spectrum that buries everything else," Ben-Amotz said. "Multivariate curve resolution lets us see small changes in water structure under that mountain. As is often the case in science, the key was combining two already established techniques in a new way."

Davis said the team next plans to explore the effects of changes in pH and ionic charges on this transformation with the goal of making the experiments more relevant to proteins and biological systems.

"We are trying to better understand the driving forces of the behavior of proteins and cell membranes that are critical to our health," he said. "The role of water is an important piece of the puzzle."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Purdue University. The original article was written by Elizabeth K. Gardner.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Joel G. Davis, Kamil P. Gierszal, Ping Wang, Dor Ben-Amotz. Water structural transformation at molecular hydrophobic interfaces. Nature, 2012; 491 (7425): 582 DOI: 10.1038/nature11570

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/RVaxceJJ3Ak/121203183343.htm

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