Land plants can “see,” but can microscopic plants see better? New research from Indiana University has uncovered a give-and-take communication system between and within photoreceptors in freshwater-dwelling cyanobacteria that works at a level of complexity beyond those seen in plants or other organisms. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Earlier this month, the Financial Times published a pair of important articles asking why the goal of a firm is to maximize short-term shareholder value is still being taught in business schools. “While there is growing consensus that focusing on short-term shareholder value is not only bad for society but also leads to poor business results, much MBA teaching remains shaped by the shareholder primacy model.” The challenge is massive because shareholder value is now deeply embedded in the basic economics that is taught in business schools and economics faculties around the world. Moving on from the shareholder value theory, which even its foremost exemplar, Jack Welch, has called “the dumbest idea in the world”, will entail re-thinking and re-writing much of the basics of modern economics. Two prime textbooks on managerial economics To understand the depth of the problem, let’s look at a couple of the best-selling textbooks on managerial economics. One is Managerial Economics and Business Strategy, by Professor Michael Baye, the Bert Elwert Professor of Business Economics in the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and Jeffrey T. Prince, Associate Professor of Business Economics & Public Policy also at the Kelley School of Business. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Thomas Ehrlich, now teaching at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, is the former dean of Stanford Law School, provost of the University of Pennsylvania, and president of Indiana University. He also worked in the administrations of four presidents starting with President Kennedy and including responsibility for foreign-aid policy, reporting directly to President Carter. Ernestine Fu (@ernestinefu) is a student at Stanford. She is also working as a Kauffman Fellow at a venture capital firm while a student. She was featured on the cover of Forbes in August 2011. Together, they have written a book titled “Civic Work, Civic Lessons: Two Generations Reflect on Public Service.” www.civicbook.org “We must all become social changemakers working for the good of all,” writes Ashoka CEO Bill Drayton in his foreword to Tom Ehrlich and Ernestine Fu’s new book, “Civic Work, Civic Lessons: Two Generations Reflect on Public Service.” If you want to be a great social entrepreneur, the earlier you give yourself permission to start changing the world, the better. This has always been true. What is different now is that everyone in this generation of children and young people must master the complex underlying skills required for changemaking and know they are changemakers before they turn 21. Everyone. Not just everyone in the elite, which sufficed even a generation or so ago. He adds, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Lauren Spierer, a vivacious 20-year-old with a flair for fashion, should be clad in cap and gown next month celebrating her college graduation with classmates at Indiana University. Instead, Spierer’s parents are left agonizing over her whereabouts after the young woman disappeared in 2011 without a trace from the streets of downtown Bloomington.
For two years, the family has been tormented by false leads, dashed hopes and what they say is an unwillingness to help from people who were last seen with their daughter. The recent discovery of still-unidentified human remains in a remote area of Indiana became the latest reminder of their continuing anguish.
“We’re experiencing a terrible strain,” Spierer’s father, Robert, told FoxNews.com. “We miss Lauren terribly and the not knowing makes it all the worse for us. We think about her every day and we talk about her every day. It’s not any easier today than it was two years ago.
“It’s hard for us with all of Lauren’s classmates graduating in May,” he said. “It’s emotionally hard knowing she should be there.”
Spierer, a fashion merchandising major who had just completed her sophomore year, was last seen early the morning of June 3, 2011, on the intersection of 11th Street and College Avenue in Bloomington, according to one of the woman’s acquaintances and college classmates.
That acquaintance, identified as Jay Rosenbaum, claims he watched Spierer walk from his building toward her off-campus apartment complex some three blocks away around 4:30 a.m. the morning she disappeared. Rosenbaum’s last reported sighting of Spierer followed a night of partying among a group of college friends and acquaintances.
Nearly two years later, Bloomington police continue to actively investigate the case, but no arrests have been made to date — and several leads have led nowhere.
On Monday, a coroner in neighboring Brown County told FoxNews.com that human remains found last week in a rugged area are being examined for identification.
Brown County chief deputy coroner Earl Piper said the partial remains were discovered on private property by two women looking for mushrooms and were there for “probably a couple of years.” He could not confirm whether the remains were male or female. Piper said some clothing was found among the bones, but declined to describe it.
The remains were found on a ridge that is “quite a hike up” from a rural road, Piper said. The area is approximately 19 miles from the Indiana University campus in Bloomington.
Piper said an anthropology team examining the bones should have results by early next week.
“They’re looking for any traumatic injuries,” he said. “They need to establish the cause of death first and then they will work to make an identification.”
Robert Spierer has said that his daughter, who took medication for a heart condition, could have been drugged at Kilroy’s Sports Bar, a popular college hangout with an outdoor sandy area designed to look like a beach. Authorities reported that Spierer left her shoes and cellphone behind there.
“She could have been given something in her drink, unknowingly, that made her almost incapacitated,” Spierer
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/smds6lKGxuw/
By John Johnson 
Beer drinkers start feeling happy at the smallest sip, even before any alcohol registers, a new study suggests. Indiana University researchers found that dopamine levels in the brain rose when drinkers had just a tiny amount of beer, before any alcohol buzz was possible, reports LiveScience . The not-so-funny part: Dopamine…
From: http://www.newser.com/story/166342/beer-drinkers-get-giddy-at-mere-taste.html
Bloomington firefighters are rebuilding weathered signs featuring the image of an Indiana University student who disappeared nearly two years ago.
The 20 large, wooden-framed signs were erected after Lauren Spierer was last seen on June 3, 2011, following a night of partying with friends in downtown Bloomington. City firefighters are also hanging new posters of the apparel merchandising student from Greenburgh, N.Y., who vanished when she was 20.
Bloomington firefighter Lee Chapman said Spierer’s mother wrote firefighters a letter thanking them for their efforts to keep Lauren’s image prominent in Bloomington.
Charlene Spierer said in an email to The Herald-Times that Lauren would have graduated in May from IU.
She said her family is still hoping for “that one final lead which will allow us to bring our daughter home.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/EmncE8By2js/
The findings from a year-long study that sought to identify what factors contribute to outstanding fundraising appeals are published this week. The Clayton Burnett-commissioned research, led by academics at the University of Bristol and Indiana University in the US, analysed the leadership, communication and structures behind some of the UK‘s most successful fundraising programmes.
(Phys.org) —Increasing levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere are causing oceans to become more acidic. This situation poses a threat to marine organisms with shells made of calcium carbonate, because acid will corrode these shells. If they are to survive, these organisms will have to adapt to conditions of high acidity. In a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Melissa Pepseni of Indiana University at Bloomington and her colleagues at Stanford University and University of California, Davis report that when exposed to high CO2 levels, purple sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) experience significant changes in genes that affect survival in an acidic environment. This indicates that the sea urchins can adapt to high CO2 levels caused by climate change. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Mountain beavers of the subfamily Ansomyinae are small-sized aplodontid rodents, characterized by a bucket-handle shaped ectoloph on their upper cheek teeth. Although fossils have been discovered from the Oligocene and Miocene of North America and Eurasia, the evolutionary origins and biogeography of the group are still poorly known because of relatively few records and poor representation of some taxa. Paleontologists from Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, American Museum of Natural History and Indiana University of Pennsylvania, described a new genus and species of aplodontid rodent, Proansomys dureensis, from the late Oligocene of the northern Junggar Basin of China. These specimens represent the earliest record of the subfamily in Asia and provide new information on the early history of the Ansomyinae, as recently reported in PLoS ONE 8(1). …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Executives and scouts continue to deliver very positive reviews on Indiana University swingman Victor Oladipo, about his unexpected rise into the lottery as a junior and realistically the top half of the lottery, about his ability to defend multiple positions in the NBA, about his toughness, and about his work ethic. One of the first Hoosiers to arrive at practice and one of the last to leave, they report. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at NBA
Using a grown-up version of the rock-paper-scissors game, Indiana University cognitive scientists offer a new theory of the group dynamics that arise in situations as varied as cycles of fashion, fluctuations of financial markets, eBay bidding wars and political campaign strategies. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
New research by Indiana University shows using artificial intelligence to understand and predict the outcomes of medical treatment could reduce health care costs by more than 50% while also improving patient outcomes by nearly the same amount. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Computerworld Latest
The son of former Boston Celtics star Larry Bird was arrested after he allegedly tried to run over his ex-girlfriend with his car.
Conner Bird, 21, was taken into custody by the Indiana University police department Sunday, the Indianapolis Star reported.
Bird and his ex-girlfriend, who has not been identified, allegedly got into a fight at his apartment, police say. Bird then reportedly threw a cellphone at the alleged victim.
Police say Bird took the victim to a parking lot to talk things over, but they got into another argument. The victim then reportedly got out of the car, leading Bird to attempt to hit her with his car twice, the Indianapolis Star reported.
A witness took the victim to the Indiana University police department, the paper reported.
Bird reportedly faces multiple preliminary charges, including battery with injury, criminal mischief, intimidation with a deadly weapon and possession of marijuana.
By Evann Gastaldo 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
A Marion County prosecutor said Monday he won’t seek the death penalty for three people charged in a deadly Indianapolis house explosion because a jury is unlikely to choose that option.
Prosecutor Terry Curry announced he will seek life sentences without parole if a jury convicts Monserrate Shirley, her boyfriend Mark Leonard and his brother, Bob Leonard. All three face murder, arson and conspiracy charges in the Nov. 10 blast that destroyed dozens of homes and killed two people.
“If we go down a path that is easily a 10-, 12-, 15-year process, we want a pretty significant comfort level that at the end of the day it will result in the punishment requested,” Curry said. “Experience shows that the likelihood that anyone would ever be executed when a request for the death penalty is filed is highly unlikely.”
Indiana University law professor Fran Watson pointed out that until last week, when a Lake County jury recommended the death sentence for a Gary man convicted of killing his wife and two stepchildren, an Indiana jury had not suggested the punishment in three years.
The availability of life without parole also has made juries less likely to deliver a death sentence, she said.
Investigators say Shirley and the Leonards intentionally created a gas explosion in Shirley’s home in hopes of collecting insurance money. Thirty-three homes in the Richmond Hill subdivision on the far south side of Indianapolis were damaged so extensively they had to be demolished.
A microwave set to start on a timer sparked the explosion in Shirley’s gas-filled home, Curry said. Investigators determined that a gas fireplace valve and a gas line regulator in the house were removed. Investigators believe the trio also tried but failed to blow up Shirley’s home the weekend before.
John and Jennifer Longworth died after the explosion ignited another explosion and resulting fire at their house. Curry said he consulted with the victims’ parents, but declined to say if they supported his decision to seek life without parole.
Curry also announced new charges. The state has filed a motion to add a felony count of arson against all three defendants for damage to houses in the neighborhood that did not require demolition.
The state also requested a felony charge of insurance fraud against Shirley and felony charges …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
An editor who helps direct coverage of agriculture at The Associated Press and supervises the cooperative’s report in several states each weekend has been named Milwaukee correspondent.
The appointment of Michelle L. Johnson was announced Wednesday. She begins April 1.
As correspondent, Johnson will work to craft the AP‘s state report in Wisconsin while also working as a reporter focused on agriculture.
For the past three years, Johnson has served as an editor and the weekend supervisor at the AP‘s regional editing desk in Chicago. In that role, she also helped direct AP‘s coverage of agriculture and food.
The 43-year-old Johnson holds degrees from Indiana University, Stanford University and the University of Washington.
(Phys.org)—Plant and animal cells contain two genomes: one in the nucleus and one in the mitochondria. When mutations occur in each, they can become incompatible, leading to disease. To increase understanding of such illnesses, scientists at Brown University and Indiana University have traced one example in fruit flies down to the individual errant nucleotides and the mechanism by which the flies become sick.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
A prominent scholar from China‘s Turkic Uighur ethnic minority says he was detained for more than 12 hours at Beijing‘s airport and then sent home when attempting to board a flight to the U.S.
Ilham Tohti says he was planning to take up a year-long fellowship at Indiana University when he was prevented from leaving the country on Saturday. He says he was interrogated by three separate groups of officers, none of whom gave him a reason why he was being detained.
For the first 10 hours, officers refused to allow him to use the bathroom or provide food and water. Tohti said in an interview Sunday. Tohti is a Beijing-based economist who has been an outspoken critic of some Chinese government policies in the Uighur homeland of Xinjiang.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
(Phys.org)—A team of chemists and biologists led by Indiana University chemistry professor David Giedroc has described a previously unknown function of a protein they now know is responsible for protecting a major bacterial pathogen from toxic levels of copper. The results were published Jan. 27 in Nature Chemical Biology.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
The parents of an Indiana University student missing for more than 18 months are marking their daughter’s 22nd birthday with a nationwide plea for information that might help them find her.
Lauren Spierer went missing about 4:30 a.m. June 3 after a night of partying with friends in downtown Bloomington.
WRTV-TV reports Robert and Charlene Spierer of Greenburgh, N.Y., said on their website Thursday that they understand their daughter is likely dead even though no remains have been found and no arrests have been made. But they stressed that they are determined to find out what happened to her.
Anyone with information about Spierer’s case is asked to call the Bloomington Police Department.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
