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Ancestry DNA and 5 Ways Tech Has Affected Psychological Research

Posted on April 29, 2019 by Sci-Buffer

Five Ways That Technology Has Affected Psychological Research

Information technology has played a large role in enhancing research efforts in science of the mind and behavior. Technology has influenced the discipline not only in how research studies are carried out and analyzed, but also in the actual phenomena that psychologists can investigate. Here are five ways that technology has affected psychological research.

DNA Tests Make Everyone a Geneticist

While the jury’s out on the efficacy of these DNA tests, the popularity of them means we have a lot more data about people than we used to. Once we figure out how to organize that data to understand people’s behavior better, we may start including DNA tests as part of counselling sessions. Right now, these tests have become very affordable. Coupled with coupon codes that you can find by clicking here, a test can be as cheap as $50.

The people studied

Psychological research has historically been strongly biased towards the study of psychology students, because they are convenient for research to find and you can basically force them to do it as a compulsory course requirement. Although this bias towards students still exists, it is assuaged somewhat by the ability to use the internet and mobile apps to reach broader samples of people.

Lower Costs

The primary research method in psychology is the self-report questionnaire, which typically involves asking participants to rate certain statements on a numerical scale. Although this method has its critics, one advantage is that is can easily be conducted and analyzed online. Where pen and paper surveys once ruled, computers have taken over. This has reduced the cost of surveying dramatically.

Easier and more complex analysis

There was a time when psychologists conducted statistical analyses essentially by hand, with the help of whatever rudimentary …

Psychology, Uncategorized

What Is Lucid Dreaming? A Guide for Beginners

Posted on November 14, 2018 by Sci-Buffer

A Beginner’s Guide to Lucid Dreaming

Lucid dreaming is precisely when a person dreams and can comprehend his/her dream. The act of dreaming in a lucid-state has intrigued people for centuries: but what is it, exactly? It’s the ability to regulate the dream and make some other reality in the dream state.

There are some ways to make the act of lucid dreaming easier. There’s a very effective lucid dreaming supplement regimen you can take that will enhance your body’s natural REM sleep state (which is thought to be when your mind is dreaming).

LD (Lucid Dreaming) Has a Long History.

A lot of cultures from ancient times took lucid dreaming very seriously. For instance, people living in ancient Egypt thought that dreams opened up the eyes of a person to truths, solutions, and advice that were hidden. In fact, lots of temples were devoted to dream incubation by ancient Egyptians. The practice of learning the numerous lucid dreaming steps, different states of consciousness, and out of body experiences was done by ancient Egyptian so-called masters of secret things. They firmly believed that individuals could get an altered state of consciousness from the lotus flower.

In today’s world, it can be associated with the ‘dark arts’. And this is just one of the many misconceptions surrounding lucid dreaming. Contrary to what people believe, there are a lot of significant benefits to lucid dreaming. It can have a favorable effect on an individual’s waking life by improving problem-solving abilities, bettering creativity, and bettering a person’s overall self-confidence.

Lucid Dreaming Tips

There are a few techniques you can practice to enhance your chances of having lucid dreams on a regular basis. They involve basic memory exercises and also guided meditation. Training the subconscious mind to follow brand-new rules is …

Health News

$reflection matrix - math algebra$

Reflection Matrix

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Sci-Buffer

It’s been a while since my last math post. It seems that my previous assertion correlating the quality of question with the period of final exams could not have been further from the truth. It now seems quite likely that the occurrence of a few “good” questions on Yahoo Answers in a short period of time a few weeks back was more of a fluke rather than the norm.

Problem: Find the standard matrix for the linear transformation which reflects points in the x-y plane across the line y = \frac{-2x}{3}.

Solution: To find the matrix representing a given linear transformation all we need to do is to figure out where the basis vectors, i.e.

\vec{e_{1}}=\begin{bmatrix} 1\\ 0 \end{bmatrix} and \vec{e_{2}}=\begin{bmatrix} 0\\ 1 \end{bmatrix}

are mapped under the transformation.

This is easy to see from the fact that since \vec{e_{1}} and \vec{e_{2}} form a basis of \mathbb{R}^{2} any element

\vec{u}\ \epsilon \ \mathbb{R}^{2}

can be written as

\vec{u} = a \cdot \vec{e_{1}} + b \cdot \vec{e_{2}}

for some a,b\ \epsilon\ \mathbb{R}.

Now let

A : \mathbb{R}^{2} \to \mathbb{R}^{2}

be a linear transformation. Then, by definition

A(\vec{u}) = A(a \cdot \vec{e_{1}} + b \cdot \vec{e_{2}}) = a \cdot A( \vec{e_{1}} ) + b \cdot A( \vec{e_{2}} )

Thus, the image of any element \vec{u}\ \epsilon \ \mathbb{R}^{2} under a linear transformation is completely determined by the image of the basis of the transformation’s domain.

Let’s find the image of \vec{e_{1}}=\begin{bmatrix} 1\\ 0 \end{bmatrix} under a reflection across the line given by y = \frac{-2x}{3}. First, we need to find a line perpendicular to y = \frac{-2x}{3} that passed through the point p_{1} = (1, 0).

In general, a line perpendicular to y = mx + b is given by y = \frac{-x}{m}, i.e in our case, y = \frac{3x}{2}. To …

Math

Triton’s Atmosphere More Mysterious Than Previously Thought

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Sci-Buffer

The first ever infrared analysis of the atmosphere of Neptune’s moon Triton revealed the presence carbon monoxide and methane. As summer hit the moon’s southern hemisphere, observations made at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) based at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) showed the thin atmosphere to vary with seasons.

“We have found real evidence that the Sun still makes its presence felt on Triton, even from so far away. This icy moon actually has seasons just as we do on Earth, but they change far more slowly,” says Emmanuel Lellouch, the lead author of the paper reporting these results in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

On Triton, where the average surface temperature is about minus 235 degrees Celsius, it is currently summer in the southern hemisphere and winter in the northern. As Triton’s southern hemisphere warms up, a thin layer of frozen nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide on Triton’s surface sublimates into gas, thickening the icy atmosphere as the season progresses during Neptune’s 165-year orbit around the Sun. A season on Triton lasts a little over 40 years, and Triton passed the southern summer solstice in 2000.

Based on the amount of gas measured, Lellouch and his colleagues estimate that Triton’s atmospheric pressure may have risen by a factor of four compared to the measurements made by Voyager 2 in 1989, when it was still spring on the giant moon.

Carbon monoxide was known to be present as ice on the surface, but Lellouch and his team discovered that Triton’s upper surface layer is enriched with carbon monoxide ice by about a factor of ten compared to the deeper layers, and that it is this upper “film” that feeds the atmosphere. While the majority of Triton’s atmosphere is nitrogen (much like on Earth), the methane in the atmosphere, first detected by Voyager …

Space

Golden Nature: Closed-Form Formula For Fibonacci Sequence

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Sci-Buffer

Almost everyone has heard of this sequence: 1,\ 1,\ 2,\ 3,\ 5,\ 8,\ etc. It is named after Leonardo of Pisa who introduced it to the western world in one of the most influential books ever published in mathematics – Liber Abaci. This book introduced Europe to the Hindu numerals 0 through 9, the word zero, the notion of an algorithm and the subject of algebra.

The beauty of the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio (which is intimately connected to it) lies in that they are not just another mathematical construct, but occur throughout the nature.

Have you ever taken a look at a pine cone and noticed that the scales of the cone are in spirals? Have you ever counted the spiral in the clockwise and counterclockwise directions? I would be surprised if you have … but the counts turn out to be 5 and 8 (or 8 and 13 for bigger cones).

How about these? Care to count the petals?

… intriguing stuff indeed.

So, once again, I was reading through problems on Yahoo Answers. Most of the questions “reduce” (lol) to plugging numbers into well known equations, or using a calculator such as TI-89, or Mathematics, Maple, or even Google – basically, what engineers do. Yeah, you “heard” me right! It takes some effort to found a meaningful question that actually requires some knowledge and skills – see the difference between a mathematician and an engineer now? That said, here’s a one I couldn’t resist:

Problem: Find the term F_{386} in the following sequence F_{0}=-4,\ F_{1}=5,\ F_{2}=1,\ F_{3}=6,\ F_{4}=7,\ F_{5}=13

There is a more “elegant” way to tackle this problem and I may write about in the future (maybe quite soon actually), but for now I’ll ignore matrices, diagonalization and eigenspaces (although the reason why the …

Math

Star Wars Main Theme Guitar Tab

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Sci-Buffer

A Quick Guide to the Star Wars Theme Guitar Tabs:

I’ve played the guitar for some years but only recently I’ve discovered the version of Star Wars Main Theme played by Tomi Paldanius. As a true Star Wars fan i decided to tab it so share with the Star Wars Universe! This version is a bit simplified (only bass, melody and chords without inversions) but it works quite well.

Tomi Paldanius plays Star Wars – Main Theme

Tuning: Standard (EADGBe)

(repeat 2x)
e|—————————–3—————–3—————————|
B|—————3——-1p0———–3—1p0———3—1p0h1————-|
G|—————————2—————–2——————-2~——–|
D|-0-0-0-5—4—2–p0——————————————————-|
A|———————–3—–2–p0——-3—–2–p0—–3—————–|
E|————————————-3—————3———————|

e|—————————————————————————|
B|———–1p0——————————1p0—–3———————-|
G|—————2p0-0h2p0-2———————-2p0—–2——————|
D|-0-0-2—2—————–2/4—-0-0-2—2————0——————-|
A|—–3-3——————-3/5——–3-3———–1———————-|
E|—————————————————————————|

e|————————————–3-1———————————-|
B|———–1p0—————————-4-3-1——-1/3——————|
G|—————2p0-0h2p0-2———————-3-2-0———————-|
D|-0-0-2—2—————–2/4—-0-0———————-0-0-0-0———|
A|—–3-3——————-3/5———————————————|
E|—————————————————————————|

e|—————————–3—————–3——————-2-2-2-3-|
B|—————3——-1p0———–3—1p0———3—1p0h1—–1-1-1-3-|
G|—————————2—————–2——————-2-2-2-2—|
D|-0-0-0-5—4—2–p0——————————————————-|
A|———————–3—–2–p0——-3—–2–p0———3———–2-|
E|————————————-3—————3——————-3-|

Star Wars

Aliens Found on Mars: A Brief History

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Sci-Buffer

A Short and Quick History of NASA Finding Life on the Martian Planet.

The red planet has held a special place in humanity’s collective imagination for centuries. However, since the Viking landers actually travelled to the red planet, the question of whether there is life on Mars has taken several sharp turns. Just in the past few years, there has been some major controversies and developments. We’ll explore the major ones, from most recent all the way back to the ‘Martian Face’ that NASA photographed in the 90’s.

July 2018: NASA Accused of Burning Evidence of Life on Mars

This controversy comes from an actual NASA report, but it has been wildly misinterpreted. Here’s how it goes: researchers discovered data from an old test of Martian soil done by the Viking landers back in the 1970’s. The Viking landers found no evidence of organic molecules, which was puzzling since we did find evidence of them when the two Martian rovers sampled Martian soil.
Now, the soil contained a compound called perchlorate, which is very flammable. There’s very little oxygen or heat on Mars, so it normally doesn’t burn. But the NASA report suggests that the Landers accidentally burned evidence of the Martian organic compounds by burning it with the perchlorate.
The controversy is a whole lot of nothing. We know now that organic compounds do exist on Mars, so whether the Viking landers messed up the first tests doesn’t really matter.

Remember that these are organic compounds, which are the building blocks of life, but aren’t evidence of life itself.

June 2018: Organic Matter Found on Mars

NASA announced that they had discovered organic matter preserved in mudstones that are over 3 billion years old (Earth is 4.5 billion years old, for reference). The announcement also mentioned the fact that …

Space

Use LiquidWeb Coupon Codes To Save Reference Materials You Trust.

Posted on January 1, 2018 by Sci-Buffer

Trouble Finding Trustworthy Reference Materials?

Here’s something you may not have considered: create a website and store research papers and other materials that you trust and find valuable. If you’re not trying to profit from a website, then you can host materials there for your own use without any copyright worries.

Use Liquid Web Hosting Coupons To Keep the Costs Down.

The costs of setting up a self-hosted website don’t have to be prohibitive either. Use Liquid web hosting promo codes and you can have a quick self-hosted website up and running for $1/month, which includes a free domain name. We found online discounts here as well.

Finding Reference Materials You Can Trust

These days it seems that there is more information available than ever before. Even so, finding information that is both timely and accurate remains as big a challenge as it ever was. Finding reference materials that can be trusted is often a daunting task, especially if the subject under review is an unusual one. While online dictionaries and encyclopedias can provide a good starting point, the information provided there is sometimes suspect. Researchers will often have to turn to other reference materials in order to get the complete story.

Understanding Your Reference Options

It is important for those researching a particular subject to understand and take advantage of all the reference materials at their disposal. Some good ideas for uncovering the most useful reference materials include:

The local library – even in the age of the internet, the local library still has an important role to play when it comes to reference materials. Libraries often have access to proprietary libraries of reference materials, just waiting to be tapped by eager researchers.
Workers in the field – for many subjects there is no better reference point than the

Reference, Uncategorized

Wax Worm Caterpillars and GoDaddy Renewal Coupon Codes.

Posted on September 29, 2017 by Sci-Buffer

For decades the environmental impact of plastics has been a major crisis with no clear solution. Plastics last for thousands of years, and the amount of plastic we make and consume has grown exponentially over the decades. It appears that we may have a solution.

So…the solution to our plastics crisis is….worms? For the past few weeks the internet has been ablaze with reports of wax worms that can break down plastics into organic compounds. No, this isn’t a fake story built out of a little GoDaddy satellite site. This is the real deal. Incidentally if you are looking for savings on building a website with GoDaddy, take a look at that link.

Pollution of any kind is not acceptable to man. Whether it be water, air, or waste pollution, they are all unhealthy to the environment and cause more harm than good to mankind. This explains why every effort is put in to reduce the level of pollution in the world.

The area of plastic waste pollution seems to have gotten a solution in the form of a Wax Worm. The larvae of this Worm type was initially bred to be used as fish bait before a discovery was made of its love for plastic materials by an amateur beekeeper and scientist, Federica Bertocchini. Here are reasons why Scientists think the Wax Worm may be the solution to plastic waste solution.

1. APPETITE FOR PLASTIC: Following Federica’s chance discovery, researchers investigated the report and found that 100 Wax Worms can devour as much as 92 milligrams of polyethylene. The amazing thing is that this quantity would be devoured in the space of 12 hours. Compare this to another scientific fact that about 200 plastic bags, which is the average a human being uses in one year, would take …

Environmental

The Right Way To Lose Weight (According to Science)

Posted on July 17, 2017 by Sci-Buffer

And Coupons To Help You Afford It.

Losing weight isn’t a hard process if you know the right way to do it. However, there is a lot of confusion and misinformation out there about what you should do to lose weight. The truth is that sustainable weight loss requires a combination of the right diet and exercise. And it can be expensive to eat right. You can make it easier with some bodybuilding.com coupons from CouponFly.org, but even then, it can make your budget tight.

Supplements can help your weight loss results, but they are not replacements (at least, according to science). We’ll show you how and when you should eat, exercise, and take supplements. As a thank you for reading, we’ll even supply you with some recommendations for delicious hot beverages to enjoy on your weight loss journey. If you find it easier to exercise while listening to music, here are some top-rated picks for headphones.

Let’s take a look at what you’ll have to do to achieve your weight loss goals.

Diet

Diet is the most important part of weight loss. It can also be the most difficult aspect of your routine to master. Even professional athletes are constantly refining their diets to find the perfect balance for their body. However, as a beginner, even a small amount of effort will help. Generally speaking, you want to get most of your calories from whole foods. Avoid anything processed if you can. Whole foods tend to give you much more nutrients for fewer calories. You should aim to consume a large amount of protein. Eat about 1 gram of protein per pound that you weigh in order to preserve and build up your lean muscle mass. This lean muscle mass will raise your metabolism, allowing you to burn …

Health News

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