|
|
Portion Size Counts
|
|
ind yourself chowing down when you eat out? You’re not alone. Nutrition expert Barbara Rolls recently led a study on what could be referred to as the extra food syndrome — a typical response to the supersized fast food meals and giant restaurant portions that have become the American standard. “Men and women, normalweight and overweight individuals, restrained and unrestrained eaters, all responded to larger portion size by eating more,” Rolls reports. In the study, 51 normalweight and overweight men and women, ages 21 to 30, ate a lunch of water, carrots, macaroni and cheese, and a small chocolate bar once a week for four weeks at Penn State’s Laboratory for the Study of Human Ingestive Behavior. Participants were required to eat the carrots and chocolate but could consume as much or as little of the entree as they wanted. One group was given their mac and cheese on a dinner plate in portions ranging from two and a half to five cups. Another group scooped their own from a serving dish. In both cases, participants ate more when more was available. In her recent book, The Volumetrics Weight Control Plan, Rolls sets forth a strategy for feeling full on fewer calories by eating large, satisfying portions of low-calorie foods such as vegetables, fruits, and brothbased soups.
— Gretchen Seaver
|
|
Scientific Advisers
|
|
athemetician George Andrews, nutrition expert A. Catharine Ross, and anthropologist Alan Walker were elected to the National Academy of Sciences during its 140th annual meeting.
Andrews, Evan Pugh professor of mathematics, is an authority on the work of Srinivasa Ramanujan, the self-taught Indian mathematician who revolutionized number theory and the study of partitions in the early 20th century. Andrews discovered the “Lost Notebook” of Ramanujan in the Trinity College Library of Cambridge University, England in 1976.
Ross, Dorothy Foehr Huck chair in nutrition, is an expert on vitamin A metabolism. Using rats and mice, she and colleagues cloned and characterized the gene for an enzyme critical to vitamin A storage in the liver and lungs.
Walker, Evan Pugh professor of anthropology and biology, has made numerous discoveries during the past three decades at digs in Africa with his collaborators, Richard and Meave Leaky. In 1994, he and Meave Leaky discovered the skeletal remains of a previously unknown species in the human lineage, Australopithicus anamensis.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers established by congressional act in 1863 to serve as an official adviser to the federal government on any matter of science and technology.
— Gretchen Seaver
|
|
Flat Motor
|
|
James Collins |
 |
oes a motor that can fit into airplane wings and laptops seem impossible? Led by Gary Koopmann, a team of engineers created a rotary motor the size of a CD case, using the “smart” material PZT (lead zirconate titanate). When an electric field is applied to it, PZT elongates. By bonding PZT to both sides of a tiny, flexible metallic strip, the inventors constructed an “arm” that can bend to the left and right in response to electricity. A passive clamping system, either a ball and spring or a one-way roller clutch, acts as a turnstile that allows the arm to move in only one direction. When stimulated, twelve of these arms placed starfish-style around a central shaft simultaneously bend in the same direction, causing the shaft to rotate.
Koopmann explains that passive clamping improves the performance and lowers the cost of the new motor, as the flat design has a starting torque, or force-of-rotation, advantage over a conventional electric motor. A mass-produced version of Koopmann’s motor might cost as little as $10.
— Gretchen Seaver
|
|
Challenge Grant
|
|
 
urope Observed: Perceptions of Europe in the Early Modern Landscape,” “Tensions of Change: Writing and Making the American Landscape,” and “Colloquy of Asia in the Era of Globalization” are among the new programs the Institute for the Arts and Humanities will fund in the coming year with the help of a $500,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant will also be used to fund a distinguished speaker series, an annual symposium, civic and educational outreach, and collaborations with university museums. The Institute for the Arts and Humanities promotes and supports innovative, interdisciplinary work across the boundaries of different academic units at the University, and funds individual faculty research projects and faculty and graduate residencies, which bring together faculty and students from various fields. “The most fruitful conversations are the result of interdisciplinary efforts,” says Laura Knoppers, director of the Institute. “Such collaborations allow for critical reflection on creative works that might not otherwise take place.”
— Gretchen Seaver
|
|
Violence Condensed
|
|
|
James Collins |
ost movie previews on video rentals feature scenes of violence, regardless of whether the flicks are rated G, PG, PG-13, or R, according to media watcher Mary Beth Oliver. Although research “points to a host of potentially harmful effects of media violence, the entertainment industry seems to think that violence is an appropriate selling tool for younger viewers,” says Oliver, who co-directs the Media Effects Laboratory at Penn State. Her study of 107 previews revealed that 75 percent contained at least one scene of aggression, and 46 percent contained one or more scenes featuring guns. On average, the previews delivered two violent scenes per minute.
“This study shows that movie previews present viewers with a condensed story of violence that is likely unparalleled by almost any other type of media content commonly encountered,” Oliver concludes. “Whether or not viewers want to view violence is another question. Maybe we consume so much violent entertainment in our culture simply because that is what is sold to us in abundance.”
— Gretchen Seaver
|
|
|
Research/Penn State samples the diversity and drama of
Penn State's research program as a public service to inform, entertain, and
inspire the University community. Contents copyright The Pennsylvania State
University unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. For more information,
go here.