SAN MARCOS, Texas ? Police say a 22-year-old pregnant woman who was struck by a hit-and-run driver while walking home from work gave birth to a girl before she died.
San Marcos police say Diann Ford was returning from her job at Long John Silver's late Tuesday when she was hit. Ford, who was 37 weeks pregnant, was taken to an Austin hospital that night, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
She gave birth by cesarean section Wednesday, and the girl was taken to the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit. Ford died Thursday.
Her boss Kris Jaccard said Ford was excited about her future as a mother. Jaccard said Ford knew she was having a girl and had picked out a name.
Three-dimensional television got a major marketing push nearly two years ago from the consumer electronics and entertainment industries, yet the technology has one major limitation: viewers need special eyeglasses to experience the 3-D effect. Now the marketing experts say that the technology will never catch on in a big way unless viewers can toss the glasses entirely.
Although 3-D technology sans specs is available for small screens on smartphones and portable gaming devices, these devices use backlit LCDs, which can be a big battery drain and limits how small the gadgets can be made. More recently, researchers have begun to use light-emitting diodes, which show more promise. They are developing autostereoscopic 3-D using tiny prisms that would render 3-D images without glasses. Because these LEDs get their lighting from organic compounds that glow in response to electric current, they can be thinner, lighter and more flexible than LCDs. The innovation is detailed in the August issue of the journal Nature Communications.
The researchers?from Seoul National University, Act Company and Minuta Technology?used an array of microscale prisms placed on a screen to create a filter that guides the light in one direction or another. Using such a prism array?which the researchers refer to as a Lucius prism after the Latin name meaning ?shining and bright??they were able to display an object on the screen that could be seen only when viewed from a particular angle. By manipulating the intensity of light, the scientists could show from the same screen two distinctly different images?one to a viewer?s left eye and a second to the right eye. Seeing the two images together creates a sense of depth that the brain perceives as 3-D?all without the help of special lenses.
Some researchers have reported success with other approaches to glasses-free 3-D. The HTC EVO 3D and LG Optimus 3D smartphones, for example, feature parallax barrier screens made with precision slits that allow each eye to see a different set of pixels. Unfortunately, this approach requires the viewer to look at the screen at a very specific angle to experience the 3-D effect, a drawback that this new technique may be able to overcome.
The UFC's only official pre-fight show returns when Fight Day comes to you live this afternoon (5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT) from the sold-out Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, the home of "UFC 137: Penn vs. Diaz."
Hosts Dave Farra and Megan Olivi will break down all of the latest news from the UFC, including the stunning cancellation of the main event after an injury to Georges St-Pierre forced him to withdraw from the event.
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson will join the show to discuss his career and what's next for him, and we'll have a panel of journalists ready to break down the entire card.
TACOMA, Wash (Reuters) ? A U.S. Army sergeant went on trial on Friday charged with murdering unarmed civilians and taking body parts for war trophies as ringleader of a rogue platoon that terrorized villagers in Afghanistan's Kandahar province.
The court-martial of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, 26, marks the climax of an 18-month investigation of the most egregious case of atrocities U.S. military personnel are accused of committing during a decade of war in Afghanistan.
Pentagon officials have said the misconduct exposed by the case, which began as a probe into hashish use within Gibbs' unit, had damaged America's image around the globe.
Published photographs showing two fellow GIs posing with the bloodied corpse of an Afghan boy they had just killed have drawn comparisons to the inflammatory Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq in 2004.
Gibbs, from Billings, Montana, is charged with three counts of premeditated murder, as well as cutting fingers off dead bodies and beating a fellow soldier who had alerted superiors to widespread drug abuse within their unit.
If convicted of all charges, Gibbs faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors have cast him as the chief instigator among five infantrymen from the 5th Stryker Brigade accused of slaying civilians in random killings staged to look like legitimate combat casualties.
Seven other soldiers were charged with various lesser offenses, ranging from assault for opening fire at civilians to using illegal drugs. Most have already reached plea deals.
JURY PANEL SELECTED
Friday's proceedings opened with the judge, Lieutenant Colonel Kwasi Hawks, addressing Gibbs directly, reviewing procedures and asking if he recalled instructions given him during previous hearings, to which Gibbs replied, "Yes, sir."
Asked if he needed any advice or instructions repeated, Gibbs answered, "No."
His lawyer, Phillip Stackhouse, then entered not guilty pleas on his behalf to all charges.
Gibbs, wearing a dress uniform, sat silently and mostly expressionless for the remainder of the three hours, staring straight ahead as the judge and attorneys for both sides went through the process of choosing a jury panel. He occasionally glanced at prosecutors or prospective jurors.
In the end, five panelists were selected, two enlisted personnel and three officers, the highest-ranked a colonel.
About 30 witnesses are expected to testify during the court-martial, slated to run at least through next week at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, according to Army spokesman Major Christopher Ophardt.
The court-martial is slated to resume on Monday with opening statements from the prosecution and defense, and the first testimony.
The chief prosecution witness is expected to be the soldier described as Gibbs' right-hand man, Specialist Jeremy Morlock, sentenced in March to 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of murder for his role in the same killings for which Gibbs is accused.
They alone were charged with all three killings, which occurred in January, February and May of 2010 while the Stryker Brigade was deployed in western Kandahar province.
Morlock, who originally implicated Gibbs in statements to military investigators, testified against him in open court during an evidentiary hearing in July as part of the plea deal he reached with prosecutors.
It was Morlock who appeared in photographs published in March by two magazines showing him crouched smiling over the body of a 15-year-old Afghan, holding the boy's head up for the camera by his hair.
A similar photo was published of another member of the self-styled Stryker "kill team," Andrew Holmes, who pleaded guilty last month to a single count of murder and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
A third co-defendant, Adam Winfield, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to three years in prison in August, and a fourth, Michael Wagnon, still faces a court-martial.
All but one of the seven men charged with lesser crimes have received convictions and sentences ranging from demotion or dishonorable discharge to 60 days hard labor and jail sentences of up to nine months.
(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jerry Norton)
For decades the amyloid hypothesis has dominated the research field in Alzheimer's disease. The theory describes how an increase in secreted beta-amyloid peptides leads to the formation of plaques, toxic clusters of damaged proteins between cells, which eventually result in neurodegeneration. Scientists at Lund University, Sweden, have now presented a study that turns this premise on its head.
The research group's data offers an opposite hypothesis, suggesting that it is in fact the neurons' inability to secrete beta-amyloid that is at the heart of pathogenesis in Alzheimer's disease.
The study, published in the October issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, shows an increase in unwanted intracellular beta-amyloid occurring early on in Alzheimer's disease. The accumulation of beta-amyloid inside the neuron is here shown to be caused by the loss of normal function to secrete beta-amyloid.
Contrary to the dominant theory, where aggregated extracellular beta-amyloid is considered the main culprit, the study instead demonstrates that reduced secretion of beta-amyloid signals the beginning of the disease.
The damage to the neuron, created by the aggregated toxic beta-amyloid inside the cell, is believed to be a prior step to the formation of plaques, the long-time hallmark biomarker of the disease.
Professor Gunnar Gouras, the senior researcher of the study, hopes that the surprising new findings can help push the research field in a new direction.
"The many investigators and pharmaceutical companies screening for compounds that reduce secreted beta-amyloid have it the wrong way around. The problem is rather the opposite, that it is not getting secreted. To find the root of the disease, we now need to focus on this critical intracellular pool of beta-amyloid.
"We are showing here that the increase of intracellular beta-amyloid is one of the earliest events occurring in Alzheimer's disease, before the formation of plaques. Our experiments clearly show a decreased secretion of beta-amyloid in our primary neuron disease model. This is probably because the cell's metabolism and secretion pathways are disrupted in some way, leading beta-amyloid to be accumulated inside the cell instead of being secreted naturally", says Davide Tampellini, first author of the study.
The theory of early accumulation of beta-amyloid inside the cell offers an alternate explanation for the formation of plaques. When excess amounts of beta-amyloid start to build up inside the cell, it is also stored in synapses.
When the synapses can no longer hold the increasing amounts of the toxic peptide the membrane breaks, releasing the waste into the extracellular space. The toxins released now create the seed for other amyloids to gather and start forming the plaques.
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Lund University: http://www.lu.se
Thanks to Lund University for this article.
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THESSALONIKI, Greece ? Anti-austerity protesters have forced the cancellation of the annual military parade commemorating Greece's entry in World War II.
President Karolos Papoulias called the Friday protest "shameful." Papoulias, Defense Minister Panos Beglitis and other officials left the stands after the event was canceled.
Protesters mingled among thousands of people who came to watch the parade.
A student parade through Athens commemorating the day without major incident.
MOSCOW?? Russia's Bolshoi Theater re-opened Friday with an exclusive party to celebrate a luxurious renovation that has taken six years, cost $700 million and revived a revered cultural symbol scarred by centuries of use and abuse.
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Politicians, billionaires, film directors and fashion designers of the Russian elite strolled the red carpet leading up to the cream-colored, eight-columned ballet and opera house that began life as a pet project by Empress Catherine the Great who founded it in 1776, the year the United States was born.
"The Bolshoi is one of our greatest national brands so we are all celebrating the opening of the main building of the Bolshoi theater," a black tie-clad President Dmitry Medvedev said on the grand stage.
Medvedev paid tribute to all those involved in restoring luster to a building that has been a physical witness to the rule of tsars, their brutal overthrow in the Bolshevik revolution, two world wars, the rise of the Soviet state, the collapse of communism and Russia's latest resurgence in a capitalist world.
PhotoBlog: See the newly renovated Bolshoi Theater
"I would like to thank all those who took part in the rebirth of our miracle, our great national brand ? the Bolshoi Theater," he told guests including Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Russian ballet legend Maya Plisetskaya, seated under an 18-foot chandelier.
He then took a seat in a gold-lined box where tsars and Soviet leaders sat for performances.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is seeking a return to the presidency in a vote next March, did not attend the performance as he had a prior arrangement with a financial policing body, his spokesman said.
About 100 musicians and opera singers in orange and white hard hats and workmen's overalls took to the stage, where they burst into song performing "Slavsya" by the Russian 19th century composer Mikhail Glinka.
'Atmosphere is fantastic' Outside, Kremlin guards clad in charcoal gray wool overcoats encircled a Bolshoi all lit up in blue and gold for the event which Russian art enthusiasts hope will cement Moscow's position as the arbiter of the classics.
"The atmosphere is fantastic, the fact the theater got finished is great," gushed Valentin Yudashkin, one of Russia's top fashion designers.
The theater, which has survived three fires, bombing in World War II and was at one time perched above an underground river, has been restored to its opulent Tsarist beginnings, covered in gold leaf, and had cutting-edge acoustics added.
After years of neglect and heavy use during Soviet times, the theater was closed in 2005 for restoration. The Bolshoi Ballet troupe continued performing on the neighboring, but smaller New stage.
Friday's opening show featured top dancers such as Svetlana Zakharova and Maria Alexandrova, as well as guest opera singers including France's Natalie Dessay and Lithuanian soprano Violeta Urmana.
A totally Russian repertoire was performed including pieces by composers Alexander Borodin, Dmitry Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev.
Rapturous reception Elaborate set changes and an electronic backdrop showing black and white animations of the Bolshoi were part of the two-hour gala performance, receiving rapturous applause from the 2,000 guests.
Moscow city center streets were grid-locked after security was beefed up to allow the guests in for a thoroughly Russian evening, which was broadcast live in Russia, Europe and the United States and live on YouTube.
Italian actress Monica Bellucci, swathed in diamonds and dressed in a strapless crimson dress, joined Russian officials as they crowded into the theater, lined with plush red chairs that have been tested for sound-absorption.
Rare pine wood applied to the walls also helps improve the quality of the sound, which has won praise from leading opera singers, and even two of the nearest stations of Moscow's sprawling metro will be soundproofed.
The Bolshoi had world-class acoustics before the Communist era, when sound-reflecting gold was scraped off and stolen and the hollow cylinder underneath the orchestra, thought to be impractical, was filled with cement.
Rigid Soviet-era seats have been replaced in the latest renovation with fewer, wider and more comfortable ones, cutting the number for the main stage to 1,720 from 2,200.
But not everyone was pleased with the grand revamp. The Bolshoi's principal dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze has repeatedly told local media the old theatre's interior has been replaced with even cheaper material.
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
It's not a great movie, probably not even a very good movie. But Andrew Niccol's In Time is good enough to be proclaimed for what it is: a political film espousing the same arguments against income inequality that are the basis of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
In the future that Niccol creates, the aging process ends at 25. After that humans have only one more year to live. Time has become the new currency; workers are paid in minutes and hours; a day is a lot of time and a month? Now that's extravagance. And when you run out of time? You literally run out of time - and drop dead.
Theoretically, you can earn enough to stay alive, on a month by month or even a minute by minute basis. As the film starts, Will Salas (Justin Timberlake), a laborer in a ghetto "time zone," is wishing his mother (Olivia Wilde) happy 50th birthday - or happy 25th for the 25th time. Will is himself celebrating his third year being 25.
It's all tracked by a phosphorescent digital read-out on each person's arm; people "power up," as it were, or pay up by putting their arms under scanners. They can also give each other time with the kind of hand-to-wrist clasp we're used to seeing Roman centurions give each other as a sign of friendship.
Of course, time can be stolen the same way. And then there are "Minute Men," urban gangsters who play a version of arm-wrestling called strong-arm, in which the power of will determines which one takes the other's time. Talk about time-shares.
One night after work, Will walks into a bar, where a good-looking, well-dressed guy (Matthew Bomer), who has more than a century on his arm, is buying drinks for everyone. He's out of place in this time zone, a ghetto called Dayton - and Will tries to get him to leave before trouble happens. Too late - the Minute Men walk in and the head Minute Man (Alex Pettyfer) demands that Richie Rich play the "strong-arm" game to see who gets his time.
Will, however, rescues the outsider and escapes. The guy, whose name is Henry Hamilton, isn't happy about it; he's more than 100 years old and has enough time to, in essence, live forever. More to the point he tells Will that the game is rigged; if everyone lived forever, there wouldn't be enough stuff - food, land, air - to go around. So the wealthy keep the poor at bay by limiting their access to time - and by continually inflating the price of commodities and raising taxes so that no one can save enough time to live very long - except the very rich.
When Will awakes, he finds that Henry has given him all his years and then let himself die. So Will heads off to New Greenwich (represented in Niccol's film by Century City and Malibu) with his new wealth, then gambles his way to more than a thousand years of time in a card game with time billionaire Philippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser). He winds up at a party at Weis' mansion, where he smooth-talks Weis' daughter Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried) - then kidnaps her when the law, in the form of Timekeeper Raymond Leon (Cillian Murphy), shows up to question him about the missing time of Henry Hamilton.
Niccol's plotting isn't particularly original and most of the action is pretty generic. But it's the subtext - the growing anger of the have-nots at having their lives manipulated by the unconcerned uber-rich - that's so telling.
This review continues on my website.
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Follow Marshall Fine on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Marshall Fine
SEOUL, South Korea ? Samsung Electronics said quarterly profit slid 23 percent as weaker demand for flat panels and computer chips offset booming smartphone shipments that were estimated to have surpassed those of industry pioneer Apple.
Samsung, the world's biggest manufacturer of memory chips and liquid crystal displays, said Friday it earned 3.44 trillion won ($3.1 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30, down from 4.46 trillion won ($4 billion) a year earlier.
The company's display panel business suffered a quarterly loss of 90 billion won ($81.5 million) and its revenue of 7.08 trillion won ($6.4 billion) was down 13 percent from a year earlier. Samsung's semiconductor businesses had sales of 9.48 trillion won ($8.6 billion), a drop from last quarter.
But the company said its telecommunications business hit a record in quarterly sales of 14.9 trillion won ($13.4 billion) ? a 37 percent increase from last year ? with growth mainly due to strong Galaxy smartphone sales.
Jae Lee, a Daiwa Securities technology analyst, estimated that Samsung had shipped about 28 million smartphones in the third quarter, up from about 20 million last quarter, and had surpassed Apple's iPhone shipments. Lee expects strong sales in the next three months as Samsung continues to focus on an array of smartphone products.
Samsung spokesman Nam Ki-yung wouldn't comment on whether Samsung had passed Apple Inc. in smartphone sales, saying the company no longer provides its sales figures for handsets. It did say, however, that handset shipments jumped more than 20 percent from last quarter, and global smartphones sales were up 300 percent from last year.
The Suwon, South Korea-based company said its handset revenues were 14.42 trillion won ($13 billion) in the third quarter, a 39 percent jump from last year, and it forecast strong sales.
"Looking ahead into the fourth quarter, when industry demand is traditionally at its peak, Samsung expects sales of mobile devices to remain strong and flat panel TV shipments to increase," the company said in a statement.
Samsung also said the third quarter saw increased demand for flash chips used in mobile devises and enhanced revenue in the business that creates mobile application processors and image sensors.
The gains in smartphones came despite the South Korean electronics giant being locked in a global patent battle with Apple, which began legal action in April against Samsung for what it says is uninhibited copying of its iPhone and iPad designs.
Apple says the product design, user interface and packaging of Samsung's Galaxy devices "slavishly copy" the iPhone and iPad. Samsung fought back with lawsuits of its own, accusing Apple of patent infringement of its wireless telecommunications technology.
Earlier this month, Samsung asked Japanese and Australian courts to block sales of Apple's new iPhone 4S in those countries over alleged patent violations.
Samsung is also appealing an Australian court's decision to temporarily ban sales of Samsung's new Galaxy tablet computer.
In an attempt to win sales in the market between smartphones and tablet PCs, Samsung on Friday unveiled a new Galaxy Note, Yonhap news agency reported.
The Galaxy Note is smaller than tablet computers but offers the same features as other wireless devices with applications. Its 5-inch screen is bigger than the Galaxy S2 smartphone, and a digital pen can be used to write on the screen, Samsung said.
Yonhap says the Note will debut in Europe next month and then later in China, South Korea and other Asian countries.
Today's Amazon earnings were decidedly split -- the company revealed both a 44-percent increase in net sales and a 73-percent decrease in net income. So, why the discrepancy? It may at least partially be due to the much discussed suggestion that the company actually loses money for each Kindle sold -- a trend which, if true, has likely only been compounded by the release of the uber-cheap ad-supported version of the device. The company addressed the matter in part, suggesting that it is focused on "the lifetime value [of the Kindle], not just the economics of the devices and accessories." The total economic picture of the Kindle includes the device itself, accessories, downloaded content and ad-revenue.
Things are apparently looking up for the company, as well, with Amazon anticipating "a record quarter in terms of device sales" for Q4. The positivity is a reflection, in part, of greater than anticipated Kindle pre-orders. Says CEO Jeff Bezos, "In the three weeks since launch, orders for electronic ink Kindles are double the previous launch. And based on what we're seeing with Kindle Fire pre-orders, we're increasing capacity and building millions more than we'd already planned."
The secret rituals of an 18-Century German occultists have been revealed. The New York Times reports that an exceptional language nerd cracked their code. It sounds like something straight out of Hellboy, except with fewer fights and more computers. More »
You might feel like the king of the couch, but let's face it -- picking up the remote can be exhausting. Hisense is hoping to lighten your load with the launch of its new Android-based Smart TV with hands-free eyeSight gesture recognition technology -- the Series XT710. Slated to launch in China, the TV features a 2D sensor, designed to understand your hand movements and interpret your every channel changing whim. Besides flipping between reruns of Law and Order and Jersey Shore, couch potatoes will also be able to play games and access Android applications through the intelligent tube. Now, if it could only help us pop our popcorn. Jump past the break to check out the full PR.
Lay-language summaries of research at Acoustical Society meeting now onlinePublic release date: 26-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Charles E. Blue cblue@aip.org 301-209-3091 American Institute of Physics
Understanding the spoken word, acoustical tools to treat cancer, and harvesting sound for energy are just some of the nearly 60 lay-language versions of papers being presented at the 162nd Acoustical Society of America's (ASA) meeting in San Diego, Calif., Oct. 31-Nov. 4. These summaries are posted online in the ASA's Worldwide Pressroom; many contain evocative sounds, images, and animations.
Reporters attending the meeting or covering the sessions remotely now have access to a wide array of easily approachable summaries covering all aspects of the science of sound.
The following are excerpts of selected lay-language papers. The entire collection can be found here:
Other research will be covered in a live media webcast on Monday, Oct. 31 at 8 a.m. PDT (11 a.m. EDT). Registration is at:
http://www.aipwebcasting.com
1. Integrating speech enhancement with active noise control to improve communication in hearing protectors
"A communication hearing protector has been developed that adaptively alters the characteristics of the communication channel based on the environmental noise. The system uses a modified active noise reduction algorithm that breaks the frequency range into a series of bands, called sub-bands, in order to better identify the power spectrum of the environmental noise underneath the ear cup. A similar filter breaks down the original communication signal to determine its power spectrum. This information is then used to select an appropriate gain for each frequency band to either reach an optimal SNR [signal-to-noise ratio] or limit the total power of the combined noise and speech signals. These gains are used to filter the original speech to provide a new communication signal that is presented to the user that improves speech intelligibility without providing excessive sound pressures that can lead to hearing loss." Paper 3pNS6 by Eric R. Bernstein and Anthony J. Brammer will be presented Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 2.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/Brammer_3pNS.html
2. Does musical training enhance speech perception? If so, why?
"Speech is our primary communication system, and problems with speech perception (such as hearing speech in noise) can be very distressing, especially as we grow older. Can we do anything to preserve or even enhance our hearing as we grow older, apart from avoiding exposure to loud sounds? Surprisingly, recent research suggests that musical training (learning to play an instrument or sing) improves the brain's encoding of speech sounds." Paper 2pMUa by Aniruddh D. Patel will be presented Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 1.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/AniruddhPatel_2pMUa1.html
3. Shape-shifting artificial ears inspired by bats
"The goal of our research is to learn from bats and mimic them to design a smart, dynamic structure to enhance the function of microphones. Some bat species can change the shape of their ears, which may help them to extract more information from incoming sounds. In contrast to this, typical microphones in use today do not make use of changing their physical shapes. Our research aims at introducing changes in physical shape to the design of microphones with enhanced sensing capabilities." Paper 5aAB14 by Mittu Pannala et al. will be presented Friday morning, Nov 4.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/Pannala_5aAB14.html
4. Vibrational assessment of ice hockey goalie sticks
"In the game of ice hockey, most players no longer use wood hockey sticks. Instead, the vast majority of players prefer sticks made from carbon fiber composites. However, goalies have not followed this trend; the majority of goalies still use wood sticks, even though composite goalie sticks are available from a variety of manufacturers. Anecdotal information suggests that goalies prefer wood sticks because they sting less when impacted by a puck traveling at high speed. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether acoustic and vibration signatures of goalie sticks can help explain this preference." Paper 3aED5 Linda J. Hunt and Daniel A. Russell will be presented Wednesday morning, Nov. 3.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/Russell_3aED.html
5. Ultrasound and breast cancer research: Making "waves" in surgical innovation
"An interdisciplinary team of scientists and medical doctors from three Utah universities and the Huntsman Cancer Institute are developing advanced ultrasonic technology for surgical use that will assist surgeons in removing microscopic cancer from the breast during procedures such as lumpectomy. The new technique promises to reduce the high number of repeat surgeries after lumpectomy by detecting and identifying cancerous tissues along the edges, rapidly and in real-time. This will allow the surgeon to accurately remove enough tissue to ensure no cancer remains, while preserving as much unaffected tissue as possible." Paper 3aED1 by Kristina M. Sorensen et al. will be presented on Wednesday morning, Nov. 3.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/Sorensen_3aED1.html
6. The joint purpose of pitch patterns in "motherese": Drawing attention and conveying language structure
"Have you heard moms and dads talk differently to their infants than to adults? Such speech is commonly called 'motherese' or infant-directed speech. A large body of research, mostly on the English language, has found evidence that infants prefer infant-directed speech to adult-directed speech. Therefore, we and other researchers are interested in understanding if and in what ways infant-directed speech might facilitate infant development." [] "Our preliminary results suggest that pitch patterns in infant-directed speech, as compared to adult-directed speech, may serve the joint purpose of conveying language structure as well as drawing attention and establishing emotional rapport; these goals are not necessarily at cross-purposes." Paper 5aSCa3 by Kristine M. Yu et al. will be presented on Friday morning, Nov. 4.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/Yu_5aSCa3.html
7. Do we speak more dramatically when we speak loud?
"In clinical settings, people with speech disorders secondary to neurologic conditions [] are frequently trained to speak louder so that they sound more understandable to listeners. However, it is not yet clear why this strategy might yield better speech intelligibility. Do speakers over articulate in pronouncing vowels or produce dramatic pitch variations across stressed and unstressed sounds, or are louder speakers more intelligible simply because of the increased volume of speech? Maybe a combination of increased loudness and over articulation contributes to the increased understandability of high-volume speech. " Paper 4aSCb8 by Yunjung Kim will be presented on Thursday morning, Nov. 3.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/Kim_4aSCb8.html
8. Miniaturizing piezoelectric microphones with nanotechnology
"Microphones have been getting smaller. In recent years, advances in micromachining technology and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), have led to smaller microphones that can perform as well as larger traditional microphones. Microphone miniaturization is a challenge though, because generally as a microphone design is shrunk down, performance will naturally get worse as sensitivity tends to decrease while noise will typically increase. To get improved performance, designers have tried to overcome this challenge by using very thin films for the acoustic sensing diaphragms and carefully controlling the material properties." Paper 3aEA7 by Adam Mathias et al. will be presented on Wednesday morning, Nov. 2.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/Mathias_3aEA7.html
9. Energy harvesting of tonal sound excited by heat addition and vortex shedding
"High-amplitude tonal sound may appear inside duct systems due to excitation of acoustic resonances by unsteady heat release or vortex shedding in the presence of mean flow. Noise generation in ventilation systems and unstable combustion coupled with acoustic oscillations in rocket motors and industrial burners are examples of undesirable and often harmful phenomena. In thermoacoustic engines, acoustic waves are excited intentionally with the purpose of converting waste heat or solar radiation into useful forms of energy. The power of excited tonal sound in these systems can be harvested by electroacoustic transducers and applied for powering sensors and other small-scale devices, thus eliminating a need for battery replacement." Paper 4aEAa by Sungmin Jung et al. will be presented Thursday morning, Nov. 3.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/matveev-4aEAa.html
10. Listening to the ocean: The whales' story of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
"Scientists from the Littoral Acoustic Demonstration Center (LADC), a consortium of scientists from four Gulf State Universities, use sounds made by marine mammals to understand the impact of the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on the resident populations of these animals, particularly endangered sperm whales and beaked whales. Despite the fact that immediate effects may be difficult to assess, the long term impact can be significant and reflect environmental stresses on the whole deep-water ecosystem since whales are at the top of the ocean food chain." Paper 4aAB6 by Natalia Sidorovskaia et al. will be presented Thursday morning, Nov. 3.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/lay_lang.html
11. Hearing between the lines: how people with hearing impairment can take detours to understand speech
"Getting a hearing aid or cochlear implant is not like picking up a new set of eyeglasses. Hearing devices don't 'fix' your hearing instantly people with hearing loss need to re-learn what sounds are and how to interpret them. This can be a long and difficult process, despite the best efforts of clinicians and hearing aid engineers. Recent research at the University of Maryland suggests that people with hearing impairment don't merely show lower success in listening to speech; they actually could take a whole different kind of listening strategy to hear a hearing detour. These differences in listening strategies have implications for what we know about hearing loss and how to effectively treat it." Paper 2aSC4 by Matthew B. Winn et al. will be presented Tuesday morning, Nov. 1.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/Winn_2aSC4.html
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MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE 161ST ASA MEETING
The Town and Country Hotel is located at 500 Hotel Circle North, San Diego, California, 92108. Reservations: 1-800-772-8527; Main Number: 1-619-291-7131.
USEFUL LINKS: Main meeting website: http://acousticalsociety.org/
Searchable index: http://asa.aip.org/asasearch.html
Hotel site: http://www.towncountry.com/index.cfm
Webcast registration and viewing: http://www.aipwebcasting.com
PRESS REGISTRATION
The Acoustical Society will grant free registration to credentialed full-time journalists and professional freelance journalists working on assignment for major news outlets. If you are a reporter and would like to attend, contact Charles E. Blue (cblue@aip.org, 301-209-3091), who can also help with setting up interviews and obtaining images, sound clips, or background information.
ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,000 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (the world's leading journal on acoustics), Acoustics Today magazine, ECHOES newsletter, books, and standards on acoustics. The society also holds two major scientific meetings each year. For more information about ASA, visit our website at http://www.acousticalsociety.org.
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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.
Lay-language summaries of research at Acoustical Society meeting now onlinePublic release date: 26-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Charles E. Blue cblue@aip.org 301-209-3091 American Institute of Physics
Understanding the spoken word, acoustical tools to treat cancer, and harvesting sound for energy are just some of the nearly 60 lay-language versions of papers being presented at the 162nd Acoustical Society of America's (ASA) meeting in San Diego, Calif., Oct. 31-Nov. 4. These summaries are posted online in the ASA's Worldwide Pressroom; many contain evocative sounds, images, and animations.
Reporters attending the meeting or covering the sessions remotely now have access to a wide array of easily approachable summaries covering all aspects of the science of sound.
The following are excerpts of selected lay-language papers. The entire collection can be found here:
Other research will be covered in a live media webcast on Monday, Oct. 31 at 8 a.m. PDT (11 a.m. EDT). Registration is at:
http://www.aipwebcasting.com
1. Integrating speech enhancement with active noise control to improve communication in hearing protectors
"A communication hearing protector has been developed that adaptively alters the characteristics of the communication channel based on the environmental noise. The system uses a modified active noise reduction algorithm that breaks the frequency range into a series of bands, called sub-bands, in order to better identify the power spectrum of the environmental noise underneath the ear cup. A similar filter breaks down the original communication signal to determine its power spectrum. This information is then used to select an appropriate gain for each frequency band to either reach an optimal SNR [signal-to-noise ratio] or limit the total power of the combined noise and speech signals. These gains are used to filter the original speech to provide a new communication signal that is presented to the user that improves speech intelligibility without providing excessive sound pressures that can lead to hearing loss." Paper 3pNS6 by Eric R. Bernstein and Anthony J. Brammer will be presented Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 2.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/Brammer_3pNS.html
2. Does musical training enhance speech perception? If so, why?
"Speech is our primary communication system, and problems with speech perception (such as hearing speech in noise) can be very distressing, especially as we grow older. Can we do anything to preserve or even enhance our hearing as we grow older, apart from avoiding exposure to loud sounds? Surprisingly, recent research suggests that musical training (learning to play an instrument or sing) improves the brain's encoding of speech sounds." Paper 2pMUa by Aniruddh D. Patel will be presented Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 1.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/AniruddhPatel_2pMUa1.html
3. Shape-shifting artificial ears inspired by bats
"The goal of our research is to learn from bats and mimic them to design a smart, dynamic structure to enhance the function of microphones. Some bat species can change the shape of their ears, which may help them to extract more information from incoming sounds. In contrast to this, typical microphones in use today do not make use of changing their physical shapes. Our research aims at introducing changes in physical shape to the design of microphones with enhanced sensing capabilities." Paper 5aAB14 by Mittu Pannala et al. will be presented Friday morning, Nov 4.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/Pannala_5aAB14.html
4. Vibrational assessment of ice hockey goalie sticks
"In the game of ice hockey, most players no longer use wood hockey sticks. Instead, the vast majority of players prefer sticks made from carbon fiber composites. However, goalies have not followed this trend; the majority of goalies still use wood sticks, even though composite goalie sticks are available from a variety of manufacturers. Anecdotal information suggests that goalies prefer wood sticks because they sting less when impacted by a puck traveling at high speed. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether acoustic and vibration signatures of goalie sticks can help explain this preference." Paper 3aED5 Linda J. Hunt and Daniel A. Russell will be presented Wednesday morning, Nov. 3.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/Russell_3aED.html
5. Ultrasound and breast cancer research: Making "waves" in surgical innovation
"An interdisciplinary team of scientists and medical doctors from three Utah universities and the Huntsman Cancer Institute are developing advanced ultrasonic technology for surgical use that will assist surgeons in removing microscopic cancer from the breast during procedures such as lumpectomy. The new technique promises to reduce the high number of repeat surgeries after lumpectomy by detecting and identifying cancerous tissues along the edges, rapidly and in real-time. This will allow the surgeon to accurately remove enough tissue to ensure no cancer remains, while preserving as much unaffected tissue as possible." Paper 3aED1 by Kristina M. Sorensen et al. will be presented on Wednesday morning, Nov. 3.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/Sorensen_3aED1.html
6. The joint purpose of pitch patterns in "motherese": Drawing attention and conveying language structure
"Have you heard moms and dads talk differently to their infants than to adults? Such speech is commonly called 'motherese' or infant-directed speech. A large body of research, mostly on the English language, has found evidence that infants prefer infant-directed speech to adult-directed speech. Therefore, we and other researchers are interested in understanding if and in what ways infant-directed speech might facilitate infant development." [] "Our preliminary results suggest that pitch patterns in infant-directed speech, as compared to adult-directed speech, may serve the joint purpose of conveying language structure as well as drawing attention and establishing emotional rapport; these goals are not necessarily at cross-purposes." Paper 5aSCa3 by Kristine M. Yu et al. will be presented on Friday morning, Nov. 4.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/Yu_5aSCa3.html
7. Do we speak more dramatically when we speak loud?
"In clinical settings, people with speech disorders secondary to neurologic conditions [] are frequently trained to speak louder so that they sound more understandable to listeners. However, it is not yet clear why this strategy might yield better speech intelligibility. Do speakers over articulate in pronouncing vowels or produce dramatic pitch variations across stressed and unstressed sounds, or are louder speakers more intelligible simply because of the increased volume of speech? Maybe a combination of increased loudness and over articulation contributes to the increased understandability of high-volume speech. " Paper 4aSCb8 by Yunjung Kim will be presented on Thursday morning, Nov. 3.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/Kim_4aSCb8.html
8. Miniaturizing piezoelectric microphones with nanotechnology
"Microphones have been getting smaller. In recent years, advances in micromachining technology and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), have led to smaller microphones that can perform as well as larger traditional microphones. Microphone miniaturization is a challenge though, because generally as a microphone design is shrunk down, performance will naturally get worse as sensitivity tends to decrease while noise will typically increase. To get improved performance, designers have tried to overcome this challenge by using very thin films for the acoustic sensing diaphragms and carefully controlling the material properties." Paper 3aEA7 by Adam Mathias et al. will be presented on Wednesday morning, Nov. 2.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/Mathias_3aEA7.html
9. Energy harvesting of tonal sound excited by heat addition and vortex shedding
"High-amplitude tonal sound may appear inside duct systems due to excitation of acoustic resonances by unsteady heat release or vortex shedding in the presence of mean flow. Noise generation in ventilation systems and unstable combustion coupled with acoustic oscillations in rocket motors and industrial burners are examples of undesirable and often harmful phenomena. In thermoacoustic engines, acoustic waves are excited intentionally with the purpose of converting waste heat or solar radiation into useful forms of energy. The power of excited tonal sound in these systems can be harvested by electroacoustic transducers and applied for powering sensors and other small-scale devices, thus eliminating a need for battery replacement." Paper 4aEAa by Sungmin Jung et al. will be presented Thursday morning, Nov. 3.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/matveev-4aEAa.html
10. Listening to the ocean: The whales' story of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
"Scientists from the Littoral Acoustic Demonstration Center (LADC), a consortium of scientists from four Gulf State Universities, use sounds made by marine mammals to understand the impact of the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on the resident populations of these animals, particularly endangered sperm whales and beaked whales. Despite the fact that immediate effects may be difficult to assess, the long term impact can be significant and reflect environmental stresses on the whole deep-water ecosystem since whales are at the top of the ocean food chain." Paper 4aAB6 by Natalia Sidorovskaia et al. will be presented Thursday morning, Nov. 3.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/lay_lang.html
11. Hearing between the lines: how people with hearing impairment can take detours to understand speech
"Getting a hearing aid or cochlear implant is not like picking up a new set of eyeglasses. Hearing devices don't 'fix' your hearing instantly people with hearing loss need to re-learn what sounds are and how to interpret them. This can be a long and difficult process, despite the best efforts of clinicians and hearing aid engineers. Recent research at the University of Maryland suggests that people with hearing impairment don't merely show lower success in listening to speech; they actually could take a whole different kind of listening strategy to hear a hearing detour. These differences in listening strategies have implications for what we know about hearing loss and how to effectively treat it." Paper 2aSC4 by Matthew B. Winn et al. will be presented Tuesday morning, Nov. 1.
http://www.acoustics.org/press/162nd/Winn_2aSC4.html
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MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE 161ST ASA MEETING
The Town and Country Hotel is located at 500 Hotel Circle North, San Diego, California, 92108. Reservations: 1-800-772-8527; Main Number: 1-619-291-7131.
USEFUL LINKS: Main meeting website: http://acousticalsociety.org/
Searchable index: http://asa.aip.org/asasearch.html
Hotel site: http://www.towncountry.com/index.cfm
Webcast registration and viewing: http://www.aipwebcasting.com
PRESS REGISTRATION
The Acoustical Society will grant free registration to credentialed full-time journalists and professional freelance journalists working on assignment for major news outlets. If you are a reporter and would like to attend, contact Charles E. Blue (cblue@aip.org, 301-209-3091), who can also help with setting up interviews and obtaining images, sound clips, or background information.
ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,000 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (the world's leading journal on acoustics), Acoustics Today magazine, ECHOES newsletter, books, and standards on acoustics. The society also holds two major scientific meetings each year. For more information about ASA, visit our website at http://www.acousticalsociety.org.
[ | 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.
A vaccine that protects against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus should be routinely given to boys ages 11 and 12 to prevent anal cancer, a government advisory committee has decided.
Though many parents may not wish to contemplate the future sex lives of their pre-adolescent children, vaccinating them young is the best way to avoid the risk of the cancer-causing virus, experts said Tuesday.
The recommendation is sure to ignite further debate among the Republican presidential candidates who have focused intently on whether the controversial vaccine, called Gardasil, is appropriate for girls ? who receive it for prevention of cervical cancer ? let alone for boys.
Texas Gov. Rick Perrywas criticized by his GOP rivals for ordering mandatory HPV vaccination for girls in his state in 2007. The mandate was overturned by the Legislature, and Perry eventually withdrew his support for the idea.
Another Republican presidential hopeful, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, has placed Gardasil in the spotlight by suggesting that the vaccine can cause "mental retardation."
Public health groups quickly criticized Bachmann for the remarks, and the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, prior to its Tuesday vote, took time to state for the record that the vaccine does not cause mental retardation.
The vote of 13 to 0 (with one abstention) in favor of routine HPV vaccination of boys supersedes a 2009 vote by the panel recommending Gardasil be available to males ages 9 to 26 to prevent genital warts but not recommending routine vaccinations.
Since then, several studies have shown that the human papillomavirus is responsible for many cases of anal cancer in addition to cervical cancer and genital warts, and that the vaccine can curb this risk, warranting a shift to stronger recommendations, the panel members said. The vaccination of boys also will help protect unvaccinated females, the panel added.
Gardasil, administered as a three-shot regimen, has been advised since 2006 for girls ages 11 and 12 as well as for older unvaccinated females to prevent cervical cancer.
In addition to routinely administering Gardasil to boys ages 11 and 12, the panel, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also advised vaccination for boys as young as age 9 and for males ages 13 to 21 who have missed the ideal vaccination age window of 11-12.
Although CDC officials do not have to follow the committee's guidance, they often do ? and a CDC vaccination recommendation is significant because health insurers typically shape their coverage to be in line with such recommendations.
"I think this is a major step forward in prevention of HPV-related cancers," said Dr. Joel Palefsky, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco and director of the UCSF Anal Neoplasia Clinic. Palefsky's lab reported last year that Gardasil curbed the development of precancerous anal lesions that can evolve into cancers. He has received grants from Merck, the maker of Gardasil, and has served as an advisor to the company.
"It also serves to equalize the burden of vaccination to not just one gender ? and recognizes the responsibility of both males and females," Palefsky said.
Anal precancers are difficult to treat and there is no routine screening test for early diagnosis, as there is for cervical cancer. The four strains of HPV that Gardasil protects against account for about 90% of all cases of anal cancers, he added.
More than 5,000 cases of anal cancer are reported a year and about 700 people die from it annually, according to the American Cancer Society. Rates have doubled in the United States since 1980 and are increasing about 2% a year.
Men who have sex with men are at highest risk for anal cancer. For that reason, some health experts proposed recommending HPV vaccination only to gay or bisexual men.
But, as with girls, the vaccine would be most effective if delivered before initiation of sexual activity ? and trying to target the vaccine based on sexual orientation for school-age males would be a practical and ethical morass, health experts have noted.
"A routine vaccination recommendation de-stigmatizes the vaccine and makes it likely that those people who would benefit the most will also get the vaccine," Palefsky said.
Heterosexual men will also benefit from vaccination, in any case, by a reduction in the risk of genital warts, anal cancer and, possible, some oral cancers, he added.
In reaching their conclusions, the committee debated whether routine vaccination of boys was necessary if girls were already vaccinated. As more girls and women are vaccinated, they create a "herd immunity" effect, reducing the amount of virus that circulates in a community and thus lowering infection rates in both women and men.
However, as of 2010, only about a third of U.S. girls had received the three-dose vaccine, and the rates are plateauing, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Another potential barrier to routine use is money. The three-shot series costs at least $300.
"Year after year we continue to have evidence of low uptake in girls," said Dr. Jane Kim, an assistant professor of health decision science at Harvard School of Public Health who has studied the cost-effectiveness of the HPV vaccine. "When we're at such low coverage for girls, it is of value to vaccinate boys."
It's not clear how well parents will embrace vaccination of their adolescent sons. Those who are dubious should know that vaccination against HPV may help prevent other types of cancers, such as those of the penis, head, neck and mouth, said Dr. Jessica Kahn, associate professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and chair of the vaccinations committee for the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, which supported the recommendation.
Rates of oral cancers are rising, and HPV infection is now thought to account for more cases of oral cancer than tobacco use, Kahn said.
And, she added, the vaccine is just as safe and effective in boys as in girls.
The key to acceptance, Kahn added, will be in making sure that parents understand the range of diseases that HPV can cause in their sons. The role of HPV in cervical cancer is broadly known, she said. "But we fall short in explaining what HPV can cause in boys and men."
In addition to taking the blame for the bullpen phone snafu on Monday night, Tony La Russa yesterday explained the failed hit and run with Albert Pujols at bat and Allen Craig on first. ?In doing so he confirmed what everyone suspected and what he himself briefly said on Monday: that Pujols has the authority to call a hit and run himself.
Which is certainly not unprecedented. As Tim McCarver noted after it happened, many players have had this ability. He mentioned Cal Ripken. Others have mentioned guys like Tony Gwynn. Some writers say that Kirk Gibson allows several members of the Diamondbacks to do it. ?It?s not the sort of thing we hear much about but, yes, it?s a thing.
And here?s how La Russa explained it during his presser:
?The other thing that?s so great about it, if you stop and think about it, a great hitter like Albert, there?s situations come up in a game where the hit-and-run in the manager?s opinion is the play, and you really wonder what message you?re sending your great player when you put the hit-and-run on, because you?re kind of saying, ?We don?t want you to swing the bat.?
?So when a guy like Albert is so receptive to playing the game right, that?s kind of why I?m so aggressive in addressing this. It?s really a humongous break for our club when a great player wants to play the game right. And that?s kind of the point I want to make.?
Here?s my problem with it: why would that ever be a good play with your big bopper at the plate? The hit and run is a one-run strategy. And practically, it?s a much safer play if you have a contact hitter at the plate. Yes, Pujols is something special and doesn?t strike out at the rate your typical power hitter does, but he?s not exactly the guy you just want putting a bat on a ball. You want him waiting for something he can drive. He?s pretty darn good at that, actually.
La Russa admits that it?s bad to send the message to a great hitter that you want to take the bat out of his hands. Yet he says that Pujols wanting to take the bat out of his own hands is ?playing the game right.? ?I can?t help but disagree. It seems like it?s never, ever right to do that to a guy like Pujols. And if it never makes sense to hit and run with Pujols at the plate, you have to question why he has the power to call such a play at all.
GALLATIN, Tenn. (AP) ? Preliminary DNA tests prove that the fiance of a Tennessee woman did not father the newborn twin boys she is accused of smothering, verifying what she told police about the children's paternity, a detective testified on Tuesday.
Lindsey Lowe, 25, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Sumner County General Sessions Judge James Hunter sent the case to the grand jury after hearing testimony.
During the hearing, Lowe sobbed audibly as Hendersonville Police Det. Steve Malach described how she had told him of the affair that occurred in December and early January.
He said Lowe first said the father was her fiance, Jonathan Brooks, but that she had not told him, or anybody, of the pregnancy.
"I asked if it was possible anybody else was the father, and she told he she had cheated on her fiance with another guy, Jeremy Smith," Malach said.
Lowe later told Malach she had not told her fiance of the pregnancy so as not to disappoint him and because she didn't want to add to the stress of a family member's illness.
Malach said paternity test results showed it was more than 99.9 percent likely that Smith was the father of the boys.
Lowe's attorney, John Pellegrin, said after the hearing that it was the first time he and his client had heard the results of the paternity test. He said it is his understanding that Lowe, who is free on bond, remains engaged to Brooks. Brooks attended the hearing.
Police have said that Lowe told them she covered the mouths of the infants with her hand after giving birth on Sept. 12 so that her parents, whom she lived with, would not hear their cries. Her father called police two days later after discovering one of the two babies in a laundry basket in his daughter's bedroom.
After the hearing, Pellegrin told reporters, "I feel strongly that this is a mental health issue."
He said he believes the biological changes during pregnancy may have caused the onset of a mental disease in Lowe. And he said many other Western countries treat neonaticide by the mother as a mental disease.
Malach described details of his investigation. That included Lowe attending a wedding in Kentucky the weekend before giving to birth on a Monday that seemed meant to portray the woman as unfeeling.
He said Lowe returned to work two days after giving birth and sent her father a joking text message. Malach found Lowe at work and began to talk to her in an empty room.
"I said, 'I guess you know why I'm here,' and she was laughing and said, 'No. I have no idea,'" Malach testified.
He said she continued to chat with him for the half-hour ride to the police station.
"She told me she was a college graduate and she was into interior design,' he said. She even talked about plans to start a business.
Her attorney, Pellegrin, did not call any witnesses.
District Attorney General Ray Whitley said after the hearing that his office had informed Smith of the paternity test results earlier in the day.
"He took it like a man," Whitely said, explaining that Smith had known of the possibility and did not have an emotional reaction when he found out. He said the affair would be part of the proof they would present at trial as a possible motive for the killing.
Whitley said Smith lives in Kentucky and that he and Lowe know each other "through a family connection."
During the hearing, prosecutors asked to have Lowe's bond revoked because she had tested positive for a benzodiazepine drug, such as Valium or lithium. The two sides agreed to meet next week for a bond hearing.
However, Pellegrin said afterward that he doubts the hearing will be necessary as he expects to be able to show prosecutors that Lowe is not taking drugs for which she does not have a prescription.
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Public release date: 26-Oct-2011
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