Predicting Successful Memes using Network and Community Structure [on Twitter]

Lilian Weng, Filippo Menczer, Yong-Yeol Ahn from Cornell University have created a model that can take a small amount of tweets and tell 2 months in advance whether the tweets will go viral and become a meme or not. This is a network based model, that takes into account: connectivity: number of early adopters, size Read more about Predicting Successful Memes using Network and Community Structure [on Twitter][…]

Shifting employee bonuses from self to others increases satisfaction and productivity at work

Providing employees with a bonus to spend on charities or co-workers may increase job satisfaction and team sales, according to results published September 18 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Lalin Anik from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and colleagues from other institutions.Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-09-shifting-employee-bonuses-satisfaction-productivity.html#jCp http://phys.org/news/2013-09-shifting-employee-bonuses-satisfaction-productivity.html

The effect of subliminal priming on sleep duration

Two experiments primed college students with either sleep-related or neutral words and then assessed sleep during a 25 minute nap period. Both experiments showed that participants primed with sleep-related words reported having slept longer than did those primed with neutral words. Furthermore, both experiments showed that sleep-primed participants exhibited lower heart rate. Experiment 2 also Read more about The effect of subliminal priming on sleep duration[…]

Corked Wine Plugs Up Your Nose

Ever send a bottle of wine back at a restaurant? If you weren’t just being a pretentious snob, then it was probably because the wine seemed “corked”—had a musty odor and didn’t taste quite right. Most likely, the wine was contaminated with a molecule called 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA), the main cause of cork taint. But a Read more about Corked Wine Plugs Up Your Nose[…]

Scientific evidence of what works in education often ignored

According to Gina Kolata in the New York Times, The Institute of Education Sciences in the Department of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, has supported 175 randomized controlled studies, like the studies used in medicine, to find out what works and doesn’t work, which are reported in the What Works Clearinghouse. Surprisingly, the choice of Read more about Scientific evidence of what works in education often ignored[…]

Pollution makes Europeans unhappy

Researchers in Canada have found a correlation between air pollution and people’s happiness. Their deep analysis, reported in the latest issue of the International Journal of Green Economics, suggests that air pollution may lead to unhappiness while the converse is also true, the unhappier the citizens of a country the more air pollution. via Pollution Read more about Pollution makes Europeans unhappy[…]