fiogf49gjkf0d
Gizmorama - April 29, 2015
Good Morning,
Electricity powers so much. Come to think of it, it powers just about everything - even the stock market. That's right! Don't believe me? Check out the story below.
Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.
Until Next Time,
Erin
P.S. Did you miss an issue? You can read every issue from the Gophercentral library of newsletters on our exhaustive archives page. Thousands of issues, all of your favorite publications in chronological order. You can read AND comment. Just click
GopherArchives
***
* Study: Electricity usage can predict stock market *
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (UPI) - For many, predicting future stock prices seems like little more than rolling the dice. But it turns out, something as simple as electricity use can anticipate next year's returns.
According to researchers at the University of Notre Dame, industrial electricity use is negatively correlated with the following year's stock returns.
"For example, if the industrial electricity usage this month is 1 percent lower than that in the same month last year, we predict the stock market return to be 0.92 percent higher in the next year," Zhi Da, a professor of finance at the University of Notre Dame, explained in a press release.
Da says the newly illuminated correlation supports what's called the "counter-cyclical risk premium," which is the idea that it is best to double down on investment during a recession.
Some economists use similar theories to advocate for the federal government's use of progressive taxation during boom times, while upping federal expenditures and make infrastructure investments during slack periods.
Businessman, investor and philanthropist Sir John Templeton famously said: "The best time to invest is when there is blood in the streets."
Da says that industrial electricity output is an especially good business cycle indicator because it can't be easily or cheaply stored. It must be used.
"As a result, industrial electricity usage can be used to track production and output in real time," Da said. It's extra useful, he pointed out, for tracking especially cyclical industrial sectors, like steel and machinery.
Da says that while the new work focuses on industrial electricity, he suggests other indicators could potentially work just as well.
"The notion of counter-cyclical risk premium suggests that any other good business cycle measures should also predict stock market performance," he said. "We study several such measures based on the industrial production in our paper. Compared to these well-known business cycle indicators, which may take several months before they are announced, the electricity usage data is available in almost real time."
The research is set to published in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.
* Wireless router could silently monitor vital signs *
BOSTON (UPI) - Researchers at MIT have developed a system that can wirelessly monitor a person's breathing and heart rate. The system, called Vital-Radio, was designed in MIT's Katabi Lab, part of the school's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
Without using any wearable body sensors, the wireless router can hone in on the slightest of movements -- silently measuring vital signs as a person stands, sits or sleeps. Vital-Radio works much like a radar system, pinging radio waves off of surrounding objects.
Computers are able to analyze the returned radio waves, identifying when the waves are bounced off a human. The system can then hone in on the slight movements that reveal contracting lungs or a beating heart.
Researchers say the system could be used to monitor hospital patients, or keep tabs on sleeping infants at home. Earlier this week, they presented their system at the CHI computer conference in Seoul, South Korea.
"Breathing and heart rate would be interesting in hospitals if you want to monitor people without having things on their body," research team member Fadel Adib told New Scientist.
But such a sensitive and specific system can get confused. Natural human movements -- walking around an apartment -- can undermine the system's ability to measure vitals. That's why the systems don't try to track to many types of movements at once. Engineers are working to perfect the system so it monitors movements when a person is moving and vitals when a person is stationary. When subjects are still, the system can track vitals with accuracy comparable to traditional methods.
"It has traditionally been very difficult to capture such minute motions that occur at the rate of mere millimeters per second," Dina Katabi, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science and director of MIT's Wireless Center, said in a press release. "Being able to do so with a low-cost, accessible technology opens up the possibilities for people to be able to track their vital signs on their own."
Missed an Issue? Visit the Gizmorama Archives