Massachusetts Institute of Technology

About: Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a education organization based out in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Laser. The organization has 116795 authors who have published 268000 publications receiving 18272025 citations. The organization is also known as: MIT & M.I.T..

Cognitive Reflection and Decision Making

Abstract: This paper introduces a three-item "Cognitive Reflection Test" (CRT) as a simple measure of one type of cognitive ability—the ability or disposition to reflect on a question and resist reporting the first response that comes to mind. The author will show that CRT scores are predictive of the types of choices that feature prominently in tests of decision-making theories, like expected utility theory and prospect theory. Indeed, the relation is sometimes so strong that the preferences themselves effectively function as expressions of cognitive ability—an empirical fact begging for a theoretical explanation. The author examines the relation between CRT scores and two important decision-making characteristics: time preference and risk preference. The CRT scores are then compared with other measures of cognitive ability or cognitive "style." The CRT scores exhibit considerable difference between men and women and the article explores how this relates to sex differences in time and risk preferences. The final section addresses the interpretation of correlations between cognitive abilities and decision-making characteristics.

Tangible bits: towards seamless interfaces between people, bits and atoms

Abstract: This paper presents our vision of Human Computer Interaction (HCI): "Tangible Bits." Tangible Bits allows users to "grasp & manipulate" bits in the center of users’ attention by coupling the bits with everyday physical objects and architectural surfaces. Tangible Bits also enables users to be aware of background bits at the periphery of human perception using ambient display media such as light, sound, airflow, and water movement in an augmented space. The goal of Tangible Bits is to bridge the gaps between both cyberspace and the physical environment, as well as the foreground and background of human activities. This paper describes three key concepts of Tangible Bits: interactive surfaces; the coupling of bits with graspable physical objects; and ambient media for background awareness. We illustrate these concepts with three prototype systems ‐ the metaDESK, transBOARD and ambientROOM ‐ to identify underlying research issues.

A perovskite oxide optimized for oxygen evolution catalysis from molecular orbital principles.

Abstract: The efficiency of many energy storage technologies, such as rechargeable metal-air batteries and hydrogen production from water splitting, is limited by the slow kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). We found that Ba 0.5 Sr 0.5 Co 0.8 Fe 0.2 O 3–δ (BSCF) catalyzes the OER with intrinsic activity that is at least an order of magnitude higher than that of the state-of-the-art iridium oxide catalyst in alkaline media. The high activity of BSCF was predicted from a design principle established by systematic examination of more than 10 transition metal oxides, which showed that the intrinsic OER activity exhibits a volcano-shaped dependence on the occupancy of the 3d electron with an e g symmetry of surface transition metal cations in an oxide. The peak OER activity was predicted to be at an e g occupancy close to unity, with high covalency of transition metal–oxygen bonds.

Chromatin signature reveals over a thousand highly conserved large non-coding RNAs in mammals

Abstract: There is growing recognition that mammalian cells produce many thousands of large intergenic transcripts. However, the functional significance of these transcripts has been particularly controversial. Although there are some well-characterized examples, most (>95%) show little evidence of evolutionary conservation and have been suggested to represent transcriptional noise. Here we report a new approach to identifying large non-coding RNAs using chromatin-state maps to discover discrete transcriptional units intervening known protein-coding loci. Our approach identified ~1,600 large multi-exonic RNAs across four mouse cell types. In sharp contrast to previous collections, these large intervening non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) show strong purifying selection in their genomic loci, exonic sequences and promoter regions, with greater than 95% showing clear evolutionary conservation. We also developed a functional genomics approach that assigns putative functions to each lincRNA, demonstrating a diverse range of roles for lincRNAs in processes from embryonic stem cell pluripotency to cell proliferation. We obtained independent functional validation for the predictions for over 100 lincRNAs, using cell-based assays. In particular, we demonstrate that specific lincRNAs are transcriptionally regulated by key transcription factors in these processes such as p53, NFκB, Sox2, Oct4 (also known as Pou5f1) and Nanog. Together, these results define a unique collection of functional lincRNAs that are highly conserved and implicated in diverse biological processes.

Bose-Einstein condensation in a gas of sodium atoms.

Abstract: We have observed Bose-Einstein condensation of sodium atoms. The atoms were trapped in a novel trap that employed both magnetic and optical forces. Evaporative cooling increased the phase-space density by 6 orders of magnitude within seven seconds. Condensates contained up to 5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{5}$ atoms at densities exceeding ${10}^{14}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$. The striking signature of Bose condensation was the sudden appearance of a bimodal velocity distribution below the critical temperature of \ensuremath{\sim}2\ensuremath{\mu}K. The distribution consisted of an isotropic thermal distribution and an elliptical core attributed to the expansion of a dense condensate.