Features

LONDON — The next big thing in aviation may be really small.

With some no bigger than a hummingbird, the hottest things at this week’s Farnborough International Airshow are tiny compared with the titans of the sky, such as the Airbus 380 or the Boeing Dreamliner.

What’s got aviation geeks salivating at Farnborough, this year’s biggest aviation jamboree that features participants from 40 countries, are the commercial possibilities of unmanned aerial vehicles — drones to most of us.

Drones are more commonly known for their use in conflict areas. This week Hamas launched for the first time an unmanned drone into Israeli airspace that was shot down.

But drones, which can weigh less than an ounce, have potential commercial applications that are vast. The industry, military and non-military, is growing and could according to some see investments of nearly $90 billion over the next ten years.

Experts say they can be adapted to fly over fields to determine when crops need watering, fly into clouds in hopes of offering more precise predictions on twisters, track endangered rhinos, spot wildfires and search out vast stretches of land for missing children.

And like the dawn of the era of aviation a little over a century ago, innovations are often being conducted by individuals with an idea and endless enthusiasm. They won’t find it easy though as the big players in the markets, such as Boeing and Airbus, are also getting involved.

A lot of the research has been taking place in big flat places such as the Plains States, where a broad expanse of land combines with universities near military bases with air space exclusions to make research possible.

Where California had Silicon Valley to drive its high-tech industries, America’s central belt from North Dakota to Texas could become a new research and commercial centre for the aviation industry — the Silicon Plains.

“This is open country for entrepreneurs,” said Stephen McKeever, Oklahoma’s secretary of science and technology. “There will be a Steve Jobs.”

But things are a bit on hold at the moment for the American makers of unmanned air vehicles, or UAVs, as they await rules from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Under current rules, you can legally fly drones for “recreational purposes”, as long as you comply with certain basic guidelines — such as keeping well clear of airports.

Commercial operations are only allowed with special authorisation, a cumbersome process that the government intends to streamline. Once they are able to do this, McKeever suggests the situation will be akin to the land rush that sent land-hungry settlers scurrying to his state in 1889.

The FAA is developing regulations to permit the widespread commercial use of drones while protecting privacy and preventing interference with larger aircraft. As part of this process, the FAA in December selected six test sites around the country where research on drones will be conducted in a variety of environments.

North Dakota is one of them, and Brian Opp, manager of aerospace business development for the North Dakota Department of Commerce, is at Farnborough, promoting the virtues of the weather. In other words, if your drone can work in the midst of a freezing North Dakota winter or its scorching summer, it will work anywhere.

“That’s good news for us,” Opp said cheerfully.

The Teal Group, which offers analysis of the aviation industry, estimates that $89.1 billion will be spent on drones in the next decade, the bulk of which will still be military.

Philip Finnegan, director of corporate analysis for the group, said commercial UAVs need to test to see what is possible.

“It’s pretty clear it will work, but it’s going to depend on application, and at this point the companies can’t even test that,” said Finnegan.

Areas such as the Great Plains will face tough completion, not least from Australia, where regulators have been more forgiving of research than their US counterparts. Japan, also, is a big user of drones, particularly in agriculture.

When, and if, the US regulations relax, companies, such as AeroVironment of Monrovia, California, which have been making military drones, have said they are ready to pounce.

In the meantime, researchers are experimenting with ideas such as a drone that looks like a hummingbird, hovers like one and weighs about as much as a Triple A battery.

“It’s just fun,” said Roy Minson, the company’s senior vice president. “It’s the sort of thing we used to dream about as kids.”

Those interested in commercial aspects of such vehicles or systems have hesitated to even call their products drones for fear of association with those used for military purposes.

But they seem to be coming around to the fact that drone slips off the tongue a bit easier than unmanned vehicle system.

“I think we need to redefine the word drone,” McKeever said. “The public will embrace it.”

ZURICH — Swiss drugmaker Novartis has struck an agreement with Google to develop “smart” contact lenses that would help diabetics track their blood glucose levels or restore the eye’s ability to focus.

The device for diabetics would measure glucose in tear fluid and send the data wirelessly to a mobile device, Novartis said. The technology is potentially life-changing for many diabetics, who prick their fingers as many as 10 times daily to check their body’s production of the sugar.

Success would allow Novartis to compete in a global blood-sugar tracking market that is expected to be worth over $12 billion by 2017, according to research firm GlobalData. Diabetes afflicts an estimated 382 million people worldwide.

The second approach is for presbyopia, in which ageing eyes have trouble focusing on close objects. Novartis hopes the lens technology will help restore the eye’s ability to focus, almost like the autofocus on a camera.

Non-invasive sensors, microchips and other miniaturised electronics would be embedded into the contact lenses.

Under the deal with Google, Novartis’ Alcon eyecare unit will further develop and commercialise the lens technologies designed by Google, the American company’s development team.

Financial details were not disclosed.

The alliance comes as drugmakers explore ways for technology to reshape healthcare, helping patients monitor their own health and lowering the costs of managing chronic diseases.

In turn, technology firms such as Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and Google are trying to find health-related applications for wearable devices.

Novartis Chief Executive Joe Jimenez said he hoped a product could be on the market in about five years’ time.

“This really brings high-technology and combines it with biology and that’s a very exciting combination for us,” Jimenez told Reuters.

“I think you’re going to see more and more areas of unmet medical need where companies like Novartis are going to take a non-traditional approach to addressing those unmet needs.”

Although the licensing deal is just for the eye, Jimenez said the drugmaker was also thinking about how technology could be applied in other areas, such as remote patient monitoring in heart failure.

ROME — Scribbling emotions on walls has been a tradition in Rome going back thousands of years and even the word “graffiti” was first used for markings found in the ruins of Pompeii.

The modern version could be the scrawls seen in maternity wards in the Italian capital: “Get a move on, auntie’s waiting!”, “Chiara is born!”, “Welcome little Mattia!”.

From wealthy neighbourhoods in the city’s north to working class suburbs in the south, Romans are not shy about scrawling on walls — often with phrases in local dialect.

Anti-government satire, celebrations of football success and declarations of love — poetic or crude — can all be found alongside racist insults and fascist imagery.

And that kind of variety is nothing new, according to epigraphist Angela Donati, an expert in ancient Roman inscriptions who teaches at the University of Bologna.

“Most of the messages on the streets of ancient Rome were adverts. But there were also odes to the glory of gladiators or boasts of supposed sexual exploits like the ones found on the walls of brothels,” Donati told AFP.

“Unfortunately the examples of inscriptions discovered on ancient Roman walls are rare but we can suppose that what was true for Pompeii was true for Rome as well,” she said.

Donati said that contrary to modern conceptions about Romans, the graffiti “reveal the high literacy at the time”.

‘Graffiti that make me smile’

Modern-day graffiti can range from spray tags in the Prati neighbourhood to the veritable frescoes on Tiburtina Street and local residents are divided between some who see acts of vandalism and others who appreciate them as raw art.

Agostino Iacurci, a young street artist, said he went through a “tag” phase but now does “murals” — often as part of the renovation of working class neighbourhoods.

“Before I couldn’t care less about what people thought but now I like expressing myself and getting a reaction as a person and an artist. The street offers this type of judgement every time pedestrians walk by,” he said.

A work of street art titled “superpope” captured the imagination of Romans earlier this year — a picture of popular Pope Francis in his white cassock as superman.

The artist, MauPal, said he sees street art as social.

“Urban art does not talk about itself or about the artist but about people, what surrounds it, what’s in the news and what is aesthetic,” he said.

That view is shared by the “Poeti der Trullo” — a collective of young poets based in a poor suburb of the city who write their verses on the walls.

“Our aim is to respect Rome by giving it something more, without disfiguring it. Maybe we can get a smile or a tear from a passer-by,” they said in a statement.

Rome’s waste collection agency AMA said it is forced to clean up the mess — with hundreds of interventions on a total of 700,000 square metres of walls, or twice the surface area of the Vatican.

“If you include the number of people and vehicles deployed and the cleaning products used to wash off the graffiti, the annual cost for cleaning is between 1.2 and 1.5 million euros,” said Anselmo Ricci, head of the municipal police corps in charge of preserving Rome’s historic centre.

It is a heavy cost for a city administration that in February announced a budget deficit of 816 million euros.

“It’s not enough,” said Massimiliano Tonelli, founder of the website Romafaschifo.com.

“The dirtier the walls, the more people are inclined to dirty them. It’s the scratched car theory,” he said.

Ricci is critical too but his reaction is more tempered.

“It is a serious violation but it’s true that sometimes I see graffiti that make me smile. They show up the jolly character of Romans.”

A large utilitarian family car well-suited for the Ikea-run and rock-steady high performance Autobahn-stormer, the Opel Insignia OPC Sports Tourer benefits from the cargo space and four-wheel-drive traction of an SUV and the driving dynamics, handling and ride refinement of a sports saloon.

Spacious and well-kitted, the Opel Performance Centre’s version of the Insignia Sports Tourer is a more sensible and affordable real-world alternative for dad-racers than 500+BHP prestige brand niche super estates.

More than a two-trick pony, the OPC muscle-estate is equally capable outside of its comfort zone, and availed itself with sure-footed grip and unanticipated agility, poise and manoeuvrability along narrow, winding and wooded German switchbacks during the 2014 model year face-lift global launch.

Bullet-train

Substantial and potent, the OPC Sports Tourer’s bulging bonnet and body work, sharp creases and beefy tyres, 10-spoke alloy wheels, tailgate spoiler, integrated chrome-tipped exhaust pipes and defined haunches all lend a muscularly broad road presence.

From silhouette, the OPC Sports Tourer’s profile has a bullet-train sense of presence, urgency and smooth aerodynamics, while an L-shaped side character line emphasises a sense of movement.

Discreetly face-lifted for the 2014 model year, the Insignia OPC classy and understatedly muscular style features an assertive and hungry fascia featuring chrome-tipped ‘sabre-tooth’ air intakes, slim side vents and a wide grille with Opel’s lightning rod emblem flanked by a single chrome slat and set to a black honeycomb background.   

Powered by a 2.8-litre turbocharged transverse V6 engine, the Insignia OPC produces 321BHP and 321lb/ft torque both available by 5250rpm.

A relatively low-revving powerhouse, the OPC Sports Tourer suffers from little low-end turbo lag but benefits from a broad, thrusting and surging mid-range, with torque and power building up in muscular tandem.

Though it falls short of certain super-estates’ exotic power figures, the OPC Sports Tourer could easily be tuned for more power, but as is find a happy compromise between cost-effectiveness, performance and reliability — Not to be scoffed at, the OPC’s performance is brisk, accessible and more entertaining in the real world, as one can more realistically exploit its potential.

Brisk and brawny

With 6-speed manual gearbox, the Insignia OPC clutch biting point was intuitive and its lever slick-shifting, making the back-road blast a more engaging and satisfying experience than an overpowered engine and automatic gearbox.

With its abundantly rich mid-range, the Sports Tourer offers exploitable and muscular real-world performance, in addition to enviable headline stats that belie its 4.9-metre length and 1.9-tonne weight.

Clawing into the tarmac with four-wheel-drive traction, the Insignia OPC bolts off-the-line to 100km/h in 6.3-seconds and delivers effortless mid-range flexibility, with 80-120km/h in fifth gear dispatched in 7.1-seconds.

With a nominal 250km/h top speed, the de-restricted OPC Sports Tourer version tops out at 265km/h. Combined cycle fuel efficiency is 10.9l/100km.

Based on a front-drive transverse platform, the Insignia OPC’s 2.8-litre turbocharged V6 brawny output is directed through a multi-clutch Haldex four-wheel-drive system that distributes power between front and rear axles, and left and right wheels on the rear axles through an electronic limited-slip rear differential, to best put power down to tarmac for effective forward motion, depending on which wheels have best traction and are best placed to apply it.

Providing excellent off-the-line traction, the Insignia OPC’s four-wheel-drive system is complemented by Opel’s modified MacPherson Strut-type HiPerStrut front suspension, which with independent steering axis pivots, prevent torque steer associated with front-drive based high performance platforms.

A long 2,737mm wheelbase and enormous 255/35ZR20 tyres also provide reassuringly resolute lateral grip.

Tenacious traction

With deep turbo-muffled growl as it pounces through the paved rally stage-like back-roads, the OPC Sports Tourer’s 2.8-litre V6 urgently wells up dramatically as it builds up to maximum power.

Downshifting and turning into a corner, the OPC resiliently defies lateral weight transfer and follows the chosen cornering line heroically.

Tenaciously digging into tarmac and surging onto the next corner, the OPC Sports Tourer doesn’t so much shrink around the driver, but rather seemingly brazenly defies expectations of a large heavy estate as it hustles through hot hatch-friendly snaking lanes with precision and sure-footed road-holding.

Through such roads, steering is quick, meaty and precise but is ultimately tuned more for high speed stability than intimate feel or nuance.

With SUV-space and four-wheel-traction but not the high centre-of-gravity, the OPC Sports Tourer offers both better highway stability and handling ability through winding lanes. With firm and buttoned down — but comfortably smooth — suspension, the OPC Sports Tourer is taut and composed through narrow lanes.

While one can kick the rear out slightly, its four-wheel-drive and limited-slip differential tenaciously claw back traction. Over cracks, dips and crests the Insignia OPC is buttoned down on rebound, while highways are dispatched with utmost confidence.

Unexpectedly poised and agile through German country lanes, the 1,930kg heavy and fast OPC Sports Tourer’s big Brembo brakes endured repetitively harsh punishment at the hands of the international motoring press, but remained effective despite pedal feel fade.

Cavernous cabin

A rare practical family car designed for on-road ability, brawny performance and high refinement, the OPC Sports Tourer boasts an ample cargo bay beyond its convenient clamshell rear fascia tailgate.

With generous access to its voluminous boot, the Sports Tourer can accommodate between a 540-litre minimum luggage volume to a 1530-litre maximum with rear seats folded, and up to 535kg.

A well-appointed and finished executive car with soft textures, the OPC Sports Tourer’s cabin is comfortably accommodating and sized for larger drivers, and features supportive, adjustable and hunkered down throne-like sports seats.

Dark and business-like the Insignia OPC’s cabin is busy but logical, while sporting touches include bulbous gear shifter, ‘OPC’ kick-plates and chunky contoured steering wheel.

Thoroughly kitted with creature comforts, infotainment and driver assist systems, the OPC Insignia also features an optional 8-inch screen displaying additional information including oil pressure, throttle position, braking power and lateral g-force acceleration, as befitting a high performance dad-racer of this sort.

The Insignia’s infotainment system also features USB, Bluetooth and smartphone connectivity, and a touchpad controller with letter recognition.

Convenience kit includes automatic tailgate, parking assistance and front and rear cameras, in addition to other features. The OPC features revised electronic stability control settings for improved driving precision, while adaptive dampers alter ride quality for comfort or sporty composure. 

Safety kit includes dual-stage airbags, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, traffic sign assistance and rear cross-traffic, forward collision and blind spot alerts.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2.8-litre, transverse, turbocharged V6-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 89 x 74.8mm

Compression ratio: 9.5:1

Valve-train: 24-valve, DOHC, variable valve timing

Gearbox: 6-speed manual

Top gear/final drive: 0.74:1/3.9:1

Drive-train: four-wheel-drive, electronic limited-slip rear-differential

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 321 (325) [239] @ 5250rpm

Specific power: 115BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 168HP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 321 (435) @ 5250rpm

Specific torque: 155.8Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 225.4Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 6.3-seconds

80-120km/h, fifth gear: 7.9-seconds

Top speed: 265km/h

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 16-/7.9-/10.9-litres/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 255g/km

Fuel capacity: 70-litres

Length: 4,908mm

Width: 1,858mm

Height: 1,520mm

Wheelbase: 2,737mm

Track, F/R: 1,585/1,587mm

Kerb weight: 1,930kg

Luggage, min/max: 540/1,530-litres

Payload: 535kg

Trailor towing, un-braked: 750kg

Steering: Hydraulic rack & pinion

Turning radius: 11.3-metres

Suspension, F/R: HiPerStrut (modified MacPherson struts)/Multi-link, adaptive dampers

Brakes: Ventilated discs

Tyres: 255/35ZR20

TORONTO — Wondering how well things are going on the job and what your co-workers think? New apps remove the guessing game by allowing colleagues to anonymously rate each other.

Knozen, a free iPhone app, allows colleagues to rate each other on traits such as assertiveness, patience, analytical ability, friendliness and scepticism.

“Knowing more about yourself is a gift, and knowing more about how you’re perceiving others and where it’s different, and where it’s the same can be really useful,” said Marc Cenedella, the founder and chief executive officer of New York-based Knozen.

The app, which operates via a work e-mail address when at least seven colleagues in the same company are signed up, poses questions about which colleague is likely to exhibit a particular personality trait such as assertiveness or patience.

All the questions are positive, according to Cenedella and aimed at assessing an employee’s personality.

“The important thing is there are no bad traits. Someone can be structured and organised, or they might be unstructured and open to new things. Both are good, and there’s no wrong answer in personality assessment,” he said.

The app plots each person’s results on a matrix showing personality traits on a scale of one to five. Users can also see the traits they are more prone to than others.

“When we say someone is patient it means that compared to everyone else they will be more likely to wait longer and not get snappy,” Cenedella explained.

He added that greater self-awareness can help people work better in teams by understanding their strengths and weaknesses better.

Another free app for iPhone, Good.Co, which is available worldwide, lets people take quizzes to assess their personality and to receive feedback from contacts in their Facebook and LinkedIn networks.

“Many times feedback we receive from others is more honest than what we’d say about ourselves,” said Samar Birwadker, chief executive officer of Good.Co, which is based in San Francisco.

The app uses positive questions and provides a score that measures the compatibility of employees with each other, and with companies based on personality traits, attitudes and motivations.

“For individuals, self-awareness and self-discovery can help strengthen their career, but also improve other facets of their life as well, including interpersonal relationships,” Birwadker said.

Ryan Ackers, a recruitment adviser at the Dutch human resources consulting firm Randstad, said self-awareness on the job is crucial for career success, happiness and compatibility with co-workers. But he said some employees could perceive the feedback negatively.

“When a person is asked to share their opinion on another person, a popularity contest can result and though many may get lots out of the apps, some may be offended and even hurt,” he said. “If they see themselves not getting rated the way they expect, it could create animosity and low morale.”

PHILADELPHIA — When robots first started playing football, it was a challenge for them just to see the ball. And to stay upright.

But the machines participating in this month’s international RoboCup tournament are making passes and scoring points. Their ultimate goal? To beat the human World Cup champs within the next 35 years.

“It’s hard to predict what will happen in 2050, but we are on the right path,” said event co-founder Manuela Veloso, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University in the US.

A week after the World Cup title game, teams from 45 countries will face off at RoboCup in the Brazilian coastal town of Joao Pessoa.

The “players”, which range from life-size humanoids to wheeled objects the size of football balls, compete in size-based divisions on miniature indoor fields. The tournament runs from July 19-25.

While certainly fun to watch, organisers say the annual competition isn’t just about creating kicking machines. It’s about teaching the fully autonomous robots to make quick, smart decisions while working together in a changing environment.

Those algorithms can translate off the field into technology like self-driving cars or delivery drones, said University of Pennsylvania engineering professor Dan Lee. RoboCup includes separate contests for service robots and search-and-rescue droids.

Lee, who directs Penn’s robotics lab, has been the head “coach” of the school’s RoboCup football teams since 2002. Back then, the games resembled those played by five-year-old children, Lee said.

“They would all cluster together,” he said of the robots. “Whoever got the ball would have a hard time figuring out which way to kick the ball.”

Now, it’s like watching 10-year-olds execute basic athletic skills and strategies, said Lee. The battery-powered creatures play much shorter matches — about 20 minutes, compared with 90 minutes in the World Cup — but generally follow the same rules. Humans referee the games, entering their calls into a computer that communicates with the robots.

When RoboCup first began in 1997, Veloso said, most robotics research focused on the abilities of single machines, such as NASA’s Sojourner rover on Mars. RoboCup seeks to emphasise machine collaboration, she said.

Robot types and technologies are evolving as quickly as smartphones, RoboCup co-chairman Alexandre da Silva Simoes said in an e-mail. Organisers make the game tougher each year by changing parameters like field size or number of players.

Next year, Veloso said, the robots might play outside.

Instead of having to drill and fill cavities, dentists could head them off at the pass with a new technique that accelerates a tooth’s natural healing, King’s College London announced this week.

The technique, called electrically accelerated and enhanced remineralisation, is being developed by Reminova Ltd., a spinoff of King’s College London. It is painless and could be brought to market within three years, the college said in a statement.

“The way we treat teeth today is not ideal,” Nigel Pitts, a professor with the college’s Dental Institute who worked on the project, said in the statement. “When we repair a tooth by putting in a filling, that tooth enters a cycle of drilling and refilling as, ultimately, each ‘repair’ fails.”

Instead, the college said, the new technique, administered in dentists’ offices, would use “a tiny electric current to ‘push’ minerals into the tooth to repair the damaged site”, in essence reversing the decay.

Natural, small-scale tooth repair happens all the time, said Edmond R. Hewlett, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Dentistry who was not involved in the project.

When a person eats or drinks something sugary or particularly acidic, such as citrus juice or certain sports drinks, some microscopic loss of mineral takes place in the tooth’s outer enamel, he said. But saliva contains the building blocks of enamel: calcium and phosphate.

“If you have that occasional short exposure” to sugary and acidic foods, Hewlett said, “the saliva will put back the mineral that gets lost. There’s this constant balance that’s shifting back and forth in your mouth every day.”

When that balance is not maintained and too much of the mineral is lost, however, the tooth develops a caries lesion — which can turn into a cavity, King’s College London said. To fight that decay, people use products to shore up the minerals in their tooth enamel.

“Fluoride is a remineraliser that’s been around for a long time,” Hewlett said. “When it does go into the enamel, it renders the enamel harder to dissolve.” That’s why fluoridated water, toothpastes and mouthwashes have an effect. Newer products, such as creams dispensed at dental offices and specific over-the-counter toothpastes, contain calcium and phosphate as well as fluoride, he added.

That’s not always enough. Not everyone uses those products, and even if they do, sometimes caries lesions — and subsequently cavities — form anyway.

Electrically accelerated and enhanced remineralisation would take the reversal of decay to the next level.

“Not only is our device kinder to the patient and better for their teeth, but it’s expected to be at least as cost-effective as current dental treatments,” Pitts of King’s College said. He said the technique could be used to whiten teeth as well.

SEOUL, South Korea — LG Display Co. has developed an 18-inch (45.72cm) flexible display that can be rolled into the shape of a thin cylinder, a step towards making a large display for flexible TVs.

The South Korean display panel maker said Friday the flexible display has a resolution of 1200 pixels by 810 pixels and maintains its function when it is rolled up.

While that resolution would fall within the range of high-definition, images on the display would not look as sharp as the latest flat displays that boast ultra-high definition.

LG touted its technology as a significant advance, saying the cylinder’s diameter would be just six centimetres (2.4 inches). It means LG Display could produce TVs that are larger than 50 inches diagonally and can be rolled up.

It is based on OLED technology, an advanced display that can show images in richer colours.

South Korean display makers are striving to gain an edge in flexible display technology as they see it as a way to set their products apart from their rivals in China, Taiwan and Japan. They also hope that the novel form would give consumers a reason to buy a new gadget.

Last year, Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. each released a smartphone with a curved display to show off their technological prowess.

But it is unclear how the nascent technology would make handsets or televisions more useful. LG said its technology would make large TVs portable and it is up to the TV makers how they expand the use of the technology.

The South Korean company also unveiled a semi-opaque display. Though it is not as transparent as glass, that’s the direction that the company is heading. LG named it the transparent display saying its transparency has improved from existing technology.

In the picture provided by LG, it is possible to see hands through the display. LG Display spokesman said it is possible to view images on the transparent display from the front and from the back.

By 2017, LG aims to develop a flexible and transparent display that measures more than 60 inches diagonally, Kang In-byung, head of LG Display’s R&D Centre, said in a statement.

NEW YORK — What does it take to get country legends like Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and Merle Haggard on the same album? A 19-year-old newcomer named Mary Sarah.

Sarah’s debut album, “Bridges”, features duets with their original performers including Parton and Nelson on their well-known country songs. It also includes one of Ray Price’s final recordings before he died last year.

She was able to pull off the dream list of collaborators after meeting country singer-songwriter Freddy Powers, a close friend of Nelson and Haggard. Sarah, a Texas native, had performed throughout the Texas Opry circuit for years, mostly in Galveston and around Houston. She originally planned to record an album of covers from top Texas-based country singers.

“We took it to a couple people in Nashville and they said, ‘I don’t think you’re thinking big enough,’” said Sarah, who released the album independently on Tuesday. “The idea wasn’t to have a legends project... What it turned into is really crazy and mind-blowing.”

Sarah eventually moved to Nashville, where she met Parton’s producer, who introduced her to the country diva. Other big names started rolling in, she said.

“It was miracle after miracle that these artists did this on a handshake,” she said.

“Bridges” also features Vince Gill, Tanya Tucker, Ronnie Milsap and Lynn Anderson. The big-voiced teen had been recording the album for two years, and she had kept the project “on the down low”.

“We didn’t tell many people and I think now that it’s coming out, people are like, ‘What? When did this happen?’” she said.

Sarah will reach even further territory when she opens for Haggard on his tour starting August 20 in Starkville, Mississippi.

The singer, whose voice echoes Carrie Underwood, was able to hone her craft when she toured at age 12 with Kidz Bop, the brand behind the compilation albums featuring young adults rerecording popular songs. Sarah said she discovered music was her calling while on that tour.

“When I started singing, the whole crowd started singing along with me and it was a magical moment because it sounded like a choir of angels,” she said.

Another boost came when Joe Bonsall of The Oak Ridge Boys tweeted about Sarah after watching her YouTube videos and invited her to one of the group’s concerts. Backstage, he asked her to perform an a cappella version of Connie Francis’ “Where the Boys Are”, which appears on her new album with its co-writer Neil Sedaka. The Oak Ridge Boys, who had contacted Sarah before she recorded “Bridges”, also appear on the album.

Sarah, who now lives in Franklin, Tennessee, said her follow-up album will be original songs. The blond beauty decided not to put her face on the cover of “Bridges”, which instead features the names of her collaborators.

“This project isn’t just about me. It’s about the legends and bringing this to a newer generation,” she said. “I didn’t wanna put my face on there. I didn’t wanna do anything cheesy.”

Sarah said she’s a big fan of country contemporaries like Underwood, Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert, as well as Katy Perry and other pop stars. She said she hopes people her age will discover some traditional country music by listening to her album.

“I had friends all the time in high school tell me, ‘Who is that? Who is Merle Haggard? Who is Willie Nelson?’” recalled Sarah, who graduated last year. “And I’m sitting there like, ‘Oh my gosh, these people are legends and you don’t even know who they are.’”

(MCT)

MILWAUKEE — A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has shown that chronic stress of poverty, neglect and physical abuse in early life may shrink the parts of a child’s developing brain responsible for memory, learning and processing emotion.

While early-life stress already has been linked to depression, anxiety, heart disease, cancer and a lack of educational and employment success, researchers have long been seeking to understand what part of the brain is affected by stress to help guide interventions.

The UW research recently published in the journal Biological Psychiatry adds to a growing body of research linking chronic stress early in life to brain development. The research focused on two brain regions — the hippocampus and amygdala — that are involved in memory, learning and processing emotion.

Findings from other researchers have been mixed, which the UW researchers believe may be attributed to automated software being used for brain measurements. The automated software may be prone to error because the brain regions are so small, according to the UW researchers.

Seth Pollak, co-leader of the study and a UW professor of psychology, identifies families from all over Wisconsin who are interested in participating in studies at the UW’s Waisman Centre. Pollack is the centre’s director.

For the UW study, Pollack’s team recruited 128 children around age 12 and divided them into four groups after extensive interviews with the children and their caregivers, documenting behavioural problems and their cumulative life stress.

One group had experienced physical abuse, another group was neglected before being adopted from a foreign country, and a third group came from low socioeconomic status households. The fourth group of children came from middle-class households and had not experienced any of the three types of chronic, early stress.

Researchers did MRI scans of the children’s brains, focusing on the hippocampus and amygdala. Then they painstakingly traced those regions of the brain by hand on paper.

The tracing of brain regions alone took about two years, according to the study’s lead author and recent UW PhD graduate Jamie Hanson.

“The regions are very small,” he said. “If you include even a little of one region that shouldn’t be there, it skews the results.”

The hand measurements showed that children who had experienced poverty, neglect or physical abuse had a smaller amygdala and hippocampus than the children from middle-class households with no chronic stress, Hanson said.

“I think we added something substantive to the literature,” he said. “This is a good snapshot into the brain.”

Why early-life stress may shrink brain structures is unknown, according to Hanson, now a postdoctoral researcher at Duke University’s Laboratory for NeuroGenetics.

That question will require researchers to delve deeper into the circuitry of the brain and how regions of the brain interact at the moment a child is exposed to stress. An abused child seeing an image of an angry adult face, for example, Hanson said.

The research may inform social policy and interventions to help vulnerable children, Hanson said.

“The brain isn’t destiny and a lot can be changed,” he said. “We want to give every child the best start.”

In fact, the brain is changeable and treatable through exercise, medication and cognitive therapy, Hanson said.

Not everyone who experiences chronic early stress has negative outcomes, Hanson noted.

“We can think about lots of people who overcome adversity,” he said. “I look at our research as showing a probability. You may have a greater risk, but it’s not 100 per cent.”

Insurance companies figured out long before scientists that the brain is still changing and developing in early adulthood, Hanson said.

“That’s why they require you to be 25 years old to rent a car,” he said.