The positive effects of the music of Wolfgang Amadaus Mozart on spatial reasoning ability have become a popular topic. Some studies suggest that listening to Mozart has a short-term positive effect on spatial IQ. Others suggest that prenatal and early childhood exposure to music can lead to long-term positive effects. However, some attempts to duplicate and generalize these findings have failed...

In this report, IOzSeF, a search factory for Mozart/Oz, is presented. Search plays an important role in constraint programming. In Mozart/Oz, search is done by library procedures or the Explorer, a graphical search tool. All these have some shortcomings, mainly that features like recomputation, best solution search and visualisation cannot be combined with freely. IOzSeF aims at combining the a...

The authors investigate the influence of El Niño on midtropospheric CO2 from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and the Model for Ozone and Related Chemical Tracers, version 2 (MOZART-2). AIRS midtropospheric CO2 data are used to study the temporal and spatial variability of CO2 in response to El Niño. CO2 differences between the central and western Pacific Ocean correlate well with the So...

A controversy exists over the “Mozart effect,” which is the influence of Mozart’s classical music on spatial-reasoning abilities. There are contradicting studies of whether listening to Mozart’s music improves performance on spatial-reasoning tasks. This study tested the effect of classical music on performance and investigated the role of arousal and relaxation. Participants were randomly assi...

The problem of reconfiguring power distribution system to reduce power losses has been extensively studied because of its significant economic impact. A variety of approximation computational models have recently been proposed. We describe a constraint programming model for this problem, using the MOzArt system. To handle real world reconfiguration systems we implemented and integrated into MOz...

Steele (2003) raised several concerns regarding Rauscher, Robinson, & Jens’ (1998) study that found improved maze running following early music exposure in rats. Steele’s primary criticisms were that the rats in the Rauscher et al. study were only able to hear 31% of the notes, and that a selection bias resulting in pre-existing differences between groups could account for the disparity in thei...

I’m sorry to report that we’re all about to become obsolete. For proof, one need look no farther than the story that swept the globe 2 September. Here’s how the Toronto Star informed its readers: “Scientists have genetically engineered smarter mice, pointing the way to a brave new world in which parents could — in theory, at least — create baby Einsteins.” The news graced the front page of pape...