Many coastal wetlands worldwide — including several on the U.S. Atlantic coast — may be more sensitive than previously thought to climate change and sea-level rise projections for the 21st century. (more…)
WASHINGTON (PRNewswire via COMTEX) — LivingSocial (www.livingsocial.com) has secured a $175 million 
investment from Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN). LivingSocial has also secured an additional $8 million investment from Lightspeed Venture Partners. LivingSocial will use this investment to maintain a steady drumbeat of worldwide launches and overall business growth while continuing to serve more than 10 million subscribers across the U.S., Canada, UK, Ireland and Australia in more than 120 locations. Because of LivingSocial’s rapid expansion, the company is currently booking revenues of more than $1 million a day on average and is projected to book well over $500 million in revenue in 2011. (more…)
*Daylong event January 18 will highlight technology delivery at 32/28nm and beyond*
SANTA CLARA, Calif., – 02 Dec 2010: IBM Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd., and GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced the 2011 
Common Platform Technology Forum will be held Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California’s Silicon Valley. This free, daylong event will feature the Common Platform’s innovative collaboration to deliver semiconductor manufacturing solutions that address the challenges of the 32/28nm technology generation and beyond. (more…)
*UMD Study Advises State on Creation of ‘Nutrient Trading Market’*
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Financially rewarding farmers for using the best fertilizer management practices can simultaneously benefit water quality and help combat climate change, finds a new study by the University of Maryland’s Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CIER). (more…)
Astronomers detected the faint signature of small, dim red dwarf stars in nearby galaxies (right), and found they are much more numerous than in our own Milky Way (left). Image credit: Patrick Lynch/Yale University
Astronomers have discovered that small, dim stars known as red dwarfs are much more prolific than previously thought — so much so that the total number of stars in the universe is likely three times bigger than previously believed.
Because red dwarfs are relatively small and dim compared to stars like our Sun, astronomers hadn’t been able to detect them in galaxies other than our own Milky Way and its nearest neighbors before now. Therefore, they did not know how much of the total stellar population of the universe is made up of red dwarfs.
Now astronomers have used powerful instruments on the Keck Observatory in Hawaii to detect the faint signature of red dwarfs in eight massive, relatively nearby galaxies called elliptical galaxies, which are located between about 50 million and 300 million light years away. They discovered that the red dwarfs, which are only between 10% and 20% as massive as the Sun, were much more bountiful than expected. (more…)
*Norton Healthcare has entered into an agreement with Microsoft to use its health solutions platforms to support its Accountable Care Organization (ACO) initiative.*
REDMOND, Wash., and LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Dec. 2, 2010 — Norton Healthcare has entered into an agreement 
with Microsoft Corp. to use its health solutions platforms, Microsoft Amalga Unified Intelligence System (UIS) and Microsoft HealthVault. These systems will allow Norton Healthcare to aggregate and mine data in a highly efficient manner and will assist the Louisville, Ky.-based health care system in its Accountable Care Organization (ACO) initiative.
Norton Healthcare and Humana Inc. are working together to establish the first ACO in the region, which represents one of four national pilot sites for the Brookings-Dartmouth ACO Pilot Project. The ACO model Norton and Humana are co-creating established incentives for health systems to increase quality and efficiency, better coordinate patient care, eliminate waste, and reduce the overuse and misuse of care (see Nov. 23 news release: “Norton Healthcare and Humana Launch Accountable Care Organization”). (more…)
John Goddeeris, professor of economics. Image credit: Michigan State University
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Most survivors of extremely low birth weight grow up to become productive adults, according to a study led by a Michigan State University economist.
Extremely low birth weight is defined as less than about 2.2 pounds. About one in 200 babies is born at that size. But because relatively few survived prior to the 1980s, few studies have examined their adult outcomes.
The study led by MSU’s John Goddeeris found that while these survivors were somewhat less productive as adults, on average, than normal-weight subjects, the productivity deficits were not very large. The study, which appears in the journal Pediatrics, measured education and salary levels.
“Our findings suggest that the long-term economic impact of being born at extremely low birth weight is pretty modest for typical survivors,” said Goddeeris, professor of economics. (more…)
*Cyber Monday Shows 16 Percent Increase vs. Year Ago with Half of Online Spending Coming from Work Computers*
RESTON, VA, December 1, 2010 – comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported holiday season retail e-
commerce spending for the first 29 days of the November – December 2010 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $13.55 billion has been spent online, marking a 13-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. Cyber Monday reached $1.028 billion in online spending, up 16 percent versus year ago, representing the heaviest online spending day in history and the first to surpass the billion-dollar threshold. (more…)
