Author Archives: Guest Post

More Than 100 Million Mobile Consumers in EU5 Received SMS Advertising

*Smartphone Adoption Shifts Dynamics of Mobile Marketing Toward Web/App Ads*

LONDON, UK, 17 November, 2010 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from its comScore MobiLens service showing that mobile marketing in the EU5 countries UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy reached 100 million mobile phone subscribers via SMS ads. Conversely, more than 57 million subscribers recalled seeing an ad on their mobile phone when browsing the internet or accessing an application. Smartphone owners accounted for more than half of the subscribers who received and recalled seeing Web/App ads.  (more…)

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Change in Temperature Uncovers Genetic Cross Talk in Plant Immunity

*University of Missouri investigators’ discovery sheds light on how plants fight off bacterial infections*

Columbia, MO — Like us, plants rely on an immune system to fight off disease. Proteins that scout out malicious bacterial invaders in the cell and communicate their presence to the nucleus are important weapons in the plant’s disease resistance strategy. Researchers at the University of Missouri recently “tapped” into two proteins’ communications with the nucleus and discovered a previously unknown level of cross talk. The discovery adds important new information about how plant proteins mediate resistance to bacteria that cause disease and may ultimately lead to novel strategies for boosting a plant’s immune system.

Special proteins in the plant, called resistance proteins, can recognize highly specific features of proteins from pathogen, called effector proteins. When a pathogen is detected, a resistance protein triggers an “alarm” that communicates the danger to the cell’s nucleus. The communication between the resistance protein and nucleus occurs through a mechanism called a signaling pathway. (more…)

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‘Novel Ocean-Crust Mechanism Could Affect World’s Carbon Budget’

The Earth is constantly manufacturing new crust, spewing molten magma up along undersea ridges at the boundaries of tectonic plates. The process is critical to the planet’s metabolism, including the cycle of underwater life and the delicate balance of carbon in the ocean and atmosphere. 

Now, scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have observed ocean crust forming in an entirely unexpected way—one that may influence those cycles of life and carbon and, in turn, affect the much-discussed future of the world’s climate. 

Working at the Guaymas basin in the Gulf of California, WHOI scientists confirmed what they suspected from brief glimpses of the area during previous missions: The inner Earth is injecting swaths of magma called sills as far as 50 kilometers away from the plate boundary, on each side of the ridge —nearly 10 times farther from such an active ocean ridge than had been observed before.  (more…)

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The Industry Standard in Mobile Messaging Keeps Work Tasks Ticking Along

*Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync popularity on smartphones continues to grow.* 

Adam Glick, senior technical product manager for Microsoft Exchange Server, navigates his phone using Exchange ActiveSync. Image credit: Microsoft

REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 16, 2010On any given day, millions of people around the world will take a few minutes to check their Outlook Mobile Inbox on a smartphone, especially while in transit or away from the office. 

There may be something urgent that requires their immediate response, a meeting room location change, or a new calendar appointment waiting for attention. In any instance, the ability to check in via a smartphone helps them manage tasks and get on with the day while on the go. 

For many, the convenience of accessing e-mail, calendar and contacts on a smartphone is integral to their business’ success, and they cannot imagine working without this capability. 

The protocols that allow this mobile messaging to take place on smartphones reside in Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), which has become the de-facto industry standard for mobile messaging synchronization. 

EAS is an XML-based protocol that communicates over HTTP (or HTTPS) to synchronize e-mail, contacts, calendar, tasks and notes from a messaging server to a mobile device. The protocol also provides mobile device management and policy controls.  (more…)

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Study: Prostate Cancer Treatment Linked to Higher Rate of Colon Cancer

Researchers urge appropriate use of androgen deprivation therapy

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Men treated with hormone-based therapy for prostate cancer faced a 30 percent to 40 percent higher risk of colorectal cancer, compared to patients who did not receive this treatment, according to a new study.  (more…)

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Yahoo! Launches Comprehensive Local Offers Program

*Yahoo! partners with leading local-offer providers to bring the best deals to hundreds of millions of consumers* 

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Yahoo!, Inc. today announced the launch of Local Offers, a program in which Yahoo! is partnering with leading online and offline providers to build one of the largest and most comprehensive repositories of local offers on the Internet. Currently in limited beta in the U.S., Local Offers will make it easy for millions of consumers to find, right on Yahoo!, the best local deals and savings in their area. 

“The local landscape is exploding with new sources of content and advertising, and consumers want these experiences personalized just for them. Yahoo! is taking the complexity out of finding the great local deals that are most relevant to their interests and needs,” said Matt Idema, vice president, Yahoo! Local. “With more than 180 million unique visitors1 to Yahoo!’s sites in the U.S., we are uniquely positioned to deliver our local-offer partners the massive scale and targeting needed to reach engaged audiences, grow their businesses, and drive foot traffic to local merchants.”  (more…)

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When Video Games Get Problematic so Do Smoking, Drug Use and Aggression

A new study on gaming and health in adolescents, conducted by researchers at Yale School of Medicine, found some significant gender differences linked to gaming as well as important health risks associated with problematic gaming. Published yesterday in the journal Pediatrics, the study is among the first and largest to examine possible health links to gaming and problematic gaming in a community sample of adolescents.

Rani Desai, associate professor of psychiatry and epidemiology and public health at Yale, and colleagues anonymously surveyed 4,028 adolescents about their gaming, problems associated with gaming and other health behaviors. They found that 51.2% of the teens played video games (76.3% of boys and 29.2% of girls). The study not only revealed that, overall, there were no negative health consequences of gaming in boys, but that gaming was linked to lower odds of smoking regularly. Among girls, however, gaming was associated with getting into serious fights and carrying a weapon to school. (more…)

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West Nile Virus More Prevalent in Low-income Neighborhoods, Study Finds

Image credit: University of California

Low-income neighborhoods appear to be the most susceptible to West Nile virus, a mosquito-transmitted disease that is linked to more than 1,000 deaths since in the United States since 1999, according to new UCLA-lead research.

Using data on infected humans and mosquitoes from the West Nile virus hotspot of Orange County, Calif., from 2005-08, scientists found that per-capita income and other economic conditions were the single greatest predictor of occurrence, explaining 85-95 percent of the variation. While economic conditions have previously been linked to disease, the study is the first to use a rigorous statistical model.  (more…)

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