*Microsoft today awarded grants to six organizations that help veterans and their spouses find jobs. The grants were part of the company’s Elevate America Veterans Initiative, a series of training and placement programs.*
REDMOND, Wash. – Nov. 10, 2010 – Microsoft is providing millions of dollars in cash and software to help returning veterans find employment in technology jobs.
The company announced today the grant recipients of its Elevate America Veterans Initiative, a series of training and placement programs to help give veterans and their families the skills and resources they need to succeed in today’s work force. Six nonprofits that work with veterans and their spouses will share $2 million in cash and up to $6 million in software and information technology skills training curriculum.(more…)
*Helps networks to keep pace with exploding number of internet users — from people to machines*
ARMONK, N.Y., – 09 Nov 2010: IBM today announced a new chip-making technology that can be used to create advanced semiconductors that can keep pace with the exploding number of internet-connected devices and the tidal wave of data they are generating.
The Cu-32 Custom Logic offering employs unique IBM technology — designed by IBM Research — to dramatically increase the memory capacity and processing speeds of chips used in fiber-optic and wireless networks, and in such gear as routers and switches. The technology can help manufacturers and network operators handle the data deluge driven by consumers’ appetites for smart phones and other Web-connected devices. (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Some scholars estimate that presenteeism, a relatively recent buzzword that applies to people who are less productive at work because of health issues, costs employers as much as three times the dollar amount as absenteeism in terms of lost productivity.
But researchers at University of Michigan believe those numbers may be inaccurate. A new opinion paper suggests that the tools for measuring and quantifying hours of lost productivity and translating those hours to dollars are unreliable and don’t capture the entire presenteeism picture, said Susan Hagen, an analyst from the U-M School of Kinesiology Health Management Research Center (HMRC). (more…)
Average observed tropical (black) and estimated SST (blue) rose together in the last 30 years. Image credit: University of Hawaii at Mānoa
Scientists have long known that atmospheric convection in the form of hurricanes and tropical ocean thunderstorms tends to occur when sea surface temperature rises above a threshold. So how do rising ocean temperatures with global warming affect this threshold? If the threshold does not rise, it could mean more frequent hurricanes.
A new study by researchers at the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) of the University of Hawaii at Mānoa shows this threshold sea surface temperature for convection is rising under global warming at the same rate as that of the tropical oceans. Their paper appears in the Advance Online Publications of Nature Geoscience. (more…)
*Microsoft dramatically expands access to one of its most elite certification programs.*
REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 9, 2010 — Microsoft is making it more feasible for some of the world’s most talented technology consultants, architects, database engineers and administrators to earn credentials and recognition for their skills. Starting today, the Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) Exam — which certifies professionals’ expertise in the data management platform — will be available in testing centers in nine countries.(more…)
Hybrid Cardiac Procedure. Schematic of the heart showing the minimally-invasive approaches to allow access to the surface of the heart (the blue and red areas) during this hybrid cardiac procedure. Image credit: University of California
New techniques now being used at UCLA allow doctors to more precisely target certain areas of the heart to stop ventricular arrhythmias — serious abnormal rhythms in the heart’s lower chambers — in high-risk patients.
Generally, arrhythmias can be controlled by medications, and sometimes defibrillators. But a potentially life-threatening, recurrent arrhythmia known as a ventricular tachycardia, which originates in one of the heart’s two ventricles, can produce a fast heart beat that requires other interventions, such as catheter ablation, in which the precise focus area of the arrhythmia must be controlled.
Cardiologists will often use catheter ablation once medications and other therapies have failed. The procedure involves the insertion of a tiny, metal-tipped catheter through a vein in the groin or neck to reach the inside of the heart. Prior to the procedure, electrical tests are conducted on the heart to identify and map the exact site of the arrhythmia’s origin.(more…)
ARMONK, N.Y. – 09 Nov 2010: IBM today inaugurated Smarter Cities Challenge, a competitive grant program in which IBM will award $50 million worth of technology and services to help 100 municipalities across the globe. Teams of IBM experts will provide city leaders with recommendations for successful growth, better delivery of municipal services, more citizen engagement, and improved efficiency.
This new program is the single-largest philanthropic investment currently planned by IBM, which made US$186 million worth of charitable contributions in 2009, comprising cash, technology, and consulting services. (more…)
This Black-capped Chickadee, captured in Anchorage, Alaska, demonstrates an overgrown beak characteristic of avian keratin disorder. Beak deformities in this species were first observed in the late 1990s and biologists have since documented more than 2,100 affected individuals in Alaska. Image credit: U.S. Geological Survey
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The highest rate of beak abnormalities ever recorded in wild bird populations is being seen in a number of species in the Northwest and Alaska, and scientists to this point have not been able to isolate the cause.
Black-capped Chickadees, Northwestern Crows, and other birds are being impacted by the problem, which affects their ability to feed and clean themselves and could signal a growing environmental health problem.
In birds affected by what scientists have termed “avian keratin disorder,” the keratin layer of the beak becomes overgrown, resulting in noticeably elongated and often crossed beaks, sometimes accompanied by abnormal skin, legs, feet, claws and feathers. Biologists with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Alaska Science Center published their findings in this month’s issue of The Auk, a Quarterly Journal of Ornithology.
“The prevalence of these strange deformities is more than ten times what is normally expected in a wild bird population,” said research biologist Colleen Handel with the USGS, “We have seen effects not only on the birds’ survival rates, but also on their ability to reproduce and raise young. We are particularly concerned because we have not yet been able to determine the cause, despite testing for the most likely culprits.” (more…)
