Researchers from four universities, including the University of Washington, estimate that nearly a half-million people died from causes attributable to the war in Iraq from 2003 through 2011.
The results, from the first population-based survey since 2006 to estimate war-related deaths in Iraq and the first covering the conflict’s full timespan, are published Oct. 15 in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine. (more…)
Research indicates Microsoft Office applications rank 3 of 20 top in demand skills for high-growth, high-pay careers.
REDMOND, Wash. — Top candidates for current and future jobs will be measured by capabilities and competencies, with 20 distinct skills bubbling up to the top in millions of high-growth, high-paying job postings, according to a white paper commissioned by Microsoft Corp. and released by IDC. The study provides insight into the skills students need for the top 60 high-growth, high-wage occupations that will account for 11.5 million new hires and 28 percent of job growth by 2020. Out of those skills, oral and written communication, detail orientation, and Microsoft Office proficiency top the list. (more…)
Luxemburg/Berlin: Als “Schlag ins Gesicht der europäischen Umweltpolitik und der EU-Demokratie” hat der Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND) die Blockade der Bundesregierung bei der Verschärfung von CO2-Grenzwerten für Pkw kritisiert. Das Drängen von Kanzlerin Angela Merkel und Umweltminister Peter Altmaier auf eine Verschiebung der Entscheidung der EU-Umweltminister über einen neuen Grenzwert zertrümmere Deutschlands Glaubwürdigkeit beim Klimaschutz, sagte Jens Hilgenberg, BUND-Verkehrsexperte. Durch ihr Vorgehen schwäche die Kanzlerin ihre Position auf EU-Ebene bei anderen wichtigen umweltpolitischen Vorhaben wie der Durchsetzung der Energiewende oder eines globalen Klimaschutzabkommens. Zudem führe die Bundesregierung mit ihrer Klientelpolitik die mühsam geführten Verhandlungen im Europaparlament um europaweit akzeptierte Vorgaben für die Automobilindustrie ad absurdum. (more…)
Robert J. Shiller, the Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, has been awarded a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. He shares the award — formally, the 2013 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel — with Eugene F. Fama and Lars Peter Hansen from the University of Chicago. According to the Nobel committee, the three were honored “for their empirical analysis of asset prices.”
Shiller, whose name became a household word with the wide use of the Case-Shiller Home Price real estate Index, came to national prominence with the publication in 2000 of “Irrational Exuberance.” The book, which quickly became a bestseller, described speculative bubbles fueled by mass misinformation and herd instinct, and accurately predicted the dot.com implosion. As early as 2003, Shiller warned of the housing market collapse, and later wrote a precept for recovery, “Subprime Solution: How the Global Financial Crisis Happened and What to Do about It.” (more…)
UD’s Price uses music to unite children of different backgrounds
Turmoil has long existed in the Middle East. Now, one University of Delaware faculty member is doing his part to help bring about peace as part of an intrepid music project. (more…)
Studying phages, viruses that infect bacteria, can help researchers to better understand how portions of the world’s oceans function without oxygen.
Though small, viruses could hold the secrets of how vast portions of the world’s oceans function without oxygen.
University of Arizona undergraduate researcher Sarah Schwenck and postdoctoral associate Jennifer Brum are conducting a research project in the Tucson Marine Phage Lab, which is headed by assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology Matthew Sullivan. (more…)
The Yale University Library and the Family Equality Council are partnering to preserve the history of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) parent equality movement.
It was announced on Oct. 10 that Family Equality, which represents the 3 million LGBT parents in America and their 6 million children, will deed to Yale all historical materials related to the organization and its role in the LGBT family equality movement. The agreement ensures the preservation of more than 30 years of materials related to the founding, growth, and expansion of Family Equality, and documents the organization’s ongoing efforts to advance equality for families with LGBT parents. (more…)
TORONTO, ON – Though it’s barely the beginning of autumn, scientists at the University of Toronto are one step closer to explaining why winter’s icicles form with Michelin Man-like ripples on their elongated shapes.
Experimental physicist Stephen Morris and PhD candidate Antony Szu-Han Chen were spurred to investigate by the ripples that appear around the circumference of icicles that occur naturally. It has been theorized that the ripples are the result of surface tension effects in the thin water film that flows over the ice as it forms. Their investigation revealed that the actual culprit is salt. (more…)
