Author Archives: Guest Post

Top Diet Programs for Weight Loss

By Guest PostMarch 6, 2013Healthamerican heart association, bad cholesterol, bad ldl cholesterol, beauty, blood pressure, cardiovascular conditions, diabetes, european countries, fish, food pyramid, fruits, Health, healthy life, heart disease, herbs, hypertension, mayo clinic diet, mediterranean diet plan, mediterranean sea, mono, nuts, polyunsaturated fats, ray lehigh, red meat, saturated fat foods, seafood, spices, sugar, therapeutic lifestyle changes, tlc, top diet programs, vegetables, weight loss, whole grains

Most people today look at diet plans to help them lose weight; however, these plans can also serve other purposes such as keeping heart disease and diabetes at bay. With all the different diet plans on offer, choosing the one that is right for you can be a tough job. Take a look at these plans that were evaluated by health experts and received high rankings in a recent survey by U.S. News, and make your decision.

The Mediterranean Diet

Like the Mayo Clinic Diet, the Mediterranean Diet plan helps to achieve and maintain a healthy weight and also prevent or control diabetes, brain and heart disorders and even cancer. Drawing inspiration from the diet of people in the European countries around the Mediterranean Sea, this diet focuses on eating more of nuts, herbs and spices, whole grains, vegetables and fruits, seafood and fish, and cutting down on red meat, saturated fat foods and sugar. With its emphasis on mono- and polyunsaturated fats and avoidance of saturated fat, this diet is effective at reducing bad cholesterol and keeping blood pressure low. Although it is one of the top diet programs, the only possible weakness lies in the fact that the plan is not a structured one and so, the onus lies on you to come up with a calorie chart to follow. (more…)

comScore Reports January 2013 U.S. Smartphone Subscriber Market Share

By Guest PostMarch 6, 2013Technologyandroid, apple, blackberry, Comscore, data, Google, htc, iPhone, lg, Microsoft, mobile, mobile phone usage, mobilens data, rankings, rim, Samsung, smartphone, symbian

Big Jump in January Smartphone Adoption Driven Largely by Apple

RESTON, VA, March 6, 2013 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. smartphone industry during the three month average period ending January 2013. Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 37.8 percent OEM market share, while Google Android led as the #1 smartphone platform with 52.3 percent platform market share.

Smartphone OEM Market Share

129.4 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (55 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in January, up 7 percent since October. Apple ranked as the top OEM with 37.8 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers (up 3.5 percentage points from October). Samsung ranked second with 21.4 percent market share (up 1.9 percentage points), followed by HTC with 9.7 percent share, Motorola with 8.6 percent and LG with 7 percent (up 0.3 percentage points). (more…)

Ancient Lamprey DNA Decoded

By Guest PostMarch 6, 2013Environment, Natureadaptive immune system, ancient lamprey dna, backbones, brain, bygone eras, cambrian period, canadian government, chu yin yeh, chung davidson, data, decode, evolution, fossil records, great lakes, invasive species, jeramiah smith, kaben nanlohy, michigan state university, modern era, modern humans, multicelled creatures, nature genetics, nervous system, pathways, prehistoric species, salmon, scot libants, sea lamprey genome, single celled organisms, spinal cords, spine, titus brown, trout, US, vertebrates, weiming li, yu wen

When it comes to evolution, humans can learn a thing or two from primeval sea lampreys.

In the current issue of Nature Genetics, a team of scientists has presented an assembly of the sea lamprey genome – the first time the entire sequence has been decoded. The data is compelling as the sea lamprey is one of the few ancient, jawless species that has survived through the modern era.

The paper not only sheds light on how the venerable invasive species adapted and thrived, but it also provides many insights into the evolution of all vertebrates, species with backbones and spinal cords, which includes humans, said Weiming Li, Michigan State University fisheries and wildlife professor, who organized and coordinated the team. (more…)

Texans Not Eager to Change Gun Laws, UT/Texas Tribune Poll Shows

By Guest PostMarch 6, 2013Politicsammunition, austin, background checks, carry guns, criminal, daron shaw, gun control laws, gun control measures, gun in household, gun laws, gun purchases, hunting, james henson, k 12 teachers, mental health, national rifle association, nra, nra members, private sales, requirements, support, texans, texas, tribune poll, types of weapons, united states, university of texas

AUSTIN, Texas — Although a large majority of Texans support background checks for all gun purchases, they are not eager to change existing gun laws in Texas, according to a University of Texas at Austin/Texas Tribune poll.

Seventy-eight percent of Texans support requiring criminal and mental health background checks on all gun purchases in the United States, including at gun shows and for private sales. However, 52 percent think that gun control laws should either be left as they are now (36 percent) or made less strict (16 percent). Forty-four percent said gun control laws should be stricter. (more…)

New Opportunities for Crystal Growth

By Guest PostMarch 6, 2013Scienceberkeley lab, characterization, crystal growth, crystal growth facility, crystal is unique, crystal purification, doe, edith bourret courchesne, emit gamma, energy resolution, enriched uranium, fibers, formation of snowflake, germanium crystals, growth, luminosity, material scientist, nanocrystals, new opportunities, nnsa, nuclear materials. plutonium, polycrystalline form, scintillation properties, semiconductor germanium, single crystals, source of radiation, synthesis of crystals, thin epitaxial films, trial and error, united states, useful crystals

Berkeley Lab Facility Provides Unique Capabilities for the Synthesis of New Crystals and Materials

Talk with material scientist Edith Bourret-Courchesne about what it takes to grow and develop useful crystals and a word you will hear repeated often is “patience.” As the leader of a unique crystal growth facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) dedicated to the synthesis of crystals and new materials, patience is more than a virtue, it’s a necessity.

“The growth of every crystal is unique, like the formation of a snowflake, and since we work with compounds that have never before been crystallized the processes by which we grow our crystals are also unique,” she says. “As a result, a lot of our research is aimed at understanding why something didn’t work.” (more…)

Physicists Demonstrate the Acceleration of Electrons by a Laser in a Vacuum

By Guest PostMarch 6, 2013Scienceaccelerate an electron, acceleration effect, acceleration of electrons, acceleration phenomena, beam energy, bnl atf, brookhaven national laboratory, capture acceleration scenario, channel for electrons, david cline, diagnostic system, diffraction, electron, electron beam, fudan university, fusion, graph of data, higgs boson particle, higgs factory, Large Hadron Collider, laser in vacuum, laser intensity, lawson woodward theorem, lei shao, light in vacuum, muon collider, new york, phase distribution, phase velocity, produce excess energy, shanghai, simulation prediction, spectrometer, strong longitudinal electric, understanding the universe, vacuum laser, xiaoping ding, yu kun ho

Accelerating a free electron with a laser has been a longtime goal of solid-state physicists.

David Cline, a distinguished professor in the UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Xiaoping Ding, an assistant researcher at UCLA, have conducted research at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and have established that an electron beam can be accelerated by a laser in free space.

This has never been done before at high energies and represents a significant breakthrough, Cline said, adding that it also may have implications for fusion as a new energy source. (more…)

TechForum Demos Reveal New World of ‘Intelligent Technology’

By Guest PostMarch 5, 2013Technologybig data, craig mundie, don mattrick, entertainment business president, eric rudder, evolution in computing, intelligent technology, kurt delbene, machine learning, Microsoft, natural user interfaces, new world, qi lu, rick rashid, skype, techforum demos, tony bates

Get a behind-the-scenes look at futuristic technology demos showing how big data, machine learning and natural user interfaces are helping to bring about a new world of “intelligent technology.”

REDMOND, Wash. – March 4, 2013 – Microsoft’s strategic and technical vision for the future was discussed this week at TechForum, an annual event hosted by Craig Mundie, senior advisor to the CEO, and Eric Rudder, Microsoft’s chief technical strategy officer.

Mundie and Rudder were joined by Interactive Entertainment Business President Don Mattrick, Online Services Division President Qi Lu, Skype Division President Tony Bates, Microsoft Office Division President Kurt DelBene, Chief Research Officer Rick Rashid and others in discussing and demonstrating how the company is approaching this evolution in computing. (more…)

Vortex Loops Could Untie Knotty Physics Problems

By Guest PostMarch 5, 2013Science3d printer, atmosphere, behavior culminates, charged gas, configuration, dustin kleckner, dynamics, elements, energy, exotic superfluids, failed catastrophically, fine scale twisting, high speed camera, hydrofoils, james franck institute, knot, knotted vortex loops, knottedness, lord kelvin, momentum, new york university, ordinary fluids, periodic table, physicist peter tait, physicists, physics subfields, plasma flows, plasma physics, reconnection, smoke ring, stable phenomena, turbulence, university of chicago, vortex knot, washington square park, weird behavior, william irvine

University of Chicago physicists have succeeded in creating a vortex knot—a feat akin to tying a smoke ring into a knot. Linked and knotted vortex loops have existed in theory for more than a century, but creating them in the laboratory had previously eluded scientists.

Vortex knots should, in principle, be persistent, stable phenomena. “The unexpected thing is that they’re not,” said Dustin Kleckner, a postdoctoral scientist at UChicago’s James Franck Institute. “They seem to break up in a particular way. They stretch themselves, which is a weird behavior.” (more…)