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China Takes Action to Stop Software Counterfeiting

By Guest PostMay 17, 2012Politics, TechnologyBeijing, China, chinese government, coas, copyright infringement, counterfeit software, counterfeiter, crime, david finn, dell, haidian district, hp, huang jingping, intellectual property, intellectual property rights, ipr, lenovo, Microsoft, peoples court, piracy, shang yajun, simplified chinese, wang changlin, windows 7, windows server 2008, windows xp professional

Counterfeiter sentenced to more than seven years for manufacturing and distributing fake Microsoft products.

REDMOND, Wash., and BEIJING — The Chinese government has dealt a strong blow against intellectual property crime, penalizing counterfeiter Shang Yajun for copyright infringement and the sale of illegally manufactured registered trademarks. The 1st Intermediate People’s Court of Beijing upheld the Haidian District Court’s decision that sentenced Shang to seven years and six months imprisonment, representing the longest-ever criminal sentence in China for selling and distributing counterfeit software products.

In its July 2011 raid of storage facilities belonging to Shang, the Haidian District Public Security Bureau in Beijing confiscated more than 360,000 partially finished certificates of authenticity (COAs). Although product names and product identification had not been added yet, it is estimated that when finished and packed, their worth would be approximately 513.5 million RMB, or $79 million (U.S.). (more…)

Increasing Predator-Friendly Land Can Help Farmers Reduce Costs

By Guest PostMay 17, 2012Environmentcrop pests, crops, doug landis, farmers, farming areas, insecticides, ladybugs, landscape scale, megan woltz, michigan state university, natural habitat, natural killer, pest control, pests, predatory insects, rufus isaacs, soybean aphids, soybean fields, soybean pest, united states

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Having natural habitat in farming areas that supports ladybugs could help increase their abundance in crops where they control pests and help farmers reduce their costs, says a Michigan State University study.

Ladybugs and other predatory insects eat crop pests, saving farmers an estimated $4.6 billion a year on insecticides. Non-crop plants provide these predatory insects with food and shelter, helping them to survive and thrive in areas where they are needed. In an attempt to increase benefits from predatory insects, researchers have often planted strips of flowers along the edges of crop fields. (more…)

Counting Horseshoe Crabs

By Guest PostMay 17, 2012Nature, Sciencecensus, crab line, crab population, delaware bay, dover, eadoh reshef, fertilization, field research, horseshoe crab, joanna york, jonathan dinman, kayla krenitsky, marine science, megan nogan, migration, pvc pipe, st jones reserve, tammy beeson, teresa messmore, university of delaware, will goldman

Marine science majors conduct field research with horseshoe crab census

Wearing sneakers and rain boots, University of Delaware freshmen got their feet wet as marine biologists recently while counting horseshoe crabs along the Delaware Bay. The students participated in a monitoring effort to gain firsthand experience in field research with their fellow marine science majors.

“Where else can you go on a Saturday night to count horseshoe crabs?” freshman Will Goldman said. (more…)

Largest Meteorite Hunt in History Yields Treasure for UA

By Guest PostMay 16, 2012Sciencean ounce, california, carbonaceous chondrites, daniel stolte, dante lauretta, dolores hill, ed beshore, greg hupe, hiroshima bom, meteorite, meteorite hunt, michael farmer, NASA, nevada, nuclear explosion, osiris rex mission, planetary science, robert ward, scientists, sierra nevada, sky, solar system, spacecraft, sutters mill, university of arizona

Thanks to the generosity of three professional meteorite hunters, the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory will own three samples of a rare kind of meteorite leftover from the earliest beginnings of the solar system.

To the untrained eye, the black, smooth-edged lump that is sitting under a glass cover looks similar to a piece of charcoal. But to scientists Dante Lauretta and Ed Beshore from the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, it is one of the most intriguing stones they have ever seen.

“This meteorite is the oldest rock you’ll ever find on Earth. In fact, it formed 50 to 60 million years before the Earth even existed,” said Lauretta, who is a professor of planetary science and principal investigator of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which will send a spacecraft to return a sample from an asteroid in 2023. (more…)

How Public Should Public Records Be? Increased Availability Sparks Privacy Concerns

By Guest PostMay 16, 2012Media, Technologybatya friedman, changes in behavior, Facebook, james fogarty, mashup, online technology, pacific northwest, peter kelley, political campaign, privacy concern, public, public record, sean munson, university of washington, us citizen, us democracy, web, zillow and redfin

Online technology has vastly increased citizens’ access to public records such as political campaign contributions and real estate transactions. But that explosion of information availability also sparks privacy concerns and may dampen some people’s willingness to engage in public activities, according to recent research.

Six researchers, including two from the University of Washington, co-authored the paper “Attitudes Toward Online Availability of U.S. Public Records.” It was presented at the Proceedings of the 12th Annual International Digital Government Research Conference in College Park, Md. An expanded version of the article will appear in a forthcoming issue of Information Polity. (more…)

Feeding Tubes May Worsen Pressure Ulcer Risk

By Guest PostMay 16, 2012Healthadvanced dementia, feeding tube insertion, gastric feeding tube, getting an ulcer, peg feeding tubes, pressure ulcer, propensity match cohort

In the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers report that despite the conventional wisdom that feeding tubes help dementia patients resist pressure ulcers, feeding tubes actually are associated with an increased risk of ulcers developing. The tubes also don’t promote healing.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A new study led by Brown University researchers reports that percutaneous endoscopic gastric (PEG) feeding tubes, long assumed to help bedridden dementia patients stave off or overcome pressure ulcers, may instead make the horrible sores more likely to develop or not improve. (more…)

UMD Finding May Hold Key to Gaia Theory of Earth as Living Organism

By Guest PostMay 16, 2012Sciencedimethylsulfide emissions, earth, gaia hypothesis, gaia theory, radiation balance, sulfur isotope signatures

Discovery ultimately could lead to better climate understanding and prediction

COLLEGE PARK, Md. Is Earth really a sort of giant living organism as the Gaia hypothesis predicts? A new discovery made at the University of Maryland may provide a key to answering this question. This key of sulfur could allow scientists to unlock heretofore hidden interactions between ocean organisms, atmosphere, and land — interactions that might provide evidence supporting this famous theory. (more…)

Biosensor Illuminates Compounds to Aid Fight Against TB

By Guest PostMay 16, 2012Scienceagbioresearc, antibiotics, biosensor, chris wilson, chronic infection, chronic tb, drug resistant, drug therapy, environmental oxygen, global health, glows green, grand challenges explorations, immunization, infection, nutrition, oxygen sensing system, robert abramovitch, synthetic biosensor, tb, tb bacterium, treatment, tuberculosis, tuberculosis epidemic

EAST LANSING, Mich. — For his work on developing new treatments for tuberculosis, a Michigan State University researcher has been named a Grand Challenges Explorations winner, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Robert Abramovitch of MSU’s Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics is using a synthetic biosensor that glows green in response to conditions that mimic human tuberculosis infection. He will screen for compounds that target chronic TB infection and may help shorten therapy or treat multidrug-resistant TB, which does not respond well to existing antibiotics. (more…)

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