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IBM Completes Acquisition of Emptoris to Expand Smarter Commerce Initiative

By Guest PostFebruary 1, 2012Technologyacquisition, cloud based analytics, craig hayman, digital marketplace, emptoris, emptoris solutions, global process services, gps, ibm, industry solutions, smarter commerce, software, supply risk

*IBM completes acquisition of Emptoris to expand Smarter Commerce initiative*

ARMONK, N.Y., – 01 Feb 2012: IBM today announced it has completed its acquisition of Emptoris Inc. The acquisition expands IBM’s cloud-based analytics offerings that provide supply chain intelligence leading to better inventory management and cost efficiencies.

Emptoris solutions bring more intelligence to procurement and supply chain operations with spend, supplier and contract management for Smarter Commerce. Smarter Commerce helps organizations that are struggling to meet the demands of a rapidly changing market. The acceleration in online connectivity and speed, combined with the explosion of information and unprecedented access to it, is reshaping globally interconnected commerce systems. This new digital marketplace requires companies to respond rapidly to customer demands by automating their buying, marketing, selling and service processes. (more…)

New Species of Ancient Crocodile, Ancestor of Today’s Species, Discovered by MU Researcher

By Guest PostFebruary 1, 2012Nature, Scienceaegisuchus witmeri, age of the crocs, age of the dinosaurs, ancestor, casey holliday, crocodilians, fossilized skull, late cretaceous period, mesozoic era, modern crocodile, nick gardner, prehistoric crocodile, shieldcroc, species, thermo regulator

COLUMBIA, Mo. – A University of Missouri researcher has identified a new species of prehistoric crocodile. The extinct creature, nicknamed “Shieldcroc” due to a thick-skinned shield on its head, is an ancestor of today’s crocodiles. Its discovery provides scientists with additional information about the evolution of crocodiles and how scientists can gain insight into ways to protect the species’ environment and help prevent extinction. The discovery was published this week in the journal PLoS-ONE (Public Library of Science). (more…)

Moonlighting Enzyme Works Double Shift 24/7

By Guest PostFebruary 1, 2012Nature, Sciencearabidopsis, atp synthase, building block, chloroplast, david Kramer, energy, france, gamma, Germany, michigan state university, moonlighting enzyme, new function, nutrient, photosynthesis, plant enzyme, protein, root, root hair, subunit

EAST LANSING, Mich. — A team of researchers led by Michigan State University has discovered an overachieving plant enzyme that works both the day and night shifts.

The discovery, featured in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, shows that plants evolved a new function for this enzyme by changing merely one of its protein building blocks. (more…)

Ferroelectric Switching Discovered For First Time in Soft Biological Tissue

By Guest PostFebruary 1, 2012Healthaortic walls, arteries, electrical property, ferroelectric switching, ferroelectricity, living tissue, mammalian tissues

The heart’s inner workings are mysterious, perhaps even more so with a new finding. Engineers at the University of Washington have discovered an electrical property in arteries not seen before in mammalian tissues. (more…)

Five U.S. Urban Counties Lead ‘Terror Hot Spots’ List, but Rural Areas Not Exempt: Research

By Guest PostJanuary 31, 2012General, Politicsarizona, bianca bersani, domestic actors, extreme right wing, gary lafree, homeland security, hot spots, left wing terrorism, los angeles, lubbock county, manhattan, maricopa, massachusetts, metropolitan, miami dade county, nebraska, new york, perpetrator, profile, radical environmental groups, religious, rural areas, san francisco, start, terrorism, terrorist attack, texas, university of maryland, us counties, Washington

*N.Y., L.A., Miami, San Francisco, D.C. Top List; Maricopa, Ariz. Rising*

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Nearly a third of all terrorist attacks from 1970 to 2008 occurred in just five metropolitan U.S. counties, but events continue to occur in rural areas, spurred on by domestic actors, according to a report published today by researchers in the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Center of Excellence based at the University of Maryland.

The research was conducted at Maryland and the University of Massachusetts-Boston. (more…)

UCLA Astronomers Solve Mystery of Vanishing Electrons

By Guest PostJanuary 31, 2012Scienceastronaut, atmosphere, coronal mass ejections, drew turner, earth, electron, energetic particle, explorer i, geomagnetic storms, goes, halloween storm, high energy electron, magnetic field, magnetized outer layer, magnetosphere, michael hartinger, milestone, missing electron, moscow state university, orbiting spacecraft, outer radiation belt, poes, radiation environment, russia, satellites, solar activity, solar wind particle, space environment, space weather phenomena, spacecraft, sun, themis, theory, vassilis angelopoulos, yuri shprits

*Findings further efforts to better predict geomagnetic storms in space*

UCLA researchers have explained the puzzling disappearing act of energetic electrons in Earth’s outer radiation belt, using data collected from a fleet of orbiting spacecraft.

In a paper published Jan. 29 in the advance online edition of the journal Nature Physics, the team shows that the missing electrons are swept away from the planet by a tide of solar wind particles during periods of heightened solar activity. (more…)

In Lab, Pannexin1 Restores Tight Binding of Cells Lost in Cancer

By Guest PostJanuary 31, 2012Health, Science3d petri dish, 3d system, accelerating effect, actin, biomechanical role, brain tumor, brian bao, brown university, c6, cancerous cell, carbenoxolone, charles lai, christian naus, drug, glioma, gross multicellular behavior, jeffrey morgan, mechanical integrity, molecule atp, pannexin1, probenecid, protein, rat, receptor, scaffold free, Technology, tissue, tumor cell

*By studying tumor cell behavior in a novel “scaffold-free” 3-D system, researchers have determined that the protein Pannexin1 may play an important biomechanical role in binding tissues together, an effect that is lost in cancerous cells.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — First there is the tumor and then there’s the horrible question of whether the cancerous cells will spread. Scientists increasingly believe that the structural properties of the tumor itself, such as how tightly the tumor cells are packed together, play a decisive role in the progression of the disease. In a new study, researchers show that the protein Pannexin1, known to have tumor-suppressive properties, plays an important role in keeping the cells within a tissue closely packed together, an effect that may be lost with cancer.

“In healthy tissues, the recently discovered protein Pannexin1 may be playing an important role in upholding the mechanical integrity of the tissue,” said first author and Brown University M.D./Ph.D. student Brian Bao. “When we develop cancer, we lose Pannexin1 and we lose this integrity.” (more…)

Severe Declines in Everglades Mammals Linked to Pythons

By Guest PostJanuary 31, 2012Environment, Natureafrican python, alex wolf, alligators, america, beni anaconda, boa constrictor, bobcat, burmese python, camp walker, christopher gillette, cottontail rabbits, dan kimball, deschauensee anaconda, ecological impact, ecosystem, everglades, everglades ecosystem, everglades national park, everglades python, fox, geographic pattern, green anaconda, invasive species, john willson, mammal decline, mammals, marcia mcnutt, marsh, michael dorcas, michael rochford, national park, opossums, prey, python, python predation, rabbits, raccoons, robert reed, spread of pythons, therese walters, U.S. Geological Survey, united states

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Precipitous declines in formerly common mammals in Everglades National Park have been linked to the presence of invasive Burmese pythons, according to a study published on Jan. 30, 2012, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study, the first to document the ecological impacts of this invasive species, strongly supports that animal communities in this 1.5-million-acre park have been markedly altered by the introduction of pythons within 11 years of their establishment as an invasive species. Mid-sized mammals are the most dramatically affected. (more…)

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