Author Archives: Guest Post

NASA Sees Repeating La Niña Hitting its Peak

La Niña, “the diva of drought,” is peaking, increasing the odds that the Pacific Northwest will have more stormy weather this winter and spring, while the southwestern and southern United States will be dry.

Sea surface height data from NASA’s Jason-1 and -2 satellites show that the milder repeat of last year’s strong La Niña has recently intensified, as seen in the latest Jason-2 image of the Pacific Ocean, available at: https://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/images/ostm/20120108P1.jpg. (more…)

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Researchers Uncover How New Melanoma Drug Accelerates Secondary Skin Cancers

Patients with metastatic melanoma taking the recently approved drug vemurafenib (marketed as Zelboraf) responded well to the twice-daily pill, but some of them developed a different, secondary skin cancer.

Now, researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, working with investigators from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, Roche and Plexxikon, have elucidated the mechanism by which the drug excels at fighting melanoma but also allows for the development of skin squamous-cell carcinomas. (more…)

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Solving The Mystery of An Old Drug That May Reduce Cancer Risk

In 2005, news first broke that researchers in Scotland found unexpectedly low rates of cancer among diabetics taking metformin, a drug commonly prescribed to patients with Type II diabetes. Many follow-up studies reported similar findings, some suggesting as much as a 50-per-cent reduction in risk. How could this anti-diabetic drug reduce the risk of developing cancer and what were the mechanisms involved? (more…)

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Yahoo! to Offer Exclusive Coverage of 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Including Select Short Films Streaming Free Online

First-Ever Online “Audience Award” Enables Fans to Vote for Best Short Film on Yahoo! Screen

Yahoo! Movies & omg! NOW Feature Behind-The-Scenes Content Straight from Park City

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Yahoo!, the premier digital media company, is opening the doors to the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, giving independent film fans access to one of the year’s most highly anticipated industry events. The general public will have access to 9 short films from this year’s Festival by visiting sundance.yahoo.com, powered by Yahoo! Screen, Yahoo’s video destination and home to the most comprehensive collection of premium video content. Additionally, for the first time ever, they will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite of those nine short films. Fans will also get behind-the-scenes access to film and entertainment news, celebrities in attendance and the biggest stories of the festival through Yahoo! Movies (https://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/sundance), one of the top destinations online for movie fans with more than 26 million users per month, and omg! (https://omg.yahoo.com), the #1 most-visited celebrity news site on the Internet. (more…)

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Study Provides New Insights into Antibiotics and Pig Feeds

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Antibiotics in pig feed increased the number of antibiotic resistant genes in gastrointestinal microbes in pigs, according to a study conducted by Michigan State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service.

Published in the current edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the comprehensive study focused on understanding the effects of conventional, in-feed antibiotics in U.S. farms. (more…)

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Nearly 50 Percent of Internet Users in Europe Visit Newspaper Sites

*comScore Releases Overview of European Internet Usage for November 2011*

LONDON, UK, 19 January 2012 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of Internet usage in Europe, showing that 379.4 million Europeans went online in November 2011 for an average of 27.8 hours per person. This release highlights Internet usage in 49 European markets aggregated into the European region and provides individual reporting on 18 markets. Amongst its findings, the study also showed that 47.8 percent of Europeans visit Newspaper sites, with a notable percentage of visits to the top 5 Newspaper sites preceded by a visit to Facebook.

Nearly 1 in 2 Europeans Visit Newspaper Sites
In November 2011, 181.5 million unique people in Europe visited Newspaper sites, an increase of 9 percent from the previous year. The Daily Mail continued to attract the largest audience at 20.1 million unique visitors, followed by the Guardian at 15.7 million unique visitors. Turkish newspapers Hürriyet and Milliyet and German newspaper Bild rounded out the top five Newspaper properties, with each attracting approximately 10 million unique visitors. (more…)

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