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Exeter Academic Contributes to New TV Series on Islam

By Guest PostJuly 20, 2011Culture, Mediabbc, british citizenship, historical personality, islam, islamic intellectual history, Jerusalem, jordan, mecca, muslims, muslims in britain, prophet, rageh omaar, saudi arabia, syria, the life of muhammad, the uk, the usa, turkey, university of cambridge, university of exeter

*A University of Exeter academic, who is an expert on Islam, has contributed to the new television series ‘The Life of Muhammad’ currently being broadcast on BBC Two. The three-part documentary, presented by journalist Rageh Omaar, charts the story of the Prophet who, in little more than 20 years, changed the world forever.*

Professor Sajjad Rizvi, University of Exeter’s Associate Professor of Islamic Intellectual History at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, provided expert advice to the BBC team. He also appears in the series. (more…)

WHOI Scientists Analyze, Explain the Chemical Makeup of Gulf Plume

By Guest PostJuly 20, 2011Environmentaquatic organisms, autonomous underwater vehicle sentry, benzene, btex, chemicals, christopher reddy, conductivity, ctd, dana yoerger, deep sea hydrothermal vents, deep submergence laboratory, deepwater horizon oil spill, depth, ecotoxicological impact of plumes, ethybenzene, gas and oil, gas to oil ratio, gor, gulf of mexico, hydrocarbon containing plume, jeff seewald, judith mcdowell, macondo well, mass spectrometer tethys, milligrams per liter, natural resource damage assessment protocol, nrda, plume, research vessel endeavor, richard camilli, surface spills, temperature, toluene, toxicity levels of btex, undersea life, water soluble petroleum compounds, whoi, woods hole oceanographic institution, xylenes

Taking another major step in sleuthing the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a research team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has determined what chemicals were contained in a deep, hydrocarbon-containing plume at least 22 miles long that WHOI scientists mapped and sampled last summer in the Gulf of Mexico, a residue of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Moreover, they have taken a big step in explaining why some chemicals, but not others, made their way into the plume.

The findings, published this week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “help explain and shed light on the plume formation and verify much of what we thought about the plume’s composition,” said WHOI chemist Christopher Reddy, lead author of the study. The data “provide compelling evidence” that the oil component of the plume sampled in June 2010 essentially comprised benzene, toluene, ethybenzene, and total xylenes—together, called BTEX—at concentrations of about 70 micrograms per liter, the researchers reported. (more…)

Neurosurgeon’s Rare Skills Saved a Haitian Priest’s Life

By Guest PostJuly 20, 2011Healthaneurysm, brain, catheter, endovascular surgery, femoral artery, haiti, ketan bulsara, neuroendovascular and skull-based surgery, neurosurgeons, norbert tibeau, optic nerve, pituitary gland, priesthood, skull based cerebrovascular microsurgery, state of the art technology, yale medical group, yale new haven hospital

On April 26, Dr. Ketan Bulsara, using state-of-the-art technology, threaded a catheter less than one centimeter in width from the femoral artery in Norbert Tibeau’s thigh into an aneurysm in his brain. The aneurysm had grown to a diameter of two centimeters and bordered on such critical structures as the optic nerve and pituitary gland. If left untreated chances were high that within five years it would either kill Tibeau or devastate him neurologically. (more…)

In Chile, 15-24 Year Olds Are Most Engaged Internet Users Accounting for 1 in 3 Minutes Spent Online

By Guest PostJuly 19, 2011Technologyaudience size, Chile, chilean online population, comscore media metrix, internet usage, internet users

comScore to Host Complimentary Webinar “The State of the Internet Chile” on July 21 (more…)

Landscape Change Leads to Increased Insecticide Use in U.S. Midwest

By Guest PostJuly 19, 2011Environmentagricultural landscapes, annual insecticide application, bioenergy crops, claudio gratton, connecticut, crop diversity, cropland, doug landis, entomologis, great lakes bioenergy research center, insecticide, landscape ecologist, landscape simplification, long term ecological research, lter, michigan, midwest, nancy huntly, national science foundation, natural habitat, nsf, switchgrass, tim meehan, university of wisconsin-madison

*Growth of cropland, loss of natural habitat to blame*

The continued growth of cropland and loss of natural habitat have increasingly simplified agricultural landscapes in the Midwest.

In a study supported in part by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in Michigan–one of 26 such NSF LTER sites around the world–scientists concluded that this simplification is associated with increased crop pest abundance and insecticide use. (more…)

Border Fences Pose Threats to Wildlife on U.S.-Mexico Border, Study Shows

By Guest PostJuly 19, 2011Nature, Sciencearroyo toad, biological diversity, border fences, california coasts, california red legged frog, conservation, department of homeland security, fire, harmful mutations, human impacts, human migration barriers, human population growth, hurricane, impacts on the ecosystem, inbreeding depression, jesse lasky, landscape, species in california, texas gulf, the jaguarondi, the university of texas at austin, threats to wildlife populations, tim keitt, unforeseen disturbances, us mexico border, walter jetz

AUSTIN, Texas — Current and proposed border fences pose significant threats to wildlife populations, with those animals living in border regions along the Texas Gulf and California coasts showing some of the greatest vulnerability, a new study from The University of Texas at Austin shows.

“Our study is the first comprehensive analysis of threats to species across the entire U.S.-Mexico border,” says Jesse Lasky, a graduate student in the laboratory of Tim Keitt, associate professor of integrative biology. “The scale at which these fences stretch across the landscape is large, so it’s important for us to also have a large-scale view of their effects across the continent.” (more…)

Microsoft Announces Simple Transfer of Health Data From Google Health Service to Microsoft HealthVault

By Guest PostJuly 18, 2011TechnologyGoogle, google health, google health profile, google health service, healthvault, Microsoft, microsoft amalga, microsoft corp., microsoft health solutions group, microsoft healthvault, nate mclemore, personal health information, sentillion inc

*Google Health users can send their Google Health profile directly to a HealthVault account using Direct Project messaging protocols.*

REDMOND, Wash. — July 18, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that people using the Google Health service, scheduled to be discontinued Jan. 1, 2012, can easily transfer their personal health information stored in a Google Health profile to a Microsoft HealthVault account using the Direct Project messaging protocols established by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. The Direct Project specifies a simple, scalable, standards-based way for participants to send authenticated, encrypted health information to known, trusted recipients over the Internet.

Google announced on June 24 that Google Health will be discontinued, effective Jan. 1, 2012, with records remaining available to account holders until Jan. 1, 2013. (more…)

U.S. Mobile Map Audience Grows 39 Percent in Past Year as Fixed-Internet Map Audience Softens Slightly

By Guest PostJuly 18, 2011TechnologyComscore, comscore mobilens, mark donovan, mobile map usage, mobile users, smartphone adoption, smartphones

*Smartphone Adoption Leads to Doubling of Map App Audience*

RESTON, VA, July 18, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released results of a U.S. study of mobile map usage based on data from its comScore MobiLens service. The study found that 48 million mobile users accessed maps on their mobile device during the three month average period ending May 2011, an increase of 39 percent from the previous year, driven in large part by the increase in smartphone adoption. The study found that map usage via mobile applications was the primary access point for smartphone owners as the map app audience doubled in size over the past year. (more…)

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