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Cyber Monday Hangover: U.S. Online Spending Growth Softens After Strong Early Week Performance

*Holiday E-Commerce Spending Growth Slows to 9 Percent for Most Recent Week*

RESTON, VA, December 5, 2010 – comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 33 days of the November – December 2010 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $16.8 billion has been spent online, marking a 12-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. The most recent week saw four individual days eclipse $800 million in spending, led by Cyber Monday, which became the heaviest online spending day on record at $1.028 billion. Tuesday, November 30 reached $911 million, making it the third heaviest online spending day on record, while Wednesday ($868 million) and Thursday ($850 million) also reached high levels, although growth rates for the season subsided in the latter half of the week. (more…)

The Giant Panda: The Good News

Environment, Nature

Close up of a cute baby 7-month old panda cub in the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan, China. Image credit: Sheila Lau. Source: Wikipedia

Finally some good news on the environment, on ecology and on the Giant Panda: a revolutionary new technique developed by the PR China’s Chengdu breeding center seems certain to assure that greater numbers of this endangered species can be raised in thereby save it from extinction.

Just 1,600 Giant Pandas live in the wild, in 40 government-controlled panda reserves in the People’s Republic of China. The new breeding program has raised the number of animals bred in captivity to 300, while just this year 19 cubs have been born after artificial insemination programs in China’s two main breeding centers.

Breeding Giant Pandas in captivity is no easy task. They have the strangest gestation period which can range from eleven weeks to eleven months, they appear not to be sexually aroused by being held in captivity, females are on heat for 72 hours a year and are fertile during a 12 to 24-hour window inside that period. The small size of the male penis also means the mating position has to be exactly right, and this is not always possible in captivity. (more…)

New Report Summarizes Key Themes in American Doctoral Education

Culture, Education

*Summary report, “Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities: 2009” is available online*

A new report recently released by the National Science Foundation, titled “Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities: 2009,” presents a statistical overview of the U.S. doctoral education system in snapshots and long-term trends.

It notes the American system of doctoral education is widely considered the world’s best, as evidenced by the large number of international students who choose to pursue a doctorate at U.S. universities. But this status is subject to the many factors that shape U.S. doctoral education. (more…)

MU Researcher Studies How Infants Compare Quantities

Science

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Parents are often amazed at how fast their child grows and develops. New research at the University of Missouri has determined that the ability to quantify – even things that are hard to quantify, such as liquid – may develop much sooner than most parents realize.

University of Missouri researcher Kristy vanMarle, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences in the College of Arts and Science, has determined that contrary to what previous studies have shown, infants are able to quantify non-cohesive substances – like sand, water, or even Cheerios – as early as 10 months. As long as the difference between the two substances is large enough, vanMarle has found that infants will choose the larger amount, especially when it comes to food. (more…)

GPS Not Working? A Shoe Radar May Help You Find Your Way

Technology

The prevalence of global positioning system (GPS) devices in everything from cars to cell phones has almost made getting lost a thing of the past. But what do you do when your GPS isn’t working? Researchers from North Carolina State University and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) have developed a shoe-embedded radar system that may help you find your way. (more…)

Biodiversity Loss: Detrimental to Your Health

Environment, Health

*Infectious diseases on the rise as species disappear*

Plant and animal extinctions are detrimental to your health.

That’s the conclusion of a paper published in this week’s issue of the journal Nature by scientists who studied the link between biodiversity and infectious diseases. (more…)

UCLA Scientists Discover Mechanism that Transforms Healthy Cells into Prostate Cancer

Health, Science

Dr. Owen Witte, director of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center at UCLA and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Image credit: University of California

A protein that is crucial for regulating the self-renewal of normal prostate stem cells, which are needed to repair injured cells or restore normal cells killed by hormone-withdrawal therapy for cancer, also aids the transformation of healthy cells into prostate cancer cells, researchers at UCLA have found.

The findings, by scientists with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, may have important implications for controlling cancer growth and progression.

Results from the three-year study, done in primary cells and in animal models, were published Dec. 2 in the early online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Cell Stem Cell.

The protein, called Bmi-1, is often up-regulated, or turned on, in prostate cancer. It has been associated with higher-grade cancers and is predictive of poor prognosis, according to previous studies. However, its functional roles in prostate stem cell maintenance and prostate cancer have been unclear, said the study’s senior author, Dr. Owen Witte, director of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. (more…)

IBM Delivers New Software to Advance Security Analysis

Technology

*Organizations can now use multiple analysis techniques simultaneously to discover potential software vulnerabilities*

ARMONK, N.Y., – 03 Dec 2010: IBM today announced new software and analysis capabilities that provide a more efficient and accurate way to help organizations design, build and manage secure applications.

The new software consolidates software vulnerability analysis and reporting into a single view across the enterprise. Developers can now assess security threats across the entire software development lifecycle, enabling global development teams to easily identify and test security exposures, and help reduce the risks and costs associated with security and compliance concerns. (more…)