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Price Check by Amazon App Now Available for iPhone

*New app helps customers instantly compare in-store prices to the low prices from Amazon.com and other online merchants*

SEATTLE, Nov 22, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Amazon.com today announced a new price comparison app for the iPhone that provides customers the easiest way yet to compare in-store prices with the low prices from Amazon.com and other online merchants. Across all categories of products – from toys to consumer electronics – customers can use the app to scan a barcode, snap a picture, or say or type a product name to receive instant prices for that item from Amazon.com and other online merchants. Customers will then have the ability to, with one-click, purchase the item and have it delivered directly to their doorstep.

“This app makes it incredibly easy to quickly compare prices on millions of items before making a purchase,” said Sam Hall, director of Amazon Mobile. “We’ve worked hard to have low prices at Amazon, and we like it when customers comparison shop so they know they’re getting a good deal. We hope this app will empower customers to shop with confidence this holiday and any other day.” (more…)

IBM Powers Russian Pharmaceutical Company PROTEK

Technology

*IBM’s POWER7 systems replace HP servers*

MOSCOW, – 22 Nov 2010: IBM today announced that Russian pharmaceutical distributor PROTEK has switched to IBM POWER7 systems for its data processing center. The new systems from IBM replace the previous servers from HP, enabling PROTEK to improve the performance of critical business applications while reducing power consumption and increasing return on investment.

PROTEK is one of Russia’s largest pharmaceutical companies, distributing medicines to 44,000 pharmacies and health-care institutions across the Russian Federation. PROTEK’s rapid business growth and the implementation of a new ERP system across all of its offices resulted in a sharp increase in workload for the company’s IT infrastructure. PROTEK’s legacy IT system, based on HP SuperDome servers, failed to meet its growing performance requirements. In an effort to avoid further delays in critical business data processing, PROTEK’s management board decided to switch to a new server platform. (more…)

Lab Studies Show Promise for New Multiple Sclerosis Treatment

Health

Successfully treating and reversing the effects of multiple sclerosis, or MS, may one day be possible using a drug originally developed to treat chronic pain, according to Distinguished Professor Linda Watkins of the University of Colorado at Boulder. (more…)

Video: Bob Woodward Discusses Investigative Journalism in the New Century

Culture, Media

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Bob Woodward ’65 discussed “Secrets: Uncovering Mysteries in the 21st Century” during a conversation with Steven Brill ’72, LAW ’75, founder of the Yale Journalism Initiative, and Paul Needham ’11, journalism scholar and former editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News. (more…)

Does Sex Matter? It May When Evaluating Mental Status

Health, Science

Adrianna Mendrek. Image credit : University of Montreal

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that differs between the sexes in terms of age at onset, symptomatology, response to medication, and structural brain abnormalities. Now, a new study from the Université de Montréal shows that there is gender difference between men and women’s mental ability – with women performing better than men. These findings, published recently in, Schizophrenia Research, have implications for the more than 300 000 affected Canadians.

“We are the first to report sex differences in brain function of schizophrenics,” says Université de Montréal professor, Adrianna Mendrek a researcher at the Centre de Recherche Fernand-Seguin, Hospital Louis-H Lafontaine. “We chose to study a task involving mental rotation of a three dimensional image because in healthy men and women, this consistently elicits differences in terms of reaction time and performance accuracy.” (more…)

Months of Geologic Unrest Signaled Reawakening of Icelandic Volcano

Nature, Science

*Monitoring volcanoes helps researchers understand the processes that drive them to erupt*

Months of volcanic restlessness preceded the eruptions this spring of Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull, providing insight into what roused it from its centuries of slumber.

An international team of researchers analyzed geophysical changes in the long-dormant volcano leading up to its eruptions in March and April 2010. In a study published in the Nov. 18 issue of the journal Nature, the scientists suggest that magma flowing beneath the volcano may have triggered its reawakening. (more…)

YouTube PSAs: Comments More Persuasive Than Videos

Culture, Technology

Professor Joseph Walther led an MSU research project that found that comments accompanying YouTube public service announcements were more persuasive to viewers than the videos themselves. Image credit: Michigan State University

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University researchers, studying public service announcements placed on YouTube about marijuana use, have found that the comments accompanying the PSAs are more influential among viewers than the videos themselves.

The researchers showed four anti-marijuana PSAs, and the accompanying comments, to college students and asked for their evaluations of the PSAs and their attitudes about marijuana.

What was found was that negative, derisive comments about the video led the students to perceive the video as worse than when the comments were positive, even though they watched the videos individually. And when students identified with the anonymous commenters, the comments affected their perceptions of marijuana’s harmful effects.

“Generally, the comments changed people’s attitudes more than the variations of the videos,” said Joseph Walther, a professor in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media, and the Department of Communication, who led the research. (more…)

Report: IBM Supercomputers Are Most Energy Efficient in the World

Technology

Next Generation Blue Gene prototype judged most efficient by Green500.org

ARMONK, N.Y., – 19 Nov 2010: IBM supercomputers are the most energy efficient supercomputers in the world, according to the latest Supercomputing ‘Green500 List’ announced by Green500.org. A prototype of IBM’s next generation Blue Gene supercomputer is #1 on the list.

The list shows that 15 of the top 25 most energy efficient supercomputers in the world are built on IBM high-performance computing technology. The list includes supercomputers from China to Germany and the United States that are being used for a variety of applications such as astronomy, climate prediction and pharmaceutical research. IBM also holds over half of the top 100 positions on this list. (more…)