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Social Networking Accounts for One Third of All Time Spent Online in Malaysia

Mudah.my, Media Prima and Maybank Rank as Top Local Properties

Malaysians Spending 19 Percent More Time Watching Online Video in August versus Last Year

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 17, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the latest report on Internet usage in Malaysia including insights into the top online destinations, content categories and video viewing behaviors. The report found that Social Networking accounted for one third of all time spent online in Malaysia in August 2011, ranking as the top online activity for the market. The report also found that online video viewing continues to grow in Malaysia with the viewing audience climbing 8 percent in the past year, while average viewing minutes increased 19 percent, representing an additional hour of monthly viewing time. (more…)

Scientists Project Changes in Rainfall Patterns for Next 30 Years

Environment

Scientists at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa have projected an increased frequency of heavy rainfall events, but a decrease in rainfall intensity during the next 30 years (2011–2040) for the southern shoreline of Oʻahu, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Chase Norton, a Meteorology Research Assistant at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at UH Mānoa, and colleagues (Professors Pao-Shin Chu and Thomas Schroeder) used a statistical model; rainfall data from rainfall gauges on Oahu, Hawaiʻi; and a suite of General Circulation Models (GCMs) from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to project future patterns of heavy rainfall events on Oʻahu. GCMs play a pivotal role in the understanding of climate change and associated local changes in weather. (more…)

Of Avatars and Virtual Meetings

Technology

Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, brought news of Microsoft’s plans to merge the physical world with the digital word during an Oct. 6 lecture at the University of Toronto.

“The computer is being endowed with more and more human sensing-like capability,” said Mundie. “We think this will be the predominant way people will use computers in the future.” (more…)

U-M ecologist: Future Forests May Soak up More Carbon Dioxide than Previously Believed, Helping to Buffer Climate Change

Environment

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— North American forests appear to have a greater capacity to soak up heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas than researchers had previously anticipated. (more…)

UChicago Launches Search for Distant Worlds

Science

Since 1995, scientists have discovered approximately 600 planets around other stars, including 50 planets last month alone, and one that orbits two stars, like Tatooine in Star Wars. Detection of the first Earthlike planet remains elusive, however, and now the University of Chicago joins the search with the addition of Jacob Bean and Daniel Fabrycky to the faculty. (more…)

Bacterial Communication Could Affect Earth’s Climate

Environment

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists have discovered that bacterial communication could have a significant impact on the planet’s climate.

In the ocean, bacteria coalesce on tiny particles of carbon-rich detritus sinking through the depths. WHOI marine biogeochemists Laura Hmelo, Benjamin Van Mooy, and Tracy Mincer found that these bacteria send out chemical signals to discern if other bacteria are in the neighborhood. If enough of their cohorts are nearby, then bacteria en masse commence secreting enzymes that break up the carbon-containing molecules within the particles into more digestible bits. It has been suggested that coordinated expression of enzymes is very advantageous for bacteria on sinking particles, and Hmelo and her colleagues have uncovered the first proof of this in the ocean. (more…)

Making Germs Glow: New Test Helps Save Lives and Cuts Costs

Science

*Replacing conventional laboratory tests with a new DNA sequence-based technology to identify pathogens causing bloodstream infections dramatically lowered mortality and health-care costs, a clinical study conducted by an interdisciplinary UA research team found.*

Unlike conventional laboratory tests, a new technology called PNA-FISH is designed to rapidly identify bloodstream pathogens by their genetic code. Results are available within hours instead of days providing pharmacists and physicians with information they can use to rapidly customize antimicrobial treatment for patients with infections.

PNA-FISH is an abbreviation for “peptide nucleic acid fluorescence in situ hybridization.” Rapid reporting of PNA FISH results to pharmacists and physicians cut the mortality of ICU patients with enterococcus or streptococcus bloodstream infections by almost half and slashed mortality from yeast infections by 86 percent. In addition, the intervention resulted in healthcare cost reduction of almost $5 million per year. (more…)

New Technologies Challenge Old Ideas About Early Hominid Diets

Science

New assessments by researchers using the latest high-tech tools to study the diets of early hominids are challenging long-held assumptions about what our ancestors ate, says a study by the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Arkansas.

By analyzing microscopic pits and scratches on hominid teeth, as well as stable isotopes of carbon found in teeth, researchers are getting a very different picture of the diet habitats of early hominids than that painted by the physical structure of the skull, jawbones and teeth. While some early hominids sported powerful jaws and large molars — including Paranthropus boisei, dubbed “Nutcracker Man” — they may have cracked nuts rarely if at all, said CU-Boulder anthropology Professor Matt Sponheimer, study co-author. (more…)