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UK Mobile Retail Access via Smartphone Grew 163 Percent in Past Year

*Mobile Browsers, Rather than Apps, Drive Access to Mobile Retail Activities Across EU5*

LONDON, UK, 29th July, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore MobiLens service showing that 13.5 million users across the five leading European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK), accounting for 5.8 percent of all mobile subscribers, accessed online retail sites in the three month average period ending May 2011. In the EU5 region, the number of smartphone users accessing online retail sites has increased by 80 percent over the past year. This growth is even stronger in the UK, with a 163-percent increase in smartphone users accessing retail sites since May 2010. (more…)

MU Study Pairs Military Veterans and Shelter Dogs to Ease Transition Home for Veterans; Train Shelter Dogs To Be More Adoptable

Nature

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Of the 2 million United States Service members that have been in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s estimated that up to 50 percent experience combat-related issues ranging from substance abuse to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Now, a University of Missouri professor is conducting a unique study that will give military veterans a “training buddy” to help them cope while helping shelter dogs become more adoptable. The Central Missouri Humane Society is supplying the dogs involved in the study. (more…)

Alibaba Group, Yahoo!, and SoftBank Reach Agreement on Alipay

Technology

Alibaba Group will Participate in the Ongoing Value of Alipay

HONG KONG & TOKYO & SUNNYVALE, Calif.-– Alibaba Group, Yahoo!, and SoftBank today announced they have reached an agreement in which Alibaba Group will continue to participate in Alipay’s future financial performance, including a future IPO or other liquidity event. The agreement is consistent with the two agreed-upon principles established at the outset of the negotiations: structure the inter-company relationship between Alipay and Taobao in order to preserve the value within Taobao and, by extension, within Alibaba Group; and provide that Alibaba Group is appropriately compensated for the value of Alipay. (more…)

Sea Squirt Cells Shed Light on Cancer Development

Science

*Specialized structures used by cancer cells to invade tissues could also help them escape protection mechanisms aimed at eliminating them, a UA-led research team has discovered.*

Delicate, threadlike protrusions used by cancer cells when they invade other tissues in the body could also help them escape control mechanisms supposed to eliminate them, a research group led by led by Bradley Davidson in the University of Arizona’s department of molecular and cellular biology reports in Nature Cell Biology.

Studying embryos of the sea squirt Ciona intestinalis, the researchers discovered that even non-invasive cells make the delicate, highly transient structures known as invadopodia. The group found that future heart cells in the Ciona embryo use invadopodia to pick up chemical signals from their surroundings. These so-called growth factors provide the cells with clues as to where they are in the developing embryo and what type of cell they are supposed to turn into. (more…)

WHOI Announces 2011 Ocean Science Journalism Fellows

Environment

Ten writers and multimedia science journalists from the U.S., Canada, France, Great Britain and South Korea have been selected to participate in the competitive Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Ocean Science Journalism Fellowship program. (more…)

Farmers More Likely to be Green if They Talk to Their Neighbors

Environment

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Besides helping each other plant and harvest, rural Chinese neighbors also influence each other’s environmental behavior – farmers are more likely to reenroll their land in a conservation program if they talk to their neighbors about it.

Scientists from Michigan State University’s Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability used a simulation model to study the amount of land farmers in the Wolong Nature Reserve in southwestern China re-enrolled in the Grain-to-Green Program, which aims to reduce soil erosion by converting sloping cropland to forest or grassland. Farmers receive an annual payment of either 5,000 pounds of grain or $498 for each 2.5 acres enrolled in the program. In 2005, this was about 8 percent of the farmers’ income. (more…)

Two Genetic Variations Predict Second Cancers after Radiation Treatment for Children with Hodgkin’s

Health, Science

A genome-wide association study published in the August issue of Nature Medicine has found two tiny genetic variations that can predict which patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma are most likely to develop radiation-induced second cancers years after treatment. Knowing in advance who is at risk could help physicians tailor treatment to reduce the risks for patients who are most susceptible to long-term damage.

Hodgkin’s lymphoma is one of the most treatable cancers, with more than 90 percent of patients surviving after a combination of radiation and chemotherapy. But nearly 20 percent of patients treated as children develop a second cancer within 30 years. The younger the patients are when treated and the higher the radiation dose, the greater the risk. This late side effect of treatment is the second leading cause of death for long-term Hodgkin’s survivors. (more…)

IBM Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Selectric Typewriter

Technology

Design Icon Honored in New “Pioneers of American Industrial Design” Stamp Series from U.S. Postal Service

Armonk, NY, USA – 27 Jul 2011: The IBM Selectric typewriter turns 50 on July 31, commemorating a design icon that revolutionized the day-to-day lives of office workers around the world. The Selectric’s half-century birthday coincides with IBM’s Centennial year and the release of a new U.S. postage stamp honoring the Selectric as an icon of design. (more…)