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U.S. Citizenship May Be Determined At Random

By Guest PostMarch 12, 2012Politicsact, americans, civics knowledge, data, fate, immigrant, immigration officer, immigration services, michigan state university, naturalization, noncitizenship, paula winke, sat, test, united states, us citizenship, uscis

EAST LANSING, Mich. — The fate of nearly half a million immigrants hoping for U.S. citizenship may have been determined randomly, at least in part, according to a new study by a Michigan State University researcher who found the high-stakes civics test isn’t a reliable measure of civics knowledge.

To be awarded citizenship, immigrants must correctly answer six of 10 questions on the verbally administered civics portion of the U.S. Naturalization Test, said Paula Winke, assistant professor of second language studies. (more…)

comScore Reports January 2012 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share

By Guest PostMarch 6, 2012Technologyamericans, apple, Comscore, google android, intelligent online survey, Microsoft, mobile phone, mobile subscribers, mobilens, motorola, oem, rim, Samsung, symbian

*More Than 100 Million U.S. Mobile Subscribers Now Use Smartphones*

RESTON, VA, March 6, 2012 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending January 2012. The study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 25.4 percent market share. Google Android continued to grow its share in the smartphone market, accounting for 48.6 percent of smartphone subscribers.

OEM Market Share

For the three-month average period ending in January, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.4 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG with 19.7 percent share and Motorola with 13.2 percent share. Apple continued to capture share in the OEM market with 12.8 percent of total mobile subscribers (up 2.0 percentage points), while RIM rounded out the top five with 6.6 percent. (more…)

Economic Forecast

By Guest PostFebruary 19, 2012Economy2012, americans, bruce weber, ceee, charles i plosser, clayton hall, david lyons, economic forecast, economic growth, Economy, evan krape, fiscal policy, government treasuries, jay fishman, jim o neill, joan woodward, john f kennedy, jon hilsenrath, kathryn meier, lyons companies, media experts, michael k farr, monetary policy, overdraft, philadelphia federal reserve, president bill clinton, public policy, the arrogance cycle, travelers insurancy company, unemployment, university of delaware, us debt, Wall Street Journal, Washington

*No silver bullet but hope for economy remains, experts tell audience at UD*

Analogies abounded at the 2012 Economic Forecast, where speakers compared monetary policy to turnpike driving, fiscal policy to an empty toolbox and investing to “finding the least worst house on an unstable block.”

Charles I. Plosser, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve, was one of three featured speakers at the annual event, which was sponsored by Lyons Companies and the University of Delaware’s Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship (CEEE) and held Tuesday, Feb. 14, at UD’s Clayton Hall. (more…)

UCLA Scientists Boost Memory By Stimulating Key Site in Brain

By Guest PostFebruary 16, 2012Sciencealzheimer, americans, barbara knowlton, brain, brain cells, brain site, critical junction, cyber city, disease, entorhinal cortex, eric behnke, hippocampus, itzhak fried, john stern, memory, nanthia suthana, neuro prosthetic devices, neuroscientist, roy mukamel, taxi cab, ucla, united states, video game, virtual passenger, zulfi haneef

*Mechanism holds potential for improving recall in dementia patients*

Have you ever gone to the movies and forgotten where you parked the car? New UCLA research may one day help you improve your memory.

UCLA neuroscientists have demonstrated that they can strengthen memory in human patients by stimulating a critical junction in the brain. Published in the Feb. 9 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, the finding could lead to a new method for boosting memory in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease. (more…)

Political Leaders Play Key Role in How Worried Americans Are By Climate Change

By Guest PostFebruary 12, 2012Environment, Politicsacademy awards, afghanistan, Al Gore, american clean energy, americans, an inconvenient truth, anti environmental voting, climate change, climate change threat, climate threat, congress, democrats, environmental magazines, extreme weather, factor, gdp, gross domestic product, Iraq, j craig jenkins, jason carmichael, John McCain, Media, movie, new york times, political battle, political leader, Politics, price of oil, republican senators, republicans, robert brulle, Science, threat, threat index, unemployment rate, war deaths

COLUMBUS, Ohio – More than extreme weather events and the work of scientists, it is national political leaders who influence how much Americans worry about the threat of climate change, new research finds.

In a study of public opinion from 2002 to 2010, researchers found that public belief that climate change was a threat peaked in 2006-2007 when Democrats and Republicans in Congress showed the most agreement on the issue. (more…)

Americans Overestimate Political Polarization, According To New CU-Boulder Research

By Guest PostFebruary 7, 20122 commentsPoliticsamericans, boulder, charles judd, david sherman, degree of polarization, democrat, election, john chambers, leaf van boven, misconception, overestimate, polarization, political polarization, republican, san diego, university of colorado, university of florida, voting behavior

Many Americans overestimate the degree of polarization between Democrats and Republicans, and this misconception is associated with citizens’ voting behavior and their involvement in political activities, according to new findings from the University of Colorado Boulder.

“It is clear that Americans see themselves as very sharply polarized,” said Professor Leaf Van Boven, who led the research efforts. “And that the extent of perceived polarization dramatically overstates the actual degree of polarization.” (more…)

Biochip Measures Glucose in Saliva, Not Blood

By Guest PostJanuary 22, 2012Sciencealec roelke, americans, biochip, biological device, blood, brown university, chip, convergence, diabetics, domenico pacifici, environmental substances, glucose concentration, glucose levels, grooves, human hair, human saliva, interaction of electrons, interference, jing feng, light, light intensity, maxima and minima, measure, microfluidic channels, milligrams per deciliter, Nanotechnology, ocean waves, photons, plasmonic interferometers, steve rhieu, surface plasmon polariton, surface plasmon waves, surface plasmonics, tayhas palmore, vihang mehta, vince siu, wavelength

*Engineers at Brown University have designed a biological device that can measure glucose concentrations in human saliva. The technique could eliminate the need for diabetics to draw blood to check their glucose levels. The biochip uses plasmonic interferometers and could be used to measure a range of biological and environmental substances. Results are published in Nano Letters.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — For the 26 million Americans with diabetes, drawing blood is the most prevalent way to check glucose levels. It is invasive and at least minimally painful. Researchers at Brown University are working on a new sensor that can check blood sugar levels by measuring glucose concentrations in saliva instead.

The technique takes advantage of a convergence of nanotechnology and surface plasmonics, which explores the interaction of electrons and photons (light). The engineers at Brown etched thousands of plasmonic interferometers onto a fingernail-size biochip and measured the concentration of glucose molecules in water on the chip. Their results showed that the specially designed biochip could detect glucose levels similar to the levels found in human saliva. Glucose in human saliva is typically about 100 times less concentrated than in the blood. (more…)

U.S. Believers Favor International Action on Climate Change, Nuclear Risk: UMD Poll

By Guest PostDecember 8, 2011Culture, Environmentamericans, author, belief in god, catholics, climate change, combat, conservative, creation, evangelicals, global policy, global poverty, greenhouse gases, john steinbruner, liberal, nuclear risks, nuclear war, poll, religious americans, spiritual obligation, spread of nuclear weapons, steven kull, united states, university of maryland, us population

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – A majority of Americans professing belief in God favor cooperative international efforts to combat climate change and the spread of nuclear weapons, says a new public opinion poll conducted jointly by the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) and its Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA).

The nearly 1,500 Americans surveyed include large numbers of Catholics and Evangelicals.

The study, Faith and Global Policy Challenges: How Spiritual Values Shape Views on Poverty, Nuclear Risks, and Environmental Degradation, also finds that a majority of believers consider addressing global poverty a “spiritual obligation,” and think that the United States should work cooperatively with other nations to reduce it. (more…)

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