Tag Archives: analysis

IBM Social Sentiment Index Predicts New Retail Trend in the Making

By Guest PostJanuary 14, 2013Technology19th century, advanced analytics, analysis, birth, blogs, convention, cultural domains, cultural meme, Facebook, fantasy, fashion, fiction, gothic machinery, hg wells, ibm, ibm predict, industrialized civilization, jules verne, message boards, national, news sources, nikola tesla, project, retail federation, retail industry, retro futuristic style, science fiction, sentiment analysis, social media sites, social sentiment index, steampunk, sub genre, trend, trevor davis, Twitter, us department stores, victorian society, visual arts

Analytics points to the “Birth of a Trend,” steampunk aesthetic to pervade pop culture in 2013

ARMONK, N.Y. – 14 Jan 2013: National Retail Federation Convention – Based on an analysis of more than a half million public posts on message boards, blogs, social media sites and news sources, IBM predicts that ‘steampunk,’ a sub-genre inspired by the clothing, technology and social mores of Victorian society, will be a major trend to bubble up, and take hold, of the retail industry. Major fashion labels, accessories providers and jewelry makers are expected to integrate a steampunk aesthetic into their designs in the coming year.

Measuring public sentiment can help retail chief marketing officers customize incentives and services to be more in tune with what customers are asking for, using data to tailor their offerings to address fast-moving trends and real-time customer needs. (more…)

Argentina Ranks First in Worldwide Desktop Social Networking Engagement at Nearly 10 Hours per Visitor Each Month

By Guest PostDecember 20, 2012Technologyalejandro fosk, analysis, Argentina, ask, brazil, Chile, Comscore, Facebook, hi5, latin america, leading social network, level of engagement, linkedIn, market, Mexico, peru, slideshare, social networking activity, social networking markets, tumblr

Analysis of Social Networking in Latin America Shows LinkedIn Grabbing #2 Position with35 Million Monthly Visitors

Santiago, Chile, December 20, 2012 – comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an analysis of social networking activity in Latin America, which found that Argentina and Brazil led as the most engaged social networking markets worldwide with visitors spending an average of near 10 hours on social networking sites in November 2012. The study also found that LinkedIn, which has grown strongly in the past year due to both organic growth and the acquisition of Slideshare.net, is now the second most visited social network in Latin America. (more…)

Exhaustive Family Tree for Birds Shows Recent, Rapid Diversification

By Guest PostNovember 9, 2012Natureanalysis, arne mooers, avian diversity, basic hypotheses, behavioral innovation, biodiversity expert, bird species, birds, bumblebees, canada, diversification rate, dna data, earth, eurasia, evolution, evolutionary history, extinction, family tree, fossil, g h thomas, geographic context, geographic space, geographical information, global phylogenies, global picture, habitats, islands, j b joy, k hartmann, life, mainlands, north american, simon fraser university, south america, Space, tasmania, time, tropical species, tunafish, walter jetz, western hemisphere, yale, zeitgeist

A Yale-led scientific team has produced the most comprehensive family tree for birds to date, connecting all living bird species — nearly 10,000 in total — and revealing surprising new details about their evolutionary history and its geographic context.

Analysis of the family tree shows when and where birds diversified — and that birds’ diversification rate has increased over the last 50 million years, challenging the conventional wisdom of biodiversity experts.

“It’s the first time that we have — for such a large group of species and with such a high degree of confidence — the full global picture of diversification in time and space,” said biologist Walter Jetz of Yale, lead author of the team’s research paper, published Oct. 31 online in the journal Nature. (more…)

Saber-toothed Cats and Bear Dogs: How They Made Cohabitation Work

By Guest PostNovember 8, 2012Scienceanalysis, batallones, bear dog, carbon 12, carbon isotope, cat species, catherine badgley, cats, cerro, de, extinct mammals, food web, fossilized fangs, geological pits, habitat, history, late, los, machairodus aphanistus, madrid, mammalian predator, michigan, miocene, miocene period, neutrons, nucleus, palaeontologist, promegantereon ogygia, ratio, saber toothed, soledad domingo, stable, tooth enamel, u m museum, university, woodland area

ANN ARBOR — The fossilized fangs of saber-toothed cats hold clues to how the extinct mammals shared space and food with other large predators 9 million years ago.

Led by the University of Michigan and the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid, a team of paleontologists has analyzed the tooth enamel of two species of saber-toothed cats and a bear dog unearthed in geological pits near Madrid. Bear dogs, also extinct, had dog-like teeth and a bear-like body and gait. (more…)

Asteroid Vesta Has Unique ‘Space Weathering’

By Guest PostNovember 1, 2012Scienceairless bodies, analysis, asteroid belt, brown university, carle pieters, dawn spacecraft, energetic particle, geologist, giant asteroid, gravitational characteristics, lunar surface, metal nanoparticle, mineral composition, moon, nanophase coatings, nanophase weathering, NASA, phenomenon, solar system, solar wind, space weathering, vaporized meteorite, vesta

Space weathering — a darkening of lunar surfaces by solar wind and metal nanoparticles from vaporized meteorites — appears to happen differently on Vesta, the largest body in the asteroid belt. The discovery, from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, has planetary geologists returning to their lunar data for another look and further analysis.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The surface of the giant asteroid Vesta is weathering in a way that appears to be completely different from any other asteroid yet visited, according to new data recorded by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. This new type of space weathering suggests that there’s something about Vesta — perhaps its mineral composition or its position in the solar system — that makes its surface environment fundamentally different from other asteroids studied thus far.

The new data are presented in a paper published Nov. 1, 2012, in the journal Nature. (more…)

Medicare Policy: Barrier to Hospice Increases Hospitalization

By Guest PostOctober 31, 2012Healthadvanced dementia, affordable, aggressive treatment, analysis, antianxiety drugs, brown university, care act, death, hospice care, hospitalization, hypnotic, iv fluids, julie lima, medicare policy, medicare reimbursement, nursing home, physical therapy, skilled nursing, snf, susan miller, susan mitchell

Because of a Medicare policy that prevents simultaneous reimbursement for skilled nursing and hospice care, many families cannot choose hospice for loved ones who reside in nursing homes. The result, new research shows, is that residents with advanced dementia who have Medicare skilled nursing home care without any hospice care have a far greater likelihood of dying in the hospital and receiving aggressive treatments such as feeding tubes or physical therapy within weeks of death.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A Medicare rule that blocks thousands of nursing home residents from receiving simultaneous reimbursement for hospice and skilled nursing facility (SNF) care at the end of life may result in those residents receiving more aggressive treatment and hospitalization, according a new analysis.

“This study is the first, to the knowledge of the authors, to attempt to understand how treatments and outcomes vary for nursing home residents with advanced dementia who use Medicare SNF care near the end of life and who do or do not enroll in Medicare hospice,” wrote researchers, including lead author Susan Miller, research professor of health services policy and practice at Brown University, in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. (more…)

UMD Study: Fiscal Cliff Could Trigger Deep Recession, Fear of Cliff Has Cut GDP Already

By Guest PostOctober 30, 2012Economyamerica, analysis, congress, debt burdens, defense spending, economic crisis, economic environment, effect, employment level, Europe, federal spending, financial crisis, fiscal cliff, fiscal shock, gdp, government policy, inforum, interindustry forecasting project, jeff werling, maryland, multiplier, nation, prediction, recession, sequestration, tax cuts, tax increase, tax reform, u.s economy, university

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The so-called “fiscal cliff” has already begun dampening the U.S. economy – even before it officially kicks in – and by year’s end will have cut 2012 GDP an estimated six-tenths of one percent, says a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland’s Interindustry Forecasting Project (Inforum).

The study, called Fiscal Shock: America’s Economic Crisis, is one of the first to look beyond the first year effects of the combined federal spending cuts and tax increases. It projects an escalating impact into 2014 and beyond, as “multiplier” effects of fiscal contraction kick in. (more…)

Bounce, Skid, Wobble: How Huygens Landed on Titan

By Guest PostOctober 11, 2012Science17th century, analysis, astronomer, cassini spacecraft, christiaan huygens, direction, dutch, earth, erich karkoschka, european, evaporate, friction, hazy atmosphere, horizon, huygens data, huygens impact, huygens probe, institute, lower atmosphere, max planck, methane, model, moon, moon surface, motion, mud like, NASA, nicolas altobelli, organic aerosols, ralph lorenz, saturn, space agency, splat, stefan schroder, substance, titan, titan atmosphere, undisturbed terrain

Piecing together the events of the farthest touchdown a manmade spacecraft has ever made on an alien world reveals new clues about Titan’s surface and helps plan future missions to moons and planets.

The Huygens probe, ferried to Saturn’s moon Titan by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, bounced, slid and wobbled its way to rest in the 10 seconds after touching down on Titan in January 2005, a new analysis reveals. The moon’s surface is more complex than previously thought.

Scientists reconstructed the chain of events by analyzing data from a variety of instruments that were active during the impact, in particular changes in the acceleration experienced by the probe. The probe was supplied by the European Space Agency and named after the Dutch 17th century astronomer Christiaan Huygens. (more…)