Tag Archives: Japan

Over-Confident CEOs Can Put Companies at Risk, MU Study Finds

By Guest PostJuly 13, 2013Economyarlington, brazil, decision making skills, france, georgia tech university, Germany, Japan, long term orientation, Mexico, narayanan jayaraman, over confident ceos, sanjiv sabherwal, stephen ferris, united kingdom, university of missouri, university of texas

COLUMBIA, Mo. — CEOs need to demonstrate strong leadership and good decision-making skills, but CEOs with over-confidence can involve their companies in riskier ventures and put investors’ funds at risk, according to a new study from the University of Missouri, Georgia Tech University and the University of Texas-Arlington.

“Over-confident CEOs feel they have superior decision-making abilities and are more capable than their peers,” said Stephen Ferris, professor of finance in the MU Trulaske College of Business. “Unfortunately, they tend to make decisions about mergers or acquisitions that can be viewed as risky. For example, CEOs who are over-confident tend to target companies that do not focus on their core line of business. Generally speaking, mergers that diversify companies don’t work.” (more…)

All for One: What Makes an Individual

By Guest PostJune 27, 2013Scienceall for one, arizona, bacterial colony, chromosomes in cells, david shahnooshi, deborah shelton, environmental stress, erik hanschen, evolutionary process, genes in chromosomes, genomes, germ cells, hierarchy of life, individual, individual organism, Japan, Johannesburg, michods lab, molecular biology, morphology, multicellular colonies, NASA, patrick ferris, pierre durand, primate colony, rega like genes, richard michod, rick michod, somatic cell functions, somatic cells, South Africa, south america, university of arizona, university of the witwatersrand, volvocine algae, zachariah grochau wright

Life as we know it has certain properties that are consistent regardless whether you’re looking at a bacterial colony in a petri dish or a primate colony in South America. Rick Michod, UA professor and department head of ecology and evolutionary biology, has received $1.3 million from NASA to investigate what properties of biology define an individual organism.

Many things in life are not fair. But some things are at least consistent.

For example, all life as we know it has certain universal properties, which presumably define how life would be organized anywhere it evolved in the universe, said Richard Michod, professor and head of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. (more…)

Global Warming will Open Unexpected New Shipping Routes in Arctic, UCLA Researchers Find

By Guest PostMarch 11, 2013EnvironmentArctic, arctic lakes, arctic ocean, asia, atlantic ocean, coast of russia, eastern canada, global temperature, global warming, icebreakers, independent climate forecasts, Japan, laurence c smith, new shipping routes, north pole, northern sea route, pacific, panama canal, polar class 6, projected shipping lanes, rotterdam, scott r stephenson, sea ice, shipping potential, suez, the netherlands, trans arctic, ucla researchers, vessels, yokohama

Shipping lanes through the Arctic Ocean won’t put the Suez and Panama canals out of business anytime soon, but global warming will make these frigid routes much more accessible than ever imagined by melting an unprecedented amount of sea ice during the late summer, new UCLA research shows.

“The development is both exciting from an economic development point of view and worrisome in terms of safety, both for the Arctic environment and for the ships themselves,” said lead researcher Laurence C. Smith, a professor of geography at UCLA. (more…)

Google, Dwango and FC2 Lead Japan’s Online Video Market

By Guest PostFebruary 21, 2013TechnologyComscore, comscore video metrix, dwango, fc2, fuji television, Google, Japan, japanese internet users, jijicom, minutes per viewer, online video market, sony music entertainment, tv asahi, vevo, warner music, YouTube

Music and Television Companies Top YouTube Partner Channel Rankings

Tokyo, Japan, February 21, 2013 – comScore Japan K.K., a wholly owned subsidiary of comScore, Inc., today released data from comScore Video Metrix showing that 60 million Japanese internet users watched online videos in December 2012. The top 3 video properties by viewing audience in Japan were Google Sites, Dwango, and FC2, while VEVO, Fuji Television, and Sony Music Entertainment Japan ranked as the most popular YouTube Partner Channels.

FC2 Leads Top 10 Video Properties in Average Engagement

Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing on YouTube, ranked as the top online video content property in December 2012 with 50 million unique viewers. Dwango Co., Ltd ranked second with 29 million viewers, followed by FC2 with 22 million viewers. DMM, although lower in the rankings with 5.2 million unique viewers, showed a year-over-year increase of 713 percent, the highest growth rate among the top 10 properties. In terms of engagement (Minutes per Viewer), FC2 ranked first among the top 10 with more than 23 hours per viewer while boasting the fastest year-over-year growth of 79 percent. (more…)

In Conversation with: Paul Bracken, Expert on Nuclear ‘Power Politics’

By Guest PostFebruary 20, 2013Politicsatomic bomb, cold war, collapse, critical regions, department of defense, expert, food, iran, Japan, mirv, missile, multiple warhead icbm, north korea, nuclear power politics, nuclear test, oil donations, paul bracken, political science, pyongyang, second nuclear age, south korea, submarines, un. china, united states, Washington, weapons program, world, yale

North Korea, which just conducted its third nuclear test, is using its weapons program to deter the United States by holding its allies “hostage,” according to Paul Bracken, who teaches management and political science at Yale.

Bracken is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, serves on several Department of Defense advisory boards, and is the author, most recently, of “The Second Nuclear Age: Strategy, Danger, and the New Power Politics” (Times Books, 2012). The following is an edited version of an email interview with him. (more…)

Kofi Annan to students: ‘It’s your world now’

By Guest PostFebruary 13, 2013General, Politicsabsolutely essential, afghanistan, africa, arab league, city college, civil war, cuny, east timor, economic prospects, egypt, geneva, global food security, India, international monetary fund, jackson institute, Japan, jean krasno, john negroponte, kofi annan, kosovo, latin america, macalestar college, minnesota, native ghana, new york, nigeria, nutrition, Pakistan, political, radical change, russia, security council, sub-saharan africa, switzerland, syria, town hall meeting, un secretary general, united states, violent world conflicts, world economy

Former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan predicted during a campus visit that the civil war in Syria will become even more tragic before the international community takes action to help resolve the conflict, but said he is optimistic about the political and economic prospects for Africa in the years ahead. (more…)

Analysis of Greenland Ice Cores Adds to Historical Record and May Provide Glimpse into Climate’s Future

By Guest PostJanuary 30, 2013Environmentalpine research, Antarctica, Arctic, arctic sciences section, atmosphere, belgium, boulder, canada, change, China, climate, climate conditions, denmark, dorthe dahl-jensen, earth climate, eemian interglacial, eemian like, eemian period, france, future, future climate, Germany, global temperatures rise, greenland ice cores, greenland ice sheet, historical record, ice ages, ice sheet, Iceland, Japan, jim white, last interglacial period, national science foundation, neem, northern greenland, northern hemisphere, paleo climate models, sea-level rise, south korea, subsurface ice layers, Sweden, switzerland, the netherlands, united kingdom, united states, university of colorado, university of copenhagen, west antarctic

The International North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling (NEEM) project results indicate that melting of Antarctic ice sheet may have contributed more to sea level rise than melting of the Greeland ice sheet some 100,000 years ago

A new study that provides surprising details on changes in Earth’s climate from more than 100,000 years ago indicates that the last interglacial–the period between “ice ages”–was warmer than previously thought and may be a good analog for future climate, as greenhouse gases increase in the atmosphere and global temperatures rise.

The research findings also indicate that melting of the massive West Antarctic ice sheet may have contributed more to sea-level rise at that time than melting of the Greenland ice sheet. (more…)

IBM Delivers New Services to Help Clients Move Enterprise Applications to the Cloud

By Guest PostJanuary 29, 2013Technologyalbert mombarg, analytics, Argentina, australia, barcelona, big data, brazil, canada, cloud adoption, cloud based transactions, cloud center, cloud computing, cloud models, cloud service, cloud today, core application, crm, enterprise, erp, Europe, five continents, france, Germany, global delivery model, ibm, ibm sce, ibm smartcloud, innovative analytics, it, it environments, it sourcing arrangements, Japan, jim comfort, lifecycle, mobile computing, model, network, new center, online access, os instance, philips smart tv, roi, sap applications, sce, self service clouds, smartcloud enterprise, social business, spain, technology and innovation, US, vishal sikka, world map

Financial, healthcare, government and electronics clients tap IBM SmartCloud Enterprise+;
IBM SmartCloud for SAP Applications now available globally

ARMONK, N.Y. – 29 Jan 2013: IBM today announced global availability for its cloud service on five continents—plus a new center opening in Spain—based on its industry-leading sourcing business to host SAP® applications and other core operations. Now clients can turn to cloud computing for enterprise applications while reducing the overall cost of IT and at the same time, expanding online access and investing in innovative analytics, social business and mobile computing.

Many organizations are eager to leverage the economic advantages of cloud computing to run their critical applications on the cloud. These applications require deep technical expertise, around-the-clock customer service, tight security and ongoing maintenance – features typically found in IT sourcing arrangements but not in the “one-size-fits-all” model of self-service clouds. (more…)