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Microsoft introduces the 4Afrika Scholarship program

By Guest PostAugust 12, 2013Education, Technology4afrika scholarship program, africa, african students, botswana, clinton global initiative, english, international youth day, Microsoft, microsoft 4afrika, microsoft innovation centers, new york university, patrick onwumere, people, Tanzania, tunisia, uganda, united nations, university, young african minds

Part of the 4Afrika Initiative, the program will offer mentorship, training, university-level education and employment opportunities to aspiring African youth.

LAGOS, Nigeria — Aug. 12, 2013 — In recognition of International Youth Day, Microsoft Corp. Monday introduced the 4Afrika Scholarship program, as part of its 4Afrika Initiative, through which it will provide mentorship, leadership and technical training, certification, university-level education, and employment opportunities for promising African students. Mentorship will be provided by Microsoft employees from around the world, and employment opportunities will include internships and both part-time and full-time jobs within Microsoft, as well as with the company’s more than 10,000 partners across Africa.

Through the company’s 4Afrika Initiative and YouthSpark program, Microsoft has committed to helping millions of Africans get critical skills for entrepreneurship and employability. The 4Afrika Scholarship program is one way the company intends to meet that goal, by helping ensure that promising youth have access to the education, resources and skills they need to succeed, regardless of their financial situations. To help redress gender disparity in higher education in Africa, the company is actively encouraging young women to apply. (more…)

Altitude sickness may hinder ethnic integration in the world’s highest places

By Guest PostJuly 4, 2013General, Scienceabu dhabi, access to sea, altitude sickness, andes dwellers, biological tolerance, Bolivia, China, chinese province, chinese security forces, christopher paik, clinica chimica acta, demographic patterns, effect of elevation, enze han, ethnic demographics, ethnic friction, ethnic integration, ethnic segregation, gansu, han chinese, highest places, himalayas, life on high, low oxygen conditions, migration patterns, modern times, new york university, population, princeton university, qinghai, qinghai tibet railway, role of factors, Sichuan, soil quality, tibetan autonomous region, tibetan name, tibetan plateau, tibetan settlements, traditional han settlements, university of london, wangyal shawa, world, yunnan

Ethnic segregation in nations straddling the world’s highest terrains may be reinforced by the biological tolerance different peoples have to altitude, according to one of the first studies to examine the effect of elevation on ethnic demographics.

Research from Princeton University published in the journal Applied Geography suggests that people native to low-lying areas can be naturally barred from regions such as the Tibetan Plateau, the Andes or the Himalayas by altitude sickness, which is caused by low oxygen concentration in the air and can be life-threatening. As a result, the homogeny of the local population can increase with elevation. In nations shared by people of high- and lowland extractions, this separation can potentially increase ethnic tension. (more…)

Using IBM’s Crowdsourced Supercomputer, Harvard Rates Solar Energy Potential of 2.3 Million New Compounds

By Guest PostJune 24, 2013Technologyaids, alan aspuru guzik, america, basic materials data, Berkeley, boinc, bright idea, cancer, carbon compounds, cepdb database, clean energy project, crowdsourced supercomputer, cyrus wadia, diseases, harvard, harvard rates, ibm, linux computer, mac, malaria, mgi, new york university, organic, organic semiconductors, plastic bags, rare earth elements, solar cells, solar energy materials, solar energy potential, sunlight into electricity, university of california, viktors berstis, White House, windows, world community grid

White House Applauds Citizen Science, Big Data Initiative

CAMBRIDGE, MA – 24 Jun 2013: The search for more versatile and less expensive materials for solar energy received a boost today as Harvard launched a free database that catalogues the suitability of 2.3 million organic, carbon compounds for converting sunlight into electricity.

Harvard’s Clean Energy project — which screened the molecules using World Community Grid, an IBM-managed virtual supercomputer that harnesses the surplus computer power donated by volunteers — is believed to be the most extensive investigation of quantum chemicals ever performed. (more…)

Vortex Loops Could Untie Knotty Physics Problems

By Guest PostMarch 5, 2013Science3d printer, atmosphere, behavior culminates, charged gas, configuration, dustin kleckner, dynamics, elements, energy, exotic superfluids, failed catastrophically, fine scale twisting, high speed camera, hydrofoils, james franck institute, knot, knotted vortex loops, knottedness, lord kelvin, momentum, new york university, ordinary fluids, periodic table, physicist peter tait, physicists, physics subfields, plasma flows, plasma physics, reconnection, smoke ring, stable phenomena, turbulence, university of chicago, vortex knot, washington square park, weird behavior, william irvine

University of Chicago physicists have succeeded in creating a vortex knot—a feat akin to tying a smoke ring into a knot. Linked and knotted vortex loops have existed in theory for more than a century, but creating them in the laboratory had previously eluded scientists.

Vortex knots should, in principle, be persistent, stable phenomena. “The unexpected thing is that they’re not,” said Dustin Kleckner, a postdoctoral scientist at UChicago’s James Franck Institute. “They seem to break up in a particular way. They stretch themselves, which is a weird behavior.” (more…)

Human Cognition Depends Upon Slow-Firing Neurons

By Guest PostFebruary 26, 2013Sciencealzheimer's disease, amy arnsten, any sensory stimulation, brain circuits, clear thinking, cognitive deficits, dementia, disease, Environment, firing of neurons, glutamate signaling regulate, good mental health, hallmark, human cognition, john krystal, mathematical models, medicine, mental sketch pad, min wang, molecular basis, nao j gamo, neuronal firing, new york university, nmda nr2b receptors, prefrontal cortex, receptors, schizophrenia, street drug, types of nmda, xiao jing wang, yale neurobiologist, yale school, yang yang

Good mental health and clear thinking depend upon our ability to store and manipulate thoughts on a sort of “mental sketch pad.” In a new study, Yale School of Medicine researchers describe the molecular basis of this ability — the hallmark of human cognition — and describe how a breakdown of the system contributes to diseases such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease.

“Insults to these highly evolved cortical circuits impair the ability to create and maintain our mental representations of the world, which is the basis of higher cognition,” said Amy Arnsten, professor of neurobiology and senior author of the paper published in the Feb. 20 issue of the journal Neuron. (more…)

Form, Function and Folding: In Collaboration with Berkeley Lab, a Team of Scientists Move Toward Rational Design of Artificial Proteins

By Guest PostAugust 26, 2012Scienceamino acid, barney yoo, berkeley lab, bioinspired nanomaterial, blind structure, function, glenn butterfoss, ilya chorny, jonathan jaworski, ken dill, kent kirshenbaum, modeling, molecular foundry, n alkyl, natural selection, new york university, peptoid molecule, peptoid trimers, prediction, protein, protein sequence, qm, qm calculation, remd, richard bonneau, ronald zuckermann, stony brook university, structure, synthetic cousin, temple university, vincent voelz, xray crystallography

In the world of proteins, form defines function. Based on interactions between their constituent amino acids, proteins form specific conformations, folding and twisting into distinct, chemically directed shapes. The resulting structure dictates the proteins’ actions; thus accurate modeling of structure is vital to understanding functionality.

Peptoids, the synthetic cousins of proteins, follow similar design rules. Less vulnerable to chemical or metabolic breakdown than proteins, peptoids are promising for diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, and as a platform to build bioinspired nanomaterials, as scientists can build and manipulate peptoids with great precision. But to design peptoids for a specific function, scientists need to first untangle the complex relationship between a peptoid’s composition and its function-defining folded structure. (more…)

Use of Out-of-Network Services May Explain Higher Health Care Costs For Women

By Guest PostJanuary 8, 2012Generalanesthesiologists, balance billing, co payments, daniel jones, economic downturn, health care costs, health insurance, insurance, kelly kyanko, mental health, network, new york university, out of network services, pediatric, scholar at yale, susan busch, women

Women generally have been paying higher health care costs than men for many years, and this trend appears to be continuing or worsening since the major economic downturn began in 2008, according to Susan Busch, associate professor of health policy in the Yale School of Public Health.

Busch believes women’s use of out-of-network services might explain, at least in part, this discrepancy. (more…)

‘Jillian Lauren: Life in a Harem’

By ShamsJuly 16, 2010Culture, Mediabrunei, harem, jefri bolkiah, jillian lauren, love story, memoir, new york university, prince, prince jefri, some girls, sultal of brunei

Bored while at the New York University, Jillian Lauren followed a road that ended up at the Harem of Prince Jefri Bolkiah, the younger brother of the Sultan of Brunei. And we know, Brunei has lots of money.

(more…)

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