Tag Archives: population

Combating Global Problems at BIARI

By Guest PostJune 22, 2012Environment, General, Scienceaids, ambedkar university delhi, anita elizabeth cherian, armed conflict, barbara willaarts, biari, botin foundation, brazil, brown university, cape town, China, chinese cities, civil society, climate change, courtney coelho, development, end project evaluation, environmental awareness, ethiopia, global problem, grass stage theatre, hiv, hiv awareness, India, junia quiroga de cuhan, kathamandu university, ke zhang, latin america, laureate universities, maria cecelia trannin, nepal, new delhi, nigeria, peking university, population, qing hui hou, rebecca hodes, rio de janeiro, rukmini sen, sagar sharma, shimla, South Africa, university, yunnan province, zheng xie

Some 140 participants and 30 visiting faculty from more than 45 countries arrived at Brown to take part in the Brown International Advanced Research Institutes (BIARI). The two-week program began June 11, 2012.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Some 140 participants and 30 visiting faculty from more than 45 countries arrived at Brown to take part in the Brown International Advanced Research Institutes (BIARI). Participants, who were chosen from a pool of more than 850 applicants, come from several countries, including Brazil, China, Nigeria, India, and Ethiopia.

The two-week program began Monday, June 11, 2012. Now in its fourth year, BIARI is centered around four two-week intensive institutes, convened concurrently by Brown faculty, in which participants and leading scholars in their fields share their research and develop new collaborative projects through sustained, high-level dialogue spanning disciplines and continents. This year’s institutes touched on global health and HIV/AIDS; theater and civil society; population and development; and climate change. (more…)

Rare Rabbit

By Guest PostMay 24, 2012Naturebukit barisan seletan, canr, conservation, jennifer mccarthy, kerinci seblat, kyle mccarthy, leopards, liwa region, mohamed bin zaved, national park, oryx, population, rare rabbit, rare rabbit species, rare striped rabbit, rarest species, sumatra, sumatran striped rabbit, university of delaware, wild cats, wildlife journal, world

UD’s McCarthy part of group that films rare striped rabbit in Sumatra

With cameras set up in Sumatra looking for medium- and small-sized wild cats, such as leopards, a research group involving the University of Delaware’s Kyle McCarthy, found images of something else entirely — a rabbit. Not just any ordinary rabbit, but a Sumatran striped rabbit, one of the world’s rarest species and one that had been captured on film only three times before.

There has never been a viable study of the Sumatran striped rabbit and McCarthy, assistant professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR), said that while his group plans on continuing their study of small cats, they are now also focusing on the rare rabbit species. (more…)

Playing the Odds to Your Favor

By Guest PostApril 25, 2012Educationamerica, applied stochastic processes, area, average, China, chinese native, energy, evaluation, flinn scholarship, galileo circle, ireland, jason xu, kevin lin, knowledge, mathematical statistics, mathematics, ming xu, monte carlo method, physics, population, probability distribution, queen's university belfast, random sample, research, tucson, ua student, university of arizona, Wuhan

UA student Jason Xu has been recognized by the College of Science for his undergraduate research.

Wuhan, China and Tucson, Ariz.: These cities are thousands of miles apart, but they have one commonality – University of Arizona student Jason Xu.

A Chinese native and mathematics senior in the Honors College, Xu was selected as the recipient of this year’s Excellence in Undergraduate Research award by the UA College of Science at its Galileo Circle reception event.

The award “is a huge honor and means a lot to me. I feel really good to be representing the math department,” Xu said. (more…)

Microsoft Announces Largest Cloud Customer Ever: All India Council for Technical Education to Reach 7 Million With Live@edu

By Guest PostApril 12, 2012Technologyaicte, all india council, anthony salcito, cloud computing, Economy, Google, ibm, India, los angeles, Microsoft, microsoft live, microsoft lync online, microsoft office, population, ppp model, s s mantha, sanket akerkar, technical education, web apps

*AICTE adopts cloud to improve technical education and prepare students for the workforce of tomorrow.*

NEW DELHI and REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft Corp. and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) announced today that AICTE is deploying Microsoft Live@edu over the next three months to more than 10,000 technical colleges and institutes throughout India. The cloud deployment will expand students’ access to high-quality technical education and collaboration.

Live@edu is a hosted communication and collaboration service that offers email, Microsoft Office Web Apps, instant messaging and storage to AICTE’s more than 7 million students and nearly 500,000 faculty members, for a total reach of 7.5 million users — roughly double the size of the Los Angeles population — making AICTE Microsoft’s largest cloud customer ever. Live@edu is the first step in AICTE’s deployment of Microsoft cloud computing for education. AICTE also plans to deploy Microsoft Office 365 for education when it becomes available later this year, providing access to Microsoft Exchange Online email and calendar, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online and Microsoft Office Professional as the technical infrastructure to support member colleges and institutes. (more…)

Early Spring Drives Butterfly Population Declines

By Guest PostMarch 18, 2012Environment, Naturebutterfly population, carol boggs, caterpillars, climate change, colorado rocky mountains, david inouye, flower, life cycle, mormon fritillary butterfly, national science foundation, nectar, population, saran twombly, snowmelt, species, speyeria mormonia, university of maryland

“Ahead-of-time” snowmelt triggers chains of events in the Mormon Fritillary butterfly

Early snowmelt caused by climate change in the Colorado Rocky Mountains snowballs into two chains of events: a decrease in the number of flowers, which, in turn, decreases available nectar. The result is decline in a population of the Mormon Fritillary butterfly, Speyeria mormonia.

Using long-term data on date of snowmelt, butterfly population sizes and flower numbers at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Carol Boggs, a biologist at Stanford University, and colleagues uncovered multiple effects of early snowmelt on the growth rate of an insect population. (more…)

Acid Rain Study Show Substantial Decreases, But More Progress is Needed

By Guest PostJanuary 21, 2012Environmentacid rain, acid sensitive, acidic compounds, acidification, adirondack mountains, air quality, american science, aquatic ecosystems, atmosphere, clean air act amendments, climate change, coal, coastal ecosystems, doug burns, emission reductions, emissions, environmental damage, fine particles, forest fires, fossil fuel, gas, human health, hydrologist, john p holdren, lakes, multiple pollutants, new york, nitrogen oxides, oil, oxidants, ozone concentration, population, power plants, streams, sulfur dioxide, U.S. Geological Survey, visibility, water quality

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Measurable improvements in air quality and visibility, human health, and water quality in many acid-sensitive lakes and streams, have been achieved through emissions reductions from electric generating power plants and resulting decreases in acid rain. These are some of the key findings in a report to Congress by the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program, a cooperative federal program.

The report shows that since the establishment of the Acid Rain Program, under Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, there have been substantial reductions in sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxides (NO_x) emissions from power plants that use fossil fuels like coal, gas and oil, which are known to be the primary causes of acid rain. As of 2009, emissions of SO₂ and NO_x declined by about two-thirds relative to levels in the 1990s. These emissions levels declined even further in 2010, according to recent data compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (more…)

Study Provides New Insights into Antibiotics and Pig Feeds

By Guest PostJanuary 19, 2012Scienceabundance, antibiotic resistant gene, antibiotics, benli chai, chickens, diversity, e coli, farm animals, feed efficiency, gastrointestinal microbes, gastrointestinal tract, growth rates, in feed antibiotic, intestinal microbial communities, james tiedje, kurt stepnitz, livestock, michigan state university, pig feed, population, robert stedtfeld, tiffany stedtfeld, tim johnson, woo jun sul

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Antibiotics in pig feed increased the number of antibiotic resistant genes in gastrointestinal microbes in pigs, according to a study conducted by Michigan State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service.

Published in the current edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the comprehensive study focused on understanding the effects of conventional, in-feed antibiotics in U.S. farms. (more…)

Satellite Tracking Helps Russian Tanker Navigate Critical Sea Duck Habitat

By Guest PostJanuary 8, 2012Naturebiologists, craig lloyd, ellen lance, Environment, habitat, marcia mcnutt, matthew sexson, northern bering sea, population, russian tanker renda, satellite telemetry information, satellite tracking technology, sea duck, species, spectacled eiders, st lawrence island, transmitter, U.S. Geological Survey, us coast guard, usgs alaska science center, wildlife resources, wintering habitat

ANCHORAGE — On its way to deliver emergency fuel to Nome, Alaska, the Russian tanker Renda will move through an area used by wintering spectacled eiders, a federally threatened sea duck. But, to protect the ducks and their wintering habitat, resource managers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and navigators from the U.S. Coast Guard are using satellite telemetry information from the U.S. Geological Survey to plot a route for the tanker that minimizes impacts to this species and its habitat.

“Nearly 20 years ago, USGS biologists used the latest satellite tracking technology available at the time to uncover the mysterious wintering behavior of the spectacled eider, now a threatened species,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. “Little did these scientists know at the time that their information would be critical in allowing a Russian tanker decades later to thread the needle to Nome in order to deliver life-saving fuel oil without taking a toll on these elusive sea ducks.” (more…)