Tag Archives: university

Shark Social Networking

By Guest PostOctober 17, 2012Natureacoustic tags, acoustic transmitter, apex predator, battery recharge, behavior, biotelemetry, coast, coastal water, concern, conventional, danielle haulsee, delaware, delaware bay, delmarva peninsula, device, dewayne fox, east coast, eastern seaboard, ecological balance, georgia aquarium, habitat, identification sensor, indian river, inlet, maryland, matthew oliver, migration pattern, mobile transceiver, network, ocean, ocean observation, oceanographic, otis, real-time, remote controlled, researcher, shark migration, species, telemetry, tiger shark, tracking technique, transmitter, underwater robot, university, vemco, vmt

Shark migrations studied with underwater robot along Delmarva Peninsula

University of Delaware researchers are using an underwater robot to find and follow sand tiger sharks that they previously tagged with transmitters. The innovative project is part of a multi-year partnership with Delaware State University to better understand the behavior and migration patterns of the sharks in real time.

“In the past week our new, specially equipped glider OTIS – which stands for Oceanographic Telemetry Identification Sensor – detected multiple sand tiger sharks off the coast of Maryland that were tagged over the past several years,” said Matthew Oliver, assistant professor of oceanography in UD’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. “This is the first time that a glider has found tagged sharks and reported their location in real time.” (more…)

IBM and Oxford Survey: Getting Closer to Customers Tops Big Data Agenda

By Guest PostOctober 17, 2012Technologyanalytics, big data, business school, customer experience, data mining, database, Economy, geospatial data, global snapshot, ibm, ibm study, initiative, internal system, it professional, janet smart, michael schroeck, organization, oxford, primary objective, query, reporting, saïd, sensor data, social media, social network, solution, source, structured data, uk, university, unstructured data

Less than half of organizations analyzing external data; only 43 percent looking at social media for deeper understanding about consumer preferences
Lack of advanced analytics skills for tackling unstructured data biggest challenge

ARMONK, N.Y. and OXFORD – 17 Oct 2012: A new global report released today by IBM and the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford reveals that most Big Data initiatives currently being deployed by organizations are aimed at improving the customer experience. Yet, despite the strong focus on the customer, less than half of the organizations engaged in active Big Data initiatives are currently collecting and analyzing external sources of data, like social media.

One reason is that many organizations are struggling to address and manage the uncertainty inherent within certain types of data, such as the weather, the economy, or the sentiment and truthfulness of people expressed on social networks. In the survey, respondents questioned their ability to trust comments, reviews, tweets and other forms of freely offered opinions online. While uncertain, social media data still contains valuable information. Organizations need to embrace and manage data uncertainty and determine how to use it to their advantage. (more…)

Graphene Membranes May Lead To Enhanced Natural Gas Production, Less CO2 Pollution, Says CU Study

By Guest PostOctober 16, 2012Environment, Science2010, andre geim, argon, atomic crystal, atomic scale, carbon atom, carbon dioxide, chicken wire, colorado boulder, diameter, emission, energy-efficient, engineering faculty, England, exhaust pipe, gas molecule, graphene membrane, hexagonal, hydrogen, industrial scale, john pellegrino, konstantin novoselov, lattice, luda wang, manchester university, membrane, methane, molecular sieve, molecular size, nanometer, natural gas, nature nanotechnology, nitrogen, nobel prize, oxidative etching, pore, power plant, production, scott bunch, sieving, size selective, steven koenig, sulphur hexafluoride, ultraviolet light, university

Engineering faculty and students at the University of Colorado Boulder have produced the first experimental results showing that atomically thin graphene membranes with tiny pores can effectively and efficiently separate gas molecules through size-selective sieving.

The findings are a significant step toward the realization of more energy-efficient membranes for natural gas production and for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power plant exhaust pipes.

Mechanical engineering professors Scott Bunch and John Pellegrino co-authored a paper in Nature Nanotechnology with graduate students Steven Koenig and Luda Wang detailing the experiments. The paper was published Oct. 7 in the journal’s online edition. (more…)

Armchair Astronomers Find Planet in Four-Star System

By Guest PostOctober 16, 2012Scienceamerican, arizona, arxiv preprint, astronomical data, astronomical society, circumbinary planet, citizen scientist, cottonwood, debra fischer, discovery, earth, eclipsing star, Environment, four star, hawaii, jerome orosz, johns hopkins, keck telescopes, kepler spacecraft, kian jek, mauna kea, meg schwamb, NASA, neptune, nevada, orbit, ph1, phenomenon, planet, planet discovery, planet formation, planethunters, professional astronomer, radius, reno, robert gagliano, san diego, san francisco, server, star, state university, system, twin suns, university, website, yale

A joint effort of citizen scientists and professional astronomers has led to the first reported case of a planet orbiting twin suns that in turn is orbited by a second distant pair of stars.

Aided by volunteers using the Planethunters.org website, a Yale-led international team of astronomers identified and confirmed discovery of the phenomenon, called a circumbinary planet in a four-star system.

Only six planets are known to orbit two stars, according to researchers, and none of these are orbited by distant stellar companions. (more…)

Fingerprints for Financing: Removing Some Risk from Lending in Africa

By Guest PostOctober 16, 2012Economy, Generalafrican nation, american, biometric identification, birth certificate, computer, control trial, credit history, dean yang, defaulting, economic review, economist, fingerprinting, id, identification system, jessica Goldberg, malawi, michigan, microfinance institution, national, negative association, paprika, paprika farmer, positive association, record, rural area, scanned fingerprint, software, southeastern, university, witchcraft, world bank, xavier gine

ANN ARBOR — Some called it “witchcraft.” Others just watched in awe as their scanned fingerprints were used to pull up their records on a computer.

They were paprika farmers in Malawi participating in a new study that shows fingerprinting can help encourage borrowers to repay their loans.

Like many impoverished countries, Malawi lacks a national identification system. Most of the population lives in rural areas with few government services. Even ID as basic as a birth certificate is rare in the southeastern African nation. (more…)

Gold Nanoparticle Prostate Cancer Treatment Found Safe in Dogs, MU Study Shows

By Guest PostOctober 16, 2012Healthancer death, bodily function, cancer, cancer patient, cause, chemotherapy, clinical trial, dose, efficient way, gold nanoparticle, human patient, kattesh katti, missouri, mizzou advantage, one health, one medicine area, prostate cancer, prostate tumor, radioactive, reduction, sandra axiak bechtel, side effect, toxic, travel, treatment, tumor, tumor volume, university, us men, vital organ

New treatment may have fewer side effects than traditional cancer therapy

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Currently, large doses of chemotherapy are required when treating certain forms of cancer, resulting in toxic side effects. The chemicals enter the body and work to destroy or shrink the tumor, but also harm vital organs and drastically affect bodily functions. Now, scientists at the University of Missouri have proven that a new form of prostate cancer treatment that uses radioactive gold nanoparticles, and was developed at MU, is safe to use in dogs. Sandra Axiak-Bechtel, an assistant professor in oncology at the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, says that this is a big step for gold nanoparticle research.

“Proving that gold nanoparticles are safe to use in the treatment of prostate cancer in dogs is a big step toward gaining approval for clinical trials in men,” Axiak-Bechtel said. “Dogs develop prostate cancer naturally in a very similar way as humans, so the gold nanoparticle treatment has a great chance to translate well to human patients.” (more…)

UA Study Examines How News Spreads on Twitter

By Guest PostOctober 15, 2012Media, Technologyarizona, arstechnica, bbc, bbcbreaking, bbcworld, bloomberg, delicious, devi bhattacharya, digg, financial news, financial times, fireworks, Forbes, global news, guardian, mashable, microblogging website, network analysis, new york times, news agency, news articles, npr, online content, paulo goes, reddit, retweets, Reuters, social media, sudha ram, technology news, twitter account, twitter activity, twitter effectiveness, twitter feeds, university, us news, washington post, wired

A study of the Twitter activity of 12 major news agencies shows varying levels of success for the social network as a news-sharing tool, based on factors like article lifespan and number of retweets.

Nearly every major news organization has a Twitter account these days, but just how effective is the microblogging website at spreading news? That’s the question University of Arizona professor Sudha Ram set out to answer in a recent study of a dozen major news organizations that use the social media website as one tool for sharing their content.

The answer, according to Ram’s research, varies widely by news agency, and there may not be one universally applicable strategy for maximizing Twitter effectiveness. However, news agencies can learn a lot by looking at how their news diffuses once it is posted on Twitter, said Ram, McClelland Professor of Management Information Systems in the UA’s Eller College of Management. (more…)

Football Scores a Health Hat Trick for Hypertensive Men

By Guest PostOctober 15, 2012Healthblood pressure, body fat, british men, cardiovascular disease, control group, copenhagen, coronary artery, cycling, denmark, disease, exercise capacity, exeter, fat burning, fifa, gentofte university, gps, heart rate, high, hospital, hypertension, maximal, men, middle aged, mmhg, moderate hypertension, oxygen uptake, peter krustrup, peter riis hansen, physical exercise, playing football, risk, soccer, stroke, university

Playing football (soccer) could be the best way for people with high blood pressure, known as hypertension, to improve their fitness, normalise their blood pressure and reduce their risk of stroke, according to research published today (Monday 15 October 2012) in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.

Research from Universities of Exeter and Copenhagen, and Gentofte University Hospital in Denmark suggests football training prevents cardiovascular disease in middle-aged men with hypertension and is more effective than healthy lifestyle advice currently prescribed by GPs.

After six months of football training, three out of four men in this study had blood pressure within the normal, healthy range. (more…)