Large, untapped market could benefit U.S. economy
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Currently, China has a population of more than 1.3 billion people, and based on a new study from the University of Missouri, it appears that interest in American sports is growing in the country, which could open a large, untapped economic market for the U.S. (more…)
Researchers seek better ways to diagnose, treat disorder
Tania Roth studies what happens to the brain when stress occurs early in life, seeking to pinpoint how those kinds of bad experiences can cause molecular changes to DNA. (more…)
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. (more…)
ANN ARBOR — With the elections less than a week away, it’s worth considering that the party of the president influences the policy behavior of the Federal Reserve Bank, according to a new University of Michigan study.
The Federal Reserve Bank increases interest rates before the presidential elections when Democrats are in office, but lowers the rates when Republicans control the White House. The independent bank finds it easier to accomplish its policy goals when Republicans control the White House than when Democrats do, the researchers say. (more…)
We spend a lot of time on Facebook. No joke, right? So it should really come as no surprise that companies have turned to Facebook to appeal more directly to consumers. But how much does business marketing on Facebook affect us? Recently Chadwick Martin Bailey, a custom market research company, teamed up with Constant Contact to conduct a study on the relationship between Facebook and consumer behavior, polling 1,491individuals 18 and older.
According to some of the highlights from the study:
1. 52% of Americans over 18 spend at least an hour on Facebook each week. That 52% can be further broken down into 29% spend 1-5 hours on the site each week, 11% spend 6-10 hours there, 6% spend 11-20 hours perusing the site, and 6% log 21+hours on Facebook each week. That’s a lot of time on Facebook! (more…)
Members of 343 Industries talk to the Microsoft News Center about the infrastructure behind the “Halo 4” Infinity Multiplayer suite and the video game industry’s shift to a world of 24/7 live services.
REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 31, 2012 — Meet Jerry Hook and Tamir Melamed, the hardest-working plumbers in the video game world not named Mario or Luigi.
Hook and Melamed lead the engineering team laying the subterranean IT structures that will power every pixel of the multiplayer experience in “Halo 4.” Everything fans experience online – stats, screenshots, the simple joy of blasting a friend or stranger to smithereens – depends on the infrastructure they’ve built over the past year and half. That infrastructure is supported by Windows Azure, which provides the team with the affordable scalability they need to keep a game like “Halo 4” running smoothly for fans. (more…)
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. (more…)
UD joins research team teaching robots to respond in disaster emergencies
How do you teach a robot to get into vehicle and drive it? Three University of Delaware professors plan to figure it out by the end of next year. (more…)
