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comScore Releases the “2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus” Report

*Report Offers Insights on Key Trends from 2011 and What They Mean for the Coming Year*

RESTON, VA, February 9, 2012 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the 2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus report. This annual report examines how the prevailing trends in social media, search, online video, digital advertising, mobile and e-commerce are defining the current marketplace and what these trends mean for the year ahead.

“2012 promises to be an exciting year for the digital media industry as the explosion of available content and proliferation of web-enabled devices drive the evolution of the digital consumer, creating new opportunities and challenges for the entire digital ecosystem,” said Linda Abraham, comScore CMO and EVP of Global Product Development. “In order to be successful in this new paradigm, digital marketers must understand the key trends shaping the current marketplace and what that means for the future of their businesses.” (more…)

Maryland Commission Recommends ‘Common Sense’ Immigration Policy

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Immigrants to Maryland contribute significantly to the state’s economy, and were vital to its workforce expansion in both technical and less-skilled occupations from 2000 to 2010, concludes a new report by a Maryland commission. During this period, immigrants mostly complemented rather than competed with U.S.-born state residents for jobs, it adds.

The Commission to Study the Impact of Immigrants in Maryland, a state panel coordinated by the University of Maryland, evaluated the economic contributions of the state’s foreign-born and the cost of government services for them. It also studied the education experience of the children of immigrants, immigration law enforcement issues facing local communities, and the use of the federal E-Verify system to verify workers’ immigration status. (more…)

Gene Mutation Discovery Sparks Hope For Effective Endometriosis Screening

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have, for the first time, described the genetic basis of endometriosis, a condition affecting millions of women that is marked by chronic pelvic pain and infertility. The researchers’ discovery of a new gene mutation provides hope for new screening methods. (more…)

A Piece of History Rediscovered

What began as an assignment for an English course has now captured international attention. Senior Malcolm Burnley shares details about a little known piece of Brown history: a 1961 visit to campus by African American icon Malcolm X.

Brown senior Malcolm Burnley calls the experience “serendipitous.”

Enrolled in Elizabeth Taylor’s narrative writing course last semester, Burnley had an assignment: Write a historical narrative based on something that really happened. The students were instructed to use the University Archives at the John Hay Library. (more…)

New Views Show Old NASA Mars Landers

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recorded a scene on Jan. 29, 2012, that includes the first color image from orbit showing the three-petal lander of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit mission. Spirit drove off that lander platform in January 2004 and spent most of its six-year working life in a range of hills about two miles to the east.

Another recent image from HiRISE, taken on Jan. 26, 2012, shows NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander and its surroundings on far-northern Mars after that spacecraft’s second Martian arctic winter. Phoenix exceeded its planned mission life in 2008, ending its work as solar energy waned during approach of its first Mars winter. (more…)

Microsoft Employees Give Back in Record Fashion

*Microsoft’s U.S.-based employees helped raise over US$100 million for thousands of nonprofits during the 2011 Microsoft Giving Campaign, the largest total in company history.*

REDMOND, Wash. – Microsoft employees raised a record-breaking US$100.5 million in 2011, topping last year’s total with donations to more than 18,000 community organizations across the United States and around the world.

Giving was up across the board in 2011—more employees participated, donating more time and money than ever before, which surprised some after 2010’s record year. (more…)

Researchers Discover Potential Key To Lowering Energy Costs of Cell Phones and Data Centers

AUSTIN, Texas — A systematic analysis of power usage in microprocessors could help lower the energy consumption of both small cellphones and giant data centers, report computer science professors from The University of Texas at Austin and the Australian National University.

Their results may point the way to how companies such as Google, Apple, Intel and Microsoft can make software and hardware that will lower the energy costs of very small and very large devices. (more…)

Global Extinction: Gradual Doom as Bad as Abrupt

*In “The Great Dying” 250 million years ago, the end came slowly*

The deadliest mass extinction of all took a long time to kill 90 percent of Earth’s marine life–and it killed in stages–according to a newly published report.

It shows that mass extinctions need not be sudden events.

Thomas Algeo, a geologist at the University of Cincinnati, and 13 colleagues have produced a high-resolution look at the geology of a Permian-Triassic boundary section on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. (more…)