When Google Apps arrived in 2006, it stood on the cutting edge of Web-hosted email and collaboration suites for businesses, a bold pioneer clearing a path in the new, wild frontier of enterprise cloud computing.
Seven years later, complacency has diluted that innovative spirit, and Google Apps now trails competing suites from IBM, Cisco, and Microsoft in areas like enterprise social networking (ESN) and unified communications (UC).
Although Google improves Apps continually, the suite's main draw remains its Gmail component, as has been the case from the beginning. But is cloud email still enough to attract prospective customers and retain existing ones? Is Google leaving Apps vulnerable to rivals by taking its time boosting its ESN and UC capabilities?
One company eyes rival Office 365 At healthcare company Schumacher Group, Google Apps is at risk of losing its place to Microsoft's Office 365. The Lafayette, Louisiana, company uses Apps to provide email to about 3,000 independent contractor doctors and Microsoft Exchange on premises for its full-time employees.
After relying on Apps for about four years, Schumacher Group is taking a close look at Office 365, which comes with online versions of Exchange, SharePoint, Lync and Office, said Schumacher CIO Douglas Menefee. "We're evaluating Office 365 and Google Apps, and discussing the strengths and weaknesses of both products," he said. "Microsoft has made great strides with Office 365. The sleeping giant awoke two years ago."
Menefee was referring to the launch of Office 365 in 2011, when Microsoft finally released a cloud email and collaboration suite that was comparable to Google Apps. "We have seen a major shift in the maturity of Microsoft's cloud-based products," he said. "They seem to be gaining a lot of traction."
Currently, Schumacher Group uses an on-premises Lync server for unified communications, and Salesforce.com's Chatter for ESN.
Customers want more Even new customers adopting Apps with unbridled enthusiasm want Google to know they expect it to continue developing the suite in innovative ways.
That's the case at Whirlpool, the home appliances giant, which recently announced plans to migrate from an IBM Lotus Notes system to Google Apps. Getting cloud email and other basic productivity functions wasn't what tilted the scales in favor of Apps.
"Email and calendaring are commodity services," said Whirlpool CIO Michael Heim. "You don't do this kind of implementation just for email and calendaring." In fact, Whirlpool, which will deploy Google Apps to about 30,000 employees worldwide, hopes to reduce its reliance on email. "If we could make email go away, we would, because there are better ways to work, and that's what's exciting for us," he said.
Whirlpool wants to push its employees to communicate with video conferencing, to share and co-edit documents in real time and to exchange ideas in internal online communities. Thus, Heim's excited about the real-time collaboration capabilities in the suite's Docs office productivity apps, and he's interested in the new Hangouts UC tool in the Google+ consumer social networking app.
Hangouts, announced in May, will replace several Google audio, video and IM tools -- including Chat, Talk and Google+ Messenger -- consolidating and improving their functions.
Problem of gender differences on physics assessments remains unsolved
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
1-Nov-2013
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Contact: Sarah McKagan smckagan@aapt.org 206-335-4325 American Physical Society
The mystery of why women consistently score lower than men on common assessments of conceptual understanding of physics remains poorly understood
In a new synthesis of past work, researchers found that women consistently score lower than men on common assessments of conceptual understanding of physics. However, when examining the factors that may account for these differences (such as student background and test-taking strategies), no clear pattern emerged. Thus, despite previous claims that the causes of this gender gap have been pinpointed, the problem remains unsolved and poorly understood. This has critical importance for science education reform.
Many changes have been made in college science instruction in the past decades. Numerous classrooms have shifted from a traditional lecture presentation to more interactive formats that aim to engage students in building their own knowledge. Physics has been a forerunner of this movement, in part because of early and ongoing research on how students grapple with key ideas in this difficult field. Comparisons of student understanding have been made possible through the development of "concept inventories" multiple choice tests of student understanding, developed through years of research, enabling the same test to be given to students in a variety of classrooms.
"These tests have been very important in the history of physics education reform," said Dr. McKagan, who co-authored the new analysis. Past studies have shown that students in classrooms using interactive techniques get significantly higher scores on these tests than do students in more traditional lecture settings; "these results have inspired a lot of people to change the way that they teach," said McKagan.
But several studies had also reported that women's scores on these tests are typically lower than men's. "We set out to determine whether there is a gender gap on these concept inventories," said lead author Madsen, "and if so, what causes it."
The authors combined results from 26 previous studies of several common physics concept inventories, covering 12 different institutions. They found that women almost always score lower than men on these tests (12% on average for tests about force and motion), both before instruction, and at the end of the course. The same trend is also found when comparing male and female students' gains on the tests, showing that this gap is not simply due to differing levels of incoming knowledge. There is some variation across studies the gender gap sometimes goes up and sometimes goes down, but rarely goes away, observe the authors. Women also receive lower scores on course exams (4% on average) than do men, which can impact course grades. These results mirror those in other studies of gender differences on other types of science and math tests, such as standardized placement exams.
One key finding from the study is that, while there is a gender gap in performance on concept inventories, the performance of both men and women is improved when they experience an interactive classroom. These teaching techniques improve student gains on these tests by four times as much as the size of the gap between men's and women's scores. Thus, previous results on the positive impact of interactive teaching techniques are still valid for both men and women.
Another important result of the authors' analysis is that no obvious factor appears to be responsible for women's lower scores. Unlike the impact of interactive engagement on student performance, "we haven't found a miracle that solves the gender gap," said McKagan. The authors cross-checked the results from studies investigating the potential impact of student background, their beliefs about physics, the teaching method used, their ingrained stereotypes about women's abilities, and the wording of test questions. Some studies several of which were quite high-profile demonstrated that one or more of these elements had a significant influence, but most were contradicted in other studies. One of the more promising findings is that women's poorer background preparation in physics may account for much of the gender gap, but those results have not been replicated outside of a single university and may be reflective of several underlying causes.
Such contradictory results suggest that gender differences in physics performance are a particularly thorny and complex issue. When a single study claims to have found a solution to gender differences in science, it should be treated with healthy skepticism. (Research on female performance in math and science more broadly have also met with contradictory results, though social factors such as stereotypes appear to contribute powerfully to gender gaps.)
While the gender gap on physics concept inventories remains an unsolved problem, the researchers suggest some take-home messages for instructors. One is that the use of interactive teaching techniques can improve student understanding for both genders. Another is simply to recognize that there is a gender gap on conceptual assessments and exams, and that addressing this gap will require creativity on the part of the instructor. Prior work suggests some strategies that an instructor may take (such as having students reflect on their values prior to a test), but it is important not to rely too heavily on any one technique. The authors call for researchers to devote additional attention to investigating the underlying causes of this gender gap and possible interventions.
###
Citation:
"The gender gap on concept inventories in physics: what is consistent, what is inconsistent, and what factors influence the gap?" A. Madsen, S. B. McKagan and E. C. Sayre, Physical Review Special Topics Physics Education Research. To be published online November 7
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Problem of gender differences on physics assessments remains unsolved
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
1-Nov-2013
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]
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Contact: Sarah McKagan smckagan@aapt.org 206-335-4325 American Physical Society
The mystery of why women consistently score lower than men on common assessments of conceptual understanding of physics remains poorly understood
In a new synthesis of past work, researchers found that women consistently score lower than men on common assessments of conceptual understanding of physics. However, when examining the factors that may account for these differences (such as student background and test-taking strategies), no clear pattern emerged. Thus, despite previous claims that the causes of this gender gap have been pinpointed, the problem remains unsolved and poorly understood. This has critical importance for science education reform.
Many changes have been made in college science instruction in the past decades. Numerous classrooms have shifted from a traditional lecture presentation to more interactive formats that aim to engage students in building their own knowledge. Physics has been a forerunner of this movement, in part because of early and ongoing research on how students grapple with key ideas in this difficult field. Comparisons of student understanding have been made possible through the development of "concept inventories" multiple choice tests of student understanding, developed through years of research, enabling the same test to be given to students in a variety of classrooms.
"These tests have been very important in the history of physics education reform," said Dr. McKagan, who co-authored the new analysis. Past studies have shown that students in classrooms using interactive techniques get significantly higher scores on these tests than do students in more traditional lecture settings; "these results have inspired a lot of people to change the way that they teach," said McKagan.
But several studies had also reported that women's scores on these tests are typically lower than men's. "We set out to determine whether there is a gender gap on these concept inventories," said lead author Madsen, "and if so, what causes it."
The authors combined results from 26 previous studies of several common physics concept inventories, covering 12 different institutions. They found that women almost always score lower than men on these tests (12% on average for tests about force and motion), both before instruction, and at the end of the course. The same trend is also found when comparing male and female students' gains on the tests, showing that this gap is not simply due to differing levels of incoming knowledge. There is some variation across studies the gender gap sometimes goes up and sometimes goes down, but rarely goes away, observe the authors. Women also receive lower scores on course exams (4% on average) than do men, which can impact course grades. These results mirror those in other studies of gender differences on other types of science and math tests, such as standardized placement exams.
One key finding from the study is that, while there is a gender gap in performance on concept inventories, the performance of both men and women is improved when they experience an interactive classroom. These teaching techniques improve student gains on these tests by four times as much as the size of the gap between men's and women's scores. Thus, previous results on the positive impact of interactive teaching techniques are still valid for both men and women.
Another important result of the authors' analysis is that no obvious factor appears to be responsible for women's lower scores. Unlike the impact of interactive engagement on student performance, "we haven't found a miracle that solves the gender gap," said McKagan. The authors cross-checked the results from studies investigating the potential impact of student background, their beliefs about physics, the teaching method used, their ingrained stereotypes about women's abilities, and the wording of test questions. Some studies several of which were quite high-profile demonstrated that one or more of these elements had a significant influence, but most were contradicted in other studies. One of the more promising findings is that women's poorer background preparation in physics may account for much of the gender gap, but those results have not been replicated outside of a single university and may be reflective of several underlying causes.
Such contradictory results suggest that gender differences in physics performance are a particularly thorny and complex issue. When a single study claims to have found a solution to gender differences in science, it should be treated with healthy skepticism. (Research on female performance in math and science more broadly have also met with contradictory results, though social factors such as stereotypes appear to contribute powerfully to gender gaps.)
While the gender gap on physics concept inventories remains an unsolved problem, the researchers suggest some take-home messages for instructors. One is that the use of interactive teaching techniques can improve student understanding for both genders. Another is simply to recognize that there is a gender gap on conceptual assessments and exams, and that addressing this gap will require creativity on the part of the instructor. Prior work suggests some strategies that an instructor may take (such as having students reflect on their values prior to a test), but it is important not to rely too heavily on any one technique. The authors call for researchers to devote additional attention to investigating the underlying causes of this gender gap and possible interventions.
###
Citation:
"The gender gap on concept inventories in physics: what is consistent, what is inconsistent, and what factors influence the gap?" A. Madsen, S. B. McKagan and E. C. Sayre, Physical Review Special Topics Physics Education Research. To be published online November 7
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Share
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
She loves to share her new music with her fans, and Demi Lovato took to her Twitter account today (November 1) to announce the arrival of a new music video.
The “Skyscraper” singer tweeted, “Here's the #LetItGo video!!!!” along with a link to the clip, taken from the soundtrack for the upcoming Disney film “Frozen.”
Slated to hit theaters on November 27th, “Frozen” stars Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, Idina Menzel, and Jonathan Groff.
Per the synopsis, “Fearless optimist Anna teams up with Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf in a race to find Anna's sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter.”
There is "no way" the NSA's newly revealed surveillance activities could have been legal, asserted Fred Cate, director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University. "There is obviously a big security issue here," Cate explained. "It puts us in an almost surreal position, especially as there is no way that the NSA could truly differentiate between U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens."
The National Security Agency has tapped fiber-optic cables that connect Google's and Yahoo's overseas servers and accessed vast amounts of data including email and other personal information, according to a Wednesday report in The Washington Post.
Included in the data culled by the NSA is information on hundreds of millions of users, many of whom are American, the Post reported, citing documents obtained by NSA contractor Edward Snowden along with interviews with other officials.
The NSA's acquisition directorate reportedly sent millions of records daily from internal Yahoo and Google networks to a data warehouse at the agency's Fort Meade, Md., headquarters.
'Not True'
The NSA balked at the idea that it was looking into the personal information of American citizens.
"NSA has multiple authorities that it uses to accomplish its mission, which is centered on defending the nation," NSA spokesperson Vanee Vines told TechNewsWorld. "The Washington Post's assertion that we use Executive Order 12333 collection to get around the limitations imposed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and FAA 702 is not true.
"The assertion that we collect vast quantities of U.S. persons' data from this type of collection is also not true," Vines added. "NSA applies Attorney General-approved processes to protect the privacy of U.S. persons, minimizing the likelihood of their information in our targeting, collection, processing, exploitation, retention and dissemination."
NSA is "a foreign intelligence agency," Vines concluded, "and we're focused on discovering and developing intelligence about valid foreign intelligence targets only."
'We Are Outraged'
Both Google and Yahoo stressed that they did not participate in the NSA's data collection.
"We have long been concerned about the possibility of this kind of snooping, which is why we have continued to extend encryption across more and more Google services and links," said David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer. "We do not provide any government, including the U.S. government, with access to our systems.
"We are outraged at the lengths to which the government seems to have gone to intercept data from our private fiber networks," Drummond added. "It underscores the need for urgent reform."
Similarly, "we have strict controls in place to protect the security of our data centers," Yahoo spokesperson Lauren Armstrong told TechNewsWorld. "We have not given access to our data centers to the NSA or to any other government agency."
'A Gross Violation'
It's unclear exactly how the NSA achieved this tap, but the Post report suggests that "anything flowing between Google's data servers would be vulnerable, which means both metadata and content of millions of emails, among other things," Trevor Timm, an activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, pointed out.
Was the surveillance legal?
"The U.S. government thinks it is," Timm told TechNewsWorld. "We think it's a gross violation of the privacy rights of Americans and those abroad.
"Congress will act to make sure this will never happen again, and tech companies will implement changes to make sure the NSA can't do it again even if they tried," he added.
"There is obviously a big security issue here," Cate explained. "It puts us in an almost surreal position, especially as there is no way that the NSA could truly differentiate between U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens, as they claim."
A Fine Line
Of course, these revelations are just the latest in what's becoming a long stream of leaks about government surveillance.
"The truth is, even with all the public leaks and media reporting to date, presumably there's still much we neither know nor have the ability to accurately/fairly understand in full context," Jeffrey Silva, senior policy director for telecommunications, media and technology at Medley Global Advisors, told TechNewsWorld.
"Questions about the legality and appropriateness of certain government surveillance -- especially in the post-9/11 world -- are apt to persist on an ongoing basis with every new revelation," Silva added.
"The government may need to make a stronger case, and repeat it often, that expanded surveillance is a price that must be paid in the post-9/11era if U.S. citizens want to be safe," he concluded. "At the same, there's the question of whether current level of government surveillance, that even if legal, amounts to overkill and an unnecessary intrusion on American privacy."
A Chill Down the Spine
In the bigger picture, the revelations are "like layers of an onion," suggested Tim Erlin, director of IT risk and security strategy at Tripwire. "This period of information security history will do more to spur a renewed interest in verifiable security, including end-to-end encryption and distributed systems for validation, than anything we've seen in a long time."
The fact is, however, "we've tacitly agreed to allow our personal data be aggregated in large organizations like Google, Yahoo and Facebook," Erlin told TechNewsWorld. "These companies have so much intelligence that they have become too attractive as intelligence targets."
Indeed, "the companies involved should be the ones with most concerns," said Cate. "This is not good for their business."
Moreover, "when you look at it with the tapestry of all the programs that we've seen come to light," he added, "that is when the cold chill goes down your spine."
More natural sounding female voice replaces the old robotic tones
If you use Google Search's voice features in the UK, you may have noticed a fairly significant change today — the robotic male voice of old has been replaced with a new, more natural sounding female voice. The change brings the UK in line with the U.S., which has had realistic sounding voice playback for some time now, and it's a vast improvement on what we had before.
It looks like the change has taken place through Google's backend rather than any sort of app update, so Brits should hear the new voice right away — just tap the microphone icon as usual.
We've got a quick preview of the new British voice of Google search after the break.
Thanks to Chris for the tip, and to everyone who helped confirm it!
Contact: Andrea Boyle Tippett aboyle@udel.edu 302-831-1421 University of Delaware
Research into the best ways to arrange wind turbines has produced staggering results quite literally.
The University of Delaware's Cristina Archer and her Atmosphere and Energy Research Group found that staggering and spacing out turbines in an offshore wind farm can improve performance by as much as 33 percent.
"Staggering every other row was amazingly efficient," said Archer, associate professor of physical ocean science and engineering and geography in UD's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment.
The findings, which appeared last month in Geophysical Research Letters, could help engineers plan improved offshore wind farms.
The researchers used an existing offshore wind farm near Sweden as the basis for their study, comparing the existing tightly packed, grid-like layout to six alternative configurations. In some, they kept the turbines in neat rows but spaced them farther apart. In others, they shifted the alignment of every other row, similar to how rows of theatre seats are staggered to improve the views of people further back.
In computer-intensive simulations that each took weeks to run, the team took into account the eddies, or swirls of choppy air, that wind turbines create downwind as their blades spin and how that air movement would impact surrounding turbines.
They found that the most efficient arrangement was a combination of two approaches. By both spacing the turbines farther apart and staggering the rows, the improved layout would decrease losses caused by eddies and improve overall performance by a third.
The optimal configuration had the rows oriented to face the prevailing wind direction, for example from the southwest in the summer along the U.S. East Coast. Most locations, however, have more than one dominant direction from where wind blows throughout the year. The optimal configuration for a season may not be optimal in another season, when the prevailing wind changes direction and intensity.
Considering these various factors could better inform where and how to configure future offshore wind farms, Archer explained.
"We want to explore all these trade-offs systematically, one by one," she said.
The study is part of Archer's overall research focus on wind and applications for renewable energy production. Trained in both meteorology and engineering, she uses weather data and complex calculations to estimate the potential for wind as a power source.
Last year, Archer and colleague Mark Jacobson of Stanford University found that wind turbines could power half the world's future energy demands with minimal environmental impact.
In a follow-up to that study, Archer and Jacobson examined how worldwide wind energy potential varies seasonally. They found that in most regions where wind farms could feasibly be built on land and offshore, capacity is greatest from December to February.
However, even factoring in seasonal variability, the researchers found there is enough wind to cover regional electricity demand.
Those results were recently published in Applied Geography and share detailed maps and tables that summarize the distribution of wind throughout the world by season.
"I'm hoping these will be tools for giving a general overview of wind at the global scale," Archer said.
###
About UD's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment
UD's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment (CEOE) strives to reach a deeper understanding of the planet and improve stewardship of environmental resources. CEOE faculty and students examine complex information from multiple disciplines with the knowledge that science and society are firmly linked and solutions to environmental challenges can be synonymous with positive economic impact.
The college brings the latest advances in technology to bear on both teaching and conducting ocean, earth and atmospheric research. Current focus areas are ecosystem health and society, environmental observing and forecasting, and marine renewable energy and sustainability.
CEOE is the administrative base of the Delaware Geological Survey, the Delaware Geographic Alliance and the Delaware Sea Grant College Program and is home to the secretariat of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Andrea Boyle Tippett aboyle@udel.edu 302-831-1421 University of Delaware
Research into the best ways to arrange wind turbines has produced staggering results quite literally.
The University of Delaware's Cristina Archer and her Atmosphere and Energy Research Group found that staggering and spacing out turbines in an offshore wind farm can improve performance by as much as 33 percent.
"Staggering every other row was amazingly efficient," said Archer, associate professor of physical ocean science and engineering and geography in UD's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment.
The findings, which appeared last month in Geophysical Research Letters, could help engineers plan improved offshore wind farms.
The researchers used an existing offshore wind farm near Sweden as the basis for their study, comparing the existing tightly packed, grid-like layout to six alternative configurations. In some, they kept the turbines in neat rows but spaced them farther apart. In others, they shifted the alignment of every other row, similar to how rows of theatre seats are staggered to improve the views of people further back.
In computer-intensive simulations that each took weeks to run, the team took into account the eddies, or swirls of choppy air, that wind turbines create downwind as their blades spin and how that air movement would impact surrounding turbines.
They found that the most efficient arrangement was a combination of two approaches. By both spacing the turbines farther apart and staggering the rows, the improved layout would decrease losses caused by eddies and improve overall performance by a third.
The optimal configuration had the rows oriented to face the prevailing wind direction, for example from the southwest in the summer along the U.S. East Coast. Most locations, however, have more than one dominant direction from where wind blows throughout the year. The optimal configuration for a season may not be optimal in another season, when the prevailing wind changes direction and intensity.
Considering these various factors could better inform where and how to configure future offshore wind farms, Archer explained.
"We want to explore all these trade-offs systematically, one by one," she said.
The study is part of Archer's overall research focus on wind and applications for renewable energy production. Trained in both meteorology and engineering, she uses weather data and complex calculations to estimate the potential for wind as a power source.
Last year, Archer and colleague Mark Jacobson of Stanford University found that wind turbines could power half the world's future energy demands with minimal environmental impact.
In a follow-up to that study, Archer and Jacobson examined how worldwide wind energy potential varies seasonally. They found that in most regions where wind farms could feasibly be built on land and offshore, capacity is greatest from December to February.
However, even factoring in seasonal variability, the researchers found there is enough wind to cover regional electricity demand.
Those results were recently published in Applied Geography and share detailed maps and tables that summarize the distribution of wind throughout the world by season.
"I'm hoping these will be tools for giving a general overview of wind at the global scale," Archer said.
###
About UD's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment
UD's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment (CEOE) strives to reach a deeper understanding of the planet and improve stewardship of environmental resources. CEOE faculty and students examine complex information from multiple disciplines with the knowledge that science and society are firmly linked and solutions to environmental challenges can be synonymous with positive economic impact.
The college brings the latest advances in technology to bear on both teaching and conducting ocean, earth and atmospheric research. Current focus areas are ecosystem health and society, environmental observing and forecasting, and marine renewable energy and sustainability.
CEOE is the administrative base of the Delaware Geological Survey, the Delaware Geographic Alliance and the Delaware Sea Grant College Program and is home to the secretariat of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Showing up with a slew of celebrities, Kate Moss and Nicole Scherzinger were just a few famous faces who attended Jonathan Ross's Halloween Party tonight (October 31).
39-year-old Moss arrived alongside hubby Jamie Hince, each keeping it class in traditional "Day of the Dead" costumes while "X Factor" hottie Nicole came in wearing a long black coat over her leather Catwoman costume.
Nicole also posted a stream of Halloween tweets today, the first connected to an Instagram picture of her from her younger days, reading, "Happy Halloween!! Here's a pic of me at 7 years old, dressed up as Carmen Miranda!! Chica Chica Boom Chic!!"
She also included a snapshot of herself at a Halloween party overseas. She looked like a villainous fem fatale out of a James Bond flick, and her caption read, "Happy Halloween from London everyone! #MEOW #lethal."
The notion of bring-your-own devices is common at most companies; according to research firm estimates, two-thirds to three-quarters of all companies now allow people to use their own mobile devices for work, meaning at least for email access. We should expect companies to allow the same for PCs, right?
Bring-your-own PCs have been around as long as there have been PCs -- aka the home computer. People have been taking work home with them (that's why all those lost USB sticks and CDs end up causing embarrassing breach notifications) and accessing email from home since the mid-1980s. That's BYOPC, even if it's been widely ignored in official IT circles.
But today's BYOPC means something else: employees buying their own PCs for use for work as well as for personal needs. Some organizations have been experimenting with that BYOPC notion for years, in fact. It's been driven mainly by executive-level employees who want to use a Mac, which few companies historically allowed outside of specific functions like marketing or development. Those initial exceptions sometimes translated into a more programmatic experiment.
Those experiments typically were about choosing your own PC from an approved list, as well as getting greater admin rights or flexibility, such as the ability to install your own software, often at the price of providing your own tech support. Many companies, especially tech firms like Cisco Systems, Intel, IBM, and BT, have adopted choose-your-own programs and provided flexibility in terms of personal software and usage for employees who travel a lot.
That approach to PC flexibility is likely to grow. But not strict BYOPC, says Chriz Hazelton, a mobile analyst at 451 Research. He notes several reasons why BYOPC is not a natural follow-on to BYOD.
MATAGORDA, Texas (AP) — A deep sea oyster reef restoration being touted as the largest ever in the Gulf of Mexico began in an unlikely place: a quarry in landlocked Missouri.
That is where years of research, planning and precise engineering led Mark Dumesnil, an associate director of restoration for the Nature Conservancy in Texas, as he sought to restore what was once a nearly 500-acre oyster reef and is now no more than hard sand and shell remains, with not one oyster in sight.
And so, about seven years after Dumesnil was first tipped off by wildlife ecosystem experts that restoration of Half Moon Reef might be possible, 36 barges carrying 93,000 tons of Missouri limestone traveled for 12 days down the Mississippi River, arriving in the Gulf earlier this month. Scientists, engineers, researchers and laborers will spend some eight weeks dropping the boulders onto a 54-acre plot 8 feet underwater as part of a $5.4 million, two-phase project designed to revitalize a damaged ecosystem.
The project also will provide a robust natural barrier from hurricanes and teach scientists whether reefs can rebuild in drought conditions, becoming another mechanism for marine habitats to withstand devastating dry spells.
"This project is designed to be innovative and different," said Dumesnil, who has financial backing from a variety of agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Texas General Land Office.
Oysters filter 50 gallons of water daily. Each acre of reef the oysters cling to filters another 24 million gallons of water daily. Together, they are vital to a healthy marine ecosystem and to commercial fisheries because they are home, feeding and breeding grounds for hundreds and even thousands of other fish, shrimp, clams, crabs and other life. In Texas alone, the oyster industry is a nearly $30 million a year industry, according to state statistics.
Oyster reefs, however, have been severely damaged by overfishing and other causes during the last century. Nearly 50 percent of the reefs in the Gulf, and 85 percent of those globally, have disappeared, according to The Nature Conservancy.
In 1907, a survey of Matagorda Bay done by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries indicated Half Moon Reef covered 494 acres of seabed. Since then, however, a variety of factors led to a slow death, including the release in the 1920s of a major logjam in the Colorado River that allowed large amounts of freshwater to flow into the estuary about 10 years later, upsetting the delicate salinity levels that oysters need to thrive; rerouting in the 1940s of the intracoastal waterway, which released tons of sediments, and may have helped bury and kill oysters; commercial dredging of live and dead oyster shells between 1922 and 1983, often to build roads; and the damage from Hurricane Carla in 1961.
Oyster reef restoration has long been done along shorelines, successfully helping decrease erosion and protect sensitive coastal communities from tropical storms. Similar projects in deeper waters, including off the Virginia coast, have also been done, but generally on smaller scales and with flatter, less contoured materials and not typically limestone.
The idea behind this project, Dumesnil explained, and the reason boulders of varying sizes are being used, is to try to replicate as closely as possible a real reef, and to get the eventual growth of it to be vertical — as it would be if it were naturally occurring.
"If we were here 100 years ago ... we would see reef, oysters breaking the surface of the water. So you would see waves breaking on the oyster reef, it was that high, 6 to 7 feet high," said David Buzan, project manager for Atkins North America, a global engineering, design and project management consultancy firm. "Now, we're building a reef that's 3 feet high with the hopes that oysters will grow on it, colonize it and eventually return that oyster reef back to the height that it originally was 100 years ago."
The limestone from Missouri was specifically chosen because it was the precise material, Dumesnil said, needed to guarantee it wouldn't sink into the seabed allowing the oysters to build vertically. Project designers also decided to build 32 rows of 650-foot reefs, deliberately leaving space between them. The hope is that as the spat — or oyster babies — stick to the boulders they will eventually fill in the gaps while growing the reef vertically.
"What we were wanting to do is build in as much diversity in the design of the project," Dumesnil said. "The more diverse a habitat is the more diverse and types and kinds and numbers of species will use that."
Coincidentally, the project is being launched as Texas struggles through years of drought, which has increased the salinity of Matagorda Bay and other estuaries as less freshwater from rivers flows into the Gulf. This is allowing scientists to study the effects this has on oyster reefs and learn whether they can grow in drought conditions, an issue of increasing concern for scientists who expect more frequent dry spells due to global warming, said Laura Huffman, the director of the Nature Conservancy in Texas.
"We want to test the conditions at their more extreme," Huffman said.
___
Plushnick-Masti can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RamitMastiAP .
This image provided by Google shows its new Nexus 5 phone, which was unveiled Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. The Nexus 5 phone is the first device to run on the latest version of Google's Android operating system, nicknamed after the Kit Kat candy bar. The phone and software are designed to learn and anticipate a person’s interest and needs. (AP Photo/Google)
This image provided by Google shows its new Nexus 5 phone, which was unveiled Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. The Nexus 5 phone is the first device to run on the latest version of Google's Android operating system, nicknamed after the Kit Kat candy bar. The phone and software are designed to learn and anticipate a person’s interest and needs. (AP Photo/Google)
This image provided by Google shows its new Nexus 5 phone, which was unveiled Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. The Nexus 5 phone is the first device to run on the latest version of Google's Android operating system, nicknamed after the Kit Kat candy bar. The phone and software are designed to learn and anticipate a person’s interest and needs. (AP Photo/Google)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is selling a new Android smartphone that it hopes will become more like a clairvoyant friend than a piece of hardware.
The Nexus 5 phone unveiled Thursday is the first device to run on Kit Kat, the latest version of Google's Android operating system.
As with previous Nexus phones, the latest will be sold only at full retail price, without subsidies that come with two-year contract agreements. It goes on sale Thursday in Google's online Play store starting at $349, undercutting many rival phones at contract-free prices. The phone will work on most U.S. wireless networks, but not Verizon's. A Nexus 5 model also is available for European markets.
The Nexus 5 and Kit Kat software underscore Google's ambition to ingrain its search engine and virtual assistant, Google Now, even deeper into people's lives. In the process, Google Inc. hopes to gather more insights that will enable it to sell more advertising, which generates most of its revenue.
It'll be easier for Google to learn about a person's habits and needs so it can display helpful information, such as an online post from a favorite blog or a suggestion to use Fandango's movie-ticketing service when standing in a long line at a movie theater.
When visiting a tourist attraction such as Yellowstone National Park, Google Now might automatically show information about geysers from the Web.
"We want to get to the point where you glance at your phone and it always delights you with what you need," said Sundar Pichai, a Google executive who oversees Android.
The new phone's $349 price threatens to lure more cost-conscious consumers away from Apple Inc.'s iPhone, which retails for $649 for the 5S and $549 for the 5C when sold without a traditional two-year service agreement.
In an unusual twist for a software upgrade, Google built Kit Kat so it would work on cheaper smartphones equipped with less computing memory than top-of-the-line devices.
The move reflects the Mountain View, Calif., company's desire to broaden use of the most recent version of Android. More than 1 billion Android devices have been activated, but a significant number are still using a 3-year-old flavor known as Gingerbread. That version remains popular because it works on those cheaper phones.
The mishmash of Android systems has made it tougher on app developers, who haven't been able to fully embrace the new features in previous upgrades without risking older phones not being to run their software. By contrast, Apple makes its iOS upgrades free all at once to several recent models. With Kit Kat, Google has a chance to bring older and cheaper phones up to date.
Google plans to make Kit Kat available for other devices within the next few weeks, but it will be up to individual manufacturers and their wireless carrier partners to decide if and when they will make the update available.
With the release of Kit Kat, Google also has improved its voice recognition technology so it can engage in more meaningful dialogue with users.
Kit Kat also showcases a new feature in Google's search technology to fuse results from the Web and applications installed on a phone. For instance, a request for a certain restaurant will show information drawn both from the Web and the app for the reservation service OpenTable Inc. Initially, only OpenTable and nine other mobile app makers have enabled this, but more are coming. This feature will also show up on other devices, including the iPhone, but for now it works best on the Nexus 5.
The new phone features a screen that measures nearly 5 inches diagonally — about an inch longer than the iPhone — and weighs about 4.6 ounces. That's about the same as the cheaper iPhone 5C, but more than the iPhone 5S's 4 ounces.
The Nexus 5 also includes a feature, called the "dialer," that will display phone numbers pulled directly from the Web instead of just a person's contact list.
Here's an awesome experiment you can try if you're looking for a last minute way to decorate your cubicle or house for Halloween. It's particularly great if you have one of those tiny relaxing waterfalls at your disposal, since replacing the water with cascading smoke is sure to have everyone thinking you're some kind of wizard—despite your costume.
Direct link established between stimulus-response learning and substance abuse
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
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Contact: Marie france Coutu marie-france.coutu@douglas.mcgill.ca 514-835-3236 Douglas Mental Health University Institute
Findings from Douglas Institute neuroscientist
Vronique Bohbot, PhD, neuroscientist at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, found that the region of the brain involved in stimulus-response learning is directly linked to the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and drugs. More specifically, she discovered that people who resorted to stimulus-response learning smoked more, had double the consumption of alcohol and were more likely to use cannabis. Her findings have been published in the most recent issue of Hippocampus.
We rely on one of two strategies to navigate through our surroundings. One is called the spatial strategy, where we use visual cues and landmarks to develop cognitive maps that enable us to know where we are and how to get where we want to go. This process occurs in the hippocampus. The other is the stimulus-response strategy, which is a kind of auto-pilot: after travelling along the same route on a regular basis, we end up taking it out of habit. This process occurs in the striatum.
People who resort to stimulus-response learning have a more developed striatum and would consume more alcohol, tobacco or drugs. Factors such as routine, stress and reward-seeking behaviour also contribute to stimulating the striatum, at the expense of the hippocampus. "The literature indicates that children engage in stimulus-response strategies from a very young age," Vronique Bohbot explains. "Reward-seeking behavior in childhood, especially for immediate rewards like candy or playing action video games, stimulates the striatum and encourages stimulus-response strategies during navigation. This would predispose the child to drug seeking behaviour."
Previous studies have shown that an atrophied hippocampus increases the risk of developing a mental illness such as schizophrenia, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or Alzheimer's disease.
Vronique Bohbot will present her research results on November 13 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, where she will talk about the importance of improving spatial navigation skills to maintain a balance and increase chances of a healthy cognition.
###
Link to Dr. Bohbot's published study: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hipo.22187/abstract
Vido: http://www.douglas.qc.ca/videos/243
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Direct link established between stimulus-response learning and substance abuse
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Marie france Coutu marie-france.coutu@douglas.mcgill.ca 514-835-3236 Douglas Mental Health University Institute
Findings from Douglas Institute neuroscientist
Vronique Bohbot, PhD, neuroscientist at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, found that the region of the brain involved in stimulus-response learning is directly linked to the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and drugs. More specifically, she discovered that people who resorted to stimulus-response learning smoked more, had double the consumption of alcohol and were more likely to use cannabis. Her findings have been published in the most recent issue of Hippocampus.
We rely on one of two strategies to navigate through our surroundings. One is called the spatial strategy, where we use visual cues and landmarks to develop cognitive maps that enable us to know where we are and how to get where we want to go. This process occurs in the hippocampus. The other is the stimulus-response strategy, which is a kind of auto-pilot: after travelling along the same route on a regular basis, we end up taking it out of habit. This process occurs in the striatum.
People who resort to stimulus-response learning have a more developed striatum and would consume more alcohol, tobacco or drugs. Factors such as routine, stress and reward-seeking behaviour also contribute to stimulating the striatum, at the expense of the hippocampus. "The literature indicates that children engage in stimulus-response strategies from a very young age," Vronique Bohbot explains. "Reward-seeking behavior in childhood, especially for immediate rewards like candy or playing action video games, stimulates the striatum and encourages stimulus-response strategies during navigation. This would predispose the child to drug seeking behaviour."
Previous studies have shown that an atrophied hippocampus increases the risk of developing a mental illness such as schizophrenia, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or Alzheimer's disease.
Vronique Bohbot will present her research results on November 13 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, where she will talk about the importance of improving spatial navigation skills to maintain a balance and increase chances of a healthy cognition.
###
Link to Dr. Bohbot's published study: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hipo.22187/abstract
Vido: http://www.douglas.qc.ca/videos/243
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| E-mail
Share
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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