Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Thank you, USC Dornsife Scientific Diving crew!

This morning, we published the last installment of this year?s USC Dornsife Scientific Diving series of posts at the Expeditions blog.

They did a great job last year and even better this year. Let?s hope they come back next year as well.

If you need a single URL for all of the posts so you can save it or share it with your friends, you can use this post, or the USC Dornsife tag.

Over the course of the past couple of months, we have heard from the band of intrepid explorers ? Jim Haw, David Ginsburg and a number of their students. We learned about Guam and Palau geography, history and politics, about local people, biodiversity, charismatic megafauna, and conservation issues. We learned about some nifty research methods, saw glimpses of cool equipment, and some great photos: both underwater and on the ground. And we learned a lot about the history and current state of knowledge of the physiology of diving. And on the last day they made an important discovery of a brittle star species, not found at Palau for 76 years, although this location is where the ?type specimen? was originally caught and described.

It was fascinating to me each time I received a new post from Jim Haw, and I hope it was fascinating for you, too. Thank you, guys!

Here are all the posts, listed in chronological order, so you can have them all in one place:

Catching Up with Scientific Diving at USC Dornsife: Surfgrass Monitoring at Catalina
Catching up with Scientific Diving at USC Dornsife: The Robot Submarine
Catching up with Scientific Diving at USC Dornsife: Diving into the Aquarium of the Pacific
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Moving Forward to Guam and Palau 2012
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Finding My Career Through This Course
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: The Devaluation of Ecosystem Services
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Why USC Dornsife was the Right Decision For Me
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Why Experiential Learning is Vital to Academic Life
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: My Walden South of Los Angeles
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Crown-of-Thorns Outbreaks and Anthropogenic Pollution
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: The International Policy Rationale for the Military Buildup on Guam and Some Environmental Drivers
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Marine Ecology from Antarctica to Micronesia
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Palau Water Supply
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: The Contributions of J. S. Haldane to Dive Safety
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Human Impacts on Mangrove Forests
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Global Sea Cucumber Fisheries
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Palauan Mermaids
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: The California Spiny Lobster
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: The Invasion of the Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: The Coconut Crab in Guam
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: The Ordot Dump and Layon Landfill
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Marine Ecosystem Based Management
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: The Navy Dive Tables
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Entangled in the Excitement of Every New Day
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Economic Effects of the Revised Military Buildup in Guam
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: The Guam and Calayan Rails
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Chamorro Women and the Spanish
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Diving into Apra Harbor?s Western Shoals and CB Junkyard
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Remaking What We?ve Lost ? A Look At Artificial Reefs
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Ecosystem Monitoring in the Ngederrak Marine Conservation Area
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Micronesia Regional Shark Sanctuary
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Palau, Above the Waterline
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Jellyfish Lake
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Preserving Palau?s Resources through Protected Area Networks
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: A Note on the Rock Islands of Palau
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: Beginning My Journey as a USC Environmental Studies Major
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: New Methods to Avoid Decompression Sickness
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: An Interview with Karl Huggins
Scientific Diving at USC Dornsife: Monitoring Contaminants of Emerging Concern using new passive sampling techniques
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: ?Think Like a Brittle Star?
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: 2012 Wrap Up ? Notes From a Field Course

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Infants can't distinguish between large and small groups

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Human brains process large and small numbers of objects using two different mechanisms, but infants have not yet developed the ability to make those two processes work together, according to new research from the University of Missouri.

"This research was the first to show the inability of infants in a single age group to discriminate large and small sets in a single task," said Kristy vanMarle, assistant professor of psychological sciences in the College of Arts and Science. "Understanding how infants develop the ability to represent and compare numbers could be used to improve early education programs."

The MU study found that infants consistently chose the larger of two groups of food items when both sets were larger or smaller than four, just as an adult would. Unlike adults, the infants showed no preference for the larger group when choosing between one large and one small set. The results suggest that at age one infants have not yet integrated the two mental functions: one being the ability to estimate numbers of items at a glance and the other being the ability to visually track small sets of objects.

In vanMarle's study, 10- to 12-month-old infants were presented with two opaque cups. Different numbers of pieces of breakfast cereal were hidden in each cup, while the infants observed, and then the infants were allowed to choose a cup. Four comparisons were tested between different combinations of large and small sets. Infants consistently chose two food items over one and eight items over four, but chose randomly when asked to compare two versus four and two versus eight.

"Being unable to determine that eight is larger than two would put an organism at a serious disadvantage," vanMarle said. "However, ongoing studies in my lab suggest that the capacity to compare small and large sets seems to develop before age two."

The ability to make judgments about the relative number of objects in a group has old evolutionary roots. Dozens of species, including some fish, monkeys and birds have shown the ability to recognize numerical differences in laboratory studies. VanMarle speculated that being unable to compare large and small sets early in infancy may not have been problematic during human evolution because young children probably received most of their food and protection from caregivers. Infants' survival didn't depend on determining which bush had the most berries or how many predators they just saw, she said.

"In the modern world there are educational programs that claim to give children an advantage by teaching them arithmetic at an early age," said vanMarle. "This research suggests that such programs may be ineffective simply because infants are unable to compare some numbers with others."

###

University of Missouri-Columbia: http://www.missouri.edu

Thanks to University of Missouri-Columbia for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Google to Roll Out Integrated Small Business Marketing Solution ...

google small business solutions

According to a recent article by Amir Efrati of the WSJ, Google is creating a integrated marketing solution for small businesses (SMBs) trying to cash in on the consumer shift to social, mobile, local. Given that more than 95% of all US companies are classified as SMBs, small business is potentially big business for the tech empire. Google plans on combining several products and services under one banner in order to capture a chunk of the roughly 20 billion-dollar yearly ad spend by SMBs. Coming out as early as July, the initiative has been provisionally named ?Business Builder.?

Perhaps to lay the groundwork for such a service, Google has launched several initiatives over the past year to help SMBs to get online and develop mobile websites.? Interestingly, the recent substitution of Google+ Local pages for Google Places suggest that the search giant may be planning on fully-integrating G+ into the Business Builder framework.

As reported by the WSJ, Business Builder will likely include the following:

Google+ Local Pages

The online center of gravity for Business Builder looks to be Google+ Local pages. Aside from inserting a ?local? button on Google+, the new Local pages offers free Zagat reviews, Google+ Local integration across the entire Google landscape (search, Maps, mobile), and a new circles filter to find reviews and recommendations within your follower base.?

AdWords Express

AdWords Express is Google?s geo-local ad targeting solution. When people search your area for the products and/or services you provide, an ad for your business will appear above or beside their search results. Your business will also be marked with a blue pin on Google Maps, helping it stand out to potential customers.

Google Offers

Groupon-esque daily deal platform Google Offers gives SMBs a way to attract customers to their storefront with free giveaways or coupons that Android users can now see pop-up in real time on Google Maps. ?

Google Delivery

Not much is yet known about this new service, other than that it would enable stores to deliver products to homes.

TalkBin

SMS-based TalkBin allows your customers to use their mobile phones to send feedback, suggestions, and questions to you in real time, allowing business owners and managers can respond to customer message immediately. TalkBin is a great way to improve in-store customer service and build brand loyalty.

Google Wallet

Google Wallet stores payment cards and offers on a user?s smartphone and in the cloud. Touted as a more secure alternative to plastic, it allows SMBs to offer customers a convenient and theoretically frictionless means of payment for goods and services.

Punchd

Acquired by Google in 2011, small businesses can use Punchd to create automated in-store loyalty programs. It?s also another attempt by Google to create a frictionless user experience; no more hassle with punch-cards is the idea.

google local business ads

Though not mentioned in the WSJ post, I have to believe that Google?s new Trusted Stores program will also factor into the Business Builder ecosystem. It allows merchants who meet certain shipping and customer service performance metrics to display a Google Trusted Store badge on their websites. The metrics reward speed and efficiency: for shipping, the focus is on the number of days to delivery, and the percentage of on-time shipments; the customer service metric centers on fast customer service resolution, and the maintenance of low customer assistance numbers.

Marketing Takeaway

Given its comprehensive set of offerings, small business owners and marketers should keep a close eye on developments relative to the Business Builder roll-out. It?ll be interesting to see the extent to which Google positions Google+ as the ?hub? for all of the services within the new program.

Moreover, if Business Builder ends up offering something similar to the array of services listed, it may prove to be the silver bullet that delivers the death blow to Groupon and other would-be SMB solutions providers.

?

? SearchEngineLand, ?Google Prepares Business Builder for Small Business Marketers?

Info-Graphic Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal

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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

There has been an error of some kind. Ack!

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

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Google accelerating plans to launch Siri competitor for Android devices

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Israel launches African migrant deportation drive

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Monday, June 18, 2012

Looking for an APH:Sweden

Hello, I am looking for a male!Sweden. Mun can be male of female, does not matter to me :] No age requirement, just a love for role playing. My muse is a Fem!Norway and while I am looking for romance in the rp, if my muse disproves it will have to be a friendship.

I'm willing to rp here, msn, skype, or on tumblr. If you wish to rp on tumblr, I will help you through the account process and blog background.

Thank you so much for reading this! <3
-Kier

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