SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Obama administration has recruited engineers from several prominent technology companies to help fix the problems preventing people from signing up for government-mandated health insurance.
Oracle and Red Hat are pitching in as well as Michael Dickerson, an engineer on leave from Google, according to a blog post Thursday by Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison told shareholders at the software maker's annual meeting Thursday that the Redwood Shores, Calif., company is trying to make the Healthcare.gov website more reliable and secure.
"Most of us want to see our government operating efficiently and effectively and it is incumbent upon us to help them do that," Ellison said.
Red Hat Inc. and Google Inc. declined to comment.
Dickerson is a site-reliability engineer at Google. He is now working directly with QSSI, the general contractor hired to upgrade Healthcare.gov, Bataille said.
Exasperation with the website's buggy technology has been compounded by concerns that the service lacks the security measures needed to protect the sensitive information of people looking for insurance.
Besides Dickerson, the government also identified entrepreneur Greg Gershman as one of its new troubleshooters. Gershman currently is director of innovation at mobile app developer Mobomo, according to his profile on professional networking site LinkedIn.
Gershman's resume says he received a Presidential Innovation Fellowship last year to work with the White House on a project seeking "to re-imagine the relationship between citizens and government around the citizen's needs."
The Obama administration has pledged Healthcare.gov will be running smoothly by Nov. 30.
___
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Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services blog post:
Butterflies show origin of species as an evolutionary process, not a single event
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
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Contact: Mary Beth O'Leary moleary@cell.com 617-397-2802 Cell Press
The evolution of new species might not be as hard as it seems, even when diverging populations remain in contact and continue to produce offspring. That's the conclusion of studies, reported in the Cell Press journal Cell Reports on October 31st, that examine the full genome sequences of 32 Heliconius butterflies from the Central American rain forest, representing five different species.
"The butterflies have performed a beautiful natural experiment for us that lets us address important questions about evolution," said Marcus Kronforst of the University of Chicago. "Even as biologists, we often think of the origin of new species as a moment in time when a new species splits from an old one, and this type of thinking is reflected in the evolutionary 'trees,' or phylogenies, that we draw. In reality, evolution is a long-term process that plays out in stages, and speciation is no different."
Kronforst and his colleagues found that the initial divergence between butterfly populations is restricted to a small fraction of the genome. In the case of the butterflies, the key genes are those involved in wing patterning. The butterfly species under study all have very different wing patterns, which are important in the butterflies' mating behavior and predator avoidance.
Comparison of those closely related, interbreeding species to a slightly more distant third species showed that hundreds of genomic changes had arisen rather quickly in evolutionary time sometime after those early differences took hold.
"We find that only a small fraction of the genome is markedly different between closely related species, but then much more of the genomemore than you'd expectshows similar differences between more distantly related species," Kronforst explained. "That indicates that the genetic changes that are important for causing speciation are tightly clustered early in speciation, but not so later on in the process; the overall pattern of genome divergence starts slow and then skyrockets."
The researchers view the process as a kind of tug-of-war between natural selection and gene flow. The result in the case of the butterflies has been a rapid divergence of species, driven by a combination of new mutations and borrowed genes. The butterfly genomes also show that the same spots in the genome have been important in multiple speciation events.
"Beyond butterflies, it is possible that this type of speciation, in which natural selection for ecology causes the origin of new species, has been important in the evolution of other organisms," Kronforst said.
###
Cell Reports, Kronforst et al.: "Hybridization reveals the evolving genomic architecture of speciation."
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Butterflies show origin of species as an evolutionary process, not a single event
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
31-Oct-2013
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Contact: Mary Beth O'Leary moleary@cell.com 617-397-2802 Cell Press
The evolution of new species might not be as hard as it seems, even when diverging populations remain in contact and continue to produce offspring. That's the conclusion of studies, reported in the Cell Press journal Cell Reports on October 31st, that examine the full genome sequences of 32 Heliconius butterflies from the Central American rain forest, representing five different species.
"The butterflies have performed a beautiful natural experiment for us that lets us address important questions about evolution," said Marcus Kronforst of the University of Chicago. "Even as biologists, we often think of the origin of new species as a moment in time when a new species splits from an old one, and this type of thinking is reflected in the evolutionary 'trees,' or phylogenies, that we draw. In reality, evolution is a long-term process that plays out in stages, and speciation is no different."
Kronforst and his colleagues found that the initial divergence between butterfly populations is restricted to a small fraction of the genome. In the case of the butterflies, the key genes are those involved in wing patterning. The butterfly species under study all have very different wing patterns, which are important in the butterflies' mating behavior and predator avoidance.
Comparison of those closely related, interbreeding species to a slightly more distant third species showed that hundreds of genomic changes had arisen rather quickly in evolutionary time sometime after those early differences took hold.
"We find that only a small fraction of the genome is markedly different between closely related species, but then much more of the genomemore than you'd expectshows similar differences between more distantly related species," Kronforst explained. "That indicates that the genetic changes that are important for causing speciation are tightly clustered early in speciation, but not so later on in the process; the overall pattern of genome divergence starts slow and then skyrockets."
The researchers view the process as a kind of tug-of-war between natural selection and gene flow. The result in the case of the butterflies has been a rapid divergence of species, driven by a combination of new mutations and borrowed genes. The butterfly genomes also show that the same spots in the genome have been important in multiple speciation events.
"Beyond butterflies, it is possible that this type of speciation, in which natural selection for ecology causes the origin of new species, has been important in the evolution of other organisms," Kronforst said.
###
Cell Reports, Kronforst et al.: "Hybridization reveals the evolving genomic architecture of speciation."
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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.
From the horse's mouth, we're hearing some unfortunate news: Google has taken to its Spanish support pages to announce that the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is not on the list of devices to receive Android 4.4 KitKat. This seems a bit odd, given the new update's focus on "the next billion" and offering ...
Streamlined performance, new smarter phone app, pedometer support, new "immersive mode" in new version of Android
Along with the LG Nexus 5, Android 4.4 KitKat is finally official — and there's a whole bunch of new features to get to grips with, besides the obvious UI changes we've seen in all the renders. For starters, among the many changes to the stock launcher, it's now possible to say "OK Google" from the home screen to start a voice search or use other voice-activated features.
7:06 AM PDT 10/31/2013 by Todd McCarthy, David Rooney, Stephen Dalton, Leslie Felperin
From "Psycho" to "Ringu," Todd McCarthy, David Rooney, Leslie Felperin and Stephen Dalton reveal their selections for the films that offer the most frights.
'Frankenstein' (1931)
What would the world of fright, monsters and horror have been without Frankenstein? The massively popular 1931 Universal film is scarcely scary today, but it remains stylish and insinuating and is one of the essential Hollywood films of any kind because of the seeds it planted that have bloomed, multiplied and thrived ever since: The idea of man through science creating a new, and warped, form of life; the virtually indestructible monster, the vulnerability of children to horrible evil and the sensitivity, heart and appeal that even grotesque monsters can possess beneath the gruesome surface. -- TM
'Psycho' (1960)
The violations of cinematic propriety committed by Psycho -- the abrupt and violent murders, the killing of the star halfway through, the near-nudity, the upfront sexual matinee, the underlying despair and lack of reassurance -- are hardly shocking today. But the mere title of AlfredHitchcock's most famous film stands as the signpost for all that would come after: the preoccupation with the deranged, the misfits, the loners, the mass murderers and the loonies who would henceforth rule the horror genre. To be sure, the film still plays well today thanks to its stripped-down obsessiveness, BernardHerrmann's indispensable score, the actors and the insidious mystery at its center. -- TM
'Night of the Living Dead' (1968)
George A. Romero needs no paternity test to lay claim to being the father of all zombies the world has seen since 1968. One of the seminal films of all time, for its trail-blazing creative approach to horror as well as for its resourcefulness as an out-of-nowhere independent film, Night of the Living Dead remains scary as hell 45 years later and, along with Romero's first sequel, Dawn of the Dead, stands as one of the few films of its type that can make serious claims to genuine artistic accomplishment. The combination of the lyrical and the implacable matter-of-factness of the zombie onslaught is chilling, making for a sense of realism that the genre has often ignored to its peril. -- TM
'Rosemary's Baby' (1968)
When MiaFarrow and JohnCassavetes take an apartment in New York’s creepy if swanky Dakota building, the neighbors seem so nice and friendly -- that is, until they turn out to be Satanists. They proceed to drug Farrow’s titular character and get her knocked up by Lucifer himself in a hallucinatory scene that still chills, despite the now dated looking 1960s effects and camerawork. Farrow knocks it out of the park with her panicked performance, making for a terrific parable about female anxieties around motherhood and one of RomanPolanksi’s best works. -- LF
'The Exorcist' (1973)
Catholicism and horror have often gone hand in hand, but rarely so effectively as in WilliamFriedkin’s Georgetown Gothic based on William PeterBlatty’s best-seller. The lines around the block at movie theaters were unprecedented for a supernatural shocker at the time, and the movie’s iconic status has endured for four decades. EllenBurstyn plays the actress mother of LindaBlair’s possessed tween Regan, who spews out demon dialogue (and pea soup) in the sinister growl of MercedesMcCambridge. Even without the infamous spider-walk scene that was reintegrated into the 1998 25th anniversary reissue, this is bone-chilling stuff. -- DR
'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' (1974)
A gang of stranded teenagers become prey to a family of backwoods maniacs in TobeHooper’s grimy landmark in low-budget grunge-horror, which arguably invented the sadistic “torture porn” genre. A redneck bloodbath that gave shock-rock cinema one of its most memorable bad-ass icons, the masked killer Leatherface, the movie provoked theater bans and media controversy, but is now widely regarded as a classic and part of the permanent collection at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Leatherface was loosely based on serial killer EdGein, whose grisly exploits also inspired Psycho. -- SD
'Carrie' (1976)
It didn’t take the cool reception to KimberlyPeirce’s recent remake to confirm the elevated position held by Brian De Palma’s film of the Stephen King novel about a bloody prank that unleashes hell on prom night. As the ostracized telekinetic teen and her religious crackpot mother, SissySpacek and PiperLaurie both scored deserved Oscar nominations, at that time still relatively uncommon for actors in an unapologetically exploitative genre movie. Its deft combination of high school cruelty, sly humor and lushly lyrical violence is perfection. “They’re all gonna laugh at you!” They’ll scream too. -- DR
'The Omen' (1976)
Another demon-child saga to make parents squirm, RichardDonner’s feature is a less lurid but no less alarming foray into Exorcist territory. GregoryPeck is the U.S. ambassador to Britain married to LeeRemick. After an ill-advised switch in a Roman hospital, they find themselves raising the antichrist. Oops. The kid with the 666 birthmark is watched over by a nanny – played by the supremely icy BillieWhitelaw as Satan’s ambassador to Earth – and her snarling Rottweiler. Neither the sequels nor the remake come close, though I do have a soft spot for LeeGrant going up in flames in Damien: Omen II.-- DR
'Suspiria' (1977)
A visually ravishing exercise in gothic Eurotrash excess, the Italian horror maestro DarioArgento’s most celebrated nerve-shredder marries the pagan darkness of ancient fairy tales with the Technicolor delirium of golden-age Hollywood. JessicaHarper plays a young American scholarship student who uncovers witchcraft, torture and murder at her prestigious German dance school. Blazing with vivid primary colors and an unsettling score by progressive rockers Goblin, Suspiria is an immersive journey into a nocturnal occult realm whose sumptuous beauty helps excuse its deranged plot and badly dubbed dialogue. -- SD
'Halloween' (1978)
Shot for just $300,000, director John Carpenter’s low-budget slasher classic rewrote the horror rulebook with its roving Steadicam shots, archetype-defining Final Girl heroine and disturbingly familiar setting in contemporary Middle American suburbia. In an inspired homage to Hitchcock’s Psycho, Carpenter cast Janet Leigh’s daughter Jamie Lee Curtis in her scream-queen debut as a teenage babysitter stalked by a psychotic family annihilator who escapes to kill again after 16 years behind bars. Despite its slender budget and minimal special effects, this mini-masterpiece of suspense became a hugely profitable hit and spawned a long-running franchise. -- SD
'Alien' (1979)
Much imitated, never equaled, RidleyScott’s classic is a textbook example of how brooding atmosphere, sustained dread, masterful design, sharp character development and withheld exposure to the encroaching monster(s) can shape a movie that delivers emotional involvement on a par with its visceral terror. SigourneyWeaver’s Ripley is a frontier fighter for the ages, a character that remained compelling through three variable sequels, the best of them being James Cameron’s kickass Aliens. And "In space no one can hear you scream" is one of the all-time great taglines. -- DR
'The Brood' (1979)
Co-starring OliverReed and SamanthaEggar, this slow-burn exercise in cerebral body horror helped shift Canadian auteur DavidCronenberg from marginal cult director to left-field household name. Reed plays the creepy maverick doctor who runs a radical therapy scheme, and Eggar the psychologically scarred mother to a freakish litter of killer children. A queasy satire on psychotherapy and family values, Cronenberg calls TheBrood his most autobiographical film, as he was locked in a bitter custody battle with his first wife at the time. -- SD
'The Shining' (1980)
StanleyKubrick made his last authentic masterpiece with this hallucinatory trip into the Twilight Zone, freely adapted from the StephenKing novel. JackNicholson gives a combustible performance as a mentally fragile writer slowly losing his mind in a remote, empty, haunted hotel over the snowbound winter season. Co-starring ShelleyDuvall and DannyLloyd, The Shining actually makes little narrative sense, but its strikingly surreal nightmare visuals are brilliantly orchestrated by Kubrick, who was partly inspired by DavidLynch’s Eraserhead. King disowned the movie, directing his own inferior TV remake in 1997. -- SD
'A Nightmare on Elm Street' (1984)
More witty and subversive than the long-running slasher franchise it launched, WesCraven’s postmodern reboot of the pulp horror genre made a cult antihero out of its child-killing villain Freddy Krueger, a knife-fingered monster from the darkest depths of collective folk myth. The suburban high school victims in this darkly funny fairy tale are unable to sleep, because Freddy haunts their dreams. HeatherLangenkamp stars, while a young JohnnyDepp meets his maker in memorably gory fashion. In an elegant example of revenge being served cold, Craven named Krueger after a sadistic bully from his school days. -- SD
'The Vanishing' (aka 'Spoorloos,' 1988)
Like Haneke with FunnyGames, Dutch director GeorgeSluizer made this story twice (the remake came out in 1993), but the original 1988 version cannot be beat. Playing off the universal fear of losing a loved one suddenly when they slip out of sight for a moment, the story tracks a man over several years searching for his girlfriend who vanished at a gas station. Not advisable viewing for claustrophobics, the last reel offers a shocking but entirely satisfying sense of closure (forgive the pun) with a supernatural tinge. -- LF
'Funny Games' (1997)
In many ways, this sly, horrifically disturbing subversion of the besieged-family subgenre is the film that properly launched MichaelHaneke as an international auteur. A bourgeois Austrian family let two strangers in the door who turn out to be psychotic killers. What really makes the film outstandingly unusual is the way the killers break the fourth wall, turning to the camera to address the audience, making us feel complicit in the violence. Bonus points for Lothar’s screaming, arguably one of the most chilling effects in film history. Haneke himself directed a much less interesting remake set in the U.S. starring NaomiWatts in 2007. -- LF
'Ringu' (1998)
Although Japan has a long and illustrious history of ghost stories and films, HideoNakata’s creeptastic tale is the one that really put J-horror on the international map. The gimmick here is a videotape (remember them) that, once watched summons an aggrieved, now iconic ghost with bedraggled long hair and a zombie shuffle who, at one utterly terrifying and impressively rendered point, emerges out of a TV set itself to scare a victim to death. The film was respectably remade in English by GoreVerbinski in 2002 with NaomiWatts, queen of remakes, in the starring role. -- LF
'28 Days Later' (2002)
Would The Walking Dead ever have happened without the eclectic DannyBoyle’s pivotal moment in the contemporary reinvention of the zombie flick? Hard to say, but the AMC hit surely owes as much to this influential feature as it does to the genre classics of George A. Romero and his imitators. A survival tale set in a postapocalyptic London, it placed CillianMurphy in the path of undead biters that were fast on their feet (no more somnambulant shuffling, thank you) and riddled with a virus that made them mad as hell. Throw in an allegory about humankind’s savage nature in a depersonalized world and you have a low-budget chiller that’s smart, scary and suspenseful. -- DR
'Wolf Creek' (2005)
Greg McLean’s low-budget Australian slasher movies pushes the film-of-two-halves formula to the limit, which the first part seemingly all about footloose backpackers bumming around the outback who suddenly, in the second half, come to a serious cropper at the hands of the seemingly affable bloke who gave them a lift. In retrospect, this was on the cresting wave of torture porn pics like Saw and Hostel that came out around the same time, but with less misanthropic nastiness at its heart and a grittier sense of realism, befitting the “based on a true story” hype. -- LF
'Let the Right One In' (2008)
Swedish director TomasAlfredson’s 2008 love story between a bullied 12-year-old boy and his mysterious new female neighbor, who confesses, “I have been this age for a very long time,” distanced itself with restraint and intelligence from the murky thicket of swooning teen vampires then crowding the multiplex. The sad ’80s knitwear and institutional housing give this the austere atmosphere of a KrzysztofKieslowski movie, and the expert balance of tenderness and creepiness, enhanced by exquisite use of music, makes it linger long in the mind. The 2010 U.S. remake, Let Me In, with Chloe Moretz, is solid, but the original is the keeper. -- DR
Not all cameras have an aperture-priority mode. If yours has one, you should use it. All the time. It'll give you more control over the look of your photos without having to dive into the complexities of full-manual exposure controls. ...
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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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.