jueves, 3 de octubre de 2013

10,000 walrus come ashore in northwest Alaska

This Sept. 27, 2013 image provided by NOAA Fisheries shows thousands of walruses hauling out on a remote barrier island in the Chukchi Sea near Point Lay, Alaska.


ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An estimated 10,000 walrus unable to find sea ice over shallow Arctic Ocean water have come ashore on Alaska's northwest coast.

Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Friday photographed walrus packed onto a beach on a barrier island near Point Lay, an Inupiat Eskimo village 300 miles southwest of Barrow and 700 miles northwest of Anchorage.

The walrus have been coming to shore since mid-September. The large herd was spotted during NOAA's annual arctic marine mammal aerial survey, an effort conducted with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the agency that conducts offshore lease sales.

An estimated 2,000 to 4,000 walrus were photographed at the site Sept. 12. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency that manages walrus, immediately took steps to prevent a stampede among the animals packed shoulder to shoulder on the rocky coastline. The agency works with villages to keep people and airplanes a safe distance from herds.

Young animals are especially vulnerable to stampedes triggered by a polar bear, a human hunter or a low-flying airplane. The carcasses of more than 130 mostly young walruses were counted after a stampede in September 2009 at Alaska's Icy Cape.

The gathering of walrus on shore is a phenomenon that has accompanied the loss of summer sea ice as the climate has warmed.

Pacific walrus spend winters in the Bering Sea. Females give birth on sea ice and use ice as a diving platform to reach snails, clams and worms on the shallow continental shelf.

As temperatures warm in summer, the edge of the sea ice recedes north. Females and their young ride the edge of the sea ice into the Chukchi Sea. However, in recent years, sea ice has receded north beyond continental shelf waters and into Arctic Ocean water 10,000 feet deep or more where walrus cannot dive to the bottom.

Walrus in large numbers were first spotted on the U.S. side of the Chukchi Sea in 2007. They returned in 2009, and in 2011, scientists estimated 30,000 walruses along one kilometer of beach near Point Lay.

Remnant ice kept walrus offshore in 2008 and again last year.

The goal of the marine mammals survey is to record the abundance of bowhead, gray, minke, fin and beluga whales plus other marine mammals in areas of potential oil and natural gas development, said NOAA Fisheries marine mammal scientist Megan Ferguson in an announcement.

"In addition to photographing the walrus haulout area, NOAA scientists documented more bowhead whales, including calves and feeding adults in the Beaufort Sea this summer compared to 2012," said Ferguson. "We are also seeing more gray whale calves in the Chukchi Sea than we have in recent years."

Environmental groups say the loss of sea ice due to climate warming is harming marine mammals and oil and gas development would add to their stress.


ORIGINAL: Yahoo

The World's Top Universities 2013

1. California Institute of Technology United States:2012 ranking: 1

2. Harvard (tie) United States: 2012 ranking: 4

2. University of Oxford (tie) United Kingdom: 2012 ranking: 2 (tie)

4. Stanford United States: 2012 ranking: 2 (tie)

5. Masachussetts Institute of Technology United States: 2012 ranking: 5

6. Princeton University United States: 2012 ranking: 6

7. University of Cambridge England: 2012 ranking: 7

8. University of California, Berkeley United States: 2012 ranking: 9

9. University of Chicago United States:2012 ranking: 10

10. Imperial College, London United Kingdom: 2012 ranking:8

The California Institute of Technology, a private institution with just 2,200 students, takes the number one slot again this year in the tenth annual World University Rankings, put out by Times Higher Education (THE), a London magazine that tracks the higher ed market. Two years ago Cal Tech bumped Harvard out of first place. Last year Harvard slipped down three slots, to No. 4, behind the University of Oxford in the U.K. and Stanford, which tied for second place. But this year Harvard is back in the No. 2 slot, tied with Oxford. Stanford slipped to fourth place in THE’s list of 400 schools.

Unlike Forbes’ own ranking, which measures only U.S. schools, or the much-read U.S. News & World Report’s lists of U.S. and international institutions, THE does not consider measures like
  • entry requirements, 
  • graduation rates, 
  • professor ratings by students, or 
  • alumni salaries post-graduation. 
Instead its methodology emphasizes global scholarship and reputation. “We put the heaviest weight on research and innovation, research productivity and research excellence,” explains THE rankings editor Phil Baty. “Our list is really about producing new ideas, about innovating, about attracting skills and talented people into a country,” he adds. “It’s also about bringing business money into the higher education center.

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There is one other international university ranking, the ten-year-old Academic Ranking of World Universities, put out by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. It focuses on science and nature citations and awards, especially Nobel prizes, and it counts the number of articles published by faculty members in journals about nature and science. ARWU’s top three schools: Harvard, Stanford and U.C. Berkeley. Cal Tech rates sixth and Oxford, tenth.

We think THE’s rankings are worth a story in part because universities and governments are taking them seriously. This week THE is hosting its first-ever World Academic Summit in Singapore. The conference is bringing together 200 senior university staffers from 31 countries. In addition, Baty says that the Japanese government has been tapping the rankings to plan the prime minister’s growth strategy and the Russian and Indian governments have invited THE staffers to talk about how those countries can make their universities more competitive. While Japan has five schools on THE’s top-200 list, Russia and India have none.

To compile its ranking, THE looked at 13 different “performance indicators” to evaluate whether schools are achieving their core missions of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and “international outlook.”

Thirty percent of the ranking score comes from citations of a university’s scholarship. Thomson Reuters, which did the data crunching for THE, combed through more than 6 million journal articles published over a six-year period and then calculated how many times those articles were cited by other scholars. Another 30% of the score comes from the volume of institutions’ research, and the reputation and income it generates. While THE also looks at teaching to derive 30% of a school’s score, it does not query students. Rather it examines measures like staff -to-student ratios and what percent of the faculty have PhDs. THE also tallied survey results from 10,500 academics around the world, who answered questions about the best departments in their disciplines, specialists in their fields, and where they would recommend their graduates go for further study. To put together its metrics, THE measured the experiences of all university students, not just undergrads. (To read more details about the methodology, click here).

Cal Tech landed at No. 1 because it scored well across the board. Its small faculty of 300 professors and 600 “research scholars” has won 31 Nobel prizes. Baty also points to the fact that Cal Tech manages the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the federally funded NASA research and development center that has been in the news for its Mars Rover robotic space mission. While this doesn’t affect the rankings, Cal Tech has gotten some attention as a home to nerds with a sense of humor because the hit sitcom “Big Bang Theory” is set there.

As for Stanford’s slip in the rankings, Baty says there are marginal differences between the schools at the top of the list. “There’s only a tiny fraction of a single point separating the very top universities,” he notes. Stanford’s research productivity and research reputation scores edged down slightly, which tipped the balance this year.

One piece of news: Baty says that U.S. schools have regained their footing and are dominating this year’s ranking with little sign of decline. Of the top 200 schools on the list, 77 are in the U.S. Last year Baty cautioned that Asian schools, which were getting substantial support from their governments, looked like they might impinge on the dominance of the U.S., because of shrinking funds, especially for major public research universities. Last year U.S. schools dropped on average six places each. Now Baty says that U.S. universities have stopped their slide, in part by increasing the enrollment of international students who can pay full tuition. Example: U.C.L.A. (No. 12 on THE’s list) admitted 2,544 international students in 2013, up from 672 in 2009. (It also admitted far more out-of-state American students, 4,094 in 2013, compared to 1,545 four years ago.) Non-Californians pay $22,900 more in annual tuition than in-staters.

Three U.S. schools are new to the top-200 list this year: Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, FLA, Northeastern University in Boston and Brandeis in Waltham, MA.

Baty emphasizes that THE’s list gives the highest marks to schools that reflect the notion that, as he puts it, “the best teaching is done by those who are absolutely at the forefront of their fields.” The idea is that students will be inspired by superstar researchers. “One moment the professor may be curing cancer and the next moment he is in the classroom inspiring students,” he says.

But does the best, most engaging teaching come from top scholars? That might be true for graduate-level courses. But if a professor really is working on a cure for cancer, he or she might prefer to be in the lab rather than a lecture hall filled with undergraduates. Professors with the greatest passion for teaching devote themselves to just that—teaching—as opposed to research. Because of its emphasis on scholarship , by design THE’s list includes no colleges, missing out on many of the best schools in the U.S., like Pomona, No. 2 on the Forbes list, or Swarthmore, Forbes’ No. 8.

That said, THE provides a valuable list of the world’s universities that are producing the best, most innovative and widely respected scholarship. For a complete list of the 400 schools rated by THE, click here.


The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2013-2014 powered by Thomson Reuters are the only global university performance tables to judge world class universities across all of their core missions - teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. The top universities rankings employ 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons available, which are trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments.

World University Rankings 2013-2014

Rank Institution Location Overall score change criteria
1 California Institute of Technology United States
94.9
2 Harvard University United States
93.9
2 University of Oxford United Kingdom
93.9
4 Stanford University United States
93.8
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States
93.0
6 Princeton University United States
92.7
7 University of Cambridge United Kingdom
92.3
8 University of California, Berkeley United States
89.8
9 University of Chicago United States
87.8
10 Imperial College London United Kingdom
87.5
11 Yale University United States
87.4
12 University of California, Los Angeles United States
86.3
13 Columbia University United States
85.2
14 ETH Zürich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich Switzerland
84.5
15 Johns Hopkins University United States
83.7
16 University of Pennsylvania United States
81.0
17 Duke University United States
79.3
18 University of Michigan United States
79.2
19 Cornell University United States
79.1
20 University of Toronto Canada
78.3
21 University College London United Kingdom
77.6
22 Northwestern University United States
77.1
23 The University of Tokyo Japan
76.4
24 Carnegie Mellon University United States
76.0
25 University of Washington United States
73.4
26 National University of Singapore Singapore
72.4
27 University of Texas at Austin United States
72.2
28 Georgia Institute of Technology United States
71.6
29 University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign United States
71.4
30 University of Wisconsin-Madison United States
71.1
31 University of British Columbia Canada
70.8
32 London School of Economics and Political Science United Kingdom
69.8
33 University of California, Santa Barbara United States
68.4
34 University of Melbourne Australia
68.2
35 McGill University Canada
68.1
36 Karolinska Institute Sweden
67.8
37 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland
67.7
38 King's College London United Kingdom
67.6
39 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom
67.5
40 New York University United States
67.4
40 University of California, San Diego United States
67.4
42 Washington University in St Louis United States
67.2
43 The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
65.3
44 Seoul National University Republic of Korea
65.2
45 Peking University China
65.0
46 University of Minnesota United States
64.9
47 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States
64.5
48 Australian National University Australia
64.4
49 Pennsylvania State University United States
64.2
50 Tsinghua University China
63.5
50 Boston University United States
63.5
52 Kyoto University Japan
63.2
52 Brown University United States
63.2
52 University of California, Davis United States
63.2
55 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Germany
63.1
56 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Republic of Korea
62.9
57 Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong
62.5
58 University of Manchester United Kingdom
62.3
59 Ohio State University United States
62.0
60 Pohang University of Science and Technology Republic of Korea
61.7
61 KU Leuven Belgium
61.3
62 Purdue University United States
60.7
63 Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Germany
59.9
63 University of Queensland Australia Australia
59.9
65 Rice University United States
59.8
65 École Normale Supérieure France
59.8
67 Leiden University Netherlands
59.4
68 Universität Heidelberg Germany
59.2
69 Delft University of Technology Netherlands
59.1
70 University of Southern California United States
59.0
70 École Polytechnique France
59.0
72 University of Sydney Australia
58.8
73 Erasmus University Rotterdam Netherlands
58.1
74 Universität Basel Switzerland
57.7
74 Utrecht University Netherlands
57.7
76 Nanyang Technological University Singapore
57.2
77 Wageningen University and Research Center Netherlands
56.8
78 University of Pittsburgh United States
56.7
79 University of Bristol United Kingdom
56.3
80 Emory University United States
56.1
80 Durham University United Kingdom
56.1
80 Tufts University United States
56.1
83 University of Amsterdam Netherlands
55.9
83 Michigan State University United States
55.9
85 Ghent University Belgium
55.5
86 Freie Universität Berlin Germany
55.3
87 Technische Universität München Germany
55.2
88 Case Western Reserve University United States
55.0
88 Vanderbilt University United States
55.0
90 University of Notre Dame United States
54.7
91 Monash University Australia
54.6
92 McMaster University Canada
54.5
93 University of California, Irvine United States
54.1
94 Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Germany
53.8
95 University of Rochester United States
53.6
96 Université Pierre et Marie Curie France
53.5
97 University of Colorado Boulder United States
53.4
98 University of Groningen Netherlands
52.9
98 Maastricht University Netherlands
52.9
100 University of Helsinki Finland
52.6
100 University of York United Kingdom
52.6
102 Royal Holloway, University of London United Kingdom
52.5
103 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey United States
52.4
103 Stockholm University Sweden
52.4
103 University of Arizona United States
52.4
106 University of Montreal Canada
52.3
106 Eindhoven University of Technology Netherlands
52.3
108 University of Maryland, College Park United States
52.2
109 Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
52.0
109 University of Alberta Canada
52.0
111 Uppsala University Sweden
51.9
112 University of Virginia United States
51.8
112 University of Sheffield United Kingdom
51.8
114 University of New South Wales Australia
51.7
114 Université Paris-Sud France
51.7
114 Queen Mary, University of London United Kingdom
51.7
117 KTH Royal Institute of Technology Sweden
51.6
117 University of St Andrews United Kingdom
51.6
117 Technical University of Denmark Denmark
51.6
117 University of Glasgow United Kingdom
51.6
121 University of Sussex United Kingdom
51.2
121 University of Zürich Switzerland
51.2
123 Lund University Sweden
51.1
124 University of Geneva Switzerland
51.0
125 Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan
50.8
126 Dartmouth College United States
50.5
126 University of Cape Town South Africa
50.5
128 University of Florida United States
50.4
129 RWTH Aachen University Germany
50.3
129 Trinity College Dublin Republic of Ireland
50.3
131 Radboud University Nijmegen Netherlands
50.2
132 Université de Lausanne Switzerland
50.1
132 Indiana University United States
50.1
132 University of Massachusetts United States
50.1
135 Boston College United States
50.0
136 University of California, Santa Cruz United States
49.9
137 Lancaster University United Kingdom
49.7
138 Aarhus University Denmark
49.6
139 University of Leeds United Kingdom
49.5
139 Colorado School of Mines United States
49.5
141 University of Warwick United Kingdom
49.4
142 National Taiwan University Taiwan
49.2
143 University of Utah United States
49.1
144 Osaka University Japan
49.0
144 VU University Amsterdam Netherlands
49.0
146 University of Southampton United Kingdom
48.9
146 Arizona State University United States
48.9
148 University of Exeter United Kingdom
48.7
148 University of California, Riverside United States
48.7
150 Tohoku University Japan
48.5
150 University of Copenhagen Denmark
48.5
152 Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg Germany
48.4
153 University of Birmingham United Kingdom
48.3
154 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Germany
48.0
155 Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble France
47.8
156 École Normale Supérieure de Lyon France
47.5
157 University of Bern Switzerland
47.4
157 University of Nottingham United Kingdom
47.4
159 Texas A&M University United States
47.2
160 Georgetown University United States
47.0
161 University of Iowa United States
46.7
161 University College Dublin Republic of Ireland
46.7
161 University of Leicester United Kingdom
46.7
164 University of Antwerp Belgium
46.6
164 Pompeu Fabra University Spain
46.6
164 Brandeis University United States
46.6
164 University of Auckland New Zealand
46.6
168 University of Western Australia Australia
46.4
169 University of Liverpool United Kingdom
46.3
170 University of Twente Netherlands
46.2
170 University of Vienna Austria
46.2
172 Yeshiva University United States
46.1
172 Université Catholique de Louvain Belgium
46.1
174 University of Delaware United States
46.0
174 University of East Anglia United Kingdom
46.0
176 University at Buffalo United States
45.9
176 Université Libre de Bruxelles Belgium
45.9
178 Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 France
45.8
178 Stony Brook University United States
45.8
180 Wake Forest University United States
45.7
181 Universität Bonn Germany
45.6
181 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute United States
45.6
183 Iowa State University United States
45.5
184 Northeastern University United States
45.4
185 University of Oslo Norway
45.3
185 University of Miami United States
45.3
185 University of Ottawa Canada
45.3
188 University of Aberdeen United Kingdom
45.2
188 The University of Texas at Dallas United States
45.2
190 Yonsei University Republic of Korea
45.1
191 Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel
45.0
191 University of Illinois at Chicago United States
45.0
193 Mines ParisTech France
44.9
194 University of Reading United Kingdom
44.8
194 George Washington University United States
44.8
196 University of Dundee United Kingdom
44.7
197 Florida Institute of Technology United States
44.6
198 Newcastle University United Kingdom
44.5
199 Boğaziçi University Turkey
44.3
199 Tel Aviv University Israel
44.3


World rankings - South America

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2013-2014 powered by Thomson Reuters are the only global university performance tables to judge world class universities across all of their core missions - teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. The top universities rankings employ 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons available, which are trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments.

Rank Institution Location Overall score
226-250 University of São Paulo Brazil
Data withheld by THE
251-275 University of the Andes Colombia
Data withheld by THE
301-350 State University of Campinas Brazil
Data withheld by THE

ORIGINAL: Forbes