Sacramento Rapid Response Team Heads To Florida

Sacramento rapid response team heads to Florida

A six-person rapid response team from Sacramento's Red Cross departed for Florida, where residents have been flooded out of their homes.

"We are high and dry here and we are able to help, so we are," said Tami Martin, a Red Cross team leader.

The all-volunteer team will assist in setting up temporary shelters in areas hardest hit by Tropical Depression Debby.

"We are hearing that hotels and motels where people had been evacuated to are now being evacuated even further back," said David Kennedy, a spokesman for Sacramento's Red Cross chapter.

Tropical Depression Debby has flooded more than 100 homes, sparked dozens of water rescues and been blamed for several deaths.

View original post here:

Sacramento Rapid Response Team Heads To Florida

UPDATE 10-Oil heads for worst quarter since 2008 crisis

* Wall Street extends losses after Supreme Court decision

* Euro zone deeply divided over how to battle debt crisis

* Coming up: U.S. consumer confidence survey, Friday

By Gene Ramos

NEW YORK, June 28 (Reuters) - Crude oil futures fell as much as 3 percent on Thursday, and are on track for the worst quarterly performance since the 2008 financial debacle, on worries that an EU summit will not find durable solutions to the euro zone crisis, stifling global growth prospects.

Lower U.S. equities following the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding key elements of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law added to the day's pressures on crude futures.

Despite recent gains, Brent crude futures were on track to end the second quarter down about 25 percent, the largest drop since the last quarter of 2008, which was the height of a financial crisis.

U.S. crude futures, meanwhile, were headed for drop of fall about 24 percent, also the biggest quarterly loss since the last quarter of 2008.

Trading on Wall Street was volatile, with large health insurers hit, after the Supreme Court upheld the centerpiece "individual mandate" provision of the Obama healthcare overhaul. Equities were already lower on skepticism that the European Union Summit will result in concrete measures.

U.S. equities later ended with pared losses on talk that EU finance officials were working on urgent measures to ease financial pressure on Spain and Italy.

See more here:

UPDATE 10-Oil heads for worst quarter since 2008 crisis

Oil heads for worst quarter since 2008 crisis

By Gene Ramos

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude oil futures fell as much as 3 percent on Thursday, and are on track for the worst quarterly performance since the 2008 financial debacle, on worries that an EU summit will not find durable solutions to the euro zone crisis, stifling global growth prospects.

Lower U.S. equities following the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding key elements of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law added to the day's pressures on crude futures.

Despite recent gains, Brent crude futures were on track to end the second quarter down about 25 percent, the largest drop since the last quarter of 2008, which was the height of a financial crisis.

U.S. crude futures, meanwhile, were headed for drop of fall about 24 percent, also the biggest quarterly loss since the last quarter of 2008.

Trading on Wall Street was volatile, with large health insurers hit, after the Supreme Court upheld the centerpiece "individual mandate" provision of the Obama healthcare overhaul. Equities were already lower on skepticism that the European Union Summit will result in concrete measures. (.N)

U.S. equities later ended with pared losses on talk that EU finance officials were working on urgent measures to ease financial pressure on Spain and Italy.

"It's the euro zone problems, the strength of the dollar and the weak equities," said Stephen Schork, president of the Schork Group in Villanova, Pennsylvania, commenting on the reasons for the day's price drop.

The euro fell against the dollar on doubts about the outcome of the EU summit, denting investors' interest in buying riskier assets such as oil and other commodities. (USD/)

In London, Brent crude oil futures for August settled $2.14 lower at $91.36 a barrel, after a session low of $90.88.

Read the original:

Oil heads for worst quarter since 2008 crisis

Nasa scraps U-tapao plan for climate research

SCIENCE

Nasa has scrapped its planned climate research project at U-tapao military airport after the cabinet failed to approve the project by a Tuesday deadline set by the US space agency.

"Nasa cancelled the SEAC4RS mission, which was scheduled to begin in August 2012, due to the absence of necessary approvals by regional authorities in the timeframe necessary to support the mission's planned deployment and scientific observation window," according to a statement posted on Nasa's website yesterday.

SEAC4RS refers to the Southeast Asia Composition, Cloud, Climate Coupling Regional Study, which will address key questions about the influence of Asian emissions on clouds, climate and air quality.

The agency also stressed the need to use U-tapao airport in Rayong province as a base for Nasa's aircraft used in the project.

"Basing the aircraft in Thailand is optimal for achieving science objectives with a preferred base in U-tapao," Nasa said.

Nasa's statement came shortly after the government this week resolved to send the project proposal to parliament for debate in August.

House Speaker Somsak Kiatsuranont yesterday said the parliamentary debate on the matter was no longer required since Nasa had now cancelled the project.

But he said the government can still include the project on the House agenda if it wants to explain it.

US embassy spokeswoman Kristin Kneedler told the Bangkok Post via email that to accomplish the scientific goals, the programme needed to start no later than the middle of August. This is because the SEAC4RS mission targeted the study of certain seasonal atmospheric phenomena only active in the region during August and September.

View original post here:

Nasa scraps U-tapao plan for climate research

NASA Engineers Fix Orbiter Millions Of Miles Away

June 28, 2012

Image Caption: NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft passes above Mars' south pole in this artist's concept illustration. The spacecraft has been orbiting Mars since October 24, 2001. Image credit: NASA/JPL

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

NASAs Mars Odyssey orbiter is back in business after the spacecraft found itself placed into safe mode earlier this month.

The spacecrafts flight team returned the orbiter back to full service this week after a two-week sequence of activities to recover Odyssey from safe mode.

The orbiter switched itself to safe mode when one of the three primary reaction wheels used for altitude control stuck for a few minutes on June 8.

NASA engineers determined that the sticking wheel was unreliable, so they switched the spacecraft to a spare one that had been unused since the missions April 7, 2001 launch.

Odyssey is now back in full, nominal operation mode using the replacement wheel, Steve Sanders, lead engineer for the Odyssey team at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, said in a press release.

Observations with Odysseys Thermal Emission Imaging System and its Gamma Ray Spectrometer resumed on the Red Planet on Monday. The orbiter also acts as a Mars rover relay for NASA.

The space agency said that it received data from its Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on Wednesday, showing that Odysseys relaying capabilities are up and going.

View original post here:

NASA Engineers Fix Orbiter Millions Of Miles Away

How NASA Helped Open-Source Cloud Computing Take Off

The Shuttle fleet may be retired, but NASA's innovation efforts continue unabated, with the agency's latest contribution driving the world of cloud computing. In fact, the story of how--and even more so, why--NASA has taken a leadership role in the cloud is a fascinating example of our tax dollars well spent, and a prime example of the government's new mantra to do more with less.

NASA's Open Government Culture

NASA's role as government-funded innovator dates to its founding. The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 called for NASA's active participation in the scientific community, wide dissemination of information regarding its activities and the encouragement of commercial use of space.

This mandate led to what the agency calls the NASA Open Government Plan, which takes the spirit of NASA's charter and strives to embody transparency, participation and collaboration across all activities. The agency has endeavored to take a multi-dimensional approach that addresses technology, policy and culture, thereby extending the Open Government Plan well past the space-centric scientific world that drove NASAs original mission.

When President Barack Obama took office in 2009, his pledge to work toward "an unprecedented level of openness in government" aligned perfectly with NASA's existing Open Government Plan. In fact, the Obama administration's open government efforts have emphasized the same three priorities that have guided NASA all along-transparency, participation and collaboration.

As a result, when the administration issued its directive to all government agencies to harness new technologies to make information about agency decisions readily available to the public, NASA was ready to hit the ground running. NASA had already been developing NASA.net, a unified technology platform for use across all of NASA's Web projects.

NASA.net took a service-oriented approach to abstracting IT resources and associated middleware, offering common Web development tools and bringing NASA's numerous Web-centric initiatives onto a common, reusable platform. The goal was to create a "convergence effect" that would lead to improved efficiency and greater visibility across the agency.

It soon became clear, however, that building such a platform layer required a flexible infrastructure underneath, which required a shift in priorities for NASA.net. To this end, NASA developers set out to create a set of generic, on-demand, API-driven compute and storage systems--in other words, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS).

At that time, though, cloud computing, including the IaaS service model, was still in its formative stage. The NASA.net team, now rechristened NASA Nebula, spotted a significant opportunity to become a cloud provider in its own right, providing IaaS to the same internal communities it targeted for the original NASA.net platform.

At that point the team's focus shifted to creating an open source Cloud compute controller--that is, the essential piece of technology that automates the provisioning of virtual machine instances, which is a core capability of any IaaS environment.

Read more here:

How NASA Helped Open-Source Cloud Computing Take Off

Fibrous Protein Nanocomposites Conference

Public release date: 28-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Kevin Korpics kevin@engconfintl.org Engineering Conferences International

This multidisciplinary conference on "Fibrous Protein Nanocomposites for Tailored Hybrid Biostructures and Devices" will address the state of the art in the design, synthesis and characterization of hybrid bio-nano- materials and devices for electronic and nanomedicine applications.

The conference will be held in the island of Crete, a renowned destination since the antiquity situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Sea, exposed to the diverse cultures of three continents. In a metaphorical manner, the conference aims at exposing the audience to several different disciplines (materials science, biology and engineering) focusing on various aspects of fibrous nanocomposites.

Conference Focus

Fibrous nanostructured objects such as polymer /composite electrospun mats, carbon nanotubes, and protein-based nanofibers and nanotubes recently attracted much interest for their integration in future generations of micro and nano devices with promising industrial applications. Carbon nanotubes have been the subject of the most intense investigation; however, they present limitations due to their extreme conditions of manufacturing and their production cost. Protein and peptide-based-nanofibers present an attractive alternative since they can assemble under mild conditions, they can be considerably less expensive to manufacture, and are more easily configurable, i.e. they allow the attachment or engineering of additional functionalities. Protein nanofibers that are resistant to extreme conditions are the most suitable candidates, since they can be easily interfaced with the world of "hard materials".

Electrospun nanofibers of hybrid materials are a class of bio-nano-composites that also allow for versatile design, ease of manufacturing, and diversity of applications in a complementary fashion. Both the nanoelectronics and nanomedicine fields will eventually require the integration of protein nanofibers-based design and manufacturing (e.g., nanocircuitry templating, protein structures such as those binding bone to collagen in tissue scaffolding, etc.) and electrospun nanofiber-based synthesis and processing (active components in sensing, actuation, nanocues in templating, drug delivery systems, etc.). Engineered proteins, discriminating biosensing, and nanowire electrodes are some of the key themes of the conference; their integration is expected to lead to advanced disease monitoring tools and active scaffolds in tissue engineering. The hybrid and/or multilayered fibrous biological materials may find applications as 3D structuring templates in nanoelectronics and tissue/organ scaffolding, and as active components of theragnostics and power systems.

Preliminary Conference Outline

Designer self-assembling peptide materials Natural and designed protein materials Various properties of peptide materials Peptide and protein scaffolds in tissue regeneration and tissue engineering Hybrid and composite peptide/inorganic materials and applications Manufacturing / biofabrication Theoretical studies and multi-scale modeling Plenary Speaker Ehud Gazit, Tel-Aviv University

Confirmed Invited Speakers (May 17, 2012) Georgios Archontis, University of Cyprus, Cyprus Nurit Ashkenasy, Ben Gurion University, Israel Alexander Bittner, CIC Nanogune, Spain Maria Farsari, IESL/FORTH, Greece Mustafa Guler, Bilkent University, Turkey, Stavros Hamodrakas, University of Athens, Greece Charlotte Hauser, IBN Singapore Zhanglin Lin, Tsingua University, China Markus Linder, VTT Finland Maite Paternostre, Saclay, France Darrin Pochan, University of Delaware, USA, Alberto Saiani, University of Manchester, UK Thomas Scheibel, University Of Bayreuth, Germany Candan Tamerler, University of Washington, USA Tell Tuttle, University of Strathclyde, UK Takafumi Ueno, Tokyo Istitute of Technology, Japan Antonio Villaverde, Universitat Autnoma de Barcelona, Spain, Salvador Ventura, Universitat Autnoma de Barcelona, Spain Senior post-doc from Dek Woolfson Lab, University of Bristol, UK

See the original post:

Fibrous Protein Nanocomposites Conference

Solstice in Times Square New York City: Athleta Mind Over Madness Yoga – Video

26-06-2012 20:12 On Wednesday, June 20, 2012 thousands of yoga enthusiasts will come together to celebrate the longest day of the year, Summer Solstice, in the middle of Times Square. The all day yoga fest will challenge yogis to find tranquility in the middle of the most bustling commercial intersection in Midtown Manhattan stretching from 42nd to 47th streets. The idea is for everyone to come together for a collective ohm in the middle of the "Crossroads of the World" for free all day outdoor yoga classes to celebrate the sun and summer in one of the most creative, artistic, energy-driven centers on earth. Participants of "Solstice in Times Square: Athleta Mind Over Madness Yoga" will also be treated to music, contests, giveaways and more. The yoga event will appear live on the Toshiba Vision Screens in addition to the 1515 Broadway screen courtesy of TSQ Digital/Orange Barrel Media. An exciting addition this year, all yogis from anywhere in the world can share photos of themselves finding their own mind body connection on Instagram. Upload with the tag (#SolsticeTSq) and the Solstice team will pick the most unique photo and the winner will receive a prize totaling up to $350.00. See the detail and rules of the contest here. The yoga class schedule on June 20th is as follows: 7:30am-8:45am-Open to all levels with instructor Drisana Carey 12:30pm-2:00pm-Open to all with instructor Rajashree Choudhury 3:30pm-4:45pm-Open to all levels with instructor Douglass Stewart 7:00-8:30pm-Open to ...

Excerpt from:

Solstice in Times Square New York City: Athleta Mind Over Madness Yoga - Video

EG Daily – Mind over Matter – Video

27-06-2012 10:19 HIGH QUALITY REMASTERED VIDEO & AUDIO. Compressed & Excited For Quality, Clarity & To Create Depth & Dimension To The Sound. To Hear More Italo & Eurobeat Tracks Like This Tune Into: Every Friday & Saturday From 10.00am. (free, safe & no adverts). I Have No Problem With Any User Mirroring/Copying/Re-Uploading My Videos, Just Leave The Credit At The End. Its About The Music Always Being Available, Not Viewing Figures. Try To Use Headphones Or Quality Speakers For Best Sound. Copyright: Fair Use Under US Law. "Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use." I do not try to make any kind of profit from this video, this is just a personal project for educational & commentary on the quality etc.

Read the original:

EG Daily - Mind over Matter - Video

8 year old Guitarist teaches Green Tinted Sixties Mind: Guitar Lesson 1080 HD (intermediate level) – Video

27-06-2012 23:10 Intermediate level guitar lesson showing the two handed tapping technique by Paul Gilbert on Mr. Big's "Green Tinted Sixties Mind". Complete cover @ recorded with Nicola Jayne from the UK and a drummer here in California. Please check our channel for additional lessons that demonstrate: "How to hold a guitar pick", "How to play hammer on notes", and others (plus more on the way). All of the guitar lessons are free and have no advertising on our YouTube channel. One great thing about YouTube is we upload lessons in 1080 HD with enough visual detail to show how the fingering is done through demonstration rather than trying to explain it with words that have the potential for misunderstanding. Starting with good fundamentals is important for playing any musical instrument and having to unlearn bad habits is exceptionally frustrating, especially for kids. If your child is interested in playing guitar, I have a few suggestions based on both personal experience and expert opinions: 1) Don't get him or her a guitar until 6 years of age. Prior to age 6, 99.9% of kids don't have enough finger and hand strength to make much progress. 2) Get a decent electric guitar first for children under 10 years of age, because it will be MUCH easier to play. Most people get their children an acoustic guitar, and then the child gets frustrated, can't do it, and he or she quits because a lot practice time for many months is required to become proficient on an inexpensive acoustic guitar ...

Go here to see the original:

8 year old Guitarist teaches Green Tinted Sixties Mind: Guitar Lesson 1080 HD (intermediate level) - Video

Real Estate Agent Uses Postcards for Brand Building & More Sales

expresscopy.com, leader in online design, print & mail postcards – in 24 hours, helps Coldwell Banker agent Susan Mansuet.Portland, OR (PRWEB) June 28, 2012 expresscopy.com, leader in online design, print & mail postcards – in 24 hours, helps Coldwell Banker agent Susan Mansuet.“In real estate, so much of business has to do with timing, and if you haven’t maintained steady communication with ...

Link:

Real Estate Agent Uses Postcards for Brand Building & More Sales

ownCloud's Latest Commercial Releases Get Down to Business, Enabling Easy Integration with Existing Enterprise …

BOSTON, June 28, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ownCloud, the commercial entity behind the popular open source filesync and share project, today launched significant enhancements to its commercial offerings, allowing businesses, schools and governments to more easily integrate user-friendly file synch and share into their existing infrastructure.

The latest ownCloud 2012 Business and Enterprise editions add enhanced Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) integration, system logging and themeing. Enhanced LDAP integration now enables IT to manage user storage quotas, group memberships and more from inside their LDAP or Active Directory server. ownCloud also now adds syslog logging, enabling IT to add ownCloud seamlessly into their existing enterprise log management plan. This syslog logging simplifies pattern recognition, error and attack tracing, and provides a deeper level of compliance and auditability for ownCloud.

Themeing gives companies - and partners - the ability to change ownCloud to look and feel as if it were part of an existing corporate IT department, giving peace of mind to users and reminding them which system they are using.

Also available today is Beta 1.1 of the mobile app for Android, that enables users a greater degree of control and simplicity accessing their ownCloud server. The app now auto senses SSL connections, manages credentials for multiple ownCloud accounts, allows automatic photo uploads from the device camera, uploads and downloads files on demand, and is all embedded in a completely new interface design.

"With more and more workers bringing their own devices to work - and then using made-for-consumer offerings to enhance their productivity - businesses need a to maintain the security of their data," said Markus Rex, CEO, ownCloud. "The updates launched today enable IT to seamlessly integrate ownCloud into their current infrastructure while giving end users a tool they will want to use."

The latest update also adds innovative features like file versioning, which actively saves files, allowing users to view a complete history and "rollback" to previous versions - and a new API -- giving developers an easy, stable and supported way to develop applications on top of ownCloud capabilities. Also new is simple drag and drop synching, taking advantage of advanced HTML 5 programming.

Based on ownCloud 4 - the community version released in May, the latest commercial update adds:

About the ownCloud Community

ownCloud began at a KDE community event in 2010, aiming to bring greater flexibility, access and security to data in the cloud. ownCloud enables universal access to files through the widely implemented WebDAV standard, providing a platform to easily view and sync contacts, calendars and bookmarks across devices while supporting sharing, viewing and editing via the web interface. Installation has minimal server requirements, doesn't need special permissions and is quick. ownCloud is extendable via a simple, powerful API for applications. For more information, please visit: http://www.owncloud.org.

About ownCloud Inc.

Read the original post:

ownCloud's Latest Commercial Releases Get Down to Business, Enabling Easy Integration with Existing Enterprise ...

Biological Medicine Network to offer Lyme disease seminar

By ANIKA CLARK

June 28, 2012 12:00 AM

NEW BEDFORD The Biological Medicine Network has announced an upcoming two-day seminar on Lyme disease treatment.

The seminar is scheduled for Sept. 20-21 at the Waypoint Event Center at the Fairfield Inn & Suites New Bedford.

The Biological Medicine Network is a program of the Marion Institute, according to network director Barbara Christian. She said the network's activities include organizing seminars and educational trainings with network co-founder Dr. Thomas Rau of Switzerland's Paracelsus Klinik and with other practitioners of biological medicine.

The network's website describes biological medicine as providing a holistic approach to healing and examining root causes of ailments.

The field incorporates practices ranging from natural European remedies to Chinese herbalism, according to the Biological Medicine Network.

September's seminar offers an approach to treating Lyme disease rooted in biological medicine and featuring four practitioners one of whom suffers from Lyme disease himself, Christian said.

"The overall importance is the different way of looking at stuff how everything ties together and supporting the person as a complete unit, while at the same time customizing," said Robert Milisen, one of the presenting practitioners, who earned a doctorate of naturopathic medicine at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine and Health Sciences in Tempe, Ariz.

Milisen's topics include therapy designed to open biofilms, which he said are bubble-like walls built by microbes and impenetrable by antibodies. He will also address preparing patients for treatment.

See more here:

Biological Medicine Network to offer Lyme disease seminar

Penn Medicine Emergency Physician Appointed to Federal Council For Emergency Medical Services on Nation's Roadways

PHILADELPHIA Roger A. Band, MD, an assistant professor of Emergency Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has been appointed to serve on the National Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council (NEMSAC), which advises the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on all EMS matters and related issues on the nation's roadways.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood appointed Band to the post alongside other leaders in the emergency medical services (EMS). "The leadership and professional expertise of the new Council members will help NHTSA ensure that the nation's emergency response services have the most up-to-date information so they can focus on saving lives," said Secretary LaHood. Administered by NHTSA, the NEMSAC provides expert advice and recommendations to the safety agency and its federal partners on key issues including recruitment and retention of EMS personnel, quality assurance, data collection and EMS education over the course of a two-year term.

Band has led several research projects on out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and is the author of numerous papers on prehospital emergency care, including the delivery of resuscitative care for cardiac arrest patients and interventions for other critically ill patients, such as those with penetrating trauma injuries and sepsis. He also serves as a reviewer for several of trauma- and emergency medicine-related journals, and was an EMT and paramedic for over ten years.

He graduated with a B.S. in Microbiology and a minor in Chemistry from the University of Florida and earned his medical degree Jefferson Medical College. He came to the University of Pennsylvania in 2001 to pursue his Emergency Medicine residency training and joined the department's faculty in 2005. In addition to his clinical and administrative responsibilities in the Emergency Medicine department, Band serves as the Medical Director for developing world travel for the WJ Clinton Foundation, personal physician to former President Clinton, and as medical advisor for the University of Pennsylvania Police Department's Emergency Response Team.

To read the full press release about the new appointments, visit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's web site.

###

Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4.3 billion enterprise.

The Perelman School of Medicine is currently ranked #2 in U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $479.3 million awarded in the 2011 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- recognized as one of the nation's top 10 hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; and Pennsylvania Hospital the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Penn Medicine also includes additional patient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2011, Penn Medicine provided $854 million to benefit our community.

Here is the original post:

Penn Medicine Emergency Physician Appointed to Federal Council For Emergency Medical Services on Nation's Roadways

Medical pioneers

Pinoy Kasi By: Michael L. Tan Philippine Daily Inquirer

The commencement exercises were held last June 2, somewhat atypical in the Philippines, where these rituals are usually held in April. The togas and capes were different, too: as befitting the medical graduates, they had the color green, but this was combined with gray, associated with a business degree.

The graduating class was from the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health (ASMPH), the first of a unique program that allows these new doctors to add MD as well as MBA (master of business administration) after their names.

The brain behind the medical school was Dr. Alfredo Bengzon, who wanted a new medical curriculum that would produce not just excellent clinicians but also public health experts and administrators. It was a 21st-century vision that began in the 20th when Bengzon was building up Medical City from a small hospital to the large medical complex that it is today. Other ideas came in when he was health secretary, the first after the 1986 Edsa revolt, when he had to fight many battles around inefficiency and corruption.

Our panganay (eldest), said Dr. Ma. Eufemia Yap, one of the associate deans, with pride and a bit of relief. It wasnt just taking care of the students through the five years of medical school, but also the many years of planning that went into the medical school.

The Ateneo Board of Trustees approved the creation of the school in 1997, after much discussion. But it was to take another 10 years before the school opened its doors to this first batch. There were numerous meetings and workshops all through those years, literally from one millennium into the next, to discuss how this medical school would be different, and what dual degrees could be offered. An MPH (master of public health) was considered, as well as an MM (master of management). In the end, the choice of the MBA was partly out of convenience: Ateneo already had years of experience with its MBA programs offered in its Makati campuses, including degrees specific for health professionals with strong exposure to public health and management.

I was roped (or, I felt at times, lassoed) in to help think of the inputs for the social sciences and to train teachers and mentors to lecture, with the aim of developing cultural competence, which isnt just sensitivity to peoples cultures but also the ability to harness peoples own knowledge, and practices, to keep healthy and fight disease.

MBA oath

I was initially uncomfortable with the MBA degree, in part because of public perceptions that an MBA produces business people, and that doctors are already too good at making money. But interactions with the Ateneo MBA staff have convinced me that we need more of these MBA programs for other professionals as well, to run government as well as private companies. The trajectory of todays MBA is well summarized in an MBA oath first crafted by the 2009 graduates of Harvard Business School and which has since been signed by thousands of other MBA graduates around the world, including, I hope, the new ASMPH graduates.

The oath begins with a recognition of MBA graduates role in society: first, to lead people and manage resources to create value that no single individual can create alone, and second, that their decisions affect the well-being of individuals inside and outside [their] enterprise, today and tomorrow. The oath has several promises concerning ethical conduct and the protection of human rights and dignity in the pursuit of value creation. How appropriate, I thought, for todays physicians, who create value by keeping people healthy.

More here:

Medical pioneers

Western Michigan University medical school building to be named after W.E. Upjohn

KALAMAZOO, MI Leaders of the Western Michigan University medical school announced Thursday the future downtown Kalamazoo campus will be named the W.E. Upjohn Campus for the founder of The Upjohn Co.

Last December, MPI Research announced it would donate a building near the northwest corner of Portage and Lovell streets to WMU for the medical school.

The more than 300,000-square-foot building was part of the downtown campuses of pharmaceutical companies Upjohn, Pharmacia and then Pfizer, and has been known as Building 267. It is slated to undergo renovations and a small expansion starting later this summer, and is scheduled to be ready for use by August 2014 for the opening of the medical school.

W.E. Upjohn founded what became The Upjohn Co. in 1886 and was its president for 43 years.

"This property represents the beginning of the greatly expanded Upjohn campus, which included this building throughout the life of the company," William U. Parfet, the great-grandson of W.E. Upjohn who is now chairman and CEO of MPI Research, said in a statement released from WMU. "It only makes sense to our family that this would be the headquarters for the WMU School of Medicine."

The medical school, being developed by WMU in partnership with Borgess Health and Bronson Healthcare, is awaiting accreditation. The Liaison Committee on Medical Education recently granted the school "candidate medical school" status. According to a statement from WMU, the committee is planning a preliminary accreditation visit to the campus.

WMU last year announced it had received a $100 million gift for the school from anonymous donors.

Read more here:

Western Michigan University medical school building to be named after W.E. Upjohn

ATK Signs Teaming Agreement for Liberty Transportation Service

ARLINGTON, Va., June 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ATK (ATK) and Astrium North America have signed a teaming agreement with NanoRacks, LLC, for NanoRacks to market opportunities for both astronaut explorers and the experiments they plan to carry into space on board the Liberty Transportation Service.

"NanoRacks is a world leader in understanding the emerging commercial market for low Earth orbit utilization," said Kent Rominger, ATK's Liberty Program Manager. "Jeff Manber and his NanoRacks team will bring the tremendous capability of the Liberty Transportation Service to this community worldwide. The prospects are very exciting."

The Liberty Transportation Service offers researchers world-wide the opportunity to fly into low Earth orbit with their researcheither to the International Space Station, to other on-orbit space craft for human-tended operations or to use a Liberty mission on-orbit as their own unique research platform. The Liberty team will work with NanoRacks to develop Liberty missions that allow use of low Earth orbit by non-NASA individuals, such as astronauts from other countries, as well as the delivery of innovative solutions for NASA commercial crew and cargo missions.

This teaming agreement allows NanoRacks to market to explorers from around the globe a Liberty mission consisting of transportation into low Earth orbit, on-orbit operations and a safe return to Earth for up to seven people and their research and/or equipment.

The Liberty team selected NanoRacks because of its proven performance and unique history of innovatively managing a number of International Space Station payloads and commercial astronaut programs. NanoRacks is already working with Astrium North America to provide quality hardware and services for the U.S. National Laboratory on board the International Space Station.

NanoRacks has developed and deployed two research platforms onboard the International Space Station's U.S. National Laboratory, which can house plug-and-play payloads using CubeSat. NanoRacks has a signed customer pipeline of over 50 payloads including domestic and international educational institutions, research organizations and government organizations.

"The possibilities with Liberty are exponential," said Jeff Manber, CEO of NanoRacks. "For the first time we are offering people across the globe an opportunity to use Liberty to create their own missions of exploration and discovery. This will greatly expand the use of the ISS for research and also create novel missions using Liberty in low Earth orbit."

"We look forward to expanding our work with NanoRacks as it brings Liberty to new customers worldwide for commercial missions to ISS and other LEO missions," said John Schumacher, President of Astrium in North America. "This builds on research and human space flight-related operations we have done in Florida and Texas with the NASA team for over a decade."

Liberty is a complete commercial crew system that includes a human-rated composite spacecraft, advanced abort system, a reliable, affordable and capable commercial launch vehicle to low Earth orbit and ground and mission operations, which were all designed from inception to meet NASA's human-rating requirements.Unmanned test flights are planned for 2014 and 2015, followed by the first human flights in 2015 with a Liberty flight crew flying to the International Space Station.

ATK is the team lead, with Astrium and Lockheed Martin serving as major subcomponent providers. Additional subcontractors for Liberty include Safran, Moog Inc., Honeywell, Astrotech Space Operations (ASTC), Aerojet, Reynolds, Smith and Hills, Dynamic Concepts, Inc, Hamilton Sundstrand, L-3 Cincinnati Electronics and Teledyne Brown.

See the rest here:

ATK Signs Teaming Agreement for Liberty Transportation Service

Liberty Star Announces CEO Briscoe to Meet With Shareholders Throughout USA on a Whirlwind Trip

TUCSON, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Liberty Star Uranium & Metals Corp. (Liberty Star or the Company) (OTCBB: LBSR) is pleased to announce that starting July 5th Liberty Stars CEO, James A. Briscoe, will visit 19 cities throughout the United States to present and discuss the future outlook of the Companys various projects in Alaska and Arizona.

Invitations to the Companys shareholders were mailed via US Postal Service. Included with the invitation are Mr. Briscoes schedule of appearances and an RSVP. Interested parties are invited as well:

Dear Liberty Star Shareholder and Interested Parties,

This is an exciting period for Liberty Star Uranium and Metals Corp. As you have seen by our latest news releases (NR 124 & NR 125) our S-1 application to the SEC has been approved and our financing agreement with Fairhills is now active. This gives us the right to draw down $10 million over the next 36 months at our discretion. But this agreement is non-exclusive so we also have the right to do any other financing deal or joint venture with any party we might choose. And we are not obligated to draw down money from Fairhills unless we choose to do so.

We have been working diligently over the period starting with the company inception to define drill targets. I will make a presentation that will review the current status of our projects. We are now to the point that we could start drilling . . .

View the entire letter on the Liberty Star website under the J.A. Briscoe Whirlwind Trip tab. You can RSVP to the event in/near your city on the website or email info@libertystaruranium.com.

Read the original post:

Liberty Star Announces CEO Briscoe to Meet With Shareholders Throughout USA on a Whirlwind Trip