04-09-2012 20:30 Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius addressed the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night, speaking about health care reform and how President Obama's views differ from Mitt Romney's and Paul Ryan's. "What's missing from the "Romney-Ryan health care plan is Medicare."
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Watch HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Talk President Obama and Health Care - Video
MELINDA DESLATTE Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Another top leader of LSU's health care system is being replaced, as Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration pushes the university-run network of hospitals and clinics to change its approach to providing services amid significant budget cuts.
Roxane Townsend will no longer work as CEO of the LSU Health Care Services Division, which runs seven of the 10 public hospitals overseen by the university system, including the largest facility in New Orleans.
LSU announced the leadership change Wednesday by naming Townsend's replacement, without explanation.
The move comes fewer than two weeks after the LSU System's top health care leader, Fred Cerise, was ousted from his job. Cerise clashed with the Jindal administration about deep budget cuts the administration made to the hospitals that care for Louisiana's poor and uninsured and that train many of the state's medical professionals.
Townsend was a close ally of Cerise, who was replaced Aug. 24 by Frank Opelka.
Townsend wouldn't say whether she was asked to leave or expected to be removed as Opelka assembled his own leadership team. But she said the LSU board, packed with nearly all Jindal appointees, was shifting from the public-hospital model championed by Townsend and Cerise.
"With Dr. Opelka, it's clear that the system is going in a different direction and he needs to have people surrounding him that he trusts and that the board and the governor's office will trust," she said.
Opelka said Townsend chose to leave the LSU HCSD job and that no one spoke with him about removing Townsend. He said Townsend "really wanted to take some personal time away," and he praised her work for the university.
While saying he didn't force Townsend out of the leadership position, Opelka acknowledged that Townsend "had been building something in a certain direction, but the direction is changing."
Originally posted here:
By Charles Stein - 2012-09-05T17:18:09Z
Edward P. Owens, whose $22.4 billion Vanguard Health Care Fund (VGHCX) has outperformed every U.S. equity mutual fund since it was created in 1984, will retire at the end of the year.
The fund returned 16 percent a year since May 1984, better than any other stock fund, according to data from Chicago-based Morningstar Inc. (MORN) The Standard & Poors 500 Index gained 11 percent annually over the same stretch.
He has made people a ton of money, Daniel Weiner, editor of the New York-based newsletter Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors, said in a telephone interview. The guy is a legend.
Owens, 65, is a senior vice president and partner at Boston-based Wellington Management Company LP, which manages about $234 billion for Vanguard across 20 funds, the Valley Forge, Pennsylvania-based firm said today in a statement. Jean M. Hynes, a Wellington senior vice president and partner, will take over the fund, Vanguard said. She has worked on the funds team for almost 20 years, and will continue to manage it in a similar style, Hynes said today in a telephone interview.
Eds long-term track record of excellent returns puts him in very select company in the investment management business, Vanguard CEO F. William McNabb said in the statement. Owens is Vanguards longest-serving outside manager.
Owens, in a telephone interview, said he had an advantage over peers because he was a value investor in a growth industry.
During the industrys high-growth years, small disappointments created huge declines in stocks prices, he said. We were frequently able to come in afterwards and buy good companies.
In 1993, Owens bought shares in Immunex Corp., a biotechnology firm, after the failure of one of its drugs caused the stock to plummet. Amgen Inc., (AMGN) a Thousand Oaks, California company, agreed to buy Immunex in 2001 for $16 billion, a deal that gave shareholders in Owens fund an estimated gain of about $1 billion, he said.
A billion dollars is something, Owens said.
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VALLEY FORGE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Vanguard announced today that Edward P. Owens, CFA, portfolio manager of Vanguard Health Care Fund, plans to retire on December 31, 2012.
Mr. Owens, a senior vice president and partner of Wellington Management Company LLP, has managed the Health Care Fund since its inception in 1984 and is Vanguards longest-tenured external portfolio manager. The fund is the largest fund in the global health/biotech category with $22.4 billion in assets and the second largest sector fund in the mutual fund industry behind the $27.3 billion Vanguard REIT Index Fund (source:Lipper Inc.).
Associate portfolio manager Jean M. Hynes, CFA, will assume managerial responsibility of the fund upon Mr. Owens retirement. Ms. Hynes, senior vice president and partner at Wellington Management, joined the firm in 1991 and has served on the Health Care Fund management team for nearly 20 years. She was named associate portfolio manager in 2008.
Eds long-term track record of excellent returns puts him in very select company in the investment management business. We are indebted to him for his decades of distinguished service to our clients, said Vanguard CEO Bill McNabb. Eds long-time colleague, Jean Hynes, is a well-qualified successor and speaks to the deep and talented team of investment professionals at the Wellington organization.
The performance of the funds Investor Shares is compared with its peer group average, benchmark, and the U.S. stock market in the accompanying table (Source:Vanguard and Lipper Inc.).
Average Annual Total Returns
(As of June 30, 2012)
Vanguard Health Care Fund*
Lipper Global Health/Biotech Funds Avg.
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Long-Time Manager of Vanguard Health Care Fund to Retire at Year End
Nyaya Health nominated to compete in Chase Community Giving grant contest to bring medical care to remotest region of Nepal.Boston, MA (PRWEB) September 05, 2012 Beginning tomorrow, Sept. 6 and continuing through Sept. 19, Nyaya Health will compete in the annual Chase Community Giving program, an online contest where supporters’ votes could translate into expanded health care for people living ...
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Health Care Group Serving Some of World’s Poorest in Global Contest for Funds
HARTFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
As groups throughout the health care system begin to create Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), Aetna (NYSE: AET) today announced results of a collaborative relationship with NovaHealth, the independent physician association founded by InterMed, based in Portland, Maine. The September edition of Health Affairs, which focuses on payment reform in the health care system, features the results.
Since 2008, NovaHealth doctors participating in Aetnas Medicare Provider Collaboration program haveprovided care to approximately750 Aetna Medicare Advantage members. Through the program, Aetna and NovaHealth have achieved two main goals of ACOs: improving quality of care and lowering health care costs. The most recent results from 2011 show that:
We are working more effectively and efficiently with outstanding health care providers like NovaHealth. Now, we have demonstrated that we can help improve the coordination and quality of care and reduce health care costs, said Randall Krakauer, MD, FACP, FACR, Aetnas national Medicare medical director. Aetna believes patient-centered collaboratives are a stepping stone to Accountable Care Organizations, which further align financial incentives with high quality, more efficient care.
Coordinated Care Helps Improve Health Outcomes
Aetnas Provider Collaboration program has also demonstrated positive results with population health management. Through the Provider Collaboration program, NovaHealth has met a number of clinical quality metrics agreed upon by both sides, including:
Aetna provides NovaHealth with reports showing quality and efficiency measures at the individual member and population level.
By aligning our clinical goals and sharing data, we can help improve health outcomes for the patients that we serve, said Thomas Claffey, M.D., the medical director of NovaHealth. Working together, we can help confirm that our patients are receiving the right care at the right time and support them as they try to be as healthy as possible.
Program Improves Member Experience
The role of the Aetna nurse case manager is a major component of the collaborative relationship with NovaHealth. This nurse case manager is embedded with NovaHealth, serving as a single point of contact and working directly with NovaHealths clinical staff to help coordinate care for Aetna Medicare Advantage members.
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Public release date: 5-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Cathia Falvey cfalvey@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, September 5, 2012A group of experts has developed consensus recommendations for future research directions to determine why nearly two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are women. The recommendations are published in a Roundtable discussion in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh.
An estimated 5.4 million Americans are affected by AD and related dementias, and that number will likely rise to 11-16 million people by the year 2050 if no effective cures or preventive measures are developed. The main risk factors for AD are age and sex, with affected women outnumbering men 2 to 1. This may be due at least in part to the fact that women tend to live longer.
An interdisciplinary roundtable of experts convened by the Society for Women's Health Research (Washington, DC) led to a set of recommendations to help guide future AD research and make the evaluation of sex and gender differences a component of future studies. The consensus recommendations encompass seven themes, including the need to assess the link between sex and AD incidence, raise awareness of sex differences among the research community, and to take into account sex-based differences in the experimental design and data analysis of studies on disease risk, early diagnosis, and drug discovery.
"There are still major gaps in our knowledge of the role of sex and gender in the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease, and these recommendations will provide a useful guide for future research in this area," says Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women's Health, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women's Health.
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About the Journal
Journal of Women's Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. The Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women's healthcare issues. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh. Journal of Women's Health is the Official Journal of the Academy of Women's Health.
About the Academy
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Why does Alzheimer's disease affect twice as many women as men?
Public release date: 5-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 x2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, September 5, 2012According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in 88 children in the U.S. has autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a broad group of neurodevelopmental disorders. Children and adolescents with ASD are typically fascinated by screen-based technology such as videogames and these can be used for educational and treatment purposes as described in an insightful Roundtable Discussion published in Games for Health Journal: Research Development, and Clinical Applications, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.. The article is available free on the Games for Health Journal website.
Individuals with ASD have difficulty with communication and social interaction, but they often have particularly good visual perceptual skills and respond well to visual stimuli. Videogames offer opportunities for successful learning, motivation to improve skills such as planning, organization, and self-monitoring, and reinforcement of desired behaviors without the need for direct human-to-human interaction.
Autism is a growing area of interest for the gamification community, and Games for Health Journal continues to explore various aspects of how videogame technology can be beneficial in treating this complex spectrum of disorders. In a previous issue of the Journal, the article "Comparing Energy Expenditure in Adolescents with and without Autism while Playing Nintendo Wii Games" described how gaming might help individuals with ASD increase their daily physical activity to prevent obesity.
"Children and young adults with ASD have unique opportunities to capitalize on their interest and aptitude in videogames as a resource to develop desired social behaviors and life skills and to increase their physical activity," says Games for Health Journal Editor-in-Chief Bill Ferguson, PhD, who moderated the Roundtable.
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About the Journal
Games for Health Journal (http://www.liebertpub.com/g4h) breaks new ground as the first journal to address this emerging and increasingly important area of health care. The Journal provides a bimonthly forum in print and online for academic and clinical researchers, game designers and developers, health care providers, insurers, and information technology leaders. Articles explore the use of game technology in a variety of clinical applications. These include disease prevention and monitoring, nutrition, weight management, and medication adherence. Gaming can play an important role in the care of patients with diabetes, post-traumatic stress disorder, Alzheimer's disease, and cognitive, mental, emotional, and behavioral health disorders.
About the Publisher
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Can videogaming benefit young people with autism spectrum disorder?
Genetic engineering of food crops appears to have largely disappeared from public concern since the Environmental Risk Management Authority was set up a decade ago. It is hard to know whether the disappearance of the issue is because...
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ScienceDaily (Sep. 5, 2012) That low bone density causes osteoporosis and a risk of fracture is common knowledge. But an excessively high bone density is also harmful. The most serious form of excessively high bone density is a rare, hereditary disease which can lead to the patient's death by the age of only five. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden are now trying to develop gene therapy against this disease.
In order for the body to function, a balance is necessary between the cells that build up the bones in our skeletons and the cells that break them down. In the disease malignant infantile osteopetrosis, MIOP, the cells that break down the bone tissue do not function as they should, resulting in the skeleton not having sufficient cavities for bone-marrow and nerves.
"Optic and auditory nerves are compressed, causing blindness and deafness in these children. Finally the bone marrow ceases to function and, without treatment, the child dies of anemia and infections," explains Carmen Flores Bjurstrm. She has just completed a thesis which presents some of the research at the division for Molecular Medicine and Gene Therapy in Lund.
The researchers' work focuses on finding alternatives to the only treatment currently available against MIOP, namely a bone-marrow transplant. This treatment can be effective, but it is both risky and dependent on finding a suitable donor.
Gene therapy requires no donor, as stem cells are taken from the patients themselves. Once the cells' non-functioning gene has been replaced with a healthy copy of itself, the stem cells are put back into the patient.
Great hopes have been placed on gene therapy as a treatment method but the work has proven to be more difficult than expected. The method is used today for certain immunodeficiency diseases, and has also been applied to a blood disorder called thalassemia.
"So far, the method is not risk-free. Since it is impossible to control where the introduced gene ends up, there is a certain risk of it ending up in the wrong place and giving rise to leukemia. This is why gene therapy is only used for serious diseases for which there is no good treatment," says Carmen Flores Bjurstrm.
The Lund researchers have conducted experiments with gene therapy in both patient cells and laboratory animals. The next step is to conduct trials on patients. The trials will probably take place at the hospital in Ulm, Germany, which currently treats the majority of children in Europe suffering from MIOP.
MIOP is a rare disease: in Sweden a child is born with the condition approximately once every three years. Worldwide, the incidence of the disease is one case for every 300 000 births. It is, however, more common in Costa Rica where 3-4 children per 100 000 births have the disease.
"But there are several other genetic mutations that lead to other osteopetrosis diseases. If we manage to treat MIOP, it may become possible to treat these other conditions as well," hopes Carmen Flores Bjurstrm along with her supervisor, Professor Johan Richter.
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The cost of freedom under austerity is weighing more than ever on prisoners who struggle with financial instability on release and are more likely to re-offend than ever, continuing a vicious circle of crime and punishment just as prisons approach full capacity across Britain and the rest of Europe, charities say.
According to reports from nationwide prison organizations, the majority of ex-offenders struggle to cope with debt, housing costs, unemployment and austerity upon release from prison.
They say that the financial factor is borne out by the the rate of recidivism -- or relapse into crime -- which has reached record highs in 2012, with 90 percent of prisoners having previous convictions, according to the Ministry of Justice.
Chris Bath, executive director of Unlock, the National Association of Reformed Offenders, told CNBC that prisoners face "enormous financial barriers" on release from prison, and he warned that the cycle of crime, punishment and re-offending -- which costs the British economy 95 billion pounds ($150 billion) a year -- is set to continue if the financial hardship faced by prisoners on release is not addressed.
[ More From CNBC: 10 White Collar Criminals Wanted by the FBI ]
"If I had a pound for every person I've met who said to me 1I thought prison was going to be the hard bit,'" he told CNBC.
"At least in prison you have a roof over your head and food in your stomach. The moment you walk out of prison you become a social leper, a low-skilled ex-con -- you are completely lost and you become nothing."
With 75 percent of employers saying they would reject someone with a conviction, Bath told CNBC that it was extremely hard for ex-offenders to return to the "straight and narrow" and find a job in a society where even the most skilled and experienced workers cannot find employment.
Indeed, with most prisoners reported to be "financially excluded" even before they enter prison, and a third having no bank account, according to research by the Civil and Social Justice Survey, the chances of going straight and returning to a decent and law-abiding way of life when no-one will employ them is slim, Bath told CNBC.
However, with 230,000 people going through the criminal justice system every year and 9.2 million of Britons of working age having criminal records, according to the Police Crime Database, Bath told CNBC that there is an urgent problem of millions of people exiting the prison system to a "society that doesn't want them back."
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5 September 2012 Last updated at 12:29 ET
Olympic heptathlon gold medallist Jessica Ennis is to be awarded the freedom of Sheffield after councillors unanimously approved the honour.
Ennis, 26, from Sheffield, was crowned champion heptathlete on 4 August.
Ennis would now be consulted over when she was able to officially sign the scroll granting her the honour, Sheffield City Council said.
Freedom of the city did not carry any special privileges and was purely ceremonial, a spokesman said.
Julie Dore, Labour leader of Sheffield City Council, said she believed Ennis had been "overwhelmed" by the reaction her Olympic win had sparked in her home city.
She said she hoped the heptathlete would be proud to accept the honour of freedom of the city.
The award comes just days after Sheffield United renamed one of its stands after Ennis.
Club owner Kevin McCabe said it was a fitting tribute to honour Ennis' achievements during the London Games as she was "probably Sheffield's biggest ever star".
Since her Olympic victory, Ennis has received a number of accolades - of varying kinds - including becoming the cover star of children's comic the Beano and having a lion cub named after her.
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4 September 2012 Last updated at 21:59 ET
Olympians Sir Chris Hoy and Jessica Ennis are set to be given the freedom of their home cities. So what does it mean to be a freeman or freewoman?
Will Britain's most successful Olympian be able to graze his cattle on The Mound in Edinburgh?
Or if the gold medal-winning cyclist decides to ditch his bike and attempt to park his car for free on George Street, will he be "exempt for tolls and charges in the city", as freemen of the past would have been?
Similarly, if Ennis wants to use her freedom of Sheffield - expected to be approved on 5 September - to drive sheep through the centre of the city, will she be allowed?
The answer is no. The award is symbolic and grazing rights are not part of the modern freeman's privileges.
Hoy, who will get his freeman status on 16 September, would still expect a parking ticket from the Scottish capital's blue meanies.
So what use is being given the freedom of the city?
Philip Whiteman, from the Institute of Local Government Studies at the University of Birmingham, says it is "not dissimilar" to the Honours list awarded on behalf of the Queen.
"It is effectively the only way that a local authority can confer honours," he explains.
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DETROIT -
Freedom Institute will host a career conference on Sept. 6 and Sept. 7, designed to help get Detroiters back to work.
The career conference will take place at Fellowship Chapel Campus located at 7707 W. Outer Drive in Detroit, and will include Career Boot Camp, a Job Expo and a Senior Wellness Law Day.
"Freedom Institute continues to be dedicated to providing the community with quality events," says Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony, Founder and Chairman, Freedom Institute. "Detroit cannot move forward until Detroiters get back to work. This career conference will serve as a resource to all who attend."
The Freedom Institute for Economic, Social Justice and People Empowerment is 501c3 organization created to impact and enhance the quality of life for individuals with a particular emphasis on people of color.
Over a decade ago, Freedom Institute began Freedom Weekend as a vehicle to help uplift the local Detroit community with hopes of making an impact statewide and nationally.
"We are excited to have our first career boot camp," says Monica Anthony, Executive Director, Freedom Institute. "The boot camp will guide those who are looking for work and/or who have been unemployed for a long time onto path of success. We are also pleased to have the return of several of our core activities with the Senior Wellness Law Day and the Career Expo."
All activities are free and open to the public. For more information call (313) 347-2834.
Thursday, September 6. 2012
Career Boot Camp -- "Getting Detroit Back to Work"
Link:
Freedom 7, NASA's first spacecraft to launch an astronaut into space, has landed in Boston for display at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
The space capsule, which on May 5, 1961 lifted off with astronaut Alan Shepard for a 15 minute suborbital mission, arrived at the JFK Library on Aug. 29. On loan from the Smithsonian, Freedom 7 had previously been on exhibit for 14 years at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
"Freedom 7 has arrived!" the library announced on its Facebook page. "Thanks to a generous loan from the (National) Air and Space Museum, Freedom 7 will be here until December 2015."
The 7.8-foot (2.4 meter) tall spacecraft, which weighs about 2,300 pounds (1,040 kilograms), will go on display at the JFK Library on Sept. 12. The capsule's public debut coincides with the 50 year anniversary of Kennedy's speech at Rice University in Houston, where he famously championed a manned moon mission. [America's First Spaceship (Infographic)]
Space news from NBCNews.com
Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Scientists are giving students the chance to name an asteroid that's the target of a future NASA mission and just might hit us in the 22nd century.
"We choose to go to the moon," Kennedy said on Sept. 12, 1962. "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
Less than seven years later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin achieved JFK's goal of landing on the moon. Armstrong, who died on Aug. 25, will be remembered at a national service in Washington, D.C., to be held on Sept. 12 also.
The JFK Library has not yet announced the details for the opening of its Freedom 7 exhibit. The display marks only the second time that a Mercury spacecraft has visited Massachusetts. Liberty Bell 7, which followed Freedom 7 into space, was displayed at the Museum of Science in Boston in 2002.
The JFK Library hosts a permanent exhibit devoted to the space program, which includes a moon rock returned to Earth in 1971 by the Apollo 15 crew.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Last Updated: 11:14 AM, September 5, 2012
Posted: 7:37 AM, September 5, 2012
NEW ORLEANS Old oil has washed up on some Louisiana beaches after Hurricane Isaac and officials are testing whether it's left over from BP"s Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010.
Officials late Tuesday restricted fishing in waters extending a mile off a roughly 13-mile stretch of coastline.
The weathered oil was in the form of tar. The state Wildlife and Fisheries Department said there was a large mat of tar on one beach and concentrations of tar balls on adjacent beaches. An adviser to Gov. Bobby Jindal said later surveys found several more tar mats. Their size was not immediately clear.
Oil company BP PLC said it was too early to say if the tar came from oil that spewed into the Gulf of Mexico when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded.
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Old oil washes up on Louisiana beaches after Hurricane Isaac
Weathered oil in the form of tar has washed up on some Louisiana beaches from Gulf waters churned by Hurricane Isaac, prompting restrictions of fishing in some waters and tests to determine whether the source is submerged oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
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"I'd say there's a smoking gun," said Garret Graves, Gov. Bobby Jindal's top adviser on coastal issues. He said tests were being done to verify the source of the oil.
"It's an area that experienced heavy oiling during the oil spill," he said.
Officials Tuesday evening restricted fishing in waters extending a mile off a roughly 13-mile stretch of coastline from Port Fourchon eastward to just west of Caminada Pass.
Recreational rod and reel fishing can continue but commercial and recreational shrimping, crabbing and commercial fin fishing was prohibited there.
The state Wildlife and Fisheries Department said there was a large mat of tar on one beach and concentrations of tar balls on adjacent beaches. Graves said later surveys found several more mats. The size of the tar mats was not immediately clear. Graves said high water has prevented a thorough examination.
"With many of the southern parishes of Louisiana still inundated with flood waters and not accessible at this time, it is premature to make any claims about possible oiling there whether it is from the Deepwater Horizon accident or any other source," BP PLC said in a statement emailed late Tuesday.
It said BP was awaiting test results from an area west of Grand Isle.
Justice Department alleges gross negligence by BP in Gulf oil spill
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I don't know if it's the most amazing view of a solar eruption ever recorded, but it probably is. When our friends at NASA Goddard sent us this image of the latest solar eruption today, we just couldn't believe how astonishing and ominous it looked.
So astonishing and special that NASA titled their image "Magnificent CME Erupts on the Sun with Earth to Scale." And in private one of their engineers told me "AMAZING STUFF!" So yes, they are in awe too.
Fortunately, it didn't travel directly toward Earth. According to NASA, however, it "did connect with Earth's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, causing aurora to appear on the night of Monday, September 3." No knocked down satellites or communications craziness.
The eruption was recorded on August 31, 2012: "a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36PM EDT. The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled at over 900 miles per second." [NASA Goddard Flickr]
And here's the version with the entire sun disc. Click to expand it.
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This Is the Most Astonishing Solar Eruption I've Ever Seen [Astronomy]
Govt rolls out astronomy scholarships
LAWRENCE SERETSE Correspondent
"Last year four candidates from Botswana were sponsored by the project to undertake studies in the fields of radio astronomy and engineering at the University of KwaZulu-Natal," Bok said. He said international project donors, mainly Britain, China, Netherlands and the USA, are funding the scholarships. He said the initiative strives to introduce astronomy as a fully-fledged programme at the University of Botswana, so as to have locals trained by fellow Batswana.
"The idea is to have Batswana who are trained in the field so that when the telescope project is complete, they can be the ones working there not foreigners," he said.Bok said MIST has approached the Ministry of Education and Skills Development to source funding for additional qualifying candidates. UB has started offering astronomy as a single semester course thanks to the assistance of visiting professors from the University of South Africa.
"At the moment the SKA scholarship sends candidates to University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban University of Technology, University of Cape Town, and the University of Pretoria being the most prominent one," Bok said.
Botswana is among southern African countries that will host the proposed gigantic radio telescope that will hopefully shed light on the origin of the universe and detect weak signals that could indicate the presence of extraterrestrial life.
When completed in 2024, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) will be made up of 3,000 dishes stretching over 3,000 km, from the Karoo site in the Northern Cape region of South Africa and in neighbouring African countries - Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Madagasgar, Mauritius, Kenya, and Ghana. The $3.1 billion telescope, which has been described as "the biggest science project in the world", has been conceptualised since 1991, and is expected to begin construction in 2016.
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UTC Aerospace Systems' legacy Hamilton Sundstrand business was named in Aviation Week's 2012 Workforce Study as a "Company where Aerospace and Defense Professionals Want to work." UTC Aerospace Systems is a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).
Hamilton Sundstrand was selected in two of three categories of the corporate study - "Respect for the Individual" and "Learning/Professional Development." These categories, along with "Technological Challenge," are the three areas employees in the industry said are most important to them as they make career decisions. Hamilton Sundstrand was one of 34 organizations that participated in the corporate study.
"We are honored to receive this recognition by Aviation Week. Hamilton Sundstrand has historically worked very hard to provide a stimulating and rewarding environment for employees," said Doug Balsbough, vice president, Human Resources - Aircraft Systems, UTC Aerospace Systems. Balsbough previously served as Hamilton Sundstrand's VP of Human Resources. "With the addition of more than 27,000 new employees following the integration of Goodrich and the expansion of our product and technology portfolio, our employees have greater opportunities for career development and interesting and fulfilling work."
Hamilton Sundstrand has also ranked highly in the three categories in past Aviation Week workforce studies.
The 2012 Workforce Study is produced by Aviation Week in collaboration with the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), and provides a single source of reliable data that analyzes current A&D workforce issues, trends and opportunities. Aviation Week is the largest multimedia information and services provider for the global aviation, aerospace and defense industries. Industry professionals rely on Aviation Week for analysis, marketing and intelligence. Customers include the world's leading manufacturers, suppliers, airlines, militaries, governments and other organizations that serve this global market.
UTC Aerospace Systems designs, manufactures and services integrated systems and components for the aerospace and defense industries. UTC Aerospace Systems supports a global customer base with significant worldwide manufacturing and customer service facilities.
United Technologies Corp., based in Hartford, Conn., is a diversified company that provides high-technology products and services to the aerospace and building industries.
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