Monthly Archives: August 2017

Insiders, hackers causing bulk of 2017 healthcare data breaches – Healthcare IT News

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Ransomware and hacking incidents plagued2016, and this year is no different, with the latest Protenus Breach Barometer midyear report finding that 2017 is on pace to exceed last years rate of one breach per day.

So far this year, the healthcare sector has reported 233 breach incidents to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, state attorney generals and media. More than 3.16 million patient records have been breached.

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Compiled in collaboration with Dissent from DataBreaches, the report analyzed 193 of the incidents for which it had data. Breaches have remained steady in the last six months outside of June, which saw a spike with 52 incidents. And March saw the most patients affected, with 1,360,961 records breached.

The healthcare sector will only stop being so vulnerable when the advances in data collection, sharing and analytics are matched with similar advances in our understanding of how to protect patient data, said Protenus Cofounder and President Robert Lord.

Healthcare has invested tens of billions of dollars in deploying systems to leverage data to improve patient outcomes - and appropriately so, he continued. But we still have massive problems with the abuse of that data and those systems.

So what are the biggest threats plaguing healthcare in 2017? Insiders and hackers.

Hacking accounted for 75 breaches this year, with 1,684,904 patient records impacted. Malware and ransomware were specifically mentioned in 29 of these incidents, but the report found there were many additional incidents where malware was reported as hacking or an IT incident.

Officials expect more organizations to report ransomware attacks this year, as HHS updated its ransomware reporting requirements in Aug. 2016. The update places the burden of proof on the provider to demonstrate data remained inaccessible or werent exfiltrated.

Insiders are also remaining a constant challenge for healthcare, accounting for 96 incidents or 41 percent of data breaches this year so far. More than 1.17 million patient records were breached by insider error or wrongdoing.

Wrongdoing is rife to cause significant damage, as its rarely detected immediately. For example, Anthem reported this week an employee of its Medicare insurance coordination services vendor was stealing and misusing Medicaid member data from as early as July 2016. The breach wasnt found until April.

Another issue plaguing the healthcare sector is that other types of external attacks have been underreported or unreported. Thousands of databases in all sectors have been wiped or the data were exfiltrated. The report found that only few of these were reported to HHS.

The FBI has also reported that these ransacking incidents or targeted databases arent being reported.

Healthcare executives, at a fundamental level, should stop thinking about security and privacy as a cost center and more as a strategic pillar of their organization, said Lord. We've continued to see increased awareness and incremental improvements, but not the needed dramatic leap forward.

To Lord, the leap will be driven by CISOs and Chief Privacy Officers, dramatically increasing investment in these areas to match other industries and leveraging the use of advanced analytics to detect inappropriate uses of patient data.

A culture of trust, comprised of dual pillars of privacy and security, must come from the highest levels of the organization.

Twitter:@JessieFDavis Email the writer: jessica.davis@himssmedia.com

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Insiders, hackers causing bulk of 2017 healthcare data breaches - Healthcare IT News

Put consumers first by stabilizing, not sabotaging, health care law – Minneapolis Star Tribune

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Tom Brenner New York Times Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the Senates third-ranking Republican, spoke out this week about continuing to provide cost-sharing reductions (CSRs), that is, financial assistance to consumers struggling with high health insurance deductibles and other expenses.

A powerful South Dakota Republican senator merits credit for throwing his support behind a key effort to stabilize the Affordable Care Act after the failed but disruptive congressional push to repeal it.

Early this week, South Dakotas John Thune, the Senates third-ranking Republican, spoke out publicly in favor of funding a critical component of former President Barack Obamas health care law: its financial assistance to consumers struggling with high health insurance deductibles and other expenses. While Thune didnt sound overly enthusiastic, his pragmatic call to fund this consumer-friendly aid known as cost-sharing reductions, or CSRs clearly warns the Trump administration against taking action to undermine the insurance marketplace.

Its a particularly timely message one that Minnesotas three influential GOP House members should echo as Republican efforts to replace the ACA stall indefinitely. The inaction has stoked the ire of President Donald Trump, who campaigned on swiftly repealing Obamacare. There are understandable concerns that Trump appointees could pursue measures to sabotage the law to placate the angry Oval Office occupant.

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Put consumers first by stabilizing, not sabotaging, health care law - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Glimmers of hope amid president’s health-care callousness – The Seattle Times

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Trumps let Obamacare implode is a cruel, nihilistic policy that does nothing to solve the real problems in health care.

PRESIDENT Donald Trumps let Obamacare implode strategy should come with a flashing red warning: If you break it, you own it.

Of course, it is not a political strategy. Its a talking point aimed at the hardest base of the GOP. As a policy, it is a prescription for escalating health-care costs and devastation to already fragile rural economies as a legion of newly uninsured people, many of them in Trump-voting counties, demand care from hospitals that cannot afford a spike in charity care.

The U.S. Senates failure to repeal Obamacare last week does not end the debate about the Affordable Care Act. Nor should it. The ACA has obvious flaws acknowledged by its own supporters. Fixing them, with a bipartisan and deliberative approach, would be a priority if the Republican caucus had more sensible minds like Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. They joined Sen. John McCain to rebuke the repeal strategy.

A glimmer of hope comes from U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, who said he will work with Washingtons Sen. Patty Murray on a bipartisan, if temporary, solution. The ranking member of the committee, Murray welcomed the overture, which includes hearings and a proposal to extend payments to insurers through 2018.

Trump, nonetheless, acts like a cruel nihilist in threatening the foundations of the Affordable Care Act. Through executive power, he could stop payment on the estimated $7 billion in cost-sharing subsidies for low- and moderate-income buyers of health insurance. That could effectively make health insurance unaffordable for up to 10 million people.

He has other levers, including monkeying around with the Medicaid expansion, which helped drop Washington states uninsured rate to 7 percent, with the steepest drops in counties in this state that Trump won. He should stop threatening to harm his base, and his base should demand rational governance.

In the absence of constructive action from the White House, Washington states health-care leadership must buckle down for a bumpy ride. Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler said he is most concerned that rural counties will be left with no insurer for individual plans, a scenario barely avoided this year. Several counties have only one provider.

Kreidler is working on several contingency options, including expanded use of a high-risk insurance pool that could step in for unusually high-cost illnesses and for individuals. He is also exploring opening a public option if counties were left with no private insurer, using the insurance pool for state employees.

This intriguing idea deserves a full vetting, because Kreidler sees the current trajectory on health insurance on the individual market ending with a crash. Washington has seen that before, nearly two decades ago, and it was chaos.

Trumps disinterest in solving the big problems of health care including cost and access is remarkable because it is so callous. Instead of merely working to score political points off the Obama legacy, Trump and the GOP-led Congress need to work with Democrats and fix, not toss, the Affordable Care Act.

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Glimmers of hope amid president's health-care callousness - The Seattle Times

Nash UNC Health Care board names interim CEO – Rocky Mount Telegram

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A temporary replacement has been appointed for the top executive job at Nash UNC Health Care.

Dr. Ian B. Buchanan will serve as interim CEO for the hospital, stepping in for Larry Chewning, who was asked to leave by the hospitals Board of Commissioners in July and allowed to announce his retirement.

Our team is looking forward to working with Dr. Buchanan and our partners at UNC Health Care to continue improving the care and service we provide to the people of Nash County and the region, said hospital board Chairman Jim Lilley.

A national search is underway to find a replacement for Chewning, who will officially begin his retirement in September. He has served as CEO for the past decade. Chewning became an employee of UNC Health Care System after spearheading the partnership with UNC Health Care in 2014.

As part of the agreement, UNC provides Nash with a CEO, Alan Wolf, spokesman for UNC Health Care Systems, previously told the Telegram.

Chewning presided over a period of great expansion at the hospital with several new treatment centers built. In recent months, however, the hospital has lost money and received poor patient safety ratings.

The search process is being led by a CEO Search Committee composed of members of the local hospital board, said Jeff Hedgepeth, the hospital's director of public relations and marketing.

Buchanan will continue to serve as chief research officer for the UNC Health Care System and as senior vice president of operations at UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill. He also serves the state as a member of the N.C. Advisory Committee on Cancer Coordination and Control.

Buchanan has worked with the Nash hospital leadership team in recent years on several initiatives related to UNC Cancer Care at Nash.

In addition to the Cancer Care programs, I am excited to begin working more closely with the larger team at Nash and in getting to know both our patients and the community, Buchanan said.

Buchanan is a graduate of the UNC School of Medicine and earned a masters degree from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. He joined UNC Health Care in 2006, working in the Performance Improvement Department at UNC Medical Center, where he was responsible for the Core Measures reporting initiative.

Since then, Buchanan has served as the associate vice president for Oncology Services, as vice president for Cancer and Childrens Services, and as vice chairman for Clinical Integration within the UNC Department of Pediatrics.

Chewning is only the third CEO of the hospital since it opened nearly 50 years ago. He replaced Rick Toomey, who replaced long-time CEO Bryant Aldridge.

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Nash UNC Health Care board names interim CEO - Rocky Mount Telegram

Madhuri Hegde, PhD is Elected to the Board of the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine – Markets Insider

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BETHESDA, Md., Aug. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --Madhuri Hegde, PhD, FACMG of PerkinElmer, Inc. in Waltham, MA has been elected to the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine Board of Directors, the supporting educational foundation of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics. The ACMG Foundation is a national nonprofit foundation dedicated to facilitating the integration of genetics and genomics into medical practice. The board members are active participants in serving as advocates for the Foundation and for advancing its policies and programs. Dr. Hegde has been elected to a 2-year renewable term starting immediately.

Dr. Hegde joined PerkinElmer in 2016 as Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Global Genetics Laboratory Services. She also is an Adjunct Professor of Human Genetics in the Department of Human Genetics at Emory University. Previously, Dr. Hegde was Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer at Emory Genetics Laboratory in Atlanta, GA and Professor of Human Genetics and Pediatrics at Emory University and Assistant Professor, Department of Human Genetics and Senior Director at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX.

Dr. Hegde has served on a number of Scientific Advisory Boards for patient advocacy groups including Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, Congenital Muscular Dystrophy and Neuromuscular Disease Foundation. She was a Board member of the Association for Molecular Pathology and received the Outstanding Faculty Award from MD Anderson Cancer Center. She earned her PhD in Applied Biology from the University of Auckland in Auckland, New Zealand and completed her Postdoctoral Fellowship in Molecular Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. She also holds a Master of Science in Microbiology from the University of Mumbai in India. She has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and has given more than 100 keynote and invited presentations at major national and internal conferences.

"We are delighted that Dr. Hegde has been elected to the ACMG Foundation Board of Directors. She has vast experience in genetic and genomic testing and is a longtime member of the College and supporter of both the College and the Foundation," said Bruce R. Korf, MD, PhD, FACMG, president of the ACMG Foundation.

The complete list of the ACMG Foundation board of directors is at http://www.acmgfoundation.org.

About the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine

The ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is a community of supporters and contributors who understand the importance of medical genetics and genomics in healthcare. Established in 1992, the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine supports the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics' mission to "translate genes into health" by raising funds to help train the next generation of medical geneticists, to sponsor the development of practice guidelines, to promote information about medical genetics, and much more.

To learn more about the important mission and projects of the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine and how you too can support the work of the Foundation, please visit http://www.acmgfoundation.org or contact us at rel="nofollow">acmgf@acmgfoundation.org or 301-718-2014.

Contact Kathy Beal, MBA ACMG Media Relations, rel="nofollow">kbeal@acmg.net

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SOURCE American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics

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Madhuri Hegde, PhD is Elected to the Board of the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine - Markets Insider

Genome editing and the AMA Code of Medical Ethics – American Medical Association (blog)

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An international team of researchers recently published, in the journal Nature, their study using genome editing to correct a heterozygous mutation in human preimplantation embryos using a technique called CRISPR-Cas9. This bench research, while far from bedside use, raises questions about the medical ethics of what could be considered genetic engineering. The AMA Code of Medical Ethics has guidance for physicians conducting research in this area.

In Opinion 7.3.6, Research in Gene Therapy and Genetic Engineering, the Code explains:

Gene therapy involves the replacement or modification of a genetic variant to restore or enhance cellular function or the improve response to nongenetic therapies. Genetic engineering involves the use of recombinant DNA techniques to introduce new characteristics or traits. In medicine, the goal of gene therapy and genetic engineering is to alleviate human suffering and disease. As with all therapies, this goal should be pursued only within the ethical traditions of the profession, which gives primacy to the welfare of the patient.

In general, genetic manipulation should be reserved for therapeutic purposes. Efforts to enhance desirable characteristics or to improve complex human traits are contrary to the ethical tradition of medicine. Because of the potential for abuse, genetic manipulation of nondisease traits or the eugenic development of offspring may never be justifiable.

Moreover, genetic manipulation can carry risks to both the individuals into whom modified genetic material is introduced and to future generations. Somatic cell gene therapy targets nongerm cells and thus does not carry risk to future generations. Germ-line therapy, in which a genetic modification is introduced into the genome of human gametes or their precursors, is intended to result in the expression of the modified gene in the recipients offspring and subsequent generations. Germ-line therapy thus may be associated with increased risk and the possibility of unpredictable and irreversible results that adversely affect the welfare of subsequent generations.

Thus, in addition to fundamental ethical requirements for the appropriate conduct of research with human participants, research in gene therapy or genetic engineering must put in place additional safeguards to vigorously protect the safety and well-being of participants and future generations.

Physicians should not engage in research involving gene therapy or genetic engineering with human participants unless the following conditions are met:

(a) Participate only in those studies for which they have relevant expertise.

(b) Ensure that voluntary consent has been obtained from each participant or from the participants legally authorized representative if the participant lacks the capacity to consent, in keeping with ethics guidance. This requires that:

(i) prospective participants receive the information they need to make well-considered decisions, including informing them about the nature of the research and potential harms involved;

(ii) physicians make all reasonable efforts to ensure that participants understand the research is not intended to benefit them individually;

(iii) physicians also make clear that the individual may refuse to participate or may withdraw from the protocol at any time.

(c) Assure themselves that the research protocol is scientifically sound and meets ethical guidelines for research with human participants. Informed consent can never be invoked to justify an unethical study design.

(d) Demonstrate the same care and concern for the well-being of research participants that they would for patients to whom they provide clinical care in a therapeutic relationship. Physician researchers should advocate for access to experimental interventions that have proven effectiveness for patients.

(e) Be mindful of conflicts of interest and assure themselves that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect the integrity of the research and the welfare of human participants.

(f) Adhere to rigorous scientific and ethical standards in conducting, supervising, and disseminating results of the research.

AMA Principles of Medical Ethics: I,II,III,V

At the 2016 AMA Interim Meeting, the AMA House of Delegates adopted policy on genome editing and its potential clinical use. In the policy, the AMA encourages continued research into the therapeutic use of genome editing and also urges continued development of consensus international principles, grounded in science and ethics, to determine permissible therapeutic applications of germline genome editing.

Chapter 7 of the Code, Opinions on Research & Innovation, also features guidance on other research-related subjects, including informed consent, conflicts of interest, use of placebo controls, and the use of DNA databanks.

The Code of Medical Ethics is updated periodically to address the changing conditions of medicine. The new edition, adopted in June 2016, is the culmination of an eight-year project to comprehensively review, update and reorganize guidance to ensure that the Code remains timely and easy to use for physicians in teaching and in practice.

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Genome editing and the AMA Code of Medical Ethics - American Medical Association (blog)

Experts Call on US to Start Funding Scientists to Genetically Engineer Human Embryos – Gizmodo

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Edited human embryos. Image: OHSYU

This week, news of a major scientific breakthrough brought a debate over genetically engineering humans front and center. For the first time ever, scientists genetically engineered a human embryo on American soil in order to remove a disease-causing mutation. It was the fourth time ever that such a feat has been published on, and with the most success to date. It may still be a long way off, but it seems likely that one day we will indeed have to grapple with the sticky, complicated philosophical mess of whether, and in which cases, genetically engineering a human being is morally permissible.

On the heels of this news, on Thursday a group of 11 genetics groups released policy recommendations for whats known as germline editingor altering the human genome in such a way that those changes could be passed down to future generations. The statement, from groups including the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said that doctors should not yet entertain implanting an altered embryo in a human womb, a step which would be against the law in the United States. But they also argued that there is no reason not to use public money to fund basic research on human germline editing, contrary to a National Institutes of Health policy that has banned funding research involving editing human embryo DNA.

Currently, there is no reason to prohibit in vitro germline genome editing on human embryos and gametes, with appropriate oversight and consent from donors, to facilitate research on the possible future clinical applications of gene editing, they wrote. There should be no prohibition on making public funds available to support this research.

Safety, ethical concerns and the impact germline editing might have on societal inequality, they wrote, would all have to be worked out before such technology is ready for the clinic.

Genetic disease, once a universal common denominator, could instead become an artifact of class, geographic location, and culture, they wrote. In turn, reduced incidence and reduced sense of shared risk could affect the resources available to individuals and families dealing with genetic conditions.

If and when embryo editing is ready for primetime, the group concluded that there would need to be a good medical reason to use such technology, as well as a transparent public debate. Some have questioned the medical necessity of embryo editing, arguing that genetic screening combined with in vitro fertilization could allow doctors to simply pick disease-free eggs to implant, achieving the same results via a method that is less morally-fraught.

In February, the National Academy of Sciences released a 261-page report that also gave a cautious green light to human gene-editing, endorsing the practice for purposes of curing disease and for basic research, but determining that uses such as creating designer babies are unethical. Other nations, like China and the UK, have forged ahead with human embryo editing for basic research, though there have been no published accounts of research past the first few days of early embryo development.

Given the way the culture, religion and regional custom impact attitudes toward genetically-engineering human life, its safe to say that this debate will not be an easy one to settle. As the policy recommendations point out, views on the matter vary drastically not just across the US, but around the world, and yet one nation making the decision to go ahead with implanting edited embryos will create a world in which that technology exists for everyone.

In the meantime, though, there are still more than a few kinks to work out in the science before were faced with these questions in the real world.

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Experts Call on US to Start Funding Scientists to Genetically Engineer Human Embryos - Gizmodo

Agilis Biotherapeutics, Gene Therapy Research Institution Enter Strategic Partnership – Drug Discovery & Development

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Agilis Biotherapeutics, Inc. (Agilis), a biotechnology company advancing innovative DNA therapeutics for rare genetic diseases that affect the central nervous system (CNS), and Gene Therapy Research Institution Co, Ltd. (GTRI), a corporation with the mission of developing and delivering of the safest and most efficient gene therapies, announced that the companies have completed a manufacturing and collaboration partnership joint venture (JV) to advance adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapies. The JV was initiated earlier this year in connection with a grant from the Japanese Ministry of Trade, Economics and Industry (METI) and Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) for the development of a state-of-the-art AAV manufacturing facility in Japan. GTRI was co-founded by Professor Shin-ichi Muramatsu, M.D., a leading pioneer in gene therapy who has performed basic science and clinical research in the field for over two decades.

The JV, headquartered in Japan, will initially focus on developing and manufacturing AAV gene therapy vectors using Sf9 baculovirus and HEK293 mammalian cell systems and operate a process development and production facility located in the Tokyo area designed to meet international manufacturing standards, including cGMP, GCTP and PIC/S GMP requirements. Agilis and GTRI will also collaborate to expedite the development, approval and commercialization of select gene therapies in specific CNS diseases. Terms of the joint venture were not disclosed.

We are pleased to collaborate with Agilis to leverage each organizations capabilities and know-how, advance the manufacturing state-of-the art for gene therapy, and develop novel gene therapies, commented Katsuhito Asai, Chief Executive Officer of GTRI and a Director of the joint venture. Our partnership will seek to capitalize on the strong recent progress in the field of gene therapy and expedite the development of innovative gene therapies for patients in need, with a major emphasis on the quality production of safe, effective therapeutics.

We are thrilled to partner with GTRI, said Mark Pykett, Agilis CEO and a Director of the joint venture. We believe that our partnership will enhance the efforts of both organizations, build important shared production capabilities, and accelerate development and commercialization of important gene therapies. We look forward to working with GTRI on a range of initiatives.

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Agilis Biotherapeutics, Gene Therapy Research Institution Enter Strategic Partnership - Drug Discovery & Development

Trump moves forward with religious freedom priorities – Washington Examiner

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The first freedom in the Bill of Rights is the freedom to practice religion without government interference. But it isn't a popular right nowadays. As cases involving religious freedom issues are regularly hammering the state and federal court system constantly challenging that right President Trump has (somewhat) quietly placed two mechanisms in front of the barrage to soften the blow.

Last week, Trump nominated Gov. Sam Brownback to serve in the position of Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, a position within the U.S. State Department. This immediately inspired anger and assertions that the Kansas governor is opposed to LGBTQ rights. This editorial makes note of the fact that while over 20 senior state department positions remain vacant, Trump thought it important to fill this one. This indicates either a soft-spot or an administration priority, depending on your interpretation.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback's nomination as U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom has observers wondering about President Donald Trump's priorities. When 27 senior State Department positions remain vacant, and no ambassadors have been appointed to nations such as South Korea, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, what makes filling a position promoting religious freedom such an urgent, core objective of U.S. foreign policy?

The Becket Fund, a non-profit religious liberty law firm praised the choice. Montserrat Alvarado, executive director of Becket, said in a press release,

Gov. Brownback's legacy of promoting and defending religious liberty both in the United States and overseas is strong. As a U.S. Senator, he was one of the [motivating] forces behind the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, key legislation that ensures that the policy of the United States will be to support religious liberty internationally. His robust experience defending religious freedom for people of all faiths makes him uniquely qualified to lead America's international defense of this most sacred and fundamental of human rights, religious freedom.

That's not the only sign Trump is prioritizing religious freedom. He's also quietly appointing conservative judges to various courts. In fact, he's appointed more judges in his short tenure as president than Obama had at this same juncture in 2009. He has sent up nine nominees for appeals court positions and 17 for the district courts. And yes, one Supreme Court justice, but the high court only settles about 75 cases annually, compared to about 50,000 at the appeals level and hundreds of thousands in federal district courts. So, if Trump wants to continue to ensure religious freedom persists, he must continue nominating conservative judges at all levels.

Nominations such as these might help guide a variety of religious freedom cases, such as this unique one in East Boca Raton, Florida regarding land use for a worship center. According to Texas Law & Tax, a sister publication of Christianity Today, new research reveals the number one reason churches end up in court is no longer sexual abuse of children but property disputes. The Chabad would like to build a synagogue to make room for its growing Jewish community, and despite two court victories (Gagliardi v. The City of Boca Raton, Fla.), they are still battling the city for that right. The case was recently appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

The city used a disagreement about zoning to propel a federal lawsuit that could set a terrible precedent to worship-goers in Florida. Time will tell how the case pans out. Becket represents the Chabad, and in their press release explains, "The suit claims that by allowing a single synagogue to be built on private land, the city is establishing the Jewish religion and discriminating against Christians. But the city ordinance they are suing over requires equal treatment for all faiths to build houses of worship."

Just Wednesday, the country's oldest synagogue, Congregation Shearith Israel, won a lengthy legal battle to maintain ownership of its building and ancient Jewish artifacts. In Congregation Jeshuat Israel v. Congregation Shearith Israel, the court ruling clarifies that houses of worship can establish and enforce property contracts just like any other.

In the meantime, religious freedom advocates must keep watch on cases like this, Gov. Brownback's nomination, and the slew of conservative justices Trump hopes to continue appointing. Religious freedom was the fundamental issue that brought Pilgrims to America hundreds of years ago and repeated violations could seriously damage the country's core imperatives.

Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She was the 2010 recipient of the American Spectator's Young Journalist Award.

If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions here.

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‘Freedom from waste’ from Aug 15 – The Hindu

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The State governments campaign to make the State completely free from waste will begin on August 15, Independence Day.

The Freedom from waste campaign being organised under the aegis of the Haritha Keralam Mission will be led by local self-government institutions in association with the public.

Arrangements on

Arrangements for the campaign are under way.

On August 15, after the district-level Independence Day functions attended by Ministers, an announcement of Freedom from waste will be made.

The announcement will be made at Independence Day programmes organised by the local self-government institutions. Peoples representatives and volunteers will conduct house visits and sensitisation drives on the day and the next.

Sanitation meets

Sanitation meets will be organised at the ward-level on the day from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The ground-situation reports from house visits from August 6 to 13 will be compiled and presented.

At 7 p.m., a pledge to make the ward completely garbage-free will be taken. Sanitation lamps will be lit in all houses in the ward simultaneously.

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'Freedom from waste' from Aug 15 - The Hindu

Seahawks Defensive End Michael Bennett Hosts Local Students From Freedom Schools – Seahawks.com

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Dozens of ninth and 10th-grade students swarmed Michael Bennett following Fridays practice, eager to get an autograph from or picture with the Seahawks star defensive end.

One teenage boy collected signatures not just on his jersey, but also the back of his cell phone and on a $20 bill he will now never spend. One teenage girl got a signature on her arm, then jokingly began reciting her phone number to Cliff Avril, who also paid the group a visit.

Yet as much as these students, who attend Rainer Beach High School, were excited to meet Bennett, as well as Avril, who joined the group later, Bennett and Avril were equally impressed with the group of kids who are part of Washington Building Leaders of Changes Freedom Schools, a six-week literacy and social justice leadership development program.

Im inspired by you guys, Bennett told the group of students. You guys are the future of this country, the future of your communities.

Later, Bennett further expressed his admiration for a group of students who are dedicating six weeks of their summer to better themselves and their communities.

These are kids who are growing up seeing there are problems in their community making changes, Bennett said. Theyre just out every single day trying to make their communities better. Its super inspiring. Theyre so young, we can learn something from them. They are kids from all over the world, Cambodia, Israel, Palestine, theyre all these different kids working together within one community, doing so much change. For me to be able to support them is super cool. Its just super inspiring to be around kids who have that type of mindset at that age. Those kids are going to be leaders one day because theyre already making change at this age.

Bennetts support includes not only interacting with the kids after a practice and a $5,000 donation, he has also gotten involved in the Seattle community himself in a number of ways, most recently hosting a benefit for the family of Charleena Lyles, a local mother who was killed by police officers who were responding to a call at her apartment.

We connected with Michael, hes got a big passion for social justice as well as literacy, so it has been a great connection, said Laura Wright, a servant leader educator with WA-BLOC. He is very active in our community, so he has been a great model for our scholars.

Our scholars are really hard at work making a difference in their community. every day were having deep conversations about roots of injustice and racism, so to have an athlete as high profile as him thats also in the community doing work, were really proud of Michael for all the advocacy he has been doingthe Charleena Lyles case, thats something weve been talking about. We really appreciate having someone like him. It just affirms them and affirms the message that they can make a difference when they see someone like Michael doing that. And its not just the message, we actually see him in the community, which makes a big difference.

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Freedom dig early hole they can’t climb out of, fall to Miners in series … – User-generated content (press release) (registration)

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Tony Vocca gave up three first-inning runs and the Florence Freedom, presented by Titan Mechanical Solutions, were forced to play catch-up in an eventual 6-4 loss to the Southern Illinois Miners on Friday at UC Health Stadium.

Southern Illinois (29-41) raced out to an early lead in the top of the first, as Craig Massey led off the game with a double to left-center before coming around to score on a single by Romeo Cortina. Nolan Earley then deposited a Vocca (6-5) breaking ball into the Freedom (44-27) bullpen, pushing the Miners in front, 3-0.

The Freedom pulled within two in the bottom half of the first, as Taylor Oldham singled off Miners starter Chris Washington (2-3) before stealing second and third, and crossed the plate on an Andre Mercurio bunt-single.

Leading 3-1 in the top of the fourth, Southern Illinois used a Ryan Lashley single and a double by Anthony Critelli to set-up a Ryan Sluder sacrifice fly and an RBI-groundout by Massey to extend their lead to 5-1.

Following a pair of singles by Jordan Brower and Keivan Berges in the bottom of the fourth, Garrett Vail laced a double in to the left-center gap, scoring Brower to make the score 5-2. Berges attempted to score from first but was thrown out at the plate to end the frame.

Daniel Fraga made the score 5-3 in the bottom of the seventh with a solo home run to right field off Miners reliever Kyle Tinius.

One more insurance run would score for the Miners in the top of the ninth on Cortinas second RBI-single of the game. In the bottom half, Fraga drew a one-out walk and scored on a two-out bloop double to shallow left field by Jose Brizuela to bring the tying run to the plate. But Mercurio flew out to center, ending the game.

Brower led the Freedom with three hits, while Berges, Brizuela, Fraga and Mercurio each collected two. Florence, however, left nine runners stranded in the game, including at least one in each of the first five innings.

The Freedom loss handed the Miners their third straight victory, and was Florences fourth consecutive loss of a series opener.

The series continues Saturday with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 p.m. at UC Health Stadium. Jordan Kraus (8-4) will start for the Freedom against a yet-to-be-determined starter for Southern Illinois.

The Florence Freedom are members of the independent Frontier League and play all home games at UC Health Stadium located at 7950 Freedom Way in Florence, KY.The Freedom can be found online at FlorenceFreedom.com, or by phone at 859-594-4487.

Florence Freedom

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Freedom dig early hole they can't climb out of, fall to Miners in series ... - User-generated content (press release) (registration)

Our Sickest Pseudoscience Resurfacesin a Tennessee Jail – Daily Beast

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Eugenics is alive and well in Tennessee.

This spring, Judge Sam Benningfield approved a program in which prisoners at the White County Jail in Sparta were offered reproductive sterilization in exchange for reduced sentences. As of May 15, more than two dozen women had reportedly agreed to birth-control implants and 38 men to vasectomies.

Sterilizations to lessen criminal sentences are not a new phenomenon in Tennessee. Between 2010 and 2015, they were offered as part of plea deals in four criminal cases.

To put these sterilizations in perspective, we need to go back to the beginning.

In 1866, an Augustine monk named Gregor Mendel found that when he crossed pea plants, certain physical traits like plant size and leaf color dominated. Mendel proposed that pea plants were inheriting one factor from each parent. Today we call these factors genes.

A few years after Mendel published his findings, a British scientist named Francis Galtonwho was a half-cousin of Charles Darwinmade the leap from peas to people and from physical traits to something broader. If we could breed better animals, reasoned Galton, couldnt we breed better humans, too? Wouldnt traits like intelligence, loyalty, bravery, and honesty also be inherited? And wouldnt selecting for these traits make for a better world? One free from drunkenness, violence, and poverty. A world, he proposed, where the lower classes could be bred out of existence, no longer a burden to society. He called his plan eugenics, from the Greek for well born.

In the early 1900s, this ideology crossed the ocean and landed in a small cove near Huntington, New York. The two men who championed Galtons cause were Charles Davenport and Harry Laughlin. As [society] claims the right to deprive the murderer of his life, said Davenport, so also it may annihilate the hideous serpent of hopelessly vicious protoplasm.

Davenport and Laughlins list of vicious protoplasm included the feeble-minded, the poor, alcoholics, criminals, epileptics, the insane, the constitutionally weak, those suffering from venereal diseases, the deformed, and those deaf, blind, or mute.

In October 1910, their Eugenics Records Office opened for business. Its mission was clear: Determine which Americans were of inferior stock and prevent them from marrying or having children. The first step was to confine them to unisex institutions for the insane or mentally disabled. The next was to sterilize those who were still roaming free.

The eugenicists had completely bastardized Mendels laws. While physical characteristics such as eye color can be mapped to specific genes, traits like criminality, alcoholism, or susceptibility to venereal diseases cant. Not everything can be accounted for by strict Mendelian genetics.

Nonetheless, the false notion that selective breeding could make for a better society allowed Americans to cloak some of their worst prejudices in the gilded robes of science.

The zealous efforts of Davenport and Laughlin shaped a nation.

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By 1928, about 400 colleges and universities in the U.S. offered courses in eugenics, and 70 percent of high-school biology textbooks embraced the pseudoscience. The eugenics movement also changed the law: Four states prohibited the marriage of alcoholics, 17 banned the marriage of epileptics, and 41 forbade the marriage of the feeble-minded and the insane. By the mid-1930s, America was the world leader in banned marriages. (Marriage-restriction laws werent declared unconstitutional until 1967.)

American citizens were now ready to take the next stepto legislate forced sterilization. When the dust settled, 65,370 poor, syphilitic, feeble-minded, insane, alcoholic, deformed, lawbreaking, or epileptic Americans in 32 states had been sterilized. California alone had more than 20,000. Few rose in protest. It was one of the darkest moments in American history.

Most of those sterilized didnt understand what was being done, and were surprised that they could no longer have children. Some were told they were having a different surgical procedure. (Because of its popularity in the South, sterilizations were often referred to as Mississippi appendectomies.) Others were told to sign a form that they couldnt read. In 1927, civil libertarians were delighted when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of a woman who was being sterilized against her will. At last, the most disenfranchised members of society would have their day in court. The person who was being sterilized was Carrie Buck. The doctor who was to perform the sterilization was John Bell.

The associate justice who wrote the opinion for the majority was Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. A proud defender of the Constitution and individual liberties, Holmes had authored nearly a thousand valued opinions.

On May 2, 1927, justices ruled 8-1 in favor of Carrie Bucks sterilization. Holmes wrote, Carrie Buck is a feeble-minded white woman. She is the daughter of a feeble-minded mother in the same institution, and the mother of an illegitimate feeble-minded child. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crimes, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. Then Holmes authored the words that placed Buck v. Bell in the pantheon of Americas most embarrassing Supreme Court decisions: Three generations of imbeciles are enough, he wrote, effectively solidifying laws that even the most ardent eugenicists thought were unenforceable. One critic later wrote that Holmess opinion represented the highest ratio of injustice per word ever signed on by eight Supreme Court justices.

On Oct. 19, 1927, her legal options exhausted, Carrie Buck was sterilized; she thought she was having an appendectomy.

In 1933, the year that he came to power, Adolf Hitler passed the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring. The list of those to be sterilized was virtually identical to that first generated by the Eugenics Records Office in Cold Spring Harbor. Clinics were established and doctors were fined if they didnt comply with the law.

Within a year, 56,000 Germans had been sterilized; by 1935, 73,000; by 1939, 400,000, logarithmically dwarfing the number of sterilizations performed in the U.S. The procedure was so common that it had a nickname: Hitlerschnitte, Hitlers cut. Americans took note. Joseph DeJarnette, superintendent of Virginias Western State Hospital, lamented, Hitler is beating us at our own game!

Twenty years later, Buck v. Bell would be presented in support of SS officer Otto Hofmann during the Nuremberg military tribunal investigating Nazi war crimes.

The U.S. Supreme Court has never officially overturned its verdict.

Paul A. Offit is a professor of pediatrics and director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. He is the author of Pandoras Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong (National Geographic Press).

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Our Sickest Pseudoscience Resurfacesin a Tennessee Jail - Daily Beast

Rip currents claim lives of swimmers along US beaches – The News Herald

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Rip currents are to blame for most of the 59 deaths that have occurred in the surf zone along the nations beaches so far this year.

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, N.J. Rip currents have caused several deaths at U.S. beaches this summer, prompting warnings from lifeguards and weather forecasters for swimmers to be aware and keep themselves safe.

Six people died between June and July due to rip currents in New Jersey, including a 24-year-old Slovakian woman in the U.S. to work a summer job on the shore.

And rip currents are to blame for most of the 59 deaths that have occurred in the surf zone along the nations beaches so far this year. Now, scientists are hoping swimmers pay closer attention to the narrow currents that pull them away from the shore, as rip currents have claimed 735 lives in the U.S. since 2002.

There were 40 rip current deaths nationwide by the end of July compared with 58 in all of 2016, data from the National Weather Service shows . Florida leads the nation with 11 so far this year. New Jersey and Texas had six and North Carolina had five.

What usually happens is a wave can knock them off their feet and start to pull on them, said Atlantic City Beach patrol Lt. John Ammerman. They dont relax and float with it. They generally panic and have trouble.

The desperation they create was illustrated in a video showing strangers on Panama City Beach in July forming an 80-person human chain to help rescue members of a family who had been pulled too far from shore.

Waves, tides and the shape of the ocean floor contribute to rip currents. But jetties, groins and piers create hot boxes where swimmers are especially at risk, said Greg Dusek, who studies tides and currents for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The New Jersey shore is dotted with these structures, and it is where six people died between June and July, including Zuzana Oravcova of Slovakia, who went for a swim in Point Pleasant Beach on July 30 but was swept away.

Two cousins, Emily Gonzalez-Perez, 12, and Mitzi Hernandez, 13, were pulled to sea and drowned when they went swimming at an unguarded beach in Belmar. Ramon Quinn, 15, died trying to rescue Kaliyah Hand, 16, who also drowned, off an Atlantic City beach.

He was a hero, till the end, even as he tried to save his friend, Quinns obituary read.

An Ohio teen died after he was caught in a rip current off Fripp Island in South Carolina in June. Eric Clark was swimming with friends when he disappeared. And Jevoney White, 19, drowned in July off Smith Point Beach on Long Island after he was caught in a rip current.

Rip currents often form where sand bars are near the shore, Dusek said, and they are easier to see from an elevated position.

You can spot them in areas where waves arent breaking, or where theres foam or muddy water being pulled offshore, he said.

Swimmers who get caught in rip currents are urged to stay calm and try to swim parallel to the shore to get out of its grip or float until getting a lifeguards attention.

Most rip current fatalities occur during the evening after the beach patrols have gone home for day, said National Weather Service meteorologist Lance Franck.

Scientists are studying whether replenishment adds to the problem and NOAA is working to improve its method of forecasting rip currents.

Were validating a new forecast model that predicts the probability of the hazard every few kilometers up to five days ahead. Dusek said. However, that likely will not be operational for a few years.

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Rip currents claim lives of swimmers along US beaches - The News Herald

Newport expects messy beaches after eclipse, looks for volunteers to clean up – KATU

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A total solar eclipse on Aug. 11, 1999, shows the sun's corona and several prominences erupting from its surface. (Photo: Luc Viatour / CC BY-SA 3.0)

NEWPORT, Ore. The City of Newport is expecting to clean up a mess after the solar eclipse on August 21.

Newport is asking local non-profit organizations to participate in a post-eclipse beach clean-up. The city says it will be an opportunity for non-profits to raise funds.

Local non-profit organizations can earn up to $10 per volunteer hour, the Newport Police Department said in a Facebook post. Each organization can raise a maximum of $1,000 for participating.

Oregon State Parks and Recreation and SOLVE are coordinating the cleanup.

The cleanup will be held on Saturday, August 26 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at six beach sites: Ernest Bloch/Lucky Gap Trail Beach, Agate Beach, Nye Beach, Yaquina Bay State Park, South Beach State Park day use area, and Lost Creek.

Officials say the assignments will be made on a first-come-first-served basis. Local non-profits must appoint two beach captains per site. The captains must attend a training on August 11 at Newport City Hall.

Individuals who want to participate should register at solveoregon.org/newport-eclipse-cleanups

Anyone with questions can contact Peggy Hawker at 541-574-0613 or at p.hawker@newportoregon.gov.

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Newport expects messy beaches after eclipse, looks for volunteers to clean up - KATU

Solar eclipse and meteor shower just two of many astronomical events to be seen in August – Globalnews.ca

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;

The head of a Toronto observatory says the month of August will provide several astronomical sights you can see with a simple telescope or binoculars.

The head of an astronomical observatory in Toronto says a solar eclipse and a meteor shower are just a couple of astronomical episodes you can catch in the month of August.

Paul Delaney, director of the York University Astronomical Observatory and AM 640s expert in astronomy and space exploration, says nowadays, you dont need to be a scientist or have expensive astronomical equipment to see celestial bodies.

With a simple low budget telescope or binoculars and a mobile app, like SkySafari, Star Chart or Pocket Universe, you too can enjoy the wonders of the night sky at a low cost or even for free.

READ MORE: What Canadians can expect during the solar eclipse on August 21

These apps are really a great addition to those who have telescopes, Delaney told AM 640s Morning Show. It can give you an amount of material which is truly breathtaking and give you great insight into the objects you are looking at.

Delaney says August will be a good month to see some prominent planets, even in the city, as they should shine through light pollution.

If you know the objects to look for, nice bright double stars and nice bright globular clusters, the summer sky can be really pleasant in addition to being really warm.

LISTEN: Paul Delaney, the director of the York University Astronomical Observatory and AM 640s expert in astronomy and space exploration, talks to AM 640s Morning Show.

August 7 Sturgeon Moon (Partial Lunar Eclipse)

Native American tribes once called it the Sturgeon Moon because they knew that the sturgeon, bottom-feeding fish, of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain were most readily caught during this full moon. Its pretty much the only unique object you will see in the sky on Monday because its so large and bright, according to Delaney. The moon will also provide a partial lunar eclipse casting a shadow on parts of South and East Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia.

August 11 &12 Perseid Meteor Shower

The event is precipitated by remnants of a dead comet entering the Earths atmosphere. The event essentially started on July 13 but will see its peak viewing times during the evenings of Aug. 11 and 12. Delaney says in order to see this, you will need to try to find darker skies. You need to be in the dark to see the benefits of a meteor shower. Generally speaking, after midnight, Delaney says.

READ MORE: How you can watch the Perseid meteor shower

August 16 The Moon, Venus, and Aldebaran

Aldebaran is an orange giant star about 65 light years from our sun. It is one of the brighter stars in our nighttime sky. It will join a cluster with the moon and Venus on Aug. 16.

August 21 Solar Eclipse

The moon will completely cover the sun along a narrow strip of land about 113 km wide from Oregon to South Carolina. Its the first total solar eclipse on the mainland since 1979.

WATCH: Excitement builds ahead of total solar eclipse over U.S.

August 25 The Moon, Jupiter and Spica

Spica is a bright blue binary star in the constellation of Virgo. On July 28, Spica could be seen side by side with Jupiter while the moon hovered above the duo. On the Aug. 25, Spica will slump a bit below Jupiter and the moon to form a triangle-like cluster.

August 30 The Moon, Saturn and Antares

Antares is areddish star and the brightest in the constellation of Scorpius. Earlier in July, it paired up with the moon and Saturn to form some of the brightest objects in the night sky. The trio will do so again on Aug. 30, lining up in a diagonal formation.

READ MORE: Solar eclipse 2017: How to watch without permanently damaging your eyes

2017Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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Solar eclipse and meteor shower just two of many astronomical events to be seen in August - Globalnews.ca

Primordial black holes may have helped to forge heavy elements – Phys.Org

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August 4, 2017 Artists depiction of a neutron star. Credit: NASA

Astronomers like to say we are the byproducts of stars, stellar furnaces that long ago fused hydrogen and helium into the elements needed for life through the process of stellar nucleosynthesis.

As the late Carl Sagan once put it: "The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff."

But what about the heavier elements in the periodic chart, elements such as gold, platinum and uranium?

Astronomers believe most of these "r-process elements"elements much heavier than ironwere created, either in the aftermath of the collapse of massive stars and the associated supernova explosions, or in the merging of binary neutron star systems.

"A different kind of furnace was needed to forge gold, platinum, uranium and most other elements heavier than iron," explained George Fuller, a theoretical astrophysicist and professor of physics who directs UC San Diego's Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences. "These elements most likely formed in an environment rich with neutrons."

In a paper published August 7 in the journal Physical Review Letters, he and two other theoretical astrophysicists at UCLAAlex Kusenko and Volodymyr Takhistovoffer another means by which stars could have produced these heavy elements: tiny black holes that came into contact with and are captured by neutron stars, and then destroy them.

Neutron stars are the smallest and densest stars known to exist, so dense that a spoonful of their surface has an equivalent mass of three billion tons.

Tiny black holes are more speculative, but many astronomers believe they could be a byproduct of the Big Bang and that they could now make up some fraction of the "dark matter"the unseen, nearly non-interacting stuff that observations reveal exists in the universe.

If these tiny black holes follow the distribution of dark matter in space and co-exist with neutron stars, Fuller and his colleagues contend in their paper that some interesting physics would occur.

They calculate that, in rare instances, a neutron star will capture such a black hole and then devoured from the inside out by it. This violent process can lead to the ejection of some of the dense neutron star matter into space.

"Small black holes produced in the Big Bang can invade a neutron star and eat it from the inside," Fuller explained. "In the last milliseconds of the neutron star's demise, the amount of ejected neutron-rich material is sufficient to explain the observed abundances of heavy elements."

"As the neutron stars are devoured," he added, "they spin up and eject cold neutron matter, which decompresses, heats up and make these elements."

This process of creating the periodic table's heaviest elements would also provide explanations for a number of other unresolved puzzles in the universe and within our own Milky Way galaxy.

"Since these events happen rarely, one can understand why only one in ten dwarf galaxies is enriched with heavy elements," said Fuller. "The systematic destruction of neutron stars by primordial black holes is consistent with the paucity of neutron stars in the galactic center and in dwarf galaxies, where the density of black holes should be very high."

In addition, the scientists calculated that ejection of nuclear matter from the tiny black holes devouring neutron stars would produce three other unexplained phenomenon observed by astronomers.

"They are a distinctive display of infrared light (sometimes termed a "kilonova"), a radio emission that may explain the mysterious Fast Radio Bursts from unknown sources deep in the cosmos, and the positrons detected in the galactic center by X-ray observations," said Fuller. "Each of these represent long-standing mysteries. It is indeed surprising that the solutions of these seemingly unrelated phenomena may be connected with the violent end of neutron stars at the hands of tiny black holes."

Explore further: New simulations could help in hunt for massive mergers of neutron stars, black holes

More information: Primordial black holes and r-process nucleosynthesis, Physical Review Letters (2017). journals.aps.org/prl/accepted/ 5a1a918b69bd6d2e6077

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On topic of article, it is most plausible that elements (especially the heavier variety) transmute from neutron matter. It is widely known that a neutron in free space decays into a hydrogen atom. I conjecture that inside of stars it is not the proton proton chain reaction that leads to helium production but rather quad neutron convergence that results in helium. I'd venture so far as to say that just as in free space neutrons decay into a proton and electron, the inverse occurs under the immense pressures in the cores of stars. Hydrogen converts to neutrons.

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Primordial black holes may have helped to forge heavy elements - Phys.Org

TESS mission to discover new planets moves toward launch – Phys.Org

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August 5, 2017 TESS spacecraft awaits installation of cameras and other instruments. Credit: Orbital ATK

A NASA mission designed to explore the stars in search of planets outside of our solar system is a step closer to launch, now that its four cameras have been completed by researchers at MIT.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), due to launch in 2018, will travel through space, identifying more than 20,000 extrasolar planets. These will range from Earth-sized planets to much larger gas giants. TESS is expected to catalog a sample of around 500 Earth-sized and "super Earth" planets, or those with radii less than twice that of Earth. It will detect small rock-and-ice planets orbiting a diverse range of stars, including rocky worlds in the habitable zones of their host stars.

"The scientific community is eagerly awaiting the launch of TESS and the first data release in 2018," says Sara Seager, the Class of 1941 Professor of Planetary Sciences at MIT and deputy lead of the TESS Science Office.

During its two-year mission, TESS, which is being led by MIT and managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, will monitor the brightness of more than 200,000 stars. It will search for temporary drops in brightness caused by an exoplanet passing in front of its host star, as viewed from Earth.

The satellite's four cameras, developed by researchers at MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, are equipped with large-aperture wide-angle lenses designed to survey the entire sky.

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Each camera consists of a lens assembly containing seven optical elements and a detector with four charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor chips. The overall process of designing, fabricating, and testing the cameras at MIT has taken four years to complete.

The cameras were recently delivered to Dulles, Virginia-based aerospace company Orbital ATK, where they will be integrated onto the satellite. The four cameras have been mounted onto the camera plate, and successful operation with the flight computer has been demonstrated.

The instruments have just been inspected by NASA and a group of independent technical experts, as part of a formal Systems Integration Review of all TESS components, which they passed successfully.

Each of the four cameras has a field of view that is more than five times greater than that of the camera flown on the earlier planet-hunting Kepler space observatory mission, according to TESS Principal Investigator George Ricker, senior research scientist at the MIT Kavli Institute.

"The TESS four-camera ensemble instantaneously views a section of sky that is more than 20 times greater than that for the Kepler mission," Ricker says. "The instantaneous field of view of the TESS cameras, combined with their area and detector sensitivity, is unprecedented in a space mission."

A complication found in very fast wide-angle lenses, such as those in the TESS cameras, is that the image sharpness varies over the field of view, and there is no single focus, as found in more conventional cameras. Furthermore, the imaging properties change as the temperature of the cameras changes.

The MIT TESS team has subjected the cameras to extended, rigorous testing in conditions designed to replicate the environment they will be subjected to in space. These tests demonstrate that the cameras perform as expected, but with a small shift in focus relative to that predicted by models. This shift results in simulated stellar images in the center of the field appearing sharper than expected, while images at the edges of the field are somewhat less sharp. However, after independently studying the effects of this shift, researchers on the MIT TESS team and at NASA both concluded that the mission will readily achieve all of its scientific goals.

TESS relies on its ability to sense minute changes in stellar brightness to detect planets passing across them. The data processing is designed to correct for the variations in image sharpness over the field for most of the stars, and it will produce a record of brightness over time for every star being monitored, according to Jacqueline Hewitt, director of the MIT Kavli Institute.

The MIT TESS team will continue to carry out long-term ground tests on a spare flight camera to ensure that their in-orbit performance is well understood.

Following its launch next year, TESS will divide the sky into 26 "stitched" sections and will point its cameras at each of these in turn for 27 days. It will explore the Southern Hemisphere in the first year of its mission, and the Northern Hemisphere in its second year.

"TESS is classed by NASA as an Explorer mission with very focused scientific goals," Hewitt says. "It was designed to find exoplanets that are nearby and orbiting bright stars, so we can study them in great detail."

The data produced by the cameras will first be processed by the spacecraft's on-board computer. They will then be transmitted to Earth every two weeks via the NASA Deep Space Network and immediately forwarded to the TESS Payload Operations Center at MIT.

Explore further: TESS mission cleared for next development phase

Provided by: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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Set to launch in 2017, NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will monitor more than half a million stars over its two-year mission, with a focus on the smallest, brightest stellar objects.

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Can artificial intelligence help create jobs? – RCR Wireless News

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The fourth industrial revolution

As artificial intelligence is deployed in the realm of customer service, telecom companies are showing increased interest in a number of these tools. Like previous industrial revolutions, many worry whether these technological innovations are weeding out human jobs. What many do not consider is the kinds of jobs A.I. can create.

But what exactly is A.I.? To begin with, its more than automation. Automation refers to computers or programs capable of performing repetitive, human tasks, but that doesnt mean automation itself is intelligent. By contrast, A.I. is an effort to enable computers to perform tasks that demand the ability to reason, solve problems, perceive and understand language.

There are three key positions advancements in A.I. could open: trainers, explainers and sustainers. Trainers teach A.I. algorithms how to mirror human behavior, and keep language processing and translating errors down to a minimum. Explainers serve as the middlemen between technologies and industry leaders, communicating the intricacies of A.I. algorithms to nontechnical staff. And managers uphold A.I. systems to legal and ethical norms.

As the maturity of A.I. moves out of academia, which its still kind of on the edge of, and to commercially hardened software and capability, I think youll see some these data science roles that you hear everybody hiring morph into their ability to adapt the products that are in the market to their specialty needs, explained JC Ramey, CEO of DeviceBits. And so that will create higher tech jobs, and most of those should be domestic based on where we see a lot of the hiring for the data science groups that we work with.

In terms of higher-tech jobs, chatbots, for instance, are answering basic tier-one calls at off-shore call centers instead of live agents. Technical questions are forwarded to tier 2 where the customer can talk to a person. This may eliminate several off-shore jobs for tier 1 calls, but it could provide companies with the means to invest in more tier-2 jobs. Ramey said he believes many of these jobs could be based in the U.S.

Technocrats have long pointed how automation can help workers take on more fulfilling tasks. But A.I. extends beyond automation. According to a survey of 352 A.I. researchers, there is a 50% chance A.I. will outperform all human tasks in 45 years, and that all human jobs will be automated in 120 years. The real question isnt whether A.I. can create jobs, but whether it can outmatch the numbers of jobs it takes.

I think this retooling will scare a lot of people and that there are some people who will not be able to make the shift, said Ramey, but the machinery and ecosystem that its creating at the same time creates a completely different market of jobs than whats available today.

The fruits of A.I. are discussed more than its limitations. Facebook, for instance, had to put efforts to build a chatbot for Messenger on hold after its bots hit a 70% failure rate. No budding technology is without glitches. However, the acceptable failure rate for these projects has yet to be clearly defined, which can help inform whether a technology is worth a long-term investment.

I think knowledge engineering is the biggest level of limitation, said Ramey. Today, people think it is the silver bullet. I think everyone who is thinking a bot is an A.I., but the reality is the knowledge engineering that has to happen underneath to give that bot a starting point, and how do you train that bot overtime, is still the big gap, and that is the limitation that we see as a big opportunity in the market-to-sell.

Risks versus benefits aside, several tech giants like Apple, Facebook, Google and IBM believe A.I. has a future worth investing in. The telecom ecosystem will likely absorb A.I. tools as it becomes more complex. I think we will look back in ten years and realize A.I. created a whole new sector for us and gave us another bump like the dot com boom did, said Ramey.

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The local subsidiary of Elbit Systems Ltd is expanding its lease agreement inside the San Antonio International Airport. – San Antonio Business…

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The local subsidiary of Elbit Systems Ltd is expanding its lease agreement inside the San Antonio International Airport.
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M7 Aerospace LLC is an aircraft maintenance depot, engineering and repair division inside Elbit Systems of America LLC's (Nasdaq: ESLT) sustainment and support solutions department. Elbit Systems' U.S. headquarters is in Fort Worth. Its parent company ...

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The local subsidiary of Elbit Systems Ltd is expanding its lease agreement inside the San Antonio International Airport. - San Antonio Business...