West Quebec residents are crossing the border into Ottawa for what they believe is better health care, and candidates in the provincial election are facing questions about how they would solve the problem.
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Henry Schein Appoints Carol Raphael to Board of Directors
MELVILLE, N.Y., Aug. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Henry Schein, Inc. (HSIC), the world's largest provider of health care products and services to office-based practitioners, today announced the appointment of Carol Raphael to the Company's Board of Directors.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120817/NY59052 )
Ms. Raphael brings a wealth of health care policy, economics and management experience to the Henry Schein Board. From 1989 to 2011, Ms. Raphael served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY), the largest nonprofit home health agency in the United States. As CEO, Ms. Raphael expanded the organization's services and launched innovative models of care for complex populations with chronic illness. Prior to joining VNSNY, Ms. Raphael held executive positions at Mt. Sinai Medical Center and in New York City government. Currently, Ms. Raphael is an Advanced Leadership Fellow at Harvard University. She chairs the New York eHealth Collaborative, a public-private partnership working to advance the adoption of health information technology in New York State. She is the Chair of the Long-Term Quality Alliance, a member of the National Quality Forum Coordinating Committee, where she chairs its Post Acute/Long-Term Care Workgroup, and is a strategic advisor to the National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA).
"As health care continues to evolve, Carol's broad experience will provide the Henry Schein Board of Directors with an important new perspective on this quickly changing market," said Stanley M. Bergman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Henry Schein. "In addition, as the populations of the United States and other developed nations around the world grow older and use health care services at an increasing rate, Carol's strategic insights into the health care needs of an aging patient group will be invaluable as we continue to execute our strategic plan for growth."
Ms. Raphael is a nationally recognized industry leader and an expert on health care policy. She has served on numerous commissions including the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the New York State Hospital Review and Planning Council and several Institute of Medicine committees. She was a member of New York State Governor Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team.
Ms. Raphael has also served on numerous boards including those of Lifetime Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Barrier Therapeutics, Inc., Future Health, and the American Foundation for the Blind. She serves on the boards of the Primary Care Development Corporation, Pace University, the Medicare Rights Center and the New York City Citizens Budget Commission. She is also a member of several advisory boards including the Harvard School of Public Health's Health Policy Management Executive Council, the New York City Health and Mental Hygiene Advisory Council, the New York City Age-Friendly Commission, and the New York University School of Nursing Advisory Board.
Ms. Raphael has an MPA from Harvard University's Kennedy School and co-edited the book Home Based Care for a New Century. She was a Visiting Fellow at the Kings Fund in the United Kingdom, and was listed in Crain's New York Business 50 Most Powerful Women in New York City.
"It is a pleasure to join the Board of a company that recognizes the important demographic and health care shifts occurring in society and is determined to play a leadership role as we navigate a course to continued success," said Ms. Raphael. "Henry Schein has an impressive eight-decade commitment to providing health care practitioners with products and services that enhance patient care and practice efficiency, two qualities that will continue to be essential as health care evolves. I look forward to joining this strong leadership team and helping Henry Schein continue to grow for many years to come."
About Henry Schein, Inc. Henry Schein, Inc. (HSIC) is the world's largest provider of health care products and services to office-based dental, medical and animal health practitioners. The Company also serves dental laboratories, government and institutional health care clinics, and other alternate care sites. A Fortune 500 Company and a member of the NASDAQ 100 Index, Henry Schein employs nearly 15,000 Team Schein Members and serves approximately 775,000 customers.
The Company offers a comprehensive selection of products and services, including value-added solutions for operating efficient practices and delivering high-quality care. Henry Schein operates through a centralized and automated distribution network, with a selection of more than 90,000 national and Henry Schein private-brand products in stock, as well as more than 100,000 additional products available as special-order items. The Company also offers its customers exclusive, innovative technology solutions, including practice management software and e-commerce solutions, as well as a broad range of financial services.
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Pre-caffeine tech: Tesla museum, corgie love!
1 hr.
Helen A.S. Popkin
Ourpre-caffeine roundup is a collection of the hottest, strangest, and most amusing stories of the morning. Here's everything that you need to know before taking that first sip of coffee.
Popular Internet cartoonistMatthew "The Oatmeal" Inman wants your help in raising money for a Nikola Tesla museum on the site of the revolutionary futurist's lab.
The feds want a law thatwould force companiessuch as Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter to build "backdoors" into their software.But privacy advocates say that may make the United Statesmore vulnerable to cyberattacks.
Speaking of security,AT&Tsays unknown attackers hit its network this week, causing loss of service forsomebusiness customers.
Yoinks! This programmer says there's a hole in iPhone iOS that invites phishing attacks!
At least Photobucket put the ban hammer on Reddit's nude photo thieves!
Instagramupdated with a new location-centric feature that puts each and every one of your photos on a map. As long as you don't mind people knowing where you are as soon as you post a picture, it's a fun addition to the service.
The days of Twitter welcoming outside devlopers with open arms are long over --Twitter announced new restrictions thatsternly discouraged independent software developers from creating Twitter apps.
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Freedom to blare and browbeat
But as Ruma and her family's torment on Independence Day proved, for the chosen few freedom also means getting away with breaking all the rules.
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Freedom Group, Inc. Announces Second Quarter Fiscal 2012 Financial Results Conference Call
MADISON, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Freedom Group, Inc., the worlds leading designer and manufacturer of firearms, ammunition and related products, announces that it has released its second quarter fiscal 2012 financial results. A copy of the Companys Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2012 is posted on http://www.freedom-group.com in the investor information section.
Ron Kolka, the Companys Chief Financial Officer, will host a conference call on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. ET to discuss the financial results of the second quarter ended June 30, 2012, and answer questions from the investor audience. Interested parties may participate by dialing 1-888-505-4375 (U.S. and Canada) or 1-719-325-2281 (International), and providing the conference ID number: 9684811.
A telephonic replay will be available beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, August 21, 2012, and will last through August 28, 2012. The replay may be accessed by dialing 1-877-870-5176 (U.S. and Canada) or 1-858-384-5517 (International) and providing the same conference ID number listed above.
About Freedom Group, Inc.
Freedom Group, Inc., headquartered in Madison, N.C., is the worlds leading innovator, designer, manufacturer, and marketer of firearms, ammunition, and related products for the hunting, shooting sports, law enforcement, and military markets. As one of the largest manufacturers in the world of firearms and ammunition, we have some of the most globally recognized brands including Remington, Bushmaster, DPMS/Panther Arms, Marlin, H&R, NEF, Dakota Arms, LC Smith, Parker, AAC, Barnes Bullets, EOTAC, INTC and Mountain Khaki.For more information download the Freedom Group Brochure, located on http://www.freedom-group.com.
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Freedom Group, Inc. Announces Second Quarter Fiscal 2012 Financial Results Conference Call
Ball Aerospace Astronomy – Video
16-08-2012 23:13 Video for Next Generation of Astronomy day at Ball Aerospace. Aug. 15, 2012.
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Pathology backlog cleared
The Saskatoon Health Region has cleared a backlog of pathology tests after hundreds of patients waited for results because of a shortage of specialists.
"There are only two ways to get rid of backlog," said Joseph Blondeau, interim head of the health region's department of pathology and laboratory medicine.
"You either farm the work out to somebody else, which means you're paying to send the work out of province or out of the city, or you bring in extra resources."
The health region did both while recruiting several pathologists to work in the city.
For most of 2011, pathologists in the Saskatoon Health Region could not keep up with the volume of work coming their way. Tissue samples were sent out for testing, first to Regina and later to Toronto and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
In addition to the courier cost of sending specimens, the health region was paying between $300 and $700 for a sample to be read by a pathologist working for another agency.
In addition, several local pathologists worked overtime to clear more of the backlog, bumping up their salaries significantly.
Nine of the top wage earners in the health region in 2011-12 were pathologists. The highest-paid employee, Dr. Usharani Ganugapati, received $483,774. The provincial pay grid for pathologists ranges from $290,321 to $333,869 annually.
"When we were short of pathologists, there were some pathologists who for one reason or another had extra capacity and had decided that in an attempt to (reduce) the cases that were backlogged had worked extra hours. They gave up their evenings and weekends," said Blondeau.
Now, the pathology department is in rebuilding mode after years of tumult.
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Pathology backlog cleared
DNA used to encode a book and other digital information
(Phys.org) -- A team of researchers in the US has successfully encoded a 5.27 megabit book using DNA microchips, and they then read the book using DNA sequencing. Their experiments show that DNA could be used for long-term storage of digital information.
George Church and Sriram Kosuri of Harvards Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and colleagues, encoded Churchs book Regenesis of around 53,400 words into DNA sequences, along with 11 images in JPG format and a JavaScript program. This is 1,000 times more data than has been encoded in DNA previously.
DNA is made up of nucleotides, and in theory at least each nucleotide can be used to encode two bits of data. This means that the density is a massive 1 million gigabits per cubic millimeter, and only four grams of DNA could theoretically store all the digital data created annually. This is much denser than digital storage media such as flash drives, and more stable, since the DNA sequences could be read thousands of years after they were encoded.
The experiments success lay in the strategy of encoding the data in short sequences of DNA rather than long ones, and this reduced the difficulty and cost of writing and reading the data. Dr Kosuri said the process was analogous to storing data on a hard drive, where data is written in small blocks called sectors.
They first converted the book, program and images to HTML and then translated this into a sequence of 5.27 million 0s and 1s, and these 5.27 megabits were then sequenced into sections of nucleotides 96 bits long using one DNA nucleotide for one bit. The nucleotide bases A and C encoded for 0, while G and T encoded for 1. Each block also contained a 19 bit address to encode the blocks place in the overall sequence. Multiple copies of each block were synthesized to help in error correction.
After the book and other information was encoded into the DNA, drops of DNA were attached to microarray chips for storage. The chips were kept at 4C for three months and then dissolved and sequenced. Each copy of each block of nucleotides was sequenced up to 3,000 times so that a consensus could be reached. In this way they reduced the bit errors in the 5.27 megabits to just 10.
The procedure, described in a paper in the journal Science, cannot be used for rewritable data but could be used for very long-term storage of data. One advantage of using DNA is that a much greater density of information can be stored, but another major advantage is that DNA is a biological molecule that will always be able to be read biologically without special equipment such as CD or DVD players that can quickly become obsolete.
The main disadvantage of this system is that at the moment the technologies used to synthesize and sequence DNA are far too expensive for it to be a practical system for everyday use. Another problem is that while DNA has been sequenced from sources such as mummies thousands of years old, the DNA tends to be fragmented, and work needs to be done on improving the stability of DNA over centuries and longer.
More information: Next-Generation Digital Information Storage in DNA, Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1226355
ABSTRACT Digital information is accumulating at an astounding rate, straining our ability to store and archive it. DNA is among the most dense and stable information media known. The development of new technologies in both DNA synthesis and sequencing make DNA an increasingly feasible digital storage medium. Here, we develop a strategy to encode arbitrary digital information in DNA, write a 5.27-megabit book using DNA microchips, and read the book using next-generation DNA sequencing.
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DNA used to encode a book and other digital information
Is too much brain activity connected to Alzheimer's disease?
Public release date: 16-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Clare Weaver press@plos.org 44-122-344-2824 Public Library of Science
High baseline levels of neuronal activity in the best connected parts of the brain may play an important role in the development of Alzheimer's disease. This is the main conclusion of a new study appearing in PLoS Computational Biology from a group at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
In recent times, it has become clear that brain activity patterns change at an early stage in Alzheimer's disease. Moreover, there is reason to believe that, instead of being the consequence of structural damage, they might be the cause: recently, a direct influence of excessive regional neuronal activity on Alzheimer pathology was found in animal experiments. By showing that highly connected 'hub' regions (which display most Alzheimer pathology) indeed possess the highest levels of activity, the present study offers support for the unconventional view that brain dynamics may play a causal role in Alzheimer. As first author, Willem de Haan, says, "this implies that the investigation of factors regulating neuronal activity may open up novel ways to detect, elucidate and counter the disease".
Using a realistic computational model of the human cortex, the authors simulated progressive synaptic damage to brain regions based on their level of activity, and subsequently investigated the effect on the remaining network. With this 'activity dependent degeneration' model, they could not only offer an explanation for the distribution pattern of Alzheimer pathology but also reproduce a range of phenomena encountered in actual neurophysiological data of Alzheimer patients: loss and slowing of neuronal activity, loss of communication between areas, and specific changes in brain network organization.
In upcoming projects the authors plan to verify the predictions from this study in patient data, but also to continue modeling studies. They conclude that: "the use of 'computational neurology' and network theory to unite experimental results and find plausible underlying principles in the growing bulk of human brain data seems inevitable".
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Financial disclosure: No funding was received for this work
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Citation: de Haan W, Mott K, van Straaten ECW, Scheltens P, Stam CJ (2012) Activity Dependent Degeneration Explains Hub Vulnerability in Alzheimer's Disease. PLoS Comput Biol 8(8): e1002582. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002582
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Is too much brain activity connected to Alzheimer's disease?
Stanford University Releases Statement Reiterating Its Long-Standing Relationship With Nu Skin Enterprises
PROVO, Utah, Aug. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NUS) reiterated its research relationship with Stanford University and announced that Stanford today issued the following release, which stated, "The Department of Dermatology in the Stanford School of Medicine has had a long-standing research-based relationship with Nu Skin Enterprises. Researchers in the department currently have one on-going study funded by Nu Skin related to the identification of master regulators and epigenetic changes to human skin aging. This research project is funded from a $1.5 million commitment from Nu Skin and runs through 2014. Since 1999, the company has funded nearly $5.8 million dollars in research in the Department of Dermatology.
"At the request of Dr. Stuart Kim, a letter was sent by Stanford to Nu Skin requesting Dr. Kim's name be removed from the company's marketing materials and websites as Dr. Kim is no longer involved with research funded by the company. The company complied with this request. The letter did not recognize, however, the existing research relationship between Nu Skin and Stanford. We regret any misunderstanding that may have occurred as a result."
About Nu Skin Enterprises Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. demonstrates its tradition of innovation through its comprehensive anti-aging product portfolio, independent business opportunity and corporate social responsibility initiatives. The company's scientific leadership in both skin care and nutrition has established Nu Skin as a premier anti-aging company, evidenced in its unique ageLOC science that addresses aging at its source. The company's anti-aging products feature the new ageLOC suite of products including the ageLOC R2 nutritional supplement, ageLOC Galvanic Spa System and ageLOC Galvanic Body Spa, as well as the ageLOC Transformation daily skin care system. A global direct selling company, Nu Skin operates in 53 markets worldwide and has nearly 900,000 independent distributors. Nu Skin is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "NUS." More information is available at http://www.nuskin.com.
Space Station Orbit Adjustment 'to Continue on Aug. 22'
The European Space Agency's ATV-3 space freighter will carry on with a planned manouver to readjust the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) on August 22, the agency said on Thursday.
The regularly planned reboost, by the "Edoardo Amaldi" Automated Transfer Vehicle-3, stopped "prematurely" on Wednesday due to a temperature alarm in the vehicle's propulsion system, the ESA said in a statement.
The ATV-3, docked at the ISS's Zvezda module, was scheduled to raise the station's orbit by 7.7 kilometers to an altitude of 414.42 kilometers.
"It has been jointly agreed with the ISS control centres to perform the remainder of yesterday's reboost during the next scheduled reboost slot, set for 22 August," said ESA's Jean-Michel Bois, head of Mission Operations at ATV-Control Center.
Bois said the decision was taken in order to give engineers on the ground enough time to complete their investigation into Wednesday's incident.
The reboost was intended to ensure the best conditions for the landing of Russia's Soyuz TMA-04M manned spacecraft on its return to Earth and the docking of the Soyuz TMA-06M manned spacecraft with the orbital outpost, slated for October 15.
RIA Novosti.
The Soyuz TMA-M, a new version of the legendary spacecraft
Adjustments to the station's orbit are carried out regularly to compensate for the Earth's gravity and to facilitate the successful docking and undocking of spacecraft.
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NASA's "Mighty Eagle" targets asteroid or Mercury landings
The crash of NASA’s Morpheus lander was an unfortunate setback, but like any good space pioneer, the agency has more than one string to its bow - and more than one lander in the hanger. On August 8, NASA’s prototype “Mighty Eagle” autonomous lander carried out the latest in a series of flight tests at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Though smaller than Morpheus and ...
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NASA's hidden space shuttle opens in Houston
(SPACE.com) HOUSTON -- As NASA has readied its retired space shuttles to set sail for their museum homes, the agency has also been quietly preparing its least-known orbiter vehicle to stay in place.
The SAIL -- or Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory -- is set to become the newest stop on tours of the Johnson Space Center here this fall.
The once fully-functional space shuttle simulator, which was used throughout the 30-year program to develop and test the flight software for each of the 135 missions, was designated an honorary part of the fleet with its own orbiter vehicle (OV) number.
Space shuttle Discovery, which is now on display at the Smithsonian in Virginia, was also referred to by NASA as OV-103. Enterprise, the original shuttle prototype, which is now exhibited at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City, was similarly OV-101.
Endeavour, which next month will be flown to Los Angeles for the California Science Center, was designated OV-105. And Atlantis, which is scheduled to arrive this November at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, was OV-104.
The SAIL was designated OV-095. Although it was never space-worthy, from the perspective of its flight computers, the simulated missions that it 'flew' might have just as well been in orbit. [NASA's Most Memorable Shuttle Missions]
Skeleton of a space shuttle
Filling a couple of floors inside Building 16 at the Johnson Space Center, OV-095 doesn't look like its sister ships.
Although it has a fully-accurate flight deck and is laid out to have a payload bay and aft section, the SAIL's lack of wings, tail -- and for that matter, walls -- leaves exposed the mock space shuttle's wires, switches, crawl spaces, steep stairs and ledges.
That setup worked well for the more than three decades when the SAIL was an operational laboratory, but was not ideal as a bustling tour stop. NASA needed to make the SAIL safe for visitors while keeping the historical integrity of the facility intact.
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'We're NASA and We Know It': Hilarious Music Video Spoofs Mars Rover Team
Who says engineers aren't hip? The men and women who landed NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on the Red Planet are so renowned they are now the subject of a hilarious spoof video that is making viral waves.
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'We're NASA and We Know It': Hilarious Music Video Spoofs Mars Rover Team
NASA's 'Mighty Eagle' Planetary Lander Passes Big Test Flight
NASA's "Mighty Eagle" a roboticprototype for new landers to explore the moon and beyond has passed a major test with its first successful free flight, the space agency announced this week.
Without using a tether (a first for the vehicle), the lander took off, hovered at about 33 feet (10 meters), flew sideways, and landed safely on its prescribed target,video of the the Aug. 8 test flight shows. The entire flight lasted 34 seconds and took place at NASA's Marshal Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
NASA plans to use the Mighty Eagle to develop new robotic landers to send to the moon, near-Earth asteroids and other airless celestial bodies
The three-legged spacecraft is 4 feet (1.2 m) tall and 8 feet (2.4 m) in diameter. It weighs 700 pounds (317 kilograms) when filled with its fuel, which is made up of 90 percent pure hydrogen peroxide, according to NASA.
After the lander's previous round of testing in 2011, engineers upgraded the guidance controls on the lander's camera, improving its autonomous capabilities, NASA officials said. In tests scheduled through September, engineers plan to get the lander flying and hovering autonomously at up to 100 feet (30 m).
"These lander tests provide the data necessary to expand our capabilities to go to other destinations," Greg Chavers, engineering manager at the Marshall Center, said in an Aug. 13 statement. "It also furthers our knowledge of the engineering components needed for future human and robotic missions."
The Mighty Eagle's successful untethered flight came one day before another NASA lander prototype's fiery test failure at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In that Aug. 9 test flight, engineers with NASA's Project Morpheus based at the Johnson Space Center in Houston attempted to make the firstuntethered flight of the Morpheus lander over a mock moonscape.
A failure caused the Morpheus lander to flip over and explode shortly after liftoff. Project Morpheus officials are studying the failure and plan to upgrade a second Morpheus lander for future tests.
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NASA's 'Mighty Eagle' Planetary Lander Passes Big Test Flight
Your Chance to Tell NASA What It Should Do
Should NASA send people to Mars? Build a moon base? Maybe unleash a fleet of awesome robotic probes to explore the solar system?
You can now offer advice on what NASAs plans should be. The National Research Council is conducting an independent study on NASAs strategic direction, soliciting comments from experts in science, technology, and space policy and theyre also asking the public to get involved.
In their public comment section, the NRC will ask what you think NASAs vision, budget, and international collaboration program should be. But hurry the public commenting period ends tomorrow, Aug. 17!
As stated in their 2011 Strategic Plan, NASAs current vision is to reach for new heights and reveal the unknown, so that what we do and learn will benefit all humankind, and its mission is to drive advances in science, technology, and exploration to enhance knowledge, education, innovation, economic vitality, and stewardship of Earth.
This vague wording translates into some specific directives, such as extending the life of the International Space Station, supporting the commercial space industry, and continuing NASAs own manned spaceflight program and robotic exploration of the solar system.
The National Research Councils evaluation will look at all aspects of NASAs plans, including its relevance to national priorities, the viability of its goals under current budget pressures, and its structural organization and efficiency.
Image: NASA/Ben Cooper
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'We're NASA and We Know It' video spoofs JPL Mars team. How cool is that?
'We're NASA and We Know It' is a slickly produced rap video that mocks, and celebrates, the landing of the Mars rover Curiosity and the 'outside-the-box' team at JPL that made it happen.
The folks at JPL have arrived. No, not just because the NASA center's best and brightest put the Mars rover Curiosity flawlessly on the surface of the Red Planet. But because they looked so cool doing it. So cool, in fact, that there is now a rap video on youtube lampooning their performance: "We're NASA and We Know It."
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The video is a tongue-in-cheek high-five to the group in pale-blue polo shirts who sat in mission control on a southern California foothill the evening of Aug. 5, watching as helplessly as the rest of the world as Curiosity entered its final "seven minutes of terror" en route to the surface of Mars.
The slickly produced video featureswhat looks to be seven 20-somethings including a bikini-clad woman with abox over her head. If there's any message in there at all, it might be something like: If you want to do some really cool stuff in space, and you've got the smarts, and you don't want to wait until you're about to collect Social Security to play a key role, then Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the place to be.
OK, a bit overstated, but look at the mix of faces in that control room the real one, not the cute video version or the hair styles. When was the last time you saw a red-and-blue-tinted Mohawk hairstyle poking above a console in Houston? Or the official pass-around of the peanut jarsto mark the end of a key part of a mission? And where else within the NASA network would a set of wheels be designed to leave aresearch center'sinitials in Morse Code in the dust as a rover rolls along the surface of another planet?
Yes, spaceflight is risky. And it uses very expensive hardware. But somehow the folks at JPL have managed to find ways to blend the discipline and focus required for space exploration withcreativity and whimsy. At best, it leadsto a unique twist on landing a craft on Mars. At a minimum, it can break the tension that builds after long hours ofworrying about unknowns as a team strives to meet a launch opportunity that comes around but once every 26 months.
And when the Big Eventapproaches, which center is going to produce a slick, sweaty-palms video to prepare the public for Curiosity's seven minutes of terror? Or cook up a deal with Microsoft to develop an Xbox game that allows the player, using a generous amount of body English, to guide the rover through those seven minutes and with additional, more-involved video games under consideration? Yep, that's JPL.
What accounts for the difference between JPL and NASA's other centers?
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'We're NASA and We Know It' video spoofs JPL Mars team. How cool is that?
NASA Space Shuttles Meet Nose-to-Nose for Final Time
Two space shuttles traded places at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Thursday (Aug. 16) for what was planned to be the final multiple shuttle shuffle of the retired program.
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‘Nanojackets’ for treating breast cancer could be game changer for cancer care
A novel nanotechnology drug delivery system under development to infiltrate breast cancer tumors could pave the way for treating other diseases.
Penn State College of Medicine received a $1 million grant from a state research fund set up with money from its tobacco settlement to assess the drug treatments commercialization potential.
The principal investigator for the nanotechnology delivery system is Mark Kester, a professor of pharmacology and director of the Penn State Center for NanoMedicine and Materials. He has been working for the past five to six years with Jim Adair of Penn States department of material sciences and engineering, and Keystone Nano, a nanotechnology company spun out of Penn State University led by Jeff Davidson, the founder of the Biotechnology Institute and Pennsylvania Bio industry association.
The next generation of cancer-fighting drugs specifically target cancer proteins rather than attack cancer and noncancer cells indiscriminately. Although companies have recognized the ability of small interfering RNA as a small molecule that can be directed to interfere with the production of cancer cells, the toxicity of siRNA has proved a challenge in its use. Biotechnology companies and institutions have been studying ways to use different nanotechnology particles to house the toxic molecule.
In an interview with MedCity News, Kester explained that the team has developed nontoxic nanojackets that use calcium phosphocillate nanoparticles, material that makes up teeth and bones, to deliver the toxic siRNA safely to the gene mutation. In this case, the one that causes overexpression of an oncogenic protein in breast cancer patients.
Getting to this stage has taken five to six years. Kester estimates it will take another one-and-a-half years to get to the point where it will have enough data to submit an IND application. During that time it will work with contract research organizations across Pennsylvania to conduct preclinical trials using the nanojackets.
Even if the companys IND application is approved, it will take another five to eight years to get the technology to the point where it can be submitted for FDA approval.
A cursory search on Clinicaltrials.gov revealed that 10 clinical studies are using siRNA to combat diseases in clinical trials. The one that is using them to fight breast cancer uses fat cells to house the toxic molecule.
If successful, the siRNA molecule could theoretically be delivered to any protein mutation and destroy it, a development that would revolutionize not only cancer treatment but one that could lead to treating Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease and other unmet needs.
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‘Nanojackets’ for treating breast cancer could be game changer for cancer care
Officials continue to push for chip fab manufacturer
There still is no decision from the Army Corps of Engineers about key preparations for land being marketed to nanotechnology companies as a chip fabrication site.
But local economic development officials say the process has become a race against time, as the multi-billion dollar industry ramps up for a shift in the way chips are produced.
We think the next site selection will be in 2013 and 2014, said Mohawk Valley EDGE economic development agency President Steve DiMeo. The major players and some of the support industry (are) talking about timelines for actually building and having output from a 450 mm plant.
DiMeo was referring to the new generation of nanotechnology chips, which will be made in a new 450 mm format.
Currently, most of the chips, which can be found in everything from cell phones to medical devices, are made many at a time on 300 mm wafers. Companies now want to make them on 450 mm wafers, so more of the tiny chips can be manufactured at once.
In September 2011, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced $4.4 billion in private investment in nanotechnology initiatives in New York state.
That was in addition to the 2009 announcement that $45 million in state funds would be spent at SUNYIT to create a state of the art nanotechnology research and development compound.
Those investments are hoped to up the appeal of the Marcy site, which has been on the market for more than a decade. So far, about $16 million has been spent to prepare the site. A total of $39 million in work is planned.
Long time coming
The tussle with the Army Corps has been going on almost as long as the SUNYIT-owned site has been marketed to the nanotechnology industry.
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