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Orange to host Guinness World Record attempt for most redheads in one place – Ballarat Courier

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

11 Jul 2017, 8:30 p.m.

Ginger pride to rule as redheads rally for record.

GINGER CHEER: Orange will be seeking to achieve all the fun of this Ginger Pride event in Melbourne when it hosts a Guinness World Record Attempt for the most redheads.

Hundreds of redheads might have gathered at ginger pride rallies and record attempts in other cities but where else is more appropriate thanOrange?

Rachael Brookingis planning to start big with a Guinness World Records attempt on getting the most redheads in one place.

Thered-letter day is September 30 when a four-hour festival of all things red will be celebrated at Wade Park culminating in the attempt to better the current record which stands at1672.

FOR MUM: Record attempt and fund raising organiser Rachael Brooking with a photo of her mum and fellow redhead, Frances Kelly.

Mrs Brooking said it would raise money for research into Huntingtons disease which claimed her mother Frances Kelly, also a redhead.

She said she had just launched the festival and was still working on getting famous redheads and sponsors to attend.

Ive had a really good response so far, she said.

GINGER MEGGS: There will be plenty of character on Orange's red-letter day.

Central Western Daily

Orange to host Guinness World Record attempt for most redheads in one place - Ballarat Courier

Van Gogh bust modelled on Dorset lookalike is unveiled – BBC News

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

BBC News

Van Gogh bust modelled on Dorset lookalike is unveiled
BBC News
It is the first in a series of works commissioned by the vineyard, under the title "Redheads". Mr Baker, who was flown to Canada to have his head 3D-scanned for the project, said he felt "utterly honoured" to have been cast into bronze as an "iconic ...

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Van Gogh bust modelled on Dorset lookalike is unveiled - BBC News

NASA planning August release of Mars robotic exploration architecture – SpaceNews

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

Artist's concept of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its sounding radar to probe beneath the Martian surface. Credit: NASA/JPL

WASHINGTON With time running out to start work on a 2022 Mars orbiter, a NASA official said July 10 the agency plans to have a coherent Mars architecture for future robotic Mars missions ready for presentation an at August committee meeting.

Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters, said that architecture is on track to be presented at a meeting in late August of a National Academies committee reviewing progress NASA has made implementing the planetary science decadal survey published in 2011.

It is in August when the committee meets that theyll hear a coherent Mars architecture for what we hope to do for sample return and potentially other missions associated with that, Meyer said at a teleconference meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG). He added that he and others were working to ensure agency endorsement of that plan prior to the presentation.

Such an architecture, he noted, has been requested by Congress. Were on the hook to present something because this is actually something that Congress has asked for in their appropriations, he said.

Meyer didnt disclose details about what would be in that architecture, beyond its emphasis on sample return. The Mars 2020 rover mission will be the first step in a multi-mission sample return process, collecting samples that future missions will collect and return to Earth.

However, there are no missions to Mars under development by NASA beyond Mars 2020. That has caused increasing concern within the Mars science community, worried about both progress on sample return and on developing a new orbiter that they argue is needed to replace the telecommunications and imaging capability currently provided by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

NASAs fiscal year 2018 budget request, released in May, provided only $2.9 million for Future Mars Missions that could include planning for an orbiter or other follow-on missions to the 2020 rover. That amount increases in the five-year budget projections to $178.9 million by fiscal year 2022, but MEPAG meeting attendees believed that was insufficient to launch an orbiter mission of any kind in 2022.

Although there have been additions to the planetary science budget that have been impressive, theyve been devoted elsewhere, said Jeff Johnson, a planetary geologist at the Applied Physics Laboratory who is chair of MEPAG. Without substantial augmentation to that Mars mission line by Congress, theres little chance of actually launching a Mars spacecraft in 2022.

Appropriations committees in the House and Senate have yet to reveal their plans for funding future Mars missions. The full House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up its fiscal year 2018 appropriations bill July 13, which may provide more details about its interest in future Mars missions. The Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to take up a companion appropriations bill for NASA.

A new orbiter is seen as crucial for supporting ongoing missions by ensuring continued communications links to spacecraft on the surface, and to provide the high-resolution imaging currently done by MRO that will be needed to support future robotic and human landers. Our main concern is that the Mars Exploration Program is getting old and nearing exhaustion, Johnson said.

Concerns about a lack of planning for a 2022 orbiter extend to Mars robotic exploration in general for the upcoming decade, which the new architecture under development by NASA may not fully address. At the meeting, some noted a lack of engagement by NASA with the research community on scientific priorities for future Mars missions.

Those problems are hidden to some degree given the ongoing results from current missions, some operating at Mars for more than a decade. The problem here is that things look good because we have so many missions there from past investments, said Casey Dreier, director of space policy for The Planetary Society, at the MEPAG meeting.

That organization recently published a white paper warning that a lack of investment now in future Mars missions could jeopardize the progress NASA has made in studying Mars and establishing an infrastructure that supports future exploration. Its much harder to point out that were not making the investments now to set up the program we want for the next decade, Dreier said.

Its possible, scientists said at the MEPAG meeting, that follow-on missions to Mars 2020 could return samples to Earth by the late 2020s or, more likely, the early 2030s. This is particularly the case if a Mars orbiter launched in 2022 is equipped with a solar electric propulsion system that would allow it to maneuver in Mars orbit, collect a cache of samples launched from the surface and then return to Earth. That concept has been studied, but NASA has made no decision about including that capability on any future orbiter.

Were so close to this payoff, in a sense, of sample return, that it would be a shame to step back right now, Dreier said.

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NASA planning August release of Mars robotic exploration architecture - SpaceNews

NASA prepares to fight fungus in space and on other planets – CNET

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

The Inflatable Lunar/Mars Analog Habitat (ILMAH) mimics conditions in space or on other worlds.

Life in space can be hard, what with the lack of gravity, the abundance of radiation and a number of other things that can kill or damage a person. Now NASA is investigating another somewhat surprising enemy of astronaut health: fungus.

A new study published Monday in the journal Microbiome shows that when you add humans to the type of enclosed habitats that could one day be used on the moon or other planets like Mars, it can give a boost to the community of fungal stowaways known as the mycobiome.

A team lead by researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory watched what happened when humans moved into the Inflatable Lunar/Mars Analog Habitat (ILMAH) meant to simulate conditions on the International Space Station and on hypothetical lunar or Martian bases.

"We showed that the overall fungal diversity changed when humans were present," report co-author and NASA Senior Research Scientist Dr. Kasthuri Venkateswaran, said in a release.

Strange science aboard the International Space Station (pictures)

Certain fungi seemed to thrive once humans were added to the ILMAH, including some that can colonize the body and cause allergies, asthma or infections, particularly in people with decreased immune systems like astronauts.

"Fungi are extremophiles that can survive harsh conditions and environments like deserts, caves or nuclear accident sites, and they are known to be difficult to eradicate from other environments including indoor and closed spaces," Venkateswaran explained. "Fungi are not only potentially hazardous to the inhabitants but could also deteriorate the habitats themselves."

In other words, watch out fungus, you are on NASA's list of space enemies.

Venkateswaran hopes investigating the mycobiome in the type of habitats used beyond Earth can lead to the development of cleaning and maintenance procedure to help keep the fungi at bay. First, though, more research is required, starting with studying the mycobiomes of the humans that actually lived in the habitat.

Regardless of those results, the problem future astronauts will have to be wary of is clear: even in space, beware the fungus among us.

Crowd Control: A crowdsourced science fiction novel written by CNET readers.

Solving for XX: The tech industry seeks to overcome outdated ideas about "women in tech."

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NASA prepares to fight fungus in space and on other planets - CNET

NASA Jupiter Probe to Fly Over Great Red Spot – Space.com

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot features prominently in this true-color mosaic, which was constructed from images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Dec. 29, 2000, during its closest approach to the giant planet at a distance of approximately 6.2 million miles (10 million kilometers). At the time, Cassini was on its way to Saturn, which the probe reached on July 1, 2004.

NASA's Juno spacecraft is about to get the best-ever look at Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot.

Juno will fly over the 10,000-mile-wide (16,000 kilometers) storm which is so big that three Earths could fit inside it at 10:06 p.m. EDT tonight (July 10; 0206 GMT on July 11), during the probe's sixth science flyby of Jupiter.

The encounter will provide humanity its first up-close looks at the Great Red Spot, which astronomers have been monitoring since 1830.

"Jupiter's mysterious Great Red Spot is probably the best-known feature of Jupiter," Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, said in a statement. "This monumental storm has raged on the solar system's biggest planet for centuries. Now, Juno and her cloud-penetrating science instruments will dive in to see how deep the roots of this storm go, and help us understand how this giant storm works and what makes it so special."

The $1.1 billion Juno mission launched in August 2011 and arrived in orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016. Ever since, the spacecraft has been looping around the gas giant every 53.5 days in a highly elliptical orbit that brings it within a few thousand miles of Jupiter's cloud tops at the closest point, or perijove.

During the July 10 flyby, perijove will come at 9:55 p.m. EDT (0255 GTM on July 11), when Juno will be just 2,200 miles (3,500 km) above Jupiter. The probe will fly over the Great Red Spot 11 minutes and 33 seconds later, skimming about 5,600 miles (9,000 km) above the storm, NASA officials said.

"All eight of the spacecraft's instruments as well as its imager, JunoCam, will be on during the flyby," NASA officials wrote in the same statement.

Juno is using this science gear to study Jupiter's composition and interior structure, gathering data that will reveal clues about the planet's formation and evolution. The probe collects most of this information during its perijove passes.

Juno is scheduled to continue operating through at least February 2018.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter@michaeldwallandGoogle+.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookor Google+. Originally published onSpace.com.

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NASA Jupiter Probe to Fly Over Great Red Spot - Space.com

NASA’s Juno spacecraft just buzzed Jupiter’s Great Red Spot – CNET

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

This earlier NASA image shows Jupiter's Great Red Spot.

NASA's Juno mission just hit a high point with a buzzing flyby on Monday night of one of Jupiter's most notable features: the Great Red Spot, a massive spinning storm that is a focus of fascination for scientists and space fans. This is the closest Juno has been to the distinctive oval-shaped spot, which is twice as wide as Earth.

It takes about 45 minutes for signals from Juno to make it back to Earth. The spacecraft successfully phoned home after its close flyby, which took it to within about 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) of the storm's clouds.

Juno collected data and images during the journey. According to a Twitter post, the Juno team expects to release images on July 14.

The Great Red Spot puts Earth storms to shame. Scientists believe it may have been around for over 300 years, though we've been following it from our planet since the early 1800s.

"Now, Juno and her cloud-penetrating science instruments will dive in to see how deep the roots of this storm go, and help us understand how this giant storm works and what makes it so special," says Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton.

Juno launched in 2011 and reached orbit at Jupiter in July 2016 on a mission to learn more about the massive gas giant's origin, evolution, atmosphere and structure. This close-up look at the Giant Red Spot should help clear up some of the mystery around the raging storm.

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Jaw-dropping Jupiter: NASA's Juno mission eyes the gas giant

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‘Kingdom of Saturn’: New Documentary Dives Deep into NASA’s Amazing Cassini Mission – Space.com

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

A new documentary looks back at the triumphs of the Cassini probe which has spent more than a decade revealing the secrets of Saturn ahead of the spacecraft's scheduled death dive into the ringed planet.

Cassini captured the public imagination with its stunning images of the gas giant Saturn and its up-close examination of the planet's flowing ring system. Over the years, the probe discovered new moons around Saturn, and dug deep into the strange environments of the two largest Saturnian satellites.

"Kingdom of Saturn: Cassini's Epic Quest" reviews the historical figures who laid the groundwork for the mission, the probe's major discoveries, and how the probe connected with people on Earth. The movie isavailable to watch nowon Amazon. [Cassini's 'Grand Finale' at Saturn: NASA's Plan in Pictures]

Cassini left Earth in October 1997 as part of the Cassini-Huygens mission, a joint effort by NASA and the European Space Agency (with a leading role played by the Italian Space Agency). The Huygens probe was dropped onto Saturn's moon Titan in January 2005, about six months after arriving at Saturn. Since 2008, Cassini has been operating on extended scientific missions. Now that the probe is running out of fuel, scientists have decided to crash the probe into Saturn. This will not only provide a close-up glimpse of the planet and its rings, but will also guarantee that the probe will never accidentally crash into one of the planet's potentially habitable moons.

"Kingdom of Saturn" provides a tour of the planet and its rings, highlighting fascinating details like the hexagonal cloud formation at its north pole, and its extraordinary system of rings, which are 30 million times wider than they are high.

"[Cassini] has traveled nearly 4 billion kilometers [2.48 billion miles], delivered a probe to the surface of a toxic moon, spent 20 Earth years in space, and produced science nine years longer than originally planned," the film's narrator says, summarizing some of Cassini's major accomplishments. "[Cassini] has discovered flowing water where none was expected, phantasmagorical structures on a planets icy rings, a weirdly breathing magnetosphere, and a possible abode of life on a tiny world with a startling atmosphere."[Cassini's 'Grand Finale' Saturn Orbits Explained (Video)]

The movie also shows viewers how Cassini's investigations of Saturn have not only helped scientists understand Earth's solar system, but also planetary systems around other stars. Saturn itself is an example of the gas giants that have now been found around thousands of stars, and Cassini has helped scientists better understand how these monsters form.

"The science based on Cassini's data will go on for decades," the film's narrator says.

Since Cassini arrived at Saturn, scientists have found more evidence that the planet's moons Enceladus and Titan could potentially host life. Enceladus may possess a liquid water ocean beneath its icy surface, with a geologic source of heat. Geysers of water spew up through cracks in the moon's surface, and Cassini flew through one of the geysers and sampled its composition. Titan's surface is mostly covered in liquid methane and ethane, rather than water, which means "if anything lives on Titan, it is almost surely not related to life on Earth," according to the documentary. The documentary dives deep into Cassini's investigation of these particularly interesting moons.

The documentary doesn't keep its focus exclusively on space; it covers the historical figures after whom the Cassini and Huygens probes are named, and it touches on the time just before Cassini's launch when protesters urged NASA and ESA to cancel the mission over fears the launch rocket might explode and release the radioactive material contained inside the probe. (Cassini-Huygens, like many space probes, carried radioactive material as a source of heat and energy.)

Cassini will make its final death dive on Sept. 15, 2017, at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT). Check out "Kingdom of Saturn" before the world says goodbye to the Saturn probe forever.

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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'Kingdom of Saturn': New Documentary Dives Deep into NASA's Amazing Cassini Mission - Space.com

NASA wants to battle SoCal wildfires by predicting where they start – 89.3 KPCC

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

File: An image captured by NASA's Terra satellite shows several fires giving off small plumes of smoke October 21, 2007. NASA/Getty Images

A soil moisture monitoring system being developed by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory hopes to make it easier to predict when and where wildfires will erupt in Southern California and elsewhere.

The new tool, called the Fire Danger Assessment System (F-DAS), computes the likelihood of wildfires in fire-prone regions through satellite measurements of moisture in soil.

Once F-DAS compares moisture levels in a specific region to real-time rain patterns and temperatures, it can compute the probability of a wildfire eruption, according to John Reager, the projects lead scientist.

The technology was developed over a two-year study funded by NASA. Reager told KPCC he hopes to have F-DAS up and running and available to the public by next May, before the 2018 fire season.

By identifying specific swaths of land with higher probabilities of fires, authorities with the US Forest Service and residents can be better prepared for fires than they are now, he said.

Putting the right resources in the right places early in the season gives the chance for the entire firefighting community to have a leg up on fires and do it in the most efficient way possible, he said.

In 2015, Reager and scientists at NASA looked at the Forest Services seasonal prediction maps. But they found they were hand-drawn and weren't very detailed, Reager said.

They were just kind of blotches of red areas and green areas that were supposed to have more fires than usual or less fires that usual, he said.

F-DAS' fire predictions will use grids made up of individual 15-square-mile quadrants. Each quadrant's soil moisture levels will be measured and given a wildfire probably rating, he said.

NASA has an "abundance" of hydrology data mostly collected by three orbiting satellites: GRACE, SMAP and ARES, Reager said. That data will become the primary source of information for F-DAS's probability ratings.

The US Forest Service currently issues daily and weekly fire forecasts on its website through the National Interagency Fire Center.Reager said NASA plans to partner with the service todeploy fire trucks, helicopters and firefighters more strategically.

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NASA wants to battle SoCal wildfires by predicting where they start - 89.3 KPCC

Scientists use nanotechnology to bring electric guitar sound to the next level – CTV News

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

EDMONTON -- For years, serious guitar players have clung to their tube amplifiers, saying the rich sound is worth the hassle of old-school electronics.

Now, scientists at the University of Alberta have used the latest nanotechnology in a guitar pedal that duplicates that beloved tone without the inconvenience and expense.

"People generally use the word 'warmer,"' said Rick McCreery, a University of Alberta chemistry professor and researcher at Edmonton's National Institute for Nanotechnology.

Most consumer electronics, including non-tube guitar amps, depend on silicon-based devices called transistors or diodes. They work extremely well to help amplify electronic signals accurately and smoothly.

Too accurately, for many finely tuned musical ears. The sound of silicon lacks the rich harmonics and overtones added when a signal goes through a non-linear circuit, such as a tube.

"If you take an ordinary electric guitar and just amplify it, then guitarists would say this is sterile," McCreery said. "Guitarists didn't like the silicon because it was too linear, too accurate. It didn't generate nice harmonics."

Tubes, however, are fragile and expensive to replace.

Adam Bergren, McCreery's colleague and an amateur guitarist, knew that. He also knew that electronic circuits at the molecular scale have characteristics different from the straight-line response of silicon. At that scale, the rules of physics are different.

Together, they and their colleagues developed a circuit just a couple of molecules -- billionths of a metre -- thick. The team eventually created a non-linear circuit in a guitar pedal that responded just like a tube.

That pedal, dubbed the "Nanolog" and built in Edmonton, is already commercially available. It makes its industry debut this week at the National Association of Music Manufacturers in California, the largest such trade show in the world.

McCreery said their new business, Nanolog Audio, hopes to sell complete pedals and license the nanocircuitry to industry majors such as Fender or Boss.

The guitar pedal market is worth $100 million a year in the U.S. alone.

McCreery says the Nanolog is one of the very first consumer products available to use this type of nanotechnology. A previous pedal, called the Heisenberg and also developed in Edmonton, was released last year on a limited basis.

Guitar heroes are far from the only possible beneficiary from this type of circuit, said McCreery. Durable and reasonably priced, it could replace silicon in thousands of pieces of consumer electronics from stereo amps to cellphones.

Unlike silicon, the nanoscale circuit can be tuned to reflect whatever characteristics manufacturers desire, he said.

The Nanolog also underscores the importance of basic scientific research. McCreery said the first patents on the circuit date back to 2004 and researchers were working in the field for years before that.

"Basic research can have a fairly long incubation period," he said.

"I never intended to make music devices when I started doing this. It's not easy to tell what basic research is going to do for you."

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Scientists use nanotechnology to bring electric guitar sound to the next level - CTV News

Nanotechnology makes quantum leap into eye drops – AOP

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

Tiny particles found in televisions and tablets could be used to provide relief from eye infections

11 Jul 2017 by Selina Powell

Researchers are investigating the use of tiny particles found in the latest electronic displays to fight eye infections.

Quantum dots are small semiconductor particles that are a key component in nanotechnology.

A new study, published in ACS Nano, reported on the use of quantum dots as an ingredient in eye drops for the treatment of bacterial keratitis.

Researchers manufactured quantum dots by heating spermidine, a compound that boosts the effectiveness of antibiotics.

They found that the quantum dots disrupted bacterial cells while leaving animal cells unscathed.

The authors conclude that the new quantum dots are a potential alternative to conventional eye drop treatments for bacterial keratitis.

Current treatments for the eye infection include steroid drops, but these can result in scarring of the cornea.

Image credit: Antipoff

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Nanotechnology makes quantum leap into eye drops - AOP

State can cure skewed disease research – BusinessLIVE – Business Day (registration)

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

The department wanted nanotechnology to benefit the poor, so it directed funding towards pro-poor initiatives by prioritising research into diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis (TB). However, many less prominent diseases received proportionately more attention. In an unpublished report by the Mapungubwe Institute, researchers found that Parkinsons disease accounts for 2% of nanomedicine research, but is only 0.04% of South African disability-adjusted life years. In addition to Parkinsons, South African scholars study malaria, hepatitis B and Alzheimers in greater proportion than their disability-adjusted life years.

On the other hand, HIV/AIDS is severely understudied. HIV/AIDS accounts for 40% of SAs disability-adjusted life years but represents only 4% of South African nanomedicine research. The gross mismatch between R&D and the needs of South Africans shows that the interests of researchers can be at odds with the needs of the community.

We believe this mismatch is the symptom of global trends in medical R&D and the challenging economics of developing medicines that help the poor. Pharmaceutical companies have little desire to research diseases such as malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS because it will be difficult for them to recoup their R&D costs from medicine sales. In contrast, there is a robust market for cancer and Parkinsons disease medicines and they are, therefore, willing to invest in R&D in these fields.

As a consequence, well-targeted state intervention is needed to encourage R&D on diseases that do not have a market.

In a provocative book titled The Entrepreneurial State, Mariana Mazzucato provides examples of cases in which the state has inevitably been a lead investor and risk-taker in capitalist economies through "mission-oriented" investments and policies.

They include key technologies such as the internet, nanotechnologies, microbiology and drug discovery technologies, where the state played a leading role in achieving the necessary technological breakthroughs.

The state can risk funding initial R&D in areas that have no clear market but that push the bounds of science. An outstanding example is the iPhone all the key technologies behind it, such as the touchscreen, the internet and microprocessors, were funded by the state. The Obama administration also provided a direct $465m loan to Tesla Motors to build its model S.

The state should undertake risky investment to find solutions for its critical medicine research and drug discovery. The focus of private pharma is to focus on less innovative drugs, and private venture capitalists enter only once the real risk has been absorbed by the state.

Bill Gates said the key element to getting a breakthrough is more basic research, and that requires the government to take the lead. Only when that research is pointing towards a product, can we expect the private sector to kick in.

The government should play a leading role as an "entrepreneurial" investor and reap some of the financial rewards over time by retaining ownership of a small proportion of the intellectual property created.

Rather than succumb to its preassigned role as a "market fixer", the governments role should include resource mobilisation and setting the conditions for widespread market commercialisation.

It is time for SA to ask: what is it that the public and private sectors can do together to tackle the dire healthcare situation?

There is a great need for science and politics to combine efforts. A diverse set of governance actors, programmes, instruments and influences are needed by each form of new technology.

These recommendations will not immediately solve all of SAs health problems, but would put the country in a better position to improve its health-innovation system and the wellbeing of its people.

Woodson is assistant professor at Stony Brook University and Perrot is an independent researcher.

State can cure skewed disease research - BusinessLIVE - Business Day (registration)

Ethernet Getting Back On The Moore’s Law Track – The Next Platform

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

July 10, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

It would be ideal if we lived in a universe where it was possible to increase the capacity of compute, storage, and networking at the same pace so as to keep all three elements expanding in balance. The irony is that over the past two decades, when the industry needed for networking to advance the most, Ethernet got a little stuck in the mud.

But Ethernet has pulls out of its boots and left them in the swamp and is back to being barefoot again on much more solid ground where it can run faster. The move from 10 Gb/sec to 40 Gb/sec was slow and costly, and if it were not for the hyperscalers and their intense bandwidth hunger we might not even be at 100 Gb/sec Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching, much less standing at the transition to 200 Gb/sec and looking ahead to the not-to-distant future when 400 Gb/sec will be available.

Bandwidth has come along just at the right moment, when advances in CPU throughput are stalling as raw core performance did a decade ago and as new adjunct processing capabilities, embodied in GPUs, FPGAs, and various kinds of specialized processors are coming to market to get compute back on the Moores Law track. Storage, thanks to flash and persistent flash-like and DRAM-like memories such as 3D XPoint from Intel and Micron Technology, is also undergoing an evolution. It is a fun time to be a system architect, but perhaps only because we know that with these advanced networking options that bandwidth is not going to be a bottleneck.

The innovation that is allowing Ethernet to not leap ahead so much as jump to where it should have already been is PAM-4 signaling. The typical non-return to zero, or NRZ, modulation used with Ethernet switching hardware, cabling, and server adapters can encode one bit on a signal. With pulse amplitude modulation, or PAM, multiple levels of signaling can be encoded, so multiple bits can be encoded in the signal. With PAM-4, there are four levels of signaling which allow for two bits of data to be encoded at the same time on the signal, which doubles the effective bandwidth of a signal without increasing the clock rate. And looking ahead down the road, there is a possibility of stuffing even more bits in the wire using higher levels of PAM, and the whiteboards of the networking world are sketching out how to do three bits per signal with PAM-8 encoding and four bits per signal with PAM-16 encoding.

With 40 Gb/sec Ethernet, we originally had 10 Gb/sec lanes aggregated. This was not a very energy efficient way to do 40 Gb/sec, and it was even worse for early 100 Gb/sec Ethernet aggregation gear, which ganged up ten 10 Gb/sec lanes. When the hyperscalers nudged the industry along in July 2014 to backcast this 25 GHz (well, really 28 GHz before encoding) to 25 Gb/sec and 50 Gb/sec Ethernet switching with backwards compatibility to run 10 Gb/sec and 40 Gb/sec, the industry did it. So we got to affordable 100 Gb/sec switching with four lanes running at 25 Gb/sec, and there were even cheaper 25 Gb/sec and 50 Gb/sec options for situations where bandwidth needs were not as high, and at a much better cost. (Generally, you got 2.5X the bandwidth for 1.5X to 1.8X the cost, depending on the switch configuration.)

With the 200 Gb/sec Spectrum-2 Ethernet switching that Mellanox Technologies is rolling out, and that other switch makers are going to adopt, the signaling is still running at 25 GHz effective, but with the Spectrum-2 gear Mellanox has just unveiled, it is layering on PAM-4 modulation to double pump the wires, so it delivers 50 Gb/sec per lane even though it is still running at the same speed as 100 Gb/sec Ethernet lanes. And to reach 400 Gb/sec with Spectrum-2 gear, Mellanox is planning to widen out to eight lanes running at this 25 GHz (effective) while layering on PAM-4 modulation to get 100 Gb/sec effective per lane. At some point, the lane speed will have to increase to 50 GHz, but with PAM-8 modulation the switching at eight lanes could be doubled again to 800 GB/sec, and with PAM-16 you could hit 1.6 TB/sec. Adding in the 50 GHz real signaling here would get us to 3.2 TB/sec something that still probably seems like a dream and that is probably also very far into the future.

This all sounds a lot easier in theory than it will be to actually engineer, Kevin Deierling, vice president of marketing at Mellanox, tells The Next Platform. You can go to PAM-8 and you can go to Pam-16, but when you do that, you are starting to shrink the signal and it gets harder and harder to discriminate from one level in the signal and the next. Your signal-to-noise ratio goes away because you are shrinking your signal. Some folks are saying lets go to PAM-8 modulation, and other folks are saying that they need to use faster signaling rates like 50 GHz. I think we will see a combination of both.

The sweet thing about using PAM-4 to get to 200 Gb/sec switching is that the same SFP28 and QSFP28 adapters and cables that were used for 100 Gb/sec switching (and that are used for the 200 Gb/sec Quantum HDR InfiniBand that was launched by Mellanox last year and that will start shipping later this year) are used for the doubled up Ethernet speed bump. You need better copper cables for Spectrum-2 because the signal-to-noise ratio is shrinking, and similarly the optical transceivers need to be tweaked for the same reason. But the form factors for the adapters and switch ports remain the same.

With the 400 Gb/sec Spectrum-2 switching, the adapters have new wider form factors, with Mellanox supporting the QSFP-DD (short for double density) option instead of the OSFP (short for Octal Small Form Factor) option for optical ports. Deierling says Mellanox will let the market decide and support whatever it wants one, the other, or both but it is starting with QSFP-DD.

The Spectrum-2 ASIC can deliver 6.4 Tb/sec of aggregate switching bandwidth, and it can be carved up in a bunch of ways, including 16 ports at 400 Gb/sec, 32 ports at 200 Gb/sec, 64 ports at 100 Gb/sec (using splitter cables), and 128 ports running at 25 Gb/sec or 50 Gb/sec (again, using splitter cables). The Spectrum-2 chip can handle up to 9.52 billion packets per second, and has enough on chip SRAM to handle access control lists (ACLs) that span up to 512,000; with one of the 200 Gb/sec ports and a special FPGA accelerator that is designed to act as an interface to a chunk of external DRAM next to the chip, the Spectrum-2 can handle up to 2 million additional routes on the ACL what Deierling says is the first internet-scale Ethernet switch based on a commodity ASIC that is suitable for hyperscaler-class customers who want to do Layer 3 routing on a box at the datacenter scale.

As for latency, which is something that everyone is always concerned with, the port-to-port hop on the Spectrum-2 switch is around 300 nanoseconds, and this is about as low as the Ethernet protocol, which imposes a lot of overhead, can go, according to Deierling. The SwitchX-2 and Quantum InfiniBand ASICs from Mellanox can push latencies down to 100 nanoseconds or a tiny bit lower, but that is where InfiniBand hits a wall.

At any rate, Mellanox reckons that Spectrum-2 has the advantage in switching capacity, with somewhere between 1.6X and 1.8X the aggregate switching bandwidth compared to its competition and without packet loss and somewhere on the order of 1.5X to 1.7X lower latency, too.

At the moment, Mellanox is peddling four different configurations of its Spectrum-2 switches, which are shown below:

The Spectrum-2 switches are being made available in two different form factors, two full width devices and two half width devices. The SN3700 has a straight 32 ports running at 200 Gb/sec for flat, Clos style networks, while the SN3410 has 48 ports running at 50 Gb/sec with eight uplinks running at 200 Gb/sec for more standard three tiered networks used in the enterprise and sometimes on the edges of the datacenter at hyperscalers. The SN3100 is a half-width switch that has 16 ports running at 200 Gb/sec, and the SN3200 has 16 ports running at 400 Gb/sec.

It is interesting that there is not a full width SN series switch with 400 Gb/sec ports. This is intentionally so and based on the expected deployment scenarios. In scenarios where a very high bandwidth switch is needed to create a storage cluster or a hyperconverged storage platform, 16 ports in a rack is enough and two switches at 16 ports provides redundant paths between compute and storage or hyperconverged compute-storage nodes to prevent outages.

There is even a scenarios that, using the VMS Wizard software for the Spectrum-2 switch that converts a quad of the 2100 Gb/sec and 400 Gb/sec switches that creates a virtual modular switch that with 64 of the SN3410 devices that can support up to 3,072 ports in a single management domain. Take a look:

This Virtual Modular Switch is about 25 percent less expensive than actual modular switches with the same port count and lower bandwidth and higher latency.

Programmability is a big issue with networking these days, and the Spectrum-2 devices will be fully programmable and support both a homegrown compiler and scripting stack created by Mellanox as well as the P4 compiler that was created by Barefoot Networks for its Tofino Ethernet switch ASICs and that is being standardized upon by some hyperscalers. Mellanox expects for hyperscalers to want to do a lot of their own programming, but that most enterprise customers will simply run the protocols and routines that Mellanox itself codes for the machines. The point is, when a new protocol or extension comes along, Spectrum-2 will be able to adopt it and customers will not have to wait until new silicon comes out. The industry waited far too long for VXLAN to be supported in chips, and that will not happen again.

As for pricing, the more bandwidth you get, the more you pay, but the cost per bit keeps coming down and will for the 200 Gb/sec and 400 Gb/sec speeds embodied in the Spectrum-2 lineup. Pricing depends on volumes and on the cabling, of course, but here is how it generally looks. With the jump from 40 Gb/sec to 100 Gb/sec switching (based on the 25G standard), customers got a 2.5X bandwidth boost for somewhere between 1.5X and 1.8X the price somewhere around a 20 percent to 30 percent price/performance benefit. Today, almost two years later, 100 Gb/sec ports are at price parity with 40 Gb/sec ports back then, and Deierling says that a 100 Gb/sec port costs around $300 for a very high volume hyperscaler and something like $600 per port for a typical enterprise customer. The jump to 200 Gb/sec will follow a similar pattern. Customers moving from 100 Gb/sec to 200 Gb/sec switches (moving from Spectrum to Spectrum-2 devices in the Mellanox lineup) will get 2X the bandwidth for 1.5X the cost. Similarly, those jumping from 100 Gb/sec to 400 Gb/sec will get 4X the bandwidth per port for 3X the cost.

Over time, we expect that there will be price parity between 100 Gb/sec pricing today and 200 Gb/sec pricing, perhaps two years hence, and that the premium for 400 Gb/sec will be more like 50 percent than 100 percent. But those are just guesses. A lot depends on what happens in the enterprise. What we do know is that enterprises are increasingly being forced by their applications and the latency demands of their end user applications to deploy the kind of fat tree networks that are common at HPC centers and hyperscalers and they are moving away from the over-subscribed, tiered networks of the past where they could skimp on the switch devices and hope the latencies were not too bad.

Categories: Cloud, Connect, Enterprise, Hyperscale

Tags: Ethernet, Mellanox, PAM-4, Spectrum-2

Parameter Encoding on FPGAs Boosts Neural Network Efficiency OpenPower, Efficiency Tweaks Define Europes DAVIDE Supercomputer

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Ethernet Getting Back On The Moore's Law Track - The Next Platform

Chart in Focus: AMD’s Moore’s Law Plus Concept – Market Realist

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

AMD Seeks to Gain Market Share from Intel and NVIDIA PART 3 OF 22

In the past, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) had suffered from delayed product launches because it used highly specialized semiconductor nodes that it had built. As a result, any process difficulties and yield issues were specific to the company.

In 2012, AMD spun off its manufacturing unit, Global Foundries, and became a fabless company. This helped it address the problem of process technologies and yield difficulties. In 2016, the company launched its first product on the 14nm (nanometer) process node, bringing it on par with its competitors Intel (INTC) and NVIDIA (NVDA) in terms of process technology.

However, Moores law is slowing. Moores law states that the size of the chip would shrink every two years and the number of transistors would double, thereby improving performance and reducing cost and power consumption.

As Moores law slows, companies are looking for innovative ways to power the next generation of computing capability. AMD developed the concept of Moores Law Plus to drive future innovation.

At its 2017 Financial Analyst Day, AMDs chief technology officer, Mark Papermaster, explained that its semiconductor technology alone cannot address the companys future computing needs. As a result, AMD has adopted a three-pronged approach to drive future generationchip development: integrate hardware, software support, and design from a system perspective.

AMD is improving its core architecture to integrate with other hardware. The company developed Infinity Fabric, which connects multiple chips efficiently and provides greater control with respect to power and security.

AMD is advancing its packaging from the current MCM (multichip modules) and 2.5D pack unit to 3D packaging.

The company has collaborated with industry participants like IBM (IBM) and Xilinx (XLNX) in developing anindustry-standard interconnect like CCIX (cache-coherent fabric to interconnect accelerators). CCIX would provide high-performance connectivity and rack scale for different accelerators and server processors.

AMD is also looking to optimize the physical design of its chips by making them denser and more power-efficient.

AMD is supporting its hardware with very high-performance software solutions.Instead of locking the software, AMD has adopted an open computing platform that allows users to download and upload information for free.

The company is using C/C++ Compiler and advanced frameworks like ROCm (Radeon Open Compute platform) to support hardware.

Semiconductor and software technology cannot deliver the desired computing power in isolation. All these technologies are integrated into a system design. For instance, AMDs Radeon Instinct Initiative would integrate the Ryzen CPU (central processing unit), the Vega GPU (graphics processing unit), HBM2 (high-bandwidth memory), and ROCm to deliver machine learning and heterogeneous computing systems.

AMD has recently acquired wireless millimeter-wave interconnect technology that it plans to use in developing wireless VR (virtual reality) headsets.

Next, well look at AMDs new CPU architecture.

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Chart in Focus: AMD's Moore's Law Plus Concept - Market Realist

Could this 2D materials innovation push Moore’s law into sub-5nm gate lengths? – Electropages (blog)

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

In a major technological development a material-device-circuit level co-optimisation of field-effect transistors (FETs) based on 2D materials for high-performance logic applications scaled beyond the 10nm technology node has been presented.

It is the result of collaborative work between Imec, the nanoelectronics and digital technology innovation centre and scientists from KU Leuven in Belgium and Pisa University in Italy. In addition to this Imec has also created designs which are thought to allow the use of mono-layer 2D materials to facilitate Moores law below a 5nm gate length.

Scientists believe 2D materials which are formed from two-dimensional crystals may be able to create a transistor with a channel thickness down to the level of single atoms and gate lengths of a few nanometers.

A key technology driver that allowed the chip industry to progress Moores Law and to producing increasingly powerful devices was the continued scaling of gate lengths.

In order to counter the resulting negative short-channel effects, chip manufacturers have already moved from planar transistors to FinFETs. They are now introducing other transistor architectures such as nanowire FETs. This material breakthrough goes beyond existing practices.

In order to fit FETs based on 2D materials into the scaling roadmap it is essential to understand how their characteristics relate to their behavior in digital circuits. In a recent paper published in Scientific Reports the Imec scientists and their colleagues explained how to choose materials, design the devices and optimise performance to create circuits meeting the requirements for sub-10nm high-performance logic chips. Their findings demonstrate the need to use 2D materials with anisotropic characteristics, meaning it is stronger along its length than laterally and also has a smaller effective mass in the transport direction.

Using one such material, monolayer black-phosphorus, the researchers presented device designs which they say could pave the way to extend Moores law into the sub-5nm gate length.

These designs reveal that for sub-5nm gate lengths, 2D electrostatics arising from gate stack design become more of a challenge than direct source-to-drain tunneling.

These results are very encouraging because in the case of 3D semiconductors, such as Si, scaling gate length so aggressively is practically impossible.

Paul Whytock is European Editor for Electropages. He has reported extensively on the electronics industry in Europe, the United States and the Far East for over twenty years. Prior to entering journalism he worked as a design engineer with Ford Motor Company at locations in England, Germany, Holland and Belgium.

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HIV’s Molecular Mimicry Exploits Immune Tolerance to Halt Antibody Attack – Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

The human immune system has a built in failsafe to ensure that we dont normally produce antibodies that attack our own tissues. The failsafe, known as immune tolerance, ensures that any B cells that might produce self-reactive broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) are eliminated in the bone marrow, or if the B cells do reach the circulation they are suppressed so that they cant mature into antibody-secreting plasma cells.

Work in mice by a team at the University of Colorado School of Medicine now suggests that human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) exploits immune tolerance to prevent the production of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) that can target the viral Env protein and destroy the virus, because the same antibodies would also recognize epitopes on the bodys own histone H2A. The team, led by Raul M. Torres, Ph.D., professor of immunology and microbiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, has found that mice with weakened immune tolerance due genetic defects or drug treatment readily produce broadly neutralizing antibodies that can eliminate multiple strains of HIV-1.

We think this may reflect an example of molecular mimicry where HIV-1 Env has evolved to mimic an epitope on histone H2A as a mechanism of immune camouflage," Prof. Torres suggests.

Human patients with the autoimmune disorder systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are known to demonstrate a lower incidence of HIV-1 infection, and this is thought to be because they produce self-reactive antibodies that can also neutralize HIV-1. To investigate this a bit further in a mouse model, Dr. Torres team looked first at animals with a genetic defect that causes symptoms similar to SLE. When the animals were injected with alum, an adjuvant used in vaccines to trigger antibody secretion, they started to produce antibodies that neutralize HIV-1.

Production of antibodies that could neutralize HIV-1 was also associated with increased levels of a self-reactive antibody targeting histone H2A. autoimmune-prone strains of mice treated with alum produce HIV-1neutralizing anti-bodies, and this activity correlates with increased anti-H2A IgM autoantibody titers, the authors note in their published paper in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, which is titled Breaching Peripheral Tolerance Promotes the Production of HIV-1Neutralizing Antibodies.

The researchers then treated normal mice using pristane, a drug that impairs immunological tolerance. The pristane-treated animals also started to produce antibodies that could neutralize some strains of HIV-1. Production of these antibodies was increased further when the pristine-treated mice were injected with the alum adjuvant. And when the animals were then injected with the HIV-1 protein Env, they started to produce potent bnAbs that were able to neutralize a broad range of HIV-1 strains.

Again, the production of HIV-1 neutralizing antibodies correlated with increased levels of the self-reactive anti-histone H2A antibodies, which the researchers purified, and confirmed were able to neutralize HIV-1.

Here, using lupus prone mouse models, we confirm that immunological tolerance indeed limits wild-type B cells from producing Env-specific antibodies able to neutralize tier 2 HIV-1 strains, the authors conclude. We extend these findings by further formally demonstrating that a breach in peripheral tolerance can lead to the production of HIV-1neutralizing antibodies in mice with wild-type immune systems.

Prof. Torres stresses that his teams work was carried out in an animal model, and more research will need to investigate whether the findings are relevant to HIV immunity in humans. Studies will need to determine whether it is possible to transiently relax immunological tolerance so that HIV-1 bnAb production can be triggered through vaccination, but without causing autoimmune side effects. It is not clear that relaxing tolerance is a path for promoting humoral immunity to HIV, Dr. Torres told GEN. Ongoing work in the lab is to attempt to transiently break peripheral tolerance in mouse models and to monitor autoantibody production, the ability of treated mice to mount a neutralizing HIV antibody response, and whether tolerance is reinstated after treatment.

It has been more commonly thought that similarities between a pathogen and a cross-reactive self-antigen represent the basis for certain autoimmune diseases, Dr. Torres further points out. That is, upon infection, the immune response generates antibodies against the pathogen but that these can also recognize self-antigens and ultimately may lead to autoimmunity. However, there are a number of examples in which an antibody against a particular pathogen also cross-reacts with a self-antigen and, thus, in these cases it may very well be that these represent examples of immune camouflage by the pathogen. Whether this similarity represents evolution by the pathogen to escape tolerance is difficult to determine.

Dr. Torres cites examples, including infections by Streptococcus pyogenes, in which antibodies against two strep antigens, M protein and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc), also cross-react with a cardiac protein, host myosin. And in EpsteinBarr virus (EBV) infection, antibodies against the viral EpsteinBarr nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA-1) antigen also cross-react with Smith self-antigen, a nuclear protein.

Artificial intelligence aids research to find best treatment for stroke patients – Medical Xpress

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

July 10, 2017 by Becky Freemal After a stroke, each patient faces a unique path to recovery a precision medicine approach could help them receive better, customized care. Credit: Virginia Tech

Studying human diseases is the equivalent of solving a massive and dynamic jigsaw puzzle with pieces that are constantly changing shape.

A team of researchers from the Nutritional Immunology and Molecular Medicine Laboratory (NIMML), a leading laboratory at the Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech, and the Department of Biomedical and Translational Informatics at Geisinger Health System are now working together to find precise methods to treat stroke patients using computer algorithms, clinical data, and advanced computational methods.

In a new study, the collaborative team of experts has developed new computational methods to stratify stroke patients in an emergency setting, paving the way to data-driven triage process with higher fidelity.

"Advanced machine-learning methods will be driving the next generation of personalized medicine at the clinical and genomic levels; however, these methods and their outcomes will have an added value if we let models actively learn from experts and experts learn from models. Our team has applied AI successfully to develop a data-driven triage process for classifying stroke patients. Ongoing collaborative studies are also applying these same AI methods successfully in infectious and immune-mediated diseases," said Vida Abedi, a researcher at Geisinger Health System and adjunct faculty member in NIMML.

The rich, longitudinal data warehouse of the Geisinger Health System has detailed electronic health records with tens of millions of legacy clinical data and more than 3 million active participants. This data is one of the major strengths that allowed Geisinger to be selected to participate in the national Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program with the goal of improving the ability to prevent and treat diseases based on individual differences in lifestyle, environment, and genetics.

"My resolve to implement a revolutionary vision for precision medicine is the driving force that defines and underpins this successful collaboration. As opposed to the one-size-fits-all approach that dominates health care today, by focusing on a unique iterative integration of large-scale clinical record mining using new AI systems, informatics analyses, and computer modeling, NIMML and Geisinger Health System are partnering effectively to make tangible progress toward the personalized, individual treatment of human diseases," said Josep Bassaganya-Riera, director of NIMML and CEO of BioTherapeutics.

At its core, AI is a complex computer algorithm that replaces the traditional rule-based strategy with a data-driven approach capable of learning from positive and negative experiences. AI algorithms are driving the future of precision medicine and provide better health-care support for diverse and dynamic patient populations.

On average, the electronic health records of a four-year patient contains about 32 petabytes of data. The application of AI in medicine will leverage the volume and exponential growth of clinical data to translate clinical information into new unforeseen insights for safer, more-effective and cost-efficient personalized healthcare.

Explore further: Researchers target gene to treat inflammatory bowel disease

More information: Vida Abedi et al. Novel Screening Tool for Stroke Using Artificial Neural Network, Stroke (2017). DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.117.017033

Journal reference: Stroke

Provided by: Virginia Tech

Contracting shingles, a reactivation of the chickenpox virus, increases a person's risk of stroke and heart attack, according to a research letter published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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‘That’s the story of the American Dream, right?’ – Post-Bulletin

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

As a poor youngster staring at a dead-end future in Mexico, Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa would often lay on the roof of his ramshackle home to dream of a brighter future.

Not even he dared dream his life would become this compelling.

Affectionately known as "Dr. Q," Quinones-Hinojosa recently was hired to be Mayo Clinic's chairman of neurologic surgery at its expanding Florida campus while leading federal research to cure brain cancer.

And, after long consideration, he's also given Disney the green light to turn his life story into a movie.

Expectations are high for the dramatic version of Dr. Q's life, especially since Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment's credits includes "12 Years A Slave," "Moonlight," "Selma" and "The Departed," among other blockbusters. The script is expected to be completed by the end of 2017 and it may hit theaters by the end of 2018.

'Knew something good would happen'

While it won't be a true documentary, the truth appears to need little embellishment.

"I used to go to the roof of my house and look at the stars I knew something good was going to happen," Dr. Q said last week by phone from Florida. "There's a lot of people who immigrate to the U.S., but there's not very many who came from nothing to be where (I am) today. That's the story of the American dream, right?"

It's a timely topic with unambiguous political overtones. The Trump administration has cracked down on immigration and increased deportation efforts, which has raised the profile of sanctuary cities across the country.

Dr. Q entered this country illegally, and while he is now a U.S. citizen, it's an open question whether he would have been allowed to reach his current heights in today's politicized climate. As an 18-year-old who jumped a border fence to enter the United States in 1988, he didn't speak English, had no immigration paperwork and was essentially broke.

His first few years were spent in the fields as a migrant worker, earning enough money to learn English at a California community college. He overcame those obstacles to earn an academic scholarship at UC-Berkeley in 1991.

Three years later, his unusual ascent saw him enroll at Harvard, paving the way for him to become a brain surgeon.

'Real people who are changing the world'

The rags-to-riches immigrant story first caught the attention of Plan B's studio execs way back in 2007, while Dr. Q was Professor of Neurosurgery and Oncology, Neurology, and Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Director of the Brain Tumor Stem Cell Laboratory at Johns Hopkins. Jeremy Kleiner, who is now Plan B's co-president with Pitt, made his initial pitch to Dr. Q in 2007.

Dr. Q spent the next eight years respectfully declining Kleiner's periodic overtures. He finally reconsidered after seeing "12 Years A Slave," which won best picture at the 2015 Oscars.

"The world has a tremendous appetite for real stories," Dr. Q said. "I always tell people, 'I'm not an expert on immigration, I'm an expert on brain cancer and brain surgery.' Why my story resonates is we need stories of real people who are changing the world.

"I'm not a fancy person. I still take the trash out of my house and my kids always make fun of me because I know a lot about very little. At the end of the day, I'm just a regular guy but my patients may think differently. They put their lives in my hands."

While filmmakers have been chasing Dr. Q's story for about a decade, Mayo Clinic's pursuit is actually longer. He turned down a 2005 job offer at Mayo's Rochester campus to work at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Q's decision this April to join the Mayo system finally! was hailed as "a coup" by Gianrico Farrugia, CEO of Mayo's Jacksonville campus. His arrival coincides with a $100 million expansion project, aimed at making Jacksonville a destination medical center for that part of the country and Latin America.

Construction is expected to start later this year on buildings to improve services for complex cancer patients and those seeking neurologic or neurosurgical care. That all falls under Dr. Q's purview.

"Any place in the world would be pleased to have him coming," Farrugia told the Florida-Times Union. "It's a real coup to have him coming to Florida. I think he will have a remarkable impact on Jacksonville."

Forbes has named Dr. Q one of the most creative Mexicans in the world, while Popular Science has also dubbed him among the "Brilliant Ten" for his cancer research. The prestigious William J. and Charles H. Mayo Professor also presented May 18 at Tedx Zumbro River at Autumn Ridge Church in Rochester about his quest to use stem cells to fight brain cancer.

While collaborating daily on an upcoming Disney movie that figures to make him a household name, Dr. Q's says he feels a particular kinship with Mayo due to its humble origins.

"They (Mayo Clinic's founders) went out in the middle of cornfields and built something that is unimaginable," Dr. Q said. "I came and basically went to work in the fields in California. I picked corn when I first came in 1987. I relate so much and in so many ways that I feel I have so many things in common with this amazing institution."

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'That's the story of the American Dream, right?' - Post-Bulletin

Which universities are pushing the boundaries in life sciences? – Times Higher Education (THE)

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

If you had to name the branch of university research that has the most tangible impact on mankind's day-to-day activities, it is likely that the life sciences would be near the top of the list: notmany days go by without the announcement of a new drug or gene discovery that has the potential to change lives or tackle disease.

Much of the best research in these fields takes place in the ultra-elite universities that excel in subjects across the board.

But analysis byTimes Higher Education of the institutions that make up the World University Rankings reveals that there is a cluster of institutions just below this elite that areparticularly strong in the life sciences and in driving forward innovation.

The 120 "life science challengers"tend to pitch much higher in the subject rankings related to clinical research and life sciences, as might be expected, with the bulk of them achieving overall scores in the middle to upper ranges (see below).

However, they also perform very strongly in terms of the citation impact of their research, something that can be credited to their excelling in fields where journal article activity is key. Unlike the "technology challengers"(another cluster in the rankings), they also tend to be older universities, with few having been established less than 50 years ago.

Beyond these similarities though, the factors that drive the individual successes of the institutions are varied. In some cases excellent strategic decisions taken by the university are a factor; in others the local or regional ecosystem for research plays a part.

Sweden, which has five institutions in the list (headed by the medical research specialist Karolinska Institute), is one example where the ecosystem for life sciences appears to be a key factor.

Ulf Landegren, professor of molecular medicine at Uppsala University, another of the Swedish institutions in the list, said that the country had historically excelled in many life science fields, but that it was now taking its performance to another level with the help of collaborative programmes. The Science for Life Laboratory is one such programme government-funded, it is based in Uppsala and also in Stockholm.

The SciLifeLab, as it is known, allows researchers from across Sweden to use cutting-edge and often expensive technology without paying for the privilege (apart from the costs of disposables used in lab work). Companies and scientists based outside Sweden can also use the facilities, but must face the full cost of doing so.

Professor Landegren, who was heavily involved in setting up Uppsalas SciLifeLab site, said the effect of the scheme has been that Swedish scientists now have ready access to advanced techniques that they may not themselves have the economy or the skills to set up.

Increasingly we see that life science is going the way of physics, in that technology is getting a little too expensive and complicated for individuals to have all the resources they need to answer their research questions so you might as well centralise it, he explained.

He added that as well as making generic technology and techniques available to all Swedish scientists, SciLifeLab went a stage further by also identifying emerging beyond state-of-the-art approaches to research and capitalising on them before they spread to other countries and universities.

Access to expensive technology and the latest techniques is a theme carried across to other institutions that make the list.

Ross Coppel, director of research in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Australia's Monash University, puts its success down to past strategic decisions to invest properly in the best academic staff and equipment, but also to the skilled technicians who operate facilities.

He said universities research strategies are often very similar and it [success] comes down to your capacity to implement and execute your vision. I think we were in the fortunate position of having the financial resource to do it [and] the determination to do it and its worked out for us very well.

On the role of technicians, he said Monash had focused on their field being a career path in its own right, with good job security and benefits. In return, in terms of testing new techniques and advancing research technology, we look to them also to be pushing the boundaries of what is achievable", explained Professor Coppel.

Beyond smaller research nations like Sweden and Australia, the life science challengers cluster is dominated by institutions in the US and UK.

With 35 institutions of the 120 (the UK has 24), the US is out in front, with a number ofprivate institutions excelling in research.Here, the unique position that some American universities occupy having strong ties to hospitals and the general healthcare system is an obvious explanation for their success.

Emory University in Atlanta, for instance, is behind the state of Georgias biggest healthcare system not-for-profit Emory Healthcare while the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has its headquarters adjacent to the university's campus. This geographic proximity between researchers and the practical application of their findings has obvious collaborative benefits.

But the university is also keen to stress the importance of its global reach through its success in spinning out research into the healthcare market and its academic links overseas.

David Stephens, vice-president for research at Emory, said that the institution had "realised its greatest success in commercialising research discoveries in the field of infectious diseases. For example, nine out of 10 US HIV/Aids patients, and thousands more globally, are on life-saving drugs discovered at Emory".

Meanwhile, an effect of its international collaborations can be seen in the recent joint set-up with the University of Queensland another life science challenger institution of a multimillion-dollar biotech company developing cancer treatments.

simon.baker@timeshighereducation.com

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Which universities are pushing the boundaries in life sciences? - Times Higher Education (THE)

Levitra professional mail order telephone number – Cheap generic levitra professional – Van Wert independent

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

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OHIO CITY The Ohio City Park Association and the Lambert Days Committee has finalized plans for the 2017 festival.

Lambert Days is always the third full weekend in July. This years dates are July 21-23. This is also the 50th anniversary of Ohio Citys celebration of the life of John W. Lambert and his invention of Americas first automobile.

This years edition of Lambert Days will feature a communitywide garage sale. For more information, contact Laura Morgan at 419.965.2515. There will also be food all weekend in the newly renovated Community Building on Ohio 118.

Friday, July 21

Festivities start off with a steak dinner (carryout is available), starting at 4 p.m. Friday. Ohio Citys American LegionHarvey Lewis Post 346 will have aflag-raising ceremony at 5 Friday evening, while kids games and inflatables will also open at 5. At 6 p.m., the Lambert Days Wiffleball Homerun Derby will take place. For more information, contactLorenzo Frye 419.771.7037.

There will also be entertainment at 6 p.m. featuring Cass Blue. At 7, there will be a adult Wiffleball tournament. For more information, contact Brian Bassett419.203.8203. A Texas Hold em Tournament will begin at 7 p.m. Friday, along with Monte Carlo Night, which begins at 8 p.m. For more information, contact Jeff Agler at 419.513.0580.

Entertainment for Friday night starts at 8 and will be the band Colt & Crew. There will also be a fireworks display at 10:15 p.m. Friday (Saturday night is the rain date).

Saturday, July 22

Saturday morning begins with a softball tournament at 8. For more information, contact Brian Bassettat 419.203.8203. There will also be a coed volleyball tournament that starts at 9 a.m. Saturday. For more information, contact Tim Matthews at 419.203.2976. The Lambert Days Kids Wiffleball Tournament starts at 10 a.m. Saturday. For more information, contact Lorenzo Frye at 419.771.7037.

Kids games and Inflatables continue at 11 Saturday morning. Cornhole tournament registration and 3-on-3 basketball tournament registration start at noon, while both tournaments begin at 1 p.m. For more information on cornhole, contact Josh Agler at 567.259.9941 and for 3-on-3 basketball, contact Scott Bigham at 419.953.9511.

The Hog Roast Dinner starts at 4 p.m. Saturday and carryout is available. There will also be music under the tent by Jeff Unterbrink at 4. Bingo will start at 5 p.m., and the night ends with entertainment by Megan White and Cadillac Ranch.

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Kamya Panjabi’s bare back pic goes missing from Instagram, actor says account hacked – Hindustan Times

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

Kamya Panjabi, much like her colleagues in the television industry, extended her support to Ekta Kapoors Lipstick Under My Burkha, on social media. She posted a bare back picture and captioned it: They Said that dont be that woman The that other woman..the divorced woman .. the single mother woman .. But I am that woman ..Every time I put in my lipstick on, I smile. because I am being true to myself . Whether the world agrees or not I have made my own dont.. Dont you

However, after a few hours, the picture was deleted from her account and that led to speculation that shes backed out from the campaign for the film and that she changed her mind about the bold photo. To end all doubt, Kamya took to Twitter to reveal that her account was hacked and the hacker deleted the photo, as till date she has never removed any posts from her account. As per sources, she will take the help of police to find out about the hacker.

As per Kamya, this is the photo that the hacker removed from her account.

Kamya gave out details about what happened. Open the app. Picture has been removed. News articles claiming my unsure mind led to impulsive upload of nudity and hence took it off. Never posted something I never believed in. Never took off something I once posted. Wore my heart and scares on my sleeves with pride. Happy hacking happy hating. She even put a hastag, I know you know my password. When contacted, the actor said that she has already given out all the details on Twitter and doesnt want to talk more about this.

This is not the first time an actors account on the photo sharing app has been hacked. Early this year, Nia Sharmas Instagram account was hacked and she had reported it to the cyber cell. In Bollywood, actors such as Amitabh Bachchan, Shahid Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, Karan Johar and Shruti Haasan also faced the same thing.

Kamya, currently seen as Preeto in Shakti - Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki, is reportedly in a relationship with Bigg Boss season 10 winner Manveer Gurjar. She recently posted a photo with Manveer and captioned it: very special someone. For those who are not in the know, Kamya met Manveer on Bigg Boss when she was invited as a guest. Kamya praised him and even predicted that he might take the trophy home.

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Kamya Panjabi's bare back pic goes missing from Instagram, actor says account hacked - Hindustan Times

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