Take A Bite starts Wednesday with food, music, astronomy – Glens Falls Post-Star

GLENS FALLS Take A Bite, the annual summer weekly food and entertainment festival, starts this week, with more than 35 participants set up along downtown sidewalks from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday.

I cant believe it whoo! said Candice Frye, chairwoman of the Take A Bite organizing committee of the Glens Falls Collaborative.

Musicians perform, restaurants sell small portions of entrees, appetizers and desserts, and community organizations set up information booths.

The festival has become an informal competition among restaurants to see who can come up with the most uncommon recipe each week, said Frye, executive director of Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council.

Frye said she is excited that two new dessert vendors Sweets by Marissa and Yum, Yum Ice will participate this year.

Take A Bite continues weekly from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Aug. 16.

Restaurants will be set up along Glen Street and Maple Street, and later in the summer along Ridge Street.

There will be a lot happening on Maple Street this year, Frye said.

Most Ridge Street restaurants, with the exception of Morgan & Company, will be set up on Glen Street this Wednesday, and possibly on subsequent Wednesdays, until work on the Ridge Street infrastructure project moves past the block of Ridge Street between the Centennial Circle roundabout and The Queensbury Hotel, Frye said.

Morgan and Company will still have its tent set up in front of the restaurant at the corner of Ridge and Maple streets.

Take A Bite is a great example of the way businesses and arts organizations work together to improve the citys quality of life, said Glens Falls Mayor Jack Diamond.

Its kind of the face of the city in the summertime, he said. Were looking forward to it.

Musical entertainment this Wednesday will be Milayne Jacksons Blue Train Trio at the Centennial Circle roundabout and saxophone soloist Gavin Munoff on Glen Street, in the vicinity of Crandall Public Library.

Coinciding with Take A Bite, Crandall Public Library will kick off its Eyes to the Skies summer free astronomy program series at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the community room in the library basement.

Kevin Manning, an astronomer with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and a consultant to NASA, will speak.

The series leads up to the coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in the United States on Aug. 21.

Follow staff writer Maury Thompson at All Politics is Local blog, at PS_Politics on Twitter and at Maury Thompson Post-Star on Facebook.

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Review: ‘Astrophysics for People in a Hurry’ by Neil DeGrasse Tyson … – Lincoln Journal Star

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, W.W. Norton & Company, 222 pages, $18.95

Astrophysics is a branch of science that may seem beyond the grasp of most individuals, including this humble reviewer. Fortunately, readers curious about pursuing the marvels of the cosmos have Neil DeGrasse Tyson and his predecessor, Carl Sagan, to hold our hands on the journey.

Tyson, who recently became Americas first recipient of the Stephen Hawking medal for science communication, intended Astrophysics for People in a Hurry as an introduction to his ever-evolving field. Surprisingly, the book immediately rose to No. 1 on the New York Times nonfiction best seller list.

As readers familiar with his 13-part television series, Cosmos, A Space Time Odyssey, already know, those who might feel overwhelmed by the subject matter should be reassured. Tysons feather-light approach to each ponderous topic is never intimidating.

What other scientist would bother with a reminder that Chuck Berrys music was deemed one of the diverse sounds of our planet which would be included on the Voyager space probe? Tyson even recalls the Saturday Night Live aliens response which requested us to send more Chuck Berry.

And what other author would be able to gently connect such diverse subjects as dark matter, the origin of the universe, and the infinitesimal components of quantum physics? He relates the discovery of the invisible electromagnetic spectrum to the realization that telescopes could be built to perceive wavelengths beyond those seen by the human eye. Thus the discipline of astrophysics was born.

By linking the cosmic explosion of stars to the formation of the basic chemical elements, he joins humankind to the entire inanimate universe.

Tysons book will make the reader ponder how Homo sapiens arrived upon this small blue pebble we call home and what wonders are yet to be discovered.

J. Kemper Campbell, M.D., is a retired Lincoln ophthalmologist who felt more intelligent by simply carrying this book around.

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Penn State astrophysicist receives Dr. Richard J. and Sally Matthews Award – Penn State News

DUNMORE, Pa. Agns Kim, assistant professor of physics at Penn State Worthington Scranton (PSWS), is the recipient of the 2017 Dr. Richard J. and Sally Matthews Award for Scholarly Activity.

The award is given each year to a member of the campus faculty in recognition of his/her scholarly and research activities.

Kim is an astrophysicist whose research focuses mainly on white dwarf asteroseismology and stellar evolution.

White dwarfs are stars that have lived out their lives and shut down, she explained. They are called dwarfs because they are not much larger than the Earth. However, they still contain a mass similar to the Suns and so are compact stars."

Kim has found that intriguing ever since she was a child.

She does her work using super computers. Recent projects have included the study of variable white dwarfs observed by the NASA satellite Kepler. From space, this telescope is able to watch stars uninterrupted for weeks on end, yielding very useful data for the study of white dwarfs.

Over the past few years, Kim has been involved in the study of the first white dwarf discovered to flare up, and is currently working on the internal rotation of the hottest-known, helium-atmosphere white dwarf.

She received her doctorate in astrophysics from the University of Texas at Austin; and her masters degree in astrophysics and bachelors degree in physics from Iowa State University.

Prior to joining the Penn State Worthington Scranton faculty in 2013, she was an associate professor of physics, physics program coordinator, and an assistant professor of physics at Georgia College and State University at Milledgeville, Georgia.

Kim has also served as an assistant academic director for the Summer Science Program in Socorro, New Mexico; a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Texas, Austin; and an adjunct professor at DeVry University, in Austin.

She is a full member of the American Astronomical Society and serves on the Undergraduate Research Committee and Diversity Council at PSWS.

Kim has been an invited speaker at professional seminars around the country and Canada, and has been published in several scientific publications, including: The Astrophysical Journal; Astronomy and Astrophysics; the American Journal of Physics; the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society; Communications In Asteroseismology; and the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

She has presented her research at international conferences held around the world, most recently at The Physics of White Dwarfs in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

A native of Switzerland, she speaks English and French, and currently resides in Olyphant, Pennsylvania, with her husband.

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An Advanced AI Has Been Deployed to Fight Against Hackers – Futurism

In Brief CERN and the Large Hadron Collider depend on a massive computer grid, as does the global network of scientists who use LHC data. CERN scientists are now teaching an AI system to protect the grid from cyber threats using machine learning. Guarding A Global Grid

It takes a truly massive network of hundreds of thousands of computers to help scientists around the world unravel the mysteries of the Universe, which is the purpose of the CERN grid (CERN stands for Conseil Europen pour la Recherche Nuclaire, in English, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics). Naturally, however, particle physicists arent the only ones who want to access that kind of computing power. Hackers are also interested in CERNs grid, and CERN scientists are skipping past standard cybersecurity measures and deploying artificial intelligence (AI) tostay protected.

It is the job of any cybersecurity effort to detect unusual activity and identify possible threats. Of course, systems can look for known code worms and viruses, but malware changes too fast for humans to keep up with it. This is where AI and machine learning comes in. CERN scientists are teaching their AI system to distinguish between safe and threatening behavior on the network and take action when it detects a problem.

CERN is home to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as well as its massive computer grid. Scientists use the LHC to study high-speed collisions between subatomic particles in 2017 alone, they collected an estimated 50 petabytes of data about these particles. CERN provides this critically important data to universities and laboratories around the world for research.

The LHC and CERN itself require a massive amount of data storage and computing power, which is what prompted the creation of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid. The grid connects computers in more than 40 countries from more than 170 research facilities, and works like a power grid to some extent, providing computing resources to facilities based on demand. This presents a unique cybersecurity challenge: keeping the massive globally-distributed grid secure while maintaining the computing power and storage unimpeded.

Machine learning can train a system to detect potential threats while retaining the flexibility that it needs to provide computing power and storage on demand. F-Secure senior security researcher Jarno Niemel told Scientific American that the biggest challenge for the project will be developing algorithms that can accurately distinguish between normal and malicious network activity without causing false alarms. For now, the AI upgrades are still being tested. If they work well protecting just the part of the grid that ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) uses, the team can deploy AI cybersecurity measures throughout the system.

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This medical marijuana start-up uses artificial intelligence to find which strain is best for you – CNBC

Artificial intelligence is being used to improve banking, marketing, the legal field and now to find which one of the more than 30,000 strains of medical marijuana is best for you.

Potbot uses AI to "read" through peer-reviewed medical journals to find studies on cannabinoids, the active compounds in marijuana. Using the research, it pairs 37 symptoms like insomnia, asthma and cancer with branded marijuana strains to find which type of weed is best suited to treat each one.

The company has raised $5 million to date, according to Potbotics CEO David Goldstein. Part of the reason for its success is the technology doesn't actually involve marijuana directly, making it completely legal he said. The app is available in Apple's App Store and the Google Play store. In addition, the bigger pharmaceutical companies haven't entered the space, giving the marijuana industry a "start-up mentality."

"We definitely see there's interest in the industry, for sure," Goldstein said. "It's one that has real potential in the United States and internationally. A lot of investors like non-cannabis touching entities, because they feel like they are hedging their bets a little bit."

There are some challenges, including having to look at state-by-state regulations instead of being able to scale quickly like other tech companies, he pointed out. Potbotics is focusing in the New England area for now.

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Artificial intelligence could be the answer for productivity woes – The Sydney Morning Herald

Artificial intelligence could be the most revolutionary force affecting productivity in the United States economy, says the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

"Everyone in Silicon Valley thinks statisticians are mis-measuring the productivity provided by the internet, but it's not that," says John C. Williams, on a trip to Sydney this week.

"Instead, the technologies that we now use and love mostly affect our consumption of leisure rather than affect our output in factories or offices."

Positive data showing the US economy is nearing full employment and that inflation is edging higher prompted the US central bank to recently raise interest rates for the second time in three months.

The US Fed also announced it will push ahead with plans to gradually shrink its $US4.5 trillion ($6 trillion) bond portfolio.

But wages and productivity growth remain stubbornly low, prompting the question: are economists mis-measuring the advent of the digital economy and the role of the internet in sophisticated labour markets?

The productivity gains from the inventions of electricity and the combustion engine had much more influence on humans' output capacity, says Mr Williams, and the only innovation in recent times that might rival those is artificial intelligence.

"AI is interesting because that says we could replace sophisticated human functions with computers," he told an audience at the University of Technology Sydney. "Potentially, that could be revolutionary in terms of our productivity."

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Productivity growth in the US has averaged 0.6 per cent over the last five years, down from 2.2 per cent during 1947-2007, according to JP Morgan data.

It's a problem affecting Australia as well, with the Reserve Bank of Australia also flagging the role of the internet in domestic productivity output.

Mr Williams also reiterated the US Federal Reserve's plan to "normalise" interest rate movements and said the US had reached a "turning point" in its transition from economic recovery to expansion.

"The more public understanding, the less chance that [our] actions will fuel unnecessarily volatility in the markets," said Mr Williams.

"Therefore, our process has been widely telegraphed and it will continue to be gradual, predictable and transparent, or in a word, boring,"

The pick-up in inflation and solid unemployment rate have solidified the US Federal Reserve's case for keeping the US economy expanding for as long as possible.

"Gradually raising interest rates to bring monetary policy back to normal helps The Fed keep the economy growing at a rate that can be sustained for a longer time," said Mr Williams.

"If we delay too long, the economy will eventually overheat, causing inflation or some other problem. At some point, that would put us in the position of having to quickly reverse course to slow the economy. That risks stalling the expansion and setting us back into recession."

While Mr Williams is not a member of the Federal Open Market Committee this year and does not vote on monetary policy directly, economists broadly agree he is a relatively good signal of future policy. He was the director of research at the San Francisco Fed when now-Fed chair Janet Yellen was president of the bank.

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Research and Markets – Cognitive Systems & Artificial Intelligence in BFSI Market to Grow at a CAGR of 45.9% by 2022 … – PR Newswire (press…

The Artificial Intelligence &Cognitive Systems and Artificial in BFSI will witness a CAGR of 45.9% during the forecast period 2016-2022.

The increasing usage of cloud-based solutions in the BFSI industry, rising demand for the data-driven solutions, increasing internet banking penetration, and scope of deriving market risk are fostering the market growth. The market is segmented into technologies, deployment types, verticals and regions.

Globally, BFSI is the second most customer data-centric industry, where players have a bundle of new business opportunities from Cognitive Systems and Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is an evolving data driven technology that works on on-premises and cloud-based software. The system replaces the human thought process with a simulated digital model that includes a self-learning system, which derives patterns by using data mining, speech recognition, and language processing techniques. The cognitive systems require AI platform to derive the complicated business issues.

Globally, the growing demand for digital technology and changing customer demands have led the BFSI players to adopt cognitive systems and AI implementation in their operations to deal with ever-changing regulatory & compliance laws to face the market risk and understand both income tax & corporate tax laws in an efficient way. It is also showing a strong presence in analyzing consumer behavior patterns to bring new offerings and is finding new distribution channels for the financial institutions.

Companies Mentioned

Key Topics Covered:

1 Industry Outlook

2 Report Outline

3 Market Snapshot

4 Market Outlook

5 Market Characteristics

6 Deployment Type: Market Size & Analysis

7 Technologies: Market Size & Analysis

8 Verticals: Market Size & Analysis

9 Regions: Market Size & Analysis

10 Vendor Profiles

11 Companies to Watch for

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5nkrdm/cognitive_systems

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Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com

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Citadel has just hired a new head of artificial intelligence from Microsoft – eFinancialCareers

Hedge funds seeking artificial intelligence expertise need to cast the net wide these days, due to a shortage of people and a massive uptick in demand over the past 12 months.

Citadel has just turned to Microsoft for the new role of chief AI officer. Li Deng, who joined the tech firm straight out of academia 17 years ago, has just joined Citadels hedge fundoperation inSeattle, but will work also across Chicago and New York.

Deng announced his move to Citadel on LinkedIn yesterday, saying that he was very excited about the opportunities for artificial intelligence innovation here and the firms passion for growing its leadership in this space. Citadel didnt immediately respond to requests for comment.

Deng was chief scientist of AI and partner research manager at Microsoft. He joined in December 1999 from Waterloo University in Washington where he was a professor. He clearly has a passion for expanding AI knowledge he headed up Microsofts AI school, as well as founding its deep learning technology centre.

Citadel is the latest big buy-side firm to create a new role heading up AI and machine learning as hedge funds rely on ever-more complex datasets to gain an edge over the competition.

Man Group brought in William Ferreira as head of machine learning for its discretionary hedge fund business GLG in April. It was a newly-created role and he previously worked at Florin Court Capital. David Ferrucci, who previously headed up IBMs development of super-computer Watson, joined Bridgewater Associates in 2012 and now heads up its AI function, the Systematized Intelligence Lab, which has been growing this year

Hes kept his hand in academia, and was affiliate professor at the University of Washington for over 17 years until he joined Citadel in May. Hes written numerous books on using deep learning for automatic speech recognition as well as deep learning applications and methods.

Citadel already has a head of machine learning. Pradeep Natarajan joined from Amazon, where he was a senior research scientist, in October 2014.

Its also its second stab at poaching from Microsoft it brought in Kevin Turner, the tech firms ex-COO as CEO of Citadel Securities in August last year, but he left just seven months later. Hes now founder and CEO of his own start-up Forward Progress Ventures.

Contact:pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

Image: Getty Images

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Artificial Intelligence: The Next Step in Financial Crime Compliance Evolution – Finextra (blog)

Financial Services compliance departments are constantly turning to technology to find efficiencies and satisfy increasingly tough regulatory examinations. It started with simple robotics, which can provide great operational efficiencies and help standardize processes. Never ones to rest on their laurels, compliance departments have begun looking to Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the next technological step to enhance and improve their programs. PayPal has cut its fraud false alerts in half by using an AI monitoring system that can identify benign reasons for seemingly bad behavior. HSBC recently announced a partnership to use AI in its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program. Despite the adoption by some large players, there is still a lot of hesitancy and concern about the use of AI in financial crimes compliance.

WHAT IS AI AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

AI is computer software that can make decisions normally made by a human. What does this mean? In essence this means that it is computer software that can analyze large amounts of data and use patterns and connections within that data to reach certain results about that data.

Just like people, AI needs to learn in order to make decisions. It can do this in two ways: supervised or unsupervised learning. Supervised is the most common method, whereby data, the goal, and the expected output of that data are provided to the software allowing it to identify algorithms to get to the expected result. Supervised learning allows AI to use a feedback loop to further refine its intended task. If it identifies potential fraud, that turns out not to be, it can incorporate that feedback and uses it for future evaluation.

Unsupervised learning provides the software with only the data and the goal, but with no expected output. This is more complex and allows the AI to identify previously unknown results. As the software gets more data, it continues to refine its algorithm, becoming increasingly more efficient at its task.

HOW CAN IT HELP IN FINANCIAL CRIMES COMPLIANCE?

While there are varied uses in this space, one of the most relevant is to monitor transactions for potential criminal activity. Instead of using rule-based monitoring that looks for very specific red flag activity, AI software can use a large amount of data to filter out false alerts and identify complex criminal conduct. It can rule out false positives by identifying innocuous reasons for certain activity (investigation that normally needs to be done by an analyst) or see connections and patterns that are too complex to be picked up by straight forward rule-based monitoring. The reason it is able to do this is that AI software acts fluidly and can identify connections between data points that a human cannot. Its ability to analyze transactions for financial crime is only limited by the data available to it. Some specific uses are:

Fraud Identification: Identifying complex fraud patterns and cutting down on the number of false alerts by adding other data (geolocation tagging, IP addresses, phone numbers, usage patterns, etc.). See Paypals success in the first paragraph.

AML Transaction Monitoring and Sanctions Screening: Similar to fraud identification, it can greatly reduce the amount of false alerts by taking into account more data. It can also identify complex criminal activity occurring across products, lines of business, and customers.

Know Your Customer: Linkage detection between accounts, customers, and related parties to fully understand the risk of a party to the bank. Also, through analysis of unstructured data it can identify difficult to identify relevant negative news.

Anti-Bribery, Insider Trading, and Corruption: It can be used to identify insider trading or bribery by analyzing multiple source of information including emails, phone calls, messaging, expense reports, etc.

ANY CONCERNS?

Seems amazing, right? You might be wondering why everyone isnt immediately implementing these solutions throughout their financial crime compliance programs. While there have been some early adopters, there is still a lot of hesitation to use AI in the Financial Crime compliance space due to the highly regulated nature of the field. There is no doubt that AI will bring a huge lift in the future, but here are some of the concerns that need to be ironed out before we see large scale adoption:

Black box image of AI decisioning

By using more data than a human could synthesize, it may select patterns and results that wouldnt necessarily make sense to a person. As a result, AI providers need to ensure that AI derived decisions are supported by an auditable rationale that is clear to person. Clear documentation around how the AI gets to its results will be necessary.

Algorithmic Bias

Because AI software functions are based on the data it is provided, the impact of misinformation or biased information could be very large. This can occur when unintentional bias within the source data and training is uploaded into the algorithms the AI uses to perform its task. No one wants to end up with an AI transaction monitoring system that is flagging transactions based on racial or nationality bias.

Lack of regulatory acceptance

Currently, there appears to be a lack of regulatory acceptance mostly due to the first two concerns described above. That being said, in the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority are both working on limited use of AI in their organizations. This is a strong step in having them able to understand and test it.

WHAT TO DO?

Now you know how AI can help your program and some of the concerns you need to be mindful of, but what now? Here are a couple of next steps you can take to successfully implement AI into your Financial Crime Compliance Program:

Lastly, knowledge is power. Keep researching and make sure you understand the reality of what AI can bring to the table for you and your program.

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MTSU gives CAP cadets taste of aerospace, engineering during weeklong events – Wgnsradio

Cadets attending the 2017 Civil Air Patrol Tennessee Wing Encampment, held at MTSU for the second year in a row, march past the McCallie Dining Hall toward the Business and Aerospace Building. (Photo provided by CAP Tennessee Wing)

Middle Tennessee State University has been home base to Civil Air Patrol cadets from across the country attending classes and participating in aerospace and engineering activities tied to the College of Basic and Applied Sciences.

Last week, MTSU hosted Civil Air Patrol's National Engineering Technologies Academy, a weeklong special activity that drew about 50 youths between ages 15 and 21 from as far away as California to study in the departments of Aerospace and Engineering Technology.

The academy closed Saturday, just as the annual CAP Tennessee Wing Encampment welcomed about 100 cadets from Tennessee, Georgia and Mississippi for a separate weeklong leadership and aerospace education activity also on the Murfreesboro campus.

The two events are a result of MTSU's partnership with the volunteer civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force. The pact was renewed for another three years in a ceremony last March with interim Provost Mark Byrnes, Tennessee Wing Commander Col. Arlinda Bailey and Southeast Region Commander Col. Barry Melton, a 1982 graduate of MTSU.

MTSU entered the partnership in hopes of hosting such activities for CAP's cadet program, set up for youths ages 12 to 21, and in support of CAP's aerospace education efforts for area primary and secondary classrooms.

"Our partnership with Civil Air Patrol has been a true win-win for both organizations," said MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee. "It allows MTSU to showcase its campus and faculty to prospective students whose interests mirror many of our signature programs."

Melton, whose region includes Tennessee Wing and wings from five other states and Puerto Rico, described the partnership in March as a "model for other wings throughout the nation hoping to connect with major universities."

This is the second year Tennessee Wing held its cadet encampment on the MTSU campus and it was the first time MTSU hosted the technologies academy, which was previously based at Auburn University.

Cadets at both events also received campus tours, visited MTSU's Aerospace Campus at the Murfreesboro Municipal Airport and attended a leadership seminar conducted by retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith M. Huber, the university's senior adviser for veterans and leadership initiatives.

"We feel MTSU offers a great learning environment and overall experience for Civil Air Patrol cadets," said Andrew Oppmann, the university's vice president for marketing and communications and a CAP lieutenant colonel.

"We're pleased our partnership expanded this year with the addition of the national academy and hope to host other new activities in the years ahead."

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MTSU gives CAP cadets taste of aerospace, engineering during weeklong events - Wgnsradio

UND Aerospace Engineer Pablo de Len leads students in designing NASA-funded mock Mars space station – Prairie Business

Its all part of an ongoing research projectthe only one like in the nationfunded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of its ambitious long-term plan to establish a human colony on Mars.

This UND-based projectthe Inflatable Lunar-Mars Habitat, or ILMHhas been built and worked on by students. The heavy-duty fabricating and welding of all aluminum infrastructure has been done locally by Grand Forks Welding, which delivered the final plastic-sheeting wrapped unit to the ILMH site earlier this week.

There are now a total of five modules, configured like an actual Mars basea living module; an extra-vehicular activity (EVA) and maintenance module; a plant production module; an exercise and human performance module; and a geology module, said de Len, who besides his faculty appointment is director of the UND Human Spaceflight Laboratory in the John D. Odegard College of Aerospace Sciences. There, he and his team work on designing and building the planetary exploration suits essential to survival in the thin atmosphere of Mars, which is 96 percent carbon dioxide.

Additionally, two vehiclesalso designed and built by UND Space Studies studentsa crewed four-wheel electric powered rover and a four-wheel drive electric powered robotic rover.

How it all works

De Len explains how this system works as follows:

*The core of this five unit project is the living module, where crew will spend a good portion of their time.

*The EVA and maintenance module is the workshop where the crew will perform both routine and emergency repairs and maintenance on suits, modules, rovers and other equipment.

*The plant production module is all about feed crewof course, this means a plant-based diet. No room for meat animals.

The plant production module will house trays of plants under LED lights specially designed by NASA, noted de Lenwho said the Space Studies graduate degree program always has far more applicants than the program can accept.

We will grow the plants under different conditions, and they will be temperature controlled over North Dakotas winter, he said. Sensors with computers will record data related to plant progress, the pH of soil, humidity. They plants will then be harvested, cleaned and taken to habitat to be cooked and eaten.

*The exercise and human performance module will house special exercise machines with systems that will feed information to NASA; the agency will be able to perform real-time monitoring of the health status of persons in module.

*The geology module is for experiments and for developing techniques for cutting Martian rocks that may contain contaminants such as toxic perchlorates that should not be inhaledparticulates could be released as the rocks are gathered and cut, so crew must process samples in a glove box.

All the modules are connected with aluminum-framed tunnels, already built and ready to be hooked up at the site.

Power

De Len speculates that ultimately, small nuclear plants will generate the power for a Mars-based station like the one being tested at UND.

On Mars, which is farther from Sun than Earth, wind would darken solar panels over time (constant cleaning of dust), he said. So with what we know now, a small nuclear plant would be the most practical. The fact is, weve using nuclear power for decades in space to power planetary probes and other space craft.

The density of Mars atmosphere is low so nothing heavy can be moved by winds, so wind power is out of the question.

Youd need wind turbine blades half a mile long or more, de Len said. And Martian dust storms can last three months, so dust would accumulate on solar panelsreducing or eliminating their energy-generating capabilities. Moreover, none of machines to produce oxygen, purify water, would work in such an environment. Nuclear power would meet all those needs with low maintenance requirements.

The project was first funded in 2009 by a three year $750,000 grant. Another $750,000 grant was awarded to the UND ILMH project in 2015.

Why UND?

UND is one of a few facilities funded by NASA to test long-duration Mars conditions, said de Len.

We have the talent pool, the facilities, the environment and climate that provide an optimum place to test the extreme technologies needed for such a hostile place as Mars, said de Len. We collaborate with other universities and NASA centers on long-duration missions to actually test different technologies, systems and equipment that will facilitate our travel to, and stay on, Mars.

Teams of students already have successfully completed 10-day and 30-day missions in the ILMH. De Len says much longer multi-month missions are planned now that the ILMHs five modules are in place.

When it becomes fully operational, well issue nation-wide call for personnel to crew the habitat so that we can do long-duration missions on regular basis, he said.

Todays ILMH team consists of 11 graduate students, but several dozen have been through the Space Studies program. Most of those graduates now are working for NASA or for contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The Space Studies programs first PhD student Kavya Manyapu (who works at Boeing in Houston) will defend her dissertation next month. Manyapu is an aerospace test engineer, a designer of Boeing Companys Commercial Spacecraft, and a participant in the Mars Society research project that will someday prepare humans for life on Mars.

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UND Aerospace Engineer Pablo de Len leads students in designing NASA-funded mock Mars space station - Prairie Business

Zodiac Aerospace Vice President of Manufacturing Honored with Community College Spirit Award – Brookdale Community College Newsroom

Zodiac Aerospace Vice President of Manufacturing Honored with Community College Spirit Award

By the New Jersey Council of County Colleges

TRENTON, N.J. On June 19, during its annual New Jersey Community College Awards Ceremony, the New Jersey Council of County Colleges presented the 2017 Community College Spirit Award to Neil Cavaleri, vice president of manufacturing at Zodiac Aerospace, for his exemplary support of New Jerseys community colleges.

Since its inauguration in 1993, the Community College Spirit Award has been an honor bestowed to those who embody the community college spirit perseverance, dedication and excellence, said NJCCC Chair Helen Albright.

Cavaleri was honored for his advocacy work on behalf of the New Jersey Community College Consortium for Workforce and Economic Development.

The Workforce Consortium was started in 2004 to better meet the training needs of businesses throughout the state, whatever their size, Albright said. One of the reasons it has been so successful is because of the support it has garnered from key business leaders throughout the state, such as Neil.

He has been instrumental in Zodiac Aerospaces over 30-year partnership with Brookdale Community College, utilizing the Colleges training and career services to help his employees get ahead in their careers and in their lives.

Cavaleri, a Brookdale Community College alumnus, hosted the 10th anniversary celebration event of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association Basic Skills Workforce Training Program at Zodiac Aerospace, and was the keynote speaker at the 50th anniversary celebration of New Jerseys community colleges, hosted by New Jersey Congressman William Pascrell as part of the annual Association of Community College Trustees National Legislative Seminar in Washington, D.C., in February 2017. He was honored alongside colleagues from Zodiac Aerospace at the Brookdale Community College Foundations 2017 Scholarship Ball, held June 9 at Eagle Oaks Golf and Country Club in Farmingdale.

The New Jersey Council of County Colleges is the state association representing New Jerseys 19 community colleges. As an independent, trustee-headed organization that joins the leadership of trustees and presidents, the Council is the voice of the community college sector before the state legislature and other branches of government.

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Zodiac Aerospace Vice President of Manufacturing Honored with Community College Spirit Award - Brookdale Community College Newsroom

Israel Aerospace Industries in Project to Turn Boeing 737 into Freighter – The Jewish Press – JewishPress.com

Photo Credit: B737NG via Flickr

The Bedek Aviation Group of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has recently signed a partnership agreement with the ChineseHaite Group, through its subsidiary Tianjin Aircraft Engineering Co. Ltd., to co-develop a program for conversion of the B737NG passenger aircraft into a special freighter. The collaboration was announced today at the 2017 Paris Air Show.

Bedek and Tianjin expect the new partnership will be up and running quickly so that the first Converted B737-700 Aircraft is certified and delivered to their launching customer. Development of a program for passenger to special freighter conversion of Boeing 737-800 has already begun under the same co-development cooperation. If the project progresses according to schedule, it is expected to make Bedek group one of the first suppliers to reach the market with a certified Supplemental Type Certificate (STC).

Yosi Melamed, Executive Vice President & General Manager of Bedek Aviation Group, said in a statement: Our partnership with the Haite Group has come at the right time in light of the projected continued growth in the demand for conversion into freighters and even more so, in view of the fast economic growth in China and India. The B737NG is the future feedstock of the narrow body freighters and we expect to be one of the first suppliers with an STC and a high-quality solution for the B737-800 that meets the growing market needs.

Haite Tianjin Aircraft Engineering Co. Ltd. is a well-known highly qualified China-Based MRO enterprise, specializing in repair, maintenance, inspection, modification and overhaul of passengers aircraft. The company has established aircraft overhaul and conversion sites in Chengdu and Tianjin.

IAIs Bedek Aviation Group is a leading global aviation maintenance center, with over 60 years of experience, offering the full range of services for aviation maintenance from aircraft upgrades and repairs, to modernization and more than 25 years of experience in conversion programs of wide range of aircraft such as B737-300/400, B767-200/300 & B747-200/400. Bedek is one of the worldwide leaders in cargo conversion programs and among its customers are leading cargo operators, passenger airlines and lessors. Bedek provides cost-effective, total maintenance support packages through its Full Services Provider Programs.

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Israel Aerospace Industries in Project to Turn Boeing 737 into Freighter - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

Ridge Partners with Aerospace Company to Improve Truck Aerodynamics – Heavy Duty Trucking

Photo: National Research Council of Canada

Ridge Corporation has partnered with the aerospace technology company FlexSys to help improve truck aerodynamics devices, reducing drag and improving fuel efficiency.

FlexSys is a Michigan-based company that has been developing advanced aircraft wing technologies with the Air Force Research Laboratories and has validated concepts through both NASA flight tests and on private jets.

The companys technology involves variable geometry control surface mechanisms that use the inherent flexibility of aerospace materials to continuously reshape optimal aerodynamic profiles. Ridge wants to incorporate this dynamic technology into its devices to produce, resilient, low-complexity, cost-effective devices that improve fuel savings over currently available technologies.

Ridges goal is to incorporate this new technology as a complement to our own engineering expertise and our ability to quickly move new technologies to market, said Gary Grandominico, Ridge CEO.

The two companies have agreed to join forces to combine the latest aerospace technologies with the real-world requirements of the trucking industry.

We have found a strong partner in Ridge Corporation and are looking forward to applying our technology to the field of truck aerodynamics, said Dave Hornick, FlexSys COO.

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Ridge Partners with Aerospace Company to Improve Truck Aerodynamics - Heavy Duty Trucking

PPG Names Behmlander, Stamm Aerospace General Managers; Morris to Retire – Products Finishing Magazine

PPGannounced it has named Tim Behmlander aerospace general manager for the Americas and Reiner Stamm to succeed him as aerospace general manager for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Behmlander replaces Dave Morris, who retires July 1 as aerospace vice president and general manager for the Americas after nearly 50 years in the aerospace industry.

In their new positions, Behmlander continues as a member of PPGs aerospace leadership team, and Stamm joins both the companys aerospace and EMEA-region leadership teams.

Behmlander began his PPG career in 1994 at the Troy, Michigan, automotive technical center, holding posts in the companys automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) coatings business before joining its aerospace business. After serving as regional business manager for the northeast U.S. and then for the southwest U.S. and Mexico, he became aerospace general manager for the EMEA region and India in 2013. Behmlander earned a bachelors degree and an MBA from Michigan State University.

Stamm joined PPG in 2000 as business manager for the aerospace application support center in Hamburg, Germany, and then moved to the companys automotive OEM coatings business, where he most recently served as market director for the north and east EMEA region. He previously worked for Valspar Corp., and he earned an MBA from City University of Seattle and a diploma and a Ph.D. thesis in organic chemistry from Technical University in Braunschweig, Germany.

Morris began his career in 1970 at the John Blair Company in Columbus, Ohio, becoming its president before moving in 1989 to Products Research Corp., which later became PRC-DeSoto International. He joined PPG with the acquisition of PRC-DeSoto in 1999, was promoted to aerospace vice president in 2003, and was named vice president and general manager for the Americas for PPGs aerospace business in 2007.

PPGs global aerospace business offers coatings, sealants, transparencies, packaging and application systems, and transparent armor, as well as chemical management and other services.

For more information, visit ppgaerospace.com.

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PPG Names Behmlander, Stamm Aerospace General Managers; Morris to Retire - Products Finishing Magazine

Professor and his wife donate $1 million for UCLA professorship fund – Daily Bruin

UCLA received a $1 million donation to endow a professorship in medical and drug research.

Michael Jung, a distinguished chemistry and biochemistry professor, and his wife Alice Jung made the donation to establish the Michael and Alice Jung Endowed Chair in Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery, according to a UCLA press release on June 14.

Michael Jung said he hopes the gift will allow UCLA to hire a new faculty member who will help further drug discovery and produce more research in medicinal chemistry.

According to the release, Jungs donation was matched by the UCLA Division of Physical Sciences, making the total contribution $2 million. Additional funds came from UCLAs share of proceeds from royalty rights in Xtandi, a prostate cancer medication developed by Jung and his research team.

[Related: A pharmaceutical company will be purchasing the seller of Xtandi for $14 billion.]

Jung has been a faculty member since 1974 and specializes in the field of synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry. He is a consultant for more than 20 industrial biotech and pharmaceutical laboratories, and he is on the scientific advisory board of several pharmaceutical firms.

Jung is currently researching new medications for diseases and conditions such as breast cancer, muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis.

The donation is part of the UCLAs Centennial Campaign, which aims to raise $4.2 billion for the university by the end of 2019.

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Professor and his wife donate $1 million for UCLA professorship fund - Daily Bruin

The Case for Giving Health-Care Consumers a 'Nudge' – Wall Street Journal (subscription)


Wall Street Journal (subscription)
The Case for Giving Health-Care Consumers a 'Nudge'
Wall Street Journal (subscription)
There also is an assumption that it is better to have more choices, but studies from behavioral science show people are often befuddled by too many choices. They can suffer from overload and become stressed and confused, so the added choices don't ...

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The Case for Giving Health-Care Consumers a 'Nudge' - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Morgan Stanley: Cloud computing is at ‘an inflection point’ but how big will it get? – GeekWire

Over the next few years, we will learn whether cloud computing is a nice little business that will settle into maturity by the end of the decade or a once-in-a-generation business opportunity.

Thats the view of Morgan Stanleys Brian Nowak, who delivered the Wall Street view of Cloud City earlier this month at our Cloud Tech Summit. Theres no question right now that cloud computing is at a point of inflection, he said, with very strong growth expected over the short term as more and more workloads move into the cloud.

Right now, Morgan Stanley estimates that about 20 percent of all workloads run on the cloud. That 20 percent is a very important number because if you look at other adoption cycles, whether its notebooks, smartphone penetration, the x86 server, even digital music and video games, when you get to that 20 percent penetration point, that curve inflects and growth accelerates, Nowak said.

When you get to that 20 percent penetration point, that curve inflects and growth accelerates.That shouldnt come as a surprise to anyone who has noticed the surge in Amazon Web Services revenue over the last few years. The real question is whether or not growth continues to accelerate this pace once public cloud hits the 50 percent penetration mark, which Morgan Stanley expects to happen around 2020.

Historically, when you look at other markets, like in server virtualization, after that, growth in the market slowed considerably, down to the single digits, Nowak said. Just to be safe, Morgan Stanley is making that projection to its clients, given the historical trends.

However, he acknowledged a bullish case for the cloud based around the fact that a lot of cloud workloads are brand-new workloads; instead of lifting and shifting, the industry jargon for taking applications running on homegrown infrastructure and moving them into the cloud, lots of companies are starting new workloads on cloud services.

As those workloads scale, thats a ton of new business for cloud providers that simply didnt exist on on-premises hardware. And, of course, there are still lots of companies moving those older workloads onto the cloud as well, giving cloud companies several sources of growth over the next few years.

Another trend to watch is the growth of hybrid cloud strategies, with workloads spread across the public cloud and internal servers, which might put a damper on the most bullish case for public cloud but still mean companies are increasing what they spend in the cloud.

Watch the full video of Nowaks talk above, and stay tuned for more highlights from the event in the days ahead.

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Morgan Stanley: Cloud computing is at 'an inflection point' but how big will it get? - GeekWire

Can Narendra Modi and Donald Trump recreate the magic of the Obama years? – BBC News


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Can Narendra Modi and Donald Trump recreate the magic of the Obama years?
BBC News
On 26 June, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to hold official talks with US President Donald Trump in Washington DC in what will be the first meeting between the two leaders. This is not the same country that witnessed roaring chants of ...
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all 1,349 news articles »

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Can Narendra Modi and Donald Trump recreate the magic of the Obama years? - BBC News

Donald Trump Becomes First President In Two Decades To Not Host A Ramadan Dinner – HuffPost

Breaking with tradition, the White House under President Donald Trump did not host an iftar dinner, the meal Muslims eat to break their daily fast during Ramadan.

The dinner, which has been often attended by prominent members of the U.S. Muslim community, began in 1996 during former President Bill Clintons White House tenure and continued through the subsequent Bush and Obama administrations.

Trump and first lady Melania simply issued a brief statement Saturday that offered warm greetings to Muslims celebrating Eid al-Fitr, which marks the close of Ramadan, Islams holy month of fasting.

On behalf of the American people, Melania and I send our warm greetings to Muslims as they celebrate Eidal-Fitr.

Muslims in the United States joined those around the world during the holy month of Ramadan to focus on acts of faith and charity. Now, as they commemorate Eid with family and friends, they carry on the tradition of helping neighbors and breaking bread with people from all walks of life.

During this holiday, we are reminded of the importance of mercy, compassion, and goodwill. With Muslims around the world, the United States renews our commitment to honor these values.

Eid Mubarak.

Trumps decision to skip hosting the dinner comes after he released a controversial statement meant to mark the beginning of Ramadan. Many members of the Muslim community condemned the message, which largely focused on terrorism.

This year, the holiday begins as the world mourns the innocent victims of barbaric terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and Egypt, acts of depravity that are directly contrary to the spirit of Ramadan, read a White House statement issued in May. Such acts only steel our resolve to defeat the terrorists and their perverted ideology.

Trumps remarks starkly contrast with those by then-President Barack Obamaduring Ramadan last year. In June 2016, Obama and then-first lady Michelle announced plans to host an Eid celebration in the White House and praised American Muslims for their contributions to the U.S.

Muslim Americans have been part of our American family since its founding, the Obamas wrote in a statement roughly five times longer than Trumps Ramadan message. We look forward to welcoming Americans from around the country to celebrate the holiday.

U.S. secretaries of state have also traditionally hosted Iftar dinners since 1999 but not this year. Trumps top diplomat, Rex Tillerson, declined an invitation this year from the State Departments Office of Religion and Global Affairs to host an Eid al-Fitr celebration, according to CNN.

With its break from precedent,the Trump administration shunned an opportunity to reach out to the U.S. Muslim community whose leaders have said has been ostracized by the presidents rhetoric and his policies, including his proposed travel ban.

Imam Talib Shareef, president of the Nations Mosque in Washington, D.C., called Trumps decision disappointing.

To stop it doesnt send a good message Shareef told Newsweek.

Referring to one of Trumps main pastimes, he added: You get the chance to go golfing and all this other kind of stuff. How come you dont have time for a population of your society that needs some assistance?

The White House message on Eid al-Fitr just hours after Trump was spotted visiting the golf club he owns in Virginia.

This story has been updated with the report of Trumps visit to his Virginia golf club.

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Donald Trump Becomes First President In Two Decades To Not Host A Ramadan Dinner - HuffPost