NASA Pervs Called Their Porn ‘Art,’ Enjoyed Role-Playing As Children – The Daily Caller

At least a dozen NASA employees have been caught watching porn at the office since 2015 by the agencys Inspector General (IG), including several with images of children in sexual situations, according to documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundations Investigative Group.

The government employees resigned or retired to avoid termination in some cases, IG reports show. The probes were often initiated after investigators noticed search terms used on NASAs network that suggested child exploitation. The reports were received through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

A NASA intern faced four months in prison after downloading child porn on the agencys network, TheDCNF previously reported. (EXCLUSIVE: Feds Wouldnt Prosecute NASA Intern Caught Downloading Kiddie Porn)

Another employee retired after getting caught with thousands of images of young girls in provocative poses two of which were pornographic. Officials at NASA knew about his sexual attraction to underage girls, but granted him a security clearance anyway. (EXCLUSIVE: Known Perv With Emotional Problems Got NASA Security Clearance, Then Caught With Child Porn)

Below are examples of additional NASA employees and contractors who viewed porn during work hours, or discussed child exploitation over the agencys network.

NASA Contractor Had 13,000 Pornographic Pictures On His Government Computer

Investigators discovered approximately 333 photographs of what appears to be adult pornography on a NASA contractors government-issued computer, a November 2016 IG report said. Additional probing revealed another 13,000 pornographic images.

There was one photograph that appeared to depict a nude female minor at the beach, the report said. The age for nude females in 55 more photos couldnt be determined.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported that none of the 56 photographs depicted known victims of sexual exploitation of children, the report said.The employee ultimately resigned.

NASA Contractor Calls His Porn Art

A contracted employee working for the space agency downloaded more than 1,000 images of adult pornography or sexually explicit material on his NASA computer, which he viewed during work hours, a November 2015 IG report said.

Many of the files were located in a folder created by the user, on the users profile Desktop folder, indicating that they were accessible and in plain-view when the computer Desktop was visible, the report continued.

The employee admitted to looking at photographic images of nude women while at work and during work hours, but he did not understand that the material he was viewing was considered pornography, the IG report said. The employee said he considered it art.

The contractor, SAIC, took appropriate and immediate action, and the individual was no longer a SAIC employee, but its unclear if he was fired.

NASA Employee Searched For NSFW Terms, Indicated Child Exploitation

Investigators discovered a contracted NASA employee was visiting websites with domain names that appear to contain pornography and search terms commonly associated with the sexual exploitation of children, a July 2015 IG report said.

The search terms include: Male Ejaculation Boys, Boy Premature Ejaculation, Tiny Teen Deep Throat, the report continued.

Investigators found the employee did not view any child pornography. He ultimately had his NASA network access revoked nearly one year after his searches were discovered though its unclear how he could work without it.

The time frame mentioned above relates to conducting the investigation to include digital analysis of all media, NASA IG Executive Officer Renee Juhans told TheDCNF.

NASA Employee Pretends To Be A Child While Having Sex With Other Men

A NASA employee and another individual discussed what appeared to be associated with the sexual exploitation and abuse of minors over email, a March 2015 IG report said.

Four individuals in total, including the NASA employee, discussed their sexual desires toward children in emails and chats on NASAs network. The NASA official participated in role-playing as children while engaging in sexual intercourse with other adult males, the report said.

Investigators, however, found no nude photos of children.The official would have been fired had he not taken action that was redacted from the report.

A spokesman for NASA did not respond to TheDCNFs requests for comment.

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NASA Pervs Called Their Porn 'Art,' Enjoyed Role-Playing As Children - The Daily Caller

Could this scientist be on the verge of curing multiple sclerosis? – Coventry Telegraph

A Cambridge doctor could be on the verge of an incredible medical breakthrough that would transform thousands of lives.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a condition of the central nervous system where the coating around nerve fibres (called myelin) is damaged, causing a range of symptoms.

More than 100,000 people in the UK have MS. Symptoms usually start in your 20s and 30s and it affects almost three times as many women as men.

Once diagnosed, MS stays with you for life, but treatments and specialists can help you to manage the condition and its symptom.

Now hope is on the horizon...

Dr Su Metcalfe is sitting quietly reading through some documents in the lobby of the Judge Business School when I arrive for our interview.

It would be easy to walk right past her and not know you were in the presence of a woman who could be on the verge of curing multiple sclerosis.

MS, an auto-immune condition which affects 2.3million people around the world, attacks cells in the brain and the spinal cord, causing an array of physical and mental side effects including blindness and muscle weakness.

At the moment theres no cure, but Su and her company, LIFNano, hope to change that, reports the Cambridge News.

Some people get progressive MS, so go straight to the severe form of the disease, but the majority have a relapsing or remitting version, she says.

It can start from the age of 30, and theres no cure, so all you can do is suppress the immune response, but the drugs that do that have side effects, and you cant repair the brain.

The cost of those drugs is very high, and in the UK there are a lot of people who dont get treated at all.

But now a solution could be in sight thanks to Su, who has married one of the bodys cleverest functions with some cutting-edge technology. The natural side of the equation is provided by a stem cell particle called a LIF.

Su was working at the universitys department of surgery when she made her big breakthrough: I was looking to see what controls the immune response and stops it auto-attacking us, she explains.

I discovered a small binary switch, controlled by a LIF, which regulates inside the immune cell itself. LIF is able to control the cell to ensure it doesnt attack your own body but then releases the attack when needed.

That LIF, in addition to regulating and protecting us against attack, also plays a major role in keeping the brain and spinal cord healthy.

"In fact it plays a major role in tissue repair generally, turning on stem cells that are naturally occurring in the body, making it a natural regenerative medicine, but also plays a big part in repairing the brain when its been damaged.

So I thought, this is fantastic. We can treat auto-immune disease, and weve got something to treat MS, which attacks both the brain and the spinal cord.

"So you have a double whammy that can stop and reverse the auto-immunity, and also repair the damage caused in the brain.

Presumably Su, who has been in Cambridge since she was an undergraduate but retains a soft accent from her native Yorkshire, was dancing a jig of delight around her lab at this point, but she soon hit a snag; the LIF could only survive outside the cell for 20 minutes before being broken down by the body, meaning there was not enough time to deploy it in a therapy.

And this is where the technology, in the form of nano-particles, comes in.

They are made from the same material as soluble stitches, so theyre compatible with the body and they slowly dissolve, says Su.

We load the cargo of the LIF into those particles, which become the delivery device that slowly dissolve and deliver the LIF over five days.

"The nano-particle itself is a protective environment, and the enzymes that break it down cant access it.

"You can also decorate the surface of the particles with antibodies, so it becomes a homing device that can target specific parts of the brain, for example. So you get the right dose, in the right place, and at the right time.

The particles themselves were developed at Yale University, which is listed as co-inventor with Su on the IP. But LIFNano has the worldwide licence to deploy them, and Su believes we are on the verge of a step-change in medicine.

She says: Nano-medicine is a new era, and big pharma has already entered this space to deliver drugs while trying to avoid the side effects. The quantum leap is to actually go into biologics and tap into the natural pathways of the body.

Were not using any drugs, were simply switching on the bodys own systems of self-tolerance and repair. There arent any side effects because all were doing is tipping the balance.

"Auto-immunity happens when that balance has gone awry slightly, and we simply reset that.

"Once youve done that, it becomes self-sustaining and you dont have to keep giving therapy, because the body has its balance back.

LIFNano has already attracted two major funding awards, from drug firm Merck and the Governments Innovate UK agency.

Su herself is something of a novice when it comes to business, but has recruited cannily in the form of chairman Florian Kemmerich and ceo Oliver Jarry, both experienced operators in the pharma sector.

With the support of the Judge, the company hopes to attract more investment, with the aim of starting clinical trials in 2020.

The 2020 date is ambitious, but with the funding weve got and the funding were hoping to raise, it should be possible, says Su.

Weve got everything we need in place to make the nano-particles in a clinically compliant manner, its just a case of flicking the switch when we have the money.

"Were looking at VCs and big pharma, because they have a strong interest in this area.

Were doing all our pre-clinical work concurrently while bringing in the major funds the company needs to go forward in its own right.

Immune cells have been a big part of Sus career, and as we talk, her passion for her subject is obvious. I wanted to understand something that was so simple on one level but also so complex, she says.

The immune cell is the only single cell in the body that is its own unity, so it functions alone. Its probably one of the most powerful cells in the body because it can kill you, and if you havent got it you die because you havent got it.

And MS may just be the start for LIFNano.

MS is our key driver at the moment, but its going to be leading through to other major auto-immune disease areas, Su adds.

Psoriasis is high up on our list, and diabetes is another. Downstream there are all the dementias, because a LIF is a major health factor for the brain. So if we can get it into the brain we can start protecting against dementia.

Now that would be something.

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Could this scientist be on the verge of curing multiple sclerosis? - Coventry Telegraph

Simulations pinpoint atomic-level defects in solar cell nanostructures – Phys.Org

June 9, 2017 Cross section of the interface between a lead chalcogenide nanoparticle and its embedding cadmium chalcogenide matrix. When integrated into optoelectronic devices, it is enough to have a single atom in the wrong place at the interface (represented by the glowing blue color) to jeopardize their performance. Credit: Peter Allen, Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago

To understand the nature of something extremely complex, you often have to study its smallest parts. In trying to decipher the universe, for example, we search for gravitational waves or faint waves of light from the Big Bang. And to comprehend the very essence of matter itself, we break it down to the subatomic level and use computer simulations to study particles like quarks and gluons.

Understanding materials with specific functions, such as those used in solar cells, and engineering ways to improve their properties pose many of the same challenges. In the ongoing effort to improve solar cell energy conversion efficiencies, researchers have begun digging deeperin some cases to the atomic levelto identify material defects that can undermine the conversion process.

For example, heterogeneous nanostructured materials are widely used in a variety of optoelectronic devices, including solar cells. However, due to their heterogeneous nature, these materials contain nanoscale interfaces exhibiting structural defects that can affect the performance of these devices. It is very challenging to identify these defects in experiments, so a team of researchers at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago decided to run a series of atomistic calculations at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) to find the root cause of defects in two commonly used semiconductor materialslead selenide (PbSe) and cadmium selenide (CdSe)and provide design rules to avoid them.

"We are interested in understanding quantum dots and nanostructures and how they perform for solar cells," said Giulia Galli, Liew Family professor of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and co-author of a paper published in Nano Letters that outlines this work and its findings. "We are doing modeling, using both classical molecular dynamics and first principle methods, to understand the structure and optical properties of these nanoparticles and quantum dots."

Core-shell Nanoparticles

For this study, the team focused on heterostructured nanoparticlesin this case a colloidal quantum dot in which PbSe nanoparticles are embedded in CdSe. This type of quantum dotalso known as a core-shell nanoparticleis like an egg, Mrton Vrs, Aneesur Rahman Fellow at Argonne and co-author on the paper, explained, with a "yolk" made of one material surrounded by a "shell" made of the other material.

"Experiments have suggested that these heterostructured nanoparticles are very favorable for solar energy conversion and thin-film transistors," Vrs said.

For example, while colloidal quantum dot energy conversion efficiencies currently hover around 12% in the lab, "we aim at predicting quantum dot structural models to go beyond 12%," said Federico Giberti, postdoctoral research scholar at the University of Chicago's Institute for Molecular Engineering and first author on the Nano Letters paper. "If 20% efficiency could be reached, we would then have a material that becomes interesting for commercialization. "

To make this happen, however, Vrs and Giberti realized they needed to better understand the structure of nanoscale interfaces and whether atomistic defects were present. So, along with Galli, they developed a computational strategy to investigate, at the atomic level, the effect of the structure of the interfaces on the materials' optoelectronic properties. By using classical molecular dynamics and first principles methods that do not rely on any fitted parameters, their framework allowed them to build computational models of these embedded quantum dots.

Using this model as the basis for a series of simulations run at NERSC, the research team was able to characterize PbSe/CdSe quantum dots and found that atoms that are displaced at the interface and their corresponding electronic stateswhat they call "trap states"can jeopardize solar cell performance, Giberti explained. They were then able to use the model to predict a new material that does not have these trap states and should perform better in solar cells.

"Using our computational framework, we also found a way to tune the optical properties of the material by applying pressure," Giberti added.

This researchwhich included studies of electron and atomic structuresused four million supercomputing hours at NERSC, according to Vrs. Most of the atomic structure calculations were run on Cori, NERSC's 30-petaflop system installed in 2016, although they also used the Edison system, a Cray XC30 with Intel Xeon processors. While the calculations didn't need a large number of processors, Giberti noted, "I needed to launch many simultaneous simulations at the same time, and analyzing all the data was in itself a rather challenging task."

Looking ahead, the research team plans to use this new computational framework to investigate other materials and structures.

"We believe that our atomistic models, when coupled with experiments, will bring a predictive tool for heterogeneous nanostructured materials that can be used for a variety of semiconducting systems," Federico said. "We are very excited about the possible impact of our work."

Explore further: Calculations confirm that surface flaws are behind fluorescence intermittency in silicon nanocrystals

More information: Federico Giberti et al, Design of Heterogeneous Chalcogenide Nanostructures with Pressure-Tunable Gaps and without Electronic Trap States, Nano Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b00283

Quantum dots are nanoparticles of semiconductor that can be tuned to glow in a rainbow of colors. Since their discovery in the 1980s, these remarkable nanoparticles have held out tantalizing prospects for all kinds of new ...

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To understand the nature of something extremely complex, you often have to study its smallest parts. In trying to decipher the universe, for example, we search for gravitational waves or faint waves of light from the Big ...

Researchers have studied how light can be used to observe the quantum nature of an electronic material. They captured light in graphene and slowed it down to the speed of the material's electrons. Then electrons and light ...

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Simulations pinpoint atomic-level defects in solar cell nanostructures - Phys.Org

Foundation Medicine to Identify Patients Eligible for National Cancer … – Business Wire (press release)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Foundation Medicine (NASDAQ: FMI) today announced a collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (ECOG-ACRIN) for their precision medicine cancer trial, NCI-Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (NCI-MATCH or EAY131). This ongoing study is evaluating the benefit of genomically-guided treatments targeting specific alterations within a persons tumor, regardless of cancer type. Foundation Medicine will notify physicians at the more than 1,100 clinical sites participating in NCI-MATCH when the comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) assays they ordered to guide clinical care, FoundationOne or FoundationOne Heme, reveal findings that may make a patient eligible for one of several NCI-MATCH treatments.

The FoundationOne and FoundationOne Heme assays comprehensively interrogate hundreds of cancer-related genes in solid tumors, or hematologic cancers and advanced sarcomas, respectively, to identify genomic alterations that can help match a patient with a therapy that targets those alterations. Foundation Medicine and its CGP assays were selected for participation in NCI-MATCH based on the validation, reliability and accuracy of the assays, the ability to review a high volume of patient cases due to the mainstream use of FoundationOne and FoundationOne Heme in clinical care today, and the ability to provide assay results in a format that can be uploaded into MATCHbox, the trials informatics system that generates patient treatment assignment information for the trials panel of experts to review.

The NCI-MATCH trial is vital to learning more about the genomic basis of cancer biology and the best ways to improve cancer treatment for each individual patient, said Vincent Miller, M.D., chief medical officer at Foundation Medicine. We believe this innovative trial design leveraging genomics to inform potential treatment modalities will become the standard for oncology clinical studies, particularly to identify signals of effectiveness that can be studied in larger, more definitive trials. We believe our collaboration will help the clinical sites participating in the trial to identify a larger number of patients who may be eligible to enroll for treatment.

Through this collaboration, Foundation Medicine will assist ECOG-ACRIN and the NCI in casting a wider net for patients that may be eligible for NCI-MATCH. Foundation Medicine will identify individuals whose tumors are profiled through standard clinical care with FoundationOne or FoundationOne Heme and are found to harbor genomic alterations being studied in NCI-MATCH, as determined by Foundation Medicines proprietary SmartTrials engine that allows for alteration-level specificity in matching patients to the trial. If the individual is identified at a site that is participating in the trial, Foundation Medicines SmartTrials outreach services will notify their treating physician that the patient may be eligible for enrollment into NCI-MATCH. The oncologist can take the information into consideration when discussing treatment options with his or her patients. Foundation Medicine initiated inclusion of NCI-MATCH in this outreach in May 2017.

About the NCI-MATCH Study NCI-MATCH is a phase II precision medicine trial that seeks to determine the effectiveness of treatment that is directed by genomic profiling in patients with solid tumors, lymphomas, or myelomas that have progressed following all standard treatments expected to prolong overall survival or rare cancer types for which there is no standard treatment. The study attempts to demonstrate that matching certain drugs or drug combinations in adults whose tumors have specific gene abnormalities will effectively treat cancer, regardless of its type. Such discoveries could be eligible to move on to larger, more definitive trials.

AboutFoundation Medicine Foundation Medicine(NASDAQ:FMI) is a molecular information company dedicated to a transformation in cancer care in which treatment is informed by a deep understanding of the genomic changes that contribute to each patient's unique cancer. The company offers a full suite of comprehensive genomic profiling assays to identify the molecular alterations in a patient's cancer and match them with relevant targeted therapies, immunotherapies and clinical trials.Foundation Medicine'smolecular information platform aims to improve day-to-day care for patients by serving the needs of clinicians, academic researchers and drug developers to help advance the science of molecular medicine in cancer. For more information, please visithttp://www.FoundationMedicine.comor followFoundation Medicineon Twitter (@FoundationATCG).

Foundation Medicineand FoundationOneare registered trademarks and SmartTrialsTMis a trademark ofFoundation Medicine, Inc.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements for Foundation Medicine This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the value and performance capabilities of comprehensive genomic profiling, including FoundationOne and FoundationOne Heme; the ability of CGP and the SmartTrials services to identify a larger number of patients who may be eligible to enroll for treatment in a clinical study; and the ability of a clinical trial, including the clinical trial design, to improve cancer care. All such forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include the risk that Foundation Medicine's CGP andservices will not be able to identify genomic alterations in the same manner as prior clinical data;clinical trial enrollment does not increase in the expected manner; and the risks described under the caption "Risk Factors" inFoundation Medicine'sAnnual Report on Form 10-K for the year endedDecember 31, 2016, which is on file with theSecurities and Exchange Commission, as well as other risks detailed inFoundation Medicine'ssubsequent filings with theSecurities and Exchange Commission.All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, andFoundation Medicineundertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.

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Foundation Medicine to Identify Patients Eligible for National Cancer ... - Business Wire (press release)

Bread and Health: A Personal Matter – Newswise (press release)

Newswise Bread occupies a unique place in our diet: it accounts for about one-tenth of the calories many people in the West consume and up to 40 percent of the caloric consumption in some non-Western countries more than any other food product. In the past few decades, since white bread has acquired a bad name, bakeries have been going out of their way to produce high-quality whole grain breads. But a new study conducted at the Weizmann Institute of Science and published recently inCell Metabolism reveals that these wholesome choices are not necessarily the healthiest for everyone.

The Weizmann scientists compared two kinds of bread viewed as being on opposite ends of the health spectrum. One was industrial white bread made from refined wheat and considered less healthy. The other was sourdough-leavened bread made in an artisanal bakery from freshly stone-milled whole-grain wheat flour and baked in a stone hearth oven; it was prepared specially for the study and was assumed to possess superior properties.

Twenty study participants were divided into two groups and asked to consume large quantities of bread (supplying about a quarter of their caloric intake) for a week. One group ate the white bread, and the other, the healthy sourdough bread. After a two-week break, they switched, and for a week the group that had previously eaten white bread ate the sourdough bread, and vice versa.

Tests revealed that eating bread of any kind affected the blood levels of sugar, minerals, liver enzymes, and other substances. But when the scientists compared the effects of the two types of bread, they were surprised. We were sure that the sourdough bread would come out a healthier choice, but much to our surprise, we found no difference between the health effects of the two types of bread, says Prof. Eran Segalof the Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics.

Thats probably because the bodys response to bread is a highly personal matter, so the differences between people in the study averaged themselves out, says Dr. Eran Elinavof the Department of Immunology, who headed the study with Prof. Segal and Prof. Avraham Levy of the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences. Prof. Levy adds: We planned the experiment so that everyone would consume the same amount of available carbohydrates from both bread types. Because whole wheat bread contains relatively fewer carbohydrates, this meant that people ate more of it compared to the white bread. This difference in carbohydrate levels should also be taken into consideration when planning a diet.

The study showed that, for example, about half of the participants had higher blood-sugar levels after eating white bread, whereas the other half had higher blood sugar after eating sourdough bread. It is possible that these different responses were due, in part, to the differences in the individuals intestinal microbes the microbiome. The composition of the microbiome in the people whose response to white bread produced high blood-sugar levels differed from that of the people who responded to sourdough bread with high blood sugar.

The scientists developed an algorithm connecting the microbiomes composition with the persons response to the type of bread. Using this algorithm, we managed to predict who will have high blood sugar after eating white bread, and who will have high blood sugar after eating the sourdough, says research student Tal Korem, who conducted the study with research student Dr. David Zeevi and other team members: Dr. Omer Weissbrod, Noam Bar, Maya Lotan-Pompan, Dr. Tali Avnit-Sagi, Noa Kosower, Gal Malka, Michal Rein and Dr. Adina Weinberger of the Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, and Dr. Niv Zmora and Jotham Suez of the Department of Immunology.

Prof. Eran Segals research is supported by the Crown Human Genome Center, which he heads; the Else Kroener Fresenius Foundation; the Adelis Foundation; Donald and Susan Schwarz, Sherman Oaks, CA; Jack N. Halpern, New York, NY; Leesa Steinberg, Canada; and the European Research Council.

Dr. Eran Elinavs research is supported by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust; the Adelis Foundation; the Else Kroener Fresenius Foundation; John L. and Vera Schwartz, Pacific Palisades, CA; the Rising Tide Foundation; Andrew and Cynthia Adelson, Canada; Yael and Rami Ungar, Israel; Leesa Steinberg, Canada; Jack N. Halpern, New York, NY; the Lawrence and Sandra Post Family; the Bernard M. and Audrey Jaffe Foundation; the European Research Council; and the Estate of Bernard Bishin. Dr. Elinav is the Incumbent of the Rina Gudinski Career Development Chair.

Prof. Avraham Levys research is supported by the Dr. Erhard, Emmi, and Fred Loewinsohn Center for Pediatric Health, which he heads; the Y. Leon Benoziyo Institute for Molecular Medicine, which he heads; the Tom and Sondra Rykoff Family Foundation Fund; the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust; Dana and Yossie Hollander, Israel; and the European Research Council. Prof. Levy is the incumbent of the Gilbert de Botton Professorial Chair of Plant Sciences.

The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the worlds top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. The Institutes 3,800-strong scientific community engages in research addressing crucial problems in medicine and health, energy, technology, agriculture, and the environment. Outstanding young scientists from around the world pursue advanced degrees at the Weizmann Institutes Feinberg Graduate School. The discoveries and theories of Weizmann Institute scientists have had a major impact on the wider scientific community, as well as on the quality of life of millions of people worldwide.

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Bread and Health: A Personal Matter - Newswise (press release)

H-metro resolves to protect content by converting text to images: this is why it won’t work – Technology Zimbabwe

Desperate situations do call for desperate measures I agree, but sometimes desperate measures can really prove to be futile. So is the case with H-Metro. H-Metro has been employing numerous tactics of trying to combat piracy and the most recent one is uploading content as images rather than text. I know the issue of piracy is a big problem in this industry and there hasnt been any viable breakthrough that I know of yet, but this resolution actually presents more problems than it solves anything. Lets go through why

So for starters, the idea is bad in that it will not help their SEO since images cannot be read by the Google search crawler and therefore, Google wont know that they have the content.

With everyone getting their news online, its great that H-Metro is online, however presenting their news as images defeats the purpose. Im saying this because for a while H-Metro wasnt actually online, forthis same issue of piracy. Them making a decision to come online is therefore positive. They just need to do it the right way.

Fine, say H-Metro doesnt really mind not having a good onlinepresence, all they want is their content protected but thats still problematic because of the existence of software such as Optical Character Recognition (OCR). OCR software recognises the text on images and PDFs which can then be extracted and converted into editableWord, Excel and Text output formats. And at the end of the day, you realise you really havent done much to address the problem.

Again, this piracy problem has driven H-Metro to upload their content later in the day after most media houses have alreadypublished. But then again, that still is a problem because some online news platforms likeiHarareandNehanda Radio(which basically steals news fromother sites and then protects it the irony!)actually manage to upload H-Metros content before H-Metro itself can.

How? The simplest assumption wed rather go with is that the content thieves buy the H-Metro hardcopy and transfer (by scanning and converting to text) the information contained onto their sites. And of course there was no way H-metro cangamble by delaying their hardcopy too I mean who buys newspaper in the evening??

Anyway, using this logic, youll discover that the new strategy of converting text to images does not help the case since content thieves still have access to the hardcopy.

So in essence: H-Metros new resolutionwill only lead to more frustration and complications rather than solve the initial problem.

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H-metro resolves to protect content by converting text to images: this is why it won't work - Technology Zimbabwe

Revamped Guildford Village opens tomorrow – Eagle Radio

It is a big day in Guildford tomorrow - as the revamped Village shopping and events site is relaunched.

The space in the town centre has been overhauled after the previous pop up concept closed earlier than expected back in January.

At the time, the council blamed the closure on the current retail climate and bad weather.

This time, it is a more permanent feature - with stalls and an events programme throughout the year.

It is now named The Village, Guildford.

Guildford Borough Council says it is no longer a pop-up site but offers a longer-term opportunity with a flexible, different space for retailers, traders and entertainment.

The site, near the Friary Centre, between Commercial and Woodbridge Roads, will also feature a stage area, an open public space and seating.

A mix of food concessions serving street food, retail outlets and a licensed bar will also be available.

Each week there will be themed events and activities, including food festivals, film nights, live music, live big screen showing of summer sporting events, a car show, community and arts events as well as day time activities for all the family.

The Village will also have free WiFi for visitors to use.

It will be open each week from Wednesday through to Sunday until December.

Christmas Pop-UpVillage being constructed last year

The Village opens with a street parade tomorrow which starts in the High Street at 10.30am before making its way to the Village by 11am.

Egbert the Eagle will also be joining in - along with the Eagle Radio Love Crew.

The parade will also include a giant puppet called Eartha Queen of the earth, characters from Alice through the Looking Glass and The Wizard of Oz.

Eagle Radio will be there - we will be broadcasting the launch live from the site.

In the evening, Kane FM's House of Dice will be playing electronic music from 7:30pm to 9:30pm.

Over the weekend there will be fun-packed free entertainment, makeand take sessions, aeroball, free prize draws, face painting and giveaways.

Lead Councillor for Economic Development, Tourism and Climate Change, Cllr David Bilbe says:We want to provide residents and visitors with a new and unique venue in which to shop, eat and enjoy themselves.

It continues to be important that we are able to provide an opportunity for local business and new start-ups to develop and grow.

"This type of new offering takes time to establish and we have improved the Village to make better use of this dynamic space ahead of the proposed redevelopment of lower North Street.

Eagle Radio's Peter Gordon from the Breakfast Show says: "Eagle Radio is delighted to have been asked to help promote the launch of The Village its so important that a town like Guildford keeps its mind open to progressive ideas, especially when they are aimed at generating a feeling of community. We feel that people should give The Village a real chance of helping towards generating that feeling. Were looking forward to being there for the launch!

Nick White, Head of Youth & Education at theYvonne Arnaud Theatre says:"We are delighted to have been asked by Guildford Borough Council to perform at the launch of the events programme of The Village. The Yvonne Arnaud Youth Theatres summer production The Wizard of Oz, is following the yellow brick road to Guildfords very own Emerald City. Join us on Sundayat11am, 1 and 3.30pmto meet cast members and watchperformances from our upcoming, main stage, production."

What will be at the new site?

Theme

Date

Days

Emerald City

10/06 11/06

Sat - Sun

Spring into Summer!

14/06 18/06

Wed - Sun

Health & Wellness

21/06 25/06

Wed - Sun

Street food & gifts

28/06 02/06

Wed - Sun

Big Screen Sport

05/07 09/07

Wed - Sun

Big Screen Sport

12/07 16/07

Wed - Sun

Sport

19/07 23/07

Wed - Sun

Micro Motor show

26/07 30/07

Wed - Sun

Food & Drink

02/08 06/08

Wed - Sun

Festival of music

09/08 13/08

Wed - Sun

Summer Fun

16/08 20/08

Wed - Sun

Summer Fun

23/08 27/08

Wed - Sun

Film Season

30/08 03/09

Wed - Sun

Culture & Heritage

06/09 10/09

Wed - Sun

Health & Wellness

13/09 17/09

Wed - Sun

Our Planet

20/09 24/09

Wed - Sun

Back to School / The big draw

27/09 01/10

Wed - Sun

Food & Drink

04/10 08/10

Wed - Sun

Business in action

11/10 15/10

Wed - Sun

Inspired by Jazz

18/10 22/10

Wed - Sun

Halloween / Community in action

25/10 29/10

Wed - Sun

The Arts

01/11 05/11

Wed - Sun

Christmas

15/11 19/11

Wed - Sun

Christmas

22/11 26/11

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Revamped Guildford Village opens tomorrow - Eagle Radio

Comment: Siri and HomePod will likely remain behind competing IAs, but there’s a reason for that – 9to5Mac

Siri has come under fresh attack today, with former members of Apples intelligent assistant team stating that it still lags behind its rivals despite the announcement of HomePod and improvements introduced in iOS 11.

Independent tests of the main IA systems also tend to bear this out, especially when it comes to personalization. Both Google Home and Amazon Echo have a better understanding than Siri of who we are and what we are likely to want.

The thing is, this isnt coincidence and doesnt come without a cost

Google is the master when it comes to big data. Many live almost their entire digital lives on Google. They conduct their web searches on Google. Send & receive email in Gmail. Schedule everything they do in Google Calendar. Upload all their photos through the Google Photos app. Read news stories via Google News. Search for products in Google Shopping. Use Google Translate while travelling. Upload their documents to Google Drive.

If you do all of this, Google gets to learn a massive amount about you and your life. Google services are able to use all of this data to be incredibly proactive in the way that they assist you. If you receive an email confirmation of a flight booking, for example, Google can add this to your calendar and based on your current location prompt you when its time to leave for the airport, all without you doing a thing.

So its no surprise that Google Home is smarter than Siri: it takes advantage of all the data it has to compile a comprehensive digital picture of who you are. Amazon Echo knows less about you, but if you do much of your shopping on Amazon, it still knows quite a lot.

Now that Apple is pitching in with its own speaker, the difference in capabilities of the three IA systems will come into even clearer focus.

Given the comprehensive nature of the Apple ecosystem, Apple could choose to go down the same route as Google. It could use all of the data it has about me, tie Siri queries to my Apple ID and deliver the same level of intelligence and proactive suggestions as Google Home. If it did so, nobody would be saying that Siri lags significantly behind Googles IA.

But Apple makes adeliberate choice not to do so. When I ask Siri a question, my iPhone doesnt attach my Apple ID to my query so that Siris servers can make contextual sense of it. All that is sent is a random identifier that cannot be linked to my identity in any way. The random identifier is used to help Siri learn my voice: it doesnt know who I am, but it knows that my query came from (say) person 7582066701, and it can check back over six months to match my query against my voice file to better understand what I actually said.

Whenever you speak into Apples voice activated personal digital assistant, it ships it off to Apples data farm for analysis. Apple generates a random numbers to represent the user and it associates the voice files with that number. This number not your Apple user ID or email address represents you as far as Siris back-end voice analysis system is concerned.

Once the voice recording is six months old, Apple disassociates your user number from the clip, deleting the number from the voice file. But it keeps these disassociated files for up to 18 more months for testing and product improvement purposes.

Thats a huge difference in approach. Apple protects my privacy, but delivers a less helpful service. Google and Amazon make better assistants, but they know exactly who I am when I ask a question or issue a command.

I dont think either approach is right or wrong. So long as companies are upfront about what they do with my data, Im happy to weigh up the pros & cons and make my own decision about how much privacy Im willing to sacrifice in order to take advantage of a particular service.

But I also recognize that Im in a somewhat privileged position when it comes to making that choice. I dont live in a country with a repressive regime (even if governments of late have taken us rather further in that direction than I would like). I dont have any business, political or religious affiliations that would put me on anyones radar. Im boringly law-abiding, saving my criminal enterprises for works offiction.I dont have any concerns that my government has any interest in surveilling me.

Apple knows that not everyone is as fortunate. The company chooses to err strongly on the side of privacy, no matter how much pressureis placed upon it, and Im glad that it does so. Im glad that option exists.

Will I ever switch IA platforms to take advantage of the greater power offered by a service which knows more about me? Maybe. But either way, I want that choice to exist, and right now Apple is the only player to offer the option of uncompromised privacy.

What are your own views? Is Apple right to favour privacy over power? Or would you prefer Apple to take the Google path, and use everything the company knows about you to deliver much more personalized Siri responses? As always, please take our poll and share your thoughts in the comments.

Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news!

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Comment: Siri and HomePod will likely remain behind competing IAs, but there's a reason for that - 9to5Mac

What all this cancer news means for medicine at large – MedCity News


MedCity News
What all this cancer news means for medicine at large
MedCity News
Founded in 1991 in Salt Lake City, Utah, the molecular diagnostics company has long been a leader in genomics and precision medicine, first with hereditary cancer tests, then with companion diagnostics and tests that could inform prognosis and ...

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What all this cancer news means for medicine at large - MedCity News

Thousands administered fish medicine in Hyderabad – The Hindu


The Hindu
Thousands administered fish medicine in Hyderabad
The Hindu
With great belief: (Left) Asthma patients being administered fish medicine by a member of Bathini Goud family at Exhibition Grounds at Nampally on Thursday. Hundreds of people waiting for their turn to receive the medicine. | Photo Credit: G_RAMAKRISHNA.

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Thousands administered fish medicine in Hyderabad - The Hindu

Teaching medicine: how the great ones do it – OUPblog (blog)

The greatest mistake in the treatment of diseases is that there are physicians for the body and physicians for the soul, although the two cannot be separated Plato

Attending physicians, the physicians who train interns and residents on hospital wards, have always borne a heavy responsibility. They are accountable for the level of medical care received by each succeeding generation of American patients. But today, these physician-teachers confront unprecedented obstacles. How well they meet the challenge may have long-term consequences for patients and for the medical profession as a whole.

This turning point in medical education was the inspiration for our in-depth study of 12 of the nations outstanding attending physicians. We observed them as they interacted with learners and patients, and interviewed them, as well as some of their past and present learners, to provide a glimpse of what the future of clinical education could look like.

The most important form of clinical training takes place at the patients bedside, yet attending physicians have less time to spend with learners on patient rounds. Due to the mandated reductions in the length of the learners workday and because hospitals are discharging patients sooner than ever before, there are fewer hours for learners to follow the care of any one patient. Meanwhile, learners continue to spend a great deal of their limited time behind a computer screen documenting care rather than administering care.

Attending physicians must also cope with a seismic change in the hospital environment. In days past, they personally provided or oversaw most of their patients hospital care. That is virtually impossible today. Attendings are now part of an interdependent team that encompasses not just learners but nurses, pharmacists, radiologists, and other specialists. Teamwork requires such personal qualities as empathy and communication skills, which were not particularly noticeable among attendings of previous generations. Those same qualities are in demand as hospitals have become more focused on satisfying patients (aka customers) rather than physicians; hospitals expect their physicians to view patients as partners in their care and to treat them with a full measure of respect.

The most important form of clinical training takes place at the patients bedside

Although the 12 attendings exhibited a variety of individual behaviors and techniques, we found that they shared a dedication to the following central propositions: the team environment should be supportive, and the teaching should be team-based and patient-centered.

A supportive environment

The 12 attendings set high standards for their medical team (typically a senior resident, two interns, and several medical students) but they were aware performance anxiety is not conducive to learning. They created an atmosphere that was cooperative and trusting, rather than competitive.

To achieve that goal, the attendings established personal connections with individual team members, exchanging life experiences and jokes. The attendings emphasized that they themselves were students, always learning, and urged team members to challenge their findings when there was a disagreement.

The attendings used their own past mistakes to illustrate their teaching and to demonstrate that mistakes, though obviously to be avoided, will happen and are an essential aspect of learning. Major missteps were corrected in private to keep from publicly embarrassing learners.

Bad outcomes can take a heavy emotional toll on learners. We saw how one of the attendings helped his team cope with the death of a patient. We should reflect on what happened, but not lose our confidence, he told them. The day after he died, I sat in my truck and did a personal pep talk. You have to come in and take care of the next patient and do the best you can.

Team-based learning

The 12 attendings put the team in charge of patient care, while demonstrating that they were available, 24/7, when needed. They positioned themselves as members of the team, rather than the leaders; giving that task to the senior resident. The teams were constantly told to question every diagnosis and every treatment plan, to develop and test multiple hypotheses and alternatives.

The attendings engaged their teams in discussions of a few key points, rather than delivering lectures filled with facts to be memorized. Instead of simply correcting a learners conclusion, the attendings would ask the learner to explain, step by step, how he or she got there. The Socratic method of questioning was used to explore learners understanding of the material and guide them toward the best answers.

The attendings shared with their team their own reasoning process in arriving at a diagnosis or treatment of a patient. In their capacity as role models, they wanted to show how seasoned physicians think about medicine.

Patient-centered teaching

In their behavior with patients, the attendings modelled the kind of safe patient care they expected of their learners. They washed their hands before and after every patient visit; they placed the stethoscope directly on the skin rather than over the patients gown when listening to the lungs or heart.

Before going on rounds with their teams, the 12 attendings reviewed the medical records of their patients allowing them to prepare some key teaching points during rounds.

The 12 attendings sought to create rapport with patients, greeting them in a friendly, upbeat manner; empathizing with their discomfort; explaining medical issues in laymans language. Patients were treated with kindness and humility.

The concern for patients welfare extended to their post-hospital lives. The attendings started their teams thinking about the patients discharge when the patients first arrived on the unit, and included for example, proper transportation home options, patient care at home, and patient insurance coverage.

The 12 attendings recognized their responsibility to model for their learners what it means to be a physician in todays challenging healthcare environment. One of the most impressive qualities about these attendings was that they loved being physicians andteachers. This description from one of the former learners sums up the 12 physicians as a whole: He was a doctor who loved taking care of patients and loved teaching. He was never there to just get through something, but very present and very excited about what he was doing.

If the future of clinical education rests in the hands, minds, and hearts of physicians such as these, learners and patients will be well served.

Featured image credit: Hospital by skeeze. CC BY 2.0 via Pixabay.

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Teaching medicine: how the great ones do it - OUPblog (blog)

Data had been manipulated: Science Translational Medicine retracts paper – Retraction Watch (blog)

Science Translational Medicine has retracted a paper by researchers based in Switzerland, after an investigation concluded two figures had been manipulated.

The investigation occurred at theUniversity of Basel. Its not clearwhat prompted it, but the paper has been discussed at length on PubPeer. After the investigation concluded two figure panels included manipulated data, the last author asked to retract the paper.

Heres the notice:

Following concerns raised about potential data manipulation, the University of Basel conducted an internal investigation. This evaluation established that data had been manipulated in Figure 2A and Figure 3. Given that the integrity of the manuscript is compromised, the corresponding author Michael Sinnreich has requested that the Research Article be retracted. Thus, Science Translational Medicine is retracting the paper in full.

Proteasome inhibitors increase missense mutated dysferlin in patients with muscular dystrophy has been cited eight times since it was published in 2014,according to Clarivate Analytics Web of Science.

One month after the paper appeared online in August 2014, a user on PubPeer raised a question about another figure panel, 2B. Another commenter tagged as author (and signing the note as last author Michael Sinnreich) uploaded an image of the entire blot used in figure 2B. However, that prompted additional comments from readers, who allege the published image has a much higher resolution than what the author shared, and some bands still appeared identical.

We contacted Sinnreich, who referred us to a university spokesperson.

First author Bilal Azakir is now an assistant professor at Beirut Arab University; he declined to comment further, and referred us to the retraction notice.

Update, 00:44UTC time, June 9, 2017: We received a statement fromEdwin Constable, Vice President for research of the University of Basel, earlier today:

The University of Basel was alerted to a possible problem with this publication by the lead scientist. The initial alert stemmed from the discussion on PubPeer. The University of Basel implemented its established procedures for cases of potential scientific misconduct. As a result of these procedures, we recommended the retraction of this paper.

We cannot make statements regarding either the nature of and responsibility for potential misconduct or any additional retractions.

Like Retraction Watch? Consider making atax-deductible contribution to support our growth. You can also follow uson Twitter, like uson Facebook, add us to yourRSS reader, sign up on ourhomepagefor an email every time theres a new post, or subscribe to ourdaily digest. Clickhere to review our Comments Policy. For a sneak peek at what were working on,click here.

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Data had been manipulated: Science Translational Medicine retracts paper - Retraction Watch (blog)

How narrative medicine closes gap between physicians and patients – Baylor College of Medicine News (press release) (blog)

According to Columbia University, narrative medicine fortifies clinical practice with the narrative competence to recognize, absorb, metabolize, interpret, and be moved by the stories of illness.

Although it seems like medicine and creative writing may have no similarities, the Narrative Medicine program at Baylor College of Medicine is proving otherwise. One of the ways the program is forging this connection is through an event called Off Script: Stories from the Heart of Medicine.

In the Q&A below, Dr. Ricardo Nuila, assistant professor of medicine at Baylor and a founding member of the Narrative Medicine program, discusses his interest in narrative medicine, how it can be used to help strengthen the link between healthcare providers and patients, and the Off Script event.

Q: How did you first learn about narrative medicine? A: Ive been interested in creative writing and literature since college. As a resident in internal medicine at Baylor, I began writing short stories. Then someone told me there was a field that combines creative writing with medicine. I did some research and found that Columbia University offered a Narrative Medicine program. I ended up going to one of their workshops and after that it seemed to be a good idea to build upon at Baylor.

Q: How has the Narrative Medicine program at Baylor evolved? A: We are still growing but now we are part of the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy. A lot of the programs growth at the beginning came from word-of-mouth. It began as a group of like-minded colleagues, and then it became something that interested other people.

Q: How do you educate health professionals through the Narrative Medicine program?A: We put on skill-building workshops at different levels. A typical workshop would be a noontime lecture where we hand out a short piece of literature such as Indian Camp by Ernest Hemingway. After participants read the story, they write something according to a prompt we give them. We then have a discussion tailored around a medical topic. Discussing stories is not just for fun, it helps increase analysis and communication, skills that everybody can benefit from.

Q: How does narrative medicine help promote a more holistic understanding of patients?A: Narrative medicine is about storytelling and respecting complex stories. For instance, when I talk to a patient, Im looking at a lot of details about that patient separate from what he or she might say. A hat, or how he or she is dressed, word use, an accent all of these things are data points in your head that help you shape this persons story. This process can also help with planning for possible hindrances the patient might face once they leave the hospital so you may be able to bypass them.

Q: How can storytelling help physicians be more thorough and empathetic?A: When I think of someone in story terms, I become more interested in his or her life and I find myself learning from the patient. Its not uncommon for me to ask patients questions like, What part of Texas or Mexico are you from? or How did you get here? When I take in all of those data points and I can see more of the patients story, I understand them better.

Storytelling also helps me develop a better ear for how a patient speaks, which can tell me what kinds of words to utilize to convey the message. I want patients to be engaged with me so I am aware of how Im using my words.

Q: Can you tell me more about Off Script: Stories from the Heart of Medicine?A: Off Script is one of our community outreach programs. I would describe it as a medical storytelling event. As a medical student and resident here at Baylor, I would see doctors, nurses and physicians assistants all huddled up telling stories about their experiences. The Off Script event is a chance for us to cultivate these stories.

For this Off Script event, the topic is Scrubbed. Stories are accepted through submissions so that we can help develop them. We work alongside writers to improve storytelling, writing technique, and delivery. We want each story to resonate with the audience.

Off Script takes place from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 14 at the UT McGovern Medical School, room MSB 2.135. The event is free and open to the public.

-By Julia Bernstein

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How narrative medicine closes gap between physicians and patients - Baylor College of Medicine News (press release) (blog)

UW medical school joins other schools to transform medical … – Madison.com

The UW School of Medicine and Public Health is joining the Medical College of Wisconsin and five other medical schools in a new effort to transform medical education, as health care focuses more on population groups as well as individual patients.

In addition to teaching students biomedical knowledge and clinical skills, they need to have the skills of professionalism, a societal perspective and be able to address the science of heath care delivery and public health issues, said Dr. Elizabeth Petty, senior associate dean of academic affairs at the UW medical school.

The newly formed National Transformation Network, announced Thursday, is part of the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education, based at the Medical College in Milwaukee.

The network also includes: the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire; Mayo Clinic School of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota; University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine; University of Texas-Austin Dell Medical School; and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee.

The UW medical school has made changes in recent years to focus more on public health, which includes social determinants of health, such as poverty, nutrition and employment.

In 2005, the school added public health to its name, integrating community approaches to health with clinical and research efforts.

The Wisconsin Academy for Rural Medicine, or WARM, started in 2007, bringing in students from rural areas or with an interest in rural practice and training them in rural settings, with the hope that theyll work in similar locales after medical school.

Training in Urban Medicine and Public Health, or TRIUMPH, based in Milwaukee, began the next year.

Other programs have worked on increasing diversity among students and serving diverse populations of patients, including the Native American Center for Health Professions, created in 2012.

Despite those efforts, the school could do better at preparing doctors for todays health care challenges, Petty said. We need to improve health outcomes and better address health disparities and inequities, she said.

The network will promote a Triple Aim for Medical Education: character, competence and caring. The idea springs from a well-known Triple Aim for Health Care, which focuses on enhancing the patient experience, improving the health of populations and reducing the cost of care.

Through the network, UW could exchange curriculum with other schools or set up faculty workshops or student exchanges with them, Petty said.

The collaboration will also teach medical students to work alongside nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals, as doctors are increasingly doing, she said.

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Pharr to make pledged UTRGV medical school payment | Local … – Monitor

Pharr is scheduled to pay the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley its agreed-upon annual payment of $500,000 on Tuesday, City Manager Juan Guerra confirmed. This leaves McAllen and Mission as the only cities that have not yet paid.

Edinburg and Hidalgo County have come through with their pledged $1 million payments while McAllen has $1 million budgeted for the medical school this fiscal year, which ends at the end of September. City Manager Roel Roy Rodriguez has confirmed that money is still budgeted, but he has not yet been directed by the city commission to put that payment on the agenda.

UTRGV has a memorandum of understanding with McAllen, Edinburg, Mission, Pharr and Hidalgo County. The line in the MOU between McAllen and UTRGV states, On or about Oct. 15, each year from 2014 to 2023, the city shall pay/transfer/provide to The University of Texas System up to $2,000,000. That money is for the medical school. Edinburg agreed to exactly $1 million, Mission pledged exactly $250,000 and Pharr committed to exactly $500,000.

McAllen has made one payment of $2 million, in fall 2014. The item was on three consecutive commission meeting agendas in November and December but it was tabled each time. Mayor Jim Darling said Thursday there is not an item on Mondays regularly scheduled commission meeting agenda regarding a UTRGV medical school payment.

Before the Texas Legislature adjourned last month, it agreed to fund the medical school with $54.1 million for the next two years, which is $7.2 million short of what lawmakers approved in 2015. Overall, the entire university received $313.1 million, down 4 percent from $326.3 million given the last biennium. mferman@themonitor.com

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Pharr to make pledged UTRGV medical school payment | Local ... - Monitor

First New Missouri Medical School In Nearly Half A Century Opens … – KCUR

Joplin city leaders and school officials held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Kansas City University of Medicine and Bioscience campus on Tuesday.

Built near the site of what was the parking lot of the old Saint Johns Regional Medical Center, which was destroyed in a 2011 tornado that killed 161 people, the new medical school was described as a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Like the KCUMB medical school in Kansas City, the Joplin school will teach osteopathic medicine, which supporters describe as a more holistic approach to health than that practiced by the majority of doctors and nurses. The school is the first medical school to open in Missouri in nearly half a century.

At the ceremony, which was attended by hundreds of Joplin residents, city leaders and medical professionals, Joplin mayor Mike Seibert said he hoped the schools students would help fix the shortage of health care providers in rural parts of the region.

We stand a real good chance that upon their graduation, when theyre ready to set up practice, that choosing an area like Joplin or in the surrounding areas to set up practice is huge, because recruitment is always a challenge in the rural areas, Seibert said.

The schools first class of 150 students begins studies at the end of July.

Alex Smith is a health reporter for KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @AlexSmithKCUR

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First New Missouri Medical School In Nearly Half A Century Opens ... - KCUR

Tip regarding human remains in Liberty Hill could be tied to Rachel Cooke case – KXAN.com

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GEORGETOWN, Texas (KXAN) Even though shes been missing for 15 years, a recent tip could lead authorities to answers aboutwhat happened to Rachel Cooke.

The Williamson County Sheriffs Office confirms a deputy received a tip approximately three weeks ago about possible human remains buried on the property at 221 Chaparral Dr. in Liberty Hill. Rachels mother, Janet Cooke, tells KXAN she has received a phone call from local authorities but says she cant elaborate on the conversation in fear of jeopardizing the investigation.

The tip was not only specific to the fact that there were possible remains of a human in that area and the name Rachel Cooke was brought up one time, explained Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody in a briefing Friday morning. We had no other evidence related to that one tip that Rachel Cooke was involved.

Chody said they are currently excavating a 15-by-20-foot area, about 18 inches deep, but nothing has been found as of noon. However, prior to digging, cadaver dogs did detect the scene of human remains in the area.

While the tip may or may not lead to anything, Chody said the department owes it to the family to not leave any stones unturned. I felt we had a duty to go and use all our resources to make sure, said Chody, and whether its RachelCooke or any other person that we are trying to locate, that we can check this one off the box and move on.

Rachel,who was 19 years old at the time, vanished during her morning run in Georgetown on Jan. 10, 2002. Janet says a neighbor saw Rachel walk past their driveway around that time, during her cool down. She had earbuds in at the time.

Ever since Rachels disappearance, her family became very active in missing persons causes. Rachels father, Robert, passed away in November 2014. According to his obituary, Robert made a promise on the day his daughter disappeared that he would never stop looking for her.

During a recent memorial run, organizers were hoping the community would call in any and all tips regarding Rachels disappearance.

One day Im going to have closure, whether it be on earth or in heaven, said Janet.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations confirms they are assisting WCSO with the case.

According to chargleyproject.org, witnesses told authorities that an unidentified man was driving a late-model white or blue Chevrolet Camaro or Pontiac Trans Am in the area where Cooke was last seen. Some witnesses also said there were two men inside the vehicle. Sketches were originally released of three unidentified men.

In 2006, convicted murderer Michael Keith Moore admitted to investigators that he killed Rachel with a hammer blow to the head.Moore also detailed dropping her body in the Gulf of Mexico, confessing on videotape from prison, the source said. In the end, Moore said he had nothing to do with her disappearance.

This is a developing story and KXAN News will have an update on KXAN News at 5 and 6 p.m.

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File photo of Rachel Cooke. (KXAN File Photo)

Rachel Cooke's mother has been active in the search for her daughter ever since she went missing. (KXAN File Photo)

Equusearch teams searching for Rachel Cooke during the first year she went missing. (KXAN File Photo)

High school photo of Rachel Cooke. (KXAN File Photo)

Vigil for Rachel Cooke. (KXAN File Photo)

File photo of Rachel Cooke. (KXAN File Photo)

Rachel Cooke's mother has been active in the search for her daughter ever since she went missing. (KXAN File Photo)

Equusearch teams searching for Rachel Cooke during the first year she went missing. (KXAN File Photo)

High school photo of Rachel Cooke. (KXAN File Photo)

Vigil for Rachel Cooke. (KXAN File Photo)

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Tip regarding human remains in Liberty Hill could be tied to Rachel Cooke case - KXAN.com

Falwell Higher Ed Task Force Won’t Happen – Inside Higher Ed

Falwell Higher Ed Task Force Won't Happen
Inside Higher Ed
In the months since Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. said in January that he would be leading a presidential task force on higher education, the announcement went unacknowledged by the White House and the Department of Education, and few ...

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Falwell Higher Ed Task Force Won't Happen - Inside Higher Ed

Liberty Twp. fire department rallies around one of their own – Hamilton Journal News

LIBERTY TWP.

Liberty Twp. Fire Chief Paul Stumpf and others on the fire department are pooling some of their unused sick and vacation time to help out a fellow firefighter/medic who has run out of sick days.

Stumpf and Captain Jim Limerick have each turned over a total of 160 hours of sick and vacation time so one of their own wont be out any money while he is on sick leave.

Stumpf told the Journal-News this person to protect his privacy the Journal-News is not revealing his name has had family illnesses to contend with and now he himself is out of commission for six to eight weeks. Stumpf said since the injury occurred on his own time, workers compensation cant be drawn so his brothers and sisters on the department want to help.

Limerick said they have done this before when other people have been injured or ill and he is glad to help.

I feel obligated to do it, he said. I like helping staff and were in the business of helping people so why not help our own when we can.

Limerick has been with Liberty Twp. more than 20 years and Stumpf, who is retiring in September, has been there 45 years.

Stumpf said other firefighters also plan to work shifts for the man while he is out. He said they dont want to stack up too many days, especially since they dont know exactly when the firefighter will be returning. He said there were three people who needed sick time last year.

This was kind of the quickest, easiest way to get him through a couple weeks, Stumpf said. Last year everybody wanted to donate.

Between the two men they have accumulated 328 hours of vacation time and 2,570 hours worth of sick time. The townships policy allows employees to accrue a maximum of 1,600 hours of sick time, anything over that they get credit for one hour of pay for every four hours. Employees with 10-plus years of service get four weeks of vacation and one week can be carried into the next year.

Trustee Tom Farrell said the department should be commended for giving so much to their co-worker.

I think it is very admirable and I support it, Farrell said. It is our policy that they are allowed to do that, thats their choice, thats their money. For them to take money out of their own pocket and give it to their family like that is very respectful, its amazing.

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Liberty Twp. fire department rallies around one of their own - Hamilton Journal News

No drama this time as Liberty baseball flies into PIAA semifinals – lehighvalleylive.com

The Liberty baseball team turned to some well executed small ball to pad their lead over Frankford in the bottom of the fourth inning Thursday.

The Hurricanes then used some power ball to finish off the Pioneers and emphatically punch their ticket to the state semifinals.

A pair of two-run doubles from Jared Burcin and Gabe Albino helped break open the game and senior pitcher Alex Laudenslager took care of the rest as Liberty pummeled District 12 champ Frankford in the PIAA Class 6A quarterfinals at Spring-Ford High School.

This is what weve worked for. This is what weve been trying to do all season, Burcin said. We finally got our bats back. Everyone started hitting the ball a little bit more. We started taking more pitches and doing our thing.

For the first time since 2002, the Hurricanes (25-3) advanced to the PIAA semifinals set for Monday against District 1 champ Pennsbury at a site and time to be determined. The Falcons beat Perkiomen Valley 3-0 in another quarterfinal after outlasting Parkland 2-1 (11 innings) in the first round.

Laudenslager cruised through Frankfords lineup, allowing just two singles (only one of which left the infield) while striking out six and walking none. He retired the final 10 batters he faced in order.

My command was working well and I was hitting my spots, Laudenslager said. The first inning felt really good. I knew I was on.

Leaning on a solid curveball to complement his fastball command, Laudenslager faced just two batters over the minimum.

A two-hit shutout in the state quarterfinal is amazing, Liberty coach Andy Pitsilos said.

From the first pitch to the final out, the Hurricanes outplayed the Pioneers with heads-up base running, timely hitting, smart pitching and slick defense including a diving grab by first baseman Mike Perreault in foul territory for the second out of the seventh inning, which was just a cherry on top of the sundae at that point.

While Liberty had developed a flair for the dramatic of late, winning its last three games before the quarterfinal in its final at-bat, it spared the crowd any nail-biting on Thursday.

After an RBI double from Jake Morgan in the second inning and an RBI single from Burcin in the third inning, the Hurricanes entered the fourth holding a 2-0 lead that soon exploded into 8-0.

Senior designated hitter Jake Wagner, who had scored in the second inning when he jump-started a two-out rally, provided another spark as he led off the fourth with an infield single. Morgan then dropped down a sacrifice bunt and with the third baseman making the play, Wagner kept his head up and took third base with nobody covering.

I dont think they were aware of what were capable of, Wagner said. We just took advantage of their mistakes and went from there.

After sophomore Antonio Zabala, a newcomer to the starting lineup in place of an injured Elias Gross (back), made it runners on the corners with a bunt single, senior Kyle Hlavaty cashed in with an RBI single to left field for the 3-0 lead.

One out later, Burcin returned to the dish with runners on second and third and ripped a two-run double to right field.

Sammy Kraihanzel then drew a walk, knocking out Frankford starter Nick Herrera and Perreault greeted the new pitcher by drawing another base on balls to load the bases.

Albino made the walks hurt as he came up next and roped a two-run double down the left field line to make it 7-0.

Its fundamental baseball with a little hitting added in there, Pitsilos said. Its all the kids. Theyre extremely disciplined kids and theyve been like that all year. Although we preach that, its very, very hard to find players that are that good at the plate. Its a testament to them. A lot of them are seniors and they have a lot of experience. Great kids.

Perreault later scored on a wild pitch for the eighth and final run.

The Hurricanes are now headed where no other Liberty team has gone since 2002: the states final four. The 2002 squad made it all the way to the PIAA Class 3A final before falling to Moon 3-2.

This years group isnt ready to be done just yet.

Its just something coach Pit, everyone and the Liberty community is proud of, Burcin said.

Weve been together for a while and we knew it was coming, Laudenslager added.

Said Wagner: Its amazing. I (wouldnt) change it for the world. I dont even know how to describe it, its breathtaking.

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