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  • 2012 Treasurer’s Report

    Final Book Now Available

    The income that supports the activities of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) comes from two major sources: program revenue received from sponsors to pay for the myriad studies and other activities undertaken each year by the National Research Council (NRC), and a much smaller sum that is obtained from our endowment under the endowment spending policies adopted by the Council. The goal of the endowment is to provide stable support for the Academy’s programs and activities. To achieve this goal, the Council, acting on the recommendations of the Finance Committee, has historically authorized spending from the portfolio at a rate designed to maintain the purchasing power of the endowment over time.

    This Report of the Treasure of the National Academy of Sciences presents the financial position and results of operations as well as a review of the endowment, trust, and other long-term investments portfolio activities of our Academy for the year ended December 31, 2012. While this book provides essential financial summary to key personnel, it also serves as a vital informative resource for various members of the public, private, and governmental sectors

    [Read the full report]

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  • Proposed Revisions to the Common Rule: Perspectives of Social and Behavioral Scientists: Workshop Summary

    Prepublication Now Available

    On July 26, 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) with the purpose of soliciting comments on how current regulations for protecting research participants could be modernized and revised. The rationale for revising the regulations was as follows: this ANPRM seeks comment on how to better protect human subjects who are involved in research, while facilitating valuable research and reducing burden, delay, and ambiguity for investigators. The current regulations governing human subjects research were developed years ago when research was predominantly conducted at universities, colleges, and medical institutions, and each study generally took place at only a single site. Although the regulations have been amended over the years, they have not kept pace with the evolving human research enterprise, the proliferation of multisite clinical trials and observational studies, the expansion of health services research, research in the social and behavioral sciences, and research involving databases, the Internet, and biological specimen repositories, and the use of advanced technologies, such as genomics.

    Proposed Revisions to the Common Rule: Perspectives of Social and Behavioral Scientists: Workshop Summary focuses on six broad topic areas:
    1. Evidence on the functioning of the Common Rule and of institutional review boards (IRBs), to provide context for the proposed revisions.
    2. The types and levels of risks and harms encountered in social and behavioral sciences, and issues related to the severity and probability of harm, because the ANPRM asks for input on calibration of levels of review to levels of risk.
    3. The consent process and special populations, because new rules have been proposed to improve informed consent (e.g., standard consent form, consent for future uses of biospecimens, and re-consenting for further use of existing research data).
    4. Issues related to the protection of research participants in studies that involve use of existing data and data sharing, because the ANPRM proposed applying standards for protecting the privacy of healthcare data to research data.
    5. Multidisciplinary and multisite studies, because the ANPRM proposed a revision to the regulations that would allow multisite studies to be covered by a single IRB.
    6. The purview and roles of IRBs, because the ANPRM included possible revisions to categories of research that could entail changes in IRB oversight.

    [Read the full report]

    Topics: Behavioral and Social Sciences | Education

  • UCLA discovery sheds light on why Alzheimer’s meds rarely help

    UCLA RESEARCH ALERT
     
    BACKGROUND:
    The nonprofit Alzheimer’s Association projects that the number of people living with Alzheimer’s disease will soar from 5 million to 13.8 million by 2050 unless scientists develop new ways to stop the disease. Current medications do not treat Alzheimer’s or stop it from progressing; they only temporarily lessen symptoms, such as memory loss and confusion.

    Current Alzheimer’s drugs aim to reduce the amyloid plaques — sticky deposits that build up in the brain — that are a visual trademark of the disease. These plaques are made of long fibers of a protein called amyloid beta, or Aβ. Recent studies, however, suggest that the real culprit behind Alzheimer’s may be small Aβ clumps called oligomers that appear in the brain years before plaques develop.   
     
    FINDINGS:
    In unraveling oligomers’ molecular structure, UCLA scientists discovered that Aβ has a vastly different organization in oligomers than in amyloid plaques. Their finding could shed light on why Alzheimer’s drugs designed to seek out amyloid plaques have no effect on oligomers.
     
    IMPACT:
    The UCLA study suggests that recent experimental Alzheimer’s drugs failed in clinical trials because they zero in on plaques and do not work on oligomers. Future studies on oligomers will help speed the development of new drugs specifically aiming at Aβ oligomers, the researchers say.
     
    AUTHORS:
    Zhefeng Guo, an assistant professor of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a member of UCLA’s Brain Research Institute and Molecular Biology Institute, is available for interviews.
     
    JOURNAL:
    The study was published as the “paper of the week” in the June 28 issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Biological Chemistry.
     
    GRAPHICS:
    Images of Aβ oligomers and Aβ fibers are available upon request.
     
    FUNDING:

    The research was supported by the Alzheimer’s Association and the American Health Assistance Foundation.

  • Doctor-patient communication about dietary supplements could use a vitamin boost

    Vitamins, minerals, herbs and other dietary supplements are widely available in supermarkets and drug stores across the nation without a prescription, so it’s no surprise that nearly half of all Americans take them.
     
    But they do carry risks, including potentially adverse interactions with prescription drugs, and some people may even use them in place of conventional medications. So it’s important that primary care physicians communicate the pros and cons of supplements with their patients. In fact, both the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health suggest that patients consult with their doctors before starting to take them.
     
    A new UCLA-led study currently available in the journal Patient Education and Counseling examined the content of doctor–patient conversations about dietary supplements and found that, overall, physicians are not particularly good at conveying important information concerning them.
     
    “This is the first study to look at the actual content of conversations about dietary supplements in a primary care setting,” said Dr. Derjung Tarn, an assistant professor of family medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the study’s primary investigator. “The bottom line was that discussions about meaningful topics such as risks, effectiveness and costs that might inform patient decisions about taking dietary supplements were sparse.”
     
    The researchers analyzed transcripts of audio recordings from office visits by 1,477 patients to 102 primary care providers. The data were collected in three separate studies conducted between 1998 and 2010. Of those visits, 357 included patient–physician discussions of 738 dietary supplements. The team found that five major topics were discussed with regard to the supplements: the reason for taking the supplements, how to take them, their potential risks, their effectiveness, and their cost or affordability.
     
    For scoring, the researchers used the Supplement Communication Index (SCI), which is calculated by giving one point for discussion of each of the five major topics.
     
    Among the findings:
    • Less than 25 percent of the five major topics — fewer than two on average — were discussed during the office visits.
       
    • All five topics were covered during discussions of only six of the 738 supplements.
       
    • None of the five major topics were discussed for 281 of the supplements patients told their physicians they were taking.
       
    • SCI scores were significantly higher for discussions of non-vitamin, non-mineral supplements such as herbs, compared with those about vitamins and minerals. The former have a greater potential for adverse medication–supplement interactions than the latter.
    The researchers pointed out that since the original studies did not focus specifically on dietary supplements, they could not ascertain how many of the 1,477 patients from the three studies were actually taking them. The researchers also did not have information about the patients’ medications or medical conditions, so they could not assess if patients were at risk for interactions.
     
    But given these supplements’ popularity, easy availability and potential risks, more should be done to improve physician communication about them, the researchers said.
     
    “Future studies should examine the relationship between physician–patient discussions on patient decision-making about dietary supplements, and investigate whether discussions are effective for preventing adverse events and supplement–drug interactions,” the researchers write. “A better understanding about these relationships could inform future interventions to enhance physician–patient communication about dietary supplements.”
     
    Grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (034384), a UCLA Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award (5K12AG001004), the UCLA Older Americans Independence Center (NIH/NIA Grant P30-AG028748); the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicines and the Office of Dietary Supplements (R01AT005883) funded this study.  The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
     
    Study co-authors included Ian D. Coulter, Arun S. Karlamangla and Neil S. Wenger, all of UCLA; Richard L. Kravitz and Debora A. Paterniti of UC Davis; Jeffrey S. Good of Syracuse University; and James M. Galliher of the AAFP National Research Network. Coulter is also associated with the RAND Corp.
     
    The UCLA Department of Family Medicine provides comprehensive primary care to entire families, from newborns to seniors. It  provides low-risk obstetrical services and prenatal and inpatient care at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, and outpatient care at the UCLA Family Health Center in Santa Monica and the Mid-Valley Family Health Center, located in a Los Angeles County Health Center in Van Nuys, Calif. The department is also a leader in family medicine education, for both medical students and residents, and houses a significant research unit focusing on health care disparities among immigrant families and minority communities and other underserved populations in Los Angeles and California.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • UCLA stem cell gene therapy for sickle cell disease advances toward clinical trials

    Researchers at UCLA’s Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research have successfully established the foundation for using hematopoietic (blood-producing) stem cells from the bone marrow of patients with sickle cell disease to treat the disease. The study was led by Dr. Donald Kohn, professor of pediatrics and of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics.
     
    Sickle cell disease causes the body to produce red blood cells that are formed like the crescent-shaped blade of a sickle, which hinders blood flow in the blood vessels and deprives the body’s organs of oxygen.
     
    Kohn introduced an anti-sickling gene into the hematopoietic stem cells to capitalize on the self-renewing potential of stem cells and create a continual source of healthy red blood cells that do not sickle. The breakthrough gene therapy technique for sickle cell disease is scheduled to begin clinical trials by early 2014. The study was published online today ahead of press in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
     
    Kohn’s gene therapy approach, which uses hematopoietic stem cells from a patient’s own blood, is a revolutionary alternative to current sickle cell disease treatments as it creates a self-renewing normal blood cell by inserting a gene that has anti-sickling properties into hematopoietic stem cells. This approach also does not rely on the identification of a matched donor, thus avoiding the risk of rejection of donor cells. The anti-sickling hematopoietic stem cells are transplanted back into the patient’s bone marrow and multiply the corrected cells that make red blood cells without sickling.
     
    “The results demonstrate that our technique of lentiviral transduction is capable of efficient transfer and consistent expression of an effective anti-sickling beta-globin gene in human sickle cell disease bone marrow progenitor cells, which improved the physiologic parameters of the resulting red blood cells,” Kohn said.
     
    Kohn and colleagues found that in the laboratory the hematopoietic stem cells produced new non-sickled blood cells at a rate sufficient for significant clinical improvement for patients. The new blood cells survive longer than sickled cells, which could also improve treatment outcomes. 
     
    Sickle cell disease mostly affects people of Sub-Saharan African descent, and more than 90,000 patients in the U.S. have been diagnosed. It is caused by an inherited mutation in the beta-globin gene that makes red blood cells change from their normal shape, which is round and pliable, into a rigid, sickle-shaped cell. Normal red blood cells are able to pass easily through the tiniest blood vessels, called capillaries, carrying oxygen to organs such as the lungs, liver and kidneys. But due to their rigid structure, sickled blood cells get stuck in the capillaries. 
     
    Current treatments include transplanting patients with donor hematopoietic stem cells, which is a potential cure for sickle cell disease, but due to the serious risks of rejection, only a small number of patients have undergone this procedure and it is usually restricted to children with severe symptoms. 
     
    This study was supported in part by a Disease Team I Award from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state’s stem cell research agency, which was created by a voter initiative in 2004. The purpose of the disease team program is to support research focused on one particular disease that leads to the filing of an investigational new drug application with the FDA within four years. The program is designed to speed translational research — research that takes scientific discoveries from the laboratory to the patient bedside. This requires new levels of collaboration between basic laboratory scientists, medical clinicians, biotechnology experts and pharmacology experts, to name a few.
     
    Other support came from UCLA’s Broad Stem Cell Research Center and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, and from the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award.
     
    The Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research: UCLA’s stem cell center was launched in 2005 with a UCLA commitment of $20 million over five years. A $20 million gift from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation in 2007 resulted in the renaming of the center. With more than 200 members, the Broad Stem Cell Research Center is committed to a multi-disciplinary, integrated collaboration of scientific, academic and medical disciplines for the purpose of understanding adult and human embryonic stem cells. The center supports innovation, excellence and the highest ethical standards focused on stem cell research with the intent of facilitating basic scientific inquiry directed towards future clinical applications to treat disease. The center is a collaboration of the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center, the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and the UCLA College of Letters and Science. 
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • Predicting Hurricane-Induced Coastal Change

    USGS Reports To Help Community Planners, Emergency Managers

    ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. The probability of hurricane-induced coastal change on sandy beaches from Florida to New York has been assessed for the first time in two U.S. Geological Survey studies released today. 

    The two reports — one assessing the coastline from Florida to North Carolina, the other from Virginia to New York — can function as part of a “virtual toolkit” for U.S. Atlantic coast community planners and emergency managers as they make decisions on how to best address coastline vulnerabilities.

    The reports show that even during the weakest hurricane, a category 1 with winds between 74 and 95 miles per hour, 89 percent of the dune-backed beaches from Florida to New York coast are very likely to experience dune erosion during a direct landfall.  But scientists involved say the strength of the studies is in their ability to predict coastal change in specific areas. 

    The online mapping tool, based on a USGS state-of-the-art model, will allow community planners and emergency managers to focus on a specific storm category and see the predicted coastal change in their area.  The information may help them with decisions ranging from changes to building codes and locations for new construction, to determining the best evacuation routes for future storms.

    “The USGS has been working on identifying storm-driven coastal change hazards for more than a decade,” said Hilary Stockdon, a USGS research oceanographer and co-author of the studies. “The data collected and modeling capabilities developed during that period are what’s enabled us to complete these regional assessments of predicted coastal change, providing key information to decision makers working to build more resilient communities and take actions to protect lives and property before storms hit.”

    For the entire study area, the modeling also shows that during a category 1 hurricane, storm waves are expected to increase water levels at the shoreline by approximately 150 percent above storm surge levels. This means in a category 1 storm that waves alone would raise water levels at the shoreline by approximately 2.6 to 3.3 meters (8.5 to 10.8 feet), depending on the region.  Results show that waves play a significant role in elevating water levels during lower category storms, while storm surge is the major contributor to high water levels in stronger storms.

    In an assessment of dune height from Florida to New York, the researchers found the southeast coasts, because of their lower dune elevations, more likely to experience overwash, or the landward movement of beach sand, than coastlines farther north.  Dune heights from Delaware to New York are 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) higher, on average, than the dunes from Maryland south to Florida.  The South Carolina coast, where average dune elevations are only 2.9 meters (9.5 feet), is the most vulnerable to overwash of the beaches studied. Ninety-six percent of coastal locations in the state are likely to overwash if a category 1 hurricane makes landfall there.

    Prior to Hurricane Sandy, dunes on New York’s south shore were among the highest on the Atlantic coast, and as such during a category 1 storm only 9 percent of coastal areas were likely to overwash.  Still, these high dunes were vulnerable to extreme erosion during a category 1 hurricane, with 76 percent of the dunes very likely to be experience erosion.  This was observed during Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall as an extra-tropical cyclone but pounded the beach with hurricane waves and surge. The protective sand dunes along barrier islands in New Jersey and New York were completely eroded in places, increasing vulnerability to more extreme erosion during future storms.  

    But vulnerability doesn’t just come down to dune height; scientists credit the continuity of the dunes as being one of the key reasons coastal vulnerabilities vary greatly along the coast.    

    “Large areas of the South Carolina coast are very likely to erode during hurricanes due to long, continuous stretches of low dunes.  In other areas, such as Delaware and New York, the mix of high and low dune elevations creates a more complex picture of vulnerabilities where relatively safe areas are adjacent to areas that are likely to be inundated,” said Stockdon.

    “Inundation” is a process by which an entire beach system is submerged and, in extreme cases, can result in island breaching.  Only 9 percent of the entire study region is very likely to be inundated in a category 1 storm, although the percent is significantly higher in some regions.  If a category 1 storm makes landfall on the South Carolina coast, for example, 34 percent of the beaches and dunes there are very likely to be inundated. 

    Beaches serve as a natural buffer between the ocean and inland communities, ecosystems, and natural resources.  However, these dynamic environments move and change in response to winds, waves, and currents.  During extreme storms, changes to beaches can be large, and the results are sometimes catastrophic.  Lives may be lost, communities destroyed, and millions of dollars spent on rebuilding.

    These reports and the mapping tool can serve as an important resource for coastal planners and emergency managers as they work to protect their communities from future storms.

    Both publications and internet mapping services are available online. 

    National assessment of hurricane-induced coastal erosion hazards: Mid-Atlantic Coast: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2013–1131, Doran, K.S., Stockdon, H.F., Sopkin, K.L., Thompson, D.M., and Plant, N.G.

    National assessment of hurricane-induced coastal erosion hazards: Southeast Atlantic Coast: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2013-1130, Stockdon, H.F., Doran, K.J., Thompson, D.M., Sopkin, K.L., and Plant, N.G., 2013

    An assessment of the Gulf Coast vulnerability to hurricanes was released in May 2012. A news release was issued announcing the results.

  • News story: Armed Forces Day message from the Prime Minister

    Armed Forces Day message from the Prime Minister

    The Prime Minister has recorded a message to mark Armed Forces Day, “one of the most important dates in the British calendar”.

    In the message, the Prime Minister talks of the “pride and gratitude” he feels whenever he meets men and women of the Armed Forces.

    Armed Forces Day will be celebrated by thousands of people across the UK today, recognising the contribution made by the men and women of our Armed Forces. The national event for Armed Forces Day is being hosted this year by the city of Nottingham.

  • Sustainability for the Nation: Resource Connection and Governance Linkages

    Final Book Now Available

    A “sustainable society,” according to one definition, “is one that can persist over generations; one that is far-seeing enough, flexible enough, and wise enough not to undermine either its physical or its social system of support.” As the government sector works hard to ensure sufficient fresh water, food, energy, housing, health, and education for the nation without limiting resources for the future generations, it’s clear that there is no sufficient organization to deal with sustainability issues. Each federal agency appears to have a single mandate or a single area of expertise making it difficult to tackle issues such as managing the ecosystem. Key resource domains, which include water, land, energy, and nonrenewable resources, for example, are nearly-completely connected yet different agencies exist to address only one aspect of these domains.

    The legendary ecologist John Muir wrote in 1911 that “when we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” Thus, in order for the nation to be successful in sustaining its resources, “linkages” will need to be built among federal, state, and local governments; nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); and the private sector. The National Research Council (NRC) was asked by several federal agencies, foundations, and the private sector to provide guidance to the federal government on issues related to sustainability linkages. The NRC assigned the task to as committee with a wide range of expertise in government, academia, and business. The committee held public fact-finding meetings to hear from agencies and stakeholder groups; examined sustainability management examples; conducted extensive literature reviews; and more to address the issue. Sustainability for the Nation: Resource Connection and Governance Linkages is the committee’s report on the issue.

    The report includes insight into high-priority areas for governance linkages, the challenges of managing connected systems, impediments to successful government linkages, and more. The report also features examples of government linkages which include Adaptive Management on the Platte River, Philadelphia’s Green Stormwater Infrastructure, and Managing Land Use in the Mojave.

    [Read the full report]

    Topics: Policy for Science and Technology | Energy and Energy Conservation

  • Developing Capacities for Teaching Responsible Science in the MENA Region: Refashioning Scientific Dialogue

    Final Book Now Available

    Spurred on by new discoveries and rapid technological advances, the capacity for life science research is expanding across the globe—and with it comes concerns about the unintended impacts of research on the physical and biological environment, human well-being, or the deliberate misuse of knowledge, tools, and techniques to cause harm. This report describes efforts to address dual use issues by developing institutes around the world that will help life sciences faculty learn to teach about the responsible conduct of science. Based on the successful National Academies Summer Institute for Undergraduate Biology Education and on previous NRC reports on effective methods for teaching about dual use issues, the report’s authoring committee designed a general framework for the faculty institutes and chose the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region to test a prototype faculty institute.

    In September 2012, the first Institute was held in Aqaba, Jordan, bringing together 28 participants from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, and Yemen to engage with effective, evidence-based teaching methods, develop curricular materials for use in their own classrooms, and become community leaders on dual use and related topics. Developing Capacities for Teaching Responsible Science in the MENA Region: Refashioning Scientific Dialogue offers insights from the institute that will help in the design and implementation of future programs in the MENA region, and in other parts of the world.

    [Read the full report]

    Topics: | Education

  • Potential Hot Spot for Avian Flu Transmission Identified in Western Alaska

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Low-pathogenic avian influenza viruses with Eurasian genes have been found among birds in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta of western Alaska, supporting the theory that the area is a potential point of entry for foreign animal diseases such as the more highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, according to a new study by U.S. Geological Survey scientists.

    The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta is an important breeding ground for many bird species and is located where multiple migratory flyways converge, providing opportunities for avian pathogens to spread. Among these pathogens are H5N1 avian influenza, which occurs in both low-pathogenic and the more dangerous highly pathogenic forms.  

    After the outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza in wild birds of China in 2005, the USGS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in cooperation with the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation,  the Kawerak Tribal Corporation and other partners, conducted four years of testing wild migratory birds in western Alaska for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain.  

    In a paper published by the USGS and the USFWS scientists no highly pathogenic forms of avian influenza were found in more than 24,000 samples tested from 82 species on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta from 2006 to 2009, however, 90 low-pathogenic strains of the virus were obtained from these Alaskan samples.  Low-pathogenic avian influenza viruses are common among wild birds and do not cause mortalities to the degree often seen with highly pathogenic forms of the virus, said USGS research geneticist Andrew Reeves, lead author of the paper. The significance of this study is that it demonstrates that viruses with genes of Eurasian origin can enter North America via migratory birds. 

    In addition, researchers discussed how low pathogenic virus samples from birds further from Asia contained fewer genes attributable to Eurasian strains.  

    “This finding supports a ‘dilution-by-distance’ idea we’ve hypothesized in other studies,” Reeves said. “Birds sampled further from Asia, such as in the lower-48 United States, very rarely contain avian influenza viruses with Eurasian genes, but in Alaska they are more common.”  

    “Many of the bird samples used in the study were provided by subsistence hunters in 11 villages throughout the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta who collected samples from many species, including ducks, geese, swans and shorebirds,” said Kim Trust of the USFWS.  

    “Without our partners in western Alaska, we would not have the robust data set that supports the findings in this paper,” Trust said.  

    Reeves added that the current study provides support for retaining the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta as a high-priority region for the surveillance of potentially harmful avian pathogens. 

    The paper in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases, “Genomic analysis of avian influenza viruses from waterfowl in western Alaska, USA,” by Andrew Reeves, John Pearce, Andrew Ramey, Craig Ely, Joel Schmutz, Paul Flint, Dirk Derksen and Hon Ip of the USGS and Kimberly Trust of the USFWS, is available online. 

  • The BlackBerry 10 #KeepMovingTour hits the streets of Canada this summer

    BlackBerry Keep Moving Tour

    What better way to spend the summer than with the BlackBerry Q10 and BlackBerry Z10. The #KeepMovingTour is traveling across Canada to give you quality hands on time with BlackBerry 10. To make sure you don’t miss the opportunity to swing by and say hi, we’ll be keeping the below list of locations and events updated. Be sure to share your #KeepMovingTour pictures and experiences with us on Twitter.

    Have you caught up with the #KeepMovingTour yet? If you have, what did you think of BlackBerry 10?


    JUNE


    JULY


    AUGUST


    SEPTEMBER

    • September 1 – Webers Hamburgers, Hwy 11 Ontario
    • September 1-3 – University Tour (Specific school details TBC)



  • Frontiers in Massive Data Analysis

    Prepublication Now Available

    From Facebook to Google searches to bookmarking a webpage in our browsers, today’s society has become one with an enormous amount of data. Some internet-based companies such as Yahoo! are even storing exabytes (10 to the 18 bytes) of data. Like these companies and the rest of the world, scientific communities are also generating large amounts of data-—mostly terabytes and in some cases near petabytes—from experiments, observations, and numerical simulation. However, the scientific community, along with defense enterprise, has been a leader in generating and using large data sets for many years. The issue that arises with this new type of large data is how to handle it—this includes sharing the data, enabling data security, working with different data formats and structures, dealing with the highly distributed data sources, and more.

    Frontiers in Massive Data Analysis presents the Committee on the Analysis of Massive Data’s work to make sense of the current state of data analysis for mining of massive sets of data, to identify gaps in the current practice and to develop methods to fill these gaps. The committee thus examines the frontiers of research that is enabling the analysis of massive data which includes data representation and methods for including humans in the data-analysis loop. The report includes the committee’s recommendations, details concerning types of data that build into massive data, and information on the seven computational giants of massive data analysis.

    [Read the full report]

    Topics: Math, Chemistry and Physics

  • Very Best Tooth Whitening Goods

    Unfortunately while the outcomes are certainly instant, the aspect effects and consequences of laser tooth whitening do not make for such simple whitening. Over eighteen% of individuals report gum tissue problems, this kind of as bleeding and infestation while a staggering 39% conceded that tooth sensitivity experienced elevated significantly. Furthermore, the whitened tooth have to be cared for regularly if whiteness is to be maintained, exactly where particular drinks and meals may not be eaten.

    Strawberries are also known for their teeth whitening properties. Thus, a mixture of strawberry and baking soda is sure to function. For this remedy you require one new, ripe strawberry and baking soda. Once the strawberry has been mashed into a pulp, mix a small baking soda into it and form a uniform paste. Dip your toothbrush into the paste and brush for two minutes. Rinse well.

    teeth whitening (teethwhiteninghelp.co.uk) is a subject that many individuals are intrigued in these days. There are numerous typical foods and drinks in our daily diet that will stain your teeth. Tea and coffee, crimson wines and different soda beverages will all contribute to dull, yellowed teeth. Tobacco use is an additional offender of dull smiles.

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    Just lately, a number of spas and salons received stop and desist letters from the North Carolina Dental Board, stating that tooth whitening solutions should only be carried out by dental professionals. The North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners is produced up of six certified dentists, a certified dental hygienist, and a non-certified consumer member. This Board licenses dental experts in NC and keeps an eye out for unauthorized methods of dentistry.

    As you might already know, there are a myriad of procedures that 1 can follow to try and get your tooth white once more. Things like special dentistry utilizing laser treatments or bleaching.

  • Personal Financial Loans * Fast Personal Loan Endorsement

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  • Learn How To Teach Your Dog Successfully

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