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  • UCLA earns elite ranking on survey of state physician groups’ patient-care capabilities

    The UCLA Medical Group has earned a four-star ranking, the highest achievement possible, in the California Association of Physician Groups’ (CAPG) seventh annual Standards of Excellence survey.
     
    The survey is a voluntary, critical self-assessment for the CAPG’s 150 medical group members in California. It tallies the “tools” required for health care systems to deliver a better patient experience, better population health and better affordability, as outlined in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Triple Aim initiative.
     
    This year, 36 organizations achieved elite status, which involved intense testing and documentation.
     
    “The UCLA Medical Group is honored to receive this important recognition and we are very proud of our four-star rating,” said Dr. Samuel A. Skootsky, chief medical officer of the UCLA Faculty Practice and Medical Group. “Participation in this survey has encouraged us to continually improve upon our capabilities in care coordination and case management to the benefit of the patients we serve — and to demonstrate our commitment to healing humankind one patient at a time.”
     
    “The architects of health care reform have set the bar not merely to get by but to far surpass all expectations for truly coordinated patient care,” said Dr. Wells Shoemaker, CAPG’s medical director. “We know from the experience of our member groups that it takes determined leadership, synchronized initiatives across hundreds of physicians, and leading-edge tech tools to honor the individual patient experience, improve the health of populations, and hone the efficiency of our country’s health care system.
     
    The Standards of Excellence survey assesses medical groups’ practices in four key domains:
     
    Care management practices
    Providing timely, safe, effective, efficient care and constantly working to improve care.
     
    Health information technology
    Technical tools required to support care management practices, as well as individual care coordination, population awareness, performance measurement and feedback.
     
    Accountability and transparency
    Responding to the demands of the people the medical groups serve.
     
    Patient-centered care
    Developing and maintaining a high-quality service culture in the nation’s most diverse state.
     
    “CAPG’s Standards of Excellence documents precisely those features,” Shoemaker said.” Organizations that excel in the survey’s four key domains join a truly elite category of pioneering health care organizations.”
     
    The California Association of Physician Groups represents 150 groups that employ or contract with nearly 60,000 California doctors and provide care to 18 million Californians.  CAPG is committed to improving healthcare for Californians and supports a progressive and organized system of healthcare delivery, which focuses on coordinated treatment plans and comprehensive coverage, including the most current preventive services and exams.  This allows physicians to focus on illness prevention and proactive management of patients in order to maintain their optimum level of health.
     
    The UCLA Health System, which comprises the UCLA Hospital System and the UCLA Medical Group and its affiliates, has provided a high quality of health care and the most advanced treatment options to the people of Los Angeles and the world for more than half a century. Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA, Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA, and UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica (which includes the Los Angeles Orthopaedic Hospital) deliver hospital care that is unparalleled in California. Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center is consistently ranked one of the top five hospitals in the nation and the best in the western United States by U.S. News & World Report. UCLA physicians and hospitals continue to be world leaders in the full range of care, from maintaining the health of families to the diagnosis and treatment of complex illnesses.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • News story: Prime Minister visits Diageo distillery to see how renewable energy is powering growth

    The Prime Minister today visited the Cameronbridge Distillery in Fife, where drinks business Diageo recently completed a unique renewable energy facility. The facility powers the distillery by recycling the natural co-products of distillation, and is a flagship for Diageo’s ambition to drive environmentally sustainable growth.

    Cameronbridge Distillery is a key part of Diageo’s Scotch whisky production business. Scotch represents one of the UK’s outstanding economic success stories, with industry exports generating £135-per-second for the UK balance of trade in 2012.

    The Prime Minister said:

    Whisky is an iconic product with a rich heritage and a fantastic future. It is a truly global brand.

    It was a real pleasure to see the Cameronbridge Distillery. It is at the cutting edge of the spirits industry, a world leader in embracing bioenergy technology and a major contributor to Scotland’s economy.

    All those who work there should be proud of what they produce.

    During the visit to the distillery, the Prime Minister met a group of Diageo apprentices who work across a range of engineering, scientific and craft roles at the distillery. He also hammered the bung – a ceremonial tradition in the Scotch whisky industry – into a cask of single grain spirit produced using renewable energy from the bioenergy plant. The Prime Minister’s cask will now be laid down to mature for 10 years, with a pledge to auction it to raise money for environmental good causes in the future.

    Read more about the visit on Diageo’s website.

  • $18 million to study deadly secrets of Flu, Ebola, West Nile viruses

    Viruses such as Ebola, West Nile and Influenza all have the potential to kill people they infect, but antiviral drugs either don’t exist or are losing effectiveness. A new $18 million study led by pathobiologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with support from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory seeks to provide a detailed molecular understanding of how humans respond to these viral pathogens. The study’s goal is to design and develop new drugs to thwart infection.

    The plan is ambitious, seeking to build virtual models of organs the viruses attack — the liver and the lung — and to validate their accuracy with experiments in animals in five years. To acquire enough molecular data to create the models, PNNL researchers will perform high-throughput experiments that allow them to make thousands of measurements at a time. About a third of the funding, or $6.6 million, will support the PNNL team’s effort to gather data and model the data on computers.

    Computational scientist Katrina Waters and analytical biochemist Richard D. Smith will lead the PNNL team. Research teams from Wisconsin, Washington University in St. Louis and Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Mont., will infect mice and cell cultures and prepare the samples in laboratories with the appropriate safeguards. The samples will be sent to PNNL and EMSL, the DOE’s Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory on the PNNL campus.

    At PNNL, researchers will explore four different molecular profiles of the animal tissue and cell culture samples that show:

    • Which proteins are produced by genes within the cells;
    • Which proteins are active based on the most common molecular accessory found on proteins, a phosphate. Traditionally, researchers have chosen many successful drug targets based on this fact;
    • Which cellular processes are occurring based on metabolic products;
    • The collection of fats that serve as either structural components, energy stores or as signals within cells.

    All this data will paint a picture of what is going on during infection. To see that picture, the team will combine these and other available data in state-of-the-art computer models. By predicting how bodies behave when infected by the viruses, these computer programs will help researchers find new approaches to prevent or fight infection.

    Click here to read the entire release from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

  • Making sense of patterns in the Twitterverse

    If you think keeping up with what’s happening via Twitter, Facebook and other social media is like drinking from a fire hose, multiply that by 7 billion — and you’ll have a sense of what Court Corley wakes up to every morning.

    Corley, a data scientist at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, has created a powerful digital system capable of analyzing billions of tweets and other social media messages in just seconds, in an effort to discover patterns and make sense of all the information. His social media analysis tool, dubbed “SALSA” (SociAL Sensor Analytics), combined with extensive know-how — and a fair degree of chutzpah — allows someone like Corley to try to grasp it all.

    “The world is equipped with human sensors — more than 7 billion and counting. It’s by far the most extensive sensor network on the planet. What can we learn by paying attention?” Corley said.

    Among the payoffs Corley envisions are emergency responders who receive crucial early information about natural disasters such as tornadoes; a tool that public health advocates can use to better protect people’s health; and information about social unrest that could help nations protect their citizens. But finding those jewels amidst the effluent of digital minutia is a challenge.

    “The task we all face is separating out the trivia, the useless information we all are blasted with every day, from the really good stuff that helps us live better lives. There’s a lot of noise, but there’s some very valuable information too.”

    The work by Corley and colleagues Chase Dowling, Stuart Rose and Taylor McKenzie was named best paper given at the IEEE conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics in Seattle this week.

    Immensely rich data set

    One person’s digital trash is another’s digital treasure. For example, people known in social media circles as “Beliebers,” named after entertainer Justin Bieber, covet inconsequential tidbits about Justin Bieber, while “non-Beliebers” send that data straight to the recycle bin.

    The amount of data is mind-bending. In social media posted just in the single year ending Aug. 31, 2012, each hour on average witnessed:

    • 30 million comments
    • 25 million search queries
    • 98,000 new tweets
    • 3.8 million blog views
    • 4.5 million event invites
    • 7.1 million photos uploaded
    • 5.5 million status updates
    • The equivalent of 453 years of video watched

    Several firms routinely sift posts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media, then analyze the data to see what’s trending. These efforts usually require a great deal of software and a lot of person-hours devoted specifically to using that application. It’s what Corley terms a manual approach.

    Corley is out to change that, by creating a systematic, science-based, and automated approach for understanding patterns around events found in social media.

    It’s not so simple as scanning tweets. Indeed, if Corley were to sit down and read each of the more than 20 billion entries in his data set from just a two-year period, it would take him more than 3,500 years if he spent just 5 seconds on each entry. If he hired 1 million helpers, it would take more than a day.

    But it takes less than 10 seconds when he relies on PNNL’s Institutional Computing resource, drawing on a computer cluster with more than 600 nodes named Olympus, which is among the Top 500 fastest supercomputers in the world.

    “We are using the institutional computing horsepower of PNNL to analyze one of the richest data sets ever available to researchers,” Corley said.

    At the same time that his team is creating the computing resources to undertake the task, Corley is constructing a theory for how to analyze the data. He and his colleagues are determining baseline activity, culling the data to find routine patterns, and looking for patterns that indicate something out of the ordinary. Data might include how often a topic is the subject of social media, who is putting out the messages, and how often.

    Corley notes additional challenges posed by social media. His programs analyze data in more than 60 languages, for instance. And social media users have developed a lexicon of their own and often don’t use traditional language. A post such as “aw my avalanna wristband @Avalanna @justinbieber rip angel pic.twitter.com/yldGVV7GHk” poses a challenge to people and computers alike.

    Nevertheless, Corley’s program is accurate much more often than not, catching the spirit of a social media comment accurately more than three out of every four instances, and accurately detecting patterns in social media more than 90 percent of the time.

    Public health, emergency response

    Much of the work so far has been around public health. According to media reports in China, the current H7N9 flu situation in China was highlighted on Sina Weibo, a China-based social media platform, weeks before it was recognized by government officials. And Corley’s work with the social media working group of the International Society for Disease Surveillance focuses on the use of social media for effective public health interventions.

    In collaboration with the Infectious Disease Society of America and Immunizations 4 Public Health, he has focused on the early identification of emerging immunization safety concerns.

    “If you want to understand the concerns of parents about vaccines, you’re never going to have the time to go out there and read hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of tweets about those questions or concerns,” Corley said. “By creating a system that can capture trends in just a few minutes, and observe shifts in opinion minute to minute, you can stay in front of the issue, for instance, by letting physicians in certain areas know how to customize the educational materials they provide to parents of young children.”

    Corley has looked closely at reaction to the vaccine that protects against HPV, which causes cervical cancer. The first vaccine was approved in 2006, when he was a graduate student, and his doctoral thesis focused on an analysis of social media messages connected to HPV. He found that creators of messages that named a specific drug company were less likely to be positive about the vaccine than others who did not mention any company by name.

    Other potential applications include helping emergency responders react more efficiently to disasters like tornadoes, or identifying patterns that might indicate coming social unrest or even something as specific as a riot after a soccer game. More than a dozen college students or recent graduates are working with Corley to look at questions like these and others.

    Working with Corley on this project are Dowling, a research associate; Rose, an engineer who was crucial to creating the computing power necessary to do the research; and McKenzie, a former intern and now a graduate student at the University of Oregon Department of Economics.

    Funding for this project comes from PNNL’s Laboratory-Directed Research and Development Program. Corley also receives funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the U.S. Department of State.

  • News story: Prime Minister looks ahead to G8 nutrition event

    The Prime Minister today welcomed ‘Enough Food for Everyone IF’ supporter David Walliams and 100 school children from across the UK to Downing Street ahead of Saturday’s G8 event ‘Nutrition for Growth: Beating Hunger through Business and Science’.

    Speaking ahead of Saturday’s event, the Prime Minister said:

    I’m proud of the UK’s leadership in the fight against global hunger. Having fired the gun at last year’s Olympic Hunger Summit, the Nutrition for Growth event will be an opportunity for everyone — and that includes governments, business, scientists and NGOs — to step up and make a lasting difference in tackling under-nutrition and improve children ‘s life chances.

    The children had been invited to showcase plates they had decorated in support of the ‘Enough Food for Everyone IF’ campaign.

    The UK will be seeking to secure ambitious commitments from everyone attending to address under-nutrition and food insecurity at the event. Ahead of the event, the Prime Minister has been speaking to leaders and NGOs to secure this much needed ambition.

    Undernutrition is an underlying cause of 45% of deaths amongst children under five, while nearly 165 million suffer from stunting which stops children’s bodies from developing properly. This has a devastating impact of the future productivity in these countries. It’s clear that investing in nutrition now not only saves lives in the short-term, it also assists developing countries to achieve stronger, more resilient economic growth.

  • Fat chance: Scientists unexpectedly discover stress-resistant stem cells in adipose tissue

    Researchers from the UCLA Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology have isolated a new population of primitive, stress-resistant human pluripotent stem cells that are easily derived from fat tissue and are able to differentiate into virtually every cell type in the human body without genetic modification.
     
    The cells, called multi-lineage stress-enduring stem cells from adipose tissue (Muse-AT), were discovered by “scientific accident” when a piece of equipment failed in the laboratory, killing all the stem cells in an experiment except the Muse-AT cells.
     
    The UCLA team further discovered that not only are Muse-AT cells able to survive severe stress, they may even be activated by it, said Gregorio Chazenbalk, an associate researcher with UCLA Obstetrics and Gynecology and the senior author of the research.
     
    These pluripotent cells, isolated from fat tissue removed during liposuction, expressed many embryonic stem-cell markers and were able to differentiate into muscle, bone, fat, cardiac, neuronal and liver cells. An examination of their genetic characteristics confirmed their specialized functions, as well as their capacity to regenerate tissue when transplanted back into the body following their “awakening.”
     
    “This population of cells lies dormant in the fat tissue until it is subjected to very harsh conditions,” Chazenbalk said. “These cells can survive in conditions in which usually only cancer cells can live.
     
    “Upon further investigation and clinical trials,” he added, “these cells could prove a revolutionary treatment option for numerous diseases, including heart disease and stroke and for tissue damage and neural regeneration.”
     
    The results of the two-year study are published June 5 in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE.
     
    Purifying and isolating Muse-AT cells does not require the use of a cell sorter or other specialized high-tech devices, the researchers said. The cells are able to grow either in suspension, forming cell spheres, or as adherent cells, forming cell aggregates very similar to the embryoid bodies derived from human embryonic stem cells.
     
    “We have been able to isolate these cells using a simple and efficient method that takes about six hours from the time the fat tissue is harvested,” said Chazenbalk, who is also a scientist with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. “This research offers a new and exciting source of fat stem cells with pluripotent characteristics, as well as a new method for quickly isolating them. These cells also appear to be more primitive than the average fat stem cells, making them potentially superior sources for regenerative medicine.”
     
    Currently, embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells — skin cells turned into embryonic-like cells — are the two main sources of pluripotent cells. However, both types can exhibit an uncontrolled capacity for differentiation and proliferation, leading to the formation of unwanted teratomas, or tumors. Little progress has been made in resolving that defect, Chazenbalk said.
     
    Muse cells were originally discovered by a research group at Tokohu University in Japan and were derived from bone marrow and skin, rather than fat. That research group showed that Muse cells did not produce teratomas in animal models. Further research on the Muse-AT cells isolated at UCLA will need to be done to determine whether that cell population avoids the production of teratomas.
     
    In addition to providing a potential source of cells for regenerative medicine, Chazenbalk said the Muse-AT cells may lead to a better understanding of cancer cells, the only other cells known to display such stress resistance.
     
    Going forward, Chazenbalk and his team will use Muse-AT cells in animal models to regenerate damaged or dysfunctional tissue to determine how efficiently the cells grow and perform in the body and to gauge their potential for future clinical use.
     
    “Because lipoaspiration is a safe and non-invasive procedure and Muse-AT cell isolation requires a simple yet highly efficient purification technique, Muse-AT cells could provide an ideal source of pluripotent-like stem cells,” the study states. “Muse-AT cells have the potential to make a critical impact on the field of regenerative medicine.”
     
    The study was funded by the UCLA Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institutes of Health (through the cooperative agreement U54 HD071836) and by the department of stem cell biology at Japan’s Tohoku University.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program: A Way Forward

    Prepublication Now Available

    Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program: A Way Forward reviews the science that underpins the Bureau of Land Management’s oversight of free-ranging horses and burros on federal public lands in the western United States, concluding that constructive changes could be implemented. The Wild Horse and Burro Program has not used scientifically rigorous methods to estimate the population sizes of horses and burros, to model the effects of management actions on the animals, or to assess the availability and use of forage on rangelands.

    Evidence suggests that horse populations are growing by 15 to 20 percent each year, a level that is unsustainable for maintaining healthy horse populations as well as healthy ecosystems. Promising fertility-control methods are available to help limit this population growth, however. In addition, science-based methods exist for improving population estimates, predicting the effects of management practices in order to maintain genetically diverse, healthy populations, and estimating the productivity of rangelands. Greater transparency in how science-based methods are used to inform management decisions may help increase public confidence in the Wild Horse and Burro Program.

    [Read the full report]

    Topics: Agriculture

  • Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence

    Prepublication Now Available

    In 2010, more than 105,000 people were injured or killed in the United States as the result of a firearm-related incident. Recent, highly publicized, tragic mass shootings in Newtown, CT; Aurora, CO; Oak Creek, WI; and Tucson, AZ, have sharpened the American public’s interest in protecting our children and communities from the harmful effects of firearm violence. While many Americans legally use firearms for a variety of activities, fatal and nonfatal firearm violence poses a serious threat to public safety and welfare.

    In January 2013, President Barack Obama issued 23 executive orders directing federal agencies to improve knowledge of the causes of firearm violence, what might help prevent it, and how to minimize its burden on public health. One of these orders directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to, along with other federal agencies, immediately begin identifying the most pressing problems in firearm violence research. The CDC and the CDC Foundation asked the IOM, in collaboration with the National Research Council, to convene a committee tasked with developing a potential research agenda that focuses on the causes of, possible interventions to, and strategies to minimize the burden of firearm-related violence. Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence focuses on the characteristics of firearm violence, risk and protective factors, interventions and strategies, the impact of gun safety technology, and the influence of video games and other media.

    [Read the full report]

    Topics: Behavioral and Social Sciences | Health and Medicine

  • Bladder cancer recurrence and mortality could decline with better treatment compliance

    Researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center led by Dr. Karim Chamie have found that more intense surveillance and treatment of bladder cancer in the first two years after diagnosis could reduce the number of patients whose cancer returns after treatment and lower the disease’s death rate. The study was published online ahead of press today in the journal Cancer.
     
    Based on the team’s previous research showing underutilization of care for patients with bladder cancer, this study is the first to examine the burden of the disease on the population. To date no one had examined the morbidity of recurrence of the disease in the U.S. 
     
    Chamie, assistant professor-in-residence in the UCLA department of urology, and his colleagues found that nearly three quarters of patients with high-grade, non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer suffered a return of the disease within 10 years. In 33 percent of patients, the cancer progressed to a more advanced form requiring removal of the bladder, radiation therapy or systemic chemotherapy. And in an additional 41 percent, the cancer recurred without further spread of the disease.
     
    “Even though 80 percent of bladder cancer patients don’t die of their disease within five years, most patients will either die of other causes or bladder cancer, require aggressive treatment — removal of the bladder, radiation and/or chemotherapy — or have a recurrence of the disease,” Chamie said. “This study highlights the need to comply with treatment guidelines to prevent recurrences by instilling anticancer agents inside the bladder and following patients more closely within the first two years of diagnosis.”
     
    The study was based on a nationwide sample of Medicare beneficiaries who had high-grade, non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer. “We have Level I evidence that demonstrates that a single instillation of chemotherapy into the bladder can minimize recurrences, and that six instillations can minimize recurrence and progression,” Chamie said. “Efforts should be increased to offer patients intravesical therapy with the goal of minimizing the burden of this disease.”
     
    The researchers also found that the burden of bladder cancer on the population is very high, and that the elderly, women and African-American patients had a higher likelihood of dying of bladder cancer than younger patients, men and white patients, respectively.
     
    This study was supported by the American Cancer Society, the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Extramural, UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
     
    UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has more than 240 researchers and clinicians engaged in disease research, prevention, detection, control, treatment and education. One of the nation’s largest comprehensive cancer centers, the Jonsson center is dedicated to promoting research and translating basic science into leading-edge clinical studies. In July 2012, the Jonsson Cancer Center was once again named among the nation’s top 10 cancer centers by U.S. News & World Report, a ranking it has held for 12 of the last 13 years.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter. 

  • Built to battle: Students build ‘sumo robots’ using circuit board designed by PNNL volunteer

    Tri-Cities students at Delta and Kamiakin high schools are nearly finished building dozens of mini robots using a circuit board designed by Duane Balvage, a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory electrical technician.

    Balvage has volunteered as a guest instructor for the past two years at Delta High School, southeast Washington’s only science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, school. Last year he started redesigning the circuit board students are using this spring to build “sumo robots”.

    The bots are built to duel inside a circular ring called a “dohyo”, named after the ring in which real-life sumo wrestlers compete. Unlike remote-controlled robots, sumo robots are self-automated, meaning they use sensors and programming to hunt down and push their opponents out of the dohyo. Both schools plan to hold competitions at the end of the school year.

    Jim Hendricks has been teaching students how to build sumo robots for 11 years, the last 4 years as an instructor of Delta High School’s engineering technology class. But when Balvage saw the circuit board his stepson was using last year in Hendricks’ class, he thought he could make improvements. He said the old board, like a closed box, made it difficult for students to learn what was going on inside.

    Balvage designed the new circuit board with a layout that students could learn from. He also added six sensors instead of two, LED lights that indicate a sensor is working, and a dual power supply that increases battery life beyond one match.

    But the improvements don’t end with the physical board. Balvage also created instructions and a 3D digital model to help students learn about electronics as they build their bots. And for the last few months, he’s been volunteering to visit Delta High School weekly to help students design, build and troubleshoot their robots.

    Hendricks said Balvage brings a lot to his class.

    “He explains things in a very simple way, where kids-and teachers-can understand it,” Hendricks said.

    Balvage has designed and built electrical technology at PNNL for four years. In one of his current projects, he is designing a finger-sized circuit board packed with instruments that measure the forces acting on fish as they pass through hydroelectric dam turbines. The circuit board will be placed in an upgraded version of PNNL’s “Sensor Fish“, which helps scientists evaluate how dams affect migrating fish.

    Balvage said his job at PNNL is to build electronic devices and systems that work more efficiently and seamlessly. He hopes the students he interacts with will take to heart his philosophy of improving technology.

    “If I can use what I know to help students learn, they might take this path,” Balvage said.

    For more about Sensor Fish, click here.

  • Energy-Efficiency Standards and Green Building Certification Systems Used by the Department of Defense for Military Construction and Major Renovations

    Final Book Now Available

    Congress has an ongoing interest in ensuring that the 500,000 buildings and other structures owned and operated by the Department of Defense (DOD) are operated effectively in terms of cost and resource use. Section 2830 of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year requires the Secretary of Defense to submit a report to the congressional defense committees on the energy-efficiency and sustainability standards used by DOD for military construction and major renovations of buildings.

    DOD’s report must include a cost-benefit analysis, return on investment, and long-term payback for the building standards and green building certification systems, including:
    (A) American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard 189.1-2011 for the Design of High-Performance, Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential.
    (B) ASHRAE Energy Standard 90.1-2010 for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential.
    (C) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver, Gold, and Platinum certification for green buildings, as well as the LEED Volume certification.
    (D) Other American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited standards.

    DOD’s report to the congressional defense committees must also include a copy of DOD policy prescribing a comprehensive strategy for the pursuit of design and building standards across the department that include specific energy-efficiency standards and sustainable design attributes for military construction based on the cost-benefit analysis, return on investment, and demonstrated payback required for the aforementioned building standards and green building certification systems. Energy-Efficiency Standards and Green Building Certification Systems Used by the Department of Defense for Military Construction and Major Renovations summarizes the recommendations for energy efficiency.

    [Read the full report]

    Topics: Conflict and Security Issues | Engineering and Technology

  • Common gene known to cause inherited autism now linked to specific behaviors

    The genetic malady known as Fragile X syndrome is the most common cause of inherited autism and intellectual disability. Brain scientists know the gene defect that causes the syndrome and understand the damage it does in misshaping the brain’s synapses — the connections between neurons. But how this abnormal shaping of synapses translates into abnormal behavior is unclear.
     
    Now, researchers at UCLA believe they know. Using a mouse model of Fragile X syndrome (FXS), they recorded the activity of networks of neurons in a living mouse brain while the animal was awake and asleep. They found that during both sleep and quiet wakefulness, these neuronal networks showed too much activity, firing too often and in sync, much more than a normal brain.
     
    This neuronal excitability, the researchers said, may be the basis for symptoms in children with FXS, which can include disrupted sleep, seizures or learning disabilities. The findings may lead to treatments that could quiet the excessive activity and allow for more normal behavior.
     
    The study results are published in the June 2 online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience.
     
    According to the National Fragile X Foundation, approximately one in every 3,600 to 4,000 males has the disorder, as does one in 4,000 to 6,000 females. FXS is caused by a mutation in the gene FMR1, which encodes the fragile X mental retardation protein, or FMRP. That protein is believed to be important for the formation and regulation of synapses. Mice that lack the FMR1 gene — and therefore lack the FMRP protein — show some of the same symptoms of human FXS, including seizures, impaired sleep, abnormal social relationships and learning defects.
     
    “We wanted to find the link between the abnormal structure of synapses in the FXS mouse and the behavioral abnormalities at the level of brain circuits. That had not been previously established,” said senior author Dr. Carlos Portera-Cailliau, an associate professor in the departments of neurology and neurobiology at UCLA. ” So we tested the signaling between different neurons in Fragile X mice and indeed found there was abnormally high firing of action potentials — the signals between neurons — and also abnormally high synchrony — that is, too many neurons fired together. That’s a feature that is common in early brain development, but not in the adult.”
     
    “In essence, this points to a relative immaturity of brain circuits in FXS,” added Tiago Gonçalves, a former postdoctoral researcher in Portera-Cailliau’s laboratory and the first author of the study.
     
    The researchers used two-photon calcium imaging and patch-clamp electrophysiology — two sophisticated technologies that allowed them to record the signals from individual brain cells. Abnormally high firing and network synchrony, said Portera-Cailliau, is evidence of the fact that neuronal circuits are overexcitable in FXS.
     
    “That likely leads to aberrant brain function or impairments in the normal computations of the brain,” he said. “For example, high synchrony could lead to seizures; more neurons firing together could cause entire portions of the brain to fire synchronously, which is the basis of seizures.”
     
    And epilepsy, Portera-Cailliau said, is seen in up to 20 percent of children with FXS. High firing rates could also impair the ability of the brain to decode sensory stimuli by causing an overwhelming response to even simple sensory stimuli; this could lead to autism and the withdrawal from social interactions, he noted.
     
    “Interestingly, we found that the high firing and synchrony were especially apparent at times when the animals were asleep,” said Portera-Cailliau. “This is curious because a prominent symptom of FXS is disrupted sleep and frequent awakenings.” 
     
    And, he noted, since sleep is important for encoding memories and consolidating learning, this hyperexcitability of brain networks in FXS may interfere with the process of laying down new memories, and perhaps explain the learning disability in children with FXS.
     
    “Because brain scientists know a lot about the factors that regulate neuronal excitability, including inhibitory neurons, they can now try to use a variety of strategies to dampen neuronal excitation,” he said. “Hopefully, this may be helpful to treat symptoms of FXS.”
     
    The next step, said Portera-Cailliau, is to explore whether Fragile X mice indeed exhibit exaggerated responses to sensory stimuli.
     
    “An overwhelming reaction to a slight sound or caress, or hyperarousal to sensory stimuli, could be common to different types of autism and not just FXS,” he said. “If hyperexcitability is the brain-network basis for these symptoms, then reducing neuronal excitability with certain drugs that modulate inhibition could be of therapeutic value in these devastating neurodevelopmental disorders.”
     
    Other authors on the study included Peyman Golshani of UCLA and James E. Anstey of the Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine. The research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NICHD R01HD054453 and NINDS RC1NS068093), the FRAXA Research Foundation, and the Dana Foundation.
     
    The UCLA Department of Neurology, with over 100 faculty members, encompasses more than 20 disease-related research programs, along with large clinical and teaching programs. These programs cover brain mapping and neuroimaging, movement disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, neurogenetics, nerve and muscle disorders, epilepsy, neuro-oncology, neurotology, neuropsychology, headaches and migraines, neurorehabilitation, and neurovascular disorders. The department ranks in the top two among its peers nationwide in National Institutes of Health funding.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • Egyptology News from 23rd May to 1st June 2013

    Tomb of Pennut, Lake Nasser

    There’s been some really interesting news in the last couple of weeks from different research projects, including the use of meteorite materials to create ornamental items 5000 years ago, and a rather tragic case of child abuse in Roman-Christian Dakhleh Oasis. Sadly, there has been even more news on the subject of threats to heritage in Egypt. It reads as something of a litany of disaster when assembled in one place. Hopefully the new minister, about whom there is a piece on Al Ahram Weekly, will begin to tackle it, although with a shortage of funds it is difficult to see what steps he will be able to take. Fortunately, there is some good news as well, about the protection of certain sites and the removal of graffiti.

    Fieldwork  


    Update on the reconstruction of the false door in the tomb of Karakhamun, South Asasif, Luxor. South Asasif Project http://bit.ly/11K1l14 

    Amarna period discovery, Luxor: Arqueólogos hallan los primeros relieves del gobernador perseguido por Ajenaton. IEAE http://bit.ly/19oxTPD  

    Excavating at Amarna South Tombs Cemetery: pondering the ethics of working with human remains. Powerhouse Museum http://bit.ly/1aeHczo 

    Research

    Canadian researcher uncovers first evidence of child abuse in ancient Egypt at Roman Dakhleh Oasis. The Star http://bit.ly/140R6Vi 

    More re 2-3-yr-old child in Romano-Christian cemy in Dakhleh Oasis whose remains suggest physical abuse. Live Science http://bit.ly/12Lp11e 

    Report on how iron was obtained from meteorites in AE millennia before the earliest evidence of iron smelting. Nature http://bit.ly/17uRDTs 

    More re new research showing that AE iron bead found inside a 5000-yr-old tomb was crafted from meteorite. Discovery http://bit.ly/18zj9ic 

    The first ever complete leatherwork of an AE chariot will reveal the technology used to produce it. Ahram Weekly http://bit.ly/199Llqs 

    Some Notes on Health Problems in Ancient Egypt and Nubia: part 3. By Joyce Filer on her blog: http://bit.ly/10ExKVc 


    Heritage Management and Looting

    Two weeks ago Ahmed Eissa became minister of state for antiquities and now faces an uphill battle. Al Ahram Weekly http://bit.ly/17yNj5D 

    AE artefacts deteriorate in Cairo’s central museum due to poor conditions, lack of resources. Ahram Online http://bit.ly/1aebHoX 

    Shenhur Temple, Qena, needs restoration after stone robbing, lime burning + groundwater and now used to dump rubbish http://bit.ly/1145NBG 

    Egypt’s lost antiquities: After the uprising of 2010, much was stolen or neglected. Philly http://bit.ly/13eCXl7 

    Historic gate in Islamic Cairo was demolished, Sunday, raising questions about saving Egypt’s heritage. Aswat Masriya http://bit.ly/141fvGS. If you have Facebook access here are some photos of the demolished Islamic Cairo gateway. So sad. Aswat Masriya http://on.fb.me/12MKwyL 

    Chinese Tourist Vandalizes Egyptian Temple, Pisses Off China. With photo. Gadling http://aol.it/14TsEoh 

    Adolescente chino desfigura una escultura egipcia milenaria y desata la ira de Internet. CNN http://bit.ly/13YSPqP 

    Egypt’s antiquities face bigger problems than Chinese graffiti. CS Monitor http://bit.ly/11v9ztL 

    Video: Graffiti clean-up at Luxor. Reuters http://reut.rs/13fQb0T . Via @JaneAkshar

    Beautiful Islamic antiquities looted or neglected over the last 2 years following the 2011 uprising. Huffington Post http://huff.to/189w4XJ 

    Local community’s campaign to protect Dashur pyramids has resulted in police and army protection. Past Preservers http://bit.ly/11tCfmT

    Demolerán el cementerio ilegal construido cerca de las pirámides de Dahshur. Ushebtis http://bit.ly/13W2ku0 

    In Spanish. Inauguration of plan to improve security and visitor experience at the Giza pyramids. El Confidencial http://bit.ly/12TSo1A  

    Protecting temples of Luxor. Lanzan un proyecto hispano-egipcio para iluminar y vigilar los templos de Luxor. Yahoo http://bit.ly/12jFuz3 

    Books

    New Book: French, P. 2013. The Anubieion at Saqqara III: Pottery from the Archaic to the 3rd Intermediate Period. EES http://bit.ly/ZcFw7L 

    Book review: S. P. Vleeming, Demotic and Greek-Demotic Mummy Labels and Other Short Texts. Peeters 2011. BMCR http://bit.ly/10Zd0TD 

    Conferences

    In the Nilo-Saharan Linguistics’ Colloquium. Medieval Sai Project http://bit.ly/17d2uQV 

    Curator’s Diary 25/5/13: Advocating Ancient Egypt. Manchester Museum http://bit.ly/13U9xYa  

    35th Annual Conference of the Theoretical Archaeology Group to be held at Bournemouth University, UK, 16-18 Dec 2013 http://bit.ly/11m6QN3 

    Museums and exhibitions

    Cairo Museum director says objects need restoration, but money is not available to do so. North Africa Post http://bit.ly/12UIwpR 

    Univ Washington report: King Tut exhibit at Seattle generated more than $78 million for the local economy. PSBJ http://bit.ly/11gvAut 

    Museums Confront the Skeletons in Their Closets. New York Times http://bit.ly/1atdJle 

    UCL Museums survey to improve promotion and public engagement. You don’t have to have visited any of the museums: http://bit.ly/132y26y 

    Free online articles and resources

    New on Osirisnet: T51, the tomb of Userhat, also called Neferhabef, complete with description, images, and site plans http://bit.ly/10tI16A 

    Object biography #13: The upper part of a female statuette from Kahun (Acc. No. 269). Manchester Museum http://bit.ly/177Ny6K 

    The electronic publication of Oriental Institute Annual Reports is now complete. Oriental Institute http://bit.ly/13kRgo4 

    Thesis: The ideological significance of flint in Dynastic Egypt Graves-Brown, C.A. (2011). Doctoral thesis. UCL http://bit.ly/qBR9ni 

    New Egyptology blog: Tetisheri by Julia Thorne http://www.tetisheri.co.uk/blog.html 

    Journals and Magazine  

    The new edition of the Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections is now out (JAEI/ 5:2.). Table of Contents at http://bit.ly/jBBHdJ 

    Free online: Atiqot 74. Underwater Ptolemaic Coin Hoards from Megadim by Danny Syon, Catharine Lorber + Ehud Galili http://www.atiqot.org.il

     

    Job Openings

    Job: Trainee Curator in Ancient Egypt and Sudan. 6 months at British Museum and 12 months at Glasgow Museums http://bit.ly/18yTTWJ 

    Job: One month internship with the Online Egyptological Bibliography team in Oxford. Griffith Institute on Facebook http://on.fb.me/197XVGW . For those interested in the 1 month internship at the OEB, Oxford, but unable to access Facebook, I’ve copied it here http://bit.ly/13PlOka 

    Miscellaneous 

    AE words seep powerfully through the sands of time, war and massive political changes to persist today. Ahram Online http://bit.ly/150ITjt 

    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • Weekly Address: Congress Should Take Action to Continue Growing the Economy

    In this week’s address, President Obama says that the economy is moving in the right direction, but there is still more work to do. He calls on Congress to act to give every responsible homeowner the chance to save money on their mortgage by refinancing at historically low interest rates, put more Americans to work rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, and fix our broken immigration system, so that we can continue to grow our economy and create good middle class jobs.  

    Transcript | Download mp4 | Download mp3

  • Hanging Out and Talking Asteroids at the White House

    Now that asteroid 1998 QE2 has safely flown by the Earth and Moon, we won’t have another close visit from this particular space rock for about 200 years.

    We the Geeks Asteroid Google Hangout

    Credit: NASA

    As part of the White House’s ongoing series of “We The Geeks” Google+ Hangouts (focused on highlighting science, technology, and innovation topics), we gathered some leaders in space exploration together for a pregame show to the near-miss of asteroid 1998 QE2.

    These experts included:

    More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is available at: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch and via Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/asteroidwatch.

    Ways to Get Involved

    There’s a competition for students and young professionals to share their most innovative ideas for a mission to an asteroid with the world's leading space experts. Check it out at: www.spacegeneration.org/maa.

    Have ideas for the next “We the Geeks”? Use the hashtag #WeTheGeeks on Twitter and on Google+ and let us know! Also, you can sign up to receive updates about future “We the Geeks” hangouts at Whitehouse.gov/We-the-Geeks.

  • Weekly Wrap-Up: “We’ve Got Your Back”

    Watch the West Wing Week here.

    “You’ve met the mission”: President Obama spoke in Annapolis, Maryland last Friday to deliver the commencement address to the U.S. Naval Academy’s class of 2013. In his address, the President congratulated the graduates for taking their oath, and praised them for meeting the mission of the Academy and proving themselves morally, mentally, and physically.

    “So, Class of 2013, in your four years by the Bay, you’ve met every test before you. And today is the day that you’ve been counting down to for so long. You will take your oath. Those boards and gold bars will be placed on your shoulders. And as your Commander-in-Chief, I congratulate each of you on becoming our newest officers — ensigns in the United States Navy, second lieutenants in the United States Marine Corps.  

    The Savoy School: Actress Kerry Washington joined First Lady Michelle Obama at the Savoy School in Washington, D.C. on Friday. The school was selected for the Turnaround Arts Initiative at the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities last year. While visiting, the First Lady played freeze dance and checked out art projects created by a fifth grade class.

    "When you work hard and you invest thousands of hours in anything, you get better.  And that’s what you guys are learning here at Savoy.  Hopefully you are learning that with your math, with your reading, with your dancing, with your singing, it's about the amount of effort that you want to put into anything."

    read more

  • Simple screening test at UCLA catches newborn’s hidden heart condition

    Before he was discharged from UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, baby Gaël Villegas received the standard panel of newborn screenings to check for genetic and metabolic diseases and hearing. The results showed a healthy baby.
     
    Then, one more screening — a non-mandatory test that the UCLA Health System routinely offers — was performed to check for critical congenital heart disease, or CCHD.
     
    The test, known as a pulse oximetry screening, detected a problem. Baby Gaël was soon diagnosed with a condition that prevented his blood from flowing properly, and he was transferred to Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA in Westwood. At seven days old, he underwent a six-hour open-heart surgery with Dr. Hillel Laks, a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at UCLA, to repair the defect. Had it been left undetected and untreated, Gaël would have eventually ended up back in the hospital in serious condition.
     
    “Without the screening, we would have taken him home thinking that he was perfectly healthy,” said Gaël’s father, Davis Villegas. “When they did the test and told us about his heart condition it was hard news to get, but now we see that it was a blessing in disguise. It was better to know about the problem from the beginning so they could fix it.”
     
    While UCLA has been performing pulse oximetry tests voluntarily for the past year as part of its overall program to provide the best methods for early detection and the prompt initiation of appropriate therapies for CCHD, recently passed legislation mandates that all babies born in California hospitals be screened for CCHD starting July 1.
     
    “This test is important because it enables us to discover critical congenital heart disease in some babies at a time when they are not yet showing any other signs or symptoms,” said Dr. Jeffrey Smith, a professor of neonatology at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA who oversees screenings in the newborn nursery at the hospital’s Westwood campus. “If the problem is not detected before discharge from the hospital, these babies are at risk for rapidly becoming seriously ill or even dying at home. Early detection using pulse oximetry screening gives the baby the best chance for a good outcome.”
     
    The simple, non-invasive, low-cost test takes only a few minutes to perform. A nurse attaches a probe to a baby’s foot or hand with an adhesive wrap to estimate the percentage of hemoglobin that is saturated with oxygen. Low levels of oxygen can signal a potential problem. If a problem is detected, the infant is then given a diagnostic echocardiogram. Pulse oximetry screening does not detect all congenital heart diseases, so it is possible that a baby with a negative screening result may still have a problem.
     
    “As pediatric cardiologists, we see the devastating effect that delays in the diagnosis of congenital heart disease can have on these babies when they present later with problems that could have been prevented,” said Dr. Mark Sklansky, a professor and chief of pediatric cardiology at UCLA. “Newborn pulse oximetry screening, along with the recent revision of prenatal ultrasound screenings to expand the routine evaluation of the unborn baby’s heart, exemplifies how the field is recognizing the need to move toward earlier detection of heart defects.
     
    “Early detection provides the opportunity to plan ahead for appropriate delivery and immediate initiation of the appropriate management of the heart defect once the baby is born,” he said. “For major forms of congenital heart disease, early detection facilitates optimal outcomes.”
     
    Congenital heart disease represents the most common form of birth defect, as well as the leading cause of birth-defect related death. Congenital heart defects occur in one out of every 100 live births. Approximately 25 percent of these are classified as critical congenital heart defects, requiring intervention within the first weeks or months of life. Complex congenital heart defects can range from a hole between the chambers of the heart to the absence of one or more valves or chambers.
     
    “We are pleased that California is one of the nation’s early adopters of this important screening, and we hope that all states will implement this test as a routine part of their neonatal screening programs,” said Dr. Thomas Klitzner, the Jack H. Skirball Professor of Pediatrics and director of the Pediatric Medical Home Program at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA. Klitzner participated on both the national and state task forces that developed the protocols for screening newborns for critical congenital heart disease using pulse oximetry.
     
    For more information on Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA, visit www.uclahealth.org/mattel.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • Research conducted with a large new battery in Oregon will help make the U.S. electric system smarter and more efficient

    MAY 31, 2013 – Research conducted with a large new battery unveiled today in Oregon will help make the Northwest’s and the nation’s electric system smarter and more efficient, officials said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

    Portland General Electric‘s 5-megawatt, lithium-ion energy storage system was shared with the public today at the utility’s Salem Smart Power Center in South Salem, Ore. The energy storage facility is part of PGE’s contribution to the Battelle-led Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project. Half of PGE’s $23-million portion of the regional project was paid for with U.S. Department of Energy funds. The regional demonstration is a five-year, $178-million project that launched in 2010.

    “The Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project is a successful public-private partnership involving 17 organizations across five Northwest states,” said Patricia Hoffman, assistant secretary for DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, which oversees regional smart grid demonstration projects. “It is a highly innovative project demonstrating transactive energy management, which is a promising, cost-effective way to integrate variable renewable energy, energy storage and demand response at scale. The celebration of the Salem Smart Power Center makes it clear that Oregon is helping to lead the way on energy storage commercialization and grid modernization.”

    Hoffman was a featured speaker at today’s ceremony, as was Ron Melton, who directs the regional demonstration project for Battelle.

    The battery is part of a highly reliable, localized power zone called a microgrid that will enable about 500 southeast Salem customers to tap into a power reserve during electricity disruptions such as blackouts. The battery and microgrid are examples of the innovative technologies and methods being tested through the Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project.

    The energy storage system will respond to regional grid conditions with the help of a key aspect of the demonstration called transactive control. Transactive control is based on technology from DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which is managed by Battelle. The technology helps power producers and users decide how much of the area’s power will be consumed, when and where. This is done when producers and users automatically respond to signals representing future power costs and planned energy consumption. The cost signals originate at Battelle’s Electricity Infrastructure Operations Center in Richland, Wash. They are updated every five minutes and sent to the project’s participating utilities, including PGE.

    The automated signals allow project participants to make local decisions on how their piece of the smart grid project can support local and regional grid needs. Participants are now gathering data to measure how the signal can help deliver electricity more effectively, help better integrate wind power onto the power grid and more. The Salem battery will use the signal to coordinate its charge and discharge cycles with the power grid’s supply and demand.

    “Two-way information exchange in the Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project allows grid operators to make the existing electric grid more efficient, while also exploring how using other technologies such as PGE’s energy storage system, smart appliances and wind power can bolster the reliability of our system,” said Carl Imhoff, who manages Battelle’s Electricity Infrastructure Market Sector in Richland.

    PGE’s role

    As an investor-owned utility that serves about 830,000 customers in 52 Oregon cities, PGE is testing several smart-grid technologies in the Salem area for the demonstration project. Beyond the energy storage system unveiled today, PGE is working to integrate renewable power sources to the power grid. It is also implementing a demand-response program with residential and commercial customers to help meet peak demand. All these resources will be optimized with the automated transactive control signal.

    “Together with our project partners and customers, we are demonstrating smart grid technologies to help Oregon and the nation learn how to build intelligent energy resources for the future while continuing to deliver long-term value for customers,” said Jim Piro, PGE president and CEO. “We are proud of the collaboration, hard work and ingenuity that went into this project, and thank our Salem customers who volunteered to participate in this important study.”

    Click here for more information from PGE about the Salem Smart Power Center.

    Building the business case

    As a primary partner in the project, the Bonneville Power Administration is leading the development of a regional business case for investing in smart grid infrastructure and technologies.

    “New, smarter technologies can help us make the most of the region’s renewable resources, improve how we operate the power system and bolster its resilience,” said Elliot Mainzer, BPA’s deputy administrator. “We’re looking closely at the benefits and economics so we can tell Northwest electric utilities and ratepayers which ‘smart’ investments will provide long-term value.”

    BPA is working to support utilities in the project as they unite to address both regional and utility requirements. Communication and collaboration between utilities is key to making this all work, especially considering that five states are involved, with everything from large investor-owned utilities to smaller publicly-owned utilities. They have varying goals, but are working together to enhance the economics, reliability and integration of renewables for the power system. BPA has taken a lead role in assuring that the utility perspective is addressed as well as the regional perspective so the needs of electricity consumers throughout the Northwest are met.

    A regional collaboration

    The Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project was co-funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through DOE, as well as the project’s utility and vendor partners.

    As part of the project, Battelle leads a collaborative group that includes the Bonneville Power Administration and 11 Northwest-based utilities:

    • Avista Utilities — Spokane, Wash.
    • Benton PUD — Kennewick, Wash.
    • City of Ellensburg — Ellensburg, Wash.
    • Flathead Electric Cooperative — Kalispell, Mont.
    • Idaho Falls Power — Idaho Falls, Idaho
    • Lower Valley Energy — Afton, Wyo.
    • Milton-Freewater City Light & Power — Milton-Freewater, Ore.
    • NorthWestern Energy — Butte, Mont.
    • Peninsula Light Company — Gig Harbor, Wash.
    • Portland General Electric — Portland, Ore.
    • University of Washington/Seattle City Light — Seattle, Wash.

    The demonstration project also involves a diverse team of technology providers, including Alstom Grid, IBM/Netezza, 3TIER Inc. and Quality Logic Inc. Washington State University and Central Washington University are also directly involved.

  • Develop Your Signature Voice

    People are drawn to and influenced by leaders who communicate authentically, easily and effectively. How do you become one of these leaders?

    You need to have a “signature voice”—a means of self-expression that is uniquely and distinctly your own. Once you discover and express this voice, you won’t believe the impact you can have on those around you.

    In this interactive Harvard Business Review webinar with Amy Jen Su and Muriel Wilkins—co-authors of Own the Room—share a compelling framework for how to develop your powerful personal presence.

  • Facebook’s Scramble-and-Shake Strategy

    It’s hard to think of a company providing a mostly useful, non-polluting service that gets rooted against as much as Facebook does.

    Well, maybe I can think of a couple: AOL and Microsoft in the second half of the 1990s. AOL wasn’t entirely non-polluting, given how many unasked-for CDs it flooded mailboxes with to lure people to its dial-up service. But the negativity was more about its status as the Internet on training wheels. Microsoft, meanwhile, was scarily powerful &#8212 the company that was going to assimilate the Internet, Borg-style, and force us all to pay tribute.

    Facebook gets both criticisms. It’s social networking for beginners — less cryptic than Twitter, less mercenary than LinkedIn, more comprehensible and comprehensive than all those strange things like Snapchat and Tumblr and Instagram and Path. Of course the cool kids don’t want to hang out there any more. But Facebook has also risen so quickly to ubiquity that it can seem inordinately powerful. Changes in its privacy settings feel like infringements on our civil liberties. It’s effectively built by those who use it, but owned by Mark Zuckerberg and a few other folks — making the users, as Steven Johnson put it in Wired last year, “ultimately just tenant farmers on the land.”

    So let’s get this straight: Facebook is either totally over, or all-powerful.

    Clearly, it can’t be both. As someone who was a pretty early adopter, for a grownup, but doesn’t spend much time on Facebook now (I’m more of a Twitter guy), I’ve been an eager consumer of the Facebook-is-doomed literature. But since its spluttering IPO last year, I’ve been coming around to the notion that Facebook is headed for a status more interesting than either flash-in-the-pan or all-conquering global behemoth.

    For the foreseeable future, it looks like Facebook will be an important, profitable company that’s constantly struggling to reinvent itself as technology, users’ tastes, and the competitive landscape shift. It’s not going to be the social network — the “social graph” through which all of us organize all of our relationships. Unlike, say, LinkedIn, it doesn’t have a clearly defined niche that it can defend. It may remain a puzzle to Wall Street. But it combines a giant user base — 1.1 billion users worldwide — with the nimbleness that comes of being just nine years old.

    This last characteristic stood out in Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s appearance at the D11 conference this week. Her interactions with Walt Mossberg, Kara Swisher, and various audience members were notable chiefly as a textbook lesson in how to stay on message without being boring and/or wildly irritating. But they also revealed at least a little bit about how Facebook sees its competitive advantage.

    Consider how CEO and founder Zuckerberg spends most of his time. “What he really wants to do is be in the office in his conference room with our product teams reviewing products,” Sandberg said. “That’s what he loves to do.” Or the company’s reaction to the lukewarm reception that the new Facebook Home app for Android phones has received so far. “The feedback we’re getting is very bimodal,” Sandberg said. Heavy Facebook users love how it effectively takes over their phones; everybody else hates it because it takes over their phones. So Facebook will keep tinkering: “We’re committed to monthly rollouts of this,” she said. Or how the company shifted from treating mobile as an afterthought just two years ago to organizing everything around it — with mobile going from approximately zero to 30% of revenue in just a year.

    It’s basically hustle as strategy — scrambling and looking for the next thing, and understanding that you probably won’t get anything right the first time around. One of my favorite Facebook stories of the past year has been that of the posters plastered on the walls at Facebook HQ trying to persuade employees to switch to Android phones. The company had become too iPhone-centric, but ordering employees to get Androids wasn’t its style. So … recruiting posters.

    Getting Facebook employees to use Android phones was particularly important, TechCrunch’s Josh Constine wrote, because of the way Facebook looks for bugs in its apps:

    During my digging I found out Facebook forcibly updates employees to the most recent beta version of apps like Facebook For Android and Facebook Messenger. If they run across a problem in one of the Android (or iOS) apps, they can take advantage of a bug-reporting feature Facebook builds into its internal betas. It’s called “Rage Shake” and the name is spot-on. Employees just violently shake their phone and it automatically logs its current state and sends details to Facebook’s mobile bug-squashers.

    It’s hard to hate a company that builds “Rage Shake” functionality into its software. It’s also hard to believe it will be going away anytime soon.