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This volume reports on discussions among multiple stakeholders about ways they might help transform health care in the United States. The U.S. healthcare system consists of a complex network of decentralized and loosely associated organizations, services, relationships, and participants. Each of the healthcare system’s component sectors–patients, healthcare professionals, healthcare delivery organizations, healthcare product developers, clinical investigators and evaluators, regulators, insurers, employers and employees, and individuals involved in information technology–conducts activities that support a common goal: to improve patient health and wellbeing. Implicit in this goal is the commitment of each stakeholder group to contribute to the evidence base for health care, that is, to assist with the development and application of information about the efficacy, safety, effectiveness, value, and appropriateness of the health care delivered.

A National Research Council committee is conducting a study on how well greenhouse gas emissions can be measured for treaty monitoring and verification. The committee’s analysis suggests that NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), which failed on launch in February 2009, would have provided proof of concept for spaceborne technologies to monitor greenhouse gas emissions, as well as baseline emissions data. This letter focuses on the capabilities of an OCO and currently deployed satellites that measure atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and their potential role in monitoring and verifying a greenhouse gas treaty.

In the early 1980s, two water-supply systems on the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina were found to be contaminated with the industrial solvents trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE). The water systems were supplied by the Tarawa Terrace and Hadnot Point watertreatment plants, which served enlisted-family housing, barracks for unmarried service personnel, base administrative offices, schools, and recreational areas. The Hadnot Point water system also served the base hospital and an industrial area and supplied water to housing on the Holcomb Boulevard water system (full-time until 1972 and periodically thereafter).

This book examines what is known about the contamination of the water supplies at Camp Lejeune and whether the contamination can be linked to any adverse health outcomes in former residents and workers at the base.

Access to oral health services is a problem for all segments of the U.S. population, and especially problematic for vulnerable populations, such as rural and underserved populations. The many challenges to improving access to oral health services include the lack of coordination and integration among the oral health, public health, and medical health care systems; misaligned payment and education systems that focus on the treatment of dental disease rather than prevention; the lack of a robust evidence base for many dental procedures and workforce models; and regulatory barriers that prevent the exploration of alternative models of care.
This volume, the summary of a three-day workshop, evaluates the sufficiency of the U.S. oral health workforce to consider three key questions:

• What is the current status of access to oral health services for the U.S. population?
• What workforce strategies hold promise to improve access to oral health services?
• How can policy makers, state and federal governments, and oral health care providers and practitioners improve the regulations and structure of the oral health care system to improve access to oral health services?

A Review of the HHS Family Planning Program provides a broad evaluation of the Title X family planning program since its establishment in 1970. The program successfully provides family planning services to its target audience of low-income individuals, but there is room for improvement. While the program’s core goals are apparent, a secondary set of changing priorities has emerged without a clear, evidence-based strategic process. Also, funding for the program has increased in actual dollars, but has not kept pace with inflation or increased costs. Several aspects of the program’s structure could be improved to increase the ability of Title X to meet the needs of its target population. At the same time, the extent to which the program meets those needs cannot be assessed without a greater capacity for long-term data collection.

A Review of the HHS Family Planning Program recommends several specific steps to enhance the management and improve the quality of the program, as well as to demonstrate its direct contribution to important end results, such as reducing rates of unintended pregnancy, cervical cancer, and infertility. The book will guide the Office of Family Planning toward improving the effectiveness of the program. Other parties who will find the research and recommendations valuable include programs receiving Title X funding from the Office of Family Planning, policy makers, researchers, and professional organizations.

The U.S. Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C., comprises some of the most historic and symbolic buildings in the nation. The steam and chilled water required to heat and cool these buildings and related equipment is generated and distributed by the Capitol Power Plant (CPP) district energy system. Portions of the CPP system are now 50 to 100 years old and require renewal so that reliable utility services can be provided to the U.S. Capitol Complex for the foreseeable future.

Evaluation of Future Strategic and Energy Efficient Options for the U.S. Capitol Power Plant provides comments on an interim set of publicly available consultant-generated options for the delivery of utility services to the U.S. Capitol Complex. The report provides recommendations to bring the interim options to completion, including suggestions for additional analyses, so that the CPP can be best positioned to meet the future strategic and energy efficiency requirements of the U.S. Capitol Complex.

The United States is currently the only country with an active, government-sponsored effort to detect and track potentially hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs). Congress has mandated that NASA detect and track 90 percent of NEOs that are 1 kilometer in diameter or larger. These objects represent a great potential hazard to life on Earth and could cause global destruction. NASA is close to accomplishing this goal. Congress has more recently mandated that by 2020 NASA should detect and track 90 percent of NEOs that are 140 meters in diameter or larger, a category of objects that is generally recognized to represent a very significant threat to life on Earth if they strike in or near urban areas. Achieving this goal may require the building of one or more additional observatories, possibly including a space-based observatory.

Congress directed NASA to ask the National Research Council to review NASA’s near-Earth object programs. This interim report addresses some of the issues associated with the survey and detection of NEOs. The final report will contain findings and recommendations for survey and detection, characterization, and mitigation of near-Earth objects based on an integrated assessment of the problem.

There have, historically, been two competing models of operating systems development. There’s the UNIX mentality, of small pieces loosely joined. That is, you have a whole bunch of little, stand-alone applications that all work together to accomplish more complex tasks running atop a svelte kernel that doesn’t know — or need to know — about the pieces its running. Then you have the “everything and the kitchen sink” mentality, used by Microsoft. All versions of Microsoft Windows have huge dependency chains, and what is rightly called “Windows” is a dizzying amalgamation of interdependent pieces of software, none of which can do much on their own. If you’ve ever wondered why your Windows-powered web server included Windows Media Player, or Solitaire, that’s the reason: the “stuff” that makes up Windows is highly interdependent.

There’s been work going on inside Microsoft for years to try to pare down the Windows system, to tame the beast so to speak. Dubbed “MinWin“, the effort aims to make a successive series of layers, with each layer depending only on the stuff immediately below it. So one layer might handle file system access and network protocols. The Internet Information Server would depend on that layer, but nothing in any of those sub-layers would depend on anything inside IIS. In a similar way, the Explorer shell and Internet Explorer can be more easily separated, so that you don’t need to have MSIE installed on every single server you run.

There are lots of changes associated with the MinWin project, and even though initial efforts are available for public viewing, the long-term payout is still quite a ways away. Some of the elements of that long-term payout include a more customizable installation footprint with an easier-to-update system, since you’d only be updating those components you’re actually using for your server; tighter system security; and enhanced system integrity, since faults in applications ought not be affecting lower level routines.

There’s an excellent write-up of MinWin at Ars Technica. It’s definitely worth a read. This quote, regarding system security, really caught my attention:

Fully two-thirds of the security patches released for Windows Server 2003 offered no actual increase in security for dedicated servers, but still required software to be installed and reboots to be performed on a near-monthly basis.

What’s ironically funny to me is that this entire initiative is, in many ways, a validation of the UNIX mentality that’s been driving Linux development since the very beginning. Microsoft has touted the superiority of it’s GUI, and the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and its snap-ins, as the best and easiest way to manage complex services. I think we can all agree, now, that that’s more than a bit of hyperbole: GUIs and the MMC make some administrative tasks easier, while simultaneously making other tasks much harder. The resurgence of command-line administration in MinWin, and the Server Core installation option of Windows Server 2008 (original, and R2 flavors) is clear indication that a GUI is not the end-all-be-all of systems management.

Although initial reviews have concluded that it’s far from perfect, today marks the first day of availability of the Nokia N900 in the United States. Available through Nokia’s flagship stores in Chicago and New York City for $649 (as well as at nokiausa.com), the N900 has also been spotted on various online shops such as Amazon for a little over $500. At that price it’s all very tempting — especially if you’re a die hard Nseries fan that wants to get a glimpse of the future with this Maemo 5 business– but that’s a decision you’re going to have to make on your own.

Read

Nickel Buddy are really cool BlackBerry game developers because they’ve been putting out quality games specifically with the BlackBerry Storm in mind. The latest is called Revball and it’s a paddle ball type arcade game.

While the game is available for the Storm2, it doesn’t use the multitouch feature which is a pretty key element of the device. As a Storm2 user, I’m always on the hunt for content that uses its unique features, but a Storm game is good fun regardless.

Revball is $4.99 and there is more information available on the purchase page.

© Kyle for BlackBerry Cool, 2009

From The CC Insider…

George Carlin is known for his strong political views, taking a particularly strong stance against Reagan in his 1988 HBO special George Carlin: What Am I Doing in New Jersey. So it might come as a surprise to some that the long-haired comedian was once a conservative Republican.

In the new Carlin autobiography Last Words, it's revealed that Carlin's views changed from his early years. Punchline interviewed Carlin's daughter Kelly Carlin, and she had this to say on the matter:

I had known that [Carlin’s former comedy partner] Jack Burns converted him, quote, unquote, but I didn't know that he just… I guess, I didn't think he really cared. If you take on your parents' politics, it's because you haven't thought about it yet in some ways. Clearly, Jack's conversion of him — he didn't have to wrestle him to the ground or anything. He had a few pot-and-beer-induced deep conversations with my dad, and my dad's a smart person and clearly a light went off in his head. But, yeah, the shocking reality of this McCarthy Republican, it's like, "What?!" I love that. I think that makes him all the more human to the world.

So, there you have it. Carlin was once a young Republican. It's not that surprising. After all, doesn't everyone's outlook change drastically from what they believed in high school and college? At least, smart people's opinions change.

Follow us as we use sophisticated computer technology to depict what George Carlin probably would look like as a Republican…

Spoiler: Dragon Age: Origins is classic fantasy game where you’re an asshole if you play as a human.

Cisco has confirmed that the next version of the Flip Video camera, everyones favorite tiny video camera, is getting Wi-Fi. The model is described as having “a large screen that slides to reveal the record and menu buttons underneath.”

Pocket-lint is also reporting there won’t be a touchscreen. You can, however, upload video that you take over Wi-Fi.

Clearly the iPod Nano and iPhone video availability is making things hard for Pure Digital by essentially stealing their entire market. This will definitely even things up, at least for the folks who already love their Flips.

Once again, it's time to take some words and mix up all their letters and then put them back together again to create new words, but in a totally fun and hip way.

But first, here's a few from last week's challenge: Candidates in Mass. Senate Race Spar Over Stupak Measure…

Area men can master a screen rave: "Stupid is as Stupak does!" (anagranny)

US dramas must spike ace serenader Cat Stevens' paranoia! (Dharam)

A craven upset
A static mesa
A roadrunner’s demise
Speaks
…(Hilo, in loving memory of a roadrunner)

Here's this week's headline…

Jobless Benefits Set to Expire Unless Congress Acts

.

Leave your anagrams in the comments.

We recently wrote about how booksellers were freaking out over the “price war” between Amazon and Wal-Mart, whereby they’re starting to offer certain books at a very cheap price to bring in more customers. The whole thing was a bit silly. Reader Robin Trehaeven alerts us to a fantastic opinion piece in the Library Journal by Barbara Fister, a librarian at Gustavus Adolphus College, in which she does a superb job mocking what she refers to as the “accessibility paradox” where those who are used to being gatekeepers to information at the same time as they’re supposedly promoting the benefits of greater information, suddenly start whining when information really does get more accessible. This includes those booksellers:

I’m also taken aback by the horrified response of the book industry. I thought the big crisis was that nobody reads. Now it turns out the problem is that books are so popular with the masses they’re being used as bait to draw in shoppers.

Come on, guys, get your story straight! Which is it?

But most of her brilliant sarcasm is directed at those in her own profession, who both work hard to get information for free, at the same time they complain about how the internet has made it so easy to route around librarians:

It strikes me that this issue is somewhat parallel to the love-hate relationship that many academic librarians have had with the Internet. Although our complicated relationship is improving, there are still some silly assumptions floating around. Oh no, our reference stats are down! Hurrah! People are able to find answers without our help. That’s awesome! Anybody can publish on the web, unlike scholarly journals which are peer-reviewed. Fine, but don’t tell me all peer-reviewed journal articles are shining examples of reason and academic brilliance. A lot of them are finely-sliced research rehashing the same findings, or are closely examined and exquisitely detailed trivia. Besides, there are plenty of examples of peer review failing in spectacular ways–and examples of wonderful peer-reviewed journals that were born free online.

But this is my favorite: Unlike information you find on the web, we pay for the information in our databases, and you get what you pay for. No, actually, with what you pay for you get a lot of junk that you don’t even want, but you have no choice.

You want this journal? You have to subscribe to this pricey bundle. Either that, or you purchase one article at a time for your users, something more and more libraries are doing. You spend less, but the information never visits the library–it goes straight from the publisher to the desk of one user. All the library gets is the bill. Apart from failing on its merits, the argument that paid is better than free is self-contradicting. We can’t tell students that purchased information is by definition better than free and, at the same time, beg faculty to recognize how broken the current system is and please, please, please make their work open access.

It’s a great overall column, and nice to see a librarian lay the smackdown on hypocrisy within the bookselling and librarian worlds.

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The all-electric, three-wheel Aptera has been kicking around for a while now. It was supposed to be out sometime this year, but that’s not going to happen. A new report was just released that says the 2e has been pushed back to next year. But no worries. The report also states that the car is in fact coming. That is as long as some loans come through as expected.

Press release via Jalopnik

“We’re making significant progress every day with product refinements, the completion of engineering and design details, and securing meaningful strategic partnerships,” says Wilbur. “However, we now have to adjust our production schedule to align with financing realities. Properly managing the resources of the company means we’ll complete our first vehicles in 2010, not by the end of 2009 as previously projected.

“Aptera management is being a prudent steward of all resources to ensure future viability for the company and strong returns for its stakeholders. Therefore, we’ll begin volume production vehicles once our current series of private funding has closed or when we secure financing through the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicle loan program, whichever comes first.”

You can’t hate on the company when it’s clearly taking a cautious approach. No one is buying cars right now anyway.

Don’t worry. This won’t be another post on the merits/shortcomings of the Pixi and whether such a handset is worthwhile as its older, more capable brother, the Pre, plummets in price. Other sites have done that to death.

I just wanted to point out that, regardless of how anyone feels about the handset, even the Pixi wants to be a Pre. Check out this picture, taken right from a fresh-out-of-the-box Pixi.

By dk, dm, co

While you are walking down the streets of our village, you see “420” written on broken down buildings or letters missing from public signs. Some of wreckage is left alone because it’s not worth repairing, while other buildings are cared for. For instance, the  school maintains its appearance because it has great maintenance staff who repair the damages. The buildings that are left alone aren’t so fortunate because they don’t have anyone to maintain them. These are just some of the effects of vandalism that are noticeable through the naked eye.

However, there are some effects that can’t be seen with the naked eye. Emotional effects caused by the vandal(s) won’t be as detectable as the physical effects. But that doesn’t mean that the emotional effects aren’t there. They gradually build up inside and eventually come out verbally (whispers, rumors) or orally (written). Then these effects are exposed to everyone around the Norton Sound, opening an opportunity for them to judge. Destruction in a village or town creates a poor impression to visitors. The visitors tend to look at the village with discrimination and disrespect. As a result, vandalism undeniably leaves an impression, whether it’s good—sympathy—or bad.

Vandalism also creates a bad impression for the younger generation, causing them to think it’s necessary to follow in the steps of their role models. If Billy sees Bobby vandalizing, then Billy may be compelled to do so, too. Then it is set off like a chain reaction. Billy may walk around town looking for something to break like windows, or a house to terrorize because he was encouraged by what he saw. Something like that may not have happened if the ruinous Billy were to set a good example and think twice about the consequences.

When any type of sport is coming up, the students get all jumpy and excited because they think that they are going to be competing in the activity. Then the sad news comes from the coach saying the school didn’t have enough funds to pay for the trip. Another scenario would be when the teachers aren’t able to get better teaching supplies because the money was used to repair damages that the vandals committed. Students could have came home with medals or trophies and a feeling of accomplishment. The teachers also could have had experimental projects to make learning more fun and interactive for the students. Instead all the money goes to repairing wreckages. You see, the damage that was caused not only affected the appearance, but it also affected the students’ education.

Scientists have been asking the same question for decades. “What causes some neighborhoods to thrive, while others decay?” That question lead to the Broken-Windows theory. It works just like a cliché’. The more a line is said, the less of a meaning or effect it has. Just like the Broken-Windows theory. The more that people see little problems like litter, graffiti, or shattered glass, the less of an effect they have on the people. Eventually, the people drift away and ignore those problems. As a result, they won’t be fixed. And even when they get fixed, it doesn’t mean that ‘those measures alone would keep people from moving or bring people back.’ (Morin) To keep our village from ‘decaying’ or fading away, vandalism preferably should do the same.

As more vandalism occurs, children are encouraged by it and think they’re able to follow in the steps of criminal behavior. People who leave a bad impression on our younger generations makes them think that it is OK to litter and use graffiti around the village. The more people vandalize, the less of an impression that makes on the village, according to the Broken-Windows theory. As vandalism increases, the student’s privileges decrease as well. There are vital consequences for vandalism. These are just some of the effects of vandalism that aren’t noticeable through the naked eye.

Morin, Richard. “ A Crack in the Broken-Windows Theory.” The Washington Post. January 30, 2005.
The Washington Post Company. 1996-2009.   <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles    /A46381-2005Jan29.htm>.

Today we hit up Sony Ericsson’s shindig in NYC for some one-on-one time with its XPERIA X10, and so far (it’s a non-retail prototype) it looks like SE has a decent device on its hands. Of course, we all know the X10 is running Android 1.6, but SE has created its own UI, or UX as it prefers to say (short for User Experience), called Nexus. Like other UI overlays for Android, Nexus focuses on social media integration, entertainment and simplifying contact info by aggregating user information. Two very unique applications that SE has integrated into Nexus are Timescape and Mediascape. Timescape is much like viewing your contact information on HTC’s Sense UI and Motorola’s MOTOBLUR: you can view your contact’s email, SMS, Facebook and Twitter updates all in one place. Mediascape allows you to access photos, video and music from your phone as well as YouTube and PlayNow, SE’s music store. The great thing about Timescape and Mediascape is that they recognize connections between your contacts (like facial recognition), music and media and it makes suggestions on how you can communicate or get a guide to new media. Now that we’ve got the software aspect out of the way, hit the jump to see not only what think of the device itself, but quite a few pretty pics and a video overview!

Our initial impression of the XPERIA X10 is mixed. The screen is a vivid and crisp 4″ capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 480 x 854 while the device itself is both light and thin. It also packs smartphone basics like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, 3.5mm headset jack and a rather impressive 8.1 megapixel camera. The device feels nice in the hand, although those with small hands might think it’s rather large. Still, it’s not cumbersome by any means. When running through the screens, we did experience a bit of lag even though the X10 is running the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. And while SE has added its own UI over Android 1.6, it still feels like a bare-bones Android device. The UI is very functional and it gets the job done, but it’s not as attractive as HTC’s Sense UI. We’re not quite sure what it is about the XPERIA X10, but we’re just not feeling that “wow” we got with the Droid, for example.

SE says it’s working with U.S. carriers to get the XPERIA X10 subsidized in the States, but in the even that doesn’t happen it could be another expensive device that might be overlooked in the Americas – we’ve got our fingers crossed that AT&T or T-Mobile will pick this up. There’s no word on when this will be released, but with all the press and fanfare we’re thinking it shouldn’t be much longer.

Now that the new line of PS3s have lost the support for installing Linux, Sony must’ve felt the need to provide an upgrade for its built-in browser….