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| Energy Resources |
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Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has created the Virtual Hydropower Prospector (VHP), a free web-based application for users looking to profit from or live off of hydropower. Previously, developers seeking to pinpoint new hydropower sites needed to physically search out remote areas using maps, stream gauges, or estimates from local outdoorsmen. The VHP is designed using Geographic Information Systems technology, incorporating information about topography, hydrology, demographics, infrastructure, land use, and water energy resources. INL officials have identified thousands of potential small hydropower sites that could roughly double hydropower output in the U.S. with minimal environmental impacts.
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| College Preparatory Programs |
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To connect students to a broader array of educational resources across Alabama, the state has created Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators & Students Statewide (ACCESS). The program blends multipoint videoconferencing equipment with individual Internet-delivered instruction from Alabama certified E-teachers to allow schools to expand their curricular offerings. Educators will work with students both in their physical classrooms and virtually at participating sites.
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| Public Health |
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The Center for the Prevention of Childhood Obesity at Calfornia State, Fullerton, funded by the CDC, will promote interdisciplinary research and community outreach related to children's health and weight management. The Center will work with schools and other community agencies to develop and test model health promotion programs, evaluate existing policies, and identify environments that can explain and influence behavior patterns across high-risk groups. Currently, the Center is focusing on low-income children in predominantly Hispanic communities near the campus, where obesity rates and risks for diabetes are among the highest in the nation.
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| Entrepreneurship |
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Giving small businesses a borrowing boost and reassuring reluctant financial lenders is the goal of Minnesota's new Twin Cities Community Capital Fund (TCCCF). By pooling millions of dollars in economic development funds from cities, foundations, and civic organizations, TCCCF is able to provide gap-financing in cases where local bank lenders only want to support a portion of a community development loan. TCCCF quickly sells their loans to a financial intermediary which packages similar debt instruments for resale as asset-backed securities. The proceeds from those securities sales enable the loan pool to continuously recapitalize, making funds readily available for new lending. The outcome of this program is a dramatic increase in each individual community's lending capacity.
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| Juvenile Justice |
This year, the Lehigh County Juvenile Probation Department of Pennsylvania offered an array of community work to its young delinquents, allowing them to not only repay society, but help make it safer. For example, the "chicken project," devised by the West Nile virus coordinator for the county Cooperative Extension, gave youths the opportunity to learn about science and determine local avian viral activity through the care and surveillance of birds. Other youths cleaned abandoned houses, cooked and served breakfast at community organizations, organized yard sales, and prepared and sold firewood for the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.
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| Collaboration |
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San Francisco, a city with a strong local digital-media industry, is partnering with other new-media hubs around the world to foster collaboration instead of competition in the drive to retain and create jobs. The "digital sister cities" initiative--which includes the governments of Toronto, Singapore, and Madras, India, among others--promotes city-to-city relationships such that work is focused in areas where there is significant expertise or favorable conditions. Adhering to the principle of comparative advantage, the governments of the cities participating in this endeavor believe that there is room for everyone to succeed as companies seek a global reach.
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| Pre-School Education |
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Pre-kindergarten classes across Texas are using a new, structured curriculum that emphasizes early literacy and language skills. Under the Texas Early Education Model (TEEM), teachers undergo training developed at the University of Texas. Educators study techniques, such as using rhyming to teach phonics, and are given a large array of materials that match their lesson plans. So far, the program has demonstrated success, with students in TEEM schools scoring better than their peers on some tests.
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| Medical Education and Research |
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To provide early warnings of impending epidemics, dangerous diseases, or bioterror threats, The National Companion Animal Surveillance Network, developed at Purdue University and funded by the CDC, will monitor disease symptoms of domestic animals on a massive scale. By tapping into the Banfield pet hospital chain's nationwide computerized database, scientists can observe disease patterns moving through the pet population and scan for clinical signs of potential outbreaks. Between 65% to 75% of human infections, including SARS, influenza, and Lyme disease, originate in animals. A similar surveillance system for wild animals in captivity, the Zoo Network, was launched in 2001 to track the West Nile virus.
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| Health Care Administration |
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The U.S. military has unveiled the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA) to streamline medical record-keeping. Administrators have begun replacing paper forms with computer records in most of the nation's major military medical facilities, and, by 2007, all military healthcare facilities are expected to have completed the conversion. The new system allows hospitals to access and retrieve medical records more efficiently, and the consolidation of patient information is expected to reduce medical errors.
Newsletter produced by: Alexander Dworkowitz, Vanessa Ruget, and Brendan St. Amant (researchers and writers); Joellen Secondo (editor).
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