Prostate cancer is five different diseases, experts say

 

Cancer Research UK scientists have for the first time identified that there are five distinct types of prostate cancer and found a way to distinguish between them, according to a landmark study* published today in EBioMedicine. The findings could have important implications for how doctors treat prostate cancer in the future, by identifying tumours that are more likely to grow and spread aggressively through the body. The researchers, from the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute and Addenbrooke's Hospital, studied samples of healthy and cancerous prostate tissue from more than 250 men. By looking for abnormal chromosomes and measuring the activity of 100 different genes linked to the disease they were able to group the tumours into five distinct types, each with a characteristic genetic fingerprint. This analysis was better at predicting which cancers were likely to be the most aggressive than the tests currently used by doctors -- including the PSA test** and Gleason score. But, the findings need to be confirmed in clinical trials with larger groups of men. Study author Dr Alastair Lamb, from the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, said: "Our exciting results show that prostate cancer can be classified into five genetically-different types. These findings could help doctors decide on the best course of treatment for each individual patient, based on the characteristics of their tumour. "The next step is to confirm these results in bigger studies and drill down into the molecular 'nuts and bolts' of each specific prostate cancer type. By carrying out more research into how the different diseases behave we might be able to develop more effective ways to treat prostate cancer patients in the future, saving more lives." Professor Malcolm Mason, Cancer Research UK's prostate cancer expert, said: "The challenge in treating prostate cancer is that it can either behave like a pussycat -- growing slowly and unlikely to cause problems in a man's lifetime -- or a tiger -- spreading aggressively and requiring urgent treatment. But at the moment we have no reliable way to distinguish them. This means that some men may get treatment they don't need, causing unnecessary side effects, while others might benefit from more intensive treatment. "This research could be game-changing if the results hold up in larger clinical trials and could give us better information to guide each man's treatment -- even helping us to choose between treatments for men with aggressive cancers. Ultimately this could mean more effective treatment for the men who need it, helping to save more lives and improve the quality of life for many thousands of men with prostate cancer." Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Cancer Research UK. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: H. Ross-Adams, A.D. Lamb, M.J. Dunning, S. Halim, J. Lindberg, C.M. Massie, L.A. Egevad, R. Russell, A. Ramos-Montoya, S.L. Vowler, N.L. Sharma, J. Kay, H. Whitaker, J. Clark, R. Hurst, V.J. Gnanapragasam, N.C. Shah, A.Y. Warren, C.S. Cooper, A.G. Lynch, R. Stark, I.G. Mills, H. Grönberg, D.E. Neal. Integration of copy number and transcriptomics provides risk stratification in prostate cancer: A discovery and validation cohort study. EBioMedicine, 2015; DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2015.07.017

Promising progress for new treatment of type 1 diabetes

 

Credit: Kailash Singh A representative image of islets from diabetic mice, which did not receive IL-35 (left) and received IL-35 (right). The brown color represent insulin producing beta cells. New research from Uppsala University shows promising progress in the use of anti-inflammatory cytokine for treatment of type 1 diabetes. The study, published in the open access journal Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group), reveals that administration of interleukin-35 (a protein made by immune cells) to mice with type 1 diabetes, reverses or cures the disease by maintaining a normal blood glucose level and the immune tolerance. Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic disease, which for the patients leads to a life-long dependence of daily injections of insulin. In Sweden approximately 2 new cases of the disease are diagnosed every day. Insulin is a hormone, which is produced by the beta cells in the pancreas. Insulin is required to prevent a harmful rise in the blood glucose level. The exact cause of T1D is not yet known, however, it is considered as an autoimmune disease. A condition that occurs when our own immune system by mistake attack and destroy healthy cells. In T1D, an infection and/or unknown factors probably triggers the immune cell attack, which ultimately leads to an insufficient insulin production. In the new study, Dr. Kailash Singh, a PhD student in professor Stellan Sandler's research group at the Department of Medical Cell Biology at Uppsala University, studied so-called immune regulatory T cells' actions in T1D mouse models. The study shows that the immune regulatory T cells alter their function by producing pro-inflammatory destructive proteins instead of protective anti-inflammatory proteins such as interleukin-35 (IL-35) under T1D conditions. "This suggests that the good guys have gone bad in early development of Type 1 diabetes and therefore our immune cells destroy the beta cell," says Dr. Kailash Singh. Furthermore, the concentration of IL-35 was lower in T1D patients compared to healthy individuals. These findings may suggest that IL-35 could play a crucial role in human T1D. In addition, the researchers have found a novel mechanism that explains how the immune regulatory T cells are changing their destiny under a T1D condition. Professor Sandler's research team tested whether or not IL-35 could also suppress development of T1D and reverse established T1D. To induce T1D in mice they injected a chemical compound called streptozotocin. These mice developed signs of TID and increasing blood glucose levels similar as in human T1D. IL-35 injections given after disease induction prevented from development of T1D. Strikingly, IL-35 injections to mice, which were diabetic for two consecutive days, normalized blood glucose concentrations. The research team also successfully investigated IL-35 in another model of T1D called non-obese diabetic mouse (NOD). The interruption of IL-35 treatment did not result in return of diabetes in any of the mouse models. The findings encourage further research on the use of IL-35 for treatment of T1D and offer new clues as to why immune regulatory T cells fail in counteracting T1D. "To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to show that IL-35 can reverse established Type 1 diabetes in two different mouse models and that the concentration of the particular cytokine is lower in Type 1 diabetes patients than in healthy individuals. Also, we are providing an insight into a novel mechanism: how immune regulatory T cells change their fate under autoimmune conditions," says Dr. Kailash Singh. Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Uppsala Universitet. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Kailash Singh, Erik Kadesjö, Julia Lindroos, Marcus Hjort, Marcus Lundberg, Daniel Espes, Per-Ola Carlsson, Stellan Sandler, Lina Thorvaldson. Interleukin-35 administration counteracts established murine type 1 diabetes – possible involvement of regulatory T cells. Scientific Reports, 2015; 5: 12633 DOI: 10.1038/srep12633 :

26 photos qui vont vous convaincre d'aller visiter la Norvège en 2015

 

24 décembre 2014

La nature dans toute sa splendeur, à l'état pur et sauvage. La Norvège recèle des trésors inestimables de forêts, de côtes aux eaux limpides, de précipices gigantesques...C'est le pays qu'il faut visiter en 2015 ! La preuve avec ces 26 photographies incroyables, où l'on perçoit la beauté de ce pays pas si lointain. 

Reinefjorden, Lofoten

Torghatten

Atlantic Road

Senja Islands

Preikestolen

Ramberg

Stavkirke de Borgund

Vaeroy

Senja

Senja

Lyseveien

Lofoten Islands

Renndølsetra

Lofoten à l'automne

Trollstigen

Geirangerfjord

Un matin quelque part dans le coin

Les îles Lofoten

Bleik

Troltunga

Røros

Reine

 

Reinebringen

Høyvika Beach On Andøya, Vesteråle

Quality Standards for Pharma

 

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 2:30pm Lindsay Hock, Editor Image: Charles River Laboratories When you go to your local Walmart, CVS or Wallgreens to pick up cold medicine (or any other health product), do you ever think of the quality of the product? More than likely you grab the product off the shelf and hurry home to remedy your illness or whatever health ailment you might face. Little do we think of the testing behind the medications prescribed to us that improve the quality of our lives. Yet, stringent testing is needed for any pharmaceutical or health care product to hit the shelves of your local convenience store. Why is quality control testing so important for pharmaceutical and health care applications? The short answer: Any product of inferior quality can have negative outcomes for patients. For this reason, quality control testing is one critical safeguard used to prevent products that don’t meet exacting specifications from reaching patients, protecting public health. “Additionally, manufacturers use the feedback gained from quality control testing results to continuously improve manufacturing process in an effort to reduce errors and deliver quality products more efficiently,” says Carl Craig, PhD,  Corporate VP, Charles River Laboratories. Quality control for pharmaceuticals For the quality control testing of pharmaceutical and health care products, The United States Phamocopeial Convention (USP) establishes, through the use of expert committees, uniform quality standards that are enforced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These standards are similar to those of the Japanese Pharmacopeia and the European Pharmacopeia. The quality standards are documented as Compendial Tests, and every pharmaceutical product is subjected to the appropriate Compendial Test as a way to demonstrate product quality, efficacy, potency and so forth. By its nature, the regulated pharmaceutical products market is conservative and slow to adopt change in quality control testing. “After all, if the regulatory bodies, such as the USP and FDA, have determined existing quality tests are working to protect public health, any change could potentially have a negative impact on the public,” says Craig.   However, rapid testing is now at a place where it can meet the same quality specifications of traditional testing methods, only faster. “In many cases, rapid tests deliver results hours and even days before traditional methods,” says Craig. “This has obvious economic benefits for business; it expedites product release.” Rapid tests also allow for products to be reliably tested and released based on the quality control data, whereas with traditional methods the products may be released and used “at risk”, only to receive the quality testing results after the product’s release and use. “With that said, the industry has struggled to validate these rapid test methods,” says Craig. This is mainly due to this industry’s reluctance to change traditional quality control procedures that have protected human and public health for decades. And since rapid methods are considered “alternative methods” by regulators, and must be independently validated according to specific guidance outlined in the respective pharmacopoeias, manufacturers of rapid methods must appeal to regulators for approval. This slows the adoption of these methods, and ultimately the time pharmaceutical and health care manufacturers can get products to market. The endotoxin way Endotoxin testing is a rapid quality control test method that takes hours versus days to reach results. And, according to Craig, endotoxin testing has clearly demonstrated improvements over the previous “compendial rabbit pyrogen method of quality control.” Technology based on limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL)—a key ingredient in horseshoe crab blood that reacts in the presence of gram-negative bacteria—has progressed to the point where rapid cartridge-based systems now enable companies to rapidly measure endotoxins. The technology works like this: Precise amounts of LAL reagent, chromagenic substrate and control endotoxin are pre-loaded onto a four-channel cartridge, at which point the cartridge is placed in a handheld reader that serves as an incubator (that heats the cartridge to 37 C), a pumping system (that mixes the sample with each of the reagents applied to the cartridge) and spectrophotometer. The LAL method provides results in about 15 min. The most recent advances in LAL technology include a multi-cartridge system and a fully automated, robotic system suitable for high-volume water testing. “Since the advent of mandatory endotoxin testing for drugs, biologics and medical devices in the early 1980s, there hasn’t been a single incident of a product recall due to endotoxin contamination from a failure of an endotoxin assay that has been properly performed,” says Craig. And, with the advent and FDA approval of Charles Rivers Laboratories’ Endosafe-PTS method of rapid endotoxin testing in 2006, the company has seen a successful decrease—days to minutes—in test time that demonstrates successful adoption of simpler, less-invasive, more reliable rapid methods that don’t compromise public health. “We hope the successful adoption of rapid endotoxin testing can be a blueprint for adoption of other rapid methods in the future,” says Craig. The future of quality control testing What does the future hold for pharmaceutical and health care product quality control testing? Technological improvements combined with cost improvements will be at the forefront of future methods and technologies. “Technological improvements, alongside the significant and often unnecessary cost of having products sit and wait for testing to be completed before the product is release or moved to the next step, has strengthened the case for quality control testing that’s simpler, faster and more automated,” says Craig. There’s also a movement within the pharmaceutical industry to bring quality decisions closer to the manufacturing floor. With this trend, there’s an opportunity to develop easy-to-use and rapid quality control methods that can be decentralized from the quality lab and used by technicians in manufacturing without compromising testing quality or public health. “This allows for more timely and accurate decision to be made regarding the release of regulated products,” says Craig. source : www.rdmag.com

NASA's Spitzer Confirms Closest Rocky Exoplanet

 

July 30, 2015

This artist's concept shows the silhouette of a rocky planet, dubbed HD 219134b. At 21 light-years away, the planet is the closest outside of our solar system that can be seen crossing, or transiting, its star.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have confirmed the discovery of the nearest rocky planet outside our solar system, larger than Earth and a potential gold mine of science data.

Dubbed HD 219134b, this exoplanet, which orbits too close to its star to sustain life, is a mere 21 light-years away. While the planet itself can't be seen directly, even by telescopes, the star it orbits is visible to the naked eye in dark skies in the Cassiopeia constellation, near the North Star.

HD 219134b is also the closest exoplanet to Earth to be detected transiting, or crossing in front of, its star and, therefore, perfect for extensive research.

"Transiting exoplanets are worth their weight in gold because they can be extensively characterized," said Michael Werner, the project scientist for the Spitzer mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "This exoplanet will be one of the most studied for decades to come."

The planet, initially discovered using HARPS-North instrument on the Italian 3.6-meter Galileo National Telescope in the Canary Islands, is the subject of a study accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Study lead author Ati Motalebi of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland said she believes the planet is the ideal target for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in 2018.

"Webb and future large, ground-based observatories are sure to point at it and examine it in detail,” Motalebi said.

Only a small fraction of exoplanets can be detected transiting their stars due to their relative orientation to Earth. When the orientation is just right, the planet’s orbit places it between its star and Earth, dimming the detectable light of its star. It’s this dimming of the star that is actually captured by observatories such as Spitzer, and can reveal not only the size of the planet but also clues about its composition.

"Most of the known planets are hundreds of light-years away. This one is practically a next-door neighbor," said astronomer and study co-author Lars A. Buchhave of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For reference, the closest known planet is GJ674b at 14.8 light-years away; its composition is unknown.

HD 219134b was first sighted by the HARPS-North instrument and a method called the radial velocity technique, in which a planet's mass and orbit can be measured by the tug it exerts on its host star. The planet was determined to have a mass 4.5 times that of Earth, and a speedy three-day orbit around its star.

Spitzer followed up on the finding, discovering the planet transits its star. Infrared measurements from Spitzer revealed the planet's size, about 1.6 times that of Earth. Combining the size and mass gives it a density of 3.5 ounces per cubic inch (six grams per cubic centimeter) -- confirming HD 219134b is a rocky planet.

Now that astronomers know HD 219134b transits its star, scientists will be scrambling to observe it from the ground and space. The goal is to tease chemical information out of the dimming starlight as the planet passes before it. If the planet has an atmosphere, chemicals in it can imprint patterns in the observed starlight.

Rocky planets such as this one, with bigger-than-Earth proportions, belong to a growing class of planets termed super-Earths.

"Thanks to NASA's Kepler mission, we know super-Earths are ubiquitous in our galaxy, but we still know very little about them," said co-author Michael Gillon of the University of Liege in Belgium, lead scientist for the Spitzer detection of the transit. "Now we have a local specimen to study in greater detail. It can be considered a kind of Rosetta Stone for the study of super-Earths."

Further observations with HARPS-North also revealed three more planets in the same star system, farther than HD 219134b. Two are relatively small and not too far from the star. Small, tightly packed multi-planet systems are completely different from our own solar system, but, like super-Earths, are being found in increasing numbers.

JPL manages the Spitzer mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive, housed at Caltech’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center.

For more information about NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer

A Daddy’s Letter to His Little Girl (About Her Future Husband)

 

Photo Credit: patrick_bird via Compfight cc Dear Cutie-Pie, Recently, your mother and I were searching for an answer on Google. Halfway through entering the question, Google returned a list of the most popular searches in the world. Perched at the top of the list was “How to keep him interested.” It startled me. I scanned several of the countless articles about how to be sexy and sexual, when to bring him a beer versus a sandwich, and the ways to make him feel smart and superior. And I got angry. Little One, it is not, has never been, and never will be your job to “keep him interested.” Little One, your only task is to know deeply in your soul—in that unshakeable place that isn’t rattled by rejection and loss and ego—that you are worthy of interest. (If you can remember that everyone else is worthy of interest also, the battle of your life will be mostly won. But that is a letter for another day.) If you can trust your worth in this way, you will be attractive in the most important sense of the word: you will attract a boy who is both capable of interest and who wants to spend his one life investing all of his interest in you. Little One, I want to tell you about the boy who doesn’t need to be kept interested, because he knows you are interesting: I don’t care if he puts his elbows on the dinner table—as long as he puts his eyes on the way your nose scrunches when you smile. And then can’t stop looking. I don’t care if he can’t play a bit of golf with me—as long as he can play with the children you give him and revel in all the glorious and frustrating ways they are just like you. I don’t care if he doesn’t follow his wallet—as long as he follows his heart and it always leads him back to you. I don’t care if he is strong—as long as he gives you the space to exercise the strength that is in your heart. I couldn’t care less how he votes—as long as he wakes up every morning and daily elects you to a place of honor in your home and a place of reverence in his heart. I don’t care about the color of his skin—as long as he paints the canvas of your lives with brushstrokes of patience, and sacrifice, and vulnerability, and tenderness. I don’t care if he was raised in this religion or that religion or no religion—as long as he was raised to value the sacred and to know every moment of life, and every moment of life with you, is deeply sacred. In the end, Little One, if you stumble across a man like that and he and I have nothing else in common, we will have the most important thing in common: You. Because in the end, Little One, the only thing you should have to do to “keep him interested” is to be you. Your eternally interested guy, Daddy ——— This post is, of course, dedicated to my daughter, my Cutie-Pie. But I also want to dedicate it beyond her. I wrote it for my wife, who has courageously held on to her sense of worth and has always held me accountable to being that kind of “boy.” I wrote it for every grown woman I have met inside and outside of my therapy office—the women who have never known this voice of a Daddy. And I wrote it for the generation of boys-becoming-men who need to be reminded of what is really important—my little girl finding a loving, lifelong companion is dependent upon at least one of you figuring this out. I’m praying for you. ———

Google's Project Loon balloons to cover Sri Lanka with internet access

 

Project Loon balloons like this are set to bring universal internet access to all of Sri Lanka Bringing internet to remote regions by sending internet-enabled balloons into the stratosphere sure sounds like a wild idea, but it's about to become a reality for the resident of Sri Lanka. The government of the island nation has just announced a partnership with Google that will bring affordable high-speed internet access to every inch of the country using the company's Project Loon balloons. Project Loon wouldn't really be at home anywhere other than the Google X lab, the company's secretive research arm from which all manner of left-field ideas have emerged, including glucose-monitoring contact lenses, delivery drones, Lego-like displays and a little venture known as Google Glass. It's not always easy to tell how serious Google is about some of these ambitious concepts, but it seems determined to make Project Loon a reality. The company's vision is for a network of balloons floating in the stratosphere at around 20 km (12.4 mi) above the Earth's surface. The balloons are equipped with solar panels and carry a box of electronics and communications gear underneath that provides LTE internet connectivity to an area on the ground around 40 km (25 mi) in diameter. The announcement by the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry this week of the partnership with Google will see Sri Lanka, which boasts an area of 65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi), become the first country in the world to boast universal internet access via the high altitude balloons. Deployment of the balloons is set to begin in the coming months, with the launches expected to be completed by March, 2016. Source: Sri Lankan Government

Bionicon's e-ram mountain bike motor is light and low-profile

 

The e-ram motor is integrated into Bionicon's crankset (Credit: Bionicon) While hub motors may be quite common on commuter e-bikes, they’re not so popular on full-suspension electric mountain bikes. That’s because they add unsprung weight, which nobody wants. Various companies have responded by developing motors that are located in the middle of the bike, near the bottom bracket. These solve part of the problem, although they have to actually be built into the frame. That’s why Germany’s Bionicon has created the e-ram – it’s reportedly the world’s lightest mid-mount motor, and it could potentially be installed on existing mountain bikes. The e-ram is incorporated into a crankset, which is standard equipment on the company’s new Edison Evo mountain bike. Depending on the size of their bottom bracket, that crankset might also work on other bikes. The folks at Bionicon hope that once the e-ram is in production, other manufacturers will make a point of making sure that their bikes are compatible with it. The 250-watt, 48-volt brushless DC motor has a maximum torque of 60 Nm, and tips the scales at 1.45 kg (3.2 lb). It should be noted that its 48-volt 5.8-Ah Samsung battery pack is carried by the rider in a backpack, and is hard-wired to the motor via a magnetic socket mounted on the bike’s top tube (which releases easily in the event of a wipe-out). That battery weighs 2.4 kg (5.3 lb), and looks like it would probably make the wearing of a hydration pack rather challenging. On the plus side, however, it has an outlet that can be used to boost a smartphone’s battery in a pinch. There’s currently no word on range. While it’s in place and plugged in, the e-ram augments the rider’s own pedalling power to help them climb hills, keep up with stronger riders, or just go farther with less effort. The Edison Evo can still be pedalled normally when the e-ram is turned off, however, so riders won’t be stuck with a non-functioning bike if the battery runs out on them. In fact, for rides where they know that the motor won’t be needed, it can be removed from the crankset. Using a custom app, riders can monitor battery status and other parameters, although the system still works without it. Bionicon is currently raising production funds for the e-ram and Edison Evo, on Kickstarter. If you want to take a chance on the e-ram fitting your existing bike (a 73-mm BSA bottom bracket is required), you can get one along with a battery for a pledge of €1,750 (about US$1,923). To get a complete e-ram-equipped Edison Evo, you’ll need to fork out €4,850 ($5,328). The bike is equipped mainly with SRAM and Magura components, has 27.5-inch wheels, and tips the scales at around 14 kg (31 lb) – motor not included. Delivery is scheduled for next February, assuming all goes according to plans. Sources: Bionicon, Kickstarter

Propane Rolls on as Reliable Fleet Fuel

 

 

 

Winter 2014/2015

A growing number of fleets are choosing propane

It might seem that multi-billion dollar companies and local school districts share few business interests, but orga­nizations large and small are faced with the challenges of stretching budgets and making their fleets “greener.” Now, more and more are finding that propane helps them accomplish both goals.
Also known as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), propane as a transporta­tion fuel has roots that go back nearly a century. In recent years, however, its reputation as a top fuel pick for fleets has gained traction. This is largely because of fuel injection system ad­vancements and more vehicle options available in the marketplace.
Adams 12 School District in Thornton, Colorado, is just one of hundreds of school districts taking advantage of propane-powered buses. After arriv­ing in 2005, Transportation Director David Anderson began developing the district’s alternative fuels program, which would include a pilot project with 12 Blue Bird Vision propane buses equipped with Ford 6.8L V10 engines and Roush CleanTech fuel systems.

“In my previous position as the fleet manager for Cherry Creek Schools, also in Colorado, we developed an alternative fuels program for our buses as a way to save money and clean up the air and environment for our students. When I arrived at Adams 12, we wanted to start a similar project,” Anderson said. “Our first purchase was a diesel hybrid bus, and it was very successful. So, when Blue Bird came out with a propane-powered bus, everyone agreed that it was something we should try.”
Anderson said the final decision for choosing propane came down to the infrastructure costs.
“We evaluated costs and found that we could install our entire propane station infrastructure, including a card reader system, for less than $50,000.”

In 2011, Anderson secured three buses and in 2012, nine more. As of August 2014, the buses have traveled 191,000 miles, averaging about five miles per gallon. Although propane buses typi­cally experience about a 10% decrease in fuel economy compared to con­ventional buses, Anderson found that propane’s lower fuel cost easily offset the fuel economy loss. In addition to these savings, Anderson notes that the buses have had lower maintenance costs and have become a favorite among bus drivers and the district alike. Spurred by the success of the pilot project, An­derson wants to secure funding for an additional 10 propane buses this year.
The fact that hundreds of school bus fleets have chosen propane is a testa­ment to how successful it’s been in this particular niche. A case study recently released by Argonne National Laboratory examined five fleets (a total of 110 buses) and found that some of the school districts saved nearly 50% on fuel and maintenance and recouped the incremental costs of the vehicles and infrastructure within three to eight years (afdc.energy.gov/uploads/publication/case-study-propane-school-bus-fleets.pdf).

One added benefit that all fleet man­agers and drivers can appreciate is propane’s cold-weather performance. Because the fuel is more easily vaporized at low temperatures, pro­pane-fueled vehicles are able to avoid the cold-start problems inherent with traditional liquid fuels.

Adams 12 School District in Thornton, Colorado, has successfully added 12 Blue Bird Vision propane buses to their fleet.

Photo by Dennis Schroeder, NREL 31349

The “Red Jammer” buses at Glacier National Park have been running on propane for more than a decade. Photo from Glacier National Park, NREL 27574Clean Cities Now • Vol. 18, No. 2 • Page 6

source : the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Clean Cities Now

 

Winter 2014/2015
Program News

One Year—One Billion and Beyond

In 2013, Clean Cities hit a major milestone. For the first time, the program and its stakeholders reduced U.S. petroleum consumption by more than 1 billion gallons in a single year.

Clean Cities’ efforts in 2013 also prevented the production of 7.5 mil­lion tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which is equivalent to removing 1.5 million cars from American roads.
In addition to minimizing America’s oil dependency and our transporta­tion system’s environmental footprint, these numbers demonstrate that Clean Cities coalitions are building on their strengths and expanding their reach. With their 14,000 stakeholders, coali­tions inventoried 475,000 alternative fuel vehicles in 2013. These vehicles and the fuel they used accounted for 39% of 2013’s petroleum displacement. While the largest number were flex fuel ve­hicles (FFVs), compressed natural gas vehicles displaced the most petroleum.
Electric drive vehicles also experienced substantial growth in 2013. While hybrid electric, plug-in hybrid electric, and all-electric vehicles only accounted for 7% of petroleum displacement, they displaced 39% more petroleum than in 2012. With more coalitions improving community readiness for plug-in elec­tric vehicles, we expect these numbers to continue to rise.

Coalitions kept up the pace when it came to educating their stakeholders and the public. Coordinators conducted more than 2,000 outreach, education, and training activities that reached about 120 million people. Fleet managers were a major focus of these efforts, with coalitions reaching out to private, government, transit, and utility fleets.
While these accomplishments are im­pressive, they are just one step towards Clean Cities’ major goal of reducing 2.5 billion gallons of petroleum annually by 2020. The 2013 petroleum reduction was 13% higher than 2012 efforts, put­ting the Clean Cities program ahead of schedule for reaching that goal.
From 15 million gallons in its first year to a cumulative 6.4 billion now, Clean Cities is shifting transportation away from petroleum one vehicle, fleet, and community at a time. 
Clean Cities’ 2013 petroleum-reduction milestone puts the program ahead of schedule for meeting its goal of reducing U.S. petroleum consumption by 2.5 billion gallons per year by 2020. Source: Clean Cities 2013 Annual Metrics Report Compressed Natural Gas: 56% Biodiesel: 15% Ethanol: 12% Propane: 7% Liquefied Natural Gas: 5% Plug-In Hybrid & Electric: 5% Hydrogen: 0.1%

Petroleum displacement by fuel type in 2013. Source: Clean Cities 2013 Annual Metrics Report

 

Painting With Land

 

July 29, 2015

 

Photograph by Tuan Guitare, National Geographic Your Shot

Terraced rice fields are seen from above in Lao Cai Province in northern Vietnam. Rice is one of the country’s key exports.

AI Researchers Warn Against “Arms Race”

 

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 6:00pm Greg Watry, Digital Reporter Image: Shutterstock Stephen Hawking, Noam Chomsky, Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak are among the many signatories of a letter warning against the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and weapons, something the Future of Life Institute sees as feasible within years. “If any major military power pushes ahead with AI weapon development, a global arms race is virtually inevitable, and the endpoint of this technological trajectory is obvious: Autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow,” the organization said in an open letter. The Future of Life Institute is a volunteer-run research and outreach organization, which is currently focused on the potential risks of human-level AI. “Unlike nuclear weapons, they require no costly or hard-to-obtain raw materials, so they will become ubiquitous and cheap for all significant military powers to mass-produce. It will only be a matter of time until they appear on the black market and in the hands of terrorists, dictators wishing to better control their populace, warlords wishing to perpetrate ethnic cleansing, etc,” continues the letter. While the letter doesn’t dismiss the idea of AI on the battlefield, the organization believes it could be integrated to make the battlefield safer, especially for civilians. The letter has collected over 1,000 signatures, and was presented at the International Joint Conferences of Artificial Intelligence, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.   Musk previously called AI “our biggest existential threat,” and there was a need for “regulatory oversight,” according to the The Guardian. In early 2015, Musk donated $10 million to the Future of Life Institute for a global research program aimed at keeping AI beneficial to humanity. The money was disseminated by the Future of Life Institute via a grant application process. Thirty-seven teams were selected and will use around $7 million of the donation. Projects and studies include a Carnegie-Mellon Univ. project aimed at making AI systems explain their decisions to humans, a Stanford Univ. study on how to keep economic impacts of AI beneficial and projects at Univ. of California, Berkeley and Oxford Univ. on developing techniques for AI systems to learn what humans prefer based on behavior observation. In an interview with BBC News, Hawking warned full AI could be the end of the human race. “It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate,” he told BBC. “Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete.” Wozniak, however, has a different view of AI on the whole. At the Freescale Technology Forum 2015, Wozniak said it would be hundreds of years before AI replaces humanity, and it may turn out to be a good thing. “They’ll be so smart by then that they’ll know they have to keep nature, and humans are part of nature,” he said at the forum, according to TechRepublic. According to the article, a scenario where AI takes over the world would be contingent on everything being controlled by computers, as is being explored with the “Internet of Things.” Already, Carnegie Mellon Univ. is turning its campus into a living laboratory for Google-funded Internet of Things research. Anind K. Dey, the lead investigator of the project and director of the university’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute, says in an interview with R&D Magazine, the goal by the end of the month is to have two or three spaces on campus outfitted with sensors. According to the university, the sensors will help create smart environments. One example is Snap2It, a system that connects users to a printer or projector by taking a picture of it on a smartphone. • CONFERENCE AGENDA ANNOUNCED: The highly-anticipated educational tracks for the 2015 R&D 100 Awards & Technology Conference feature 28 sessions, plus keynote speakers Dean Kamen and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason. Learn more.