Ohio State starting pitcher John Havird (23) throws in NCAA tournament game versus Louisville on June 4. Courtesy: OSU AthleticsThe Ohio State baseball team fell in a large, early hole and was unable to climb out as they lost 15-3 to the host, and No. 1 seeded, Louisville in the second round of the Louisville regional.After striking out the side on 11 pitches in the top of the first inning, sophomore starting pitcher Brendan McKay helped his own cause in the bottom half of the inning, driving a 1-2 pitch over the right field wall to give the Cardinals an early 2-0 advantage.In the third inning, the rain started pouring down in Louisville, and so did the runs. It was again McKay who sparked the offense as he delivered a RBI single to right with runners on first and second. After two doubles and a passed ball scored three more runs, senior first baseman Danny Rosenbaum mashed a two-run home run to deep left-center field to expand the lead to 8-0. That would end the night for Ohio State’s starter, senior left-hander John Havird. Two more runs off redshirt sophomore right-hander Austin Woodby would make it 10-0 Louisville before the third inning ended.From that point on, it was all Louisville. The Cardinals added three runs in the fourth inning off another home run from Rosenbaum and they plated an additional run in the fifth.The Buckeyes would eventually put themselves on the board. With a runner on first, senior pinch-hitter Daulton Mosbarger hit a homerun over the right field wall to cut the deficit to only 12. A run in the bottom of the eighth by Louisville and a run in the top of the ninth by Ohio State brought the final score to 15-3It was a brutal outing for Ohio State’s starting pitcher on the mound. John Havird entered the day with a 6-3 record and a 3.02 ERA, but ended the night with a loss and a 3.73 ERA. He failed to register an out in the third inning as he gave up six runs on a walk and five hits in the inning. Havird finished the night with two innings pitched, eight hits, eight runs (all earned), two walks and only one strikeout. He also surrendered two home runs in his two innings of work after only allowing two in his previous 92 innings.Louisville’s sophomore starting pitcher Brendan McKay, on the other hand, was extremely sharp both on the mound and at the dish. McKay delivered 5.2 scoreless innings before his outing was cut short by a 48 minute rain delay in the top of the sixth. He allowed only six baserunners off three hits and three walks. McKay struck out ten batters in the outing. At the plate, McKay was two for four with a home run, three runs batted in and two runs scoredFollowing the loss to the Cardinals, the Buckeyes will attempt to stave off elimination and keep their title hopes alive in a rematch against the Wright State Raiders on Sunday at noon. read more

AddThis Share Contact: Michael BerryhillPhone: (713) 527-4943 Rice University Appoints Hirasaki Chemical Engineering Professor Rice University officials announced the appointment of George Hirasaki, a Beaumont native and longtime Vidor resident, asprofessor in chemical engineering effective July 1, 1993. Hirasaki is the son of the late Tokuzo Hirasaki and the grandson of K. Kishi, founder of the first Japanese colony in Orange County in 1906. The colony originally raised rice but formed a petroleumcompany when oil was discovered on the community’s property. Hirasaki graduated from Vidor High School in 1958, received a chemical engineering degree in 1963 from Lamar University and earnedhis Ph.D. in chemical engineering in 1967 from Rice. After graduating from Rice, Hirasaki joined Shell Development Company in Houston. He remained there until his retirement in January 1993. He was a part-time lecturer at Rice from 1977 until1992, when he was named to a part-time professorship. In 1991, Hirasaki was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his contributions in interfacial phenomena in oilrecovery.”George Hirasaki’s accomplishments have earned him the highest esteem among colleagues in industry and academia,” said Michael M.Carroll, dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering at Rice. “He has also been an outstanding teacher at Rice. We are delightedthat he is now becoming a full-time member of the Rice community.”His presence will further enhance the quality of our faculty.” ### read more

The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV is seen at the Washington Auto Show in Washington. General Motors Co. said on Tuesday its electric subcompact Chevrolet Bolt EV will have an average range of 238 miles on a full charge, farther than rival Tesla Motors Inc. expects for its upcoming Model 3.The Bolt EV will be launched in a few months, nearly a year before the Tesla Model 3, with a starting price for U.S. consumers of $37,500 that is similar to the announced starting price for the Model 3.The sale price is before ancillary charges and a federal tax credit available to U.S. buyers that could be $7,500.The Bolt is on track to be the first fully electric car with at least 200 miles of driving range per charge and a starting price below $40,000. Tesla’s Model S and Model X offer driving ranges of more than 200 miles, but at prices that start at roughly double the Bolt’s.The Bolt is also seen as the first affordable fully electric car.The average selling price for a new vehicle in the United States is about $31,000, and GM reported that in August, its vehicles were sold to U.S. consumers at an average of $36,730. These prices reflect discount incentives to spur sales, which are not normally generous or even available for the newest of models.GM’s share price was little changed following the expected announcement. In premarket trading on Tuesday, shares were at $31.17, a cent lower than Monday’s close.GM has said that the Bolt, along with the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt, will be made available to drivers of the ride-hailing service Lyft Inc., in which GM has invested half a billion dollars.(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Bernadette Baum) Attend this free webinar and learn how you can maximize efficiency while getting the most critical things done right. Add to Queue 2 min read September 13, 2016 The Bolt EV will be launched in a few months, nearly a year before the Tesla Model 3, with a starting price for U.S. consumers of $37,500. Register Now » This story originally appeared on Reuters Next Article Electric Cars 49shares GM Says the Bolt EV Will Have a 238-Mile Range, More Than Tesla’s Model 3 Image credit: Reuters | Gary Cameron Reuters Free Webinar | Sept 5: Tips and Tools for Making Progress Toward Important Goals read more

HITRUST – A health care certification offering a third-party assessment that verifies an organisation meets all of the industry-defined requirements of the Common Security Framework and provides a prescriptive framework for managing the security requirements inherent in HIPAA.Impact Level 4 – Federal and Department of Defense agencies can now use Appian as a managed service for low-code applications that must meet the strict IL4 requirements for Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). At IL4, an Appian application can be used to manage and store Export Controls, Privacy Information (including PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), and other information requiring explicit CUI designation.Marketing Technology News: SAP Offers New SaaS Solution to Onboard Millions of Partner Users, Granting Access to Sensitive Data Without Regulatory Risk No-Code “Connected Systems,” Simplified Design, and Worry-Free DeploymentAppian announced the newest version of the low-code Appian Platform, which increases the speed and business impact of low-code development. The release fulfills Appian’s “Connected Systems” vision for no-code integration across a host of popular enterprise systems and services. The release extends Appian’s commitment to simplicity through visual query design of business data sources and intuitive controls to easily display that data in a grid. The new version also furthers Appian’s promise of worry-free deployment through enhanced automation for DevOps, and the addition of new certifications to Appian’s already industry-leading list of security accreditations.“Today’s release advances low-code development as a key IT asset for quickly building and deploying transformational and mission-critical business applications,” said Malcolm Ross, Vice President of Product at Appian. “Appian has the speed and enterprise-grade qualities to take our customers from idea to application in eight weeks. That’s the mission of the Appian Guarantee.”Connected SystemsWith the new release, Appian expands the Appian AppMarket’s library of no-code Connected Systems and UI Component Plug-ins. These packaged integrations to specific 3rd-party functionality and systems increase the speed and business impact of solutions for the contact centre, customer experience, and operational performance. They are built by Appian, its partners, and customers using Appian’s recently-announced Integration Software Development Kit (SDK) that makes creating 3rd-party integration plug-ins simple.A small sample of the new Connected Systems and Component Plug-ins now packaged with Appian or from the Appian AppMarket includes:Twilio – makes integration with Twilio easy for Appian Intelligent Contact Center(ICC) customers, empowering contact centre reps with advanced call controls for real-time customer communications.Salesforce – delivers intuitive no-code integration between Appian and Salesforce.Automation Anywhere – orchestrate and manage Automation Anywhere robotic process automations from Appian.Google Maps – provides integrations to location and directions services from Google Maps for interactive display in an Appian interface.Google Charts – created by Appcino, integrates data and chart visualisations from Google into AppianGoogle Cloud Translate – detection and translation services for input text.Event Pusher – created by Vision Point Systems, enhances Appian interfaces with dynamic event handling powered by Pusher.Temasys Skylink Real-Time Communications – offered by Temasys adding real-time web communication and co-browse within Appian interfaces.Microsoft PowerBI – create and easily embed coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights from PowerBI directly in Appian.Amazon S3 – manage Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 data stores and access S3 objects directly from an Appian interface.Genesys – delivers easy access to Genesys data and enhances Appian/Genesys integration with advanced voice transfer telephony controls.Marketing Technology News: TrustArc Platform Enhancements Simplify Privacy Management for CCPA, GDPR and Other Global RegulationsLow-Code Development through Visual Query and Grid Design The new Appian release makes application design even more simple. Appian previously announced the expansion of its patented SAIL (Self-Assembling Interface Layer) framework to allow automatic and intelligent creation of interfaces based only on a data model. The latest Appian release makes this even easier with a new no-code visual interface for creating data store queries. Query creation is used in every application, and is one of the most challenging tasks in application design. Appian’s new Visual Query Editor allows designers to create queries faster and with fewer errors, while requiring less expertise to get started. The Visual Query Editor is fully integrated with Appian’s Interface Designer and new-evolved Paging Grid.Worry-free DeploymentThe new release bolsters Appian’s position as the most secure, reliable and scalable cloud platform for the enterprise. New DevOps features make it easier than ever to automate deployment of new apps across systems. This includes a host of code review and monitoring features across application elements including process models, data, rules, and interfaces.Marketing Technology News: SherWeb Introduces UCaaS Integration of Microsoft Office 365 With World-Class Hosted VoiceWith this release, Appian has also extended its industry lead in security accreditations with the addition of:ISO 27001 – Demonstrates that the certified organisation has identified the risks, assessed the implications and put in place a managed set of security controls to limit any damage to the organisation, its data and operations. Appian Intelligent Contact CenterAppian PlatformMarketing TechnologyNewsSoftware Development KitVisual Query Editor Previous ArticleiPinYou Took the Lead in Construction of Big Data Security SystemsNext ArticleGigaSpaces Partners With Informatica to Deliver an Intelligent Digital Integration Hub Across Cloud and On-Premise Latest Version of the Appian Platform Increases Speed and Impact of Low-code Development PRNewswireMay 21, 2019, 1:57 pmMay 21, 2019 read more

Reviewed by James Ives, M.Psych. (Editor)Dec 13 2018A new study links hearing loss with an increased risk for mortality before the age of 75 due to cardiovascular disease. Researchers at the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health found that mortality among those with hearing loss is elevated, particularly among men and women younger than age 75 and those who are divorced or separated. However, mortality risk was diminished in adults with a well-hearing partner. This is the first study to investigate the combined effects of hearing loss with partnership, parental status, and increased mortality risk. The findings are published in the journal Social Science and Medicine.”Old age greatly increases the risk for hearing loss,” said Vegard Skirbekk, PhD, Columbia Aging Center faculty member and professor of Population and Family Health at the Mailman School of Public Health. “Therefore, as the population ages, we are seeing increasing numbers of people with hearing loss. At the same time, there are greater numbers of adults living without a partner–putting people with hearing loss at an increased risk for death.”Deaths related to cancer and injuries or as a result of injuries were not affected by hearing loss, although aaccident-related mortality was higher among the hearing impaired who lacked partners or children. “This may be due to a greater fatality from traffic-related incidents, for instance, as family members otherwise may have helped to prevent many of these deaths through warnings or preventive action,” said Bo Engdahl of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, and first author.Hearing loss is the fourth leading cause of disability. Strongly age dependent, it increases from approximately one percent among those aged 40 to 44 up to 50 percent in women and 62 percent in men aged 80 to 84.The researchers analyzed data from 50,462 adults enrolled in the Nord-Trøndelag Hearing Loss Study from 1996 to 1998. They used the Norwegian Cause of Death Registry to identify deaths until 2016. Data on marital status and number of children was obtained from the National Population Registry. The researchers also categorized smoking frequency, alcohol use, and physical activity.Related StoriesAge and excessive noise have different effects on brain’s sound processingNew $9.7 million NIH grant project seeks to improve hearing restorationChildren’s Tumor Foundation establishes significant research initiative to combat NF2According to Engdahl and Skirbekk, there are several explanations for the association between hearing loss and mortality. Families may be more likely to stay supportive and present even during spells of poor health compared to friends or those with weaker ties, which may reduce some of the mortality risk associated with functional impairments. Having a partner could allow someone with hearing loss to be socially active to a greater extent, as the spouse may provide support, take initiative, and help them overcome thresholds for socializing with others. A spouse could also encourage the use of technical support, such as hearing aids, and assist in consulting health services when necessary. Being in a relationship may also serve as a buffer against detrimental economic consequences of hearing loss.”It is well known that rapid population-level aging is likely to result in a greater prevalence of hearing impairment, and that a loss of hearing can raise mortality risks. However there has not yet been much focus on how these effects relate to ongoing changes in family dynamics. Our findings verify that excess mortality among the hearing impaired can be particularly high among individuals with certain family constellations, such as men who are divorced or women who do not have children,” noted Skirbekk. “When governments develop plans to lower the incidence of hearing impairment, they may want to consider the family dimension when designing intervention and social and health support systems.” Source:https://www.mailman.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/hearing-loss-risk-factor-premature-death read more

This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente. Reviewed by Kate Anderton, B.Sc. (Editor)Jun 20 2019President Donald Trump made a new promise if voters grant him a second term: “We will come up with the cures to many, many problems, to many, many diseases, including cancer.”Trump’s statement was part of his 2020 campaign kickoff in Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday. It echoed remarks by former vice president and Democratic candidate Joe Biden on the stump last week in Iowa: “I promise you, if I’m elected president, you’re going to see the single most important thing that changes America: We’re going to cure cancer.””Let’s cure cancer” is hardly a new political ambition. Go back to 1971, when then-President Richard Nixon launched “The War on Cancer” by signing the National Cancer Act, which directed $1.6 billion to research and established the National Cancer Institute.Or take a famous fictional White House: On “The West Wing,” a TV drama that first aired from 1999 to 2006, President Jed Bartlet pushes to include in his State of the Union a pledge to “cure cancer in 10 years.”In 2016, President Barack Obama tapped Biden to run the White House’s “cancer moonshot” soon after Biden’s son Beau died of brain cancer.It’s a compelling promise. After all, who could be against curing the nation’s second-leading cause of death?If only it were that simple. Here are three reasons “let’s cure cancer” is very easy for politicians to say but very hard to accomplish.Neither the Trump campaign nor the Biden campaign responded to requests for comment.With Cancer, The Biology Is Especially TrickyCancer is multifaceted and uniquely complex — it is not so much one disease as a class of related diseases.”‘One cure’ is not a tenable concept,” said Edward Giovannucci, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. “An analogy I think of is ‘curing infectious disease.’ No one would ever say this.”For one thing, individual cancers mutate differently. And those different mutations don’t always respond to the same medicines. That means the best therapy for one person’s lymphoma might not work for someone else’s. And there is consistently potential for new cancer mutations to develop — meaning that, in some ways, there is also a consistent need for new treatments.”One cannot rightfully say, ‘In the next five years, we’re going to cure cancer,’ because cancer is so many different diseases,” said Dr. Philip Kantoff, the chairman of medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.Some suggested literalism isn’t the point. And, to be fair, statements and pledges like these can yield advances in cancer treatment in research when accompanied by substantial increases in research funding or efforts to encourage interdisciplinary scientific endeavors.”One of the things Biden has done is generate a much larger public awareness that cancer is a set of problems that, if we direct both science and policy in the right way to it, we can actually transform,” said Paula Hammond, a chemical engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who has worked with the nonprofit Biden Cancer Initiative.We Already Have Treatments. But There’s An Affordability Problem.Many cancers — certain types of breast or colon cancer, for instance — are already curable. But they need to be promptly diagnosed and treated. Meanwhile, 27.4 million Americans don’t have health insurance.Universal prevention, treatment and curing of cancer means anyone with a chance of developing the disease needs health insurance, experts said. And the coverage needs to be robust enough that patients will go for preventive screenings and follow-up care, without being deterred by the cost.Related StoriesUsing machine learning algorithm to accurately diagnose breast cancerCancer killing capability of lesser-known immune cells identifiedNew study to ease plight of patients with advanced cancer”If you’re going to find it early, treat it early and completely, which would be the ‘cure it’ option, that’s something where insurance is going to be required, whether it’s ‘Medicare for All,’ or some variant of that,” said Amy Davidoff, a health economist at Yale who studies how cancer costs affect people.Focusing on treatments without expanding meaningful access to coverage, she said, is “problematic.”Already, that link is clear. For instance, research Davidoff worked on found that when states expanded eligibility for Medicaid coverage — optional under the Affordable Care Act — gaps between white and black adults closed when it came to timely treatment of advanced cancer.Health insurance — and universal health care, in particular — has already emerged as an election issue.Trump, for his part, has not rolled out a health care agenda. But his administration’s work thus far has exacerbated insurance barriers. Some 700,000 more Americans were uninsured in 2018 under Trump. The White House’s stance on a pending Obamacare lawsuit would dismantle the law, leaving millions more Americans without coverage and upending its protections for people with preexisting conditions — including, crucially, cancer.Biden has not formally released a health care platform, and he has favored policies to expand coverage. This week, he suggested making a “Medicare-like public option” generally available, and available at no premium for uninsured people who live in states that did not expand Medicaid.That sort of proposal could go a long way toward addressing the issues of uninsured people. But it also could leave holes.Currently, even if people have coverage, Davidoff said, the price tag for many newer cancer treatments and immunotherapies can put them well out of reach.That means the generosity of any public option, and indeed of any existing health plans, matters a great deal, too.The Importance Of Healthy HabitsAnd when it comes to advancing cancer treatment, experts stressed the importance of disease prevention.In practice, that means developing strategies to bring down smoking rates and obesity, or improving access to nutritious food. Those require funding, political will and a robust public health infrastructure — none of which is easy to come by. But the potential payoff is far bigger.”If we are to make very significant inroads on cancer mortality rates over the next several decades, we need to focus on prevention and early detection,” Giovannucci said. “We know the majority of cancers are, in principle, preventable.” read more