Officials Probe Possible Theft of Voting Software in
MD
Washington Post (10/20/06) P. B1; Barr, Cameron
A former Maryland legislator this week received three disks that contain
voting software developed by Diebold Election Systems, although what
version and how secure the files are is debated. The disks were delivered
anonymously to the office of Cheryl C. Kagan, with an unsigned letter that
referred to the disks as "right from SBE (State Board of Elections)" and
"accidentally picked up." The theft is being looked into by the FBI,
although both Diebold and the State Board of Elections claim that they
never had such disks. Diebold's Mark Radke says no software on the disks
is used in Maryland, but the version of one program on the disks remains in
use in "a limited number of jurisdictions," and is properly encrypted. The
two programs, for which the disks are labeled as "source code," are: Ballot
Station, the operation that controls the touch-screen voting machines, and
Global Election Management System (GEMS), which is used in the process of
tabulating votes after an election. Avi Rubin, a computer scientist at
John Hopkins University as well as an election expert who is very skeptical
of e-voting, was given a copy of the disks to research, on the condition he
would not make copies. Of the disks' content, he said, "I would be stunned
if it's not real." A graduate student at John Hopkins working with Rubin,
Sam Small, claimed that the version of Ballot Station on the disks "was
consistent with what we've seen previously." He was unable to gain access
to the GEMS software, however, because two of the disks were protected by a
password. Radke points out that new security features have been
implemented on versions released since those on the disks, and "it would
take years for a knowledgeable scientist" just to get past the encryption
on the disks sent to Kagan. However, Rubin says that on the disks he
reviewed, "the data and files were not encrypted." For information on
ACM's many e-voting activities, visit
http://www.acm.org/usacm
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Carnegie Mellon Awarded Defense Grant to Improve
Chip-Making Process for Industry
Carnegie Mellon News (10/19/06)
DARPA has awarded Carnegie Mellon University a six-year, $4.2 million
grant to develop a new breed of reconfigurable integrated circuit for chip
manufacturers. Ed Schlesinger, center director and head of Carnegie
Mellon's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, says new nanoscale
chips and architectures will be designed that are intelligent enough to fix
themselves. The Center for Memory and Intensive Self Configuring
Integrated Circuits (MISC IC) will undertake this effort to overcome the
bottleneck resulting from the present trends of building components smaller
and smaller that increases cost of production, by integrating mechanical
probes with integrated circuits in a design that allows for the
reconfiguration of integrated circuits. Carnegie Mellon researchers expect
to develop new materials and circuit configurations to increase performance
without scaling down transistor size. "The physical reorganization of the
chip itself will drive many changes in both hardware and software
development," says Schlesinger. A circuit that can reconfigure itself
creates the possibility of economically building intricate systems and
stepping-up the performance of application-specific integrated circuits at
the low cost that is now so endemic to the production of more general
purpose integrated circuits, says the researchers. Schlesinger says, "Our
new collaborative center will help create the underlying technology that
could help change the integrated circuit paradigm and sustain momentum in
the $227 billion global chip sector for years."
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44th Design Automation Conference Adds New "Wild and
Crazy Ideas" Track and Automotive Electronics Theme
Business Wire (10/18/06)
A new "Wild and Crazy Ideas" (WACI) track at the 44th Design Automation
Conference (DAC) will give developers, designers, researchers, and
engineers an opportunity to present their innovative ideas that are still
in their early stages. DAC technical papers usually focus on a fully
developed idea and include a complete solution. Next year's conference
will have a special Automotive Electronics theme, and is seeking papers
that address the issues and challenges involving the integration of
advanced consumer electronic devices, such as navigation, entertainment,
and safety systems. "We are excited to provide a forum for the truly
revolutionary and controversial ideas at the 44th DAC with this new WACI
track," says Sachin Sapatnekar, technical program co-chair of the upcoming
conference. "In addition, we expect the Automotive Electronics theme to
highlight a critical application area for integrated systems today and
bring new insights for our attendees." ACM's Special Interest Group on
Design Automation (ACM/SIGDA) is a sponsor of the conference, which is
scheduled for June 4-8, 2007, at the San Diego Convention Center in San
Diego. Authors have until Nov. 20 to electronically submit papers to the
DAC Web site. For more information on DAC 2007, visit
http://www.dac.com/44th/index.html
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Negative Images Sap Math Test Score
Baltimore Sun (10/20/06) P. 1A; Emery, Chris
Simply telling women they are deficient in math skills can hurt their
performance on a math test, suggests a new study. Steven Heine, a
psychologist at the University of British Columbia and one of the report's
authors, says, "The results don't speak to whether there is a real
difference [between men and women], but show that just discussing it might
make a difference." For the study, when told that their inferiority in
math is genetic, women scored worse on math tests than when they were told
that their lack of success is a result of teacher bias. "It urges
scientists to be mindful about how their work is being communicated," says
Heine. Ashley Grenier, a first-year graduate student in engineering at the
University of Maryland, says that people are overly congratulatory of her
when they hear she is studying engineering, as compared to the more modest
excitement shown when they hear her younger brother in studying in the same
field. "People definitely see you differently," she says. Women do seem
to shy away from math and engineering in college; of students earning
undergraduate degrees in engineering, about 20 percent and female, and less
than 40 percent of students receiving bachelor's degrees in math, in the
same year, were female, according to the National Science Foundation.
Schools are making efforts to attract more girls towards science and
engineering by portraying the field as a way to help people. The Clark
School of Engineering at the University of Maryland conducts an outreach
program for Girl Scouts that is focused on applications and that allows
them to "learn what [they] can do to help people," according to Page Smith,
the director of the school's Women in Engineering Program. She also says
that Maryland focuses on middle-school aged girls because this is where
interest in math starts to wane, not their ability.
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First Demonstration of Working Invisibility Cloak
Duke University News & Communications (10/20/06)
Duke University researchers have demonstrated the first working
invisibility cloak. The technology works by deflecting microwave beams so
that they flow around a 'hidden' object, creating the illusion that nothing
is there at all, not even a shadow. The researchers claim that this
"cloaking," which renders material invisible to microwaves, could be
applied to wireless communications or radar appliances. The cloak is made
of concentric circles composed of "metamaterials," artificial composites
that can be made to interact with electromagnetic waves in ways that
natural materials cannot. The Duke researchers say their work in
invisibility, which has the potential to hide objects of any size or
material property, is the most comprehensive ever to be realized. In the
past, invisibility techniques could only apply to material with very
limited properties. David Schurig, a research associate in Duke's
electrical and computer engineering department explains that, "One first
imagines a distortion in space similar to what would occur when pushing a
pointed object through a piece of cloth, distorting, but not breaking, any
threads. In such a space, light or other electromagnetic waves could be
confined to the warped 'threads' and therefore could not interact with, or
'see', objects placed inside the resulting hole." Since space cannot
easily be warped, this technology uses electromagnetic fields and the right
materials to achieve the same effect. "The waves' motion is similar to
river water flowing around a smooth rock," Schurig says.
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New Laws and Machines May Spell Voting Woes
New York Times (10/19/06) P. A1; Urbina, Ian
As the election date nears, officials nationwide are preparing for a
potentially turbulent day that will test various elements of the election
system. Fears range from databases not including registered voters, to
machines that provide no paper verification, to poll workers who are
inadequately trained. Some officials and vendors of voting machines have
gone to colleges to recruit computer science graduate students or even
posted listings on Monster.com in an attempt to make sure adequate
technicians are in place on election day to help see that everything runs
smoothly. The combination of new machines and people who are unfamiliar
with them worries many. Wendy S. Noren, the top election official for
Boone County, Mo., is behind in both delivery of machines and staff
training. About half of the 45 most highly contested elections will use
machines that provide no paper verification, which does nothing to help
feelings of uneasiness. Deborah L. Markowitz, president of the National
Association of Secretaries of State, thinks that since this is not a
presidential election and many voters are being encouraged to mail in their
votes, that problems will be kept to a minimum, although the worry exists
that many legitimate voters will be turned away due to database
inconsistencies, which persist after four years of struggling to correct
them. Wake County, N.C., which uses optical scan machines, experienced
technical failures in this year's primaries, but at least those machines
provide a paper ballot that can still be counted. Hotlines fielding
problems and providing information to voters received about 200,000 calls
in 2004, reporting over 40,000 problems. Charles Stewart, head of the
political science department at MIT, has published a study claiming that
from 2000 to 2004, the number of improperly marked ballots was reduced by
about one million. Many echo his feeling that voting problems always
occur, and in this time of new technology they are simply highlighted to a
greater degree. For more inforamtion about voter registration databases,
read ACM's recent report
at
http://www.acm.org/usacm/VRD
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New Course Aims to Get Students Thinking About Using Web
2.0 in the Corporate World
InformationWeek (10/18/06) McGee, Marianne Kolbasuk
The University of Arizona and IBM have created a course for the school's
management information systems and marketing students designed to get
students thinking about the value of Web 2.0 skills. Although many people
of this age are familiar with Web 2.0, seeing it as a job skill is quite
rare. "A lot of companies are stuck in their thinking about the Web," says
Andrea Winkler, early outreach coordinator and Web administrator at the
University of Arizona's Eller College of Management who also teaches the
new course. "Many look at Web 2.0 for only a small population of their
customers, but with some tweaking, customization, and new ideas, these
technologies can help them reach a much bigger population." IBM's Gina
Poole says one of the goals of the program is to reinvigorate excitement
for technology students. Projects for students in the Arizona class
include constructing online community sites for local high school students,
helping teach university students the hands-on skills needed to deliver a
product, and inspiring thinking as to other ways Web 2.0 skills can be
valuable. Students graduating college with Web 2.0 skills will encounter
substantial employment opportunities, says analyst Stephen O'Grady. "A lot
of startups out there are hiring for these positions, as well as bigger
players like the Googles and IBMs," he says. O'Grady also predicts that
more enterprise-type business will soon see the need for these skills as
well. "Most technologies start out in businesses and then trickle out to
consumers. This is one of the more rare reverse examples." The value of
Web 2.0 abilities are not lost on those above college-age. Diane Anderson,
47, is taking the class as part of her double major in business management
and MIS. "I get the sense that most non-tech companies aren't yet using
Web 2.0 technologies to their advantage," she says.
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Situated Technologies Focus of Symposium
University at Buffalo Reporter (10/19/06) Vol. 38, No. 8, Donova, Patricia
A symposium this weekend in New York City will address both how and what
technologies are now embedded in the manmade landscape, and what the broad
implications of these are for human interaction with their environment and
with one another. Omar Kahn, assistant professor of architecture and
co-director of the Center for Virtual Architecture (CVA) in the school of
Architecture and Planning, the Institute for Distributed Creativity, and
the Architectural League of New York, says that portable computing devices,
from cell phones to iPods, currently take center stage, but the new breed
of "ubiquitous computers go beyond that. They are about mobility." He
says, "They network a vast array of data to automatically take into account
the social dimension of human environments, even as they vanish into the
background." Buildings themselves will have the ability to respond to
environmental conditions as a result of new situated technologies,
according to Kahn. The symposium, entitled "Situated technologies and
Architecture," will discuss how such developments change functions and
activities in urban settings, and how urbanism will respond to the
developments. Mark Sheppard, assistant professor of architecture and media
study at the University at Buffalo, focuses on the disembodying effects
that recent technology has had on human interaction. "New embedded
technologies could actually enhance and promote social interaction by
connecting individuals in new and socially functional ways," he says.
"However, we must learn how to influence the design of the technologies and
structures in which they are embedded so as to reclaim the primacy of an
embodied experience." The symposium also will discuss who decides who has
access to what information, and what intentions lie behind the creation of
such advanced systems.
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Microsoft Looks Within to Design and Test Chips
New York Times (10/19/06) P. C3; Markoff, John
As the computing era marked by its collaboration with Intel comes to a
close, Microsoft is turning to its own labs to create the computer chips of
the future. "We are at an inflection point in the industry," says
Microsoft's Charles P. Thacker, the engineer leading the Silicon
Valley-based research group, who was instrumental in single-chip designs
after working for Xerox in the 1970s. "Our friends say computers are not
going to get faster, we're just going to get more of them," referring to
the facts that multiple processors can now be placed on a single chip, and
computing functions are becoming more hidden in devices used by ordinary
consumers. Microsoft looks to have a competitive advantage in the parallel
computing field, where controlling both hardware and software, and the way
they interact is extremely valuable. A new system designed by researchers
at the University of California, Berkeley, allows developers to reconfigure
computer designs without having to go through the trouble of producing
finished microchips. Berkeley computer scientist and former ACM president
David A. Patterson says, "This is a historic time in the computer industry.
We're in the middle of a revolutionary change toward parallel computing
that will absolutely involve both hardware and software." Microsoft's Xbox
has spurred a lot of thinking about the next generation of computer design,
and the use of voice recognition, of which Thacker says, "Voice is big.
You can throw as much technology at it as you want to." What Thacker does
see as a perpetual problem is the disconnect between designers and their
customers: "It's pretty hard for a geek to internalize the experience of an
ordinary user."
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Business Leaders Call for Science Degrees to Be
Free
Guardian Unlimited (UK) (10/19/06) Andalo, Debbia
Pressure is being put on the British government to do something about the
declining number of students entering the field of science, technology
engineering, and maths (STEM). A joint report by the Conservation of
British Industry (CBI) and the IT company LogicaCMG suggests abolishing, or
at least reducing, the level of tuition for undergraduate STEM students in
order to boost the number of students pursuing IT careers. The university
administration service, Ucas, reports a 25 percent drop in students
choosing math and computer science degrees between 2002 and 2005. The
report also requests a greater level of coordination between universities
and the IT sector to ensure relevancy of instruction, along with a new IT
vocational program aimed at 14- to 19-year-olds, beginning in 2008.
Expansion of the "visiting lecturers" program, where IT professionals are
brought in to teach courses, is also suggested. "The world is on the brink
of a third industrial revolution...the UK must ensure that it has the
skills needed to fill the jobs going offshore. Now more than ever before,
the government must equip young people with the right skills in science,
technology, engineering, and math," says CBI general director Richard
Lambert.
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By George! How One Robot Got Smart
IST Results (10/19/06)
An award winning aivatar (AI avatar) named George displays the bright
future for such chatbots on the Internet. Currently, George has a 3D
appearance, a variety of facial expressions, and the ability to understand
and respond to others using speech, thanks to AI developed by Televirtual
programmer Rollo Carpenter. George is able to learn from every
conversation he has, and as a result of interacting with so many people, 10
million conversations so far, he is a "bit of a wild animal" displaying
remarkable fluctuation of mood and aggressiveness, says Televirtual's Tim
Child. George has learned over 40 languages from his chat-room experience.
Web users can speak to George, using text only, at jabberwacky.com, where
he is chatting with over a million people at any given time. A talking
version will probably released to the public in the near future, although
he already won the Loebner Prize for most human-like chatbot in 2005.
Three IST projects contributed to the technology George runs on: ViSiCAST,
which explored the use of avatar technology to communicate with hearing
impaired people through sign language; MYTHE, which combined the use of
populated virtual settings and interactive-computer characters with
experimental linguistic tools to help children learn foreign languages; and
CHARISMATIC, which developed tools to create large-scale virtual
environments with avatars capable of simple interaction. Another, more
advanced aivatar, Joan, is in the works, with several other commercial
aivatars planned for different Web services around the world in the coming
months. Child says that one future application of these chatbots could be
language learning.
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'DNA Computer' Is Unbeatable at Tic-Tac-Toe
New Scientist (10/16/06)
A computer known as Maya-II has learned how to play tic-tac-toe using
strands of DNA to execute calculations. The computer was developed by
researchers at Columbia University and New Mexico University to identify
genetic markers linked to certain diseases. Using a system of DNA logic
gates, a strand of DNA that binds to another specific input sequence, the
computer is able to decide upon its every move. To play against Maya-II,
the human player must enter a DNA sequence corresponding to the move they
wish to make. Each of the nine wells making up the tic-tac-toe board
corresponds to several DNA logic gates. After the human's turn, the strand
that Maya-II outputs is then fed into a series of other DNA logic gates
linking the wells, and the square it chooses for its next move glows
fluorescent green, as well as interacting with the remaining wells,
preparing them to be ready to respond to future moves. Maya-II must always
begin the game by taking the middle square on the board, it needs between 2
and 30 minutes to decide on each of its moves, and a second machine is
required to translate the fluorescent signals into a specific move. Joanne
Macdonald, a researcher at Columbia University who worked on the system,
says Maya-II "moves bio-computation up to the next level of power. It's
similar to the invention of the first microchips with hundreds of logic
gates." She says Maya-II could be used to improve techniques for examining
DNA samples, and currently she has utilized it to separate viruses and
detect particular combinations of DNA mutations.
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Picking Out Digital Image Forgeries
Network World (10/17/06) Kabay, M.E.
Micah Kimo Johnson has developed tools that can help forensic analysts
detect digital image forgeries. On October 6, Johnson gave a presentation
entitled "Lighting and Optical Tools for Digital Image Forensics." The
three techniques he described were illumination direction, specularity, and
chromatic aberration. Illumination direction analyzes light sources in a
photograph, using a mathematical approach devised by Johnson. The system
can calculate the angle of incident light based on the shadows in a picture
and recognize any inconsistencies. This software has been successfully
built and tested. The specularity tool he is working on looks at
reflective highlights in images. The example used to display this system
was a picture from "American Idol," in which two contestants had been
digitally imposed. He showed that the reflective parts of the photo, such
as the eyes, revealed a single light source in the eyes of some people
pictured and two light sources in others. The algorithm and program are
still in the works for this technology. Finally, chromatic aberration uses
the principles of a camera lens and Snell's law. The tool examines the
natural distortion of a picture caused by a camera lens. If this
distortion is not consistent throughout, then the image is most likely
forged. Johnson is still perfecting this technology. While none of these
tools is 100 percent effective on its own, when the three are used in
concert with forensic analysis they contribute a great deal to
investigations and verifications of forged images.
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Research Investigates Human Interaction With
Machines
Computerworld Australia (10/18/06) Rossi, Sandra
A research project known as Braccetto, Italian for "arm-in-arm," aims to
improve the ability of humans to interact with information, with each
other, and with their environment, using the effective application of
technology. The project, a result of joint research between the National
ICT Australia (NICTA), the Defense Science and Technology Organization
(DSTO), and the CSIRO, is an investigation into how the effective
application of ICT in mixed presence groupware can help teams that are
geographically separated communicate more efficiently. A collaboration
with Jumbo Vision attempting to develop interactive workspaces yielded a
modular system using HD LCD screens. The system allows screens, cameras,
and lighting operated by computer-driven motors to be configured in various
ways to provide adaptive conditions for collaboration. The system, known
as Braccetto TeamNets, includes hardware, software, and knowledge systems
that can be tailored to a team's needs. The project may produce innovative
techniques to support distributed teams involved in creative activities
such as collaborative design, planning, analysis, and decision making, in
fields such as military planning, scientific researchers, and creative
design. "The research focuses on assisting organizations to effectively
deal with emerging phenomena such as global networks, workforce
visualization, and data overload by giving information workers new tools
and processes," says Dr. Rudi Vernik, the research director for the
initiative. Braccetto was unveiled October 17, 2006, at the ICT Outlook
Forum in Melbourne.
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W3C Launches Secure Browsing Initiative
Business Wire (10/17/06)
The success of the Workshop on Usability and Transparency of Web
Authentication has led the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) to charter the
Web Security Context Working Group, a new initiative to devise standards
for browsers in an effort to help people decide whether a site is
trustworthy. The March workshop, which drew many big technology and online
finance companies as participants, showed W3C that there is considerable
interest in secure interfaces. W3C expects to attract browser vendors,
security experts, research institutes, financial institutions, and end
users to the group. W3C says the group will also work with organizations
such as IETF, OASIS, and Liberty Alliance. Mary Ellen Zurko of IBM will
head the group, which will focus on the information browsers need to
provide in order to describe the security context, presenting the
information and raising awareness, and improving browsers so they are able
to guard against being spoofed. "When I'm browsing the Web, I want my
browser to help me understand who really is the owner of a Web page," says
Tim Berners-Lee, director of W3C. "There is much deployed and proven
security technology, but we now need to connect it all the way through to
the Web user."
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Doing Composite Applications Right
eWeek (10/16/06) Vol. 23, No. 41, P. D6; Sippl, Roger
Above All Software Chairman Roger Sippl defines a composite application as
the combination of functionality from multiple applications and systems
into a single interface in which "the source and underlying complexity of
where all the information resides remains transparent to the user." He
offers a list of 10 rules for building and implementing composite
applications. Sippl advises developers to comprehensively exploit all
information assets, including the underlying metadata particular to each
system, and to responsively contend with new information assets without
revising the entire application and workflow. Addressing semantic issues,
deploying composite applications according to the target audience's
specific requirements, and accelerating time to market are also
recommended. Sippl says developers should practice caution and not move
data if they do not have to, a strategy that avoids uncontrolled data
redundancy. He also calls for the establishment of practical application
building blocks or "business services" that are designed for reuse and
integration, and that business owners can comprehend and work with. Sippl
says working with metadata as opposed to the data layer guarantees the
flexibility of the application, while complying with all built-in
application and system security mechanisms while maintaining a transparent
security infrastructure is vital. His final piece of advice for developers
is to ensure that the composite applications align with the
service-oriented architecture: "They must interoperate with the other key
elements of your infrastructure or else you're likely creating more silos,"
Sippl concludes.
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The Sharpest Tools in the Shed
SD Times (10/01/06)No. 159, P. 38; Morales, Alexandra Weber
Non-IT tools such as sticky notes and index cards are enjoying more use
among agile software development teams than their high-tech counterparts.
"I think that tools are of little importance in terms of having a
successful implementation of an agile process," maintains Lincoln Financial
Group application architect Jon Kurz. "The focus should be on the process
itself. For example, regardless of the size of the team or the
technologies used, it is important to have a solid source code management
process." Author Scott Ambler's March 2006 Agile Adoption Rate Survey of
around 4,200 developers found that Extreme Programming (XP) and Scrum were
the most popular agile methods used by the 41 percent who had adopted such
techniques; XP features many paper-tracked engineering and scope-defining
practices. Ambler notes that "Many traditional development tools reflect
the mindset that specialists hand off work to one another in a nearly
serial manner, whereas agile tools reflect the mindset that developers are
'generalizing specialists' working in an iterative manner." Portfolio
management tools can be very useful in moving agility upward in the IT
domain.
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Where Has the Money Gone? Declining Industrial Support of
Academic R&D
National Science Foundation (09/06) Rapoport, Alan I.
U.S. industry's flow of research and development funding into academia has
declined over the last several years, a trend that suggests a shift in the
sectors' relationship. Since peaking in 2001 with $2.2 billion, industrial
support of academic R&D has fallen 5.1 percent to $2.1 billion in 2004,
while the share of industrial academic R&D support fell from 7.4 percent to
4.9 percent between 1999 and 2004. Between 1993 and 2004, the distribution
of industrial R&D support to academia grew more concentrated at
institutions that were research-intensive, with the 200 leading
universities and colleges accounting for roughly 95 percent to 96 percent
of total R&D and around 93 percent to 94 percent of industry R&D support.
However, between 1993 and 2004 the percentage of industry funds received by
the top 100 institutions increased from 74 percent to 76 percent, while
industry funds for institutions that ranked between 101 and 200 fell from
20 percent to 17 percent. Distribution of total R&D funds between these
two groups from 1993 to 2004 remained consistent. In that same period, the
number of public institutions receiving industry support experienced a
slight increase, while the number of private institutions receiving such
support suffered a slight decrease; fewer than 70 percent of private
institutions get industrial R&D support, versus nearly 80 percent of public
institutions. The steady increase in the percentage of all academic
articles with an industry co-author between 1993 and 2001 was followed by a
decline in both 2002 and 2003, a further indication of a falling off in
industry-university collaboration. Another possible sign of this trend is
less citations of U.S. science and engineering articles in U.S. industrial
patents, while patents awarded to U.S. academic institutions slipped and
then plateaued in 2002 and 2003 after a climb between 1993 and 1999.
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Dying for Data
IEEE Spectrum (10/06) Vol. 43, No. 10, P. 22; Charette, Robert N.
The under-utilization of computers in medicine can mean the difference
between life and death for patients, but a comprehensive electronic health
records system could be rolled out in the United States within 10 years,
mainly through a private sector initiative that is partly sponsored by the
federal government. The U.S. National Health Information Network (NHIN)
will be comprised of numerous regional networks that are independently
maintained, and among its potential benefits are a greater concentration on
preventive care, lower health care costs, and an easier way to perform
epidemiological studies. There is universal agreement that the first step
in developing such a system is to establish an accepted series of data
standards that enable electronic records to be shared easily and securely
by different systems; then software and databases that are compliant with
those standards must be designed. The NHIN effort is an enormous challenge
that requires the participation of all hospitals, pharmacies, nursing
homes, and doctors who belong to individual or small group practices, and
it will be difficult to persuade hospitals short of cash to pay millions
for computers, networks, software, and consultation services. Privacy and
security issues will also need to be addressed, since the NHIN is supposed
to be universally accessible. The cost of the NHIN is expected to be
higher than estimated in several studies, while the network's savings are
expected to be lower due to the fact that the analyses are based primarily
on expert opinions but little hard data. There must be financial support
for small practices to embrace automated medical records if the NHIN is to
become more than a pipe dream, according to internal medicine specialist
Richard Baron of Philadelphia.
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