Archive
Nuclear Physics: Exploring the Heart of Matter
Nuclear Physics: Exploring the Heart of Matter
Source: National Research Council (Board on Physics and Astronomy)
Nuclear physics today is a diverse field, encompassing research that spans dimensions from a tiny fraction of neutrons and protons in the atomic nucleus to the enormous scales of astrophysical objects in the cosmos.
Its research objectives include the desire not only to better understand the nature of matter interacting at the nuclear level but to describe the liquid state of the Universe that existed at the big bang—a phenomenon that can now be replicated in the most advanced colliding-beam accelerators. Its discoveries impact other fields such as astrophysics, particle physics, and cosmology, while the tools developed by nuclear physicists not only are employed by other basic sciences but have found wide-spread applications in a range of technologies that benefit society.
The Committee on Assessment of and Outlook for Nuclear Physics (NP 2010) has prepared a report assessing the outlook for nuclear physics research in the United States. Building on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Science Advisory Committee’s "2007 Long-range Plan Report," this report, Exploring the Heart of Matter, develops a clear and compelling articulation of the scientific rationale and objectives for nuclear physics, placing near-term goals in a broader international context. This report also puts the long-term priorities for the field (in terms of major facilities, research infrastructure, and scientific manpower) into a global context and recommends a strategy that can serve as a framework for progress in U.S. nuclear physics through 2020 and beyond.
See: National Research Council presents long-term priorities for US nuclear physics program (EurekAlert!)
California Sea Level Projected to Rise at Higher Rate Than Global Average; Slower Rate for Oregon, Washington, But Major Earthquake Could Cause Sudden Rise
Source: National Research Council
The sea level off most of California is expected to rise about one meter over the next century, an amount slightly higher than projected for global sea levels, and will likely increase damage to the state’s coast from storm surges and high waves, says a new report from the National Research Council. Sea levels off Washington, Oregon, and northern California will likely rise less, about 60 centimeters over the same period of time. However, an earthquake magnitude 8 or larger in this region could cause sea level to rise suddenly by an additional meter or more.
Global sea level rose during the 20th century, and projections suggest it will rise at a higher rate during the 21st century. A warming climate causes sea level to rise primarily by warming the oceans — which causes the water to expand — and melting land ice, which transfers water to the ocean. However, sea-level rise is uneven and varies from place to place. Along the U.S. west coast it depends on the global mean sea-level rise and regional factors, such as ocean and atmospheric circulation patterns, melting of modern and ancient ice sheets, and tectonic plate movements. California Executive Order S-13-08 directed state agencies to plan for sea-level rise and coastal impacts and asked the Research Council to establish a committee to assess sea-level rise. Oregon, Washington, and several federal agencies joined California to sponsor the study. The report estimates sea-level rise both globally and for those three states for the years 2030, 2050, and 2100.
For Future Prosperity, U.S. Should Strengthen Efforts To Maintain World-Class Research Universities
For Future Prosperity, U.S. Should Strengthen Efforts To Maintain World-Class Research Universities
Source: National Research Council
American research universities are essential for U.S. prosperity and security, but the institutions are in danger of serious decline unless the federal government, states, and industry take action to ensure adequate, stable funding in the next decade, says a new report by the National Research Council, the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. As trusted stewards of public funds, universities must also meet "bold goals" to contain costs, enhance productivity, and improve educational pathways to careers both within and beyond academia, the report says.
Congress requested the report, which was written by a committee that includes industry CEOs, university presidents, a former U.S. senator, and a Nobel laureate. It recommends 10 strategic actions that the nation should take in the next five to 10 years to maintain top-quality U.S. research institutions. The report builds upon Rising Above the Gathering Storm, a landmark Academies’ study on U.S. competitiveness.
"The talent, innovative ideas, and new technologies produced by U.S. research universities have led to some of our finest national achievements, from the modern agricultural revolution to the accessibility of the World Wide Web," said Charles O. Holliday Jr., chair of the committee that wrote the report, chairman of the board of Bank of America, and former chair and CEO of DuPont. "Especially in these tough economic times, the nation cannot afford to defer investment in our best asset for building prosperity and success in the future."
Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders
Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders
Source: National Research Council
For the past decade, the U.S. Marine Corps and its sister services have been engaged in what has been termed “hybrid warfare,” which ranges from active combat to civilian support. Hybrid warfare typically occurs in environments where all modes of war are employed, such as conventional weapons, irregular tactics, terrorism, disruptive technologies, and criminality to destabilize an existing order.
In August 2010, the National Research Council established the Committee on Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders to produce Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders. This report examines the operational environment, existing abilities, and gap to include data, technology, skill sets, training, and measures of effectiveness for small unit leaders in conducting enhanced company operations (ECOs) in hybrid engagement, complex environments. Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders also determines how to understand the decision making calculus and indicators of adversaries.
Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders recommends operational and technical approaches for improving the decision making abilities of small unit leaders, including any acquisition and experimentation efforts that can be undertaken by the Marine Corps and/or by other stakeholders aimed specifically at improving the decision making of small unit leaders. This report recommends ways to ease the burden on small unit leaders and to better prepare the small unit leader for success. Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders also indentifies a responsible organization to ensure that training and education programs are properly developed, staffed, operated, evaluated, and expanded.
Improving Measurement of Productivity in Higher Education
Improving Measurement of Productivity in Higher EducationSource: National Research Council
From Summary (PDF):
Higher education is a linchpin of the American economy and society: Teaching and research at colleges and universities contribute significantly to the nation’s economic activity, both directly and through their impact on future growth; federal and state governments support teaching and research with billions of taxpayers’ dollars; and individuals, communities, and the nation gain from the learning and innovation that occurs in higher education.
Notwithstanding its prominent role, effective use of resources is (and should be) a serious concern in the delivery of higher education, as it is for other sectors of the economy. In the current environment of increasing tuition and shrinking public funds, a sense of urgency has emerged to better track the performance of colleges and universities in the hope that their costs can be contained while not compromising quality or accessibility. Metrics ranging from graduation rates to costs per student have been developed to serve this purpose. However, the capacity to assess the performance of higher education institutions and systems remains incomplete, largely because the inputs and outputs in the production process are difficult to define and quantify. For higher education, productivity improvement—increasing the number of graduates, amount of learning, and innovation relative to the inputs used—is seen as the most promising strategy in the effort to keep a high-quality college education as affordable as possible.
It was within this context that this panel was charged to identify an analytically welldefined concept of productivity for higher education and to recommend practical guidelines for its measurement. The objective is to construct valid productivity measures to supplement the body of information used to (1) guide resource allocation decisions at the system, state, and national levels and to assist policymakers who must assess investments in higher education against other compelling demands on scarce resources; (2) provide administrators with better tools for improving their institutions’ performance; and (3) inform individual consumers and communities to whom colleges and universities are ultimately accountable for private and public investments in higher education. Though it should be noted that the experimental measure developed in this report does not directly advance all of these objectives—particularly that pertaining to measurement of individual institution perfomance—the overall report pushes the discussion forward and offers first steps.
Report Warns of Rapid Decline in U.S. Earth Observation Capabilities; Next-Generation Missions Hindered by Budget Shortfalls, Launch Failures
Report Warns of Rapid Decline in U.S. Earth Observation Capabilities; Next-Generation Missions Hindered by Budget Shortfalls, Launch Failures
Source: National Research Council
A new National Research Council report says that budget shortfalls, cost-estimate growth, launch failures, and changes in mission design and scope have left U.S. earth observation systems in a more precarious position than they were five years ago. The report cautions that the nation’s earth observing system is beginning a rapid decline in capability, as long-running missions end and key new missions are delayed, lost, or cancelled.
“The projected loss of observing capability will have profound consequences on science and society, from weather forecasting to responding to natural hazards,” said Dennis Hartmann, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle, and chair of the committee that wrote the report. “Our ability to measure and understand changes in Earth’s climate and life support systems will also degrade.”
The report comes five years after the Research Council published “Earth Science and Applications From Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond,” a decadal survey that generated consensus recommendations from the earth and environmental science and applications community for a renewed program of earth observations. The new report finds that although NASA responded favorably and aggressively to the decadal survey, the required budget was not achieved, greatly slowing progress. Changes in program scope without commensurate funding, directed by the Office of Management and Budget and by Congress, also slowed progress. A further impediment, the report says, is the absence of a highly reliable and affordable medium-class launch capability.
Despite these challenges, NASA has been successful in launching some of the missions in development when the survey report was published. It has also made notable progress in establishing the “Venture-class” program, as recommended in the decadal survey. The suborbital program and the airborne science program are additional areas where significant progress is being made. In accord with the decadal survey’s recommendations, NASA also aggressively pursued international partnerships to mitigate shortfalls and stretch resources.
In the near term, the report concludes, budgets for NASA’s earth science program will remain inadequate to meet pressing national needs. Therefore the agency should focus on two necessary actions: defining and implementing a cost-constrained approach to mission development, and identifying and empowering a cross-mission earth system science and engineering team to advise on the execution of decadal survey missions.
Government Studies Inconclusive on Health Impact of Toxic Chemical Contaminants at Fort Detrick, Md.
Government Studies Inconclusive on Health Impact of Toxic Chemical Contaminants at Fort Detrick, Md.
Source: National Research Council
Two government-issued studies are unable to demonstrate whether people were harmed by groundwater contaminated with toxic pollutants from Area B of Fort Detrick, Md., says a new report by the National Research Council. Furthermore, it is unlikely that additional studies could establish a link, because data on early exposures were not collected and cannot be obtained or reliably estimated now, the report notes.
The committee that wrote the report was charged with reviewing two studies: one conducted by the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and another by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Frederick County Health Department (MDHMH/FCHD). The committee was not asked to perform its own assessment of possible health effects of the contamination, exposures that might have occurred in Area A of Fort Detrick, potential exposures to Agent Orange, or risks from infectious diseases studied at the biocontainment laboratories. The ATSDR assessment examined whether a public health threat was posed by contaminated groundwater in Fort Detrick’s Area B, which was used to bury biological materials, test animals, radiologic tracer materials, and toxic chemicals including perchloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE). The MDHMH/FCHD study reviewed cancer incidences in the communities surrounding Fort Detrick and whether the data indicated unusual patterns. The Maryland agencies did not collect or evaluate exposure information.
The Research Council committee found limitations that undermined the scientific soundness of ATSDR’s assessment, noting that groundwater measurements before 1992 were sparse. Without such data, it would be impossible to reconstruct residents’ past exposures with sufficient scientific certainty or determine when exposures began. ATSDR concluded that past exposure was “unlikely to have produced any harmful health effects, including cancer,” but the committee determined that the data were inadequate for ruling out health consequences from possible past exposures. Therefore, it said, a more appropriate conclusion would have been that the groundwater presented an “indeterminate public health hazard” — a category ATSDR uses when a judgment about the level of a hazard cannot be made because critical information is lacking.
The MDHMH/FCHD study found no evidence to suggest a cancer cluster in the communities surrounding Fort Detrick and that the rates of all cancers in those communities and in Frederick County were not different from those in Maryland as a whole. However, a higher incidence of lymphoma was found in the communities closest to Fort Detrick when compared with the expected incidence based on statewide data. These findings were scientifically sound and of high quality given the typical limitations of cancer surveillance data from state registries, the committee said. It noted that some follow-up steps could enhance the study and supported the Maryland agencies’ plans to conduct supplemental analyses of the data to better understand the finding regarding lymphoma.
+ Full Report (PDF)
Costs for Changing Pollution Criteria in Florida Waters Likely to Exceed EPA Estimates
Costs for Changing Pollution Criteria in Florida Waters Likely to Exceed EPA Estimates
Source: National Research Council
The costs to switch to numeric criteria for limiting nutrient pollutants in Florida waters are expected to exceed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates, says a new National Research Council report. The committee that wrote the report questioned the validity of several assumptions in the EPA cost analysis and found that EPA did not adequately report on the uncertainties that could affect the cost of the rule change.
In 2009 EPA decided that numeric limits on the concentration of pollutants in water, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, were necessary in Florida to meet the requirements of the Clean Water Act. These numeric criteria would replace existing state “narrative” criteria, which use words to describe water pollution limits. For example, the Florida narrative standard refers to not causing a population imbalance in aquatic flora and fauna, while the numeric standard would express specific allowable concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus in water.
In its economic analysis, EPA calculated the cost differential of switching from the narrative to numeric criteria. It considered only those waters that would be newly listed as “impaired” under the numeric criteria and estimated mitigation costs for a variety of sources of pollution that would affect these waters.
The committee concluded that EPA was correct in its approach to calculating the cost of the rule change. However, the agency underestimated both the number of newly impaired waters and the mitigation costs for the stormwater, agricultural, septic system, and government sectors. Furthermore, there was significant uncertainty in the estimates for the municipal and industrial wastewater sectors, making it difficult to know whether the EPA underestimated or overestimated those costs, the report says. The committee also found that the costs of the rule change would be small relative to the total costs that will ultimately be required to restore Florida’s waters.
Future cost analyses of rule changes would be improved if they explicitly described how a rule would be implemented over time and its impact on costs, the report says. If EPA had conducted such an analysis, it would have found that point sources — such as municipal and industrial wastewater treatment facilities — will face increased costs sooner under the numeric nutrient criteria than under the narrative process.
+ Report in Brief (PDF)
+ Full Report
+ Project website
Health and Environmental Effects of Nanomaterials Remain Uncertain; Cohesive Research Plan Needed to Help Avoid Potential Risks From Rapidly Evolving Technology
Despite extensive investment in nanotechnology and increasing commercialization over the last decade, insufficient understanding remains about the environmental, health, and safety aspects of nanomaterials. Without a coordinated research plan to help guide efforts to manage and avoid potential risks, the future of safe and sustainable nanotechnology is uncertain, says a new report from the National Research Council. The report presents a strategic approach for developing research and a scientific infrastructure needed to address potential health and environmental risks of nanomaterials. Its effective implementation would require sufficient management and budgetary authority to direct research across federal agencies.Nanoscale engineering manipulates materials at the molecular level to create structures with unique and useful properties — materials that are both very strong and very light, for example. Many of the products containing nanomaterials on the market now are for skin care and cosmetics, but nanomaterials are also increasingly being used in products ranging from medical therapies to food additives to electronics. In 2009, developers generated $1 billion from the sale of nanomaterials, and the market for products that rely on these materials is expected to grow to $3 trillion by 2015.The committee that wrote the report found that over the last seven years there has been considerable effort internationally to identify research needs for the development and safe use of nanotechnology, including those of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), which coordinates U.S. federal investments in nanoscale research and development. However, there has not been sufficient linkage between research and research findings and the creation of strategies to prevent and manage any risks. For instance, little progress has been made on the effects of ingested nanomaterials on human health and other potential health and environmental effects of complex nanomaterials that are expected to enter the market over the next decade. Therefore, there is the need for a research strategy that is independent of any one stakeholder group, has human and environmental health as its primary focus, builds on past efforts, and is flexible in anticipating and adjusting to emerging challenges, the committee said.
Water Reuse: Potential for Expanding the Nation’s Water Supply through Reuse of Municipal Wastewater
With recent advances in technology and design, treating municipal wastewater and reusing it for drinking water, irrigation, industry, and other applications could significantly increase the nation’s total available water resources, particularly in coastal areas facing water shortages, says a new report from the National Research Council. It adds that the reuse of treated wastewater, also known as reclaimed water, to augment drinking water supplies has significant potential for helping meet future needs. Moreover, new analyses suggest that the possible health risks of exposure to chemical contaminants and disease-causing microbes from wastewater reuse do not exceed, and in some cases may be significantly lower than, the risks of existing water supplies.
New Report Reviews 10-Year Plan for Federal Program On Climate and Global Environmental Change Research
New Report Reviews 10-Year Plan for Federal Program On Climate and Global Environmental Change ResearchSource: National Research Council
The draft 10-year strategic plan for the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) — which shapes and coordinates climate and related global environmental change research efforts of numerous agencies and departments across the federal government — is "evolving in the right direction," but several key issues could strengthen these planning efforts, says a new report from the National Research Council.
The committee that wrote the report found that the proposed broadening of USGCRP’s scope to address not only climate change but also other climate-related global changes is appropriate and an important step. However, the draft plan does not always acknowledge significant challenges, such as increasingly constrained budget resources, involved in meeting its goals, nor does it offer clear strategies for how such challenges could be addressed. There is also the practical challenge of maintaining clear boundaries for an expanded program.
The committee emphasized the need to identify initial steps the program would take to achieve the proposed broadening of its scope, develop critical science capacity that is now lacking, and link the production of knowledge to its use. It also stressed that without a strong governance structure that could compel reallocation of funds to serve overarching priorities, the program would likely continue as merely a compilation of efforts deriving from each member agency’s individual priorities.
Broadening the program to better integrate the social and ecological sciences, inform climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, and emphasize decision support is welcome and essential for meeting the legislative mandate for the program, the committee said. Nevertheless, implementing this wider scope requires more than incremental solutions. For instance, there is insufficient expertise within member agencies in the social and ecological sciences, and some agencies lack clear mandates to develop the needed expertise.
New Report Offers Broad Approach to Assessing Impacts of Ecological Damage From Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
New Report Offers Broad Approach to Assessing Impacts of Ecological Damage From Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Source: National Research Council
The magnitude and depth of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will require an unprecedented effort to determine the extent and severity of ecological damage and to develop restoration plans for affected areas in the Gulf of Mexico, says an interim report by the National Research Council. A broad approach that focuses on repairing ecosystem processes — such as fisheries production — in addition to replacing natural resources damaged by the spill could offer more options for restoring the Gulf region, says the congressionally mandated report.
“The Gulf of Mexico is a vast, complex ecosystem that provides a wealth of important ecological services — from seafood to tourism to flood protection through its coastal wetlands,” said Larry A. Mayer, chair of the committee that wrote the report, director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, and professor of earth science and ocean engineering at the University of New Hampshire. “It will be a challenge to assess the full scope of impacts from this spill — the biggest in U.S. history — and ensure that valuable services are fully restored for the region and ultimately the nation.”
Report Offers Framework for Weighing Health Consequences of Policies, Projects
Report Offers Framework for Weighing Health Consequences of Policies, Projects
Source: National Research Council
Factoring health and related costs into decision making is essential to confronting the nation’s health problems and enhancing public well-being, says a new report from the National Research Council, which adds that a health impact assessment (HIA) is a promising tool for use by scientists, communities, and government and private sector policymakers. The report offers guidance to officials in the public and private sectors on conducting HIAs to evaluate public health consequences of proposed decisions — such as those to build a major roadway, plan a city’s growth, or develop national agricultural policies — and suggests actions that could minimize adverse health impacts and optimize beneficial ones.
“Medical care alone is inadequate for managing the increasing rates of costly and chronic diseases in individuals and in our society,” said Richard J. Jackson, chair of the committee that wrote the report and professor and chair of environmental health sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Increasingly, we learn the ways that economic, social, planning, and other policies can harm, but also promote, health. HIA is a way to help make these impacts evident both to policymakers and to the public.”
The committee said that some policies and programs historically not recognized as relating to health are believed or known to have important health consequences. For example, public health has been linked to an array of policies that determine the quality and location of housing, availability of public transportation, land use and street connectivity, agricultural practices and the availability of various types of food, and development and location of businesses and industry.
+ Full Report (National Academies Press)
Animal Research in a Global Environment: Meeting the Challenges: Proceedings of the November 2008 International Workshop
Animal Research in a Global Environment: Meeting the Challenges: Proceedings of the November 2008 International Workshop
Source: National Research Council
Animal research will play an essential role in efforts to meet increasing demands for global health care. Yet the animal research community faces the challenge of overcoming negative impressions that industry and academia engage in international collaborations in order to conduct work in parts of the world where animal welfare standards are less stringent. Thus, the importance of ensuring the international harmonization of the principles and standards of animal care and use cannot be overstated. A number of national and international groups are actively working toward this goal.
The Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR), a program unit of the US National Research Council, is committed to promoting both the welfare of animals used in research and the quality of the resulting science. In 2008, to follow up on the 2003 event, ILAR convened a workshop which brought together 200 participants from 17 countries. Their mission was to identify and promote better understanding of important challenges in the conduct of animal research across country boundaries. These challenges include: the sourcing of animals; the quality of veterinary care; competent staff; the provision of a suitable environment (including nutritious food and potable water) for animals; and ongoing oversight of the animal program; among others.
Animal Research in a Global Environment summarizes the proceedings of the 2008 workshop. The impact of this 2008 workshop has extended beyond the oral presentations conveyed in these proceedings. It has been a vital bridge for diverse colleagues and organizations around the world to advance initiatives designed to fill gaps in standards, professional qualifications, and coordination of animal use.
National Earthquake Resilience: Research, Implementation, and Outreach
National Earthquake Resilience: Research, Implementation, and Outreach
Source: National Research Council
The United States will certainly be subject to damaging earthquakes in the future. Some of these earthquakes will occur in highly populated and vulnerable areas. Coping with moderate earthquakes is not a reliable indicator of preparedness for a major earthquake in a populated area. The recent, disastrous, magnitude-9 earthquake that struck northern Japan demonstrates the threat that earthquakes pose. Moreover, the cascading nature of impacts-the earthquake causing a tsunami, cutting electrical power supplies, and stopping the pumps needed to cool nuclear reactors-demonstrates the potential complexity of an earthquake disaster. Such compound disasters can strike any earthquake-prone populated area. National Earthquake Resilience presents a roadmap for increasing our national resilience to earthquakes.
The National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) is the multi-agency program mandated by Congress to undertake activities to reduce the effects of future earthquakes in the United States. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)-the lead NEHRP agency-commissioned the National Research Council (NRC) to develop a roadmap for earthquake hazard and risk reduction in the United States that would be based on the goals and objectives for achieving national earthquake resilience described in the 2008 NEHRP Strategic Plan. National Earthquake Resilience does this by assessing the activities and costs that would be required for the nation to achieve earthquake resilience in 20 years.
National Earthquake Resilience interprets resilience broadly to incorporate engineering/science (physical), social/economic (behavioral), and institutional (governing) dimensions. Resilience encompasses both pre-disaster preparedness activities and post-disaster response. In combination, these will enhance the robustness of communities in all earthquake-vulnerable regions of our nation so that they can function adequately following damaging earthquakes. While National Earthquake Resilience is written primarily for the NEHRP, it also speaks to a broader audience of policy makers, earth scientists, and emergency managers.
Global Change and Extreme Hydrology: Testing Conventional Wisdom
Global Change and Extreme Hydrology: Testing Conventional Wisdom
Source: National Research Council
Climate theory dictates that core elements of the climate system, including precipitation, evapotranspiration, and reservoirs of atmospheric and soil moisture, should change as the climate warms, both in their means and extremes. A major challenge that faces the climate and hydrologic science communities is understanding the nature of these ongoing changes in climate and hydrology and the apparent anomalies that exist in reconciling their extreme manifestations.
The National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Hydrologic Science (COHS) held a workshop on January 5-6, 2010, that examined how climate warming translates into hydrologic extremes like floods and droughts. The workshop brought together three groups of experts. The first two groups consisted of atmospheric scientists and hydrologists focused on the scientific underpinnings and empirical evidence linking climate variability to hydrologic extremes. The third group consisted of water managers and decision-makers charged with the design and operation of water systems that in the future must be made resilient in light of a changing climate and an environment of hydrologic extremes.
Global Change and Extreme Hydrology summarizes the proceedings of this workshop. This report presents an overview of the current state of the science in terms of climate change and extreme hydrologic events. It examines the “conventional wisdom” that climate change will “accelerate” the hydrologic cycle, fuel more evaporation, and generate more precipitation, based on an increased capacity of a warmer atmosphere to hold more water vapor. The report also includes descriptions of the changes in frequency and severity of extremes, the ability (or inability) to model these changes, and the problem of communicating the best science to water resources practitioners in useful forums.
Research-Doctorate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences: Selected Findings from the NRC Assessment
Research-Doctorate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences: Selected Findings from the NRC Assessment
Source: National Research Council
From Summary (PDF):
The panel was asked to respond to specific questions posed by NIH staff eager to learn more about what the recently issued Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States could reveal about the talent, training environment, outcomes, diversity, and international participation in the biomedical sciences workforce. The unprecedented amount of data collected from faculty, programs, and students as part of the Assessment provides a unique resource for a deeper understanding of these topics and for comparisons across fields. This report details some of the insights to be gained from mining the Assessment data. It also illustrates the challenges inherent in attempting to collect data consistently across many sources. Like most research projects, this one answered some questions but raised many more.
Questions on career outcomes for doctoral recipients, the role of postdoctoral scholars in the training environment, and strategies for increasing the participation of underrepresented minorities on research faculties are among those that the panel considered but could not answer. Readers will certainly add more questions to those posed by NIH and by the panel and perhaps be encouraged to undertake further study of this rich data source themselves.
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Academies’ Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.
Current Test-Based Incentive Programs Have Not Consistently Raised — Student Achievement in U.S.; Improved Approaches Should Be Developed and Evaluated
Current Test-Based Incentive Programs Have Not Consistently Raised — Student Achievement in U.S.; Improved Approaches Should Be Developed and Evaluated
Source: National Research Council
Despite being used for several decades, test-based incentives have not consistently generated positive effects on student achievement, says a new report from the National Research Council. The report examines evidence on incentive programs, which impose sanctions or offer rewards for students, teachers, or schools on the basis of students’ test performance. Federal and state governments have increasingly relied on incentives in recent decades as a way to raise accountability in public education and in the hope of driving improvements in achievement.
School-level incentives — like those of No Child Left Behind — produce some of the larger effects among the programs studied, but the gains are concentrated in elementary grade mathematics and are small in comparison with the improvements the nation hopes to achieve, the report says. Evidence also suggests that high school exit exam programs, as currently implemented in many states, decrease the rate of high school graduation without increasing student achievement.
Policymakers should support the development and evaluation of promising new models that use test-based incentives in more sophisticated ways as one aspect of a richer accountability and improvement process, said the committee that wrote the report.
Action Needed to Manage Climate Change Risks; U.S. Response Should Be Durable, but Flexible
Action Needed to Manage Climate Change Risks; U.S. Response Should Be Durable, but Flexible
Source: National Research Council
Warning that the risk of dangerous climate change impacts is growing with every ton of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere, a National Research Council committee today reiterated the pressing need for substantial action to limit the magnitude of climate change and to prepare to adapt to its impacts. The nation’s options for responding to the risks posed by climate change are analyzed in a new report and the final volume in America’s Climate Choices, a series of studies requested by Congress. The committee that authored the report included not only renowned scientists and engineers but also economists, business leaders, an ex-governor, a former congressman, and other policy experts.
…
The new report reaffirms that the preponderance of scientific evidence points to human activities — especially the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere — as the most likely cause for most of the global warming that has occurred over the last several decades. This trend cannot be explained by natural factors such as internal climate variability or changes in incoming energy from the sun. The report adds that the impacts of climate change on human and natural systems can generally be expected to intensify with warming.While it recognized that climate change is inherently a global issue requiring an international response, the committee focused on the charge from Congress to identify steps and strategies that U.S. decision makers could adopt now. A coordinated national response to climate change, which the country currently lacks, is needed and should be guided by an iterative risk management framework in which actions taken can be revised as new knowledge is gained.
+ Report in Brief (PDF)
+ Read full report for free online. (National Academies Press)
+ Project website
A New Era of Challenges, Opportunities for Corps of Engineers
A New Era of Challenges, Opportunities for Corps of Engineers
Source: National Research Council
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — which operates and maintains the nation’s water resources infrastructure of dams, levees, locks, and navigation channels — faces a water planning paradox, says a new report from the National Research Council. Water demands are increasing and becoming more complex, while investments in water infrastructures are declining, leading to expectations that cannot be met consistently. Despite challenges, the situation offers opportunities to develop and implement creative water planning, the report says.
Read full report for free online. (National Academies Press)
