Through use of the new system being devised, the safety and reliability of essential transportation networks should be secured, making it better for those who make use of it. This is an answer to incidences of train wrecks caused by natural disasters such as the case during the tsunami of 2004 in Southeast Asia, when a Sri Lankan train was derailed. 1700 lives might have been saved.

The team, which includes Prof. Lev V. Eppelbaum of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, hopes to develop a platform using a connection of emerging technologies. This platform is aimed to be able to fit on any railway, passenger or freight carrier. While mainly created for predicting natural disasters, the platform could also be used against possible terrorist attacks.

Among some of the challenges the team faces in creating this platform is the change of climate, soil type and physical geography along the rail route. But the team continues to work towards the development of this platform. Ultimately, the outcome of the team’s work is expected to be adopted by the world’s railway systems. This becomes especially important in the work towards environmental sustainability as the trains serve as a viable alternative to transportation via car or plane. The significance of the work becomes even more apparent as at present, there is no monitoring system against natural disasters or terrorist attacks on the current railway system.

While travel by railway has been viewed by some as an old-fashioned way to get around, I believe that with the efforts of this consortium of researchers, it can be possible to modernize this mode of transportation. Take for instance the Bullet Train of Japan. By developing public transportation systems and making them more efficient and reliable, it can be possible to increase the popularity of this efficient and affordable mode of travel.

Managing medical data has proven to be a challenge in any place, but in China, mastering the system is a step more challenging given the current state of its data management in hospitals. In some of the hospitals in the country, patient records are still handled in paper, making it easy to create redundancies. It also makes it difficult to track patient history and discern whether Western or Chinese medicines work best.

At a group of hospitals in China’s southern Guangdong province, IBM has deployed technology to standardize patient records and use it to create statistical analyses of traditional Chinese medicine treatments. Through the technology, the company aims to provide a solution for doctors to identify treatment using both Western and Chinese medicine. This treatment would be drawn from the standardized patient records. The team behind this system, the IBM Healthcare Solutions Lab, is a finalist for the Wall Street Journal’s Asian Innovation Awards.

Using this innovative technology, IBM aims to provide evidence for the effectiveness of non-Western remedies. If the developed technology proves successful, it could be replicated in other parts of the world that still hold fast to their own form of medical treatment, such as in India.

According to Janet Chiew, an analyst for the research firm IDC, China’s healthcare IT market will see remarkable growth in five years, triggered in part by the three year healthcare reform program.

As a brand new market, the healthcare infrastructure of China poses as an area ripe for new things in the data storage and solutions industry. I believe this is a good opportunity for businesses there. Creating a system that can handle the large mass of patients daily while working with a unique set of treatment that covers both Western and traditional methods opens up a chance for innovation that can benefit healthcare infrastructures all over the world.

Based on a study of sector-based training programs in three cities, the report found that participants were able to earn an average of 29 percent more than a control group in the year after they began training. They also were better able to work longer hours and gain a job that offered better benefits in comparison with those from the control group.

But of course, not just any sector-based training program can ensure the same results. The study from where the report was based on reveals five common elements that may have contributed to the success of each program. Among these are adaptability, a strong link to employers and a rigorous screening process for participants.

The study tracked three different sector-based training programs in different cities. The Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership, an association of employers and unions in Milwaukee provided short-term training for construction, health care and manufacturing with a focus on African-American men and women. The Jewish Vocational Service of Greater Boston provided diverse participants from a variety of backgrounds with training in accounting and medical billing. And finally, Per Scholas, a charity in New York, offered training for computer equipment and network maintenance for a group of mostly foreign-born men.

This report emphasizes on the importance of focused sector-based training which, I believe, is a better alternative to programs that merely provide people with loans and scholarships. Creating more programs with a focus on employer needs like the ones covered in the study can help to empower more people in the workforce, creating a win-win situation for employers and employees.

This desalination plant, operating in the northern city of Hadera, is being celebrated as the largest reverse osmosis facility of its kind in the world. The plant was built by Israeli company IDE Technologies, and joins two other desalination plants on the country’s Mediterranean coastline.

The Hadera plant was built with assistance from the Housing and Construction Group, a real estate development company owned by the Arison Group. It costs around half a billion dollars, and is slated to produce approximately 127 million cubic meters of water a year – an amount seen to meet the needs of one in every six Israelis. And lest anyone think that IDE lacks experience in making water desalination facilities that work, the company has already built around 400 such plants in 40 countries to date, with processes and mechanisms that are proprietary and can truly be considered revolutionary.

The methods used by IDE for desalination involve the removal of salt from seawater using Reverse Osmosis (RO). This is one of the two main ways to desalinate water, the other being electrodialysis. In the case of RO, a water-permeable membrane separates the water from salt and other mineral compounds when placed under high pressure.

The Israeli government is also playing a big part in this push for a more stable water supply. The Hadera plant will join similar structures in Ashkelon and Palmahim in producing water priced at a little over 50 cents per cubic meter, according to a 25-year deal.

While different environmental groups vary on their stands on water desalination, the fact of the matter is that it offers cheap and clean drinking water for millions of Israelis, with a lower ecological impact than that inflicted by over-draining rivers and lakes. From the perspective of improving people’s quality of life, this is a completely winning situation.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Israel.

In New York alone, with a budget deficit of $9 billion, 30,000 social-service agencies have yet to be paid since April. California has a budget gap closer to $20 billion, while Illinois is $11 billion short. Undoubtedly, hundreds of thousands of non-profit agencies are experiencing the financial strain, and most of them won’t survive if nothing is done to remedy the situation.

“I have contracts that go through August or December, and these agencies want me to continue providing services,” Christine Molnar, president of Safe Space NYC, told The Wall Street Journal. “My reserve will only carry me for a month. No business can operate this way.”

Even healthcare and educational institutions are not exempt. Public schools are forced to decide whether to get rid of arts or physical education classes if not both. Some schools are requiring their students to pay for their own materials and books.

At the same time, nonprofits are being forced to let go of employees, and cut or reduce programs that may have already been approved. Many of these programs would have benefitted homeless people, children from underprivileged families, and unemployed individuals, among others.

All this and more are happening despite the fact that the nation is already in recovery. The effects have just yet to kick in. Until then, taxpaying Americans could be facing months to years of poor education, inadequate health services, non-existent library systems and privatized zoos, museums and aquariums.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Philanthropy.

Together, Masdar, Total and Abengoa Solar will build, own and operate Shams 1, which will be the largest concentrated solar power plant in the world.
Masdar is best known as the creator of Masdar City, a cluster of clean tech buildings on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, which will run entirely on renewable energy when finished. The state-owned energy company recently won the Zayed Future Energy Prize in 2009 for “…excellence in the innovation, development and implementation of sustainable energy solutions,” according to the Masdar website.

The Shams 1 solar power plant will be located 120 kilometers southwest of Abu Dhabi, in the city of Madinat Zayed. The 100 megawatt capacity will require a 2.5 square kilometer (about one square mile) area and a solar field consisting of 768 parabolic trough collectors. These collectors will be provided by Abengoa Solar.

Not only will the facility generate 100 megawatts of electricity, but it will prevent the city from producing an estimated 170 thousand tons of carbon dioxide annually.

Construction is set to begin by the last quarter of 2010 and in two years, Shams 1 will not only be the largest concentrated solar power plant in the world but also the first of its kind in the Middle East. The estimated cost of the project is about 600 million dollars.

The power plant will be a solar thermal power plant and will use mirrors to heat a liquid substance, converting it to steam, which will cause turbines to power a generator. The steam will then be recycled back into the system as liquid.

Despite ambitions of having the largest solar power plant ever built, this would still only make up a fraction of the electric energy consumed by the world. The race against global warming begins with many small steps such as these.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Clean Energy.

Inspired by the late Egyptian natural building architect Hassan Fathy, Messinas will be heading a six-day architectural workshop from July 25 until August 1. The workshop, organized by the Greek-founded NGO Ecoweek, will involve workshops as well as practice sessions with some of the hottest green building architects in the world.

The guiding principle that motivates Messinas is that architects should be able to look to their surroundings in order to come up with suitable designs and materials for their buildings. As opposed to emulating Western designs for Eastern buildings, for example, local architects should work with appropriate technology, of which the late Hassan Fathy was a pioneer and advocate. “Young architects need to look at their community instead of looking at magazines,” says Messinas.

In Israel, the market for green buildings has allowed for some architectural firms to focus solely on green architecture, but the workshop aims to help put the Levant region of Israel and the Palestinian Authority on the green building map. Of the 120 people expected to attend the seminar, 15 to 20 of them will be fielded by the Palestinian Authority, which is run by the West Bank.

Though green architecture training is limited in the Palestinian Authority, the improvement of the economic and social reality of Palestinians in the last year has allowed for the resources required to develop and grow green building practices and the sustainable architecture industry.

Much of the world’s green technology was actually conceptualized in Israel. It’s only fitting that green technology is brought into the country’s urban setting.
View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Israel.

Since then, Charles Jencks has been able to put up 10 unique Maggie’s cancer centers along with the organization, Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centers, which the couple founded together before she passed away. Currently, there are also four more centers on the way.

Jencks enlists the help of topnotch and in-demand architects such as Richard Rogers, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas to create harmonious manifestations with elements from both treatment facilities and uniquely designed, comfortable living spaces.

There are detractors that question the validity of Jencks claims and wonder if the charity funds should go to a more traditional worthy cause like cancer research. But Jencks does not believe in some concretely defined medical explanation for why these cancer centers work. Instead, he puts his faith in what he calls an architectural placebo effect.

“Scientifically, placebos work in about 30% of cases that are psychogenic diseases,” Jencks said. His centers replace windowless neon-lit corridors with wide windows and natural lighting. More than just a typical home-like environment, however, these centers also features hard sterile surfaces; bright, white spaces; long corridors; and artificial ventilation systems.

Charles Jencks is a prime example of a man who played the game with the cards that he was dealt. Before him, who would have thought that architecture could be linked to cancer treatment? But architecture is his forte, and curing cancer became his calling.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Arts & Culture.

Henry Ford Community College will design a curriculum to develop core competencies and skills to retain workers for 21st century jobs.

“This program recognizes and will tap into the tremendous potential of the human capital we have in Michigan,” said Governor Jennifer M. Granholm. “This initiative will provide our workers the opportunity to learn the skills they will need to help grow the 21st century economy right here at home.”

The Michigan Alliance for High-Tech Skills Training Program supports efforts by the governor and other Michigan leaders, as well as the Obama Administration, to engage businesses in the education and retraining of displaced workers.

“As President Obama recognized when he announced the American Graduation Initiative right here in Michigan, our nation’s community colleges will continue to play an even greater role in expanding economic opportunities to all individuals,” said Dr. Gail Mee, Henry Ford Community College president. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to continue helping those here in Michigan who have been hit hardest by the struggling economy.”

I personally believe that evolving technologies require that leading edge businesses train and educate their employees to remain in lockstep with the industry. Education and retraining are the keys to assisting people in rejoining the workforce. The curriculum being offered by Henry Ford, developed together with this coalition, will provide displaced workers with new high-tech skills that can be applied across many industries.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about job creation

Time To Know is one man’s vision to thrust teaching methodologies into the 21st century. The entrepreneur is Shmuel Meitar, co-founder of Israeli hi-tech poster child Amdocs. Meitar’s commitment is obvious – he is Time To Know’s sole investor, and the $60 million the company has taken in funding has come entirely out of his pocket.

The basic idea Time To Know is operating from is that today’s classrooms are following an archaic paradigm designed in the 19th century – the teacher standing in front of the classroom, a blackboard on the wall, and the students at their desks.

Time To Know believes there are three main reasons why today’s classroom is ineffective: First, irrelevancy. Kids are living in a digital world with a tremendous amount of stimuli, and expecting them to embrace passive learning is simply unrealistic. Second, variance – there is no such thing as a homogeneous level of learning and comprehension in a classroom of students. Third, assessment – in today’s classroom a student could have gotten lost with the material three weeks back, but the teacher wouldn’t have known it.

Time To Know sets out to create a holistic solution designed to migrate from instructional to constructivist learning, in which learning and knowledge are experience driven. Due to the nature of the work environment (the classroom), and the content (curriculum), Time To Know has set certain infrastructure and operational prerequisites schools must commit to including infrastructure, support and professional services, and learning management systems.

To learn more about Time To Know and the first interactive core curriculum with a digital teaching platform, please visit Time To Know.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Israeli start-ups