LOEX 2012 Conference Report: Columbus, OH

Summary of plenary and breakout sessions of the 40th annual LOEX conference in Columbus, Ohio on May 3-5, 2012

Keeneland Conferene Plenary Sessions: Carol Moehrle

Public health accreditation is the measurement of health department performance against a set of standards that are nationally recognized. The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) is a non-profit, voluntary accreditation organization founded in 2007 with the goal to advance public health practice by providing a national framework of accreditation standards for local, state, territorial, and tribal health departments. Public health accreditation has been a methodical, planned transformation of public health. There are huge benefits to accreditation individually and collectively as a system. One of them is reaching the standard of excellence that we now have established in this national voluntary accreditation process. Accreditation gives us a road map that maybe we have not had before for all public health to follow. There is no better time for public health to align with public health accreditation, and there is no better time to prove the health department’s credibility to the public through the accreditation process. The time is now to transfer public health in the way we do our work at the state, local, tribal, and territorial level and to look at the opportunities that public health accreditation brings to the research world, and those opportunities are rich and endless

Gauguin's questions in particle physics: Where are we coming from? What are we? Where are we going?

Within particle physics itself, Gauguin's questions may be interpreted as: P1 - What is the status of the Standard Model? P2 - What physics may lie beyond the Standard Model? P3 - What is the `Theory of Everything'? Gauguin's questions may also asked within a cosmological context: C1 - What were the early stages of the Big Bang? C2 - What is the material content of the Universe today? C3 - What is the future of the Universe? In this talk I preview many of the topics to be discussed in the plenary sessions of this conference, highlighting how they bear on these fundamental questions.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, plenary talk at the International Europhysics Conference on High-Energy Physics (EPS-HEP2007), Manchester, England, July 200

Do MEPs want to keep ‘schlepping’ to Strasbourg? How travel time influences views on the location of the European Parliament

The practice of holding European Parliament plenary sessions in both Brussels and Strasbourg has frequently been criticised on the basis that it is financially wasteful and damages the environment. But what shapes the opinions of MEPs on the subject? Based on survey evidence, Simon Hix and Richard Whitaker illustrate that while there is support among a large number of MEPs for holding all plenary sessions in Brussels, the travel distance from an MEP’s country to Strasbourg goes some way toward explaining their view on the issue

POD Conference Evaluation

Pre-Conference Workshops Plenary Sessions Concurrent and Roundtable Sessions Other Conference Events Conference Meeting Rooms and Equipment Conference Food and Refreshments, Lodging, and Services Overall Assessment and Worst/Best Experiences at the Conferenc

POD Conference Evaluation: Brave New Millennium (November 8-12, 2000)

Introduction Instructions Pre-Conference Workshops Plenary Sessions Concurrent and Roundtable Sessions Other Conference Events Conference Meeting Rooms and Equipment Conference Food and Refreshments, Lodging, and Services Overall Assessment and Worst/Best Experiences at the Conferenc

Keeneland Conference Plenary Sessions: Thomas R. Frieden

One of the leading challenges in public health today is moving forward as one whether we are part of academia, a clinical health setting, or a public health department, in order to improve health outcomes. Right now in the United States, the leading causes of death are caused from diseases that are preventable. We also face a steady rise in health inequalities among those citizens with a lower socioeconomic status. Director of the CDC, Thomas Friedan addressed the Keeneland conference audience on the impact that public health initiatives have had on the health of our nation. Public health interventions have a potential impact in all levels and the challenge is to identify areas where we can work systematically to improve health outcomes. Six key areas for potential impacts are smoking, obesity, health care associated infections, HIV, teen pregnancy, motor vehicle accidents. Major initiatives that need to be undertaken are heart attack and stroke prevention, electronic health records, and clinical innovations that involve improving quality of care and reducing prices. It is also vital that we come up with ways to bridge the gaps in program implementation

Keeneland Conference Plenary Sessions: Harvey V. Fineberg

Healthy communities are essential for healthy individuals. Healthy communities can only exist when preventive measures are taken. When prevention programs are implemented, negative health outcomes can be avoided before they even start. A necessary part of these successful prevention methods requires great research and evidence based practice. Dr. Harvey Fineberg, president of the Institute of Medicine and keynote speaker at the Keeneland Conference, addressed the audience on why good science is imperative to the public health community. It cannot just left up to chance on whether an intervention will work or not; rather it needs to be thoroughly reasoned, grounded in evidence, and be assured to have positive outcomes. Fineberg tells us not to be afraid of using good science and packaging it in a way that will make sense to both policy makers and the general public alike

Space Station Freedom Utilization Conference: Executive summary

From August 3-6, 1992, Space Station Freedom Program (SSFP) representatives and prospective Space Station Freedom researchers gathered at the Von Braun Civic Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for NASA's first annual Space Station Freedom (SSF) Utilization Conference. The sessions presented are: (1) overview and research capabilities; (2) research plans and opportunities; (3) life sciences research; (4) technology research; (4) microgravity research and biotechnology; and (5) closing plenary