Life Sciences Innovation as a Catalyst for Economic Development: The Role of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center

This report provides an up-to-date, independent evaluation of the $1 billion, 10-year Massachusetts Life Sciences Initiative and the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) charged with the responsibility of carrying out its mission. The initiative was established in July 2008 by Governor Deval Patrick's Administration and the Legislature to encourage the growth of discovery and production in the life sciences, including biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical diagnostics, medical devices and bioinformatics in the Commonwealth. Based on the region's existing comparative advantage in life sciences research and development (R&D) emanating from the laboratories of its leading universities and medical institutions, this substantial infusion of public funds was undertaken with the ambitious goal of making this cluster of industry sectors the most successful in the world. This evaluation comes at a propitious time, given the state of fiscal affairs in the Commonwealth and the nation. Virtually every unit of government is scrutinizing the use of each tax dollar to ensure that public revenue is being spent effectively and efficiently. Put simply, our goal in this evaluation was to gather as much data as possible to assess whether the Commonwealth's sizeable commitment of public resources is paying off in the form of a life sciences "super cluster" capable of attracting massive amounts of investment dollars, generating well-paying jobs for Massachusetts residents and yielding additional tax revenue for the Commonwealth

The Effect of Speaking Rate on Audio and Visual Speech

The speed that an utterance is spoken affects both the duration of the speech and the position of the articulators. Consequently, the sounds that are produced are modified, as are the position and appearance of the lips, teeth, tongue and other visible articulators. We describe an experiment designed to measure the effect of variable speaking rate on audio and visual speech by comparing sequences of phonemes and dynamic visemes appearing in the same sentences spoken at different speeds. We find that both audio and visual speech production are affected by varying the rate of speech, however, the effect is significantly more prominent in visual speech

A Mouth Full of Words: Visually Consistent Acoustic Redubbing

This paper introduces a method for automatic redubbing of video that exploits the many-to-many mapping of phoneme sequences to lip movements modelled as dynamic visemes [1]. For a given utterance, the corresponding dynamic viseme sequence is sampled to construct a graph of possible phoneme sequences that synchronize with the video. When composed with a pronunciation dictionary and language model, this produces a vast number of word sequences that are in sync with the original video, literally putting plausible words into the mouth of the speaker. We demonstrate that traditional, one-to-many, static visemes lack flexibility for this application as they produce significantly fewer word sequences. This work explores the natural ambiguity in visual speech and offers insight for automatic speech recognition and the importance of language modeling

Policy Coherence for Development: Five Challenges

‘Policy Coherence for Development’ (PCD) seeks to ensure that non-aid public policies are consistent with a government’s international development goals. In the light of a number of years of PCD reviews and institutional reforms at both EU and member state level, this paper reflects on the dynamics of the PCD policy environment and discusses five challenges for the PCD policy agenda. These include the opposing interests of domestic and development constituencies, conflicts between development objectives themselves, disagreements between experts on what ‘good’ development policy is, difficulties in identifying the true development interest of developing countries, and the growing heterogeneity between and within developing countries. While the challenges discussed in this paper have general relevance, we draw on EU and Irish policies to illustrate the arguments. We conclude with a series of recommendations on how these challenges might be addressed and how to make the PCD agenda more effective.Policy Coherence for Development, European Trade and Agriculture Policy, Development Policy, Millennium Development Goals

Late Quaternary Land Emergence in Northern Ungava, Quebec

Twenty-one C14 dates of material from Late Quaternary marine terraces are used to construct an isostatic uplift curve. The phase of rapid uplift averaged about 26 ft. per 100 years, while for the past 5,200 years uplift was just under 1 ft. per 100 years. Updoming resulted in an upward (southerly) tilt of the "Glacier Beach" (460-ft. strandline) and "Upper Tunit Beach" (100-ft. strandline) at about 5.6 ft. per mile and 3.6 ft. per mile respectively. The C14 dates indicate that the general deglaciation of northern Ungava occurred about 7,000 to 8,000 years ago. Twelve well-formed marine terraces have been identified at the heads of the major fjords. The fauna of the "Upper and Lower Aporrhais Beaches" (40 ft. and 55 ft. strandlines) suggests that optimal marine conditions occurred about 3,900 to 5,230 radiocarbon years ago during a possible marine transgression. Hydroclimatic conditions during the formation of Aporrhais deposits in Sugluk Inlet (62°10'N.) corresponded to those at 58°15'N.Relèvement du sol au Quarternaire récent dans le nord de l'Ungava, Québec. Pour construire une courbe de relèvement isostatique, l'auteur utilise 21 datation au C14 se rapportant à des terrasses marines. Le relèvement, dans sa phase la plus rapide, atteignit en moyenne 26 pieds (7,93 m) par siècle; cependant au cours des 5,200 dernières années, il s'est situé juste au-dessous d'un pied (30 cm) par siècle. Le bombement a provoqué un pendage vers le sud de la "plage Glacier" (plage soulevée à 460 pieds—140,3 m) et de la "plage Tunit supérieure" (plage soulevée à 100 pieds—30,5 m) d'environ 5,6 pieds au mille (1 m/km) et 3,6 pieds au mille (60 cm/km) respectivement. Les radio-datations indiquent que la déglaciation générale du nord de l'Ungava se produisit il y a environ sept à huit millénaires. A la tête des grands fjords, on a identifié douze terrasses marines bien développées. La faune des "plages Aporrhais supérieure et inférieure" (plages oulevées à 40 pieds—12,20 m—et à 55 pieds—16,76 m) suggère que les conditions marines optimales se sont produites il y a environ de 3,900 à 5,230 ans, probablement au cours d'une transgression marine. Les conditions hydroclimatiques qui prévalaient lors de l'accumulation des dépôts "Aporrhais" du fjord de Sugluk (62º10'N) correspondaient à celles des dépôts situés au 58º15'N

Archaeological Sites in the Labrador-Ungava Peninsula: Cultural Origin and Climatic Significance

Ruins of structures in Arctic Quebec and Labrador were investigated, all apparently less than 1,500 years old and abandoned by their Eskimo inhabitants more than 150 years ago. Similar-sized rectangular foundations at two sites near former sea level probably belong to the Thule culture. That their occupants were in contact with Europeans at one time is suggested by the shapes of the foundations and the presence of carved and nailed artifacts. From radiocarbon dating of fossilized animal bones, it is concluded that some of the structures were occupied during a mild period 600-700 years ago. Climate and vegetation of that period were reconstructed from pollen analysis and fossil remains

Needed skills versus available skills: an assessment tool is launched

Economic development often founders on a mismatch between available workforce skills and companies’ needs. A tool that analyzes critical sets of labor market data not previously considered in tandem can help local governments improve planning.Labor market ; Labor market - Massachusetts ; Occupational training ; Occupational training - Massachusetts

Staying Power: The Future of Manufacturing in Massachusetts

Reviews the state's manufacturing employment since 1939; analyzes current data by industry, economic share, workers' demographics, and location; and projects trends through 2016. Based on surveys and interviews, examines manufacturers' perspectives