Research Funding Cuts

Posted on February 9, 2012 by admin

**Borrowed from the CBC**

Scientists in Ottawa say Ontario’s decision to cut $66 million in health research funding is a blow to cancer and heart-disease treatment in Canada.

Last year the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute received $7 million in grants for work using viruses to infect and destroy cancer tumours as well as stem cell research for heart disease.

That grant money was then leveraged to bring in private firms to create the therapies.

Ontario’s Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid said the research money needs to be moved to the Eastern Ontario Development Fund in this part of the province.

“It’s a concern,” said Dr. Duncan Stewart, CEO and scientific director of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. “It was a very important decision and we are very concerned about its impact.”

Dr. John Bell, a senior scientist working on the cancer research, said his researchers needed to conduct more clinical trials and said the loss of funding is disappointing.

“Without that extra funding we can’t really commercialize [the therapies] and really develop them here in Ontario where we want to,” said Bell. “The most important thing as far as I’m concerned is getting the product to people.”

Funds to move to economic development
The institute said the research has created 400 jobs over the last few years. Bell said without continued funding, commercial development will move offshore.

“Having manufacturing facilities here, really putting our stake in the ground and being the world leaders…that’s a very positive thing,” said Bell.

The Ontario government said it needed to free up money to put into programs that have a better track record of creating jobs.

Save Energy First

Posted on February 9, 2012 by admin

Energy efficiency should be the first item on Canada’s energy agenda.

Canada is about to spend billions on new oil sands projects, pipelines, nuclear and fossil-fuel power stations, hydroelectric dams, solar projects, and wind farms. But as we prepare to generate more energy, it makes sense to save energy first.

We need to get serious about energy efficiency.

The global economy is struggling and governments want to create jobs. This is a huge opportunity for Canadian governments to help Canadian families save energy. Making our homes more energy-efficient creates jobs in all communities. For details, see our Five-Part Home Energy Action Plan.

We urgently need to send a clear message to decision makers that it’s time for Canada to save energy first.

We’re happy to introduce the Cool-Tel

Posted on February 7, 2012 by admin

The Cool-Tel on line portal is a secure website that allows the Cool-Tel owner to log in and see at a glance the status of all the Cool-Tel units installed.

To make it easy to manage (some users have over 500 units installed) the Cool-Tel portal allows the devices to be grouped. Normally this would be by location, or by region, but there are no restrictions. Any group can contain any number of Cool-Tel units, and a single unit can be in multiple groups.

After logging in to the portal, the owner can see at a glance the status of all the Cool-Tel groups that have been configured. Groups containing units that have strayed from the limits set are highlighted, inviting the user to click through to the detailed report on each unit.

The database contains every report from the Cool-Tel units, and it is possible to view this data as a table or graphically. The portal makes it easy to look at the overall picture of a group, as well as the temperature history of each sensor individually.

One of the advantages of Cool-Tel is the alert generation and reporting facilities. Once logged in, the authorized user is able to configure an e-mail address and mobile phone to be alerted. The portal allows simple rules to be configured. If temperatures outside the configured range are detected, the nominated people will be contacted.

Advanced users with complex systems may wish to configure more complex rules where different actions take place at different times of day. Switching on reporting is a simple option for each group. With reporting enabled, the portal will regularly examine the data from the group of devices, and compile a report to be e-mailed to the nominated address. The report can be stored as part of an audit record. The Cool-Tel portal maintains a copy of all reports generated for 5 years, and historic reports can be downloaded by authorized users.