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New Report Recommends Construction of Four New Polar Icebreakers of the Same Design as the Lowest-Cost Strategy for Protecting U.S. Interests in Arctic and Antarctic

The U.S. lacks icebreaking capability in the Arctic and Antarctic and should build four polar icebreakers with heavy icebreaking capability to help minimize the life-cycle costs of icebreaker acquisition and operations, says a new congressionally mandated letter report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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New Report Presents National Strategy to Reduce Opioid Epidemic

Years of sustained and coordinated efforts will be required to contain and reverse the harmful societal effects of the prescription and illicit opioid epidemics, which are intertwined and getting worse, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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New Report Lays Out Strategy to Evaluate Evidence of Adverse Human Health Effects From Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals at Low Doses

A new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine proposes a strategy that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should use to evaluate the evidence of adverse human health effects from low doses of exposure to chemicals that can disrupt the endocrine system.




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New Report Recommends Methods and Guiding Principles for Developing Dietary Reference Intakes Based on Chronic Disease

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine outlines how to examine whether specific levels of nutrients or other food substances (NOFSs) can ameliorate the risk of chronic disease and recommends ways to develop dietary reference intakes (DRI) based on chronic disease outcomes.




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New Report Outlines Research Agenda to Better Understand the Relationship Among Microbiomes, Indoor Environments, and Human Health

New Report Outlines Research Agenda to Better Understand the Relationship Among Microbiomes, Indoor Environments, and Human Health




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New Report Proposes Framework to Identify Vulnerabilities Posed by Synthetic Biology

Given the possible security vulnerabilities related to developments in synthetic biology – a field that uses technologies to modify or create organisms or biological components – a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine proposes a framework to identify and prioritize potential areas of concern associated with the field.




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New Report Calls for Comprehensive Redesign of Process for Updating Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Although the process used to develop the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) has become more evidence-based since its inception more than 30 years ago, it is not currently positioned to effectively adapt to changes such as food diversity and chronic disease prevalence, while also ensuring the integrity of the process, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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Report Offers Guidance to Federal Government on Creating a New Statistics Entity to Combine Data From Multiple Sources While Protecting Privacy

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine offers detailed recommendations to guide federal statistical agencies in creating a new entity that would enable them to combine data from multiple sources in order to provide more relevant, timely, and detailed statistics – for example, on the unemployment rate or the rate of violent crime.




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Substantial Gap Exists Between Demand for Organ Transplants in U.S. and Number of Transplants Performed - New Report Offers Ethical, Regulatory, and Policy Framework for Research to Increase Quantity & Quality of Organs For Transplantation, Save Lives

The number of patients in the U.S. awaiting organ transplantation outpaces the amount of transplants performed in the U.S., and many donated organs are not transplanted each year due to several factors, such as poor organ function, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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New Report Recommends Changes to County Crop and Cash Rent Estimation Methods Used by the National Agricultural Statistics Service

Producing more precise county-level estimates of crops and farmland cash rents will require integrating multiple data sources using model-based predictions that are more transparent and reproducible, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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Concerns Remain Over Safety of Rail to Transport Energy Liquids and Gases

With the sharp and largely unexpected increase in the long-distance movement of domestically produced crude oil, ethanol, and natural gas since 2005, a number of concerns have arisen about the safe transport of these hazardous materials, particularly in relation to railroad track defects, rural communities’ emergency response preparedness, and the older tank car designs that will continue to be used in multi-car unit trains, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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Statement on Wall Street Journal Op-Ed on National Academies’ Review of Climate Science Special Report

An op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal questions the conclusions of a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine analysis, issued earlier this year, of a draft of the federal government’s U.S. Global Change Research Program’s Climate Science Special Report (CSSR).




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New Report Calls for Greater Oversight of Precursor Chemicals Sold At the Retail Level to Reduce Threats from Improvised Explosive Devices

Policymakers’ efforts to reduce threats from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) should include greater oversight of precursor chemicals sold at the retail level – especially over the Internet – that terrorists, violent extremists, or criminals use to make homemade explosives, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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Consumer Access to Affordable Medicines Is a Public Health Imperative, Says New Report - Government Negotiation of Drug Prices, Prevention of ‘Pay-for-Delay’ Agreements, and Increased Financial Transparency Among Recommendations

Consumer access to effective and affordable medicines is an imperative for public health, social equity, and economic development, but this need is not being served adequately by the biopharmaceutical sector, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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Report Offers Framework to Guide Decisions About Spirit Lake and Toutle River System at Mount St. Helens - Inclusive Decision-Making Process Is Needed

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine offers a framework to guide federal, tribal, state and local agencies, community groups, and other interested and affected parties in making decisions about the Spirit Lake and Toutle River system, near Mount St. Helens in southwest Washington state.




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Report Offers Guidance on How to Monitor the Quality of STEM Undergraduate Education

Monitoring the quality and impact of undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education will require the collection of new national data on changing student demographics, instructors’ use of evidence-based teaching approaches, student transfer patterns, and other dimensions of STEM education, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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Statement by NAS, NAE, and NAM Presidents on Report of Banned Words at CDC

We are concerned deeply by a report that staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were instructed not to use certain words in budget documents. As leaders of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, we are especially stunned that “evidence-based” and “science-based” are reportedly among the barred terms.




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New Report Calls for Comprehensive Research Campaign to Better Understand, Predict Gulf of Mexico’s Loop Current System

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine calls for an international, multi-institutional comprehensive campaign of research, observation, and analysis activities that would help improve understanding and prediction of the Gulf of Mexico’s Loop Current System (LCS).




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New Report Calls for Lowering Blood Alcohol Concentration Levels for Driving, Increasing Federal and State Alcohol Taxes, Increasing Enforcement, Among Other Recommendations

Despite progress in recent decades, more than 10,000 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities occur each year in the U.S. To address this persistent problem, stakeholders -- from transportation systems to alcohol retailers to law enforcement -- should work together to implement policies and systems to eliminate these preventable deaths, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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Integration of a Wide Range of Safety Systems Is Needed to Develop an In-Time Aviation Safety Management System, New Report Says

A comprehensive aviation safety system as envisioned by NASA would require integration of a wide range of systems and practices, including building an in-time aviation safety management system (IASMS) that could detect and mitigate high-priority safety issues as they emerge and before they become hazards, says a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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New Report One of Most Comprehensive Studies on Health Effects of E-Cigarettes - Finds That Using E-Cigarettes May Lead Youth to Start Smoking, Adults to Stop Smoking

A new congressionally mandated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine takes a comprehensive look at evidence on the human health effects of e-cigarettes.




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New Report Proposes Framework for Policymakers to Address Debate Over Encryption

A new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine proposes a framework for evaluating proposals to provide authorized government agencies with access to unencrypted versions of encrypted communications and other data.




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New Report Examines Factors Used in Social Security’s Process for Determining Disability in Adults

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine examines to what extent and in which ways health care utilization -- such as in-patient hospitalizations, emergency department use, and hospital readmission -- reflects disease severity, disability, and ability to perform gainful activity.




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Unclassified Version of New Report Predicts Small Drone Threats to Infantry Units, Urges Development of Countermeasures

The emergence of inexpensive small unmanned aircraft systems (sUASs) that operate without a human pilot, commonly known as drones, has led to adversarial groups threatening deployed U.S. forces, especially infantry units.




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Report Identifies Options for Lowering Risk of Failure of Undersea Bolts on Offshore Oil and Natural Gas Rigs

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine identifies strategies for improving the reliability of bolts used in offshore oil and gas drilling rigs, thereby reducing the risk that a bolt failure could cause a spill of oil, drilling fluids, or natural gas into the environment.




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National Academies Review of the Draft Fourth National Climate Assessment and Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report

The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to review the draft Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) – a congressionally mandated report that evaluates the state of climate science and the broad range of impacts of climate change in the United States every four years – and the draft Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR2) – a report that feeds into the overall assessment process developed by the USGCRP.




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New Report Recommends a Nationwide Effort to Better Estimate Methane Emissions

The U.S. should take bold steps to improve measurement, monitoring, and inventories of methane emissions caused by human activities, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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Single Breakthrough Discovery for Citrus Greening Disease in Florida Unlikely, Says New Report

A single breakthrough discovery for managing citrus greening in Florida in the future is unlikely, says a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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EPA’s IRIS Program Has Made Substantial Progress, Says New Report

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program has made “substantial progress” in implementing recommendations outlined in past reports by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, improving the program’s overall scientific and technical performance, says a new Academies report.




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Academic Institutions Should Prepare Undergraduates for a Data-Driven Workplace, New Report Recommends

All U.S. undergraduate students should develop a basic understanding of data science to prepare them adequately for the workforce, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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Report Urges Development and Evaluation of Approaches that Integrate STEMM Fields with Arts and Humanities in Higher Education

An emerging body of evidence suggests that integrating STEMM fields (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine) with the humanities and arts in higher education is associated with positive learning outcomes that may help students enter the workforce, live enriched lives, and become active and informed citizens, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine




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New Report Says Programs and Services for Children With Disabilities Should Coordinate Care Across Service Sectors, Focus on Long-Term Goals

While a variety of services and programs exist to support the needs of children with disabilities and their families, a focus on achieving specific near- and long-term goals that help prepare for adulthood and coordination of care within and across service sectors are integral to encouraging healthy growth and development, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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Report Urges Improvements to Graduate Education in STEM Fields - Incentive System in Academia Must Shift to Strengthen Emphasis on Teaching and Mentoring

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends substantial changes to U.S. graduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in order to meet the evolving needs of students, the scientific enterprise, and the nation.




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Public Transit Agencies Should Not Have to Disclose Safety Planning Records in Court, Similar to Laws for State Highway Agencies and Passenger Railroads, Says New Report

To enable public transit agencies to engage in more rigorous and effective safety planning, their safety planning records should not be admissible as evidence in civil litigation, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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If Misused, Synthetic Biology Could Expand the Possibility of Creating New Weapons - DOD Should Continue to Monitor Advances in the Field, New Report Says

Synthetic biology expands the possibilities for creating new weapons — including making existing bacteria and viruses more harmful — while decreasing the time required to engineer such organisms, concludes a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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Winners Selected for the 2017-2018 TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program University Design Competition for Addressing Airport Needs

The Transportation Research Board’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) recently selected winners for its University Design Competition for Addressing Airport Needs.




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New Report Identifies Three Critical Areas of Research to Fill Gaps in Scientific Knowledge of the Gulf Coasts Interconnected Natural and Human System

Improved understanding of the coupled natural-human coastal system will help promote resilience of coastal communities and ecosystems under rapidly changing environmental conditions and support informed decision-making, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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To Increase Protection of Miners from Black Lung Disease, A Comprehensive Report on Underground Coal Mine Dust Exposure Says Monitoring and Sampling Should Go Beyond Regulatory Compliance

Black lung disease cases in coal miners have been increasing since 2000 for uncertain reasons.




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NASA Should Update Policies That Protect Planets and Other Solar System Bodies During Space Exploration Missions, New Report Says

The current process for planetary protection policy development is inadequate to respond to increasingly complex solar system exploration missions, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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New Report Says Individual Research Results Should Be Shared With Participants More Often - Recommends Framework for Decision-Making

When conducting research involving the testing of human biospecimens, investigators and their institutions should routinely consider whether and how to return individual research results on a study-specific basis through an informed decision-making process, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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Permanent Supportive Housing Holds Potential for Improving Health of People Experiencing Homelessness, but Further Research on Effectiveness Is Needed, Including Studies On ‘Housing Sensitive’ Health Conditions

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine examines evidence on whether providing permanent supportive housing (PSH) – a combination of stable housing and supportive services -- to individuals who are experiencing homelessness improves their health.




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Report Proposes Recommendations and New Framework to Speed Progress Toward Open Science

While significant progress has been made in providing open access to scientific research, a range of challenges -- including the economics of scientific publication and cultural barriers in the research enterprise -- must be overcome to further advance the openness of science, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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New Report Identifies Five Breakthroughs to Address Urgent Challenges and Advance Food and Agricultural Sciences by 2030

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine identifies the most promising scientific breakthroughs that are possible to achieve in the next decade to increase the U.S. food and agriculture system’s sustainability, competitiveness, and resilience.




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A Domestic Electron Ion Collider Would Unlock Scientific Mysteries of Atomic Nuclei, Maintain U.S. Leadership in Accelerator Science, New Report Says

The science questions that could be answered by an electron ion collider (EIC) – a very large-scale particle accelerator – are significant to advancing our understanding of the atomic nuclei that make up all visible matter in the universe, says a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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National Academies’ Gulf Research Program Announces $10 Million Grant Opportunity for Enhancing Coastal Community Resilience in the Gulf of Mexico Region

The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine today announced a new grant opportunity focused on enhancing coastal community resilience and well-being in the Gulf of Mexico region.




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NAS President Comments on Reports of Nomination of OSTP Director

I am pleased that the White House is moving to fill the position of director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.




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Academies Task Force on the 2020 Census Releases Letter Report on Proposed Information Collection

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicines Task Force on the 2020 Census today issued a letter report and submitted it as a public comment to the U.S. Department of Commerce, which recently requested public comments on the 2020 Census.




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Up to 8 Million Deaths Occur in Low- and Middle-Income Countries Yearly Due to Poor-Quality Health Care, Says New Report

Recent gains against the burden of illness, injury, and disability and commitment to universal health coverage (UHC) are insufficient to close the enormous gaps that remain between what is achievable in human health and where global health stands today, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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NASA Should Lead a Large Direct Imaging Mission to Study Earth-Like Exoplanets, Says New Report

To answer significant questions about planetary systems, such as whether our solar system is a rare phenomenon or if life exists on planets other than Earth, NASA should lead a large direct imaging mission – an advanced space telescope – capable of studying Earth-like exoplanets orbiting stars similar to the sun, says a new congressionally mandated report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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Securing the Vote – New Report

To protect the integrity and security of U.S. elections, all local, state, and federal elections should be conducted using human-readable paper ballots by the 2020 presidential election, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.