Creative Coding in Python

Active shooter drills have become a standard practice in nearly all U.S. schools, yet their potential impact on students and educators has received limited attention. School Active Shooter Drills: Mitigating Risks to Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Health explores how these drills are conducted and how to reduce potential harm while supporting school safety. Developed by a committee of experts in education, school safety, public health, pediatrics, child and adolescent development, psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience, public policy, and criminology, this report provides an in-depth review of current practices and offers guidance. The report provides suggestions for implementing practices that promote prevention and preparedness while supporting well-being, and foster learning environments where students and staff feel safe, capable, and supported. School Active Shooter Drills finds that while drills aim to enhance preparedness, they often vary dramatically in intensity and design, f

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal, infectious prion disease affecting the central nervous system of some species of Cervidae-animals such as deer, elk, and moose. Recognized as a disease in the 1980s but suspected to have been present in the United States for decades longer, CWD affects both captive and free-ranging cervids and has been reported in 35 states and five Canadian provinces of North America as of August 1, 2024. The potential ramifications of the increasing spread of CWD are serious, and include negative impacts on ecosystems, and large economic costs for agencies with management responsibilities related to cervids and for industries that depend on cervids or cervid products. Cultural and food security impacts for communities with traditions tied to cervid hunting are also impacted. In 2020, Congress passed America's Conservation Enhancement (ACE) Act (P.L. 116-188), directing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to lead a task force for addressing CWD in the United St

Despite decades of ongoing efforts to improve racial and ethnic diversity in clinical trials, many gaps remain in achieving demographic representation in clinical studies. In May 2024, the National Academies Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation, in collaboration with the National Cancer Policy Forum, hosted a public workshop to explore system-level changes and initiatives across organizations and sectors to improve representation, data collection, and reporting in clinical trials and progress tracking in the United States.

Infant formula is a primary or supplementary source of nutrition for many infants in the U.S. Consequently, disruptions to the supply of infant formula can have a severe impact on infants' health and well-being. In late 2021 and early 2022, a recall of specific infant formula products, followed by a pause in production, resulted in a widespread, national shortage. The incident demonstrated that additional risk management planning is needed to protect infants from the consequences of potential future supply chain disruptions. In 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration contracted with the National Academies to convene an expert committee to examine and report on challenges in supply, market competition, and regulation of infant formula. The resulting consensus study report explains policy and marketplace vulnerabilities that were exposed during the shortage, describes the extent to which actions taken by relevant stakeholders addressed these vulnerabilities, identifies remaining gaps

Ocean Acoustics - the study of sound in the ocean, how it travels, interacts with, and is affected by its underwater surroundings - is a growing and critical field. Sound from both natural and human-generated sources can be an effective tool for probing the ocean environment. While the first applications of ocean acoustics began in the military, applications today encompass offshore energy production, national security, environmental monitoring, climate science, exploration and mapping, as well as fundamental ocean science. Even as demand for ocean acoustics grows, workforce development is challenged by both the multidisciplinary nature of the field and its widely varying career paths. Ocean acoustics may be housed in a diversity of departments in higher education institutions, and career paths and trajectory of formal education can range from the vocational/associates' level through the doctorate level. This report examines the state of ocean acoustics education; assesses expected dem

2023 marked the 10-year anniversary of the National Academies Institute of Medicine consensus report, "Delivering High-Quality Cancer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis." The National Cancer Policy Forum and the American Society of Clinical Oncology co-hosted a public workshop in October 2023 to provide an opportunity for the cancer community to gauge progress on the implementation of the report recommendations and to discuss persistent challenges in achieving excellent and equitable cancer care. Workshop speakers considered actions that could be taken to improve progress, as well as aspects of cancer care that have changed over the past decade and thus might require new strategies to advance the delivery of high-quality cancer care.

In 2018, the National Academies released Thriving on Our Changing Planet: A Decadal Strategy for Earth Observation from Space. The decadal survey identified key science questions and prioritized observational needs to advance U.S. efforts in Earth science and support critical applications such as climate modeling and weather prediction. In the past few years, the need for actionable data and better scientific information on Earth's interacting systems has increased in urgency, as global climate change accelerates coupled with increasing numbers of extreme weather events. At the request of NASA, this mid-term assessment evaluates progress and recommends actions to meet decadal survey priorities. This report explores ways that NASA's Earth Science Division can maintain programmatic balance, improve alignment with decadal survey priorities, and prepare for the next decadal survey.

Racial and ethnic inequities in health and health care impact individual well-being, contribute to millions of premature deaths, and cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Addressing these inequities is vital to improving the health of the nation's most disadvantaged communities?and will also help to achieve optimal health for all. In 2003, the Institute of Medicine examined these inequities in Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. Because disparities persist, the National Academies convened an expert committee with support from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Institutes of Health. The committee's report reviews the major drivers of health care disparities, provides insight into successful and unsuccessful interventions, identifies gaps in the evidence base, and makes recommendations to advance health equity.

On March 20 and 21, 2023, the Board on Science Education at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a workshop titled Effective Health Communication within the Current Information Environment and the Role of the Federal Government. Workshop speakers and participants, a majority of whom were working in government agencies in federal health communication or leadership positions, joined both in person in Washington, D.C. as well as virtually to explore the current health information environment as it pertains to public trust and behavior change, explore how federal health agencies can communicate effectively within the current information environment and what is needed to support effective health communication moving forward. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop.

Advances in biomedical science, data science, engineering, and technology are leading to high-pace innovation with potential to transform health and medicine. These innovations simultaneously raise important ethical and social issues, including how to fairly distribute their benefits and risks. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, in collaboration with the National Academy of Medicine, established the Committee on Creating a Framework for Emerging Science, Technology, and Innovation in Health and Medicine to provide leadership and engage broad communities in developing a framework for aligning the development and use of transformative technologies with ethical and equitable principles. The committees resulting report describes a governance framework for decisions throughout the innovation life cycle to advance equitable innovation and support an ecosystem that is more responsive to the needs of a broader range of individuals and is better able to recognize and

The world confronts an existential challenge in responding to climate change, resulting in an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors of the economy. What will it take for new and advanced nuclear reactors to play a role in decarbonization? Nuclear power provides a significant portion of the worlds low-carbon electricity, and advanced nuclear technologies have the potential to be smaller, safer, less expensive to build, and better integrated with the modern grid. However, if the United States wants advanced nuclear reactors to play a role in its plans for decarbonization, there are many key challenges that must be overcome at the technical, economic, and regulatory levels. Laying the Foundation for New and Advanced Nuclear Reactors in the United States discusses how the United States could support the successful commercialization of advanced nuclear reactors with a set of near-term policies and practices. The recommendations of this report address the need to cl

COVID-19 has proven among the worst public health crises in a generation. Public health emergencies (PHE) have always been anticipated. Despite the growing field of PHE preparedness and planning since the turn of the twenty-first century and the preparedness plans and exercises developed, the U.S. experienced a suboptimal national response to the emergence of COVID-19 in early 2020 compared to other countries. To explore the U.S. PHE preparedness enterprise, the National Academies Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Disasters and Emergencies convened a workshop in May 2022. They invited participants from government, NGO, and private sector organizations to consider key components, success stories, and failure points in order to identify opportunities for more effective catastrophic disaster, pandemic, and other large scale PHEs planning at the federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial levels. This Proceedings of a Workshop summarizes the discussions held during the

The Forum on Regenerative Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a two-day virtual public workshop to address knowledge gaps in the understanding of promising approaches to manipulate the immune system and/or the regenerative medicine product to improve outcomes of tissue repair and regeneration in patients. The workshop, titled Understanding the Role of the Immune System in Improving Tissue Regeneration, explored the role of the immune system in the success or failure of regenerative medicine therapies. Participants considered potential strategies to effectively prepare patients' immune systems to accept regenerative therapies and increase the likelihood of successful clinical outcomes and also discussed risks associated with modulating the immune system. This Proceedings of a Workshop highlights the presentations and discussions that occurred during the workshop.

The U.S. Department of State, through its Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), provides foreign assistance and supports capacity building for criminal justice systems and police organizations in approximately 90 countries around the world. It has a mandate to strengthen fragile states, support democratic transitions, and stabilize conflict-affected societies by helping partner countries develop effective and accountable criminal justice sector institutions and systems. While the science of policing outcomes has grown in recent years, it is limited in context, with much of the research conducted on policing taking place in the Global North countries (e.g., the United Kingdom and United States). It is also limited in purpose, with much research focused on examining crime reduction as opposed to examining the harms to the public as the result of crimes, violence, and any effects of policing activities. At the request of INL, Policing to Promote the Rule of

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program develops human health assessments that focus on hazard identification and dose-response analyses for chemicals in the environment. The ORD Staff Handbook for Developing IRIS Assessments (the handbook) provides guidance to scientists who perform the IRIS assessments in order to foster consistency in the assessments and enhance transparency about the IRIS assessment process. At the request of the EPA, this report reviews the procedures and considerations for operationalizing the principles of systematic reviews and the methods described in the handbook for determining the scope of the IRIS assessments, evidence integration, extrapolation techniques, dose-response analyses, and characterization of uncertainties.

In September 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop to examine trends and patterns in aging and factors related to healthy aging in the United States,

"Cities have experienced an unprecedented rate of growth in the last decade. More than half the world's population lives in urban areas, with the U.S. percentage at 80 percent. Cities have captured mo

"The massive increase in digital information in the last decade has created new requirements for institutional and technological structures and workforce skills. Preparing the Workforce for Digital Cu

Presents the summary of a workshop convened by the Institute of Medicine in August 2013 to review the available science on safe levels of caffeine consumption in foods, beverages, and dietary suppleme

"Today's physician education system produces trained doctors with strong scientific underpinnings in biological and physical sciences as well as supervised practical experience in delivering care. Sig

The U.S. veterinary medical profession contributes to society in diverse ways, from developing drugs and protecting the food supply to treating companion animals and investigating animal diseases in t

Presents the summary of a workshop convened by the Institute of Medicine's National Cancer Policy Forum in July 2013 to facilitate discussion about gaps and challenges in caring for adolescent and you

"For many household surveys in the United States, responses rates have been steadily declining for at least the past two decades. A similar decline in survey response can be observed in all wealthy co

The Institute of Medicine's Committee on Geographic Variation in Health Care Spending and Promotion of High-Value Care examined geographic variation in health care spending and quality for Medicare be

The National Research Council's Committee to Assess the Current Status and Future Direction of High Magnetic Field Science in the US was convened in response to a request by the National Science Found

"Over the past four decades, the rate of incarceration in the United States has skyrocketed to unprecedented heights, both historically and in comparison to that of other developed nations. At far hig

Nanotechnology has become one of the defining ideas in global R&D over the past decade. In 2001 the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) was established as the U.S. government interagency prog

The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the

"The United States is in the midst of a major demographic shift. In the coming decades, people aged 65 and over will make up an increasingly large percentage of the population: The ratio of people age

Manufacturing is in a period of dramatic transformation. But in the United States, public and political dialogue is simplistically focused almost entirely on the movement of certain manufacturing jobs

On September 8-9, 2011, experts in solar physics, climate models, paleoclimatology, and atmospheric science assembled at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado for a

On June 15, 2011, the Air Force Space Command established a new vision, mission, and set of goals to ensure continued U.S. dominance in space and cyberspace mission areas. Subsequently, and in coordin

Lead is a ubiquitous metal in the environment, and its adverse effects on human health are well documented. Lead interacts at multiple cellular sites and can alter protein function in part through bin

Using Science as Evidence in Public Policy encourages scientists to think differently about the use of scientific evidence in policy making. This report investigates why scientific evidence is importa

In 2009, the Institute of Medicine convened the Committee on Guidance for Establishing Standards of Care for Use in Disaster Situations to develop national guidance for state and local public health o

On June 12-14, 2012, the Board on Global Science and Technology held an international, multidisciplinary workshop in Washington, D.C., to explore the challenges and advances in intelligent human-machi

Taylor, a consultant who specializes in fund development, board relations, and communications and has worked in healthcare philanthropy and marketing, provides healthcare CEOS, other senior executives

"In September 2011, the CSR organized a workshop on the topic, "The Role of Chemical Sciences in Finding Alternatives to Critical Resources." The one-and-a-half-day workshop addressed key topics, incl

"In the United States, chronic diseases currently account for 70 percent of all deaths, and close to 48 million Americans report a disability related to a chronic condition. Today, about one in four A

According to the big bang theory, our Universe began in a state of unimaginably high energy and density, contained in a space of subatomic dimensions. At that time, unlike today, the fundamental force