Daily Business Report-Feb. 5, 2020
General Atomics researchers Brian Sammuli (left) and Jayson Barr (right) developed an innovative machine learning–based control system that can optimize fusion plasma performance far faster than previous methods. (Photo courtesy of General Atomics)
Researchers at national fusion facility
in San Diego achieve a scientific first
Researchers at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility achieved a scientific first this month when they used machine learning calculations to automatically prevent fusion plasma disruptions in real time, while simultaneously optimizing the plasma for peak performance. The new experiments are the first of what they expect to be a wave of research in which machine learning–augmented controls could broaden the understanding of fusion plasmas. The work may also help deliver reliable, peak performance operation of future fusion reactors.
“These experiments are quite significant, because they illustrate why the fusion community has been so excited about machine learning,” said DIII-D Director David Hill. “Although DIII-D has applied machine learning to real-time prediction of instabilities for decades, actual real-time control to prevent disruption using these massive data sets is very novel and exciting.”
DIII-D is the largest magnetic fusion research facility in the U.S. and is operated by General Atomics as a national user facility for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
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SKSI Plans opening architectural design, building
permit centers in Otay Ranch and Escondido
SKSI Plans and Permits, a national brand offering architectural plans, engineering and building permit services, will open new stores at Otay Ranch in Chula Vista in February and Westfield Escondido in March.
SKSI is solving problems previously considered status quo,” said Aryeh Rifkin, founder of SKSI Plans and Permits. “The architectural industry is twenty-five times the size of the real estate industry, but there is no national chain of architects like Re/Max or Coldwell Banker. SKSI is changing that. As the first national chain in architecture,
SKSI makes finding an architect as easy as going to the local fashion mall. No other company has taken this approach, and it’s refreshing.”
SKSI stores serve the full gamut of residential and commercial project types. SKSI works with Realtors, contractors, developers, investors, government and homeowners. Anybody can walk-in and talk with an architect to explore custom residential homes, additions and remodels, renovations and new structures, commercial tenant improvements, subdivisions, multi-family, and land entitlements.
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Imaging study shows how HIV
drugs work at atomic level
Salk scientists have discovered how a powerful class of HIV drugs binds to a key piece of HIV machinery. By solving, for the first time, three-dimensional structures of this complex while different drugs were attached, the researchers showed what makes the therapy so potent. The work, which appeared in Science on Jan. 30, 2020, provides insights that could help design or improve new treatments for HIV.
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Cubic wins MUX Mission System data
relay payload prize for Navy Prize Challenge
Cubic Corporation announced its Cubic Mission Solutions business division was selected as a recipient of an award in the recent Marine Air Ground Task Force Unmanned Aircraft System Program Expeditionary (MUX) Challenge sponsored by the Naval Air Systems Command.
Cubic’s winning submission leveraged its proven legacy in high-bandwidth data link communications along with other tactical data link communications into a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tool that demonstrated increased performance, reduced size, weight and power (SWaP) requirements and increased capabilities against current and future threat systems.
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New tribal liaison fills long-standing
high-priority need at SDSU
by Jeff Ristine | SDSU NewsCenter
Some college students can’t wait to get out into the real world. Jacob Alvarado Waipuk couldn’t wait to get back.
Alvarado said he first thought of returning to San Diego State University while he was still earning his BA degree in the Department of American Indian Studies. “I’m coming back here,” he remembers thinking to himself, determined to make a difference for his fellow students from native populations.
Alvarado graduated in 2014 and made good on his dream last week, when the San Pasqual Reservation resident and Kumeyaay Nation member started work as SDSU’s first tribal liaison.
As tribal liaison, Alvarado expects to help recruit and welcome students from indigenous populations and work with the tribal populations of the region, whose two biggest ethnologies are Kumeyaay and Luiseño. Alvarado also will advise the campus on efforts to promote land acknowledgment of the Kumeyaay, which was unanimously approved by the University Senate in September 2019.
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National study confirms nurses at higher
risk of suicide than general population
by Jackie Carr | UC San Diego News Center
In the first national study of its size, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and UC San Diego Health, Department of Nursing, have found that male and female nurses are at higher risk of suicide than the general population. Results of the longitudinal study were published in the Feb. 3, 2020 online edition of WORLDviews on Evidence Based-Nursing.
“Using the 2005-2016 National Violent Death Reporting System dataset from the Centers for Disease Control, we found that male and female nurses are at a higher risk for suicide, confirming our previous studies,” said senior author Judy Davidson, RN, research scientist at UC San Diego. “Female nurses have been at greater risk since 2005 and males since 2011. Unexpectedly, the data does not reflect a rise in suicide, but rather that nurse suicide has been unaddressed for years.”
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National Latino Research Center
director wins social justice award
Dr. Arcela Nuñez-Alvarez, the research director of the National Latino Research Center at Cal State San Marcos, has won the 2020 Ashley L. Walker Social Justice Award for her years of work with Latino and migrant communities.
Nuñez-Alvarez received the award on Jan. 20 from Alliance San Diego at the 32nd annual All Peoples Celebration, honoring the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Alliance San Diego is a community empowerment organization that builds coalitions to promote justice and social change.
Nuñez-Alvarez was recognized for her “tireless empowerment of rural and migrant community members in San Diego County.”
In addition to her work with the NLRC, she is the co-founder and director of Universidad Popular, a community-based organization in Vista with the mission of making the promise of education a reality for all. She’s also the co-founder and director of Homie UP, which offers American history from a Chicano/Latino perspective to incarcerated individuals free of charge.
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Star of India scheduled for haul out
and restoration project Feb. 11-21
The Star of India will be dry docked for restoration for at least 10 days in February. The ship will be closed starting Tuesday, Feb. 11 and removed from her San Diego waterfront location at the Maritime Museum of San Diego located at 1492 N. Harbor Drive.
Maritime Museum of San Diego has received an award of $200,000 from the National Park Service’s Maritime Heritage Program in support of the upcoming Star of India restoration project.
However, this must be matched by community funds in order to receive the whole of that sum.
Over the past five years the museum has replaced the decks aboard Star of India, rebuilt the weathered side of the 1898 Victorian-era ferryboat Berkeley, completed boiler and hull work on the 1914 steam yacht Medea, hauled out and done restoration work on the Vietnam War-era PCF 816 Swift boat, the 1914 San Diego Harbor Pilot, HMS Surprise, the C.W. Lawrence Revenue Cutter replica and official tall ship of the state, Californian, and 1542 Spanish galleon replica San Salvador, built by Maritime Museum staff, volunteers and community of donors.
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Shane Bowen joins Truvian Sciences
as senior vice president of engineering
Truvian Sciences, a San Diego health care company, has named Shane Bowen senior vice president of engineering. He will serve on Truvian’s executive team reporting to President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Hawkins.
Bowen comes to Truvian from Illumina Inc., the global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, where he most recently served as senior director of scientific research in the Department of Research and Technology Development. In this role, he led the research team that conceptualized and developed the patterned flow cell format and manufacturing methods for the NovaSeq Series which was commercialized in 2017.
He was also instrumental in the development of the chemical patterning technology that supported the commercialization of HiSeq X Sequencing System, which introduced the $1,000 genome.
Bowen is a primary contributor of over 60 patent applications spanning the fields of nanotechnology, measurement system architecture, advanced image analysis algorithms and advanced manufacturing process technology.
He holds a B.S. in physics and mathematics from the University of San Francisco as well as a M.S. in applied physics and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry, both from the University of California, San Diego.
