Air Travelers stripped bare with x-ray machine

By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY

The agency in charge of the nation's air security expects later this year to begin using a controversial X-ray machine that will show airport screeners a clear picture of what's under passengers' clothes — whether weapons or just bare skin.

Screeners plan to test the "backscatter" machines at several U.S. airports, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says. The refrigerator-sized machines are considered a breakthrough in scanning technology but have been labeled "a virtual strip search" by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Security workers using the machines can see through clothes and peer at whatever may be hidden in undergarments, shirts or pants. The images also paint a revealing picture of a person's nude body.

The devices can potentially be used to screen hundreds of millions of air travelers each year, although TSA says more study is needed to determine how the devices may be used at U.S. airports. The agency declined to say when and where it expects to test the machines.

Backscatter technology has been waiting on the sidelines for nearly four years but seems poised now to move to the forefront of aviation security. The machines are already used by U.S. Customs agents at 12 airports to screen passengers suspected of carrying drugs. They're also getting a test run at a terminal in London Heathrow Airport, the first major airport to use them.

The ACLU says the scanners invade personal privacy. "This leads directly to a surveillance society," says Barry Steinhardt, who runs the group's technology program.

But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a Senate subcommittee last month that he wants to employ the technology and doesn't want an "endless debate" over privacy issues.

Security consultant Douglas Laird says the machines are essential to spot explosives, which aren't detected by metal detectors.

The $100,000 machines bounce low-radiation X-rays off a person's skin to produce photo-like computer images of metal, plastic and organic materials hidden under clothes, says American Science and Engineering. The TSA is testing its BodySearch machine.

More details on American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) claims on passengers privacy in this issue: http://www.aclu.org/privacy/gen/24856leg20060404.html

New Symbol Launched to Warn Public About Radiation Dangers

Supplementary Symbol Aims to Help Reduce Needless Deaths and Injuries

15 February 2007 | With radiating waves, a skull and crossbones and a running person, a new ionizing radiation warning symbol is being introduced to supplement the traditional international symbol for radiation, the three cornered trefoil.

The new symbol is being launched today by the IAEA and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to help reduce needless deaths and serious injuries from accidental exposure to large radioactive sources. It will serve as a supplementary warning to the trefoil, which has no intuitive meaning and little recognition beyond those educated in its significance.

"I believe the international recognition of the specific expertise of both organizations will ensure that the new standard will be accepted and applied by governments and industry to improve the safety of nuclear applications, protection of people and the environment", said Ms. Eliana Amaral, Director, Division of Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety, IAEA.

The new symbol is aimed at alerting anyone, anywhere to the potential dangers of being close to a large source of ionizing radiation, the result of a five-year project conducted in 11 countries around the world. The symbol was tested with different population groups - mixed ages, varying educational backgrounds, male and female - to ensure that its message of "danger- stay away" was crystal clear and understood by all.

"We can´t teach the world about radiation," said Carolyn Mac Kenzie, an IAEA radiation specialist who helped develop the symbol, "but we can warn people about dangerous sources for the price of sticker."

The new symbol, developed by human factor experts, graphic artists, and radiation protection experts, was tested by the Gallup Institute on a total of 1 650 individuals in Brazil, Mexico, Morocco, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, China, India, Thailand, Poland, Ukraine and the United States.


The symbol is intended for IAEA Category 1, 2 and 3 sources defined as dangerous sources capable of death or serious injury, including food irradiators, teletherapy machines for cancer treatment and industrial radiography units. The symbol is to be placed on the device housing the source, as a warning not to dismantle the device or to get any closer. It will not be visible under normal use, only if someone attempts to disassemble the device. The symbol will not be located on building access doors, transportation packages or containers.

"The new ionizing radiation warning symbol (ISO 21482) is the latest successful result of long-standing cooperation between the IAEA and ISO. We encourage the symbol´s rapid adoption by the international community," said ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden.

Many source manufacturers plan to use the symbol on new large sources. Strategies to apply the symbol on existing large sources are being developed by the IAEA.

Comment: Universities must redefine their roles

GREAT universities are not born. They are made, by people who have a clear understanding of the factors that contribute to academic excellence. They also have a vision of the purpose of higher education, both in the national scheme of things as well as in the larger world context.

Even more crucial, in their view, is the need for all to embrace and claim ownership of the core values that underpin their organisations’ culture of ethics and integrity.

Their vision is focused, and not obscured or clouded, by political expediency and other extraneous influences that are harmful to the pursuit of academic excellence. In the context of our public universities, I am not suggesting that the government in Putrajaya should not be allowed a hand in guiding the progress and development of our universities.

"He who pays the piper calls the tune." Our only hope is that the tune is not called too often and that it does not produce too many discordant notes to add to an already confused situation.

Malaysian academics must, in all fairness, take their share of responsibility for the seriously declining standards of scholarship, which is a matter of national concern. The long queues of unemployable Malaysian university graduates speak volumes about both the quality of education itself and the policies that produce a level of mediocrity never seen before.

We have some great universities and outstanding academics to match, but the quality, overall, is patchy. Universities are less about their exterior and more about the quality of work of their scholars. The sooner they reinvent themselves the better before the rot truly sets in.

I agree entirely with the great ethicist, Professor Charles Samford of Griffith University, Australia, when he says in one of his books that "ethical demands fall on all those in public life. It is their ethical duty to serve the ‘public interest’ by helping their institution to live up to its justification" .

Senior academics have a clear duty to safeguard and protect the standing and reputation of their immediate university community. In doing this, they help strengthen the ethical legitimacy of their institutions to serve the wider community and the nation, with honesty, transparency, accountability and efficiency.

What is involved in leading academic institutions? A predominant characteristic of a traditional university is "authority vested in hierarchy". However, experience has shown that an uncritical application of authority tends to produce a culture of slavish compliance rather than one of commitment.

If our ultimate objective is to achieve results of a lasting nature, then we have to go beyond mere compliance. Leading men and women successfully requires a range of complex skills, acquired by diligent study, observation and dint of hard work. The rest are, in my view, values inherent in our individual make-up.

Vice-chancellors and other senior academics must be quick to demonstrate that they stand, uncompromisingly, for ethical and principled leadership. Leadership by example is rarely seen in the management of today’s public and private institutions. In the realm of effective management, there is no substitute for values-based leadership at all levels.

University vice-chancellors perform an impossible job. The juggling and fancy footwork required in meeting the many, often, conflicting demands of the Higher Education Ministry and other clients can wear down even the most resolute of them.

Can we develop a profile of effective administrators or managers, because that is what vice-chancellors are in practice? Let me borrow from the experience of the UN Office of Human Resource Management, which focuses, quite rightly, on three main competencies:

• Accountability — Leaders account for, report on, and explain their actions and the use of resources.

• Values — Leaders exemplify and live by their organisational core values.

• Emotional maturity — Leaders must be able to take the good with the bad, and rise above personal pettiness, always putting the interest of their university at the forefront of their actions.

• People management, demonstrating a great capacity to articulate ideas and advance the vision and intellectual excellence of the university community. It also means an ability to cope with and manage change.

Managing our complex multicultural institutions will be extremely difficult without taking full account of, and showing due respect for, diversity.

This means an understanding of diverse world views and seeing diversity as an opportunity to contribute to an environment where different communities and perspectives can thrive in harmony with complete freedom, within the law, to exercise their basic rights. Mere tolerance is what is holding us back from achieving concrete results in our search for "Unity in Diversity" nearly 50 years after Merdeka.

Given the ever changing role and demands made on our universities, vice-chancellors and other academics mandated to provide the moral and intellectual leadership must not forget that they are, first and last, chief administrators, and should not become too immersed in the rituals or preoccupied with the trappings of office. We are all, in the end, judged by our peers on our achievements.

More seriously, though, they have to account for their actions and this means they have to put the interests of those to whom, and for whom, they are responsible at the very centre of their existence if they are to justify their role in today’s terms.

They are under a moral obligation, no less, in performing their duties, to adopt high ethical standards consistent with the expectations of the public at large.

An important underlying principle governing the conduct of leaders is stewardship, which is central to the basic concept of trusteeship. This important principle of duty in the public interest appears to be not understood, or largely ignored, judging from the goings-on which often border on the criminal in many of our national institutions.

Any change of management must come with a clear and unequivocal articulation of the values that a reform or change process it intends to promote. These values should provide the core of ethical standard setting and of judging the success or failure of any organisation.

Today’s universities are not the ivory towers they once were.

The community of scholars that they represent is inseparable from the community at large. They can best justify their existence by understanding the true nature and purpose of higher education so as to be in a position to make a positive contribution not only to our immediate development goals but also to our legitimate ambitions as a global economic and political player.

They will continue to be relevant as long as they anticipate the future social, economic and political direction of the country, and become active partners and change agents in that process.

Tunku Abdul Aziz is a former special adviser to the United Nations secretary-general on Ethics. He now contributes from Kuala Lumpur. He spoke on this topic to a group of academics at a colloquium organised by the International Institute of Public Policy and Management of Universiti Malaya recently. He can be contacted at tunkua@gmail. com

source: New Sunday Times, 11 February 2007

An alternative platform for Molecular Imaging research in Malaysia

Transferring of the PET-CT technology to University Malaya Medical Center enable more clinical services as well as provides an alternative platform for molecular imaging research in order to make contribution in Genome project.

Malaysia has its PET-CT Imaging system a few years ago which is installed in the Penang. During that time, the radionuclide sources using for imaging purpose were directly bought from Singapore. This is consider not practicable and cost-effective as the radionuclide with its short physical half-life needs to travel for a long distance away from Singapore Island to Penang Island (about 2-3 hours by flight). After Putrajaya Hospital and Wijaya International Medical Center had installed the Malaysia first (GE, USA) and second (Siemen, USA) Cyclotron generator, the radionuclide sources can be obtained with a nearer distance and faster available time. Only the issue is we are waiting them (radionuclide producer) to get GMP license so that the radionuclide can be commercialized.

UMMC is making its statement and preparation to face the challenges. The advance of the technology is the state-of-art medical imaging system for clinical and preclinical usage. The beauty of this system is in its applications in biological tissue either human or animal. The most interesting topic that hit the research world is molecular imaging that makes the diagnosis on molecular state a possibility. The beneficial of it is enable users detect changes in genes which alarming the occurrences of the cancer in human body. I believe it is the latest method that promote “curing is better than preventing” in cancer issue.

I wish that UMMC could successfully install PET-CT and Cyclotron in 5 years time, from confirming the tender till it starts deliver services to the public and animals. I hope that a special investigation committee (or maybe it has already?) should be formed beside the management and scientific committees, in order to investigate the progress of the work and make sure it is efficient and transparency. The RM 40 million is not a small amount of money which is collected from Malaysian’s income tax, and it should give the maximum beneficial to all.

UMMC to invest in PET-CT scan

The University Malaya Medical Centre(UMMC) plans to invest RM40 million to obtain a Positron Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography (PET-CT) scan for the hospital. It is also investing in radioactive substance, known as Cyclotron, to enable the PET-CT machine to function.

“The tender will be out soon. It will be an open tender and will be out by end of this month,” said the hospital’s deputy director for clinical services, Jamiyah Hassan.

She said the specifications have been signed and the criteria is simple.

“We want the best in the market to serve a long-term interest,” she said when contacted by The Malay Mail yesterday.

According to Jamiyah, it will take five to six months to determine the bidder who will be awarded the tender.

“It will start from the date the tender opens until it is approved. Normally, it will take about 150 days for it to be completed,” said Jamiyah, adding that the RM40 million Government-funded investment will include everything from the PET-CT machine, Cyclotron and also a new building to store the equipment.

Commenting on the cost for patients, Jamiyah said the private sector charges RM6,000 per scan but she is confident that the hospital will charge a lower rate.

Consultant radiologist at the hospital Basri J.J. Abdullah explained that the PET-CT scan can be used to detect cancer.

“It also plays a role in some neurological diseases and probably even heart diseases,” said Basri.

He said the cost, which may be RM6,000, should not be a deterrent for patients to try the treatment.

“It may be a big amount to pay upfront but think of the savings if the disease is detected earlier,” said Basri.

He said with the availability of the PET-CT scan, diseases can be detected easier and faster.

Basically, PET is a diagnostic examination that involves the acquisition of physiologic images based on the detection of radiation from the emission of positrons.

Positrons are tiny particles emitted from a radioactive substance administered into the patient’s body.

The subsequent images of the human body developed with this technique are used to detect the different types of diseases.

Source from MalayMail 8 Feb 2007