Tag: Ben Locwin

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The Night Sky

Ben Locwin – Eclipse Basics

Welcome to The Night Sky: A Podcast on the Eclipses Comes to Kerrville, a podcast that celebrates that for two days over the next 18 months, Kerrville, TX, will be the Eclipse Capitol of the World. This podcast, hosted by Andrew Gay and Tom Fox, will celebrate these two eclipses and discuss how the town of Kerrville will prepare for an influx of a quarter million (or more) visitors. This podcast is hosted by the Texas Hill Country Podcast Network.

In this inaugural episode, Andrew and Tom visit with Ben Locwin, who holds a Ph.D. in AstroPhysics and has long loved the stars in the heavens. Ben describes the wonder and awe he found looking into the night skies as a young boy, and he explains the two different types of eclipses which will pass through Kerrville and how to view them best.

Highlights include:

·       What is a solar eclipse? How often do they occur? What is their significance?

·       What is an annular eclipse?

·      What is a total eclipse?

·       The best way to watch an eclipse?

·       Will the sensation of a total eclipse be more than visual?

·       Why are you looking forward to it?

·      If someone wanted to read up on these eclipses, what books might you suggest?

Resources

Ben Locwin on LinkedIn

Andrew Gay on LinkedIn

Tom Fox on LinkedIn

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31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

Day 15 – How do you evaluate a risk assessment?

After completing your risk assessment, you must translate it into a risk profile. If your estimate of where your bribery risk is greatest is wrong, it will be an effort to address it. As Ben Locwin explained in his  BioProcess International article entitled “Quality Risk Assessment and Management Strategies for Biopharmaceutical Companies”:
Once we have assessed risks and determined a process that includes options to resolve and manage them whenever appropriate, we can decide the level of resources with which to prioritize them. There always will be latent risks: those that we understand are there but that we cannot chase forever. But we need to make sure we have classified them correctly. With a good understanding of each of these, we are better positioned to speak about the quality of our businesses.

William C. Athanas, in his Industry Week article, “Rethinking FCPA Compliance Strategies in a New Era of Enforcement,” posited that companies assume that FCPA violations follow a bell curve in which most employees are responsible for most of the violations. However, Athanas believed that the distribution pattern more closely follows a hockey-stick distribution, where just a few people commit virtually all violations. Athanas concluded by noting that it is this limited group of employees, or what he terms the “shaft of the hockey stick,” to which a company should devote most of its compliance resources. With a proper risk assessment, a company can then focus its compliance efforts, such as intensive training sessions or detailed analysis of key financial transactions involving those employees with the greatest means and motive to commit a violation.
The priority risks are the most significant risks with the greatest likelihood of occurring. These become the focus of your most significant risk management efforts, coupled with ongoing audits and monitoring. A variety of tools can be used to monitor risk going forward continuously. Consider providing employees with substantive training to guard against the most significant risks coming to pass and to keep the key messages fresh and top of mind. It is important to create a risk control summary that succinctly documents the nature of the risk and the actions taken to mitigate it. Finally, let this risk assessment and evaluation inform your compliance program rather than letting the compliance program inform the risk assessment.
Three key takeaways:

  1. Even after you complete your risk assessment, you must evaluate those risks for your company.
  2. The DOJ and SEC are looking for a well-reasoned approach to how you evaluate your risk.
  3. Create a risk matrix and rank your risks; then remediate and monitor as appropriate.
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Greetings and Felicitations

The Science of Star Wars: Part 5, the Death Star

Star Wars continues to be the most successful movie franchise in history. The movies are great fun, the story telling is excellent, thoroughly based on the Hero’s Journey and the characters are some of the most beloved in cinema history. Whether your favorite scene is the from jump into hyperspace, the climactic lightsaber duel between Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vadar, Vadar intoning “I am your father”, or the destruction of the Death Star they all still resonate today. But what of the science of Star Wars. Are these great scenes and effects even possible? Do they violate the laws of physics and nature as we understand them today? Join Tom Fox and Dr. Ben Locwin, a healthcare executive, who in addition to his medical expertise is a degreed astrophysicist, as the look behind some of the most exciting scenes in Star Wars to look at the portrayal of science in Star Wars. In this concluding Episode 5, they discuss the Death Star. Some of the topics covered are:

1. How is it constructed? Can you build a small planet in space?

2. How would you generate the energy to fully arm the weapon?

3. Why is there no kinetic free lunch in space ?

4. How does the James Webb Telescope apply to the Death Star?

5. What are LaGrange Points and how do they apply to the Death Star?

Categories
Greetings and Felicitations

The Science of Star Wars: Part 4, Robots v. Cyborgs in the Star Wars Universe

Star Wars continues to be the most successful movie franchise in history. The movies are great fun, the story telling is excellent, thoroughly based on the Hero’s Journey and the characters are some of the most beloved in cinema history. Whether your favorite scene is the from jump into hyperspace, the climactic lightsaber duel between Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vadar, Vadar intoning “I am your father”, or the destruction of the Death Star they all still resonate today. But what of the science of Star Wars. Are these great scenes and effects even possible? Do they violate the laws of physics and nature as we understand them today? Join Tom Fox and Dr. Ben Locwin, a healthcare executive, who in addition to his medical expertise is a degreed astrophysicist, as the look behind some of the most exciting scenes in Star Wars to look at the portrayal of science in Star Wars. In Episode 4, they discuss the Robots and Cyborgs. Some of the topics covered are:

1. Where did the term ‘robot’ derive from?

2. Is Darth Vadar a cyborg?

3. Are these stories simply Pinocchio brought forward?

4. What is the difference in strong v. weak AI?

5. How does the Turing Test apply?

Categories
Greetings and Felicitations

The Science of Star Wars: Part 3, Mechanical Prosthetics

Star Wars continues to be the most successful movie franchise in history. The movies are great fun, the story telling is excellent, thoroughly based on the Hero’s Journey and the characters are some of the most beloved in cinema history. Whether your favorite scene is the from jump into hyperspace, the climactic lightsaber duel between Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vadar, Vadar intoning “I am your father”, or the destruction of the Death Star they all still resonate today. But what of the science of Star Wars. Are these great scenes and effects even possible? Do they violate the laws of physics and nature as we understand them today? Join Tom Fox and Dr. Ben Locwin, a healthcare executive, who in addition to his medical expertise is a degreed astrophysicist, as the look behind some of the most exciting scenes in Star Wars to look at the portrayal of science in Star Wars. In Episode 3, they discuss the mechanical prosthetics as used on Luke after his forearm is severed by Darth Vadar. Some of the topics covered are:

1. Sequential current must be deployed to detract muscles to create motion.

2.The role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in mechanical prosthetics.

3. Regenerative cell therapy for skin covering?

4. How are chambers powered?

Categories
Greetings and Felicitations

The Science of Star Wars: Part 2, Fighting with Lightsabers


Star Wars continues to be the most successful movie franchise in history. The movies are great fun, the story telling is excellent, thoroughly based on the Hero’s Journey and the characters are some of the most beloved in cinema history. Whether your favorite scene is the from jump into hyperspace, the climactic lightsaber duel between Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vadar, Vadar intoning “I am your father”, or the destruction of the Death Star they all still resonate today. But what of the science of Star Wars. Are these great scenes and effects even possible? Do they violate the laws of physics and nature as we understand them today? Join Tom Fox and Dr. Ben Locwin, a healthcare executive, who in addition to his medical expertise is a degreed astrophysicist, as the look behind some of the most exciting scenes in Star Wars to look at the portrayal of science in Star Wars. In Episode 2, they discuss dueling with lightsabers. Some of the topics covered are:

  1. As cool now as it was in 1977.
  2. How to generate the photon beam of light?
  3. Could the beam be similar to lightening?
  4. Would the ‘blades’ pass through each other?
  5. Blaster photons would pass through them.
Categories
Greetings and Felicitations

The Science of Star Wars: Part 1, Traveling in Hyperspace

Star Wars continues to be the most successful movie franchise in history. The movies are great fun, the storytelling is excellent, thoroughly based on the Hero’s Journey, and the characters are some of the most beloved in cinema history. Whether your favorite scene is the from jump into hyperspace, the climactic lightsaber duel between Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vadar, Vadar intoning “I am your father,” or the destruction of the Death Star, they all still resonate today. But what of the science of Star Wars. Are these great scenes and effects even possible? Do they violate the laws of physics and nature as we understand them today? Join Tom Fox and Dr. Ben Locwin, a healthcare executive. In addition to his medical expertise, he is a degreed astrophysicist, as they look behind some of the most exciting scenes in Star Wars to look at the portrayal of science in Star Wars. In Episode 1, they consider traveling in hyperspace. Some of the topics covered are:

1. The visual effect of light bending.

2. Does traveling in hyperspace violate Einstein’s Law of Special Relativity.

3. What would be traveling in hyperspace do to the human body?

4. How does one navigate in hyperspace.

Categories
Greetings and Felicitations

Understanding Lyme Disease – Episode 6, Capstone Wrap up


Scott Endicott and Ben Locwin with host Tom Fox are back for this concluding capstone episode in the Understanding Lyme Disease Podcast series. In this episode, they talk about the most current developments in Lyme Disease treatment, what’s new in diagnostic treatments and what is on the horizon for both treatments and Lyme Disease patients.
Resources
Scott Endicott | LinkedIn
Ben Locwin | LinkedIn | Twitter
American Lyme Disease Foundation www.aldf.com
 LymeDisease.org
International Lyme and Associated Diseases Educational Foundation ILADEF
International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society

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Greetings and Felicitations Understanding Lyme Disease

Understanding Lyme Disease Episode 1: Origins and Evolution

Scott Endicott and Ben Locwin are Tom Fox’s guests on the first episode of the Lyme disease series. Scott is the Executive Leader of Healthcare Solutions at CliniHealth Solutions. Ben is a TEDx speaker, healthcare and pharmaceutical executive with experience in senior management teams. They join Tom to talk about how Lyme disease first came about, symptoms, and the misinformation surrounding the disease.
 

 
The Discovery of Lyme Disease
Lyme disease has been around for millions of years, however, it evaded detection until the 1960s. The first diagnosed cases were occurring around Old Lyme, Connecticut which is how the disease got its name. It was first detected within children who had pediatric rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. A man named Willy Burgdorfer, who was a researcher, was trying to find the cause of the symptoms. He had been looking at spotted fever as well as other tick-borne diseases at the time and turned his attention to Old Lyme, Connecticut. In 1981 he found an organism within the affected children, and so the organism itself is named Borrelia Burgdorferi after him. 
 
The First Diagnosis
There has been a lot of confusion regarding the symptoms related to Lyme disease, so it is important to know what the true symptoms of the disease are and what to look out for. “The diagnostic criteria has been a moving target since 1975,” Scott begins. The original Lyme disease epidemic was juvenile arthritis, and that was the trigger that pushed the community at the time to do further investigation as arthritis is not contagious. That confusion set the tone on how the disease was first diagnosed.
 
The Evolution of Lyme Research
Lyme has been detected in all US states of America except Hawaii. At one point it was believed that germs in the air was the cause for the disease going around. This was called germ theory. Today, the research and science has evolved, and information exchange and diagnostic criteria are becoming aligned. Nowadays, Lyme disease can be treated with simple antibiotics with very high efficacy. This is because there are more clinical professionals who are able to identify the disease early, and treat it effectively.
 
Resources
Scott Endicott | LinkedIn 
Ben Locwin | LinkedIn | Twitter
 

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Greetings and Felicitations

Ben Locwin on the Delta Variant


Welcome to newest edition to the Compliance Podcast Network: Greetings and Felicitations, a podcast where Tom Fox visits with a wide variety of guests on a wide variety of topics. In today’s inaugural episode I visit with Compliance Podcast Network fan favorite Dr. Ben Locwin. We take a deep dive into where we are into where we are with the Delta Variant, immunization, health care economics and delivery of health care services.