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Scan™ Monthly No. 050 April 2007 <<  Other Issues of Scan™ Monthly   Download this Scan™ Monthly  (PDF)   • Signals of Change     – Customizing Nutrition – Leveraging Internet Innovations – The New Energy Environment – Potential Cancer Breakthroughs – Creating Sensual Foods – Instant Online Translations   • Insights     – Crowdsourcing: Benefits and Drawbacks – Scan™ Meeting Digest: 21 March 2007 Meeting   • Calendar Signals of Change Customizing Nutrition SoC231 Researchers are discovering that the way people metabolize the food that they eat varies dramatically from one person to another. Customized nutritional-modeling capabilities are emerging for managing diet as part of lifestyle management. Such capabilities will provide a platform for a broader range of opportunities that include diagnostics and health-care–information advisory services, customized recipes and foods, and new food concepts through cross-sector alliances. Leveraging Internet Innovations SoC232 Companies looking for innovative tools to increase efficiency and lower business costs without spending a fortune continue to turn to the Internet for possibilities. Three recent initiatives prove that the Internet continues to expand its role as a source, means, and executor of innovation. The New Energy Environment SoC233 Climate change resulting from human-caused greenhouse-gas emissions is today's front-running environmental issue. The convergence of public attention, developments in alternative-energy technology, and private-sector investment in such technologies is reaching critical mass, making it clear that a rapidly changing energy environment is the only certainty that companies can depend on. Potential Cancer Breakthroughs SoC234 Recent Scan™ abstracts point to breakthroughs in the detection and treatment of cancer that are notable for being both low in cost and effective in preliminary tests. These developments have the potential to usher in significant changes in the economics of medicine. Creating Sensual Foods SoC235 Whether through combining ingredients in novel formulations or transforming food ingredients using unconventional preparation methods, the food industry is expanding and amplifying the sensory and experience components of foods to provide consumers with interesting new dining experiences as well as pleasure, comfort, health, and wellness. Instant Online Translations SoC236 After many years of development and only limited success, new attempts to develop machine-translation systems that use statistical methods and large amounts of computer processing are now offering more useful output, without requiring excessive human labor. Insights Crowdsourcing: Benefits and Drawbacks View full summary D07-2548   Download this Insight Crowdsourcing is the process of outsourcing a task to a large, fairly undifferentiated group of people—a crowd—and selectively harvesting the results. Crowdsourcing is increasingly becoming an integral part of the business environment, and although the concept is still at a nascent stage, more and more companies are using it to access the power of previously untapped pools of talent. Risks and potential drawbacks exist for the practice, however. This study outlines recent developments in the area and points out benefits but also cautions by calling attention to potential drawbacks of the concept. 8 pages. Scan™ Meeting Digest: 21 March 2007 Meeting View full summary D07-2549   Download this Insight This document is a digest of the Scan™ abstract clusters that participants in the 21 March 2007 Scan meeting identified. The digest includes a description of the Scan process for people who have never attended a Scan meeting, a list of the clusters that meeting participants identified, and a one-page description of each cluster's premise and supporting abstracts. The document has active links that allow the reader to access the supporting abstracts for each cluster in Scan's online abstract database. The document also has links to previously published Scan documents relating to the particular cluster. Clusters of abstracts for this March meeting include human appetite for self-destruction, modern lifestyle killers, drugless Rx, food integrity and identity, the green tightrope walk, new frontiers of virtual worlds, planet India, cleansing techs, $6 million grandma, individualized nutrition, go east for wellness, DNA as smart material, metabolic treatment models, and timely frameworks. Compiler: Martin Schwirn. 37 pages. Calendar Scan™ Abstract Meetings Scan abstract meetings (in which SRIC-BI staff participate in a free-form discussion of current Scan abstracts) are open for client obseration/participation on: 23 May 2007 at 9:00 am 18 July 2007 at 9:00 am 19 September 2007 at 9:00 am 17 October 2007 at 9:00 am 23 January 2008 at 9:00 am 19 March 2008 at 9:00 am. Please contact your SRIC-BI marketing representative to schedule participation in any of the Scan Abstract Meetings.

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