>O2 THINKING AHEAD >> Taking a backward step on looking into the future

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Backwards step on looking into the future

Scientific journals can be as bad as newspapers in preferring eye-catching stories to negative findings

  Ben Goldacre

Last year a mainstream psychology researcher called Daryl Bem published a competent academic paper, in a well-respected journal, showing evidence of precognition – the ability to see the future. Instead of designing new studies to see whether people could consciously tell you about the future, he ran some classic psychology experiments backwards.

In experiments on subliminal influence, participants are presented with two mirror images of the same picture. They are asked which they prefer, and are likely to choose the images where a subliminal negative image is flashed up for milliseconds, before they make their choice. In the Bem study, the negative images were flashed up after they made their choice, but participants were still less likely to choose the image on the side with the nasty subliminal image. This was all pretty kosher, and statistically significant, and I wasn’t very interested, for the same reasons you weren’t.

If humans really could see the future, we’d probably know about it already; and extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, rather than one-off findings. There’s plenty of amazing stuff in our infinitely distracting universe and I’ll pay attention to the cheesy precognition stuff when the evidence is good and replicated. Now the study has been replicated.

Three academics – Stuart Richie, Chris French, and Richard Wiseman – have re-run three of these backwards experiments, just as Bem ran them, and found no evidence of precognition. They submitted their negative results to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, which published Bem’s paper last year, and the journal rejected their paper out of hand. We never, they explained, publish studies that replicate other work.

This squabble illustrates two problems facing all of science, which have never been adequately addressed. The first is the problem of context: these positive results may have happened purely by chance, against a backdrop of negative results that never reached the light of day. Researchers and academic journals, just like newspaper journalists, are more likely to publish eye-catching positive results.

We know that even if you analyse one study’s results in lots of different ways, you increase the likelihood of getting a positive finding purely by chance. So replicating these findings was key – Bem himself said so in his paper – and keeping track of the negative replications is vital too. For clinical trials, there is a system of registering your trial before you recruit participants, to reduce the risk of negative results being buried (it’s imperfect, as I’ve written, but it exists).

Outside of trials, people tend not to bother, which puts whole fields at risk of spurious positive findings: Wiseman has set up a register for people to declare that they were attempting to replicate Bem’s work. But the second issue is how people find out about stuff.

We exist in a blizzard of information, and stuff goes missing. Publishing a follow-up in the same venue that made an initial claim is one way of addressing this problem (and when the journal Science rejected the replication paper, even they said: “Your results would be better received and appreciated by the audience of the journal where the Daryl Bem research was published.”)

The New York Times ran a long piece on the original precognition finding, New Scientist covered it twice, the Guardian joined in online, and the Telegraph wrote about it three times over. It’s hard to picture many of these outlets giving equal prominence to the new, negative findings now emerging, in the same way that newspapers often fail to return to a debunked scare.

The most interesting problems around information today are about how to cope with the overload. For some eye-catching precognition research, this stuff probably doesn’t matter.

What’s interesting is that the information architectures of medicine, academia and popular culture are all broken in the exact same way.

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• With a bit of precognition, you’d have known I was going to post again on this topic, and with a lot of precognition, you’d have known I was going to post today (stat.columbia.edu)
• Response Precognitive dreaming should not be dismissed as coincidence (guardian.co.uk)
• Do Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence? (psychologytoday.com)
• The Top 5 Mad Scientists In The World (talesfromthelou.wordpress.com)
• Can you really learn to be psychic? (mirror.co.uk)
• New proof of time travel/precognition [Fritzworth] (minx.cc)

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>O2 LIFE >>> Can you Distinguish yourself from others?

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Distinguishing yourself from others

Figure 1: Groups of neurons in a specific part of the brain called the medial frontal cortex, which is associated with social learning, fire in ways that help individuals to distinguish between self and others. 

Credit: 2011 Masaki Isoda

 (Medical Xpress) — Researchers in Japan have identified the specific nerve cells responsible for the ability to distinguish between the actions of self and others. The discovery lays the foundations for studying social learning at the level of nerve cells using a new experimental technique. The work, led by Masaki Isoda from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology and Atsushi Iriki from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, may lead to a better understanding of mental conditions where distinctions between self and others become confused.

Neuroscientists have long known that nerve cells called ‘mirror neurons’—found mainly in the brain’s cerebral cortex—fire when an individual performs an action or observes one performed by somebody else. The resulting information can be used as a basis for understanding others and for social interaction but, until now, a critical part of the puzzle was missing. If the same group of neurons fired when performing or observing an action, how could an individual distinguish self from other?

“Obviously, the brain needs a separate mechanism that enables one to make that distinction,” says Isoda. The researchers recognized that to find that mechanism they needed to develop an interactive task involving both observation and action that could be used to measure associated differences in the activity of neurons.
The task they designed involved two monkeys sitting face to face and taking turns to make choices of pushing one of two different colored buttons for a reward. Both monkeys were rewarded for a right choice and neither received a reward for a wrong choice. Each monkey had two turns, and then control would pass to the other. For blocks of between 5 and 17 turns, the color associated with the reward remained the same, but then it would change. So, observing which color was rewarded was important to success.
The researchers found the monkeys were quite capable of observing and learning from another’s action in planning their own response. Then, by monitoring the activity of 862 neurons in the medial frontal cortex (MFC) of the brain—which is associated with social cognition—they detected groups of neurons that were selectively activated only when a monkey’s partner performed the action. The researchers observed these ‘partner-fired’ neurons in dominant and submissive monkeys, and found they were most prevalent in the dorsomedial convexity region of the MFC (Fig. 1).
“In future, we hope to be able to identify the entire neuronal network and precise neuronal operation involved in self/other distinction,” Isoda says.

More information: Yoshida, K., et al. Representation of others’ action by neurons in monkey medial frontal cortex. Current Biology 21, 249–253 (2011). http://www.cell.co … 0960-9822(11)00027-3
Provided by RIKEN (news : web)

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>O2 HEALTH > Does sugar feed cancer??

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Researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah have uncovered new information on the notion that sugar “feeds” tumors. The findings may also have implications for other diseases such as diabetes. The research is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“It’s been known since 1923 that tumor cells use a lot more glucose than normal cells. Our research helps show how this process takes place, and how it might be stopped to control tumor growth,” says Don Ayer, Ph.D., a Huntsman Cancer Institute investigator and professor in the Department of Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah.
During both normal and cancerous cell growth, a cellular process takes place that involves both glucose (sugar) and glutamine (an amino acid). Glucose and glutamine are both essential for cell growth, and it was long assumed they operated independently, but Ayer’s research shows they are inter-dependent. He discovered that by restricting glutamine availability, glucose utilization is also stopped. “Essentially, if you don’t have glutamine, the cell is short circuited due to a lack of glucose, which halts the growth of the tumor cell” Ayer says.
The research, spearheaded by Mohan Kaadige, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Ayer’s lab, focused on MondoA, a protein that is responsible for turning genes on and off. In the presence of glutamine, MondoA blocks the expression of a gene called TXNIP. TXNIP is thought to be a tumor suppressor, but when it’s blocked by MondoA , it allows cells to take up glucose, which in turn drives tumor growth. Ayer’s research could lead to new drugs that would target glutamine utilization, or target MondoA or TXNIP.
Ayer says the next step in his research is to develop animal models to test his ideas about how MondoA and TXNIP control cell growth. “If we can understand that, we can break the cycle of glucose utilization which could be beneficial in the treatment of cancer,” Ayer says.

Source: University of Utah Health Sciences (news : web)

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• Exploiting the stress response to detonate mitochondria in cancer cells (scienceblog.com)

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>O2 HEALTH > NEW link between brain molecule and obesity& diabetes

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Researchers find link between brain molecule and obesity and diabetes

The brain’s hypothalamus plays a key role in obesity and one of its major complications – type 2 diabetes. Nerve cells in the hypothalamus detect nutrients and hormones circulating in the blood and then coordinate a complex series of behavioral and physiological responses to maintain a balance between calories eaten and calories burned. Obesity and diabetes can result when this regulatory mechanism goes awry.

Now, research by postdoctoral fellow Clémence Blouet, Ph.D., and Gary Schwartz, Ph.D., professor in the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience and of medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, has revealed a molecule in the brain that may contribute to those health problems, both of which are reaching epidemic proportions. A 2008 study in the journal Obesity predicted that 86 percent of U.S. adults will be overweight or obese by 2030 if current trends continue. And last October the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that the prevalence of diabetes among American adults could rise from the current 1 in 10 to as many as 1 in 3 by 2050.
In work involving mouse models of obesity and diabetes, Drs. Blouet and Schwartz have shown that excess nutrient availability leads to an overabundance of a protein found in nutrient-sensing nerve cells of the hypothalamus. They concluded that increased levels of this protein, known as thioredoxin-interacting protein, or TXNIP, contribute to the onset of obesity and the impaired control of blood sugar levels that characterizes type 2 diabetes. Their findings were published in the April 20 online edition of the Journal of Neuroscience.
“Our study indicates that TXNIP in hypothalamic nerve cells provides a crucial link between brain nutrient sensing and the increases in body weight and fat mass that lead to obesity and diabetes,” said Dr. Schwartz. “Hyperglycemia—pathologically elevated glucose levels—causes an excess of TXNIP in hypothalamic neurons, which in turn may contribute in several ways to a breakdown in energy homeostasis—the balance between calories taken in and calories burned. For example, we’ve found that elevated TXNIP in nerve cells contributes to obesity by decreasing energy expenditure, as evidenced by decreased physical activity, and by reducing the rate at which fat is burned to produce energy. In addition to increasing fat mass, hypothalamic TXNIP overabundance also impairs glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity—two of the hallmarks of diabetes.”
Dr. Schwartz notes that these findings regarding TXNIP could eventually lead to therapies. “Interventions that can suppress TXNIP production or selectively inactivate this protein might help in preventing weight gain and the obesity and diabetes that result from it,” he said.
The title of the paper is “Nutrient-sensing hypothalamic TXNIP links nutrient excess to energy imbalance in mice.” The research was funded by the Skirball Institute for Nutrient Sensing and the National Institutes of Health through the Albert Einstein Diabetes Research and Training Center and the New York Obesity Research Center. Albert Einstein College of Medicine is actively seeking licensing partners interested in pursuing clinical application of this patent-pending technology.

Provided by Albert Einstein College of Medicine (news : web)

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• Are We Truly Clueless About Weight Control? (education.com)
• Can weight loss help me get rid of my diabetes? (zocdoc.com)

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>O2 SCIENCE >> Clever Windows

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 A prototype of the MIT researchers’ transparent solar cell is seen on top of a promotional item for MIT’s 150th anniversary celebrations. Photo: Geoffrey Supran

Turning windows into powerplants

by David L. Chandler
 

If a new development from labs at MIT pans out as expected, someday the entire surface area of a building’s windows could be used to generate electricity — without interfering with the ability to see through them.

 Richard Lunt, one of the researchers who developed the new transparent solar cell, demonstrates its transparency using a prototype cell. Photo: Geoffrey Supran

The key technology is a photovoltaic cell based on organic molecules, which harnesses the energy of infrared light while allowing visible light to pass through. Coated onto a pane of standard window glass, it could provide power for lights and other devices, and would lower installation costs by taking advantage of existing window structures.

These days, anywhere from half to two-thirds of the cost of a traditional, thin-film solar-power system comes from those installation costs, and up to half of the cost of the panels themselves is for the glass and structural parts, said Vladimir Bulović, professor of electrical engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. But the transparent photovoltaic system he developed with Richard Lunt, a postdoctoral researcher in the Research Laboratory of Electronics, could eliminate many of those associated costs, they say.

A paper by Bulović and Lunt describing their new system has been published online in the journal Applied Physics Letters, and will appear in a forthcoming issue of the print edition.
Previous attempts to create transparent solar cells have either had extremely low efficiency (less than 1 percent of incoming solar radiation is converted to electricity), or have blocked too much light to be practical for use in windows. But the MIT researchers were able to find a specific chemical formulation for their cells that, when combined with partially infrared-reflective coatings, gives both high visible-light transparency and much better efficiency than earlier versions — comparable to that of non-transparent organic photovoltaic cells.
In a new building, or one where windows are being replaced anyway, adding the transparent solar cell material to the glass would be a relatively small incremental cost, since the cost of the glass, frames and installation would all be the same with or without the solar component, the researchers say, although it is too early in the process to be able to estimate actual costs. And with modern double-pane windows, the photovoltaic material could be coated on one of the inner surfaces, where it would be completely protected from weather or window washing. Only wiring connections to the window and a voltage controller would be needed to complete the system in a home.

In addition, much of the cost of existing solar panels comes from the glass substrate that the cells are placed on, and from the handling of that glass in the factory. Again, much of that cost would not apply if the process were made part of an existing window-manufacturing operation. Overall, Bulović says, “a large fraction of the cost could be eliminated” compared to today’s solar installations.
This will not be the ultimate solution to all the nation’s energy needs, Bulović says, but rather it is part of “a family of solutions” for producing power without greenhouse-gas emissions. “It’s attractive, because it can be added to things already being deployed,” rather than requiring land and infrastructure for a whole new system.

Fine-tuning the cells
The work is still at a very early stage, Bulović cautions. So far, they have achieved an efficiency of 1.7 percent in the prototype solar cells, but they expect that with further development they should be able to reach 12 percent, making it comparable to existing commercial solar panels. “It will be a challenge to get there,” Lunt says, “but it’s a question of excitonic engineering,” requiring optimization of the composition and configuration of the photovoltaic materials.
The researchers expect that after further development in the lab followed by work on manufacturability, the technology could become a practical commercial product within a decade. In addition to being suitable for coating directly on glass in the manufacture of new windows, the material might also be coated onto flexible material that could then be rolled onto existing windows, Lunt says.
Using the window surfaces of existing buildings could provide much more surface area for solar power than traditional solar panels, Bulović says. In mornings and evenings, with the sun low in the sky, the sides of big-city buildings are brightly illuminated, he says, and that vertical “footprint” of potential light-harvesting area could produce a significant amount of power.


Max Shtein, associate professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Michigan, says, “This work demonstrates a useful effect, and is based on very sound science and engineering.” But he adds that “it is but one of the many other methods by which a similar functionality could be achieved,” and says the biggest uncertainty at this point is that because they are so new, “the lifetime of organic PV cells is a bit of an unknown at this point, though there is some hope.” In addition, Shtein says, “The potential of this technology is good if projected far into the future,” but only if the efficiency can be improved as the researchers expect it can.
As added benefits, the manufacturing process for the MIT researchers’ solar cells could be more environmentally friendly, because it does not require the energy-intensive processes used to create silicon solar cells. The MIT process of fabricating solar cells keeps the glass panes at ordinary room temperature, Bulović noted. Installations of the new system would also block much of the heating effect of sunlight streaming through the windows, potentially cutting down on air conditioning needs within a building.

The research was funded by the Center for Excitonics, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Source: http://www.physorg.com

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.

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>O2 VISIONS > The Secrets of the first human brain

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(Images: Allen Institute for Brain Science)

 World’s first human brain map unveiled

NEW SCIENTIST

Hayley Crawford, reporter

The world’s first computerised map of the brain was released yesterday by scientists at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, in Seattle, Washington, after more than four years of cutting-edge research.

The Human Brain Atlas is an interactive research tool that will help scientists to understand how the brain works and aid new discoveries in disease and treatments.
The information used to build it comes from the analysis of two human brains, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and a variation of MRI called diffusion tensor imaging.
Allan Jones, the CEO of the institute, told Wired how the brains were also chopped up into small pieces, and RNA extracted from the tissue. They used this RNA to obtain a read-out of the 25,000 genes in the human genome.
All this information was put together to create a detailed map of the brain. One thousand anatomical sites in the brain can be searched, supported by more than 100 million data points that indicate the gene expression and biochemistry of each site.
For example, a researcher could quickly create a 3D snapshot (see image below) of all the locations in the brain where Prozac’s biochemical targets are expressed.

The researchers found a striking 94 per cent similarity in the biochemistry between the two brains, and discovered that at least 82 per cent of all human genes are expressed in the brain.
Allan says this isn’t too surprising:

When you think about the complexity of the functions of the brain, and the variety of different cell types found within the brain, it’s not quite as surprising to see how much of the genome is used to serve the brain

 

 Both brains used in the $55 million project were male, which prompted The Wall Street Journal to ask why a woman’s brain had not been included. Allan told Bloomberg that eligible brain donors usually die from accidental causes or cardiac arrest, both of which disproportionately affect men. However, he says the project is currently processing a female brain, and that ultimately, the facility will run at least 10 brains through the process.

Other researchers are also attempting to map neural connections in a mouse brain, something MRI cannot do. They will turn slices of brain into digital images by an automated electron microscope. A computer will read those images, trace the outlines of nerve cells, and stack the pictures into a 3D reconstruction.
Maps like these have limitless potential in drug discovery and human genetics and will no doubt be an essential step forward in the fight against disease.

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>O2 VISIONS >> New way to create true-color 3-D holograms

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Researchers discover way to create true-color 3-D holograms

  by Bob Yirka

 

A view of a 3-dimensional green crane reconstructed by white-light illumination. 

Credit: Image © Science/AAAS

(PhysOrg.com) — Satoshi Kawata, 

Miyu Ozaki and their team of photonics physicists at Osaka University in Japan, have figured out a way to capture the original colors of an object in a still 3-D hologram by using plasmons (quantums of plasma oscillation) that are created when a silver sheathed material is bathed in simple white light. The discovery marks a new milestone in the development of true 3-D full color holograms. In their paper, published in Science magazine, the researchers show a rendered apple in all its natural red and green hues…

Holograms, of course, have been around for years, with the first images created in the 60’s. Back then the technique was to fire a laser at an object and then record the patterns of interference in the light waves onto a photo sensitive material. Later, rainbow type holograms (such as those used on credit cards) were, and still are, created by using a technique whereby white light is reflected off a silver backing through a plastic film that contains several different images of a single object.

Enlarge

Image (c) Science/AAAS

The team at Osaka took another approach, they use both lasers and white light. They first fire a laser at an object, say an apple, to create an interference pattern, but instead of just one laser color, they actually use three; red, green and blue. The interference pattern is then captured on a light sensitive material which is coated with silver (because it contains electrons that are easily excited by white light) and silicon dioxide (to help steer the waves). They then shine a steady white light on the metal sheathed material exciting the free electrons, causing the creation of surface plasmons, which results in the regeneration of the captured image as a true-color 3-D hologram; one that can be viewed from almost any angle and is the same colors as the original object.
Currently, the technique has only been shown to work on still images, and the results displayed on a very small surface area (about as big as a baseball card), but the results of research is nonetheless a very big step towards creating not just more realistic holograms, but true animated 3-D technology.

More information: “Surface-Plasmon Holography with White-Light Illumination,” by M. Ozaki et al., Science 8 April 2011: Vol. 332 no. 6026 pp. 218-220. DOI: 10.1126/science.1201045
© 2010 PhysOrg.com

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>O2 HUB >>>Why Men and women look more alike than ever before?

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Men and women look more alike than ever before, scientists claim

By Daniel Bates

• Women’s facial structure has become noticeably larger

They say that men are from Mars and women are from Venus.

But when it comes to their faces at least, the two sexes are more similar than you might think.

Researchers looked at skulls of men and women dating back to the 16th century and found that over time they have grown alike.

The facial structure of women in particular has changed and become noticeably larger than their older counterparts.

Come together: Researchers looked at skulls of men and women dating back to the 16th century and found that over time they have grown alike

Experts said it was not to do with women evolving to look more like their men, but that better diet and environmental factors had caused the changes.

They examined more than 200 skulls dating between the 16th and 20th centuries from Spain and around 50 skulls from 20th century Portugal to come to their conclusions.

Having such a wide spread of samples was important to the team from North Carolina State University as it showed them how the changes happened over a long period of time.

They found that not only were men and women more alike, but that the Spanish and Portuguese sample were alike too, suggesting that standards developed for one country could be applied for both.

‘Applying 20th century standards to historical remains could be misleading, since sex differences can change over time’

The team focused in on the differences between men and women because it could ‘help us establish the sex of the remains based on their craniofacial features,’ said lead researcher Dr Ann Ross from the North Carolina university department of anthropology.

‘Improving our understanding of the craniofacial features of regional groups can help us learn more from skeletal remains, or even help us identify an individual based on his or her remains,’ she said.

Being able to carry this out is particularly important when an incomplete skeleton is found, she added.

‘This has applications for characterising older remains. Applying 20th century standards to historical remains could be misleading, since sex differences can change over time – as we showed in this study.’

In addition to academic use, the research could be useful in criminal investigations as investigators will be able to tell a man from a woman more easily.

More…

• Egyptian mummies who lived 3,500 years ago ‘had clogged arteries despite healthier lifestyle’
• Lost for 2,000 years… Could this be the first portrait of Jesus?

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>O2 VISIONS >>> Science seeks and destroys Cancer Cells (video)

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Fighting the war on cancer at the nano-level, researchers hope to dramatically change how cancer is being treated. They are trying to create nanoparticles that travel the bloodstream, latch onto cancers in their earliest stages and destroy them.

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1417334557
Credit: Science Nation – NSF

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>Do Skills Shortages Threaten Corporate Growth and Innovation?

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Global Skills Shortages Threaten Corporate Growth and Innovation

by CFO Innovation Asia Staff

Αccording to a new survey released by Deloitte and Forbes Insights, “Talent Edge 2020,” the quest for talent in global and emerging markets is the leading concern among 41% of the corporate executives and talent managers surveyed, and a slightly more pressing concern for companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (48%) than their counterparts in the Americas or Asia-Pacific countries (35% and 41%, respectively).

The Survey, also reveals potential critical shortfalls in research and development (R&D) skills and executive leadership. Nearly three-quarters of executives surveyed (72%) anticipate either a severe or a moderate shortage in R&D talent, while more than half of those same executives (56%) stated they expect the same magnitude of shortage among executive leadership.

“What we are seeing is an unexpected talent paradox – even though unemployment rates remain relatively high in the US– companies are struggling to find the skilled workers they need to fill critical jobs worldwide,” explains Jeff Schwartz, a principal in the human capital practice of Deloitte Consulting LLP and global co-leader and U.S. leader for talent services.

“During the recession, most executives were churning their business and talent strategies into survival mode, not success mode – this has to change or corporate growth and innovation will be severely challenged,” adds Schwartz.

The R&D shortage is particularly prevalent in industries where product innovation is critical. Among technology, media and telecom companies, 40% of those surveyed predict a severe shortage of R&D talent, while 39% of consumer/industrial companies and 37% of life sciences and healthcare companies surveyed foresee severe skill shortages in this area.

The survey further shows that many executives are concerned about their companies’ leadership development programs and pipelines. More than half of respondents (56%) predict shortages in executive leadership, and 63% are either highly or very highly concerned about employee retention over the next 12 months.

“This is where the talent paradox poses the biggest threat – not only are companies struggling to find the right skill sets to fill critical jobs, but they are worried about their ability to keep the talented workers they have,” says Schwartz. “And, these are concerns worldwide – not just in a company’s backyard. So, if companies are not thinking about talent and workforce issues in a global way, they are not thinking about them in the right way.”

Positively, the survey shows promise that most companies are thinking globally. When asked to look ahead and predict where their talent strategies are headed, nearly two out of three respondents predicted that their companies will increase their focus on global diversity management (65%) and global mobility (64%) over the next year.

And, most survey participants are aware that changes need to be made. Approximately, 80% admit that their talent programs need improvement, while only one in five executives rate their company’s programs as “world-class.”

According to Deloitte’s analysis of the survey data, the self-described “world-class” firms have a different set of priorities and a stronger focus on long-term talent investments than other companies. For example, when compared to companies whose talent programs need to be improved, “world class” companies are more likely to make investments in creating career paths and challenging opportunities for employees (46% for “world-class” firms vs. 36% for all others), developing leaders and succession planning (48% vs. 36%), and recruiting hard-to-find skill sets (42% vs. 29%).

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