Pharmaceutical drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) but later re-called from the market—such as the antidiabetic drug Avandia and pain-reliever Vioxx—were the impetus for an Institute of Medicine committee report released yesterday, recommending that the FDA take proactive steps to continue monitoring drugs' safety after initial approval and throughout their time on the market.
Tech
Engineered nanomaterials, prized for their unique semiconducting properties, are already prevalent in everyday consumer products — from sunscreens, cosmetics and paints to textiles and solar batteries — and economic forecasters are predicting the industry will grow into $1 trillion business in the next few years. But how safe are these materials?
LONDON, ON – Over the past decade, there has been a steady stream of information promoting the health benefits of fish oil capsules. According to Dr. Louise Moist, a Scientist at Lawson Health Research Institute, fish oil may also improve outcomes for kidney patients undergoing hemodialysis.
Hemodialysis can be delivered through arteriovenous (AV) grafts, artificial vessels created to join an artery to a vein. Unfortunately, AV grafts are prone to congestion and clotting, causing disruptions to treatment and a need for surgical correction.
America's approach to clean energy needs to be reformed if it is to meaningfully affect energy security or the environment, according to two new articles by Stanford writers.
Among terrorism scenarios that raise the most concern are attacks involving nuclear devices or materials. For that reason, technology that can effectively detect smuggled radioactive materials is considered vital to U.S. security.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - You think your computer has a lot of memory … if you keep using your computer you may, too.
ANN ARBOR, Mich.--- Portable gas sensors can allow you to search for explosives, diagnose medical conditions through a patient's breath, and decide whether it's safe to stay in a mine.
These devices do all this by identifying and measuring airborne chemicals, and a new, more sensitive, smart model is under development at the University of Michigan. The smart sensor could detect chemical weapon vapors or indicators of disease better than the current design. It also consumes less power, crucial for stretching battery life down a mineshaft or in isolated clinics.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — In the last 10 years, cryptography researchers have demonstrated that even the most secure-seeming computer is shockingly vulnerable to attack. The time it takes a computer to store data in memory, fluctuations in its power consumption and even the noises it emits can betray information to a savvy assailant.
Reducing youth exposure to alcohol advertising and marketing is a missed opportunity for states to improve public health, according to a new review of state alcohol advertising laws from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
PITTSBURGH—The millions of "check-ins" generated by foursquare, the location-based social networking site, can be used to create a dynamic view of a city's workings and character, Carnegie Mellon University researchers say. In contrast to static neighborhood boundaries and dated census figures, these "Livehoods" reflect the ever-changing patterns of city life.
A team of chemical engineers led by Paul J. Dauenhauer of the University of Massachusetts Amherst has discovered a new, high-yield method of producing the key ingredient used to make plastic bottles from biomass. The process is inexpensive and currently creates the chemical p-xylene with an efficient yield of 75-percent, using most of the biomass feedstock, Dauenhauer says. The research is published in the journal ACS Catalysis.
A team of Rice University students accepted a challenge to turn shale gas produced in China into a range of useful, profitable and environmentally friendly products and did so in a cost-effective manner.
In the age of high-speed computing, the photon is king. However, producing the finely tuned particles of light is a complex and time-consuming process, until now.
Thanks to the work by a team of engineers led by Professor Amr Helmy of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, a novel solution has been identified that will make the production of special class of photons faster and easier.
There was no change in concentrations of chloride, dissolved solids, or nitrate in groundwater for more than 50 percent of well networks sampled in a new analysis by the USGS that compared samples from 1988-2000 to samples from 2001-2010. For those networks that did have a change, seven times more networks saw increases as opposed to decreases.
The analysis was done by the USGS National Water Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) to determine if concentrations of these constituents have increased or decreased significantly from the 1990's to the early 2000's nationwide.
Durham, NC — Not all acts of altruism are alike, says a new study. From bees and wasps that die defending their nests, to elephants that cooperate to care for young, a new mathematical model pinpoints the environmental conditions that favor one form of altruism over another.
The model predicts that creatures will help each other in different ways depending on whether key resources such as food and habitat are scarce or abundant, say researchers from Indiana University and the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, North Carolina.