Long-Term Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter, Residential Proximity to Major Roads and Measures of Brain Structure – Elissa H. Wilker, Sarah R. Preis, Alexa S. Beiser, Philip A. Wolf, Rhoda Au, Itai Kloog, Wenyuan Li, Joel Schwartz, Petros Koutrakis, Charles DeCarli, Sudha Seshadri, and Murray A. Mittleman. Stroke, 2015 DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.114.008348 “Background and Purpose—Long-term exposure to… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: April 2015
The Chernobyl Story – 29th Anniversary
Andrew Leatherbarrow: “At precisely 01:23:40 on the morning of April 26th, 1986, a control room operator named Alexander Akimov made his fateful decision to press the Emergency Shutdown button at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power station. The reactor exploded, annihilating its containment building and sending a lethal cloud of radioactive particles across Europe. This unprecedented accident… Continue Reading
World Intellectual Property Day 2015 Events
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) – “Every April 26 we celebrate World Intellectual Property Day to promote discussion of the role of intellectual property in encouraging innovation and creativity… WIPO is the global forum for intellectual property services, policy, information and cooperation. We are a self-funding agency of the United Nations, with 188 member states.… Continue Reading
What Is the Internet of Things?
What Is the Internet of Things?, Mike Loukides and Jon Bruner, O’Reilly Media: “The Internet of Things (IoT) is a blending of software and hardware, introducing intelligence and connectedness to objects and adding physical endpoints to software. Radical changes in the hardware development process have made the IoT—and its vast possibility—accessible to anyone. This report provides… Continue Reading
Consumer Reports – How safe is your shrimp?
Consumer Reports – “Each of us eats, on average, almost 4 pounds per year, making shrimp more popular than tuna. Once considered a special-occasion treat, shrimp has become so ubiquitous that we now expect to find it on the menu whether we’re at a pricey restaurant or a fast-food joint. In fact, Americans eat about… Continue Reading
The Systematic Component of Monetary Policy in SVARs
Arias, Jonas and Caldara, Dario and Rubio-Ramirez, Juan Francisco, The Systematic Component of Monetary Policy in SVARs: An Agnostic Identification Procedure (March 13, 2015). FRB International Finance Discussion Paper No. 1131. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2598244 “Following Leeper, Sims, and Zha (1996), we identify monetary policy shocks in SVARs by restricting the systematic component of… Continue Reading
Food security in the twenty-first century
Ian Goldin: “There are currently about 7 billion people on Earth and by the middle of this century the number will most likely be between 9 and 10 billion. A greater proportion of these people will in real terms be wealthier than they are today and will demand a varied diet requiring greater resources in… Continue Reading
Why understanding the legally disruptive nature of climate change matters
Liz Fisher, Eloise Scotford, and Emily Barritt: “It is now commonly recognized by governments that climate change is an issue that must be addressed. The 21st Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in Paris in December 2015 is the most high profile example of this, but… Continue Reading
International Atomic Energy Agency Lacks Transparency, Observers and Researchers Say
“The nuclear inspection agency that is central to the current Iran negotiations is flunking international transparency norms, according to a report posted today by Freedominfo.org and the National Security Archive’s Nuclear Vault. Key documents about International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) proceedings, found in various national archives and private collections but closed at Agency headquarters in… Continue Reading
FBI Flawed Forensic Hair Chemistry Testimony Spanned Two Decades
Spencer S. Hsu – Washington Post – “The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000. Of 28 examiners with the FBI Laboratory’s… Continue Reading
Antibacterial Drug Shortages From 2001 to 2013
Antibacterial Drug Shortages From 2001 to 2013: Implications for Clinical Practice. Clin Infect Dis. (2015) doi: 10.1093/cid/civ201 First published online: April 22, 2015 “Background. Previous studies have described drug shortages; however, there has been no comprehensive evaluation focusing on US antibacterial shortages. Methods. Drug shortage data from the University of Utah Drug Information Service database were analyzed,… Continue Reading
Ten simple choices for a healthier planet
Ten Simple Things You Can Do to Help Protect the Earth “Reduce, reuse, and recycle. Cut down on what you throw away. Follow the three “R’s” to conserve natural resources and landfill space. Volunteer. Volunteer for cleanups in your community. You can get involved in protecting your watershed, too. Educate. When you further your own… Continue Reading
