908 Devices announced that the State of Massachusetts' Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Division has purchased eight of the company's flagship product, M908TM. These devices will be used for routine response and large-scale events throughout the state, thus arming response teams with enhanced chemical threat detection capabilities.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate, in partnership with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, announced the transition of the final prototype of the Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response (FINDER) technology to the commercial market. This radar technology is designed to detect heartbeats of victims trapped in wreckage.
Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is part of the National Institutes of Health, and the University of California, Berkeley - as well as other colleagues - have developed a mobile phone microscope to measure blood levels of the parasitic filarial worm Loa loa. This device could aid efforts to eradicate neglected tropical diseases.
USAID contributes an additional $11 million for earthquake response efforts in Nepal, bringing total U.S. Government humanitarian assistance to nearly $28 million. Additional U.S. military aircraft arrived in Nepal on May 6 to support relief efforts. Although life in Nepals capital city of Kathmandu is beginning to normalize, relief actors report that the humanitarian situation in remote and hard-to-reach areas remains concerning.
The World Health Organization is stepping up efforts to accelerate the elimination of neglected tropical diseases (NTD) in the African Region. Health experts, donors, development partners and affected countries have reached a consensus on the main components of the framework for establishing a new NTD entity.
A new microneedle patch being developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could make it easier to vaccinate people against measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases.
The patch is designed to be administered by minimally trained workers and to simplify storage, distribution, and disposal compared with conventional vaccines.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture recently announced more than $3.8 million in funding to support grants focused on using nanotechnology to find solutions to societal challenges such as food security, nutrition, food safety, and environmental protection.
National Arson Awareness Week is May 3-9. This years theme Accelerant Detection Canines: Sniffing Out Arson recognizes the contributions made to communities by accelerant detection canine (ADC) teams.
Significant strides in science have been made to better understand potential ground shaking from induced earthquakes, which are earthquakes triggered by manmade practices. A recently released U. S. Geological Survey report outlines a preliminary set of models to forecast how hazardous ground shaking could be in the areas where sharp increases in seismicity have been recorded.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has allocated $7.4 million in Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) funds to Virginia for fiscal year 2015. These grants are provided to strengthen the commonwealths ability to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to and recover from terrorist attacks, major disasters and other emergencies.
