In an effort to identify emerging communicable diseases and epidemics earlier, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has developed modeling tools that predict the conditions and locations at greatest risk for outbreaks. These models account for diverse causes of epidemics, including global environmental change, social and demographic change and public health systems.
NXT-ID Inc., a company focused on the growing mobile commerce, announces that it has joined the Cisco® Solution Partner Program as a solution partner. Gino Pereira, chief executive officer with NXT-ID Inc., said, “Through this program, we intend to provide biometric and encryption solutions involving facial recognition and later on, voice recognition.”
Jennifer A. Horney, PhD, MPH, CPH, associate professor in the Texas A&M School of Public Health, and Daniel W. Goldberg, PhD, assistant professor of geography in the Texas A&M College of Geosciences and of computer science and engineering in the College of Engineering, have created a type of mobile health technology to fight the mosquitos at their source: standing water.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released the Federal Laboratory Technology Transfer, Fiscal Year 2014, Summary Report to the president and Congress. Including both quantitative and qualitative measures of effectiveness, the report provides the most current comprehensive view of federal technology transfer efforts across 11 agencies.
Security professionals seeking reliable radiation detection and identification for remote locations can now use a pocket-size search-and-find detector that is designed for high-sensitivity and accuracy. The Thermo Scientific RadEye SPRD-GN (spectroscopic personal radiation detector – gamma neutron) builds on the family of RadEye personal radiation detectors.
A new partnership between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) aims to provide the necessary tools to ensure people respond appropriately to dangerous weather systems. A key part of this work involves understanding how people behave when hazards approach, so emergency services can improve storm warnings and other communications.
The recent Ebola epidemic in West Africa highlighted the need for better global preparedness and response to disease outbreaks. To help address that need in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has established a new program to strengthen the research capacity to study Ebola, Lassa fever, yellow fever and other emerging viral diseases.
A new Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health study was the first to look at dementia as a potential health risk in the aftermath of a disaster. The study looked at elderly people who were uprooted from damaged or destroyed homes and who lost touch with their neighbors after the 2011 tsunami in Japan.
An unprecedented 40-year experiment in a 40,000-acre valley of Yosemite National Park strongly supports the idea that managing fire, rather than suppressing it, makes wilderness areas more resilient to fire, with the added benefit of increased water availability and resistance to drought.
The shark is one of the oldest species on Earth, dating back more than 450 million years. Shark antibodies, now being used in new research funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Joint Science and Technology Office, provide an alternative, cost-effective approach to developing diagnostic and therapeutic tools for increased warfighter protection from chemical and biological threats.
