Science and Enterprise

Tag: statistics

  • Fewer VCs in U.S. Raise More Funds in First Half of 2011

    According to Thomson Reuters and National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), the number of venture capital companies raising money in the first six months of 2011 dropped sharply, but the amount of funds collected also rose sharply compared to the first half of 2010. Venture capital (VC) companies are often sought out to invest in early-stage…

  • Computerized Outpatient Prescriptions Still Have Errors

    Researchers from three Boston, Massachusetts medical centers, Harvard Medical School, and CVS Pharmacies analyzed records from automated prescription systems and found error rates similar to prescriptions written manually. The team’s findings appear online in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (paid subscription required). The panel of clinicians reviewed 3,850 prescription records from a…

  • Survey: Public Wants Informed Consent for Biobanks

    A survey and focus groups on public attitudes toward informed consent for participation in collections of tissue samples, show a preference for giving consent in advance, balanced with convenience for the contributors. The findings from researchers at the University of Iowa College of Medicine appear in the online issue of the journal Genetics in Medicine…

  • Head Injuries Decline After Bicycle Helmets Mandated

    Investigators at University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia report that bicycle-related head injuries fell significantly in the months after mandatory helmet legislation came into effect in that province. The researchers published their findings in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention (paid subscription required). Australia was the first country to introduce mandatory helmet…

  • HP, Non-Profit Partner on Malaria Surveillance

    Computer maker HP and non-profit organization Positive Innovation for the Next Generation (PING) are collaborating to improve the quality and efficiency of disease surveillance in Botswana. The project involves mobile health monitoring technology that HP and PING believe can help better protect populations against major malaria outbreaks. The initiative uses HP’s webOS operating system for…

  • Study Highlights Crop Regions At Risk from Climate Change

    A study by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) identifies food production regions in the world most at risk from disruption due to climate change. Some of these populations, in Africa and South Asia for example, are already facing food shortages, while other food-producing regions including China and Latin America run the risk…

  • Simple Fitness Tests Help Predict Heart Attack, Stroke

    Researchers at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas have found in separate studies that the time it takes for a middle-age person run a mile can help predict the risk of dying of heart attack or stroke decades later for men, and could be an early indicator of cardiovascular disease for women. The…

  • Study: Local Food Can Improve Oregon’s Health, Create Jobs

    A new study suggests that proposed legislation in Oregon that offers incentives to deliver fresh local food to schools would help improve the health of the state’s residents and create hundreds of new farm-industry jobs. The study was funded by a grant from the Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation…

  • University Patents Chemical Measurement Device and Process

    Baylor University in Waco, Texas has received a U.S. patent for a new type of polarimeter, an instrument to measure and interpret transverse waves, such as light waves. The new polarimeter was developed by Baylor chemistry professor Kenneth Busch and lab coordinator Dennis Rabbe. United States Patent 7911608 covers not only the device hardware, but…

  • Unregulated Drug Market Hurting TB Public Health Efforts

    The campaign against tuberculosis is generally considered a public health responsibility, but a new study indicates that private, unregulated TB drug sales may be hurting rather than helping those efforts. Results of the study appear in the new issue of the journal PLoS ONE. The research, conducted by the organization TB Alliance and health care…