Wednesday 8 May 2019

California to ban pesticide said to harm child development

The nation's most productive agricultural state will ban a widely used pesticide blamed for harming brain development in babies, California officials said Wednesday.

* This article was originally published here

Drones to deliver incessant buzzing noise, and packages

A sister company of Google, Alphabet's Wing Aviation, just got federal approval to start using drones for commercial delivery. Amazon's own drone-delivery program is ready to launch as well. As drones take flight, the world is about to get a lot louder – as if neighborhoods were filled with leaf blowers, lawn mowers and chainsaws.

* This article was originally published here

UN shifts response as Ebola outbreak in DR Congo drags on

The United Nations is stepping up its response to the deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, now in its 10th month, and needs additional resources, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday.

* This article was originally published here

New York Times adds more digital subscribers, shares climb

Shares of the company that owns The New York Times rose Wednesday after the publisher reported that it grew digital subscribers again in its latest quarter.

* This article was originally published here

VisiBlends, a new approach to disrupt visual messaging

Visual blends, which join two objects in an unusual, eye-catching way, are an advanced graphic design technique used in advertising, marketing, and the media to draw attention to a specific message. These visual marriages are designed to precipitate an "aha!" moment in the viewer who grasps one idea from the union of two images. For instance, blending an image of an orange with an image of the sun could convey a beverage with Vitamin C.

* This article was originally published here

Fibro-adipose vascular anomaly: Old wine or new cocktail?

Unique clinico-radiological features of a provisionally unclassified vascular anomaly can assist radiologists in identifying this uncommon distinct entity, according to a study to be presented at the ARRS 2019 Annual Meeting, set for May 5-10 in Honolulu, HI.

* This article was originally published here

Study shows how big data can be used for personal health

Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine and their collaborators followed a cohort of more than 100 people over several years, tracking the biology of what makes them them. Now, after collecting extensive data on the group's genetic and molecular makeup, the researchers are piecing together a new understanding of what it means to be healthy and how deviations from an individual's norm can flag early signs of disease.

* This article was originally published here

New chip stops attacks before they start

A new computer processor architecture developed at the University of Michigan could usher in a future where computers proactively defend against threats, rendering the current electronic security model of bugs and patches obsolete.

* This article was originally published here

China, India boost global booze binge: study

The world consumed ten percent more alcohol per adult in 2017 than in 1990, due in large part to heavier and more widespread drinking in China and India, researchers said Wednesday.

* This article was originally published here

FDA approves ruzurgi for children with rare autoimmune disorder

(HealthDay)—Ruzurgi (amifampridine) tablets are now approved to treat Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS) in children aged 6 to 17 years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced yesterday.

* This article was originally published here

Crunch-free work for well-defined abs

(HealthDay)—You don't have to do hundreds of sit-ups and all manner of crunches to see abdominal muscle definition. The following moves are done standing and holding a weight, such as a 5-pound ball with an easy-to-grip handle.

* This article was originally published here

'Stop and search' frequency reduced when law enforcement and academic research cooperate

It has been a busy few days in the fierce debate about addressing the knife crime problem in England and Wales. London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick unveiled year-on-year declines in knife crime and homicides in the capital for the year ended March, and claimed it was thanks to more police stop and search. Just days earlier, the College of Policing, which oversees police standards in England and Wales, said more or less the opposite about the tactic. Stop and search, it said, risks aggrieving people subjected to it and making them more likely to commit violent crimes down the line; instead, it wants England and Wales to adopt the more progressive approach to policing that has emerged in Scotland.

* This article was originally published here

New research shows community forest management reduces both deforestation and poverty

Giving local communities in Nepal the opportunity to manage their forests has simultaneously reduced deforestation and poverty in the region, new research has shown.

* This article was originally published here

Drugs for invasive breast cancer 'could treat earliest stages of the disease'

Drugs used to target HER2-positive invasive breast cancer may also be successful in treating women in the first stages of the disease, researchers at The University of Nottingham have discovered.

* This article was originally published here

Clean fuel cells could be cheap enough to replace gas engines in vehicles

Advancements in zero-emission fuel cells could make the technology cheap enough to replace traditional gasoline engines in vehicles, according to researchers at the University of Waterloo.

* This article was originally published here

As climate changes, small increases in rainfall may cause widespread road outages

As more rain falls on a warming planet, a new computer model shows that it may not take a downpour to cause widespread disruption of road networks. The model combined data on road networks with the hills and valleys of topography to reveal "tipping points" at which even small localized increases in rain cause widespread road outages.

* This article was originally published here

Self-powered wearable tech

For emerging wearable tech to advance, it needs improved power sources. Now researchers from Michigan State University have provided a potential solution via crumpled carbon nanotube forests, or CNT forests.

* This article was originally published here