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Medical device industry facing tough road ahead

Rosemary Sparacio

The business climate in 2013 and beyond will prove to be a challenging one for medical device manufacturers. And with the current government shutdown centering around the Affordable Care Act, one of the sticking points for passage of the funding bill is removing the steep excise tax on medical devices from the equation by delaying funding for the ACA for at least a year.

Green building trends will drive plastics construction use

Don Rosato

The construction and operation of buildings has a significant impact on the environment. In Europe and the U.S., buildings account for 40 percent of total energy consumption. Buildings also use a tremendous amount of natural resources to construct and operate. Green building, also known as green construction or sustainable building, refers to a structure and its operation that is environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life cycle.

FDA issues final mobile medical app guidance

Pamela Lewis Dolan

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently issued its final guidance on mobile health apps, ending a two-year wait for developers. The FDA, which issued a draft guidance in July 2011, said it intends to exercise its enforcement discretion and not regulate apps except for those that present a risk to patients if they do not work as intended.

The View from Europe: A bright future for refrigeration?

Andrew Gaved

There have been some interesting developments at the farther reaches of research lately that could have an interesting bearing on the future of the refrigeration sector.

Hollow-tube steel: An effective weapon in the war against corrosion

Sasha Viasasha

Perhaps the most villainous enemies of commercial building projects are the two most basic elements of our environment: air and water. In response, urban planners have deployed a material that has shown some promising results as an inhibitor to oxidation. Sites around the world, from France to Japan, have successfully used hollow-tube steel in construction projects, and some have lasted for decades in extremely corrosive environments.

Emergency medical equipment donations in developing countries

Maria Frisch

In the summer of 2012, I served in rural areas of Kenya, working with AMREF Flying Doctors to bring medical interventions to communities in need. To say this was a humbling experience would be an understatement. We flew by helicopter into areas not accessible by vehicle in order to assess community medical infrastructure and to aid in the design and provision of emergency medical management protocols.

High-end highlights from CEDIA 2013

Mitch Weinraub

In September, Denver hosted the annual CEDIA (The Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association) conference. This show focuses on high end electronics and home theater installations with everything from the mild to the extremely wild. While a number of exhibitors showed items that will likely never make it to the mass market, others serve as a preview of what, as prices decrease, will soon become available to the masses.

Improving brain surgery with laser-guided tool

Dorothy L. Tengler

For every 100,000 people in the United States (US), approximately 221 have been diagnosed with brain tumors, 138,054 with a malignant tumor and more than 550,042 with a non-malignant tumor. Metastatic brain tumors are the most common. Surgery is an essential component in the treatment of these brain tumors. However surgeons face challenges when removing brain tumors. They need to remove all the tumor without leaving behind any cells that could start a new tumor. They also need to be extremely careful not to damage any healthy tissue to minimize any risk to the patient.

Finding the right partner to solve the lyophilization challenge

Peter Soelkner

About 30 percent of all parenteral drugs approved by the FDA in the past few years involved freeze-dried substances. Experts are predicting a possible rise to even 50 per cent in the future. It's definitely a challenge for R&D as well as commercial filling. Therefore many pharmaceutical and biotech companies rely on outsourcing partners. But how to find the right partner for the challenge?

Electronic device applications — the road ahead

Don Rosato

Stated simply, 20 percent of global electricity is consumed for lighting. The advent of light emitting diodes (LED) — only the fourth lighting technology in the history of humankind is transforming the lighting industry. Plastics are playing a key role in lighting alternatives as global requirements for energy efficient alternatives to incandescent light bulbs continue to tighten.

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