MultiBriefs - Your source for industry specific News Briefs

Researchers present new implications for treating sickle cell disease

Dorothy L. Tengler Medical & Allied Healthcare

In sickle cell disease (SCD), hemoglobin molecules form into fibers that act like stiff rods within the red blood cells. Although the causes of SCD have been known at the molecular level for decades, the disease has never been studied at the level of detail it recently was by biomedical engineers in the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering. According to David Wood, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at the university, the researchers were surprised at what they discovered at the nanoscale — that the disease self-assembly process is less efficient. This means that developing new medicines that are effective at lower doses and cause fewer side effects might be easier than originally thought.

How to protect against cybersecurity threats in schools

Brian Stack Education

I’ll never forget the first cybersecurity attack I endured as a high school principal. It happened years ago, after I had to assign consequences to a tech-savvy student who regularly would hack into our school Wi-Fi network to access websites and social media platforms that, at the time, were blocked from student access during the school day. I remember the student being upset because he was trying to meet a critical deadline for his international business, and his two other partners needed his help to finish a project for their company. The three ran a company that rented and sold server space to gamers around the world. Mind you, my student had just recently celebrated his 15th birthday.

Is Twitter still popular, relevant, or worth it for businesses?

Emma Fitzpatrick Marketing

Most marketers rely on the big three social platforms to connect, engage and inform their followers. For B2C marketers, 97% used Facebook, 65% used Twitter, and 60% used Instagram, according to 2018 Statista data. For B2B, 89% used Facebook, 81% used LinkedIn, and 75% used Twitter. For years, Twitter has consistently ranked among brands’ go-to destinations for social media platforms. But did you know Twitter has 32% fewer daily active users (126 million) than Snapchat (186 million)?

The technologies transforming classrooms in 2019

Julie Anne Wells Education

Traditionally, technology has been associated with distraction in classrooms. If students are beating their high scores or texting their friends during class, they won’t listen or retain the lessons. But technology harnessed for the purpose of learning offers limitless potential for students. If students use technology as a tool rather than a toy, they can engage with the material they are learning more fully. While cellphones and laptops might still be up for debate, there are many new devices and platforms that encourage students to think critically and creatively on a daily basis. Here are a few key pieces of technology that are transforming classrooms in 2019.

Congress considers net neutrality, digital divide laws

Michelle R. Matisons Science & Technology

Your first time logging on to the internet may have been decades ago, but battles over its regulations rage on as the U.S. House just passed a huge hurdle by embracing net neutrality. The Senate is now considering the Save the Internet Act, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has declared it "dead on arrival," signaling that the battle for net neutrality is ongoing. In 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) repealed net neutrality rules established by the Open Internet Order of 2015. The main issue here is equal treatment for all internet data.

Using point-of-care ultrasound can shorten pulse checks during CPR

Lynn Hetzler Medical & Allied Healthcare

Emergency department physicians have started using point-of-care ultrasounds (POCUS or POC ultrasound) to identify potentially reversible causes of pulseless electrical activity (PEA) in cardiac arrest patients. Increasing use of POC ultrasound has even led to its current recommendation by the American Heart Association (AHA). In PEA, the monitor will show electrical activity in the heart but the patient will not have a palpable pulse. Also known as electromechanical dissociation, PEA accounts for approximately 20 percent of out-of-hospital deaths.

Study: Teeth whitening products may do more harm than good

Tammy Hinojos Oral & Dental Healthcare

Home teeth whitening kits are a popular and easy way to brighten your smile. You can buy a variety of teeth whitening strips at the grocery store and you can get more potent, faster-working formulations from your dentist. You place the strips over your teeth and leave them in place for a few hours. A few days or weeks later? Voila! Brighter, whiter choppers. Americans spend more than a billion dollars a year on these teeth whitening products. But a new study shows that while these products do whiten teeth, they may also be damaging them.

Is a national DNA database to fight crime in our future?

Bambi Majumdar Law Enforcement, Defense & Security

Are we heading towards a de facto national DNA database to solve crimes? Will our future include a federal law requiring all U.S. residents to provide law enforcement with their DNA profile or volunteer genetic profiles to solve a crime? That future may not be too far away, because some agencies have used DNA information from third-party sites since April 2018. Since that time, DNA searches in consumer genetics databases have allowed law enforcement to make three dozen arrests. These arrests were made with the help of genetic matches between crime scene DNA samples and the genetic profiles shared on consumer platforms.

How to resurrect a church website

Mark MacDonald Religious Community

Easter's here and spring is hopefully taking hold near you. New life is everywhere (especially as we emphasize the Gospel). Now, it's time to resurrect your church's website. Please! If you created your website (and it still looks similar) more than three years ago, it's dying. And if you're not updating your website content weekly, it's certainly feeling dead. Unfortunately, your congregation (and community) don't like visiting the information grave. Here are four ways to resurrect your website, make it new, and something worth celebrating!

Smart injection machines and their adjustment principles under Industry…

Dr. Tober Sun Manufacturing

To attain accurate mold filling analyses, we must consider a machine’s movements, including screw acceleration and deceleration in the injection process; the machine reaction at the moment when filling turns into packing; and the machine’s protection behaviors for preventing injection pressure from being too high. Currently, the core of molding equipment is injection machines. Therefore, under Industry 4.0, smart machine applications will rely on injection machine design. In this article, we will discuss how injection machine manufacturers apply injection information collected from the injection process to enhance product quality.

Industries