All Science & Technology Articles
  • How is the ‘new NAFTA’ different?

    Michelle R. Matisons Manufacturing

    The idea of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was very controversial when first proposed during the Clinton administration and signed in 1994. It was the first North American trilateral trade bloc representing Mexico, Canada and the United States. NAFTA’s successor, called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), was signed by all three participating countries’ leaders at the G20 Summit on Nov. 30. The legislatures of all three countries must ratify the agreement before it goes into effect. We know USMCA is intended to make up for NAFTA’s shortcomings. But will it?

  • How to improve Instagram Story ads in 2019

    Emma Fitzpatrick Marketing

    As a social media marketer, you must be adaptable. Think back to last year at about this time. No doubt, you had carefully pinpointed all the tactics that worked best for your brand on social media that year. This year, you hoped to do more of the same! But the leaders of social media platforms had a different idea. Facebook rolled out one of its most substantial algorithm updates in January, which completely derailed brands’ social media plans. With each algorithm update, we find ourselves scrambling to keep up and discover the new "secret sauce." In 2019, don’t let the hunt drive you crazy. Instead, go with the constant.

  • At last, a roadside screening test for THC

    Dave G. Houser Law Enforcement, Defense & Security

    November’s midterm elections added three states — Michigan, Missouri and Utah — to the growing list of 34 states that have legalized cannabis for medical and/or recreational use. That means that about 90 million Americans live where pot is legal, so the ramifications — good and bad — affect almost a third of our nation’s population. Aside from the fact that marijuana is still classified as an illegal controlled substance by federal law — subjecting those who partake to potential criminal prosecution — the use of pot is posing a more immediate and vexing problem concerning public safety.

  • What to look forward to in 2019 in hospitality

    Linchi Kwok Travel, Hospitality & Event Management

    The holiday season is around the corner. It is a good time for us to review the major events discussed in 2018. A quick overview will very likely inform us what we can expect in 2019. Looking forward, Airbnb and hotels will fight over a bigger battleground in 2019. On one hand, more hotels, including Marriott, have entered the short-term residential rental market. On the other hand, Airbnb introduced two new brands — Airbnb Plus and Beyond by Airbnb, which offer many "certified" enhanced services that are usually found in a traditional hotel.

  • The US may be discarding thousands of viable kidneys each year

    Lynn Hetzler Medical & Allied Healthcare

    Organ transplant professionals make tough decisions when it comes to deciding which organs are suitable for transplant and which organs should be discarded. Due to stringent guidelines, clinicians in the United States must discard about 2,000 donated kidneys each year. There are currently more than 95,000 people on the kidney transplant waiting list, according to UNOS; reclaiming some of the discarded kidneys has the potential to save lives. The results of a new study show that many of the kidneys transplanted in France would have been discarded in the United States. This study is the first of its kind.

  • Should everyone be taking a statin? Results of an umbrella review

    Dorothy L. Tengler Medical & Allied Healthcare

    Statins are relatively inexpensive and do not have many downsides; the most common complaint is myalgia, which is experienced by about 10 percent of patients. In addition to reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, statins have been linked to benefits for other diseases and conditions, such as chronic pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease, some cancers, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and infections. So, why shouldn’t everyone be on a statin? The answer is because after a review of statins and multiple non-cardiovascular outcomes, the jury is still out.

  • A stock market survival course: Part 3

    Patrick Gleeson Business Management, Services & Risk Management

    This is the third of a five-article survival course designed to give you essential information you need to succeed as an investor in the stock market. None of it is mere opinion. Everything stated in these articles is backed by the research of well-known economists and published in leading journals of economics and finance. Each article can be read in 10 to 15 minutes. This third article begins outlining the market strategies that will substantially improve your investment results.

  • Is vertical or horizontal video best for social media ads?

    Emma Fitzpatrick Marketing

    After Facebook rewrote its algorithm in January, social media marketing plans for the year went out the window. The previous silver bullet for success, video, was no longer prioritized. Instead, live videos, which are more focused on generating engagement as opposed to passive viewership, became Facebook’s new gold standard. But try as they might, many companies struggled as they saw their organic reach continue to drop. That’s been happening for years, but in 2018, Facebook made it clear that this was by design.

  • Health IT receiving much-needed attention from the government

    Tammy Hinojos Medical & Allied Healthcare

    Technological advances are by definition supposed to advance that portion of an industry they exist to serve. To make things easier, more intuitive, less burdensome. But all too often, it seems, just the opposite is true. Healthcare providers know all about the hurdles associated with electronic health records (EHRs). The cumbersome system — one that should be designed to streamline the information-gathering process — is broken, in the opinion of many American healthcare providers.

  • US groundwater sparser than previously thought, technology may help

    Scott E. Rupp Waste Management & Environmental

    Many rural areas in the U.S. may be in danger of a groundwater shortage. Additionally, digging deeper for water in the form of new, deeper wells may not be a good long-term solution to compensate for increasing demands on groundwater because there is potential for contamination of deep freshwater and brackish water in areas where the oil and gas industry injects wastewaters into or in close proximity to aquifers. A new study may shed some light on use of underground freshwater and brackish water in some of the most prominent sedimentary basins across the U.S.