Manufacturing

Targeting chemical signals between the gut and brain could lead to new treatment for obesity   Targeting chemical signals between the gut and brain could lead to new treatment for obesity New research published in The Journal of Physiology has shed light on how to disrupt chemical signals that affect how much someone eats, which could lead to a method for helping manage obesity. Obesity is one of today’s most prevalent public health concerns. In the UK it affects around 1 in every 4 adults and around 1 in every 5 children aged 10 to 11. Bariatric surgery has proven to be...

How a major AI conference is attempting to tackle its culture problem The run up to one of the biggest artificial-intelligence (AI) conferences of 2018, held in early December in Montreal, Canada, was marred by controversy. After last year’s event, some people criticized the culture of the conference and other machine-learning meetings held in previous years; reports emerged of harassment, discrimination and an unwelcoming environment for women. The members of the board of trustees and advisory board that oversee the Neural Information Processing Systems conference, previously known as NIPS, took several actions to try to improve the culture of the event....

First hint of near-room-temperature superconductor tantalizes physicists Physicists think they have achieved one of the most coveted goals of their discipline: creating a superconducting material that works at near-room temperature. The evidence is still preliminary and comes with a major caveat. So far, the material has been made only under pressures of about 200 gigapascals — or two million atmospheres. But if confirmed, the feat would be the first example of superconductivity above 0˚C, and some physicists say that the work could be a milestone in the study of superconductivity, which researchers hope will one day make the generation, transmission...

Essence to Launch Umbrella Safety Solution at CES & Augment Line of Senior Care Solutions Mobile Personal Emergency Response System Helps Organizations Keep Their People SafeTel Aviv – December, 2018 – Essence, the leader in IoT-enabled connected-living technologies, announces the release of Essence Umbrella, a two-way, voice-communication personal emergency response system (PERS) designed to help organizations, schools, and universities keep staff and students safe.  Umbrella joins the Essence Smart Care robust lineup of safety and senior care solutions. Umbrella is a stand-alone personal safety platform consisting of a small, wearable pendant that integrates directly with a specialized mobile app complemented by...

New study sheds light on medication administration errors leading to death – omission is a common cause   Medication administration errors leading to death are common with anticoagulants and antibiotics in particular, according to a new study that analysed incidents reported in England and Wales. The most common error category was omitted medicine, followed by a wrong dose or a wrong strength. In half of the reported incidents, the patient was aged over 75. “Our findings show that more attention should be paid to the safe administration of medication especially when it comes to older people. It is important to...