No. 275 December 2005
NANOTECHNOLOGY This is the science of atomic and molecular level materials which have special electrical and chemical properties. Nanoproducts and nanostructures particles/substances can be incorporated into foods, medical devices, drug products, extraordinarily tiny computers. Nanotechnology allows advanced systems for drug delivery, custom-tailored pharmaceuticals, and the elimination of invasive surgery. As the computer and computer technology has been implemented in most every aspect of man’s existence, nanotechnology will do likewise in the near future. “On December 3, 2003, the President signed into law the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act which has established the structure and funding to have seven agencies study the societal implications of nanotechnology. The Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the Consumer Product and Safety Administration, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Science and Technology, the Department of Energy also have assignments and research projects. The National Science Foundation is the major research coordinator providing funding for all these research activities through the NSA Subcommittee on Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology. Nanotechnology: Societal Implications – Maximizing Benefit for Humanity, Report of the National Nanotechnology Initiative Workshop, December 3-5, 2003, Arlington, VA. This December 2003, 106 page report http://www.nano.gov/nni%5Fsocietal%5Fimplications.pdf updates a September 2000 report. Both Reports are part a series of reports on the Societal Impact of Nanotechnology.
AIR CONDITIONED AUTOMOBILE SEATS Some of the coolest news out of Detroit and General Motors is the ComfortCools air conditioned seats are now available as an option in the Cadillac STS. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), located in Golden Colorado has produced a ventilated automobile seat which improves passenger conform and a vehicle’s fuel economy. The seat is designed with two fans which pull the hot air from the seat’s surface and from below the seat. The seat is cooled and cool air is circulated inside the passenger area. Thus the passengers are cooled before the entire car is cooled, with a new level of efficiency. This new technology could result in a 7.5 percent reduction in national air-condition fuel use. This translates into a savings of 522 million gallons of fuel each year. NREL is using its unique test manikin called ADAM (Advanced Automotive Manikin) to design and develop smaller and more efficient climate-control-systems in vehicles. ADAM is a unique manikin which actually breathes and sweats, and is used along with a physiological and psychological model. The NREL’s Press Release Research Shows Ventilated Auto Seats Improve Fuel Economy, Comfort http://www.nrel.gov/news/press/2006/0806_auto_seats.html provides more of the details.
CHILD SAFETY SEATS: EASE OF USE RATINGS First, why ease of use ratings? Any child car safety seat, which is “less than easy to use,” when compounded with uncooperative kids, and a “harried” parent, can all combine and result in a very unpleasant experience of getting kids in and out of car seats. There is also need for easy-to-use car seats is increased where there are two or more kids to get into or out of the car seats at one time. In 2005 there were 92 different safety car seats officially know as child restraint systems (CRS) selected to be included in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) fourth annual use rating program. Of the 92, 74 received an “A” (rating) overall, 13 received a “B” overall, and 5 had mixed “A” and “B” ratings over each of its modes. Some of the seats covered in 2005 received a “C” rating. The seats were evaluated by clarity of labels and instructions in addition to their assembly, installing features, and securing the child. There were five grades given which was followed by an “Overall Ease of Use Rating.” Is your car seat found in the website chart? How does your car seat rank? Or are you going shopping for a car seat? If so check out the brands, models, and ratings, for your infant. There are also seats for a four year old? The best seat is one that fits your kid(s) properly, fits into your vehicle(s), and is easy to use. 2005 Child Safety Ease of Use Ratings is an “11 page” website of safety car seats for kids from infants to a series of 25 booster seats for children 40-100lbs/up to 57”. This valuable rating guide is found on the NHSTA site at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/CPS/CSSRating/Index.cfm
CLEAN AIR ACT OF 1990, COMPUTERS, AUTO REPAIR Once upon a time, automobiles did not have computerized systems and parts, and were easy to repair. Then beginning with electronic fuel injection and the parts and operations in vehicles were computerized. Cars and trucks have become computerized vehicles which are difficult to monitor, regulate, and repair by the uninformed automotive technician. “Today, automobiles have several complex systems that control braking, ignition, security, steering, emissions, safety, and climate control. As a result, the information and expertise needed to diagnose and repair them has increased dramatically. When the Clean Air Act of 1990 was passed it included a provision that required automobile manufacturers to provide an onboard diagnostic system to monitor emissions. The manufacturers were also required to show this information to car mechanics and repairmen to be able to diagnosis and repair the faulty computerized emission systems. The House Committee on Small Business has held hearings on the current problem of the sharing of vehicle computer systems information between the automobile manufacturers and the vehicle service shops. The auto mechanics and the consumers have a right to the computer information held by the automobile manufacturers which is needed to repair the emissions systems of those vehicles which no longer meet the standards of the Clean Air Act of 1990. How the Clean Air Act Affects Auto Repair, Hearing ….Washington, DC, June 28, 2005 is 68 pages which is found at http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS66363 . We can only wait and see if H.R. 2048 gets passed and becomes law as the “Motor Vehicle Owners’ Right to Repair Act.”
LIKE TO COLOR? IN COLORING BOOKS! There are electronic coloring books. There are printable coloring books, and even some which are interactive. Are you interested in getting educated, are you an nursery school educator, or a children’s’ librarian, or are you just curious about knowing about another kind of information and publications paid for by your tax dollar? People, places, animals, and things found in these coloring books are unusual and quite imaginative. The Beagle Brigade, Tommy Tsunami, the NASS Kids, Smokey the Bear, Billy and Maria, the Pacific Coral Reef Coloring book, the NIEHS kids interactive and printable coloring books are some of the 48 coloring books published by about 10 different Federal agencies representing five different Executive Departments. There are two coloring books issued by the State of Washington. Topics include trees, plants, fish, safety, farming, the weather coral reefs, turtles, tsunamis, and earthquakes, mining, conservation, superfund, earth day activities, endangered species, outer space, earth science, and more. How can you pass up such a collection and variety? This site was the result of the effort and work of The Evergreen State College Library in Olympia Washington. “The HOT TOPICS: Coloring Books” list has hotlinks to the coloring books published by Federal government agencies. Reviewing this list is a great way to learn about the federally published coloring books and have access to them (http://www.evergreen.edu/library/govdocs/coloringbooks.html ).
TOYS FOR TOTS Here is some toys for tots’ information which is appropriate for this month. It is the holiday season which is a time of joy and gift giving for everyone, especially children. However, history tells us that some Christmases were leaner than others in terms of gift and toys. The Pearl Harbor disaster on December 7, 1941 was followed by at least three Christmas seasons which would have undoubtedly been more joyous times, had it not been for World War II. During the war, most everything on the home front was in short supply, even toys. In 1942, by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Children’s Bureau issued Toys in Wartime (L 5.2:T66). Toys in Wartime begins with a discussion of the importance of play for child development as related to the fact that America was a war. This meant that not only were the toymaker fathers and brothers gone, the toy materials were not available. America’s materials and machines were needed to produce war materials. Also the need for families to move into cramped housing would limit the children’s ability to play. This we have a 40 page mimeographed and stapled booklet on how mothers and children can make toys for use in cramped living quarters. During World War II toys were made from currently available wooden, paper, and other household materials and those available in their local stores. Toys includes a two page bibliography of related publications and three pages of illustrations of how to build some of the toys.
LIFE IN THE CELLUAR WORLD Once upon a time in the 19th century, with the invention of the microscope was the discovery of the cell. Then biologists found the cell contains proteins and that every cell has a complement of proteins which can act alone and together. Proteins’ interaction and communication is termed “cell signaling circuitry.” In the 21st century there is scientific specialization called Proteomics. In 1994, Marc Williams coined the term Proteome which is the term for the full complement of proteins contained in a cell, tissue, organ, or organism. Williams who coined the term Proteome was one of the first Proteomic scientists. The proteins, also known as macromolecules, form complex networks organized into systems with properties that extend beyond the function of the individual molecule. The next step is the study of the behavior of these cellular or molecular networks. The cellular biologist becomes a systems biologist who studies normal cellular properties and activities, investigates abnormalities, and also tries to predict the behavior of such networks. The completion of the human genome has set the stage for studying proteins, protein interactions, and systems biology. The Proteomic scientist is making use of the protein data to develop the new area called Personalized Medicine. “Proteomics: Moving Beyond the Human Genome [which includes] ‘Graphic: Moving from the ‘-OMICS’ to Systems Biology,’ ” by Raymond Formanek, Jr., FDA Consumer V. 39, No. 6, November-December 2005, pages 22-25 (HE20.4010:39/6) is also online at http://www.fda.gov/fdac/605_toc.html
NANOTECHNOLOGY, MEDICINE, AND PICTURES Since a picture is worth a thousand words, a discussion of Nanotechnology and medicine should involve about two thousand words or two pictures. Consider the space limitations, some pictures seem appropriate. “Nanotechnology: The Size of Things to Come” by Carol Oates, FDA Consumer, V. 39, No. 6 November-December 2005, pages 40-42 includes some graphics and lists the current medical and non-medical uses of nanotechnology. For biomedical researchers anticipate pocket-sized electrocardiographs, pill size diagnostic cameras, and technology for cell repair and rearrangement. Burn and wound dressings and a dental-bonding agent are two examples of nanotechnological medical devices. The biomedical scientist and the Human Genome have provided a new way to view the human body. There are new insights into how cells’ and organs’ parts and operations, functions, and malfunctions. The physical scientists have opened up the miniature world of nanotechnology. Now scientists have found that nanotechnology is an appropriate technology to study, diagnose, and treat the cells' actions and interactions as both the individual and systemic levels. The physical and biomedical scientists will now combine to develop nanotechnological medicine. GENONOMICS, PROTEOMICS, METABOLOMICS, NANOTECHNOLOGY, A Look At the Future of Medicine, An FDA Consumer Special Report is the cover title of the FDA Consumer V. 39, No. 6 November-December 2005 which has many nanotechnology pictures http://www.fda.gov/fdac/605_toc.html .
PUBLIC HEALTH HISTORY AND PICTURES Do you know about Public Health Reports? This is a bimonthly journal of the U.S. Public Health Service published by the Association of Schools of Public Health. It is available by subscription form the ASPH and is found in many Federal Depository Libraries under HE 20.30: Robert Rinsky has compiled the following Public Health Reports (PHR) and America’s public health history. PHR started in 1898 and its predecessor was Bulletins of Public Health issued by the Marine-Hospital Service 1787-1879. The Surgeon-General issued Bulletin No. 1, on July 13, 1878. Do you know about the Plague in San Francisco in 1900? How America’s Influenza of 1918 epidemic which dates from 1887 to 1918? Then there is the January 1953 article about radiation exposure in the United States which considers to current status of the problem and concludes that it could be a problem in the future. Rinsky and that the Delta Omega public health society selected 35 classic articles written between 1878 and 1987. Public Health Reports, Historical Collection 1878-2005 was issued as Volume 121/Supplement 1. (HE 20.30:121/SUPP.1 in some libraries). All the articles give us a sample of the events, issues, and milestones in America’s public health history. Related information is the list of dates and events and achievements listed in “FDA Milestones, Regulation of food in the United States from early colonial times, 1862 to 2005 on pages 36-37. Rinsky’s Historical Collections includes many photographs as does the FDA Consumer, and a photograph (page 52) of a 1940s and 1950s hospital ward filled with polio victims in iron lungs. There is also the photograph (on page 60) of the woman in the battery operated mobile chair who is enjoying the beach. The FDA At Work: Cutting-Edge Science Promoting Health, The Centennial Edition is the cover title of the FDA Consumer V.40, No. 1, January-February 2006 (HE20.4010:40/1 and http://www.fda.gov/fdac/106_toc.html .
June 24, 2006
http://www.nku.edu/~yannarella/new0512.htm