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Made in IBM Labs: McKesson Taps IBM to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Boost Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Efficiency

*Collaborative Research Project Uses Analytics Technology to Improve Effectiveness of North American Pharmaceutical Distribution Network*

ARMONK, N.Y. – 15 Nov 2010: McKesson Corporation and IBM are teaming on an initiative aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions and trimming drug distribution costs. Working with IBM researchers and business consultants, North America’s largest distributor of prescription drugs is bringing a new level of intelligence to the pharmaceutical supply chain as well as its own business operations.

McKesson supplies one-third of the prescription drugs used by hospitals and pharmacies in North America every day. The company provides pharmaceuticals to more than 40,000 health locations in the U.S., ranging from hospitals and health systems to community pharmacies and national chain stores to the Department of Veterans Affairs. (more…)

Yahoo! Adds the Voice of the People With the Launch of the Yahoo! Contributor Network

Technology

*Yahoo! Invites You to Reach Millions of People by Contributing to Its Popular Content Sites, Including the Yahoo! Homepage*

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Yahoo! today is inviting people to contribute to many of its most popular sites with the launch of the Yahoo! Contributor Network, a new platform for people to publish their creative content on Yahoo!. The Yahoo! Contributor Network is an evolution of the Associated Content platform and will bring contributions from more than 400,000 writers, photographers, and videographers to the Internet’s largest media destinations, including Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports, and even the Yahoo! homepage, among many others. (more…)

Microsoft Launches New Casual Games Hub

Technology

*The company today rolled out the Microsoft Game Hub, which helps fans of casual games like Bejeweled play and interact socially across MSN Games, Bing Games and Windows Live Messenger.*

REDMOND, Wash. – Nov. 15, 2010 – Solitaire doesn’t have to be so solitary anymore.

Microsoft today introduces a new gaming hub that connects its three major social gaming portals, blurring the line between casual and social gameplay, said Michael Wolf, senior marketing manager for Xbox Product Marketing.

Surrounding Zuma’s Revenge in the image above is the Microsoft Game Hub, where players can see information from their social networks, challenge friends, and track their favorite games, game history and scores — no matter what platform they’re on. Image credit: Microsoft (more…)

Amazon Web Services Announces Amazon Cluster GPU Instances, a New Amazon EC2 Instance Type Delivering High-Powered Graphics Processing Unit (“GPU”) Computing in the AWS Cloud

Technology

*GPU processing is now less expensive and more accessible to a wide variety of graphics rendering and High Performance Computing (HPC) workloads*

SEATTLE, Nov 15, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Amazon Web Services LLC, an Amazon.com company, today announced Amazon Cluster GPU Instances, a new instance type designed to deliver the power of GPU processing in the cloud. GPUs are increasingly being used to accelerate the performance of many general purpose computing problems. However, for many organizations, GPU processing has been out of reach due to the unique infrastructural challenges and high cost of the technology. Amazon Cluster GPU Instances remove this barrier by providing developers and businesses immediate access to the highly tuned compute performance of GPUs with no upfront investment or long-term commitment. To get started using Amazon EC2 GPU Instances, visit: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/hpc-applications/. (more…)

The Role of the Internet in Higher Education

Education, Technology

There are many pros and cons to the issue of the Internet’s influences on education, and experts have called it everything from the hemlock of higher education to an innovative boon. While it’s probably neither of these extremes, there are some high and low points of the Internet’s role in higher education that can be observed on their own. By enabling students to take advantage of the positive elements of the Internet for educational purposes and restricting the detrimental sides of the Web, academic success can become a more widespread reality. (more…)

Vaccine for Urinary Tract Infections is One Step Closer

Health, Science

*Study sheds light on what E. coli genes are doing inside the body during infection*

E. coli bacteria. Image credit: Amy Simms, Ph.D

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Urinary tract infections are a painful, recurring problem for millions of women. They are also getting more dangerous as bacteria develop resistance to the most common treatments.

Scientists from the University of Michigan have moved one step closer to a vaccine that could prevent a majority of urinary tract infections, which are caused by E. coli bacteria. Using a genetic technique rarely used to look at infections in human hosts, the researchers studied how the E. coli bacteria operate and discovered key differences between how the bacteria’s genes behave in women and how they behave in mice used in experiments.

Their findings, published online Nov. 11 in PLoS Pathogens, could lead to developments that would save billions in health care costs and millions of doctors’ visits and hospitalizations from urinary tract infections each year. (more…)

Dangerous Chemicals in Food Wrappers Likely Migrating to Humans

Health

Image credit: University of Toronto

U of T scientists have found that chemicals used to line junk food wrappers and microwave popcorn bags are migrating into food and being ingested by people where they are contributing to chemical contamination observed in blood.

Perfluorinated carboxylic acids or PFCAs are the breakdown products of chemicals used to make non-stick and water- and stain-repellant products ranging from kitchen pans to clothing to food packaging. PFCAs, the best known of which is perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), are found in humans all around the world. (more…)

UCLA Researchers Identify Molecular Program for Brain Repair Following Stroke

Health, Science

Mouse Stroke. An MRI of a mouse brain after stroke. The mouse section has been stained to show cell bodies. Image credit: University of California

A stroke wreaks havoc in the brain, destroying its cells and the connections between them. Depending on its severity and location, a stroke can impact someone’s life forever, affecting motor activity, speech, memories, and more.

The brain makes an attempt to rally by itself, sprouting a few new connections, called axons, that reconnect some areas of the brain. But the process is weak, and the older the brain, the poorer the repair. Still, understanding the cascade of molecular events that drive even this weak attempt could lead to developing drugs to boost and accelerate this healing process.

Now researchers at UCLA have achieved a promising first step. Reporting in the current online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience, senior author Dr. S. Thomas Carmichael, a UCLA associate professor of neurology, and colleagues have, for the first time, identified in the mouse the molecular cascade that drives the process of reconnection or sprouting in the adult brain after stroke. (more…)