Search Results for: Research

BY PAUL COCHRANE
IN the Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian paint markets there is always an extra ingredient that must be thrown into the mix: politics. The political situation, internal or external, can have positive knock-on effects, such as Jordan’s booming construction market due to an influx of Iraqi refugees, or negatively, such as in Lebanon, where the sector is experiencing something of a slump due to political instability.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Medicines Agency (EMEA) has launched a two-month consultation procedure on proposed improvements to how it provides scientific advice on the research and development of new medicines – (http://www.emea.eu.int/pdfs/human/sciadvice/31176205en.pdf; deadline for comments – November 22). EMEA has also published advice on the impact of new European Union pharmaceutical legislation on its centralised marketing authorisation procedures -(http://www.emea.eu.int/pdfs/human/euleg/24328005en.pdf).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MATHEMATICAL models based on chaos theory are to be developed by a European Union (EU) research project to help pharmaceutical manufacturers assess whether a potential drug will be successful. The aim of the Euro 10.7 million BioSim Network of Excellence project is developing simulation models for designing, selecting and testing of drugs, rather than relying on standard trial and error.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE AQUATIC Animals Health Standards Commission, of the Office International des Épizooties (OIE) is setting up an expert group on improving surveillance of stocks for fish disease outbreaks. The committee is to make recommendations to the next Commission meeting in March, probably in Paris, France.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A REPORT issued this summer by the world’s top anti money laundering body, the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), has highlighted the peculiarities of the insurance industry as a vehicle for money laundering. The FATF’s “Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Typologies 2004-5” analysed 94 reported cases of money laundering involving the insurance industry between 1999 and 2003.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
SCIENTISTS from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), of the USA government, are working to boost levels of omega-3 fatty acids in beef by adding flax seed to cattle diets, an experiment they believe will bear fruit in one year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally asked European Union (EU) ministers to authorise it to negotiate and conclude a “comprehensive open aviation agreement” with the Ukraine. In a detailed memorandum, Brussels said a deal would “establish an ambitious framework integrating wider aviation issues such as regulatory co-operation in the fields of aviation safety, security, air traffic management, technology and research as well as “doing-business” issues and industrial co-operation.”…

BY MONICA DOBIE
BURGERS and pork pies could become healthier by adding a tasteless but fibre-rich extract from seaweed, scientists from the University of Newcastle have claimed. Their research has examined a brown seaweed Lessonia and Laminaria, found in east Asia, south America, Norway and Scotland.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ON July 31 this year the European Union’s (EU) Tobacco Advertising Directive came into effect, making it illegal to advertise tobacco products in the print media, radio and over the Internet within the EU. Also banned was tobacco sponsorship of cross-border cultural and sporting events.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
UNESCO, the UN’s scientific and cultural organisation, has launched a filter removing arsenic from water and which could, it claims, save tens of millions of lives from a pollutant created by many mines. Unveiled at its headquarters in Paris, UNESCO said the filter was “simple and ecologically sound”, using as an absorbent recycled iron oxide coated sand produced as a by-product in groundwater treatment plants “available at no cost almost everywhere”.…