Month: March 2016

(credit: Public Domain)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about half of outpatient antibiotic prescriptions are unnecessary. Most of those unneeded drugs are given to treat viral colds despite the fact that antibiotics only treat bacterial infections—and not even all of those infections require an antibiotic.

The consequence of such overzealous prescribing is that more bacteria get exposed to drugs, giving them the opportunity to develop resistance. And subsequent drug-resistant bacteria can trigger difficult- or impossible-to-treat infections, which are now a critical public health threat. As many as two million people are sickened with antibiotic-resistant bacteria each year in the US, and 23,000 of those die from the infection.

Getting doctors to simply stop overprescribing sounds pretty easy. But as data on failed public health campaigns shows, it is not. Simply reaching out and informing doctors of the ills of overprescribing don’t work, largely because doctors are already aware of the problem. Yet, due to other factors, they keep overprescribing. Those other factors may be lack of time to accurately diagnose an infection or pressure from patients who may see an antibiotic as a cure-all and demand a prescription.

Enlarge / The good news is that not all iOS 9 users are affected by this bug! The bad news is that if you are affected, you might be stuck waiting on a fix. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Since iOS 9.3 was released last week, we've seen several complaints from users about links to external webpages in Safari or any iOS app—try to tap them, and instead of opening, they just sit there without doing anything. We weren't able to replicate the issue on our iDevices initially, but some extra sleuthing was able to track down a couple of potential sources for the issue.

Ben Collier probably has the most comprehensive description of what is going on. In iOS 9, developers can take advantage of a feature called "Universal Links" to associate their apps with their websites. When their app is installed on your phone or tablet, links to those sites open up in their apps instead of in Safari as they normally would.

It turns out that the app for travel site Booking.com crammed every single URL from its site into the list of associated links in its app rather than using wildcard characters to do the same thing. The list was 2.3MB in size, well beyond what iOS is apparently willing to tolerate. Instead of failing over gracefully, iOS chokes on either the size of this file or an associated bug in the system process for the Shared Web Credentials feature and simply refuses to work at all. Tapping the link does nothing, and long-pressing the link crashes your app entirely.

(credit: Ravedave)

For decades, farmers have known that the quickest way to fatten up young, healthy livestock is to feed them antibiotics—the drugs will even plump animals on a diet. It’s unclear why the practice, called growth promotion, works. Scientists have a range of hypotheses, including that the drugs may kill off gut microbes that compete for calories or knock back mild infections that would otherwise take energy to fight off. Whatever the answer, one thing is certain: growth promotion spurs drug-resistance in bacteria. And with the rise of infections from such superbugs in people—a major threat to public health—the practice is now squarely discouraged.

Yet, despite the long-held practice in farms, researchers are just beginning to harvest data on whether the drugs have the same effect on human babies in clinics. So far, much of the data—but not all—shows some concerning similarities.

Looking at a population-representative sample of nearly 22,000 children in the United Kingdom, researchers found that giving children three or more courses of antibiotics within the first two years of life modestly increased the likelihood that they would be obese at age four. The study, being published in Gastroenterology, follows several smaller studies that hinted at such a connection, particularly for antibiotics used in the first six months of life.

(credit: Flickr user: Steve Rhodes)

More than 50 advocacy groups today asked the Federal Communications Commission to stop zero-rating systems implemented by Comcast, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T­-Mobile USA.

Zero-rating plans, which exempt certain content from monthly data caps, "enable ISPs to pick winners and losers online or create new tolls for websites and applications," said a letter sent to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. "As a result, they present a serious threat to the Open Internet: they distort competition, thwart innovation, threaten free speech, and restrict consumer choice—all harms the rules were meant to prevent."

Letter signers included the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Free Press, MoveOn.org, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, the New America’s Open Technology Institute, and the Rural Broadband Policy Group.

(credit: Hui Won Yun, Seoul National University)

Diabetes is growing into a global public health crisis, one that places enormous economic burdens on many nations. Once thought of as a disease that typically strikes affluent adults, type 2 diabetes has quickly spread all over the world, indifferent to socioeconomic status or age.

Treatment of type 2 diabetes requires patients to control their blood sugar levels through a mix of dietary restrictions and medication. Unfortunately, following the progress of these efforts is not as easy as it sounds. Glucose-monitoring devices available on the market typically require the user to obtain a small blood sample that can be read to quantify the level of the sugar. A minimally or non-invasive alternative would probably help many patients stay on top of their health.

Recently, a team of scientists have designed a flexible glucose-monitoring device that conforms to the skin and is barely visible. The device contains an array of sensors that are patterned onto gold-doped graphene and connected by a gold mesh. This setup both improves the electrochemical activity of graphene and enhances the biochemical sensitivity of the system.

A Central Texas police department issued a "breaking news alert" on Facebook, cautioning residents that meth and heroin in the Granite Shoals area "could be contaminated with the life-threatening disease Ebola." Last week's fake Facebook alert urged the public "NOT" to ingest those illicit drugs "until it has been properly checked for possible Ebola contamination" by the police department.

The ploy netted one arrest, the Granite Shoals Police Department (GSPD) reported on Facebook. A woman allegedly brought in her meth so the police department could analyze it for Ebola:

This morning, we had our first concerned citizen notify the Granite Shoals Police Department (GSPD) that they believed their methamphetamine may be tainted. Our officers gladly took the item for further testing. Results and booking photos are pending. Please continue to report any possibly tainted methamphetamine or other narcotics to the Granite Shoals Police Department. Public health and safety continue to remain our #1 priority. ‪#‎notkidding‬

For the uninitiated, there are no Ebola-contaminated drugs. The alert was a hoax played on the citizens of Granite Shoals, a town of about 5,000 northwest of Austin. But the arrest of 29-year-old Chastity Eugina Hopson is not a joke. She was accused of possessing under a gram of a controlled substance. The police department described Hopson's arrest as "the winner of the Facebook post challenge."

(credit: Flickr user TheTruthAbout)

Redbox might try its hand at online video streaming again, according to a report from Variety. "Sources familiar with the company’s plans" told the entertainment news site that Redbox is getting ready to launch a new video streaming service called Redbox Digital. One source claims that a beta testing may begin soon.

Details of the Redbox Digital are still nebulous, and the company isn't giving up any more information. A Redbox representative told Variety, “Redbox continually looks for ways to enhance our customer experience. For tens of millions of consumers, Redbox is their source for new release rentals without a subscription. As such, we regularly conduct tests of potential new offerings, that may or may not be brought to market, as part of our ongoing commitment to provide additional value.”

A few design concepts of the service have leaked, showing that Redbox Digital could offer online video rental and purchase options that would be integrated with Redbox's current video offerings. The store would be accessed through Redbox's website through the "Digital" tab, and users could earn "Play Pass" points on each rental or purchase through the company's existing loyalty program. Pricing information isn't certain, but the design renders show different prices for standard-definition video rentals and purchases compared to HD content. Reports also suggest that this service would be integrated into Redbox's mobile apps and compatible streaming devices such as Rokus and Chromecasts, which would make it easier to watch Redbox content from all kinds of devices.