QDIS Blog

Here’s another report on the situation on the article recently reported in the journal Nature regarding Advanced Cell Technology’s technique for creating new stem cell lines.

KRT Wire | 08/31/2006 | Journal will clarify human embryo study (Chicago Tribune)

This article outlines the fact that the journal Nature will add a statements to clarify what was actually meant.

Technorati Tags: Advanced Cell Technolgy, stem cell, stem cells

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A newly announced technology related to stems cells has been in the news recently and some of those articles are listed below.

• The Stem-Cell War Heats Up - Newsweek Health - MSNBC.com
• TIME.com: Why the Stem Cell Advance May Not Be a Breakthrough
• Firm makes “ethical” embryo stem cells | Top News | Reuters.com
• Critic Alleges Deceit in Study On Stem Cells

The technique describes a method to remove embryonic stem cells without destroying the embryo. While many think this gets around some of the ethical objections, I’m not as hopeful. It will be interesting to see how this develops and I think there will still be objections to this. It will b interesting to se what objections are now raised. My best guess is those opposed to stem cell research will suggest that after removing the stem cells the embryos may no longer be able to be implanted into a womb and therefore it is the same as killing them. There will be many questions raised and the goal for everyone should be to see if these are legitimate scientific questions or are they objections raised to prevent or slow further stem cell research. Look for phrases such as “we don’t know what will happen after a cell is removed from these embryos” or “we don’t know that the embryo is indeed viable” and further no effort made on their part to support such claims.

Technorati Tags: stem cells

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I am convinced that most major companies don’t understand podcasting. It’s a new hip term and some groups are trying to capitalize on. As an example, take the website for the new prescription sleep aid Rozerem made by Takeda.

If you look at the home page for Rozerem they list a “listen to podcast” on the main page.

However, you can’t even click on this. That itself is pretty poor but even worse, once you do get to their so called podcast page, it is just a link to a TV commercial!?

Podcasts are regularly updated audio and/or video enclosures within an RSS feed. You can subscribe to that field in a podcatcher such as iTunes. There is no feed anywhere on this site as far as I can tell. You have to go to the website and watch the mp3 or m4v files or download them. This is NOT a podcast. This is merely making your commercials and some music available on a website which has been going on for years now.

I think it is possible to make podcasting work commercially. However, too many large companies just look at it as another method to force their advertising on consumers. This will not work. If it had some advice about sleeping problems and what to do about them or maybe had some easy listening music each week to help you fall asleep, then it might be worthwhile.

As another example, Disney had a podcast about Walt Disney World called “Walt Disney World® Resort: Plugged In“. The feed still exists but it hasn’t had any new content since April; over four months ago! I did listen to a couple of these and they ended up being hour long commercials for the Disney resort. Now, I understand the desire to use this new content distribution as a means for advertising, but I think that misses the point of offering something worthwhile to the listener. If they had information on using the fastpass system, or maybe tips and hints on dealing with crowds at the parks, etc. then it might be worth it. There are many very popular podcasts regarding Disney and I regularly listen to several of those, but the Disney company itself isn’t one of them. On of my favorites is Ricky Brigante’s “Inside the Magic” podcast.

Bottom-line, if your company looks at podcasts as a means to distribute your advertising without offering anything worthwhile to your listeners, I think you will be sorely disappointed. However, if you offer something interesting and exciting, you can fit in your ads without turning off your listeners.

Technorati Tags: Disney, podcast, Walt Disney World, rameltreon, Rozerem, sleeping pill, Takeda

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Most of you know that I produce a podcast about finding information on the Internet called appropriately enough “Searching the Internet“. The most recent episode (number 9) covers finding images and photos online.

In an effort to improve my podcast and to meet some fellow podcasters, I will be attending the Podcast and Portable Media Expo in Ontario CA from Sept 29-30. I’m looking forward to the event as there are many talks and presentations on a wide variety of topics from corporate podcasting to podcasting as a business to podcasting as a hobby.

I’m looking forward to meeting many of my fellow podcasters whom I have never met. Several of them I have exchanged email and audio comments with but have no idea what they look like, so maybe I’ll just close my eyes and listen for voices I recognize There are actually a few who I know from photos online of last years conference or from their websites. I’ve heard people describe the conference as a cross between a blind date and a high school class reunion!

Also, I’m going to try and keep posting during the time I’ll be away (Sept 28-Oct 2) but did want to let folks know if that doesn’t happen it because I’m soaking in all that this conference offers.

Technorati Tags: podcast, podcast expo

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As most of you know, I have a podcast called Searching the Internet: Practical advice and tips on searching the Internet. It covers using various Internet sites to find the information you need. I haven’t done any interviews on my podcast because getting them to record correctly was somewhat of a pain until now.

Rogue Amoeba (I love that name and their “mascot”) has updated Audio Hijack Pro (AHP) to version 2.7 and has made it very simple and easy to record any VOIP client including Skype Gizmo, and iChat. This is something I had been wanting in AHP for a while now and maybe I’ll now try to do some interviews.

Their weblog (entry for July 31, 2006) has the instructions:

And so, for v2.7, we’ve simplified it down to the following:

Not only is there no Step 3, there isn’t even a joke “There’s no Step 3″ step. Make your session, hit Record, and it just works.

They also make it possible to record each end of the conversations on separate tracks! This is especially useful if you have someone who’s voice isn’t loud enough and you need to do some manipulation in post-production. You can easily increase the volume of just one side of the conversation.

Go read their weblog, it has a nice visual tutorial on using Audio Hijack Pro v2.7.

I should note that this can be used for so much more than just podcasting. If you need to capture audio and you use a Mac, this software is for you!

I must say, I’m a very happy user. Also, the price is more than reasonable for software that works this well ($32; or $10 upgrade from Audio Hijack). Version 2.7 is a free upgrade to anyone who has v2.x.

Technorati Tags: audio, Audio Hijack Pro, audio software, Rogue Amoeba

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QD Information Services now offers custom experimental designs. No matter what your need, QDIS can develop an experimental design to suit your needs. These designs are computer generated and are setup in order to give you the greatest confidence in the results results. DOE gives you the ability to know for sure if you are it the optimal settings for your process.

What is Design of Experiments (DOE)?

Design of Experiments is the use of a carefully selected group of experiments chosen to give the most information with the fewest number of experiments. While not well know, the technique has been around for many years. It is just now becoming popular as is a great tool for optimizing any process. If you need to maximize or minimize some measurement then DOE can help you. Not only do you get the most information from the fewest experiments, but you also generate a model which allows you to predict results at other areas within your experimental space.

What Can Design of Experiments Do for You?

• Optimize any process
• Optimize the yield of a chemical reaction
• Minimize the amount of an impurity
• Allows you to show that you understand and have a chemical process in control
• Gives you an indication of what further experiments may be needed

Contact QD Information Services for a free quote for an experimental design for your specific needs. Since each situation is unique, the pricing depends on your exact needs.

Technorati Tags: design of experiments

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Google Trends is an interesting tools to see trends in what people are searching for on Google. I decided to do a little investigation on some items of interest to the drug industry.

1. Vioxx: I looked at the trends for “Vioxx”and the results spike at the end of Sept 2004 when Merck announced they were withdrawing the drug from the market. It’s been relatively flat since.

2. If you limit the results to just the US, it is interesting that the number one city searching for Vioxx was Barnwell, SC (population 24,000), So I was curious as to why such a small town in SC would be by far and away the largest searcher for the term Vioxx. A quick search for “vioxx” and Barnwell yields the answer; one of the law firms involved in the Vioxx case in NJ was Weitz & Luxenberg and they have offices in Barnwell, SC. They also have offices in Mannford, OH.

3. Search for “Plan B” has also seen a trend up. Unfortunately, Google trends doesn’t list any news items for this term.

4. A Search for “FDA” shows that there are more than twice as many searches for this term in India than in the US. This isn’t surprising since India is a growing market for pharmaceutical products, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and other related services.

If we limit it to the US, then Rockville, MD is the number one city, not surprising since that’s where the FDA headquarters are located.

I’m sure there may be even more interesting results after I’ve had time to play with it more. Also, keep in mind that uncommon search terms don’t give good results.

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Trends

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Just a quick update; after blogging about TagClouds on Friday, it seems they are undergoing major changes. Until now, it had been run on a single server as a weekend project. It has now grown beyond that and they have a sponsor and are moving the service to new servers. I’ve temporarily taken down the TagClouds until the service is back up and running. Sorry for that. Hopefully they’ll be back soon.

Technorati Tags: tagcloud

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Just wanted to let folks know I’ve created some TagClouds of web feeds (RSS feeds) relate to chemistry and posted them. Each TagCloud has a list of the feeds it looks through to generate the keywords. The size of the word is in relation to how many times it occurs. Clicking on any of these words will give you other items in that set of feeds containing that term. Then you can click on a given entry and that item. If you want, you can use the “Y! Search Related Terms ” button to see related results from a Y!Q search. This doesn’t work so well for the chemistry articles but works great for the news and blog TagClouds.

I’ve set up TagCloud for the following:

• American Chemical Society (ACS) organic journals
• Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) organic journals
• all ACS journals
• all RSC journals
• pharmaceutical news
• interesting science blogs that I read

Let me know what you think.

Technorati Tags: tagcloud

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