Innovation rapid

Markes (2009a) Note 69 The Micro-Chamber/Thermal Extractor - the Innovative, Rapid and Cost Effective Approach for Testing VOC Emissions from Materials, April 2009. 

In 1993, the United States medical device industry employed 282,000 people, averaging a growth rate of about 4% since 1975. Research and development spending in this industry outpaced that in virtually every other industry. Over 7% of sales were spent on research and development in 1993, amounting to a Httle less than 3 bHHon. This rate reflects both the rapid rate of innovation and short product life-cycle. Medical devices become obsolete far more rapidly than pharmaceuticals (qv), forcing companies continuously to be innovative. 

Early bottling of flavored carbonated beverages was limited by spoilage, poor flavor, and color stabiUty. Improvements and innovations in bottling equipment, glass manufacturing, stable flavors and ingredients, crown closures, and transportation resulted in the rapid expansion of the bottled soft drink industry. Soft drinks consist of carbonated water, nutritive or nonnutritive sweeteners, acidulants, preservatives, flavors, juices, and color. 

The chemical industry represents a 455-billion-dollar-a-year business, with products ranging from cosmetics, to fuel products, to plastics, to pharmaceuticals, health care products, food additives, and many others. It is diverse and dynamic, with market sectors rapidly expanding, and in turmoil in many parts of the world. Across these varied industry sectors, basic unit operations and equipment are applied on a daily basis, and indeed although there have been major technological innovations to processes, many pieces of equipment are based upon a foundation of engineering principles developed more than 50 years ago. 

Besides Solvent Innovation, a number of other commercial suppliers nowadays offer ionic liquids in larger quantities [7]. Moreover, the distribution of these liquids by Fluka [8], Acros Organics [9], and Wako [10] assures a certain availability of different ionic liquids on a rapid-delivery basis. 

This rapid pace of innovation in electronics will continue. With each advance, electronic circuits become smaller, more sophisticated, more reliable, and ever more energy-stingy. 

Both approaches are useful and they are also complementary because it is important to know where a chemical that may be best in its class falls out with respect to hazard. For example, a surfactant that is best in its class will be rapidly biodegradable, but most surfactants have some aquatic toxicity because they are surface active. However, surfactants as a class are typically close to the green end of the hazard spectrum because they tend to have low hazard ratings for most other endpoints. It is also possible to have chemicals that are best in their class but that are still problematic. For example, some dioxin congeners are less toxic than others but one would not presume that a dioxin congener that is best in its class is green . Concurrent use of the best in class approach with the absence of hazard approach is also important because it drives continual advancement within a class toward the ideal green chemistry. Once innovation occurs and a chemical or product is developed that meets the same or better performance criteria with lower hazard, what was once considered best in class shifts. 

Recent innovations for detecting malaria include DNA or RNA probes by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). These, however, are not widely available for clinical use. A rapid dipstick test (ParaSight F, Becton-Dickinson, Cockeyville, MD) reportedly has a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 97%, which is comparable to microscopy. However, ParaSight F can give false-positive results with rheumatoid factor thus microscopy remains the optimal test. 

This book consists of a series of works that evaluate various aspects related to the public financing of pharmaceuticals. In all health systems with majority public funding, the financing of pharmaceuticals constitutes one of the key factors in reform policies and health cost containment measures. This importance of pharmaceutical spending can be explained by both its relative size (its share within health expenditure as a whole), and its rapid growth, which is closely related to the constant incorporation of therapeutic innovations. 

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