Newsroom Stories

SadatShould Saddam Hussein be tried through an “Iraqi Special Tribunal” or a U.N. Tribunal? This topic will be heavily debated in the aftermath of Saddam’s capture. Leila Sadat, international law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, says the U.S. government’s push for a local Iraqi tribunal rather than a U.N Tribunal is a mistake. “The international community needs to support Iraq through this process, not abandon its responsibilities for Iraq’s successful reconstruction, one of which is the need for justice and accountability,” says Sadat. She outlined her views on the subject in a Dec. 16 commentary in USA Today. Sadat is available to discuss her views on the trial of Saddam and other international law issues surrounding trials of heads of state.

Despite the rejection of a provision to allow prescription drug imports from Canada in the Medicare bill passed by Congress, policymakers are still considering other bills that would allow the drug imports from North of the border. But Jackson Nickerson, a professor of organization and strategy at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, says that allowing the import of drugs from Canada would likely raise prices for both Canadians and U.S. consumers. Nickerson is currently engaged in a major research initiative with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the pharmaceutical industry to improve the manufacturing process for drugs.

SneiderMost retailers are enthusiastic about sales prospects for the holiday season. Estimates for same store sales growth of five to seven percent are expected, according to Martin Sneider, a professor of retailing at the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis. “These forecasts are far more robust than the numbers posted last year. Estimates for price-driven stores like Wal-Mart and Costco are at the high end of analyst’s expectations,” Sneider says. Meanwhile, online holiday shopping is expected to grow by 20 to 40 percent, he says.

Courtesy photoThe Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder (TIGER) at the McMurdo base in Anarctica. Aria-9, a joint Washington University/NASA K-12 research project, is scheduled for mid-December; it involves measuring galactic cosmic rays.An estimated 1,000 students from 28 K-12 schools from Missouri, Illinois, Washington D.C., New Jersey, Montana, and Queensland, Australia are participating in Aria-9, student experiment packages that get tested on NASA space flights. The Aria-9 is the latest Washington University in St. Louis Project Aria’s “fly-and-compare” K-12 experiment packages, according to Keith Bennett, adjunct assistant professor of computer science and engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, and Aria project director.

Image courtesy of Karin Peyer, 2001*Postosuchus*, the “alligator on stilts,’ was quite a mover in its day.How much different do the bones of similar animals have to be for the classification of a new species? That is the question that drove Stephanie Novak, a new doctoral candidate in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, to develop a novel model to determine classification of a new species. Novak presented details of her model at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, held Nov.2-5 in Seattle.

Courtesy of Monterey Bay Area Research InstituteA fish on the ocean floor off California gazes at a sight no human has seen first-hand: a modified Raman spectrometer gathering data on a carbon dioxide sample.In collaboration with oceanographers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), a team of geologists at Washington University in St. Louis is using a rare instrument on the ocean floor just west of California. One of their earliest projects was to see if it’s possible to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it on the ocean floor. It’s the first deployment of the Raman spectrometer on the ocean floor.

A new book by botanists at Washington University in St. Louis enlightens both consumers of natural products and herbs and traditional physicians. Medical Botany, Plants Affecting Human Health, is the second edition of a 1977 book, Medical Botany, published by Walter Lewis, Ph.D., professor emeritus of biology, and Memory Elvin-Lewis, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and ethnobotany in biomedicine in Arts & Sciences at Washington University.

Chest x-ray of a lung affected by pneumoniaMany medical advances involve complicated new technologies or procedures. But Linda Mundy, M.D., associate professor of medicine and an infectious diseases specialist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, recently reported good results with a new pneumonia treatment that can be summed up in a single sentence: Get patients up out of bed earlier and more often, and they check out of the hospital an average of one day sooner. Mundy says the high volume of U.S. pneumonia hospitalizations could make the new treatment a potent cost-saver, but added that a second study of the approach, known as early mobilization, is needed to confirm the beneficial effects.

Image courtesy of Cindy LustigParts of the brain involved in a “resting network” show large differences between young adults, older adults, and people with Alzheimer’s disease.Researchers tracking the ebb and flow of cognitive function in the human brain have discovered surprising differences in the ability of younger and older adults to shut down a brain network normally active during periods of passive daydreaming. The differences, which are especially pronounced in people with dementia, may provide a clear and powerful new method for diagnosing individuals in the very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Image courtesy of William C. Chapman, M.D.William Chapman monitors his surgical instrument’s position on corresponding CT scans during liver surgery.Despite being the largest vital organ in the body, the liver has very few identifiable landmarks to help guide a cancer surgeon around its surface. Two-dimensional ultrasound images currently are the standard navigational tool, making it difficult to discern depth and location in the liver during surgery to remove tumors. That’s why a research team led by William C. Chapman, M.D., professor of surgery and chief of the Abdominal Transplantation Section at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis plans to launch trials examining the use of three-dimensional imaging techniques to complement ultrasound during liver surgery. The research team will investigate standard three-dimensional imaging techniques like MRI, CT scanning and PET for guiding surgeons during tumor removal surgery.