DEATHS in Britain from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), the human
form of mad cow disease, have been rising by a third on average each year since
1995. Although the absolute number of cases is low
(快猫短视频, 12 August, p 19),
it鈥檚 a worrying trend and by late summer the national press was
full of glum news about vCJD. I wrote to Bob Will, director of the National
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance Unit at the Western General Hospital,
Edinburgh, to see if researchers there were any closer to finding a reliable
diagnostic test capable of detecting the abnormal prion protein at the
pre-clinical phase of this frightening disease.
Will agreed that the development of such a test was one of the most important
aims of current research. It was the focus of major collaboration between his
unit and a number of groups around the world. However, the difficulty of the
task should not be underestimated, he said. The principal problem is that a
blood test would require a high sensitivity because of the likely low levels of
the abnormal prions in peripheral blood, and it would also have to discriminate
between normal and abnormal prion protein. 鈥淎lthough some of the results are
promising, I personally feel that there is a long way to go before there is a
validated test,鈥� said Will
ACCURATE warnings about local traffic jams would be a godsend, and Barry Fox
reports that they may be on the horizon鈥攖hanks to a system that Rover
Group Advanced Technology Centre in Warwick is patenting
(快猫短视频, 26 August, p 7).
Rover wants to create a network of very low-power radio
transmitters that would send a signal to a modified car radio. The radio would
identify the vehicle鈥檚 position from the signals, and then filter traffic news
so that drivers receive the information they need. Such a device would clearly
save fuel, time and many a bad temper, so I showed the news piece to roads
minister Lord Whitty.
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Whitty said the idea of using radio transmitters to determine position and
allow the delivery of place-specific information is not new. For example,
Trafficmaster of Milton Keynes is marketing a congestion-warning service to
subscribers. This gives drivers a visual or audible messages about traffic
conditions through a special unit installed in their vehicle, and covers all
motorways and most trunk roads. The company has a network of traffic sensors
that can calculate congestion levels and broadcast them to subscribers.
The Radio Data System-Traffic Message Channel (RDS-TMC) can be used to
broadcast real-time and online information for the traveller on FM radio,
covering congestion, accidents, road works, diversions, special events and the
like. The service is in its final stages of demonstration and evaluation in
Britain. If it proves successful, British firms will develop it as a commercial
product. It has the potential for a Europe-wide service.
In general, said Whitty, the Department of the Environment, Transport and the
Regions welcomes the availability of better information for drivers, provided it
is delivered in ways that do not interfere with driving itself.
The recent petrol blockade and the need to save fuel may mean that we need to
resurrect the concept of congestion warnings through low-power radio
transmitters. I think Whitty ought to find out from Rover what has happened
since it filed its patent in 1999.
