in collaboration with a nonprofit organisation, has designed a book with silver-impregnated pages that can be used to filter contaminated water.
Waterborne diseases, such as typhoid or diarrhoeal illnesses, kill 1. 5 million people a year globally.
Theresa Dankovich from Carnegie mellon University used the idea to launch the concept of a book that could both encourage proper sanitation practices
During her Phd at Mcgill University, Dankovich successfully created a page made from cellulose, impregnated with silver nanoparticles.
Following a postdoctoral stint at the University of Virginia (UVA), she was also able to dope the paper with relatively inexpensive copper nanoparticles. he paper is really thick and sturdy,
it has less than one weight percent of silver in it, explained Dankovich, speaking at the 250th ACS National Meeting & Exposition at Boston,
Stuart Kahn from the University of New south wales, Australia, who was involved not in the research, says that the team efforts have been admirable,
when disinfection has been achieved satisfactorily and when it has not. n any case, Dankovich now hopes to increase production of the book. f things keep going well,
Researchers at Stanford university have taken a step closer to this type of prosthetic by creating an electronic skin that responds to pressure changes
microstructured resistive pressure sensors, flexible printed organic electronic circuits, and nerve cells containing light-activated ion channels. The pressure sensors are made of a carbon nanotube-elastomer composite shaped into tiny pyramidal structures that are coated onto a surface.
The sensor changes conductance in response to applied pressure. Bao previously made similar capacitive sensors,
but the new resistive sensors better detect the range of pressures sensed by human skin.
Each sensor is connected to an organic circuit printed with the help of researchers at Xerox Palo alto Research center (PARC.
The circuit converts the pressure signal into a series of electrical pulses and increases pulse frequency in response to increasing pressure. his circuit is relatively simple to build,
Bao says. t serves as the perfect electrical readout for our sensors. The researchers used the electrical pulses to modulate the frequency of a light-emitting diode.
In their proof-of-concept study, they sent light from the LED through an optical fiber to stimulate neurons in mouse brain slices.
The nerve cells in these samples were decorated with engineered channelrhodopsins that open in response to light,
triggering nerve cells to fire. The work represents n important advance in the development of skinlike materials that mimic the functionality of human skin at an unprecedented level
says Ali Javey, who is developing electronic skin at the University of California, Berkeley. t could have important implications for the development of smarter prosthetics. his is just the beginning of the path toward building fully integrated artificial skin,
Bao says. Next, she says, her team hopes to mimic other sensing functions of human skin,
such as the ability to feel heat, and integrate them into the new platform m
#Memory-Boosting Devices Tested in Humans A strategy designed to improve memory by delivering brain stimulation through implanted electrodes is undergoing trials in humans.
The US military, which is funding the research, hopes that the approach might help many of the thousands of soldiers who have developed deficits to their long-term memory as a result of head trauma.
At the Society for neuroscience meeting in Chicago, Illinois, on October 171, two teams funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency presented evidence that such implanted devices can improve a person ability to retain memories.
By mimicking the electrical patterns that create and store memories the researchers found that gaps caused by brain injury can be bridged.
The findings raise hopes that a euro prostheticthat automatically enhances flagging memory could aid not only brain-injured soldiers,
but also people who have had strokesr even those who have lost some power of recall through normal ageing.
both groups are studying people with epilepsy who already have implanted electrodes. The researchers can use these electrodes both to record brain activity
and to stimulate specific groups of neurons. Although the ultimate goal is to treat traumatic brain injury
these people might benefit as well, says biological engineer Theodore Berger at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los angeles. That is
because repeated seizures can destroy the brain tissue needed for long term memory formation. Short-term memories are thought to be created
researchers asked 12 people with epilepsy to look at pictures and then recall up to 90 seconds later which ones they had seen.
the researchers recorded the firing patterns in both CA3 and CA1. They then developed an algorithm that could use the activity of the CA1 cells to predict the pattern that was coming from CA3.
Compared with the actual patterns their predictions were accurate about 80%of the time. By using this algorithm,
the researchers should be able to stimulate the CA1 cells with a pattern that mimics an appropriate CA3 signal
) USC biomedical engineer Dong Song, a member of the team, says that the group has tried the stimulation on a woman with epilepsy,
says neuro biologist Howard Eichenbaum at Boston University in Massachusetts. But he cautions that mimicking it could be difficult
Thomas Mchugh, a neuroscientist at the RIKEN Brain science Institute in Tokyo, says that he has been following the team work for years
and has been surprised consistently at how well the approach has worked in animal models. he data is convincing,
A team at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) in Philadelphia is taking a different approach to enhancing memory that requires an even less detailed understanding of how the process works.
or whether they are under stress. The team has found again by working with people with epilepsy, that stimulating a region called the medial temporal lobe,
which houses the hippocampus, improves memory that is functioning poorly. But when memory is functioning well,
stimulation impedes it. In a study that they presented at the Chicago meeting, Penn neuroscientist Daniel Rizzuto and his colleagues recorded brain activity in 28 people as they recalled a list of words.
the researchers developed an algorithm that predicted with high accuracy whether a person would remember a given word.
and is seeking regulatory approval to use a more precise electrode array. Although it would be useful from a basic-science viewpoint to discover why stimulation works so well,
Mchugh says, it may be worth developing therapies based on it even if it is not fully understoods long as it can be proved to be safe and effective t
#This Robotic Hand Wired to a Brain Implant Restored a Paralyzed Man Sense of touch In the last few years,
experimental robotic limbs have made great advances, promising people who are paralyzed or have lost a limb the return of some sorely missed freedom.
In 2012, a man with one leg took the stairs all the way to the top of Chicago Willis Tower on a thought-controlled prosthetic limb.
a paralyzed 28-year-old man reported a ear-naturalsense of touch from a sensor-laden robotic hand wired to a brain implant.
In the case of paralysis, however, robotic arms wired directly to the brain via an implant have been primarily one-way devicesllowing action but not yielding sensory information.
This is why the Darpa announcement is so exciting. Robotic thought-controlled prosthetic limbs for amputees are controlled by the brain indirectly using healthy nerves and muscles in the stump.
When a person thinks about certain movements electrodes pick up the nerve and muscle activity, recognize patterns,
however, the only way to link up to a robotic arm is directly through the brain by way of an implant.
electrode arrays were placed onto a paralyzed volunteer sensory and motor cortices. The former manages our sense of touch and the latter controls physical movement of the body.
The implant was wired then to a robotic hand built by the Applied Physics laboratory at Johns Hopkins. Using advanced pressure sensors,
the hand converts physical sensations into electrical signals that are communicated to the brain through the brain implant.
The volunteer, who was paralyzed by a spinal cord injury ten years ago, was not only able to control the hand,
this work shows the potential for seamless biotechnological restoration of all function. For now, Darpa is keeping details on the work under wraps pending peer review
and publication of a paper describing it. Although promising, such work remains expensive and firmly limited to the lab. Further,
invasive surgery and wired brain implants are not an ideal solution. And limited to pressure,
the sensory input remains largely rudimentary and one-dimensional. However, even simple pressure is a very useful advances demonstrated by those cherriesnd it isn likely to end there.
With today work laying the foundation, it seems likely additional sensations, like temperature, may be added later.
Better algorithms and more sensitive electrodes might yield finer motor control. And advances in brain-machine interfaces should make implants less invasive.
For now, however, it one step at a time. And adding a sense of touch is a big one a
The Universe Is Dying Slowly The most comprehensive assessment of the energy output in the nearby universe reveals that today's produced energy is only about half of
A team of international scientists used several of the world's most powerful telescopes to study the energy of the universe
-and ground-based telescopes as we could get our hands on to measure the energy output of over 200,000 galaxies across as broad a wavelength range as possible,"Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) team leader Simon Driver,
of the University of Western australia, said in a statement. The astronomers created a video explaining the slow death of the universe to illustrate the discovery.
When the Big bang created the energy of the universe about 13.8 billion years ago, some portion of that energy found itself locked up as mass.
When stars shine they are converting that mass back into energy, as described by Albert Einstein's famous equation E=mc2 (energy=mass x speed of light squared).
From the Big bang to Now in 10 Easy Steps"While most of the energy sloshing around in the universe arose in the aftermath of the Big bang,
additional energy is constantly being generated by stars as they fuse elements like hydrogen and helium together,
"Driver said.""This new energy is absorbed either by dust as it travels through the host galaxy,
or escapes into intergalactic space and travels until it hits something, such as another star, a planet,
or, very occasionally, a telescope mirror.""Astronomers have known that the universe is slowly fading out since the late 1990s.
the team found that the energy output is dropping over 21 different wavelengths, making their results the most comprehensive assessment to date of the energy output of the nearby universe."
"The universe will decline from here on in, sliding gently into old age, "Driver said d
#Exoplanet 51 Eridani b: A Red-hot Young Jupiter Around Distant Star (Infographic) Astronomers have photographed directly a planet not unlike Jupiter orbiting 51 Eridani, a sunlike star 96 light-years from Earth.
#Saltwater lamp could replace dangerous kerosene lights The majority of inhabitants on the Philippines7000 islands do not have access to electricity.
which are not only hazards and pollutants, but also very expensive and inconvenient to refill. Hoping to provide a solution, SALT IS an efficient,
The SALT lamp which stands for Sustainable Alternative Lighting IS LED an light that makes use of the science behind the Galvanic cell (the basis for batteries) and changes electrolytes to a nontoxic
Users simply add one glass of water and one tablespoon of salt saltwater from the ocean can also be used to power the device.
an energy harnessing musical instrument, and a flatpack biofuel stove. What other sustainable resources could be tapped into for similar purposes
#Rewards scheme turns local waste into plastic blocks for community projects Global waste is such a massive issue that it can often feel like individual consumersefforts to recycle
which hopes to dispel that myth by developing a local solution to the global problem of plastic waste.
which combines recycling, community development, design and education. The core of the project involves recycling local plastic into versatile locksduring volunteer workshops
which are used then to build objects such as benches, planters and stages for use within the community.
The locksare made from plastic waste donated by local residents, who receive reward tokens that can be used to redeem offers at local participating businesses,
upcycling and how to reprocess locally recycled plastic waste. The pilot scheme in Amsterdam Noord has seen great success with 231 participating citizens
23 local businesses, nearly 2000kg of plastic collected and the potential to build over 800 blocks.
CITIES have created various open source resources to help people launch further schemes in other neighborhoods. What other forms of waste can also be reused in educational, community-building ways y
#Smart mirrors in fitting rooms show heat in action Savvy retailers are increasingly utilizing smart technology to enhance their customersinstore experience.
We have seen already Hirsh and Mann smart sample spoon, which helps customers remember the mustard flavors they liked.
Now, Japanese retail chain Uniqlo has collaborated with Alexander Svensson to install smart heat-sensitive mirrors in its changing rooms,
Their thermal range stores body heat in air pockets within the fibers, but its ultra-thin appearance often causes consumers to question its effectiveness.
The Heattech Mirror visually displays the wearer body temperature rising in the mirror. The smart mirror is connected to a thermal camera
the RFID chip in the alarm tag activates the camera. Then, when the customer tries on the clothing they can see exactly how much their body temperature is being raised by the garment, showing them its effectiveness.
such as a free mobile app where users help find data patterns in cancer research by playing games.
Now a pop-up home lab is harnessing the power of citizen scientists to find future antibiotics in their backyards.
along with a photo and GPS location to an online database. When the database notices a submission that may be interesting,
it alerts researchers, who can then ask for samples. An open-source library of potential antimicrobials is established then,
and users simultaneously benefit from learning how to conduct microbiology experiments. Post/Biotics are using the power of an unlimited amount of citizen scientists to increase the research potential of antibiotic discovery.
#Sharp batshit crazy new smartphone isa robot PHOTOS If you ever thought the good olphablet was a bit cumbersome
Earlier today, Japanese electronics maker Sharp revealed a humanoid robot-shaped smartphone that I promise won fit in your skinny jeans. It hard to say if it more phone or robot,
but Robohon (yes, an amalgamation of robot and phone) attracted a whole lot of attention at this afternoon press-only preview event at the annual CEATEC convention just outside Tokyo.
The 19.5-centimeter (7. 7-inch 390 gram (0. 9-pound) Robohon sports a 2-inch touchscreen, a quad-core CPU,
and can connect to 3g, LTE, and wifi networks but who cares! It a freakinrobot that makes phone calls, shoots pictures and videos,
and sends emails! A Sharp spokesperson tells Tech in Asia that the robot has an original operating system that not based on Android (the company consumer smartphones have traditionally been powered by Google OS.
Robohon can sit, stand, walk, dance it can even beam a movie or slideshow on your wall with its built-in projector.
But wait, there more! Robohon also utilizes artificial intelligence that learns your likes, dislikes, daily habits,
and frequently-visited places the more you use it. Its facial and voice recognition functions allow it to tell users apart,
so it will respond differently when talking to your spouse or children. At this point, Robohon feels almost like a miniature version of Softbank Pepper robot
but Sharp spokesperson says that the cute little guy is not yet tied up with any of Japan major telcos.
Robohon was designed by renowned Japanese roboticist Tomotaka Takahashi, the man behind the similarly-styled Kirobo humanoid robot and several others.
the LEDS were bright!).There no word on pricing yet, but Sharp expects to ship Robohon in the first half of 2016.
Unfortunately for those outside of Japan, there are no plans to sell the device elsewhere. Besides, Robohon may be bipedal,
#Designed by a 16-year-old, these headphones are meant to save your hearing Wee going deaf using headphones.
whether in tiny earphones or big expensive cans, knows that because that what your mom kept telling you. 16-year-old Kingsley Cheng got the same speech from his parents
whenever he rocked his big headphones, the music leaking out in the room around him. urn down the volume
or youl go deaf! his father, Rayman, would shout, trying to be heard over the racket.
whether his dad was right by breaking out the Google. Listening in After doing some research online,
he realized the danger of hearing loss by listening to music too loudly isn just something parents say
According to data by the World health organization and the American Academy of Audiology the recommended listening level is 85db for a maximum of eight hours at a time.
The same data says that 12 percent of children aged 6-19 suffer from hearing loss caused by bad headphone use.
There are a few headphones on the market claiming they can protect your hearing, but none of them were quite right for Kingsley.
Earlier this year, Kingsley and his dad who a 20-year veteran in the US consumer electronics industry put their heads together to produce he world safest headphones.
Their first effort, the Aegis Pro headphones, is now on Kickstarter. Along with serial entrepreneur Anthony Lye, the startup they co-founded, Aegis Acoustics, is on a mission to prevent further hearing loss among kids who love consuming their music with headphones.
Kingsley offered design ideas for the headphones and came up with the company name, Rayman and Anthony handled the business side,
and sound and audio tech specialist Gates Tan came in as CTO to tackle the technical details.
The sound of music At first glance the Aegis Pro headphones don look like a particularly revolutionary product.
It definitely a stylish pair of cans, though, which wouldn look out of place next to a pair of Beats or Sennheisers.
The company uses both hardware and software solutions to achieve this. Its system, bearing the catchy name Jamsdefender, combines active noise cancellation, digital volume normalization,
and a dual speaker on each headphone to ensure protection and performance. On the software side
a method the company calls digital decibel equalizer technology normalizes the volume at a safe level.
The tech decodes the source volume down to zero db and then sends it out the speaker at a volume of 85db.
The difference between that and the volume limiting technology in other brands, it says, is that the output stays at 85db no matter how much the original recording fluctuates.
LED LIGHTS change color to indicate when it time to stop listening. That a useful feature for parents until the child figures out how to deactivate
The headphones also employ active noise cancellation tech to block out ambient noise. Traditionally, sounds from the environment seeping into our headphones make us crank the volume up to potentially unhealthy levels without even realizing.
The Aegis Pro features four built-in mics that analyze the user surrounding noise and reduce it using an opposite frequency.
Free from distractions, the 85db are supposed to pack that much more of a punch. Finally, performance is enhanced by the dual speakers in each headphone.
Split into a low frequency driver that covers the bass and a high frequency tweeter that delivers the vocals
The headphones can work wirelessly via bluetooth, but also come with a 3. 5mm audio jack. Aegis says the battery can last for up to 14 hours.
The Aegis Pro can also be paired with your phone, with dedicated buttons allowing you to answer a call,
and a built-in microphone for you to talk into. The company says it conducted several tests in reputable labs to determine the best way to deliver good performance
while maintaining ear safety. Vox populi Aegis has been funded self so far but to help fund testing
but the gadget has exceeded so far US$86, 000 and still has 11 more days to go.
The target was quite modest, especially for a hardware campaign, but the team says it had to balance estimated costs with a realistic crowdfunding target that wouldn deter backers by appearing too lofty.
If reached, Aegis wants to pack higher quality speaker drivers into the headphones, promising better sound.
Besides the validation (and money) a successful campaign brings, the metrics and statistics the company gets out of it can be invaluable in pitching the product to retailers.
that specializes in headphone manufacturing and which serves quite a few big headphone brands though Aegis won divulge which.
They say however, that the manufacturer expertise in this area was extremely helpful, offering insight and advice that made the product better.
#New Incisionless Surgery to Treat Enlarged Prostate By age 60, more than 50 percent of men in the United states suffer from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), a condition that leads to annoying changes
While medical therapy is usually the first line of treatment, a new minimally invasive implant can dramatically reduce symptoms for men. his is a safe procedure for men with BPH to improve urination
while preserving sexual function, said Mike Hsieh, MD, urologist at UC San diego Health System. his endoscopic procedure is done on an outpatient basis under light sedation with virtually no side effects.
The prostate is sized a walnut gland that sits below the bladder. When the prostate becomes enlarged
especially at night. ore than half of all men in their sixties and as many as 80 percent of men in their seventies and eighties have some symptoms of BPH,
said Hsieh. his is an excellent alternative to traditional surgeries that require removal of prostate tissue,
The implant is comprised of a series of tiny permanent sutures that lift the enlarged prostate open
The implants are delivered through a hollow needle and into the prostate. No urinary catheter is needed post-procedure.
Side effects may include burning and blood in the urine during the first 24 hours after the procedure.
UC San diego Health System showcased this new procedure in a live-surgery during the 8th annual UC San diego School of medicine urology postgraduate course.
including low testosterone, erectile dysfunction and Peyronie disease. He is recognized also a expert in treating male infertility,
including ejaculatory disorder, hormone imbalance, sperm production impairment and genetic causes of infertility. Source: UCS i
#Plastic parts for internal combustion engines Efforts to produce lighter vehicles necessarily include engine parts, such as the cylinder casing,
if it were made of fiber-reinforced plastic rather than aluminum without added costs. Such injection-molded parts are even suitable for mass production.
Demonstration model of the experimental engine with lightweight cylinder casing to be presented at the Hannover Messe.
Fraunhofer ICT It self-evident that cars must become lighter in order to reduce fuel consumption. For most car designers this principally means body parts
but the powertrain system, which includes the engine, also accounts for a large proportion of the vehicle weight.
Until now, carmakers have relied on aluminum to reduce the weight of engine components such as the cylinder block.
In the future, car manufacturers will be able to achieve further weight savings by designing cylinder blocks in which certain parts are made of fiber-reinforced plastics.
An experimental engine developed by the Fraunhofer project group for new drive systems (NAS), which forms part of the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT, in collaboration with SBHPP, the high-performance plastics business unit of Sumitomo Bakelite Co. Ltd.,
Japan, demonstrates this principle. e used a fiber-reinforced composite material to build a cylinder casing for a one-cylinder research engine, reports Dr. Lars-Fredrik Berg,
who is the project leader and manager of the research area Lightweight Powertrain Design at the Fraunhofer Project Group for new drive systems. he cylinder casing weighs around 20 percent less than the equivalent aluminum component,
That plastics possessed these qualities was recognized back in the 1980s but at that time it was only possible to produce this types of parts in a small volume
and by investing a lot of effort in the form of manual labour a no-go for the automotive industry, in
which the piston moves up and down millions of times during the life of the vehicle. The researchers also modified the geometry of these parts to ensure that the plastic is exposed to as little heat as possible.
Glass-fiber-reinforced phenolic resin The characteristics of the plastic material also play an important role. It needs to be sufficiently hard and rigid
and not have a higher thermal expansion coefficient than the metal otherwise the inserts would separate from the substrate.
Berg team uses a glass-fiber-reinforced phenolic composite developed by SBHPP, which fulfills all of these requirements
and comprises 55 percent fibers and 45 percent resin. A lighter-weight but more expensive alternative is to use a carbon-fiber-reinforced composite the choice depends on
whether the carmaker wishes to optimize the engine in terms of costs or in terms of weight. The researchers produce these components from granulated thermoset plastics using an injection molding process.
The melted composite material in which the glass fibers are mixed already with the resin, hardens in the mold into
which it was injected. The scientists analyzed the process using computer simulations to determine the best method of injecting the material
in order to optimize the performance of the finished product. The process is compatible with mass production scenarios
and the manufacturing costs are significantly lower than those for aluminum engine parts, not least because it eliminates numerous finishing operations.
Initial data also indicates that the amount of heat radiated to the environment is lower than that generated by aluminum-based engines.
The scientists intend to take their research further by developing a multi-cylinder plastics-based engine,
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