#New antibody fights several flu strains at once, could make flu shot obsolete Influenza is no longer the scourge it once was thanks to modern medicine,
and specifically, annual vaccination efforts. The flu vaccine isn perfect, though. Influenza mutates rapidly, which means a new vaccine formulation is needed every year.
An international team of researchers has identified a new antibody that might give us the edge in this yearly arms race.
It bypasses the constantly changing surface markers and attacks a different part of the virus membrane.
So why is influenza such a tricky virus to vaccinate against? The virus has a jumble of proteins on its surface called hemagglutinin
and neuraminidase that is uses to enter cells. The pattern of these proteins is different in every strain of influenza,
which allows it to evade your immune system even if youe been infected with the flu before. Basically, you don have antibodies that recognize the new patterns on the virus (known as antigens) until youe encountered the new strain.
When your body has become sensitized to a pathogen, it can prepare an adaptive immune response.
Each antibody can only detect a single antigen. But when it does find its match
the alarms are sounded: The antibody binds to the surface of the virus particle, marking it for destruction by the immune system,
and also preventing it from entering your cells. As the immune response picks up, more antibodies are pumped out and other immune cells swing into action to clear virus-infested cells and combat the infection.
A vaccine provides a template of antigens to train the immune response to recognize the new strains of influenza each year.
There a certain amount of guess work involved, though. Doctors have to predict which strains will be most prevalent in the upcoming flu season to formulate the vaccine
and sometimes they get it wrong. The newly isolated antibody, known as CT149, could vastly improve treatment.
It bypasses the mixed-up pattern of proteins on the surface of virus particles. Instead, CT149 binds to the hemagglutinin stem region,
which is identical on multiple strains of the virus, and it doesn mutate every year. This antibody was isolated from the blood of patients infected with the pandemic H1n1 influenza virus in 2009.
To test its activity, researchers injected mice with doses of CT149, and then exposed them to four powerful strains of the flu.
The mice were protected from all four one of which was the 2009 H1n1 strain
#New material combines photons for big solar energy gains An innovative new approach to solar energy from University of California Riverside could dramatically increase the amount of light available to contemporary solar panel designs.
Rather than widening the absorption spectrum of the solar panels themselves, this new study looked at taking currently inaccessible infrared light and turning it into visible light.
They hope that by directing this newly fabricated light onto conventional solar panels, the efficiency of solar power could be improved greatly, for an affordable price.
Infrared light currently passes straight through most silicon solar cell technologies representing a substantial inefficiency in generating electricity from sunlight.
Much of solar research has worked to directly convert infrared light to electricity, but such technologies change the transistor design,
and thus the manufacturing process for solar panels. Their impacts tend to be limited by cost concerns, more than anything else.
These researchers chose to accept the absorptive abilities of current silicon transistors, and instead looked to make the light conform to the panels.
They created an all-new hybrid material that takes two photons of 980-nanometer infrared light shone onto it and p convertsthem into one photon of 550-nanometer orange yellow light.
This photon has almost double the energy of the originals and more importantly, it exists in a form that existing solar panels can absorb.
By changing the incoming sunlight into silicon favorite for absorption, the material could improve solar panel efficiency by as much as 30%.
%And while the costs of the material itself are known not yet, there is huge potential in offering such large improvements without the need to completely reinvent the transistor manufacturing process.
This hybrid material combines two things: an inorganic layer with semiconductor nanoparticles this absorbs the infrared light,
but isn capable of directly passing it into the electricity generating process. Instead, the light moves on to the organic phase of the material,
which takes these long wavelength photons and combines them. The resulting, lower-wavelength photons can move on to be absorbed by the transistors of the solar panel as normal,
just as though it has been that color upon first arrival. The overall costs of solar power lie much more in installation, maintenance,
and land use costs than in the panels themselves; adding a new layer of this IR-capturing material would certainly increase panel costs,
but could still improve the affordability of solar power. Infrared radiation accounts for an enormous amount of the energy in direct sunlight,
and it is currently being missed by every solar panel outside of a research laboratory. In general, this sort of research into the manipulation of light could allow a wider rollout of solar power around the world.
Plenty of raw energy is falling on highly clouded days, but the distribution of that energy through the spectrum is different,
and harder for modern solar panels to turn into power. Infrared radiation moves through and overcast sky quite well
however; if its energy could be added to that of the cloud-filtered visible light, solar might start to make good financial sense in less sunny areas than Texas and California.
The ability to accurately convert photons between wavelengths could have a wide range of applications, from medical imaging to optical data storage,
but none is so direct as solar power. Energy will be one of the defining issues of the next few decades,
and while some all-new tech revolution may end up saving the day, evolutionary steps like this one will be needed to sustain the world until that day comes d
#DNA Studio Max: Automated nano-printing is coming into its own DNA is referred often to as a uilding blockfor life,
but perhaps a better metaphor would be LEGO. Research in manipulating DNA molecules has led to a robust set of abilities in snapping it together to create complex 2d and 3d shapes.
DNA code-based organization made it possible to design linear molecules that would fold and snap together in predictable ways under laboratory conditions.
Now, a new method of designing DNA structures has automated not only much of the shape-creation process,
allowing scientists to shape their molecule directly, but builds that molecule to be more stable than any previous attempt at DNA rigami. he thing about DNA is that much of the chemical bonding that holds it into complex structures is transient.
The adhesion offered by hydrogen bonding, for instance, is dependent on a wide range of things. Not the least of these is salt concentration,
and prior attempts to use DNA to make nanoscale sculpture have required high levels of magnesium salt to keep the final shape from unraveling.
The new technique, recently revealed by researchers from Sweden Karolinska Institutet, gets around this by building its models out of relatively stable double helices.
Every edge in the computer wire-frame ends up represented by a self-contained double helix in the final molecules,
where previous technologies have used mostly closely packed bundles of single-stranded helices. Doing it this way takes more premeditation in code design
and shape assembly, and thus the newly advanced shaping algorithms, but once made they have a much better ability to actually go to work in the body.
Up until now, most attempts at improving the stability of engineered DNA nanostructures have looked to use whole different versions of DNA, a class of synthetic nucleic acids collectively called XNA.
The idea was that since DNA cages and bunny rabbits don have to act as genetic material for a cell,
they have a much narrower list of chemical requirements than natural DNA. This approach allows useful object creation without the need to reinvent the proverbial wheel.
The automation on display here has been called a 3d printing solution for DNA, and in terms of ease of use that label certainly fits.
All they need to do is have their algorithms design a set of DNA molecules coded
so that they could only realistically assemble in a certain way, in certain conditions. Then, a third party created those linear DNA strands for them all the team had to do was put this collection of strands through the warming and cooling of the assembly process
and they did the rest of the world themselves. As to why scientists would particularly want to be able to create everything from DNA spheres to DNA Coke bottles,
it really comes down to which area of science they study. DNA microcapsules have been studied for their potential to deliver drugs directly to where theye needed most.
And since DNA can be programmed, it could be used as a sort of injectable physical tool, perhaps grabbing pores in the blood-brain barrier
and holding them open for a new therapeutic molecule. They could be programmed to grab on to only one sort of marker (say
a surface protein on a cancer cell) and change conformation to attract further attention o
#Indian-Origin researcher uses Wi-fi to power camera In a first such demonstration, an Indian-origin researcher has developed a system that uses Wi-fi Internet signals to beam power to remote
devices such as a surveillance camera. Developed by doctoral student Vamsi Talla and colleagues at University of Washington in Seattle,
the system is known as power-over-Wi-fi. The idea is simple in concept. Wi-fi radio broadcasts are a form of energy that a simple antenna can pick up.
Until now, Wi-fi receivers have all been designed to harvest the information that these broadcasts carry. Talla simply connected an antenna to a temperature sensor
placed it close to a Wi-fi router and measured the resulting voltages in the device and for how long it can operate on the remote power source alone.
Even more ambitiously, the team also connected a camera to their antenna. This was a low-power sensor capable of producing 174×144 pixel black and white images,
which requires 10.4 millijoules of energy per picture. To store energy, they attached a low leakage capacitor to the camera
which activates when the capacitor is charged and continues operating until the voltage drops to 2. 4 Volts.
The images were stored in a 64kb random access memory (RAM. In the subsequent tests, the camera performed remarkably well. he battery-free camera can operate up to about five meters from the router,
with an image capture every 35 minutes, Talla told MIT Technology Review. By adding a rechargeable battery,
he increased the distance to seven meters. The router could even power the camera through a brick wall,
demonstrating that it would be possible to attach the device outside while keeping the power supply inside. he technology would be hugely useful for surveillance,
perhaps connected to a movement sensor to trigger the camera when something moves in its field of view,
Talla noted. The team also connected their antenna to a Jawbone fitness tracker and used it to recharge the battery that powered it. sing this,
we charge a Jawbone device in the vicinity of the power-over-Wi-fi router from a no-charge state to 41 percent charged state in 2. 5 hours,
the team pointed out. According to the MIT report, power-over-Wi-fi could be the enabling technology that finally brings the nternet of Thingsto life.
IANSTAGS: Camera Over Wi-fi Signals, Internet of things, Power-over-WI-FI, University of Washington, Vamsi Talla, Wi-fi, Wi-fi Router i
#You can now feel virtual reality with new gloves called Gloveone You would have sensed virtual reality through sight
and sound so far. Now, you can touch the virtual objects, thanks to a new pair of gloves.
Gloveone, the new green and black gloves from Spain-based tech company Neurodigital Technologies, will let you actually feel sensations like shape
and weight when interacting with virtual objects. The developers claim that the wearers will be able to feel rain and fire,
and also something as ethereal as butterfly wings, Discovery. com reported. The technology translates touch sensations into vibrations
and each pair has placed 10 sensors in the palm and fingertips. Four of those sensors
located in the palm, thumb index and middle fingers, can detect each other, letting you fire a gun or grab an apple.
The gloves also include a 9-Axis inertial measurement unity (IMU) sensor, which can be placed beneath the gloves.
An IMU sensor, often used to manoeuvre aircraft, can record velocity, orientation and gravitational forces using accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers.
In the Gloveone, the IMU sensor will track your hands within the virtual world to offer a more realistic experience.
The company describes the sensation of wearing these gloves as a ealistic perceptual illusion meaning that you can feel the weight of a virtual object the same as it is in real life
but you can compare weights within the virtual world. The company has finished prototyping the product
and created a Kickstarter page to finance manufacturing the gloves. People can buy the gloves fitted in three sizes.
Each nti-bacterial, sweat-proofpair features a Bluetooth wireless connection and offers more than four hours of battery life.
and each pair has placed 10 sensors in the palm and fingertips. Four of those sensors
located in the palm, thumb index and middle fingers, can detect each other, letting you fire a gun or grab an apple.
The gloves also include a 9-Axis inertial measurement unity (IMU) sensor, which can be placed beneath the gloves.
An IMU sensor, often used to manoeuvre aircraft, can record velocity, orientation and gravitational forces using accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers.
In the Gloveone, the IMU sensor will track your hands within the virtual world to offer a more realistic experience.
The company describes the sensation of wearing these gloves as a ealistic perceptual illusion meaning that you can feel the weight of a virtual object the same as it is in real life
but you can compare weights within the virtual world. The company has finished prototyping the product
Each nti-bacterial, sweat-proofpair features a Bluetooth wireless connection and offers more than four hours of battery life.
#Indian-origin scientist Manu Prakash develops computer that operates on water droplets A computer that operates using the unique physics of moving water droplets has been developed by an Indian-origin scientist and his team.
The computer is nearly a decade in the making, incubated from an idea that struck Manu Prakash, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford university,
when he was a graduate student. The work combines his expertise in manipulating droplet fluid dynamics with a fundamental element of computer science an operating clock. n this work,
we finally demonstrate a synchronous, universal droplet logic and control, Prakash said. The droplet computer can theoretically perform any operation that a conventional electronic computer can crunch,
although at significantly slower rates. e already have digital computers to process information. Our goal is not to compete with electronic computers
or to operate word processors on this, Prakash said. ur goal is to build a completely new class of computers that can precisely control
and manipulate physical matter. magine if when you run a set of computations that not only information is processed
but physical matter is manipulated algorithmically as well. We have made just this possible at the mesoscale Prakash said.
Prakash wondered if he could use little droplets as bits of information and utilize the precise movement of those drops to process both information and physical materials simultaneously.
Prakash decided to build a rotating magnetic field that could act as clock to synchronize all the droplets.
Then they carefully injected into the mix individual water droplets that had been infused with tiny magnetic nanoparticles.
they turned on the magnetic field. Every time the field flips, the polarity of the bars reverses, drawing the magnetized droplets in a new, predetermined direction.
allowing observation of computation as it occurs in real time. The presence or absence of a droplet represents the 1s and 0s of binary code,
and the clock ensures that all the droplets move in perfect synchrony, and thus the system can run virtually forever without any errors.
Prakash said the most immediate application might involve turning the computer into a high-throughput chemistry and biology laboratory.
and the droplet computer offers unprecedented control over these interactions. PTITAGS: Indian-origin scientists, Manu Prakash, Manu Prakash scientist, Manu Prakash wor
#Facebook can now detect and identify your face, even if it hidden Indeed Facebook is watching over you.
Intelligent algorithms can now spot you with fervour as much as investigation authorities in their hunt for criminals.
Turns out, Facebook new set of face recognition algorithms are so effective, they can detect people
and identify them even if their face isn entirely visible. According to a report in the News Scientist, Modern face-recognition algorithms are so good theye already found their way into social networks, shops and even churches.
Yann Lecun, head of artificial intelligence at Facebook wanted to see they could be adapted to recognise people in situations where someone face isn clear,
something humans can already do quite well. he report adds, here are a lot of cues we use.
a tool like this could lend a hand in a photo app like Facebook Moments
or even Google revamped Photos software. However, it also raises privacy questions when you can be identified in a snapshot
Facebook algorithm is pretty good too, identifying people with an 83 percent success rate in tests,
if it makes its way into the social network photo galleries in the future. nnovation is always welcome.
and concerns users have. For good reason. being pointed out from a group by a stranger isn a great feeling.
and ensure user privacy is respected. Tags: CEO Mark Zuckerberg, face recognition, Facebook, facial recognition algorithm, Mark Zuckerberg, privacy, Yann Lecu Z
#Google, Intel and Tata partner on rural internet initiative for women A digitally connected India will bring remendous powerin the hands of citizens by connecting them to the rest of the world,
Ratan Tata said on Friday, lauding the government Digital India programme. delighted that the Prime minister has decided to give so much preference
Tata said in Mumbai at the launch of an initiative to deepen Internet usage among rural women.
has tied up with Google and Intel to help women access the Internet in large numbers under this initiative. nternet will help educate India,
will give access to livelihood to many women who do not have a formal livelihood,
Modi also exhorted the industry to boost domestic production of electronic devices, which account for second largest imports,
Country top industrial houses have pledged to invest over Rs. 4, 50,000 crores under Digital India.
Reminiscing how people were forced to wait for up to 10 years to get a phone connection during his childhood
Tata said deeper penetration of the phone has empowered the entire population now. Benefits in terms of finding one identity, self-respect and access to knowledge because of the phone are said nbelievable he.
Executives from Google said even though growth in women users is outpacing that of men in urban areas,
women account for only a tenth of the total rural Internet users. Under the Internet Saathi programme, 1, 000 specially designed bicycles having connected devices will give villagers an experience of Internet over a period of four to six months.
The initiative aims to cover 4 500 villages over the next 18 months, starting with Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jharkhand and targets to reach out to about 500,000 women a
#New computerised learning system can spot irony and sarcasm in text messages and emails A new computerised learning system spots emotional sentiments, such as sarcasm and irony,
in text messages and emails and it could even detect content that suggests suicidal ideations.
Eden Saig, a computer science student at the Technion-Israel Institute of technology in Israel, developed the computerised learning system
which works by recognising repeated word patterns. Saig developed the system at the Technion Learning and Reasoning Laboratory,
after taking a course in artificial intelligence supervised by Professor Shaul Markovich, of the Technion Faculty of Computer science.
According to Saig voice tone and inflections play an important role in conveying one meaning in verbally communicated message.
In text and email messages, those nuances are lost and writers who want to signify sarcasm, sympathy or doubt have taken to using images,
or moticons, such as the smiley face, to compensate. hese icons are superficial cues at best. They could never express the subtle
or complex feelings that exist in real life verbal communication, said Saig. Recently, pages intended to be humourous on social networks such as Facebook
and Twitter were titled uperior and condescending people, or rdinary and sensible people. uch pages are very popular in Israel,
said Saig, and users are invited to submit suggestions for phrases that can be labelled as tereotypical sayings, for that particular page.
By observing posts to these groups, Saig identified existing patterns. The method he developed enables the system to detect future patterns on any social network.
Since the content in these sections was colloquial, everyday language, Saig realised that, he content could provide a good database for collecting homogeneous data that could, in turn,
help eacha computerised learning system to recognise patronising sounding semantics or slang words and phrases in text. aig applied achine-Learningalgorithms to the content on these pages and used the results to automatically identify stereotypical behaviours found every day in social network communication.
The quantification was carried out by examining 5, 000 posts on social media pages and, through statistical analysis, gearing a learning system to recognise content structure that could be identified as condescending or slang.
The system was constructed to identify key words and grammatical habits that were characteristic of sentence structure implied by the content sentiments. ow,
the system can recognise patterns that are either condescending or caring sentiments and can even send a text message to the user
if the system thinks the post may be said arrogant Saig. When applied to other networking pages it may help detect content that suggests suicidal ideations
for example, or allsfor help, or expressions of admiration or pleasure, Saig saidn o
#Cooler computers, smartphones using graphene film Almost half of the total energy used in running a computer goes in cooling it down.
That is going to change now. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed a method for efficiently cooling electronics using graphene-based film.
Getting rid of excess heat in efficient ways is imperative to prolonging electronic lifespan, and would also lead to a considerable reduction in energy usage,
experts said. The film is attachable to electronic components made of silicon and has a thermal conductivity capacity that is four times that of copper.
A team led by professor Johan Liu from Chalmers University had shown earlier that graphene can have a cooling effect on silicon-based electronics
but the challenge was to stick a thick layer of graphene to silicon chips. e have solved this problem by creating strong covalent bonds between the graphene film and the surface,
which is made an electronic component of silicon, Liu said. Moreover, functionalisation using this kind of bonding doubles the thermal conductivity of the graphene. ncreased thermal capacity could lead to several new applications for graphene.
One example is the integration of graphene-based film into microelectronic devices and systems, such as highly Efficient light Emitting Diode lasers and radio frequency components for cooling purposes, Liu said. raphene-based film could also pave the way for faster,
smaller, more energy efficient, sustainable high power electronics, he said i
#Wireless power transfer now lets you charge mobile phones from a distance Now, you won have to look for a socket to charge your phone or a laptop.
Researchers have developed a wireless power transfer (WPT) technology that can charge mobile phones from a distance. The WPT technology developed by researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) works just as Wi-fi works for Internet connections.
It allows mobile devices to be charged at any location and in any direction, even if the devices are away from the power source.
With this technology your device will automatically get charged without being tethered to a charger if you are designated in the area where the charging is available,
like the Wi-fi Power zone, the researchers said. The system can charge multiple devices simultaneously
and in all directions up to half a metre away from the power source, said lead researcher professor Chun T. Rim.
The results were published in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics. Rim team has showcased successfully the technology on at a lab on KAIST campus. Until now,
all wireless-charging technologies have had difficulties with the problem of short charging distance, mostly less than 10 cm,
as well as charging conditions that the devices should be placed in a fixed position. For example, the Samsung galaxy S6 could only be charged wirelessly in a fixed position,
having one degree of freedom. ur transmitter system is safe for humans and compatible with other electronic devices.
We have solved major issues of short charging distance and the dependence on charging directions, Rim said i
#Facebook solar-powered Internet drone Aquila is ready for real-world testing In its latest announcement,
Facebook reveals to have completed building its first full-scale drone, Aquila, that aims at providing Internet access to the most remote parts of the world.
The drone is now ready for real-world testing and the company said it will test it in the United states later this year.
Aquila is powered a solar unmanned plane that beams down internet connectivity from the sky. It has the wingspan of a Boeing 737,
but weighs less than a car and can stay in the air for months at a time. Facebook has announced also
what it call a reakthroughin laser communications technology. The company claims to have tested successfully a new laser that can transmit data at 10 gigabits per second. hat ten times faster than any previous system,
and it can accurately connect with a point the size of a dime from more than 10 miles away,
Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. The plane will weigh about 880 pounds (400 kg),
said Yael Maguire, the company engineering director of connectivity. It will hover between 60,000 feet and 90,000 feet (20 and 30 km), above the altitude of commercial airplanes,
so that it is affected not by problematic weather. ur mission is to connect everybody in the world,
said Jay Parikh, vice president of engineering. his is going to be a great opportunity for us to motivate the industry to move faster on this technology. he drone,
which was built in 14 months, is able to fly in the air for 90 days at a time, Maguire said.
Helium balloons will be attached to the plane and float it up into the air. The drones have a wingspan of 42 meters (46 yards.
Because the planes must constantly move to stay aloft, they will circle a three-km (two-mile) radius,
Parikh said. During the day, they will float up to 90,000 feet (30 km) and at night will drift down to 60,000 feet (20 km) to conserve energy.
The programme Aquila is geared towards the 10 percent of the population that does not have any Internet access.
Separately, Facebook a year ago launched Internet. org, an initiative to provide Internet access to the two-thirds of the world that do not have a reliable connection including India.
However it has received a lot of flak for violating net neutrality in India. Parikh said Facebook is not planning to sell the drones
but will use them to expand Internet access. Although Facebook does not immediately face policy or legal hurdles in testing its drone in the United states,
Maguire said, it is the first company to fly at such altitudes. It has a team working with policymakers to help set guidelines.
Aquila drone, Drone, Drone testing, Facebook, Internet drone, Internet drone testin
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