#New"smart window"material selectively blocks light and/or heat In an effort to improve the energy efficiency of building,
researchers have sought to develop windows that change transparency to let more light and therefore heat through
when it's cold, and less when it's hot. Unfortunately, these methods tend to impede the passage of visible light, some by tinting panes and others by complete obscuration.
But a team at the Cockrell School of engineering at The University of Texas at Austin has developed a"smart window"technology that allows the passage of light
while blocking heat, or vice versa. Two years ago, Delia Milliron and her team produced a"smart"glass coating that could block visible light, near-infrared light (NIR), or both.
By embedding indium tin oxide (ITO) nanocrystals in glass imbued with niobium oxide, the research team created an electrochromic material that's able to transmit
The team's advancements on their previous research have led to the creation of electrochromic materials that can selectively permit the passage of light,
Illustration of different possible modes for this latest"smart window"technology"These two advancements show that sophisticated dynamic control of sunlight is said possible,
"We believe our deliberately crafted nanocrystal-based materials could meet the performance and cost targets needed to progress toward commercialization of smart windows. d
#Silk-based functional inks put biosensor data on your fingertips Although we've seen"bio-inks"that allow sensors to be drawn directly on a person's skin
and other surfaces to gauge things like glucose levels, functional inks such as this are usually heat-sensitive,
meaning they aren't suitable for use in inkjet printers. Researchers at Tufts University have developed now silk-based inks containing bacteria-sensing agents that can withstand the rigors of inkjet printing,
opening the door much wider for printing biomolecules. The breakthrough comes courtesy of a purified silk protein called fibroin
which is strong enough to stabilize various types of compounds, such as antibodies, enzymes, nanoparticles, antibiotics and growth factors, by acting as a protective"cocoon"."
""We thought that if we were able to develop an inkjet-printable silk solution, we would have a universal building block to generate multiple functional printed formats that could lead to a wide variety of applications in which inks remain active over time,
"said Fiorenzo Omenetto, Ph d.,the Frank C. Doble Professor of Engineering at Tufts School of engineering. The researchers doped the silk ink base with different bio-compounds to create a set of functional,
inkjet-printable silk inks and tested them. Their creations included: an ink with bacterial-sensing polydiacetylenes (PDAS),
which was used to print the word"contaminated"on surgical gloves. When the gloves were exposed to E coli bacteria,
the word changed from blue to red. a plastic dish imprinted with BMP-2 proteins that stimulate bone growth to control the direction of tissue growth. sodium ampicillin printed on a bacterial culture printed to test the effectiveness of a topographical distribution of the antibiotic
. gold nanoparticles printed on paper, which has potential applications in a variety of areas, such as color engineering, surface plasmon resonance based sensing and bio-imaging. enzymes printed on paper,
to test the ability of the ink to carry small functional biomolecules. In addition to bio-sensing gloves that could react selectively to different pathological agents,
Omenetto says the ability to print antibiotics in topographical patterns would enable"smart"bandages in
which therapeutics are incorporated custom into the bandage to match a specific injury. Additionally, although the researcher's tests only involved the use of one ink cartridge,
They expect the technology will enable more effective tools in the fields of therapeutics regenerative medicine and biosensing g
#Morphing tire concept adapts to suit driving conditions As the point of contact between a vehicle and the road,
tires are one of the most important parts of a car. Unfortunately, there's no one size fits all,
or rather, one tire fits all surfaces or weather conditions, tire and swapping them over when encountering changing conditions isn't exactly feasible.
Kumho has come up with a concept tire that would avoid this problem by changing its tread to suit the conditions.
Kumho's Maxplo tire takes the airless tire concept and takes things a few futuristic steps further.
To pump water away from the contact patch between vehicle and road in wet conditions to prevent hydroplaning,
the surface and circumference of the tire features specially-designed three-dimensional grooves. The placement of the grooves isn't just random or for show,
with the design team using computer simulations to check the pattern's performance. If heading off road
the large intersectional tread blocks that make up the surface of the tire move apart, broadening the tire's footprint to increase traction.
For snow and ice, the tire has one more trick up its sleeve in the form of spikes that remain hidden beneath the tread blocks in other conditions.
To finish their futuristic concept off, the designers added a hydrogen fuel-powered electric hub motor.
The tires would measure 700 x 700 x 250 mm (27.5 x 27.5 x 9. 8 in)
many of its concepts will flow into tire design over the next few years, and the overall concept will continue to be refined with a view to one-day offering tires such as this to consumers,
"says David Basha, Kumho Tyre Australia manager of marketing and training. Source: Kumho, ADESIGN Award A
#Noninvasive spinal cord stimulation gets paralyzed legs moving voluntarily again Five men with complete motor paralysis have regained the ability to move their legs voluntarily
and produce step-like movements after being treated with a noninvasive form of spinal cord stimulation. The new treatment builds on prior work to generate voluntary movements in paralyzed people through electrical stimulation in particular,
two studies (one completed in 2011, the other in 2014) that involved surgically implanting an electrode array on the spinal cord.
This time, however, the researchers found success without performing any invasive surgery. The new treatment uses a technique called transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation
which involves strategically placing electrodes on the skin of the lower back. While receiving stimulation, the men's legs were supported by braces that hung from the ceiling.
At first their legs only moved involuntarily, if at all. But they soon found they could voluntarily extend the distance their legs moved during stimulation.
and it is known to induce walking motions in mice with spinal cord injuries. All five men had been paralyzed for more than two years prior to receiving the treatment,
Edgerton now hopes to test the noninvasive stimulation on people with partial paralysis. He also notes that,
so that the physician and the patient can select a therapy that is best for them.""The study was conducted by researchers at UCLA, the University of California, San francisco,
and Russia's Pavlov Institute. A paper describing the research was published in the Journal of Neurotrauma.
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineerin r
#Earth's magnetic field may be more than 750 million years older than previously thought The Earth's magnetic field is crucial to life on the planet.
It keeps out harmful solar winds, which would strip away our atmosphere and surface water and bombard us with radiation if left unchecked.
A new analysis of zircon minerals suggests that the field originated at least 4. 2 billion years ago a hop after the planet formed in the geological timeline,
and much earlier than previously thought. The finding comes courtesy of University of Rochester geophysicist John Tarduno,
who was one of the researchers responsible for the previous-best estimate of the age of Earth's magnetic field (3. 2 to 3. 45 billion years).
For this new estimate, Tarduno and his team looked at tiny zircon gemstones in Western australia that date back to the earliest two eons in the planet's history the Archean and Hadean periods.
A substance called magnetite that lies within the zircon crystals contains information about the magnetic field record at the time the minerals cooled from their molten state a process that took over a billion years.
The magnetic data the researchers found embedded in the ancient magnetite suggests that the Earth had a magnetic field at least 750 million years earlier than previously thought.
This puts its formation before an event called the Late Heavy Bombardment which involved all the planets in the Solar system getting pummelled by comets and asteroids for two or three hundred million years.
which is the heat release mechanism in the Earth's liquid inner core that generates the magnetic field,
also draws more parallels to Mars. Our red neighbor is thought to have developed a magnetic field shortly after its formation,
#Low-cost prosthetic knee could let the impoverished walk normally Some higher-end prosthetic legs are equipped with things like gyroscopes and accelerometers,
Instead of hydraulics, electronic sensors or other high-tech goodies, the prototype knee designed by mechanical engineer Amos Winter operates mainly via a spring and two dampers.
which should let users maintain a smoother gait. By contrast, the prostheses used by many people in developing nations don't have a bending knee at all,
#World First Blood test To Diagnose Irritable bowel syndrome World First Blood test To Diagnose Irritable bowel syndrome Newshealthby Good News Network-May 21,
Two simple tests, developed by gastroenterologist Dr. Mark Pimentel of Cedars-Sinai Medical center in Los angeles,
finally gives doctors the ability to confirm whether a person actually has developed irritable bowel syndrome a common disorder that includes bouts of relentless diarrhoea,
which plagues about ten percent of the world population and nearly 40 million Americans. adsbygoogle=window. adsbygoogle.
push({}({}ost IBS patients have been told at one time or another that the disease was psychological, all in their head, said Dr Pimentel. he fact that we can now confirm the disease through their blood,
not their head, is going to end a lot of the emotional suffering I have seen these patients endure.
His nearly eight years of research centered around antibodies in the blood that had interacted previously with toxins during food poisoning.
WATCH the video below or READ more at Daily mail) Pass on the Good Newsbelow) TAGSBREAKTHROUGHHEALTHINNOVATIONMEDICALSCIENCEWELLNESS Cuban Cancer Vaccine Could Soon be Available in U s. May 20,
20150 Two Former Debt Collectors Want to Help Pay Your Medical bills May 18, 2015 i
#Asthma Could Be cured Within 5 Years With This New Breakthrough Asthma could be cured in five years
now that scientists have found the witchthat can turn off triggers that cause the condition in tens of millions of people worldwide.
Researchers at UK Cardiff University and King College London identified which cells cause the airways to narrow
when exposed to irritants like pollution. Experiments showed that calcium-sensing receptor cells which detect changes in the environment become overstimulated in asthmatics, causing airway twitching and inflammation.
Drugs already exist that can deactivate those cells. They are known as calcilytics and are used to treat people with osteoporosis. Researchers found that,
when the drug is inhaled, it deactivates the cells and stops all symptoms. Go ahead and Let Dogs Lick You,
It Good for Your Health his hugely exciting discovery enables us, for the first time, to tackle the underlying causes of asthma symptoms,
said Dr Samantha Walker, Director of research and Policy at Asthma UK. f this research proves successful we may be just a few years away from a new treatment.
Scientists are hopeful that patients can take the drug to prevent asthma attacks before they start ending the need to constantly carry an inhaler to end symptoms once an attack has started.
Furthermore Walker added, ive percent of people with asthma don respond to current treatments, so research breakthroughs could be life-changing for hundreds of thousands of people.
The discovery could also lead to new treatments for chronic bronchitis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a disease that kills tens of millions of people every year and for
which there currently is no cure. When Kids Can See the Chalkboard Eye doctor Donates 100,000 Glasses Researchers say
if clinical trials start soon, and it can be proven that calcilytics are administered safe when directly to the human lung,
the treatment that could effectively cure asthma would be available in the next 5 years. The research, funded by Asthma UK, the Cardiff Partnership Fund,
and a Biotechnology and Biological sciences Research Council award, was published in the Science Translational Medicine journal in April.
WATCH the Cardiff University video below h
#For the first time, Artificial Feet Can Feel the Ground Scientists in Austria are taking their research on prosthetic limbs one step further by restoring the sense of touch to those who wear them.
Professor Hubert Egger from the University of Linz recently unveiled research which enables patients to actually feel the bottom of their artificial feet.
The process begins with surgically rewiring the nerves at the end of the residual limb so they are better able to receive signals.
Then, sensors that measure pressure are placed on the bottom of the prosthetic. The sensors essentially relay pressure points through a stimulator in the shaft of the prosthetic
which touches the end of the stump. The nerves send signals to the brain, and, miraculously, the prosthetic toes have touch.
Wolfang Ranger, who lost his right leg in 2007, has been testing out the technology at the University of Linz laboratory
and at home. t feels like I have a foot again. It like a second lease of life, he told BBC News. no longer slip on ice and
Scientists say this is the first time that a leg amputee had been fitted with a sensory-enhanced prosthesis r
#New Invention Bears the Brunt of Earthquakes By Using Good Vibrations Older buildings may get a new lease on life thanks to a new invention that lets them shake off the effects of an earthquake.
Much of the worst quake damage and injuries in recent years result from older buildings collapsinghat because modern buildings in earthquake zones are designed with devices called dampers or isolation units,
which allow the buildings to sway on springs or slide on skids during earthquakes. It impossible to retrofit old buildings with much of that technology,
but a new form of protection may be on the way. Girls from Nepal Group Home Jump into Action Providing Earthquake Relief Researchers at the University of Brighton in the UK have come up with a ibrating barrier (Viba) that absorbs the energy from an earthquake
and protects older buildings. The device is a solid weight balanced on a series of springs.
The Viba isn attached directly to a building walls or skeleton, but buried in the ground
and connected to its foundation. When the ground motion from a quake hits the building, the energy passes through the foundation to the Viba instead of into the structure itself.
The Viba heavy weight moves around on the springs, absorbing up to 80%of the ground motion from the quake.
College Kidsinvention Connects Disaster Workers When Cells Are Down One of its inventors, Piefrancesco Cacciola, grew up in Messina, Sicily,
which was destroyed mostly by a major quake more than a hundred years ago. always worked in the field of Earthquake engineering hoping one day such disasters will never happen again,
he told Forbes. e cannot stop earthquakes but we might control the vibrations of the structures we build.
Cacciola has authored co two papers on the Viba in Proceedings of the Royal Society and in the journal Soil Dynamics and Earthquake engineering E
#World First Malaria Vaccine Approved and it Will be Not-for-Profit The world first malaria vaccine has been given approval by a European medical agency for future use in Sub-saharan africa, where more than a quarter million children under the age of five die every year from the disease.
European regulators examined phase III clinical trial results involving more than 16,000 young children conducted by research centers in eight African countries (Burkina faso, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria
, and Tanzania. RTS, S triggers the body immune system to defend against the Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite
when it first enters the human host bloodstream or liver. t absolutely an astonishing day,
Glaxosmithkline Vice president for Africa told CNN. t is the first time anyone ever has been able to make a vaccine against a parasite.
Perhaps most impressive, Glaxosmithkline, the pharmaceutical company that worked on this vaccine for 30 years, and received $200 million from the Gates Foundation, is making RTS, S available as a nonprofit drug.
It will be offered at a low cost to cover manufacturing costs plus a 5%markup with all that money going back into further research for a malaria vaccine that could be even more effective.
The pharmaceutical company has invested more than $365 million to date and expects to invest a further $200 to $250 million until the vaccine is ready for market.
With this approval from the European Medicines Agency Friday, the vaccine next will be considered by the World health organizations,
as well as individual countries in Sub-saharan africa to decide how and if they will use the vaccine,
along with current Malaria prevention techniques, like bed nets. 80%of the children involved in the clinical trials were protected also by insecticide treated bed nets.
RTS S, also known as Mosquirix, was administered to children aged 6 weeks to 17 months in three doses. Over the first 18 months following three doses of RTS, S,
malaria cases were reduced by almost half in children aged 5-17 months at the time of first vaccination and by 27%in infants aged 6-12 weeks.
At study end, over four years of follow-up in children RTS, S reduced malaria cases by 39,
In areas of the highest malaria burden, more than 6 000 clinical malaria cases were prevented over the study period for every 1, 000 children vaccinated
#Nest Thermostats Now Link Up to Products From LG Philips Whirlpool and Others Last June, Nest announced some big names in the first round of integration with its thermostat,
which acts as the hub for its smart home platform. This week at the Consumer electronics Show 2015, the list of names has gotten bigger.
LG, Whirlpool, Lutron, Osram and Philips are just some of the companies that have announced integration available now
or coming in the first half of this year. The sixteen announcements made at CES represent just a fraction of the more than 5
For LG, appliances can go into an energy saving mode when users are not at home, or the Whirlpool washing machine can run on a quieter setting
when the Nest thermostat senses that the house is occupied. Door locks such as Chamberlain garage doors or the August Smart Lock can set the Nest thermostat to its"home"setting as soon as the doors are unlocked.
Safety features are also part of the integration for devices such as Philips'LED Hue bulbs and Beep, a Wi-fi-connected music dial.
The bulb can flash a different color when the Nest Protect smoke alarm detects something is wrong,
and the dial can turn the music down in the same situation. Most of the early movers in the smart home market are interested in safety and security,
but that doesn mean that saving energy is unimportant to consumers. For instance Whirlpool appliances will be able to integrate with Nest Rush hour Rewards utility program. his is definitely something we will see more of as we add utility partners and Works with Nest partners, Ha Thai,
spokesperson for Nest, told Greentech Media. Of course, people who are buying a top-of-the-line (and high-priced) Whirlpool washer-and-dryer set are interested probably more in coming home to clothes that aren wrinkled than they are about saving a few dollars a year by shifting their dryer cycle to a time
when power is in less demand or when it best fits their utility pricing program.
But seamless integration between devices and utility programs is coming. For utilities that can sign up the homes
and devices that have significant load to shed (electric vehicles, thermostats, pool pumps and water heaters), the savings could be considerable for many regions like Texas,
where the grid is strained on the hottest days of the year. Now that devices are ready to interact with the grid,
utilities will have to develop novel pricing programs that can take advantage of the devices. Chargepoint is one of the companies that also announced it is integrating its residential EV charger with the Nest thermostat h
#Obama Budget Aims to Make Solar and Wind Incentives Permanent President Obama just unveiled a $3. 99 trillion budget for 2016 that asks Congress for a permanent extension of tax credits for the solar and wind industry.
The current policy which includes an expiration of tax credits in 2017 is encouraging a boom in solar installations this year and next.
But 2017 will see a collapse in utility solar--along with some retrenchment and uncertainty in commercial and residential solar markets.
In a section titled Improving Incentives for Research and Clean energy the 2016 budget proposal includes a request for $7. 4 billion for clean energy technologies along with a shopping list of funding and incentives for the renewable sector
and nuclear power industries. Although the Republican-controlled Senate and House will not approve this budget or enact permanent extensions of the tax credits the proposal signals that the administration will support some preservation of the solar Investment Tax credit (ITC) and the wind power Production Tax credit (PTC).
The ITC a tax credit of 30 percent of the cost of solar installations is slated to step down to 10 percent at the end of 2016.
The rhetoric and scale of these requests set a negotiating stance for the administration for
when the actual budget sausage gets made. A potential compromise might see projects started before the end of 2016 get grandfathered in or result in a more gradual stepdown of the ITC.
The PTC negotiations will be part of a larger tax extenders bill coming up later this year.
The ITC is expected to remain intact into 2016 when it would come up as part of a tax-reform effort.
The U s. Department of energy provides about 75 percent of the clean energy technology funding. The 2016 request is a 9 percent increase over 2015 levels.
Here are the DOE programs named in the budget request: Grid Modernization: $356 million Supercritical CO2:
$44 million to establish a 10-megawatt scale pilot Supercritical Transformational Electric power facility Subsurface Engineering:
$244 million for new wellbore systems, seismic research Energy-Water Nexus: $38 million to increase efficiency of these connected resources Exascale Computing:
$273 million Cybersecurity: $305 million to improve the cybersecurity of the DOE and the energy sector Some other budget highlights:
$4 billion for The Clean Power State Incentive Fund: Money to support states exceeding the minimum requirements that were established in the Clean Power Plan $2. 72 billion for energy efficiency $325 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency,
including R&d for transformational clean energy technologies $907. 6 million for nuclear energy for R&d in advanced reactor
and fuel cycle technologies, as well as technical support for the licensing of small modular reactors $560 million for fossil energy R&d to advance carbon capture
and storage and natural gas technologies $270. 1 million for electricity delivery and energy reliability grid modernization activities $257 million for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to operate
and increase the system durability and reliability $5. 34 billion for Science to continue to lead basic research in the physical sciences $8. 8 billion for weapons activities to ensure a safe, secure,
and effective nuclear stockpile, and sustain nuclear security R&d $1. 9 billion for nuclear nonproliferation to continue to reduce global stocks of weapons-useable nuclear materials $5. 8 billion for environmental management to"address the legal
and moral obligations to clean up the legacy of the Cold war.""Non-energy related budget requests include:
$60 billion over ten years for students to attend community college for free $478 billion over six years for surface transportation improvements $146 billion for research and development $5 billion in start-up funding
for technology manufacturing $1. 5 billion in additional funds for Head start early childhood educatio o
#Can Microinverters Stabilize Hawaii's Shaky Grid? Hawaii leads the nation in rooftop solar penetration, with nearly one in nine customers,
a total of about 51,000, tying their PV systems into the state island power grids. About three-fifths of those Hawaiian solar systems use microinverters from Enphase, the company that leads the market for DC-to-AC devices that sit at the solar panels themselves, rather than in one big box next to the power meter.
That adds up to more than 800,000 Enphase microinverters in Hawaii, each networked to the company cloud-based monitoring and control systems, ready to do things beyond simple solar-to-grid power conversion.
This week Enphase is unveiling the latest use of this installed capability: reprogramming its Hawaiian microinverter fleet en masse,
to help Hawaiian Electric ride through solar-influenced disruptions on the edges of its power network.
Specifically, Enphase and Hawaiian Electric have reset the frequency and voltage ride-through settings of the microinverters,
which govern how and when they trip offline when grid fluctuations arise. Standard settings for low-voltage ride-through (LVRT),
however, can make the original disruption worse if it leads to a majority of the solar being supplied to a solar-heavy circuit to shut off all at once.
Enphase has expanded the range of circumstances under which its inverters will trip offline, as well as extending how long each inverter waits for disruptions to correct themselves before switching off,
Enphase CEO Paul Nahi said in a Monday interview. This is the kind of basic mart inverterfunctionality that Germany has introduced already for its solar-impacted grid.
In the United states, Hawaii and California are the furthest along in putting together advanced inverter features to be included in new solar installations.
But Enphase already has nearly 8 million inverters worldwide, all designed with software-defined functionality to provide flexibility in how theye used,
he said. That, along with a dedicated two-way communications channel, allows Enphase to do remote firmware upgrades, monitor grid conditions,
and ask inverters to provide reactive power or ramping mitigation as a irtual power plant, all from the company Petaluma, Calif. headquarters,
Nahi noted. e are talking about a distributed resource that is on tens of thousands --and soon to be millions--of roofs,
he said. ou need a robust, sophisticated, bidirectional communications technology that allows us not only to know what is happening with the solar systems and the grid,
but what to do about it. In the case of Hawaii Enphase systems are connected to an estimated 140 megawatts of peak power generation capacity,
he noted--a significant share of energy in a state whose largest fossil-fuel-fired power plant generates 180 megawatts.
Enphase is far from the only player in the distributed solar universe that had the foresight to connect its inverters to a two-way communications network.
Third-party solar provider Solarcity, for example, has worked with HECO and Department of energy researchers to show that smart inverter technologies can allow more solar per circuit--an important concession for HECO,
as it seeks to slash the net metering rates that its solar-equipped customers receive.
Importantly Enphase cloud-based monitoring platform knows ot only how well the solar system is performing,
but also how well the grid is performing in those areas as well, he noted. n many cases,
we have more insight into the grid performance than the utility does, because we have the two-way communications network.
That valuable data in states like California that are demanding that their utilities start to incorporate the growth of distributed energy into their long-range grid investment plans.
As more utilities start to see Hawaii-like penetrations of customer-owned solar on their distribution circuits
theye likely to look to the inverters already installed as possible tools for managing the resulting disruptions,
Nahi noted. ecause the density of solar in Hawaii is unique, theye the first to enable these functions,
he said. But he trend wee talking about is absolutely a global trend. i
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