Coming soon: Gloves that turn gestures into speech

WASHINGTON: Researchers have developed a set of gloves that turn hand gestures into speech using computer technology, offering hope to millions of speech-impaired people to communicate better.
The device consists of a set of sensors, an accelerometre, compass, gyroscope and flex sensors in the fingers, which translate movement into signals that a computer converts into speech. The person wearing the gloves draws a shape in the air and that information is transmitted to them via bluetooth to a smartphone, which matches the shape up against a set stored in memory. A match produces a sound.
The gloves were designed by Pasternikov Anton, Osika Maksim, Yasakov Valeriy and Stepanov Anton, researchers at the Donetsk branch of the 'Step' Computer Academy.
However, the device has certain limitations. Firstly, the gestures stored in the computer are not yet sign language. Morover, sign language is as complex as any other language, and differs from one country to another. So far, the system can only read a dozen or so movements.
Another challenge is durability and usefulness. Most people, deaf or not, don't walk around wearing gloves.

World's first bionic eye helps woman gain sight

MELBOURNE: A blind Australian woman can now see spots of light after being implanted with an early prototype of the world's first bionic eye.
Dianne Ashworth, 54, was the first patient fitted with the device in surgery at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in May, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
It was switched on last month at the Bionics Institute in East Melbourne after her eye had recovered fully from surgery.
"All of a sudden I could see a little flash ... it was amazing. Every time there was stimulation there was a different shape that appeared in front of my eye," Ashworth was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald.
In the bionic eye, electrodes are inserted into the retina of vision-impaired patients. The electrodes send electrical impulses to nerve cells in the eye, which occur naturally in people with normal vision.
The device restores mild vision, where patients are able to pick up major contrasts and edges such as light and dark objects. Researchers hope to develop it so blind patients can achieve independent mobility.
In the early prototype bionic eye, the electrodes are connected to a receptor fitted to the back of Ashworth's ear, which is then plugged in through an external wire to a unit in the laboratory.
Australian researchers in the laboratory use the unit to control the information sent to Ashworth's eye, allowing them to study how the brain reacts.
Feedback from Ashworth will allow researchers to develop a vision processor so they can build images using flashes of light.
Bionics Institute director Rob Shepherd said the next step was to test various levels of electrical stimulation. "We are working with Ashworth to determine exactly what she sees each time the retina is stimulated using a purpose-built laboratory at the Bionics Institute," Shepherd said.
"The team is looking for consistency of shapes, brightness, size and location of flashes to determine how the brain interprets this information. Having this unique information will allow us to maximise our technology as it evolves through 2013 and 2014," Shepherd added.

Operation relief for man with bulging heart

MUMBAI: Until a month ago, 28-year-old Vishnu Yadav was scared to hear his own heartbeat. "I would feel as though my heart was trying to pop out. If I stood against a wall, one could hear it beat rapidly," said the mithai-maker from a small village in Bihar.

The reason for his unusual heartbeat was a rarest of rare complication: an oversized bulge emerging from one of his heart's chambers. It took heart surgeon Ramakant Panda five hours to surgically sort out Yadav's problem at Asian Heart Institute in Bandra-Kurla Complex.

"He had an aneurysm emerging from his left ventricle. While this in itself is rare for someone so young, what was surprising was the fact that the aneurysm was more than five times the size of his heart," said Dr Panda. The operation, he said, was as complex as doing a second bypass heart surgery, which is considered the most difficult of all cardiac surgeries.

Aneurysms are balloon-like structures that develop from the wall of an artery; they are so thin that they can fatally rupture in some cases. "When we opened his chest, we were shocked to find that the aneurysm stretched from the liver to the spleen. His heart was, in fact, pushed into a corner," said Dr Panda.

Doctors concluded that Yadav had an aneurysm from his birth. However, it started bulging out a few months ago when he lifted something heavy during a family function at his village, Kamlawadi Arraha. He started feeling breathless, giddy and weak. "I went to various local doctors for two to three months, but in vain."

Yadav came to Mumbai after an altercation with his family members. "My younger brother, who lives in Mahim, was initially upset that I had dropped in. However, he took me to J J Hospital in Byculla," said Yadav.

J J Hospital's cardiologist Anil Kumar, who treated Yadav, said: "Aneurysms from the left ventricle occur among patients who have had a heart attack, but Yadav had healthy arteries. Yet, he had one of the biggest aneurysms I have seen in 20 years."

The family was asked to consult Dr Panda, who agreed to operate on Yadav for free. "I can breathe and walk freely and plan to return home in a couple of months," said Yadav.

New cancer drug more potent than medicines

University of Missouri researchers have created a new drug that is 10 times more potent than current cancer-fighting drugs.

In a new study, MU medicinal chemists have taken an existing drug that is being developed for use in fighting certain types of cancer, added a special structure to it, and created a more potent, efficient weapon against cancer.

"Over the past decade, we have seen an increasing interest in using carboranes in drug design," said Mark W. Lee Jr., assistant professor of chemistry in College of Arts and Science.

"Carboranes are clusters of three elements — boron, carbon and hydrogen. Carboranes don't fight cancer directly, but they aid in the ability of a drug to bind more tightly to its target, creating a more potent mechanism for destroying the cancer cells," he explained.

In the study, Lee and his research team used carboranes to build new drugs designed to shut off a cancer cell's energy production, which is vital for the cell's survival.

All cells produce energy through complex, multi-step processes. The key to an effective drug is targeting the process that cancer cells depend on more than healthy cells.

By increasing the binding strength of a drug, a smaller dose is required, minimizing side effects and increasing the effectiveness of the therapy. With carboranes, Lee found that the drug is able to bind 10 times more powerfully.

"The reason why these drugs bind stronger to their target is because carboranes exploit a unique and very strong form of hydrogen bonding, the strongest form of interactions for drugs," Lee said.

Lee said that this discovery also would lead to further uses for the drug.

"Too often, after radiation or chemotherapy, cancer cells repair themselves and reinvade the body. This drug not only selectively shuts off the energy production for the cancer cells, but it also inhibits the processes that allow those cancer cells to repair themselves," he said.

"When we tested our carborane-based drugs, we found that they were unimaginably potent. So far, we have tested this on breast, lung and colon cancer, all with results," Lee added.

According to Lee, this is the first study to show systematically how carboranes can improve the activity of a drug. Lee believes this discovery will open additional possibilities of improving drugs that are used to treat other diseases, not just cancer.

While it will be several years before the new drug would be available on the market, Lee said that clinical trials could begin within the next two years.
Their study was published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, a publication of the American Chemical Society.

In rare surgery, woman undergoes complete heart reconstruction

During the 10-hour operation at Asian Heart, blood supply to the patient’s brain had to be stopped for an hour and her body temperature kept at 18 degrees

In an extremely rare surgical procedure in India, a woman successfully underwent a complete heart reconstruction operation at the Asian Heart Institute in Bandra-Kurla Complex recently.

The complicated operation took 10 hours to perform and included five critical procedures. During the entire process, blood supply to the woman’s brain had to be completely stopped for an hour, and the woman’s body had to be kept cooled at 18 degrees.

While Veena Rane (name changed) was operated upon at Asian Heart in February, given the complexity of the case the doctors chose not to speak about it immediately, but to keep her continuously under observation and perform follow-ups until they were sure there were no complications.

“I have operated upon over 17,000 patients but never seen anything like this. I wanted to be sure before I spoke about it,” said cardiac surgeon Dr Ramakant Panda, adding that the patient’s condition was so sensitive that she could have died any moment. The fact that her father and younger sister had earlier died of similar heart complications was also taken into account.

What began last December as mere breathlessness and minor chest pain for the 36-year-old Nashik school teacher, turned out to be a rather complex ailment with doctors amazed to discover that every part of her heart was defective.

Following a series of tests and examinations, Veena was diagnosed with a bicuspid aortic valve - a condition wherein the aortic valve only has two leaflets, instead of three.

In addition, she had an aneurysm of the ascending aorta, hand arteries and brain arteries. In simple terms, her aorta (largest artery in the body), hand arteries (that supply blood to the arms) and brain arteries (that supply blood to the brain) were dilated.

Furthermore, Veena had an anomalous right hand artery which was situated on the left side of her heart, even as the left hand artery was already located on the left.

“We find only one or two of these complications in a single patient at one time. But such a combination of defects was new for me,” said Dr Panda. “In short, every part of her heart had a problem which needed to be dealt with,” he added.

Dr Panda and his team decided to perform a total heart reconstruction surgery on Veena. “This is a rather complicated procedure that has been done in some western countries, but probably never at one go in India,” he said.

Renowned cardiac surgeon Dr Sudhanshu Bhattacharya, who is known for his innovations on the operation table, agreed that Veena’s was a rare case presenting multiple complications at the same time. “It is definitely a rare and a challenging surgery,” said Dr Bhattacharya.

According to Dr Prafulla Kerkar, head of KEM Hospital’s cardiology department, the team of doctors need a pat on the back for successfully carrying out such a tricky procedure. “I don’t know of any other centre that would have taken up the challenge,” he said.

On Wednesday, Veena’s family said they were very relieved with her recovery. Her brother said, “She is driving around the city, going to work and leading a very normal life now.

We find it hard to believe that she underwent such a complicated heart surgery.” He added that the entire procedure cost around Rs 13 lakh.

The five procedures

Valve replacement
Veena had a leaking valve due to which blood supply to the heart was disturbed. To start with, Dr Panda replaced the aortic valve with a bioprosthetic one.

Reimplanting coronary artery
According to Dr Panda, the aorta or the main pipe had ballooned out considerably in Veena’s case due to which the coronary artery was bulging out. “Therefore, we had to reimplant the coronary artery to a new artificial aorta,” explained Dr Panda.

Reimplanting hand and brain arteries
Due to a severe aneurysm in the arteries carrying blood to the brain and arms, the doctors decided to reimplant them too. “In order to work in a blood-free surgical field, we had to completely stop blood supply to the entire body including the brain while performing the reimplantation for about an hour,” said Dr Panda. He added that the patient was put on a heart-lung machine and the body was cooled down to 18 degrees which allowed them to carry out the reimplantation.

Experts say that at normal temperature, any more than three minutes of stopped blood supply to the brain could result in permanent damage. “Here we needed the blood supply to be stopped for about an hour. It was like operating on a dead body and running against time,” said Dr Panda.

Redirecting the right hand artery
As Veena’s right hand artery was located on the left of her heart, the doctors redirected it to the right side.

Elephant trunk
To direct blood flow into the descending aorta, which supplies blood to the rest of the body, an ‘elephant trunk’ shaped implant was fixed to the first graft. This resulted in a piece of implant hanging inside the patient’s aorta which looks like elephant’s trunk. “A descending aorta stent will be inserted through the elephant trunk about four months later,” said Dr Panda.

1 / 2

Dr Ramakant Panda

ONCE IN A BLUE MOON

Enjoy ‘Blue Moon’ tomorrow
Bangalore, August 29, 2012, DHNS:

Bangalore and other Indian cities would witness the “Blue Moon” day on Friday, a rare occurrence in which two full moons are visible in a single calendar month.

According to a note by Mumbai Nehru Planetarium Director Arvind Paranjape, the normal interval between two full moons is twenty-nine-and-a-half days, which is just short of the calendar month with 30 or 31 days, which usually means that there is one full moon each month.

However, when the full moon occurs on the first day of the month, a recurrence is witnessed in the same calendar month.

Though this may happen in any month of the year, February is an unlikely time for a “blue Moon” given that it has only 29 days even on a leap year.

“However, whether a particular place will have a Blue Moon or not, will be determined by its time zone. The exact time of August 31, 2012 full moon to the nearest minute is 7:28 pm IST,” Paranjpye said in the note.

“Nearly everywhere in the world, it will be the Blue Moon day on August 31. But for places like Auckland or Wellington in New Zealand which are in time zone +12 it will be September 1. These cities will ‘have’ the Blue Moon on September 30.”

The ‘Blue Moon’ occurs roughly once in two and a half years and the last one was witnessed on March 30, 2010.

The term “Blue Moon” is popularised by modern astronomy writers who wanted to draw attention to the ‘second full moon’ in a calendar month, but the term has also crept into the common usage through terms like “once in a blue moon”.

There have also been references to the full moon with blue hue while viewed through the smoke emerging from forest fires or through ashes of erupting volcanoes.

“As we had good rains in many parts across the country the rising full moon of August 31, soon after the sunset should offer a good viewing pleasure. Rains would have washed away the floating dust in the atmosphere and the Moon should look bright and soothing to the eyes,” Paranjpye’s note said.

However, with the on-set of rain over Bangalore and elsewhere leaving a permanent cloud cover over the skies, we could only hope for the curtains to depart to get a glimpse of the Blue Moon on Friday.

Now, charge your phone by simply holding it

LONDON: Next time your cellphone runs out of battery, you can charge it by just holding it in your hand, as scientists claim to have developed a new technology that turns body heat into electricity. Researchers say they have developed a way to turn body heat into electricity using nanotechnology to put tiny carbon tubes into miniscule plastic fibres and made them look like a fabric.

The 'Power Felt' can keep your phone going for up to 20% longer just through the power of touch, meaning simply holding one, or even sitting on it, could recharge the cell, the 'Daily Mail' reported. The technology has been created by professor David Carroll of Wakeforest University's centre for nanotechnology and molecular materials in the US.

According to Carrol, it could be the first wave of inexpensive ways to produce electricity that were far more affordable than current renewables such as solar, which was being held back by the high cost.

This helmet lets you think fake scenes are real

LONDON: Scientists have developed a new 'Inception'-style TV helmet which can decieve the human mind into thinking that fake scenes are real. Using the device, a wearer is unable to differentiate between a live and a recorded feed on TV. Even after the mechanism of the experiment was explained, some test subjects were not able to distinguish between the two.

Scientists said that it was effectively the same process as that which takes place in the movie 'Inception', the high concept thriller from 2010. In the film, Leonardo Di Caprio plays an industrial spy who is hired to plant an idea in the mind of a businessman by one of his rivals, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

The central conceit, is that in a powerful dream state we are unable to tell what is real and what isn't. The test involved a system known as Substitutional Reality which has been developed at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute's Laboratory for Adaptive Intelligence in Japan. Researcher Keisuke Suzuki told 'The Guardian' that it could be a 'powerful tool to investigate how our conscious experiences are constituted in daily scenes'. "In a dream, we naturally accept what is happening and hardly doubt its reality," he said. "Our motivation is to explore the cognitive mechanisms underlying our strong conviction in reality. How can people trust what they perceive? Answering these questions requires an experimental platform which can present scenes that participants believe are completely real, but where we are still able to manipulate the contents," Suzuki said.

A spray that can repair body parts

LONDON: Scientists have developed a range of sprays that can help repair body parts, heal wounds, protect teeth enamel and even prevent post-surgery complications.

Researchers have developed a spray-on bandage for minor cuts and scrapes that helps to keep them clean and free from infection.

Based on a plastic that is used in Lycra, called polyethylene glycol, the thick liquid is sprayed on to the wound and sets within five minutes, the Daily Mail reported.

When the plastic sets it pulls the edges of the wound together, aiding healing and helping to prevent infection.

"Sprays allow more accurate and consistent delivery of the drug or treatment, and allow it to be held in the controlled sterile environment of a spray can," Sam Shuster from the Newcastle University said. Spray-on teeth are also being developed by scientists at King's College London and Imperial College London.

The spray contains a type of calcium and helps repair damage to the tough outer coating of teeth - the enamel - and may help repair any exposed dentin. Scientists have also devised a non-stick coating for organs that prevents them sticking together after surgery.

The coating prevents adhesions - a common side-effect of surgery that causes tough scar tissue to form between organs, which pulls them out of shape.

A study of cases where the spray has been used showed that 90% of patients were adhesion-free seven days after surgery. A trial at Loma Linda University in the US is looking at a similar product for use in adhesions in paediatric heart surgery.

To treat burns, a silicone spray is being used by doctors. In a US Army Institute of Surgical Research trial, patients will be treated with the spray or a placebo each day for three months.

'Clot nets' to help in stroke recovery

LONDON: Using small nets to extract blood clots from patients' brains instead of a coil may improve their recovery, two new studies have claimed. The latest methods involve a tiny wire cage instead of a coil. This pushes the clot up against the walls of the artery and enmeshes the clot in the wires, allowing doctors to pull the clot back out of the groin.

Two similar devices were compared with the current coil methods. One trial of 113 patients showed 58% had good brain function after three months, compared with 33% of those treated with the coil method, as well as a lower death rate.

Clots block blood vessels, starving parts of the brain of oxygen, which leads to symptoms such as paralysis and loss of speech. Two studies, presented in the Lancet medical journal, suggest extracting clots with nets could improve recovery, the BBC reported. There are already techniques for reopening blocked blood vessels in people's brains.

Some patients will be given "clot-busting" drugs, but this needs to be in the hours just after the stroke and is not suitable for everyone.

Now, permanent cure for high blood pressure PTI | Aug 28, 2012

LONDON: Scientists have developed a radical therapy that could provide a permanent cure for high blood pressure by zapping the kidneys with radio waves.

The breakthrough by researchers from Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute of Melbourne, Australia could bring hope to thousands of patients who do not respond to drugs.

The procedure known as renal denervation may be available on UK's National Health Service as early as next year after trials showed it produced dramatic improvements in the condition, the Daily Mail reported.

High blood pressure is a risk factor in heart disease, stroke, and kidney failure. Changes in lifestyle, such as cutting back on salt and alcohol and exercising, can control blood pressure and there are a number of drug treatments available. Many who are on medication, as many as five different types, still have difficulty with it. It is this group who can be helped.

The technique uses a burst of radiofrequency energy delivered through a catheter to knock out a number of tiny nerves that run in the lining of the arteries of the kidney.

High blood pressure is sometimes caused by faulty signals from the brain to these nerves. Latest findings from a trial showed reductions in blood pressure persist for at least 18 months after treatment.

'Alien encounter may not be happy one'

It is probably unwise for human beings to be telling aliens where we are, Nobel laureate Brian P Schmidt has said.

"I think it is probably not the smartest thing to tell the aliens where we are, as any encounter with aliens may not be a happy one," Xinhua quoted Schmidt as saying at the 28th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union currently going on the Chinese capital.

Schmidt shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess for providing evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

"Aliens may not be something that we need to worry about. It will be so far away and it takes so long to travel from point A to point B in the universe that it won't be a problem. But it will happen when it happens," said Schmidt.

Before their discovery, it was commonly thought that the expansion of the universe was slowing down. However, their findings showed that dark energy pushes every galaxy apart and the universe will continue to expand at a quicker pace and eventually fade away.

According to Schmidt's research, it will be harder to reach another planet in an accelerating universe, meaning it is less likely to meet higher intelligent extraterrestrial life in the future.

"The future of the universe seems to be dark. Things are getting faster and faster. In terms of looking for aliens, it's gonna be quite a challenge. It may never happen. Things like us are probably very rare in the universe," he said.

In 2010, Stephen Hawking, one of the world's most famous theoretical physicists, said humans should be extremely cautious of extraterrestrial life and attempts to make contact with alien races is "a little too risky".

Schmidt said he agrees with Hawking. He said humans have more things to worry about.

"The reality is that the sun is going to give out on us in about four billion years, and is becoming very hot. So in the future about 800 million years from now we need to figure out how to deal with that first."

'Just one alcoholic drink a day may up the risk of cancer'

Binge drinkers are not the only ones who need to worry about the health implications of alcohol, even light drinking increases the cancer risk significantly, a new study has claimed.

According to the study led by researchers from the University of Milan, just one alcoholic drink a day may increase the risk of cancer, adding light drinking is estimated to be responsible for 34,000 deaths a year worldwide.

Until now, almost all the evidence has come from studies that focused on people drinking moderate or large amounts of alcohol, or binge drinkers, and not those who drink less.

Click here for Cloud Computing

Also Read

Related Stories

News Now
- Gram panchayat polls to be held under shadow of drought
- Heavy rains disrupt normal life in Himachal
- US Granny gives birth to grandson after renting own 'womb'
- Alicia Keys to debut album title track at VMAs
The research based on more than 150,000 men and women shows that light drinking increases the likelihood of cancer of the mouth, pharynx, oesophagus and breast.

One drink a day increased the risk of cancer of the oesophagus by almost a third, according to the study being reported in the Annals of Oncology, which analysed data from more than 200 research projects, the 'Independent' reported.

Low alcohol intake increased the risk of oral cavity and pharynx cancer by 17 per cent, and breast cancer in women by 5 per cent.

"Alcohol increases the risk of cancer even at low doses," say the researchers.

"Given the high proportion of light drinkers in the population, and the high prevalence of these tumours, especially of breast cancer, even small increases in cancer risk are of great public health relevance," they said.

Evidence suggests that drinking in moderation may decrease the risk of heart disease, type-2 diabetes and dementia, leading many to believe a glass of wine a day is good for you.

But the damaging effects of drinking are well known. An estimated 2.2 million deaths a year worldwide are linked to alcohol, according to the report, and 3.6 per cent of all cancers are attributable to drinking alcohol.

The study defined light drinking as up to one drink a day or 12.5 grams or less of ethanol.

Data on 92,000 light drinkers and 60,000 non-drinkers was used to calculate the overall cancer risk.

Now, saliva, tears, urine samples can replace blood for glucose test

NEW DELHI: A drop of tear from your eyes, saliva or urine could soon substitute the drop of blood as the medium for a glucose test.

In a major breakthrough, an IIT-Delhi alumni Anurag Kumar, who is presently pursuing his Ph.D from Purdue University in the US, has created a new type of biosensor that can detect minute concentrations of glucose in saliva, tears and urine and might be manufactured at low cost because it does not require many processing steps to produce.

"It's an inherently non-invasive way to estimate glucose content in the body. Because it can detect glucose in the saliva and tears, it's a platform that might eventually help to eliminate or reduce the frequency of using pinpricks for diabetes testing. We are proving its functionality," the team said.

The joint team of researchers from Purdue and US Naval Research Laboratory published their findings this week in the journal, Advanced Functional Materials.

The technology is able to detect glucose in concentrations as low as 0.3 micromolar, far more sensitive than other electrochemical biosensors based on graphene or graphite, carbon nanotubes and metallic nanoparticles.

Speaking to TOI from the US, Kumar said, "Most sensors typically measure glucose in blood. Many in the literature aren't able to detect glucose in tears and the saliva. What's unique is that we can sense in all four different human serums: the saliva, blood, tears and urine. And that hasn't been shown before."

He added, "It is a graphene based sensor that has very low detection limit for glucose and a very wide sensing range. A human tear could contain 0.2 to 0.4 milimose glucose. Our sensor can detect 0.01 to 50 milimose of glucose. Soon, we can tell whether a patient is diabetic or not just by testing his urine, saliva or tear instead of a finger prick for blood."

Kumar, who hails from Talaiya, a small town in Jharkhand, is working towards commercializing the technology "just by changing the enzyme, we can use the same nanostructure materiel to measure concentration level of other chemicals like the one that predicts Parkinson's and Alzheimer's."

The sensor has three main parts — layers of nanosheets resembling tiny rose petals made of a material called graphene, which is a single-atom-thick film of carbon; platinum nanoparticles; and the enzyme glucose oxidase.

Each petal contains a few layers of stacked graphene. The edges of the petals have dangling, incomplete chemical bonds, defects where platinum nanoparticles can attach. Electrodes are formed by combining the nanosheet petals and platinum nanoparticles. Then the glucose oxidase attaches to the platinum nanoparticles. The enzyme converts glucose to peroxide, which generates a signal on the electrode.

"Typically, when you want to make a nanostructured biosensor you have to use a lot of processing steps before you reach the final biosensor product," Kumar said. "That involves lithography, chemical processing, etching and other steps. The good thing about these petals is that they can be grown on just about any surface, and we don't need to use any of these steps, so it could be ideal for commercialization," he added.

"Because we used the enzyme glucose oxidase in this work, it's geared for diabetes," said Jonathan Claussen, a research scientist at the US Naval Research Laboratory. "But we could just swap out that enzyme with, for example, glutemate oxidase, to measure the neurotransmitter glutamate to test for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, or ethanol oxidase to monitor alcohol levels for a breathalyzer. It's very versatile, fast and portable," he explained.

These are the first findings to report such a low sensing limit and, at the same time, such a wide sensing range. The sensor is able to distinguish between glucose and signals from other compounds that often cause interference in sensors: uric acid, ascorbic acid and acetaminophen, which are commonly found in the blood. Unlike glucose, those compounds are said to be electro-active, which means they generate an electrical signal without the presence of an enzyme.

Glucose by itself doesn't generate a signal but must first react with the enzyme glucose oxidase. Glucose oxidase is used in commercial diabetes test strips for conventional diabetes meters that measure blood sugar level with a finger pinprick.

Breakthrough to help paralyzed regain speech

PTI | Aug 24, 2012, 05.17AM IST
Article
Comments (1)
inShare
Read more:Speech|Physicist Stepehen hawking|Paralyzed|Lou Gehrig|disease
1
WASHINGTON: Paralysis sufferers could soon learn to talk again after scientists discovered how the brain allows humans to pronounce vowels, a new study has claimed. Scientists are investigating the use of brain waves to create a new form of communication which could return the power of speech to paralysis sufferers like Physicist Stepehen Hawking.

Diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease at 21, Hawking, now 70, relies on a computerised device to speak. The new research could pave way for prosthetic devices in the brain returning the power of speech to those paralysed by injury or disease.

Researchers followed 11 epilepsy patients who had electrodes implanted in their brains to pinpoint the origin of their seizures, with neuron activity as they uttered one of five vowels or syllables containing the vowels recorded . They found two areas , the superior temporal gyrus and a region in the medial frontal lobe, housing neurons related to speech and attuned to vowels.

Neurons in the superior temporal gyrus, responsible for processing sounds responded to all the vowels, whereas those that fired exclusively for only one or two vowels were found in the medial frontal region involved in memory.

"We know that brain cells fire in a predictable way before we move our bodies," Dr Itzhak Fried, of University of California, said. "We hypothesized that neurons would also react differently when we pronounce specific sounds. If so, we may one day be able to decode these unique patterns of activity in the brain and translate them into speech," Fried said.

"Once we understand the neuronal code underlying speech, we can work backwards from brain-cell activity to decipher speech. This suggests an possibility for people who are physically unable to speak," said Fried.

Doctors hail paralysis breakthrough

From SARAH CHALMERS, in New York

Comments (0)
Share

Scientists last night claimed a breakthrough in the treatment of paralysis.

It involves the use of stem cells from human embryos, a practice which has been shrouded in controversy.

In what is believed to be the first successful experiment of its kind, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore say they have used the cells to partially cure paralysed laboratory mice.

The team hope to experiment on human paralysis sufferers within three years.

The mice were first infected with a virus which damaged nerve cells in their spines, leaving them paralysed. The resulting condition was similar to a disease suffered by humans called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or motor neurone disease.

The disease claimed the lives of actor David Niven and former England football manager Don Revie. Professor Stephen Hawking is a sufferer. The mice then had a solution containing human embryonic stem cells infused into their spinal fluid.

The cells migrated to the area of the damaged spinal cord and developed as healthy new nerve cells. They also released proteins that spurred the regeneration of normal nerve cells. Scientists believe that if the experiment works using human cells in mice, then it has a strong chance of success in humans.

Embryonic stem cells are the basic building blocks of body tissue. They can develop into any of the body's different components.

Neurologist Douglas Kerr, who led the experiment, said: 'The majority of the animals recovered some function. 'They are not completely normal but they can begin to move their hind limbs under them and some can bear weight.'

The extraordinary progress of the mice will challenge critics of stem cell research who have argued that the work has not yielded the breakthroughs promised by scientists. It comes at a time when President Bush is trying to decide whether or not to allow federal funding for such research.

The Johns Hopkins project was financed by Project ALS, a New York-based charity dedicated to finding a cure for the condition.

Dr Kerr and colleague Professor John Gearhart isolated the primitive human stem cells from five to nine week- old human foetuses. The foetuses had been selectively aborted after IVF treatment resulted in multiple pregnancies.

Professor Gearhart said the experiment proved that embryonic stem cells can be used to treat diseases in which nerve cells have been damaged and do not normally heal or regrow. Dr Kerr added: 'We are being cautiously aggressive. We want to advance as fast as possible.'

More than 200 scientists and doctors attending a genetics meeting in Bar Harbor, Maine, were due to see a dramatic video clip of the partially cured mice last night.

Supporters of embryonic stem cell research hope this latest development will help sway President Bush. Bush is still considering his decision but is thought to feel uneasy about the use of human embryos in such work. On his European tour this week he met the Pope, who has condemned stem cell research as 'devaluing human life.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-62919/Doctors-hail-paralysis-breakthrough.html#ixzz24SyoLiWB

Top astronomer Brian P Schmidt says universe will disappear eventually

23 Aug, 2012, 03.34PM IST, PTI

Story
Comments (7)

Read more on »Universe|SkyMapper|nobel prize|milky way|International Astronomical Union|dark energy|Brian P Schmidt
0
inShare
Eagerly searching for life signals in the universe, human beings -- if still existing -- will feel lonelier in a dark universe in 100 billion years.
Eagerly searching for life signals in the universe, human beings -- if still existing -- will feel lonelier in a dark universe in 100 billion years.
BEIJING: Renowned astronomer and Nobel Prize laureate Brian P Schmidt predicted a "dark" future for the universe which he says will eventually fade away throwing astronomers out of work.

"Human beings will look to an empty universe in 100 billion years, as all the galaxies will fade away except the Milky Way we live in," Schmidt, who is attending the 28th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) being held here, said.

Schmidt shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics with Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess for providing evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

Before their discoveries, it was commonly thought that the expansion of the universe was slowing down.

By monitoring the brightness and measuring the red-shift of the supernovae, Schmidt and his partners discovered that billion-year-old exploding stars and their galaxies are accelerating away from their reference frame.

Their discoveries led to research on dark energy, a hypothetical form of energy that permeates all of space and tends to accelerate the expansion of the universe.

"Unless dark energy suddenly disappears, that will surprise us as we can't really think of a reason why -- the universe will continue to expand more and more quickly and eventually fade away," Schmidt told Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua today.

Eagerly searching for life signals in the universe, human beings -- if still existing -- will feel lonelier in a dark universe in 100 billion years.

"Our Milky Way will still be here and merge with some nearby galaxies," Schmidt said, "but other things we see today will not be able to reach us in the future. Every galaxy beyond the Milky Way will disappear. At that time, astronomers will all be unemployed because there will be nothing to work at", he said.

When talking about dark energy, Schmidt said, "We don't know how dark energy is generated. It seems to be a part of the fabric of space itself. So dark energy makes more space, and more space makes more dark energy, which then makes more space. The universe runs away because of the stuff (process)."

Matthew Colless, Australian Astronomical Observatory director, was chairing Schmidt's speech yesterday, and when Colless put "dark energy" into an online translation tool for a Chinese version, and then translated the Chinese version back into English, it turned out to be "evil energy", the Xinhua report said.

Schmidt said the word "evil" is humorous although not a perfect description.

"I don't see it (dark energy) being evil. I see it as very bleak, just like a never-ending winter," said the astrophysicist, who has announced to continue his work on dark energy.

"Anything is possible. Dark energy can become attractive in the future. So we don't really know," he said.

Schmidt is also heading a project to build a new telescope called SkyMapper for a southern sky survey.

"The universe does what it does and I'm here to measure, not to judge," he said.

Self-Charging Batteries Powered by Vibration

Self-Charging Batteries Powered by VibrationBrother Industries has developed an AA battery sized generator powered by vibration, which can be used to charge another AA battery. Shaking your remote every once in a while could soon be all that's needed to keep it alive.

Inside the generator battery sits an "electromagnetic induction generator and an electric double layer capacitor" and although you'd have to do an impossibly vigorous amount of shaking to power a DSLR, for low-drain gadgets like remotes and LED torches a quick shuffle should dribble out enough energy for a brief spell of use. [Tech-On]

The iPad robot that can let you go anywhere in the world - without ever leaving your living room

Motorised arm turns an iPad into a 'virtual you'
Makers say it can be used to attend meeting and even tour art gallerie
By Mark Prigg
PUBLISHED: 09:46 GMT, 20 August 2012 | UPDATED: 14:07 GMT, 20 August 2012
For the frequent traveller, it could be the perfect way to attend those urgent meetings while staying at home.
The Double robot can turn your iPad into a 'virtual you' that can be sent anywhere in the world.
The $2,000 robot is described as 'the simplest, most elegant way to be somewhere else in the world without flying there'
Scroll down for video

The Double robot that can let you virtually attend meeting anywhere in the world, and even let you visit art galleries.
It can move around, all controlled by your own iPad, and even adjust its height to make sure you are always at eye level.
The firm says the gadget could be used to attend meetings, meet friends for lunch, and even visit art galleries around the world.
'You can stay at eye level, whether sitting or standing, by adjusting your height remotely, which makes conversations fluid and real,' says the firm behind it.
More...
- Lost your great white shark? Don't worry, there's an app for that
- Is this James Bond's next secret weapon? The bizarre robo-worm scientists say could be an electronic super spy
The robot is based around a single wheel, which balances the robot as it moves, rather like a Segway.
Where you're not moving, a retractable kickstand automatically deploys to conserve power when you are not moving around.

The robot is controlled via a second iPad, and can be driven using computer game style controls
Double Robotics, the firm behind the design, says 'Efficient motors and lightweight design give Double the ability to last all day without recharging the battery.'
Where you're not moving, a retractable kickstand automatically deploys to conserve power when you are not moving around.
The gadget has already proved a huge success, the firm said, with the first run already sold out.

The robot could even be sent into art galleries without ever having to visit them, with rented robots being used to give hundreds access to collections around the world.
'First off, we want to thank you all for your enthusiasm and support for Double, especially to those of you who pre-ordered,' it said in a blog post.
'Because of the overwhelming response, we've already had to expand our first production run to include more robots than planned, which is great!
'However, in good conscience, we cannot continue to offer a December ship date for units placed from here forward.
'New orders placed (as of August 16th) will now be shipping in early 2013.'

The double robot can adjust its height between a sitting and standing mode to ensure you are at eye level with others.

56 new genes that can prevent growth of tumours identified

Scientists claimed to have discovered an entirely new class of 56 genes that may serve as an Achilles' heel for many forms of cancer.
Researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard found 56 genes that didn't cause normal cells to turn cancerous and instead were essential to all cells but get disrupted as cancer progresses.
"One of the hallmarks of cancer is genomic instability, in which entire sections of chromosomes can be lost or duplicated many times over," Rameen Beroukhim, one of the researchers said.

Click here for Cloud Computing

Soon, an end to daily jabs for diabetics

LONDON: Scientists claim to have developed a new technology which could free diabetics , cancer and HIV patients from daily and painful routine injections by releasing the required drug dosage over six months.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge have developed injectable, reformable and spreadable hydrogels which can be loaded with proteins or other therapeutics and can last a maximum of six month.

The hydrogels contain up to 99.7% water by weight, with the remainder primarily made up of cellulose polymers held together with cucurbiturils. "The hydrogels protect the proteins so that they remain bio-active for long periods, and allow the proteins to remain in their native state," says Oren Scherman, a chemist, who led the research.

New tech lets you carry TV on tablet wherever you go

SINGAPORE: Do you hate missing out on your favourite TV show just because you had to rush out of the house? A new technology can now 'pull' the programme on your TV screen onto your tablet so you can watch it on the go!
A scientist from Nanyang Technological University ( NTU) in Singapore has developed an innovative multi-screen mobile social television experience called the 'Social Cloud TV' . Wen Yonggang, assistant professor from the school of computer engineering has described his invention as the next frontier of TV experience as you can now "bring social experience of watching television in your living room wherever you go".

The system allows you to watch TV programmes and online videos with your family and friends at the same time. The system leverages a cloud backend for media processing, such that the same video can be streamed into devices in the most suitable format. When viewing a television show or perhaps a live soccer match, you can invite family and friends to join your session, from either your phone book or social networking contact lists.
"You could watch a video with your class mates on the computer, and just before you leave school, 'pull' the show into your tablet and continue watching on the go. Upon reaching home, you could just turn on your TV and 'throw' the video back to the TV," Wen added.

A virus to power cellphones?

LONDON: Scientists claim to have developed a unique technique to harness electricity from a bacteria eating virus to power your mobile phones. A team at the University of California, Berkeley are using the virus known as M13 bacteriophage to replace toxic elements used to charge the cell phones.
The virus possesses a property known as piezoelectricity, which means it can translate mechanical energy into electrical energy, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

Researchers believe the discovery could pave way for mobile phones that can be charged while you walk and replace the toxic piezoelectric elements already used in mobile phones.
Most mobile phone microphones are piezoelectric because they need to convert energy from sound waves into electrical output that can be transmitted and then translated back into sound waves at the other end of the line.
These piezoelectric components are made out of heavy, toxic metals such as lead and cadmium, according to bioengineer Seung-Wuk Lee. M13 bacteriophage has the ability to generate electricity when compressed without the involvement of any toxic chemicals.
Lee and his colleagues found that the pencil-shaped M13 virus is potentially a perfect energy source because the virus is not harmful to humans. It is also cheap and easy to make to the extent that scientists can get trillions of viruses from a single flask of infected bacteria.
To improve the electricity generating power of M13, Lee's team tweaked the amino acid content of the virus's outer protein coat by adding four negatively charged glutamate molecules.
"This will bring a lot of excitement to the field," said Zhong Lin Wang, an engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
"By utilizing the properties of these biomaterials, we can find unique applications in the future," Wang said.

Man-made retina' to help blind see

WASHINGTON: Scientists claim to have developed an 'artificial retina' which could restore near-normal vision to the blind, a finding which can benefit millions.
Researchers made the blind mice see clearly with radical new implant and the creatures' vision could track images and discern features.

This new approach provides hope for the 25 million people worldwide who suffer from blindness due to diseases of the retina.
The researchers say they have also cracked the code for a monkey retina, which is essentially identical to that of a human and hope to quickly design and test a device that blind humans can use. As drug therapies help only a small fraction of this population, prosthetic devices are their best option for future sight.
"This is the first prosthetic that has the potential to provide normal or near-normal vision because it incorporates the code," Dr Sheila Nirenberg , neuroscientist from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York ,said.
"We can make blind mouse retinas see and we're moving as fast as we can to do the same in humans," Nirenberg, who is honing the technique, said in a statement.
The technique, using hightech spectacles containing a tiny camera rather than surgery , could be tested on people for the first time in just one to two years.
"It's an exciting time. We can make blind mouse retinas see, and we're moving as fast as we can to do the same in humans ," said Nirenberg in a statement. "This has all been thrilling , I can't wait to get started on bringing this approach to patients," she said.
The first beneficiaries are likely to be sufferers of age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in the elderly.
There are few treatments and no cure for the condition which makes it difficult or impossible to carry out everyday tasks such as reading, driving and watching television. Scientists have already created implantable chips that restore some vision.
But Nirenberg says that her technique produces a much clearer picture. In fact, vision is close to normal.

Biotechnology

Making Human Organs on a Chip

By Drake Bennett on June 27, 2012

Disembodied human organs floating in jars are a staple of any cinematically correct mad-scientist laboratory. Researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have done one better. They’ve created an organ on a chip: a device the size of a thumb drive (or, for that matter, a thumb), containing living cells, that mimics the behavior of a human organ.

The researchers have created a lung on a chip, as well as an intestine, a kidney, and bone marrow. A heart is in the works. Devices like these could radically streamline the drug testing process—currently expensive, inefficient, and lethal for many animals—and shed light on how diseases develop.

The organs on chips that the Wyss researchers have produced look a lot more like chips than organs. They’re transparent plastic rectangles with tiny channels running through them, connected to tubes and wires. “It’s the minimal physically functional section of an organ,” says Dr. Donald Ingber, who runs the institute and works with the researchers creating the various devices.

The lung on a chip has a channel running down its center with a porous membrane bisecting it lengthwise. On one side of the membrane is a layer of human capillary cells, with a blood-like fluid running along them; on the other side a layer of human air sac cells, with air running along them. Just as in a lung, the interaction of the two types of cells pulls oxygen from the air and fixes it in blood. The flexible plastic of the chip expands and contracts as the lung “breathes.”

The creation of the chips was enabled by advances in the semiconductor industry that allowed for precision manufacturing at cellular scales. But they also grew out of the increasing appreciation among biologists of the role that mechanical factors play in how the body develops and works. Ingber himself did much of the research that illustrated the point, showing, for example, that simply squeezing certain cells in a developing mouse embryo leads them to begin to differentiate into organs.

The gut on a chip that the Wyss researchers developed illustrates the point in its own way. The tiny artificial organ mimics peristalsis, the rippling contractions of the human digestive system. In so doing it surprised its creators by causing the intestinal cells lining the chip to spontaneously form the distinctive villi structure they assume in actual human intestinal walls.

The organs on chips can’t actually do all the things real organs do. Among other things, they don’t have nerve cells, and you wouldn’t want to try to digest a hot dog with the gut on a chip. But in other ways they seem to replicate the performance of actual organs very well. When the finicky microbes that live in an actual human intestine—and perform vital functions there—are introduced into the gut on a chip, they find the environment quite congenial. And the researchers who designed the lung on a chip discovered they were able to use it to predict how the lungs in living, breathing animals absorbed the particulate matter in air pollution.

The Wyss Institute is already working with a few pharmaceutical companies to design drug tests that use the organs on chips. Animal tests, after all, are expensive, increasingly controversial, and often don’t predict how humans will react to a compound. According to Ingber, the chips will also allow researchers to observe the mechanism of both diseases and drugs.

“Sometimes you might think your drug works this way. You give it for a month, kill the animal, then do a histological study,” Ingber says. That means you have to infer the mechanism after the fact. The chips, on the other hand, would allow researchers to watch the process in real time. Once they’re perfected, they can be cheaply made, and tests run repeatedly at little cost.

And once enough organs on chips have been developed, Ingber envisions creating an entire human body on chips. A pharmaceutical company could test a drug on the whole body, or on a particular subset of organs, by just plugging them together like strings of Christmas lights.

Bennett is a staff writer for Bloomberg Businessweek.

The iPad robot that can let you go anywhere in the world - without ever leaving your living room

More...

Biotechnology

Making Human Organs on a Chip

Related