Computer Science / Engineering posts
- August 4, 2016
- 02:07 PM
- 125 views
Biomimicry is a promising approach for driving innovation
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
A new case study shows that biomimicry, a relatively new field that seeks to emulate nature to find solutions to human problems, can potentially expand intellectual property, increase energy savings and accelerate product innovation.
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Emily Barbara Kennedy, & Thomas Andrew Marting. (2016) Biomimicry: Streamlining the Front End of Innovation for Environmentally Sustainable Products. Research-Technology Management. info:/10.1080/08956308.2016.1185342
- July 30, 2016
- 05:55 AM
- 195 views
5 things we learned this week | open-access science week 30, 2016
by TakFurTheKaffe in Tak Fur The Kaffe
Finding flight MH370, origins of human speech, declining penguin colonies, safe carbon storage, and stressed out reef sharks: Here are five of the latest scientific studies published open-access this week.... Read more »
Jansen, E., Coppini, G., & Pinardi, N. (2016) Drift simulation of MH370 debris using superensemble techniques. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 16(7), 1623-1628. DOI: 10.5194/nhess-16-1623-2016
Lameira, A., Hardus, M., Mielke, A., Wich, S., & Shumaker, R. (2016) Vocal fold control beyond the species-specific repertoire in an orang-utan. Scientific Reports, 30315. DOI: 10.1038/srep30315
Cimino, M., Lynch, H., Saba, V., & Oliver, M. (2016) Projected asymmetric response of Adélie penguins to Antarctic climate change. Scientific Reports, 28785. DOI: 10.1038/srep28785
Kampman, N., Busch, A., Bertier, P., Snippe, J., Hangx, S., Pipich, V., Di, Z., Rother, G., Harrington, J., Evans, J.... (2016) Observational evidence confirms modelling of the long-term integrity of CO2-reservoir caprocks. Nature Communications, 12268. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12268
Mourier, J., Maynard, J., Parravicini, V., Ballesta, L., Clua, E., Domeier, M., & Planes, S. (2016) Extreme Inverted Trophic Pyramid of Reef Sharks Supported by Spawning Groupers. Current Biology. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.058
- July 21, 2016
- 03:01 PM
- 198 views
Artificial muscle for soft robotics: Low voltage, high hopes
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Soft robots do a lot of things well but they're not exactly known for their speed. The artificial muscles that move soft robots, called actuators, tend to rely on hydraulics or pneumatics, which are slow to respond and difficult to store.
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Duduta, M., Wood, R., & Clarke, D. (2016) Multilayer Dielectric Elastomers for Fast, Programmable Actuation without Prestretch. Advanced Materials. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201601842
- July 18, 2016
- 03:20 PM
- 228 views
Secrets of the human brain unlocked
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Human intelligence is being defined and measured for the first time ever. Researchers have been recently undertaken to quantify the brain's dynamic functions, and identify how different parts of the brain interact with each other at different times - namely, to discover how intellect works.
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Zhang, J., Cheng, W., Liu, Z., Zhang, K., Lei, X., Yao, Y., Becker, B., Liu, Y., Kendrick, K., Lu, G.... (2016) Neural, electrophysiological and anatomical basis of brain-network variability and its characteristic changes in mental disorders. Brain. DOI: 10.1093/brain/aww143
- July 16, 2016
- 04:06 PM
- 86 views
Blogs, Papers, Plagiarism and Bitcoin
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic_Discover
Retraction Watch reports on a strange case of alleged plagiarism.
In February 2016, F1000Research published a paper called How blockchain-timestamped protocols could improve the trustworthiness of medical science. The authors, Greg Irving and John Holden, demonstrated the use of the bitcoin blockchain as a way of publicly verifying the existence of a certain document at a certain point in time. This approach, they say, could be used to make preregistered research protocols more secure. A prob... Read more »
Irving G, & Holden J. (2016) How blockchain-timestamped protocols could improve the trustworthiness of medical science. F1000Research, 222. PMID: 27239273
- July 15, 2016
- 02:24 PM
- 265 views
Repeated stimulation treatment can restore movement to paralyzed muscles
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Conducted at the BioMag laboratory at the Helsinki University Hospital, a new patient study could open a new opportunity to rehabilitate patients with spinal cord damage. In a new study which two patients with spinal cord injuries received a form of treatment that combined transcranial magnetic stimulation with simultaneous peripheral nerve stimulation given repeatedly for nearly six months.
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Shulga, A., Lioumis, P., Zubareva, A., Brandstack, N., Kuusela, L., Kirveskari, E., Savolainen, S., Ylinen, A., & Mäkelä, J. (2016) Long-term paired associative stimulation can restore voluntary control over paralyzed muscles in incomplete chronic spinal cord injury patients. Spinal Cord Series and Cases, 16016. DOI: 10.1038/scsandc.2016.16
- July 14, 2016
- 03:58 PM
- 277 views
Organic computers are coming
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Move over silicon, tomorrow's computers could be made of something completely different. A team of international researchers managed to find a molecule that, to their opinion, could give the impetus to the development of organic electronics.
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Karpov, Y., Erdmann, T., Raguzin, I., Al-Hussein, M., Binner, M., Lappan, U., Stamm, M., Gerasimov, K., Beryozkina, T., Bakulev, V.... (2016) High Conductivity in Molecularly p-Doped Diketopyrrolopyrrole-Based Polymer: The Impact of a High Dopant Strength and Good Structural Order. Advanced Materials. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201506295
- July 13, 2016
- 01:00 AM
- 201 views
Another one bites the dust?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
The music theory literature has been suggesting it for a long time: the idea that simultaneous sounding tones with frequency relationships that are low integer multiples, like 1:2 (octave) or 3:2 (a perfect fifth), are determinant of how listeners perceive consonance. It is an idea that is often related to the overtone structure of natural sounds (such as the voice or string instruments) suggesting that musical harmony is reflective or even a result of the acoustic structure that is found in nat........ Read more »
Honing, H., ten Cate, C., Peretz, I., & Trehub, S. (2015) Without it no music: cognition, biology and evolution of musicality. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 370(1664), 20140088-20140088. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2014.0088
- July 12, 2016
- 03:31 PM
- 160 views
Stem cells feel the force
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
All cells share the same genetic code, no matter if they are skin or brain cells. However, these cells are exposed to very different types of mechanical environments and mechanical stresses. For example, brain tissue is very soft, whereas bone is hard. Researchers know that cells respond to extrinsic forces by changing their structure and their gene expression to be better suited for their particular environments and to be able to execute their specific functions.... Read more »
Le, H., Ghatak, S., Yeung, C., Tellkamp, F., Günschmann, C., Dieterich, C., Yeroslaviz, A., Habermann, B., Pombo, A., Niessen, C.... (2016) Mechanical regulation of transcription controls Polycomb-mediated gene silencing during lineage commitment. Nature Cell Biology. DOI: 10.1038/ncb3387
- June 14, 2016
- 03:16 PM
- 271 views
Even when help is just a click away, stigma is still a roadblock
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Stigma is a major barrier preventing people with mental health issues from getting the help they need. Even in a private and anonymous setting online, someone with greater self-stigma is less likely to take that first step to get information about mental health concerns and counseling.
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Lannin, D., Vogel, D., Brenner, R., Abraham, W., & Heath, P. (2016) Does self-stigma reduce the probability of seeking mental health information?. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63(3), 351-358. DOI: 10.1037/cou0000108
- June 12, 2016
- 10:35 PM
- 286 views
Seeing Through the Skin
by Aurametrix team in Olfactics and Diagnostics
Human skin emits light (albeit the glow is extremely weak) and a wide variety of small molecules that may be sometimes "sniffed" by dogs or even other humans. These chemicals tell a story about our health and wellness, things we eat and drink, touch and breathe. Mosquitoes use such emissions to assess our "attractiveness" from indicators such as Indoles (unpleasantly smelling but healthy "inner soil" biomarker) or carbon dioxide (amount of which correlates with the size of the person........ Read more »
Andreoni G, Standoli CE, & Perego P. (2016) Defining Requirements and Related Methods for Designing Sensorized Garments. Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 16(6). PMID: 27240361
Gao W, Emaminejad S, Nyein HY, Challa S, Chen K, Peck A, Fahad HM, Ota H, Shiraki H, Kiriya D.... (2016) Fully integrated wearable sensor arrays for multiplexed in situ perspiration analysis. Nature, 529(7587), 509-14. PMID: 26819044
Imani S, Bandodkar AJ, Mohan AM, Kumar R, Yu S, Wang J, & Mercier PP. (2016) A wearable chemical-electrophysiological hybrid biosensing system for real-time health and fitness monitoring. Nature communications, 11650. PMID: 27212140
Lee H, Choi TK, Lee YB, Cho HR, Ghaffari R, Wang L, Choi HJ, Chung TD, Lu N, Hyeon T.... (2016) A graphene-based electrochemical device with thermoresponsive microneedles for diabetes monitoring and therapy. Nature nanotechnology, 11(6), 566-72. PMID: 26999482
Panneer Selvam A, Muthukumar S, Kamakoti V, & Prasad S. (2016) A wearable biochemical sensor for monitoring alcohol consumption lifestyle through Ethyl glucuronide (EtG) detection in human sweat. Scientific reports, 23111. PMID: 26996103
Yokota T, Zalar P, Kaltenbrunner M, Jinno H, Matsuhisa N, Kitanosako H, Tachibana Y, Yukita W, Koizumi M, & Someya T. (2016) Ultraflexible organic photonic skin. Science advances, 2(4). PMID: 27152354
- May 18, 2016
- 05:20 PM
- 337 views
Your friends have more friends than you do
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
No matter how smart and funny you think you are, those you follow on Twitter really do have a larger following than you. And the same holds true for Facebook. But there is no reason to feel badly about any of this. According to the research, it is all due to the inherently hierarchical nature of social media networks, where, in the social hierarchy of connections, people mostly either follow up or across; they rarely follow down.
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Momeni, N., & Rabbat, M. (2016) Qualities and Inequalities in Online Social Networks through the Lens of the Generalized Friendship Paradox. PLOS ONE, 11(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0143633
- May 8, 2016
- 03:15 PM
- 317 views
Digital media may be changing how you think
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Tablet and laptop users beware. Using digital platforms such as tablets and laptops for reading may make you more inclined to focus on concrete details rather than interpreting information more abstractly, according to a new study. The findings serve as another wake-up call to how digital media may be affecting our likelihood of using abstract thought.
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Geoff Kaufman, & Mary Flanagan. (2016) High-Low Split: Divergent Cognitive Construal Levels Triggered by Digital and Non-digital Platforms. Association for Computing Machinery. DOI: 10.1145/2858036.2858550
- May 6, 2016
- 02:35 PM
- 336 views
Smartphones uncover how the world sleeps
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
A pioneering study of worldwide sleep patterns combines math modeling, mobile apps and big data to parse the roles society and biology each play in setting sleep schedules. The study used a free smartphone app that reduces jetlag to gather robust sleep data from thousands of people in 100 nations. The researchers examined how age, gender, amount of light and home country affect the amount of shut-eye people around the globe get, when they go to bed, and when they wake up.
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Olivia J. Walch, Amy Cochran, & Daniel B. Forger. (2016) A global quantification of “normal” sleep schedules using smartphone data . Science Advances. info:/10.1126/sciadv.1501705
- April 29, 2016
- 04:10 PM
- 376 views
Don’t retweet if you want to remember
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
The whole of human intelligence, right at your fingertips. Sure it might not make the layman an engineer or physicist, but if we want to learn about a particular topic the internet can give us that information. But you better hold on tight before you lose it. New research finds retweeting or otherwise sharing information creates a “cognitive overload” that interferes with learning and retaining what you’ve just seen.
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Jiang, T., Hou, Y., & Wang, Q. (2016) Does micro-blogging make us “shallow”? Sharing information online interferes with information comprehension. Computers in Human Behavior, 210-214. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2016.02.008
- April 8, 2016
- 10:29 AM
- 466 views
The Real Cost of Sequencing
by Daniel Koboldt in Massgenomics
The real cost of sequencing is as hard to pin down as a sumo wrestler. Working in a large-scale sequencing laboratory offers an interesting perspective on the duality of the so-called “cost per genome.” On one hand, we see certain equipment manufacturers and many people in the media tossing around claims that sequencing a genome […]... Read more »
Muir P, Li S, Lou S, Wang D, Spakowicz DJ, Salichos L, Zhang J, Weinstock GM, Isaacs F, Rozowsky J.... (2016) The real cost of sequencing: scaling computation to keep pace with data generation. Genome biology, 17(1), 53. PMID: 27009100
- April 7, 2016
- 05:19 PM
- 442 views
Manufacturing human tissue from textiles
by Dr.Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Until we can figure out our lack of regenerating our bodies, or can convince more people to donate organs, we are at mercy of either luck or technology. Bio 3-D printing offers hope that we can print personalized organs as need and rejection free. But the technology relies almost solely with tissue engineers, there job is to find processes using novel bio-materials seeded with stem cells to grow and replace missing tissues.
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Tuin, S., Pourdeyhimi, B., & Loboa, E. (2016) Creating tissues from textiles: scalable nonwoven manufacturing techniques for fabrication of tissue engineering scaffolds. Biomedical Materials, 11(1), 15017. DOI: 10.1088/1748-6041/11/1/015017
- March 26, 2016
- 04:40 PM
- 449 views
Organic nanowires destroy the competition
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Last month, we spoke of our vision of the future of humanity here at the lab. It makes sense that humanity would one-day step away from the static, non-living computer constructs we have designed. Moving us instead towards an organic alternative, one that can be readily repaired, replaced, or changed. While we cannot pretend to know what the future may hold, a new discovery helps bolster the stance we presented.
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Lampa-Pastirk, S., Veazey, J., Walsh, K., Feliciano, G., Steidl, R., Tessmer, S., & Reguera, G. (2016) Thermally activated charge transport in microbial protein nanowires. Scientific Reports, 23517. DOI: 10.1038/srep23517
- March 18, 2016
- 02:36 PM
- 447 views
Using precision medicine to define the genetics of autoimmune disease
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Demonstrating the potential of precision medicine, an international study used next-generation DNA sequencing technology to identify more than 1,000 gene variants that affect susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Precision medicine is an emerging field that aims to deliver highly personalized health care by understanding how individual differences in genetics, environment, and lifestyle impact health and disease.
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Raj, P., Rai, E., Song, R., Khan, S., Wakeland, B., Viswanathan, K., Arana, C., Liang, C., Zhang, B., Dozmorov, I.... (2016) Regulatory polymorphisms modulate the expression of HLA class II molecules and promote autoimmunity. eLife. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.12089
- March 17, 2016
- 03:47 PM
- 477 views
Preventing Alzheimer’s, with an implant
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Alzheimer's has been a losing battle, sure we can fight back with drugs, but that still just prolongs the inevitable. With that said we can all hope this research pans out, to something meaningful. In a cutting-edge treatment for Alzheimer's disease, EPFL scientists have developed an implantable capsule that can turn the patient's immune system against the disease. Even better, the implant is subdural, not intracranial.
... Read more »
Lathuilière, A., Laversenne, V., Astolfo, A., Kopetzki, E., Jacobsen, H., Stampanoni, M., Bohrmann, B., Schneider, B., & Aebischer, P. (2016) A subcutaneous cellular implant for passive immunization against amyloid-β reduces brain amyloid and tau pathologies. Brain. DOI: 10.1093/brain/aww036
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