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Feb 6, 2016

Bioabsorable Waveguide Helps PTB Seal Tissues Deep Below Surface

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Photochemical tissue bonding (PTB) is a light-based method to repair tissues and is an alternative to traditional sutures and staples used to close wounds. Unlike the latter, PTB does not cause inflammation and scarring at the repair site. PTB works by applying light-sensitive Rose Bengal dye to the exposed tissue. When the dye is exposed to green light, the dye absorbs the light, thereby causing the tissue to crosslink and form a water-tight seal. While PTB can seal incisions sans inflammation, the technique is limited by how deep the light can penetrate the tissue. Researchers from the University of St Andrews and Harvard Medical School have developed a bioabsorable optical waveguide, which can deliver light deep into tissues before being absorbed.

In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers fabricated optical waveguides from a variety of polymers, but ultimately tested the degradation times of the polymers PVP and PLGA (50:50) in vivo. They inserted 1 × 5 mm x 500 µm pieces of bulk polymer subcutaneously in mice and examined the implant at different time points. The PVP waveguide dissolved within one hour of implantation, whereas the PLGA polymer began to lose shape after 17 days, illustrating that researchers can tune the degradation time (ranging from hours to days) of the optical waveguide for a specific application.

After establishing the biodegradability of the polymer waveguides, the team showed how the waveguides could extend the penetration depth in PTB. Light was coupled to the device via pigtail fiber, which was trimmed off after light was applied, thus leaving only the bioabsorable polymer within the wound. Immediately after a pig was killed, they made a “full-thickness incision” (1 cm) on the dorsal skin and applied Rose Bengal dye. In the control, they applied 532-nm light (1 W) for 15 minutes at the surface of the wound. In waveguide assisted PTB, they inserted the polymer waveguide and applied light through the waveguide, effectively increasing the penetration depth of the light. The shear tensile strength of the control PTB was 0.33 kPa compared to 1.94 kPa in the waveguide assisted PTB, illustrating that the optical waveguide enabled tissue crosslinking and wound healing at greater depths.

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Feb 6, 2016

A New Kind of Computer Chip Could Soon Make Your Smartphone Way More Powerful

Posted by in categories: computing, mobile phones

And it could save you some battery too.

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Feb 6, 2016

How interesting!

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, space

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Feb 6, 2016

Watch An Artificial Chameleon Change Color

Posted by in category: futurism

Chameleons are masters at rapidly changing the color of their skin to camouflage themselves or communicate with others. Scientists worldwide have long sought to mimic the skins of these reptiles to render people effectively invisible with chameleon suits.

Now a mechanical chameleon from China can change color to almost every hue in the visible spectrum with the aid of bumps made of gold and silver on its skin, researchers say. The scientists published their work this past month in the journal ACS Nano.

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Feb 5, 2016

USENIX Enigma 2016 — Protecting High Risk Users

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, security

Eva Galperin, Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Morgan Marquis-Boire, Citizen Lab, University of Toronto.

Protecting high-risk individuals has always been a problem for the security industry. While many enterprises focus on mitigating scenarios that will affect the greatest number of their users, harm from attacks is not distributed proportionally. Cyber-attacks on high-risk individuals in dangerous situations can lead to torture, kidnapping, and worse. But dealing with targeted attacks is time-consuming and resource intensive. This problem is exacerbated when the target is an individual or small NGO rather than a large enterprise. This talk will discuss the challenges of protecting high-risk, targeted users using the experience of the speakers in assisting targeted NGOs and individuals.

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Feb 5, 2016

Why should you run IT as a business?

Posted by in categories: business, robotics/AI

Interesting article, and one thing that I have thoroughly enjoyed over the years is helping companies developed new products and services through innovation, or changing their IT organization into real profit centers like this article highlights. And, as part of these types of transformations it has always been key to change/ reinforce the culture’s mindset that business owns the definition of the strategies and solutions.

However, as AI becomes more and more prevelant across businesses; we could eventually see that IT ends up owning the definition as well as the enablement of the solutions for the company/ business. So, it is almost like we come full circle through AI after all. And, this is just one of many business/ corporate cultural questions that we will need to address with AI in the coming years.


There are many reasons to run IT as a well functioning business instead of the traditional cost center model. Below are the top 5 consequences of continuing to run IT in the traditional manner.

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Feb 5, 2016

Watch this guy control his Tesla from his Apple Watch

Posted by in categories: futurism, transportation

The future didn’t come with jetpacks, but it does have this.

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Feb 5, 2016

Watson for President 2016

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

The Watson 2016 Foundation is an independent organization formed for the advocacy of the artificial intelligence known as Watson to run for President of The United States of America.


It’s time to elect the first artificial intelligence into office.

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Feb 5, 2016

Northwestern University researchers develop a hybrid polymer

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, electronics, materials, nanotechnology

What would be really cool is have a “Computer Screen in a Can”; take your polymer spray and instantly create a screen on a table, a window, suitcase, etc. with your “Computer Screen in a Can”; U Can! I can just imagine the infomercials. On a more serious note — NW Univ has developed a new Hybrid Polymer which is going to expand the capabilities of polymer into so many areas in medicine, to manufacturing, electronics, self reparing material & devices, etc.

http://www.compositesworld.com/news/northwestern-university-…id-polymer


A completely new hybrid polymer has been developed by Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) researchers.

“We have created a surprising new polymer with nano-sized compartments that can be removed and chemically regenerated multiple times,” said materials scientist Samuel Stupp, the senior author of the study and director of Northwestern’s Simpson Querrey Institute for BioNanotechnology. The study was published in the Jan. 29 issue of Science.

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Feb 5, 2016

Why US tech giants are buying British AI start-ups

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, robotics/AI, virtual reality

I will admit there is some great VR and AI talent in the UK.


U.S. giants such as Apple and Microsoft are flocking to the U.K. to buy artificial intelligence (AI) start-ups as Britain establishes itself as the go-to place for the technology.

Microsoft announced that it had acquired London-based Swiftkey, an AI start-up that makes a predictive keyboard for smartphones, on Wednesday for $250 million, sources close to the deal told CNBC.

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