October 3, 2006, 10:07 PM CT

Robot Wheelchair Gives Patients More Independence

Engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are in the process of developing a robotic system that may offer wheelchair-dependent people independent, powered mobility and the ability, depending on patient status, to move to and from beds, chairs and toilets without assistance.*.

The lifting ability of the system, which is called the "HLPR Chair" (for Home Lift, Position and Rehabilitation), also should significantly reduce caregiver and patient injuries.

The HLPR chair draws on mobile robotic technology developed at NIST for defense and manufacturing applications. It is built on an off-the-shelf forklift with a U-frame base on wheel-like casters and a rectangular vertical frame. The frame is small enough to pass through the typical residential bathroom. The user drives the chair using a joystick and other simple controls.

The HLPR chair's drive, steering motors, batteries and control electronics are positioned to keep its center of gravity-even when carrying a patient-within the wheelbase. This allows a person, weighing up to 300 pounds, to rotate out, from the inner chair frame, over a toilet, chair or bed while supported by torso lifts. The torso lifts lower the patient safely into the new position. The chair frame can even remain in position to continue supporting the patient from potential side, back or front fall.........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink         Source

October 3, 2006, 9:58 PM CT

Uncoveing Roots Of DNA Secrets

DNA's simple and elegant structure - the "twisted ladder," with sugar-phosphate chains making up the "rails" and oxygen- and nitrogen-containing chemical "rungs" tenuously uniting the two halves - seems to be the work of an accomplished sculptor.

Yet the graceful, sinuous profile of the DNA double helix is the result of random chemical reactions in a simmering, primordial stew.

Just how nature arrived at this molecule and its sister molecule, RNA, remains one of the greatest - and potentially unsolvable - scientific mysteries.

But Vanderbilt biochemist Martin Egli, Ph.D., isn't content to simply study these molecules as they are. He wants to know why they are the way they are.

"These molecules are the result of evolution," said Egli, professor of Biochemistry. "Somehow they have been shaped and optimized for a particular purpose."

"For a chemist, it makes sense to analyze the origin of these molecules."

One particular curiosity: how did DNA and RNA come to incorporate five-carbon sugars into their "backbone" when six-carbon sugars, like glucose, may have been more common? Egli has been searching for the answer to that question for the past 13 years.

Recently, Egli and his colleagues solved a structure that divulges DNA's "sweet" secret. In a recent issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Egli and his colleagues report the X-ray crystal structure of homo-DNA, an artificial analog of DNA in which the usual five-carbon sugar has been replaced with a six-carbon sugar.........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink         Source

October 3, 2006, 8:54 PM CT

Can Math Professor Predict New York Yankees Victory?

The New York Yankees have better than a 3 in 4 chance of defeating the Detroit Tigers in their best of 5 series beginning tonight, said Bruce Bukiet, PhD, associate professor in the department of mathematical sciences at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).

Bukiet's mathematical model, which was reported in the journal "Operations Research," computes the probability of a team winning a game against another team with given hitters, bench, starting pitcher, relievers and home field advantage.

In the other American League (AL) match-up, Bukiet said that the Minnesota Twins have a 71 percent chance of defeating the Oakland A's. "So, it looks as if the AL Championship series will have the Yankees facing the Twins," he added.

In the National League, the teams are more evenly matched. The Los Angeles Dodgers have a 58 percent chance of defeating the New York Mets, while the San Diego Padres have a 62 percent chance of defeating the St. Louis Cardinals.

Bukiet, an avid Mets fan, said that winning the first game can change a team's fortunes markedly. If the Mets win the first game, their chances of advancing increase from 42 percent to 62 percent. If the Cardinals win in the first game, their chances of winning, as per Bukiet, improve 38 percent to 57 percent.........

Posted by: Jim      Permalink         Source

September 28, 2006, 10:11 PM CT

Internet To Be Resilient Against Terror Attack

Scientists have simulated what would happen to Internet reliability in the United States if terrorists were able to knock out various physical components of the network.

The good news is that it would be very difficult to cause major disruptions across the country, eventhough destruction of some key parts could seriously degrade Internet quality. "When it comes to the Internet, there is strength in numbers," said Morton O'Kelly, co-author of the study and professor of geography at Ohio State University.

"There are so a number of interconnections within the network that it would be difficult to find enough targets, and the right targets, to do serious damage to Internet reliability nationwide."

O'Kelly conducted the study with Hyun Kim, a graduate student at Ohio State, and Changjoo Kim, assistant professor of geography at Minnesota State University. Their results were published in a recent issue of the journal Environment and Planning B.

This study continues research O'Kelly and several colleagues conducted in 2003. In that study, the scientists tested Internet reliability using the assumption that selected city network nodes were rendered completely inoperable, because of accidents or attacks. (Network nodes are places that house the equipment where Internet traffic is collected and distributed.).........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink         Source

September 28, 2006, 9:25 PM CT

Improbable Buckyegg Hatched

An egg-shaped fullerene, or "buckyball egg" has been made and characterized by chemists at UC Davis, Virginia Tech and Emory and Henry College, Va. The unexpected discovery opens new possibilities for structures for fullerenes, which could have a wide range of uses.

"It was a total surprise," said Christine Beavers, a chemistry graduate student working with Professors Alan Balch and Marilyn Olmstead at UC Davis. Beavers is first author on the paper, published this month in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Fullerenes, sometimes called "buckyballs," are commonly spherical molecules of carbon, named after the futurist R. Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome. The carbon atoms are arranged in pentagons and hexagons, so their structures can resemble a soccer ball. An important rule -- until now -- is that no two pentagons can touch, but are always surrounded by hexagons.

The "buckyegg" compound was made by collaborating researchers at Virginia Tech, led by Professor Harry Dorn. They heated a mixture of carbon and other ingredients under special conditions to make a mixture of fullerenes, then shipped the products to UC Davis, where Balch's group worked on characterizing their structures.

When Beavers started to map out the structure, she found two pentagons next to each other, making the pointy end of the egg. Initially she thought that the results were a mistake, but she showed the data to Marilyn Olmstead, an expert on X-ray crystallography, and they decided that the results were real. The egg contains a molecule of triterbium nitride inside.........

Posted by: Sarah      Permalink         Source

September 26, 2006, 9:21 PM CT

Intelligent Aircraft Flying

The U.S. military depends on small, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to perform such tasks as serving as "eyes in the sky" for battalion commanders planning maneuvers. While some of these UAVs can be easily carried in a backpack and launched by hand, they typically require a team of trained operators on the ground, and they perform only short-term tasks individually rather than sustained missions in coordinated groups.

MIT researchers, in collaboration with Boeing's advanced research and development arm, Phantom Works, are working to change that.

They have developed a multiple-UAV test platform that could lay the groundwork for an intelligent airborne fleet that requires little human supervision, covers a wide area, and automatically maintains the "health" of its vehicles (for example, vehicles anticipate when they need refueling, and new vehicles launch to replace lost, damaged, or grounded ones).

Aeronautics and Astronautics Professor Jonathan How, who heads the research team, believes it is the first platform to publicly demonstrate sustained, coordinated, autonomous flight with multiple UAVs.

At the Boeing Tech Expo at Hanscom Air Force Base in May, students on the team conducted more than 60 flights on demand with two UAVs. In the MIT Aerospace Controls Laboratory, the research team regularly conducts flights using three to five UAVs, which have achieved complex tasks such according tosistent surveillance of a defined area.........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink         Source

September 26, 2006, 9:12 PM CT

Boosting Safety Of Nuclear Power

With U.S. electricity demand projected to increase by nearly 50 percent over the next 25 years, the Bush administration and others see nuclear power as an increasingly attractive energy option.

Nuclear power has the potential to help make the United States less dependent on foreign fuel and to cut the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming.

Pilot models of next-generation nuclear plants are being built around the world, but such plants are not likely to produce consumer electricity in the United States for 20 years or more, said Pavel Hejzlar, a principal research scientist in MIT's Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering.

In the meantime, MIT scientists are working on several innovations that could make existing plants more efficient and safer to run. These include a new fuel and a way to boost the cooling capability of ordinary water.

New fuel

In a nuclear power plant, the fission of uranium atoms provides heat to produce steam for generating electricity. While nuclear plants are already energy intensive --one pickup-truck full of uranium fuel can supply enough electricity to run a city for a year--Hejzlar and Mujid S. Kazimi, the TEPCO Professor of Nuclear Engineering, professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems, wanted to make the fuel go even further.........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink         Source

September 26, 2006, 8:57 PM CT

Cars Of The Future

They looked incongruous as they pulled past the Chevrolets and Toyotas in East lot--an antique Stanley Steamer, a yellow-striped city bus, a motorcycle with a passenger seat made from a diner's counter stool, a tanker with a bucolic scene painted on the side and dozens more. In they rolled, horns honking amid the occasional deep "ooooh-gah" of the steam car's Klaxon.

The AltWheels caravan of 46 environmentally friendly vehicles had arrived at MIT's Stata Center amphitheater.

AltWheels--the second New England event of its kind--is an all-volunteer, multiday, multivenue event designed to raise public awareness of commercially available vehicles that provide alternatives to the gasoline-powered automobile.

"Even though the price of fuel dropped 20 cents, there's a need for this," MIT Chancellor Phillip L. Clay told the crowd of drivers, inventors and curious onlookers. "With Ford and others, MIT works hard with industry to advance fuel and energy research. This caravan represents the work of many at MIT".

John Heywood, director of the MIT Sloan Automotive Laboratory, said he's been involved in the automotive field "a long time, but it's never been this lively and exciting".

As the Hood blimp circled overhead, a crowd milled around the vehicles--some ordinary in appearance, others that seemed out of place on a city street. There was the Moonbeam, which Maine inventor Jory Squibb called "an experiment in resource-stingy transportation." A tiny three-wheeled contraption built from secondhand motorcycle parts, the Moonbeam gets up to 100 mpg, and Squibb uses it for 90 percent of his travel needs. Retired electrical engineer David K. Nergaard drove his circa-1890 Stanley Steamer, a steam-powered vehicle that attracted a covey of MIT students who peered at its parts as they puzzled out its principles.........

Posted by: Jim      Permalink         Source

September 26, 2006, 8:47 PM CT

Quantum Encryption Over Record Distances

Using an innovative sensor for detecting single photons, the smallest particles of light, researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Albion College (Albion, Mich.) have set two significant distance records for distributing "keys" (or codes) for quantum encryption, the most secure method known for protecting the privacy of information.

As described in the recent issue of New Journal of Physics,* the team generated and transmitted secret quantum keys over 184.6 kilometers (km) of fiber-optic cable, the longest distance ever recorded for quantum key distribution (QKD). The prior record was 122 km. Secret quantum key is a code for encrypting data that not only have been transmitted and detected successfully, but also processed to correct for errors and enhance privacy, steps considered essential for practical applications. The keys are then used to encrypt ordinary digital data for transmission over conventional communications channels.

"This work extends the potential range of one link of a quantum communications system," says Sae Woo Nam, the NIST physicist who designed the photon detectors. "Experiments like this are interesting because they establish new thresholds for the distance between repeaters," or devices that re-send and boost fading signals between links in far-reaching networks.........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink         Source

September 26, 2006, 7:47 PM CT

Finger Mouse By LG

Bored of working with the same old boring mouse, then how about trying a slimmer mouse version or should we say, mice! LG has introduced its new portable optical finger mouse to replace those palm-full mouse.

The sleek version features yop button that works for the left button of a regular mouse while rear part works for the right button of the regular mouse. And, the scrolling is done through the scroll wheel at the right side. Who doesn't loves slimmer and sexy bodies.what are you thinking.I am talking about this new sleek peripheral for your computer!!........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink         Source