Category: New products
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University Develops, Patents New Coke Fuel Process
Researchers at Purdue University’s Calumet campus in Hammond, Indiana created a new less-expensive process for producing coke, a derivative of coal used in the making of steel, and received a U.S. patent for their discovery. Patent number 8,287,696 was awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in October to Purdue-Calumet physics professor Robert Kramer…
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Mobility Device with Health Monitor Developed for Disabled
Biomedical engineers at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Taiwan built a robotics device that provides mobility, lifting, standing, and health monitoring for disabled persons. The team led by NCKU engineering professors Fong-Chin Su and Tain-Song Chen demonstrated the system at a recent forum sponsored by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education. The device, known as the…
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Cell Phone, GPS Data Identify Urban Traffic Jam Sources
Engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of California at Berkeley devised a method for locating sources of urban traffic jams with anonymous data from cell phone records, which can encourage more effective strategies for reducing congestion. The team led by MIT civil and environmental engineering professor Marta González reported its findings in yesterday’s…
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Stem Cells Induced to Become Blood Vessel Tissue Cells
Biomedical engineers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore developed a process that causes stem cells to transform into two different types of tissue found in the walls of blood vessels. The findings of the team led by chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Sharon Gerecht are published in the January 2013 issue of the journal Cardiovascular…
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University Research Leads to Battery Sorting Machine
Research on artificial intelligence by a professor at Gothenberg University in Sweden made possible a machine that sorts discarded household batteries and a company that developed and markets the system. Claes Strannegård, a researcher in logic and cognitive science at Gothenberg, applied his work on artificial intelligence to find a better way of sorting garbage.…
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Portable Air Pollution Sensors Built Into Smartphones
Computer scientists at University of California in San Diego created pollution sensors that monitor air quality in real time on smartphones. CitiSense, as the sensor system is called, comes from the lab of computer scientist William Griswold that described the system at the Wireless Health 2012 conference in October, also in San Diego. The sensors…
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DNA Repair Genes Identified as Blood Radiation Indicators
Medical and engineering researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in California and several universities identified eight genes that can provide a faster diagnosis of potential radiation exposure than current methods. The team led by Andrew Wyrobek of Berkeley Lab’s Life Sciences Division published its findings in a recent issue of the journal PLOS One. The…
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Nanotech Fibers Remove Sulfur from Petroleum Fuels
Engineering and chemical researchers at University of Illinois in Champaign developed a nanoscale fiber that, when woven into a material, can adsorb sulfur from petroleum-based fuels more efficiently than current methods. The team from the labs of chemistry professor Prashant Jain and the late engineering professor Mark Shannon published their findings online in the journal…
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Miniature Robots Being Developed to Work in Swarms
A computer science lab at University of Colorado in Boulder is building a miniature, limited-function robot designed to work in a swarm of similar devices. Computer science professor Nikolaus Correll and colleagues are building these small devices that they call droplets as building blocks for increasingly complex systems. Correll, with lab research associate Dustin Reishus…
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Study: Insurance Industry Adjusting to Climate Change
A study by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in California finds the global insurance industry is taking human-induced climate change seriously and undertaking a variety of actions to limit the impact of climate change on their companies’ finances. Environmental scientist Evan Mills describes his findings in this week’s issue of the journal Science (paid subscription required).…