Category: New products
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University Spinoff Designs Virtual Reality for Architects
A start-up company begun in 2010 by students at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany is developing virtual reality systems to enable visualizing proposed designs for building spaces before construction. The company, inreal Technologies GmbH, also in Karlsruhe, will demonstrate its system at the CeBIT technology show on 10 March in Hannover, Germany. The…
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Mass Production Process Devised for Micro Robots, Devices
Engineers at Harvard University have developed a technology that makes possible the mass production of miniature electronic and robotic devices, using layering and folding processes similar to the Japanese paper-folding art of origami. Doctoral candidates Pratheev Sreetharan and Peter Whitney say their discovery is scheduled for publication in the March 2012 issue of the Journal…
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iPhone App Tells Best and Worst Times for Coffee
Computer scientists at Pennsylvania State University in University Park have devised an iPhone application that tells the best time for coffee to get a mental kick, and when caffeine can ruin your sleep. Frank Ritter, who is on the IT, psychology, and computer science faculties at Penn State and Kuo-Chuan (Martin) Yeh, computer science and…
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Traumatic Brain Injury Cases Likely Under-Reported
A study by researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota suggests that the number of cases of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is greater than current estimates offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The team’s findings appeared late last year in the journal Epidemiology (paid subscription required). The investigators used a new,…
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Stem Cells Repair Heart Muscle in Clinical Trial
A clinical trial at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles and Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore has shown that treating patients with their own heart-derived stem cells helps re-grow healthy muscle damaged by a heart attack. The team led by Raj Makkar of Cedars-Sinai using technology developed by Eduardo Marbán (pictured right), director of…
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Software to Aid Genome Analysis for Cancer Therapies
Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta have developed software that analyzes ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the human genome to provide more useful data for generating personalized cancer therapies. The work of biology professor John McDonald (pictured left) and bioinformatics Ph.D. candidate Vinay Mittal is described and appears online in the journal Nucleic Acids…
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University Genome Research Helping Biofuel Developer
Researchers at University of Georgia in Athens have mapped the genomes of two originator cells of the large perennial grass miscanthus that can help develop this grass as a source of ethanol and bioenergy. A California biofuel feedstock developer is partnering with the university on this project. Miscanthus is a promising candidate for biomass farming,…
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Goal Setting Helps Change Diets of Adults with Diabetes
Researchers at Ohio State University in Columbus and Loyola University in Baltimore have found setting specific goals can help improve dietary habits of people with Type 2 diabetes. Their findings appear in the January 2012 issue of the journal Patient Education and Counseling (paid subscription required). The team led by Ohio State nutrition professor Carla…
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Gaps Found in Satellite Telephone Encryption Algorithms
Computer scientists at Ruhr-Universität in Bochum, Germany say they have cracked algorithms of European encryption standards used globally for satellite telephones in less than an hour and with simple equipment. The team from the university’s Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security (HGI) will present the findings of their proof-of-concept tests at the IEEE Symposium on…
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Online Simulator Optimizes Solar Cell Materials Efficiency
An online tool offered by MIT helps companies and researchers determine the tradeoffs in manufacturing strategies for solar cells based on planned materials and processing steps. The simulator, which takes about a minute to run, can provide a preview of the efficiency of resulting solar cells in converting sunlight to electricity, a process previously determined…