Category: New products
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Wind Turbine Blade Edge Helps Reduce Power Costs
Denmark’s National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy and three corporate partners have developed a controllable trailing edge for wind turbine blades that can reduce loads on turbines and help reduce the cost of electricity from wind power. The lab, known as Risø DTU, is part of the Technical University of Denmark in Roskilde. Wind turbines are…
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Molecular Probes Developed to Analyze Cancer Cells
Chemical engineers at University of California, Santa Barbara have created molecular probes that the developers say can lead to new drugs to treat cancer and other illnesses. Chemical engineering professor Patrick Daugherty and postdoc Abeer Jabaiah published their findings in a recent online issue of the journal Chemistry & Biology (paid subscription required). Their work…
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Smartphone App Gives Voice to Those Who Cannot Speak
Students at University of Toronto in Canada have designed a smartphone application that merges a voice synthesizer with a GPS to give people who cannot speak the words they need. The app, called MyVoice, is available for the iPhone, with an Android version in development. MyVoice is an assistive and augmentative communication device that adds…
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Lamination Process Enables Microchannel Heat Exchangers
Oregon State University researchers in Corvallis have invented a new way to use lamination to produce microchannel heat exchangers for a number of commercial uses that require efficient heat transfer. Engineering professor Brian Paul and doctoral candidate Prawin Paulraj published their findings in a recent issue of the Journal of Manufacturing Processes (paid subscription required).…
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Engineers Increase Computer Program Speed, Retain Safety
Researchers at North Carolina State University in Raleigh have developed a software tool that helps computer applications run more efficiently without sacrificing safety features that previously slowed down their performance. The faculty/student team will discuss this process on 5 April at the International Symposium on Code Generation and Optimization in Chamonix, France. Application software programs…
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Study: Automatic Faucets Carry High Levels of Bacteria
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland have found that electronic faucets — the kind that dispense water from an electronic signal — are more likely to become contaminated with high levels of bacteria, compared with traditional manual faucets. The study will be presented on Saturday at the annual meeting of…
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Elm Variety Discovered with Possible Disease Resistance
Two U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists believe they have found a missing variety of American elm tree with genes that carry resistance to Dutch elm disease. Botanist Alan Whittemore and geneticist Richard Olsen, with the USDA’s National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., will publish their findings in the April edition of the American Journal of…
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University Studying Smart Polymer Film to Control Substrates
Researchers at Technische Universität Darmstadt in Germany are developing thin plastics with the ability to control the properties of materials to which they are attached. The films made of polymers — long, repeating chains of molecules — would contain elements that react to external stimuli, such as light or magnetic fields, and change the underlying…
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iPhone App Helps Doctors Deal with Cardiac Emergencies
A study of an iPhone application giving emergency medical instructions suggests that the app helps doctors perform better in a simulated cardiac arrest case. The results of the study appear online in the journal Anaesthesia. The iResus app was developed by the U.K.’s Resuscitation Council and offers guidelines on medical emergency responses for adults and…
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Prof. Develops Open-Space Laser Transmission Technology
An emerging technology for transmitting data with lasers through open space is being developed at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. The technology that aims to exceed the communications capabilities of fiber-optic transmission without the fiber is being studied by physics and engineering professor Rainer Martini (pictured left), who has also started a…