THE TECH-LICIOUS

Now, Check Your Blood Sugar Levels Using A Smartphone

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 25px;">Scientists from Polytechnique Montreal and Gorilla Glass manufacturer Corning have developed a new display sensor for smartphones that can allow a user to check his/her blood sugar levels (if diabetic), assess body temperature, and even analyze DNA. The sensors can be embedded within the smartphone's display. It can work with platforms such as Apple's HomeKit in order to provide more information about one's health.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 25px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 25px;">Also, the researchers have developed their first laser-written light-guiding systems that could initiate these advancements. The systems can shot lasers into glass to create pathways that transmit data in the form of small beams of light. On the other hand, the waveguides act as a tunnel that channel light.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 25px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 25px;">The scientist said that the approach created by the team is nearly 10 times better at minimizing loss compared to previous ones made with lasers. These sensors could be embedded in biomedical sensors into tablets and window pc's as well. They also added that the technology could also be used to add security to mobile devices and monitor carbon-monoxide levels in the air as well.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 25px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 25px;">Paper co-author Raman Kashyap, a professor of electrical engineering and engineering physics at Polytechnique Montreal, said in a statement, "We're opening the Pandora's box at the moment." Now that the technique is viable, "it's up to people to invent new uses" for it, he added.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 25px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">SOURCE-<a href="http://www.gizmodo.in/indiamodo/Now-Check-Your-Blood-Sugar-Levels-Using-A-Smartphone/articleshow/38852479.cms" target="_blank">GIZNET</a></span></span></div>

Now, Check Your Blood Sugar Levels Using A Smartphone

Scientists from Polytechnique Montreal and Gorilla Glass manufacturer Corning have developed a new display sensor for smartphones that can allow a user to check his/her blood sugar levels (if diabeti…

22 Jul 2014

Put Down Your Syringe, Nanoparticles May One Day Deliver Drugs

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A special class of tiny gold particles can easily slip through cell membranes, making them good candidates to deliver drugs directly to target cells.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A new study from MIT materials scientists reveals that these nanoparticles enter cells by taking advantage of a route normally used in vesicle-vesicle fusion, a crucial process that allows signal transmission between neurons. In the July 21 issue of<em>Nature Communications</em>, the researchers describe in detail the mechanism by which these nanoparticles are able to fuse with a membrane.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The findings suggest possible strategies for designing nanoparticles — made from gold or other materials — that could get into cells even more easily.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“We’ve identified a type of mechanism that might be more prevalent than is currently known,” says Reid Van Lehn, an MIT graduate student in materials science and engineering and one of the paper’s lead authors. “By identifying this pathway for the first time it also suggests not only how to engineer this particular class of nanoparticles, but that this pathway might be active in other systems as well.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The paper’s other lead author is Maria Ricci of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. The research team, led by Alfredo Alexander-Katz, an associate professor of materials science and engineering, and Francesco Stellacci from EPFL, also included scientists from the Carlos Besta Institute of Neurology in Italy and Durham University in the United Kingdom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Most nanoparticles enter cells through endocytosis, a process that traps the particles in intracellular compartments, which can damage the cell membrane and cause cell contents to leak out. However, in 2008, Stellacci, who was then at MIT, and Darrell Irvine, a professor of materials science and engineering and of biological engineering, found that a special class of gold nanoparticles coated with a mix of molecules could enter cells without any disruption.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“Why this was happening, or how this was happening, was a complete mystery,” Van Lehn says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Last year, Alexander-Katz, Van Lehn, Stellacci, and others discovered that the particles were somehow <a href="http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2013/the-gold-standard-for-cell-penetration-0823" style="color: #003366; text-decoration: none;">fusing with cell membranes</a> and being absorbed into the cells. In their new study, they created detailed atomistic simulations to model how this happens, and performed experiments that confirmed the model’s predictions.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Stealth Entry</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Gold nanoparticles used for drug delivery are usually coated with a thin layer of molecules that help tune their chemical properties. Some of these molecules, or ligands, are negatively charged and hydrophilic, while the rest are hydrophobic. The researchers found that the particles’ ability to enter cells depends on interactions between hydrophobic ligands and lipids found in the cell membrane.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Cell membranes consist of a double layer of phospholipid molecules, which have hydrophobic lipid tails and hydrophilic heads. The lipid tails face in toward each other, while the hydrophilic heads face out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In their computer simulations, the researchers first created what they call a “perfect bilayer,” in which all of the lipid tails stay in place within the membrane. Under these conditions, the researchers found that the gold nanoparticles could not fuse with the cell membrane.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">However, if the model membrane includes a “defect” — an opening through which lipid tails can slip out — nanoparticles begin to enter the membrane. When these lipid protrusions occur, the lipids and particles cling to each other because they are both hydrophobic, and the particles are engulfed by the membrane without damaging it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In real cell membranes, these protrusions occur randomly, especially near sites where proteins are embedded in the membrane. They also occur more often in curved sections of membrane, because it’s harder for the hydrophilic heads to fully cover a curved area than a flat one, leaving gaps for the lipid tails to protrude.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“It’s a packing problem,” Alexander-Katz says. “There’s open space where tails can come out, and there will be water contact. It just makes it 100 times more probable to have one of these protrusions come out in highly curved regions of the membrane.”</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Mimicking Nature</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This phenomenon appears to mimic a process that occurs naturally in cells — the fusion of vesicles with the cell membrane. Vesicles are small spheres of membrane-like material that carry cargo such as neurotransmitters or hormones.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The similarity between absorption of vesicles and nanoparticle entry suggests that cells where a lot of vesicle fusion naturally occurs could be good targets for drug delivery by gold nanoparticles. The researchers plan to further analyze how the composition of the membranes and the proteins embedded in them influence the absorption process in different cell types. “We want to really understand all the constraints and determine how we can best design nanoparticles to target particular cell types, or regions of a cell,” Van Lehn says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“One could use the results from this paper to think about how to leverage these findings into improved nanoparticle delivery vehicles — for instance, perhaps new surface ligands for nanoparticles could be engineered to have improved affinity for both surface groups and lipid tails,” says Catherine Murphy, a professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who was not involved in the study.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">SOURCE-<a href="http://www.engineering.com/DesignerEdge/DesignerEdgeArticles/ArticleID/8093/Put-Down-Your-Syringe-Nanoparticles-May-One-Day-Deliver-Drugs.aspx" target="_blank">DESIGNER EDGE</a></span></div>
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Put Down Your Syringe, Nanoparticles May One Day Deliver Drugs

A special class of tiny gold particles can easily slip through cell membranes, making them good candidates to deliver drugs directly to target cells. A new study from MIT materials scientists reveals…

22 Jul 2014

Amazon's new games show what only the Fire Phone can do

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Looks like Amazon plans to take advantage of the Fire phone's head-tracking tech at every turn, so it put its Game Studio to work developing two new titles especially for the device. The first one called <em>Saber's Edge</em> is a strategic pirate puzzle game, while the other, called<em>To-Fu Fury</em>, is a puzzle platformer (think <em>'Splosion Man</em>) that stars a tofu martial artist. They sound like funny, typical mobile games, other than the fact that they support the Fire phone's "Dynamic Perspective" feature that tracks the movements of a user's head. Sadly, you can't exactly control the games by moving your noggin (that might sound silly, but at least that'll make the games truly unique), but you can peek around the corners to see hidden obstacles or bonuses. Of course, you can always just tilt the phone if you don't want to look silly in public. If you don't mind the games' limited support for the feature, you can grab em for $1.99 each -- but only if you're also getting the Fire Phone, which starts shipping this week.</span></div>
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Amazon's new games show what only the Fire Phone can do

Looks like Amazon plans to take advantage of the Fire phone's head-tracking tech at every turn, so it put its Game Studio to work developing two new titles especially for the device. The first one ca…

22 Jul 2014

Do-it-yourself spray can make your phone or tablet resistant to water

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<a href="http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/article/58453-image/Do-it-yourself-spray-can-make-your-phone-or-tablet-resistant-to-water.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="Do-it-yourself spray can make your phone or tablet resistant to water" border="0" height="200" src="http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/article/58453-image/Do-it-yourself-spray-can-make-your-phone-or-tablet-resistant-to-water.jpg" width="200" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">You might remember some of the amazing displays we have seen from</span>companies like Liquipel<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;"> and P2i, showing how they can make your phone resistant to water. In one amazing example, a tissue coated with P2i's product and placed in a container of water, </span>was completely dry when taken out of the container<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">. The water seemed to roll right off the tissue.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">But now that manufacturers like Samsung, Sony and HTC are making their flagship models water resistant out of the box, others might follow suit. Already, we have seen P2i and Liquipel stop marketing directly to consumers. Not only is it expensive for individuals to lay out the money to have their phone treated, it also means having to go without the phone until it is returned by the company applying the treatment.</span><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">No one wants to ship out their pride and joy, hoping that the company treats your phone with kid gloves like you do. For that reason, you might be interested in Impervious. The company has two different systems you can buy. There is a waterproof spray that you apply yourself, to protect your phone from water damage and scratches on the screen. The spray kit is $29.95 and is available for the iPhone, and Android phones. This protects your device from spills and light rain.</span><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">If you need more protection, you can buy the Waterproofing Kit for the </span>Apple iPhone 5<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">, </span>Apple iPhone 5s<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">,</span>Apple iPhone 5c<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">, the </span>Apple iPad mini<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;"> and the full-sized </span>Apple iPad<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">. The price for this kit is $39.95 ($5 less for the iPad mini). Self-applied to the outside and inside of your iPhone or iPad, it gives your iDevice a rating of IPX7. This means that you can submerge your treated iPhone or iPad in up to 3 feet of water, for as long as 30 minutes, and it will emerge in perfect working condition. Impervious does not recommend that you do this, however. But you can rest easier knowing that if an accident were to happen, your phone would be protected.</span><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">Check out a couple of videos for the product, including a television ad, below.</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/CH1TijOAxxs?feature=player_embedded" width="640"></iframe></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">source-<a href="http://www.phonearena.com/news/Do-it-yourself-spray-can-make-your-phone-or-tablet-resistant-to-water_id58453" target="_blank">techbaet</a></span></div>

Do-it-yourself spray can make your phone or tablet resistant to water

You might remember some of the amazing displays we have seen fromcompanies like Liquipel and P2i, showing how they can make your phone resistant to water. In one amazing example, a tissue coated with…

22 Jul 2014

Ford lifts the hood on 2015 Mustang

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="The new 2015 Mustang is available with a V6, V8 or a four-cylinder EcoBoost engine" height="358" src="http://images.gizmag.com/hero/ford-mustang-engines.jpg" width="640" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Late last year, Ford threw the sheets off the design for its 2015 Mustang. Now the automaker has revealed what will lie under the hood of that updated body, including more powerful V6 and V8 engines, along with a new EcoBoost engine that the company says boasts the best power density ever for a Ford engine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The base engine available on the 2015 Mustang is a naturally aspirated, 300 hp (223 kW) V6, however, the flagship of the range steps things up to a 5.0-liter V8 pumping out 435 hp (324 kW) and providing 542 Nm of torque. The V8 takes advantage of larger intake and exhaust valves, and Ford says its forged crankshaft has been rebalanced to make the engine better at high revs.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/2015-mustang-engine-options/33028/pictures#1" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="The new 2015 Mustang can be specced with a six-speed manual or automatic gearboxes" src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/ford-mustang-engines-0.jpg" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="530" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">While the V8 may top the Mustang lineup, the turbocharged four cylinder EcoBoost engine is big news as well. Designed specifically for the Mustang, the 2.3-liter engine includes direct fuel injection and twin independent variable camshaft timing and puts out 310 hp (231 kW) and 433 Nm of torque. This gives it what Ford says is the best ever power-density for one of its engines, with a specific output of almost 135 hp (101 kW) per liter and more than 188 Nm of torque per liter. The engine has also been strengthened to withstand the added stresses placed on it to ensure durability.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">All three engines are available with either a Getrag six-speed manual or Ford's "SelectShift" six-speed auto. The manual is meant to be more precise than the gearbox in the old Mustang thanks to a redesigned shift linkage, while the shift lever has been shuffled closer to the driver and away from the cupholders. Meanwhile, the automatic gearbox comes standard with rev-matching on downshifts and drivers able to take manual control with wheel-mounted paddles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The new Mustang will go on sale in the US later this year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">source-<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/2015-mustang-engine-options/33028/" target="_blank">gizmag</a></span></div>
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Ford lifts the hood on 2015 Mustang

Late last year, Ford threw the sheets off the design for its 2015 Mustang. Now the automaker has revealed what will lie under the hood of that updated body, including more powerful V6 and V8 engines,…

21 Jul 2014

amazon drone delivery program is taking pace

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The plan for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/" style="color: #0092dd;" target="_blank" title="Amazon">Amazon</a> to begin shipping deliveries via drone is gathering pace as the company sent a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration (<a href="http://www.faa.gov/" style="color: #0092dd;" target="_blank" title="FAA">FAA</a>) this week. The global giant is “incredibly passionate about” its Amazon Prime Air feature.  The service would see airborne drones delivering packages to registered customers “in 30 minutes or less,” according to the letter.</span></div>
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<a href="http://news.filehippo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/www.pcworld.com_.jpg" style="color: #0092dd;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="Amazon Prime Air Drone Program" class="lazy size-full wp-image-17322 data-lazy-ready" data-lazy-src="http://news.filehippo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/www.pcworld.com_.jpg" data-lazy-type="image" height="385" src="http://news.filehippo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/www.pcworld.com_.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; display: inline; max-width: 708px; padding: 10px;" width="708" /></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Amazon Prime Air Drone Program</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">According to the letter, Amazon has said they are developing drones, which can travel over 50 miles per hour and be capable of carrying packages of up to 5 pounds.  Amazon state that covers 86% of all the packages, which are sold on Amazon. It also asks the FAA to allow the company “expedited operational authorization” to develop and research civil unmanned aircraft under the FAA Modernization Reform Act of 2012.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Amazon’s VP of global public policy Paul Misener, said in the letter the company is already working on their eighth and ninth-generation drones, and they have been conducting private research indoors at a facility in Seattle. To begin testing the drones for outdoors use, however, Amazon will require special permission.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The FAA Modernization Reform Act of 2012 gave the FAA increased funding to update their air traffic control regulations.  This was necessary before commercial drones can legally take to the skies. The act also allows for certain exemptions for the development and research of drones. That’s what Amazon is requesting in this letter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">People were initially sceptical of the drone plan, since the announcement first came to light just before the 2013 winter holiday season.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">What do you think?  As always, if you would like to leave a sensible comment, then please do so in the comments section below.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">source-<a href="http://news.filehippo.com/2014/07/amazon-requests-permission-faa-drone-program/" target="_blank">techbeat</a></span></div>
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amazon drone delivery program is taking pace

The plan for Amazon to begin shipping deliveries via drone is gathering pace as the company sent a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) this week. The global giant is “incredibly passi…

20 Jul 2014

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