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I cannot agree more with this need, to update firmware OTA. Having to dislodge any project or product that is already on and running, to locally connect it, simply to update firmware to fix a problem, is a cumbersome step that contradicts the intentions of the IoT. Firmware over the air (“FOTA”) is no doubt […]
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Via Boredpanda Photographer Omar Robles has over 135,000 followers on Instagram, and we’re not surprised, because his latest series of photographs documenting ballet dancers on the streets of Cuba is nothing short of majestic. “Their dancers are just some of the best dancers in the world,” writes Robles on his Blog. “Perhaps it is because […]
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Laser distance sensors such as LIDAR are useful for many outdoor robotic vehicles, but their high cost and complexity precludes their use in low-cost applications, while other low-cost depth sensing technologies are not suitable for outdoor use. We present a low-cost, smartphone-based planar laser distance sensor design for outdoor use with 6 cm accuracy at […]
Reposted via Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers!
Tasked with building a treehouse in a garden without a tree, French studios Saperlipopette Les Architectes and Martial Marquet Architecture have created a wooden structure that instead perches on a wall (+ slideshow). (more…)
It’s an unprecedented number of participants for this type of study, says Ruth March, vice-president and head of personalized health care and biomarkers at AstraZeneca, which is headquartered in London. “That’s necessary because we’re going to be looking for very rare differences among individuals.”
To achieve that ambitious goal, AstraZeneca will partner with research institutions including the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK, and Human Longevity, a biotechnology company founded in San Diego, California, by genomics pioneer Craig Venter. AstraZeneca also expects to draw on data from 500,000 participants in its own clinical trials, and medical samples that it has accrued over the past 15 years.
In doing so, AstraZeneca will be following a burgeoning trend in genetics research. For years, geneticists pursued common variations in human DNA sequences that are linked to complex diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. The approach yielded some important insights, but these common variations often accounted for only a small percentage of the genetic contribution to individual diseases.
Researchers are now increasingly focusing on the contribution of unusual genetic variants to disease. Combinations of these variants can hold the key to an individual's traits, says Venter.
The hunt for important rare variants has led AstraZeneca to partner with the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, says Aarno Palotie, who heads the Human Genomics Program there. Finland’s population was geographically isolated until recently, he notes, which makes for a unique genetic make-up. As a result, some variations that are very rare in other populations may be more common in Finland, making them easier to detect and study.
AstraZeneca did not disclose exactly how much it would be investing in the project — “hundreds of millions of dollars” over the course of ten years was all that Menelas Pangalos, executive vice-president of the company's innovative medicines program, would say. The company intends to use the data to inform drug development in all of its major disease areas, from diabetes to inflammation to cancer, says March.
The project should generate about 5 petabytes of data. “If you put 5 petabytes on DVDs, it would be four times the height of the Shard,” said Pangalos, referring to a nearly 310-meter London skyscraper. “If you wanted to put it on your iPod, it would take about 5,000 years to listen to it all.”
Much of that data will come from Human Longevity. The company, which ultimately hopes to accrue 10 million human genomes, already has 26,000 completed and paired with medical records. Its databases also contain additional partial genome sequences. “We’re adding one about every 15 minutes on average,” Venter says.
Using DNA sequence alone, Venter says that his company can now predict a person’s height, weight, eye color and hair color, and produce an approximate picture of their face. Much of that detail is lurking in rare sequence variations, says Venter, whose own genome has been in public databases for more than a decade.
2012 marked the launch of the Flemish Gut Flora Project, initiated by prof. Jeroen Raes (VIB/VUB/KU Leuven). Together with his team, prof. Raes aimed at the ambitious task of mapping the gut flora composition of around 5,000 volunteers in Flanders (Belgium). The purpose of this endeavor was to investigate links between the human gut flora and health, diet, and lifestyle.
Prof. Raes' study has identified 69 factors associated with gut flora composition and diversity. Most of these covariates are related to transit time, health, diet, medication, gender, and age. Integration of the Flemish Gut Flora Project results with other data sets gathered around the world revealed a set of 14 bacterial genera that make up a universal core microbiota present in all individuals.
Beer and buttermilk
Stool transit time showed the strongest association to gut flora composition. Also diet was an important factor, with most associations related to fiber consumption. One of the many surprising findings was the association of a particular bacterial group with a preference for dark chocolate! "The Belgian chocolate effect.", Raes laughs. "As many readers might expect, we also found an association between gut flora composition and beer consumption." Other project results incite deeper investigation, such as the relationship between the gut flora and factors linked to oxygen uptake capacity. Medication also had a strong link to the gut flora profile. The Raes Lab researchers not only identified associations with antibiotics and laxatives, but also with hay fever drugs and hormones used for anticonception or alleviation of menopause symptoms. Remarkably, early life events such as birth mode or whether or not volunteers were breast-fed as babies were not reflected in adult microbiota composition.
Tip of the iceberg
Although the Flemish Gut Flora Project has enormously enriched our knowledge on gut flora composition, it only allowed to explain 7% of gut flora variation. An enormous amount of work still needs to be done in order to sketch out the entire gut flora ecosystem. The Raes Lab estimates that around 40,000 human samples will be required just to capture a complete picture of gut flora biodiversity. In other words: we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. And although the VIB team revealed a wide range of associations, further research is required to unveil what is cause and what is consequence. Read more »
Based on the original “noodle rack” concept, Lukstudio has created a layered experience at the Longxiaobao flagship restaurant in Beijing where dining areas are shaped by multiple steel frames and wires.
http://ift.tt/hZ0OVi In an earthquake, a bridge is designed to take the brunt of the damage at the top and bottom of the vertical columns where they meet the foundation and the horizontal beams. If a bridge survives from collapsing but the columns are damaged, it is likely too unstable to be driven over. And if several of the steel rebar in the columns have snapped, the bridge likely cannot be repaired at all and must be torn down.
But if the columns can be repaired, engineers typically chip away at the concrete, replace any bent rebar and steel hoops inside and then pour new concrete into a steel cast that's built around the column. That's a lengthy process that leaves the bridge unusable for weeks until the repair is finished.
Pantelides' quicker and more cost-effective process involves creating concrete donuts known as "repairs" that are lined with a composite fiber material built around the bottom and top of each column. The material is a carbon fiber-reinforced polymer made of fibers and resin that is stronger than concrete and steel.
University of Utah civil and environmental professor Chris Pantelides stands next to a donut-sized "repair" he and a team of researchers designed that can fix a damaged column on a bridge. The repair -- a black concrete donut surrounding the ends of the column and wrapped with a composite fiber material -- can be deployed on bridges damaged in an earthquake much more quickly than through the standard procedure. CREDIT University of Utah College of Engineering Read more »
The architecture was created for my client Linda Starkman, a horse women, and is named after the site known as Fox Hollow. She had owned the property for 25 years before building her home.
