Now, translator that converts signs into spoken and written language
A team of researchers has developed a translator that is able to convert signs into spoken and written language – and vice versa. The translator features a computer and a Kinect camera which is capable of recognizing signing gestures, then gives a spoken and written translation of English and Mandarin for the non-deaf, Discovery News reported. The system can also work conversely. Researchers have touted the device as a cost-effective, efficient prototype that works in real time. (ANI)
Experts call for treating electronic cigarettes as tobacco counterparts
Doctors have warned against the use of electronic cigarettes, saying that they may cause serious health problems. The potential dangers of electronic cigarettes have members of the Pennsylvania Medical Society concerned, and until more is known about the products, the state’s physicians believe they should be treated no differently than tobacco products. Meeting at the Pennsylvania Medical Society’s annual House of Delegates in Hershey on October 26-27, more than 200 physicians voted to address the issue by calling upon the state legislature to pass electronic cigarette laws that have safeguards equivalent to existing tobacco laws, including taxation and banning sales to minors. Furthermore, the doctors want Pennsylvania schools to include the potential dangers of electronic cigarettes in their tobacco education efforts. The issue was presented by the Berks County Medical Society. “Electronic cigarettes mimic smoking tobacco cigarettes and deliver nicotine to the body,” Bruce A. MacLeod, MD, president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society and a practicing emergency medicine physician in Pittsburgh, said. According to Dr. MacLeod, there are a lot of unknowns about electronic cigarettes, and until more facts are known, they should not be treated any differently from traditional cigarettes. (ANI)
New hope for paralyzed people
Biomedical engineers are set to give people suffering from complete paralysis new hope. By implanting electrical stimulators in the lower spinal cord, they are bypassing the injury site and directly activating spinal neurons that control the lower body. The early experiments have met with great success. With the help of this spinal stimulation, the first human test subject was able to stand on his own and move his legs voluntarily on the very first day of the experiment. With further development of these implanted electrical stimulators, researchers may one day allow paralyzed people to walk again. (ANI)
Lasers may cure Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
Photo therapy may effectively treat neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, a new study suggests. Researchers discovered that it is possible to distinguish aggregations of the proteins, believed to cause the diseases, from the the well-functioning proteins in the body by using multi-photon laser technique. “Nobody has talked about using only light to treat these diseases until now. This is a totally new approach and we believe that this might become a breakthrough in the research of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,” said Piotr Hanczyc from Chalmers University of Technology. “We have found a totally new way of discovering these structures using just laser light,” said Hanczyc. If the protein aggregates are removed, the disease is in principle cured. The problem until now has been to detect and remove the aggregates. The researchers now harbour high hopes that photo acoustic therapy, which is already used for tomography, may be used to remove the malfunctioning proteins. Today amyloid protein aggregates are treated with chemicals, both for detection as well as removal. These chemicals are highly toxic and harmful for those treated. With multi photon laser the chemical treatment would be unnecessary. Nor would surgery be necessary for removing of aggregates. Due to this discovery it might, thus, be possible to remove the harmful protein without touching the surrounding tissue, researchers said. These diseases arise when amyloid beta protein are aggregated in large doses so they start to inhibit proper cellular processes. Different proteins create different kinds of amyloids, but they generally have the same structure. This makes them different from the well-functioning proteins in the body, which can now be shown by multi photon laser technique. The study at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, and the Polish Wroclaw University of Technology, was published in the journal Nature Photonics. (PTI)
‘Fresher’ blood donations better for recipients
Some researchers are advocating for a modernized blood management system to potentially reduce patient complications. Currently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) limits storage duration to a maximum of 42 days, depending on the storage system. Colleen G. Koch, MD, MS, MBA, from the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, said that stored blood undergoes changes, meaning that transfusion of older red blood cells may result in the delivery of high concentrations of red blood cell components such as hemoglobin, free iron, and red blood cell fragments. She said that these components may contribute to adverse clinical events observed in a number of investigations. Koch and team reviewed existing literature to examine the presence of storage-related complications in patients who underwent blood transfusions. They found several studies in trauma and cardiac surgery that linked increased blood storage duration to post-injury multiple organ failure, infection, deep vein thrombosis, and hospital mortality, while other studies reported no apparent relationship between storage duration and clinical outcomes. Koch said that they hope their results engage others in the medical community to investigate alternative inventory management strategies that would contribute to reducing the storage age of the red cell product without adversely influencing inventory availability. (ANI)
