In October, multinational pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. declared that it was exercising its option to jointly develop and commercialize a personalized cancer vaccine (PCV) from Moderna that is already undergoing human trials. Called mRNA-4157/V940, the vaccine is designed for high-risk melanoma patients. According to the American Academy of Dermatology Association, the vast majority of skin cancer deaths are from melanoma, resulting in roughly 20 American deaths every day.

While most vaccines try to prevent the body from ever getting a disease, cancer vaccines of that nature have proven elusive in the past. The mRNA-4157/V940 takes a different approach, teaching the immune systems of those with melanoma how to fight off tumors based on their individual cancer markers.

Here’s how it works: The scientists take samples of a melanoma patient’s mutated cancer cells. They then sequence the tumor genes, identifying the antigens that will trigger an immune response. From there, they create an individualized mRNA vaccine that can tell the patient’s body to generate T cells to combat the specific mutational signature of the tumors, thereby halting the progress of the cancer.

Biotechnology firm Moderna was one of the first major companies to develop an effective vaccine against the COVID-19 disease, helping to dramatically reduce the severity of the global pandemic. That vaccine used breakthrough mRNA technology to teach the body to recognize and fight a disease without ever having encountered it (by contrast, traditional vaccines introduce a weakened or inactivated germ into the body so it can learn to combat it in the future). As this technology proved successful at preventing SARS viruses, many companies have since started developing mRNA vaccines for everything from heart failure to food allergies to dementia.

The fact that Merck has exercised its option with Moderna on this mRNA cancer vaccine means that human trials are going very well. The two companies first established the agreement in 2016 for Moderna to develop a cancer-fighting injection, but none of the research was promising enough for Merck to want to jump in on the action until now. Merck will pay Moderna $250 million to help with and share in the profits of further development, sales, and distribution of mRNA-4157/V940.

The cancer vaccine is currently being administered in Phase 2 clinical trials among 157 patients who have had their cancer surgically removed but are at high risk for recurrence. Some of the patients in the trial receive nine doses of mRNA-4157/V940 every three weeks, in addition to Merck’s powerhouse cancer immunotherapy Keytruda every three weeks. The rest of the patients only receive Keytruda. The study’s main goal is to determine how long patients stay recurrence-free based on both treatment options. Primary data is expected in the fourth quarter of 2022, but preliminary results are extremely encouraging, according to both companies.

“This long-term collaboration combining Merck’s expertise in immuno-oncology with Moderna’s pioneering mRNA technology has yielded a novel tailored vaccine approach,” says Dr. Eliav Barr, Merck’s Senior Vice President, Head of Global Clinical Development, and Chief Medical Officer, in a press release, adding “We look forward to working with our colleagues at Moderna to advance mRNA-4157/V940 in combination with KEYTRUDA as it aligns with our strategy to impact early-stage disease.”

“Together we have made significant progress in advancing mRNA-4157 as an investigational personalized cancer treatment used in combination with KEYTRUDA,” explains Stephen Hoge, M.D. and President of Moderna. “With data expected this quarter on PCV, we continue to be excited about the future and the impact mRNA can have as a new treatment paradigm in the management of cancer.”

The post The World’s First Cancer Vaccine Could Be Ready This Year first appeared on Dornob.

As a high school junior in October 2019, Dasia Taylor first took on the project as a science fair entry. “I read an article about how these scientists created these stitches that involved this really fancy technology that I perceived to be inequitable to those that would actually be able to need this technology,” she said in an interview with PBS.

Most of the “smart stitches” she read about required the use of smart technology, not always available in third-world countries. A Pew research poll in 2017 found that in Tanzania, for example, just 13 percent of the population owned smartphones. And while the numbers are higher in some African countries, the viability of smart sutures in that continent is minimal.

But infections are high. In low-and middle-income countries, 11 percent of all surgical wounds develop infections, according to the World Health Organization, compared to just four percent of all surgeries in the U.S.

Taylor, who graduated this past spring from high school, was particularly moved by how many African women suffer from infections after cesarean sections. In some nations, up to 20 percent of those who delivered by c-section develop potentially life-threatening infections.

Taylor subsequently tried to find a cheaper, more readily available solution to identifying wounds gone wrong. Since human skin is naturally acidic, with a pH of about five, she looked for natural indicators that could detect pH changes (when skin is infected, it can have a pH of up to 9). After learning that fruits and vegetables change color with pH level, she struck upon a feasible solution.

“I found that beets changed color at the perfect pH point,” Taylor told Smithsonian Magazine. “Bright red beet juice turns dark purple at a pH of nine. That’s perfect for an infected wound. And so, I was like, ‘Oh, okay. So beets is where it’s at.’”

She then tested various suture materials that would hold the beet juice dye and found that a cotton-polyester blend worked best.

Using artificial skin pads, Taylor sewed on her sutures and exposed them to different pH levels. When the stitches encountered a high pH, they changed from red to purple, making it clearly visible when alterations were happening at the surgical site. And if the site was free of infection, the sutures faded to gray after three days.

Kathryn Chu, the director of the Center for Global Surgery at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, praised Taylor for her efforts toward health equity. “I think it is amazing that this young high school scientist was inspired to work on a solution to address this problem,” she wrote in an email. “A product that could detect early [surgical site infections] would be extremely valuable.”

For her work, Taylor was named one of the top 40 finalist in the prestigious Regeneron Science Talent Search. Even as she prepares to attend the University of Iowa this fall, she is working on a patent for her beet-juice stitches.

Of course, concept isn’t perfect quite perfect yet, with sterilization being at the top of the issues to be solved. The cotton thread that accepts the beet dye effectively is also more prone to picking up infection-causing bacteria than standard surgical material.

Asked if she still counts her invention as a success, Taylor replied, “Yes, because it works. It does detect pH. It does change colors where it needs to change colors. There are just some details that need to be worked out, but they’re not insurmountable.”

The post High School Student’s Color-Changing Sutures Detect Infections as They Happen first appeared on Dornob.

Enter the 2021 Index Award, a biennial accolade with a focus on design and its potential for creating solutions that tackle (and perhaps solve) critical global issues. There’s even a category that focuses exclusively on the body, creating an opportunity for entrants to address gendered issues within the world of medicine — especially those that may often be considered taboo. Index Project CEO Liz Chong spoke about the importance of these new and innovative designs, explaining that: “there is still so much shame around female, trans, and non-binary bodies that impose harmful barriers to healthcare…[which serves] to sideline vital conversations and deny people access to helpful and even life-saving resources.”

But the finalists in the body category are hoping to change that through their design projects, all of which seek to create a more equitable future in medicine for all genders.

Below are some standout projects among this year’s Index Award finalists:

Creating Change Through Strategic Redesign

Some of the finalists’ work focuses on finding new, more innovative takes on already existing tools, devices, and technologies For example, the Hegenberger Speculum is a silicone device designed to be more comfortable for patients who require perineum stitching after childbirth. The current model is made of metal and has not been updated in over 100 years. The updated version’s creator, Malene Hegenberger, feels that the “taboo subject” of this common (9 out of 10 women experience perineum tears post-childbirth) health concern has contributed to the tool not being updated, or even discussed, in past decades.

Another finalist, Cirqle Biomedical, is looking to test a new form of birth control that is both non-hormonal and far less invasive than many current birth control methods. The product, a gel capsule called Oui, could provide more flexibility and comfort for women seeking to avoid the discomfort of implants like IUDs, and the unpleasant side effects of hormonal birth control treatments. Here too, a lack of innovation has left women with few options, many of which have side effects that can be anything from uncomfortable to life-threatening.

“Women’s health has been under-prioritized and neglected for decades,” said Cirqle’s CEO in a statement. With developments like these, the Index Project’s finalists hope to change that.

Creating Change to Tackle Systemic Issues

Another incredibly important redesign featured among this year’s Index Award finalists is improved rape kit for DNA collection. Complete with color coding, easier instructions for health care providers, and an accompanying instructional app, this kit, designed by Antya Waegemann, is just the first step in reimagining the whole system and creating a completely different culture around how rape kits are tested, making it easier for law enforcement officials everywhere to process them. Her company Margo also wants to work on other products and services, including increasing the widespread availability of kits, improving the tracking of processed kits, and providing much-needed support for victims.

DNA collection kits are incredibly important tools in sexual assault cases, and they often remain untested. In the U.S. alone, there’s an alarming number of backlogs for testing DNA in these cases, and the whole process, from collection to testing, tracking, and storing, is riddled with issues that are less localized and more widespread and systemic in nature. But at a time when nearly one in three women over the age of 15 and one in two transgender people have experienced sexual violence, the process needs to be reexamined and, in some cases, overhauled. Waegemann knows the importance of her task and remains hopeful, stating that she “really believe[s] that a product itself can change a system in a way that policy sometimes cannot.”

She’s not entirely wrong, either. New and reimagined technologies, products, and innovations in health care have the capacity to change and improve people’s lives, especially those who are historically under and misrepresented in these arenas. Through the efforts of these Index Project finalists, issues previously thought of as “taboo” enter the forefront of design strategy, spurring important, necessary action that has the capacity to make a real difference.

The post 2021 Index Award Finalists Provide Innovative Solutions to Pressing Women’s Health Issues first appeared on Dornob.

Installed using a system of cables, the lamp is designed with spaces like sports fields, public squares, train stations, and schoolyards in mind, shining a large circle of far-UVC light that sanitizes the air beneath it. Far-UVC light is invisible to the naked eye, of course, so the Urban Sun also incorporates conventional light sources to help people visualize how it works and see exactly where the “safe area” begins and ends. Studio Roosegaarde installed the first Urban Sun light in Rotterdam earlier this year as a demonstration, though future installations could string together multiple lights to accommodate larger crowds.

The designers worked with experts and scientists from the Netherlands, the United States, Japan, and Italy to create Urban Sun, with its far-UVC light source measured and calibrated by the Dutch National Metrology Institute VSL. The light also meets international safety standards on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection. Studio Roosegaarde is making Urban Sun available for exhibitions and inviting governments and other partners to collaborate with them to get more installed.

Studio Roosegaarde doesn’t claim that Urban Sun is the ultimate solution for ending transmission of the novel coronavirus and other diseases. They call for continuing social distancing and masking as primary strategies to combat the pandemic, and note that most transmission occurs indoors. But what the Urban Sun can potentially do is make people feel safer gathering in large crowds outdoors, so big cultural events like concerts and festivals could theoretically resume around the world.

Lead designer Daan Roosegaarde told Dezeen he imagines Urban Sun being used at events as large as The Olympics and Burning Man, as well as design festivals like the Salone del Mobile in Milan. The studio is also exploring the possibility of adapting the design for indoor use.

“Suddenly our world is filled with plastic barriers and distance stickers, our family reduced to pixels on a computer screen,” adds Roosegaarde. “Let’s be the architects of our new normal and create better places to meet.”

Conventional germicidal UVC light at 254nm wavelength is highly effective at decontamination, but it’s also a health hazard. Far-UVC has a 222nm wavelength incapable of penetrating the outer layer of skin or the tear layer of the eye, so it can’t damage living cells in the body. While Studio Roosegaarde says Urban Sun could sanitize the surrounding air in as little as two minutes, most research has shown that it takes far-UVC technology about 16 minutes to kill 99 percent of airborne viruses.

We’ll likely be seeing a lot more far-UVC devices pop up in the near future, both indoors and out. Even Boeing has been exploring ways to incorporate it into its airplanes for years now, and is currently testing far-UVC handheld wands in passenger airplane cabins and cockpit interiors.

The post Ultraviolet “Urban Sun Light” by Studio Roosegaarde Sanitizes Public Spaces first appeared on Dornob.

Having watched her mother go through breast cancer and knowing it to be the most common cancer type among women, Benet was inspired to do something to change those testing statistics. After more research, she discovered that almost half of those avoiding routine scans did so because of the physical pain it causes. She also found that while a single dose of the mammogram radiation wasn’t harmful, overall breast cancer risk actually increased with annual x-ray exposure.

Additionally, the Catalan Department of Health reported that of those who do get their yearly tests, 93.55 percent of the cancers detected are “false alarms,” resulting in frustrating, scary experiences.

To solve these issues, Benet knew there needed to be a totally different type of test, one that was pain-free, non-irradiating, and accurate. In order to be widely accessible, she also wanted it to be low-cost with the ability to be performed at home.

In October 2017, Benet began work on the first prototype of The Blue Box (currently white, but eventually to be painted blue in final stages) as part of her biomedical engineering bachelor thesis. She acted on the knowledge that cancer causes metabolic changes, even altering the smell and taste of a body. Using an Arduino microprocessor, Benet and a computer science friend at the University of California Irvine programmed it to mimic sensory neurons and their ability to pick up on specific cancer-altered scents and tastes.

The screening process with The Blue Box is simple. After creating a profile on The Blue App, a user collects a urine sample in the provided plastic container and places it in the device. Once the “start” button is pressed, it takes just 30 seconds for the six internal chemical sensors to detect and react with any targeted breast cancer biomarkers. The data is sent to the cloud, where it is analyzed by unique artificial intelligence algorithms. The resulting diagnosis then pops up in the user’s phone app.

“The Blue Box is a change in the way society fights breast cancer,” says Benet. “As opposed to the current painful and inconvenient routine procedure that oftentimes leads to anxiety, The Blue Box enables women to get self-tested at home.”

And one Blue Box allows all the women in a single household to test themselves as often as they like. The results have been tested to be at least 95-percent accurate.

For her work, Benet won the James Dyson 2020 Award, a scientific and engineering contest. “The day that James Dyson told me that I had won the International prize was a real turning point as the prize money will allow me to patent more extensively and expedite research and software development I am doing at the University of California Irvine,” she says. “But, most of all, hearing that he believes in my idea has given me the confidence I need at this vital point.”

The next step for Benet and her team is to seek grants and other funding sources to fully patent the device and also start larger human trials, with the goal of gaining FDA approval further down the road.

The post Breast Cancer-Detecting Blue Box Allows Women to Swap Mammograms for At-Home Tests first appeared on Dornob.

A New Zealand native, Glogau explored global challenges all over the world as part of his studies in Architecture and Extreme Environments at the Royal Danish Academy. His travels in Chile – among some of the 110,000 families there with no access to power or purified water – inspired him to invent a self-sustaining solution.

“I identified two raw resources which [the Chilean] communities had unlimited access to: sunlight and seawater,” explains Glogau, who now works at Danish architecture firm GXN. “I wanted to achieve a design which was sustainable, passive, and created a striking feature inside the dark settlement home. In my development process, it became apparent that I could address the lack of indoor lighting and water access by creating a hybrid skylight and solar desalination device.”

Here’s how it works: salty seawater is poured into a pipe in the bowl-shaped skylight, where solar energy is harnessed to distill it into drinkable water. A tap at the base allows owners to collect the usable water from inside their homes. The skylight also brings diffused natural sunrays into houses that are often dark due to a lack of windows. When the sun goes down, the leftover brine from the ocean water is sent into copper and zinc batteries that produce an electrical charge to power an internal LED lamp for nighttime use. This green model keeps resources efficiently cycling through the whole process.

Collaborating with local NGO Techo, Glogau was able to install his device within the Chilean community of Antofagasta. Through the course of his experimentation there, he developed a prototype that could produce 440 millimeters or 1.85 cups of potable water a day. The 12 salt-powered batteries in each skylight were able to generate 9.53 volts.

Glogau is one of six finalists in the Lexus design competition, an annual contest sponsored by the luxury car brand to discover up-and-coming makers and inventions that incorporate their three fundamental principles: “Anticipate. Innovate. Captivate.”

This year’s theme of “Design for a Better Tomorrow” allowed participants to address relevant issues of the day. “In the middle of a changing climate and a global pandemic there was a predictable urgency to the problems being addressed by the designers,” said Lexus Design Award judge Greg Lynn. “Across all the proposals we saw, there was also a humanity and intimate scale.”

Other proposals that made it to the last round include things like a terracotta evaporative wind-powered cooling system for subways, mittens that use rhythm and music to mitigate stress, and a reusable packaging material that can be assembled like a puzzle with rearrangeable pieces.

The finalists will be matched with leading mentors and given $25,000 to help them improve their prototypes. The projects will then be judged and a winner declared in April 2021.

Glogau is excited for the difference this competition can help him make. He believes that innovations like his desalination skylight are essential to the earth’s future. In order to survive climate changes and resource scarcity, he says, “we need to re-imagine our living environments in a sustainable and autonomous way.”

The post This Innovative Skylight Turns Ocean Water into Drinkable H2O first appeared on Dornob.

A TV documentary show I Met You recently used VR to digitally recreate the late wife of Kim Jung-soo, a 51-year-old father of five, four years after her passing.

Declaring that his biggest desire was to see “even just a shadow” of his wife one more time, Kim had to first overcome opposition from some of his children. His oldest daughter Jong-bin felt that a reunion would only delay her father’s grieving period. Eventually, she relented.

“It is my last wish” he says, with his daughter adding that “that’s why we decided to allow him to meet Mom again.”

Kim’s other daughter Jong-yun was swayed because of his deep love for her mother. “He would kiss her from time to time when working, when eating, or when watching TV. Even when my mother was sick and lost her hair, my father would say that she was pretty and carried her around,” she recalls.

Kim was also eager to show his youngest children a “live” version of their mother, as she passed away when they were still too little to have any concrete memories of her. Kim’s wife Ji-hye died after years of battling a serious illness.

I Met You, produced by Korean broadcast company MBC, took six months to prepare all the VR tech, using video footage to recreate Ji-hye’s movements and photos to match a digital face and body to her likeness. An actress was brought into meld her own voice with Ji-hye’s reconstructed one to make it sound more lifelike.

The digital reunion began as Kim geared up in his VR headset and entered the green screen room. In his VR view, the setting transformed into the home of memories where they began their family. During the tearful meeting, Kim first asks his virtual wife, “Are you not in pain anymore?” He weeps as he holds her hands and they dance. They walk through a garden together as he gets a final chance for closure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWsSOxcIhCA%20

“Even though I can’t hear you and I don’t see you, I know you’ve always been next to me and the kids,” he tells her, adding that “the kids are doing so well now, so you can relax…don’t worry too much about us” and “I will tell you how the kids are living one by one when the time comes and I go up [to join you].”

Kim’s children, who were able to watch the interaction between their parents from a different room, also got emotional.

The ability to virtually restore a deceased love one on the show has been met with both praise and criticism. Some claim the reunion can be healing for those who have experienced loss, while others believe it allows people to stay stuck in their grief, never properly moving on.

This is not the first time I Met You has used VR to reconnect family members separated by death. In the first season, mother Jang Ji-sung was reunited with her seven-year-old daughter Naveon, who had passed away three years earlier from the rare disease hemochromatosis.

The post VR Allows Man One Last Dance with His Late Wife first appeared on Dornob.

The test, produced by DxTerity Diagnostics, “is the first at-home saliva test to receive Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the FDA for symptomatic and asymptomatic testing,” according to a statement released by the online mega-retailer on January 5th.

The FDA originally approved the test on December 9th, becoming available for purchase through Amazon just last week. An individual test sells for $110 but is likely reimbursable through FSA, HSA, and insurance plans. Businesses or individuals can also purchase a 10-pack of tests for $1000. Either option offers free shipping to you, and prepaid express return shipping gets the sample to the lab at no additional cost.

“We have demonstrated the reliability and quality of our COVID-19 testing solution with big business, and now we want to expand access to customers at home and small businesses,” says Bob Terbrueggen, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of DxTerity. “Amazon is the perfect partner for expanding access to millions of U.S. customers.”
Terbrueggen is referring to DxTerity’s COVID-19 testing solutions that have already been provided to over 130 U.S. corporate partners, including numerous Fortune 500 companies, global pharmaceutical organizations, and entertainment groups.

Perhaps best of all, this test doesn’t include the dreaded nasal swab. Instead it relies on saliva. Only a small sample is needed, too, so collection involves nothing more than spitting into a tube. That tube is then sent to a lab in LA, where the diagnostics are run. To send it in, users must register and submit a physician’s authorization using an online portal, and then drop off the sample at a FedEx collection location on the same day the test is taken. Results typically come in 24 to 72 hours after the sample arrives at the lab.

This mail-order version can be used for both symptomatic and asymptomatic testing at home or in the office. It can be an especially useful tool in a work environment or in advance of a family gathering, since an estimated 40 percent or more of COVID-positive patients don’t exhibit any outward symptoms. It is unsupervised, of course, so it might not fulfill some travel requirements. The test also has other limitations in that it doesn’t confirm immunity or identify existing antibodies.

The FDA has approved other types of home tests, each with their own availability, procedure, and reliability. These include products from Ellume, Lucira Health, and Abbott Laboratories. Priced between $25 to $50, these tests are less expensive than the DxTerity Diagnostics variety, but they aren’t nearly as easy to obtain since they’re not yet available on Amazon. Another possible obstacle is the reliability of these tests. For example, the nasal swab offering from Ellume is 96-percent accurate for those having symptoms, and 91-percent effective for those without. There is no lab involved and results are available in 20 minutes. Unfortunately, rapid tests like this one result in a small number of false positives and negatives, so they still require follow-up in the form of confirmation by another test. Another option by Everlywell is ordered directly from the company, arriving in two to six days. You then self-administer a lower nasal swab sample collection and overnight ship it to the lab. Although the cost is $109 up front, customers can then submit the receipt for reimbursement through their insurance company.

Ultimately, the best testing option for you depends on the situation in your area, as it can often take several days to obtain a test in person. You should also consider the reason for your getting tested, and whether or not the results will be considered reliable for your needs. To avoid unexpected expenses, check with your insurance company regarding their policy on reimbursement before ordering any at-home COVID-19 test.

The post You Can Now Order Your COVID-19 Test Through Amazon first appeared on Dornob.

Edge, which has previously produced epic robotic creatures for Hollywood movies like Free Willy, Anaconda, and Deep Blue Sea, already has a 550-pound, eight-foot-long porpoise prototype in the works, made from medical-grade silicone “skin” that looks so real it has already fooled test audiences.

Although underwater mammals have been the centerpiece of aquariums and water parks for decades now, the attractions have waned in popularity in recent years because of popular outcry regarding their treatment.

“The marine park industry has had falling revenues for over a decade due to ethical concerns and the cost of live animals, yet the public hunger to learn about and experience these animals is still as strong as ever,” Roger Holzberg, Edge’s creative director of animatronics says in an interview with The Guardian. “We believe that it’s time to reimagine this industry, and that this approach can be more humane and more profitable at the same time.”

The Edge website explains that “real-time animatronics are hyper-real creatures capable of delivering any experience you can imagine. From dolphins sharing their dreams with your children, to great white sharks inviting you to be a part of their feeding frenzy, to sea dragons breathing fire in a nighttime fountain show. Safe, up close, personal engagement with the creatures of our oceans is finally possible.”

Addressing worries that computer-built animals might not deliver the same experience as the originals, Li Wang, a business developer for Edge, says: “For people [like] me, I liken authentic to natural. But if we think about the younger generation, they spend far more time than us playing electronic games online. We actually need to ask ourselves what is real and what is fake.”

In fact, an animatronic dolphin can offer several advantages over a real one. For starters, because the robots are controlled by humans and artificial intelligence, they can be programed to make specific gestures in response to children. They’re also built for close contact that could easily hurt living wildlife. And because the robo-dolphins don’t need salt water or room to stretch their fins, they can also be conveniently housed in small tanks in shopping centers, or even in pools chlorinated to keep human germs at bay.

“We realized that using animatronics instead of using live animals enabled us to create characters that truly were lovable, that could really deliver on the idea that we won’t hurt what we fall in love with,” Holzberg says.

Developer Wang says the bigger challenge is convincing entertainment venues that the $26.3 million price tag for each replica is worth the switch. “We have to persuade them that it is a profitable business, even more profitable than live animals,” he says. Wang also points out that dolphin droids will save money by cutting back on the cost of carefully monitored water temperature, food, and veterinarians.

“In terms of a 10-year business operating period and a two million annual visitor capacity, the overall investment and maintenance costs for a decent animatronics entertainment portfolio only accounts for about one quarter or no more than one-third of what a traditional aquarium spends,” he adds.

And of course, there’s the compassion aspect. Porpoises average a life span of only 20 years in captivity, although they can live between 30 and 50 in their natural habitats. Plus, instating electronically-animated creatures in marine exhibits would eliminate the need to abduct dolphins from their homes and families.

Animal-rights group PETA has already signed on to Edge’s mission, having recently showcased the company’s prototype at one of its events. “In 2020, cutting-edge technology allows us to experience nature without harming it,” says PETA’s UK director Elisa Allen.

Chinese firm Red Star Macalline Group has funded Edge’s first phase of development, with a pledge to replace live dolphins at its theme parks with robotic versions. There are more than 60 marine parks in China, which combined attract hundreds of millions of visitors each year. If mechanized sea life could get off the ground there, it could very well lay the groundwork for a near-future aquarium revolution.

The post Swimming With Robotic Dolphins: The Future of Marine Parks? first appeared on Dornob.

A new collaboration between architects and marine scientists at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) is using modern technology to make it happen. Their new method of 3D printing specially designed reef tiles could boost coral’s chance at survival by providing an anchor for “corals of opportunity,” which are dislodged coral fragments that might otherwise just float away and die.

The Marine Park is home to more than three-quarters of reef-building corals in Hong Kong, as well as more than 120 fish species. Mass mortality events, coral bleaching, and bio-erosion all put them at risk. Offering the coral a structurally complex foundation for attachment prevents sedimentation, which is when sediment run-off from the shore either directly suffocates coral reefs or gets mixed into shallow coastal waters, reducing the available light coral need to photosynthesize.

In July 2020, marine scientists deployed the 3D printed terra-cotta “reef tiles” made by the HKU Robotic Fabrication Lab and seeded them with coral fragments at three key sites within the Marine Park covering about 40 square meters total (about 430 square feet), including Coral Beach, Moon Island, and a bay near the WWF Marine Life Center.

The 3D Printing Media Network reports some fascinating details on the project:

“Three coral species historically common in the Marine Park, namely Acropora, Platygyra, and Pavona, were selected for the study. They have different growth forms, representing the branching ‘staghorn,’ massive ‘brain’, and foliose ‘plating’ colony forms, creating a diverse habitat for other marine species. Marine scientists at SWIMS will investigate the success of restoration using the mono-, mix-, and polyculture of the three coral species, while researchers will monitor the performance of corals on the tiles for the next one and a half years.”

“The 128 pieces of reef tile with a diameter of 600mm were printed through a robotic 3D clay printing method with generic terra-cotta clay and then fired at 1125 degrees Celsius. The design was inspired by the patterns typical to corals and integrated several performative aspects addressing the specific conditions in Hong Kong waters.”

The use of environmentally friendly terra-cotta instead of plastic is particularly interesting here, especially since it’s usually associated with architecture and design. In fact, the tiles look like decorative art pieces you might have as a sculptural element in your garden. Fired in a kiln, the 3D printed tiles are durable enough to withstand underwater conditions. Hopefully we’ll get an update from the researchers once the coral attach — it’ll be interesting to see whether the patterns of the tiles affect the formation of the coral, or if they disappear altogether under a blanket of new marine life.

The post 3D-Printed Tiles Will Restore Coral Reefs in Hong Kong Waters first appeared on Dornob.

A prototype currently being perfected by a team at Michigan State University, the device in question uses wind for power and includes two sensors that measure carbon monoxide and temperature, respectively. The team plans to add several other sensors to the final design, including a transmitter that will send continual updates on on all vital measurements with respect to the burn.

The device would be a crucial step in early detection, especially in remote areas. It works similar to a smoke detector in the home, except it’s powered by wind movement rather than a battery or other electrical source. This is an essential element since replacing batteries on tens of thousands of forest smoke detectors is both inefficient and wasteful. Instead, study leader and mechanical engineer at MSU Changyong Cao says the device will “generate electricity from the slightest swinging of tree branches.” Using a triboelectric generator, those motions are then converted into power. Cao went on to explain that although the device does require a breeze, fires always create air currents that provide the needed power, even if Mother Nature doesn’t.

In the study, originally published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, the explanation of how the device works reads a bit like a MacGuyver episode but still translates into basic science. The soda can-sized contraption has cylinders in the top and bottom, one coated with Teflon and the other with a copper film. The two connect with a rubber band while an added weight at the bottom facilitates the swinging motion as the tree branch moves up and down. When the cylinders rub against each other, energy is released.

Durability is key to the success of the project, so the device also has to be both fire and waterproof. It hasn’t undergone actual field tests yet, so there’s still the potential for unforeseen issues with wildlife or natural elements that lead to disruption. Nonetheless, the team hopes the unit can provide detection where current systems have limitations. For example, one commonly used technology is satellites. Satellites provide outstanding and useful imagery when it comes to combatting wildfires, but they’re constantly in motion, which means they can’t hover over a specific area. This makes information intermittent rather than constant. On top of that, satellite imagery can be blocked by cloud cover or a smokescreen created by a raging blaze.

Since this device doesn’t rely on imaging, it’s impervious to those complications. Plus, it can be adapted to serve other purposes, like monitoring air quality and identifying toxic gases. Cao’s team hopes this solution will offer fast, efficient, and inexpensive fire detection that results in saving both forests and homes.

The post New Wildfire Detector Runs on the Swaying of Trees first appeared on Dornob.

One workaround is to carry an antimicrobial tool for opening doors and pushing buttons. But as we all grow more aware of potential public health concerns, designers are coming up with some clever built-in solutions, too.

“Dropkick” addresses one high-touch urban surface: pedestrian buttons at crosswalks. Noticing people contorting their bodies in order to push the waist-height buttons with their feet, the folks at One Design Office realized there’s a really obvious way to solve the problem.

They explain: “diving deeper into this, there was a general consensus that these buttons were not hygienic. The negative connotation is further amplified with the rampant rise of COVID-19 and the growing obsession with public hygiene. As reported in the Journal, studies show that the surfaces of these buttons have been breeding grounds for bacteria, with swabs showing significant colonies of bacteria dwelling on them. Even active wiping down of these buttons may prove to be futile with the bacteria becoming more dominant if they survive. Re-appropriating this to the context of COVID-19, traces of the COVID virus were found on stainless steel surfaces as long as 72 hours after initial contact.”

“You’d imagine that in the 21st century that technology would advance beyond needing to operate buttons. In fact, some cities are already putting in place sensor-activated pedestrian crossing buttons. It was also discovered that many of these buttons don’t actually contribute to the timing or speed of activating a crossing, as most of them work to a pre-determined schedule during peak hours, making them “placebo buttons,” as quoted in the Guardian article. Could it be that these buttons exist for the sole purpose of satisfying the human need of feeling as though they have actively done something to reduce waiting times, much like the ‘close’ button in elevators? We suspect that there could not be a replacement for the tactility of a physical button.”

Their solution, developed in collaboration with Greenpoint Media, is a kickable, hands-free pedestrian button set at ground level. They hope Dropkick can help reduce the transmission of germs while allowing the buttons to continue what is essentially a placebo function. The pill-like shape of the button allows it to be pressed from multiple directions, and it’s backlit for visibility, especially as pedestrians get used to looking further down the light pole than usual. But as the designers point out, having the button on the ground comes with an additional benefit: most people standing at crosswalks are already looking down at their smartphones, anyway.

The button features a hard one-piece aluminum shell for strength and durability, with holes drilled to let the green or red arrow lights pass through. The buttons also contain speakers that can alert pedestrians when it’s time to cross the road, or introduce “biophilic sounds” to the urban environment, like those of singing birds.

This hands-free approach is just one example of how urban design and even home interior design might change as a result of COVID-19. Check out some essential interior design takeaways from the coronavirus crisis, and what we might be able to expect from major cities in the years to come.

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Unfortunately, we’re in the middle of a global pandemic right now, and we need to protect our healthcare workers at all costs. Suddenly, the idea of a robot dog holding up an iPad sounds like a great stand-in for a living, breathing person, and that’s exactly what’s playing out in one Boston hospital right now.

Engineering and robotics design company Boston Dynamics is best known for “BigDog,” a quadrupedal robot it created in 2004 as a robotic pack mule for the military. But its smaller, more nimble “Spot” may prove to be its most versatile creation yet, able to traverse rough terrain but also small enough to use indoors. The company names construction, oil, and gas facility inspections, public safety, and entertainment as its primary applications.

Using it to help reduce exposure of frontline healthcare workers to the novel coronavirus was a no-brainer, the company says. In early March, Boston Dynamics started getting worried inquiries from local hospitals. At Brigham And Women’s Hospital, one sixth of staff contracted the disease within a week. That spurred the company into action, testing ways to use Spot as a mobile robotics solution.

An official statement explains that “based on these conversations, as well as the global shortage of critical personal protective equipment (PPE), we have spent the past several weeks trying to better understand hospital requirements to develop a mobile robotics solution with our robot, Spot. The result is a legged robot application that can be deployed to support frontline staff responding to the pandemic in ad-hoc environments such as triage tents and parking lots.”

“With current protocols at local hospitals, patients suspected to have COVID-19 are asked to line up in tents outside to answer questions and get initial assessments for temperature. This process requires up to five medical staff, placing those individuals at high risk of contracting the virus. With the use of a mobile robot, hospitals are able to reduce the number of necessary medical staff at the scene and conserve their limited PPE supply.”

The robot is now used as a mobile telemedicine platform that allows healthcare providers to remotely triage patients. The company mounts an iPad and a two-way radio to the robot’s back, allowing doctors to video conference with patients as they remotely navigate the robot through lines of sick people in the tents. That means doctors can not only stay out of harm’s way, but even work from home.

The technology is far from perfectly tailored to this task, but that’s rapidly changing. Boston Dynamics is still working on ways to remotely collect important vital sign information like oxygen saturation and body temperature, which it may address with thermal and RGB cameras. They might even equip “Spot” with UV-C lights or other disinfecting methods to kill the virus in hospitals and public places.

If you’re a healthcare worker or official interested in using the technology at your facility, you can get in touch with Boston Dynamics through their website.

The post Boston Dynamics’ Robot Dog Stands In for Remote Healthcare Workers first appeared on Dornob.

FluSense is welcomed as a useful health surveillance tool. In a UMass-Amherst press release, co-author Tauhidur Rahman explained that “this may allow us to predict flu trends in a much more accurate manner.” Rahman is a UMass-Amherst Assistant Professor of Computer and Information Sciences. He also advises Forsad Al Hossain, the PhD student and lead author of the FluSense study that has been recently published through the Association for Computing Machinery.

Why is this invention important now? In recent months, signs of coughing have taken on a new significance as the COVID-19 pandemic rages across the globe. With this UMass-Amherst detector, coughs and other symptoms associated with the flu or flu-like ailments can be monitored much more closely.

How does FluSense work? The published study describes the device as employing an analytic array that consists of a microphone, thermal camera, Raspberry Pi, and “neural computing engine.” This neural computing engine gathers information on speech and cough sounds, then analyzes the data together with “changes in crowd density” in real-time.

Most unique about FluSense is the way it takes advantage of edge computing technology, which has continued to gain popularity as millions of devices connect through the Internet of Things, or IoT. Hewlett Packard describes edge computing as “a distributed, open IT architecture that features decentralized processing power, enabling mobile computing and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. In edge computing, data is processed by the device itself or by a local computer or server, rather than being transmitted to a data center.”

In other words, FluSense computes, analyzes, and stores its data in real-time, right where it is collected instead of thousands of miles of away at some central database. And as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) notes, there are a number of benefits to that. For one, edge computing minimizes the risks of latency, data loss, or redundancy, which translates to improved information security and reliability. It also helps with computational efficiency, acceleration, and optimization of data processing. Finally, with no need for costly bandwidth, decentralized tech optimizes data flow and maximizes operational costs.

When speaking on FluSense’s internal components, Al Hossain further revealed that his team was “trying to bring machine-learning systems to the edge. All of the processing happens right here. These systems are becoming cheaper and more powerful.”

According to Healthcare IT News, several FluSense detectors were tested from December 2018 to July 2019. They “were encased in a rectangular box about the size of a large dictionary,” then placed in a number of clinic waiting rooms at UMass University Health Services. From data compiled that included “more than 350,000 thermal images and 21 million non-speech audio samples,” FluSense “accurately predict[ed] daily illness rates at the university clinic.”

“I’ve been interested in non-speech body sounds for a long time,” Rahman explained. “I thought if we could capture coughing or sneezing sounds from public spaces where a lot of people naturally congregate, we could utilize this information as a new source of data for predicting epidemiologic trends.”

Because the device is portable, FluSense’s data can be collected in many different settings, not just the healthcare environments of physician offices’ waiting rooms, clinics, and hospitals, but also in large public spaces. In this way, FluSense can be leveraged to “expand the arsenal of health surveillance tools used to forecast seasonal flu” and other outbreaks or pandemics, cites Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News.

Andrew Lover, a UMass-Amherst Infectious Disease Epidemiologist and Assistant Professor, added that the team “[has] the initial validation that the coughing indeed has a correlation with influenza-related illness. Now we want to validate it beyond this specific hospital setting and show that we can generalize across locations.”

The UMass-Amherst press release shared that future studies with FluSense will likely be seeing how it performs in other public arenas and even more challenging geographic locations.

The post New Portable AI Device Tracks Flu and Pandemic Data from Coughing Sounds first appeared on Dornob.

It seems like every headline is centered around these unprecedented times right about now, with the novel coronavirus and resulting COVID-19 pandemic circling the globe. Most recently, government officials everywhere have taken the advice of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and started requiring the use of face masks in public to reduce the spread of the virus. Unfortunately, those requirements have led CDC-approved masks to completely sell out in both online and brick-and-mortar stores. In order to compensate for the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), sewing machines are humming in many households, producing homemade fabric and filter masks to share with family, friends, doctors, nurses, and pretty much anyone else who needs one.

Now, one company has found another solution to the PPE shortage in the form of a 3D-printed face mask, and they’ve made the design available online for free download to anyone who wants it.

When it comes to mask efficiency, materials and designs vary widely, each offering differing amounts of protection. While the designers of The Montana Mask recognize it’s not meant to replace a properly designed medical mask, it is a relatively fast and easy answer to the shortage at hand. The mask was designed by Dr. Dusty Richardson, a neurosurgeon at Billings Clinic in Billings, MT, in a partnership with Spencer E. Zaugg, DMD, and Colton Zaugg. The trio built the face mask using three components. The first is the actual mask portion that’s placed over the face. The second is a filter frame, which in turn holds the third piece, a filter.

Montana Mask users can choose from varying levels of protection based on the type of filter they use, and whenever the current filter gets dirty, replacement is as easy as swapping it out with a section of medical-grade mask material. In this way, one mask can become several. Of course, since there are so few CDC-approved masks out there right now, it’s also important to consider what other materials might do the job. Current suggestions include HEPA vacuum or furnace filters, several layers of cotton, or even cotton covering the HEPA filters. The team also offers users a method for creating a nose cushion and a better seal around the mask using rubber window sealant.

The inventors of the Montana Mask have made the file available for anyone who wants to 3D print their mask here. They also want to emphasize that their mask is not approved by the FDA or NIOSH, and that individuals should always research filter options if they choose to substitute for an actual medical mask.

They strongly stress that “the 3D-printed mask information presented here is intended to assist the general public during the current global pandemic related to COVID-19 and the related nationwide shortage of personal protective equipment. Please be aware that this mask design is not intended to replace standard protective equipment such as N-95 masks or surgical masks when that equipment is available. The use of these 3D printed masks has not been fully tested and has not been approved by federal or state authorities. Billings Clinic, Marlin D. Richardson, M.D., Spencer Zaugg, DDS, Colton Zaugg or anyone associated with makethemasks.com, assume no liability and make no representations, warranties, or guarantees regarding the safety, efficacy, or appropriate use of these masks in any particular situation. Each facility should test each batch of masks prior to relying on them for protection. Use of this information for any purpose is at the maker’s and user’s own risk.”

The post Inventors Offer Free Print Files for 3D Printable Face Masks first appeared on Dornob.

On Friday, Apple and Google announced a system they’ve co-created that allows users to voluntarily share data through Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) transmissions and approved apps from health organizations. The pair of iOS and Android application programming interfaces (APIs,) set to be released in mid May, will help public health officials determine who an infected person has been in contact with in an effort to prevent them from infecting others.

Apple’s official statement on the new tracing system explains: “to further this cause, Apple and Google will be launching a comprehensive solution that includes application programming interfaces (APIs) and operating system-level technology to assist in enabling contact tracing. Given the urgent need, the plan is to implement this solution in two steps while maintaining strong protections around user privacy. First, in May, both companies will release APIs that enable interoperability between Android and iOS devices using apps from public health authorities. These official apps will be available for users to download via their respective app stores.”

“Second, in the coming months, Apple and Google will work to enable a broader Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform by building this functionality into the underlying platforms. This is a more robust solution than an API and would allow more individuals to participate, if they choose to opt in, as well as enable interaction with a broader ecosystem of apps and government health authorities. Privacy, transparency, and consent are of utmost importance in this effort, and we look forward to building this functionality in consultation with interested stakeholders. We will openly publish information about our work for others to analyze.”

Image courtesy of Elvert Barnes/Flickr Creative Commons

Unsurprisingly, this system (and others like it) is raising a lot of concerns about privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties. The American Civil Liberties Union notes that the systems could offer public health benefits, but only if widespread, free, and quick testing is available, and the tool is voluntary, protects privacy, and stores data on an individual’s device rather than in a centralized repository.

“A well-designed tool would give people actionable medical information while also protecting privacy and giving users control, but a poorly designed one could pose unnecessary and significant risks to privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties. To help distinguish between the two, the ACLU is publishing a set of technology principles against which developers, the public, and policymakers can judge any contact tracing apps and protocols.”

The policies they recommend, at minimum, also call for information to be shared only within public health efforts that are fully transparent about what data they’re acquiring, from where, and how it’s being used. They also stress that the data should be deleted when there’s no longer a need to hold it, and that policies must be in place to ensure tracking does not outlive the fight against COVID-19.

The post Apple and Google Team Up on a Coronavirus Contact Tracing System first appeared on Dornob.