Soon, your smartphone can tell if you are pregnant

Berlin, July 2Small add-on devices could allow your smartphone to take pregnancy tests or monitor diabetes, scientists say. Researchers at the Hanover Centre for Optical Technologies (HOT), University of Hanover, Germany, have developed a self-contained fibre optic sensor for smartphones with the potential for use in a wide variety of biomolecular tests, including those for detecting pregnancy or monitoring diabetes. According to the researchers, the readings of the sensor can run through an application on a smartphone which provide real-time results. When properly provisioned, the smartphone user has the ability to monitor multiple types of body fluids, including blood, urine, saliva, sweat or breath. In case of medical applications, the sensor readings can be combined with the GPS signal of a smartphone and users can then be guided to the next drug store, hospital or the ambulance, the researchers said. The sensor uses the optical phenomenon of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) - which occurs when light causes electrons on the surface of a thin film to jostle - to detect the composition of a liquid or the presence of particular biomolecules or trace gases. "We have the potential to develop small and robust lab-on-a-chip devices for smartphones. So, surface plasmon resonance sensors could become ubiquitous now," said Kort Bremer, co-author of the new study with Bernhard Roth, director, Hanover Centre for Optical Technologies (HOT), University of Hanover. Surface plasmon resonance is a phenomenon commonly used for biosensing, but typically requires bulky lab equipment involving both a light detector and light source. Smartphones already have both of these, allowing the minimalist, U-shaped device the researchers designed to consist solely of a 400-micrometre diameter core multimode fibre with a silver-coated sensing region. In a proof-of-concept version of the sensor, Bremer carefully excised the polymer coating from a 10 millimetre segment of the optics cable to expose the bare 400 micrometre diameter glass fibre core. He then cleaned the segment, subjected it to a silver-coating process, added a small well in which to pour the solutions being observed, and polished both ends of the fibre to 45 degree angled faces. They were then adhered to the phone's case and, thus, to its LED and camera, the latter of which was affixed with a diffraction grating to separate the light beam into an emission spectrum. In subsequent experiments, the device's sensitivity was tested using various concentrations of glycerol, and the team confirmed it was on par with current equipment, at a fraction of the cost and size. The study was published in Optics Express, a journal of The Optical Society. — PTI. Source: Article

Read More........→July 18, 2015

Women More Attracted To Men In Red

It's a symbol of courage and sacrifice, of sin and sexuality, of power and passion -- and now new research demonstrates that the color red makes men more alluring to women. In the United States, England, Germany and China, women found men more appealing when they were either pictured wearing red or framed in red, compared with other colors. The finding is reported in the August issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, published by the American Psychological Association. "Red is typically thought of as a sexy color for women only," said Andrew Elliot, PhD, of the University of Rochester and University of Munich. "Our findings suggest that the link between red and sex also applies to men." Twenty-five men and 32 women briefly viewed a black-and-white photo of a Caucasian man in a polo shirt, surrounded by a red or white matte. Using a nine-point scale, they answered three questions: "How attractive do you think this person is?" "How pleasant is this person to look at?" and "If I were to meet the person in this picture face to face, I would think he is attractive." Red warmed up women only. Women who looked at a man surrounded by red or white rated the man surrounded by red a little over one point higher on a nine-point scale of attractiveness, a statistically significant bump. Another experiment featured a man in a color photo, dressed in either a red or a green shirt. A pool of 55 women rated the man in red as significantly more attractive -- on average, nearly one point higher on the same nine-point scale. They also thought he was more desirable, according to a second, five-item measure that asked viewers to rate, for example, the likelihood that they'd want to have sex with him. Although red means different things in different cultures, the finding of women (but not men) drawn to men in red was consistent across countries. And it's true about red power ties: Women in a follow-up study perceived men wearing red T-shirts to be significantly more likely to be high in status than men wearing blue T-shirts, in addition to the men in red seeming more generally and sexually attractive. Five smaller studies (20-38 participants) comparing women's responses to men in red or gray, including their sense of the men's status, established a chain of evidence that red may enhance sexual attractiveness because red is a status symbol, according to the authors. The power of red holds throughout the primate world. Female primates (including women) are "extremely adept at detecting and decoding blood flow changes in the face," the authors wrote, "and women have been shown to be more sensitive to the perception of red stimuli than are men." Are men aware that red may work in the bedroom as well as the boardroom? The authors suggest red might make men more likely to strut their stuff. "A man who wears red may feel dominant," they added, "which influences his self-confidence and behavior and in turn may impress women." The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 152,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting health, education and human welfare. Contacts and sources: Public Affairs Office, American Psychological Association, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Article: "Red, Rank, and Romance in Women Viewing Men," Andrew Elliot, PhD, University of Rochester and University of Munich; Daniela Niesta Kayser, PhD, University of Rochester; Tobias G. Greitemeyer, PhD, University of Innsbruck; Stephanie Lichtenfield, PhD, University of Munich; Richard H. Gramzow, PhD, University of Southampton; Markus A. Maier, PhD, University of Munich; Huijun Liu, PhD, Tianjin Medical University; Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Vol. 139, No. 3. (Full text of the article is available from the APA Public Affairs Office and at http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xge-139-3-399.pdf), Source: Article

Read More........→July 15, 2015