Football pitch-sized billboard to open in Times Square

Due to open later today, New York's Times Square is now home to one of the world's largest and most expensive digital billboards in the world. Measuring the length of a football pitch, and running the entire length of one city block, it is situated along the front of the Marriott Marquis Hotel, just outside the intersection of Seventh Avenue and Broadway.

No exact measurements have been announced prior to the launch, but as a guide a football pitch in the U.S. is 110 metres long, it is said to be six to eight stories high. The site is one of the busiest in the U.S, with more than 300,000 pedestrians entering the area on a normal day. Another 115,000 drivers and passengers pass by it every day. The display feature almost 24 million LED pixels. To advertise on the screen will costs more than $2.5 million for four weeks, ranking it as one of the most expensive pieces of outdoor ad real estate on the market. A digital art exhibition by the Universal Everything studio collective will animate the screen from Tuesday night. Google will take over as the exclusive, debut advertiser a week later, on Tuesday 24 November, with a campaign that runs through the New Year. The screen is the biggest and the only one to cover an entire city block, from 5th Street to 46th Street on Broadway, in the Times Square area. Source: InAVate

Read More........→March 12, 2015

Lab engineered vaginas implanted in patients in US

Scientists reported today the first human recipients of laboratory-grown vaginal organs. A research team led by Anthony Atala, M.D., director of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine, describes in the Lancet long-term success in four teenage girls who received vaginal organs that were engineered with their own cells. “This pilot study is the first to demonstrate that vaginal organs can be constructed in the lab and used successfully in humans,” said Atala. “This may represent a new option for patients who require vaginal reconstructive surgeries. In addition, this study is one more example of how regenerative medicine strategies can be applied to a variety of tissues and organs.” The girls in the study were born with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome, a rare genetic condition in which the vagina and uterus are underdeveloped or absent. The treatment could also potentially be applied to patients with vaginal cancer or injuries, according to the researchers. The girls were between 13 and 18 years old at the time of the surgeries, which were performed between June 2005 and October 2008. Data from annual follow-up visits show that even up to eight years after the surgeries, the organs had normal function.  “Tissue biopsies, MRI scans and internal exams using magnification all showed that the engineered vaginas were similar in makeup and function to native tissue, said Atlantida-Raya Rivera, lead author and director of the HIMFG Tissue Engineering Laboratory at the MRKH in Mexico City, where the surgeries were performed. In addition, the patients’ responses to a Female Sexual Function Index questionnaire showed they had normal sexual function after the treatment, including desire and pain-free intercourse. The organ structures were engineered using muscle and epithelial cells (the cells that line the body’s cavities) from a small biopsy of each patient’s external genitals. In a Good Manufacturing Practices facility, the cells were extracted from the tissues, expanded and then placed on a biodegradable material that was hand-sewn into a vagina-like shape. These scaffolds were tailor-made to fit each patient. About five to six weeks after the biopsy, surgeons created a canal in the patient’s pelvis and sutured the scaffold to reproductive structures. Previous laboratory and clinical research in Atala’s lab has shown that once cell-seeded scaffolds are implanted in the body, nerves and blood vessels form and the cells expand and form tissue. At the same time the scaffolding material is being absorbed by the body, the cells lay down materials to form a permanent support structure – gradually replacing the engineered scaffold with a new organ. Followup testing on the lab-engineered vaginas showed the margin between native tissue and the engineered segments was indistinguishable and that the scaffold had developed into tri-layer vaginal tissue. Current treatments for MRHK syndrome include dilation of existing tissue or reconstructive surgery to create new vaginal tissue. A variety of materials can be used to surgically construct a new vagina – from skin grafts to tissue that lines the abdominal cavity. However, these substitutes often lack a normal muscle layer and some patients can develop a narrowing or contracting of the vagina. The researchers say that with conventional treatments, the overall complication rate is as high as 75 percent in pediatric patients, with the need for vaginal dilation due to narrowing being the most common complication. Before beginning the pilot clinical study, Atala’s team evaluated lab-built vaginas in mice and rabbits beginning in the early 1990s. In these studies, scientists discovered the importance of using cells on the scaffolds. Atala’s team used a similar approach to engineer replacement bladders that were implanted in nine children beginning in 1998, becoming the first in the world to implant laboratory-grown organs in humans. The team has also successfully implanted lab-engineered urine tubes (urethras) into young boys. The team said the current study is limited because of its size, and that it will be important to gain further clinical experience with the technique and to compare it with established surgical procedures. Co-researchers were James J. Yoo, M.D., Ph.D., and Shay Soker, Ph.D., Wake Forest Baptist, and Diego R. Esquiliano M.D., Reyna Fierro-Pastrana P.hD., Esther Lopez-Bayghen Ph.D., Pedro Valencia M.D., and Ricardo Ordorica-Flores, M.D.,Children’s Hospital Mexico Federico Gomez Metropolitan Autonomous University, Mexico. Source: Article,

Read More........→January 14, 2015

History Making Operation Gives Man Two Prosthetic Arms And Hands He Can Control

Baugh completes a task showcasing his control of the MPL.: Image Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laborator

A Colorado man made history at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) this summer when he became the first bilateral shoulder-level amputee to wear and simultaneously control two of the Laboratory’s Modular Prosthetic Limbs. Most importantly, Les Baugh, who lost both arms in an electrical accident 40 years ago, was able to operate the system by simply thinking about moving his limbs, performing a variety of tasks during a short training period. Baugh was in town for two weeks in June as part of an APL-funded research effort to further assess the usability of the MPL, developed over the past decade as part of the Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program. Before putting the limb system through the paces, Baugh had to undergo a surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital known as targeted muscle
reinnervation. “It’s a relatively new surgical procedure that reassigns nerves that once controlled the arm and the hand,” explained Johns Hopkins Trauma Surgeon Albert Chi, M.D. “By reassigning existing nerves, we can make it possible for people who have had upper-arm amputations to control their prosthetic devices by merely thinking about the action they want to perform.” After recovery, Baugh visited the Laboratory for training on the use of the MPLs. First, he worked with researchers on the pattern recognition system. “We use pattern recognition algorithms to identify individual muscles that are contracting, how well they communicate with each other, and their amplitude and frequency,” Chi explained. “We take that information and translate that into actual movements within a prosthetic.”

Baugh completes a task showcasing his control of the MPL. Image Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Then Baugh was fitted for a custom socket for his torso and shoulders that supports the prosthetic limbs and also makes the neurological connections with the reinnervated nerves. While the socket got its finishing touches, the team had him work with the limb system through a Virtual Integration Environment (VIE), a virtual-reality version of the MPL. The VIE is completely interchangeable with the prosthetic limbs and through APL’s licensing process currently provides 19 groups in the research community with a low-cost means of testing brain–computer interfaces. It’s being used to test novel neural interface methods and study phantom limb pain, and serves as a portable training system. By the time the socket

Bobby Armiger observes Baugh handing Albert Chi, M.D., a ball., Image Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

was finished, Baugh said he was more than ready to get started. When he was fitted with the socket, and the prosthetic limbs were attached, he said “I just went into a whole different world.” He moved several objects, including an empty cup from a counter-shelf height to a higher shelf, a task that required him to coordinate the control of eight separate motions to complete. “This task simulated activities that may commonly be faced in a day-to-day environment at home,” said APL’s Courtney Moran, a prosthetist working with Baugh. “This was significant because this is not possible with currently available prostheses. He was able to do this with only 10 days of training, which demonstrates the intuitive nature

APL prosthetist Courtney Moran looks on as Les Baugh tests out the Modular Prosthetic Limbs. , Image Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

of the control.” Moran said the research team was floored by what Baugh was able to accomplish. “We expected him to exceed performance compared to what he might achieve with conventional systems, but the speed with which he learned motions and the number of motions he was able to control in such a short period of time was far beyond expectation,” she said. “What really was amazing, and was another major milestone with MPL control, was his ability to control a combination of motions across both arms at the same time. This was a first for simultaneous bimanual control.” RP Principal Investigator Michael McLoughlin said “I think we are just getting started. It’s like the early days of the Internet. There is just a tremendous amount of potential ahead of us, and we’ve just started down this road. And I think the next five to 10 years are going to bring phenomenal advancement.” The next step, McLoughlin said, is to send Baugh home with a pair of limb systems so that he can see how they integrate with his everyday life. Baugh is looking forward to that day. “Maybe for once I’ll be able to put change in the pop machine and get pop out of it,” he said. He’s looking forward to doing “simple things that most people don’t think of. And it’s re-available to me.”  Contacts and sources:  Paulette Campbell, The Applied Physics Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins University,, Source: Article

Read More........→January 08, 2015

World’s First Time-controlled Molecular Self-Organization

Credit: National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS)

Technologies Division) developed a method for preprogramming the timing of molecules to initiate self-organization by mixing molecules with modified side chains.  (a) Previously reported porphyrin molecule 1; (b) two kinds of self-organization in which porphyrin molecule 1 is able to take part. A particulate structure is formed early, but that disappears with time and then a fibrous structure is formed; (c) self-organization involving molecule 1 to form a fibrous structure begins in about four hours The results of this research will be published in the German Chemical Society’s journal “Angewandte Chemie International Edition” in the near future. Molecular self-organization is widely observed in nature, and is a critical phenomenon in terms of developingsystems that perform complex functions as seen in such natural mechanisms as photosynthesis and neurocircuits. Attempts have been made to develop new materials capable of executing advanced functions using the principle behind the phenomenon of molecular self-organization. However, due to the spontaneous nature of molecular self-organization, it is extremely difficult to control the phenomenon by design. In particular, almost no research had been conducted to control the timing of the self-organization phenomenon including control of when to initiate it. Recently, they conducted research using a molecule that can form two types of self-organized structures. One type of the self-organized structures was quickly formed but was energetically unstable; therefore, after a certain period of time elapsed, the other type of the self-organized structures, which was energetically more stable, was eventually formed. By modifying the side chains of the molecule, thereby inverting the energy stability levels between the two types of self-organized structures, researchers were able to synthesize a new type of molecule that only forms the former self-organized structure. By changing the mixing ratios between the original and new molecules, they succeeded for the first time in the world in controlling the timing at which an energetically stable self-organized structure begins to form. Controlling such timing is similar to the mechanism behind the biological clock in organisms from the viewpoint that in both cases, such time-controlling process is carried out by a network of molecules consisting of several chemical species. Self-organization is a vital concept in diverse fields such as materials science, nanotechnology and biotechnology, and is attracting much attention as a new method of synthesizing materials. By applying the method we developed in this research, we intend to develop advanced systems that are capable of emitting light or changing electrical conductivity at desirable timings. In the future, we hope to develop smart materials that autonomously function corresponding to the passing of time, like biomolecular systems do. This research was funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science’s grant-in-aid for scientific research on innovative areas, “dynamical ordering of biomolecular systems for creation of integrated functions” (Koichi Kato, Project Leader, National Institutes of Natural Sciences), and “π-system figuration” (Takanori Fukushima, Project Leader, Tokyo Institute of Technology). Contacts and sources: National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) Citation: (S. Ogi, T. Fukui, M. L. Jue, M. Takeuchi, K. Sugiyasu, Article title: “Kinetic control over pathway complexity in supramolecular polymerization through modulating the energy landscape by rational molecular design” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201407302). Source: http://www.ineffableisland.com/

Read More........→December 29, 2014

Next stop Mars: Nasa launches new Orion spacecraft, marks new era

The Delta IV Heavy rocket with the Orion spacecraft lifts off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Reuters/Steve Nesius)

Nasa's new Orion spacecraft streaked toward orbit Friday on a high-stakes test flight meant to usher in a new era of human exploration leading ultimately to Mars. The unmanned orbital journey began with a sunrise liftoff witnessed by thousands of Nasa guests eager to watch what the agency called "history in the making." "The star of the day is Orion," said Nasa Administrator Charles Bolden Jr., back for the second morning in a row. He called it "Day One of the Mars era." Orion's debut will be brief - just 4½ hours from launch to splashdown, with two orbits of Earth. But for the first time in 42 years, Nasa is sending a spacecraft built for humans farther than a couple hundred miles from Earth. The previous time was the Apollo 17 moon shot. And it's Nasa's first new vehicle for space travel since the shuttle. Friday's flight test brings Nasa "one step closer" to putting humans aboard Orion, Bolden said just before liftoff. Sluggish rocket valves and wind halted Thursday's launch attempt. Everything went Nasa's way Friday, and the Delta IV rocket blasted off with Orion as dawn broke. Nasa was aiming for a peak altitude of 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers)on Orion's second lap around the planet, in order to give the capsule the necessary momentum for a scorchingly high-speed re-entry over the Pacific. Engineers want to see how the heat shield - the largest of its kind ever built - holds up when Orion comes back through the atmosphere traveling 20,000 mph (32,200 kph)and enduring 4,000 degrees (2,200 Celsius). The atmosphere at Kennedy Space Center was reminiscent of the shuttle-flying days. After more than three years since the last shuttle flight, Nasa reveled in all the attention. Roads appeared to be less jammed before dawn for try two, and Nasa was uncertain how many of the estimated 27,000 invited guests returned. Nonetheless, the press site remained jammed, the hotels packed and the excitement level high. "It's a big day for the world, for people who know and like space," Bolden said, observing the crowds. In Houston, Nasa's Mission Control took over the entire operation once Orion was aloft. The flight program was loaded into Orion's computers well in advance, allowing the spacecraft to fly essentially on autopilot. Flight controllers - all shuttle veterans - could intervene in the event of an emergency breakdown. And in the Pacific off the Mexican Baja coast, Navy ships waited for Orion's return. The spacecraft is rigged with 1,200 sensors to gauge everything from heat to vibration to radiation. At 11 feet (3.4 meters) tall with a 16.5-foot (5-meter) base, Orion is bigger than the old-time Apollo capsules and, obviously, more advanced. Nasa deliberately kept astronauts off this first Orion. Managers want to test the riskiest parts of the spacecraft - the heat shield, parachutes, various jettisoning components - beforecommitting to a crew. In addition, on-board computers were going to endure the high-radiation Van Allen belts; engineers wondered whether they might falter. Lockheed Martin Corp. already has begun work on a second Orion, and plans to eventually build a fleet of the capsules. The earliest that astronauts might fly on an Orion is 2021. An asteroid redirected to lunar orbit is intended for the first stop in the 2020s, followed by Mars in the 2030s. The company handled the $370 million test flight for Nasa from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, opting for the Delta IV rocket this time given its heft. It's the most powerful unmanned rocket in the US right now. The entire rocket and capsule, topped by a launch abort tower, stretched 242 feet and weighed 1.6 million pounds - an "incredible monster," according to Bolden. To push Orion farther out on future flights, Nasa is developing a megarocket known as Space Launch System or SLS. The first Orion-SLS combo will fly around 2018, again without a crew to shake out the rocket. Nasa's last trip beyond low-Earth orbit in a vessel built for people was the three-man Apollo 17 in December 1972. Orion will be capable of carrying four astronauts on long hauls and as many as six on three-week hikes. Dozens of astronauts, present and past, gathered at Kennedy for the historic send-off. One of them - Bolden - now leads Nasa. He called Mars "the ultimate destination of this generation," but said his three young granddaughters think otherwise, telling him, "Don't get hung up on Mars because there are other places to go once we get there." Source: Hindustan Times, Image: flickr.com

Read More........→December 16, 2014