Organic LED light source for home electronics

Electronic products pollute our environment with many heavy metals before, during and after they're used. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 70% of heavy metals in landfill come from discarded electronics. With flat screen TVs getting bigger and cheaper every year, environmental costs continue to mount.

To counter this, a new Tel Aviv University solution applies a discovery in nano-technology, based on self-assembled peptide nanotubes, to "green" the optics and electronics industry. Scientists Nadav Amdursky and Prof. Gil Rosenman of Tel Aviv University's Department of Electrical Engineering say their technology could make flat screen TV production green and can even make medical equipment - like subcutaneous ultrasound devices - more sensitive.

Inspired by a biomaterial involved in Alzheimer's disease research discovered by Prof. Ehud Gazit of the university's Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, the researchers developed a new nano-material, applying the scientific disciplines of both biology and physics. This biological material is the basis for their new, environmentally-friendly variety of light-emitting diodes (LED) used in both consumer and medical electronics.

TV in a test tube?
Their new invention is more than a clean, green way to create light, the scientists say. It also generates a strong signal that can be used in other applications in the nano-world of motors, actuators and ultrasound.

"We are growing our own light sources," says Amdursky, a doctoral student working under Prof. Rosenman's supervision. The organic nano-lightsticks he and his supervisors have developed using organic chemistry are made from carbon, making them cheap as well as environmentally friendly.

Unlike conventional light sources, the biologically-derived light source has a nano-scale architecture, easing the integration into light-emitting devices such as LED TVs and improving the resolution of the picture as well. The Tel Aviv University team has recently written a patent to cover their "organic LED" lights.

From living rooms to hospital rooms
As per Amdursky, the light emitted by the new light sticks is not appreciably different than that which emanates from today's inorganically engineered LED lights.

"We don't need a special plant, bacterium or a big machine to grow these structures in," says Amdursky, who says the applications of the technology are wider than the widest screen television. The core technology and structures, described in Advanced Materials, Nano Letters, and ACS Nano, exhibit "piezoelectric characteristics," necessary for the development of tiny nano-ultrasound machines that could scan cells from inside the body. Piezoelectric motors or actuators are only dozens of nanometers wide, which can lead to their application in energy harvesting systems as super-capacitors - large energy storage devices, necessary for the solar energy and wind energy business.

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'Spintronics' for next-generation computers

Using powerful lasers, Hui Zhao, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas, and graduate student Lalani Werake have discovered a new way to recognize currents of spinning electrons within a semiconductor.

Their findings could lead the way to development of superior computers and electronics. Results from their work in KU's Ultrafast Laser Lab would be reported in the recent issue of Nature Physics, a leading peer-evaluated journal, and was posted online in early August.

Zhao and Werake research spin-based electronics, dubbed "spintronics."

"The goal is to replace everything - from computers to memory devices - to have higher performance and less energy consumption," said Zhao.

The KU investigator said that future advancements to microchips would require a different approach for transmitting the sequences of ones and zeros that make up digital information.

"We have been using the charge of the electron for several decades," said Zhao. "But right now the size of each device is just 30 to 50 nanometers, and you don't have a number of atoms remaining on that tiny scale. We can't continue that way anymore because we're hitting a fundamental limit".

Instead of using the presence or absence of electronic charges, spintronics relies on the direction of an electron's rotation to convey data.

"Roughly speaking, an electron can be viewed as a tiny ball that spins like a baseball," said Zhao. "The difference is that a baseball can spin at any speed, but an electron can only spin at a certain speed - either counterclockwise or clockwise. Therefore, we can use one spin state to represent 'zero' and another to represent 'one.' Because a single electron can carry this information, this takes much less time and much less energy".

However, one major hurdle for spintronics scientists has been the difficulty in detecting the flow of spinning electrons in real time.

"We haven't been able to monitor the velocity of those spinning electrons, but velocity is linked to the spin current," Zhao said. "So there's been no way to directly detect the spin current so far".

The discovery by Zhao and Werake changes that.

The KU scientists have discovered that shining a laser beam on a piece of semiconductor generates different color lights if the spinning electrons are flowing, and the brightness of the new light is correlation to the strength of the spin current.

The optical effect, known as "second-harmonic generation," can monitor spin-current in real time without altering the current itself. Zhao compares his new method with a police officer's radar gun, which tracks a car's speed as it passes.

This vastly improves upon spin-current analysis now in use, which the KU researcher says is akin to analyzing still photographs to determine a car's speed, long after the car has sped away.

"Spintronics is still in the research phase, and we hope that this new technology can be used in labs to look at problems that interest researchers," said Zhao. "As spintronics become industrialized, we expect this could become a routine technique to check the quality of devices, for example".

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Google Android Net Books - The next generation PCs?

Net books have always been the enviable gadgets, which gives us the ability stay connected while we are on the move. They are quite appealing and fashionable at the same time. They have grown more in popularity after the release of wireless Internet broadband through the USB ports.

The advent of 3G technology gives us the power to have full fledged wireless broadband connections on portable devices, without having to rely only on the Wi-Fi zones.

The manufacturing companies are introducing some of the most sophisticated net books to meet the requirement of every individual, be it for official purposes or for the gaming purposes.

PC tablet net books are slowly but steadily eating up into the PC market. The hype created over the release of Apple's Ipad has brought about a lot of awareness on this technology. The gadget freaks are lining up to get their hands on some of the latest devices that are being introduced into the market.

Google does not want to be left behind by either, plus their Android operating system will work as their main advantage.

Laptops and notebooks are a little on the expensive side when compared to the personal computers, but the net books are more on the cheaper side, with the price ranges starting from just $150.00.

Now Google has gone one step ahead by introducing their operating system on mobile devices other than the mobile phones. They have also introduced Android OS on the PC Tablet net books now. The devices are exceptionally good and the scopes for using the apps are plenty.

In this article, I will provide you with the information on Android powered net books, particularly the ones that are 7in and 8in.

Some of their main features are: Web browsing with Google Chrome Webmail services like Hotmail PDF reader Office file processors for word, excel and PowerPoint files VOIP facilities to make free long distance calls Latest games Rotation screens to view from 4 sides More than 25 languages and lots more
The devices use Android 1.6 operating system, and they have the DDR2 RAM with speed of 128 MB. They are available both in 7in and 8in LCD screens.

These devices have a color resolution starting from 800 * 480 depending on the models. They provide an inbuilt hard drive space of 2GB. However, all their models are also compatible with the extended memory cards, with which you can enhance the storage buy 32 more GBs.

They are Wi-fi enabled with the latest certifications for network connectivity. The microphone is built-in, and you could also watch the streaming videos on YouTube.

The battery gives you a standby time of 4 hours and the working time of 2½ hours. I feel that this is very decent for a portable device which provides so many computing abilities. The weight of the devices very upon the models, and they are usually between 300g to 600g.

If you are seeking more information on the Google Android powered net books and PC Netbook Tablets, you might want to check out the website, www.mondetech.com. They offer some excellent discount offers on some of the latest net books.

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Glorious gadolinium gives flash memory

College Park, MD (August 24, 2010) -- Future flash memory could be faster and store more data without changing its basic design by using a clever nanocrystal material proposed by researchers at Taiwan's Chang Gung University, who describe a new logical element made with the rare earth material gadolinium in the journal APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS, which is published by the American Institute of Physics.

It's well known in the semiconductor industry that conventional flash memory -- an essential element of mobile electronics today -- cannot improve much more because continued shrinking of its floating gate structure in the pursuit of faster performance and higher data storage capacity will soon degrade its ability to retain its memory. The situation has stimulated a wide range of research worldwide into dozens of alternative memory designs, but most attractive to industry would be one that requires the least modification to the existing floating-gate design.

A research group headed by Chao-Sung Lai at Chang Gung University in Taoyuan, Taiwan, has done just that. They have demonstrated that a cleverly modified floating gate made of gadolinium oxide -- an inexpensive rare-earth compound already used in other microelectronic applications -- has the write/erase speed and data retention properties that will enable smaller, faster and higher-capacity flash memories in the future.

"The low-voltage and low-power operation of this memory should make it particularly attractive for future smartphones and other telecommunications applications," said Dr. Lai.

The Chang Gung scientists made two key insights that enabled their success. Last year, they realized that taken together, crystallized and amorphous gadolinium oxide had electrical properties that were close to those needed for future floating-gate flash memories. After creating gadolinium oxide nanocrystals within a matrix of its amorphous form, they then exposed it to a fluorine-containing plasma, which boosted the materials' properties to the desired level. Since all of the materials and processes they used are well-known in the semiconductor industry, Dr. Lai is optimistic that this design will ultimately be commercially successful.

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3-D movies via Internet and satellite

Blockbusters like Avatar, UP or Toy Story 3 will bring the 3-D into home living rooms, televisions and computers. There are already displays available and the new Blu-Ray players can already play 3-dimensional movies based on MVC. The first soccer games were recorded stereoscopically at the Football World Championships in South Africa. What is missing is an efficient form of transmission.

The problem is the data rate mandatory by the movies in spite of fast Internet and sat-ellite links. 3-D movies have higher data rate requirements than 2-dimensional movies since at least two images are needed for the spatial representation. This means that a 3-D screen has to show two images one for the left and one for the right eye.

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, HHI in Berlin, Gera number of have already come up with a compression technique for movies in especially HD quality that squeezes movies while maintaining the quality: the H.264/AVC video format. What H.264/AVC is for HD movies, Multiview Video Coding (MVC) is for 3-D movies. The benefit is reducing the data rate used on the transmission channel while maintaining the same high-definition quality.

Videos on the Internet have to load quickly so that the viewer can watch the movies without interruptions. Thomas Schierl is a scientist at the HHI in Berlin and he explains that MVC packs the two images needed for the stereoscopic 3-D effect so that the bit rate of the movies is significantly reduced. These 3-D movies are up to 40 percent smaller. Thomas Schierl and colleagues are working to establish the MVC codec for television transmission over satellites or the Internet. New TV sets will start off by only playing 3-D movies from the Blu-Ray disc that is now coming into the third dimension. The next step to bring 3-D into living rooms will be made possible via broadcast or IPTV channels running via DSL or cable.

You will be able to experience 3-dimensional movies in your living room in future.

without any 3-D glasses because the MVC format has the technical features to code and compress several views. After all, everybody enjoying the movie with you on the sofa has a different viewing angle. That is why they need a separate view their own 3-D movie for his or her individual seat. MVC compresses all of these views into one compact file or stream and one receiver, one set-top box decodes this information and passes it on to the television.

It will also be possible to play the MVC-coded movies on older televisions and set-top boxes and Thomas Schierl tells us how: The first view corresponds to the signal that the existing television can receive and we would hide the second view in the same stream so that only the new receivers can use it. They are invisible to older tele-visions. That is particularly interesting to movie lenders and television stations because they do not have to worry about compatibility. And even mobile radio and mobile phone manufacturers can join the trend towards 3-D with the MVC standard. In the meantime, there are even displays the size of a mobile phone that allow a good 3-D impression.

The experts from the HHI show how the MVC-Codec functions transmitting television via DVB-S2 satellite from September 10-14, 2010 at the IBC in Amsterdam (Hall 8, Stand C81).

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New Pathsfor a Stressed-Out Internet

The San Diego Supercomputer Center and Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA) at the University of California, San Diego, in a collaboration with scientists from Universitat de Barcelona in Spain and the University of Cyprus, have created the first geometric "atlas" of the Internet as part of a project to prevent our most ubiquitous form of communication from collapsing within the next decade or so.

In a paper published this week in Nature Communications, CAIDA researcher Dmitri Krioukov, along with Marián Boguñá (Universitat de Barcelona) and Fragkiskos Papadopoulos (University of Cyprus), describe how they discovered a latent hyperbolic, or negatively curved, space hidden beneath the Internet's topology, leading them to devise a method to create an Internet map using hyperbolic geometry. In their paper, Sustaining the Internet with Hyperbolic Mapping, the scientists say such a map would lead to a more robust Internet routing architecture because it simplifies path-finding throughout the network.

"We compare routing in the Internet today to using a hypothetical road atlas, which is really just a long encoded list of road intersections and connections that would require drivers to pore through each line to plot a course to their destination without using any geographical, or geometrical, information which helps us navigate through the space in real life," said Krioukov, principal investigator of the project.

Now imagine that a road - or in the case of the Internet, a connection - is closed for some reason and there is no geographical atlas to plot a new course, just a long list of connections that need to be updated. "That is basically how routing in the Internet works today - it is based on a topographical map that does not take into account any geometric coordinates in any space," said Krioukov, who with his colleagues at CAIDA have been managing a project called Archipelago, or Ark, that constantly monitors the topology of the Internet, or the structure of its interconnections.

Like a number of experts, however, Krioukov is concerned that existing Internet routing, which relies on only this topological information, is not really sustainable. "It is very complicated, inefficient, and difficult to scale to the rapidly growing size of the Internet, which is now accessed by more than a billion people each day. In fact, we are already seeing parts of the Internet become intermittently unreachable, sinking into so-called black holes, which is a clear sign of instability".

Krioukov and colleagues have developed an in-depth theory that uses hyperbolic geometry to describe a negatively curved shape of complex networks such as the Internet. This theory appears in paper Hyperbolic Geometry of Complex Networks, published by Physical Review E today. In their Nature Communications paper, the scientists employ this theory, Ark's data, and statistical inference methods to build a geometric map of the Internet. They show that routing using such a map would be superior to the existing routing, which is based on pure topology.

Instead of perpetually accessing and rebuilding a reference list of all available network paths, each router in the Internet would know only its hyperbolic coordinates and the coordinates of its neighbors so it could route in the right direction, only relaying the information to its closest neighbor in that direction, as per the researchers. Known as "greedy routing", this process would dramatically increase the overall efficiency and scalability of the Internet. "We think that using such a routing architecture based on hyperbolic geometry will create the best possible levels of efficiency in terms of speed, accuracy, and resistance to damage," said Krioukov.

However the scientists caution that actually implementing and deploying such a routing structure in the Internet might be as challenging, if not more challenging, than discovering its hidden space. "There are a number of technical and non-technical issues to be resolved before the Internet map that we found would be the map that the Internet uses," said Krioukov.

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Tech Solutions Start With Pattern Recognition

Buy something online, enter your credit card number and mailing address. Simple. Then you come to the box with the CAPTCHA, the Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart. Here, the website attempts to confirm that you're a human, not some robot about to commit a cybercrime. You dutifully copy down the warped, watery-looking letters.

Incorrect. Another captcha appears. You try again. Also incorrect. A third captcha appears. You start rethinking your purchase.

University at Buffalo computer scientist Venu Govindaraju, who, along with his UB colleagues, pioneered machine recognition of human handwriting, believes that this annoying 21st-century problem has a decidedly old-fashioned solution: handwriting.

"Here at UB's Center for Unified Biometrics, we're the only ones who have proposed and thoroughly studied handwritten captchas," says Govindaraju. "Our perspective is that humans are good at reading handwriting, machines are not. It comes naturally to humans. But computer researchers typically consider handwriting a hopeless case, until someone comes along and shows them that it isn't".

Govindaraju should know. Research he and his UB colleagues conducted in the 1990s helped the U.S. Postal Service establish the first machines that could read handwritten addresses, a feat that a number of at the time -- particularly in industry -- said simply could not be done. In 1996, after years of research, the UB research enabled the USPS to be able to start machine-reading of handwritten addresses, boosting efficiency and saving the agency millions of dollars each year.

Govindaraju believes a similar success can occur with captchas. One of his doctoral students at UB has graduated and was hired by Yahoo! on the basis of his work developing "simulated" handwritten captchas.

"We developed an archive that can automatically generate as a number of different styles of handwriting as we want," says Govindaraju.

The research is based on pattern recognition, a subfield of machine learning in computer science that is concerned with developing systems based on detecting patterns in data.

Similar issues are being studied by Govindaraju and his UB colleagues in order to develop "smart room" technologies, supported by an HP Labs Innovation Research award.

"Smart rooms" are indoor environments equipped with sensitive, but unobtrusive devices, such as cameras and microphones that can identify and track the movements and gestures of inhabitants for a broad range of applications, from providing supplemental supervision in assisted living facilities for the elderly or disabled, to monitoring office workplaces and retail establishments for security. Eventually, the goal is to extend "smart room" features to larger arenas, such as shopping centers, airports and other transportation centers.

Biometrics that CUBS scientists are studying for "smart room" applications include hand gestures as well as the more common biometrics of facial, voice and gait recognition.

"This, too, is all pattern recognition," Govindaraju says, "but instead of letters, here, we're trying to standardize gestures.

"It's like developing an alphabet of gestures so machines can be programmed to do gesture recognition. The idea is to control objects on a monitor without technology," he says.

Since its founding in 2003, CUBS has attracted approximately $10 million in federal and industry funding and has produced 17 doctoral-level graduates. The center advances machine learning and pattern recognition technologies to build engineered systems for both civilian and homeland security applications. It develops new methods for customizing devices that use data from physical biometrics, such as fingerprints, hand geometry and iris scans; behavioral biometrics, such as signature, voiceprint and gait; and chemical biometrics, such as DNA and body odor.

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Cell phones help save the lives

Simple mobile technology, like basic cell phones, can be used to save the lives of mothers in childbirth, and improve the care of newborns and children, reaching underserved populations in remote areas.

More advanced mobile technology can do even more, such as checking on patients, keeping records, improving diagnosis and therapy in the field, and letting community health workers consult general practitioners and specialists for guidance.

"With mobile technologies for health, called 'mhealth' or 'mobile health,' we're extending capabilities to where they don't exist today," says David Aylward, who heads mHealth Alliance, a partnership founded by the United Nations Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation.

"At the most basic level, mobile phones can be used to keep track of people, call for emergency assistance, remind them of appointments and share information," says Julian Schweitzer, PhD, former Chair of The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Care (PMNCH) and the Chair of the Finance Working Group for the UN Secretary-General's Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health, launched in September. "But then you can layer on things like check lists, protocols, the steps to ensure a safe birth and action instructions in particular circumstances," says Dr. Schweitzer.

Used by midwives in rural, urban slums and isolated areas, cell phones can also be attached to diagnostic devices, including those used for remote fetal monitoring or remote wireless ultrasound. This lets a midwife or health worker know in advance that a mother must get to a clinic. They can also be used for recording births and deaths or assuring that both women and children get the care they need when and where they need it.

"In the near future, wireless diagnostics like stethoscopes, blood pressure, temperature and insulin monitors, and ultrasounds will enable remote diagnosis and therapy far from the closest doctor or clinic, " says Mr. Aylward.

Use spreading rapidly
Five years ago, the idea of using cell phones to improve health care for mothers, infants and children wasn't feasible.

That has changed rapidly. Consider these facts:
70 percent of the world's 5 billion cell phone subscribers are in the developing world.
Today almost 90 percent of the world's population has access to a wireless telephone signal.
In India alone, 33 percent of people living in villages have mobile phones.
About three quarters of mobile phone users have texting capability and features such as GPS that can pinpoint their location.
By 2015, about 60 percent of mobile phones are expected to be web-enabled.
"These networks are being extended almost everywhere. People are paying for the devices and the service, which shows that people value access to information and the ability to communicate, and that includes health information and communication," says Mr. Aylward.

mHealth Summit and Partnership meeting
Two thousand technology and health experts are expected at the second annual mHeath Summit, Nov. 8-10 in Washington, D.C. The summit is co-sponsored by the mHealth Alliance, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health and NIH to further explore the potential of mobile technology in the health field, to promote its use, and to seek ways to overcome some of the current obstacles.

Featured conference speakers include William Gates, head of the Gates Foundation, Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, Julio Frenk, M.D., Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health and Chairman of The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, Ted Turner, Chairman and Founder of the United Nations Foundation and Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Mobile technology and mHealth also will play a key role as the partners in The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) meet in New Delhi on Nov. 13-14. In addition to many speakers during the plenary sessions, PMNCH and the mHealth Alliance are organizing a detailed mHealth implementation workshop bringing together expert practitioners with industry to discuss specific ways to deploy mHealth systems.

PMNCH was formed to ensure that all countries meet the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for improving the health of women and reducing the toll of infant and child deaths by 2015. Widely used, mobile technology could help less developed countries meet those goals. "I'm not saying that mobile technology is a panacea, but there's such tremendous possibility, primarily because the cell phones are already there and usage is growing so fast," says Dr. Schweitzer.

Help for meeting MDGs
The potential for the rapid spread of mobile technology suggests it will help those countries that lag behind, a number of of them in sub-Saharan Africa, in meeting the MDGs.

Of special concern are MDGs 4 and 5, which call for reduced child and maternal mortality. At the most recent evaluation, 49 of the 68 high-burden countries had made little, if any progress toward meeting those goals.

But mHealth has the ability to support those goals by improving information and communication for mothers, providers and administrators.

The recently announced Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health identifies mHealth as a critical innovation that needs to be broadly applied to achieve the MDGs. PMNCH acted as the platform for the development of the Global Strategy, and will continue to advocate for financial and policy commitments to the Global Strategy.

The Government of Norway chairs the Innovation Working Group (IWG) of the Global Strategy. "We cannot reach the MDGs by merely continuing to do more of what we have been doing," says Tore Godal, M.D., Chairman of the IWG and Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Norway for Global Health. "The best new idea is to use mobile technology and cell phones".

Doing what everyone else is doing
As this growth has occurred, more than 100 countries are exploring ways to use mobile phones to improve health.

"The information technology is not revolutionary its use in health is," says Dr. Schweitzer. "We are talking about applying in health care the same kinds of sophisticated information systems that most businesses use, extending them with wireless to reach everyone. In low and middle- income countries we have the opportunity to leap frog the developed world and do it right. This is a huge opportunity".

Some issues being addressed
The recently announced Maternal mHealth Initiative, a partnership between PMNCH and the mHealth Alliance, will develop a global consensus on mobile technology. The new partnership will conduct trials using an integrated information and communications technology system to underpin the full continuum of recommended care for expectant mothers and newborns.

The Earth Institute's Millennium Villages Project is working with governments and ministries of health along with telecommunications companies like Ericsson, AirTel Bharti, and MTN in 10 countries in Africa, to design, test, and implement standardized and interoperable mHealth systems. "A number of countries are looking at mHealth as a strategy for health service delivery," says Patricia Mechael, PhD, of The Earth Institute.

In 1994, the University of Oslo began the Health Information Systems Programme (HISP). It developed the open source based District Health Information Software (DHIS) implemented in 15 African countries and 23 states in India, Bangladesh and Vietnam.

In the last two years, HISP has started to use basic cell phones to collect data on maternal and child health in an integrated manner where there are no computers or Internet. Because of the collaboration with ministers of health, the HISP program differs from other mobile projects.

"Data goes into the ministries' health systems so it can be read and analyzed at every level, " says project director Professor Kristin Braa of the University of Oslo. "The information comes back to the local level where it can be used to identify problems and trends. Otherwise mother and child health will not be improved".

In one pilot project in Aceh Besar, Indonesia, a group of midwives was provided with mobile phones and their use and experiences documented. Those midwives who were given the phones found them a "basic necessity." The main benefit was the ease of communication.

Midwives reported an increase in patient load because they could be contacted so easily. They also found they could get advice and information more readily, particularly during emergencies, and could refer patients to the hospital when needed. Midwives were able to consult patients more often and provide a regular check of their condition, then enter the information into the patient's record, which could be updated and accessed via the mobile phone.

Infrastructure was a problem in remote areas where transmission was often poor, and where midwives were in greatest need. Lack of data in the local language also proved a barrier. Most midwives in the study learned how to use the technology readily, and said they planned to keep using the phones when the project ended.

Yet the promise comes with caveats and warnings about too much hype. One reason is the absence of controlled studies. "mHealth can really expand the capability of public health, in particular, but the potential for reaching UN MDGs 4 and 5 is yet to be realized," cautions Joan Dzenowagis, M.D. of the World Health Organization.

"Anecdotally, we can see the transformative effect," says Dr. Mechael, who, sponsored by the mHealth Alliance, has recently completed an analysis of 2,400 published mHealth reports. Working with WHO, she observed that a number of countries either have already or are considering introducing mHealth into their health systems. mHealth is so new, however, "the data is just not there yet to prove the case," says Dr. Mechael.

A number of different groups and organizations are carrying out countless pilot projects. That presents a potential barrier to expansion. "Most projects are designed as a single solution for a specific problem," says Dr. Dzenowagis. "In the field everyone has a different system which means a lack of coordination. This leads to duplication of expense and effort and means information may not be available to those who need it." .

The mHealth Alliance and its Maternal mHealth Initiative with PMNCH are designed to bring coordination and information sharing to the field, focusing on integrated solutions.

"We won't be talking about mobile health in 2015," says Dr. Mechael. "By then, we won't need to pull it out and talk about it and examine it because it will be a fully accepted tool for health care."

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A computer may drive your car someday

NeuFlow is a supercomputer that mimics human vision to analyze complex environments, such as this street scene. (Image: Eugenio Culurciello/e-Lab)Navigating our way down the street is something most of us take for granted; we seem to recognize cars, other people, trees and lampposts instantaneously and without much thought. In fact, visually interpreting our environment as quickly as we do is an astonishing feat requiring an enormous number of computations-which is just one reason that coming up with a computer-driven system that can mimic the human brain in visually recognizing objects has proven so difficult.

Now Eugenio Culurciello of Yale's School of Engineering & Applied Science has developed a supercomputer based on the human visual system that operates much more quickly and efficiently than ever before. Dubbed NeuFlow, the system takes its inspiration from the mammalian visual system, mimicking its neural network to quickly interpret the world around it. Culurciello presented the results Sept. 15 at the High Performance Embedded Computing (HPEC) workshop in Boston, Mass.

The system uses complex vision algorithms developed by Yann LeCun at New York University to run large neural networks for synthetic vision applications. One idea-the one Culurciello and LeCun are focusing on, is a system that would allow cars to drive themselves. In order to be able to recognize the various objects encountered on the road-such as other cars, people, stoplights, sidewalks, not to mention the road itself-NeuFlow processes tens of megapixel images in real time.

The system is also extremely efficient, simultaneously running more than 100 billion operations per second using only a few watts (that's less than the power a cell phone uses) to accomplish what it takes bench-top computers with multiple graphic processors more than 300 watts to achieve.

"One of our first prototypes of this system is already capable of outperforming graphic processors on vision tasks," Culurciello said.

Culurciello embedded the supercomputer on a single chip, making the system much smaller, yet more powerful and efficient, than full-scale computers. "The complete system is going to be no bigger than a wallet, so it could easily be embedded in cars and other places," Culurciello said.

Beyond the autonomous car navigation, the system could be used to improve robot navigation into dangerous or difficult-to-reach locations, to provide 360-degree synthetic vision for soldiers in combat situations, or in assisted living situations where it could be used to monitor motion and call for help should an elderly person fall, for example.

Other collaborators include Clement Farabet (Yale University and New York University), Berin Martini, Polina Akselrod, Selcuk Talay (Yale University) and Benoit Corda (New York University).

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Advance could change modern electronics

CORVALLIS, Ore. Scientists at Oregon State University have solved a quest in fundamental material science that has eluded researchers since the 1960s, and could form the basis of a new approach to electronics.

The discovery, just reported online in the professional journal Advanced Materials, outlines the creation for the first time of a high-performance "metal-insulator-metal" diode.

"Scientists have been trying to do this for decades, until now without success," said Douglas Keszler, a distinguished professor of chemistry at OSU and one of the nation's leading material science researchers. "Diodes made previously with other approaches always had poor yield and performance.

"This is a fundamental change in the way you could produce electronic products, at high speed on a huge scale at very low cost, even less than with conventional methods," Keszler said. "It's a basic way to eliminate the current speed limitations of electrons that have to move through materials".

A patent has been applied for on the new technology, university officials say. New companies, industries and high-tech jobs may ultimately emerge from this advance, they say.

The research was done in the Center for Green Materials Chemistry, and has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Army Research Laboratory and the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute.

Conventional electronics made with silicon-based materials work with transistors that help control the flow of electrons. Eventhough fast and comparatively inexpensive, this approach is still limited by the speed with which electrons can move through these materials. And with the advent of ever-faster computers and more sophisticated products such as liquid crystal displays, current technologies are nearing the limit of what they can do, experts say.

By contrast, a metal-insulator-metal, or MIM diode can be used to perform some of the same functions, but in a fundamentally different way. In this system, the device is like a sandwich, with the insulator in the middle and two layers of metal above and below it. In order to function, the electron doesn't so much move through the materials as it "tunnels" through the insulator almost instantaneously appearing on the other side.

"When they first started to develop more sophisticated materials for the display industry, they knew this type of MIM diode was what they needed, but they couldn't make it work," Keszler said. "Now we can, and it could probably be used with a range of metals that are inexpensive and easily available, like copper, nickel or aluminum. It's also much simpler, less costly and easier to fabricate".

The findings were made by scientists in the OSU Department of Chemistry; School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; and School of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering.

In the newly released study, the OSU researchers and engineers describe use of an "amorphous metal contact" as a technology that solves problems that previously plagued MIM diodes. The OSU diodes were made at relatively low temperatures with techniques that would lend themselves to manufacture of devices on a variety of substrates over large areas.

OSU scientists have been leaders in many important material science advances in recent years, including the field of transparent electronics. University researchers will do some initial work with the new technology in electronic displays, but a number of applications are possible, they say.

High speed computers and electronics that don't depend on transistors are possibilities. Also on the horizon are "energy harvesting" technologies such as the nighttime capture of re-radiated solar energy, a way to produce energy from the Earth as it cools during the night.

"For a long time, everyone has wanted something that takes us beyond silicon," Keszler said. "This could be a way to simply print electronics on a huge size scale even less expensively than we can now. And when the products begin to emerge the increase in speed of operation could be enormous".

Posted by: Ryan    Source

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Netbooks Versus the Competition

Sometimes, in life, the answers are very apparent, but that is not always the case. The matter of choosing the gear to outfit your office is not always as easily settled as one might think. Is it best to go with a PC or a Mac? Can I really afford the price associated with some of these models? What about the printer? Is the thought of printing the number of pages required in my office really practical given the cost of ink cartridges?

These are the sorts of questions that can arise when trying to make those initial decisions to build an office, or even the decisions regarding replacement of the out of date goods of yesteryear. Another question that many are finding themselves asking today is "Notebook, netbook, or tablet?" Consider this article for information to make that decision easier.

What are my options?
Buying a computer today is nothing like what it was ten years ago. First of all, walking out of the store with a computer might only mean carrying a small, traditional plastic bag. After all, many of the tablets and even some notebooks are so thin and light weight today that they could easily fit in a woman's purse and be carried without the person even feeling the added weight. Added to that, however, is the furthered agony of decision making. No longer is it as simple as choosing between five or ten desktop models in the local electronics store. Instead one is faced with a number of options for portable computing, including netbooks, notebooks, and the tablet. Most are familiar with all that a notebook (aka laptop) can do, so consider these evaluations of how the others stack up.

The newest thing in computer land is the tablet. These low cost, light weight handy devices are perfect for those looking for a secondary computer, or those who wish only to use the computer for photos, music, games, and email. They do have the internet as well, and a number of fun, functional, and funky applications, but they also have a couple major drawbacks. The first is that there is not yet a real functional version of traditional word processing and spreadsheet softwares that work on the tablet. Surely that will change in the near future, but as of now, that it something that one should not expect to accomplish on the tablet. Even Google Docs and Microsoft's online versions of word processing are not where they need to be to make this device functional in that way. The second major flaw is printing. You are not going to easily find ink cartridges that will work with these mini computers. This is going to change in the very near future as wireless printing has started to become a possibility, but you will still be limited when compared to the other computers that offer a wide variety of printer from ink cartridge or toner, wired or wireless, all-in-one or single function.

Netbooks, similarly, are newer to the market and have a number of advantages and disadvantages as compared to the more traditional notebook. These are not going to feature many of the added perks of a traditional computer, such as the DVD/CD drive and extended keyboards. However, the ultra-mini models, are light weight and easily carted from one venue to another, where they can be flipped open to do most everything that a traditional laptop can do, taking up a fraction of the space. The best part is, that unlike the tablet, these USB supporting mini pads are able to work with nearly every printer on the market, which means that you, like the rest of the computer world will also have another decision to make. Which brand? Which model? Ink cartridge or toner? Manufacturer's ink or third party?

Posted by: Joslyn    Source

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Benign envy sells iPhones

People are willing to pay more for products that elicit their envybut that's only when they are motivated by a positive, non-malignant form of envy, as per a newly released study in the Journal of Consumer Research
"Our studies showed that people who had been made envious of someone who owned an iPhone were willing to pay 80 Euros more on average," write authors Niels van de Ven, Marcel Zeelenberg, and Rik Pieters (Tilburg University).

The scientists made some important discoveries about the motivations that result from different kinds of envy. "Note that two types of envy exist: non-malignant and malicious envy," the authors explain. "Non-cancerous envy exists if the advantage of the other person is deserved, and motivates people to attain a coveted good or position for themselves. This more motivating type of envy makes people pay an envy premium for the products that elicited their envy." Conversely, malicious envy occurs if the other person is believed to be undeserving; it evokes a desire to "pull down" the other person.

In a series of experiments, the authors compared non-malignant envy with its malicious cousin. They observed that only benignly envious people were willing to pay more for products that they coveted. Maliciously envious people were more likely to pay more for related but different products. For example, people who felt maliciously envious of someone with an iPhone were more likely to pay more for a BlackBerry.

In the experiments (which involved potential internships as well as products like iPhones), the participants were asked to imagine feeling jealousy and admiration for the fellow student (Non-cancerous Envy condition), to imagine feeling jealous and begrudging (the Malicious Envy condition), or just to imagine that they really liked the product (Control condition).

However, companies should be cautious to not evoke the more negative form of envy that drives people away from products. "Advertisers should make sure that the celebrities they want to use in their ads actually deserve their status," the authors write. "If they do not, these celebrities might actually trigger malicious envy and the sales of products from a competitor could even go up".

Posted by: Ashley    Source

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Increase in smart-phone litigation

The flurry of recent smart phone patent suits is being driven by technology companies eager to capitalize on the speed and expertise of the US International Trade Commission, says a University of Illinois patent strategy expert Deepak Somaya.

Credit: L. Brian Stauffer

The flurry of smart-phone patent suits at the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is being driven by technology companies eager to capitalize on the speed and expertise of the specialized venue, says a University of Illinois patent strategy expert.

Business professor Deepak Somaya says that this current wave of patent litigation is a "clash driven by company strategies".

"Smart phones combine lots of amazing innovation from both computing and mobile telephony, and technology companies are seeing their patents as a potential source of leverage, as something that can help them improve their competitive position against other firms seeking to take advantage of this great confluence of technologies," he said. "When these firms go court shopping for filing patent cases, a number of of them are choosing to target the ITC over the more typical forum of the federal district courts".

In research that will appear in the management journal Organization Science, Somaya and co-author Christine McDaniel, an economist with the ITC, investigated when companies targeted the ITC over the district courts for their import-related patent disputes. They observed that company strategy, the nationality of the defendant and previous experience with the ITC were significant factors when firms went court shopping for filing patent cases.

"Almost all the research on court-shopping is focused on the policy of the court is this likely to be a favorable or unfavorable court?" Somaya said.

However, the main difference between the ITC an independent, quasi-judicial federal agency that hears trade-related patent cases under section 337 of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act and district courts is the degree of specialization found at the ITC.

"At the ITC, 85 percent of cases involve patent issues, whereas the typical district court judge gets one patent case every five years," Somaya said. "Most of the time the district courts are dealing with criminal cases and civil suits. So a district court is a very general purpose forum, whereas the ITC is a highly specialized one. And this specialization goes hand-in-glove with the venue's speed and expertise, which can be very important for some patent cases, depending on the company's strategy".

Taking a patent dispute to the ITC requires that the patent infringement be import-related. Once its criteria are met, however, the ITC "becomes very attractive for a particular type of patent dispute one in which the company's strategy requires a quick and reliable decision," Somaya said.

And, as per Somaya, it is the company strategy aspect that has been attracting more smart-phone patent litigation to the ITC.

"Patent cases are commonly very complicated, and can take up a lot of time and money to resolve," he said. "But since the ITC has a streamlined and fast procedure, you don't have the same burden of educating a judge or jury about what the technology is, what the relevant case law is, and so on. There is a lot of expertise in the forum already, so the adjudication is fast, less random and, relatively-speaking, cost effective".

The one disadvantage to specialized venues such as the ITC is that they're less conducive to settling outside of court.

"Specialized venues don't leave much room for either party to play out the negotiation game," Somaya said. "If you're thinking about settling, which can be very cost effective in patent disputes, you often need more time time to conduct negotiations, time for both sides to adjust their expectations, time to devise a mutually acceptable agreement. Going to the ITC might instead rush you through adjudication and force you to incur all the accompanying costs.

"In that case, you appears to be better off going to a district court simply to have the time and flexibility to negotiate a settlement".

Time, however, is the one resource that companies like Nokia, Apple and Motorola all currently embroiled in patent litigation at the ITC don't have.

"When the dispute involves a pivotal fast-moving technology, time is of the essence," Somaya said. "Additionally, these smart-phone patents have very high strategic stakes for firms, so you have a situation that might be very difficult for the two parties to settle on".

Once a firm has reached this point-of-no-return with litigation, it makes sense to go with the cheaper, faster, and more expert venue, which is commonly the ITC, Somaya says.

"Essentially, there's so much at stake for the company owning the patents that they don't see an easy way to settle the dispute, so what they really need is a court decision in their favor," he said. "A company such as Apple simply wants to shore up the competitive advantage of the iPhone, and may not see much point in trying to negotiate a settlement".

Posted by: Ashley    Source

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Deals on Electronics, Watches, Family Products

New York (12/10/2010)-For perpetual bargain hunters and other shoppers looking to get a great deal on the latest electronics, brand name watches, wireless accessories, jewelry and more, 1SaleaDay.com is the lowest-priced deal-of-the-day website offering unheard-of exclusive deals on just a single item and only for 24 hours. To keep customers coming back for more, 1SaleaDay.com even offers surprise free products once or twice a week.

As the largest independently-owned daily deal site in the world, 1SaleaDay.com leverages its tremendous buying power with major brands and retailers plus a dedicated team of competitive price-comparison experts to offer outrageous deals to more than 350,000 daily site visitors, like a Magellan Roadmate GPS, HD camcorder or 12 MP digital camera-all of which recently sold for just $39.99.

How 1SaleaDay.com offer such amazing prices? Rather than spend precious dollars on marketing to attract new customers, 1SaleaDay focuses on giving deep savings to customers, who then pass the word on about the great deals they've discovered at the site.

"Thousands of customers make 1SaleaDay.com their first web stop of the day to see what's hot and get the best deal on the products they want at a price anyone can afford," said Ben Federman CEO of 1SaleaDay.com. "Collectors, gadget geeks and even parents and grandparents check us out first to get the best deals anywhere on the web on gifts for their kids or grandkids - or even for themselves."

With a new deal posted everyday at midnight EST in each of five categories-Deal of the Day, Wireless, Watch, Family and Jewelry-1SaleaDay entices shoppers who stop by every day to check out the deal, offering items like a TomTom GPS device, luxury watches, a waterproof MP3 player with earphones, black freshwater cultured pearls, and even kid's games, accessories and home decor.

Once in a while, 1SaleaDay clears out its inventory with the Chunk o'Junk Deal featuring a box full of items randomly selected from past deals, such as laptops, MP3 players, USB adapters, GPS units, cables, accessories and cell phones - a $200 value - sold for just $5 plus $5 shipping. Chunk o'Junk deals are limited to the first 1,000 customers and are usually gone in just a few hours.

"Customers often tell us that they love shopping at 1SaleaDay not only for the great deals, but also for the fun, creative and catchy descriptions for the products," Federman said. "We don't just tell them about the product-we tell them how they can use it to get the most out of their purchase."

Most items ship the day after ordering and typically arrive in 3-5 business days via UPS or USPS. Products offered on 1SaleaDay.com are almost always new, in original packaging, with occasional deals on refurbished or wholesale packaged items for even greater savings. The site is accredited by the Better Business Bureau, and authenticated secure by Comodo, Authorize.net, McAfee and PayPal.

To find out about today's Deal of the Day, visit www.1SaleaDay.com. And, stop back tomorrow for a different deal-there's a new one posted every day.

About 1SaleaDay.com
1SaleaDay.com offers the deepest discounts on a variety of merchandise with a new deal posted every day at 12 midnight EDT. With Deals of the Day in five categories, including Wireless, Watch, Family and Jewelry, 1SaleaDay leverages its global buying power to offer discounts up to 90% off retail prices for electronics, collectibles, housewares, toys and more. Headquartered in New York, NY, 1SaleaDay.com is part of a family of discount retailers that includes Ben's Outlet, Dynamite Time and Glasses Unlimited. For more information, visit, www.1SaleaDay.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Belinda Banks
SS | PR
609 750 9110
belinda@sspr.com

Posted by: Ryan    Source

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