Month: May 2015

Saying goodbye to cable? 4 things to consider: Mayers

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More than 1 million Canadians get their TV over the air. If you’re about to join them, there’s more to it than an antenna, says one expert.

Karim Sunderani owns Mississauga's saveandreplay, which sells over-the-air antennas. He says more people are cutting the cable cord in favour of free TV. Adam Mayers/Toronto Star

Karim Sunderani owns Mississauga’s saveandreplay, which sells over-the-air antennas. He says more people are cutting the cable cord in favour of free TV. Adam Mayers/Toronto Star

By: Personal Finance Editor, Published on Tue May 19 2015

When I first talked to Karim Sunderami in January, there was reproach in his voice as we discussed the joys of my $40 TV antenna.

Twenty-plus free channels, no more monthly cable bill, great picture quality. Sure, not a setup the hardcore viewer or sports fanatic wants, but when combined with a streaming service like Netflix, good enough for me.

Sunderami is an IT guy who turned a hobby into a business 10 years ago. He takes free TV seriously and for him it’s about more than a knockoff antenna.

I was too cheap by half, he said. He says consumers are kidding themselves if they think they can throw up a coat hangar (which does work) and get the reception and selection they want.

In October, 2012, I cut the cord, joining about 1 million Canadians who are pulling down free signals. I invested $56 all-in for an aluminum antenna, two 50-foot lengths of cable and the retailer threw in an antenna mount. A friend and I installed it in a few hours and the setup pulls in 22 stations. I’ve had no problems with the antenna.

Sunderami agreed my solution worked, but predicted it wouldn’t last. He asked pointedly why I didn’t get a better setup since I was saving $60 to $100 a month. Do it properly. For many in the GTA, (though not me as it turns out), that is as little as $100, he said.

“Spend a little more, but spend it once, not twice, or three times,” he advised when we met at saveandreplay.com the Mississauga store he runs with his wife Grace. “How many times do you want to climb onto your roof?”

I was taking up his old antenna rebate offer made in January, when I last wrote about over-the-air TV. Bring in the old antenna and get $20 off a new one.

If you are a cable or satellite subscriber are you considering free over-the-air TV?
No, I get good value from my serviceYes, I’m thinking of giving it a tryMaybe, but not right now

Here are the most important things to consider, he says:

Location: The higher the ground where your house or condo sits the better your reception. And the higher the antenna on your house, the better. You’ll have a less obstructed path to the transmitters on the CN Tower and Grand Island, NY. If your home is in a dip, behind a hill or surrounded by tall buildings, reception will be affected.

“You can’t remove trees and buildings, but at 25 feet off the ground you have a good line of sight,” he says.

Distance to transmitters: Over-the-air signals degrade the farther away you are from the source. So cottage country reception is spotty. In Newmarket and Orillia, Buffalo channels may fade in and out. In Milton, antennas sometime have problems picking up Fox 29 and CW23.

“That means a person in Mississauga needs a different antenna than someone in Newmarket,” Sunderami says.

Transmitter frequencies: Some channels are transmitted in VHF and some in UHF. There is no rhyme or reason, he says. CTV in Newmarket is broadcast on a VHF band. The CHCH signal in Midland picked up in Orillia is VHF.

“You need an antenna that captures both,” he says, recommending TVFool.com as a place to go to help figure out which is being broadcast on which frequency.

Angle to transmitters: In Oakville, for example, the angles between a house, the CN Tower and Grand Island, are quite broad. So the setup needs an antenna with two pieces, or bays, one aimed at Toronto and the other across the lake. If you live in Mississauga, or North York, the angle is much narrower, so you might get away with one.

Sunderami says a high quality one-bay unit costs as little $100. In St. Catharines it wouldn’t work because the CN Tower is directly in front and Grand Island behind. You need an antenna facing each way.

Related: How to get going with Over-the-Air TV

Sunderami says you get what you pay for with knockoffs. The price difference between them and the real thing isn’t great and the name brands use better materials, offer warranties and have help lines. With a knockoff, you’re on your own.

His preferred manufacturers are Channel Master and Winegard which have been in the antenna business since the 1950s. Another is Antennas Direct. All three are American. They are also sold at The Source and Best Buy, which is now consolidating with Future Shop.

I came away with a two-bay Antennas Direct model which costs $180. But because it was an open box and with the rebate, he knocked it down by 20 per cent to $144 plus tax.

“If you lived in Mississauga, I could do this for $100, but you have to live in Oakville with trees in the way,” he said.

Sunderami says this new antenna should do two things. It will pick up a few more channels and reduce the fade-in, fade-out nuisance factor, which is a bigger deal for me. He says it should maintain the signal quality in all weather conditions.

As they say, stay tuned. I’ll report back once all the leaves are out.

More columns by Adam Mayers

Over-the-air TV facts

What is OTA? Over-the-air television is the way TV was before cable. Since the 1950s, broadcasters have sent signals over the air, which can be picked up by antennas.

Is it legal? Absolutely. It’s as legal as listening to a radio station in your car or at home.

Is it expensive? No. All you need is an antenna and coaxial cable. Older TVs may require a box to convert the high-definition signal. Newer TVs can receive it directly.

Do you get a good picture? It may be better than cable because the signal is not being compressed for distribution through the cable pipe.

Where can I learn more?Digitalhome.ca has a good forum. Search the phrase ‘install HD antenna’ online.

http://www.thestar.com/business/personal_finance/2015/05/19/saying-goodbye-to-cable-4-things-to-consider-mayers.html

Unraveling the mysteries of spider-web strength and damage-resistant design

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May 18, 2015

MIT scientists have developed a systematic approach to research the structure of spider “silk” (which ounce for ounce, is stronger than steel) and how spiders optimize their own webs. The researchers are  blending computational modeling and mechanical analysis to 3D-print synthetic spider webs, with the goal of fabricating and testing synthetic spider-web structures.

“This is the first methodical exploration of its kind,” says Professor Markus Buehler, head of MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), and the lead author of an open-access paper appearing in Nature Communications. “We are looking to expand our knowledge of the function of natural webs in a systematic and repeatable manner.”

The lessons learned through this approach may help harness spider silk’s strength for other uses, and ultimately inspire engineers to digitally design new structures and composites that are lighter, more reliable, and damage-resistant.

Reverse-engineering the spider’s sophisticated architecture

The study explores the relationship between spider web structure, loading points, and failure mechanisms. By adjusting the material distribution throughout an entire web, a spider is able to optimize the web’s strength for its anticipated prey.

The team, adopting an experimental setup, used metal structures to 3D-print synthetic webs, and directly integrate their data into models. “Ultimately we merged the physical with the computational in our experiments,” Buehler says.

According to Buehler, spider webs employ a limited amount of material to capture prey of different sizes, with materials only a few micrometers (millionths of a meter) in diameter.

The 3D-printed models, Lewis says, open the door to studying the effects of spider-web architecture on strength and damage tolerance — a feat that would have been impossible to achieve using only natural spider webs.

Buehler’s team used orb-weaver spider webs as the inspiration for their 3-D designs. In each of their samples, they controlled the diameter of the thread as a method of comparing homogeneous and heterogeneous thread thickness.

The work revealed that spider webs consisting of uniform thread diameters are better suited to bear force applied at a single point, such as the impact coming from flies hitting webs, while a nonuniform diameter can withstand more widespread pressure, such as from wind, rain, or gravity.

The team now plans to examine the dynamic aspects of webs through controlled impact and vibration experiments, changing the printed material’s properties in real time and opening the door to printing optimized, multifunctional structures.

Abstract of Structural optimization of 3D-printed synthetic spider webs for high strength

Spiders spin intricate webs that serve as sophisticated prey-trapping architectures that simultaneously exhibit high strength, elasticity and graceful failure. To determine how web mechanics are controlled by their topological design and material distribution, here we create spider-web mimics composed of elastomeric filaments. Specifically, computational modelling and microscale 3D printing are combined to investigate the mechanical response of elastomeric webs under multiple loading conditions. We find the existence of an asymptotic prey size that leads to a saturated web strength. We identify pathways to design elastomeric material structures with maximum strength, low density and adaptability. We show that the loading type dictates the optimal material distribution, that is, a homogeneous distribution is better for localized loading, while stronger radial threads with weaker spiral threads is better for distributed loading. Our observations reveal that the material distribution within spider webs is dictated by the loading condition, shedding light on their observed architectural variations.

references:

related:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/unraveling-the-mysteries-of-spider-web-strength-and-damage-resistant-design

New graphene-like two-dimensional material could improve energy storage

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May 18, 2015

MIT and Harvard University researchers have created a graphene-like electrically conductive. porous, layered material as possible new tool for storing energy and investigating the physics of unusual materials.

They synthesized the material using an organic molecule called HITP and nickel ions, forming a new compound: Ni3(HITP)2.

The new porous material is a crystalline, structurally tunable electrical conductor with a high surface area — features that are ideal for supercapacitors, which could extend the range of electric vehicles by capturing and storing the energy that would normally be wasted when brakes slow down a vehicle.

The new material is composed of stacks of unlimited numbers of two-dimensional sheets resembling graphite, with a room temperature electrical conductivity of ~40 S/cm (Siemens per centimeter). The conductivity of this material is comparable to that of bulk graphite and among the highest for any conducting Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)* reported to date.

Also, the temperature-dependence of its conductivity linear at temperatures between 100 K (Kelvin) and 500 K, suggesting an unusual charge transport mechanism that has not been previously observed in any organic semiconductors, and thus remains to be investigated.

In bulk form, the material could be used for electrocatalysis applications (modifying the rate of chemical reactions) similar to how platinum works (but at lower cost). Upon exfoliation (peeling off of successive layers), the material is expected to behave similar to graphene, but with tunable bandgap and electromagnetic properties, suggesting new uses in electronic circuits and new exotic quantum properties in solid-state physics.

* MOFs are hybrid organic-inorganic materials that have traditionally been studied for gas storage or separation applications owing to their high surface area. Making good electrical conductors out of these normally insulating materials has been a long-standing challenge, as highly porous intrinsic conductors could be used for a range of applications, including energy storage.

Abstract of High Electrical Conductivity in Ni3(2,3,6,7,10,11-hexaiminotriphenylene)2, a Semiconducting Metal–Organic Graphene Analogue

Reaction of 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexaaminotriphenylene with Ni2+ in aqueous NH3 solution under aerobic conditions produces Ni3(HITP)2 (HITP = 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexaiminotriphenylene), a new two-dimensional metal–organic framework (MOF). The new material can be isolated as a highly conductive black powder or dark blue-violet films. Two-probe and van der Pauw electrical measurements reveal bulk (pellet) and surface (film) conductivity values of 2 and 40 S·cm–1, respectively, both records for MOFs and among the best for any coordination polymer.

references:

related:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/new-graphene-like-two-dimensional-material-could-improve-energy-storage

How do bilingual infants separate their languages?

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May 19, 2015

Janet Werker, a UBC professor who studies the perception of speech by bilingual infants talks about the differences between bilingual infants and infants who recognise just one language. In figuring out the grammar of a language, for example, bilingual infants can use word frequency as well as pitch and/or duration, whereas a monolingual child may use word frequency alone.

http://news.ubc.ca/2015/05/19/how-do-bilingual-infants-separate-their-languages/

Understanding and preventing ‘bullying’ among youth

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May 19, 2015

UBC professor Shelley Hymel led a comprehensive review of over 40 years of research on bullying among school age youth that was recently published by American Psychologist.

The review includes five articles on various research areas including the long-term effects of bullying, reasons children bully others, and how to translate research into practice

.http://news.ubc.ca/2015/05/19/understanding-and-preventng-bullying-among-youth/

NYU researchers ID part of the brain for processing speech

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A team of New York University neuroscientists has identified a part of the brain exclusively devoted to processing speech. Its findings point to the superior temporal sulcus (STS), located in the temporal lobe, and help settle a long-standing debate about role-specific neurological functions.

“We now know there is at least one part of the brain that specializes in the processing of speech and doesn’t have a role in handling other sounds,” explains David Poeppel, the paper’s senior author, a professor in NYU’s Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science.

The study, which appears in the journal Nature Neuroscience, sought to address a decades-old uncertainty–and dispute–in neural science: are there certain regions of the brain exclusively dedicated to managing speech, thereby ignoring other sounds, such as music or animal noises?

To address this question, the researchers conducted a series of experiments in which the study’s subjects listened to speech as well as to other types of “environmental” sounds that ranged from fireworks to ping pong to dogs barking.

To ensure that the subjects were responding to speech sounds rather than to a language that was already familiar to them, the researchers used recorded German-language words–which none of the subjects understood–rather than English ones. In this way, the method aimed to solely measure the brain’s detection of speech, which involves listening and speaking, rather than language, which involves constructing and understanding sentences.

To further disguise the origins of both the speech and environmental sounds, the researchers developed a series of audio “quilts”–sound segments, ranging from 30 to 900 milliseconds, in which words or natural sounds were chopped up and reordered. With this method, the researchers could help ensure that the study’s subjects were responding only to audio cues rather than guessing their origins–and thus possibly activating parts of the brain not relevant to sound detection.

During these procedures, the researchers gauged subjects’ neurological responses–in multiple parts of the brain–using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The results showed expected activity in response to all types of sounds in the temporal lobe’s auditory cortex. However, moving further down in this region–to the STS–the results showed activity only in detecting speech sounds, suggesting that this part of the brain is reserved for spotting the spoken word.

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The study’s other co-authors included Tobias Overath, Josh H McDermott, and Jean Mary Zarate–all NYU post-doctoral fellows at the time of the study.

This work was supported, in part, by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (2R01DC05660).

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

Scientists Pinpoint a Speech Center in Brain

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MONDAY, May 18, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Researchers say they’ve pinpointed a part of the brain that processes speech.

The finding about the superior temporal sulcus — located in the temporal lobe — helps resolve the decades-old question about whether there are certain regions of the brain exclusively dedicated to managing speech, the New York University research team said.

“We now know there is at least one part of the brain that specializes in the processing of speech and doesn’t have a role in handling other sounds,” study senior author David Poeppel, a professor in the department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, said in a university news release.

He and his colleagues scanned the brains of volunteers as they listened to speech and other sounds ranging from dogs barking to ping pong to fireworks. To determine whether the participants were actually responding to speech sounds rather than to a familiar language, the researchers played recorded German words, which none of the participants understood.

All types of sounds triggered activity in the temporal lobe’s auditory cortex. However, only the superior temporal sulcus showed activity in response to the speech sounds, which suggests that it specializes in processing speech, the researchers said.

The study was published May 18 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/health/topics/HealthDay699498_20150518_Scientists_Pinpoint_a_Speech_Center_in_Brain.html#IVEKGR68EJEmGStL.99http://www.philly.com/philly/health/topics/HealthDay699498_20150518_Scientists_Pinpoint_a_Speech_Center_in_Brain.html

Home-brew painkillers: Researchers engineer yeast that can produce opiate drugs

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WENCY LEUNG

What if you could produce powerful painkillers, like codeine or morphine, the same way you brew beer?

It’s an enticing idea, and researchers at the University of Concordia and University of California, Berkeley, say they have engineered yeast that would be able to do just that when added to sugar.

In new studies published in the journals Nature Chemical Biology and PLOS One, the researchers were able to introduce opium-poppy plant genes into yeast to convert sugar into chemical precursors to opiate drugs, including codeine, morphine and oxycodone. The team stopped short of producing opiate molecules outright, but they say their work suggests it can be done, and a wide range of other drugs could be produced in a similar way.

Although the actual brewing process was no different from fermenting beer, engineering the yeast was a complicated endeavour. Since opium poppies naturally produce codeine and morphine, the researchers first had to identify all the genes of the poppy plant. They then introduced these genes into a strain of yeast, commonly used to make wine, beer and bread. Then, with much tinkering, they manipulated the yeast and plant metabolism so that they could work together to convert sugar into the molecules that the plant naturally makes.

While Martin says the term “genetic engineering” is too simplistic to describe this new field of science, known as synthetic biology, it can perhaps best be understood as “biological engineering on steroids” or “genetic engineering to the extreme.”

Doing this commercially is still a long way off. But Martin suggests producing drugs with yeast, rather than extracting them from plants, could be more efficient for pharmaceutical companies and more environmentally sustainable. The process could potentially be adapted to create other drugs, such as antibiotics or anti-cancer therapies, and to produce new molecules not found in nature that could be used to develop new medications – a prospect that Martin believes has huge potential. “Now you’re talking about a drug discovery tool by large-scale genetic engineering.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/home-brew-drugs-researchers-engineer-yeast-that-can-produce-painkillers/article24475595/

Ocumetics Bionic Lens could give you vision 3x better than 20/20

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Clinical trials still needed before device can be approved

By Camille Bains, The Canadian Press Posted: May 18, 2015 3:03 PM ET Last Updated: May 18, 2015 3:28 PM ET

Dr. Garth Webb holds a bionic lens he developed on the tip of his finger. He says inserting it would be a painless procedure, identical to cataract surgery, that would take about eight minutes. A patient's sight would be immediately corrected.

Dr. Garth Webb holds a bionic lens he developed on the tip of his finger. He says inserting it would be a painless procedure, identical to cataract surgery, that would take about eight minutes. A patient’s sight would be immediately corrected. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)

(Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.)

Imagine being able to see three times better than 20/20 vision without wearing glasses or contacts — even at age 100 or more — with the help of bionic lenses implanted in your eyes.

Dr. Garth Webb, an optometrist in British Columbia who invented the Ocumetics Bionic Lens, says patients would have perfect vision and that driving, progressive and contact lenses would become a dim memory as the eye-care industry is transformed.

Bionic Lens 20150518

Dr. Garth Webb says the bionic lens would allow people to see to infinity and replace the need for eyeglasses and contact lenses. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)

Webb says people who have the specialized lenses surgically inserted would never get cataracts because their natural lenses, which decay over time, would have been replaced.

Perfect eyesight would result “no matter how crummy your eyes are,” Webb says, adding the Bionic Lens would be an option for someone who depends on corrective lenses and is over about age 25, when the eye structures are fully developed.

“This is vision enhancement that the world has never seen before,” he says, showing a Bionic Lens, which looks like a tiny button.

“If you can just barely see the clock at 10 feet, when you get the Bionic Lens you can see the clock at 30 feet away,” says Webb, demonstrating how a custom-made lens that folded like a taco in a saline-filled syringe would be placed in an eye, where it would unravel itself within 10 seconds.

8-minute surgery

He says the painless procedure, identical to cataract surgery, would take about eight minutes and a patient’s sight would be immediately corrected.

Webb, who is the CEO of Ocumetics Technology Corp., has spent the last eight years and about $3 million researching and developing the Bionic Lens, getting international patents and securing a biomedical manufacturing facility in Delta, B.C.

Close up of eye

Webb says people who have the specialized lenses surgically inserted would never get cataracts because their natural lenses, which decay over time, would have been replaced. (Laitr Keiows/Wikicommons)

His mission is fuelled by the “obsession” he’s had to free himself and others from corrective lenses since he was in Grade 2, when he was saddled with glasses.

“My heroes were cowboys, and cowboys just did not wear glasses,” Webb says.

“At age 45 I had to struggle with reading glasses, which like most people, I found was a great insult. To this day I curse my progressive glasses. I also wear contact lenses, which I also curse just about every day.”

Webb’s efforts culminated in his recent presentation of the lens to 14 top ophthalmologists in San Diego the day before an annual gathering of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery.

Dr. Vincent DeLuise, an ophthalmologist who teaches at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., and at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, says he arranged several meetings on April 17, when experts in various fields learned about the lens.

He says the surgeons, from Canada, the United States, Australia and the Dominican Republic, were impressed with what they heard and some will be involved in clinical trials for Webb’s “very clever” invention.

“There’s a lot of excitement about the Bionic Lens from very experienced surgeons who perhaps had some cynicism about this because they’ve seen things not work in the past. They think that this might actually work and they’re eager enough that they all wish to be on the medical advisory board to help him on his journey,” DeLuise says.

“I think this device is going to bring us closer to the holy grail of excellent vision at all ranges — distant, intermediate and near.”

Clinical trials on animals, blind humans

Pending clinical trials on animals and then blind human eyes, the Bionic Lens could be available in Canada and elsewhere in about two years, depending on regulatory processes in various countries, Webb says.

Bionic Lens 20150518

The custom-made lens, folded like a taco in a saline-filled syringe, would be injected in an eye, where it would unravel itself within 10 seconds. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)

As for laser surgery, which requires the burning away of healthy corneal tissue and includes potential problems with glare, the need for night-time driving glasses and later cataracts, Webb says the Bionic Lens may make that option obsolete.

Alongside his Bionic Lens venture, Webb has set up a foundation called the Celebration of Sight, which would donate money to organizations providing eye surgery in developing countries to improve people’s quality of life.

“Perfect eyesight should be a human right,” he says.

DeLuise, who has been asked to manage the foundation, says funds would also be funnelled to some of the world’s best eye research institutes.

“He has the technology that may make all of this happen,” he says, adding several companies have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to develop a similar lens, though none have come close.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/ocumetics-bionic-lens-could-give-you-vision-3x-better-than-20-20-1.3078257