A forward-thinking sustainability strategy, ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets and innovative clean energy projects have helped the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus earn the highest rating among Canadian universities for sustainability in the newest version of an internationally recognized rating system.

With its second consecutive Gold rating from the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS), an assessment tool developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), UBC achieved a score in the top 10 of all institutions currently rated under the latest version of STARS 2.0. Among universities with an enrolment of more than 30,000, UBC rated second-highest overall.

“I am delighted that UBC’s efforts in sustainability have once again been recognized at the highest level by STARS,” said Martha Piper, interim president of UBC. “This recognition is further proof of our commitment to leadership in global sustainability through groundbreaking research, education and innovative projects on campus.”

James Tansey
James Tansey

“This achievement is a result of our long-standing commitment to sustainability and efforts to transform our campus into a living laboratory where scholars, researchers and operations staff collaborate to address pressing global sustainability challenges,” said James Tansey, director of the UBC Sustainability Initiative.

To achieve its Gold rating, UBC, which launched Canada’s first sustainability office in 1997, was assessed across academics, engagement, operations, and planning and administration. It also received the maximum available “innovation credits” for its initiatives, including a 20-year sustainability strategy, behavioural research in support of creating a zero-waste campus, UBC Farm’s Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, and energy system upgrades to reduce UBC’s thermal energy use and GHG emissions.

“STARS provides a robust platform to measure our sustainability progress over time, assess gaps and opportunities to improve sustainability performance, and receive external recognition for sustainability efforts across campus,” said Michael White, associate vice-president of campus and community planning.

UBC offers over 600 sustainability-oriented courses and over 40 sustainability-related programs. Operationally, UBC remains on track to achieve the ambitious GHG emission reduction targets established in 2010 with the Vancouver Campus Climate Action Plan, which set targets to reduce emissions 33 per cent by 2015, 67 per cent by 2020, and 100 per cent by 2050, compared to 2007 levels.

For information about ongoing sustainability achievements and initiatives at UBC, visit sustain.ubc.ca

BACKGROUND

About STARS: STARS is a sustainability evaluation tool developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). With more than 650 participants on six continents, AASHE’s STARS program is the most widely recognized framework in the world for publicly reporting comprehensive information related to a college or university’s sustainability performance.

UBC Vancouver campus emission reductions: In 2013, UBC’s Vancouver campus emissions decreased 14 per cent from 2007 levels, despite an 11 per cent increase in building floor space and a 16 per cent increase in student enrolment. In 2014, UBC reached a reduction of 22 per cent over 2007 levels. Going forward, UBC will continue to embed sustainability across teaching, learning and research, operations and infrastructure, as well as community initiatives to address improvements in human and environmental wellbeing.

Highlights of UBC’s sustainability initiatives:

Twenty-Year Sustainability Strategy: In 2014, UBC completed a 20-year sustainability strategy for UBC’s Vancouver campus, which outlines a framework embedding next generation regenerative sustainability across teaching, learning, research, partnerships, operations and infrastructure, and the community.

Zero Waste Psychology Research: Innovative research conducted at UBC’s Brain and Attention Research (BAR) Lab in the Department of Psychology, in partnership with Metro Vancouver, was used to inform best practices in recycling signage to influence behaviour change, both on campus and across the Metro Vancouver region.

The Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm: Integrating interdisciplinary academic, community, and production programs to explore and exemplify healthy and sustainable food systems, the centre engages 60,000 students, staff, faculty, volunteers, community members and visitors each year.

District Energy System Upgrades: UBC’s Academic District Energy System Steam to Hot Water Conversion Project will reduce UBC’s thermal energy use by 24 by per cent and GHG emissions by over 22 per cent, the equivalent of reducing 11,000 tonnes of GHG emissions, or taking 2,000 cars off the road.

UBC’s STARS sustainability achievements 2013/2014:

14 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in 2013, compared to 2007 levels
91 per cent of construction and demolition waste diverted from the landfill
46 per cent of institutional waste diverted from the landfill
636 courses include sustainability
444 faculty engaged in sustainability research
896 students, staff and faculty participants in Social, Ecological, Development Studies (SEEDS) sustainability research program
40 Greenest City Scholars projects completed in partnership with the City of Vancouver
94 per cent of cleaning products GreenSeal/EcoLogo certified
71 per cent of campus users take transit, walk, cycle, or carpool to campus
Find other stories about: AASHE, Assessment & Rating System (STARS), Greenhouse gas, James Tansey, Martha Piper, STARS 2.0, sustainability, Sustainability Tracking

UBC named top Canadian university in sustainability

Could benefit a large population of patients with neurodegenerative disorders
October 26, 2015
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Drugs used to treat a variety of central nervous system diseases may be administered through the nose and diffused through an implanted mucosal graft (left, in red) to gain access to the brain. Under normal circumstances, there are multiple layers within the nose that block the access of pharmaceutical agents from getting to the brain, including bone and the dura/arachnoid membrane, which represents part of the blood-brain barrier (top right). After endoscopic skull base surgery (bottom right), all of these layers are removed and replaced with a nasal mucosal graft, which is 1,000 times more porous than the native blood-brain barrier. So these grafts may be used to deliver very large drugs, including proteins, which would otherwise be blocked by the blood-brain barrier. (credit: Garyfallia Pagonis and Benjamin S. Bleier, M.D.)

Researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School and Boston University have developed a new technique to deliver drugs across the blood-brain barrier and have successfully tested it in a Parkinson’s mouse model (a line of mice that has been genetically modified to express the symptoms and pathological features of Parkinson’s to various extents).

Their findings, published in the journal Neurosurgery, lend hope to patients with neurological conditions that are difficult to treat due to a barrier mechanism that prevents approximately 98 percent of drugs from reaching the brain and central nervous system.

“Although we are currently looking at neurodegenerative disease, there is potential for the technology to be expanded to psychiatric diseases, chronic pain, seizure disorders, and many other conditions affecting the brain and nervous system down the road,” said senior author Benjamin S. Bleier, M.D., of the department of otolaryngology at Mass. Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School.

The nasal mucosal grafting solution

After nasal mucosal grafting (see illustration), researchers delivered glial derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), a therapeutic protein in testing for treating Parkinson’s disease, to the brains of mice. They showed that their delivery method was equivalent to direct injection of GDNF, which has been shown to delay and even reverse disease progression of Parkinson’s disease in pre-clinical models.

Nasal mucosal grafting is a technique regularly used in the ENT (ear, nose, and throat) field to reconstruct the barrier around the brain after surgery to the skull base. ENT surgeons commonly use endoscopic approaches to remove brain tumors through the nose by making a window through the blood-brain barrier to access the brain.

Once they have finished the treatment, they use adjacent nasal lining to rebuild the hole in a permanent and safe way. The safety and efficacy of these methods have been well established through long-term clinical outcomes studies in the field, with the nasal lining protecting the brain from infection just as the blood brain barrier has done.

By functionally replacing a section of the blood-brain barrier with nasal mucosa, which is more than 1,000 times more permeable than the native barrier, surgeons could create a “screen door” to allow for drug delivery to the brain and central nervous system.

The technique has the potential to benefit a large population of patients with neurodegenerative disorders, where there is still a specific unmet need for blood-brain-penetrating therapeutic delivery strategies.

The study was funded by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF).

Abstract of Heterotopic Mucosal Grafting Enables the Delivery of Therapeutic Neuropeptides Across the Blood Brain Barrier

BACKGROUND: The blood-brain barrier represents a fundamental limitation in treating neurological disease because it prevents all neuropeptides from reaching the central nervous system (CNS). Currently, there is no efficient method to permanently bypass the blood-brain barrier.

OBJECTIVE: To test the feasibility of using nasal mucosal graft reconstruction of arachnoid defects to deliver glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) for the treatment of Parkinson disease in a mouse model.

METHODS: The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee approved this study in an established murine 6-hydroxydopamine Parkinson disease model. A parietal craniotomy and arachnoid defect was repaired with a heterotopic donor mucosal graft. The therapeutic efficacy of GDNF (2 [mu]g/mL) delivered through the mucosal graft was compared with direct intrastriatal GDNF injection (2 [mu]g/mL) and saline control through the use of 2 behavioral assays (rotarod and apomorphine rotation). An immunohistological analysis was further used to compare the relative preservation of substantia nigra cell bodies between treatment groups.

RESULTS: Transmucosal GDNF was equivalent to direct intrastriatal injection at preserving motor function at week 7 in both the rotarod and apomorphine rotation behavioral assays. Similarly, both transmucosal and intrastriatal GDNF demonstrated an equivalent ratio of preserved substantia nigra cell bodies (0.79 +/- 0.14 and 0.78 +/- 0.09, respectively, P = NS) compared with the contralateral control side, and both were significantly greater than saline control (0.53 +/- 0.21; P = .01 and P = .03, respectively).

CONCLUSION: Transmucosal delivery of GDNF is equivalent to direct intrastriatal injection at ameliorating the behavioral and immunohistological features of Parkinson disease in a murine model. Mucosal grafting of arachnoid defects is a technique commonly used for endoscopic skull base reconstruction and may represent a novel method to permanently bypass the blood-brain barrier.

references:
Bleier, Benjamin S. MD; Kohman, Richie E. PhD; Guerra, Kevin BS; Nocera, Angela L. MS; Ramanlal, Shreshtha BS; Kocharyan, Armine H. MD; Curry, William T. MD; Han, Xue PhD. Heterotopic Mucosal Grafting Enables the Delivery of Therapeutic Neuropeptides Across the Blood Brain Barrier. Neurosurgery, 2015; DOI: 10.1227/NEU.0000000000001016
related:
Researchers develop drug delivery technique to bypass blood-brain barrier

http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-drug-delivery-technique-to-bypass-the-blood-brain-barrier

October 26, 2015

Georgia Tech | Algorithm allows robot to fall gracefully

Researchers at Georgia Tech are teaching robots how to fall with grace and without serious damage.

This is becoming important as costly robots become more common in manufacturing, healthcare, and domestic tasks.

Ph.D. graduate Sehoon Ha and Professor Karen Liu developed a new algorithm that tells a robot how to react to a wide variety of falls, from a single step to recover from a gentle nudge to a rolling motion that breaks a high-speed fall. The idea is learn the best sequence of movements to slow their momentum and minimize the damage or injury they might cause to themselves or others while falling.

“Our work unified existing research about how to teach robots to fall by giving them a tool to automatically determine the total number of contacts (how many hands shoved it, for example), the order of contacts, and the position and timing of those contacts,” said Ha, now a postdoctoral associate at Disney Research Pittsburgh. “All of that impacts the potential of a fall and changes the robot’s response.”

The algorithm was validated in physics simulation and experimentally tested on a BioloidGP humanoid.

With the latest finding, Ha builds upon Liu’s previous research that studied how cats modify their bodies in the midst of a fall. Liu knew from that work that one of the most important factors in a fall is the angle of the landing.

“From previous work, we knew a robot had the computational know-how to achieve a softer landing, but it didn’t have the hardware to move quickly enough like a cat,” Liu said. “Our new planning algorithm takes into account the hardware constraints and the capabilities of the robot, and suggests a sequence of contacts so the robot gradually can slow itself down.”

They suggest robots may soon fall more gracefully than people — and possibly even cats.

DARPA TV | A Celebration of Risk (a.k.a., Robots Take a Spill)

Abstract of Multiple Contact Planning for Minimizing Damage of Humanoid Falls

This paper introduces a new planning algorithm to minimize the damage of humanoid falls by utilizing multiple contact points. Given an unstable initial state of the robot, our approach plans for the optimal sequence of contact points such that the initial momentum is dissipated with minimal impacts on the robot. Instead of switching among a collection of individual control strategies, we propose a general algorithm which plans for appropriate responses to a wide variety of falls, from a single step to recover a gentle nudge, to a rolling motion to break a high-speed fall. Our algorithm transforms the falling problem into a sequence of inverted pendulum problems and use dynamic programming to solve the optimization efficiently. The planning algorithm is validated in physics simulation and experimentally tested on a BioloidGP humanoid.

references:
Sehoon Ha and C. Karen Liu. Multiple Contact Planning for Minimizing Damage of Humanoid Falls. IEEE IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2015 (open access)
related:
How to fall gracefully if you’re a robot

http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-to-fall-gracefully-if-youre-a-robot

Distraction rated “high” for most devices while driving
October 26, 2015
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This graphic shows the mental distraction scores of three smartphone personal assistants and 10 in-vehicle infotainment systems for using voice commands in cars to call contacts, dial phone numbers or change music. The smartphone assistants’ scores were 0.3 points higher than shown if a driver also sent text messages using them. (credit: AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety)

If you think it is okay to talk to your car infotainment system or smartphone while driving or even when stopped at a red light, think again. It takes up to 27 seconds to regain full attention after issuing voice commands, University of Utah researchers found in two new studies for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

One of the studies showed that it is highly distracting to use hands-free voice commands to dial phone numbers, call contacts, change music, and send texts with Microsoft Cortana, Apple Siri and Google Now smartphone personal assistants.

Mazda 2015 steering wheel and dashboard. Phone calls can be dialed or received via Bluetooth on the steering wheel and the display has multiple screens for phone directory, radio, Sirius XM, and GPS. (credit: Landmark MAZDA)

The other study examined voice-dialing, voice-contact calling, and music selection using in-vehicle information or “infotainment” systems in 10 model-year 2015 vehicles. Three were rated as moderately distracting, six as highly distracting and the system in the 2015 Mazda 6 as very highly distracting.

The research also found that, contrary to what some may believe, practice with voice-recognition systems doesn’t eliminate distraction. The studies also showed older drivers — those most likely to buy autos with infotainment systems — are much more distracted than younger drivers when giving voice commands.

But the most surprising finding was that a driver traveling only 25 mph continues to be distracted for up to 27 seconds after disconnecting from highly distracting phone and car voice-command systems, and up to 15 seconds after disconnecting from the moderately distracting systems. The 27 seconds means a driver traveling 25 mph would cover the length of three football fields before regaining full attention.

“Many of these systems have been put into cars with a voice-recognition system to control entertainment: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facetime, etc. We now are trying to entertain the driver rather than keep the driver’s attention on the road.”

The new AAA reports urge that voice activated, in-vehicle information systems “ought not to be used indiscriminately” while driving, and advise that “caution is warranted” in smart-phone use while driving.

The studies are fifth and sixth since 2013 by University of Utah psychologists and funded by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. AAA formerly was known as the American Automobile Association. Strayer and Cooper ran the studies with Utah psychology doctoral students Joanna Turrill, James Coleman and Rachel Hopman.

The ratings: In-car systems and smartphone assistants are distracting

The previous Utah-AAA studies devised a five-point scale: 1 mild distraction, 2 moderate distraction, 3 high distraction, 4 very high distraction and 5 maximum distraction. Those studies showed cellphone calls were moderately distracting, with scores of 2.5 for hand-held calls and 2.3 for hands-free calls. Listening to a book on tape rated mild distraction at 1.7. Listening to the radio rated 1.2.

One of the new studies found mild distraction for in-vehicle information systems in the Chevy Equinox with MyLink (2.4), Buick Lacrosse with IntelliLink (2.4) and Toyota 4Runner with Entune (2.9).

High distraction systems were the Ford Taurus with Sync MyFord Touch (3.1), Chevy Malibu with MyLink (3.4), Volkswagen Passat with Car-Net (3.5), Nissan Altima with Nissan Connect (3.7), Chrysler 200c with Uconnect (3.8) and Hyundai Sonata with Blue Link (3.8). The Mazda 6’s Connect system rated very highly distracting (4.6).

In some cases, the same voice-command system (like Chevy MyLink) got different distraction scores in different models – something the researchers speculate is due to varying amounts of road noise and use of different in-vehicle microphones.

The second new study found all three major smartphone personal assistants either highly or very highly distracting. Two scores were given to each voice-based system: A lower number for using voice commands only to make calls or change music when driving — the same tasks done with the in-car systems — and a higher number that also included using smartphones to send texts by voice commands.

In 2013, 3,154 people died and 424,000 others were injured in motor vehicle crashes on U.S. roads involving driver distraction, says the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The study reports, which are listed below, are open-access.

references:
Measuring Cognitive Distraction in the Automobile III: A Comparison of Ten 2015 In-Vehicle Information Systems
The Smartphone and the Driver’s Cognitive Workload: A Comparison of Apple, Google, and Microsoft’s Intelligent Personal Assistants
related:
Up to 27 seconds of inattention after talking to your car or smartphone

http://www.kurzweilai.net/up-to-27-seconds-of-inattention-after-talking-to-your-car-or-smartphone

Apple is considered the coolest brand for wearables, according to a poll of just over 2,000 smartphone users.

The maker of the Apple Watch earned its status pitted against 20 other brands in the results of a survey released Monday by Juniper Research. The smartwatch market is moving toward a two-company race between Apple and Samsung, with more than 75 percent of those polled giving a thumbs-up to one of those two tech titans, Juniper said.

The Apple Watch may be the “coolest” kid on the wearables block, but does that mean it’s generating sales? Unlike with the iPhone or iPad, Apple doesn’t break out how many watches it sells. However, the Apple Watch took the No. 2 spot in estimated sales in a report released late August by research firm International Data Corporation (IDC). Apple was pegged at shipping 3.6 million watches during the second quarter, accounting for almost 20 percent of the market. The No. 1 spot went to Fitbit, maker of activity trackers, not smartwatches, which shipped 4.4 million wearables.

Amid a host of fitness bands and smartwatches, the Apple Watch commands a premium price. That’s a drawback, at least to poll respondents, half of them in the US and the other half in the UK. Only one in five said they’d be willing to pay more than $175 for a wearable of any sort. The Apple Watch comes in three flavors, none that cheap: the entry-level Sport version starts at $349, the Apple Watch starts at $549 and the Apple Watch Edition starts at $10,000.

Even among “tech savvy buyers,” the potential value for certain wearable devices remains unclear. Devices dedicated strictly to health and fitness offer not just a lower price tag but a more definitive purpose than do other types of wearables.

“As well as a more definite use, fitness devices also win on value,” Juniper Research analyst James Moar said in a statement. “They are the least costly wearables in the market, and the only category consistently under $175, which our survey identifies as the price ceiling for most consumers.”

Still, Apple has at least one factor in its favor. Tech players were ranked the best for wearable devices, ahead of fashion and sports brands, and Apple, Samsung, Google, LG and Sony grabbed the top five spots for coolest brand for wearables. Fashion brands such as Tag Heuer and Ralph Lauren were further down the list, while sports brands such as Adidas and Garmin didn’t rate high on the cool factor.

Limited battery life has been cited as an obstacle for wearables, but only 4 percent of those polled said this would prevent them from buying a device.

Finally, respondents who have iPhones topped those packing Android devices in saying they were likely to buy a wearable in the near future, but there was little difference in the type of device they would purchase, Juniper said. Smartwatches equipped with Android Wear, Google’s mobile software for wearables, support the iPhone, albeit with several limitations. But the Apple Watch doesn’t work with Android phones, leaving the device’s potential audience limited to users of Apple devices.

http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-watch-voted-coolest-wearable-device/

DARPA-funded study may lead to building prosthetic limbs for humans using a direct brain electrode interface to recreate the sense of touch
October 26, 2015

(credit: DARPA)

Neuroscientists in a project headed by the University of Chicago have determined some of the specific characteristics of electrical stimuli that should be applied to the brain to produce different sensations in an artificial upper limb intended to restore natural motor control and sensation in amputees.

The research is part of Revolutionizing Prosthetics, a multi-year Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Experimental setup for investigating the ability of monkeys to detect and discriminate trains of electrical pulses delivered to their somatosensory cortex through chronically implanted electrode arrays (credit: Sungshin Kima et al./PNAS)

For this study, the researchers used monkeys, whose sensory systems closely resemble those of humans. They implanted electrodes into the primary somatosensory cortex, the area of the brain that processes touch information from the hand. The animals were trained to perform two perceptual tasks: one in which they detected the presence of an electrical stimulus, and a second task in which they indicated which of two successive stimuli was more intense.

The sense of touch is made up of a complex and nuanced set of sensations, from contact and pressure to texture, vibration and movement. The goal of the research is to document the range, composition and specific increments of signals that create sensations that feel different from each other.

Chronically implanted electrode arrays in a monkey brain. (Left) one 96-electrode array (UEA) was implanted in area 1 (green) of the somatosensory cortex and two 16-electrode arrays (FMA) were implanted in area 3b (yellow). (Center) Colors correspond to the 96 and 16 electrodes. (Right) Colors indicate which electrodes mapped to corresponding hand areas. (credit: Sungshin Kima et al./PNAS)

To achieve that, the researchers manipulated various features of the electrical pulse train, such as its amplitude, frequency, and duration, and noted how the interaction of each of these factors affected the animals’ ability to detect the signal.

Of specific interest were the “just-noticeable differences” (JND),” — the incremental changes needed to produce a sensation that felt different. For instance, at a certain frequency, the signal may be detectable first at a strength of 20 microamps of electricity. If the signal has to be increased to 50 microamps to notice a difference, the JND in that case is 30 microamps.*

“When you grasp an object, for example, you can hold it with different grades of pressure. To recreate a realistic sense of touch, you need to know how many grades of pressure you can convey through electrical stimulation,” said Sliman Bensmaia, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago and senior author of the study, which was published today (Oct. 26) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Ideally, you can have the same dynamic range for artificial touch as you do for natural touch.”

“This study gets us to the point where we can actually create real algorithms that work. It gives us the parameters as to what we can achieve with artificial touch, and brings us one step closer to having human-ready algorithms.”

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Johns Hopkins University were also involved in the DARPA-supported study.

* The study also has important scientific implications beyond neuroprosthetics. In natural perception, a principle known as Weber’s Law states that the just-noticeable difference between two stimuli is proportional to the size of the stimulus. For example, with a 100-watt light bulb, you might be able to detect a difference in brightness by increasing its power to 110 watts. The JND in that case is 10 watts. According to Weber’s Law, if you double the power of the light bulb to 200 watts, the JND would also be doubled to 20 watts.

However, Bensmaia’s research shows that with electrical stimulation of the brain, Weber’s Law does not apply — the JND remains nearly constant, no matter the size of the stimulus. This means that the brain responds to electrical stimulation in a much more repeatable, consistent way than through natural stimulation.

“It shows that there is something fundamentally different about the way the brain responds to electrical stimulation than it does to natural stimulation,” Bensmaia said.

Abstract of Behavioral assessment of sensitivity to intracortical microstimulation of primate somatosensory cortex

Intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) is a powerful tool to investigate the functional role of neural circuits and may provide a means to restore sensation for patients for whom peripheral stimulation is not an option. In a series of psychophysical experiments with nonhuman primates, we investigate how stimulation parameters affect behavioral sensitivity to ICMS. Specifically, we deliver ICMS to primary somatosensory cortex through chronically implanted electrode arrays across a wide range of stimulation regimes. First, we investigate how the detectability of ICMS depends on stimulation parameters, including pulse width, frequency, amplitude, and pulse train duration. Then, we characterize the degree to which ICMS pulse trains that differ in amplitude lead to discriminable percepts across the range of perceptible and safe amplitudes. We also investigate how discriminability of pulse amplitude is modulated by other stimulation parameters—namely, frequency and duration. Perceptual judgments obtained across these various conditions will inform the design of stimulation regimes for neuroscience and neuroengineering applications.

references:
Sungshin Kim, Thierri Callier, Gregg A. Tabot, Robert A. Gaunt, Francesco V. Tenore, and Sliman J. Bensmaia. Behavioral assessment of sensitivity to intracortical microstimulation of primate somatosensory cortex. PNAS 2015; doi:10.1073/pnas.1509265112

http://www.kurzweilai.net/creating-an-artificial-sense-of-touch-by-electrical-stimulation-of-the-brain

Pinole, CA — (SBWIRE) — 10/26/2015 — Dr. Gary Lew, DDS excitedly announced today that his new dental practice, Pinole Dental, has opened its doors and accepting new patients. The practice specializes in General and Cosmetic dentistry including oral examinations, dental x-rays, teeth cleaning, bridge work as well as crowns and fillings. The experienced dentists on staff at the practice are highly skilled and capable of providing services to children and adults.

We are very excited to announce the opening of our new practice. All of our dentists are highly regarded in their specific fields with stellar reputations. We are committed to providing the community with the highest standard dental services that will help our customers feel more confident about their smile at a fraction of the cost.

The friendly office staff can assist patients with any questions they may have and scheduling their first appointment. The newly constructed facility includes some of the most recent technology and equipment available to dental practitioners including high-definition television monitors that allow patients to view photographs of their dental x-rays.

The team of dentists and staff at Pinole Dental pride themselves on providing the community with affordable dental services. Pinole Dental offers its patients with a free replacement guarantee policy to ensure that they will leave their office 100-percent satisfied with the services they receive.

I went to Pinole Dental for a second opinion about some dental work that my previous dentist recommended. Thanks to the friendly reception staff, the thorough examination that I received, and the affordable price on the services that I received, I have decided to switch to Pinole Dental for all of my future dental needs.

About Pinole Dental
Pinole Dental provides exceptional dental services, including General Dentistry and Cosmetic Dentistry to the Pinole, California community. The highly skilled team of dentists and staff provide over 30 years of cumulative experience to offer patients with the highest quality dental services at an affordable price.

If you would like more information about the services offered by Pinole Dental, please contact Dr. Gary Lew, DDS at 650-550-8338 or email at pinoledental@gmail.com

New patients can schedule their first appointment online at http://www.pinoledental.com or by calling 650-550-8338

Contact
Dr. Gary Lew, DDS
Telephone: 650-550-8338
Address: 2550 Appian Way #221, Pinole, CA 94564
Email: pinoledental@gmail.com
Website: http://www.pinoledental.com

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/pinole-dental-office-opens-in-pinole-california-636056.htm

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/2719725#ixzz3phjL8tJJ

Marilynn Marchione
People with knees worn out by arthritis will get more pain relief from joint replacement surgery, but it has more risks and there’s a good chance that less drastic approaches also would help. That’s the bottom line from the first study to strictly test other treatments against knee replacement, an operation done hundreds of thousands of times a year in the U.S.
“It’s one of the great operations of the 20th century,” yet good evidence of its effectiveness has been lacking, said Dr. Jeffrey Katz, a joint specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
He wrote a commentary that appears with the results in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, and said the right choice will be different for each patient, depending on goals, overall health and whether the person wants to have or avoid surgery.
More than 670,000 total knee replacements are performed annually in the United States, mostly for arthritis, which deteriorates cartilage in the joints.
Medical experts advise trying other things before considering surgery, such as weight loss, physical therapy, exercise and medicines, and many studies show these can help. But for how long is not known, nor are there good comparisons of side effects.
Researchers in Denmark assigned 100 patients to either 12 weeks of non-surgical treatment — physical therapy, exercise, diet advice, special insoles and pain medicine — or surgery followed by 12 weeks of the other treatments.
After one year, the surgery group improved twice as much as the others did on scores for pain, activities of daily living and quality of life. However, two-thirds of those not given surgery still had a meaningful improvement, and only one-fourth of them ended up having surgery within the year.
Complications were more frequent with surgery, including several serious deep-vein clots, a fracture and a deep infection. And other studies show that surgery “is not universally successful,” and that 1 in 5 patients still has some pain six months later, Katz wrote.
Others viewed the results as a clear victory for surgery.
“This certainly adds to the evidence that what we’re doing is effective and improves patients’ quality of life,” said Dr. Joshua Jacobs, a joint surgeon at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and spokesman for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Many people get relief with therapy but ultimately need surgery when arthritis worsens, he said.
Lynnette Friend, a retired mail carrier from Crown Point, Indiana, tried joint-lubricating shots before having a knee replaced five years ago. She plans to have the other one done in January.
“This time I just went ahead and went for the knee replacement,” she said. “There’s not much that can be done when it really starts to deteriorate.”
Kenneth Rose, a retired Chicago police officer, also tried shots before having a knee replaced in 2011. When the other one worsened, he had it replaced in May, and now is able to lose weight and walk a couple miles a day with his wife.
“I wish I had done it sooner,” he said. “It’s such a pleasure, really; you don’t realize how great it is to be able to go outside and take a walk.”
Soren Skou at Aalborg University Hospital Science and Innovation Center in Aalborg, Denmark, led the study.
The results give “convincing” evidence that surgery helps, but that there are trade-offs on risks, said Dr. David C. Goodman at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.
His advice:
» Don’t feel pushed or locked into a choice; get more than one opinion, and remember you always can choose surgery later if you try something else first.
» Consider how well you can handle the disruption of activity and rehabilitation needed after surgery, and how much help you’ll have.
» Get a clear estimate of what it will cost you.
The operation runs $20,000 to $25,000, but research also suggests it saves money because it keeps people working and active and helps prevent other health problems, Jacobs said.
Marilynn Marchione reports for The Associated Press.

http://www.dailyprogress.com/lifestyles/health-knee-joint-replacements-reduce-pain-but-so-can-less/article_4287f902-79c5-11e5-9018-8f0fe4b70369.html

SCIENTISTS at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have created a two-dimensional excitonic laser.
The scientists embedded a monolayer of tungsten disulfide into a special microdisk resonator, achieving bright excitonic lasing at visible light wavelengths.
According to the scientists, the creation of a laser from a single molecular layer of tungsten disulfide marks a major step towards two-dimensional on-chip optoelectronics for high-performance optical communication and computing applications.
This is especially true because a single layer of tungsten and sulphide is widely regarded as one of the most promising 2D semiconductors for photonic and optoelectronic applications.
Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are one of the most talked about types of materials for nanotechnology. These 2D semiconductors are said to offer superior energy efficiency, conducting electrons much faster than silicon.
Unlike graphene, another 2D semiconductor class, TMDCs have natural bandgaps that allow their electrical conductance to be switched “on and off,” making them more device-ready than graphene.
While single layer tungsten disulfide has been widely regarded as one of the most promising TMDCs for photonic and optoelectronic applications, this is the first time coherent light emission (lasing) has been possible with the material. Lasing is considered essential for on-chip applications.
The results are described in a paper titled “Monolayer excitonic laser”, published in the journal Nature Photonics.

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