Wednesday 19 March 2014

Rediscovery of Knee Ligament Validates 19th Century Paper

Doctors have discovered that an important knee ligament, first described in an 1879 paper, before being subsequently ignored for well over a century, is actually a very real and important body part.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears are a common problem for many athletes. They are notoriously difficult to repair and the recovery is a tough and painful process that can take up to a year. Following treatment, however, many patients still complain of aches and pains and it is not at all uncommon for the joints to fail the necessary pivot-shift tests (performed so the doctors can check the success of their surgeries). Repeat injuries are also inexplicably common.

Last month, it was announced that a team of Flemish doctors appears to have finally solved this persistently vexing riddle and, in so doing, they validated a discovery made over a century ago.

Paul Segond, a 19th century French surgeon who is known for greatly aiding the development of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (as well as describing the Segond fracture), wrote of the ligament as a “pearly, fibrous band” in 1879. Segond posited that it was an additional ligament, but anatomists did not consider the initial discovery to be accurate.

After reading Segond’s paper and deciding that there may be something to it after all, the team of knee surgeons and an anatomist began investigating the possibility that Segond’s mystery ligament was, in fact, a very real part of the Human body.

The team examined the knees of 41 cadavers, finding that 40 of them actually contained Segond’s ligament, just as he’d described it a hundred years earlier.

With this (re)discovery now published and proven, the ligament has been named as the anterolateral ligament (ALL).

The anterolateral ligament joins the other joint structures in the knee considered most important by doctors and anatomists, such as the lateral femoral epicondyle (LFE), lateral collateral ligament (LCL), Gerdy’s tubercle (GT), popliteus tendon (PT), popliteofibular ligament (PFL), and, of course, the aforementioned anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

Surgeons are already considering ways in which to repair ALL tears and damage, with the hopes of improving the quality of life for anyone who suffers any ligament damage to the knees. This rediscovery is likely to become a very significant one in the field of sports and athletics, across both amateur and professional playing fields.

SOURCES

 http://www.scientificamerican.com/gallery_directory.cfm?photo_id=7737D2E0-994F-A7AD-8721A14249EB4E02


Friday 14 March 2014

Who Needs Spy Earpiece?

Can not get over how low-priced the radio accessory is, an incredible deal for any top-end product!


Businessman. What is a successful businessman? It is a successful man who feels confident in front of a large audience. Successful businessman can exhibit his ideas in a convincing manner. And now the question? Do you think he has all these abilities given to him by nature? Of course, they aren’t! You can also feel persuasive and confident if you use spy gsm gadget. You can receive necessary information in real time by this gadget while carrying on negotiations.

Public man. The main advantage of a public man is confidence in front of a large audience. If you is a public man, you always in the center of everybody’s attention. You make no mistakes. But if you sight-read your speech you will lose trust and respect. So the best solution to this problem is again wireless spy earpiece gadgets. Your assistant will make sure you remember all your arguments.

Policies. During the press conference, during an interview at the time of election rallies and debates, you can use the spy arpiece to communicate with your staff, to support communication with your helpers.

Security Guard. It is very difficult to keep the situation under control. Special secrets used by all professional guards are wireless spy earpiece. With the help of this spy gadget you can receive information about what is going on in another place. You can give also instructions to co-workers. Thereby, you can intermingled with the crowd and keep everything under control.

A police officer. You can use the earpiece in anyemergency - it will never fail you. During the special operation,during normal daily raids, during proverkiki premises, while patrolling the streets. In any situation, you can keep in touch with a partner or with a central office.

Student. Cannot but mentioning students as the basic users of the spy gadgets. Thanks to the wireless spy earpiece you can pass any exam without sleepless nights. According to researches, the most of students who use the spy gadgets not careless people. On the contrary, they are people which on some reasons make it impossible to get ready to the exam in time.

Unemployed. When searching for a new jobyou will need to spy earpiece. You will be ableto pass any job interview and get a paying job.You only need to buy the spy earpiece and you will be hired to work on that dream.

These are some professions that need assistance. But this list is not limited only by refer careers. Now you know the key to success. So do not waste your time to achieve your purpose with the help of an outstanding spy gadget – wireless spy earpiece. Spy Earpiece Store offers their customers wide array of spy earpieces.


2 way radio instead of cell phone?

Asked by Bradley from Surrey

The short answer to your question is ‘yes’. Quite an emphatic ‘yes’, in fact.

If you’re a bigger company, then it is likely that the service fees for cellular devices alone are costing you mucho dinero, to say nothing of the cost of the devices themselves.

In the course of researching this answer, I came across a case study on the official Motorola web site. The study concerned a Marriott hotel out in America (it was San Antonio, Texas, if you’re interested in looking it up) that switched to Motorola radios instead of cellular push-to-talk devices. According to the article, the company saved $14,000 a month in service fees alone.

walkie talkie vs cell phone


Another benefit is a bit more intangible. Obviously, I don’t need to tell you that customer satisfaction leads to repeat custom. Using radios significantly improves response time to the requests of customers and thus, contributes to their overall satisfaction with your service.

The article says it all pretty well, actually.


Radios have the benefit of offering instant communication, as well as being reliable, affordable and really easy to use. The fact that they are employed in so many areas, from transport, to shipping, to construction work to security (and much more besides), should tell you that they are probably the most cost-effective and reliable communications technology out there right now.

So, to offer a final answer to your question, you will definitely save money if you ditch the push-to-talk cell phones and replace them with two-way radios. In addition, you will almost certainly make your staff more available to customers and thus improve customer service all around. Push-to-talk cell devices aren’t terrible equipment, but they aren’t anything like as proven or reliable as two-way radios or digital two-ways.

I hope that helps, Bradley. Good luck with the future.


Sunday 9 March 2014

The Gadget with a Thousand Uses: How Science Fiction has Become Science Fact

When Francis Bacon wrote, “books must follow sciences, and not sciences books” it was 1657 and movies had yet to be invented, but I think, after reading the above quote, we can be fairly certain what his attitude would’ve been to the cinema…Well, here in the 21st century movies certainly do follow science, but sometimes they go one better and imagine bold new discoveries first…

A great many inventions have migrated from our imaginations and into our reality over the centuries. To some degree, imagination is the first step for every invention. In recent years, however, there seems to have been more ‘science fiction’ technology coming into reality than ever before…

But before we get to that, here are a few classic examples: Persian polymath (and personal hero) Al Jazari first imagined (and built) robots as far back as the 12th Century AD. Italian master inventor and artist Leonardo Da Vinci first conceptualised the helicopter, solar power and the calculator back in the 15th-16th centuries and in 1901, ‘Wizard of Oz’ author L. Frank Baum dreamed up a ‘character marker’ that took the form of a pair of glasses and worked in much the same way that AR (augmented reality) technology does today.

But that’s not all, not by a long shot.

The space craft first imagined by writer H.G Wells in ‘The First Men on the Moon’ became a reality in 1969 and, if British physics professor and sometime pop star Brian Cox is right, Wells’ time machine may not be too far away either (although, as always with time, its all relative).

Another favourite of mine was the elaborate setup of tape recorders employed by The Avengers’ Mrs Peel, which would automatically record a message in case Steed called her and she happened to be out. That was then. Now? Leave a message at the tone, Mrs. Peel…

So, what imaginary technology has recently made the jump from science fiction to science fact?

Firstly, there’s the interactive newspaper from the 2002 Steven Spielberg movie ‘Minority Report’, this newspaper was constantly updating itself as Tom Cruise’s character read through it. It was a fun piece of fiction, until, in 2010, German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) made it into fact. Now, if you use a special smartphone app, you can bring some of their supplements to life in much the same way that the imaginary newspaper did back in 2002. It’s a trend that has caught on around the world.

Oh yeah, remember that bit in ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ where the bloke eats some food while watching a video on a flat, slab-like screen? Well, my generation will be the last one to find that 1968 scene surprising. Our children will simply assume he’s using some sort of iPad (and a crappy looking one at that).

‘Star Trek’s dermal regenerator took its first steps towards the world of the real when scientist Jörg C. Gerlach invented what he calls a ‘skin cell gun’, its not yet approved by the FDA, but it has proven to be an effective way of re-growing skin following a bad burn (although it is unable to cure third-degree burns, sadly).

Also, its worth pointing out that earlier this year Paypal founder Elon Musk announced that he was working towards developing a viable ‘warp drive’ technology.

Put simply, everything begins life as an idea. To quote comic book author Grant Morrison’s 2011 book ‘Supergods’, (which also points to the Jack Kirby concept of ‘Mother Boxes’ and neatly relates them to modern smartphones and tablets) “the bomb, too, was only an idea that someone hammered into being”…

So what’s next? Well, close your eyes and imagine.



Saturday 8 March 2014

TECH NEWS New Electric Buses, improving arrival time!

Eight experimental electric buses will be operating in Milton Keynes from late January onwards. The fleet will begin operating along the busy Number 7 route, which covers the 15 miles between Wolverton and Bletchley. They are the first electric buses to operate in the UK.

UK-based bus manufacturer Wrightbus have built these new electric buses in conjunction with Japanese company Mitsui and UK engineering group Arup.

Wireless ‘booster’ plates in the road, placed at the beginning/end of the route, give the buses a charge that allows them to operate for a full day. They are then charged overnight at the bus depot.

The buses will need to stop over the booster plates, before lowering the bus’ own receiver plates and resting there for 10 minutes’ charge time. The journey will then resume, exactly the same way a regular bus ride does.

The process is called ‘inductive charging’ and it involves electricity passing though wire coils in the plates that creates a magnetic field. The field then shares its voltage with the bus’ receiver plates, charging them up.

Similar electric bus trials are being implemented in Italy, the Netherlands and Germany. In 2013, South Korea unveiled a 7.5-mile stretch of road, which recharges electric vehicles as they drive over it, without requiring any charge time at all.

In an interview with the BBC, John Bint of Milton Keynes Council said, “Electric buses have huge potential and we’re exploring how they can help us take better care of the environment without compromising passenger service,”

If these trial models prove to be successful, the Council plans to run them all across the town.

The environmental impact of this scheme is certainly considerable, with local councils potentially being able to significantly reduce their area’s carbon footprint. In addition, the future development of electric buses can only help the similar evolution of the electric car, an invention that has the potential to seriously lower the world’s carbon emissions.

Arup consultant John Miles who is also an engineering professor at Cambridge University, told BBC that, “These electric buses will be expected to do everything a diesel bus does (…) They will be operating on a demanding urban route, and that’s all part of the trial’s aim – to prove that electric buses can be tough as well as green.”

Saturday 1 March 2014

Kirobo the Robot makes it"s first steps in Space

Robots are in the news a lot lately. From Google’s mysterious plans to do something vaguely robotic over the next ten years (we’re not allowed to know exactly what), to Amazon’s proposal to build flying drones for international deliveries, it seems that the metal munchkins are everywhere, but none are as cute, nor as interesting, as Kirobo.

Resembling a cross between a mid-90’s SNES protagonist and an overgrown Lego man, Kirobo the robot stands at just 33CM tall (which is still positively gargantuan for a Lego man). His claim to fame? Kirobo is the world’s first robot astronaut and is currently orbiting the Earth aboard the International Space Station (ISS), where he has been since August of this year.

Kirobo was designed and built during a collaboration between an advertising company called Dentsu, the University of Tokyo and car manufacturers Toyota. He was designed as a companion for Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who is perhaps best known as the first Japanese person to command the ISS.

Kirobo’s creators hope that the diminutive robot will provide emotional support to Wakata, providing interesting sociological data regarding whether robotic companions can comfort individuals who are subjected to long periods of isolation.

Kirobo has been specially designed to navigate zero gravity environments, he can also speak and understand spoken commands. In fact, Kirobo has many of the same properties as a smartphone in that he can record video and make (very) long distance calls (although his high score on ‘Juice Cubes’ is not yet a matter of public record). Kirobo’s facial recognition software means that he can recognise and react to certain individuals (presumably empathizing with their moods).

In addition to being a cutting edge piece of technology, Kirobo also appears to be of a friendly disposition, the little guy has already called us from space, saying, “My dream is to see human beings and robots live together as friends,”

Kirobo also reportedly requested Wakata’s presence at the station, saying “I really want to see you soon”, he’ll be waiting a long time, however, as Wakata is not due at the ISS for about eleven months.