Engineers of the Future Design Star Trek-Inspired Tricorder Device

A group of college and high school students has designed a Star Trek-inspired sensing device that can beam environmental data to a smart phone. The team developed their project during a summer internship program run by the Wright Brothers Institute and the Air Force Research Laboratory. and shared their results at this fall’s World Maker Faire in New York City–a showcase of DIY ingenuity. The Summer at the Edge program gives student teams ten weeks to work on science and engineering projects. The tricorder device is the team’s response to a challenge from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: “Is there an effective way to integrate external sensors with smart phones and can we globalize this information?” Applications could range from data collection for research to educational hands-on activities to disaster-zone assessment. The description reminded the students of a Star Trek gadget. In the sci-fi television series, the tricorder is a hand-held device used to diagnose illness, scout alien planets and more. Several real-life tricorders have been developed or proposed and the 15-member student team decided to take a crack at designing their own. The device itself looks like a clear brick filled with computer parts and batteries. It is built around an open-source computing platform called an Arduino microcontroller and transmits data via Bluetooth. An environmental sensing pod connects to the controller and collects measurements on variables like temperature, wind speed and radiation levels. Users can view data collection in real time via Google maps or an interactive graph and monitor changes and search for patterns. The tricorder’s modular design lets the team swap functionalities while still using the same Arduino controller and software. To demonstrate, the team built an additional pod equipped with an infrared beam and motion detector–a security sensor. Along the way, the team faced some challenges. Getting the sensors and the tablet to talk to each other involved a lot of troubleshooting. “We were having a lot of trouble with the Bluetooth communications,” says Lujack Prater, a junior studying electrical engineering at Ohio State University, who worked on the software design. “It was a few days that we didn’t get it. We were working on it and working on it.” Then a breakthrough: “It was really exciting–I remember the first time we started getting data streaming to the tablet,” says Grace Crumrine, part of the hardware sub-team and a sophomore in electrical engineering at Ohio State University. “But it was completely corrupt and didn’t mean anything.” The team needed to iron out software glitches and calibrate their sensors. Crumrine explains that the wind sensor was just “spitting out analogue values and we didn’t know what they meant.” So they took the sensor for a ride. While her teammate drove, Crumrine stuck the sensor out the car window. They were able to determine which values corresponded to specific speeds by rolling down the road at five, then 10 miles per hour and so on. The EPA was impressed, says Rob Williams, head of the internship program and research director of the Air Force Research Laboratory‘s Discovery Lab. “The tricorder was one of the more ambitious research projects,” he adds. “I think it validated the model that we’ve been an advocate of–bringing together motivated students and giving them the opportunity to have fun learning while doing projects that have potential.” Other notable projects include a tablet-based virtual walkthrough of medical techniques to train physicians and a device that can detect the brain’s electrical signals to give quadriplegics control over robots. What’s the next step for Project Tricorder? Williams would like to find teachers and students around the country who want to use the team’s design. He says middle school students could use the device to see how technology can help protect the environment. The military could use it to download information to virtual command centers and guide decision-making during a search and rescue based on current conditions. The device’s multi-functionality and connection to a smart phone would be key advantage. Sensor pods could even be installed in remote or dangerous locations and still report via Bluetooth.

Lujack Prater and Grace Crumrine with their team's device at the World Maker Faire. Credit: Grace Crumrine

Both Prater and Crumrine say the program is hard work. Prater spent the first two weeks learning how to code and program Android devices. “You get so involved in the project that you forget what you are doing,” says Crumrine. “Then when you present it to people you see their face with all the excitement and astonishment. It is worth it.”

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U2′s Bono to urge U.S. politicians not to cut aid programs

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Irish rocker and anti-poverty campaigner Bono will appeal to Democrats and Republicans during a visit to Washington this week to spare U.S. development assistance programs from cuts as Congress tries to avert the looming “fiscal cliff” of tax hikes and spending reductions early next year.

The U2 lead singer’s visit comes as the Obama administration and congressional leaders try to forge a deal in coming weeks to avoid the economy hitting the “fiscal cliff” – tax increases and spending cuts worth $ 600 billion starting in January if Congress does not act.

Analysts say the absence of a deal could shock the United States, the world’s biggest economy, back into recession.

Kathy McKiernan, spokeswoman for the ONE Campaign, said Bono will hold talks with congressional lawmakers and senior Obama administration officials during the November 12-14 visit.

During meetings he will stress the effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance programs and the need to preserve them to avoid putting at risk progress made in fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, she said.

Bono, a long-time advocate for the poor, will argue that U.S. government-funded schemes that support life-saving treatments for HIV/AIDS sufferers, nutrition programs for malnourished children, and emergency food aid make up just 1 percent of the U.S. government budget but are helping to save tens of millions of lives in impoverished nations.

The One Campaign would not elaborate which lawmakers and senior Obama administration officials Bono will meet.

On Monday, Bono will discuss the power of social movements with students at Georgetown University. He will also meet new World Bank President Jim Yong Kim for a web cast discussion on Wednesday on the challenges of eradicating poverty.

(Editing by W Simon)

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Life is beautiful, pope tells fellow elderly

ROME (Reuters) – Pope Benedict visited a home for the elderly on Monday and told its residents that life can be beautiful at every age.

“I feel younger after being here,” the pope, 85, said as he was leaving a home run by the Roman Catholic Sant’ Egidio Community in a Rome neighborhood near the Vatican.

“In every age we have to know how to discover the presence of the blessings of the Lord and the riches that they contain,” he told the residents.

“You must never lock yourselves in sadness. Living is beautiful even at our age, even though we have some ailments and limitations,” he said.

His audience broke into applause when he told them that the quality of a society and a civilization can be judged by how they treat their elderly.

The Sant’ Egidio community, which has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times, runs homeless shelters, AIDS clinics and homes for the elderly on several continents.

In 1992 it brokered an end to the 15-year civil war in Mozambique, where it now runs programs to stop the passage of HIV/AIDS from mothers to their children.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella)

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Greek lawmakers back fresh cuts

11 November 2012 Last updated at 18:06 ET

Greek lawmakers have approved a 2013 budget involving fresh spending cuts, despite mass public street protests.

The budget was backed in by 167 votes to 128. The bill was a pre-condition for Athens to be granted a 31.5bn euro (£25bn; $ 40bn) EU/IMF loan necessary to stave off bankruptcy.

Another austerity package of tax rises and pension cuts was passed last week.

Ahead of the vote, more than 10,000 protesters rallied outside the parliament in the capital, Athens.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras earlier warned that without the new loan, Greece would start running out of money on Friday.

Eurozone finance ministers are due to meet just hours after the vote in Athens, and Mr Samaras is now expected to travel to Brussels for a series of meetings.

The problem that he faces is that it could take some weeks before the EU backs the new instalment, BBC Athens correspondent Mark Lowen reports. The measure will have to be approved first by some parliaments, including Germany’s.

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Next-day discharge after C-section may be okay: study

(Reuters) – Some women who deliver their babies by cesarean section may be able to check out of the hospital the next day without raising their risk of problems, according to a Malaysian study.

The study, which appeared in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, looked at 360 women in Malaysia, who were randomly assigned to go home either one or two days after having a C-section.

Both groups were equally satisfied with their care, and the women who were discharged sooner seemed to have no more problems with breastfeeding or mental well-being.

“Day 1 discharge compared with day 2 discharge after a planned cesarean delivery resulted in equivalent outcomes,” wrote lead author Peng Chiong Tan, at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur.

Those results don’t mean that hospitals should start discharging women the day after a C-section, but they do suggest that a next-day discharge is something women can talk about with their doctors, researchers said.

In the United States, where C-sections are done in about one-third of births, women typically stay in the hospital for three to four days after the procedure. That compares with about two days for women who deliver vaginally.

In the past, there were concerns about insurers pushing mothers to leave the hospital before they’re ready. That led to a 1996 law requiring insurers to pay for a 48-hour hospital stay after a vaginal delivery and a 96-hour stay after a C-section.

Still, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) says a shorter stay after a C-section is an option if the baby is ready to go home, though the mother should meet certain requirements first such as normal blood pressure, no signs of infection and adequate pain control.

At Tan’s hospital in Malaysia, women who have a C-section are routinely told to expect just a two-day stay, and some providers there have discharged new mothers the day after.

Tan’s team randomly assigned the 360 women having a planned C-section to go home either one or two days after delivering. In the end, 16 percent of the women in the day-after group were not discharged that early, because either they or their babies were having problems.

But when they did go home the day after, there didn’t seem to be a greater risk of difficulties. When the women were interviewed two weeks later, 87 percent were happy with their discharge timing.

The same was true for almost 86 percent of women who went home two days after their C-section.

While the findings would likely extend to women in other countries too, these Malaysian women typically went home to a lot of support – often, an extended family network, Tan said.

“Where this support is not available, next-day hospital discharge may not be associated with the same degree of satisfaction, acceptability and good outcome as we have found,” she added.

SOURCE:http://bit.ly/TzbGoz

(Reporting from New York by Amy Norton at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies)

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Exxon shuts pipeline after oil leak offshore Nigeria

ABUJA (Reuters) – Exxon has shut a pipeline off the coast of Nigeria‘s Akwa Ibom state after an oil leak started by an unknown cause, the company’s local unit said on Saturday.

The U.S. major’s outage will add to production problems in Africa’s biggest crude exporter, after fellow oil majors Shell and Eni reported recent disruptions at onshore sites due to Nigeria’s worst flooding in 50 years.

“(Exxon Nigeria) confirms that on November 9 an oil release occurred offshore Akwa Ibom State,” Mobil Producing Nigeria, a joint venture between Exxon and the state oil firm, said in an emailed statement.

“The source of the leak was identified and the pipeline was isolated and shutdown.” The company said it was investigating the cause of the leak but didn’t give any details on the amount of oil production lost.

There was an oil spill in August near an Exxon facility that residents said left a slick running for miles along the coastline of Akwa Ibom. Exxon said it cleared up the spill but didn’t confirm the source of the leak.

Italian oil firm Eni said on Friday it had declared force majeure on Brass River oil loadings from Nigeria due to floods, which have submerged part of the southern oil-producing Niger Delta in recent weeks.

Flooding combined with oil theft, prompted Shell to declare force majeure on two other large Nigerian oil streams, Bonny Light and Forcados, in late October.

Oil spills are common in Nigeria’s onshore Niger Delta due to widespread theft by oil gangs tapping into pipelines and the poor maintenance of some ageing infrastructure.

But offshore spills are less common. Last December, an accident at Shell’s offshore Bonga facility spilled an estimated 40,000 barrels, one of the largest in Nigeria’s history.

Nigerian regulators told parliament in July that Shell should be fined $ 5 billion for environmental damaged caused by the spill but the company has said there is no legal basis for the fine.

(Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Toby Chopra)

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Twin explosions strike southern Syrian city

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria‘s state-run news agency says two large explosions have struck the southern city of Daraa, causing multiple casualties and heavy material damage.

SANA did not immediately give further information or say what the target of Saturday’s explosions was.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the blasts went off near a branch of the country’s Military Intelligence in Daraa.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, says the explosions were followed by clashes between regime forces and rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.

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SEC staffers used government computers for personal use: report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Several U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staffers responsible for monitoring the markets and exchanges broadly misused computer equipment to download music and failed to properly safeguard sensitive information, a report has found.

In a 43-page investigative report that probed the misuse of government resources, SEC Interim Inspector General Jon Rymer discovered that an office within the SEC‘s Trading and Markets division spent over $ 1 million on unnecessary technology.

The report also found that the staffers failed to protect their computers and devices from hackers, even as they were urging exchanges and clearing agencies to do just that.

Although no breaches occurred, the staffers left sensitive stock exchange data exposed to potential cyber attacks because they failed to encrypt the devices or even install basic virus protection programs.

Reuters first reported on the unencrypted computers on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

On Friday, however, Reuters reviewed a copy of the full report, which details an even broader array of problems, from misleading the SEC about the office’s need to buy Apple Inc products, to cases in which staffers took iPads and laptops home and used them primarily for pursuits such as personal banking, surfing the Web and downloading music and movies.

The report says the staff may have brought the unprotected laptops to a Black Hat convention where hacking experts discuss the latest trends. They also used them to tap into public wireless networks and brought the devices along with them during exchange inspections.

In at least one case, a staffer admitted to using his personal e-mail to send his work e-mail sensitive data about the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp, the U.S. equities market’s clearing agency. When asked about this, he called it “a mistake” and “bad judgment” on his part.

“While they were using unencrypted laptops themselves, they were recommending to the (exchanges and clearing agencies) that they encrypt their laptops,” Rymer wrote in his report, which is dated August 30.

“The inspector general found that four staff members had used unencrypted laptop computers in violation of SEC policy,” SEC spokesman John Nester said.

“Although we found no evidence that data was compromised, the problem was fixed and the two staffers responsible for maintaining and configuring the equipment are no longer with the agency.”

Rymer’s report comes as the SEC is encouraging companies to get more serious about cyber attacks. Last year, the agency issued guidance that public companies should follow in determining when to report breaches to investors.

The office that was the subject of Rymer’s investigation is responsible for ensuring exchanges are following a series of voluntary guidelines known as “Automation Review Policies,” or ARPs.

These policies call for exchanges to establish programs concerning computer audits, security and capacity. They are, in essence, a road map of the capital markets’ infrastructure.

Rymer found that the office did not have any planning or oversight into its purchases of computer equipment. From 2006 through 2010, the office got permission to spend $ 1.8 million on technology devices.

The report also found that some people who worked in the office had little or no experience with exchange technical matters.

(Reporting By Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Matthew Goldstein and Andre Grenon)

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Sony Animation preps sequel to hit “Hotel Transylvania”

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Sony Pictures Animation will make a sequel to “Hotel Transylania,” one of the year’s surprise hits, a spokesman for the studio told TheWrap.

Tentatively titled “Hotel Transylvania 2,” the film is set for a 2015 release. There is no director attached at the moment. Genndy Tartakovsky, who directed the first one, will be helming Sony Pictures Animation‘s “Popeye.”

“Hotel Transylvania” opened to $ 42.5 million at the domestic box office and $ 50.6 worldwide, setting a new record for a September opening. It has grossed more than $ 250 million at the global box office so far.

Adam Sandler voiced the character of Dracula, who owns the titular five-star resort designed as a place for monsters to relax away from humans. Other monsters such as Murray the Mummy (Cee Lo Green), Frankenstein’s Monster (Kevin James) and Griffin the Invisible Man (David Spade) descend upon the hotel for the 118th birthday of Dracula‘s daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez).

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Boehringer Ingelheim to start late-stage hepatitis C drug trial

BOSTON (Reuters) – Boehringer Ingelheim said on Saturday it plans to initiate a late-stage clinical trial of its experimental hepatitis C treatment following promising results from earlier studies.

The company announced final data from a mid-stage trial of its treatment regimen which showed that 69 percent of patients in the study were free of the virus 12 and 24 weeks following the end of treatment.

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne infectious disease of the liver that can lead to liver failure and transplant.

Historically, hepatitis C has been treated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin, but treatment lasts as long as 48 weeks and interferon is associated with flu-like side effects.

The goal of drugmakers now, including Boehringer, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc, Gilead Sciences Inc and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co is to develop products that do not need to be combined with interferon. Most analysts consider Gilead to currently be at the forefront of the race.

Full results from Boehringer’s trial, known as SOUND-C2, were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases in Boston. Preliminary data were presented earlier this year.

Boehringer’s trial tested a combination of BI-201335, a protease inhibitor, BI-207127, a polymerase inhibitor, and ribivirin.

Boehringer is a privately held company headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany.

(Reporting By Toni Clarke; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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