Folate biomarkers determined

 

A University of Georgia researcher is lead author on an international paper on folate biomarkers as part of an initiative to provide evidence-based guidance for the global nutrition and public health community. Lynn Bailey, head of the foods and nutrition department within the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, led a comprehensive study on folate, an essential B vitamin required for DNA synthesis and normal growth and development. The paper, published in the Journal of Nutrition, includes 18 authors from around the world and represents a consensus of the top folate scientists globally. The study's primary focus is information relative to folate biomarkers, or biological indices that predict an individual or population group's folate status. Biomarkers in general can be measured to determine if an individual's or group's health is at risk due to nutrient inadequacy. Adequate folate intake is particularly critical during the early stages of human development to sustain the demand for rapid cell replication and growth of fetal tissues. A major birth defect affecting the spinal cord--spina bifida, for example--and brain can be prevented by maternal consumption of sufficient folate prior to and during the very early stages of fetal development. The paper conveys how a folate status biomarker can be used to assess risk for this type of birth defect and determine if intervention is needed on an individual or population basis. "This major birth defect is essentially preventable," Bailey said. "It's probably one of the most exciting public health discoveries other than the polio vaccine in the 20th century that a simple vitamin can prevent this devastating and potentially fatal birth defect. This research discovery is the basis of the folic acid fortification program  and the public health recommendation that all women capable of becoming pregnant take folic acid." The paper is the product of nearly five years of collaborative work of an expert panel, chaired by Bailey and organized by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in 2010 as part of the international program Biomarkers of Nutrition for Development. The initial six nutrients selected for the program--iodine, vitamin A, iron, zinc, folate and vitamin B-12--were chosen for their high public health importance. Dan Raiten, the NICHD Nutrition Program director, noted that this Biomarkers of Nutrition for Development, or BOND, report provides clinicians with folate assessment tools to diagnose and treat patients; informs public health program planners as to how best to predict folate status and design targeted inventions for population groups to promote health and prevent disease; and delineates priority research areas for scientists and funding agencies, including the National Institutes of Health. "Folate continues to be a nutrient of high importance in the World. both in terms of the national nutrition monitoring system and efforts to assess the impact and implications of current public health interventions, such as folate food fortification," Raiten said. "This report will be utilized by all the agencies in the U.S. and global agencies in their efforts to evaluate these issues." One of the unique aspects of the paper, Bailey said, is the multiple users it will reach. "To me, it is the most impactful paper of my professional career because of the universal need to assess folate status as a means to optimize health throughout the life cycle," Bailey said. The information has been incorporated into a recent World Health Organization publication to be used globally to assess risk for folate-related birth defects. It also will be used by country-specific agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess the need for or adequacy of folic acid fortification. In addition to the translational impact in developed countries such as the U.S., the paper provides guidelines to address the challenges of assessing folate status in low-resource countries.

The Ultimate Cool-Tool

 

Every once in a while you come face to face with a product that redefines its standards in a way so simple, you wonder, “Why didn’t anyone every think of this before?” The Aperture Wrench is an aptly named wrench that takes inspiration from a camera’s aperture and the way it transforms. The wrench is designed around this awe-inspiring kaleidoscopic motion, allowing it to transform in size and fit around nuts and bolts of varying dimensions. It also includes a light ring around the aperture of the spanner, enabling you to work even in low light conditions.

The Aperture Wrench sure makes your everyday monkey-wrench look like it’s fit for primates!

Designer: Jordan Steranka

 

 

Yanko design

New electron microscopes will capture images at subnanometer resolution

 

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 10:15am Rice University The Titan Themis microscope at Rice University incorporates a variety of detectors, including X-ray, optical and multiple electron detectors and a 4K-resolution camera. The microscope gives researchers the ability to create three-dimensional structural reconstructions and carry out electric field mapping of subnanoscale materials. Courtesy of Jeff Fitlow/Rice UniversityHOUSTON — Rice University has installed microscopes that will allow researchers to peer deeper than ever into the fabric of the universe. The Titan Themis scanning/transmission electron microscope, one of the most powerful in the United States, will enable scientists from Rice as well as academic and industrial partners to view and analyze materials smaller than a nanometer — a billionth of a meter — with startling clarity. The microscope has the ability to take images of materials at angstrom-scale (one-tenth of a nanometer) resolution, about the size of a single hydrogen atom. Images will be captured with a variety of detectors, including X-ray, optical and multiple electron detectors and a 4K-resolution camera, equivalent to the number of pixels in the most modern high-resolution televisions. The microscope gives researchers the ability to create three-dimensional structural reconstructions and carry out electric field mapping of subnanoscale materials. “Seeing single atoms is exciting, of course, and it’s beautiful,” said Emilie Ringe, a Rice assistant professor of materials science and nanoengineering and of chemistry. “But scientists saw single atoms in the ’90s, and even before. Now, the real breakthrough is that we can identify the composition of those atoms, and do it easily and reliably.” Ringe’s research group will operate the Titan Themis and a companion microscope that will image larger samples. Electron microscopes use beams of electrons rather than rays of light to illuminate objects of interest. Because the wavelength of electrons is so much smaller than that of photons, the microscopes are able to capture images of much smaller things with greater detail than even the highest-resolution optical microscope. “The beauty of these newer instruments is their analytical capabilities,” Ringe said. “Before, in order to see single atoms, we had to work a machine for an entire day and get it just right and then take a picture and hold our breath. These days, seeing atoms is routine. “And now we can probe a particular atom’s chemical composition. Through various techniques, either via scattering intensity, X-rays emission or electron-beam absorption, we can figure out, say, that we’re looking at a palladium atom or a carbon atom. We couldn’t do that before.” Ringe said when an electron beam ejects a bound electron from a target atom, it creates an empty site. “That can be filled by another electron within the atom, and the energy difference between this electron and the missing electron is emitted as an X-ray,” she said. “That X-ray is like a fingerprint, which we can read. Different types of atoms have different energies.” She said the incident electron beam loses a bit of energy when it knocks an atom’s electron loose, and that energy loss can also be measured with a spectroscope to identify the atom. The X-ray and electron techniques are independent but complementary. “Typically, you use either/or, and it depends on what element you’re looking at,” Ringe said. The second instrument, a Helios NanoLab 600 DualBeam microscope, will be used for three-dimensional imaging, analysis of larger samples and preparation of thin slices of samples for the more powerful Titan next door. Both tools reside in the university’s Brockman Hall for Physics, which opened in 2011 and features sophisticated vibration-dampening capabilities. The microscopes require the best possible isolation from vibration, electric fields and acoustic noise to produce the best images, Ringe said. “We have wanted a high-end microscopy facility at Rice because so many of us are working on nanomaterials,” said Pulickel Ajayan, a professor and founding chair of Rice’s Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering. “This has been an issue because in order to be competitive you have to have the best atomic-scale characterization techniques. This will put us in business in terms of imaging and understanding new materials.” He said the facility will position Rice as one of the most competitive institutions to recruit students and faculty, attract grants and publish groundbreaking results. “A visual image of something on an atomic level can give you so much more information than a few numbers can,” said Peter Rossky, a theoretical chemist and dean of Rice’s Wiess School of Natural Sciences. Comparing images of the same material taken by an older electron microscope and the Titan Themis was like “the difference between a black-and-white TV and high-definition color,” he said. Ringe said Rice’s Titan is a fourth-generation model manufactured in the Netherlands. It’s the latest and most powerful model and the first to be installed in the United States. “Taking a complex image — not just a picture but a spectrum image that has lots of energy information — in the older model would take about 35 minutes,” she said. “By that time, the electron beam has destroyed whatever you were trying to look at. “With this generation, you have the data you need in about two minutes. You can generate a lot more data more quickly. It’s not just better; it’s enabling.” Edwin Thomas, the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering, expects the new instruments to ignite the already strong research culture at the university. “This is going to influence the kind of people who will be attracted to apply to and then come to Rice,” said Thomas, a materials scientist. “I’m sure there will be people on campus who, once they find out the capabilities, are going to shift their compasses and take advantage of these machines. The whole point is to have an impact on science and society.” Rice plans to host a two-day workshop in September to introduce the microscopes and their capabilities to the research community at the university and beyond. Beginning this summer, Ringe said, the electron microscopy center will be open to Rice students and faculty as well as researchers from other universities and industry. Ringe looks forward to bringing researchers into the new microscopy lab — and to the research that will emerge. “I hope everyone’s going to come out with a blockbuster paper with images from these instruments,” she said. “I would like every paper from Rice to have fantastic, crystal-clear, atomic-resolution images and the best possible characterization.”   SOURCE: Rice University

Medication may stop drug and alcohol addiction

 

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 8:47am Marc Airhart, University of Texas at Austin Researchers at The Univ. of Texas at Austin have successfully stopped cocaine and alcohol addiction in experiments using a drug already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat high blood pressure. If the treatment is proven effective in humans, it would be the first of its kind—one that could help prevent relapses by erasing the unconscious memories that underlie addiction. The research is published in Molecular Psychiatry. Scientists once believed that drug addiction was simply a physical craving: Drug addicts who became sober and then later relapsed merely lacked willpower. But that view has gradually shifted since the 1970s. Today, most experts acknowledge that environmental cues—the people, places, sights and sounds an addict experiences leading up to drug use—are among the primary triggers of relapses. It was an environmental cue (a ringing bell) that caused the dogs in Ivan Pavlov's famous experiments to salivate, even when they couldn't see or smell food. Led by Hitoshi Morikawa, associate professor of neuroscience at The Univ. of Texas at Austin, a team of researchers trained rats to associate either a black or white room with the use of a drug. Subsequently, when the addicted rats were offered the choice of going into either room, they nearly always chose the room they associated with their addiction. Then one day, the researchers gave the addicted rats a high dose of an antihypertensive drug called isradipine before the rats made their choices. Although rats still preferred the room they associated with their addiction on that day, they no longer showed a preference for it on subsequent days. In fact, the lack of preference persisted in the isradipine-treated group in ways that couldn't be found in a control group—suggesting the addiction memories were not just suppressed but had gone away entirely. "The isradipine erased memories that led them to associate a certain room with cocaine or alcohol," said Morikawa. Addictive drugs are thought to rewire brain circuits involved in reward learning, forming powerful memories of drug-related cues. Antihypertensive drugs all block a particular type of ion channel, which is expressed not only in heart and blood vessels but also in certain brain cells. The researchers found that blocking these ion channels in brain cells, using isradipine, appears to reverse the rewiring that underlies memories of addiction-associated places. There are already medications that have been shown to prevent people from feeling euphoria when they take an addictive drug and that might prevent them from developing an addiction. A treatment based on this latest research, however, would be much more effective, said Morikawa, targeting the associations an addict has with the experience leading up to taking a drug. "Addicts show up to the rehab center already addicted," he said. "Many addicts want to quit, but their brains are already conditioned. This drug might help the addicted brain become de-addicted." Morikawa noted that because isradipine is already labeled as safe for human use by the FDA, clinical trials could potentially be carried out much more quickly than with nonapproved drugs. One challenge with using isradipine in high doses to treat addiction is that it lowers blood pressure. So it might be necessary to pair it with other treatments that prevent blood pressure from falling too low. Source: University of Texas at Austin

First 3-D heart printed using multiple imaging techniques

 

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 11:18am Spectrum Health 3-D image of heart model. Courtesy of MaterialiseGRAND RAPIDS, MI — Congenital heart experts from Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital have successfully integrated two common imaging techniques to produce a three-dimensional anatomic model of a patient’s heart. The 3-D model printing of patients’ hearts has become more common in recent years as part of an emerging, experimental field devoted to enhanced visualization of individual cardiac structures and characteristics. But this is the first time the integration of computed tomography (CT) and three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (3DTEE) has successfully been used for printing a hybrid 3-D model of a patient’s heart. A proof-of-concept study authored by the Spectrum Health experts also opens the way for these techniques to be used in combination with a third tool — magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). “Hybrid 3D printing integrates the best aspects of two or more imaging modalities, which can potentially enhance diagnosis, as well as interventional and surgical planning," said Jordan Gosnell, Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital cardiac sonographer, and lead author of the study. “Previous methods of 3D printing utilize only one imaging modality, which may not be as accurate as merging two or more datasets.” The team used specialized software to register images from the two imaging modalities to selectively integrate datasets to produce an accurate anatomic model of the heart. The result creates more detailed and anatomically accurate 3-D renderings and printed models, which may enable physicians to better diagnose and treat heart disease. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are established imaging tools for producing 3D printable models. Three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (3DTEE) recently was reported by Joseph Vettukattil, MD, and his Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital colleagues to be a feasible imaging technique to generate 3D printing in congenital heart disease. Vettukattil is co-director of the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital Congenital Heart Center, division chief, pediatric cardiology, and senior author of the study.   According to Vettukattil and his colleagues, each imaging tool has different strengths, which can improve and enhance 3D printing: CT enhances visualization of the outside anatomy of the heart; MRI is superior to other imaging techniques for measuring the interior of the heart, including the right and left ventricles or main chambers of the heart, as well as the heart’s muscular tissue. 3DTEE provides the best visualization of valve anatomy. “This is a huge leap for individualized medicine in cardiology and congenital heart disease,” said Vettukattil. “The technology could be beneficial to cardiologists and surgeons. The model will promote better diagnostic capability and improved interventional and surgical planning, which will help determine whether a condition can be treated via transcatheter route or if it requires surgery.” Vettukattil is known internationally for his work and research with three- and four-dimensional echocardiography. Most notably, Vettukattil developed the advanced technique of multiplanar reformatting in echocardiography, a method used to slice heart structures in infinite planes through the three dimensions in a virtual environment similar to a cardiac pathologist dissecting the heart to reveal underlying pathology. Commonly used with other diagnostic technologies, such as CTs, Vettukattil pioneered its use in echocardiography to evaluate complex heart defects. Vettukattil is presenting the findings of the proof-of-concept study at CSI 2015 - Catheter Interventions in Congenital, Structural and Valvular Heart Diseases Congress in Frankfurt, Germany, to demonstrate the feasibility of printing 3-D cardiovascular models derived from multiple imaging modalities. The Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital team worked with the Mimics Innovation Suite software from Materialise, a leading provider of 3D printing software and services based in Belgium, which printed the model using its HeartPrint Flex technology. Gosnell worked on integration of the imaging modalities, collaborating with Materialise’s US Headquarters in Plymouth, Michigan to produce the final 3-D rendering. Vettukattil devised the concept of integrating two or more imaging modalities for 3D printing. Further research is required to evaluate the efficacy of hybrid 3D models in decision-making for transcatheter or surgical interventions. About Spectrum Health Spectrum Health is a not-for-profit health system, based in West Michigan, offering a full continuum of care through the Spectrum Health Hospital Group, which is comprised of 12 hospitals, including Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital; 180 ambulatory and service sites; 1,300 physicians and advanced practice providers, which include 1,100 members of the Spectrum Health Medical Group; and Priority Health, a health plan with more than 648,000 members. Spectrum Health is West Michigan’s largest employer, with 22,600 employees. The organization provided $294.6 million in community benefit during its 2014 fiscal year. Spectrum Health is the only health system in Michigan to be named one of the nation’s 15 Top Health Systems by Truven Health Analytics for 2015. This is the fourth time the organization has received this recognition. SOURCE: Spectrum Health

Como aprender inglês de graça Online

 

by Francisco • outubro 29, 2014 Olá, neste artigo vou mostrar,para quem pretende aprender inglês de Graça, um ótimo site gratuito. Nele o usuário terá acesso à narrativas, questões e ainda poderá interagir com outros usuários.   Aprender Inglês de Graça! Acertei no Alvo: Depois de muita pesquisa na internet por um site gratuito, mas que realmente oferecesse um espaço de ótimo ensino, descobri um com o qual me identifiquei bastante. Para quem realmente quer aprender inglês de forma didática e simples, o Duolingo é uma das melhores opções, principalmente por ser gratuito e disponibilizar uma metodologia fantástica de ensino. O ensino é conduzido através de níveis, onde o usuário terá que resolver todas as questões propostas de forma satisfatória, para que possa ir para o próximo nível. Será testado até mesmo a sua pronuncia! É possível trocar dúvidas e resoluções entre os usuários por meio de comentários. A cada nível avançado o usuário ganhará prêmios como “Lingots” (), uma forma de moeda do site que pode ser utilizada para comprar itens que ajudarão em seu aperfeiçoamento. E, poderá também compartilhar o seu desempenho nas redes sociais.   Como utilizar o Duolingo Aprender inglês de graça no Duolingo é muito simples, para isso basta que o usuário faça um rápido cadastro no site, que pode ser feito utilizando sua conta do FaceBook, G+ ou através do seu e-mail. Depois de cadastrar e efetuar o Login no Duolingo, você já estará pronto para começar o seu aprendizado. O menu principal no topo da pagina, é onde você irá navegar no site para ter acesso ao conteúdo do treinamento, as conversas entre os usuários, suas atividades, etc… Para ter um melhor aproveitamento em sua pronuncia é muito importante ter um microfone instalado em seu pc. Assim você terá acesso às questões para testar a sua pronuncia, sendo avaliada pelo mecanismo do site. Bem, entre no site do Duolingo faça um cadastro e aproveite, pois aprender inglês de Graça nunca foi tão fácil! fonte : www.tutoriaispc.com.br

New conductive ink makes your clothing smarter

 

A new conductive ink can be applied to clothing and other textiles in a single-step printing process, thereby turning fabrics into sensors and wearable electronics (Credit: Someya Laboratory) A new single-step printing process uses an elastic conducting ink to turn clothing and other textiles into flexible, wearable electronic devices or sensors. Researchers at the University of Tokyo developed the ink, which remains highly conductive even when stretched to more than three times its original length. They believe it has applications in sensors built into sportswear and underwear and that it could be part of a shift toward more comfortable wearable electronics. The ink contains a mix of silver flakes, organic solvent, fluorine rubber, and fluorine surfactant. It can be applied with the same convenience of a Voltera V-One and other desktop printed ink-based paper and plastic circuits. And unlike another recent research project that produced flexible circuits using nanoparticle liquid-metal ink, the Japanese researchers' solution requires just a single step – print the ink onto the surface and you're done. It works in one step because the silver flakes self-assemble at the surface of the printed pattern, which gives the material high conductivity. As a proof of concept, the researchers used their ink to print a muscle activity sensor onto a stretchable cloth, with the electrodes printed on both sides and the wiring printed only on the external side of the material. This wristband muscle activity sensor could measure the electrical potential of the muscle(s) beneath it over an area of 16 sq cm (2.5 sq in) thanks to its nine electrodes placed 2 cm (0.8 in) on a 3 by 3 cm grid. The researchers hope that their technique helps make wearable devices more comfortable and widespread. The future of technology, as we've reported before, may be all about molding electronics to your body and integrating sensors in everything you wear. A paper describing the research was published in the journal Nature Communications Source: University of Tokyo

Communicating science for a more informed electorate

 

Laurie Howell of the National Science Foundation sits down with Dr. Moira Gunn in this Scientists & Engineers on Sofas (and other furnishings). Dr. Gunn is an engineer and science communicator, hosting the popular TechNation radio show. Credit: National Science Foundation

Feeling impulsive or frustrated? Take a nap

 

Taking a nap may be an effective strategy to counteract impulsive behavior and to boost tolerance for frustration, according to a University of Michigan study. It's becoming increasingly common for people, especially adults, to not sleep an entire night. This can negatively impair a person's attention span and memory, as well as contribute to fatigue. U-M researchers examined how a brief nap affected adults' emotional control. The study's 40 participants, ages 18-50, maintained a consistent sleep schedule for three nights prior to the test. In a laboratory, participants completed tasks on computers and answered questions about sleepiness, mood and impulsivity. They were randomly assigned to a 60-minute nap opportunity or no-nap period that involved watching a nature video. Research assistants monitored the participants, who later completed those questionnaires and tasks again. Those who napped spent more time trying to solve a task than the non-nappers who were less willing to endure frustration in order to complete it. In addition, nappers reported feeling less impulsive. Combined with previous research demonstrating the negative effects of sleep deprivation, results from the U-M study indicate that staying awake for an extended period of time hinders people from controlling negative emotional responses, said Jennifer Goldschmied, the study's lead author. "Our results suggest that napping may be a beneficial intervention for individuals who may be required to remain awake for long periods of time by enhancing the ability to persevere through difficult or frustrating tasks," said Goldschmied, a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology. Napping may also be a cost-efficient and easy strategy to increase workplace safety, the researchers said. Employers who add nap pods in the workplace or offer extended break time may find their employees more productive. The study's authors also include Philip Cheng, Kathryn Kemp, Lauren Caccamo, Julia Roberts and Patricia Deldin. The findings appear in the current online issue of Personality and Individual Differences. Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Michigan. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Jennifer R. Goldschmied, Philip Cheng, Kathryn Kemp, Lauren Caccamo, Julia Roberts, Patricia J. Deldin. Napping to modulate frustration and impulsivity: A pilot study. Personality and Individual Differences, 2015; 86: 164 DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2015.06.013

Top 6 Supplements To Boost Your Pineal Gland Function

 

by FoodMatters The pineal gland, an endocrine gland located in the brain, is said to be the seat of the soul. Also referred to as the Third Eye, this small gland is believed to be involved in reaching higher levels of consciousness, acting as a gateway to dimensions beyond our brain-created reality. For the people that seek to fully activate their spiritual potential and tap into the power of the pineal gland, one must begin by strengthening its function though detoxification and proper nutrition. Researchers are finding that in many people, due to our poor diet with pesticide and chemical-laden foods and environmental toxins such as fluoride in our water, the pineal gland and our entire bodies are becoming exposed to many more toxins and nano-organisms than ever before. These form calcium shells around themselves for protection from our immune systems which has resulted in calcification of the pineal gland, a build-up of calcium phosphate crystals in various parts of the human body. Many of us have a pineal gland that is already completely calcified. This does not fare well when we try to tap into the esoteric capabilities of this gland through yoga practice, meditation, using plant medicines such as ayahuasca, and so forth. The process of detoxification is an essential place to start if we want to exploit our full spiritual capabilities. Below is a list, in no particular order, of 6 supplements that will boost your pineal gland function, help in its decalcification, and support you on your journey of personal and spiritual cultivation. Some of the supplements offer similar results, so it is up to you to decide which combination of supplements will work best for you. 1. Oregano Oil And Neem Extract Both oregano oil and neem extract help in the purification process, helping to remove existing calcification within the pineal gland, in addition to purifying the body’s systems, especially the endocrine system. Neem has been used in this way in India for thousands of years. In the western world, oregano oil is also becoming a holistic way of fortifying the immune support system. In the longer term, both of these supplements will act as a natural antibiotic against new calcium shells created by nanobacteria. 2. Raw Cacao Raw, organic cacao in its purest form can help detoxify the pineal gland because of cacao’s high antioxidant content. Cacao will also help stimulate the third eye. 3. Chlorophyll-Rich Superfoods Supplements like spirulina, chlorella, wheatgrass, and blue-green algae are examples of chlorophyll-rich superfoods that offer similar benefits to eating leafy greens but with much more nutrition packed into a small serving. These supplements assist in the decalcification of the pineal gland due to their strong detoxification properties. 4. Raw Apple Cider Vinegar A natural detoxifier, raw apple cider vinegar helps decalcify the pineal gland due to its malic acid properties. Malic acid is an organic compound that gives fruits their sour taste. When taken as a supplement, it supports the digestive system and helps the body detoxify. Apple cider vinegar has many health benefits, many of which are listed here. Ensure that the brand you buy is raw and packaged in a glass container. 5. Iodine Many of us have been exposed to sodium fluoride due to fluoridation of our water systems, and this has also resulted in the calcification of the pineal gland. Iodine, naturally occurring in plants such as seaweed, effectively improves the removal of sodium fluoride via urine. Unfortunately, the Western diet has left us deficient of this vital mineral while our bodies need it most. To avoid calcium deficiency when taking iodine supplements, a diet incorporating many organic foods such as kale, broccoli, almonds, oranges, flax seed, sesame seeds, dill, thyme and other dried herbs is recommended. It is suggested that a non-GMO organic lecithin supplement is also taken to compliment iodine intake. 6. Boron/Borax Another good supplement that can be used to remove fluoride from the human body is the mineral Boron. It is naturally present in beets, which can be eaten raw, steamed, cooked as well as in a powder supplement. It is also present in other foods, such as dried plums. Borax is an inexpensive source of boron that can be bought in most grocery stores.

New role for Twitter: Early warning system for bad drug interactions

 

"I'm not a medical scientist. I work with Big Data," says Ahmed Abdeen Hamed, an interdisciplinary computer scientist who works in the University of Vermont's Social-Ecological Gaming and Simulation Lab. But he and three colleagues are building a tool that may be of value to doctors, pharmacists--and just about anybody who takes medicine. Credit: Joshua Brown, UVM A team of scientists has invented a new technique for discovering potentially dangerous drug interactions and unknown side-effects -- before they show up in medical databases, like PubMed, or even before doctors and researchers have heard of them at all. The far-seeing tool? A computer program that can efficiently search millions of tweets on Twitter for the names of many drugs and medicines -- and build a map of how they're connected, using the #hashtags that link them. "Our new algorithm is a great way to make discoveries that can be followed-up and tested by experts like clinical researchers and pharmacists," said Ahmed Abdeen Hamed, a computer scientist at the University of Vermont who led the creation of the new tool. A report on how the algorithm works, and its preliminary discoveries, was published online, June 8, in the Journal of Biomedical Informatics. "We may not know what the interaction is, but with this approach we can quickly find clear evidence of drugs that are linked together via hashtags," Hamed said. Matching PubMed The new approach could also be used to generate public alerts, Hamed said, before a clinical investigation is started or before health care providers have received updates. "It can tell us: we may be seeing a drug/drug interaction here," Hamed said. "Beware." And the research team also aims to help overcome a long-standing problem in medical research: published studies are too often not linked to new scientific findings, because digital libraries "suffer infrequent tagging," the scientists write, and updating keywords and metadata associated with studies is a laborious manual task, often delayed or incomplete. "Mining Twitter hashtags can give us a link between emerging scientific evidence and PubMed," the massive database run by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, Hamed said. Using their new algorithm, the Vermont team has created a website that will allow an investigator to explore the connections between search terms (say "albuterol"), existing scientific studies indexed in PubMed -- and Twitter hashtags associated with the terms and studies. Heeding #hashtags Previous studies have shown that Twitter can be mined for bad drug interactions, but the Vermont team advances this idea by focusing on the distinctive information contained in hashtags -- like "#overprescribed," "#kidneystoneprobs," and "#skinswelling" -- to find new associations. "Each individual hashtag functions almost like a neuron in the human brain, sending a specific signal," the scientists write, that can reveal a surprising pathway between two or more drugs. The team's approach involves building what they call a "K-H network" -- essentially a dense map of links between keywords and hashtags -- and then pruning out a lot of the "noise and trash," Hamed says, "this is Twitter!" -- to find the terms that are central to the network. Then the algorithm, called HashPairMiner, searches this cleaned-up network for the shortest paths between a pair of search terms and their intervening hashtags. The overall goal of the project, supported by the National Science Foundation, is to "discover any relationship between two drugs that is not known," said Hamed. But to "ground-truth the hypothesis" -- that data-mining in Twitter can find unknown drug interactions -- the team wanted to demonstrate that their approach "can produce interactions that are already known," says Tamer Fandy. He's a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the Albany College of Pharmacy's campus in Vermont, and a co-author on the new study with Ahmed Abdeen Hamed and two other computer scientists, Xingdong Wu and Robert Erickson, professors in UVM's College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. "It does," said Hamed. In one example from the new study, a path between aspirin and the allergy medication benadryl, that are known to interact, was detected by the algorithm; in one instance, the two drugs were linked -- perhaps not too surprisingly -- by the hashtag "#happythanksgiving." Marijuana and memory The new system began with what UVM's Hamed initially thought was as error in November of 2013. An earlier version of the current algorithm "discovered something shocking: ibuprofen and medical marijuana -- which you would think have nothing to do with each other -- were linked by a hashtag called #Alzheimer's," Hamed says. "I thought that has to be an error. I looked at my code. I repeated my experiment. I gathered different tweet data sets -- and I got the same result," he said. But he couldn't find any support for the association on PubMed or other databases of clinical literature. In fact, the only study he could find, from 1989, suggested the opposite, that there was no interaction between ibuprofen and marijuana. It turned out that Hamed had inadvertently discovered people in the Twitterverse who were sharing the results of a brand-new peer-reviewed study suggesting that ibuprofen has some ability to block or reduce the memory-damaging effects of regular marijuana use, which has been associated with the development of Alzheimer's disease. "It appeared on Twitter before PubMed," Hamed said. As more states legalize marijuana, Hamed said, there may be increasing discussion of its interactions with other drugs -- ahead of researchers capacity to study these interactions. "If we're able to detect concerns -- say chatter about headaches or drops in blood pressure or whatever," he said, "that may lead pharmacists or researchers to a hypothesis that can be followed up by a clinical trial or other medical test." Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Vermont. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Ahmed Abdeen Hamed, Xindong Wu, Robert Erickson, Tamer Fandy. Twitter K-H networks in action: Advancing biomedical literature for drug search. Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 2015; 56: 157 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbi.2015.05.015

How a newborn baby sees you

 

This is how a newborn infant percieves expressions at different distances. Credit: Illustration by Professor Bruno Laeng/ UiO. A newborn infant can see its parents' expressions at a distance of 30 cm. For the first time researchers have managed to reconstruct infants visual perception of the world. By combining technology, mathematics and previous knowledge of the visual perception of infants, researchers have finally succeeded in showing to an adult audience how much of its environment a newborn baby can actually see. The results tell us that an infant of 2 to 3 days old can perceive faces, and perhaps also emotional facial expressions, at a distance of 30 centimeters -- which corresponds to the distance between a mother and her nursing baby. If the distance is increased to 60 centimeters, the visual image gets too blurred for the baby to perceive faces and expressions. The study was conducted by researchers at the Institute of psychology at The University of Oslo in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Uppsala and Eclipse Optics in Stockholm, Sweden. Live pictures The study plugs a gap in our knowledge about infants' visual world, which was left open for several decades. It may also help explain claims that newborn babies can imitate facial expressions in adults during the first days and weeks of their lives, long before their vision is sufficiently developed to perceive details in their environments. The key word is motion. "Previously, when researchers have tried to estimate exactly what a newborn baby sees, they have invariably used still photos. But the real world is dynamic. Our idea was to use images in motion," says professor emeritus Svein Magnussen from the Institute of Psychology. Testing an old idea Early in his career, Magnussen conducted research into the visual perception of humans. One day, about 15 years ago, he found himself discussing with colleagues the problem of testing whether newborn infants are really able to perceive facial expressions in people around them. The researchers agreed that if it were true that babies could see and imitate facial expressions, the reason might be that the faces were moving. "Back then we had neither the equipment nor the technical competence to test our idea. We dug it out again only a year ago. So, our results are based on an old idea which nobody had tested in the meantime," he says. What makes facial expressions intelligible? In order to carry out the test, the researchers had to combine modern simulation techniques with previous insight into how infants' vision works. We have a great deal of information about young infants' contrast sensitivity and spatial resolution from behavioural studies conducted, for the most part, in the 80s. At that time, it was discovered that presenting an infant with a figure against a uniformly grey background, caused the infant to direct its gaze towards the figure. "Figures made up of black and white stripes were used. By choosing a certain stripe width and frequency, the field would appear uniformly grey, and the child would not direct its gaze towards it. Changing the width and frequency to make up figures, made it possible to determine the exact level of contrast and spatial resolution needed to make the infant direct its gaze towards the figure," Magnussen says. In other words, the researchers had access to quite accurate information about newborn infants' vision. What was unknown to them, was the practical consequences of this information. Does it, for instance, mean that a newborn baby can see the expression in the face of an adult bending over the baby? Movement is easier to see It's easier to recognise something that moves, than a blurry still photo. The researchers made video recordings of faces that changed between several emotional expressions, and subsequently filtered out the information which we know is unavailable to newborn infants. Then they let adult participants see the videos. The idea was that if the adults were unable to identify a facial expression, then we can certainly assume that a newborn would also be unable to do so. The adult participants correctly identified facial expressions in three out of four cases when viewing the video at a distance of 30 centimeters. When the distance was increased to 120 centimeters, the participants' rate of identification were about what one could expect from random responding. This means that the ability to identify facial expressions based on the visual information available to a newborn baby, reaches its limit at a distance of about 30 centimeters. Filling a gap in the foundation wall "It's important to remember that we have only investigated what the newborn infant can actually see, not whether they are able to make sense of it," Magnussen points out. Previous attempts to recreate the newborn baby's visual reality, for instance in students' textbooks, have usually relied on taking a normal photograph and blur it. Magnussen confesses himself surprised that nobody before them have made use of the detailed information we possess about infants' visual perception. Hence this is the first time that we have a concrete estimate of the visual information available to the newborn baby. Magnussen and his colleagues are happy to finally have been able to carry out an idea that had been on the back burner for fifteen years. But as for developing their results further, they will leave that to others. "All of us behind this study are really involved in different fields of research now. Our position is: Now a piece of the foundation is in place. If anyone else wants to follow up, that's up to them," says Magnussen. Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Oslo. The original item was written by Kjerstin Gjengedal. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: O. von Hofsten, C. von Hofsten, U. Sulutvedt, B. Laeng, T. Brennen, S. Magnussen. Simulating newborn face perception. Journal of Vision, 2014; 14 (13): 16 DOI: 10.1167/14.13.16

Tia Tudica

 

Recebi há poucos minutos a notícia do falecimento de minha tia do lado paterno, Maria Luiza, a “Tia Tudica”. Nasceu em 1917 e tinha portanto 98 anos. Foi uma mulher que passou orando a vida toda, sua casa sempre foi muito organizada e limpa. Tinha muitos amigos e amigas porque gostava muito de conversar.   Com certeza ela não passou a vida em brancas nuvens. Nessas ocasiões, dizemos sempre : Que Deus a tenha”.  Certamente a terá. Deixa uma filha, Eunice, muitos netos e bisnetos. 

Sidenei Melo

15 Funny Things Everyone Can Do Every Day to Get Smarter

 

Productivity by Amy Johnson Do you want to become smarter? Many people want to exercise their brain regularly, but struggle to find the time or money to take classes or invest in their intelligence. Check out 15 little things that you can do every day to become smarter.   1. Start a productive hobby. Doing something every other day will help you to learn more without even noticing. Knitting, running, and learning to read sheet music are all examples of fun, cheap hobbies that will help you to become smarter without realizing it.   2. Check the news online or read the newspaper. Checking in with current affairs will help you to become more aware of world events and the society you live in. It will also help you to form educated and well-formed opinions that you can later discuss with others.   3. Start two to-do lists. Start a to-do list with long-term goals and second with short-term goals. This will help you to figure out your priorities, and you can set yourself realistic career-based and personal goals. Your short-term to-do list should cover the next month or so, and your long-term to do list could take anywhere between one year or 25 years.   4. And an “I did” list. Write a list of all of the accomplishments you have achieved this year, and add to it as you accomplish new things. Include both small and big achievements, to help motivate you to push further. This can also show you how productive your week has been, and how you can be smarter and more proactive next week.   5. Read a chapter in a book. Try to read a chapter in a book every day. Many people believe they don’t have time, but there are plenty of options; when you’re commuting to work, during your lunch or in the evening instead of surfing the Internet. It doesn’t matter what you read; fiction can help you to see from another perspective and become more analytical, and a non-fiction book will teach you something new, whether it is about history or a biography.   6. Come up with five different ideas everyday. Be creative and use your brain every day! From solving your daily problems to thinking of funny movie and book ideas, coming up with ideas will exercise your brain and help you get used to relying on yourself, rather than Google.   7. Find answers to your questions. Do penguins have knees? No matter how silly the question, try to find the answers to all the little, random question that fly through your head. You will become more knowledgeable in many different areas without feeling like you were learning!   8. Share your ideas with others. Debating with others gives you the chance to analyze your ideas while adding to each other’s knowledge. Debating also helps you learn to express your ideas coherently and intelligently. If you feel a little nervous, try joining a knowledgeable forum and join in a debate that is already happening.   9. Try different mindsets. Take something you already have an opinion on and try to see things from the other side. Coming up with evidence to support it will help you to become more open-minded and inquisitive, helping you to think outside of the box on a daily basis.   10. Start a list of things to stop doing. Try to monitor your procrastination every day for a week, and write down your results. What activities do you do when you procrastinate, or it there anything that you do that leaves you feeling uninspired? This will help you to break bad habits and figure out what you need to stop doing, making every day more productive for you.   11. Subscribe to interesting feeds. If you like to spend time on social media, make your feeds more interesting and knowledgeable to become smarter. There are groups on Facebook and Twitter that cover science and political news, so consider searching through a few and finding a couple that really interest you personally.   12. Talk to someone interesting. You are surrounded by interesting people, from your family to your boss to strangers on the street. People often learn more from strangers than their own loved ones.   13. Explore. If you can’t afford to explore the world, explore your city. Try things you wouldn’t normally consider, from opera to going to a live music night. New experiences come with new facts and knowledge for you to discover, so take an adventure and see what you learn!   14. Watch educational videos. YouTube is filled with interesting vlogs and TED talks, so try to watch one a day while you’re relaxing. The videos range from 5 minutes long to 30, so even when you’re busy you can normally fit a 5 minute video into your day. One of the best parts of these videos is that the information is presented in easy, digestible chunks, so even if you are half-listening you will probably end up learning a few things and becoming smarter!   15. Do something scary. People who fear leaving their comfort zone can limit themselves with fear. From public speaking to eating a food you don’t like, try to push yourself out of your comfort zone once a day. These steps will help you to realize you can accomplish anything you want, as well as helping to make you more curious and open minded—as well as fearless!

Drug takes aim at cancer metabolism, stops most kinds of cancer

 

SLU pharmacology researchers Thomas Burris, Ph.D., and Colin Flaveny, Ph.D., discuss their cancer research. Credit: Courtesy of Saint Louis University In research published in Cancer Cell, Thomas Burris, Ph.D., chair of pharmacology and physiology at Saint Louis University, has, for the first time, found a way to stop cancer cell growth by targeting the Warburg Effect, a trait of cancer cell metabolism that scientists have been eager to exploit. Unlike recent advances in personalized medicine that focus on specific genetic mutations associated with different types of cancer, this research targets a broad principle that applies to almost every kind of cancer: its energy source. The Saint Louis University study, which was conducted in animal models and in human tumor cells in the lab, showed that a drug developed by Burris and colleagues at Scripps Research Institute can stop cancer cells without causing damage to healthy cells or leading to other severe side effects. The Warburg Effect Metabolism -- the ability to use energy -- is a feature of all living things. Cancer cells aggressively ramp up this process, allowing mutated cells to grow unchecked at the expense of surrounding tissue. "Targeting cancer metabolism has become a hot area over the past few years, though the idea is not new," Burris said. Since the early 1900s, scientists have known that cancer cells prefer to use glucose as fuel even if they have plenty of other resources available. In fact, this is how doctors use PET (positron emission tomography) scan images to spot tumors. PET scans highlight the glucose that cancer cells have accumulated. This preference for using glucose as fuel is called the Warburg effect, or glycolysis. In his paper, Burris reports that the Warburg effect is the metabolic foundation of oncogenic (cancer gene) growth, tumor progression and metastasis as well as tumor resistance to treatment. Cancer's goal: to grow and divide Cancer cells have one goal: to grow and divide as quickly as possible. And, while there are a number of possible molecular pathways a cell could use to find food, cancer cells have a set of preferred pathways. "In fact, they are addicted to certain pathways," Burris said. "They need tools to grow fast and that means they need to have all of the parts for new cells and they need new energy." "Cancer cells look for metabolic pathways to find the parts to grow and divide. If they don't have the parts, they just die," said Burris. "The Warburg effect ramps up energy use in the form of glucose to make chemicals required for rapid growth and cancer cells also ramp up another process, lipogenesis, that lets them make their own fats that they need to rapidly grow." If the Warburg effect and lipogenesis are key metabolic pathways that drive cancer progression, growth, survival, immune evasion, resistance to treatment and disease recurrence, then, Burris hypothesizes, targeting glycolysis and lipogenesis could offer a way to stop a broad range of cancers. Cutting off the energy supply Burris and his colleagues created a class of compounds that affect a receptor that regulates fat synthesis. The new compound, SR9243, which started as an anti-cholesterol drug candidate, turns down fat synthesis so that cells can't produce their own fat. This also impacts the Warburg pathway, turning cancer cells into more normal cells. SR9243 suppresses abnormal glucose consumption and cuts off cancer cells' energy supply. When cancer cells don't get the parts they need to reproduce through glucose or fat, they simply die. Because the Warburg effect is not a feature of normal cells and because most normal cells can acquire fat from outside, SR9243 only kills cancer cells and remains non-toxic to healthy cells. The drug also has a good safety profile; it is effective without causing weight loss, liver toxicity, or inflammation. Promising Results So far, SR9243 has been tested in cultured cancer cells and in human tumor cells grown in animal models. Because the Warburg pathway is a feature of almost every kind of cancer, researchers are testing it on a number of different cancer models. "It works in a wide range of cancers both in culture and in human tumors developing in animal models," Burris said. "Some are more sensitive to it than others. In several of these pathways, cells had been reprogramed by cancer to support cancer cell growth. This returns the metabolism to that of more normal cells." In human tumors grown in animal models, Burris said, "It worked very well on lung, prostate, and colorectal cancers, and it worked to a lesser degree in ovarian and pancreatic cancers." It also seems to work on glioblastoma, an extremely difficult to treat form of brain cancer, though it isn't able to cross the brain/blood barrier very effectively. The challenge for researchers in this scenario will be to find a way to allow the drug to cross this barrier, the body's natural protection for the brain, which can make it difficult for drug treatments to reach their target. And, in even more promising news, it appears that when SR9243 is used in combination with existing chemotherapy drugs, it increases their effectiveness, in a mechanism apart from SR9243's own cancer fighting ability. Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Saint Louis University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Colin A. Flaveny, Kristine Griffett, Bahaa El-Dien M. El-Gendy, Melissa Kazantzis, Monideepa Sengupta, Antonio L. Amelio, Arindam Chatterjee, John Walker, Laura A. Solt, Theodore M. Kamenecka, Thomas P. Burris. Broad Anti-tumor Activity of a Small Molecule that Selectively Targets the Warburg Effect and Lipogenesis. Cancer Cell, 2015; DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2015.05.007

New strategies, solutions to fight pediatric asthma

 

Low flu vaccination rates, medication compliance and limited access to primary care providers have contributed to the high pediatric asthma rates in California, say UC Davis pediatricians Ulfat Shaikh and Robert Byrd, who have published an extensive study describing the challenges faced by children with asthma in California. Analyzing data from the 2011-12 California Health Interview Survey, the study details several issues affecting asthma care and offers a number of public policy strategies that could help remedy these shortcomings. The research was published in the journal Population Health Management. "Asthma is one of the most common chronic pediatric conditions in the U.S. and a major reason for emergency department visits and hospitalizations in children," said Shaikh, clinical quality officer at the California Department of Health Care Services and director of Healthcare Quality at the UC Davis School of Medicine. "Emergency department visits for chronic conditions such as asthma are frequently the bellwether of sub-optimal primary care and community-based support. However, by creating better support structures around these children, we can have a significant impact on their health and quality of life." To understand the status of asthma in California, the researchers mined data from the most recent California Health Interview Survey, which includes 44,000 households from every county in California. Nearly 10 percent of the state's children, close to 500,000, suffer from asthma. The care these children receive can vary widely, even though more than 96 percent have a primary care provider. Most concerning is that their flu vaccination rates are not much different from the general pediatric population. Flu can pose a significant health risk, sending many children with asthma to the hospital. "We were surprised to see that about half of all children with asthma had not received a flu shot in the past year," said Shaikh. "Children with asthma are at high risk of becoming really sick from the flu and of developing pneumonia, even if their asthma is mild or their symptoms are well-controlled." The study also highlighted problems with asthma control. A third of children with asthma had to go to the emergency department for asthma symptoms in the past year, and for 20 percent of children, this was due to an inability to see their own health care provider. Even more striking is that only 38 percent of children with asthma receive a written-care plan from their clinicians. While Shaikh finds these primary care shortcomings deeply troubling, she and study authors also point to solutions. They believe a safety net of existing providers and resources could support primary care providers' efforts to combat pediatric asthma. Involving interdisciplinary teams for population-health management of pediatric asthma is key, they say. Pharmacists, school nurses, social workers, community health workers and emergency department patient navigators could be enlisted to encourage vaccination, improve medication compliance, follow up higher-risk children more closely, point families toward resources and educate families to improve self-care. "These findings are important because they will better guide our efforts to improve both clinical quality and population health for our children with asthma," noted Neal Kohatsu, medical director at the California Department of Health Care Services, which partially funded the study. Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Davis Health System. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Ulfat Shaikh, Robert S. Byrd. Population Health Considerations for Pediatric Asthma: Findings from the 2011–2012 California Health Interview Survey. Population Health Management, 2015; 150623112812009 DOI: 10.1089/pop.2015.0015

Building a better semiconductor

 

(l-r) Faran Zhou, physics and astronomy doctoral student; Terry Han, who just earned his Ph.D. in physics and astronomy; and Chong-Yu Ruan, associate professor of physics and astronomy. They are part of a team that developed an ultrafast microscope that allows researchers to view changes in materials caused by laser pulses. Credit: Harley Seeley Research led by Michigan State University could someday lead to the development of new and improved semiconductors. In a paper published in the journal Science Advances, the scientists detailed how they developed a method to change the electronic properties of materials in a way that will more easily allow an electrical current to pass through. The electrical properties of semiconductors depend on the nature of trace impurities, known as dopants, which when added appropriately to the material will allow for the designing of more efficient solid-state electronics. The MSU researchers found that by shooting an ultrafast laser pulse into the material, its properties would change as if it had been chemically "doped." This process is known as "photo-doping." "The material we studied is an unconventional semiconductor made of alternating atomically thin layers of metals and insulators," said Chong-Yu Ruan, an associate professor of physics and astronomy who led the research effort at MSU. "This combination allows many unusual properties, including highly resistive and also superconducting behaviors to emerge, especially when 'doped.'" An ultrafast electron-based imaging technique developed by Ruan and his team at MSU allowed the group to observe the changes in the materials. By varying the wavelengths and intensities of the laser pulses, the researchers were able to observe phases with different properties that are captured on the femtosecond timescale. A femtosecond is 1 quadrillionth, or 1 millionth of 1 billionth, of a second. "The laser pulses act like dopants that temporarily weaken the glue that binds charges and ions together in the materials at a speed that is ultrafast and allow new electronic phases to spontaneously form to engineer new properties," Ruan said. "Capturing these processes in the act allows us to understand the physical nature of transformations at the most fundamental level." Philip Duxbury, a team member and chairperson of the department of physics and astronomy, said ultrafast photo-doping "has potential applications that could lead to the development of next-generation electronic materials and possibly optically controlled switching devices employing undoped semiconductor materials." A semiconductor is a substance that conducts electricity under some conditions but not others, making it a good medium for the control of electrical current. They are used in any number of electronics, including computers. Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Michigan State University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Chong-Yu Ruan et al. Exploration of metastability and hidden phases in correlated electron crystals visualized by femtosecond optical doping and electron crystallography. Science Advances, June 2015 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1400173

Researchers find way to control light in densely packed nanowaveguides

 

A new route to ultrahigh density, ultracompact integrated photonic circuitry has been discovered by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley. The team has developed a technique for effectively controlling pulses of light in closely packed nanoscale waveguides, an essential requirement for high-performance optical communications and chip-scale quantum computing. Xiang Zhang, director of Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division, led a study in which a mathematical concept called "adiabatic elimination" is applied to optical nanowaveguides, the photonic versions of electronic circuits. Through the combination of coupled systems -- a standard technique for controlling the movement of light through a pair of waveguides -- and adiabatic elimination, Zhang and his research team are able to eliminate an inherent and vexing "crosstalk" problem for nanowaveguides that are too densely packed. Integrated electronic circuitry is approaching its limits because of heat dissipation and power consumption issues. Photonics, in which electrical signals moving through copper wires and cables are replaced by pulses of light carrying data over optical fibers, is a highly touted alternative, able to carry greater volumes of data at faster speeds, while giving off much less heat and using far less power. However, the crosstalk problem in coupled optical nanowaveguides has been a major technological roadblock. "When nanowaveguides in close proximity are coupled, the light in one waveguide impacts the other. This coupling becomes particularly severe when the separation is below the diffraction limit, placing a restriction on how close together the waveguides can be placed," Zhang says. "We have experimentally demonstrated an adiabatic elimination scheme that effectively cuts off the cross-talk between them, enabling on-demand dynamical control of the coupling between two closely packed waveguides. Our approach offers an attractive route for the control of optical information in integrated nanophotonics, and provides a new way to design densely packed, power-efficient nanoscale photonic components, such as compact modulators, ultrafast optical signal routers and interconnects." Zhang, who also holds an appointment with the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute (ENSI) at Berkeley, is the corresponding author of a paper describing this research in Nature Communications. The paper is titled "Adiabatic elimination based coupling control in densely packed subwavelength waveguides." Michael Mrejen, Haim Suchowski and Taiki Hatakeyama are the lead authors. Other authors are Chih-hui Wu, Liang Feng, Kevin O'Brien and Yuan Wang. "A general approach to achieving active control in coupled waveguide systems is to exploit optical nonlinearities enabled by a strong control pulse," Zhang says. "However this approach suffers from the nonlinear absorption induced by the intense control pulse as the signal and its control propagate in the same waveguide." Zhang and his group turned to the adiabatic elimination concept, which has a proven track record in atomic physics and other research fields. The idea behind adiabatic elimination is to decompose large dynamical systems into smaller ones by using slow versus fast dynamics. "Picture three buckets side-by-side with the first being filled with water from a tap, the middle being fed from the first bucket though a hole while feeding the third bucket through another hole," says co-lead author Mrejen. "If the flow rate into the middle bucket is equal to the flow rate out of it, the second bucket will not accumulate water. This, in a basic manner, is adiabatic elimination. The middle bucket allows for some indirect control on the dynamics compared to the case in which water goes directly from the first bucket to the third bucket." Zhang and his research group apply this concept to a coupled system of optical nanowaveguides by inserting a third waveguide in the middle of the coupled pair. Only about 200 nanometers separate each of the three waveguides, a proximity that would normally generate too much cross-talk to allow for any control over the coupled system. However, the middle waveguide operates in a "dark" mode, in the sense that it doesn't seem to participate in the exchange of light between the two outer waveguides since it does not accumulate any light. "Even though the dark waveguide in the middle doesn't seem to be involved, it nonetheless influences the dynamics of the coupled system," says co-lead author Suchowski, who is now with the Tel Aviv University. "By judiciously selecting the relative geometries of the outer and intermediate waveguides, we achieve adiabatic elimination, which in turn enables us to control the movement of light through densely packed nanowaveguides. Until now, this has been almost impossible to do." Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The original item was written by Lynn Yarris. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Michael Mrejen, Haim Suchowski, Taiki Hatakeyama, Chihhui Wu, Liang Feng, Kevin O’Brien, Yuan Wang, Xiang Zhang. Adiabatic elimination-based coupling control in densely packed subwavelength waveguides. Nature Communications, 2015; 6: 7565 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8565