Charge density, optical properties of multicomponent crystals

 

APIs in the design of multi-component functional solids are shown. Credit: Marlena Gryl Optical materials serve a major role in modern sciences and technology. Many of the devices we use feature technology resulting from material discoveries in this fast moving area of research. Nowadays, the need for more efficient devices and minimisation in optoelectronics requires a novel approach towards crystal engineering of functional solids. A solution can be multicomponent materials built from either organic or mixed organic and inorganic components selected in a specific way, to combine molecular and structural properties to form a 3D architecture. Optical properties of a crystal strongly depend on two factors, i.e. the spatial distribution of molecules in the crystal structure and the electronic properties of molecular building blocks. The latter are easy to predict whereas the former are not. Crystal symmetry is often a key to obtaining a desired property. Noncentrosymmetric crystal structure (chiral/polar) is a necessary (limiting) condition for such properties as nonlinear properties of even order and linear properties like optical activity, piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity and ferroelectricity. However, fulfilling symmetry rules does not guarantee the existence of a physical effect. The choice of building blocks is crucial; in ideal cases, push-pull molecules should be linked with constituents enabling synthon formation flexibility. Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), through their favourable donor/acceptor spatial distribution and synthon formation flexibility, are attractive building blocks in modern materials crystallography. An API is a substance or a mixture of substances used in the manufacture of a drug product and which becomes an active ingredient in the drug product itself. Here, a Polish scientist (working in Professor Katarzyna Stadnicka's group at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków) presents design strategies for optical materials based on selected pharmaceutical molecules. Gryl successfully presents the factors that contribute to molecular recognition in the four selected polar/chiral crystal phases. Theoretically predicted optical properties of the molecular/ionic building blocks as well as bulk effects were all confirmed experimentally. This work shows that quantitative crystal engineering techniques combining structural analysis, charge density studies, prediction of properties and their measurements enable the full analysis of the obtained functional materials in terms of their usefulness in practical applications. The study is just a first step in the design of novel optical materials based on push-pull molecules and APIs. This work presents an alternative application for pharmaceutical solids that are of major interest in the pharmaceutical industry. Dr Gryl's journey with optical materials based on API started with three polymorphs of urea and barbituric acid adduct [Gryl, Krawczuk & Stadnicka (2008). Acta Cryst. B64, 623-632; doi:10.1107/S0108768108026645]. The co-crystals display synthon polymorphism (a possibility to use the same donor and acceptor sites in many ways) and hence enable the manipulation of the outcome of the engineering process. Why not use the same "flexible" molecules and incorporate them in a lattice containing components with high molecular (hyper)polarizability? This is a next step in Dr Gryl's research. First, of course, as much as possible needs to be known about the selected building blocks and there is no better way than to study crystal structures containing those building blocks. Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by International Union of Crystallography. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Marlena Gryl, Anna Krawczuk, Katarzyna Stadnicka. Polymorphism of urea–barbituric acid co-crystals. Acta Crystallographica Section B Structural Science, 2008; 64 (5): 623 DOI: 10.1107/S0108768108026645

Large-area integration of quantum dots, photonic crystals produce brighter and more efficient light

 

To demonstrate their new technology, researchers fabricated a novel 1mm device (aka Robot Man) made of yellow photonic-crystal-enhanced QDs. Every region of the device has thousands of quantum dots, each measuring about six nanometers. Credit: Gloria See, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Recently, quantum dots (QDs)--nano-sized semiconductor particles that produce bright, sharp, color light--have moved from the research lab into commercial products like high-end TVs, e-readers, laptops, and even some LED lighting. However, QDs are expensive to make so there's a push to improve their performance and efficiency, while lowering their fabrication costs. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have produced some promising results toward that goal, developing a new method to extract more efficient and polarized light from quantum dots (QDs) over a large-scale area. Their method, which combines QD and photonic crystal technology, could lead to brighter and more efficient mobile phone, tablet, and computer displays, as well as enhanced LED lighting. With funding from the Dow Chemical Company, the research team, led by Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) Professor Brian Cunningham, Chemistry Professor Ralph Nuzzo, and Mechanical Science & Engineering Professor Andrew Alleyne, embedded QDs in novel polymer materials that retain strong quantum efficiency. They then used electrohydrodynamic jet (e-jet) printing technology to precisely print the QD-embedded polymers onto photonic crystal structures. This precision eliminates wasted QDs, which are expensive to make. These photonic crystals limit the direction that the QD-generated light is emitted, meaning they produce polarized light, which is more intense than normal QD light output. According to Gloria See, an ECE graduate student and lead author of the research reported in Applied Physics Letters, their replica molded photonic crystals could someday lead to brighter, less expensive, and more efficient displays. "Since screens consume large amounts of energy in devices like laptops, phones, and tablets, our approach could have a huge impact on energy consumption and battery life," she noted. "If you start with polarized light, then you double your optical efficiency," See explained. "If you put the photonic-crystal-enhanced quantum dot into a device like a phone or computer, then the battery will last much longer because the display would only draw half as much power as conventional displays." To demonstrate the technology, See fabricated a novel 1mm device (aka Robot Man) made of yellow photonic-crystal-enhanced QDs. The device is made of thousands of quantum dots, each measuring about six nanometers. "We made a tiny device, but the process can easily be scaled up to large flexible plastic sheets," See said. "We make one expensive 'master' molding template that must be designed very precisely, but we can use the template to produce thousands of replicas very quickly and cheaply." Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Illinois College of Engineering. The original item was written by Laura Schmitt. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Gloria G. See, Lu Xu, Erick Sutanto, Andrew G. Alleyne, Ralph G. Nuzzo, Brian T. Cunningham. Polarized quantum dot emission in electrohydrodynamic jet printed photonic crystals. Applied Physics Letters, 2015; 107 (5): 051101 DOI: 10.1063/1.4927648

New video camera released featuring ultra-high-speed CMOS image sensor

 

HyperVision HPV-X2. Credit: Tohoku University An ultra-high-speed CMOS image sensor that offers 10 million frames per second with ISO16,000 photosensitivity has been developed at Tohoku University by a research group led by Prof. Shigetoshi Sugawa at the Graduate School of Engineering's Department of Management Science and Technology. Shimadzu Corporation, which has been working in cooperation with the university, has now released a new video camera incorporating the ultra-fast CMOS image sensor. Called the Hyper Vision HPV-X2, the new camera offers a significantly higher photosensitivity than the previous model released in September 2012, while maintaining the recording speed of 10 million frames per second. It is the world's fastest in its class. The higher photosensitivity means that more vivid images can now be captured even under low light conditions, such as under a microscope. The improvement in the camera is made possible by the new ultra-high-speed CMOS image sensor, FTCMOS2, which Prof. Sugawa's research group developed by reinvestigating the performance bottleneck and revising the pixel structure and circuit design of previous models. The higher sensitivity of the ultra-high-speed video camera is expected to be widely used for advanced scientific research. Developments in life-sciences and engineering will benefit, as the new camera will enable the observation of ultra-high-speed phenomena that could not previously be clearly captured. Examples include the interactions between cancer cells and drug-filled microcapsules, the fuel injection process of automotive fuel injectors, and the ink ejection process of inkjet printers. Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Tohoku University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Researchers collaborate in development of brain-friendly interfaces

 

Recent research published in the journal Microsystems & Nanoengineering could eventually change the way people living with prosthetics and spinal cord injury lead their lives. Instead of using neural prosthetic devices--which suffer from immune-system rejection and are believed to fail due to a material and mechanical mismatch--a multi-institutional team, including Lohitash Karumbaiah of the University of Georgia's Regenerative Bioscience Center, has developed a brain-friendly extracellular matrix environment of neuronal cells that contain very little foreign material. These by-design electrodes are shielded by a covering that the brain recognizes as part of its own composition. Although once believed to be devoid of immune cells and therefore of immune responses, the brain is now recognized to have its own immune system that protects it against foreign invaders. "This is not by any means the device that you're going to implant into a patient," said Karumbaiah, an assistant professor of animal and dairy science in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. "This is proof of concept that extracellular matrix can be used to ensheathe a functioning electrode without the use of any other foreign or synthetic materials." Implantable neural prosthetic devices in the brain have been around for almost two decades, helping people living with limb loss and spinal cord injury become more independent. However, not only do neural prosthetic devices suffer from immune-system rejection, but most are believed to eventually fail because of a mismatch between the soft brain tissue and the rigid devices. The collaboration, led by Wen Shen and Mark Allen of the University of Pennsylvania, found that the extracellular matrix derived electrodes adapted to the mechanical properties of brain tissue and were capable of acquiring neural recordings from the brain cortex. "Neural interface technology is literally mind boggling, considering that one might someday control a prosthetic limb with one's own thoughts," Karumbaiah said. The study's joint collaborators were Ravi Bellamkonda, who conceived the new approach and is chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, as well as Allen, who at the time was director of the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology. "Hopefully, once we converge upon the nanofabrication techniques that would enable these to be clinically translational, this same methodology could then be applied in getting these extracellular matrix derived electrodes to be the next wave of brain implants," Karumbaiah said. Currently, one out of every 190 Americans is living with limb loss, according to the National Institutes of Health. There is a significant burden in cost of care and quality of life for people suffering from this disability. The research team is one part of many in the prosthesis industry, which includes those who design the robotics for the artificial limbs, others who make the neural prosthetic devices and developers who design the software that decodes the neural signal. "What neural prosthetic devices do is communicate seamlessly to an external prosthesis," Karumbaiah said, "providing independence of function without having to have a person or a facility dedicated to their care." Karumbaiah hopes further collaboration will allow them to make positive changes in the industry, saying that, "it's the researcher-to-industry kind of conversation that now needs to take place, where companies need to come in and ask: 'What have you learned? How are the devices deficient, and how can we make them better?'"   http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150807220747.htm

15 Things Insanely-Productive People Do Differently

 

Productivity by Benjamin Hardy Productivity is not doing lots of stuff fast. You can do lots of stuff and get nowhere closer to your ideal. Most people are living their lives this way. They are burning themselves out running in a million different directions. Our society has become obsessed with constant doing. There’s little time left for being and living. Productivity is purposefully and consistently moving in a desired direction. Insanely productive people have learned the two most important things every person needs to know in this life: Who they are What their purpose (path) in life is And that’s where we begin:   1. They Know Who They Are And Who They Want To Be Productivity is a sexy topic lately because most people are radically confused about who they are. As a result, they want a quick scheme to the world’s definition of success. They’ve yet to define success for themselves. They want it all laid out for them. They want a to-do list. They believe that doing lots of stuff will get them what they want. Maybe it will impress other people? Maybe it will get them ahead of the competition? But who really is the competition? That’s the problem. Most people are still competing with other people. They are trying to fit in. They’re trying to be perceived as awesome. In truth, they’re profoundly insecure. They’re caught in an endless identity crisis – going from one thing to the next. Whatever is popular at the time – the illusive quest for acceptance—the lack of depth and commitment. And that’s the difference. Non-productive people seek security externally. They seek security in a paycheck, or in friends, or in perceived success. Rather than experiencing security, in reality, they are the slaves to these things. They will do anything to have these things. They are not free. However, insanely productive people know that security can only really be experienced internally. They know who they are. So they don’t worry about all these traps that sabotage and slow the masses. They fully accept and understand themselves – and that’s good enough for them. No external standard of success will ever compare to their own self-awareness and acceptance. Beyond knowing who they are, they know who they are going to become. They’re not going to be tossed off course by the next big thing. Until you know who are you, you will never be insanely productive. It doesn’t matter how much you “accomplish” in your life if it’s not the life you really wanted to live – the life you were meant to live. Insanely productive people have moved well beyond that. Their evolution has opened within them the space to do what only they can do. Every person on this planet is a unique individual with a unique opportunity to serve and give in their own personal way. You can’t do that work until you know who you are.   2. They Know Where They Want To Go “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” “I don’t much care where –” “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.” – Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland Like point one, most people want to be told where to go. They want to be told who to be. They don’t really care where it is – so long as it seems awesome to everyone else. This sidetracks people all the time. Rather than doing what they genuinely love, they take the job that offers the most money, prestige, or accolades. They spend decades of their lives on the wrong path. At some point or another, they have their identity crisis and realize they have no idea what they really want in life. They have no idea where they are going. However, insanely productive people are purposeful about where they intend to end up. Every day of their lives is spent building toward their highest ideal. The things on their to-do lists actually make cohesive sense. The truth is, insanely productive people aren’t moving any faster than the rest. More often, they are moving slower. The difference is, unlike the norm, insanely productive people are moving in one direction. Five steps in one directions seems like a lot to the person who has moved one step in five directions.   3. They Let Go Of The Need For A Specific Result Jeremy Piven, the famous actor, was recently interviewed by Success Magazine. During the interview, he mentioned that, as an actor, the only way to work is to go out and audition for specific roles. The challenge most actors/actresses face is that they get in their own way. It doesn’t matter how much homework they’ve done. If they’re too tied to a specific result, they can’t be present in the moment. They can’t truly perform their art. They come off as desperate. They get in their own way. Their performance isn’t what it could have been. Jeremy said that when he quit worrying about a specific result, he was able to be present during his auditions. He was able to be completely who he wanted to be. He wasn’t trying to be what he thought others wanted him to be. He performed his art. If he didn’t get the gig, either they didn’t get it or it just wasn’t the right fit. So he moves on to the next. In this way, he’s able to get the jobs he’s supposed to have. He’s not just trying to get anything he can get. Insanely productive people are the same way. They are raw and real. They are present and perform on their highest level because they aren’t dependent on a particular outcome. They have an innate trust that everything will work out for them if they’re authentic. They trust in the universe – their higher power – to take them where they need to go.   4. They Don’t Care What Other People Are Doing Most people spend the majority of their time watching and observing other people. The goal is to emulate and copy, or to compare and compete. This highlights an utter lack of achieved identity – an emotional and spiritual immaturity. On the other hand, insanely productive people spend very little if any of their time worrying about what other people, “their competition,” are doing. They see this as a distraction from their work. They put their heads down and execute. Gary Vaynerchuck, perhaps one of the most productive people on earth, says he doesn’t have time to read other people’s stuff. He’s too busy creating his own content.   5. They Don’t Care What Other People Think “What people think of you is none of your business.” – Amy Hatvany The majority of the population lives in absolute fear about what other people think of them. They try to be perfect. They try to be liked. They are unwilling to be vulnerable. To be real and truthful. Insanely productive people put themselves completely out there. They are doing their work for themselves and for the people it was intended for. Anyone outside their target audience doesn’t exist to them. Haters and critics are flowers, not darts.   6. But They Care Intensely About Those They Serve Despite caring very little about what other people think, insanely productive people care fiercely about other people. They have a love for humanity that is nothing short of divine. Every person has infinite potential in their worldview. When they look at another person, they see a person – not an object. They feel. Like really feel. It’s not a staged act. Insanely productive people are incredibly empathetic. They relate with people on their level. They’re relevant and connect. They influence with their love. Those they serve can feel it and they’re changed.   7. Their Work Is Their Art – It’s Highly Personal Insanely productive people don’t have jobs. They are artists – even if accountants, bankers, or lawyers. The work they do is everything they are. They give completely to their work. It’s emotional labor. When they finish, there’s nothing left. If it isn’t meaningful, they don’t do it. To do so doesn’t make sense to them. If they can’t feel it deep when they are working, they are not working. They’re not living. They’re not in the zone. And they seek that zone. That’s when art and magic happens. Everything in their life is set up to create that space. This is why they were born.   8. They Don’t Need Permission Most people wait. They believe they can start after they have enough time, money, connections, and credentials. They wait until they feel “secure.” Not insanely productive people. Insanely productive people started last year. They started five years ago before they even knew what they were doing. They started before they had any money. They started before they had all the answers. They started when no one else believed in them. The only permission they needed was the voice inside them prompting them to move forward. And they moved.   9. They Learn Through Doing Theory can only take a person so far. Putting yourself out there and falling flat on your face, over, and over, and over is how insanely productive people learn. Rather than having meetings and discussions, they go out and practice. While most people are reading, thinking, and dreaming, insanely productive people are out doing. The goal is to learn while creating output. Non-productive people on the other hand have a lopsided ratio of input and output – with very little of the latter.   10. They Don’t Take Themselves Too Seriously Insanely productive people have an ease about life. Everything is going to be okay. They allow themselves to laugh and to feel and to love. They don’t overthink themselves. They don’t define themselves by their achievements. They laugh at themselves when they make blunders. They’re okay with the fact that they’re not perfect. They embrace their humanity. They genuinely like themselves as a human being. They don’t crucify themselves at every mistake. They give themselves the benefit of the doubt.   11. They Can Enjoy Where They Presently Are On The Path “When someone says: “So what’s next?” As in, “how are you going to top that?” You don’t have to have an answer. The answer can be: “This.” Your life doesn’t have to be about impressing other people or a successive series of achievements.”- Ryan Holiday Insanely productive people find joy in the journey. They aren’t always waiting for that next chapter in life. They are happy with where they are. They are alive. Non-productive people wait for contentment until after they graduate from college, or get that promotion, or retire. All the while, their life passed them by and they never really experienced the moment.   12. They Ask For Help “Rainmakers generate revenue by making asks. They ask for donations. They ask for contracts. They ask for deals. They ask for opportunities. They ask to meet with leaders or speak to them over the phone. They ask for publicity. They come up with ideas and ask for a few minutes of your time to pitch it. They ask for help. Don’t let rainmaking deter you from your dream. It’s one of the barriers to entry, and you can overcome it. Once you taste the sweet victory of a positive response, you’ll not only become comfortable with it, you might even enjoy it. But making asks is the only way to bring your dream to life.” – Ben Arment Insanely productive people know they don’t have all the answers. They aren’t afraid to ask for directions when lost. They aren’t too proud to say when they’re having a hard time. Amanda Palmer is a famous musician. Her career is based on making asks. She left her record label so she could give her music away for free. She had enough trust in her fans and followers to ask them for help in exchange for the value she provided them. She launched a Kickstarter and made well over a million dollars. She couchsurfs all over the world. Her fans bring her food. All she does is ask. She asks because she has courage. She asks because she has trust. She asks because she wants to be vulnerable with her tribe. They give generously because they have been the generous recipients of her gifts.   13. They Drop What’s Not Working “Extraordinary benefits also accrue to the tiny majority with the guts to quit early and refocus their efforts on something new.” – Seth Godin Insanely productive people understand the concept of sunk cost. When something isn’t working, they drop it and move on. They don’t continue putting resources into a burning ship.   14. They Think Laterally Rather Than Vertically “Lateral thinking doesn’t replace hard work; it eliminates unnecessary cycles.” – Shane Snow Most of the United States Presidents spent less time in politics than the average congressman. Moreover, the best, and most popular Presidents, generally spent the least amount of time in politics. Rather than spending decades climbing the tedious ladder with glass ceilings, they simply jumped laterally from a different, non-political ladder. Ronald Reagan was an actor. Dwight Eisenhower laterally shifted from the military. Woodrow Wilson bounced over from academia. These men spent considerably little time in politics and became fabulous Presidents. They reached the top by skipping the unnecessary “dues-paying” steps. Insanely productive people think the same way. Rather than climbing up ladders the traditional ways, they think of alternative routes. They skip unnecessary steps by pivoting and shifting   15. They Constantly Prune Their Lives “You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.” – Greg McKeown Last but certainly not least—insanely productive people continuously “clean their closet.” They live minimally. When life starts getting too busy, they step back and remove what is unneeded. Rather than adding more to their life, they say, “no” to almost everything. If they’ve made non-essential commitments in their future, they cancel those superfluous appointments. Their lives are simple and to the point.   http://www.lifehack.org/287129/15-things-insanely-productive-people-differently?mid=20150807&ref=mail&uid=580391&feq=daily

Make your Kid's Lunch Healthy

 

Just as your family is settling into summer mode, for many, August also marks back-to-school time. That means back to packing school lunches. Between teacher "meet and greets," school supply shopping, and getting back on a routine sleep schedule, lunchbox packing tends to be last on the list. But, what your child eats for lunch matters more than you might realize. Don't Pack the Salt A recent CDC Vital Signs report found that about 90 percent of U.S. school-aged children consume too much sodium each day. To put that into perspective, if there are 20 kids in your child's class, 18 of them will be eating too much sodium each day. Which group does your child fall into? The report also found that one in nine children ages 8-17 has a blood pressure that measures too high, putting them at risk for heart disease. A healthy, low sodium diet can have an important effect on a child's blood pressure and heart health now and later in life. One way to reduce the amount of sodium in your child's lunchbox is to stick to lower-sodium options, such as cold cuts (marked low sodium), dinner leftovers such as grilled chicken or lean meat, and fresh fruits and vegetables as snacks. Identify the top sources of sodium in your child's lunchbox. How to Beat the Surprising Sodium Sources You may be surprised to find out what the top sources of sodium are in children's diets (see sidebar). If you can't eliminate these items from your child's school lunches, at least try to choose lower sodium options. Here are some tips to help tackle high sodium in your child's lunchbox: Identify the foods contributing the most sodium to your child's lunchbox and find lower sodium options. Just like the lower-sodium cold cuts that are now offered at most delis, many snacks and prepared soups are also cutting the sodium. To find lower sodium packaged food options, read the nutrition labels and compare the sodium amount in similar products, then choose the option with the lowest amount of sodium. For example, some varieties of bread can vary from 80 to 230 mg of sodium per slice. That can make a big difference in lunch-time sandwiches. Your kids may not even realize the difference! Check out the graphic[181 KB], which shows how much sodium can vary within food categories. For a healthy snack, pack fresh fruits and vegetables with lunch every day, like a small bag of baby carrots, snow peas, or grape tomatoes. Encourage your child to get involved. Let them help pack their lunch, and talk about ways to make their favorite items healthy or lower sodium. Let them put their snack packs together or pick what they want for lunch the next day based on what healthy, low-sodium leftovers you have in the fridge. Take these tips beyond your child's school lunchboxes and apply to planning and preparing food for other school activities, such as parties, sporting events, and extracurricular activities. Pack-and-Go Snack and Lunch Recipes Need inspiration for easy pack-and-go snack and lunch recipes that are lower in sodium? Check out these recipes and more in the Million Hearts® Healthy Eating & Lifestyle Resource Center: By packing a lower sodium school lunch for your children and creating an environment with lower sodium food options at home, your children can develop healthy, low sodium eating habits that will last throughout their lives and help improve their heart health. For additional information about children and sodium and more tips for parents to help lower their family's sodium intake, visit the CDC Salt website. Back-to-School List Get involved in these "extracurricular activities" for your family to have a healthy school year. Join the conversation! Log into Twitter on August 18th at 1 pm to chat with Million Hearts® (@MillionHeartsUS), EveryDay Health (@EveryDayHealth), and family nutrition experts about packing healthy, lower-sodium back-to-school lunches. Use #HealthTalk in your tweets to participate and retweet your favorites! Ever wonder what your child eats when they purchase lunch at school? Visit your children's school and have lunch with them this National Take Your Parents to School Lunch Day. Learn more here. http://www.cdc.gov/features/childrens-diet-sodium//

Learning fearlessly

 

Science teacher Marni Landry encourages students in understanding that failure is often part of the process, particularly in emerging fields like biotechnology. Landry is a recipient of the 2013 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching Credit: NSF

Making math relevant

 

Math teacher Shelby Aaberg encourages members of the community to send in problems for his students to work on using mathematics. Aaberg is a recipient of the 2013 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Credit: NSF

Studying geometry in a pool hall

 

Math teacher Valerie Camille Jones gets students out of the classroom to see the real-world context of mathematics. Jones is a recipient of the 2013 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Credit: NSF

Caron Bicycle can be pedaled six ways

 

One of the Caron's pedaling modes, in which both feet go in full revolutions, side-by-side (Credit: Caron Bicycle) Riding a bike is definitely a good source of exercise, although it does tend to work out the same muscles in the same fashion, over and over. In an effort to remedy that, the Caron Bicycle was created. It can be pedaled in six different ways, all of which still move the thing forward. The Caron is mostly a pretty normal bike, with the big difference lying in its crankset/bottom bracket. In fact, if you've got the right type of bottom bracket shell, you can just buy that bit by itself and install it on your own bike. Along with the regular pedaling motion that we're all used to, the Caron can also be pedaled with one foot (left or right) moving up and down at the front; one foot moving in full revolutions while the other sits at the bottom; both feet moving up and down; both feet moving in full revolutions, side-by-side; and left then right feet alternately moving up and down. A bar-mounted thumb switch is used to select between the different pedaling modes, all of which are demonstrated in the video at the bottom of the page. The designers of the Caron Bicycle are currently raising production funds, on Indiegogo. A pledge of US$245 will get you the add-on kit, while $570 is required for a kid's bike and $795 is needed for an adult model ... assuming all goes according to plans. Should you be looking for a system that lets you move forward by pedaling backwards – or forwards – check out biXe Gear. Source: Indiegogo

NASA marks Curiosity's third anniversary with new interactive online tools

 

Experience Curiosity allows the user to control Curiosity's arm (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) Image Gallery (6 images) The Curiosity rover has now been on Mars for three years, and to mark the occasion, NASA has released two new tools designed to both educate the public and help scientists select future landing sites. The tools allow visitors to learn more about Curiosity and its mission and explore the Martian surface by climbing aboard Curiosity for a virtual tour. The first tool is the Mars Trek, which was developed by NASA's Lunar Mapping and Modeling Project. It's a browser-based app that provides detailed interactive maps of Mars, drawing on data from missions going back to the 1960s. Using standard gaming keyboard commands, users can zoom in and out, select various map projections, and add layers from a range of data sets collected by orbiters over the years. In addition, there are downloadable 3D printer files, so users can print out their own Martian topography. NASA says that Mars Trek is also being used by space agency scientists to help select the landing site for the Mars 2020 mission as well as possible landing sites for a manned mission in the 2030s. Experience Curiosity is also browser based, but instead of being an interactive map, this app allows users to go on a 3D drive with Curiosity over the Martian landscape. Providing zoomable and rotatable views, Experience Curiosity uses a virtual landscape based on images from Curiosity and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The app lets users manipulate a virtual Curiosity rover, learn about its various components, steer it between a selection of mission waypoints, and select views from Curiosity's navigation and mast cameras.   Mars Trek view of the Martian North Pole The unmanned Curiosity rover landed on Mars on August 6, 2012 at the Bradbury Landing site. Its 687-day mission was to study the geology and climate of the Red Planet in the vicinity of Gale Crater with a special emphasis for seeking areas where life could or once could have harbored life. It is now carrying out an extended mission that's heading into its fourth year. "We've done a lot of heavy 3-D processing to make Experience Curiosity work in a browser," says Kevin Hussey, manager of the Visualization Applications and Development group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Anybody with access to the web can take a journey to Mars." Source: NASA

Nanoplasmonics and Three-Dimensional Plasmonic Metamaterials

Summary: Metamaterials are tailor-made photonic composites--combinations of materials designed to achieve optical properties not seen in nature. The properties stem from the unique structure of the composites, with features smaller than the wavelength of light separated by sub-wavelength distances. By fabricating such metamaterials, researchers have overcome fundamental limits tied to the wavelength of light. Light hitting a metamaterial is transformed into electromagnetic waves of a different variety—surface plasmon polaritons, which are shorter in wavelength than the incident light. This transformation leads to unusual and counterintuitive properties that might be harnessed for practical use. This project is developing new approaches to more simply fabricate metamaterials, and making new structures specifically designed to enable measurements of their strange properties. We are also exploring nanotechnology applications of these nanostructures, including microscopy beyond the diffraction limit. Description: Plasmonic materials are composed of metals and insulators that are ordered in geometric arrangements with dimensions that are fractions of the wavelength of light. Research groups are experimenting with a variety of geometric approaches, but all aim to exploit surface plasmons, which are light-induced packets of electrical charges that collectively oscillate at the surfaces of metals at optical frequencies. Under specific conditions, the incident light couples with the surface plasmons to create self-sustaining, propagating electromagnetic waves known as surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Once launched, the SPPs ripple along the metal-dielectric interface and do not stray from this narrow path. Compared with the incident light that triggered the transformation, the SPPs can be much shorter in wavelength. Plasmonic metamaterials are incarnations of materials first proposed by a Russian theorist in 1967. Also known as left-handed or negative index materials, the proposed materials were theorized to exhibit optical properties opposite to those of glass, air, and the other right-handed—or positive index—materials of our everyday world. In particular, energy is transported in a direction opposite to that of propagating wavefronts, rather than traveling in lockstep, as is the case in positive index materials. As a result, when juxtaposed with a positive index material, negative index materials were predicted to exhibit counterintuitive properties, like bending, or refracting, light in unnatural ways. Normally, light traveling from, say, air into water bends upon passing through the normal (a plane perpendicular to the surface) and entering the water. In contrast, light beaming from air toward a negative index material would not cross the normal. Rather, it would bend the opposite way, or the “wrong way,” as some have described the unnatural effect. Negative refraction was first reported for microwaves and infrared radiation. In 2007, in collaboration with the team of Harry Atwater at the California Institute of Technology, we were the first to report negative refraction of visible light in two dimensions. Our material platform is a sandwich-like construction with exceedingly thin layers. It consists of an insulating sheet of silicon nitride topped by a film of silver and underlain by gold. The critical dimension is the thickness of the layers, which taken together are only a fraction of the wavelength of blue and green light. By incorporating this metamaterial into an integrated-optics “lab on a chip,” we have been able to demonstrate negative refraction, in one plane, over a broad range of blue and green frequencies. Our system exploits the bulk materials properties of each component, but the collective result is an outsize response to light. Incident light couples with the undulating, gas-like charges normally on the surface of metals. This photon-plasmon interaction results in SPPs that generate intense, localized optical fields. The waves are confined to the interface between metal and insulator. This narrow channel serves as a transformative guide that, in effect, traps, squeezes, and compresses the wavelength of incoming light.   We are using computer simulations to design plasmonic metamaterials with a negative index in three dimensions. The experimental composites will be made using a variety of fabrication methods, including multilayer thin-film deposition, and focused-ion-beam milling. Using these techniques we have recently engineered the first three-dimensional, all-angle metamaterial with a negative index of refraction in the ultraviolet.  Besides characterizing 3D negative refraction at visible frequencies, we are fabricating nanomechanical systems incorporating metamaterials specifically designed to reveal one of the most unusual of the predicted properties of metamaterials, negative radiation pressure. Light falling on conventional materials, with a positive index of refraction, exerts a positive pressure, meaning that it can push an object away from the light source. In contrast, illuminating negative index metamaterials should generate a negative pressure that pulls an object toward light. Plasmonic negative-index metamaterials also have inspired efforts to achieve what once was dismissed as impossible: visible-light imaging of molecular and atomic scale objects. A theorized “superlens” could exceed the diffraction limit, which prevents positive-index lenses from resolving objects small than one-half of the wavelength of visible light. Because plasmonic materials can literally pinch light to a fraction of its original wavelength, a superlens would capture subwavelength spatial information that is beyond the view of conventional optical microscopes. We are exploring several approaches to building a non-diffraction-limited optical microscope based on the superlens concept. As a first step towards that goal we have recently demonstrated that a flat slab of our ultraviolet metamaterial is able to perform far-field (“Veselago”) imaging of arbitrarily-shaped two-dimensional objects. In conjunction, we plan to develop optical switches, modulators, photodetectors, and directional light emitters, also based on plasmonic metamaterials. Other proof-of-concept applications that we are currently exploring include high sensitivity biological and chemical sensing. To achieve this goal, we are developing optical sensors which exploit super-confinement of surface plasmons within high-quality-factor Fabry-Perot nano-resonators. This tailored confinement will allow efficient detection of specific binding of target chemical or biological analyte molecules because of the strong spatial overlap between the optical resonator mode and the analyte ligands bound to the cavity sidewalls. Structures are optimized using finite-difference-time-domain electromagnetic simulations, fabricated using a combination of electron-beam lithography and electroplating, and tested using both near-field and far-field optical microscopy and spectroscopy. In addition, a high-efficiency, fast optical plasmonic modulator based on an electrochemical switching of an electrochromic polymer has recently been developed.  Selected Publications: All-angle negative refraction and active flat lensing of ultraviolet light, T. Xu, A. Agrawal, M. Abashin, K. J. Chau, and H. J. Lezec, Nature 497, 470–474 (2013). NIST Publication Database Journal Web Site An efficient large-area grating coupler for surface plasmon polaritons, S. Koev, A. Agrawal, H. Lezec, and V. Aksyuk, Plasmonics 7, 269–277 (2012). NIST Publication Database Journal Web Site Revisiting the Balazs thought experiment in the case of a left-handed material: electromagnetic-pulse-induced displacement of a dispersive, dissipative negative-index slab, K. J. Chau and H. J. Lezec, Optics Express 20, 10138–10162 (2012). NIST Publication Database Journal Web Site Revisiting the Balazs thought experiment in the presence of loss: electromagnetic-pulse-induced displacement of a positive-index slab having arbitrary complex permittivity and permeability, K. J. Chau and H. J. Lezec, Applied Physics A 105, 267-281 (2011). NIST Publication Database Journal Web Site An integrated electrochromic nanoplasmonic optical switch, A. Agrawal, C. Susut, G. Stafford, U. Bertocci, B. McMorran, H. J. Lezec, and A. A. Talin, Nano Letters 11, 2774-2778 (2011). NIST Publication Database Journal Web Site Electron vortex beams with high quanta of orbital angular momentum, B. J. McMorran, A. Agrawal, I. M. Anderson, A. A. Herzing, H. J. Lezec, J. J. McClelland, and J. Unguris, Science 331, 192 -195 (2011). NIST Publication Database Journal Web Site Universal Optical Transmission Features in Periodic and Quasiperiodic Hole Arrays, D. Pacifici, H.J. Lezec, L.A. Sweatlock, R.J. Walters, and H.A. Atwater, Optics Express (12), 9222 (2008). Negative Refraction at Visible Frequencies, H.J. Lezec, J.A. Dionne, and H.A. Atwater, Science (5823), 430 (2007). Beaming Light from a Subwavelength Aperture, H.J. Lezec, A. Degiron, E. Devaux, R.A. Linke, L. Martin-Moreno, F.J. Garcia-Vidal, and T.W. Ebbesen, Science (5582), 820 (2002). Additional Technical Details: Nanoplasmonics   http://www.nist.gov/cnst/nrg/3d_plasmonic_metamaterials.cfm

A Regulatory Helping Hand

 

Fri, 08/07/2015 - 11:21am Lindsay Hock, Editor Image: Shutterstock Increasingly scrutinized, regulatory agencies are imposing stricter guidelines for approving new therapies. This is mainly due to a number of high-profile drugs that were commercialized and then withdrawn after findings of adverse effects for patients. For decades, agencies have struggled to find a solution to bring higher-qualified drugs to market while minimizing risks in clinical trials and reducing the amount of animal testing. Regulation also requires a level of data security and data provenance. These topics are of interest to the computer industry, and have been addressed during the data science boom of the past two decades. Advances in bioinformatics—including traceability, deep learning, predictive analytics and collaborative decision-making—have enabled agencies to bring recent drugs to market with a higher degree of confidence of successful therapy and reduced risk. “Bioinformatics platforms are arising that provide decision and process traceability across all variations and changes at both the product and country level,” Tim Moran, Director of Life Science Research Marketing at BIOVIA told R&D Magazine. “Integrated bioinformatics platforms deliver connected and comprehensive regulatory and quality capabilities that accelerate therapeutic approval, production and patient adoption in a global landscape.” Current bioinformatics tools incorporate new data management tools and techniques as they are developed, making it easier for users to collect, store and secure data, and do so according to regulatory requirements. The solutions can range from organizations implementing solutions within their firewalls, or implementing software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based solutions that run on environments that have passed regulatory compliance. Improving drug discovery/development Pharmaceutical development has looked to next-generation sequencing for decades to mine new insights for target discovery, validation and companion analysis, all of which require high-throughput methods to process, analyze and share a large amounts of genomic information within an organization and between organizations. “The field of bioinformatics marries multiple disciplines, such as computer engineering, statistics and life sciences to address this need,” Narges Bani Adadi, PhD, Founder and CEO for Bina Technologies told R&D Magazine. “Yet, it goes beyond crunching through massive amounts of data to get to the answer faster. It’s also about how to build a robust information technology (IT) infrastructure that employs accurate analysis pipelines that can be maintained easily, fit-for-purpose interfaces to extract information by bench scientists and data management and security protocols in place to share data.” “It’s quite possible the easy drugs have already been discovered and developed: the compounds that are most easily synthesized, for diseases with obvious targets, and those that are effective for most people,” Antoni Wandycz, Director, Bioinformatics Solutions, Software & Informatics Div., Agilent Technologies, told R&D Magazine. However, as drug discovery progresses and more complicated models are considered, bioinformatics helps find the signal-to-noise. As drug trials become more expensive, bioinformatics predictions can reject candidates early, decreasing costs. “And, as drugs become more personalized and precise, bioinformatics tracks the increasing amounts of data, cross-references reliably and eliminates errors,” says Wandycz. Overall, bioinformatics is advancing pharmaceutical and drug discovery/development as a whole, and is important at every stage—from discovery to delivery. The field advances drug discovery, development and delivery by enabling the capture, archiving and mining of data throughout the therapeutic product lifecycle. “Traditional biologic research methods are no longer a viable option as advances in technology have led to an ever-increasing stream of data volume and complexity,” says Moran. Deep learning algorithms are commonplace in applications like Facebook and Google imaging, and have demonstrated the power of large data sets in predicting and prescribing. And just as deep learning algorithms have enhanced the IT industry, bioinformatics applications have enhanced the data capture and data mining process, while also providing tools for effective modeling and simulation for biologists and those working in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry. “As the field has grown, more sophisticated models and algorithms have led to more accurate simulations, enabling research organizations to expend fewer cycles optimizing bioactivity and pharmacological profiles,” says Moran. Predictive analytics can accelerate therapeutics to market at lower costs, with fewer resources. Repeatability/transparency Bioinformatics has evolved and entwined itself with traditional methods and data capture, transparency and traceability found in other industries such as finance and manufacturing. “Electronic information captured in laboratory notebooks and other electronic recording systems is critical to rapid regulatory approval,” says Moran. “These records contain repeatable outcomes and, more importantly, the methods and entities used to produce them.” The vast amounts of data required to maintain transparency and support repeatability can only be managed and mined correctly with proper bioinformatics infrastructure. “By enabling faster and less error-prone information exchange, bioinformatics applications have made it possible for pharmaceutical organizations to satisfy regulatory demands while minimizing the increasing costs created by these demands,” says Moran. However, bioinformatics alone doesn’t help if bioinformatics pipelines aren’t built with the proper tracing, logging, process management and data management. “Most home-grown environments have been optimized for accuracy of results,” says Bani Asadi. “However, they tend not to build in the infrastructure to handle constant updates of source tools and databases and growing data volumes.” “That means the 100 samples you ran an analysis for today probably didn’t use the same pipeline as the 100 samples you ran six months ago,” continues Bani Asadi. Repeatability is difficult if you don’t automatically track what was done previously and can roll back to the exact environment. Image: Shutterstock Data overload help When data requirements reach a painful threshold, three major challenges become apparent: massive data storage, repeatable data processing and reliable data availability. “The computer industry at large is dealing with these issues, and bioinformatics is reaping the rewards,” says Wandycz. Databases, whether part of the SQL old guard or the newer NoSQL movement, have evolved to handle larger and more diverse data sets. Along with this, data scientists are building data analysis tools in various programming languages too quickly to enumerate. Cloud service providers are experimenting with virtualization and new deployment mechanisms that improve consistency and availability. “All these tools can be used by bioinformatics to store, process and share even larger data sets in a more consistent and repeatable manner,” says Wandycz. Bina is merging bioinformatics tooling and scientific improvements in pipeline analysis with industry-best practices in data and process management. “For example, we track the versions of all the tools and databases that our customers use for a particular pipeline analysis,” says Bani Asadi. “We store the results of that analysis in a database, not in separate files.” This, in turn, makes the results easy to find at a later date. Additionally, Bina stores all the metadata about how the results were generated, along with pointers back to the source genomic file used as input to that analysis. “This makes it very easy to reproduce the results of an earlier analysis,” says Bani Asadi. Regulatory continued approval Regulatory compliance is seen as a millstone around the pharmaceutical industry’s neck, “the fleet sprinter who wants to move quickly,” says Wandycz. However, regulatory bodies aren’t just interested in slowness; they are interested in safety, which is enabled by transparency and predictability. Bioinformatics will continue to improve predictions, and the tools will become better at storing and displaying the data and the process used to get there. “The right bioinformatics tools can help pharma move more quickly, while still providing the same, if not better, comprehensive transparency required by regulations,” says Wandycz. The explosion of genomics research and an overall increase in available data have brought bioinformatics back into the spotlight. And the truth remains that the piles of data now can only be efficiently managed, mined and interpreted through the use of bioinformatics tools and methodologies. “Advanced tools have led to enhanced predictive algorithms and simulation capabilities,” says Moran. “The pairing of current experimental evidence with available historical data enhances predictive capabilities and improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the drug discovery and development process.” The more effectively the industry is capturing data and maintaining traceability and integrity, the more confident regulatory agencies are in the predicted outcomes of emerging drug candidates. With faster computational power, cheaper storage and newer algorithms being developed, more data will be analyzed and results generated. “In the genomic space, scientists are looking to examine genomes at greater coverage and depth,” says Bani Asadi. “Advancements in the computational and IT infrastructure arms of bioinformatics will help address the growing need for a genomic management system that not only provides data interpretation, but also reports generation, data storage and provenance and protection.” These are all important regulator aspects for pharmaceutical companies who are adopting next-generation sequencing technologies for advancing personalized medicine.   http://www.rdmag.com/articles/2015/08/regulatory-helping-hand