Posted: 03 Oct 2015 11:00 AM PDT
Villa New Water - a été imaginé par les architectes de Waterstudio, situé dans la zone rurale de Westland aux Pays-Bas. De sa forme unique et longiligne, cette superbe villa fait face à un lac avec de larges baies vitrées offrant un panorama très agréable sur les alentours.
| Engineering and scientific advances from fundamental research are main drivers of economic growth. October 2, 2015 The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced today the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor will lead a consortium to identify new, emerging areas of advanced manufacturing that would benefit from shared public-private investment in research and development, education, and training. The Alliance for Manufacturing Foresight (MForesight) will provide a channel for rapid input from industrial, academic and other private sectors on future manufacturing technologies. Its work will help align advanced manufacturing research with national priorities and challenges to ensure efficient use of federal and private funding for the greatest possible return on investment. "Engineering and scientific advancements based on fundamental research have been the main drivers of U.S. economic growth over the past half century," said NSF Director France Córdova. "Thanks to innovative technologies enabled by manufacturing research, production has grown at its fastest pace in more than a decade, creating significant economic value for the nation. To continue to reap these benefits, we must seek new research frontiers for manufacturing and pursue them for high impact U.S. manufacturing innovation and economic competitiveness." "This consortium will provide a continuous channel to draw on the perspectives, knowledge and insights of not only industry but also academia," said Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST Director Willie E. May. "Having this access to private-sector viewpoints and studies on urgent questions related to manufacturing technology R&D will help us better coordinate and prioritize research and funding." Recommended by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in its 2014 report, Accelerating U.S. Advanced Manufacturing, the consortium will study needs, challenges, and opportunities facing U.S. manufacturing, producing studies within an anticipated shorter-than-usual turnaround time. NSF and NIST announced a competition for the new consortium in April 2015. Sridhar Kota, Herrick Professor of Engineering, will lead the University of Michigan's work on MForesight, which has already partnered with 30 thought leaders from industry, professional associations and academia. MForesight aspires to create an inclusive advanced manufacturing community with greater communication and collaboration across a broad spectrum of sectors. Federal users of the information will include NSF, NIST, other federal research and development agencies, the interagency Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office and the Advanced Manufacturing Subcommittee of the President's National Science and Technology Council. Agencies will have the opportunity to fund studies where they have particular needs. For further information and to learn how to participate, visit mforesight.org. -NSF- Media Contacts Program Contacts Related Websites
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2015, its budget is $7.3 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 48,000 competitive proposals for funding, and makes about 11,000 new funding awards. NSF also awards about $626 million in professional and service contracts yearly.
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=136467&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click
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| Smartphones: "Já nunca estamos ilocalizáveis,e temos contato minuto a minuto com nosso trabalho", disse o cientista Berlim - O neurologista Thomas Südhof, prêmio Nobel de Medicina, garante que os smartphones geram um estresse contínuo com consequências patológicas como o chamado "burn out", a síndrome de esgotamento. "Não me surpreende que muita gente adoeça de 'burn out' se levarmos em conta como se vive hoje em dia", disse o cientista da Universidade de Stanford em declarações que serão publicadas amanhã pelo dominical "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagzeitung". Os smartphones, segundo ele, tem parte nisso na medida em que levam à conectividade permanente. "Já nunca estamos ilocalizáveis, sempre estamos de guarda e através do e-mail temos contato minuto a minuto com nosso trabalho. A longo prazo isso não pode ser bom", acrescentou. Com frequência isso conduz a um estresse contínuo que gera transformações no cérebro, explicou. Südhof recomenda fazer pausas no uso do smartphone. "Isso é algo que o bom senso diz. Tudo o que nos distrai ajuda, seja esporte, ioga, um bom livro ou música", disse. O campo de investigação de Südhof é a comunicação entre os neurônios e, por exemplo, o que ocorre com eles em um burn out. Südhof recebeu a notícia que tinha recebido o Nobel quando estava a caminho a um congresso, ironicamente através de seu telefone celular. No entanto, o neurologista garantiu que ele mesmo se impõe limites sobre o uso dos aparelhos eletrônicos. "Às oito da noite apago sempre todos os aparelhos eletrônicos e só volto a ligá-los na hora do café da manhã", disse.
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The Milky Way captured over Ussita in Marche, Italy by Alessio Andreani from London. The 27-year-old, who is originally from Loreto, Italy, says: "When I take photographs of the Milky Way and stare up at all those stars, it reminds me of just how tiny I am."
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Adult obesity remains high across the U.S. Learn what you can do to get to a healthy weight. Obesity is a common, serious, and costly health issue that affects people in every state in the nation. New data show that at least 1 of 5 adults in every state has obesity. This condition is linked to some of the leading causes of death, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers. Obesity and the health problems it causes cost the U.S. health care system as much as $147 billion per year. States differ in their levels of obesity.The percentage of people with obesity varies from state to state, and the problem is worse in some parts of the country than in others. The percentage of people with obesity also varies by other factors, such as race and ethnicity. These differences may be partly due to difference in people's access to healthy foods and safe places to be physically active. Some Americans have less access to stores and markets that sell healthy, affordable food such as fruits and vegetables. Safe routes for walking or biking do not exist in some neighborhoods. Some communities do not have parks and recreation centers that people can get to easily.
Adults should aim for 150 minutes of moderate activity every week. All the US people can take actions to get to and stay at a healthy weight.Everyone can:
National, state, and local governments can:
http://www.cdc.gov/features/adult-obesity-us/
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 A drug may be able to make it easier to learn a language, sharpen your memory and help those with dementia and Alzheimer's disease. (Stock image) Credit: © kenwnj / Fotolia Can you imagine a drug that would make it easier to learn a language, sharpen your memory and help those with dementia and Alzheimer's disease by rewiring the brain and keeping neurons alive? New Rutgers research published in the Journal of Neuroscience found that a drug -- RGFP966 -- administered to rats made them more attuned to what they were hearing, able to retain and remember more information, and develop new connections that allowed these memories to be transmitted between brain cells. "Memory-making in neurological conditions like Alzheimer's disease is often poor or absent altogether once a person is in the advanced stages of the disease," said Kasia M. Bieszczad, lead author and assistant professor in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology. "This drug could rescue the ability to make new memories that are rich in detail and content, even in the worst case scenarios." What happens with dementias such as Alzheimer's is that brain cells shrink and die because the synapses that transfer information from one neuron to another are no longer strong and stable. There is no therapeutic treatment available that reverses this situation. The drug being tested in this animal study is among a class known as HDAC inhibitors -- now being used in cancer therapies to stop the activation of genes that turn normal cells into cancerous ones. In the brain, the drug makes the neurons more plastic, better able to make connections and create positive changes that enhance memory. Researchers found that laboratory rats, taught to listen to a certain sound in order to receive a reward, and given the drug after training, remembered what they learned and responded correctly to the tone at a greater rate than those not given the drug. Scientists also found that the rodents were more "tuned in" to the relevant acoustic signals they heard during their training -- an important finding Bieszczad said because setting up the brain to better process and store significant sounds is critical to human speech and language. "People learning to speak again after a disease or injury as well as those undergoing cochlear implantation to reverse previous deafness, may be helped by this type of therapeutic treatment in the future," said Bieszczad "The application could even extend to people with delayed language learning abilities or people trying to learn a second language." This hypersensitivity in processing auditory information enabled the neurons to reorganize and create new pathways -- allowing more of the information they learned to become a long-term memory, said Bieszczad who collaborated with colleagues in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at the University of California Irvine. "People normally remember an experience with limited detail -- not everything we see, hear and feel is remembered," she said. "What has happened here is that memory becomes closer to a snapshot of the actual experience instead of being sparse, limited or inaccurate." Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Rutgers University.Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151002113548.htm |
Newsfeeds have been abuzz lately with discussions about the safety of Google’s self-driving cars. On the heels of the news that none of the autonomous vehicles were at fault in the motor vehicle ‘incidents’ they’ve been involved in, Google’s Self-Driving Car Project plans to free the cars from the confines of their test track and let them loose this summer on the streets of Mountain View, California. Well, sort of.
In a blog post, Chris Urmson, director of the Google Self-Driving Car Project, explains that the cars will head out onto the open road with a safety driver on board. One of the biggest goals of the self-driving car movement is to free up drivers to do other tasks instead of, well, driving. Google’s autonomous car, like many other emerging prototypes, still has a steering wheel and brakes so a human driver can take over if necessary, but the car’s ability to drive itself is ever-improving. In a press conference, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said the search engine giant’s self-driving vehicles are capable of recognizing police cars, joggers, hand signs from traffic cops, and the inevitable fact that “occasionally people make terrible decisions—turning right from the far left lane, for instance, or running a red light—and is on alert for them.” Related: Google unveils the first fully functional prototype of its self-driving car By putting the autonomous cars on the road, Google’s engineering team aims to learn even more about how the vehicles operate and play with other traditionally operated cars (i.e. human-driven cars), as well as the host of variables that drivers encounter on a daily basis. The team is also really keen on getting people excited about the technology, by allowing them to see and interact with the cars. From the announcement, it doesn’t appear that Google plans to roll out all 23 of the self-driving prototype cars—just “a few.” The models that will be tooling around Mountain View have “the same software that our existing fleet of self-driving Lexus RX450h SUVs uses,” according to Urmson’s blog post. “That fleet has logged nearly a million autonomous miles on the roads since we started the project, and recently has been self-driving about 10,000 miles a week. So the new prototypes already have lots of experience to draw on—in fact, it’s the equivalent of about 75 years of typical US adult driving experience.” I guess that explains why they haven’t been to blame for any of the accidents. Images via Google
http://inhabitat.com/googles-autonomous-cars-will-drive-themselves-around-mountain-view-this-summer/
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| (The image above is a snapshot, not a video) A company called – wait for it – Robot Taxi has announced it will begin trials on autonomous taxi cabs in Japan next year. Fifty lucky residents of Kanagawa prefecture, just south of Tokyo, will be the first to ride the taxis of the future on round-trip journeys from their homes to local stores. And don’t worry, there will still be a human riding along in the driver’s seat during the test runs just in case the self-driving car gets into any trouble. Robot Taxi is optimistic about the trials and is aiming for a full commercial release of self-driving taxi service by 2020. The company will target areas that aren’t currently served by public transportation in an effort to close the gap and provide wider city access to people without cars, like tourists and the elderly. Robot Taxi’s two-minute ad, above, illustrates that idea, as it follows an empty robo-cab on its way to pick up an older couple from their home. The only question is, why are so many people waving at the empty taxi? Related: 6 Problems driverless cars will have to overcome Self-driving car technology is progressing like gangbusters, and now it really does seem like everyone has a horse in the race. Google’s already got self-driving cars on the streets of Mountain View, California. Uber is reportedly researching autonomous car technology, and even big car makers like Chevy and Hyundai are in on the game. Even Tesla has committed to producing a self-driving car by next year. Although it’s not clear what make of car the Robot Taxi will employ, one thing is quite certain: within just a few years, there will be a lot of driverless cars on the roadways. Via Engadget
http://inhabitat.com/japan-will-begin-testing-self-driving-cabs-next-year/ |
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Posted: 01 Oct 2015 07:00 AM PDT Neil Leifer est un photographe américain né en 1942. Il a saisi de nombreux évènements de la société américaine. Sa photographie sportive est un de ses travaux les plus célèbres. Il a capturé les heures de gloire du sport américain. Des combats de Muhammad Ali aux matches de Michael Jordan en passant par le célèbre point levé des athlètes afro-américains Tommie Smith et John Carlos aux Jeux Olympiques de Mexico en 1968, tous ces instants figurent dans toutes les mémoires.
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| The TruPosture smart shirt is designed to provide real-time posture feedback (Credit: Adela Health) Those who have suffered through any type of back pain know it's not a fun feeling. Given the amount of sedentary slouching at desks and/or strained hunkering over display screens done on a daily basis, it's a wonder that more people haven't been afflicted by the pinch of poor posture. Adela Health has just unveiled TruPosture, a shirt that's designed to help reduce back pain by improving the way we sit. Having just read the mention of posture, some of you may be finding yourselves sitting up a little straighter in your seats. And that's the idea behind TruPosture. This latest wearable features patented nano-sensors embedded within a machine-washable, breathable stretchy material. These sensors are designed to measure the spine's movement with an accuracy of half a degree, and then send real-time feedback as necessary to the user. When TruPosture detects an excess in slouching or leaning, it sends vibrations to the target area so the user knows where and how to sit straighter. And by sitting straighter, one may be less susceptible to back pain and fatigue. Physical monitoring and feedback is at the heart of wearables like the Sensoria smart running system, but instead of tracking typical fitness data, TruPosture focuses on core muscles and spine alignment. TruPosture also features Bluetooth connectivity, which transmits measured data to the free TruPosture app. Through the app (compatible with iOS, Android, and Windows devices), users can see a real-time graphical represenation of their spine as well as track individual progress. TruPosture also offers additional modes to help users improve postures for standing, stretching, or a custom activity. Those who want more coaching can switch the difficulty from beginner to intermediate or advanced. The TruPosture smart shirt is currently the subject of a US$50,0000 Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. Backers will need to pledge $99 for a single TruPosture smart shirt, saving 50 percent off the planned retail price, and will be able to choose shirt style (men's or women's), size, and color. If production and quality assurance go according to schedule, backers can expect shipments of the TruPosture to start sometime in May, 2016. http://www.gizmag.com/truposture-smart-shirt/39682 Sources: Adela Health, Indiegogo
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