tagged w/ Microchips
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A clinical trial composed of Danish women with the bone disease osteoporosis is the first to test a wirelessly controlled microchip that can release drugs into the body at any time.
Patients can release medication with the push of a remote-controlled button, ditching their daily injection pens.
These results represent the first successful test of such a device and could help usher in a new era of telemedicine – delivering health care over a distance, says coauthor Robert Langer of MIT. “You could literally have a pharmacy on a chip,” he adds. (Pictured, flash drive for scale.)
The implant would keep patients on their meds – especially because osteoporosis is a ‘silent’ disease and people don’t feel worse as their bone density decreases. “This avoids the compliance issue completely,” says coauthor Michael Cima of MIT, “and points to a future where you have fully automated drug regimens.”
The tech could be ideal for treating conditions that require regular pulses of medication, including pain, infertility, multiple sclerosis, and perhaps even diabetes, LA Times reports. The tech also allows doctors to adjust medication using a computer or smartphone.
About 15 years ago, Langer and Cima created a device that holds daily doses of a drug inside tiny wells that pop open either on a pre-programmed schedule or via a wireless signal. But once implanted into animals, a fibrous collagen-based membrane would develop around the device.
In this trial, the team of academic and industry researchers – led by Robert Farra of MicroCHIPS , along with Langer and Cima – wanted to see if the membrane actually slowed down the absorption of the medication.
They implanted the chip (pictured, right) just below the waistline of 7 women between the ages of 65 and 70. This half hour procedure was performed in a doctor’s office with local anesthetic.
The women received daily doses of the bone-forming drug teriparatide, individually sealed in tiny reservoirs about the size of a pinprick. The reservoirs are capped with a thin layer of platinum and titanium that melts when a small electrical current is applied, releasing the drug inside.
The devices were tracked for 12 months.
They showed how the drug was delivered as effectively as daily injections – even with the fibrous membrane around the device. The treatment improved bone formation and reduced the risk of bone fracture.
Massachusetts-based MicroCHIPS is currently developing new designs that have enough reservoirs for a year’s supply of doses. The company hopes to make the device available for mainstream use in 5 years.
The work was published in Science Translational Medicine yesterday. Via AAAS, MIT, and Nature
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/rethinking-healthcare/no-more-injections-implantable-microchip-delivers-drugs/7968?tag=header;header-secA clinical trial composed of Danish women with the bone disease osteoporosis is the... more
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Los Angeles Times...
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Los Padres sanctuary goes to the rescue of wolf dogs
29 animals are seized from an Anchorage attraction accused of possessing them illegally. 'It was heartbreaking to see,' one of the rescuers said.
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Matthew Simmons is greeted by one of the 29 wolf dogs rescued from a roadside attraction near Anchorage and brought to the Lockwood Valley Animal Rescue Center in the Los Padres National Forest. "Overall, they honestly seem to understand that this is a better environment than where they came from," said Simmons.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times / December 22, 2011)
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By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times
December 27, 2011
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Chained to posts on a half-acre lot, the 29 wolf dogs languished for years behind stockade fencing at a roadside attraction near Anchorage.
The wolf hybrids were unable to touch one another except when they were bred through chain-link fences. Several had sore backs and legs because they had never been able to move more than a few yards at a time.
The animals were seized by Alaskan authorities as evidence in an ongoing criminal investigation and scheduled for destruction before the Lockwood Valley Animal Rescue Center intervened. The center had the wolf dogs spayed and neutered, then transported by plane and truck to its sanctuary in the Los Padres National Forest, about 90 miles north of Los Angeles.
They arrived at the 20-acre sanctuary Dec. 12 and will live the rest of their lives unchained, in sprawling enclosures and networks of wire holding pens.
Striding toward a pen shaded by scrub oaks and pine trees, Lori Lindner, co-founder and president of the nonprofit sanctuary, introduced visitors on Thursday to members of her new "packs": a black female with dark honey-colored eyes featured in Sean Penn's 2007 film, "Into the Wild," and a large male that fathered seven of the rescued wolf dogs.
Lindner, 46, recalled with a sigh arriving at the Wolf Country USA attraction in Anchorage earlier in the month to begin preparing the animals for the long trip to California.
"It was heartbreaking to see so many of these animals on chains," she said. "Wolf dogs are products of human vanity and machismo."
The trouble is that crossing wolves, which have been bred by nature for millions of years to be wild, with dogs, which have been genetically manipulated for thousands of years to serve humans, creates a conflict of innate behaviors. As a result, they are often chained up or given away, turned loose or killed, or they escape and are shot or poisoned.
In a 2½-acre enclosure dubbed "wolf mansion," Lindner's husband, Matthew Simmons, called out to six juvenile wolf dogs that were adjusting to a measure of freedom.
"No more pain," said Simmons, 38. "They're getting along amazing well, although there have been a few tussles in which one girl pushed another girl around. But overall, they honestly seem to understand that this is a better environment than where they came from."
The Humane Society of the United States has taken a hard stand against wolf dogs as unpredictable, destructive and rarely trainable. At least 16 states ban them, and California and 20 other states have restrictions on ownership. Alaska prohibits ownership of wolves or wolf dogs unless they are spayed or neutered, fitted with microchips and registered with state authorities.
Lindner and Simmons were alerted by sanctuary accreditation officials that Wolf Country USA was under investigation, accused of illegal possession of wolf dogs. The zoo-like attraction boasted "the largest wolf pack in Alaska" and charged $5 to walk along a path close enough to the animals to take snapshots and, in certain cases, pet one.
"We flew to Alaska and met with the assistant attorney general," Simmons said. "He told us that the state had no place to keep them, and if we didn't take them he was going to dispatch state troopers to shoot them and toss them into a freezer until the court battle with Wolf Country USA was resolved."
In a telephone interview, Werner Shuster, owner of Wolf Country USA, denied that the wolf dogs had been mistreated or that he had broken the law.
"We raised them since they were pups, each one had 12 to 15 feet of space and they were the healthiest animals on the planet," said Shuster, 82. "They do better on chains. That way they don't fight, and people can pet them."
Money to take the wolf dogs to the sanctuary came from a $5,000 donation from the Humane Society and a "very, very large donation" from Bob Barker, who hosted the TV game show "The Price is Right" for 35 years, Simmons said.
Because of their histories, size, strength and often unstable temperaments, the wolf dogs need lots of care. The nonprofit International Fund for Animal Welfare donated $43,000 to construct nine new enclosures with 10-foot-high fencing.
The sanctuary needs $3,000 a month for maintenance and about $350 a day for raw meat, day-old products bought from local grocery stores at a discount. It is also negotiating the purchase of a nearby 180-acre property that would be devoted to dozens more rescued wolf dogs and wolves. "We need $250,000 for a down payment on the property," Simmons said.
To help reduce the costs of the operation, which already housed 20 rescued wolf dogs, the sanctuary launched Warriors and Wolves, a program designed to pair wolf dogs with combat veterans volunteering there to try to overcome physical injuries and lingering anxieties.
Stanley McDonald, 48, who was diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder after he returned from the Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm, is among veterans who have become full-time volunteer ranch hands at the sanctuary.
Stepping through the gate of an enclosure where three wolf dogs paced warily, McDonald said, "I see a lot of myself in these animals. Like them, I was lost and troubled until I came here. Now, there's a lot of healing going on."
.Los Angeles Times...
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Los Padres sanctuary goes to the rescue of wolf dogs... more
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Advocating for Stray and Feral Cats – A Quick Guide
You don’t have to do Trap-Neuter-Return in order to help cats. You can make a difference in cats’ lives by working for change at the local level. Help build the movement to expand humane care for cats and end the killing by raising awareness and educating others about feral cats and about what’s going on in our nation’s animal shelters.
Five Ways to Advocate for Cats in your Community
1.
Learn about issues facing cats.
Every day, Alley Cat Allies is on the front lines, mobilizing individuals and communities to support cats and press for changes that will end the killing and improve the lives of cats. Stay up to date on urgent legislative issues facing cats as well as upcoming events by joining our FeralPower! e-action alert list.
Want to get started now? Visit our online Action Center. With just a few clicks of the mouse, you can protect and improve the lives of cats by signing petitions and sending letters directly to your elected officials and decision makers.
2.
Write an editorial for your local paper.
Each time an article appears in the paper about feral cats, or cats in general, it’s an opportunity to write a letter to the editor. Use your letter to educate the public—on the basic facts about stray and feral cats, Trap-Neuter-Return, the truth about shelter kill rates, and local programs and groups. Your letter will show others that there is a public movement on behalf of cats. Ready to send one today? Use Alley Cat Allies’ letter to the editor templates.
3.
Distribute literature in your community.
Help educate your community by placing literature in locations that animal lovers frequent. Displaying brochures at your local pet store or veterinary office can help educate people with pets. For a display stand and pack of brochures, visit our Marketplace.
4.
Educate your elected officials.
Don’t wait until feral cats are an agenda item. Teach your local elected officials about feral cats and Trap-Neuter-Return and encourage them to enact policies that protect and improve cats’ lives. Use our tips for organizing for strategic change.
5.
Promote feline-friendly practices at your local shelter.
Encourage animal pounds and shelters in your community to adopt socially-responsible approaches that serve both the animals and the public. These include improving community education programs, refusing to accept feral cats into shelters, and providing free or low-cost neuter services for the public. Read our full list of humane practices that shelters can use to protect cats’ lives.Advocating for Stray and Feral Cats – A Quick Guide
You don’t have to... more
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The IMEC laboratory in Belgium is a surprising place. Nestled in the sleepy university town of Leuven, its low-key entrance gives little clue to the high-tech facility within.
:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11609667The IMEC laboratory in Belgium is a surprising place. Nestled in the sleepy university... more
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suzane
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1 year ago
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Cat ownership in WA is under siege by local cat laws newly introduced by the Shire of Swan and soon to be implemented by the City of Joondalup. Cat owners will be penalized by fines if their cat unwittingly trespasses onto a neighbors property without their permission. The ultimate penalty is the trapping of your beloved moggy by a neighbor in a trap supplied by the shire and the impoundment and possible euthanization of your cat if you can’t locate it within 7 days.
Location map of City of Joondalup, Western Aus...
The legal trapping of cats opened up by these new local cat laws will only encourage vigilantes who hate cats to have an ‘open season’ on cats in their neighborhood. The Cat Haven, a well known Perth based cat rescue group have already reported incidences of cats caught in traps being drowned in lakes. A horrible death for any animal with no chance of escape and astonishingly still a set of laws introduced in such poor format by local councils that policing these laws is almost impossible.
Very little forethought went into the ultimate outcomes that these laws would fester, if councils honestly thought that residents of their shire would act responsibly under these new laws they have already been witness to the folly of their naivety. With cats being drowned in traps and my own experience of having my cat Simon being trapped by a neighbor in my own street and taken to the pound with no consultation with the shire. I managed to rescue my cat Simon on Day 6, it was clearly a lucky day for him will your cat be so lucky?
Parts of these laws have validation with responsible cat ownership including limiting the number of cats per household, sterilizing cats, micro-chipping or identifying your cat with a collar & identification tag and keeping your cat indoors from the hours of 9pm to 6 am is also very doable.
What these laws fail to take into consideration is the intrinsic nature of cats and the impossibility of cat owners to always control some of their inherit behaviors which have allowed cats to survive well prior to their domestication.
Cats are highly independent creatures who value their freedom, they have instinctual drives to patrol their territory and to chase off any intruders entering their territory. Cats have very strong maternal instincts and are predatory in nature and mark their territory with their scent to keep any other animals out of their area. Cats rely on these instincts to get through life and expecting them to change these behaviors is literally asking them to stop being a cat.
Cats cannot be trained like the dog species and forcing cat owners to achieve the impossible by preventing their cats from occasionally wandering into a neighbors yard is simply ludicrous! The harsh penalty of trapping cats, impounding them and having your cat euthanized as a result is a sickening and heart breaking reality now for cat owners and their families. That this type of action is being implemented by your local shire and your neighbors is just disgusting.
You can protest against these new local cat laws by visiting www.aussiecats.com and having your say.
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* Cat wanders into police parking lot, is euthanized (seattletimes.nwsource.com)Cat ownership in WA is under siege by local cat laws newly introduced by the Shire of... more
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DNA might soon replace silicon as the perfect computing material. DNA can build itself up from scratch and become anything it wants and self assemble. We can only shrink silicon so much.
So if computer chips were made of DNA, the cost of producing the biological circuits would be much cheaper. The idea is more science fiction than a reality at this point.DNA might soon replace silicon as the perfect computing material. DNA can build itself... more
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eva2
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2 years ago
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Novartis to use micro-chip to ensure meds are swallowed.
Patients who fail to pop pills on time could soon benefit from having a chip on their shoulder, under a ground-breaking electronic system being developed by Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceuticals group.
The company is testing technology that inserts a tiny microchip into each pill swallowed and sends a reminder to patients by text message if they fail to follow their doctors’ prescriptions.Novartis to use micro-chip to ensure meds are swallowed.
Patients who fail to pop... more
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Scienstists from MIT have worked on a solution, that uses entirely different technology to connect different transistors in computer chips, known as carbon nanotubes. These tubes are famous among scientist for their sheer strength and thoughness. They are stronger than steel (comparatively) and tougher than diamond. The tubes have very less diameter compared to traditional copper wires used in chips and as the connection count reaches millions, it generates huge difference in size.
Building block of computer chips is transistor, the processor in your PC has millions of transistor in it. Traditionally these transistors are connected via carbon wire; just like those in electronic circuits but thinner. To achieve high performance on a smaller size these wires have been shrunked over years to pack more in less space. However there is a certain limit after which the conductivity suffers and may fail entirely after that threasholdScienstists from MIT have worked on a solution, that uses entirely different... more
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Lets first say this, I am an Obama supporter 100%.
There's a pretty starling thing in the bill that 95% of Americans won't like.
The Obama Health care bill under Class II (Paragraph 1, Section B) specifically includes ‘‘(ii) a class II device that is implantable." Then on page 1004 it describes what the term "data" means in paragraph 1, section B:
14 ‘‘(B) In this paragraph, the term ‘data’ refers to in15
formation respecting a device described in paragraph (1),
16 including claims data, patient survey data, standardized
17 analytic files that allow for the pooling and analysis of
18 data from disparate data environments, electronic health
19 records, and any other data deemed appropriate by the
20 Secretary"
What exactly is a class II device that is implantable? Lets see...
Approved by the FDA, a class II implantable device is a "implantable radiofrequency
transponder system for patient identification and health information." The purpose of a class II device is to collect data in medical patients such as "claims data, patient survey data, standardized analytic files that allow for the pooling and analysis of data from disparate data environments, electronic health records, and any other data deemed appropriate by the Secretary."
This sort of device would be implanted in the majority of people who opt to become covered by the public health care option. With the reform of the private insurance companies, who charge outrageous rates, many people will switch their coverage to a more affordable insurance plan. This means the number of people who choose the public option will increase. This also means the number of people chipped will be plentiful as well. The adults who choose to have a chip implanted are the lucky (yes, lucky) ones in this case. Children who are "born in the United States who at the time of birth is not otherwise covered under acceptable coverage" will be qualified and placed into the CHIP or Children's Health Insurance Program (what a convenient name). With a name like CHIP it would seem consistent to have the chip implanted into a child. Children conceived by parents who are already covered under the public option will more than likely be implanted with a chip by the consent of the parent. Eventually everyone will be implanted with a chip. And with the price and coverage of the public option being so competitive with the private companies, the private company may not survive.
So will everyone be covered by the public option eventually??????
And does that mean everyone will be chipped?????
SOURCE: www.opencongress.org...Lets first say this, I am an Obama supporter 100%.
There's a pretty starling... more
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owenrm
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2 years ago
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From mainframes to minicomputers and then PCs, each new computing generation has displaced its predecessor by reaching a broader audience and costing far less. And each time, the dominant company in one generation loses control in the next
That’s why the PC industry’s commanding chip maker, Intel, might do well to be alarmed by the computer chips being designed by Qualcomm, a maker of chips for cellphones. An engineer at Qualcomm’s gleaming corporate campus here demonstrated a palm-sized circuit board capable of displaying high-definition video. What was striking about the demonstration was not the quality of the video images, which is now commonplace. Rather it was that the microprocessor chip, called Snapdragon, drives the display with less than half the power of a similar chip recently introduced by Intel. Qualcomm designers say it will also cost less.
As the PC shrinks in size, it is on a collision course with the multifunction cellphone. Many expect the resulting impact to transform both devices and all the companies that make them. The new smartphones, always-on portable Internet devices that are part cellphone, part computer, change the rules of the game in computing because computing speed — at which Intel excelled — is no longer the most important factor. For a cellphone relying on a small battery, how efficiently a chip uses power becomes more important.
The new mobile world represents a special challenge for Intel, which until four years ago ignored the issue of increasing power consumption in its flagship X86 chips, which have been the PC industry standard for almost three decades.
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Full article at link.From mainframes to minicomputers and then PCs, each new computing generation has... more
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islek
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3 years ago
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In efforts to reduce production costs for the next generation hand-held devices, Samsung Electronics will make its own WiMax and LTE baseband chips.In efforts to reduce production costs for the next generation hand-held devices,... more
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" Core i7 is the latest installment of Intel's "Tick-Tock" strategy of annual processor updates. With Tick-Tock Intel has committed for the foreseeable future to rolling out a brand new CPU architecture one year followed by a shrink in transistor size the next.
Core i7 is a "Tick" and therefore represents a new architecture built on Intel's existing
(and extremely successful) 45nm high-K silicon process. The big noise with the Nehalem architecture is improved multi -threaded performance scaling.
That means more threads, more bandwidth, more efficient load balancing - just more of everything that matters for high performance parallel computing. And not just any parallel computing. Intel has been making a big fuss about the coming age of visual computing – advanced graphical interfaces, context aware computers capable of observing human behaviour, intelligent video and photo search and much, much more.
Core i7 is the first chip designed with that new computing paradigm in mind..."
" Core i7 is the latest installment of Intel's "Tick-Tock"... more
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Next month is the 50th anniversary of the invention of the microchip. Dan Simmons travels to Texas, the home of the chip, to look back at its past and forward to its future. Next month is the 50th anniversary of the invention of the microchip. Dan Simmons... more
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Despite efforts by proponents of implantable identification microchips to popularize them, most Americans are strongly against the use of VeriChip.
In 2004, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted clearance for VeriChip, an identification system using implantable Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, consisting of a handheld reader, a microchip approximately the size of a grain of rice (containing a unique 16-digit ID number), which is implanted in the right arm, and a database.
VeriChip Corporation, the producer of the microchips, considers them as a fast and secure way of accessing medical information for thousands of patients brought in emergency departments either unconscious or unable to communicate due to medical conditions.
The US and certain other countries are currently implanting these microchips in the body of infants. There has also been talk of replacing ID and credit cards with VeriChip.
The use of VeriChip was approved in 2004.
However, there has been widespread opposition to the product as these microchips not only allow authorities to control ones private life, but there is also the danger of hackers getting their hands on personal information.
On the other hand, the VeriChip seems to have been only a means of distracting the public from a far more sophisticated project, conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — the central research and development organization for the US Defense Department.
DARPA has been investing in a new implantable chip called Multiple Micro Electrode Array (MMEA); a chip which is surgically implanted directly into a human nerve or into specific area of the brain and connects the brain to a computer.
While the medical advantages of these implantable microchips cannot be denied, a grain of rice in the right arm may prove to be much more decisive.
Perhaps the Wachowski brothers were right about a computer-controlled world of the future.Despite efforts by proponents of implantable identification microchips to popularize... more
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