This Device Lets You Do Part Breast Reconstruction At Home

This might be the ultimate do-it-yourself project: Doctors are testing a device that would let women do part of their own breast reconstruction at home. It’s aimed at not only making treatment for breast cancer more comfortable and convenient, but also giving women a sense of control – something cancer often takes away. According to a recent study published in ‘The Lancet’, India and China have the largest number of women with breast and cervical cancer. Many patients of breast cancer undergo surgery to remove a cancerous breast, and several choose reconstruction with an implant. To make room for a permanent one, many patients get a tissue expander, a temporary pouch that is gradually enlarged with saline to stretch the remaining skin and muscle. This means trips to the doctor every week or two for several months for injections of saline into the pouch, which can be painful. This device is called AeroForm. AeroForm patients finished tissue expansion in half the time and were able to get implants a month sooner than others who had the usual saline treatments. There was no difference in rated of side-effects such as infections, but seven air expanders malfunctioned versus only one saline one. The device was tweaked to fix the problem.

Pig's Heart Beats In Monkey's For 51 Days

The prospect of humans being given transplanted hearts from other animals appeared to be a step closer after South Korean scientists reported they had successfully installed a pig’s heart in a monkey. Researchers at National Institute of Animal Science (NIAS) said the heart had been genetically modified to reduce the risk of being rejected by the crab-eating macaque. It was still alive some 51 days after the procedure when the researchers reported their results, breaking the previous record of 43 days, according to a report by the Yonhap news agency. The monkey was also given a cornea from the pig’s eye. The pig, called Mideumi, was genetically engineered in 2010 to produce an excessive amount of a membrane protein that helps reduce the risk of the organ being rejected after transplantation. Currently transplant patients have to take immune-suppressing drugs to stop their natural defense mechanisms from attacking the foreign body. Finding a way to avoid this response would be a major breakthrough. NIAS said it also planned to work with a bioengineering firm to transplant pancreatic tissue from pigs to monkey in an effort to find new ways to treat diabetes. Pigs’ hearts, seen as a close match to the human version have also been transplanted into other animals. One was kept healthy and beating inside the abdomen of a baboon for nearly three years. The baboon still had its original heart and did not need the pig’s one, but the fact it was able to survive for so long without being destroyed by its immune system was a significant accomplishment for the researchers. Muhammad Mohiuddin, a cardiac transplant surgeon at National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda, US, who lead the baboon study, told Science magazine: “People used to thick that this was just some wild experiment and it has no implications. I think now we’re all learning that xenotransplatation in humans can actually happen.”

Self-Driving Cars Set For Real Test In Seoul

Self-driving cars will soon hit the road in South Korea as the country seeks to overtake other nations that have sped ahead with automated driving technology. Seoul National University professor Seo Seung-woo says a self-driving car develop by this team will start roaming Seoul streets early next year, thanks to a revised law that took effect on 15 November. His team has been testing automated driving inside the university’s campus with a sedan outfitted with sensors and cameras. The vehicle drove more than 10,000 kilometres in the past two years without incident, but could not leave the campus because of regulations. The new law allows automated cars to travel on public roads around the country. Eight self-driving cars, including those of Seo’s team, are registered with the country’s transport ministry and have been tested in limited conditions. Seo unveiled two upgraded vehicles that can navigate narrow streets and identify road signs and traffic lights. One will be tested in traffic after it is certified by the government. South Korea has been slow to introduce driverless cars on public roads while other countries have been testing automated driving for public transport, such as taxis and buses, in real traffic conditions.

Smell Test Gauges Alzheimer's Risk

Researchers have developed a new non-invasive method to identify people at the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease on the basis of their ability to recognize and recall odors. The protocol testing the ability to recognize, remember and distinguish between odors was able to identify older individuals who – according to genetic, imaging and more detailed memory tests – were at increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. There is increasing evidence that the neurodegeneration behind Alzheimer’s disease starts at least 10 years before the onset of memory symptoms. The development of a digitally enabled, affordable, accessible and non-invasive means to identify healthy individuals at risk is a critical step to developing therapies that slow down or halt Alzheimer’s disease progression. The battery of four tests developed by the MGH team addresses both olfactory and cognitive functions – and involves participants being presented with different smells for two seconds each, and then asked to choose from a group of words, one that best describes each odour. The study recruited 183 participants, most of who were enrolled in ongoing studies at the MGH-based Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centre.

Soon, Jacket That Charge Phones

Led by an Indian origin scientist, a team in the US has developed filaments that harvest and store the sun’s energy, and can be woven into textiles that can power phones, personal health sensors and other gadgets. The breakthrough would essentially turn pieces of clothing like jackets into wearable, solar-powered batteries that never need to be plugged in, the researchers said. It could one day revolutionize wearable, helping everyone, from soldiers who carry heavy loads of batteries to texting addicted teens, who could charge their smartphones by simply slipping them into their pockets. Inspired by the 1989 movie ‘Back to the Future Part II’, the research team developed filaments in the form of copper ribbons that are thin, flexible and lightweight. The ribbons have a solar cell on one side and energy storing layers on the other. If you can develop self-charging clothes or textiles, you can realize these cinematic fantasies – that is the cool thing. Researchers subsequently bought a small, tabletop loom, and wove the ribbons into a square of yarn. The proof-of-concept shows that the filaments could be placed throughout jackets or other clothing items to harvest and store energy to power phones and other gadgets. It is an advancement that overcomes the main shortcoming of solar cells: the energy they produce must flow into the power grid or be stored in a battery that limits their portability. It is hard for the military to deliver batteries to soldiers in hostile environments. A garment like this can harvest and store energy at the same time if sunlight is available. There are a host of other potential uses, including electric cars that could generate and store energy whenever they are in the sun. That is the future. What researchers have done is demonstrate that it can be made. It is going to be very useful for the general public and the military and many other applications.

MRI Detects Bone Marrow Cancer

Bone marrow cancer can be diagnosed effectively with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), according to new study. Bone marrow cancer (myelofibrosis) is a slowly evolving condition hallmarked by increased myeloid cells, and, in the case of primary myelofibrosis, an excessive number of large cells called megakaryocytes. The pathology is also characterized by structural abnormality of the bone marrow matrix, which at end-stage manifests in excessive deposition of reticulin fibers and cross linked collagen in the bone marrow, suppression of normal blood cell development and bone marrow failure. Currently, the diagnosis is made through an invasive biopsy and histopathology. Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) in the US tested an approach using a T2-weighted MRI, one of the basic pulse sequences in MRI, through which they could detect a pre-fibrotic state of the disease. It is intriguing to speculate that future pre-biopsy MRI of the human pathology might guide, in some cases, decisions on if and where to biopsy.

Soon, Your Body Heat May Power Wearable Devices

You could soon power wearable devices using just your body heat, without any external power supply or battery replacement. Researchers have developed a new concept of electrical energy storage- thermally changeable solid- state Super capacitor. This is the first time that it has been discovered that a solid-state polymer electrolyte can produce large thermally induced voltage. The voltage can then be used to initiate an electrochemical reaction in electrodes for charging. The super capacitor works by converting thermal energy into electrical energy and then storing it in the device. For example, human body heat, or any heat dissipating objects that create temperature differences from their surroundings can be used to charge the capacitor. The super capacitor is also flexible in that it can be used as a power supply for wearable electronics and can be integrated into wireless data transmission systems to operate internet of things (IoT) sensors. IoT is a concept of connecting various devices and sensors for data communication and exchange. Researcher employed a physical phenomenon known as the Soret effect – using a solid state polymer electrolyte, in which a temperature gradient along the super capacitor moves the ions from the hot side to the cold side  generating high thermally induced voltage.