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There is little doubt kitchen appliances are on of the most important things in most kitchens, centerpieces of the whole room. If you need a new stove, microwave, or refrigerator there are many types of such appliances that are good buys, you just need to know what brand, size, and type.

Luckily, you always have many choices when it comes to picking the “right” appliances for your kitchen, as there are literally hundreds of small kitchen appliance makers providing you dozens of appliances to choose from.

Unfortunately, the sheer number of choices can also be a problem. Not to worry, as you you can go online to sites like Shopwiki, where you can find a wide selection of kitchen appliances at rock bottom prices.

If you need new refrigerators, you now can get them with various compartments designed to store different types of food, each one with its own preserving requirements (humidity levels, temperature, etc.). With dozens of different designs, advanced technology and energy efficient models, there is definitely something to suit your needs.

The same applies if you are considering a new microwave oven, as there are many kind of microwave available for the ordinary consumer to choose from. You can find many models and sizes from the many brands available on the market. All you have to do is type in some keywords and the right microwave (at unbeatable prices) come up. It’s also a great strategy for Christmas shopping. It can save you hours (and many bucks too!).

HP today announced new inertial sensing technology that enables the development of digital micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers that are up to 1,000 times more sensitive than high-volume products currently available.

A MEMS accelerometer is a sensor that can be used to measure vibration, shock or change in velocity. By deploying many of these detectors as part of a complete sensor network, HP will enable real-time data collection, management evaluation and analysis. This information empowers people to make better, faster decisions, and take subsequent action to improve safety, security and sustainability for a range of applications, such as bridge and infrastructure health monitoring, geophysical mapping, mine exploration and earthquake monitoring.

The HP sensing technology enables a new class of ultrasensitive, low-power MEMS accelerometers. Up to 1,000 times more sensitive than high-volume, commercial products, sensors based on this technology can achieve noise density performance in the sub 100 nano-g per square root Hz range to enable dramatic improvements in data quality. The MEMS device can be customized with single or multiple axes per chip to meet individual system requirements.

The sensing technology is a key enabler of HP’s vision for a new information ecosystem, the Central Nervous System for the Earth (CeNSE). Integrating the devices within a complete system that encompasses numerous sensor types, networks, storage, computation and software solutions enables a new level of awareness, revolutionizing communication between objects and people.

“With a trillion sensors embedded in the environment – all connected by computing systems, software and services – it will be possible to hear the heartbeat of the Earth, impacting human interaction with the globe as profoundly as the Internet has revolutionized communication,” said Peter Hartwell, senior researcher, HP Labs.

In a pilot study of two patients monitored for two years, an international team of researchers slowed the onset of the debilitating brain disease X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) using a lentiviral vector to introduce a therapeutic gene into patient’s blood cells. Although studies with larger cohorts of patients are needed, these results suggest that gene therapy with lentiviral vectors, which are derived from disabled versions of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), could potentially become instrumental in treating a broad range of human disorders

Other Gene Therapy Success and Progress
Lungs too damaged for use in transplant operations may be salvageable through a gene-based technique, doubling or tripling the supply of organs.

The flawed lungs could be removed from donors’ bodies after death and repaired using the gene IL-10, which lowers inflammation. 1800 people in the US are awaiting lung transplants.

Gene Therapy helps treat a form of blindness The condition is known as Leber’s congenital amaurosis and there are 2000 people in the US who have it.

A number of companies are developing gene therapies and 320 trials are under way or cleared to begin by U.S. regulators, said Karen Riley, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman. Genzyme Corp. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, will begin a human trial using gene therapy next year to treat macular degeneration, the leading form of age-related vision loss, said John Lacey, a Genzyme spokesman

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have shown that a highly specific intrabody (an antibody fragment that works against a target inside a cell) is capable of stalling the development of Huntington’s disease in a variety of mouse models.

Research in monkeys suggests that genetically delivering dopamine avoids some side effects and helps with Parkinson’s.

In the new trial, reported today in the journal Science Translational Medicine, Bechir Jarraya and colleagues at the Molecular Imaging Research Center in Fontenay-aux-Roses, France, mimicked Parkinson’s in monkeys by giving them a neurotoxin that causes movement problems characteristic of the disorder. The researchers then injected three genes involved in dopamine production into the brains of the monkeys, as well as specially designed probes to measure dopamine levels in the brain, monitoring the animals for up to three and a half years. The gene therapy restored concentrations of dopamine in the brain, corrected movement problems, and prevented dyskinesias–without any severe adverse side effects. An early stage human clinical trial using the same dopamine gene therapy approach is now underway.

The Modified HIV Gene Therapy

The healthy ALD protein was expressed in about 15 percent of blood cells, yet surprisingly this low level was sufficient to slow brain disease in ALD. “This percentage of correction will not be sufficient for all diseases,” warns Aubourg. “There is a lot of work to be done to make this gene therapy vector more powerful, less complicated, and less expensive. This is only the beginning,” he said.

Gene therapy is not without serious risks. Like other retrovirus vectors, the HIV-derived lentivirus vector is tasked with inserting the therapeutic gene in the chromosomes of the patients’ cells. In a worst case scenario, this action could disturb the biology of the cells and patients could end up with leukemia; this outcome has occurred in past gene therapy trials. “The HIV-derived lentivirus vector basically has this same risk, although the design of the vector makes patients less prone to this side effect,” said Aubourg.

Wrong Diagnosis has statistics on ALD

Prevalance Rate: approx 1 in 20,000 or 0.00% or 13,600 people in USA

Wikipedia on Adrenoleukodystrophy

Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) (also known as “Addison-Schilder Disease,” “Siemerling-Creutzfeldt Disease,” and “Schilder’s disease”) is a rare, inherited disorder that leads to progressive brain damage, failure of the adrenal glands and eventually death. ALD is one disease in a group of inherited disorders called leukodystrophies. Adrenoleukodystrophy progressively damages the myelin, a complex fatty neural tissue that insulates many nerves of the central and peripheral nervous systems, eventually destroying it. Without myelin, nerves are unable to conduct an impulse, leading to increasing disability as myelin destruction increases and intensifies.

FURTHER READING

NY Times: For Gene Therapy, Seeing Signs of a Resurgence

1. Complete Genomics has a report in the journal Science describing its proprietary DNA sequencing platform, including analysis of sequence data from three complete human genomes. The consumables cost for these three genomes sequenced on the proof-of-principle genomic DNA nanoarrays ranged from $8,005 for 87x coverage to $1,726 for 45x coverage for the samples described in this report.

Complete Genomics’ sequencing process includes four distinct steps:
1) Sample preparation and library construction
2) Self-assembling DNA nanoarrays
3) Imaging, assembly and analysis
4) Combinatorial probe — anchor ligation (cPAL).

Complete Genomics’ scientists generated high-quality diploid base calls in as much as 95 percent of the genomes sequenced, identifying 3.2 million to 4.5 million sequence variants per genome processed.

Detailed validation of one genome dataset demonstrates a sequence accuracy of just
one false variant per 100 kilobases, a remarkably low error rate, particularly for such an affordable technology.

Patterned genomic DNA nanoarrays and 70-base, unchained sequence reads are unique technical achievements. The company’s new patterned genomic DNA nanoarrays, which achieve a record high density of 2.85 billion spots per slide at 0.7 micron pitch, will enable Complete Genomics to sequence 10,000 human genomes in 2010.

Human Genome Sequencing Using Unchained Base Reads on Self-Assembling DNA Nanoarrays

Genome sequencing of large numbers of individuals promises to advance the understanding, treatment, and prevention of human diseases, among other applications. We describe a genome sequencing platform that achieves efficient imaging and low reagent consumption with combinatorial probe anchor ligation (cPAL) chemistry to independently assay each base from patterned nanoarrays of self-assembling DNA nanoballs (DNBs). We sequenced three human genomes with this platform, generating an average of 45- to 87-fold coverage per genome and identifying 3.2 to 4.5 million sequence variants per genome. Validation of one genome data set demonstrates a sequence accuracy of about 1 false variant per 100 kilobases. The high-accuracy, affordable cost of $4,400 for sequencing consumables and scalability of this platform enable complete human genome sequencing for the detection of rare variants in large-scale genetic studies.

51 page pdf with supplemental material

2. A group of genome and museum experts today launched an ambitious plan to decipher 10,000 vertebrate genomes. The Genome 10K plan, formally announced today and described online in the 5 November issue of the Journal of Heredity, is short on details: where funding will come from; what sequencing strategy to use; how to process and make use of data generated.

O’Brien, Haussler, and Ryder want to see sequencing genomes cost $2500 each—a hundred-fold decrease in the current cost or more. By waiting a few years for better sequencing technology, they expect to spend $50 million for the whole project

H. J. De Los Santos is with NanoMEMS Research and they have proposed a new beyond CMOS computer architecture called Nano-electron-fluidic logic.

Theory of Nano-Electron-Fluidic Logic (NFL): A New Digital “Electronics” Concept

A new digital “electronics” concept is introduced. The concept, called nano-electron-fluidic logic (NFL), is based on the generation, propagation and manipulation of plasmons in a two-dimensional electron gas behaving as an electron fluid. NFL gates are projected to exhibit femtojoule power dissipations and femtosecond switching speeds at finite temperatures. NFL represents a paradigm shift in digital technology, and is poised as a strong candidate for “beyond- CMOS” digital logic.

* Operates with far less heat and more efficient energies (femtojoules)
* Faster switching speeds (femtosecond)
* higher density potential for devices
* Terahertz operating speeds for chips
* Propogation velocity of electron fluid is hundreds of times faster than electrons in current CMOS
* Device construction is compatible with current lithography

Nano-Electron Fluidic Logic (NFL) Device patent application 2009026764

A nano-electron fluidic logic (NFL) device for controlling launching and propagation of at least one surface plasma wave (SPW) is disclosed. The NFL device comprises a metallic gate patterned with a plurality of terminals at which SPWs may be launched and a plurality of drain terminals at which the SPWs may be detected. A wave guiding structure such as a 2 DEG EF facilitates propagation of the SPW within the structure so as to scatter/steer the SPW in a direction different from a pre-scattering direction. A bias SPW is excited by an application of a control SPW with a momentum vector at an angle to the bias SPW and a control current with a wavevector which scatters the bias SPW in the direction of at least one output SPW, towards a drain terminal. The NFL device being rendered with device speed as a function of SPW propagation velocity.

* speed of the device is a function of SPW propagation velocity in terahertz switching frequencies.

A previous paper from 2004 by Héctor J. De Los Santos: NanoMEMS SYSTEMS ON CHIP

NanoMEMS exploits the convergence between nanotechnology and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) brought about by advances in the ability to fabricate nanometer-scale electronic and mechanical device structures. While the “nano” aspect of this field is in its infancy, and is not expected to reach maturity until well into the 21st century, its “MEMS” aspect is a topic of much current and near-term impact in, for instance, RF/Wireless communications. In this context, we discuss the fundamentals of NanoMEMS, in particular, as it relates to its most speculative and futuristic paradigms and applications, and then focus on the RF/Wireless MEMS aspect, specifically in its role as enabler of ubiquitous wireless connectivity.