Raspberry Pi’s little brother

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by  turbo

RPIIMore than three years have passed since the introduction of the very first Raspberry Pi electronics circuit board, and since then a DIY electronics revolution has taken place with hackers producing almost everything electronic from DIY mobile phones to DIY touchscreen tablets. And now the Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced the addition of Raspberry Pi’s smaller sibling, the Pi Zero, which comes at a extremely low price of only five US dollars. So exactly what can you expect for your $5? The CPU of the device is a Broadcom BCM2835 / 1 GHz ARM11 processor that lives on a board that measures only 6.5cm by 3cm in surface area and with a thickness of only 5mm. It is supported by 512 MB of LPDDR2 SDRAM, and microSD memory card port acts as the hard drive-equivalent storage system for the little electronics motherboard . Given its small stature, some compromises have had to be made, and it is in its I/O connectivity where the cuts have come. The Ethernet and full-sized USB slots that are present on the model B+ have been removed, but there is a mini-HDMI port for 60 frames per second video streaming, two micro-USB interfaces for USB power and data transfer, and, importantly, a 40-pin general purpose I/O header for the board’s primary purpose to connect to and be part of DIY electronics designs. The Zero runs the same Linux-based operating system as its older siblings so no new programming skills are required if you are already a seasoned Raspbarian.

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Portable Air Compressor Anyone?

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by  turbo

airgunMost air compressors are big noisy affairs, but not so the latest from Airman, which has settled on shrinking an air compressor into a standard drill-sized contraption called the Airgun. In fact, if you were not a keen observer, you could easily mistake it for actually being a cordless drill as the unit has been cleverly contructed to be easily held and operated in the hand as a ‘gun’. It carries its own flexible hose attached to the side that fits the most common form of tire valve, the schrader valve, and it also carries other ‘nozzles’ that are needed for inflating balls and other inflatables. As you might have guessed with it being cordless, the Airgun is battery-operated which is unusual for an air compressor, but as a result of the compactness and the battery operation, the unit is limited in its potential uses to mostly everyday ‘household’ tasks, although it is reportedly capable of inflating a small automobile tire. For the more do-it-yourself-ers (and for inflating automobile tires more robustly), they would be better advised to opt for a more full-blown air compressor which has a far greater range of uses including operating air power tools and air paint sprayers, although even then one has to choose carefully as not all air compressors are equal!

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The new AquAdvantage Salmon species

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by  turbo

AquAdvantage_SalmonThe United States FDA today authorised the very first genetically-modified animal species to be farmed for US dinner plates. Developed by AquaBounty Technologies, the AquAdvantage Salmon, as it is known, reduces the time it takes to grow farmed salmon to full size by half by incorporating a growth gene from the faster-growing Chinook Salmon as well as a genetic promoter from the Ocean Pout. The controversial authorisation has only come about after twenty years of evaluation by the FDA so was by no means a decision taken lightly. Following its own extensive examination as well as the publishing of the all the data for the public to review, the FDA finally decided that the AquAdvantage Salmon was as harmless to people and the environment as farmed Atlantic Salmon. In particular, the agency outlined that its nutritional profile and importantly the endocrine hormones it produces like oestrogen, testosterone, and insulin-like growth factor, were no different to that of Atlantic Salmon. One of the terms of the authorisation is that the salmon be raised in land-based holdings instead of farmed in the open as with current salmon farming so as to protect against any chance of them getting into the natural environment. The FDA also decided that there was no need for the modified fish to be labelled any differently from natural salmon allowing producers to make the decision themselves. Making the decision even more controversial, the FDA decided this after determining that the fish were not physiologically distinct from wild Atlantic Salmon other than in their genetics.

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Moca anybody?

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by  turbo

MocaheartHypertension and Cardiovascular disease are global scourges and monitoring essential physiological characteristics like blood pressure and heart rate is one way to help prevent and treat these diseases. Mocacare brings cardio-monitoring to the masses with its pocket-sized Mocaheart device that integrates thumb scans with computer analysis to provide rapid blood pressure, heart rate, and blood oxygen tracking. It translates these measurements by means of a smartphone application into a layman’s index of cardiovascular health called the Moca Index that can be used by anyone.  The device itself  carries infrared and visible light sensors integrated with electrodes on which the fingers are placed for a reading to be taken which requires around 30 seconds to complete. With a smartphone connected to the device using its Bluetooth connection, the Mocaheart application manages the analysis of the data from the device to provide the user with a final Moca Index number.  The app even recognises when it has not been able to get a good reading and then cues the owner before repeating the scan. The Mocaheart algorithms analyse the information from the device and display heart rate, blood oxygen, a time stamp, and even documents environmental factors, like weather conditions as well as geographical position. Based on research studies carried out at MIT and Stanford University, the Moca Index ranging from 1 to 5 provides a simple scale to rank one’s cardiovascular health where 2 is healthy, 1,  3 and 4 are less than optimal, and where 5 indicates a potential clinical concern. The device makes use of a micro USB port for filling its battery, which takes approximately 30 minutes to fully charge and then lasts for up to 5 days. Mocacare highlights that Mocaheart as yet should not be considered a substitute for current clinical cardiovascular monitoring until it obtains FDA authorisation which it hopes to get in the future.

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A cure for Alzheimer’s on the horizon?

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by  turbo

J147 Alzheimer'sScientists at the Salk Institute in California have recently tested a developmental drug designed to combat the signs of old age which are directly correlated with Alzheimer’s disease. Using the memory-enhancing J147 compound, which was originally synthesised after examining age-related accumulations in the brain and shown to prevent memory loss in inherited Alzheimer’s, the scientists were able to also show positive effects in rodents that have a predisposition to age quickly. By determining its impact on their brain genes, in addition to its effect on several hundred molecules associated with the metabolic process, the scientists sought to uncover whether the developmental drug was as beneficial at combating Alzheimer’s caused by old age as it was in the inherited form, and they were not disappointed. According to a number of physiological measures, the J147-treated group of mice resembled younger rodents, doing much better in memory tests as well as demonstrating improved motor functionalities, while their brains revealed fewer pathological characteristics of Alzheimer’s than the control group. They even exhibited a ‘younger’ gene expression profile and had metabolic activity that were more akin to those of younger mice. The researchers now hope to begin human clinical trials in the coming year.

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