An accidental discovery has brought seismologists one step closer to being able to predict earthquakes. As part of an unrelated effort to measure underground changes caused by shifts in barometric pressure, a team of Rice University researchers found that increases in subterranean pressure preceded earthquakes along California’s San Andreas Fault by as much as 10 hours. The discovery may eventually lead to a prediction system that provides a few hours’ notice for people to find safe haven prior to quakes. As the recent disaster in China demonstrate, the effort is well worth the alternative. “Predicting earthquakes is the final goal for seismologists,” says Fenglin Niu, the research team’s lead author. As reported in the journal Nature, researchers used a high-tech equivalent of a stereo speaker lowered into a bore hole near Parkfield, CA, a half-mile deep and five yards from a measuring device. For two months beginning in late 2005, they transmitted pulse signals three times per second, from the speaker to the measuring device, calculating travel time between the two stations. The surprised scientists learned the seismic waves slowed dramatically on only two occasions: two hours prior to a magnitude-1 temblor, and a startling 10 hours before a magnitude-3 quake. The research team theorizes that the immense amount of pressure building along the fault causes small cracks within the rock during the final hours before an earthquake, increasing rock density and slowing the transmission signals. “The more cracks you have, the slower the seismic velocity,” says study co-author Paul Silver, a geophysicist with the Carnegie Institution of Washington. If scientists can flesh out the new findings during future earthquakes — a two-year study at the same seismically active location begins this September — it could form the basis of a vastly improved early-warning system for quakes. Current systems give just a few seconds’ notice because they detect only P-waves, the fast-moving seismic waves that precede the more destructive waves released during a quake. Go to: Time

Posted July 23rd, 2008 by David Schwartz under Innovation of the Week, Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have successfully created a sophisticated, yet affordable, method to turn ordinary glass into a high-tech solar concentrator. The technology, called a luminescent solar concentrator (LSC), uses dye-coated glass to collect and channel photons otherwise lost from a solar panel’s surface. It could eventually enable an office building to draw energy from its tinted windows as well as its roof. Lead researcher Marc Baldo and colleagues announced their findings in the July 11 issue of Science. The researchers coated glass panels with layers of two or more light-capturing dyes. The dyes absorb incoming light and then re-emit the energy into the glass, which serves as a “waveguide” to channel the light to solar cells along the panels’ edges. Because the edges of the glass panels are so thin, far less semiconductor material is needed to collect the light energy and convert it into electricity. “Solar cells generate at least ten times more power when attached to the concentrator,” noted Baldo. As a result, rather than covering a roof with expensive solar cells, the cells only need to be around the edges of a flat glass panel. Because the starting materials are affordable, relatively easy to scale up beyond a laboratory setting, and easy to retrofit to existing solar panels, the researchers believe the technology could find its way to the marketplace within three years. Three of Baldo’s co-researchers are starting a company, Covalent Solar, to develop and commercialize the new technology. Go to: MIT and The Economist

Posted July 16th, 2008 by David Schwartz under Innovation of the Week, Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

A laser-activated antimicrobial developed by researchers at University College London (UCL) offers a new alternative for an increasing problem: treatment of drug-resistant bacterial infections. Researcher Michael Wilson and his team are treating infected wounds using a dye, indocyanine green, which produces bacteria-killing chemicals when exposed to a specific wavelength of laser light. Their experiments show that the activated dye can kill a wide range of bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The strength of this new approach lies in the variety of ways the chemicals produced by the activated dye harm bacteria. As Wilson explains, “The mechanism of killing is non-specific, with reactive oxygen species causing damage to many bacterial components, so resistance is unlikely to develop — even from repeated use.”The laser used by the researchers emits ‘near-infrared’ light, which is known to be capable of producing heat. However, “substantial killing of all of the bacteria tested was achieved without causing any temperature rise. ” In addition, the laser treatment “produces light that is more able to penetrate deep wounds, increasing the area cleansed.” Go to: Science Daily

Posted July 9th, 2008 by David Schwartz under Innovation of the Week, Tech Transfer. [ Comments: 1 ]

A researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has developed a diagnostic tool that uses hair to test for trace metals and other elements in the body, and says the technique could be used in place of blood tests. Kristin Gellein, a PhD student at NTNU, developed the new analytical method, which requires just one centimeter of a single hair to sift out and quantify up levels of up to 30 different trace metals. The substances found in hair mirror the substances found in the blood. And because hair grows at a rate of about a centimeter per month, the system enables a retrospective blood analysis by testing hair centimeter by centimeter. A single strand of hair becomes a kind of time machine that can be used to track trace an individual’s history of trace metal exposure. The measurement technique has potential application in occupational health and safety monitoring and forensic medicine, and also may help researchers link environmental factors and illness, according to Tore Syversen, a professor in the Department of Neuroscience at NTNU’s Faculty of Medicine. Neurologists have long suspected that there might be a connection between trace metals and neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. Go to: Science Business

Posted July 2nd, 2008 by David Schwartz under Innovation of the Week, Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

Drug companies could save millions thanks to a new technology to monitor crystals as they form. The technique, developed by University of Leeds (UK) engineers, is a potentially invaluable tool in drug manufacture, where controlling crystal forms is crucial both to cost and product safety. Most drug compounds are crystalline, and their structure can affect both their physical attributes and their performance. Changes to these structures are often caused by undetected fluctuations in processing. “If you were to use a pencil to write on glass you wouldn’t get very far, but use a diamond and you could write your name. Yet both are pure forms of carbon. It’s the same with different solid forms of the same drug; they can have completely different properties,” says Dr. Robert Hammond, who leads the research team. “Drug molecules are becoming increasingly complex and the challenges involved in processing them means that it is not always possible to successfully produce the desired form reliably. That’s why there’s such enormous potential for our system. We’re now able to look at crystals as they are forming in a reactor, something that has never been done before.” The new technology identifies and monitors changes in crystal structures on-line, providing a method of ensuring production of the desired drug compounds. Called polymorphism, changes in crystal structure during processing can lead to huge delays in bringing drugs to market, costing drug companies dearly. It can also lead to challenges to intellectual property protection. In fact, a number of high-profile patent challenges have been brought against companies making an established formulation using a different polymorph. “It’s an enormous problem for drug companies,” Hammond observes. The technology developed at Leeds is based on the “gold standard” method for monitoring crystal structures — powder X-ray diffraction, the primary tool for studying polymorphs. “There’s enormous commercial potential for this technology. For example it could be developed to work at manufacturing plant scales and can be applied to specialty chemical industries as well,” Hammond says. “We’re interested in talking to pharmaceutical and specialty chemical companies that can help us drive this forward.” Go to: EurekAlert

Posted June 25th, 2008 by David Schwartz under Innovation of the Week, Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

Soaring diesel fuel prices and the resulting economic impact on products transported by truck have prompted the Georgia Institute of Technology to dust off and enhance fuel-saving technologies developed during the past decade at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). Use of pressurized air “active flow control” techniques combined with conventional aerodynamic streamlining could improve fuel efficiency by 8% to 12% for the heavy trucks used to transport a broad range of products. If installed throughout the U.S. trucking fleet, these technologies for reducing aerodynamic drag could save between 1.6 billion and 2.4 billion gallons of fuel per year, according to GTRI. “The dramatic increase in diesel prices has led the trucking industry to reconsider aerodynamic fuel efficiency improvements that might not have been cost effective only a few years ago,” said Robert Englar, a GTRI principal research engineer. Since diesel prices began their rapid increase, Englar has seen growing interest in the GTRI low-drag active flow control aerodynamic technologies, which were developed with support from the U.S. Department of Energy starting in the late 1990s. He has received numerous inquiries from trucking companies and also railroads, whose higher-speed western track runs could also benefit from aerodynamic drag reduction.Truck designers have reduced aerodynamic drag on the tractor portion of the vehicles by applying streamlining approaches as roof fairings, but those advances have done little to address drag on the boxy aft portion of the trailers. Because only limited streamlining can be done for trailers due to their length, GTRI researchers are adding the active flow control techniques, which use patented pneumatic devices to blow air from slots over small curved aerodynamic surfaces at the rear of the trailers. These air jets smooth the flow of air over the trailers to eliminate air-flow separation, vorticity, and suction on the aft doors, which reduces aerodynamic drag at highway speeds. The renewed research activity is based on aerodynamic research done during the 1980s for applications on U.S. military aircraft. Beyond the fuel savings, the active flow control technology has also been shown to enhance braking and directional control for heavy trucks without using any moving external parts, potentially improving safety. “The next step is to get this into a fleet of trucks for more extensive testing,” Englar said. “At highway speeds, each one percent improvement in fuel economy would result in saving about 200 million gallons of fuel for the U.S. heavy truck fleet. We believe that is worth pursuing.” Go to: EurekAlert

Posted June 18th, 2008 by David Schwartz under Innovation of the Week, Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

University of Nebraska-Lincoln scientists have developed a way to predict steak tenderness before the consumer takes that first bite. The technology could be a boon to the beef industry, potentially allowing retailers to charge a premium for a “guaranteed tender” label. Current U.S. Department of Agriculture grading standards classify beef carcasses into quality and yield grades but do not assess tenderness. Since carcasses are not priced on the basis of tenderness, producers don’t have a financial incentive to supply a tender product. The beef industry long has sought technology that could scan fresh meat at two to three days postmortem and predict its tenderness when cooked by the consumer about two weeks later. “Beef tenderness is a primary factor in consumer satisfaction,” said Jeyamkondan Subbiah, the UNL food engineer who heads the research. “However, a sufficiently accurate, nondestructive method of on-line evaluation of tenderness continues to elude the beef industry…. There is a growing recognition that beef tenderness must be incorporated into the USDA quality grading process if true, value-based marketing is to be developed.”Subbiah and colleagues at UNL developed an approach to the problem using hyperspectral imaging, a novel technology that combines video image analysis and spectroscopy. The system consists of a digital video camera and spectrograph to capture the two key qualities that affect beef tenderness — muscle structure and biochemical properties. The video captures the muscle profile, distinguishing between tender beef’s fine muscle fibers and tougher beef’s visibly coarser fibers. The spectroscopy measures biochemical properties that indicate how tender the steak will become during aging. In a study of the technology, two-day aged, one-inch thick ribeyes were placed on a plate and scanned by the system, which captures multiple images at hundreds of wavelengths with regular intervals. After scanning, the steaks were cooked and tested. The system predicted three tenderness categories — tender, intermediate and tough — with about 77% accuracy and two tenderness categories — acceptable and tough — with 93.7% accuracy. “We think consumers are willing to pay a premium for a guaranteed-tender product,” Subbiah said, predicting a premium of $1 to $2 per pound. The researchers are continuing to improve the process, and UNL is patenting the technology while hoping to identify a commercialization partner. Go to: Cattle Network

Posted June 11th, 2008 by David Schwartz under Innovation of the Week, Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

Yissum, the technology transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, introduced a novel device that enhances the diagnostic value of saliva. Speaking at the technology transfer session at the ILSI Biomed Israel 2008 conference, Professor Aaron Palmon unveiled a disposable device that clears whole saliva of its major protein constituent, alpha-amylase, allowing for detection of various low-abundance biomarkers. It has the potential to replace a host of tests that currently require drawing blood. According to Yissum President and CEO Nava Swersky Sofer, the technology “paves the way for a quick and efficient, non-invasive diagnostic tool which may replace current blood and other invasive tests. . . . We also believe it carries significant commercial potential.” Saliva contains most of the same molecules that can be found in blood and urine, but in lower concentrations. Studies indicate saliva may be useful for detecting various cancers, heart disease, diabetes, periodontal diseases, as well as myriad infectious agents such as HIV. A major barrier to its diagnostic utility, however, has been its high content of proteins whose function is to digest food. One protein in particular, Amylase, is extremely abundant and constitutes up to 60% of saliva proteins, which can mask the presence of other protein components. Professor Palmon’s device removes amylase from whole saliva (and other body fluids) in a simple and efficient procedure that uses modified potato starch to absorb large quantities of amylase. Go to: Business Wire

Posted June 4th, 2008 by David Schwartz under Innovation of the Week, Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

In the May 7 edition of E-News we told you about a “self-healing” paint developed at a U.S. Army lab — now UK researchers have gone one better with an innovation that mimics healing processes found in nature and could enable damaged aircraft to mend themselves automatically, even during a flight. Along with the obvious safety benefits, the breakthrough could make it possible to design lighter airplanes, which would reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions, its developers say. Here’s how it works: If a tiny hole or crack develops in an airplane, epoxy resin would ‘bleed’ from embedded vessels near the hole/crack and quickly seal it up, restoring structural integrity. By mixing dye into the resin, any self-repairs could be made to show as colored patches that could easily be pinpointed during subsequent ground inspections. The simple technique, similar to the bruising and bleeding/healing processes, was developed by aerospace engineers at Bristol University. It could be applied wherever fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are used — not only in aircraft, but in cars, wind turbines, and even spacecraft. The technique involves filling the hollow glass fiber contained in FRP composites with resin and hardener. When the fiber breaks, the resin and hardener ooze out, enabling the composite to recover up to 80-90% of its original strength — comfortably allowing a plane to function at its normal operational load. “This approach can deal with small-scale damage that’s not obvious to the naked eye but which might lead to serious failures in structural integrity if it escapes attention,” said project leader Dr. Ian Bond. “It’s intended to complement rather than replace conventional inspection and maintenance routines, which can readily pick up larger-scale damage, caused by a bird strike, for example.” Another benefit is that aircraft designs including more FRP composites would be significantly lighter than the primarily aluminium-based models currently in service. Even a small reduction in weight equates to substantial fuel savings over an aircraft’s lifetime. Bond added that his research team is looking to expand on the concept so “the healing agent isn’t contained in individual glass fibers but actually moves around as part of a fully integrated vascular network, just like the circulatory systems found in animals and plants. Such a system could have its healing agent refilled or replaced and could repeatedly heal a structure throughout its lifetime.” The self-healing composites are expected to reach the marketplace within four years. Go to: PhysOrg

Posted May 28th, 2008 by David Schwartz under Innovation of the Week, Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

Researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center have discovered a compound that has been shown to prevent cancer in the laboratory. Its preventive properties were noted unexpectedly during tests of its cancer treatment capabilities. The compound, which still faces several rounds of clinical trials, successfully stopped normal cells from turning into cancer cells and inhibited the ability of tumors to grow and form blood vessels. If successful tests continue, researchers plan to create a daily pill that would be taken as a cancer preventive. “This compound was effective against the 12 types of cancers that it was tested on,” said Doris Benbrook, PhD, principal investigator and researcher at the OU Cancer Institute. “Even more promising for health care is that it prevents the transformation of normal cells into cancer cells and is therefore now being developed by the National Cancer Institute as a cancer prevention drug.” The synthetic compound, SHetA2, a Flex-Het drug, directly targets abnormalities in cancer cell components without damaging normal cells. The disruption causes cancer cells to die and keeps tumors from forming. Flex-Hets — or flexible heteroarotinoids — are synthetic compounds that can change certain parts of a cell and affect its growth. Benbrook and her research team have patented the Flex-Het discovery and hope to start clinical trials within 5 years. If the compound is found to be safe, it would be developed into a pill to be taken daily like a multi-vitamin to prevent cancer. The compound also could be used to prevent cancer from returning after traditional radiation and chemotherapy treatments, especially in cancers that are detected in later stages, such as often occurs with ovarian cancer where life expectancy can be as short as six months, Benbrook said. Go to: EurekAlert

Posted May 21st, 2008 by David Schwartz under Innovation of the Week, Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

An Israeli researcher has discovered a way to transmit medical images via a cellular phone, opening up the possibility of providing sophisticated diagnosis and treatment to millions of people who live far from modern medical centers. Unlike existing radiology systems, which are based on conventional, stand-alone medical imaging devices, the new technology — developed by Prof. Boris Rubinsky of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem — consists of two independent components connected through cell phones. Rubinsky has completed proof-of-concept work and hopes to apply the innovation to a variety of medical imaging modalities. The ability to offer diagnostic images by phone could represent a huge leap in access for people in poor and remote areas. The World Health Organization estimates that some three-quarters of the world’s population has no access to ultrasounds, X-rays, MRIs and other medical imaging technology used for diagnosing cancer and other illnesses, confirming signs of active tuberculosis, monitoring fetal health, and many more applications. These include not only the millions of people who live in developing nations, but many more who live in rural areas of developed countries. Cell phone use, on the other hand, is rising rapidly, and more than 60% of all cell phones in the world are used in developing countries.Conventional medical imaging systems are expensive and are also usually only available at treatment centers that have the financial and manpower resources necessary to use them. Even when such equipment does exist in developing countries, it often lies dormant because it is in disrepair or because health personnel are not trained to use it, says Rubinsky. “Diagnosis and treatment of an estimated 20% of diseases would benefit from medical imaging, yet this advancement has been out of reach for millions of people in the world because the equipment is too costly to maintain. Our system would make imaging technology inexpensive and accessible for these underserved populations,” he noted. Rubinsky’s technology uses an independent data acquisition device (DAD) with limited controls and no image display at a remote patient site. The unprocessed, raw data from the patient site DAD is transmitted by cell phone to a cutting-edge central facility that has the sophisticated software and hardware required for image reconstruction. This data is then returned from the central facility to the cellular phone at the DAD site in the form of an image and displayed on screen. “The DAD can be made with off-the-shelf parts that somebody with basic technical training can operate,” Rubinsky states. The technique is jointly patented and will be jointly commercialized by Yissum, the Hebrew University’s tech transfer company, and the University of California at Berkeley, where Rubinsky also serves as a professor of bioengineering and mechanical engineering. Go to: ISRAEL21c

Posted May 14th, 2008 by David Schwartz under Innovation of the Week, Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

Many of the soldiers with painting duty for the U.S. Army may need to be reassigned if an innovation developed by researchers with the Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) becomes routinely used. The lab has been testing a paint and other surface coatings with special properties that make it “repaint” itself to cover scratches and dings. Program manager Ashok Kumar and project manager Dave Stephenson have now tested the technology in the field on steel water tanks and on pipes at a tank wash (like a jumbo car wash). They’re now working on commercializing it not only for military use, but for use on automobiles, large steel structures such as bridges and oil rigs, air conditioning units, wooden houses, and many other potential applications. Dow Chemical is reportedly considering a partnership with the Army to develop the “self-healing” paints and coatings and bring it to the marketplace. The CERL research falls under the Defense Department’s Corrosion Prevention and Control Program, which has a history of active involvement in tech transfer, according to a spokeswoman for the lab. And by already completing field testing and proof-of-concept, much of the risk has been eliminated for potential commercial developers, Kumar noted. “If companies think this makes sense to them, they’ll run with it,” he said. Kumar and Stephenson have been working on self-healing coatings for about a decade and have filed two patents. The technology relies on tiny capsules 60 to 100 microns in size — considerably smaller than a grain of fine sand — with liquid materials inside. The capsules developed by Kumar and Stephenson contain an anti-corrosive, which keeps a scratch, for instance, from rusting while a film-forming sealant, also part of the package, flows over the blemish and cures. When a surface gets scratched, dented or otherwise damaged, some of the capsules rupture and the healing materials are released. “The scratch will heal itself rather than expanding,” Kumar said. The capsules don’t yet work with all commercially available paints — a chief remaining commercialization challenge — though some off-the-shelf products, including those used in field testing, are already compatible. Go to: The News-Gazette

Posted May 7th, 2008 by David Schwartz under Innovation of the Week, Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

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