rajon198533

Friday, November 8, 2013

NFL preps its biggest game for the biggest stage

FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2013 file photo, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell answers questions during an NFL Super Bowl XLVII football game news conference at the New Orleans Convention Center in New Orleans. Feb. 2, 2014, is a day that will be remembered forever in not only the NFL, but in New York and New Jersey, as the Super Bowl will be played outdoors in a northern market for the first time ever. Indeed, Goodell has overcome quite a few challenges in his tenure, but this one may be the toughest. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2013 file photo, Maddie Cooney, 6, just gets her chin high enough for a photo inside a Minnesota Vikings mannequin at the NFL Experience in New Orleans. Feb. 2, 2014, is a day that will be remembered forever in not only the NFL, but in New York and New Jersey, as the Super Bowl will be played outdoors in a northern market for the first time ever. Indeed, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has overcome quite a few challenges in his tenure, but this one may be the toughest. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)

Fans in the stands at Super Bowls past only think they've seen it all.

They've been sun-burned in Los Angeles, soaked in Miami and buffeted by winds at stops in between. Deafened during flyovers. Titillated at halftime, blacked out mid-game and even moved to tears by tributes to servicemen, veterans and the victims of 9/11.

Even so, this next Super Bowl promises those in attendance something different: The chance to freeze their rear ends off.

On Feb. 2, 2014 — the date could still be changed if a Nor'easter rolls in off the Jersey Shore — every one of the 82,000 or so ticketholders entering MetLife Stadium will receive a gift bag. Inside are a seat cushion, muffler, ski gaiters, three pairs of hand- and foot-warmers, lip balm and a package of tissues, plastered with enough logos to make a NASCAR driver jealous.

The Super Bowl has been played in northern cities four times before — inside climate-controlled domes — but never outdoors. The average daily low for East Rutherford, N.J., in early February is 22 degrees, with temperatures typically falling throughout the night, when the game will be played. Snow, wind and rain, or all three at once, is not out of the question. Exactly how much protection all that swag provides against Mother Nature's wrath remains to be seen.

"We can't provide them with coats," said Frank Supovitz, the NFL's vice president in charge of preparations for the game. "But we will be strongly encouraging them to stay in their seats."

Which begs the question: If the game is for the fans, why stage it outdoors in the New Jersey-New York metro area precisely when the trusty Farmer's Almanac, hardly alone among forecasters, is predicting a blizzard?

Money.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and his owners are taking advantage of a lull in the tourism calendar to turn a swath of Manhattan into a playground and make cash registers sing. A 180 foot-tall toboggan slide will be plopped down in Times Square, and a stretch of Broadway from 34th Street to 48th will be closed to traffic, renamed "Super Bowl Boulevard," and converted into a rollicking theme park, merchandise shop and concert venue called the "NFL Experience."

For a week, kids will punt, pass and kick while their parents shop for replica jerseys in locales where bankers and account executives usually gobble down lunch. It won't be the only place on an already crowded spit of land where jaded New Yorkers trade elbows with their guests. As many as 200,000 out-of-towners will be cast in the role of Jack Lemmon in the movie of the same name, dazzled by the goings-on and trying not to get fleeced by savvy hoteliers and street vendors.

Already, reports are circulating about prices being tripled, with modest hotel rooms in Midtown jacked to $1,000 a night, and even more modest accommodations across the Hudson River in New Jersey, close to MetLife Stadium, offered at the princely sum of $600. That's on top of what's already the highest ticket prices ever — ranging from $500 to $2,600 — a hike the NFL candidly acknowledged was intended to make life tough on scalpers.

But hustlers won't be the only folks forced to improvise.

Plans for the event have been three years in the making, but depending on weather, they might not be finalized until the last minute. Moving fans across the region, even aided by the nation's most extensive public transportation network, presents a logistical nightmare — even before security considerations are factored in.

"You've got two states, separated by a river, and people from the five boroughs and eight or nine counties in New Jersey all heading for the same place in a matter of hours," said Al Kelly, who heads up the host Super Bowl committee. "What we have is a series of contingency plans where priorities shift according to the day and in some cases hour by hour. ... If a storm hits one day, we'll shift resources to clearing certain roads and bridges; if it lands somewhere else at a different time, we could be forced to change the entire blueprint.

"The one thing we better be," Kelly said finally, "is nimble."

But it's not just the region's reputation on the line.

By waiving the normal Super Bowl specifications to grease New York's winning bid in 2010 — previously, bid cities were required to average 50-degree temperatures during game week — Goodell and his owners are out to prove the proposition Frank Sinatra laid out in "New York, New York." Namely, that if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

Since taking over as commissioner in 2006, Goodell has made securing new stadiums or renovating existing ones for his already wealthy owners — almost always with some level of taxpayer-financing — every bit as much a signature issue as player safety. It's no coincidence that all five of the stadiums that have, or will, come online during his tenure have already been awarded the big game.

Nor is Goodell above dangling the carrot of a future Super Bowl as a reward to cities and states willing to throw tax dollars into stadium pots. With 19 of the league's 32 teams situated within winter's reach — six already have domed stadiums — a successful Super Bowl outdoors could put the entire U.S. map in play for his pitch.

New York might seem like a tough place to set a precedent. It's already a nexus for many of the world's financial, entertainment and media empires, and chaotic on its quietest day. Just rising above that clutter is no small feat. And even if the NFL does a bang-up job, it won't turn around and ask the region's taxpayers for help anytime soon. MetLife Stadium opened for business in April, 2010, with the $1.6 billion construction cost covered jointly by the co-tenants, New York's Giants and Jets, using private funds.

"The other thing that's important," said Giants co-owner John Mara, the third generation of his family to run the club, "is that all of us, across the NFL for many years, said over and over that so many of the most memorable games ever played were played in extreme weather.

"So why not here?"

The coldest Super Bowl on record was played in Tulane University's stadium in 1972 — temperature at kickoff: 39 degrees — back when the big game was still a small event. More relevant in this case were the 2000 and 2011 Super Bowls, when late-arriving storms turned Atlanta and Dallas, respectively, into ghost towns. Though both games were played in domes, much of Atlanta was frozen over and inaccessible; Dallas did a face-plant in the four inches of snow that fell early in the week, mostly shutting down instead of shoveling out.

At the moment, the NFL is one of the slickest, best-run conglomerates on the planet. It has the kind of monopolistic hold on American sports that Microsoft once exercised over technology. The league takes the lion's share of sports-related TV dollars, ad revenues and airtime, and routinely crushes rivals in head-to-head, time-slot matchups. That's why the date of the Super Bowl has creeped from its traditional Sunday spot late in January to the first week of February, which just happens to be the start of sweeps month.

Next year's big game will be viewed by 100 million-plus people in the United States, and depending on whose numbers are crunched, it's already the most-watched annual sporting event around the world. Only the Olympics and the original futbol — with its World Cup and UEFA Champions League final showcases — can offer an argument. So no matter how many fannies are frozen off inside MetLife, the fans are essentially extras in a show practically guaranteed to be a hit.

Last year's Super Bowl, matching Baltimore against San Francisco inside New Orleans' Superdome, joined nearly two dozen of its predecessors on the short list of most-viewed television broadcasts in U.S. history. That despite a 34-minute stretch early in the third quarter when an electrical failure cut the lights over much of the stadium, delaying the game and sending fans at home scurrying to their refrigerators.

No one was surprised those fans returned in droves soon after to watch a game that wasn't decided for the Ravens until the final play. But it mystified some, and outraged others, that the power went out in a building to which taxpayers have contributed, in installments over the years, about $1 billion to build and then renovate after Hurricane Katrina swept through in 2005.

Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, who retired after that game, and his old sidekick, Terrell Suggs, came up with a conspiracy theory of their own. Both pointed a finger at Goodell, suggesting without so much as a shred of evidence that he threw the switch so the 49ers could climb back into the game.

"You're a zillion-dollar company, and your lights go out? No," Lewis said. "No way."

Apparently, he won't have to worry about that this time around, no matter how cold it gets.

"The one thing I feel really confident about," Mara said, "is that the lights won't go out."

___

Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org and follow him at Twitter.com/JimLitke.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-11-07-Super%20Bowl%202014-Getting%20Started/id-d96dfb4f404b40e9b4621e181b7eaecb
Category: nnamdi asomugha Edith Head Blue Is the Warmest Color Jonathan Ferrell Farmers Almanac

Cisco, EFF call on Congress to target patent-troll demand letters

The U.S. Congress should take action to slow a skyrocketing number of “deceptive” patent- infringement demand letters sent from patent-licensing firms to small businesses, witnesses told a Senate committee.

During the past 18 months, patent-assertion entities (PAEs), those firms with patent licensing as their primary business model, have been flooding U.S. businesses with letters alleging patent infringement, threatening lawsuits and demanding settlements in the tens of thousands of dollars, witnesses told the consumer protection subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Thursday.

In many cases, the patent-demand letters have accused recipients of infringing “every-day technology” such as online shopping carts and Wi-Fi routers, said Julie Samuels, a senior staff attorney at the Electric Frontier Foundation. “These letters really had nothing to do with patent law,” she said. “They merely used the guise of patent law to conduct, frankly, run-of-the-mill extortion.”

The PAE demand letters often don’t identity the owner of the patent or the patent the letter recipient is alleged to have infringed, said Mark Chandler, general counsel at Cisco Systems. Some PAEs are “charlatans, dressed up as innovators,” he said.

“This is all about fraud,” said Jon Bruning, attorney general in Nebraska. “This is about extortion. This is about fear. For little companies ... it’s their life or death. For some guy who invested his last $100,000, this letter will take him down.”

Call for action

Chandler called on Congress to take action to rein in PAEs, often called patent trolls. Congress should require PAEs that send more than 10 demand letters to submit those letters to a proposed online registry run by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and lawmakers should require PAEs to identity the alleged infringing technology in the letters, he said.

PAEs should also be required to disclose the names of the patent owners and to disclose all previous licensing agreements covering the patents, including any commitments to license the patents on fair and reasonable terms, he said.

No PAEs appeared at the hearing, but some committee Republicans and witness Adam Mossoff, an intellectual property professor at the George Mason University School of Law, questioned the need for changes in patent law. Complaints about PAE demand letters are “anecdotal,” Mossoff said, and there’s little evidence of major harms to innovation or to consumers.

Not so fast

Patent licensing is a legitimate business that’s been around for over a century in a U.S. patent system that has helped create a huge innovation-based economy, Mossoff added. “Systemic changes to the patent system should not be based on rhetoric, anecdotes, invalid studies and incorrect claims about the historical and economic significance of patent licensing,” he said. “If there ever was a case where caution was called for, this is it.”

Senators aren’t looking to write a major overhaul of patent law, but instead, to find remedies targeting PAE demand letters, said subcommittee Chairwoman Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat. Without some ways to identify PAE practices, it will be difficult to measure the problem, she said.

Without new requirements to publish demand letters and identify patent holders, “how do we get beyond anecdotal?” she said. “How do we get at the problem?”

If Congress addresses the issue, it needs to protect small inventors who may have patent licensing as their primary business option, said Senator Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican. “How do we make sure we aren’t harming, by trying to address the patent trolls, or decreasing the value of legitimate small innovators,” she said. “These people that start out of a garage and have such great ideas, that’s what America is all about.”

Grant Gross, IDG News Service Reporter, IDG News Service

Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service.
More by Grant Gross, IDG News Service

Subscribe to the Best of PCWorld Newsletter

Thank you for sharing this page.

Sorry! There was an error emailing this page

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2062000/cisco-eff-call-on-congress-to-target-patenttroll-demand-letters.html#tk.rss_all
Related Topics: breast cancer awareness homeland Seaside Heights ellie goulding blue moon

Jon Gosselin Criticizes His Kids, Kate Fires Back at Him (Sigh)

A few years back, for a span of several months, pop-culture writers played an ongoing game of "Who's More Irritating, Jon or Kate Gosselin?" A definitive winner never really emerged. Since then, the stars of TLC's Jon & Kate Plus 8 have taken separate roads to near obscurity, with Jon arguably arriving first.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/jon-gosselin-criticizes-his-kids-kate-responds-in-blog/1-a-552452?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Ajon-gosselin-criticizes-his-kids-kate-responds-in-blog-552452
Similar Articles: Reign Ed Lauter Chelsea Manning big brother spoilers area 51

Arafat's mysterious death becomes a whodunit

FILE - In this May 31, 2002 file photo, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat pauses during the weekly Muslim Friday prayers in his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Al-Jazeera is reporting that a team of Swiss scientists has found moderate evidence that longtime Palestinian leader Arafat died of poisoning. The Arab satellite channel published a copy of what it said was the scientists' report on its website on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)

Swiss professor Francois Bochud, left, director of the Chuv Radiophysics Institute, IRA, and Swiss professor Patrice Mangin, right, director of the University Center of Legal Medicine in Lausanne, CURML, speak on a forensics report concerning the late President Yasser Arafat during a press conference at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, CHUV, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Thurday, Nov. 7, 2013. Swiss, French and Russian teams took samples of the remains after exhuming Arafat's body in Ramallah, and submitted results to the Palestinian Authority on Nov. 5. (AP Photo/Keystone, Laurent Gillieron)

Swiss professor Francois Bochud, left, director of the Chuv Radiophysics Institute, IRA, and Swiss professor Patrice Mangin, right, director of the University Center of Legal Medicine in Lausanne, CURML, pose with a forensics report concerning the late President Yasser Arafat during a press conference on of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, CHUV, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Thurday, Nov. 7, 2013. Swiss, French and Russian teams took samples of the remains after exhuming Arafat's body in Ramallah, and submitted results to the Palestinian Authority on Nov. 5. (AP Photo/Keystone, Laurent Gillieron)

A forensics report concerning the late President Yasser Arafat is presented during a press conference of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, CHUV, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Thurday, Nov. 7, 2013. Swiss, French and Russian teams took samples of the remains after exhuming Arafat's body in Ramallah, and submitted results to the Palestinian Authority on Nov. 5. (AP Photo/Keystone, Laurent Gillieron)

Palestinian Hanadi Kharma, paints a mural depicting the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Nablus, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. Swiss scientists have found evidence suggesting Yasser Arafat may have been poisoned with a radioactive substance, a TV station reported on Wednesday, prompting new allegations by his widow that the Palestinian leader was the victim of a "shocking" crime. (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Yasser Arafat's mysterious 2004 death turned into a whodunit Thursday after Swiss scientists who examined his remains said the Palestinian leader was probably poisoned with radioactive polonium.

Yet hard proof remains elusive, and nine years on, tracking down anyone who might have slipped minuscule amounts of the lethal substance into Arafat's food or drink could be difficult.

A new investigation could also prove embarrassing — and not just for Israel, which the Palestinians have long accused of poisoning their leader and which has denied any role.

The Palestinians themselves could come under renewed scrutiny, since Arafat was holed up in his Israeli-besieged West Bank compound in the months before his death, surrounded by advisers, staff and bodyguards.

Arafat died at a French military hospital on Nov. 11, 2004, at age 75, a month after suddenly falling violently ill at his compound. At the time, French doctors said he died of a stroke and had a blood-clotting problem, but records were inconclusive about what caused that condition.

The Swiss scientists said that they found elevated traces of polonium-210 and lead in Arafat's remains that could not have occurred naturally, and that the timeframe of Arafat's illness and death was consistent with poisoning from ingesting polonium.

"Our results reasonably support the poisoning theory," Francois Bochud, director of Switzerland's Institute of Radiation Physics, which carried out the investigation, said at a news conference.

Bochud and Patrice Mangin, director of the Lausanne University Hospital's forensics center, said they tested and ruled out innocent explanations, such as accidental poisoning.

"I think we can eliminate this possibility because, as you can imagine, you cannot find polonium everywhere. It's a very rare toxic substance," Mangin told The Associated Press.

Palestinian officials, including Arafat's successor, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, had no comment on the substance of the report but promised a continued investigation.

The findings are certain to revive Palestinian allegations against Israel, a nuclear power. Polonium can be a byproduct of the chemical processing of uranium, but usually is made artificially in a nuclear reactor or a particle accelerator.

Arafat's widow, Suha, called on the Palestinian leadership to seek justice for her husband, saying, "It's clear this is a crime."

Speaking by phone from the Qatari capital Doha, she did not mention Israel but argued that only countries with nuclear capabilities have access to polonium.

Israel has repeatedly denied a role in Arafat's death and did so again Thursday. Paul Hirschson, a Foreign Ministry official, dismissed the claim as "hogwash."

"We couldn't be bothered to" kill him, Hirschson said. "If anyone remembers the political reality at the time, Arafat was completely isolated. His own people were barely speaking to him. There's no logical reason for Israel to have wanted to do something like this."

In his final years, Arafat was being accused by Israel and the U.S. of condoning and even encouraging Palestinian attacks against Israelis instead of working for a peace deal. In late 2004, Israeli tanks no longer surrounded his compound, but Arafat was afraid to leave for fear of not being allowed to return.

Shortly after his death, the Palestinians launched their own investigation, questioning dozens of people in Arafat's compound, including staff, bodyguards and officials, but no suspects emerged.

Security around Arafat was easily breached toward the end of his life. Aides have described him as impulsive, unable to resist tasting gifts of chocolate or trying out medicines brought by visitors from abroad.

The investigation was dormant until the satellite TV station Al-Jazeera persuaded Arafat's widow last year to hand over a bag with her husband's underwear, headscarves and other belongings. After finding traces of polonium in biological stains on the clothing, investigators dug up his grave in his Ramallah compound earlier this year to take bone and soil samples.

Investigators noted Thursday that they could not account for the chain of custody of the items that were in the bag, leaving open the possibility of tampering.

However, the latest findings are largely based on Arafat's remains and burial soil, and in this case, tampering appears highly improbable, Bochud said.

"I think this can really be ruled out because it was really difficult to access the body," he said. "When we opened the tomb, we were all together."

Polonium-210 is the same substance that killed KGB agent-turned-Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.

"It's quite difficult to understand why (Arafat) might have had any polonium, if he was just in his headquarters in Ramallah," said Alastair Hay, a professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds who was not involved in the investigation.

"He wasn't somebody who was moving in and out of atomic energy plants or dealing with radioactive isotopes."

___

John Heilprin reported from Lausanne, Switzerland. Associated Press writers Daniel Estrin in Jerusalem and Lori Hinnant in Paris and AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng in London contributed to this report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-11-07-Arafat's%20Death/id-b9f661e6e8964bfdaa3e6520d9adf400
Similar Articles: billy graham john lennon Agents of SHIELD miley cyrus Andrea Sneiderman

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Artificial heart to pump human waste into future robots

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Nov-2013

[

| E-mail

]

Contact: Michael Bishop
michael.bishop@iop.org
01-179-301-032
Institute of Physics

A new device capable of pumping human waste into the "engine room" of a self-sustaining robot has been created by a group of researchers from Bristol.

Modelled on the human heart, the artificial device incorporates smart materials called shape memory alloys and could be used to deliver human urine to future generations of EcoBot a robot that can function completely on its own by collecting waste and converting it into electricity.

The device has been tested and the results have been presented today, 8 November, in IOP Publishing's journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.

Researchers based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory a joint venture between the University of the West of England and University of Bristol have created four generations of EcoBots in the past 10 years, each of which is powered by electricity-generating microbial fuel cells that employ live microorganisms to digest waste organic matter and generate low-level power.

In the future, it is believed that EcoBots could be deployed as monitors in areas where there may be dangerous levels of pollution, or indeed dangerous predators, so that little human maintenance is needed. It has already been shown that these types of robots can generate their energy from rotten fruit and vegetables, dead flies, waste water, sludge and human urine.

A video of microbial fuel cells, fed on urine, charging a mobile phone can be viewed here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LTprRQTKAw

Lead author of the study Peter Walters, from the Centre for Fine Print Research, University of the West of England, said: "We speculate that in the future, urine-powered EcoBots could perform environmental monitoring tasks such as measuring temperature, humidity and air quality. A number of EcoBots could also function as a mobile, distributed sensor network.

"In the city environment, they could re-charge using urine from urinals in public lavatories. In rural environments, liquid waste effluent could be collected from farms."

At the moment conventional motor pumps are used to deliver liquid feedstock to the EcoBot's fuel cells; however, they are prone to mechanical failure and blockages.

The new device, which has an internal volume of 24.5 ml, works in a similar fashion to the human heart by compressing the body of the pump and forcing the liquid out. This was achieved using "artificial muscles" made from shape memory alloys a group of smart materials that are able to 'remember' their original shape.

When heated with an electric current, the artificial muscles compressed a soft region in the centre of the heart-pump causing the fluid to be ejected through an outlet and pumped to a height that would be sufficient to deliver fluid to an EcoBot's fuel cells. The artificial muscles then cooled and returned to their original shape when the electric current was removed, causing the heart-pump to relax and prompting fluid from a reservoir to be drawn in for the next cycle.

A stack of 24 microbial fuel cells fed on urine were able to generate enough electricity to charge a capacitor. The energy stored in the capacitor was then used to start another cycle of pumping from the artificial heart.

"The artificial heartbeat is mechanically simpler than a conventional electric motor-driven pump by virtue of the fact that it employs artificial muscle fibres to create the pumping action, rather than an electric motor, which is by comparison a more complex mechanical assembly," continued Walters.

The group's future research will focus on improving the efficiency of the device, and investigating how it might be incorporated into the next generation of MFC-powered robots.

###

From Friday 8 November, this paper can be downloaded from http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/8/4/046012

Notes to Editors

Contact

1. For further information, a full draft of the journal paper or to contact one of the researchers, contact IOP Press Officer, Michael Bishop:
Tel: 0117 930 1032

E-mail: Michael.Bishop@iop.org

IOP Publishing Journalist Area

2. The IOP Publishing Journalist Area gives journalists access to embargoed press releases, advanced copies of papers, supplementary images and videos. In addition to this, a weekly news digest is uploaded into the Journalist Area every Friday, highlighting a selection of newsworthy papers set to be published in the following week.

Login details also give free access to IOPscience, IOP Publishing's journal platform.

To apply for a free subscription to this service, please email Michael Bishop, IOP Press Officer, michael.bishop@iop.org, with your name, organisation, address and a preferred username.

Artificial heartbeat: Design and fabrication of a biologically-inspired pump

3. The published version of the paper "Artificial heartbeat: Design and fabrication of a biologically-inspired pump" Bioinspir. Biomim. 8 046012 will be freely available online from Friday 9 November at http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/8/4/046012.

Bioinspiration and Biomimetics

4. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics publishes research which applies principles abstracted from natural systems to engineering and technological design and applications.

IOP Publishing

5. IOP Publishing provides a range of journals, conference proceedings, magazines, websites, books and other services that enable researchers and research organisations to achieve the biggest impact for their work.

We combine the culture of a global learned society with highly efficient and effective publishing systems and processes. We serve researchers in the physical and related sciences in all parts of the world through our offices in the UK, US, Germany, China and Japan, and staff in many other locations including Mexico and Russia.

IOP Publishing is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institute of Physics. The Institute is a leading international scientific society with over 55 thousand members promoting physics and bringing physicists together for the benefit of all.

Surplus generated by IOP Publishing is gift aided to the Institute to support science and scientists in both the developed and developing world.

The Institute of Physics

6. The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. We are a charitable organisation with a worldwide membership of more than 45,000, working together to advance physics education, research and application. We engage with policymakers and the general public to develop awareness and understanding of the value of physics and, through IOP Publishing, we are world leaders in professional scientific communications. Go to http://www.iop.org

[

| E-mail

Share

]

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Artificial heart to pump human waste into future robots

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Nov-2013

[

| E-mail

]

Share
Contact: Michael Bishop
michael.bishop@iop.org
01-179-301-032
Institute of Physics

A new device capable of pumping human waste into the "engine room" of a self-sustaining robot has been created by a group of researchers from Bristol.

Modelled on the human heart, the artificial device incorporates smart materials called shape memory alloys and could be used to deliver human urine to future generations of EcoBot a robot that can function completely on its own by collecting waste and converting it into electricity.

The device has been tested and the results have been presented today, 8 November, in IOP Publishing's journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.

Researchers based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory a joint venture between the University of the West of England and University of Bristol have created four generations of EcoBots in the past 10 years, each of which is powered by electricity-generating microbial fuel cells that employ live microorganisms to digest waste organic matter and generate low-level power.

In the future, it is believed that EcoBots could be deployed as monitors in areas where there may be dangerous levels of pollution, or indeed dangerous predators, so that little human maintenance is needed. It has already been shown that these types of robots can generate their energy from rotten fruit and vegetables, dead flies, waste water, sludge and human urine.

A video of microbial fuel cells, fed on urine, charging a mobile phone can be viewed here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LTprRQTKAw

Lead author of the study Peter Walters, from the Centre for Fine Print Research, University of the West of England, said: "We speculate that in the future, urine-powered EcoBots could perform environmental monitoring tasks such as measuring temperature, humidity and air quality. A number of EcoBots could also function as a mobile, distributed sensor network.

"In the city environment, they could re-charge using urine from urinals in public lavatories. In rural environments, liquid waste effluent could be collected from farms."

At the moment conventional motor pumps are used to deliver liquid feedstock to the EcoBot's fuel cells; however, they are prone to mechanical failure and blockages.

The new device, which has an internal volume of 24.5 ml, works in a similar fashion to the human heart by compressing the body of the pump and forcing the liquid out. This was achieved using "artificial muscles" made from shape memory alloys a group of smart materials that are able to 'remember' their original shape.

When heated with an electric current, the artificial muscles compressed a soft region in the centre of the heart-pump causing the fluid to be ejected through an outlet and pumped to a height that would be sufficient to deliver fluid to an EcoBot's fuel cells. The artificial muscles then cooled and returned to their original shape when the electric current was removed, causing the heart-pump to relax and prompting fluid from a reservoir to be drawn in for the next cycle.

A stack of 24 microbial fuel cells fed on urine were able to generate enough electricity to charge a capacitor. The energy stored in the capacitor was then used to start another cycle of pumping from the artificial heart.

"The artificial heartbeat is mechanically simpler than a conventional electric motor-driven pump by virtue of the fact that it employs artificial muscle fibres to create the pumping action, rather than an electric motor, which is by comparison a more complex mechanical assembly," continued Walters.

The group's future research will focus on improving the efficiency of the device, and investigating how it might be incorporated into the next generation of MFC-powered robots.

###

From Friday 8 November, this paper can be downloaded from http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/8/4/046012

Notes to Editors

Contact

1. For further information, a full draft of the journal paper or to contact one of the researchers, contact IOP Press Officer, Michael Bishop:
Tel: 0117 930 1032

E-mail: Michael.Bishop@iop.org

IOP Publishing Journalist Area

2. The IOP Publishing Journalist Area gives journalists access to embargoed press releases, advanced copies of papers, supplementary images and videos. In addition to this, a weekly news digest is uploaded into the Journalist Area every Friday, highlighting a selection of newsworthy papers set to be published in the following week.

Login details also give free access to IOPscience, IOP Publishing's journal platform.

To apply for a free subscription to this service, please email Michael Bishop, IOP Press Officer, michael.bishop@iop.org, with your name, organisation, address and a preferred username.

Artificial heartbeat: Design and fabrication of a biologically-inspired pump

3. The published version of the paper "Artificial heartbeat: Design and fabrication of a biologically-inspired pump" Bioinspir. Biomim. 8 046012 will be freely available online from Friday 9 November at http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/8/4/046012.

Bioinspiration and Biomimetics

4. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics publishes research which applies principles abstracted from natural systems to engineering and technological design and applications.

IOP Publishing

5. IOP Publishing provides a range of journals, conference proceedings, magazines, websites, books and other services that enable researchers and research organisations to achieve the biggest impact for their work.

We combine the culture of a global learned society with highly efficient and effective publishing systems and processes. We serve researchers in the physical and related sciences in all parts of the world through our offices in the UK, US, Germany, China and Japan, and staff in many other locations including Mexico and Russia.

IOP Publishing is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institute of Physics. The Institute is a leading international scientific society with over 55 thousand members promoting physics and bringing physicists together for the benefit of all.

Surplus generated by IOP Publishing is gift aided to the Institute to support science and scientists in both the developed and developing world.

The Institute of Physics

6. The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. We are a charitable organisation with a worldwide membership of more than 45,000, working together to advance physics education, research and application. We engage with policymakers and the general public to develop awareness and understanding of the value of physics and, through IOP Publishing, we are world leaders in professional scientific communications. Go to http://www.iop.org

[

| E-mail

Share

]

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/iop-aht110513.php
Category: billy graham adrian peterson blobfish monday night football Blurred Lines Lyrics

Google brings KitKat keyboard, Hangouts with SMS to Play Store

Google has put a huge emphasis on bringing many of its branded Android apps and services to the Play Store for more users to enjoy without requiring a pure Android device, and two more of them are beginning to roll out today. First up is the new Hangouts app with integrated SMS that the company ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/-v2momyVynQ/
Tags: Richie Incognito hocus pocus EBT Léon Foucault harry potter

Obama's Healthcare Katrina

Under the Affordable Care Act, millions of Americans are receiving letters from insurers informing them that their health insurance policies have been canceled. They are worried and angry that they may be forced to accept new policies with dramatic premium increases that President Obama repeatedly promised them would not happen.

These Americans are the equivalent of New Orleans residents who were stranded on their roofs after floods engulfed their homes during Hurricane Katrina. They comprise President Obama’s Healthcare Katrina. Obama has a moral and political duty to set this right.

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/11/07/obama039s_healthcare_katrina_319452.html
Related Topics: cher atlanta falcons big bang theory bob newhart tesla model s