Industries
Connectors in demand at DSEI
Electronic Specifier Editor Joe Bush caught up with LEMO Managing Director Peter Dent and Raymond Voillat, the company’s Group Sales and Marketing Director at the recent DSEI exhibition to discuss the company’s growing influence within the aerospace and defence market.
Origami-inspired robot is soft and flexible
A Case Western Reserve University researcher has turned the origami she enjoyed as a child into a patent-pending soft robot that may one day be used on an assembly line, in surgery or even outer space. Kiju Lee, the Nord Distinguished Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and her lab have moved from paper robots to 3D-printed models that bend, contract, extend and twist. This novel mechanism is called TWISTER (TWISted ...
HeartWare approved for destination therapy
Medtronic plc has received FDA approval for its HeartWare HVAD System as a destination therapy for patients with advanced heart failure who are not candidates for heart transplants. The HVAD System, a left ventricular assist device or LVAD, helps the heart pump and increases the amount of blood that flows through the body.
HeartLight Excalibur Balloon receives CE Mark Approval
CardioFocus has announced the European CE Mark approval of the HeartLight Excalibur Balloon, a next-generation technology designed for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). The Excalibur Balloon leverages the proven universal balloon design of the company's FDA-approved HeartLight Endoscopic Ablation System and introduces an advanced feature set that optimises the speed and magnitude of target tissue contact during pulmonary vein i...
Stanford psychologists simplify brain-imaging data
Neuroscience research has made incredible strides toward revealing the inner workings of our brains thanks in part to technological advances, but barriers in sharing and accessing that data stymie progress in the field. Stanford psychologists are addressing those barriers through a new way of organising brain-imaging data that simplifies data analysis and helps researchers collaborate more effectively – they call it BIDS (Brain Imaging...
Molecules may protect brain from neurodegenerative diseases
Research led by Nicolas Bazan, MD, PhD, Boyd Professor and Director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at LSU Health New Orleans, has discovered a new class of molecules in the brain that synchronise cell-to-cell communication and neuroinflammation/immune activity in response to injury or diseases. Elovanoids (ELVs) are bioactive chemical messengers made from omega-3 very long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (VLC-PUFAs,n-3). They are rele...
Lockheed Martin unveils water-powered Mars lander
A reusable, water-powered Mars lander that will allow humans to explore the Red Planet from an orbiting 'base camp' as early as the 2030s was unveiled Friday by US defence giant Lockheed Martin. Governments and private firms are collaborating on projects to send humans to new frontiers, with NASA planning missions next decade into the space between Earth and the Moon to prepare for trips to Mars.
Heart valves formed from patient’s own tissue
A new method allows surgeons to reconstruct entire heart valves from the patient’s own tissue. This surgical procedure is currently only used at a handful of centres in the world. Recently, PD Dr. Markus Krane, Deputy Director of the Cardiovascular Surgery Department of the German Heart Centre Munich, has also used the new method on patients in Munich. The method is particularly advantageous for children and young patients.
Nintendo Wii games to help Parkinson’s patients
A pair of Purdue University professors are using the popular Nintendo Wii gaming system to help people with Parkinson’s disease. Jessica Huber and Jeff Haddad from the College of Health and Human Sciences are studying how playing specially created games can improve a patient’s movement, speech and overall quality of life.
How can you create a robotic dinosaur?
Look at that T-Rex that looks as if it is smiling, just about to say, 'Boo!'. However, if we were to strip away the skeletal pieces, underneath are modular parts from motion plastics specialist igus. The main body of the dinosaur is a robolink D articulated arm made with self-lubricating joints incorporating a gearbox with tribopolymer gear wheels and PRT tribopolymer round tables.