To improve lung cancer diagnosis, good medicine is a polymer pill

Doctors may soon be able to diagnose lung cancer more effectively thanks to research performed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where scientists have found ways both to increase the accuracy of computed tomography (CT) scans and to lessen the amount of time necessary to perceive telltale changes in lung tissue.


To improve lung cancer diagnosis, good medicine is a polymer pill

Car Steered With Eyes, Computer Scientists Demonstrate

"Keep your eyes on the road!" Scientists at Freie Universität working under the computer science professor Raúl Rojas have given a completely new meaning to this standard rule for drivers: Using software they developed, they can steer a car with their eyes.
On the site of the former Berlin Tempelhof Airport, the head of the project, Raul Rojas, and his team from the Artificial Intelligence Group recently demonstrated how they can steer the vehicle that is equipped with complex electronics just by eye. More than 60 journalists from around the world were there to watch.

Information about the Software: EyeDriver

The eyeDriver software is a prototype application for steering the research vehicle Spirit of Berlin using eye movements. The software was designed by computer scientists at Freie Universität Berlin in collaboration with the company, SMI (SensoMotoric Instruments). The eye movements of the driver are collected and converted into control signals for the steering wheel. The speed is controlled separately and is not included in eyeDriver. The software shows that you can drive a vehicle alone with eye movements.

The HED4 solution by SMI is used for detecting and tracking the eye movements. It is a converted bicycle helmet equipped with two cameras and an infrared LED, as well as a laptop computer with special software. One of the cameras is pointed to the front in the same direction as the person wearing the helmet (scene camera), while the other camera films one eye of the wearer (eye camera). The infrared light supports the eye camera and is pointed to the eye under observation. A transparent mirror that reflects only the infrared light is used to allow a reasonable viewing angle for the eye camera, without limiting the wearer's ability to see. After a brief calibration the software on the laptop of the HED4 is not only able to capture the position of the pupil in the eye camera, but can also calculate the position in the scene camera that the wearer is looking at. These coordinates in the image of the scene camera (viewing position) are transmitted via an ordinary LAN to the onboard computer in the Spirit of Berlin. The eyeDriver software in the onboard computer in the Spirit of Berlin receives the viewing positions at regular intervals over the LAN in the vehicle and uses it to control the steering wheel. The driver can choose between two modes: "free ride" and "routing."

Full Story

Learning from the Brain: Computer Scientists Develop New Generation of Neuro-Computer

They have been co-ordinating the European Union research project "Brain-i-Nets" (Novel Brain Inspired Learning Paradigms for Large-Scale Neuronal Networks) for three years, and are launching a three-day meeting of the participating researchers in Graz. The scientists want to design a new generation of neuro-computers based on the principles of calculation and learning mechanisms found in the brain, and at the same time gain new knowledge about the brain's learning mechanisms.
The human brain consists of a network of several billion nerve cells. These are joined together by independent connections called synapses. Synapses are changing all the time -- something scientists name synaptic plasticity. This highly complex system represents a basis for independent thinking and learning. But even today there are still many open questions for researchers.
"In contrast to today's computers, the brain doesn't carry out a set programme but rather is always adapting functions and reprogramming them anew. Many of these effects have not been explained," comments IGI head Wolfgang Maass together with project co-ordinator Robert Legenstein. In co-operation with neuroscientists and physicists, and with the help of new experimental methods, they want to research the mechanisms of synaptic plasticity in the organism.
Revolutionising the information society
The researchers are hoping to gain new knowledge from this research about the learning mechanisms in the human brain. They want to use this knowledge of learning mechanisms to develop new learning methods for artificial systems which process information. The scientists' long-term goal is to develop adaptive computers together which have the potential to revolutionise today's information society.
The three-year project is financed by the EU funding framework "Future Emerging Technologies" (FET), which supports especially innovative and visionary approaches in information technology. International experts chose only nine out of the 176 applications, among which was "Brain-i-Nets." Partners of the research initiative worth 2.6m euro include University College London, the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg und the University of Zurich.
For more information, visit: http://www.brain-i-nets.eu

Scientists have devised a new type of superconducting circuit

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have devised a new type of superconducting circuit that behaves quantum mechanically – but has up to five levels of energy instead of the usual two.
These circuits act like artificial atoms in that they can only gain or lose energy in packets, or quanta, by jumping between discrete energy levels. "In our previous work, we focused on systems with just two energy levels, 'qubits,' because they are the quantum analog of 'bits,' which have two states, on and off," said Matthew Neeley, first author and a graduate student at UCSB.
He explained that in this work they operated a quantum circuit as a more complicated artificial atom with up to five energy levels. The generic term for such a system is "qudit," where 'd' refers to the number of energy levels –– in this case, 'd' equals five.
"This is the quantum analog of a switch that has several allowed positions, rather than just two," said Neeley. "Because it has more energy levels, the physics of a qudit is richer than for just a single qubit. This allows us to explore certain aspects of quantum mechanics that go beyond what can be observed with a qubit."
Just as bits are used as the fundamental building blocks of computers, qubits could one day be used as building blocks of a quantum computer, a device that exploits the laws of quantum mechanics to perform certain computations faster than can be done with classical bits alone. "Qudits can be used in quantum computers as well, and there are even cases where qudits could be used to speed up certain operations with a quantum computer," said Neeley. "Most research to date has focused on qubit systems, but we hope our experimental demonstration will motivate more effort on qudits, as an addition to the quantum information processing toolbox."
The senior co-author of the paper is John M. Martinis, professor of physics at UCSB. Other co-authors from UCSB are: Markus Ansmann, Radoslaw C. Bialczak, Max Hofheinz, Erik Lucero, Aaron D. O'Connell, Daniel Sank, Haohua Wang, James Wenner, and Andrew N. Cleland. Another co-author, Michael R. Geller, is from the University of Georgia..   (from Science daily..)

New Plasma Transistor Could Create Sharper Displays

By integrating a solid-state electron emitter and a microcavity plasma device, researchers at the University of Illinois have created a plasma transistor that could be used to make lighter, less expensive and higher resolution flat-panel displays.
"The new device is capable of controlling both the plasma conduction current and the light emission with an emitter voltage of 5 volts or less," said Gary Eden, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, and director of the Laboratory for Optical Physics and Engineering at the U. of I.
At the heart of the plasma transistor is a microcavity plasma, an electronic-photonic device in which an electrically charged gas (a plasma) is contained within a microscopic cavity. Power is supplied by two electrodes at voltages of up to 200 volts.
Eden and graduate student Kuo-Feng (Kevin) Chen fabricated the plasma transistor from copper-clad laminate into which a microcavity 500 microns in diameter was produced by standard photolithographic techniques. The solid-state electron emitter was made from a silicon wafer, topped with a thin layer of silicon dioxide.
The microcavity is approximately the diameter of a human hair, and is filled with a small amount of gas. When excited by electrons, atoms in the plasma radiate light. The color of light depends on what gas is placed in the microcavity. Neon emits red light, for example, and argon emits blue light.
Around the plasma is a thin boundary layer called the sheath. Within the sheath, electrical current is carried not by negatively charged electrons, but instead by positively charged ions. Much heavier than electrons and therefore harder to accelerate, the ions require a large electric field generated by a large voltage drop across the sheath.
The intense electric field within the plasma sheath also promotes electron transport, said Eden, who also is a researcher at the university's Coordinated Science Laboratory and at the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory. "By injecting electrons from the emitter into the sheath, we can significantly increase the flow of electrons through the plasma, which increases the plasma's conductivity and light emission."
While the microcavity plasma still requires up to 200 volts to emit light and conduct current, the current and light emission can be controlled by an electron emitter operating at 5 volts or less, Eden said. The current that is sent through the sheath to the bulk plasma determines how much current is carried by the two electrodes driving the microplasma.
In previous work, Eden's team created flat-panel plasma lamps out of two sheets of aluminum foil separated by a thin dielectric layer of clear aluminum oxide. More than 250,000 lamps can be packed into a single panel. And, because microcavity plasmas operate at atmospheric pressure, thick pieces of glass are not needed to seal them. The lightweight plasma panels are less than 1 millimeter thick.
"Being able to control each microcavity plasma independently could turn our plasma panel into a less expensive and higher resolution plasma display," Eden said. "The plasma transistor also could be used in applications where you want to use a small voltage to control a great deal of power."
Eden and Chen described the plasma transistor in the journal Applied Physics Letters. The researchers have applied for a patent.
courtesy: scincedaily.com