Pathogen Detection Tool Could Change Infectious Diseases Diagnoses.

Scientists at the University of Utah, ARUP Laboratories, and IDbyDNA, Inc., have developed ultra-fast, meta-genomics analysis software called Taxonomer that dramatically improves the accuracy and speed of pathogen detection. In a paper published today in Genome Biology, the collaborators demonstrated the ability of Taxonomer to analyze the sequences of all nucleic acids in a clinical specimen (DNA and RNA) and to detect pathogens, as well as profile the patient's gene expression, in a matter of minutes. Infectious diseases are one of the biggest killers in the world. Almost 5 million children under age 5 die each year from infectious diseases worldwide, yet many infections are treatable if the pathogen culprit can be quickly and accurately identified. "In the realm of infectious diseases, this type of technology could be as significant as sequencing the human genome," says co-author Mark Yandell, PhD, professor of human genetics at the University of Utah (U of U), H.A. & Edna Benning Presidential Endowed Chair holder, co-director of the USTAR Center for Genetic Discovery, and co-founder of IDbyDNA. "Very few people have inherited genetic disease. But at some point, everyone gets sick from infections." It is difficult for infectious pathogens to hide when their genetic material is laid bare. Taxonomer opens up an entirely new approach for infectious disease diagnosis, driven by sophisticated genomic analysis and computational technologies. After a patient's sample is sequenced, the data are uploaded via the internet to Taxonomer. In less than one minute, the tool displays a thumbnail inventory of all pathogens in the sample, including viruses, bacteria, and fungi. The interactive, real-time user interface of Taxonomer is powered by the IOBIO system developed by the laboratory of Gabor Marth, DSc, professor of human genetics at the U of U and co-Director of the USTAR Center for Genetic Discovery. Schlaberg explains that Taxonomer can identify an infection without the physician having to decide what to test for, something a PCR-based test cannot do. In other words, a doctor doesn't have to suspect the cause of a patient's infection, but can instead simply ask, "What does my patient have?" and Taxonomer will identify the pathogens. In the new study, Taxonomer was put to the test with real-world cases using data published by others and samples provided by ARUP Laboratories and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Taxonomer determined that some patients who exhibited Ebola-like symptoms in the recent African outbreak did not have Ebola but severe bacterial infections that likely caused their symptoms. "This technology can be applied whenever we don't know the cause of the disease, including the detection of sudden outbreaks of disease. It is very clear we urgently need more accurate diagnostics to greatly enhance the ability of public health response and clinical care," says Seema Jain, MD, medical epidemiologist at the CDC. Another unique feature of Taxonomer is its ability to delve into human gene expression profiling, which provides information on how or if the patient's body is reacting to an infection. "As a clinician, this gives you a better idea, when we identify a pathogen whether it is really the cause of the disease," says Carrie L. Byington, MD, professor of pediatrics of the U of U and co-director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science. The tool will also show if the patient is responding to a bacterial or viral infection when we don't find a pathogen or when we find multiple potential causes.She states that she sees the exceptional value of this tool for treating children, who experience more life-threatening infections early in life. "Seeing how a host [patient] reacts is extremely valuable; I believe this is a paradigm shift in how we diagnose people. culled from R&D Magazine.

ANIMAL PROTECTION RIGHTS AND CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION.

A At the start of 2016, the FBI announced that it would start tracking animal cruelty in the same way it tracks felonies, such as arson, burglary, assault, and homicide. Oftentimes, the agency said, crimes against animals are indicators of further criminal activity. But how does one know if a pet’s injuries are naturally occurring or caused intentionally by a human? Tufts University and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals are attempting to define the differences between the two. In a study slated for publication in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, the researchers performed a comparative analysis between animal injuries caused by motor vehicle accidents (MVA) and those from non-accidental injuries (NAI). “Clinicians still face many difficulties in identifying animal abuse,” the researchers wrote in their study. “Animals are unable to speak for themselves, and some animals’ innate personality and trust will even belie the cruelty they have suffered. Additionally, the actual cause of the injury often differs from the description provided by the client.” In the study, 426 dogs and cats with MVA injuries were compared against 50 dogs and cats with NAI. The 426 cases were provided by the Foster Hospital for Small Animals, which operates at the university’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. The 50 other cases, deemed criminal cases of abuse, were provided by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ Humane Law Enforcement Division. “Injuries significantly associated with MVA were pelvic fractures, pneumothorax, pulmonary contusion, abrasions, and degloving wounds,” according to the researchers. “Injuries associated with NAI were fractures of the skull, teeth, vertebrae, and ribs, scleral hemorrhage, damage to claws, and evidence of older fractures.” Additionally, abused animals tended to have rib fractures on both sides of the body, whereas rib fractures from MVAs usually appeared on one side of the body. Establishing these patterns, according to the researchers, will help clinicians differentiate between causes of trauma. “This study contributes to the expanding body of research in the growing field of veterinary forensic medicine and will help forensic veterinarians continue to give a voice to the voiceless,” said Robert Reisman, of the American Society for the Prevention of the Cruelty to Animals. culled from R&D magazine.

eBay Virtual Reality Department Store Shows Futureworld Shopping.

For some time, small business owners have been pondering how virtual reality might change the way they serve customers. Now one of the world’s largest online retailers may be pointing the way. Sure, shopping from a mobile gadget is already convenient enough, but eBay thinks the shopping experience can be improved further with the use of virtual reality. Say hello to what the Internet-based retailer is calling the world’s first Virtual Reality Department Store. The store allows customers to browse through collections like home goods, clothes and electronics as though they were actually in the store. The new store is the product of a partnership with Australian retailer Myer and you can now catch a glimpse of the store by downloading the app. eBay Virtual Reality Department Store The Android and iOS eBay Virtual Reality Department Store app works with headsets like Google Cardboard or Samsung’s Gear.To celebrate the launch of the eBay Virtual Reality Department Store, eBay and Myer are giving away 20,000 “shopticals” to shoppers, but if you don’t get to snag these for free, don’t worry as the headset only costs around $5.95. The brand new VR store boasts more than 12,500 products from Myer, which shoppers can checkout using eBay’s Sight Search technology. Instead of getting inundated by all of the store’s goods all at once, you can create your own unique shopping experience by choosing only categories of products that you are interested in. The shopping experience also gets better as you continue using the service. Sight Search also learns consumers’ shopping preferences and this might in the near future make it possible for business owners to know their customers’ spending habits. “It’s been important to us that we don’t just replicate the ecommerce experience in a virtual environment,” Managing Director of eBay Australia and New Zealand Jooman Park said in a post. “We are taking the best elements of traditional retail and expanding on them to improve browsing, selection, personalization and efficiency.” The eBay Virtual Reality Department Store allows customers to place items that they like in a virtual shopping basket, but in order to make a payment, users have to step out of the virtual reality world and head back to their eBay app. The online retailing giant might be the first eCommerce company to open a VR store, but this technology might soon take off as more shopping tools become available. culled from Small Business Trends.

How To Create a QR Code For Your Small Business.

Originally designed for the automotive industry in Japan, a QR code uses numeric, alphanumeric and byte/binary encoding modes to store data that can be easily accessed with your smartphone, tablet or PC. Unlike a traditional barcode which stores limited data, a QR code has a lot more information. This odd looking image has now evolved to provide a wide range of services, and many countries in Asia it is the go to technology for quickly connecting users to information and services. In China QR codes are used to make payments offline, sharing a password protected Wi-Fi network, transferring money, sharing contact information, logging in to a website and much more. One of the greatest selling points of QR codes is the ease in which it quickly engages users. How to generate your code; the process is so easy, you will be wondering why you didn’t use it sooner. After you create your first code, you will be looking for new and innovative ways to deploy the QR codes so you can connect with your customers in the physical and digital world. The first step is to find a QR code Generator. Here are five you can use right away. You can use the traditional links, as well as the QR codes. The common generators include 1)QR Code Generator 2)Goqr 3) Webqr 4)Visualead and 5) QRstuff . The next step is Create, design and link the code. It can be linked to any URL, including Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and other social media outlets for immediate access to the content you want your customers to see. There are two types of QR codes, static and dynamic. A static code is fixed, meaning the data that is stored in it cannot be changed, while a dynamic QR code can be edited any time. You can get really creative when you create a QR code and add color, your company logo and even animation. Test the QR code. You want to make sure the code is working, and it sends you to the right destination. This is especially important if you use a static code, because you cannot edit it. Track how your QR code is performing. You can now analyze the performance of the codes you create by monitoring how much traffic is coming from them, as well as what actions users are taking once they arrive at your website or other destination. Make your QR code accessible to everyone. If you require a special scanner or app, you will greatly limit the number of people that will follow through. Make it app-agnostic so anyone can scan your QR code with their mobile device. After all access is the ultimate goal, and you don’t want to drive people away by making it unnecessarily complicated. Once you create a QR code, you can get very creative with them. A South Korean grocery store placed a stand in a subway station with QR codes of the items it sells. All customers had to do is scan the code and purchase their groceries, which according to the company makes the deliveries the same day. This is just one example, here are some additional ways you can use it: 1)Direct customers to your digital presence 2) A discount code 3)Link to Google Maps 4) Link it to your app 5) Place in a takeout menu so customers can place an order right away. 6) Act like a URL on a direct response advertisement 7)Add it to business cards so the contact information can be downloaded instantly The ubiquity of mobile devices has made product information one of the most important factors for consumers looking to purchase an item. QR codes, can offer information on any product or service you provide and make it accessible right away. It is easy, cheap and worth trying if you are a small business. read more at small business trends.

Heriot-Watt University Researchers Win $3.3 Million Grant to 3D Print Smart Rocks to Capture Data on Underground Oil and CO2.

In order to secure our water, food and energy supplies while being able to maintain the safe extraction of oil and gas from underground oilfields, we need to have a better understanding of the layer of porous rocks in the subsurface. Specifically, the way that liquids and gases manage to travel through them, and how captured carbon dioxide (CO2) could be stored underground. Unfortunately the conditions of this subsurface material vary widely depending on the type of rock, the temperatures and the pressures that occur deep under the ground. Beyond the complexity of replicating specific environmental conditions, direct dynamic observations at the pore level are virtually impossible in a lab setting. According to Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer, holder of the Robert M Buchan Chair in Sustainable Energy Engineering at Heriot-Watt University , the problem is that the rocks are unable to tell us what’s happening to them. However Maroto-Valer and her team of researchers think that they have come up with a way to communicate with these subsurface rocks, the team wants to make their own rocks that are capable of communicating with us. Their research was promising enough that the team received a prestigious European Research Council Advanced Award so they can continue to pursue their research into developing 3D printed “smart rocks” capable of giving the team an inside look of what’s happening deep underground. Maroto-Valer and her team will use a 3D printing process to produce their own porous rocks that will include multiple micro sensors embedded inside of them. The sensors will be able to transmit data directly to the research team, including detailed information about what actually happens to liquids and gases deep underground. The 3D printed smart rocks will be capable of providing information on the subsurface conditions and environment at a microscopic level, which is simply not possible to reproduce using traditional laboratory methods. This fundamental knowledge at such a tiny scale will feed hugely into our understanding of such processes at the large scale and enable us to maximize the success of industries from oil extraction to water safety and the storage of captured CO2. The grant that Maroto-Valer and her team won was awarded by the “Excellent Science” pillar of Horizon 2020, the European Union’s research and innovation program focusing on enabling senior researchers to pursue their most promising ideas. read more at 3dprint.com

AfDB Earmarks N34.5billion for Nigeria’s Agricultural Sector Development.

The African Development Bank, AfDB, has disclosed that it marked down $175 million, about N34.5 billion to improve Nigeria’s agricultural sector. AfDB Country Director, Ousmane Dore, who made this known when he visited some Northern governors in Kaduna, said the initiative was part of the Bank’s intervention strategy to boost the all-important sector in the country. Dore said, the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme, ATASP-I, of $175 million would consolidate the AfDB’s investments in the country’s agricultural sector Under this scheme, the bank will establish four Staple Crops Processing Zones, SCPZs, to cover four, out of the seven northwest states of Kebbi, Sokoto, Kano and Jigawa. He listed two upcoming projects in the country, totaling $500 million to include a youth programme, otherwise known as ENABLE, meaning Empowering Novel Agri-Business-Led Employment, which would gulp $300 million as well as the Phase II of the ATASP-$200 million. The Country Director said these projects are in addition to the Bank’s financial supports to SMEs through lines of credit to several commercial banks as well as the Bank of Industry, BOI and NEXIM. Culled from BizWatchNigeria.

Step inside a rat's brain with this VR reconstruction.

This virtual-reality reconstruction allows you to step inside the brain of a rat. The 3D brain is projected by 12 eight-megapixel streams across the six walls of a three-metre-sided cubic room known as the CAVE (cave automatic virtual environment). It was developed by the visualisation lab at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. "Through our application of electron microscopy, we are able to develop new ways of analysing microscopic cellular structures of the brain," explains Corrado Calì, a lead researcher on the project. The above image is of the hippocampus, an area involved in memory formation. KAUST scientists process extracted brain tissue through ilastik, a program created by Fred Hamprecht and his team at the Heidelberg Collaboratory for Image Processing in Germany, which is mainly directed toward interactive image classification, segmentation and analysis. Once the hippocampus has been digitally logged, its data is fed into 3D-modelling program Blender, with NeuroMorph plug-ins. This converts it into something a bit more compelling - a visualization which grants the ability to dive deep into the brain. for example," says Cali. "The use of CAVE was key to the observation of a non-random distribution of glycogen. This led us to develop tools for measuring glycogen clustering and proximity to other subcellular features." And if you don't have access to a CAVE? KAUST has created an Oculus Rift version, so other scientists can have rats on the brain. read more at wired.co.uk