ROBOTS AND CODING FOR KIDS..

A robot named Root has been developed to expose kids of all ages to coding in a way that brings the often daunting world of computer science to life. Root looks like a smoke detector but is actually a sophisticated robot. A magnetic surface, wheels, and an impressive arsenal of sensors allow it to navigate a classroom whiteboard. But Root isn’t actually programed to do anything. Its tasks and functionality hinge on a child’s imagination. The robot is capable of driving and drawing as well as playing music, but Root needs instructions to operate, a line of code. Zivthan Dubrovsky of Harvard’s Wyss Institute recalls testing out Root with kids for the first time. “If you ask kids can you make a text based java script line follower? They go ‘no that’s hard, can’t do that’, but we can put level one in front of them and they can do it in minutes,” he said. Using a tablet wirelessly connected to the robot, level one introduces kids to the principles of programing using an interface of simple commands and pictures. As they become more adept, they jump to levels 2 and 3, at which point writing computer code becomes second nature, according to Dubrovsky. He says getting kids interested in the abstract world of programming isn’t easy, but thinks Root can help with that. “We are not trying to create a fun toy where you are just making a racing game. We are going to figure out how to make the racing game and that is going to be a lot of work, a lot of perhaps negative energy. But then there is so much positive energy at the end that it is worth the effort,” he added. The team hopes to partner up with education companies to develop curriculums based around Root with the hopes of enticing schools to add the robot to classrooms. “By adding a robot into the classroom you are actually adding a third agent into the classroom and you enable a new interesting way of teaching where the students can become the teachers, teaching the robot to do things,” Dubrovsky said. While at the same time learning a new skill, one that is increasingly important in a digital world where knowing how to code could become just as important as knowing to read and write. Read more;http://newsdaily.com/2016/04/a-robot-to-teach-kids-coding/

3D PROSTHESES FOR DOG.

Derby was born with deformities in both of his front legs, which left him unable to walk, run, or even sit upright. Slated to be euthanized, he was rescued and fostered by Tara Anderson, an employee at 3D Systems, who saw him at the Peace and Paws Dog Rescue in New Hampshire, USA. With the 3D technologies available to Tara, she set about trying to create a custom prosthesis for Derby, starting with casts to mold the prosthetic design and later elbow cups modeled on 3D scans taken of Derby’s deformed legs. The idea was to get Derby running again, but without wheels. During this time, he was adopted by the Portanova family who worked with Tara to develop the first of their kind prosthetic legs. These legs were developed in stages by trial and error, with the design slowly adjusted to Derby’s body, particularly his spine, as he grew. The material had to be strong, durable, and flexible to closely mimic the behavior of his natural legs. The final 3D printed prosthetic had a curved design and incorporated treads to provide traction. It even had his name printed on each prosthetic leg! Today, Derby, nearly two years old, doesn’t just walk, but runs, miles and miles each day. 3D printing has brought hope where they may not have been any before. It’s magic is three-pronged. First, it allows for prostheses or implants to be made at low cost and on-demand, and this is important because a prosthetic needs to be quickly modified and revised several times as the animal grows. Second, the range of materials available in 3D printing means that these prostheses can not only mimic the natural function of the missing part, but also integrate with the organic structure of the animal. Third, it allows for the creation of highly complex and custom prostheses and implants that are as unique as the animals they are designed for. For every animal that would have otherwise been euthanized, for whom doors were closed by fate or human cruelty, 3D printing has brought far more than ten reasons to go on living. So, the next time you come across a deformed, damaged, or diseased animal, no matter how small or big, anywhere in the world, remember that there may always be something that can be done to save it. culled from 3dprintingindustry.com

HOLLY THE HORSE BEATS LAMINITIS WITH 3D PRINTING .

Holly, a ten-year-old mare in Australia, suffered from laminitis, a crippling disease that is common among horses, ponies, and donkeys. Laminitis affects the hooves of these animals and Holly had been suffering from it for three years. The disease causes pain and inflammation between the hoof and bone (an attachment similar to that of our finger and nail) and if unattended, could have left Holly unable to walk. Her vet and farrier, Luke Wells-Smith from the Equine Podiatry and Lameness Centre, had heard of the work CSIRO (Australia’s national science agency) had done with a racehorse, aptly named “Titanium Prints”, using 3D printed titanium horse-shoes. CSIRO hadn’t previously used 3D printing to rehabilitate lame horses, but, with Holly, they had their first opportunity. Collaborating with horse podiatrists, they 3D scanned and designed a shoe that was a perfect fit for Holly’s hoof and 3D printed it in titanium. The custom shoe, a first of its kind ‘horse-thotic’ that can be made on-demand in less than a day, would equally redistribute the weight and stress on the hoof, encourage it to heal and give Holly a chance to recover. Story from 3dprintingindustry.com

PARROT GETS A NEW BEAK WITH 3D PRINTING.

The most revolutionary applications of 3D printing technology can be found in academic hospitals around the world, where numerous patients have already received life-changing and sometimes even life-saving 3D printed prostheses and implants. These medical solutions can not only be used by us humans, but also our animal companions. Gray Kid, a lucky parrot can now eat normally again, after receiving a 3D printed beak at the Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo in China. Gray Kid isn’t the first animal to receive a 3D printed implant or prosthetic, but it is still quite a rare thing. He is now part of a select group of animals, that also includes Fred the tortoise and Derby the dog, who have all received custom-made, 3D printed implants or prosthetics that give them a chance at a normal life. Gray Kid’s case, a normal life was almost completely out of the question. Though a very handsome parrot, his beak was recently almost completely destroyed. Gray Kid lives at the Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo in China with a flock of his species, but unfortunately gang fights sometimes happen among parrots. During one of those fights, Gray Kid lost most of his beak. And that damage was more than just cosmetic, as breeder Liu Wei revealed. Gray Kid was left unable to pick up big pieces of fruit and could not chew on nuts at all. The unfortunate bird could only eat crushed foods by licking it up with his tongue, but without a beak he couldn’t defend his meals from greedy companions either. “If this situation continued, it would have definitely threatened his health and even his life,” Liu Wei said. 3D printing offered a solution, the Hongshan Zoo animal hospital veterinarian Cheng Wang Kun began looking into a 3D printing solution, and fortunately the Nanjing Additive Manufacturing Research Institute caught wind of that idea. They offered to sponsor a 3D printed beak for Gray Kid. As Cheng Wang Kun explained, they brought another, healthy parrot to the research institute for 3D scanning, giving the 3D printing specialists a good notion of the dimensions of the necessary beak replacement. The 3D scanning data was used to design a customized 3D printable beak, which was completed and 3D printed in resin within just a day. Though the 3D printed beak was ready to go, it could not be installed so easily. Gray Kid’s beak suffered from irregular shedding, preventing the surgeons from simply screwing it on. They therefore had to adjust the shape of the 3D printed beak slightly. The anesthetized bird was subsequently brought into the operating room. “We connected the 3D printed beak to the remnants of the original beak successfully, and then fixed it into place with a bone nail,” the surgeon explained. All in all, the procedure only took about thirty minutes. The worries were not quite over yet. As Liu Wei explained, there was still a good chance that Gray Kid rejected the prosthesis. To everyone’s surprise, the bird did not display any self-mutilating behavior, nor did he try to destroy or damage the new beak. In fact, he was very careful with it, and within just two days Gray Kid was seen flexibly using it to eat and drink alongside a companion. He looked, they say, comfortable. The 3D printed beak and the gray bone nail were very noticeable, but the companion bird also did not attack or bully the recovering Gray Kid. Perhaps he felt a bit guilty? This 3D printing solution thus seems to be a complete success, which is even more remarkable as it is the first time Hongshan Zoo used 3D printing as an animal health solution. They have already hinted that this positive experience has convinced them to use advanced technologies more often in the future, if it can benefit the animals. Read more(http://www.3ders.org/articles/20160417-gray-kid-the-parrot-can-eat-again-after-receiving-a-3d-printed-beak-at-chinese-zoo.html)

RAPID MUTATION OF THE ZIKA VIRUS.

According to Times report,Scientists are questioning how the zika virus spreads. Until recently, experts believed Zika was a relatively benign virus spread by mosquitoes. But now that it’s been linked to more than 1,000 microcephaly cases, scientists have taken a closer look, recently declaring it “scarier than we initially thought,” as one U.S. health official put it this week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced it is now absolutely confident that Zika causes microcephaly—a connection that was suspected but not proven. It also appears to be linked to other disorders like Guillain-Barré syndrome and other autoimmune syndromes. The virus, experts now know, can be transmitted through sex. In a new twist, experts are questioning the idea that mosquitoes are the primary cause of transmission. In a new study, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), looked at sequences of the Zika virus over decades and found notable changes in the virus over time, suggesting that the virus’ ability to mutate is a reason why it is able to trigger different types of disease. They also noticed that the sequenced strains of Zika from mosquitoes do not match all the strains in humans from this outbreak. This suggests that more people than was expected may be getting the virus some other way. The UCLA team partnered with Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College in Beijing and compared 40 strains of Zika from past outbreaks as well as strains from the current one. The researchers analyzed some strains collected from people, some from monkeys, and some from mosquitoes. When sequences of the viruses were compared, the scientists noted a variety of differences between them. The curious angle, the researchers note, is that the strains of the virus collected from humans in this outbreak haven’t matched the strains seen in mosquitoes.“We haven’t found any human sequences in the mosquito in recent history, noted the researchers. The team thought they haven’t been looking hard enough. and If we can’t find them, it brings into question whether the mosquito is the primary mode of transmission in the current epidemic. The researchers suggest, that other modes of transmission, like sex, may play a bigger role. The cases of sexually transmitted Zika— was revealed it can be spread via anal sex as well as vaginal sex The CDC released precautions that people who are in areas of active Zika transmission need to practice safe sex, and abstinence may be recommended during pregnancy. There are currently no areas of active Zika transmission in the U.S., but the virus is spreading locally in Puerto Rico. The researchers of the current study say there’s much more that needs to be done before scientists will fully understand Zika. The team plans to continue studying the strains involved in the ongoing outbreak as a way to identify possible targets for drug and vaccines. The need to broaden our thinking about how this disease can be transmitted and how to stop it is very vital. culled from time.com

Vegetables irrigated with treated waste water expose consumers to drugs.

A new study by a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Hadassah Medical Center shows that eating vegetables and fruits grown in soils irrigated with reclaimed waste water exposes consumers to minute quantities of carbamazepine, an anti-epileptic drug commonly detected in waste water effluents. Fresh water scarcity worldwide has led to increased use of reclaimed waste water, as an alternative source for crop irrigation. But the abundance of pharmaceuticals in treated effluents has raised concerns over the potential exposure for consumers to drug contaminants via treated waste water. The study is the first to directly address exposure to such pharmaceutical contaminants in healthy humans. It was recently published in Environmental Science and Technology. "In a randomized controlled trial we have demonstrated that healthy individuals consuming reclaimed wastewater-irrigated produce excreted carbamazepine and its metabolites in their urine, while subjects consuming fresh water-irrigated produce excreted undetectable or significantly lower levels of carbamazepine," said Prof. Ora Paltiel, Director of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, who led the research. The study followed 34 men and women divided into two groups. The first group was given reclaimed wastewater-irrigated produce for the first week, and freshwater-irrigated vegetables in the following week. The second group consumed the produce in reverse order. The volunteers consumed the produce, which included tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and lettuce, according to their normal diet and drank bottled water throughout the study to neutralize water contamination. The researchers measured carbamazepine levels in the fresh produce and in the participants' urine. To begin with, the urinary levels of carbamazepine differed in their quantifiable concentration, with some participants having undetectable levels. Following seven days of consuming reclaimed water-irrigated produce, all members of the first group exhibited quantifiable levels of carbamazepine, while in the second group the distribution remained unchanged from baseline. Levels of carbamazepine excretion were markedly higher in the first group versus the second. It is evident that those who consume produce grown in soil irrigated with treated waste water increase their exposure to the drug. Though the levels detected were much lower than in patients who consume the drug, it is important to assess the exposure in commercially available produce. Materials from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

HOW THE DISTEMPER VIRUS JUMPS TO OTHER SPECIES.

Distemper has been noted to affect tigers,lions and some bears .See(http://veterinarymedicineechbeebolanle-ojuri.blogspot.com.ng/2016/04/distemper-virus-and-tigers.html). Canine distemper, a viral disease that has infected the lions of Tanzania's Serengeti National Park, appears to be spread by multiple animal species, according to a study published by a transcontinental team of scientists. In 1994, a mysterious neurological ailment wiped out 30-percent of the lion population in the Serengeti, one of the largest wildlife regions in the world. Scientists determined it was canine distemper, a disease previously thought to infect only dogs, coyotes and a small number of other mammals. Evidence suggested the lions had contracted the virus from dogs living in villages and settlements nearby. A domestic dog vaccination campaign was launched to curb the infection's spread. It worked--among dogs, at least. After analyzing three decades of blood serum data collected from lions and domestic dogs, the researchers discovered that the virus continues to circulate in the lion population while significantly declining among dogs. A new research by researchers in Cornell university have shown how the virus jumps to other species, a key mutation in the protein shell of canine parvovirus -- a single amino acid substitution -- plays a major role in the virus' ability to infect hosts of different species. Canine parvovirus, or CPV, emerged as a deadly threat to dogs in the late 1970s, most likely the result of the direct transfer of feline panleukopenia or a similar virus from domesticated cats. CPV has since spread to wild forest-dwelling animals, including raccoons, and the transfer of the virus from domesticated to wild carnivores has been something of a mystery. Colin Parrish, the John M. Olin Professor of Virology and director of the Baker Institute for Animal Health at Cornell University co-authored a research paper, published in the Journal of Virology, with Susan Daniel, associate professor in Cornell's Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, which contends that a key mutation in the protein shell of CPV -- a single amino acid substitution -- plays a major role in the virus' ability to infect hosts of different species. There's an initial attachment, which is probably relatively weak," he said. "The thing just grabs on and holds on a little bit, sort of like using your fingertips. And then it looks like there's a second attachment that is much stronger, where it's like you grab on and hold on with both hands and won't let go." The second event, is structural interaction that occurs in a small proportion of the binding cases, seems to be critical," he said. "We think that it actually causes a change in the virus, that it triggers a small shift in the virus that actually makes it able to infect successfully." One of Daniel's specialties is the investigation of chemically patterned surfaces that interact with soft matter, including biological materials such as cells, viruses, proteins and lipids. Her lab has pioneered a method called single-particle tracking -- placing artificial cell membranes into microfluidics devices, fabricated at the CNF, to study the effect of single virus particles on a variety of membrane host receptors, in this case from both dogs and raccoons.