The findings were published recently in the early online edition of ACS Nano.

The human body operates under a constant state of martial law. Chief among the enforcers charged with maintaining order is the immune system, a complex network that seeks out and destroys the hordes of invading bacteria and viruses that threaten the organic society as it goes about its work.

The immune system is good at its job, but it's not perfect. Most cancerous cells, for example, are able to avoid detection by the immune system because they so closely resemble normal cells, leaving the cancerous cells free to multiply and grow into life-threatening tumors while the body's only protectors remain unaware.

Shanta Dhar and her colleagues are giving the immune system a boost through their research.

"What we are working on is specifically geared toward breast cancer," said Dhar, the study's co-author and an assistant professor of chemistry in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. "Our paper reports for the first time that we can stimulate the immune system against breast cancer cells using mitochondria-targeted nanoparticles and light using a novel pathway."

In their experiments, Dhar and her colleagues exposed cancer cells in a petri dish to specially designed nanoparticles 1,000 times finer than the width of a human hair. The nanoparticles invade the cell and penetrate the mitochondria -- the organelles responsible for producing the energy a cell needs to grow and replicate.

They then activated the nanoparticles inside the cancer cells by exposing them to a tissue-penetrating long wavelength laser light. Once activated, the nanoparticles disrupt the cancer cell's normal processes, eventually leading to its death.

The dead cancer cells were collected and exposed to dendritic cells, one of the core components of the human immune system. What the researchers saw was remarkable.

"We are able to potentially overcome some of the traditional drawbacks to today's dendritic cell immunotherapy," said Sean Marrache, a graduate student in Dhar's lab. "By targeting nanoparticles to the mitochondria of cancer cells and exposing dendritic cells to these activated cancer cells, we found that the dendritic cells produced a high concentration of chemical signals that they normally don't produce, and these signals have traditionally been integral to producing effective immune stimulation."

Dhar added that the "dendritic cells recognized the cancer as something foreign and began to produce high levels of interferon-gamma, which alerts the rest of the immune system to a foreign presence and signals it to attack. We basically used the cancer against itself."

She cautions that the results are preliminary, and the approach works only with certain forms of breast cancer. But if researchers can refine the process, this technology may one day serve as the foundation for a new cancer vaccine used to both prevent and treat disease.

"We particularly hope this technique could help patients with advanced metastatic disease that has spread to other parts of the body," said Dhar, who also is a member of the UGA Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, Cancer Center and Center for Drug Discovery.

If the process were to become a treatment, doctors could biopsy a tumor from the patient and kill the cancerous cells with nanoparticles. They could then produce activated dendritic cells in bulk quantities in the lab under controlled conditions before the cells were injected into the patient.

Once in the bloodstream, the newly activated cells would alert the immune system to the cancer's presence and destroy it.

"These are the things we can now do with nanotechnology," Dhar said. "If we can refine the process further, we may be able to use similar techniques against other forms of cancer as well."

Researchers at the University of Georgia are developing a new treatment technique that uses nanoparticles to reprogram immune cells so they are able to recognize and attack cancer.

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Google and Microsoft in war of words over YouTube app

Fight! Google and Microsoft are locked in a war of words after the Big G banned the YouTube app for Windows Phone a second time.


Google has blocked the new version of the app, for purported violations of its rules, after barring a previous version. But Microsoft has blasted Google's "excuses".


"Google's reasons for blocking our app are manufactured so that we can't give our users the same experience Android and iPhone users are getting," claims Microsoft lawyer David Howard.


"The roadblocks Google has set up are impossible to overcome, and they know it."


Microsoft's first attempt at a YouTube app was blocked by Google for not showing ads. Google then demanded the new app be built in HTML5 rather than as a proprietary Windows Phone app -- despite the fact neither Apple or Android versions of the video app are built in HTML5.


Google also cites problems with the app's branding, and problems with ads. Microsoft says the branding has never been a problem in previous years, and the ad issue is dependent on information from Google that the search company has yet to provide.


Google responds, "Unfortunately, Microsoft has not made the browser upgrades necessary to enable a fully featured YouTube experience, and has instead re-released a YouTube app that violates our terms of service. It has been disabled."


Is Google unfairly penalising Windows Phone over Apple and Android -- or is Microsoft trying to get away with peddling a substandard app?


Sources of this news : http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/google-and-microsoft-in-war-of-words-over-youtube-app-50012012/

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Sandwich-structured composite

A sandwich-structured composite is a special class of composite materials that is fabricated by attaching two thin but stiff skins to a lightweight but thick core. The core material is normally low strength material, but its higher thickness provides the sandwich composite with high bending stiffness with overall low density. Open- and closed-cell-structured foams like polyvinylchloride, polyurethane, polyethylene or polystyrene foams, balsa wood, syntactic foams, and honeycombs are commonly used core materials. Open- and closed-cell metal foam can also be used as core materials. Laminates of glass or carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastics or mainly thermoset polymers (unsaturated polyesters, epoxies...) are widely used as skin materials. Sheet metal is also used as skin material in some cases. The core is bonded to the skins with an adhesive or with metal components by brazing together

Types of sandwich structures
Metal composite material (MCM) is a type of sandwich formed from two thin skins of metal bonded to a plastic core in a continuous process under controlled pressure, heat, and tension. Recycled paper is also now being used over a closed-cell recycled kraft honeycomb core, creating a lightweight, strong, and fully repulpable composite board. This material is being used for applications including point-of-purchase displays, bulkheads, recyclable office furniture, exhibition stands, and wall dividers. To fix different panels, among other solutions, a transition zone is normally used, which is a gradual reduction of the core height, until the two fiber skins are in touch. In this place, the fixation can be made by means of bolts, rivets, or adhesive.

Properties of sandwich structures
The strength of the composite material is dependent largely on two factors:
The outer skins: If the sandwich is supported on both sides, and then stressed by means of a force in the middle of the beam, then the bending moment will introduce shear forces in the material. The shear forces result in the bottom skin in tension and the top skin in compression. The core material spaces these two skins apart. The thicker the core material the stronger the composite. This principle works in much the same way as an I-beam does. The interface between the core and the skin: Because the shear stresses in the composite material change rapidly between the core and the skin, the adhesive layer also sees some degree of shear force. If the adhesive bond between the two layers is too weak, the most probable result will be delamination.

Application of sandwich structures
Sandwich structures can be widely used in sandwich panels, this kinds of panels can be in different types such as FRP sandwich panel, aluminum composite panel etc. FRP polyester reinforced composite honeycomb panel (sandwich panel) is made of polyester reinforced plastic, multi-axial high-strength glass fiber and PP honeycomb panel in special antiskid tread pattern mold through the process of constant temperature vacuum adsorption & agglutination and solidification.

References , copy from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandwich-structured_composite

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Flying bicycle

A duo of British designers' passion for cycling and life-long dreams of flight has spawned one of the world's first flying bicycles -- a conventional bike that converts to an easy-to-operate aircraft that they say can soar to 4,000 feet and cover 75 miles-plus after liftoff.


Yannick Read, 42, and John Foden, 37, who met while living on the same road in Kingston upon Thames, England, quickly learned that aside from both being designers and avid cyclists, they always wanted to fly. The two decided to partner on what they saw as the next step in cycling: aviation.


"Growing up we wanted to be pilots," Read told ABCNews.com. "But training and maintenance and cost are real barriers. We wanted to create an aircraft that was as accessible, relatively speaking, as could be."


Read said he sent a long-shot email to Jim Edmondson with British paramotor manufacturer Parajet in March 2011, in which he outlined the duo's design and concept for their flying bike. To his surprise, he was quickly greeted with an enthusiastic response.


Read and Folden were encouraged to widen their concept and told they could have the Jim Edmondson's assistance and support.

A different kind of flying bicycle recently achieved liftoff in Prague. Read more here.


The duo began to pen out ideas and concepts for what eventually became the Paravelo, a combination of a para-wing and a conventional bike, which tows a trailer carrying a powerful fan. Once in an open clearing, the cyclist can unfurl the para-wing, start the fan with an electric-start motor and, within a matter of yards, be airborne.


Read and Foden began a Kickstarter campaign this week with a goal of reaching £50,000 (about $78,000) to launch what he they're calling "safe, practical and affordable personal flight."


"We built a series of prototypes, and the current one is fairly polished," he said. "The next version, with funding, would be to develop, to ruggedize it, make it more robust, the way we envision it being used -- as a bicycle Monday to Friday. You will be able to commute on the bike. Then, make use of the flying capability."


Read says the latest prototype, which he describes as the size of a flight suitcase, can fit in the trunk of a car. "It's a niche product. We're not going to see cities with these swarming through the skies," Read said. "It's an unusual and adventurous evolution for the bicycle."


But is the flying bicycle, which in the U.K. doesn't require a special license to operate and is unregulated, totally safe for the average user? Read says it is.


"It's safe because of low air speeds. You're flying about 25 miles per hour, that low speed makes it so safe," he said. "In terms of controlling, it's like controlling a little Vespa scooter."


Training for flight in the Paravelo, Read says, can be completed in as little as seven days and, he adds, the vehicle could be useful for a number of professions, including park rangers and border patrol, as well as being a great addition for the adventurous weekender.


The prototype even features a built-in tent for what read calls "flamping," or flying and camping.


As for his and Foden's crowd-funding campaign, Read sees it not just as a way to help his dream take flight, but as exploratory means to gauge reaction and interest.


"Were being up front and saying that it looks pretty, and it works," he said. "We want to show it's a robust, practical, usable machine, that won't work just the day you buy it, but for many, many years.


This news is copy from cnn

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Waterproof Samsung Galaxy S4 Active makes some waves

Samsung's Galaxy S4 line gets another family member in the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active, a hardened, ruggedized spin off of the company's flagship model.


Waterproof to a meter below the surface and for up to 30 minutes, the Active carries on computing with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, Samsung's TouchWiz interface, and a 1.9GHz quad-core processor, the same as its more delicate Galaxy S4 sibling.


Many of its other specs are also similar, but one that stands out is the camera, whose 8-megapixel module can take this bad boy under the waves with its brand-new aqua mode.

I love that Samsung has finally made waterproofing a feature rather than a fail-safe against damage. A lot of other rugged handsets that make the same waterproof claims stop short of turning the capability into a real benefit.

The handset's lower-caffeinated camera compared with the original GS4's may seem like a downgrade for some, but for the S4 Active's price of $199.99 on AT&T, its rugged features are a pretty fair compromise. We'll know a lot more when the phone launches on June 21 (see the teaser video above). Our team will also plan to get our hands on the Galaxy S4 Active on June 20 in London.


Since the Galaxy S4 Active arrives this summer, I have a feeling we're going to have a heck of a time testing out its aqua camera mode firsthand. Pool party, anyone?


This news is copy from http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-s4-active/4505-6452_7-35783536.html

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Chemical Probe Confirms That Body Makes Its Own Rotten Egg Gas, H2S, to Benefit Health

A new study confirms directly what scientists previously knew only indirectly: The poisonous "rotten egg" gas hydrogen sulfide is generated by our body's growing cells.

Hydrogen sulfide, or H₂S, is normally toxic, but in small amounts it plays a role in cardiovascular health.

In the new study, chemists developed a chemical probe that reacts and lights up when live human cells generate hydrogen sulfide, says chemist Alexander R. Lippert, Southern Methodist University, Dallas. The discovery allows researchers to observe the process through a microscope.

The researchers captured on video the successful chemical probe at work, said Lippert, an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Chemistry.

"We made a molecular probe that, when it reacts with hydrogen sulfide, forms a fluorescent compound that can be visualized using fluorescence microscopy," Lippert said. "This is the first time that endogenously generated hydrogen sulfide has been directly visualized in a living system. This confirms a lot of hypotheses that scientists have, but no one had the tools to directly detect it in real time."

H₂S is one of several small gaseous molecules increasingly recognized as key signaling molecules in the body. For example, H₂S helps reduce high blood pressure. Scientists discovered in the past decade that cells in the human body generate small quantities of H₂S molecules, which in turn deliver information to proteins. The proteins act on the information to perform critical functions in the body.

Previously, scientists couldn't observe H₂S being generated in live cells. As a result, researchers faced challenges when studying hydrogen sulfide in living systems, Lippert said. The new discovery now provides a tool to view directly how and when hydrogen sulfide is generated, he said. Lippert and study co-author chemist Vivian S. Lin made the discovery.

Discovery provides research tool for scientists to observe H₂S in live cells

"Having the tools to do this in living systems is going to open up a lot of possibilities and experiments for scientists," Lippert said. "As a tool, this will allow researchers to ask questions that weren't possible before."

Lippert's real-time video features live human cells, taken from the lining of blood vessels and treated with the chemical probe and with a protein known to promote cell growth. Once the cells start generating H₂S, they behave like squiggly fluorescent green worms.

The researchers' scientific article, "Cell-trappable fluorescent probes for endogenous hydrogen sulfide signaling and imaging H₂O₂-dependent H₂S production," was published online in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Lippert and Lin authored the research with Christopher J. Chang, principal investigator. Lin is a PhD candidate at the University of California at Berkeley. Chang is with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California at Berkeley. Lippert and Lin carried out the research in Chang's UC Berkeley laboratory.

Discovery can help scientists attack diseases such as cancer

H₂S -- along with nitric oxide, carbon monoxide and others in this emerging class of gaseous signaling molecules -- assists the body's large proteins.

Large proteins do much of the functional work in the body, such as digesting the food we eat and harnessing the energy in the oxygen we breathe. Their size, however, forces them to move slowly inside the cell. In contrast, H₂S and other small gaseous molecules diffuse quickly and easily across cellular membranes, enabling them to travel much faster and rapidly deliver information that mediates critical functions, such as blood pressure regulation, Lippert said.

For their experiments, Lippert and Lin placed living endothelial cells cultured from the internal lining of a blood vessel into a petri dish under a microscope.

Lippert and Lin then added a chemical solution containing an azide-functionalized organic molecule that they'd synthesized to act as a molecular probe. They gave the cells time to absorb the probe, then added a protein solution known to stimulate blood vessel formation. As the cells initiated blood vessel formation, H2S was generated. In reaction, the scientists observed a steady increase in the probe's fluorescence.

"Essentially we're observing the initial events that lead to the building of new blood vessels, a process that's active in babies as they develop, or in women during their menstruation cycles," Lippert said. "We see the cells get really bright as they start moving around and ruffling their membranes. That's the H₂S being formed. In the control group, which weren't stimulated with the growth protein, they don't get any brighter and they don't move around."

The discovery provides new insights that can help scientists attack diseases, such as cancer, by starving the nutrient supply to a tumor, Lippert said.

"When tumors grow they need a lot of blood support because they need the nutrients to support their rapid growth," he said. "If you can stop blood vessel formation you could starve the tumor and the tumor will die. So inhibiting H₂S formation might be a way to treat cancer using this method."

This news is copy originally from : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130618131854.htm

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iPhone 6 release date and news

Apple made the screen bigger last time. Is an even bigger iPhone on the way?

When Apple unveiled the iPhone 5, the reaction was a bit muted: where previous phones were massive leaps forward, the iPhone 5 was a bit longer and a lot easier to scratch.
So what can we expect from the next iPhone, the iPhone 6 or 5S? Let's see what we can glean from the varying sources of the internet - some reliable, some not so much. But when might the iPhone 6 release date even be?
One thing is for sure, with the release of such super handsets as the Samsung Galaxy S4, Sony Xperia Z and HTC One, the next iPhone will have to seriously up its game

iPhone 6 and the iPhone 5S are two different phones

The rumour mill doesn't seem too sure whether the next iPhone is going to be the iPhone 5S or the iPhone 6. Given the iPhone's history - from the 3G onwards, there's always been a half-step S model before the next numbered iPhone - we'd bet on an iPhone 5S first and an iPhone 6 a while later.
However, in May 2013 Stuff reported it received a photo of the till system at a Vodafone UK store (which it has since removed along with the reference to Vodafone), with '4G iPhone 6' listed. Interesting.
It's been suggested that there could even be three size variants of the new iPhone - check out these mocked up images by artist Peter Zigich. He calls the handsets iPhone 6 Mini, iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 XL.
Could we see both an iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 this year? Some reports suggest a new 5S in the middle part of the year before a revamped iPhone 6 towards the end of the year or very early in 2014.

 

iPhone 6 release date

Many pundits predict a summer iPhone 6 release date. It's quite likely that Apple is moving to a two-phones-per-year upgrade cycle, but we'd bet on a springtime 5S model and a bigger, iPhone 6, update in the Autumn, probably September.
Digitimes reckons predicts a summertime reveal for Apple's next generation phones, which again fits with a WWDC unveiling. In May it became clear that US carrier Verizon introduced an iPhone 5 price cut of as much as $100 USD.
Reports in April also suggested that Foxconn has added as many as 10,000 assembly line workers per week to its Zhengzhou plant as it readies itself for the iPhone 6 release date.
But Jefferies analyst Peter Misek reckons we'll see an iPhone 5S first, with a June 2014 release for the iPhone 6. Citi's Glen Yeung also believes that we won't see an iPhone 6 or cheap iPhone until 2014.

 

iPhone 6 casing

Multiple rumours say Apple's working on plastic cases for its next iPhone, mixing plastic and metal in such a way that "the internal metal parts [are] able to be seen from outside through special design." Could these images from Apple.pro be a new iPhone 6 complete with plastic casing? The cynic inside us says no, but you never know...
It's unclear whether such cases would be for the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6, or if Apple is simply considering making cheaper iPhone 4s to sell when the iPhone 3GS reaches the end of its life.
Speaking in March 2013, a KGI analyst said it believed Apple would turn to manufacturer Pegatron to make up to 75 per cent of low cost iPhone products. Indeed, rumours in early June 2013 pointed at a $399 price point for the cheap iPhone 6.

Pretty, yes, but also horrifically scratch-prone. Will your next iPhone have a plastic back?

The iPhone 6 will finally do NFC

That's what iDownloadblog reckons, quoting Jefferies analyst Peter Misek: it'll have a better battery too, he says. Many Android phones now boast NFC.
PayPal's chief information security officer, Michael Barrett said this during a recent keynote speech: "There is going to be a fingerprint enabled phone on the market later this year," he said. "Not just one, multiple."

Could this be inside the iPhone 6?

The iPhone 6 will run iOS 7

iOS 7 has been announced at WWDC 2013. It's a radical overhaul of the OS, especially in terms of the design which has fundamentally changed and is far flatter and more Android-like. There are rounded icons, striking colours and a stark font. There are new features, of course, such as Control Center, AirDrop and iTunes Radio.
We're expecting a September or October release date for iOS 7 in line with previous releases.

 

iPhone 6 storage

We've already seen a 128GB iPad, so why not a 128GB iPhone 6? Yes, it'll cost a fortune, but high-spending early adopters love this stuff.

iPhone 6 home button

According to Business Insider, of the many iPhone 6 prototypes Apple has made, one has a giant Retina+ IGZO display and a "new form factor with no home button. Gesture control is also possibly included" - more on that shortly. Mind you, it was mooted that Apple would dump the home button in time for iPhone 5, but it never happened.

iPhone 6 screen

The Retina+ Sharp IGZO display, would have a 1080p Full HD resolution. It's also been widely reported that Apple could introduce two handset sizes as it seeks to compete with the plethora of Android devices now on the market.
Take this one with a pinch of salt, because China Times isn't always right: it reckons the codename iPhone Math, which may be a mistranslation of iPhone+, will have a 4.8-inch display. The same report suggests that Apple will release multiple handsets throughout the year over and above the iPhone 5S and 6, which seems a bit far-fetched to us.
Patents show that Apple has been thinking about magical morphing technology that can hide sensors and even cameras. Will it make it into the iPhone 6? Probably not.
Could the touch screen even be transparent? Emirates 24/7 sin't the first source we'd turn to for bone fide rumours about a new smartphone, but it claims that an ultra-sensitive transparent touchscreen will make it into iPhone 6. The site also believes the display will be made by Sharp, which wouldn't be so surprising. One thing's for sure - a potential wraparound screen is probably a pipedream.
Jefferies analyst Peter Misek also says he believes the new iPhone will have a bigger screen. Different sizes also seem rather likely to us - the word on the street after WWDC 2013 was that there would be 4.7 and 5.7-inch versions.

 

iPhone 6 processor

Not a huge surprise, this one: the current processor is a dual-core A6, and the next one will be a quad-core A7. The big sell here is more power with better efficiency, which should help battery life.
Expect to see it in the 2013 iPad first, and expect to see an improved A6 processor, the A6X, in the iPhone 5S.

iPhone 6 camera

Apple's bought camera sensors from Sony before, and this year we're going to see a new, 13-megapixel sensor that takes up less room without compromising image quality.
An Apple patent, uncovered by Apple Insider in May 2013, shows a system where an iPhone can remotely control other illuminating devices - extra flashes. It would work in a similar manner to that seen in professional photography studios. Interesting stuff.

iPhone 6 eye tracking

One thing seems certain - Apple can't ignore the massive movement towards eye-tracking tech from other vendors, especially Samsung. It seems a shoe-in that Apple will deliver some kind of motion tech within the next iPhone, probably from uMoove.

The new iPhone will have better 4G LTE

On its UK launch, just one UK network had 4G LTE: Everything Everywhere, which currently offers 4G on the 1800MHz band. In 2013, all the other big names will be coming on board, offering 4G in other frequency bands. International iPhones already work across different 4G bands to the UK, so you can expect the UK iPhone 6 (and possibly the iPhone 5S) to be more promiscuous than the iPhone 5.
By the time the iPhone 6 emerges, iOS devices should also have "nonclassified communication approval" status from the US FCC, which means they won't need to go through a lengthy approval process.

iPhone 6 Wi-Fi may be 802.11ac

Apple likes to lead Wi-Fi standards adoption - its Airport really helped make Wi-Fi mainstream - and there's a good chance we'll see ultra-fast 802.11ac Wi-Fi in Apple kit this year. It's faster than Lighting, and not very frightening.

iPhone 6 wireless charging

Wireless charging still isn't mainstream. Could Apple help give it a push? CP Tech reports that Apple has filed a patent for efficient wireless charging, but then again Apple has filed patents for pretty much anything imaginable.
The tasty bit of this particular patent is that Apple's tech wouldn't just charge one device, but multiple ones. Here are more details on the iPhone 6 wireless charging patent.
Meanwhile, a further Apple patent seems to imply that future iPhones will be able to adjust volume as you move them away from your ear.
And could the iPhone 6 really have 3D? It's unlikely, but the rumours keep on coming.

This News is copy from http://www.techradar.com
the orginal links of this news is http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/iphone-6-release-date-news-and-rumours-1099865

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Get free Payoneer Master Card in Nepal

In Nepal and other Asian Countries of withdraw our money from online is very hard.

There are so many problem to withdraw money from nepal. PayPal do not support Nepal and many other Asian Countries and payza not give payza card in nepal and suspend our account. we can’t get any solution for withdraw payment online But today i am happy to tell you that I had found a solution of this permanent problem. And You can now withdraw money with the help of Prepaid MasterCard in Nepal. I want to give idea to got free master card with free get $25 in nepal with in one month with very easy steps. There are so many master card but Payoneer master card is best all of them because it will give you US bank account free so you can easyly verify you paypal account with this bank account so lets know about payoneer.

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Payoneer Prepaid Master Card is the best payout solution for the online workers. Payoneer offers us a better way for to receive and access our money. Some of the benefits of Payoneer Prepaid Master Card are as following

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Then active your Card according to given information  and got free $25 with this master card. Thank you !

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Scientists make 'bug-eye' camera

A digital camera that functions like an insect's compound eye is reported in the journal Nature this week.
It comprises an array of 180 small lenses, which, along with their associated electronics, are stretched across a curved mounting.

The prototype currently has few pixels, so its images are low-resolution.

But the device displays an immense depth of field, and a very wide-angle view that avoids the distortion seen in standard camera lenses.

The development team, led from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US, believes its new imaging system could eventually find uses in surveillance and for endoscopic investigations of the human body.

In their report, the researchers also suggest such cameras could be fitted to tiny aerial vehicles one day that behaved like robotic insects.

At the moment, the "bug-eye" system's vision is comparable to that enjoyed by some ants and beetles.

The expectation, however, is that the array can be greatly enlarged.

"The compound design of the fly's eye incorporates perhaps 28,000 small eyes, or ommatidia," explained team-member Dr Jianliang Xiao from the University of Colorado at Boulder, US. "That's the direction we want to move in," he told BBC News.

In an insect, each ommatidium in the compound eye has a corneal lens, a crystalline cone and a light-sensitive organ at its base. The ommatidia work in unison to build a picture of the world.

In the artificial version, microlenses sit above photodetectors and other electronics, and software stitches together the individual signals.

This whole arrangement is fabricated flat and then moulded to a hemispherical shape to give a 160-degree view. The latest generation of stretchable electronics was key to achieving the desired geometry.

Scientists are keen to exploit the advantages of compound eyes.

For one, they show remarkable depth of field - they can focus on objects at different distances at the same time. They also do not suffer from the aberrations seen in single lens systems when viewing off-axis objects. A good example is the huge distortion observed in wide-angle camera lenses such as the fish-eye.

For an insect, their compound system capabilities make them very sensitive to movement.

"Our system could eventually be used in surveillance cameras. One device of this kind could see 180 degrees. If you had two, you could then conceivably see the whole field of view," said Dr Xiao.

Alexander Borst and Johannes Plett are from the Max-Planck-Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried, Germany. They are not connected with the research but speculated for Nature on other possible future applications.

"Picture the following: a palm-sized micro aerial vehicle uses an artificial faceted eye to navigate autonomously through a collapsed building while other sensors onboard scan the environment for smoke, radioactivity or even people trapped beneath rubble and debris,"
This News is copy from bbc technology news 1 May 2013 
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Facebook grows up

Facebook's results last night painted a somewhat mixed picture - advertising revenues growing, with mobile really taking off, but profits lower than analysts had forecast.
One thing was, however, clear. This company is growing in all sorts of ways, and with that comes growing pains.

After all those anecdotal reports that "none of my friends use it anymore", and various research firms hinting at falling user figures, the hard numbers say Facebook is still expanding. Monthly active users rose to 1.1 billion, meaning 100 million new users had arrived in the last six months.

Now many of them will be in developing countries - after all so many people have already joined in places like the US and UK that Facebook is reaching saturation point. But the company insists, that contrary to reports, it is still growing in both of those countries.

In the UK, user numbers hit 33 million in December, and I'm told there has been a modest increase since then. In the US, there has also been a rise from December's 174 million monthly users, though it looks like the growth story there is nearing its end.

There has been a decline in use of the network on the desktop but that was more than made up for by the growth in mobile use, where advertising returns have proved higher. And that rapid transformation of the firm into a mobile advertising business will be the most encouraging aspect of the figures for anyone who was brave enough to buy Facebook shares at their sky-high IPO valuation last year.

Mind you, there's growth too in the cost of running the business, as more staff are taken on. The UK operation is among those expanding rapidly, as I found out this week when I met the engineer in charge of one of the firm's most important ventures, Graph Search.

Lars Rasmussen has moved to London to head up an expanded engineering operation, and he is in the process of recruiting another couple of dozen people to work mainly on the search project. (How easy that process proves will be an interesting test of the computer science skills available in the UK.)

Each of the recruits will then spend four to six weeks at a boot camp in California, learning how Facebook writes code and attending lectures by its top executives.

That sounds like an expensive process and a contrast to the early days of a business where Mark Zuckerberg just called up a few friends for all-night coding sessions fuelled by pizza.

But if the London team can then help take Graph Search to the next stage, where users will be able to comb the network's newsfeed for all kinds of information, then it will have been a worthwhile investment. So far, Facebook's limited search bar has not done anything to worry its rivals. But if it becomes a conduit to breaking news, then the likes of Twitter may have to sit up and take notice.

Like an awkward teenager, however, Facebook is finding that growing up can be painful. Yesterday's story about its refusal to remove horrifying decapitation videos, followed by a rapid U-turn, is a case in point.

Like so many other web giants, Facebook just wants to be seen as a technology platform enabling its users to do all sorts of cool stuff without any interference. But it has grown into a massive media player, where more than a billion people - many of them under 18 - come in search of entertainment.

That means a constant spotlight is being shone on the firm's policies, with parents and regulators increasingly worried about an environment where young people now spend so much time. Welcome to adulthood, Mr Zuckerberg.
This News is copy from bbc technology news 2 May 2013 

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