Nexus 5 vs iPhone 6: is an old Nexus better than a new iPhone? ~ Hi-Tech Talk

Nexus 5 vs iPhone 6: is an old Nexus better than a new iPhone? ~ Hi-Tech Talk

Nexus 5 vs iPhone 6: is an old Nexus better than a new iPhone? ~ Hi-Tech Talk

12:04 PM

DNA The Future Of Storage: How to store a Movie onto DNA?

There was a day in history , were Bill Gates Said

640K is more memory than anyone will ever need

Did Bill Gates really said this is a topic of debate.  Now the amount of data and information generating in each second is enormous. 

Where we are storing all these data ?

How long we can store all data ?  And there are many more questions to answer. The cost, security, ease of duplication, space and resources required.

DNA The future of Data Storage 

Now in the changing world with free thinkers thinks that

There is always a way to do it better

Our nature has the answer for all our problems. Replicating the nature in a usable way is a mammoth task.

Do you ever dreamed about storing all your data in a pin point?

In this post we are discussing about something similar.

Think about a world were all the information in the internet stored in drop of liquid !
Billions of copies of the same can be made in a minute !
And what if all the information would be safe not just for your lifetime but for millions of lifetimes?

Do you think I am crazy?

To Harvard genetic professor Dr. George Church, its sounds like  the future.

Now, Church is focused on doing something no other scientist has succeeded in doing: coding a film onto tiny strands of DNA

Preface

In 1984 Dr. Walter Gilbert, who was the Mentor of Dr. Church at Harvard, published the first genome sequencing method.  This is not the first time Dr.Church trying to store information in DNA. In October 2012, Church succeeded in coding 20 million copies of his book, "Regenesis", on to DNA. Carefully converting each letter of  his book in to the alphabet of DNA.

He debuted this achievement on the Colbert Report, handing Stephen Colbert a slip of paper on which the millions of copies were contained in a tiny drop of liquid

I’ve been trying to read and write nucleic acids since I was a teenager

After the success of his book Church decided to take his research to next level

Coding Movie On To DNA

First movie to encoded in DNA is a 1902 French silent Film, "A Trip to the Moon ". This movie considered to be the first-ever science fiction film. This project is funded by film industry giant Technicolor.

A Trip to the moon will be the first movie ever coded in to DNA

How They Are Doing It ?

 The DNA that the team using  will be different from that found in living organisms. We can call it as an "Unnatural DNA", which is denser and more robust to store more information. The process of coding movie to DNA is a very complicated process. But it is something similar to the digitization process.

The first step is  the conversion of each pixels in the movie image in to a binary code based on the color. Based on the color it looks like 110010. This binary code in then converted into the chemical base Adenine(A), Guanine(G), Cytosine(C), Thymine(T). The same method will be used for the audio track as well.

After producing all these DNA stands with information, each stands will index with a chemical label. This index provides the information about the  position of the pixel or a sound in the movie. With special computer program such millions of  DNA strands can be arranged to crate the movie. All the movie stored in micro size. Millions of copies can be created with ease and fast.

Now  the question is to watch the movie. To watch the movie , all we need something to read the DNA and encode the movie- a DNA sequensor and a computer.

It’s a baby technology,We don’t want people to get expectations too high.

Future of This Technology 

Don't think that this technology will replace your DVD player soon. Its value in near future lies in archiving.  As we discussed at the beginning, storing data for a long time is a risky task. Now archived data kept on magnetic tapes in robotic libraries must be backed up every four years or so. It is a time consuming and risky copying practice.

We’ve been exponentially storing more and more data on devices that are fragile, Any company that is doing archiving is worried. They are worried that they will be the one that finally messes something up

 One day all our data can be stored in DNA in small vial and can make millions of copies of the same data very easily.  The storage space requirement for this is very minimal. Although other scientist are working with Synthetic polymers and fuses quarts crystals , Church is convinced that DNA is the solution to the world's archiving problem.

Conclusion

In addition to its miniscule size, DNA lasts for up to 700,000 years without proper storage. With proper storage, it can endure for millions. Therefore, information stored on DNA would not have to be re-saved every few years like current data storage methods require.

Billions of copies can be reproduced quickly and cheaply.

There is no other polymer that would be a priori cheaper to manufacture or easier to program than DNA

The cost of encoding Church's book to DNA was estimated around $1000 and decoding cost was around $1000.  The cost of DNA technology is dropping rapidly according to National Human Genome Research Institute.

For Church, DNA storage is a little science with big possibilities.

Sharing is caring.. Don't forgot to share the post 
Leave your comment and suggestions...

DNA The Future Of Storage: How to store a Movie onto DNA?

10:54 PM Data, DNA storage, featured, Storage

Google Is Alphabet OR Alphabet is Google ?

New Company Alphabet From Goolge!

I am not sure, What I have to describe this new initiative.

Alphabet From Google : Now Google is Alphabet , Image : Alphabet

Is it a new initiate from Google Or Alphabet?

Is Alphabet is Google or Google is Alphabet?

  

Google is not a conventional company. We do not indent  to be one.

As on date Google is the company and they were ruling, but now Google is a part of Alphabet.
Alphabet is a group of company, and Google is a part of it among many other company.

We did a lot of things that seemed crazy at the time. Many of those crazy things now have over a billion users, like Google Maps, YouTube, Chrome, and Android. And we haven’t stopped there. We are still trying to do things other people think are crazy but we are super excited about.

At this point of time Google is a well performing company. Larry and Sergey took the decision to open a new company Alphabet. Larry as CEO and Sergey as President.

Our company is operating well today, but we think we can make it cleaner and more accountable. So we are creating a new company, called Alphabet. I am really excited to be running Alphabet as CEO with help from my capable partner, Sergey, as President  

What is Alphabet?

Alphabet is nothing but abc.xyz

Aphabet is a collection of companies. Google is a part of Aphabet. Google will be the biggest company in alphabet but the new Google is little slimmed down.
Sundar Pichai Will be the new CEO of Google.

Sundar Pichai New CEO of Google :Image Google

Sundar has been saying the things I would have said (and sometimes better!) for quite some time now, and I’ve been tremendously enjoying our work together

As explained by Larry in his opening letter, Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies, with companies that are far afield from the main internet products. He has given example of afield companies like new efforts towards health; life science like  glucose sensing contact lense , Calcio focused on longevity.


The basic idea of Alphabet is about business prospering through strong leaders and independence.  In simple word all small companies will run under strong CEO's  under the strong guidance from Larry and Sergey.

This new structure will allow us to keep tremendous focus on the extraordinary opportunities we have inside of Google

Related Read: How Smartphones revolutionize health care science

Alphabet Inc. Will Replace Google Inc. 

All shares and publicly traded entity of Google Inc. will automatically converted in to the same number of shares of Alphabet Inc. The two class of shares continue to trade in Nasdaq as GOOGL and GOOG.

We are excited about…

• Getting more ambitious things done.

• Taking the long-term view.

• Empowering great entrepreneurs and companies to flourish.

• Investing at the scale of the opportunities and resources we see.

• Improving the transparency and oversight of what we’re doing.

• Making Google even better through greater focus.

• And hopefully… as a result of all this, improving the lives of as many people as we can

Conclusion :Google Subsidiaries Companies 

Google has done nearly 182 acquisitions and mergers from 2001 to July 2015, the last being Pixate  from USA for material design. Due to this new development may of Google acquired companies and subsidiary companies will get more freedom and focus.

To see the list of Google subsidiaries and Wiki about Google acquisitions and mergers .

The main advantage of Google with the formation of Alphabet is, they can increase focus on subsidiaries. 

As Larry mentioned, Google is all about crazy ideas, If any of their crazy idea fails , it will not effect much on Google. They can go ahead with some minor consequences of the failures.

Now it will take long time for us to call Google as Alphabet. We have to wait how the new products names will come up. The android by Google or Alphabet,  Google glass or Alphabet glass. Nexus from Google or Alphabet.

Looking at the logo of Alphabet, one thing is very clear, Alphabet is really looking for a matured look than the crazy Google. But it is not quite true. The domain address of Alphabet is quite crazy. abc.xyz is really attractive and very innovative.

Now in Alphabet. we have 

Is For Google

Image :Alphabet

Google Is Alphabet OR Alphabet is Google ?

2:53 PM Alphabet, featured, Google

The Link between Gut Microbes Antibiotics And Obesity

Today I will tell you a story; the relation between the microbes in your stomach and obesity.

As usual, this story also has a hero, heroin and a villain. Your stomach, microbes in your gut and antibiotics leads the role respectively.  

How come the antibiotic a villain?

The Link Between Antibiotics And Obesity

To know more about it, you have to read this story to the very end.

The story starts long years ago, in the era of Antony van Leeuwenhoek, who commonly known as ‘the father of microbiology’.  He did improvements in microscope and initiated the study of microbes- microbiology.  And Antony van Leeuwenhoek becomes our first microbiologist. On September 17, 1683, describing “very little animalcules, very prettily a-moving,” which he had seen under a microscope in plaque scraped from his teeth. For more than three centuries after van Leeuwenhoek's observation, 2012 The Human Microbiome Project (HMP) established.

We will have a look at how the relation is building up between our lovers; stomach and microbes.

A Flashback: The school days

The extensive studies shows, the number of Bacteria in an average human body is ten times more than human cells. A total of about 1000 more genes present than in the human genome. Because of their small size, however, microorganisms make up only about 1 to 3 percent of our body mass (that's 2 to 6 pounds of bacteria in a 200-pound adult). These microbes are generally not harmful to us; in fact they are essential for maintaining health. They produce some vitamins which we have no genetic code, some microbes digest our food to extract nutrients which we need to survive, teach our immune systems how to recognize dangerous invaders and even produce helpful anti-inflammatory compounds that fight off other disease-causing microbes.

                      Total Microbiota in human  can weigh up to 2 kg

Gut flora or gut microbiota consist of complex community of microorganisms species that lives in digestive tracts of animals. Bacteria make up most of the flora. Somewhere around 300 to 1000 different species liven in the stomach. Research suggests that the relationship between gut flora and humans is not merely commensal (a non-harmful coexistence), but rather a mutualistic relationship.

Though people can survive without gut flora, the microorganisms perform a host of useful functions, such as fermenting unused energy substrates, training the immune system, preventing growth of harmful, pathogenic bacteria,  producing vitamins for the host, such as biotin and vitamin K, and producing hormones to direct the host to store fats. In return, these microorganisms procure within the host a protected, nutrient-rich environment in which they can thrive. However, in certain conditions, some species are thought to be capable of causing disease by producing infection or increasing cancer risk for the host.

The Relation between Gut Microbiota and Obesity

In my previous post Obesity linked to exposure to Artificial light  we discussed how the over exposure to artificial light leads to obesity. Now we will study the role of microbes.

An early hint that gut microbes might play a role in obesity came from studies comparing intestinal bacteria in obese and lean individuals. In studies of twins who were both lean or both obese, researchers found that the gut community in lean people was like a rain forest brimming with many species but that the community in obese people was less diverse—more like a nutrient-overloaded pond where relatively few species dominate. Lean individuals, for example, tended to have a wider variety of Bacteroidetes, a large tribe of microbes that specialize in breaking down bulky plant starches and fibers into shorter molecules that the body can use as a source of energy.

 The composition of gut microbiota is unique to each individual, just like our fingerprints

Differences in the gut Microbiome exist between obese and lean human. Relative composition of Microbiome at the early life predicts the subsequent development of overweight and obesity.  In a comparison, of obese children and normal-weight children, bifidobacterial numbers during infancy were significantly higher in children remaining at a normal weight at age 7 years, whereas significantly greater numbers of Staphylococcus aureus in infancy were detected in children who subsequently became overweight.

The entry of Antihero: Use of Antibiotics

Now the point is clear that the diversity of the gut Microbiome is very important for a healthy body. From here we will try to identify the relation between obesity and the use of antibiotics.

The rate of Antibiotic Usage in US a state wise comparison : Source CDC

State wise Obesity rate in US . Source:Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System :CDC

 Different antimicrobial agents can influence the normal gut microbiota in different ways. The extent of the antibiotic induced alterations in the microbiota depends on several factors: i) the spectrum of the agent, ii) dosage and duration of treatment, iii) route of administration and iv) the pharmacokinetic and pharmaco dynamic properties of the agent. For example, secretion of an antibiotic by intestinal mucosa, bile or salivary glands may subsequently interfere with the normal microbiota at different sites. Other side effects of some antibiotics on the human host include disturbance of the metabolism and absorption of vitamins, alteration of susceptibility to infections and overgrowth of yeast and/or Clostridium.

Research reports on effect of different Antibiotics on Gut Microbiota :Hitectac

Several antibiotics are specifically active against anaerobic bacteria that dominate in the human intestinal microbiota. They play an important role in maintaining a healthy gut, such as producing extensive amounts of volatile fatty acids. Therefore, treatment with antibiotics that select against important groups of anaerobic bacteria can have substantial consequences for the resultant functional stability of the microbiota. One example is clindamycin, a relatively broad-spectrum antibiotic that primarily targets anaerobic bacteria.

 More than 1,000 different known bacterial species can be found in human gut microbiota, but only 150 to 170 predominate in any given subject

Clindamycin has been shown to have a large negative impact on the intestinal microbiota as seen by reduced resistance to colonization by pathogens, leading to a high risk for pseudomembranous colitis due to C. difficile overgrowth. C. difficile is commonly isolated in low numbers from healthy individuals, but may increase in number as a consequence of antibiotic-induced disturbances, in particular following suppression of the normal beneficial members of the anaerobic microbiota. Gastritis and diarrhoea are other recorded clindamycin-induced effects on the intestinal flora and disturbances of normal bowel function can lead to symptoms such as bloating and intestinal pain

Antibiotics linked to childhood obesity

Young children who are given repeated courses of antibiotics are at greater risk than those who use fewer drugs of becoming obese, US researchers say.

There is a correlation observed that , the children had four or more course of antibiotics by the age of 2 were at 10% more high risk of being obese. Even though the direct correlation of antibiotics and obesity is not completely understood, but indirectly it is true. The studies already proved that the high use of antibiotics will alter the gut biome.

US researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Bloomberg School of Public Health reviewed the health records of more than 64,500 American children between 2001 and 2013.

The children were followed up until they reached five years of age.

Almost 70% of them had been prescribed two courses of antibiotics by the time they were 24 months old.

Do You Know : Drinking Cold Water Will Helps to reduce Obesity'

But those who had four or more courses in this time were at a 10% higher risk of being obese at the age of five than children who had been given fewer drugs.

And the type of antibiotics they were prescribed appeared to make a difference too - those given drugs targeted at a particular bug were less likely to put on weight.

But those given a broad-spectrum antibiotic - that can kill several types of bacteria indiscriminately - were more likely to have a higher body mass.

Prof Charles Bailey at the University of Pennsylvania, said: "We think after antibiotics some of the normal bacteria in our gut that are more efficient at nudging our weight in the right direction may be killed off and bacteria that nudge the metabolism in the wrong direction may be more active."

A couple of years ago I read a research paper on the topic “ Impact of the Gut Microbiota on the Development ofObesity: Current Concepts”  published in Nature. This will be a good read to have some scientific information.

Conclusion

Now we are at the end of our story. Yes this is just a story, just to initiate a thought on your mind. I was trying to spark the link between overuse of antibiotics- directly and through livestock’s- is dangerously changing our gut microbiota. And this microbiota is very essential for our body balance in many ways. 

Generic or broad-spectrum antibiotics are not our friend. Antibiotic usage at infant stage will increase the risk of obesity at later sate. As everyone says “What you are is what you eat”.

The story ends here with a question to you.

Do you know what are prebiotics and probiotics?How prebiotics and Probiotics help you to maintain good health?

Share your answer with us so our microbiota thrives in our gut and make us healthy.

Have a good day… don’t forget to press share buttons below J

The Link between Gut Microbes Antibiotics And Obesity

8:55 PM antibiotics, featured, great, health, Medicine, obesity

Smartphones your future smart healthcare device will be an alternate for hospitals

Over the past decade, smartphones have radically changed many aspects of our everyday lives, from banking to shopping to entertainment. Medicine is next. With innovative digital technologies, cloud computing and machine learning, the medicalized smartphone is going to upend every aspect of health care. And the end result will be that you, the patient, are about to take center stage for the first time.

Continuous health monitoring requires hospitalization, which can become expensive and inconvenient choice for patient. The days are not far, the smartphones become our hospital with all sophisticated health monitoring systems. 

Imagine the days, where your smartphones continuously monitor your heart rates, blood pressure level, blood glucose level, stress level and sending reports to our doctor. The researchers are already gone far in this aspect. 

We have seen many patent applications from different smartphone manufactures on healthcare applications and technologies. The recent one is Body fat measurement techniques by Samsung. 

In this post, I will share some developments in smartphones towards health care. Initially I though it is an easy task. But when I initiated my research, I found the topic is so deep and very vast. This clearly indicates we are nearing towards an unimaginable world. 

To start with we will have some snap view on the new patent submitted by Samsung. 

Measuring body fat using smartphone

Samsung is coming up with new smartphone sensors to measure electrical impedance of your body fat level. The related applications use this data from sensors to calculate body fat level. The process is very simple. All you have to do is grab your phone in your hand like in the picture. The process is simple and very cheap and no need to wait for the results. 

Samsung Body fat measuring sensors for smart phones Image :WIPO

Another remarkable patent application is from the google

Googles wearable to zap cancer

Google's plans for a wearable that would zap harmful particles in the body are shaping up. In a recently issued patent application, Google provided details on a novel medical that would involve sending tiny magnetic particles into patients' bloodstreams. The magnetic particles, activated by a smart wristband, would attack cancer cells and pathogens linked to other diseases. 

Google's plan of new wearable to treat cancer by using magnetic particles. Image :appft.uspto.gov

There are plenty of applications and wearable available. This will work with any of the smartphone in a very simple way. How to choose wearable and applications is one important task to get accurate information. 

As of now the phone-based health sensors aren’t entirely accurate. But the data accuracy is not very far from reality. 

How the Biosensors will change our life?

What are biosensors?

“A device that uses a living organism or biological molecules, especially enzymes or antibodies, to detect the presence of chemicals or impulses” 

Any change in the body will results in a chemical or electrical change. Each imbalance in our body can be detected by identifying this level of change. This is the basic principle of Biosensors. (Read more about biosensors, read about biosensor products,) 

Now our main topic of discussion is about wearable biosensors and how they are going to change our life.

Wearable Biosensors Future perspective

Different types of wearable biosensors going to change the health care in the future

Imagine the day we are equipped with biosensors, which are continuously monitoring our health condition. The abrupt variation in our heart rate or our blood pressure will immediately texted to our physician. Detected the change in glucose level by nano sensors in our blood stream and sending necessary direction to kitchen. Monitoring our voice, retinal contractions, and online communication patterns and predicting our physiological situation.  All these are very simple and possible future of our life. 

New apps aim to quantify your state of mind by a composite of real-time data: tone and inflection of voice, facial expression, breathing pattern, heart rate, galvanic skin response, blood pressure, even the frequency and content of your emails and texts. 

Now there are researches at force to develop ingestible biosensors, which will run inside our blood stream. This type of sensors can monitor our blood on real time to generate reports on various conditions and communicate to related application. 

Suggested Read :  Mind-Reading Program Translates Thoughts Into Text

Recently I read about a biosensor named Abstar® by Gi-Logics for gastroenterology. Acoustic Gastro-Intestinal Surveillance (AGIS) biosensor monitors human digestion using acoustic signals, filling an unmet need in postoperative care and potentially saving significant time and money for patients and hospitals alike. 

NCBI recently published a report on a pilot research on real time mobile detection of drug use with wearable biosensors. Reliable detection of illicit drug use is paramount to the field of addiction, current methods involving self-report and urine drug screens have substantial limitations that hinder their utility. Wearable biosensors may fill a void by providing valuable objective data regarding the timing and contexts of drug use. A portable biosensor was placed on the inner wrist of each subject, to continuously measure electrodermal activity (EDA), skin temperature, and acceleration. Data were continuously recorded for at least 5 min prior to drug administration, during administration, and for at least 30 min afterward. Overall trends in biophysiometric parameters were assessed. Injection of opioids and cocaine use were associated with rises in EDA. Cocaine injection was also associated with a decrease in skin temperature. Opioid tolerance appeared to be associated with a blunted physiologic response as measured by the biosensor. Laterality may be an important factor, as magnitude of response varied between dominant and nondominant wrists in a single patient with bilateral wrist measurements. Changes in EDA and skin temperature are temporally associated with intravenous administration of opioids and cocaine; the intensity of response, however, may vary depending on history and extent of prior use. 

The HealthPatch® family of biosensors is capable of capturing clinical-grade biometric measurements in a continuous, configurable and non-obtrusive manner using a small yet powerful patch worn on the chest. The HealthPatch biosensors have a unique set of features that enable an array of possibilities for their use like Single-Lead ECG, Heart Rate, Heart Rate Variability, Respiratory Rate, Skin Temperature, Body Posture including Fall Detection/Severity, Steps. 

Another biosensor called Helius® by Proteus is an ingestible biosensor which can be swallowed. The sensor get activated by stomach acid. Then it starts transmit signal wirelessly back to the smartphones. It monitors several factors like body posture, temperature, respiration, sleeping patterns and heart rate. 

Nanobiosym™ (NBS) is an innovative technology, engineering and biomedicine company who has introduced Gene-RADAR®, a tablet sized device that may revolutionize disease diagnosis. Through your genetic fingerprint, via a drop of blood or saliva, Gene-RADAR is able to diagnose various diseases and conditions. A real-time diagnosis at a price point, makers claim are 10 to 100 times cheaper than conventional tests.

Gene-RADAR -A tablet size equipment which can diagnosis many medical conditions fro a drop of blood or saliva 

JoyWing recently launched a gadget named Wishbone, its contact-free thermometer. Named for its “Y” shape, the smart device plugs into smartphone jacks and contains an infrared sensor that takes temperature readings in under two seconds from skin that’s less than five centimeters away.

WishBone is a 'Y'Shapped gadget which can connect to any smartphone to read temperature data . Image @Wishbone

The accompanying iPhone or Android app collects the data and can assign it to different profiles. This makes it easy to track your temperature, which is useful for sick children or women trying to conceive. According to JoyWing, the thermometer’s sensors work between 32 and 212 degrees Fahrenheit with an accuracy to plus or minus 0.36 degrees for body temperatures.

Infrared sensors of WishBone enables it to capture 'touch free' measurement of temperature. Image @WishBone

The Hexoskin Arctic biometric smart shirt is more or less a wearable precision lab, where it will offer its users with lab-quality metrics when performance truly matters. There will be a tiny Bluetooth device that will be connected to the fabric sensors, where it is placed in the shirt’s built-in side pocket during activity and sleep. The shirt will be extremely light, warm, comfortable, and users will be well equipped with measurements that they simply are unable to receive from regular fitness trackers.

Hexoskin is equipped with different sensors which can accurately measure our health conditions : Image @Hexoskin

                           

Mayo Clinic and Gentag, Inc. has signed a joint intellectual property (IP) agreement to develop the next generation of wearable biosensors designed to fight obesity and diabetes. Together, both parties plan to create a wireless, disposable wearable patch sensor about the size of a small bandage that communicates via a closed-loop diabetes management platform integrated with your smart phone. The integrated system will allow researchers to monitor movement and develop treatments for diabetes, obesity and related conditions. Suggested Read :  Bionic lens promises SUPERHUMAN sight three times better 

Tribogenics, Develops Smart Phone Sized Portable X-ray Machines which can be a gadget to capture X-ray of our body at home and process and share with your health care taker. 

Tribogenics chief scientist, Carlos Camara, and the firm's miniature X-ray source. This device one day enable us to capture X-ray using our smartphones : Image @Tribogenics

                                

Similar kinds of miniature medical imaging devices are under development and some are in experimental use. These miniature devices help you to generate medical report at your home and share with your health care unit at the flip of your finger tip.

Now wearable gadgets which read and process our brain waves are getting popular. Mind controlled gadgets will allow us to send command and instructions to various terminals. They can convert our thoughts in to text or we can chat with our desired person just by thinking. The same device can act to monitor our behaviors and brain action to detect and warn us about the variation.

Suggested readings >>neurogadget

Virtual Humans and Human Behaviors

Virtual humans (VHs) that can develop intimacy with people are now becoming reality. Researchers have successfully incorporated social skills (e.g., active listening, mimicry, gestures) into VH systems

Users’ experiences can be better standardized with VHs than with human beings. VHs can also provide a ‘‘safe’’ environment, which could encourage learning or honest disclosure of important information.

The healthcare field, in particular, may benefit from this latter potential advantage of VHs: honest disclosure. Failure to provide fully honest responses in medical interviews can result in serious consequences for patient health. Therefore, much research has considered how to gain more detailed and honest medical histories, especially sensitive information, from patients.

We argue that VHs could be used to reduce these psychological barriers to honest responding (i.e., fear of self-disclosure, impression management). Additionally, VH-interviewers could lead patients to behave more openly in a clinical interview context.

In an article about Virtual Human doctor they mentioned the difference in people behavior with VHs. The results showed that people disclosed information more honestly and openly when they were told they were speaking exclusively to the computer. The participants also "reported significantly lower fear of self-disclosure" under those circumstances.

Interview with virtual human interviewer. In this study, all participants interacted with a virtual human during a semi-structured interview. Interviewees were told, by random assignment, either that the virtual human interviewer was teleo-operated by a human (like a puppet) or that it was fully-automated. @ science direct computers in human behavior

Conclusion

I know what I mentioned here is only the tip of an ice berg. This part of the research is growing rapidly and gaining more popularity. The world is very near, where the expensive medical devices are going out of hospitals. The world is getting smaller and smarter. The micro medical devices, nano biosensors, wearable sensors are going to rule the world.

The virtual doctors and health care applications are going to revolutionize the health care industry. Interestingly, all medical manufacturing companies are doing researches on developing miniature and portable devices. In future we will have a health care kit, which with all sensors, wearable, miniature medical devices and applications. Everyone’s home will be a multispecialty hospital with all sophisticated equipment.

Doctors will get very accurate report from health care applications. The quality and accuracy of diagnosis will be high. As we discussed, many of the time the information provided are incomplete. Like, we can mention our daily workout time is one hour. But with the help of wearable, doctor will get very accurate information. The biosensor inside our stomach will monitor our diet, the calorie value of it, acid level, micro biome and what not to mention. This information will help doctors to have an accurate diagnosis.

Present day our diagnostic results reflect about the status at the time of sampling only. With biosensors we will have a continuous real time information data base. In future biosensors may be cheap but storing those data will be costlier due to its huge volume. That may be a challenge in the future but can be sorted out by new storage techniques.

If you find the post interesting please do share with your friends. Your feedback and suggestions are very important for me. Subscribe our news feed to get interesting topics at your inbox. 


Related Article.

1. A systamatic review of healthcare application for smartphones

2. More about wearable

3.Wearable health care gadgets
4. Apples home kit to control your home

Smartphones your future smart healthcare device will be an alternate for hospitals

12:47 PM biosensor, featured, healthcare, medical device, SMARTPHONES, wearables

The Amazing Brain :Know Your Brain

What is a ‘thought’?

A‘Thought’ an idea or opinion produced by thinking or occurring suddenly in the mind.

Where these thoughts are coming from?

Why are we thinking?

Is it possible to pause thinking while living?

The subject was always surprised me from the very begin of my life. Oh, I mean one the day when I started realizing about my thoughts.

Welcome to new series …..

The Amazing Brain

The Amazing Brain 

Talking about brain is always a complicated subject. The more and more we started learning about it, it become more and more complicated.

In this series we would rather try to explain about it in more simpler way. Like a story, so that everyone can enjoy and understand and start thinking about thoughts. 

But your participation, suggestions and feedback is very very essential for us to improve the quality of our contents. Please enjoy reading.

Do You Know ?

Our brain is faster than the fastest super computer in the world.

 It is quite faster than what we think.

Scientists believe we all carry 80 to 100 billion nerve cells or about as many as stars in the milky way.
Number of nerve cells in our brain = Number of stars in the milky way 

Illustration of Nerve cells In Brain

Human Brain Vs Super Computer

In a recent brain stimulation experiment, the super computer took more than 82,000 processors and 40 minutes to stimulate 1 sec. activities of brain.

How much data our brain process in a second?

We have about 100 billion nerve cells.

Each nerve cell is connected to a minimum of 1000 other nerve cells.

One neuron fires an average of 200 times in each second. The simple calculation is

100 Billion Neurons X 200 Fires per second X 1000 connection each =20,000,000,000,000,000 bits of info transmitted per second.

20 million billion bits of information move around your brain every second. 

That a very quick introduction to brain. We will explain each of it more scientifically in later additions. 

Now we will take you to some very interesting discussions.

Do you ever compare your child with your neighbor's  or your friend's child.

And you might have noticed a lot of difference in their abilities.

This is very interesting topic , keep reading , how the brain develops?

The Development of Brain

• Our brain begins to mature even before birth. It continues to mature throughout most of life.
•  The brain does not mature at the same rate in each individual. 
• It is important for parents and teachers to understand that the maturation of brain influences learning readiness.           
• Instructions above or below the maturity level of a child’s brain is not only inappropriate, it can also lead to behavioral problems. Inappropriate behaviors like avoidance, challenging authority, and aggression towards others can be explained by a failure to match instruction to the brain maturity level.
• The normal development of brain varies widely within the same age and the same grade. So there is no point of comparison of brain power in children. 
• Take an example of class room with children’s of same age and grade. The age for entrance into a particular grade is not necessarily linked to brain maturity for all children.
• Healthy brain likes to learn, and children learns best when they exposed to variety of ideas, experiences, skills and materials. 
• In the early years, children like to explore and learn using several sense or multiple skills at the same time. 
• Activities that pair both motor and auditory skill can encourage the development of both pathways.
• A child who has difficulty with writing and other fine motor skills benefits from lacing cards, mazes and tracing. 
• These activities actually help students develop the visual-motor areas of their brains. 
• When a child talks through a difficult visual problem, it can help him/her learn. In other cases, a child whose language skills are delayed may benefit from tasks that don't require language

.

Brain Activity development 

Be aware that brain systems do not all develop at the same time or at the same rate.
A child may show advanced development in one area and be delayed in another.
 For example, a child may read early but be physically clumsy. Brain development also does not occur in a straight line.
Some skills may develop earlier than other skills.

Also, precocious ability does not necessarily last. It is possible for a child to be accelerated in reading or verbal skills in kindergarten but show average ability by third or fourth grade.

Don't assume that a child has a disability just because his/her learning is delayed. Be aware that the development of cognitive and other skills is often uneven. 

Don't assume that delays a child is showing today will get better over time. If a child does not improve his/her progress, it is important to gather more information and then refer the child for further evaluation if indicated.

Don't adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. It is required to have different skills and activities for different students within a grade. Some of this variability works because of the different life experiences of children and some works because of differences in brain maturity. But, for either reason, variety is a good thing. 

Don't place children in groups based solely on age. For some children, learning to read is a struggle. Many are not ready to learn to read until they are seven years old, while others are ready at age four. (This may be particularly true for boys.) Social maturity does not correlate with other learning skills. Both social and learning characteristics need to be addressed separately to determine appropriate placement. 

Don't judge ability based on physical appearance. It's very important not to judge children based on their physical appearance. Children who are taller and/or more physically mature may not be cognitively advanced. And children with cerebral palsy often have average to above average ability despite significant problems with motor and speech production.

The Nerve cell In Details

Concluding Remarks

Baby Genies

Now we are concluding our first part of 'The Amazing Brain'. Hope it helps to trigger some thoughts in your brain. Please do share your thoughts with us.

We are concluding with 2 Myth Busters

Myth 1: You can train certain parts of the brain to improve their functioning.

Fact: This has been an attractive and sometimes lucrative idea for many entrepreneurs.
 However, it is not possible to target a specific brain region and teach just to that part of the brain.
The brain is highly connected. Neurons in the brain learn remember and forget, but they do not do so in isolation.
 Skills need to be broken down into their component parts and these parts can be taught.
However, we do not totally understand how this learning takes place nor do we know exactly "where" in the brain that learning is stored.
Evidence from victims of stroke and head injury show that injury to the brain of one individual may not result in the same loss in the brain of another person.
 Brains are like fingerprints — although there are commonalities, there are differences that make each brain unique.

Myth 2: You are born with certain abilities and these do not change over time.

Fact: At one time, people believed that the brain developed into its full form by the age of three, and that what developed afterwards was just a matter of refinement.
In fact, we now know that the brain is plastic — it changes with experience and development. 

Evidence shows that rather than ending development at the age of 5, or even 12, brain development continues into one's twenties.
 For some adolescents, the maturation of the frontal lobes may not end until age 25. For others, frontal-lobe maturity may be reached by the age of 18 or 19.
 For this reason, some adolescents may require additional time before they are ready for college, while others are ready at an earlier age.

Hope you all enjoyed reading this. 
Please do share your suggestions and thoughts and help us to improve. 
Please subscribe our newsletter to get the updates at your inbox.

The Amazing Brain :Know Your Brain

8:52 AM brain, featured, life science