Technology

This Advanced Prosthetic is Already Changing Lives

A retired staff sergeant is the recipient of a special gift from the Alfred Mann Foundation.

In the future, medical technology will push the boundaries between machine and human. We can already ingest tiny computers that provide us with data about our bodies, but soon we’ll work together with computers and machinery in a way that has only previously been hinted at in science fiction.

That’s where Staff Sergeant James Sides comes in. Sides is now retired, but he suffered a debilitating injury during a patrol. He came across an IED, and, while attempting to diffuse it, suffered severe damage to his arm and blindness in one eye when the device detonated within close proximity. His right hand was completely missing, “shredded to the wrist” in his words, and his forearm was broken.

The Army managed to fix the immediate damage and helped him to recover, but the missing hand made it difficult for Sides to accomplish even basic tasks that you might take for granted. For Sides, activities like opening a soda can or pouring and drinking a glass of water suddenly became time-consuming tasks. The feeling wasn’t pleasant.

The Alfred Mann Foundation, which was founded in 1985 with the goal of providing solutions to these challenges, located Sides and decided to do something about his situation. They embedded an electronic device in his arm. The device reads the movements in his muscles and outputs that data into a language the prosthetic he wears can understand. Using these techniques, Sides has 3 ranges of motion and can open and close his hand or move individual fingers.

Although there are only seven of these devices in circulation, the Alfred Mann Foundation hopes that working with Steve Doctrow and the team of Rogers & Cowan will help bring these devices the attention they deserve. These important devices will help so many reclaim the normalcy that injuries can cause.

What You Get When You Invest in an Employee Time Clock

By Allied Time

The next time you have some money in your budget to spend on improving your company, you’ll want to look into a timeclock for your organization. If you’re a bit underwhelmed by the idea, it’s not surprising. When it comes to getting more from you employees, there are countless options. People pay huge sums to have gurus come in and talk to their people. Others may actually physically alter their facilities—something that isn’t inexpensive either.

So when you hear that buying timeclocks will produce serious results, it makes sense that you’d scoff at the idea.

However, the evidence is there. When people aren’t given parameters about what’s expected from them, it becomes too easy for even the hardest working and most honest of employees to start slipping. Even worse, when these employees are keeping themselves disciplined, they’ll often find that some of their coworkers aren’t. This is how discontent grows amongst your ranks.

Introduce clocks to monitor your staff and everyone wins. You’ll soon find that people are getting more done and feel happier during their work hours. There’s just no way you’ll find a more affordable way to get these kinds of results from your people. Plus, once you’ve made the investment, these results are yours forever.

At Allied Time, the bottom line is making more of your company’s most valuable asset. With employee time clocks, you can make sure that every dime you spend on your staff is well worth it.

Grace Hopper and the Origin of “Debugging”

By Phineas Upham

Any IT technician who debugs some code can thank Grace Brewster Murray Hopper for coining the term. She was a high-level computer programmer for the Navy throughout the World War II era of American military history, and she was one of the earliest advocates of machine learning.

Grace began her interest in computers at an early age. She had a deep curiosity about the inner workings of an alarm clock. Before her mother realized why all the alarm clocks in the house were “broken”, Grace had dismantled seven to figure out how they worked inside.

She attended Vassar, after some difficulty in the application process, but took a hiatus to join the United States Naval Reserve. Weighing in at 105 pounds, Hopper needed an exemption because she was below the Navy’s minimum weight standard. She trained at the Naval Reserve Midshipman’s School, and graduated in 1944. She served in the Mark I Computer programming division, which functioned something like an analytical engine for predictions. It was to be used to assist the Allied war effort towards the end of World War II.

Hopper was one of the first people who wrote a compiler for a computer. By 1952, the compiler was operational, and her colleagues were astounded. Prior to that moment, PCs were used as little more than glorified calculators.

Hopper also popularized the idea that computer programming should be written in a language that was easy to understand, rather than a machine language. Her ideas helped create the foundation for COBOL, which was one of the earliest high-level programming languages in computing history.

If you’re curious about the “de-bug” term, it involved a literal de-bugging. Hopper pulled a living moth from a computer at one point, as it had been interfering with the delicate circuitry inside.

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About the Author: Phineas Upham is an investor at a family office/ hedgefund, where he focuses on special situation illiquid investing. Before this position, Phin Upham was working at Morgan Stanley in the Media and Telecom group. You may contact Phin on his Phineas Upham website or Twitter page.

How FinTech can Overcome Challenges and Surge Towards the Future

The biggest opponent that fintech faces is a combination of itself and the regulatory environments that the technology finds itself in. Fintech shows a lot of promise in terms of solving some of the problems that are created by an underbanked population. Financial technology investments are also soaring, indicating that a revolution is imminent. For fintech to finally take off and become something more than digital wallets, a few changes need to be made.

Trust

One of the key aspects to fintech in the coming years will be trust, and not in the “build a warm relationship with customers” sort of way. Brand recognition will likely play a role in the future, but fintech will need to overcome challenges related to security that modern banks don’t contend with. For instance, the disappearance of bitcoins from Mt. Gox puts a major hole in the silver lining for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Renewing that trust will be crucial for fintech startups moving forward.

Big Data

Big data has become more than just a buzzword because it powers nearly everything we do. Big data can tell companies about customer behaviors and  provide insight into buying habits. It can also crowdsource certain decisions, or provide a crowdsources index similar to the volatility index. The range of applications for big data are nearly limitless.

Regulation

Perhaps the largest area ripe for disruption is regulation. Often times, well-meaning regulation can end up crippling banks and startups trying to provide a basic service. There is no quick fix, except to vote for representatives who do not engage in knee-jerk politicking. Yet even the best of intentions can have unintended consequences.

Bio: Firoz Patel is a recognized leader with a vision for the future of the payment processing market. Firoz Patel was the former CEO of AlertPay Inc., and the current Executive Vice President of the Payza platform.

The Basic Components of Labeling an Oligo

Summary: Here is a brief guide to the main components of the labeling process.

Labeling an oligonucleotide can be achieved through a radioactive approach, using chemiluminescent methods or by fluorescent label techniques. When you look in-depth into the labeling process, there are three main components that you should know: a space, a signalling moiety, and a reactive group.

A spacer is what separates the luminescent moiety from DNA within the molecules and also has the ability to draw a fine line between hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity. What it also does in terms of the label itself is that it can modify the flexibility and spacing of the label in regards to the DNA.

What is a signalling moiety? It’s either a molecule like a fluorophore, fluorescein or an enzyme. Each type caters to a different type of labeling technique. For instance, fluorescein is used via direct labeling and enzymes are used for indirect labeling. It’s important to note which molecule falls with their compatible labeling type.

The reactive group is what attaches the label itself to the oligonuclotide. One of the most important components of the entire process, it generates the means of conjunction.

Some common types of labeling reactions include: the reaction of an alkyne-modified oligonucleotide with an azide-modified label to end up creating a triazole linkage, and also the reaction of an azide-modified oligo with an alkyne-modified label to create, also, an azide-modified label.

When it comes to multiple labels, there is a process that utilizes dual-labeled probes. Also known as the hydrolysis probe, multiple dyes label the oligonucleotide and through hydrolysis, an increase in fluorescence is received.

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Bio: When you are looking for a molecular beacon probe or a dual-labeled probe, contact The Midland Certified Reagent Company today.

Technology Jobs Are the Future

By Brand College

Have you thought about changing careers? If you’re like most people, the answer is a resounding “yes.” In fact, if you’re like the majority of people, you’ve probably thought about changing careers more than a few times. Perhaps you’ve even come close to doing so.

The problem is that changing jobs requires a certain skill set and often a degree to prove you have it. You also need to find a career that will actually be around next year and the year after that. There’s no sense in changing jobs if you’re just going to have to do it again in the near future. That wouldn’t be a fair risk to take for your family either.

Fortunately, you can attend computer school in Los Angeles and promise yourself a future that will be both fun and profitable. Technology jobs aren’t going anywhere. This should be plain to see. Everywhere you go you’re surrounded by technology. Each and every one of us relies on it on a daily basis.

Check out computer training in Glendale and you’ll see the potential this career path has for you. Brand College, located at 529 Hahn Ave. Suite 101, Glendale, CA 91203-1052 is the key to a better life. Plus, once you get your degree, you’ll be in a great location for finding a job too.

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If you’re looking to improve your career outlook, Microsoft training in Los Angeles is an excellent choice. For best results, check out what Brand College has to offer; you’ll be glad you did!

The Incredible Properties of DLC

Summary: Depending on how it is produced, diamond like carbon can take on many properties.

Diamond-like carbon, or DLC, doesn’t refer to any one substance. Instead, the term refers to a range of amorphous, hydrogenated and non-hydrogenated films, which are prepared at varying temperatures. It significantly increases the durability of whatever it’s placed onto, which is why tools like saw blades have used DLC to improve the longevity of the blade.

The properties of DLC can change depending on how it is manufactured.

Primarily, DLC is used for one of three outcomes: hardness, durability or slickness. The outcome depends on which of the 7 forms of DLC are produced, but can also be influenced by materials used. Some materials used to cut production costs are designed to achieve a certain effect.

Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition is a process frequently used to deposit DLC onto a substrate. DLC is broken down into a gaseous form, coming to rest on the substrate in a uniform coating. Thanks to the association of German Engineers, this list is clarified and quantified to help people place orders and navigate confusing terms or brand names.

When DLC is manufactured, it takes the appearance of a cobblestone road at a microscopic level. This is excellent for semi-conductivity, as it turns out, because of a phenomenon known as “quantum mechanical tunneling”. If you can imagine small tunnels from one cobble to the next, where electricity can pass through, it somewhat completes the analogy. At this point, it’s not something manufacturers have fully realized. The hope is that DLC will be used to conduct electricity.

Bio: Denton Vacuum, LLC manufactures high quality deposition systems for use in advanced manufacturing. Order PECVD devices online, with shipping to your workspace, from Denton Vacuum, LLC.

The Importance of Employee Attendance

By Allied Time

For most companies, it goes without saying that employees are a huge investment—both in terms of how much they cost and what they’re supposed to produce. Presumably, your company can say the same. If that’s the case, then you need to go out of your way to ensure that you’re getting everything you need from these staff members. Fortunately, you can do this with something as simple as time clocks to track the time and attendance of every member of staff.

The obvious reason for doing this is because you want to make sure you’re getting every minute of work from employees that you pay for. However, you also want to make sure that an employee can’t make a case for overtime by constantly staying later than they’re supposed to.

With the right time clock, you can also get a high level view of how your employees work. Reports will show you when people sign out for lunch, when they get back and when they take their breaks. By reviewing this information, you may find that a different type of schedule would save your purposes much better.

You can’t overstate the importance of employee attendance. Take it seriously by using the technology best-suited for the issue and you’ll be rewarded by far better results.

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If you’re looking for an online time clock, look no further than Allied Time. You’ll find everything you need to get the most from your company’s employees each and every day.

 

Advances in Medical Testing

You don’t have to look far to find sensation headlines about the dark side of medical testing in the old days. But great minds like Joseph Lister, who invented antiseptics to sterilize wounds and instruments, helped usher progress forward in the modern age. Surgery is still an extremely risky proposition, which is why so much effort goes into finding drugs to treat a problem rather than attempt surgical removal.

Without advances in medical testing, we would still be hacking away (literally) at our medical problems.

Identification

RNA polymers exist inside of living organisms and certain viruses. RNA polymerase produces a primary transcript RNA, which is like an outline for an organism’s genes. Using advanced technology to probe for these transcripts allows engineers to isolate certain viruses and observe how they affect the body. One technique utilizes fluorescent coloring to track these potentially harmful cells.

It’s important to distinguish harmful cells from the rest of the cells in the human body. Otherwise a cure meant to attack cancer cells would indiscriminately affect the body. Probes can also help improve response times for treatment, especially in parts of the world where medical laboratories are lacking.

Scientists can utilize a small blood sample to identify certain qualities of a disease and design probes around hunting down those cells.

Artificial DNA

DNA polymers can be manufactured artificially, which means that scientists have the necessary enzymes to simulate a reaction. Coupled with a greater understanding of the human genome, the ability to synthesize these artificial reactions will help scientists study the effects that diseases have on human DNA.

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Bio: The Midland Certified Reagent Company manufactures customized oligos for use in research labs and universities around the world. To order supplies for oligo synthesis in popular purification modalities like PAGE and HPLC, contact The Midland Certified Reagent Company.

Advantages to Vacuum Deposition Systems

When you need a thin film of materials, the process can be surprisingly difficult depending on what you want to manufacture. For instance, if you wanted to coat a plastic screw in metals. You couldn’t melt the metal and apply it to the screw, you’d need another method to bond the metal to the plastic. A thin film vacuum coating would allow you to bond the two materials under specific temperatures. There are other advantages to using this technique too.

Temperature Control

One of the biggest advantages to using a system that applies thin film vacuum coating is the ability to control temperature. In the example above, the screw is common for lots of items. Optic lenses, like the kind used in cars or eye glasses, might melt or crack under the extreme temperatures it would take to break the chemicals down into gas. Melting and pouring the material over the glass will leave a coating that is thick and uneven, plus the drying process may create imperfections.

Finish

The vacuum chamber allows the molecules to come to rest on the substrate in an even finish, which frees the surface from physical defects like bumps or bubbles. This is especially important anodizing metal, where the smoothness of the finish is part of the selling point. The finish can also make a difference when it comes to thickness. Thin film means microns in thickness, which requires precision and isn’t something you can fib. Imagine what would happen if a metalized screw were too thick. An entire schematic might be missing a crucial component thanks to a bad finish.

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Bio: Denton Vacuum, LLC manufactures a sputter coater used in a variety of advanced manufacturing industries.

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