news 2013

Using innovative lab-on-a-chip technology, Samuel K. Sia, PhD , associate professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering, has developed a way to not only check a patient's HIV status anywhere in the world with just a finger prick, but also synchronize the results automatically and instantaneously with central healthcare records-10 times faster, the researchers say, than the benchtop ELISA, a broadly used diagnostic technique.

The adulthood of a midge fly is decidedly brief - about three days. But a new study of its mating swarm may yield lasting benefits for analyses of bird flocks, fish schools, human crowds and other forms of collective animal motion. "This is a field where there's been almost no quantitative data," said Nicholas T. Ouellette of the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science, principal investigator of the research , published Jan.

Researchers have found new evidence that metabolic stress can increase the onset of atrial arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation (AF), a common heart condition that causes an irregular and often abnormally fast heart rate. The findings may pave the way for the development of new therapies for the condition which can be expected to affect almost one in four of the UK population at some point in their lifetime.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Norfolk Southern Railway No. 999 is the first all-electric, battery-powered locomotive in the United States. But when one of the thousand lead-acid batteries that power it dies, the locomotive shuts down. To combat this problem, a team of Penn State researchers is developing more cost-effective ways to prolong battery life.