<div class="page photo" style=""> <article> <header style=" background-image:url(/imageLibrary/7K0A0664_1876.JPG); "> <div class="box"> <div class="intro" style="color: #ff7f2a;"> <h1 style="color: #ff7f2a !important;">What's New</h1> <p class="summary"></p> </div> </div> </header> <div class="main"> <div class="container"> <p class="byline"> </p> <p><img src="/uploads/548a3e5560b12_1876.JPG" unselectable="on"></p><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/biomedical/bionics/prosthetic-artificial-skin-delivers-the-sense-of-touch-directly-to-the-brain" target="_blank">The Artificial Skin That Could Deliver the Sense of Touch Directly to the Brain</a></h4><p>Oct&nbsp;15, 2015 by Dexter Johnson</p><p><img src="/uploads/564c57147f268.jpg" unselectable="on"></p><p>Zhenan Bao at Stanford University has invested a lot of her research into <a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/searchContent?q=zhenan">building flexible circuits out of carbon nanotubes</a>. Her team’s latest feat is <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aaa9306">an “artificial skin” that’s capable of providing the sense of touch directly into the brain cells of mice</a> and is initially aimed for use in prosthetic limbs to give the users the full sense of touch.</p><p>While the mechanism for transferring the sensory signals from the artificial skin to the brain is something called “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optogenetics">optogenetics</a>”—which uses light to control cells in living tissue—the basis for the artificial skin is a unique pyramidal geometry of carbon nanotubes (CNTs).</p><p>“Using pyramids allows us to tune the sensitivity and range of sensors very easily, which was important for this project,” explained Alex Leslie Chortos, the first author of the paper published in <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/"><em>Science</em></a>, in an e-mail interview. “We had to optimize the electrical impedance and pressure range of the sensors to work with the other circuit components. By changing things like the size and spacing of the pyramids, we could readily optimize the sensor to have the characteristics that we needed.”</p><p><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/biomedical/bionics/prosthetic-artificial-skin-delivers-the-sense-of-touch-directly-to-the-brain" target="_blank">Read more</a></p><p><img src="/uploads/54ad19735dcd3_1876.jpg" unselectable="on"></p><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/devices/edible-electronics" target="_blank">Using mobile phone networks to help beat hypertension</a> <p>posted&nbsp;29 July 2015</p></h4><p><p>Lifestyle-related diseases are on the rise in South Africa, including high blood pressure. An ingenious partnership involving Oxford University is putting the nation's extensive mobile phone network to work in beating the disease. </p><p>Out in the townships of South Africa's Western Cape, unemployment can run at 44 per cent. Entire households may depend on a single old-age pension for food. Gang violence leaves people wary of being robbed on the way to a clinic appointment.</p></p><p><img src="/uploads/564c59cdcf9b2.jpg" unselectable="on"></p><p><p><em>One of the texts sent to hypertension patients by the innovative StAR partnership.</em></p></p><p>With life so chaotic and stressful for many, remembering to take your hypertension medication may seem like a side issue. But while HIV and TB are epidemic in many communities, there is also a creeping rise in chronic lifestyle diseases. These include hypertension, now the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. According to the South African Medical Research Council, 6.2 million people in a population of 52 million have high blood pressure, and 3.2 million have unacceptably high levels, heightening the risk of heart attacks and strokes. </p><p>Inequity in South Africa's healthcare systems is great. Many people in the areas surrounding towns and cities can't get to the care that they need. Those patients who do attend clinics or outpatient facilities often have problems with taking tablets, or forget to take them, or abandon their medication once they start to feel a little better. Many patients don't like sitting and waiting in clinics, while information leaflets about adherence to a treatment course often go unread. Some people simply drop out of the care system.</p><p> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S605HoDgSfM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p><p>Since 2009, Oxford Professor of General Practice Andrew Farmer, Professor of Endocrinology and Diabetes at the University of Cape Town and head of the Chronic Disease Initiative for Africa (CDIA) Naomi Levitt, and epidemiologist and medical doctor Kirsty Bobrow have been working together on innovative solutions to these challenges. </p><p>Early on, the team identified one potential strategy: to make use of mobile phones. South Africa's mobile network has excellent coverage across the country, and almost 90% of the population – even in more remote areas – possesses a phone. Farmer says: "It seemed evident that we could use this network in health care, simply to send text messages, automatically and on a wide scale." </p><p><p>The result has been the SMS-Adherence Support Trial (StAR), a partnership involving Oxford, the CDIA and UCT, and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC). Farmer and Bobrow began working with patients with high blood pressure, and primary care clinic staff, in the Western Cape. Together, they compiled a library of messages suitable for use as text prompts and reminders. The resulting intervention was then tested at a large clinic serving the Langa and Bonteheuwel townships.</p></p><p><a href="http://www.researchoffice.uct.ac.za/news/?id=9280&t=dn" target="_blank">Read more</a></p><h4></h4><h4></h4> </div> </div> </article> </div><!-- /page-->