The Science of Infectious Disease Modeling
What Is Computer Modeling and How Does It Work?
Recent news headlines are awash in references to “modeling the spread” and “flattening the curve.” You may have wondered what exactly this means and how it applies to the COVID-19 pandemic. Infectious disease modeling is part of the larger field of computer modeling. This type of research uses computers to simulate and study the behavior of complex systems using mathematics, physics, and computer science. Each model contains many variables that characterize the system being studied. Simulation is done by adjusting each of the variables, alone or in combination, to ...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - April 29, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Injury and Illness Tools and Techniques Computational Biology Cool Tools/Techniques Diseases Modeling Source Type: blogs
Scientists and policymakers
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has a doctorate in molecular quantum mechanics. That makes her quite unusual among political leaders. But being a qualified quantum mechanicper sedoesn ' t make her especially qualified to lead the German government, since molecular quantum mechanics rarely has much role informing policy.It does mean, however, that she is what I will call scientifically literate. Very few scientists in fact know anything to speak of about molecular quantum mechanics. I understand vaguely that it ' s about the physics underlying chemical reactions, and that ' s probably as much as most physicists know, ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - April 23, 2020 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
World ’s First Indoor Disinfection Drone Ready to Fight COVID-19
In true timely fashion, Digital Aerolus, a global leader in autonomous technology for any vehicle that flies, drives, dives, or swims, has developed the first indoor drone with C-band ultraviolet (UVC) lights, created specifically to combat the spread of the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) virus with a 99% disinfection rate.
By using its patented technologies, the Aertos 120-UVC can fly stably inside buildings and sterilize areas, thereby reducing exposure of frontline workers to infections. Digital Aerolus’ industrial drones do not use GPS or external sensors, allowing them to operate stably in places other drones cannot go ...
Source: Medgadget - April 10, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Alice Ferng Tags: Public Health Source Type: blogs
When and How Will COVID-19 End?
If you’re staying shut in your home, anxious about when you will finally be able to take a stroll outside or whether you or someone close to you will be infected by the novel coronavirus, you are not the only one. In the U.S. alone, half of the adults report high levels of anxiety due to the COVID-19, according to the American Psychiatric Association. The ongoing pandemic is exerting the whole world both physically and mentally. One thing is sure to be asked by everyone: when will all this be over?
Some think that things will never get back to normal. Acclaimed sci-fi writer Ted Chiang says that “we don’t wa...
Source: The Medical Futurist - April 7, 2020 Category: Information Technology Authors: Prans Tags: Future of Medicine digital technology digital health tech digital health technologies coronavirus covid covid19 Source Type: blogs
7 Ways To Make The Most of Social Isolation
You're reading 7 Ways To Make The Most of Social Isolation, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you're enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Social isolation is not ideal. It’s not good
for our individual physical health, mental health, or the global economy. But
right now it must be done for the collective wellbeing.
When cinemas, bars, restaurants and malls
close down and we’re obligated to stay inside, we need to find new ways to keep
ourselves entertained. However, it’s not just the entertainment that we miss.
The lubricant that keeps all ...
Source: PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement - March 27, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Erin Falconer Tags: featured productivity tips psychology relationships self education self-improvement coronavirus covid_19 friendship isolation loneliness social distancing Source Type: blogs
New ways to detect emergent viruses
In a recently published review dedicated to the diagnostics of viral infections, a Russian research team featuring MIPT (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology) researchers is the first to systematically describe and summarize the cutting-edge technologies available. A number of new effective methods of virus detection have been developed over the past few years, including those targeted at unknown pathogens. The authors described the so-called high-throughput next-generation sequencing as a potent new approach. The method promises to revolutionize the detection and analysis of new pathogenic viruses, but it will be at...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - March 25, 2020 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Coronavirus Source Type: blogs
How Errors in Divvying Up Chromosomes Lead to Defects in Cells
Note to our Biomedical Beat readers: Echoing the sentiments NIH Director Francis Collins made on his blog, NIGMS is making every effort during the COVID-19 pandemic to keep supporting the best and most powerful science. In that spirit, we’ll continue to bring you stories across a wide range of NIGMS topics. We hope these posts offer a respite from the coronavirus news when needed.
Mitosis is fundamental among all organisms for reproduction, growth, and cell replacement. When a cell divides, it’s vital that the two new daughter cells maintain the same genes as the parent.
In one step of mitosis, chromosomes are se...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - March 25, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Susan Johnson Tags: Genes Cellular Processes Chromosomes Source Type: blogs
World Happiness And Psychedelic Placebos: The Week ’s Best Psychology Links
Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web
The 2020 World Happiness Report has been published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, with Finland ranking as the world’s happiest country. “Happiness” in the report doesn’t refer to the expression of emotion per se, writes Maria Cramer at the New York Times, but is rather about a sense of satisfaction in life and belief that members of one’s community care for each other — a particularly poignant definition given present circumstances.
An imaging technique adapted from geophysics could provide a new...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - March 20, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Weekly links Source Type: blogs
Cold Plasma Reactor to Kill Airborne Viruses
The ongoing coronavirus outbreak is making it clear that the world needs innovative new tools for slowing the spread of infections. While there are a number of well-known methods of disinfection that are being employed, the air itself serves as a channel through which viruses can spread. Researchers at the University of Michigan and University of Minnesota have now built and tested a cold plasma reactor that can effectively inactivate airborne viruses.
Though the technology was developed to help stop infections that attack farm pigs and tested on Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus (PRRSv), cold plasma m...
Source: Medgadget - March 12, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Public Health Source Type: blogs
Podcast: Is Creativity Enhanced By Mental Illness?
Are people with mental illness more creative? Jackie believes there may be a link between the two, while Gabe thinks it’s just a bunch of hoopla. Get ready — they’ve both done their research and are ready to back their claims. Tune in to hear a lively (and friendly) debate on whether the science is valid, the difference between inspiration and creativity, as well as their own opinions and experiences on mental illness and creativity.
What’s your take? Join us on this Not Crazy podcast to see whose side you’re on, or if you’re somewhere in the middle.
(Transcript Available Below)
SUBSCRIBE & R...
Source: World of Psychology - March 9, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Not Crazy Podcast Tags: Bipolar Creativity Disorders General Mental Health and Wellness Not Crazy Podcast Schizophrenia Source Type: blogs
POCUS Physics 3
Jo Deverill POCUS Physics 3
Where to pinpoint your needle tip, how to ping a U-boat, and why ultrasound nearly sank Celine Dion. It's pulsating stuff. (Source: Life in the Fast Lane)
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - March 4, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Jo Deverill Tags: Ultrasound Library physics POCUS Physics spatial resolution ultrasound physics Source Type: blogs
Tactile Enhancement to Compensate for Loss of Sensation
A variety of medical conditions, including diabetic neuropathy, infections, and injuries, can lead to a reduced ability to feel touch with one’s skin. This can be frustrating and uncomfortable, but it can also result in an inability to walk in comfort, notice wounds and injuries, and deal with everyday tasks.
Now researchers in China are reporting in journal Applied Physics Reviews on a technology that significantly boosts a person’s ability to feel with the finger tips. Things like touches by a flower petal, tiny drops of water falling on the finger, as well as contact by a metal wire that’s too thin ...
Source: Medgadget - February 24, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Materials Medicine Neurology Rehab Source Type: blogs
Quantum Theory of Health
By KIM BELLARD
We’re pretty proud of
modern medicine. We’ve accumulated a very intricate understanding of how
our body works, what can go wrong with it, and what are options are for
tinkering with it to improve its health. We’ve got all sorts of tests,
treatments, and pills for it, with more on the way all the time.
However, there has been
increasing awareness of the impact our microbiota has on our health, and I
think modern medicine is reaching the point classical physics did when quantum
physics came along.
Image credit: E. Edwards/JQI
Classical physics
pictured the ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - January 30, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Medical Practice Kim Bellard Microbiome modern medicine quantum theory Source Type: blogs
Cosmology
For most of our maybe 250,000 years as a species, people were aware only of their local environment. Eventually, as trade networks grew, they started to gain a dim awareness of distant lands, and by the time of classical Greece they knew that the earth is roughly spherical, although they were largely unaware of what lay beyond the Middle East and the steppes of Asia. (Alexander of course expanded their knowledge and drew the central Asian empires into the orbit of Greece.)But it was not until Galileo ' s time, in the late Middle Ages, that some people began to believe that the earth was not at the center of the universe. N...
Source: Stayin' Alive - January 27, 2020 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
RESEARCH FELLOW POSITION at the BCBL- Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language (San Sebasti án, Basque Country, Spain)
www.bcbl.eu (Center of excellence Severo Ochoa)The Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language (San Sebasti án, Basque Country, Spain) offers research fellow positions in three main broad areas or research: (1)-Language, reading and developmental disorders: How language acquisition, comprehension, production, and reading take place in the human brain. Special attention will be paid to language disorders and the development of computerized tools for their early diagnosis and treatment.(2)-Multilingualism and second language learning: The cognitive and brain mechanisms of language acquisition and processin...
Source: Talking Brains - January 15, 2020 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Greg Hickok Source Type: blogs
