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Revolutionary Be My Eyes app connects blind with sighted volunteers

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Be My Eyes is a free mobile app that enables low-vision and blind people to connect with sighted volunteers to book visual assistance during a live chat call.

Be My Eyes enables access to a network of sighted volunteers which helps you with a more independent life as well as to company representatives. A sighted volunteer is ready to offer you visually relevant assistance by pressing a button. You can get help at any time of the day or night, from anywhere in the world. This assistance will always be free.

A Danish furniture craftsman who began losing his vision at age 25, today at 50-year-old Hans Jørgen Wiberg, teamed up with a nonprofit startup in Denmark and to bring the app, Be My Eyes, to life.

Customer service representatives using the Specialized Help feature are able to help blind and low-vision users. The system allows people who are blind or have low vision to make more independent lives and boost their mental wellbeing. It is available in more than 150 countries around the world, and in over 180 languages. It is available free of charge for both iOS and Android. Currently has 1,786,051 users and 103,692 blind people.

Applicants who sign up for the program will be notified whenever a person needs assistance. When a person confirms they need assistance, a volunteer will be connected with the subscriber using the video and audio connection.

Be My Eyes helps blind people
Photo: Be My Eyes

Singer Bea Miller tweeted about using this app prominently on Thursday. Miller tweeted inquiries to her followers asking whether they use the app.

Get Involved: Be My Eyes on Apple store Be My Eyes on Google Play store

The app backed by the Danish Blind Society, Danish software studio Robocat, and the Velux Foundations, and is available to people worldwide. In the App Stores the reviews average out to 4.8 stars out of five and in Google Play they average out to 4.9 out of five.

“Be My Eyes can help tasks, like reading labels or finding the right can on a shelf, become easier.”

Be My Eyes’ impact

Serving as a Be My Eyes volunteer may help blind and visually impaired individuals, without much effort. This app not only helps them but educates both they and sighted individuals about the worth of their assistance, which is frequently taken for granted.

Sources: theconversation.com
thedailybeast.com
theindexproject.org
indiegogo.com
abilitybeyond.org

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Technology

100+ Tesla Drivers In Taiwan Drive In Unison On Autopilot — New World Record

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tesla autopilot

The local news covered a Tesla owners’ gathering in Taiwan. The day began with fun but a cryptic tweet from the Tesla Owners Club of Taiwan.

One hundred Tesla owners were part of this meetup, while all driving on Autopilot, making a new world record. For instance, the previous world record was 55 Tesla cars.

As CleanTechnica reported, based on their Facebook page, the goal was to set a new world record. They wanted to show to the world the unity of Taiwan’s friendship with the Tesla community.  Since most of the recent news in the US about Tesla and Elon Musk are negative, this set a new positive mood.

Photo credit: tesla.com
Source:
cleantechnica.com
einnews.com
bleacherreview.com

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Finnish-Chinese nanomedicine research shows potential for cancer treatment

Researchers have developed a new anti-cancer nanomedicine for targeted cancer chemotherapy. This new nano-tool provides a new approach to use cell-based nanomedicines for efficient cancer chemotherapy.

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Finnish-Chinese nanomedicine
Photo: Pexels/Chokniti Khongchum

Researchers at the University of Helsinki and the Universities of Finland and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China have teamed up to create a nanomedicine for targeted cancer chemotherapy. The newest innovative technology allows for groundbreaking cell-based nanomedicine to be utilized for cancer treatment.

Nanomedicine is helping to bring new kinds of noninvasive cancer treatment to fruition. The potential for nanomedicine lies in its ability to integrate the attributes that natural biomaterials offer and the engineerability of synthetic nanoparticles.

Different compounds are present at the cellular origin of extracellular vesicles, including proteins and RNA. Now, scientists are combining these sacs with synthetic nanomaterials to prepare anticancer drugs that are extremely effective.

Exosome-based nanomedicines have increased cancer accumulation, extravasation from the bloodstream and deep tumor penetration in advanced stages after intravenous administration.

“This study highlights the importance of cell-based nanomedicines”, says the principal investigator and one of the corresponding authors of this study, Hélder A. Santos, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, Finland.

Nanoparticles based drug delivery systems have particularly promising healing power in cancer. Nanoparticles are often functionalized with targeted antibodies, peptides, or other biomolecules to increase their success with tumors. Such targeting ligands may sometimes have an adverse influence on the particle size as a result of the enhanced immune responses.

The unique functionalities of natural biomaterials is combined by biomimetic nanoparticles, such as bioengineering versatility of synthetic nanoparticles, and cell membranes or cells, that can be used as an efficient drug delivery platform.

Results have shown that the synthetic delivery system is able to target tumors more efficiently by mimicking the human body’s cellular structures. The nanomedicine is able to spread in the body more efficiently without triggering a natural response from the immune system.

The developed biocompatible exosome-sheathed porous silicon-based nanomedicines for targeted cancer chemotherapy resulted in augmented in vivo anticancer drug enrichment in tumor cells.

“This demonstrates the potential of the exosome-biomimetic nanoparticles to act as drug carriers to improve the anticancer drug efficacy”, Santos concludes.

Photo credit: Pexels/Chokniti Khongchum
Source:
helsinki.fi
goodnewsfinland.com
medica-tradefair.com

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Incredible Inventions by American Kids

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Inventions by American Kids

Children have the ability to create intriguing ideas and incredible inventions. Here are some of them that have survived the test of time.

Here we explore some of the most unique and effective innovations brought forth by youngsters.

The popsicle

Water or milk-based frozen snack on a stick as an ice pop. Unlike ice cream or sorbet, which are mashed while freezing by whipping to prevent the emergence of ice crystals, an ice cube is frozen while at rest and becomes a solid block of ice.

An 11-year-old boy named Frank Epperson, back in 1905, a San Francisco Bay Area accidentally invented the summertime treat.
His idea never left him, but he didn’t make an attempt to promote it right away, although he patented it in 1924.

Swimming flippers

As an 11-year-old, he wanted to be an entrepreneur in Boston when he invented an oval-shaped engineering device that consisted of holes. Dozens of other inventions like bifocals, the lightning rod are invented by Benjamin Franklin. Initially, his push slipped onto his hands, whereas shortly thereafter we moved to our feet.

A possible cancer cure

During high school, Angela Zhang worked with a Stanford grad student to research the cancer-fighting potential of a single nanoparticle. The results of the research put her in the middle of the science fair circuit. In 2011, she competed in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, where she garnered a $100,000 scholarship, and the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, where the results of her cancer-killing nanoparticle research brought her first-prize awards.

She developed the technology of a specialized nanoparticle system to explain dangerous material in cells without negatively affecting health, and in initial tests on mice, she had been able to demonstrate that the impact was a near-complete replacement of tumors. The judges were full of admiration for her work so they awarded her the $100,000 grand prize. She’s now studying at Harvard, and Her motivation to establish a youth science advocacy association led to the forming of a nonprofit called Labs on Wheels to help other young people gain access to the science and math opportunities that she’s gained so much opportunity from.

The trampoline

trampoline
Image Credit: Kevin K via Flickr. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.

A trampoline is a device consisting of a piece of taut, strong fabric stretched between a steel frame using many coiled springs. For most people today, the trampoline has been something that has always been around. Plenty of people have fun memories of jumping on a trampoline in their own or a friend’s backyard during the spring or summer.

But what about the history of the trampoline? Who got the idea to invent the first trampoline, and what gave that person that idea? The version of the trampoline dates back to the early 20th century when 16-year-old George Nissen wanted to build a contraption to safely lift gymnasts and trapeze artists up in the air following their drops.

The Nissen Trio gymnastic troupe was a famous troupe of the past. In 2000, the tiny trampoline reached its highest measurement ever due to an event that occurred in the Sydney Olympics.

A safety device for textile mills

Margaret Knight was born in York, Maine in 1838, and witnessed a serious accident at the age of 12 as she was working in textile mills from a young age. At that age, she started thinking for ways to prevent this from happening. She developed a safety device that would halt production on the machines when there was something caught in them.

Like many other inventors, starting at a young age, this was just the beginning to her inventions. Later she invented other successful inventions such the machine that folds and the bottoms of paper bags was glued, which is still used today to produce the grocery store bags.

Photo by Pragyan Bezbaruah from Pexels

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