SIMPLY THE BEST

Monday, April 28, 2008

MRI noise reducing headset is developed

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (UPI) -- U.S. engineering students say they've designed a headset that muffles the extremely loud noises produced during magnetic resonance imaging exams.

The University of Florida students said their prototype headset reduces the repetitive, industrial-like noises that accompany MRI procedures. The noises -- often as loud as a jet engine -- can cause involuntary patient movement, blurring the image and necessitating repeat examinations, said Stephen Forguson, one of the researchers.

Forguson, Chad Dailey, Paul Norris and Christopher Ruesga designed the headset in collaboration with the Invivo Corp., a manufacturer of MRI accessories.

Although noise-canceling earphones are commercially available, they use electronics that aren't permitted within a MRI chamber. Passive systems are insufficient to combat the noise.

The newly designed headset uses existing "air phones," or headphones attached to small tubes connected to specially crafted electronics and algorithm software located outside the MRI machine. Since MRI sounds are repetitive and the piped-in sounds are timed to occur on top of the repetitions, the patients hear the same sound they would without any intervention -- but at a much lower volume.

The team is now experimenting with further improvements, said Professor Gijs Bosman, the students' faculty adviser.

Brain disease studied at the atomic level

COLUMBUS, Ohio (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they have, for the first time, inspected the atomic level of the protein that causes hereditary cerebral amyloid angiopathy.

The disease, thought to cause stroke and dementia, is initiated by certain kinds of proteins called prions that produce degenerative brain diseases such as CAA, mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. All are incurable and fatal.

The researchers, led by Ohio State University Assistant Professor Christopher Jaroniec, used solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to inspect a tiny portion of the protein molecule that is key to the formation of plaques in blood vessels in the brain.

"This is a very basic study of the structure of the protein and hopefully it will give other researchers the information they need to perform further studies and improve our understanding of CAA," he said.

The research that included doctoral students Jonathan Helmus and Philippe Naudaud, as well as scientists at Case Western Reserve University, appears in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Beautiful Sunday!!

It was a very nice sunny day today!! We visited the twin sister of my husband in the hospital in Neumarkt. She had again an operation on her leg..I guess it is her fourth operation only for this year. What a pity!! We can be very thankful if we don't have one!! We got some conversations with the couple..My sister-in-law and her husband were happy as they see us there. .We stayed in the hospital for almost two hours..

After our visit, I told my husband to go walking to the small city in Neumarkt..I love this city, as you almost get here what you need basically especially for shopping ( i love this word..guess all women love this)..hehehe.. The weather today was very friendly. A lot of people were sitting outside the cafes/restaurants having some coffees or ice cream...guess, Germans get crazy when the weather is very nice...they really go out to the sun..well esp. women who want to have brown or tan skin..

We just went walking around the city and hurried up to Parsberg...for more updates, please also visit

here are some photos I got today!! have fun!!

The Cathedral in Neumarkt

the colourful, attractive buildings..lot of people were here today enjoying the sunny weather and having some ice cream!!

see those people sitting outside the restaurants/cafes...
that white building with lots of windows is the Rathaus or the City Hall in Neumarkt..

the tulip model!!! hehehe!!! meron kayo nyan???jokikiks!!

Machts gut leute!!

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Busy!! Busy!! Busy!!

I am just so busy the past days until now!! A lot of things just need to be done!! some are done some are not!! hopefully before I leave going to USA, I will finish almost everything!! I also started packing for my things that I need during the trip..

I am just so lazy to do a lot of things today because I have my monthly visitor and my stomach aches..Too bad esp. when I woke this morning, it was really very painful!! now I felt very better!! I just updated my blogs, wrote some post..till now..wink!!

I hope I can visit all of you soon esp. to those who leave comments and messages!! Thanks a lot for your time in visiting me here!!

I wish everyone a great weekend!!

Joke Again!!

Little Johnny and Geography

Teacher: Little Johnny, go to the map and find North America.

Little Johnny: Here it is!

Teacher: Correct. Now, class, who discovered America?

Class: Little Johnny!

Joke Only!!

Snickerin' at Bumpers

- Hang up and drive!

- Welcome to America. Now speak English

- Heart Attacks. God's revenge for eating His animal friends.

- Don't like my driving? Then quit watching me.

- Some people just don't know how to drive. I call these people: "Everybody, But Me."

- Try not to let your mind wander. It is too small and fragile to be out by itself.

- Everyone has the right to be stupid but you abuse the privilege.

- I smile because I have no Idea whats going on.

- Stop following me. I don't know where I'm going

www.arcamax.com

Baker College wins cyber defense contest

SAN ANTONIO (UPI) -- Baker College of Flint, Mich., Texas A&M University and the University of Louisville have won top honors in the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition.

The Baker College entrants, as the third annual competition's winning team, received an invitation from the Department of Homeland Security to attend the March 2010 Cyber Storm III National Cyber Security Exercise in Washington, D.C.

"We've competed in these collegiate cyber defense competitions for the last three years and have never made it past the regional level," said Brandon Hladysh, Baker College's team captain. "I'm really proud of my teammates and they truly are the best of the best."

The competition hosted by the University of Texas at San Antonio's Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security, featured six, eight-member teams that were scored on their ability to operate and maintain a business network while under hostile cyber attack.

Each team was required to correct problems on their network, perform typical business tasks and defend their networks from a red team that generated live, hostile activity throughout the competition that ended Sunday.