A microfabricated deformability-based flow cytometer with application to malaria

Malaria resulting from Plasmodium falciparum infection is a major cause of human suffering and mortality. Red blood cell (RBC) deformability plays a major role in the pathogenesis of malaria. Here we introduce an automated microfabricated “deformability cytometer” that measures dynamic mechanical responses of 10[superscript 3] to 10[superscript 4] individual RBCs in a cell population. Fluorescence measurements of each RBC are simultaneously acquired, resulting in a population-based correlation between biochemical properties, such as cell surface markers, and dynamic mechanical deformability. This device is especially applicable to heterogeneous cell populations. We demonstrate its ability to mechanically characterize a small number of P. falciparum-infected (ring stage) RBCs in a large population of uninfected RBCs. Furthermore, we are able to infer quantitative mechanical properties of individual RBCs from the observed dynamic behavior through a dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) model. These methods collectively provide a systematic approach to characterize the biomechanical properties of cells in a high-throughput manner.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01 HL094270-01A1)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant 1-R01-GM076689-01)Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology Cente

Can Visual Motion Presented in a VR Headset Reduce Motion Sickness for Vehicle Passengers?

To make the rise of automated vehicles possible and to allow for their mass adoption, one major problem still needs to be solved: Motion sickness. Automated vehicles lead to increased motion sickness partly caused by an occlusion of the outside world (conflict between visual and vestibular system). In this study, we propose the usage of Virtual Reality (VR) headsets for productivity tasks while traveling as well as a motion sickness mitigation strategy. Car motion is simulated using a rotating chair while a reading task is presented in VR with or without visual motion cues being presented in the background. Visual motion cues showed a somewhat beneficial effect on motion sickness in this study without being perceived as too distracting from the primary reading task or affecting reading performance further highlighting the potential of VR usage in transport

Cranial-brain co-evolution and gyrencephaly in phyllostomid bats

<p>Comparative framework for examining mammalian neocortical evolution.</p

Central banking by committee

A small economics literature on monetary policy making by committee is complemented by the literature on groups in the other social sciences. I review some of this work, focusing on the effect of size on group performance and whether committees are more moderate than individuals. Studies document that an individual's effort decreases with group size unless their contributions can be identified and evaluated and that committee membership is polarizing, tending to make committees more extreme. A particularly harmful form of group polarization occurs when a striving for consensus causes members to stop paying sufficient attention to alternative actions. The literature suggests that monetary policy committees should have a clear objective, publish individual votes and not have many more than five members. They should be structured so that members do not act as part of a group, perhaps by having short terms in office and members from outside the central bank. External scrutiny of the decision-making process should be encouraged