NailO: Fingernails as an Input Surface

We present NailO, a nail-mounted gestural input surface. Using capacitive sensing on printed electrodes, the interface can distinguish on-nail finger swipe gestures with high accuracy (>92%). NailO works in real-time: we miniaturized the system to fit on the fingernail, while wirelessly transmitting the sensor data to a mobile phone or PC. NailO allows one-handed and always-available input, while being unobtrusive and discrete. Inspired by commercial nail stickers, the device blends into the user's body, is customizable, fashionable and even removable. We show example applications of using the device as a remote controller when hands are busy and using the system to increase the input space of mobile phones

Personalized HVAC control system

We present a novel method of building comfort control, focused around the occupant. Custom sensing, communication, and actuation hardware were developed to locate users in a building, and measure various parameters directly on the body. These signals were used to infer user comfort and control the air-conditioning system to direct air flow where it was needed, when it was needed. A three month study of the system was conducted, with four weeks of this experimental control strategy compared to the previous four weeks of standard control. An improvement in both comfort and energy usage are shown as a result of this user-centric control system.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Energy InitiativeMassachusetts Institute of Technology (Martin Family Society of Fellows for Sustainability)Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media LaboratoryThings That Think Consortiu

SatNOGS Project

Our project is to build and contribute improvements to an existing open source ground station design. This project called SatNOGS (Satellite Networked Open Ground Station) was started a year ago by the Libre Space Foundation in Athens, Greece to address the problem of data downlink from Low Earth Orbiting Satellites. We are most interested in improving the ease of construction of the ground station to enable more people to deploy ground stations

Effects of age-related differences in empathy on social economic decision-making

Background: The ways in which aging affects social economic decision-making is a central issue in the psychology of aging. To examine age-related differences in social economic decision-making as a function of empathy, 80 healthy volunteers participated in the Repeated Fixed Opponent Ultimatum Game (UG-R). Previous economic decision-making research has shown that in younger adults empathy is associated with prosocial behavior. The effects of empathy on older adult social economic decision-making are not well understood. Methods: On each of 20 consecutive trials in the UG-R, one player (“Proposer”) splits $10 with another player (“Responder”) who chooses either to accept (whereby both receive the proposed division) or reject (whereby neither receives anything). Trait cognitive and emotional empathy were measured using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Results: UG-R data were examined as a function of age and cognitive empathy. For “unfair” offers (i.e. offers less than$5), older Responders with high cognitive empathy showed less prosocial behavior and obtained greater payoffs than younger Responders with high cognitive empathy. Conclusions: High levels of cognitive empathy may differentially affect economic decision-making behavior in younger and older adults. For older adults, high cognitive empathy may play a role in obtaining high financial payoffs while for younger adults it may instead be involved in facilitating social relationships

Is stochastic thermodynamics the key to understanding the energy costs of computation?

The relationship between the thermodynamic and computational characteristics of dynamical physical systems has been a major theoretical interest since at least the 19th century, and has been of increasing practical importance as the energetic cost of digital devices has exploded over the last half century. One of the most important thermodynamic features of real-world computers is that they operate very far from thermal equilibrium, in finite time, with many quickly (co-)evolving degrees of freedom. Such computers also must almost always obey multiple physical constraints on how they work. For example, all modern digital computers are periodic processes, governed by a global clock. Another example is that many computers are modular, hierarchical systems, with strong restrictions on the connectivity of their subsystems. This properties hold both for naturally occurring computers, like brains or Eukaryotic cells, as well as digital systems. These features of real-world computers are absent in 20th century analyses of the thermodynamics of computational processes, which focused on quasi-statically slow processes. However, the field of stochastic thermodynamics has been developed in the last few decades - and it provides the formal tools for analyzing systems that have exactly these features of real-world computers. We argue here that these tools, together with other tools currently being developed in stochastic thermodynamics, may help us understand at a far deeper level just how the fundamental physical properties of dynamic systems are related to the computation that they perform.Comment: Typo fi

Aging impacts transcriptomes but not genomes of hormone-dependent breast cancers

Age is one of the most important risk factors for human malignancies, including breast cancer; in addition, age-at-diagnosis has been shown to be an independent indicator of breast cancer prognosis. However, except for inherited forms of breast cancer, there is little genetic or epigenetic understanding of the biological basis linking aging with sporadic breast cancer incidence and its clinical behavior

The Global Diversity of Parasitic Isopods Associated with Crustacean Hosts (Isopoda: Bopyroidea and Cryptoniscoidea)

Parasitic isopods of Bopyroidea and Cryptoniscoidea (commonly referred to as epicarideans) are unique in using crustaceans as both intermediate and definitive hosts. In total, 795 epicarideans are known, representing ∼7.7% of described isopods. The rate of description of parasitic species has not matched that of free-living isopods and this disparity will likely continue due to the more cryptic nature of these parasites. Distribution patterns of epicarideans are influenced by a combination of their definitive (both benthic and pelagic species) and intermediate (pelagic copepod) host distributions, although host specificity is poorly known for most species. Among epicarideans, nearly all species in Bopyroidea are ectoparasitic on decapod hosts. Bopyrids are the most diverse taxon (605 species), with their highest diversity in the North West Pacific (139 species), East Asian Sea (120 species), and Central Indian Ocean (44 species). The diversity patterns of Cryptoniscoidea (99 species, endoparasites of a diverse assemblage of crustacean hosts) are distinct from bopyrids, with the greatest diversity of cryptoniscoids in the North East Atlantic (18 species) followed by the Antarctic, Mediterranean, and Arctic regions (13, 12, and 8 species, respectively). Dajidae (54 species, ectoparasites of shrimp, mysids, and euphausids) exhibits highest diversity in the Antarctic (7 species) with 14 species in the Arctic and North East Atlantic regions combined. Entoniscidae (37 species, endoparasites within anomuran, brachyuran and shrimp hosts) show highest diversity in the North West Pacific (10 species) and North East Atlantic (8 species). Most epicarideans are known from relatively shallow waters, although some bopyrids are known from depths below 4000 m. Lack of parasitic groups in certain geographic areas is likely a sampling artifact and we predict that the Central Indian Ocean and East Asian Sea (in particular, the Indo-Malay-Philippines Archipelago) hold a wealth of undescribed species, reflecting our knowledge of host diversity patterns