Non-contact, 3D magnetic biomanipulation for in vivo and in vitro applications

Micro/nano robots have the potential to revolutionize many aspects of medicine. These untethered, wirelessly controlled and powered devices will make existing therapeutic and diagnostic procedures less invasive and will enable new procedures never before possible. Here we present five degree of freedom (5-DOF) wireless control of fully untethered magnetic micro/nano agents (3-DOF position, 2-DOF orientation). We accomplish this level of wireless control with electromagnetic manipulation systems that we call OctoMag and MiniMag. We demonstrate different magnetic control strategies and combination thereof for potential in vivo and in vitro applications. We show that these systems have the potential to be employed for targeted drug delivery and for procedures such as retinal-vein cannulation that require a high degree of dexterity

Crop Insurance Valuation under Alternative Yield Distributions

Considerable disagreement exists about the most appropriate characterization of farm-level yield distributions. Yet, the economic importance of alternative yield distribution specifications on crop insurance valuation has not been well documented. The results of this study demonstrate that large differences in expected payouts from popular crop insurance products can arise solely from the parameterization chosen to represent yield distributions. The results suggest that the frequently unexamined yield distribution specification may lead to economically significant errors in crop insurance policy rating and assessment of expected payouts from policies. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.