Tag Archives: device

Embryology

Artificial womb technology: the implications of ectogestation as a reproductive choice – BioNews

7 September 2020

Researchers working on building an 'artificial womb' in the United States, Australia and Japan continue to publish regular updates about their success testing prototype 'artificial womb' devices on animal subjects.

The prototypes, EXTEND therapy (also known as the 'biobag') and the EVE-platform, are designed with the intention of artificially replicating the function of the placenta to enable a human entity to remain subject to the process of gestation ex utero. The devices function as a sealed system, with a pumpless oxygenator circuit and cannulae acting as an 'umbilical cord'. The purpose behind their development is that, in those instances in which human entities are delivered from a pregnancy prematurely, they can be supported with continued gestation (allowing crucial organ development to continue) rather than in neonatal intensive care where there is still a high risk of mortality and serious morbidity. The process of facilitating gestation ex utero in these devices is known as ectogestation.

When first announcing successful animal testing of their device in 2017, the EXTEND team postulated that their device might be soon ready for human testing, potentially within five-ten years. While an ambitious trajectory, their experiments continue to yield positive results demonstrating that artificial placental support facilitates continued fetal development.

The technology is specifically sought after as an alternative to conventional neonatal intensive care, but there is also speculation that ectogestation might one day be able to 'grow babies from scratch' and present a reproductive choice for those who are unable or unwilling to gestate. Ectogestation could become a further technological alternative to pregnancy and existing forms of assisted gestation: surrogacy and uterus transplantation.

However, the devices are designed to improve preterm outcomes, their current design and function is dependent upon the subject having fetal physiology. Therefore, even if these devices are shown to work with human preterms, significant work would still need to be done to adapt the devices to be capable of replicating the entirety of a human gestation. Moreover, at present, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (as amended) precludes the development of such technology because it is unlawful to 'keep or use' an embryo in vitro after 14 days.

Despite complete ectogestation being unlikely to materialise anytime soon, it remains a highly anticipated development because of the unique opportunities it presents for people unable to reproduce and specifically to gestate without technological assistance, for biological or social reasons. Ectogestation could grant these people, including single people, infertile or LGBTQ+ people and couples more control over their process of family formation. For many prospective parents ectogestation might be a more appealing option than existing alternatives.

Surrogacy can involve some legal complications in the attribution of legal parenthood at birth (the intended parents have to apply for a parental order or to adopt the child from the surrogate) and it involves navigating a relationship with a third-party during pregnancy. For some prospective parents, a process that does not involve them incurring legal complications and expenses andallows them to have more control over the process of gestation because it does not involve another person's body might be preferable. There might also be other advantages to the gestation being technologically assisted by an 'artificial womb' as its design features might allow them to better experience some of the relational aspects of gestation eg, the use of their voice.

Ectogestation might also be preferable to uterus transplantation given the potential practical and ethical difficulties in sourcing a donor or the risks in undergoing invasive surgery.

Comparing ectogestation (were it available) to other forms of assisted gestation is not to devalue surrogacy or uterus transplantation, or imply that either of these forms of assisted gestation are ethically dubious, but it does highlight that there are some ways in which some putative parents might prefer this technological alternative. There, of course, may be many ways in which surrogacy or uterus transplantation is thought to be preferable for example, by those who value the concept of a 'natural' human gestation.

When considering the possibilities offered by new reproductive technologies it is important that they are contextualised. This means thinking about the realities of how reproduction and reproductive technologies are and have been regulated, and the impact that these technologies can have on the narratives surrounding reproduction and individual choices. With the development of ectogestation there might be a considerable impact on how pregnancy is conceptualised and on equality in accessing assistance with reproduction.

There are likely to be both financial and legal barriers limiting the widespread accessibility of 'artificial womb' devices. As science and technology have evolved to increase the possibilities for different kinds of family formation, the law has been much slower to respond, and has often continued to limit the availability of the technology to minority groups who want or need access to them the most. For example, in some European countries homosexual individuals are still prohibited from accessing assisted reproduction to start a family, and those who seek surrogacy abroad face hostility at home. And in the UK, until 2008, the law still enforced heteronormative values about the nuclear family in the regulation of IVF with legislation citing 'the need for a father'.

There ought to also be real concerns about how this technology would be made available and to whom since it is likely to be expensive. There is, therefore, the real possibility that it further perpetuates existing inequality in reproduction between those who can afford technological assistance and those who cannot.

The availability of ectogestation and its ability to further increase the visibility of the fetus might also have a significant impact on how pregnancies and pregnant people are treated. There might be an increased perception that with an 'alternative' form of gestation available, pregnant people (whether acting as a surrogate or not) ought to be subject to greater control to 'safeguard' fetuses. There might also be greater scrutiny of parental decisions about how to gestate. If ectogestation is thought to be a superior form of gestation, because it can be better controlled to facilitate 'ideal conditions', this could result in the subordination of pregnant people and those who value the relational aspects of gestation. If human gestation remains the gold standard, this could continue to perpetuate the view of those who cannot or do not gestate, and thus need technological assistance, as'different' or 'deficient', potentially with excessive legal regulation.

The purpose of highlighting these implications of the 'artificial womb' is not to deny the wealth of opportunities it could offer to those people unable or unwilling to gestate. It is to highlight that there are potential negative consequences of this technology that must be equally anticipated so that appropriate responses and regulation can be considered to mitigate these effects.

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Artificial womb technology: the implications of ectogestation as a reproductive choice - BioNews

Anatomy

Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair Device Market Insights 2020 Industry Overview, Competitive Players & Forecast 2027 | Cook Medical Inc.,Endologix…

The latest study on the Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair Device market published by the Reports and Data offers a deep understanding of the various market dynamics such as the challenges, drivers, trends, and opportunities. The report further elaborates on the micro and macro-economic factors that are expected to shape the growth of the Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair Device market during the forecast period (2020-2027). The presented study elucidates the key indicators of market growth that includes a thorough analysis of the value chain, CAGR growth, and Porters Five Forces Analysis. This data will enable readers to understand the quantitative growth parameters of the global Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair Device market.

This is the latest report covering the current COVID-19 scenario. The coronavirus pandemic has greatly affected every aspect of the worldwide industry. It has brought along various changes in market conditions. The rapidly changing market scenario and initial and future assessment of the impact are covered in the research report. The report discusses all the major aspects of the market with expert opinions on the current status along with historical data.

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Human Behavior

Lifestyle: This how we can analyze human behavior with this thing – Dynamite News

The device people use to communicate can affect the extent to which they are willing to disclose intimate or personal information about themselves, suggests a recent research.

Washington D.C: The device people use to communicate can affect the extent to which they are willing to disclose intimate or personal information about themselves, suggests a recent research.

The study in the Journal of Marketing is titled "Full Disclosure: How Smartphones Enhance Consumer Self-disclosure" and is authored by Shiri Melumad and Robert Meyer.

Also Read: Average Indian spends over 1,800 hours a year on smartphone

Do smartphones alter what people are willing to disclose about themselves to others? A new study in the Journal of Marketing suggests that they might. The research indicates that people are more willing to reveal personal information about themselves online using their smartphones compared to desktop computers.

For example, Tweets and reviews composed on smartphones are more likely to be written from the perspective of the first person, to disclose negative emotions, and to discuss the writer's private family and personal friends.

Likewise, when consumers receive an online ad that requests personal information (such as phone number and income), they are more likely to provide it when the request is received on their smartphone compared to their desktop or laptop computer.

Why do smartphones have this effect on behaviour? Melumad explains that "Writing on one's smartphone often lowers the barriers to revealing certain types of sensitive information for two reasons; one stemming from the unique form characteristics of phones and the second from the emotional associations that consumers tend to hold with their device."

First, one of the most distinguishing features of phones is a small size; something that makes viewing and creating content generally more difficult compared with desktop computers. Because of this difficulty, when writing or responding on a smartphone, a person tends to narrowly focus on completing the task and become less cognizant of external factors that would normally inhibit self-disclosure, such as concerns about what others would do with the information. Smartphone users know this effect well--when using their phones in public places, they often fixate so intently on its content that they become oblivious to what is going on around them.

The second reason people tend to be more self-disclosing on their phones lies in the feelings of comfort and familiarity people associate with their phones. Melumad adds, "Because our smartphones are with us all of the time and perform so many vital functions in our lives, they often serve as 'adult pacifiers' that bring feelings of comfort to their owners."

Also Read: Best of 2019-YouTube lists top videos that Indians watched this year

The downstream effect of those feelings shows itself when people are more willing to disclose feelings to a close friend compared to a stranger or open up to a therapist in a comfortable rather than uncomfortable setting. As Meyer says, "Similarly when writing on our phones, we tend to feel that we are in a comfortable 'safe zone.' As a consequence, we are more willing to open up about ourselves."

The data to support these ideas is far-ranging and includes analyses of thousands of social media posts and online reviews, responses to web ads, and controlled laboratory studies.

For example, initial evidence comes from analyses of the depth of self-disclosure revealed in 369,161 Tweets and 10,185 restaurant reviews posted on TripAdvisor.com, with some posted on PCs and some on smartphones. Using both automated natural-language processing tools and human judgements of self-disclosure, the researchers find robust evidence that smartphone-generated content is indeed more self-disclosing. Perhaps even more compelling is evidence from an analysis of 19,962 "call to action" web ads, where consumers are asked to provide private information.

Consistent with the tendency for smartphones to facilitate greater self-disclosure, compliance was systematically higher for ads targeted at smartphones versus PCs.

The findings have clear and significant implications for firms and consumers. One is that if a firm wishes to gain a deeper understanding of the real preferences and needs of consumers, it may obtain better insights by tracking what they say and do on their smartphones than on their desktops.

Likewise, because more self-disclosing content is often perceived to be more honest, firms might encourage consumers to post reviews from their personal devices. But therein lies a potential caution for consumers--these findings suggest that the device people use to communicate can affect what they communicate. This should be kept in mind when thinking about the device one is using when interacting with firms and others. (ANI)

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Lifestyle: This how we can analyze human behavior with this thing - Dynamite News

Physiology

Fertility wearable to double as COVID-19 temp monitor, as need for population data intensifies – BioWorld Online

Gleaning reliable population-level temperature data routinely has been a key component of the more successful efforts in several Asian countries for containing the emerging, novel coronavirus. But these often have required highly time and labor-intensive coordinated efforts to screen people manually as they access various services such as public transportation and grocery stores.

Remotely monitoring people for the early signs of COVID-19, as well as determining disease progression for infected patients virtually, would offer huge potential advances in better protecting the populace, as well as lessening the burden on swamped health care providers.

Into the gap

Zurich-based startup Ava Science Inc. hopes to step into that gap. The company recently issued a public call for partners and funding to further research the potential usefulness of its fertility wearable, known as Ava Bracelet, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The effort is not unprecedented; the primary COVID-19 treatment center in Shanghai, the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, has been using continuous temperature monitoring in hospitalized patients using wearable technology from Campbell, Calif.-based startup Vivalnk Ltd., which also has a China office. This freed health care staff from routine temperature checks.

Given the current pandemic, we have looked as a company at how we could repurpose our device to help combat the spread of COVID-19, Ava Chief Medical Officer and head of clinical development Maureen Cronin told BioWorld. Cronin was previously the Head of Womens Medical Affairs at Bayer Schering Pharma.

The Ava Bracelet provides the highly accurate temperature readings necessary for this application, as well as other vital sign monitoring. It is already in widespread use throughout the U.S. and Europe and has aided more than 30,000 women in getting pregnant. Ava, which has a U.S. headquarters in San Francisco, is starting to coordinate with various governments, nonprofits, academics and companies to explore the application of its Ava Bracelet for systematic COVID-19 monitoring.

We believe our device, the Ava Bracelet, could be used to detect early symptoms known to be associated with COVID-19 and are seeking funding to test our hypothesis directly, said Cronin. We know that our medical-grade device, worn nightly while the user sleeps, can pick up subtle changes in breathing rate, heart rate, and temperature; the user syncs the device each morning with a smartphone app that shows them how their physiological parameters have changed over the last days, weeks and months.

The nightly log of changes in biophysical data could provide critical insights for first responders and/or people with known or suspected exposure quarantining at home, indicating when they may want to seek medical advice, she continued. Additionally, this data could be shared with health care professionals at time of triaging to demonstrate the trajectory and/or severity of the disease. We believe the Ava bracelet could even serve as a remote surveillance tool in hospital wards, reducing the need for health care professionals to take in-person vitals and thereby minimizing the risk of additional transmission.

In Europe, the device has a CE mark to measure the physiological parameters to facilitate conception and to provide general health and wellness information. In the U.S., where it launched in 2016, FDA approved it as a low-risk class I device for use in conception and physiological changes in subsequent pregnancies. Ava aims to submit to European regulators later this year for a contraception indication.

Remote monitoring priorities

The Ava Bracelet is a wrist worn device that is worn nightly to track breathing rate, pulse rate, skin temperature, heart rate variability, perfusion as well as sleep quality and quantity. Its initial fertility aim was to replace the common fertility practice of monitoring basal body temperature every morning prior to leaving bed to predict when ovulation is most likely to occur.

The most common COVID-19 symptoms are fever, dry cough and shortness of breath, according to the World Health Organization. These occur at a rate of 88%, 68% and 19%, respectively. Ava anticipates that it can detect a fever with both its body temperature and pulse rate monitors, which should both increase, while shortness of breath can be measured as an increased breathing rate. There is obviously no physiological reason why the wearable couldnt be used across genders.

The Ava Bracelet data is analyzed via machine learning to predict a five-day fertile window with 89% accuracy. Its been evaluated in several clinical trials and peer-reviewed manuscripts. The company said that it is currently evaluating data from its users for COVID-19 related trends, but declined to disclose anything further.

The FDA is prioritizing the expansion of the availability and capability of noninvasive remote monitoring devices to facilitate patient monitoring while reducing patient and health care provider contact and exposure to COVID-19 during this pandemic. It released guidance late last week that is designed to enable the smooth repurposing of existing devices and remove potential penalties for repurposing of these devices.

FDA does not intend to object to limited modifications to the indications, claims, functionality, or hardware or software of FDA-cleared non-invasive remote monitoring devices that are used to support patient monitoring during the declared public health emergency, the FDA stated in the new guidance.

Ava declined to name any specific potential partners in its COVID-19 efforts, but did say that it has the capacity to make 50,000 bracelets available shortly with the capacity to further ramp up production. The company has started offering a non-fertility version of the Ava Bracelet for $100 off the standard $249 price to individuals, researchers and medical professionals for physiology tracking.

We have had numerous requests for information and several requests for discussions, said Cronin. The requests have come from current users, potential users, governmental and non-governmental organizations, academics and industries. We are investigating several options as we speak.

We are working towards submitting a grant application for a public-private (academic and industry) grant proposal in Europe by the end of this week, she added. We are a very small organization, but we understand the need to act fast. We are investigating several other proposals in different regions throughout the world and remain open to other proposals.

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Fertility wearable to double as COVID-19 temp monitor, as need for population data intensifies - BioWorld Online

Neuroscience

Out of the Basement: Early Results Promising for Portable MRI – MedPage Today

LOS ANGELES -- An investigational low-power MRI scanner appeared safe and feasible for use at the bedside in a standard neuroscience ICU, researchers reported.

The 64-mT portable machine under development by Hyperfine Research required no shielding, no special power supply, no changes to the equipment used in the patient's room, and no precautions for ferrous metal, Bradley Cahn, BS, of Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues reported here at the International Stroke Conference.

Among 96 stroke patients scanned non-acutely (minimum 9 hours post-onset, mean 87 hours), there were no "significant" adverse events. Overall, 87% of participants completed the full exam: six participants experienced claustrophobia, and five didn't fit head and shoulders comfortably into the 30-cm opening.

Acquisition times were about 7.5 minutes for T2-weighted scans, 9.5 for FLAIR, 9.8 for diffusion-weighted imaging, and just shy of 29 minutes for a full exam.

Portable CT machines are already in clinical use for stroke, notably in mobile stroke units, noted Ralph Sacco, MD, chairman of neurology at the University of Miami and past president of the American Heart Association.

"If we could get MRI as quickly as CT scanning, some of us would prefer MRI over CT," he said in an interview.

MRI is a more sensitive indicator of brain injury and can pick up ischemia much earlier in the process when CT might still give a false negative, he noted.

The bulky machines needed to generate high-powered 3- and even 7-T MRI, risk posed by stray metal, as well as the wait and acquisition times have been hurdles, though, Sacco added.

"We have this incredibly safe technology, MRI, and we've put it in depths of the hospital's basement where you have to travel with the patient to get to it," said Cahn. "We've flipped that and brought the magnet into the patient's room."

There are plenty of other possible useful applications, though, said Cahn. Availability in the emergency room and ambulance "would be huge."

However, 28 minutes -- while fast for MRI -- might be just too long to consider overthrowing CT as the standard for urgent diagnosis in most circumstances, said ISC session moderator Justin Fraser, MD, of the University of Kentucky in Lexington. But it could be particularly useful for posterior circulation strokes, to determine futility of thrombectomy, he suggested.

The device still needs to be tested in the acute setting, though, Cahn noted.

"I think what they intended to prove, they proved that it was both feasible and safe to do in this limited, single-center population," commented Peter Panagos, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Stroke Council Chair.

The study included both intubated and non-intubated adults in the neuroscience ICU who needed imaging as standard of care. Those with contraindications to 1.5-T MRI were excluded.

In theory, the device should be compatible with MR-compatible pacemakers and similar devices, but that hasn't been tested yet either, noted Cahn. "We just don't know how the low field strength interacts with devices like that. For example, some devices [that] are safe at 3 T may not be at 7 T and vice versa."

Nor were any scans done with contrast administration. Those studies will come, Cahn said, and the device continues to be iteratively improved.

Disclosures

The trial was supported by Hyperfine Research, which is developing the device, and by the American Heart Association.

Cahn disclosed receiving grants from Hyperfine Research.

Coauthors included some employees of Hyperfine Research.

Panagos and Fraser disclosed no relevant relationships with industry.

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Out of the Basement: Early Results Promising for Portable MRI - MedPage Today

Anatomy

Style Anatomy: Shahrukh Imtiaz – The Express Tribune

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Anatomy

The Anatomy of a Lubricant – AgWeb

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Biochemistry

Meet Silicon Valley’s own Willy Wonka and his chocolate-making robot – Palo Alto Online

Only in Silicon Valley does a longtime tech startup founder find a second career in a chocolate-making robot.

Nate Saal studied molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University after graduating from Palo Alto High School in 1990. After returning to Palo Alto, he quickly shifted from science to the internet, founding what he says was the first web-based software updating service in 1996. He went on to start more technology companies and later worked for CNET and Cisco.

But these days, he's immersed in chocolate -- specifically, chocolate made by a countertop device that he created called CocoTerra. The sleek white device, which looks like a large, futuristic coffee maker, uses algorithms, hardware and a smartphone app to transform cocoa nibs, milk powder, cocoa powder and sugar into chocolate in about two hours.

Saal has high hopes for the machine, which has yet to be released. In the age of automation, where robots are making pizza and ramen and delivering our food, he sees CocoTerra as doing something different: using technology to deepen rather than disrupt people's connection to how their food is made.

"We're not trying to slap technology for technology's sake on top of that to abstract it away, to take creativity away," he said. "We're trying to actually create a whole new category of people who can now make chocolate."

While Saal's professional career has focused on technology, he has always filled his weekends with homegrown food experiments, like keeping bees and growing grapes and olives to make wine and olive oil from scratch. He's fascinated by the "deep science" of these activities.

Making chocolate, however, was not in his repertoire. It wasn't until he took his brother-in-law, who works in the coffee business, to a chocolate tasting several years ago, and a conversation about the similarities between the two industries got him thinking. His brother hypothesized that home coffee machines have allowed more people to understand and appreciate coffee in a way that chocolate hasn't experienced. People did make chocolate at home, but it was a lengthy process that required having several expensive appliances, he found.

"There's a bread machine, an ice cream maker and a juicer and a pasta maker and a tea brewer and a coffee maker -- every major food category has a home appliance. What I discovered very quickly was there is no such thing (for chocolate)," Saal said.

He educated himself by going to chocolate-making classes, including a boot camp at Madre Chocolate in Hawaii. Back in Palo Alto, he and a team got to work designing a device that could combine all steps in the chocolate-making process -- grinding, refining, conching, tempering and molding -- in one machine. It typically grinds the single-origin cocoa nibs for about half an hour, using stainless steel balls, then refines the cocoa butter, sugar and milk powder. Conching is the "slow manipulation or agitation of chocolate at elevated temperatures to help drive off some undesired flavors," said Chief Operating Officer Karen Alter. Named for conch shell-shaped equipment, this is part of the process is often on display during chocolate factory tours, she said, with large vats that have paddles slowly moving liquid chocolate.

The next step, tempering, involves cooling the ingredients to a specific temperature that will create a specific structure of seed crystal in the cocoa butter molecules, Saal enthusiastically explained. The crystals solidify, creating shiny, hard chocolate. A patented centrifuge inside the machine cools and spins the chocolate to remove bubbles.

The final result is a ring-shaped, half-pound mold of chocolate, rather than the traditional rectangular bar.

On the back end, technology allows a level of customization that CocoTerra's creators hope will make the device as appealing for experts as for novices. A cloud-based recipe system, accessible online or via an app, guides you from start to finish in a recipe. People can either default to CocoTerra's recipes, such as 62% dark chocolate or milk chocolate with almonds, or customize them, from level of sweetness and creaminess, to added flavors and ingredients, to the tempering temperature. People can easily control for allergies or dietary restrictions.

CocoTerra will sell the base ingredients directly to customers, focusing on fair trade, ethically grown nibs, or people can use their own. Those who are advanced enough to roast and shell their own cacao beans could still do that, put them into the machine and then create their own recipes.

Producing quality chocolate in two hours is "jaw-dropping" to many in the chocolate industry, Saal said.

"I thought they were totally crazy when I first talked to them on the phone," John Scharffenberger told CNBC. Scharffenberger, who co-founded Scharffen Berger in San Francisco in 1997 before small batch, artisan chocolate was a thing, is now a CocoTerra investor and calls it "a natural extension of the craft chocolate movement."

The company won't disclose a price for the machine, which they claim is the world's first tabletop chocolate maker. CocoTerra has raised more than $2 million in investments and is now focused on a larger round to fund the release of the device.

"This is about the evolution of technology to make chocolate. But it's also making it accessible," Saal said. "We're bringing that to people by using smart mechanical engineering and software to make it accessible so that you can actually now focus on things like the flavor and recipe and the look and the design and the craft of it."

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Meet Silicon Valley's own Willy Wonka and his chocolate-making robot - Palo Alto Online