http://www.ted.com/speakers/marcin_jakubowski.html (TED Talk on Marcin Jakubowski)
http://opensourceecology.org.nyud.net/(Open Source Ecology website)
Marcin Jakubowski took his PhD in fusion physics and turned into a farmer with a vision. Billed as a "starter kit for civilization," he has begun by placing open source designs for fifty known technologies, such that they can be built--DIY style--in a sustainable way. Julia Valentine, a farmer writing in the Atlantic, quipped, "It's not reinventing the wheel; it's open sourcing the wheel."
His TED Talk provides an interesting place to catch a glimpse of his work in a little over four minutes, and his website's link is also listed above.
Enjoy,
Anthony
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
SciDev.Net: Disease model predicts more cholera for Haiti
Using this disease model, this study published in the Lancet predicts how many lives might be saved with three technology interventions--clean water, vaccination and the greater distribution of antibiotics.
Disease model predicts more cholera for Haiti
María Elena Hurtado
28 March 2011 | EN | ES
Despite measures to combat cholera, the model predicts double the number of cases
Flickr/British Red Cross
[SANTIAGO] The number of Haitians infected with cholera may end up twice as many as the UN is estimating, according to a mathematical model of the epidemic.
Cholera broke out in Haiti in late October last year, in the wake of the earthquake the preceding January, which displaced more than a million people. The UN predicted 400,000 cholera cases in the country within one year of its onset.
But the new model predicts nearly 800,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths between 1 March and 30 November 2011 if there are no new interventions to curb transmission and treat victims.
Jason Andrews, a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health in the United States and co-author of the new study, said that the UN estimate is based on the assumption that the epidemic will affect four per cent of the population.
"It is essentially a guess, based on no data, and ignoring the dynamics of cholera epidemics," he said.
The researchers fed daily incidence data from all Haiti provinces since 31 October 2010 — the outbreak of the epidemic — to 24 January 2011 into a revised model on cholera transmission.
They also simulated the potential impact of clean water, vaccination and greater distribution of antibiotics. The authors concluded that 170,000 cases of cholera and 3,400 deaths would be prevented by applying all three measures.
Reducing consumption of contaminated water by only one per cent each week would prevent 105,000 cases and 1,500 deaths; vaccinating ten per cent of the population would prevent 63,000 cases and 900 deaths; and treating all severe cases and half of moderate cases with antibiotics would prevent 9,000 additional cases and 1,300 deaths.
Andrews told SciDev.Net that the interventions could be achieved. "It would be possible to increase availability of water at that rate if the international community made serious investments [while] improved early case detection will be essential if transmission is to be decreased by the use of antibiotics."
Vaccinating ten per cent of the population with a two-dose vaccine requires two million doses, he added.
But Marcos Espinal, head of health surveillance, disease prevention and control at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), defended the UN's approach. He told SciDev.Net that "the model used up to now is consistent with reality. We have seen just over 250,000 people with cholera in six months".
Link to full paper in The Lancet*
*Free registration is required to view this article
REFERENCES
The Lancet doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60273-0
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Disease model predicts more cholera for Haiti
María Elena Hurtado
28 March 2011 | EN | ES
Despite measures to combat cholera, the model predicts double the number of cases
Flickr/British Red Cross
[SANTIAGO] The number of Haitians infected with cholera may end up twice as many as the UN is estimating, according to a mathematical model of the epidemic.
Cholera broke out in Haiti in late October last year, in the wake of the earthquake the preceding January, which displaced more than a million people. The UN predicted 400,000 cholera cases in the country within one year of its onset.
But the new model predicts nearly 800,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths between 1 March and 30 November 2011 if there are no new interventions to curb transmission and treat victims.
Jason Andrews, a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health in the United States and co-author of the new study, said that the UN estimate is based on the assumption that the epidemic will affect four per cent of the population.
"It is essentially a guess, based on no data, and ignoring the dynamics of cholera epidemics," he said.
The researchers fed daily incidence data from all Haiti provinces since 31 October 2010 — the outbreak of the epidemic — to 24 January 2011 into a revised model on cholera transmission.
They also simulated the potential impact of clean water, vaccination and greater distribution of antibiotics. The authors concluded that 170,000 cases of cholera and 3,400 deaths would be prevented by applying all three measures.
Reducing consumption of contaminated water by only one per cent each week would prevent 105,000 cases and 1,500 deaths; vaccinating ten per cent of the population would prevent 63,000 cases and 900 deaths; and treating all severe cases and half of moderate cases with antibiotics would prevent 9,000 additional cases and 1,300 deaths.
Andrews told SciDev.Net that the interventions could be achieved. "It would be possible to increase availability of water at that rate if the international community made serious investments [while] improved early case detection will be essential if transmission is to be decreased by the use of antibiotics."
Vaccinating ten per cent of the population with a two-dose vaccine requires two million doses, he added.
But Marcos Espinal, head of health surveillance, disease prevention and control at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), defended the UN's approach. He told SciDev.Net that "the model used up to now is consistent with reality. We have seen just over 250,000 people with cholera in six months".
Link to full paper in The Lancet*
*Free registration is required to view this article
REFERENCES
The Lancet doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60273-0
Send to a friendPrintComment
|Share
ADD YOUR COMMENT
This is your network: share your views on any of our articles by adding your comments.
Comment
2000 characters remaining
You need to be signed in to post a comment or to email a consenting comment author. Please sign in or sign up.
Email me when someone responds to the discussion
All comments are subject to approval and we reserve the right to edit comments containing inappropriate/unsuitable language. SciDev.Net holds copyright for all material posted on the website. Please see terms of use for further details.
All SciDev.Net material is free to reproduce providing that the source and author are appropriately credited. For further details see Creative Commons.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
New TB blood test from ICCDR,B promises cheap, quick results
http://www.scidev.net/en/news/tb-blood-test-promises-cheap-quick-results.html
TB blood test promises cheap, quick results
Pinaki Roy
7 March 2011 | EN
The ICDDR,B has earned its first patent for the test
Wikicommons
[DHAKA] Bangladeshi scientists have developed a cheap, 30-hour tuberculosis (TB) test based on blood samples rather than sputum.
The 'antibodies in lymphocyte supernatant' (ALS) test was developed by a team at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), whose members say it can even detect forms of TB that are difficult to diagnose. It has earned the ICDDR,B its first patent.
"If our body is infected by TB or any other germs, it responds automatically by producing antibodies," Rubhana Raqib, who led the team, told SciDev.Net. While some diseases are easily treated in this way, it has proven difficult to test in active tuberculosis as most people carry the background antibodies.
Raqib and colleagues developed the test in 2001 and have been improving it ever since.
At least four other TB tests are widely used in Bangladesh and elsewhere: chest X-rays; sputum smear microscopy; culturing Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the pathogen that causes the disease, from either sputum or the site of infection; and the polymerase chain reaction, which amplifies and identifies the pathogen's DNA from the patient's sputum or the site of infection.
The sputum culture method is the most reliable way of diagnosing TB, but it is expensive, takes four to five weeks, and requires special equipment and biosafety measures.
The ALS test is therefore a major breakthrough, Raqib claimed. According to the WHO, more than 300,000 people in Bangladesh are infected with TB each year and 70,000 die from it.
But the ALS test also needs special equipment. "Hospitals in Bangladesh are not adequately equipped yet. So it is not possible to introduce this method until they have the proper laboratory facilities," Raqib said.
Asif Mujtaba, a tuberculosis specialist at the National Institute of Diseases of the Chest & Hospital (NIDCH), Bangladesh's biggest TB hospital, said: "This method of testing is an addition [to existing detection methods]. But this method works better for children." This is because children do not show typical clinical symptoms of TB, ruling out some diagnosis methods.
Alexander Yule, a UK-based consultant who has studied TB diagnostic tests, compared the ALS test with the DNA test developed by Cepheid and recently endorsed by the WHO. "[The] DNA test is less complicated because Cepheid has spent a great deal on R&D [research and development] to simplify testing and to remove the need for scrupulous sample processing, hence the very high unit cost," he said.
"ALS is physically and technically simpler [but it] still needs validation in larger and more challenging patient populations."
Raqib said: "We have already trained a group of researchers in Rwanda on how to test [for] TB using [the] method, and we have just completed research in Ethiopia on co-infected patients in collaboration with Swedish and African scientists".
TB blood test promises cheap, quick results
Pinaki Roy
7 March 2011 | EN
The ICDDR,B has earned its first patent for the test
Wikicommons
[DHAKA] Bangladeshi scientists have developed a cheap, 30-hour tuberculosis (TB) test based on blood samples rather than sputum.
The 'antibodies in lymphocyte supernatant' (ALS) test was developed by a team at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), whose members say it can even detect forms of TB that are difficult to diagnose. It has earned the ICDDR,B its first patent.
"If our body is infected by TB or any other germs, it responds automatically by producing antibodies," Rubhana Raqib, who led the team, told SciDev.Net. While some diseases are easily treated in this way, it has proven difficult to test in active tuberculosis as most people carry the background antibodies.
Raqib and colleagues developed the test in 2001 and have been improving it ever since.
At least four other TB tests are widely used in Bangladesh and elsewhere: chest X-rays; sputum smear microscopy; culturing Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the pathogen that causes the disease, from either sputum or the site of infection; and the polymerase chain reaction, which amplifies and identifies the pathogen's DNA from the patient's sputum or the site of infection.
The sputum culture method is the most reliable way of diagnosing TB, but it is expensive, takes four to five weeks, and requires special equipment and biosafety measures.
The ALS test is therefore a major breakthrough, Raqib claimed. According to the WHO, more than 300,000 people in Bangladesh are infected with TB each year and 70,000 die from it.
But the ALS test also needs special equipment. "Hospitals in Bangladesh are not adequately equipped yet. So it is not possible to introduce this method until they have the proper laboratory facilities," Raqib said.
Asif Mujtaba, a tuberculosis specialist at the National Institute of Diseases of the Chest & Hospital (NIDCH), Bangladesh's biggest TB hospital, said: "This method of testing is an addition [to existing detection methods]. But this method works better for children." This is because children do not show typical clinical symptoms of TB, ruling out some diagnosis methods.
Alexander Yule, a UK-based consultant who has studied TB diagnostic tests, compared the ALS test with the DNA test developed by Cepheid and recently endorsed by the WHO. "[The] DNA test is less complicated because Cepheid has spent a great deal on R&D [research and development] to simplify testing and to remove the need for scrupulous sample processing, hence the very high unit cost," he said.
"ALS is physically and technically simpler [but it] still needs validation in larger and more challenging patient populations."
Raqib said: "We have already trained a group of researchers in Rwanda on how to test [for] TB using [the] method, and we have just completed research in Ethiopia on co-infected patients in collaboration with Swedish and African scientists".
Friday, April 1, 2011
Crowdsourcing for a Better World
Tina Rosenberg of the New York Times has written a wonderful piece on "Crowdsourcing for a Better World." It can be found online at http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/crowdsourcing-a-better-world/?j=12588555&e=anthony.so@duke.edu&l=1998550_HTML&u=117094778&mid=60556&jb=0
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Water treatment business--"developing world first" approach to innovation proving tough
This might suggest an interesting dual market opportunity to develop further.
"Does selling to the developing world put the brakes on innovation? It may have sold its products to 130 countries, but a "developing world first" approach to innovation is proving tough to finance for water treatment business DelAgua."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/8379268/Does-selling-to-the-developing-world-put-the-brakes-on-innovation.html
"Does selling to the developing world put the brakes on innovation? It may have sold its products to 130 countries, but a "developing world first" approach to innovation is proving tough to finance for water treatment business DelAgua."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/8379268/Does-selling-to-the-developing-world-put-the-brakes-on-innovation.html
Thursday, March 10, 2011
the TATA swatch, water purifier
We've talked a lot about innovations in water purification, here's one that is actually being rolled out in India by the giant business group, Tata.
http://www.tataswach.com/
http://www.idsa.org/tata-swach-nanotech-water-purifier
It uses ash to filter, filters about 3,000L per filter, and has a mechanism to not let water through once the purification powder is depleted. It costs less than $25 (calculated to be $0.02 per day for a family of 5 in the above article).
It's most important feature is that it filters bacteria and viruses, but I haven't been able to find specifics. Rather than give specifics, the company website lists labs that have tested the filter's capabilities. That makes me feel a bit uneasy. It also does not filter dirt or salt very well, so the water needs to at least look clear before you put it through the purifier.
No matter how well the product delivers on its claim to filter bacteria and viruses, we are about to find out if it meets consumer demand for clean drinking water. I think the most interesting thing about this product is that a private company is mass producing it with the intention to market it throughout India.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Scientists Use Fungus to Kill Malaria Parasite in Mosquitoes
Between insecticide use for vector control and the use of malaria bednets, this finding is interesting in that it prompts us to think about where in the chain of disease might the risk of transmission be interrupted.
Scientists Use Fungus To Kill Malaria Parasite In Mosquitoes.
NPR (2/24, Palca) reported that some scientists are developing a new means of controlling malaria. According to NPR, rather than kill the malaria parasite-carrying mosquito, researchers have discovered a type of fungus that kills the parasite and allows the insect to live. Raymond St. Leger of the University of Maryland explained that the fungus "acts like a little hypodermic syringe, and when it's in the blood of the insect, the fungus then produces the anti-malarial protein, and within a couple of days it basically cures the mosquito of malaria."
Reuters (2/25) reports that while mosquitoes have shown an ability to adapt and develop a resistance to certain insecticides, spraying them with the fungus reduced development of the parasites dramatically. The Seattle Times /Sacramento Bee (2/25, Sangree) also covers the story.
http://www.npr.org/2011/02/25/134031191/fungus-knocks-out-malaria-in-mosquitoes
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/24/us-malaria-fungus-idUSTRE71N6NX20110224
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2014308821_malaria25.html
Scientists Use Fungus To Kill Malaria Parasite In Mosquitoes.
NPR (2/24, Palca) reported that some scientists are developing a new means of controlling malaria. According to NPR, rather than kill the malaria parasite-carrying mosquito, researchers have discovered a type of fungus that kills the parasite and allows the insect to live. Raymond St. Leger of the University of Maryland explained that the fungus "acts like a little hypodermic syringe, and when it's in the blood of the insect, the fungus then produces the anti-malarial protein, and within a couple of days it basically cures the mosquito of malaria."
Reuters (2/25) reports that while mosquitoes have shown an ability to adapt and develop a resistance to certain insecticides, spraying them with the fungus reduced development of the parasites dramatically. The Seattle Times /Sacramento Bee (2/25, Sangree) also covers the story.
http://www.npr.org/2011/02/25/134031191/fungus-knocks-out-malaria-in-mosquitoes
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/24/us-malaria-fungus-idUSTRE71N6NX20110224
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2014308821_malaria25.html
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