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- Parent Category: Engineering
- Category: Environmental
by Dave Alexander
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration operation in Muskegon and a Houston-based energy company are partnering to explore alternative energy.
Mobile Gen LLC has been at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Muskegon for the past week testing the performance of its new mobile power generation trailer.
Read more: NOAA Tests Power-Generating Trailer at Muskegon Facility
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- Parent Category: Engineering
- Category: Civil
Why Reinforcing Concrete Columns with Internal Bars Made of Glass Fibers Can Make a Building More Sturdy
Conventional means of internal reinforcement for concrete member in buildings involve steel bars. Yet for structures that function in harsh environments like coastal regions, or for structures that support sensitive equipment, such as magnetic resonance imaging units; the use of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) is emerging as a valuable option, due to its natural resistance to corrosion, its high strength, light weight, transparency to electrical and magnetic fields and ease of manufacturing and installment.
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- Parent Category: Engineering
- Category: Environmental
Mine shafts on the point of being closed down could be used to provide geothermal energy to local towns. This is the conclusion of two engineers from the University of Oviedo, whose research is being published in the journal Renewable Energy. The method they have developed makes it possible to estimate the amount of heat that a tunnel could potentially provide.
"One way of making use of low-intensity geothermal energy is to convert mine shafts into geothermal boilers, which could provide heating and hot water for people living nearby", Rafael Rodríguez, from the Oviedo Higher Technical School of Mining Engineering, tells SINC. This type of energy, which is hardly used in Spain, is obtained from the internal heat of the Earth.
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- Parent Category: Engineering
- Category: News
An assistive technology that enables individuals to maneuver a powered wheelchair or control a mouse cursor using simple tongue movements can be operated by individuals with high-level spinal cord injuries, according to the results of a recently completed clinical trial.
"This clinical trial has validated that the Tongue Drive system is intuitive and quite simple for individuals with high-level spinal cord injuries to use,” said Maysam Ghovanloo, an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “Trial participants were able to easily remember and correctly issue tongue commands to play computer games and drive a powered wheelchair around an obstacle course with very little prior training.”
Read more: Clinical Trial Shows That Quadriplegics Can Use Tongue Drive System
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- Parent Category: Engineering
- Category: Bioengineering
by Elizabeth A. Thomson
Surgical adhesives, which can be used to seal tissues after an operation or to repair wounds, are becoming increasingly important parts of a doctor's toolkit. However, their one-size-fits-all nature means that existing adhesives, or glues, work well in some cases but not in others.
Read more: MIT Team Aims to Tailor Surgical Glues for Specific Applications
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- Parent Category: Engineering
- Category: Materials
Margarita Calafell, a researcher at the Department of Chemical Engineering of the UPC’s School of Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering of Terrassa (ETSEIAT), has developed a new material by applying a biotechnological treatment to paper sludge. In many cases, the new material could replace plastic packaging and auxiliary building materials. The new patented material has unique properties. It is low density, mouldable, fire resistant, impermeable, porous and highly resistant, and it may replace less environmentally friendly materials in many industry and production sectors.
Read more: New Material Made From Paper Sludge Could Replace Plastic Packaging