Monthly Archives: February 2014

UTC Aerospace intros new infrared camera

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CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 5 (UPI) -- A new short-wave infrared camera for military and civil use has been introduced by UTC Aerospace Systems into its Sensors Unlimited MiniSWIR product line.

The GA1280JSX high-definition camera produces 1280x720 resolution for HD video capture; high-sensitivity for imaging in low light environments; and a light, compact, ruggedized design, the company said.

"Sensors Unlimited brand SWIR cameras are field proven and easily integrated into both military and industrial systems," UTC Aerospace Systems said in announcing the product. "The GA1280JSX HD-SWIR camera is ideal for imaging systems requiring high definition SWIR imagery, light weight -- it weighs less than about 4.2 ounces without a lens -- and non-optimal lighting operation (the camera functions in both daylight and low light environments, including passive imaging under moonlight).

"Examples of applications include passive or covert-active persistent surveillance, multilaser spotting and tracking, imaging through atmospheric obscurants such as haze and smoke, hyper-spectral imaging, and industrial product inspection."

UTC Aerospace Systems is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. It designs, manufactures and services integrated systems and components for the aerospace and defense industries.

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UTC Aerospace intros new infrared camera

Aerospace business, including plant in Manatee, sold to French firm

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Published: Wednesday, February 5, 2014 at 2:37 p.m. Last Modified: Wednesday, February 5, 2014 at 2:37 p.m.

MANATEE COUNTY - Eaton Corp. is selling its aerospace power distribution management business, including a south Manatee County plant, to a French company for $270 million.

Safran S.A. and Eaton expect to complete the transaction sometime during the first half of this year, said Eaton spokesman Kelly M. Jasko.

It is unclear what the transaction means long-term for jobs at the Whitfield Avenue plant, which in the 1990s employed 600 but now includes 180 workers.

We are committed to communicating with employees and customers in a timely manner over the next few months as decisions are made that affect them, Jasko said. In the meantime, however, no immediate changes are taking place.

The sale also includes Eatons aerospace electronics plant in Costa Mesa, Calif., and switch manufacturing product lines in Reynosa and Tijuana, Mexico.

The business being sold the full name of which is Aerospace Power Distribution Management Solutions and Integrated Cockpit Solutions employs roughly 350 at the two U.S. plants.

The business produces illuminated switches, cockpit panel assemblies, pilot controls and passenger safety unit latches, as well as circuit protection, power distribution and switch components for aerospace and industrial applications.

Sales were approximately $102 million in 2013.

In a statement, Paris-based Safran said that the acquisition represents a continuation of the companys strategy to help build more electric aircraft.

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Aerospace business, including plant in Manatee, sold to French firm

Animal physiologist Ari van Tienhoven dies at 91

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Feb. 6, 2014

Ari van Tienhoven, emeritus professor of animal physiology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, died Jan. 31. He was 91.

Born April 22, 1922, in The Hague, Netherlands, van Tienhoven came to the United States in 1947, joined the poultry and avian sciences faculty in 1955 and became a U.S. citizen in 1959.

An internationally recognized authority on animal physiology and particularly animal reproduction, van Tienhoven compiled with others an extensive revision of Sydney A. Asdells widely used reference, Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction.

In 1970 he aroused controversy by advocating that humans limit their reproduction to forestall overpopulation. He taught an AIDS and Society class from 1989 to 1992.

Librarians remember him as an avid user of Mann Library, coming in every morning of the work week to read the paper and current journals and do research. He donated extensively to the library. He established in the name of his wife the Ans van Tienhoven Award, a $1,000 stipend presented annually to a Mann librarian for travel and professional development, as well as other endowments in her name.

His wife predeceased him in 2005. They had three children and several grandchildren.

Services will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations to the van Tienhoven travel fund can be sent to Cornell Library, Alumni Affairs and Development, 130 E. Seneca St., Ithaca, NY 14850.Donors should indicate the Ans van Tienhoven Endowment Fund at Mann Library.

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Animal physiologist Ari van Tienhoven dies at 91

Digital Health: Changing Medical Schools Forever

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Anatomy, physiology and introduction to clinical medicine, move over!

This year, medical futurist Bertalan Mesko, MD launches a new course, Disruptive Technologies in Medicine with Professor Maria Judit Molnar, the scientific Vice Rector of Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary. His goal is to prepare medical students for those future technologies they will face by the time they start actually practicing medicine. Dr. Mesko wants to persuade them that the relation between the human touch and technologies can work together to advance clinical science and care.

The curriculum touches on many of the digital health hot buttons found in the conversations of todayand, if Mesko has his way, these topics will find their way to the conversations at bedside too.

International students will access materials online as well. They will learn and compete against each other by answering questions about the future of medicine using the course social media page on Facebook. Further, new global collaborations with the students in digital health medical classes will be fostered, including courses byKim Solez, Professor of Anatomical Physiology at the University of Alberta. More collaborations are planned.

The role of digital health is taking root. From investments byGoogle, Apple and other large voices in the marketplace to a true global presence, its only a matter of time until medical education catches up with this powerful trend.

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Source: Forbes

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TAF Academy fair shows science with the latest twist

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Olyvia Salter, a junior at the Technology Access Foundation Academy, examines a fuel she made out of bio-ethanol materials at the academys science fair in Kent last Saturday.

image credit: Ross Coyle/Kent Reporter

While powering an electronic with fruit might be unconventional, it could also be a wave of the future, if the students at the The Technology Access Foundation (TAF) Academy go on to get degrees in science and technology.

The TAF Academy, a science, engineering, technology and mathematics school in Kent, hosted its fifth annual science fair last Saturday. The fair focused on student projects that investigated a multitude of different scientific disciplines. Environmental science, energy and transportation, behavioral science and computer science and robotics were just a few of the areas students featured projects in.

One students project looked at whether men or women have better short term memories (spoilers: women do) while another project used bio-electricity in fruit to generate power for LED lights.

Sophomore Favour Orji created a software system that would help recently released inmates find transitional housing. Her father's work with transitional housing strongly influenced her choice of project.

"I love it here," she said. "When I came here in the sixth grade, I wouldn't have imagined doing something like this."

The Academy opened its doors six years ago to sixth-graders and has gradually expanded to include grades seven to 12. It makes its home in Kent, but is a part of the Federal Way School District.

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TAF Academy fair shows science with the latest twist

Behavioral economics is focus of new MPS program

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Feb. 6, 2014

The role psychology and economics jointly play in decisions about food, public health, personal finance and sustainability will be examined in a newly accredited MPS (Master of Professional Studies) in Applied Behavioral Economics and Individual Choice, offered by the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management in Cornells College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Cornells newest MPS program is a chance to work with faculty members whose quirky experiments (like Brian Wansinks Bottomless Soup Bowl) lead to fundamental improvements in school lunchrooms (David R. Just) across the country; who wonder why label-reading shoppers continue to buy junk food (Harry Kaiser); and whose analyses track property values near Superfund cleanup sites (William Schulze). Other key faculty include Vicki L. Bogan, associate professor of applied economics and management, and Jurate Liaukonyte, assistant professor of applied economics and management.

Behavioral economics is a relatively new science with a distinguished history at Cornell, said Just, associate professor and director of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition. He points to research pioneers like Richard Thaler (formerly in the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management), who is universally regarded as a founder of the discipline, and Thomas Gilovich, Cornells Irene Blecker Rosenfeld Professor of Psychology, who is a widely acknowledged expert in the psychology of everyday judgment and decision-making.

Now were ready to build on this reputation by training a new generation of business and policy decision-makers, said Just. Students in the two-semester masters program can choose among three concentrations: behavioral marketing, sustainability and behavior, or behavioral finance.

Applicants to the MPS program are expected to come from undergraduate backgrounds ranging from nutrition, psychology and marketing to economics and business, Just said, but were prepared to be surprised. We will consider anyone who is curious about why people make the decisions they do, and who wants to change the way the world thinks about food marketing, consumer research, consumer research and public policy.

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Behavioral economics is focus of new MPS program