Robots Learn to Use Kitchen Tools by Watching YouTube Videos
Imagine having a personal robot prepare your breakfast every morning. Now, imagine that this robot didn't need any help figuring out how to make the perfect omelet, because it learned all the necessary steps by watching videos on YouTube. It might sound like science fiction, but a team at the University of Maryland has just made a significant breakthrough that will bring this scenario one step closer to reality.
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The Antilope Network Advances eHealth Interoperability in Europe
The Antilope network, a group of of international eHealth stakeholder organisations and national competence centres, has released a final set of documents that provide the best available guidance and reference for advancing eHealth interoperability in Europe. They include:
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mHealth in Europe: Published Consultation Results
Privacy and security, patient safety, a clear legal framework and better evidence on cost-effectiveness are all required to help mHealth flourish in Europe, according to the responses to a European Commission public consultation. 211 separate responses from public authorities, healthcare providers, patients' organisations and web entrepreneurs, inside and outside the EU, gave feedback on eleven issues related to the uptake of mHealth in the EU.
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Smartphone Thumb Skills Are Altering our Brains
Every region of the body - from the toes to the jaw and tongue - has a particular processing area in the somatosensory cortex. These areas are flexible and can change. In the case of violinists, for instance, the area representing the fingers that guide the instrument is larger than in other people.
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Project Pinpoints 12 New Genetic Causes of Developmental Disorders
The first results to emerge from a nationwide project to study the genetic causes of rare developmental disorders have revealed 12 causative genes that have never been identified before. The Deciphering Developmental Disorders (DDD) project, the world's largest, nationwide genome-wide diagnostic sequencing programme, sequenced DNA and compared the clinical characteristics of over a thousand children to find the genes responsible for conditions that include intellectual disabilities and congenital heart defects, among others.
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Training Elderly in Social Media Improves Well-being and Combats Isolation
Training older people in the use of social media improves cognitive capacity, increases a sense of self-competence and could have a beneficial overall impact on mental health and well-being, according to a landmark study carried out in the UK. A two-year project funded by the European Union and led by the University of Exeter in partnership with Somerset Care Ltd and Torbay & Southern Devon Health and Care NHS Trust gave a group of vulnerable older adults a specially-designed computer, broadband connection and training in how to use them.
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A European Blueprint for the Deployment of Telemedicine
The Momentum project has released the European telemedicine deployment blueprint to assist "telemedicine doers" introduce healthcare services at distance through information technology. Telemedicine can make healthcare delivery safer, better and more efficient and thus help address challenges to our healthcare systems, but it can disrupt conventional medicine. The blueprint for doers describes 18 critical success factors for telemedicine deployment with detail, context, indicators, and descriptions, including an attachment with case studies.
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