How to converts body heat into power and Citrus Fruits Reduces Risk of Stroke

How Citrus Fruits May Help Women Reduce Risk of Stroke

What is stroke-

A stroke happens when blood flow to a part of the brain stops. A stroke is sometimes called a "brain attack." Symptoms: The symptoms of stroke depend on what part of the brain is damaged

Eating citrus fruits, especially oranges and grapefruit, because of the flavonone they contain, may lower women's risk of developing clot-associated or ischemic stroke, according to a new study led by Norwich Medical School of the University of East Anglia in the UK that was published online in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association on Thursday. The researchers wanted to examine more closely how consumption of foods containing different classes of flavonoids affected the risk of stroke.

Flavonoids are a group of compounds found in fruits, vegetables, dark chocolate and red wine.

Study lead author and professor of nutrition at Norwich Medical School, Dr Aedín Cassidy, told the press:"Studies have shown higher fruit, vegetable and specifically vitamin C intake is associated with reduced stroke risk."A stroke is where part of the brain shuts down because of loss of blood supply, caused either by a blockage or embolism that stops the blood flow (ischemia), or due to leakage caused by a hemorrhage. Cassidy said flavonoids are thought to provide some protection against stroke by improving blood vessel function and reducing inflammation, among other things.

For their study, Cassidy and colleagues examined data from the Nurse's Health Study. Based in the US, this is one of the largest and longest running investigations of factors that influence women's health. It started in 1976 and expanded in 1989. The researchers looked at 14 years of follow-up data completed by 69,622 female participants who every four years had reported their dietary intake, including details of the fruits and vegetables they consumed.

They looked for links between the six major subclasses of flavonoids commonly present in the American diet and risk of ischemic, hemorrhagic and total stroke. The six major subclasses they examined were: flavonones, anthocyanins, flavon-3-ols, flavonoid polymers, flavonols and flavones. Since we already know that each subclass has a different biological effect, the researchers did not expect to find any strong beneficial links between total flavonoid consumption and stroke risk. But they did find a strong link between high consumption of flavonones in citrus fruits and reduced stroke risk: women who consumed the most showed a 19% lower risk of ischemic stroke compared to women who ate the least amounts of flavonones in citrus fruits.

In this study, oranges and orange juice (82%) and grapefruit and grapefruit juice (14%) had the highest amounts of flavonones. But the researchers said if you are looking to increase your intake, then go for the fruit rather than the juice, because the latter tends to be accompanied by high amounts of sugar. While previous studies have shown links between various foods and protection against both kinds of stroke, and this study further informs the field, the researchers said we still need to get a better understanding about why the link occurs, and that has to come from further research.

(Source-: Journal of the American Heart Association)

Nanotech converts body heat into power

Nice research….

Let us hope for best

Power felt is a new thermoelectric material that converts temperature differences into electricity.

Never get stranded with a dead cell phone again. A promising new technology called Power Felt, a thermoelectric device that converts body heat into an electrical current, soon could create enough juice to make another call simply by touching it. Developed by researchers in the Center for

Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest University, Power Felt is comprised of tiny carbon nanotubes locked up in flexible plastic fibers and made to feel like fabric. The technology uses temperature differences – room temperature versus body temperature, for instance – to create a charge. Their research appears in the current issue of Nano Letters, a leading journal in nanotechnology.

“We waste a lot of energy in the form of heat. For example, recapturing a car’s energy waste could help improve fuel mileage and power the radio, air conditioning or navigation system,” says researcher and Wake Forest graduate student Corey Hewitt. “Generally thermoelectrics are an underdeveloped technology for harvesting energy, yet there is so much opportunity.”

Potential uses for Power Felt include lining automobile seats to boost battery power and service electrical needs, insulating pipes or collecting heat under roof tiles to lower gas or electric bills, lining clothing or sports equipment to monitor performance, or wrapping IV or wound sites to better track patients’ medical needs.“Imagine it in an emergency kit, wrapped around a flashlight, powering a weather radio, charging a prepaid cell phone,” said David Carroll, director of the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials. “Power Felt could provide relief during power outages or accidents.”Cost has prevented thermoelectrics from being used more widely in consumer products. Standard thermoelectric devices use a much more efficient compound called bismuth telluride to turn heat into power in products including mobile refrigerators and CPU coolers, but researchers say it can cost $1,000 per kilogram. Like silicon, they liken Power Felt’s affordability to demand in volume and think someday it could cost only $1 to add to a cell phone cover.Currently, 72 stacked layers in the fabric yield about 140 nanowatts of power. The team is evaluating several ways to add more nanotube layers and make them even thinner to boost the power output.Although there’s more work to do before Power Felt is ready for market, Hewitt says, “I imagine being able to make a jacket with a completely thermoelectric inside liner that gathers warmth from body heat, while the exterior remains cold from the outside temperature. If the Power Felt is efficient enough, you could potentially power an iPod, which would be great for distance runners. It’s definitely within reach.”

Wake Forest is in talks with investors to produce Power Felt commercially.

(Source- Nano Letters)