Can Traditional Farming Get a Facelift with Robotic Technology?

Robotics is one of the many intelligent branches of engineering and science that outgrows the traditional machines which have the capabilities of duplicating actions of humans or simply substituting them in certain tasks. With the advancement of technology, robotics is growing rapidly with its successful application in domestic, commercial and military sectors. This potential technology has been utilized in various fields and with prolonged research being carried out, robotics will reach greater heights in the years to come.

One of the most important discoveries in the field of robotics would be the application of robotics in agricultural sector. With the introduction of robots for carrying out complex farming activities could help farmers work efficiently.

Farm robots provide greater efficiency

A recent trends stated the development of farm robots that were designed to work under the covering of the crop. These robots are designed in such a manner that they could research on the condition of the crops. Other uses could be weed control, efficient production and harvesting. They are also planning to develop universal climate-friendly robotic innovations.

With the enhancement in technology, the horizon of innovation keep rising and therefore, it becomes more possible to experiment with what robots could possibly do in the agricultural sector. One such promising innovation would be, the marriage of artificial intelligence and robotics to advance the ability of robots. Small robots or ‘farmbots’ could be used for precision farming and carry out tasks that could be hard to execute for farmers. These intelligent robots could be designed to predict actions that need to be taken to improve the health of the farm and the nutrition quality of crops as well as reduce labor costs.

New age developments are giving researchers the opportunities to think out of the box and develop robotic vehicles for farming, which can be used to sense the data of crops and robotic motors to perform certain activities in the farm. Robotics in agricultural sectors would give rise to automated farms that would be well equipped to perform almost all the significant functions in the farm with timely inspection by the farmers.

Robots bring accuracy, perfection, efficiency and consistency to the farms, which may not be possible by humans all at the same time. The way robots are being designed for farming, will have advancements with respect to the requirements and technical capabilities. This is why the application of robots in farms is an essential approach to revolutionize farming and welcome technological transformations for one the most important and vast sectors round the globe.

Leveraging Big Data to Improve Healthcare

The advancement of concepts like big data are not new to the world of digitization. The importance and application of data analytics to break down complex tasks has been the researcher’s prime goal. It is no surprise that big data has now rooted its presence even in the healthcare sector. With the growing complexities, healthcare has evolved in terms of the facilities provided to the patients as well as the various possibilities of improving intensive care.

With the growing need to be able to ensure quicker treatments and enhanced therapies to heal patients, various steps are being taken. With the implementation of predictive analytics, complex data processing of biomedical data can simplify the process of treating patients.

What the data scientists and clinicians have to say?

Modern day data scientist and clinicians talk about the importance of big data in health and intensive care. Next-generation big data -enabled electronic systems that record medical data in ICUs and the entire hospital help the clinicians on proving better patient care and also assist in decision making for their treatment. These systems allow development of machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms that simplify tasks for medical professionals.

Countries such as Australia and Singapore have adapted to this advancement by implementing use of such clinical big data systems in their intensive care units. Health care units are now more advanced and developed with the installation of these data systems.

Big data for cancer care

Doctors have always wished for an intelligent data-system that could integrate the patient data and help comprehend predictive decision making to treat the cancer patients. Recent trends saw the grant received by University of Cambridge for addressing this problem. Their aim is to implement the concepts of machine learning and artificial intelligence into a system that would be capable of transforming the insights received from cancer patient data into approaches that help in clinical decision making. This revolutionary idea would simplify the process of treatment with the help of predictive analytics, help doctors to solve complex cases in the future by studying each patient thoroughly with the help of iterative analysis and enhance healthcare.

How big data can cater to ICU complexities?

The intensive care units are responsible for providing accurate, timely, precise and specialized treatments to the patients suffering from life threatening illnesses. However, doctors are often entangled in the complex strings of biomedical data that is generated by the equipment.  Therefore, with the rightly implementation of big data analytics, achieving an integrated setup of the entire data in a comprehensive manner will add into the accuracy and efficiency of medical procedures.

By combining the intelligence of medical expertise and efficiency and the big data analytics technology, medical professionals can achieve considerable improved outcomes that could help provide better treatments for patients.

Accelerating Cash Movements from Clients through ‘Invoice Discounting’

Invoice Discounting, to simplify, is a practice of using company’s due accounts received as collateral for loan purpose. We can consider this unpaid amount to be distributed by a finance company. This mode known as invoice discounting is a very short-term approach of borrowing because the finance company can change the value of debt unsettled. The debt amount given by the finance company is low than the amount of outstanding receivables.

Invoice discounting is a method which essentially speeds up cash movement from clients and there is no need to wait for the clients, to pay within their credit terms. The cash is obtained instantly when the invoice is issued. Due to credit crisis, invoice discounting is a main source of working capital finance as the limit of bank financing. Relying on the invoice security from the debtor, invoice finance is more attractive to a bank. As invoice discounting allow businesses to recover cash flow, recompense employees and suppliers, plus reinvest in processes, we can also refer invoice discounting as an approach for business to borrow money based on sums.

So What’s the Difference between Invoice Discounting and Invoice Factoring?

The financial facilities, Invoice Discounting and Invoice Factoring has the capability to release the capitals in your unpaid invoices. Invoice discounting is taken into account by larger and more reputable firms and on the other hand, small businesses and small firms apply invoice factoring.

With Invoice Factoring, supposing the responsibility of managing the sales ledger, other responsibilities of the provider are credit control as well as chasing customers for their invoices settlement.

With using Invoice Discounting, your business holds control of its personal sales ledger and a normal payment method is followed.

Another difference between invoice discounting and invoice factoring is in the range of confidentiality. Through factoring, the invoices of the customers are directly resolved by the Factoring Company. While through Invoice Discounting, customers still identify that a third party is engaged in this.

Is Invoice Discounting Superior?

Choosing the appropriate method whether to go for Invoice Factoring or an Invoice Discounting totally depends upon the business size and also on your sales ledger management capitals.

The benefit of invoice discounting is that it licenses a financer to run business without funds, which is no different procedure than bank overdraft. In invoice discounting, the interest amount is paid by the debtor only on the sum of money used. As there is a tough competition prevailing in the market to range such credit, therefore, there are numerous different products to fulfill the requirements of the client. If you want your own business to contract with debt, then also invoice discounting can be used.

  • The service managed is confidential and you remain in interaction with your customers with them unaware of the capital agreement.
  • A large number of human resources are succeeded by Invoice Discounting.

Innovations in Hospital Information Systems to Enhance Quality of Healthcare Delivery & Patient Experience

The healthcare system has come a long way over the decades, and is continually evolving to consistently improve the quality of healthcare delivery. Hospital information system has been an impactful technological breakthrough, enabling effective patient records maintenance and efficient patient data management – to aid healthcare professionals in delivering a higher level of experience to patients. With the growing adoption of information systems by hospitals and other healthcare entities, the industry has been witnessing visible transformation in their inventory functionality, in addition to an improved administration system.

As hospital information systems contain all the minor and critical data related to patients, the utilization of these systems can potentially help healthcare professionals provide customized treatments. While this still remains a relatively less untapped area, it certainly has the capability to assist medical professionals with quick and hassle-free information access.

Mubadala Healthpoint is keeping up with the cutting edge Hospital Information Systems

In collaboration with Cerner, Mubadala Healthpoint has recently upgraded to the latest version of Hospital Information Systems. The simplicity and reliability with which this hospital information system has been designed are expected to act as the help desk for patients to help them understand the entire treatment process. The hospital association would be able to keep consistent records helping them access the right information at the right time, and eventually deciding the correct line of treatment. With this new advancement in their system, Mubadala Healthpoint aspires to achieve greater standards of providing excellent healthcare to their patients.

Advanced Cardiac Centres at PGIMER to deploy information systems for Anesthesia

The deployment of Anesthesia Information Management System (AIMS) that would be linked to the existing hospital information system of the PGIMER operation theatres, is another innovation on the hospital information systems space. While this innovation is intended to aggregate patient data from the equipment used during surgeries, it will allow real-time visualization of the patient data even from distant locations. Such a system is efficiently performs data analysis and predictive analysis for decision making with respect to the safety of patients.

The widespread application of information technology in other fields is seeing its traces in the healthcare sector as well. With an efficient and up-to-date hospital information system, providing better treatments and healthcare has become relatively more feasible for hospitals and other facilities. This approach helps not only to treat hospitalized patients well but also to assist patients once they discharge. Hospital information systems have therefore, triggered the power of technology into the healthcare sector.

Connected Technology Drives Efficient Energy Management in Households

With the technological advent, mankind is surrounded by various devices that could simplify the routine lifestyle and perform regular tasks at an improved speed, and with high accuracy – when compared to manual performance. Connected homes or smart homes is one such intelligent technological innovation that modernizes homes into a connected system that can be controlled and monitored dynamically. Having said that, the addition of connected homes to the list of impactful technologies discovered in recent decades, has given life a whole new dimension.

Connected homes are playing a vital role in the growing implementation of the smart city concept worldwide. The idea of connected homes is the perfect combination of advanced communication and home area networks, facilitating a series of critically important tasks in households with the help of relevant data. Right from high level monitoring and tracking of electricity usage and overall energy consumption, to allowing complete control over connected appliances, the connected homes technology is transforming the way households have been working over the years.

Voice-control enabled connected homes – An initiative towards efficient energy management

A value-based smart home brand, Jeeo, easing its way towards designing energy efficient homes, recently announced its first step in the smart and connected homes realm – with voice-control enabled devices such as smart light bulbs. The company’s Wi-Fi LED light bulbs can be directly connected to a home Wi-Fi network, offering brightness and scheduling control through their mobile app. The color lamps come with special recurring features, which enable the lamps to adjust the intensity of light and temperature accordingly. Similar features are likely to regulate the energy consumption patterns within households, eventually extending support to a sustainable lifestyle.

Optimum energy usage is the ultimate objective

With the growing use of electronics and Internet enabled devices, there is tremendous amount of energy consumption, which needs to be managed efficiently so as to support a few more devices as well. The connected homes technology facilitates this through controlling the energy usage either from home or remotely. From smart thermostats that regulate indoor temperature according to external weather conditions, to smart controllers that switch off the lights of unoccupied rooms, this technology holds the potential to take the control of everything inside the futuristic homes. Optimal management of energy consumption has been one of most sought after research areas over the past few decades, which is evidently gaining momentum with the connected homes technology.

Discovering Possibilities to Treat Huntington’s Disease

Medical science has been successful in various aspects in terms of treating diseases that had no cure earlier. Similar dilemma was being experienced with the process of finding a possible treatment for neurodegenerative diseases. Even after achieving advancement in the various genetic diseases, researchers have repeatedly failed to taste success in case of Huntington’s disease. This genetic neurological disease, having no definite cure, is an inherited disorder that kills brain cells. Progressing towards death, this rare disease is diagnosed in the 30s-40s of age. The disease deteriorates patients’ physical and mental abilities. Weight-loss is one prominent complication that worsens the symptoms and weakens the patients.

Researchers have been seeking the probable treatments or therapies which could help control the progressing symptoms, if not entirely cure this fatal disorder. Current medications are observed only to help control one of its symptoms of involuntary movements, however, provide no great help in suppressing the disease.

Study conducted to achieve the control on Huntington’s disease

Duke University’s neurologist, Dr. La Spada’s team focused on advancing in Huntington’s treatment for which they tested a drug developed for the treatment of diabetes. However, it was repurposed due to its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. Similarly, they tested a cancer drug that enabled a mice having Huntington’s disease- like ailment, to move more easily and recover from brain deterioration. Several other tests and researches are being done in this context to combine the drugs for a better result.

A new theory that may potentially address Huntington’s disease

Canadian researchers are working on improving the situation of treatments and therapies. The research is based on the idea that talks about is rare type of signals received from damaged DNA indicating huntingtin activity in DNA repair. This signaling is flawed in Huntington’s disease which could result in shifting the course of the Huntington’s disease.

Cognitive advancement in Huntington’s disease patients due to D-PUFA

Using D-PUFA drug, there was a visible disease-modifying effect like cognition and movements on this rare neurodegenerative disease. D-PUFA was seen eliminating the usual obstacle in neurodegenerative diseases of not being able to access tissues.

Innovative research initiatives like these have the capabilities to break through the unsolved mysteries of this fatal ailment. The more the neurodegenerative diseases are studied, that closer, researchers would get to alter the course of Huntington’s disease

The Most Efficient and Convincing Small Business Tools

It is not always easy to find the right business tools to help automate your processes. Automation tools are like having an extra employee for a low monthly cost that will keep your business on track and ahead of your competition. However, before using any, it is always imperative to make sure if these business tools are right for your business – demos and free trials are always there.

Some of the most popular small business tools are listed below.

Trello: Some people use Trello for grocery lists, while others use it for their high-growth businesses. Different tasks can be easily moved around and tagged with other users. Or if you want to quickly check in or change something up, then Trello is one of the best business tools to have.

WorkflowMax: We are aware of the term that project management is a mess of paperwork, folders files, whiteboards, and calendars. WorkflowMax is one of the most efficient business tools that allows users to create professional, instant quotes for potential clients. This tool is perfect for freelancers and small businesses who needs to provide a service and bill based on time.

Slack: Slack is one of the most popular and amazing business tools that helps you to stay in touch with your team, by giving your team members a workspace with organized and accessible conversations. In Slack, a searchable archive of team conversations is available so that every team member has an access to the required answers.

Groove: Groove is one such business tools where you can quickly and easily set up all the customer service options you want in one place. The main focus of this business tools is helping the small businesses to grow and making easy for teams to work out of internally. This is an excellent option in all the business tools to keep your customer service simple and effective.

Asana: While talking about project management business tools, there is no other tool is even closer to Asana. Asana is fast, intuitive, and easy to manipulate. The arrangement features and user interface of Asana, makes it easy to navigate, prioritize, and organize. Asana also takes the form of a check list and you can mark tasks completed as you go. While working on projects, Asana makes it easy to communicate with your team members, since there are notes and comment sections for each project.

MailChimp: We all hate getting mails, but if we think as a marketer we all know that people still read the emails, and even if they don’t they at least see who is sending them emails. So getting into your potential, current, or past customers’ inbox is a joyous thing that you should take seriously. MailChimp is one such business tools that allows you to create automated email campaigns, so you need to do the work once, and let them do the rest for you.

Looking forward to Improved Business Responses to Customers? Chatbots is the Answer!

Chatbots are one of the most talked about technological wonders that has the potential to change the way businesses respond to customer queries. This extraordinary software is programmed to interact with humans in order to cater to their needs and queries. We have seen the application of chatbots in messaging apps to improve the users messaging experience. This technology is now transforming the processes of business entities.

When we talk about businesses adopting chatbots, there are various reasons why chatbots work just fine. Combining the aspects of messaging, human conversations and operability, chatbots help businesses to create a well-designed experience for their customers, resulting in faster and more efficient responses.

African businesses unleashing the power of technology with chatbots

Oracle recently announced the availability of mobile and chatbots capabilities in their Oracle Cloud Platform Services that would help businesses to adapt to the rapidly changing technological trends. In the mobile-centric age, it is essential for businesses to find better ways to engage with customers smartly. Customers today, expect personalized attention to their needs and support queries. Businesses are therefore, constantly indulging in active engagement and fast response techniques for their customers to provide them a better and cognitive experience. Hence, Oracle is here for their rescue, providing integrated, secure, well programmed and seamless services which include chatbots.

While there was a considerable rise of chatbots on messaging apps, they would now be incorporated in the banking sectors, e-commerce business as well as retail, a recent trend says. Creating a better user experience shows its implementation of advanced business strategy which could be very beneficial for businesses today. E-commerce businesses could successfully cater to their customer needs by being able to provide a good interactive support for all their customers worldwide. Chatbots don’t just improve the customer experience, but also help businesses become more cost effective and reduce the amount of human hours and revenue that goes into customer service.

Chatbots change the way businesses interact with their customers

Besides, chatbots have an access of broader array of information and can respond to service queries with greater accuracy and speed 24/7, so that the customers do not have to wait. They replace the humans for certain tasks related to customer assistance, leaving the human staff to take care of complex business processes. The increasing importance of customer satisfaction and better service for prospects along with advent of technologies businesses must adopt these newer and advanced technological innovations. With the changing requirements, the type of chatbots also keep changing so that businesses could to be adapting to the change

Advances in Sonodynamic Therapy (SDT) Offer a Promising Non-invasive Approach in Cancer Treatment

We are all well known of the fact that cancer has become the first killer of human health, and anticancer therapy has attracted more attention of researchers from all over the world. Currently, four main methods are clinically applied in cancer treatments but every kind of treatment has its own limitations which are the major challenges for cancer treatment.

Being developed as a novel promising noninvasive approach, Sonodynamic Therapy (SDT) is derived from photodynamic therapy (PDT). The major difference between Sonodynamic Therapy and Photodynamic Therapy is the energy source used to activate the sensitizers. Photodynamic therapy is not effective for the treatment of deep-seated tumors due to its short penetration depth of light. However, the significant advantage of Sonodynamic Therapy over Photodynamic Therapy is that ultrasound can be tightly focused with penetration in soft tissue up to several tens of centimeters.

Anticancer effect of Sonodynamic Therapy

With an evolving methodology, sonodynamic therapy offers the possibility of non-invasively eradicating solid tumors in a site-directed manner. A high therapeutic efficacy of sonodynamic therapy in cancers is resulting from the comprehensive functions. According to several investigations, it is confirmed that the production of a large amount of intracellular Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) induced by sonodynamic therapy can produce direct cytotoxicity in cancer cells. The sonodynamic therapy can also possess the modulation effects on cancer microenvironment, e.g., the suppression effect on tumor vasculature and the stimulation effect on the tumor immunity, which inhibit the growth of cancers.

Role of sonosensitizers

Sonosensitizer is considered as an important element in sonodynamic therapy, which can maximize the effects of ultrasonic irradiation. Sonosensitizers have achieved rapid development in the past decades, based on the known mechanisms of cell apoptosis or cell death induced SDT. Moreover, the selection of a suitable sonosensitizer in carrying out SDT on cancers has become an important issue in current investigations.

Modulation effects of SDT on Cancer microenviroment

Cancer microenvironment describes cellular environments in which the tumor exists. It includes surrounding blood vessels, fibroblasts, immune cells, bone marrow-derived inflammatory cells, signaling molecules, lymphocytes, and the extracellular matrix. The surrounding microenvironment and the tumor are intimately related and interact constantly. While the tumor microenvironment provide the support for the growth and metastasis of cancer cells, the tumors can influence the microenvironment by releasing extracellular signals, promoting tumor angiogenesis and inducing peripheral immune tolerance,. Recently, several investigations have showed that sonodynamic therapy can efficiently modulate the tumor microenvironment.

A significant body of data has demonstrated therapeutic effectiveness of sonodynamic therapy in cancer treatment. In view of the significant depth that ultrasound penetrates tissue, sonodynamic therapy provides an advantage over photodynamic therapy, in which less penetrating light is employed. More work needs to be done before sonodynamic therapy is accepted as an adjuvant or replacement method for traditional cancer treatment. More data necessary to ascertain the actual anticancer activities of sonodynamic therapy will be acquired in the near future.

Innovations & Future Opportunities in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

Radio frequency identification (RFID) has made remarkable progress since it was generated. With a huge potential, today, RFID technology has become one of the most blooming technology with numerous applications. When RFID technology is mixed with printing technology, new and better opportunities are created. While printing an entire RFID chip and antenna has become possible to print, still RFID technology is considered impractical for real world application.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a method of communicating data between an electronic tag and a reader with radio waves, and this technology is generally used for tracking and identification purposes. Currently some of the major areas for RFID are in public inventory tracking, transportation, animal identification, logistics, and asset management. RFID technology is so competent and beneficial that a few companies are initiating measures to make a requirement for its suppliers in order to participate in an RFID system. Adding of the printing technology is believed to be the key method for future innovation in RFID technology.

New Opportunities in RFID Technology

When electronic tag is directly put onto a product, it gives way to ideas such as smart cards, smart labels, and smart packaging and these ideas rely on RFID technology to create a system to replace barcodes. Printing the antenna that extends the radio waves transmitted and reduces cost by eliminating the previous method of etched antenna is currently the actual printing portion of RFID technology. The electronic tag or chip is attached once the antenna is printed.

If we talk about the market for RFID printing, it is small due to the expense of the process and materials. Even with the reduction in cost with a printed antenna, the process is currently is a bit expensive, but necessary majors are been taken to make it cheaper. What poses a great challenge for printing technology is to make possible that the chip could be printed as well as the antenna. Once the necessary technology for RFID printing exists, there will be an outburst of opportunities in new markets.

Printed RFID Tags

One of the most innovative and useful labeling and product tracking RFID technology is RFID printers. The current theory on RFID printers is based on carbon nanotube technology. The carbon nanotubes are infused with ink and printed on using inkjet technology, which is a printing process where very fine ink droplets are sprayed in a controlled manner on to a substrate or printing surface. There is an ability to print thin film transistors with the help of inkjet printing process and carbon nanotube infused ink combined, which is indeed there is a key element in RFID printers. These printable transistors can be printed on paper or plastic.

With the emerging RFID technology, the future for printed RFID tags become clearer. Though there are several obstacles blocking the success of printed RFID tags, the thrilling potential of RFID technology is uncovering the advancements in printed RFID tags