Free Republic

In the face of diabetes, a common condition in which glucose and levels of destructive inflammation soar, whole body vibration appears to improve how well our body uses glucose as an energy source and adjust our microbiome and immune cells to deter inflammation, investigators report. For the first time they have described how regular use of whole body vibration can create this healthier mix by yielding a greater percentage of macrophages—cells that can both promote or prevent inflammation—that suppress rather than promote. In their mouse model, investigators at the Medical College of Georgia and Dental College of Georgia at Augusta...

BROOKSVILLE (FOX 13) - Some neighbors in Hernando County have had it with the noise. They say all-night construction on I-75 is keeping them awake, even shaking their homes. It's all related to a 6.5-mile, $95 million FDOT project that started last summer. Crews are currently widening Interstate 75 from four to six lanes, starting south of State Road 50 and finishing at the Hernando/Sumter County line. Lauretta Clemons, who lives on Shadywood Lane in Brooksville, remembers her backyard 30 years ago. "Beautiful," Clemons said. "Trees, ferns, flowers, birds and wild animals." Now, the trees are gone and she and...

Aircraft DATE:18/02/11 SOURCE:Flight International Vibrating cockpit seat proposed for pilot alerts By David Kaminski-Morrow Boeing has floated the possibility of using vibrating cockpit seats as an alternative mechanism to visual and aural indicators on the flightdeck. Its suggestion is contained in a newly published patent document that details a proposal for a module mounted beneath the pilot's seat which, once triggered, would provide a tactile signal to the crew. While the document mentions various types of alerts requiring immediate pilot action - such as terrain-avoidance or stall-warning alarms - it says there are several other instances during flight where the...

MUMBAI: Madonna swears by it, Michael Jordan has dunked for it and Claudia Schiffer is hooked to it. Will Mumbai jump for it? A vibrating platform, the favourite gym accessory of several celebrities, is the latest arrival in Mumbai's fitness market and is making its appearance in some high-end gyms across the city. A 10-minute, three-days-a-week whole body vibration (WBV) workout sounds like the perfect prescription for the hassled-for-time Mumbaikar. But does it work? WBV is said to be the key to Madonna's hot bod, the athleticism of the sultan of slam-dunk and model Schiffer's sleek-as-a-Ferrari frame. According to desi...

     

Generators fabricated from wires only nanometers or billionths of a meter wide can convert vibrations to electricity, experts told UPI's Nano World. These nanogenerators could help power nanoscale devices without the need for unwieldy batteries, finding use in everything from portable electronics and wireless nanosensors to medical implants, said researcher Zhong Lin Wang, a nanotechnologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. "There is a lot of mechanical energy available in our environment," Wang said. The generators could, for instance, harvest energy from body motions, muscle stretching and blood pressure or from sea, wind or acoustic waves or...