Tag Archives: safer

Inflatable Helmets: The Inventor Advocates for a Safer Cycling Future

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As per the World Health Organization, approximately 41,000 individuals lose their lives each year while cycling. The exact number of those who were not wearing helmets remains unclear, but it is evident that helmets act as a deterrent for many.

Cycling UK, along with various charities advocating for bicycle use, suggests that when helmet usage is mandated, the number of people opting to cycle tends to decline.

For evidence, one can look at Australia, where after New South Wales and Melbourne implemented mandatory helmet laws, cycling rates in those two states dropped by 36%.

Research indicates that the hesitation to wear helmets stems largely from doubts about their protective capabilities and the challenges associated with their storage and cost. However, Ventete, a UK startup, aims to address these issues.

Storage issues

The AH-1 is an inflatable helmet, designed in the UK and manufactured in Switzerland, taking a decade to develop.

While earlier inflatable helmets functioned like airbags—only inflating upon impact—the AH-1 inflates using an electric pump before use, taking about 30 seconds to reach the optimal pressure of 32 psi.

Once used, the AH-1 can shrink to a compact size of less than 4 cm (1.5 inches) thick, making it easy to store almost anywhere.

“We recognized that many people are not fans of traditional helmets due to issues of portability,” says Colin Harperger, co-founder of Ventete. “This inspired us to transform 3D objects (helmets) into easily stored 2D objects.”

“The AH-1 comprises 11 inflatable chambers,” Harperger elaborates. “Each chamber is encased in protective ribs made from laminated nylon that resists punctures, wear, and stretching. The ribs are molded from glass-reinforced polymers, offering extra structural robustity.”

Each rib is additionally lined with rubber to help absorb impact energy.

A cyclist himself, Harperger knew that the pneumatic structure provides more compression than conventional helmets made of expanded polystyrene (EPS), yet there was initially no technology available to realize his vision.

“About five years ago, we experienced a breakthrough. After several iterations, we developed the AH-1.”

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Safety Standards

While being inflatable enhances convenience in storage, what about safety? Can it effectively protect your head? Currently, the Ventetete AH-1 holds an EN 1078 certification.

This certification aligns with both European and UK safety standards, covering the helmet’s construction, field of view, and shock absorption capabilities. However, not all helmets provide the same level of protection.

“Once you achieve certification, you are not obligated to publish your findings,” Harperger points out. “We collaborated with brain injury specialists from the Human Experience, Analysis and Design (Head) Lab at Imperial College London, addressing similar concerns.

After use, the AH-1 can shrink to less than 4 cm (1.5 inches) thick.

“The highlight for us was achieving a 44.1% reduction in linear risk compared to the best-performing EPS helmet,” Harperger stated.

Linear risk relates to forces such as impacting the head against a surface, and reducing impact leads to decreased risk. “It may sound counterintuitive, but I aim to extend the impact duration to prevent the head from bouncing off.”

Imagine falling onto a bed rather than a hardwood floor. The impact on the hardwood floor is brief but increases the likelihood of brain movement within the skull.

“By prolonging the impact duration, we significantly reduce linear risk.”

This testing also looked at rotational impact, which assesses forces like twists or shears occurring when the helmet hits the ground at an angle.

In this domain, the AH-1 performed second best among four contenders, falling behind a helmet that includes a secondary inner layer designed to give it a 10-15mm (about 0.5 inch) mobility to reduce rotational forces affecting the brain.

These secondary layers are often found in higher-end helmets; however, the AH-1 aims to make these features available in more affordable options.

Cost remains a concern. Three helmets were tested, all priced under £50, while the AH-1 retails for £350. Thus, while it may resolve protection and storage issues for those hesitant to wear helmets, the price may still present a barrier.

About our experts

Colin Harperger is the co-founder and CEO of Ventetete. He holds a PhD in Architecture by Design from UCL London, UK.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

3D Printing Pioneers Safer, Long-Term Treatments for Type 1 Diabetes

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Individuals with type 1 diabetes struggle to produce sufficient insulin for blood sugar regulation

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Researchers have developed a 3D-printed device comprising insulin-producing cells, offering potential for long-term management of type 1 diabetes by enabling patients to generate their own insulin without invasive surgery.

Type 1 diabetes patients typically lack the ability to produce enough insulin to manage their blood sugar levels, necessitating regular insulin injections and dietary precautions. A common long-term approach involves transplanting clusters of insulin-producing cells from a donor’s pancreas. However, similar to organ transplants, this method requires invasive surgical procedures.

Quentin Perrier from Wake Forest Research Institute in North Carolina explains, “Currently, the procedure involves injecting human islets into the liver through the portal vein.” Unfortunately, around half of these implanted islets lose their function quickly, necessitating multiple transplants for effective treatment.

By placing islets directly beneath the skin, not only does it minimize surgical invasiveness, but it also alleviates stress and inflammation, factors that can shorten the lifespan of the cells.

Adam Feinberg from Carnegie Mellon University and Fluidform Bio states, “The greater the density, the better the outcome. This approach will reduce the size of the devices required for implantation in patients.”

To achieve this increased density, Perrier and his team utilize 3D printing to create islands from “bioinks” composed of human pancreatic tissue and alginates, a type of carbohydrate derived from seaweed. Living insulin-producing cells are incorporated into this material.

“We combine this bioink with human islets in a syringe and print specialized motifs,” Perrier elaborates. This porous design allows for the development of new blood vessels around the structure.

In laboratory settings, this technique has proven effective, with about 90% of the cells in the islet surviving and functioning for up to three weeks. “The next step is to rigorously test this finding in vivo,” Perrier added. Their research was shared at the 2025 European Organ Transplant Association (ESOT) conference in London on June 29th.

Feinberg and his team have also undertaken the 3D printing of islets themselves. Their technique involves creating a framework akin to “3D printing within a hair gel” by printing cells and collagen directly onto a hydrogel polymer. This was showcased at the International Pancreatic and Islet Transplant Association conference in Pisa, Italy, on June 16th. In diabetic laboratory mice, these islets managed to restore normal glucose control for up to six months.

While Perrier’s findings are “undoubtedly promising,” Feinberg cautions that the inherent variability of human tissues employed in creating the islands can present challenges. “It’s akin to receiving a transplanted organ,” he notes. “The material may function exceptionally well, yet its variability poses challenges and complicates the situation.”

Both Feinberg and Perrier concur that stem cell therapy may hold the key to the future of managing type 1 diabetes. By integrating stem cells into their 3D printing process, they believe this approach could address multiple challenges associated with current cell sources.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Self-driving cars are typically safer than humans in most scenarios, but struggle around curves

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Self-driving car driving through downtown San Francisco

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Self-driving cars may be safer than human drivers in everyday situations, but the technology struggles more than humans in dark places and when turning, according to the largest accident research study to date.

The findings come at a time when self-driving cars are already on the roads in some US cities, and GM-owned Cruise is set to resume testing of driverless cars. Pedestrian dragging incident The March incident prompted California to suspend its license, but Google spinoff Waymo has been gradually expanding its robot taxi operations in Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco.

“It is important to improve the safety of self-driving cars at dawn, dusk or when turning,” he said. Ding Sheng Xuan “Key strategies include strengthening weather and lighting sensors and effectively integrating sensor data,” say researchers from the University of Central Florida.

Ding and his colleagues Mohamed Abdel AtiA team from the University of Central Florida collected data from California and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on 2,100 crashes involving vehicles equipped with some degree of autonomous or driver-assistance technology, as well as more than 35,000 crashes involving unassisted human drivers.

The researchers then used statistical matching techniques to find pairs of accidents that occurred under similar circumstances, with common factors such as road conditions, weather, time of day, whether the accident happened at an intersection or on a straight road, etc. The researchers focused their matching analysis on 548 autonomous vehicle accidents reported in California, excluding less automated vehicles equipped only with driver assistance systems.

Abdel Aty said the overall results suggest that self-driving cars are “generally safer in most situations.” But the analysis also found that self-driving cars are five times more likely to crash when driving at dawn and dusk than human drivers, and are almost twice as likely to crash when making turns.

One obstacle to research is that “the database of autonomous vehicle accidents is still small and limited,” Abdel Aty said. He and Din cited the need for “enhanced autonomous vehicle accident reporting,” a major caveat that independent experts agree with.

“I think this is an interesting, but very early, step in measuring the safety of self-driving cars.” Missy Cummings Cummings, of George Mason University in Virginia, said the number of self-driving car accidents is “too small to make blanket conclusions about the safety of these technologies,” and warned about biased reporting by self-driving car makers. During her time at NHTSA, Cummings said, video footage of accidents didn’t always match the manufacturers’ explanations, which tended to place the blame on the human driver. “When you looked at the actual videos, they told a completely different story,” she said.

He said some minor collisions may not be reported to police, so that factor needs to be taken into account when comparing accidents involving self-driving cars with those involving human drivers. Eric Teo Virginia Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 2017 study Early testing of Google’s self-driving cars found that only three out of 10 accidents made it into police reports.

“Neither California nor NHTSA require comprehensive data reporting on the testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles,” Cho Junfeng “Autonomous vehicles, and especially robotaxis, often operate in specific regions and environments, making it difficult to generalize research findings,” the Arizona State University researchers said.

topic:

  • artificial intelligence/
  • Driverless cars

Source: www.newscientist.com