If conventional speaking valves for tracheostomized patients are used improperly, dangerous overpressure can occur, which can cause serious complications and even death. In a collaboration between the Freiburg Botanical Garden, the Medical Center—University of Freiburg and the Cluster of Excellence livMatS of the University of Freiburg, researchers developed a speaking valve with an integrated pressure release valve and an acoustic warning signal, inspired by the trapping mechanism of the carnivorous bladderwort plant Utricularia vulgaris.
Biomimetic speaking valve technology has enhanced safety features for tracheostomized patients
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The 2012 London Olympics Games serve as a cautionary tale for local communities in host cities—a new study warns. The study by the University of Portsmouth analyzed 20 years of data, from 2001 to 2022. [...]
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The results of the 2024 presidential election cement a trend in American politics: Polls cannot accurately gauge support for Donald Trump. In the 2016, 2020 and now 2024 elections, polls consistently underestimated Trump’s support by [...]
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Despite some progress, women remain seriously underrepresented in politics globally. As of 2023, women held only 26% of parliamentary seats and 15.8% of the positions as heads of state or government.This post was originally published [...]
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The increasingly complex and wide-ranging role of Members of Parliament, and the weight of expectations placed on them by voters, makes it harder for them to seek support for physical or mental health impairments, a [...]
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We distance ourselves from completely neutral products if they are liked by people who have political views that we find disagreeable. This is shown in four studies from Linköping University, Sweden. The behavior is reinforced [...]
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When asked in Arabic about the number of civilian casualties killed in the Middle East conflict, ChatGPT gives significantly higher casualty numbers than when the prompt was written in Hebrew, as a new study by [...]
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This month marks 35 years of DNA evidence being used in Australian legal cases. But unlike DNA firsts in other countries, Australia’s is perhaps the most significant legal milestone that is practically unheard of.This post [...]
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The war in Ukraine has just edged up another notch. It has not been going well for Ukraine in recent months, and this week Joe Biden’s administration made the decision to allow Ukraine to fire [...]
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Intensifying coercive tactics used by repressive states to silence critics abroad requires the set-up of specialist transnational rights protection offices, says a new paper by researchers at Lancaster University and Central European University in Vienna.This [...]
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With social media platforms serving as soapboxes for politicians, campaigns and voters alike, pollsters may be able to better predict election results by tracking the buzz around each candidate on social media, according to a [...]
