Introduction to Physiotronics [TM]

This week I spent a bit of time with Dr. J. C. Chiao, of University of Texas at Arlington, learning about the field of Physiotronics [TM], which covers the area of Implantable Wireless Medical Devices and Systems. With the recent suicide of my wife due to chronic pain, from Intracranial Hypotension caused by leaking Cerebralspinal Fluid (CSF Leak), the information on An integrated wireless body network for chronic pain management. The system provides a wireless closed loop for neurorecorders to recognize pain signals and neurostimulators to inhibit pain is of great personal interest. Page two and six are the pain related ones.

Perception of pain requires propagation of Neural Signal Action Potentials (APs) via communication between neurons (Nociceptors) over Nociceptive afferent fibers (Aδ, C).

Dr. Chaio's group is currently doing animal trails, with rats, of their APRI [TM]: Automatic Pain Recognition and Inhibition which is a closed-loop On-demand feedback system that is measuring the actual nerve signals that transmit pain to the brain. To my knowledge all other current techniques use only subjective methods of those in actual pain, such as the Mosby Pain Rating Scale, or fiddling with the knobs of a TENS unit far to much as Karen often did. The closed loop system will allow for less pain medication to be injected, and being automatic allow the user to get on with having a life.

I do have one significant concern, due to my bias of not wanting to puncture the spinal dura, which is what causes Intracranial Hypotension, is currently the neural sensors require physical contact with the pain sensing nerve. I'm hoping this does not cause erosion of the dura leading to a CFS Leak. This may be nothing but my personal parainoia.

Also I'm not sure Dr. Chiao, and the medical field at large, understand the importance of the ratio encoding of the nervous system. Something I researched extensively when working with Dr. Flanagan on an update to his Neurophone [TM] years ago. You can read my old research here: Mind9.

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This weekend is your last chance to vote for my device in the Dare to Dream Medical Device Contest: How do we make this device happen?. If you are having trouble voting in the device contest from a phone use this link and vote for #5, "Intracranial Cerebrospinal Fluid Pressure Regulator". See here for more information.

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Is consciences itself influencing your Embedded System?

This week [Sept. 20th 2013] I spent a fascinating evening with Bob Jahn and Brenda Dunne of the former Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) laboratory, who are now running the International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL). Bob Jahn is Emeritus Professor of Aerospace Sciences and Dean Emeritus of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences of Princeton University. He was founder and director of PEAR from its inception in 1979 until its closing in 2007, with Brenda serving as its laboratory manager. Bob is now Chairman of ICRL and Brenda serves as its President.

Bob and Brenda over 28 years investigated psi from an engineering point of view. That is, the primary subject of their human/machine experiments was not the human, but the machine. This shift in emphasis required different experimental designs based on the accumulation of very large databases from a relatively small group of human operators, manipulation of physical variables rather than psychological ones, and data processing and statistical techniques drawn from engineering practice.

The way we pose our questions can frequently affect the answers we get.

PEAR experiments involved many different types of Random Event Generators. For our discussion here I assume the REG is based on the decay of a radioactive element. It is impossible to know when a radioactive particle will be emitted from a mass. The unpredictably of this emission form a random event that is coupled into a logic system to record such events.

Lets assume we have a simple apparatus of three bins in which a collection of balls can accumulate. The bin on the left is called the 'low-side', middle bin the 'baseline' and the bin on the right is called the 'high-side'.

The Random Event Generator determines which of the three bins the balls will fall into. Over a long enough period of time, without any outside influences, the three bins will accumulate the same number of balls.

Now the fascinating part to me is that untrained operators (that is people that claim no special abilities of any kind) can influence which bin gets the most balls. It gets even more interesting that the device can be influenced remotely from the present, past or future! Time and distance are a construction of our current physical understanding of the world, however they are not a requirement of Nature. In their studies they did determine that this is a wave-based phenomenon and not particle based.

What I found strangest of all (as if this all isn't strange enough) is that the influence on the devices were gender specific. Males who could see the device had the best outcomes of getting the balls to fall into the bins of their choosing. Females regardless of their choice tended to have the balls fall into the 'high' bin. Bonded couples (that is dating or married heterosexual couples) had a seven fold increase in the balls falling into the bin of their choosing. Pairs of males or pairs of females had no better outcomes than an individual operator of the same gender.

PEAR accumulated billions of bits of data from the REGs of many types and found the same outcomes over 28 years of study.

So what do we do with this knowledge? At this point I have no idea. However maybe the next time the customer complains that something was not working perhaps we should ask them what they were thinking at the time of the anomaly...

Dare to Dream Medical Device Contest: How do we make this device happen?

On August 7th, my wife of twenty years committed suicide.

For twenty-four year she battled with Chronic Pain, that she ultimately lost to suicide, when she could take the pain from Intracranial Hypotension, caused by leaking Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF Leak), no longer.

I refuse to let Karen's death be in vane, see about donating her spine: http://blog.softwaresafety.net/2013/08/my-wifes-suicide.html.

Now I need your help. I know some of you work in the medical device field. Now do we make this device happen (I know it is a slow process), see below?

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[Bob you] have been selected as a finalist for the Dare-To-Dream Medtech Design Challenge. Please see the announcement and who else made the list at:

http://www.mddionline.com/article/10-finalists-announced-dare-dream-medtech-design-challenge-slideshow.

10 Finalists Announced For Dare-to-Dream Medtech Design Challenge (slideshow).

Editors have already scored the submissions. Now it's up to readers.

##** Get your friends, co-workers and family to vote on your entry. **##

The scores will be added to reader votes and a grand prize winner and two runners up will be announced Oct. 1.

This one is mine: Intracranial Cerebrospinal Fluid Pressure Regulator.

Vote on which of the ten designs you'd like to see become reality here:

http://www.mddionline.com/article/10-finalists-announced-dare-dream-medtech-design-challenge-voting.

If you are having trouble voting in the device contest from a phone use this link and vote for #5, "Intracranial Cerebrospinal Fluid Pressure Regulator":

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=2L7no9rcr7qpPai4L4ASqw%3D%3D&h=iAQHT72JN

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When I saw this contest announced I thought it was a good way to get the issue of Intracranial Hypotension in front of the group of people, Nerds like me, that design medical devices, so that someday this group will have a solution to IH.

Wining the contest will get IH in front of even more people. However wining is that not important to me, I'll be donating the proceeds to IH research. What I want accomplish is getting IH in front of the people that can do something about it. I know some of you work in the medical device field. Now do we make this device happen (I know it is a slow process)?

See animation of pump here:

http://www.newscaletech.com/applications/fluidics.php

http://www.newscaletech.com/doc_downloads/Positive_Displacement_Microfluidic_Pump.pdf

http://www.ams.com/eng/Products/Piezo-Motor-Drivers

Karen's complete medical history is here http://www.kpaddock.com.

Updates on her facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/karen.s.paddock

Thank you for your help.

Reminder: "The Codebreaker": A film about Alan Turing-to youngstown state university, in two weeks

Reminder: "The Codebreaker": A film about Alan Turing-to youngstown state university, in two weeks on Sept. 12th.

NASA's first-ever Software Engineering Handbook (SWEHB) released to the public

After years in the making, NASA has now released to the public their first-ever Software Engineering Handbook (SWEHB); NASA-HDBK-2203 (2013-02-28).

YouTube video showing how a person can navigate through the NASA Software Engineering Handbook to find software engineering related information. This video is about ten minutes long and can be used as a good training or awareness tool.

Each section of the SWEHB provides six areas of information per entry: the requirement, its rationale, guidance for implementation, notes for small projects, associated resources, and related lessons learned.

The 135 software engineering requirements for NASA projects are listed in a small, blue booklet, seventy pages long, called NASA Procedural Requirement (NPR) 7150.2 AKA NASA Software Engineering Requirements; View all pages in PDF. The new handbook is "A sort of hitchhiker's guide to the NPR". The handbook does not impose additional requirements; it is meant to be an assist.

Haley Stephenson explains how the SWEHB was developed as a collaborative Wiki in The Hitchhiker's Guide to Software Engineering at NASA. Many mangers do not seem to appreciate the value of using something like Dokuwiki to collaborate and document the development of a project. Without such documentation, years later, we are left to wonder "why did we use the red widget, rather than the better blue widget?". Perhaps they are afraid of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 26; Duty to Disclose; General Provisions Governing Discovery? See also Michael Barr's Dead Code, the Law, and Unintended Consequences.

Always keep in mind that Software never works in isolation. Safe Software is useless if the system as a whole is not safe. To that end make sure that NASA Systems Engineering Handbook (in PDF here) has a place on your desk or bookcase.

Related Documents:

• Standard for Software Assurance with Requirements Compliance Matrix [MS_Word] and Requirements Compliance Matrix [MS_Excel].
• Software assurance standard; NASA-STD-8739.8 (2004-07-28)
• Software Safety Standard; NASA-STD-8719.13 (2013-05-07)
• Software Formal Inspections Standard; NASA-STD-8739.9 (2013-06-17)

My wife's Suicide

I have worked with many of you over the years. You know that I'd occasionally be absent for that planed meeting and recently was out of town for a few months to get my wife treatment for a Cerebral Spinal Fluid Leak (CSF or CFSL); Intracranial Hypotension.

Her problems started with a car accident 23+ years ago and it was only last fall that she learned, through her own studies, that the cause of her debilitating headaches were from CSFL.

Your brain is supposed to be floating around in your skull as a protective shock absorber. A leak of this fluid cause the brain to start hitting things and yanking on things that were never meant to be yanked.

Ultimately she could bare the pain no longer and this Wednesday, Aug./7th/2013, she took her own life to stop the pain.

There are no words to describe the emptiness I fell right now. If you have a wife/spouse/significant other make sure you appreciate all the things they do for you, and let them know it. Also make sure you know how to do the important ones too. At the moment I have no idea how to pay the gas bill on the on line account she setup. Would you know the passwords if you had to take over this duty? Fortunately I do in this case as she was good at keeping some of them written down, but alas not all of them.

Her funeral is tomorrow, August 12 2013.

The research into CFS Leaks is only about ten years old and Karen had this problem for nearly 24 years. We only know two people that are known to have had it longer at 26 and 32 years.

I refuse to let Karen's death be in vane. To that end I am paying for a private autopsy to be done Monday morning Aug. 12th, even tho the cause of death is known. The reason for the autopsy is to have her spine removed. It will be sent to Duke Medical School to be studied in the hopes something may be learned to prevent an other suffer of this painful condition from taking the same route Karen did to end her pain.

Karen touched so many lives that the outpouring of sympathy and support has been amazing that I can not keep up with the number of people she helped. I will be updating Karen's web site with more details and resources to help others, and most of all educate doctors about CSFL.

It was always hard to get Karen to leave the house on time for any event. She may indeed be late getting to her own funeral...

Bringing the movie "The Codebreaker": A film about Alan Turing-to youngstown state university. Free Viewing with Executive Producer Patrick Sammon Questions and Answers

The Northeast Ohio Professional Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (NEOACM), in association with the Youngstown State University's Student ACM and Computer Science Department is sponsoring a college screening of a drama-documentary on the life of Alan Turing titled CODEBREAKER. Patrick Sammon, the Executive Producer and Creator of CODEBREAKER, will attend this screening to introduce the film and provide Q & A afterward. This screening will be free and open to the public and will take place on September 12, 2013 at the Williamson Auditorium on Youngstown State University's campus. NEOACM is looking for sponsors for this event.

This drama-documentary is about the heroic life, death, and legacy of Alan Turing, one of the 20th century's most influential scientists, yet few people have heard his name, know his story, or understand his legacy. Turing was a British mathematician and logician, who made major contributions to mathematics, cryptanalysis, logic, philosophy, and biology. He also laid the foundations for computer and cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and artificial life thus laying the foundation for our modern society. Turing's crucial involvement in breaking the German naval Enigma code during World War II is accredited by historians in helping shorten the war by two years and saving millions of lives. Tragically, this great mind only lived 41 years. In 1952, British police arrested him for having a relationship with another man. Two years later, Turing committed suicide due to events surrounding his arrest.



Considering Turing's wide influence, this film is ideal to be watched by students and professionals of a wide variety of disciplines including computer science, mathematics, engineering, informatics, information security, biology, and history. During 2012, marked the 100th anniversary of Alan Turing's birth, universities, technology centers, and professional associations worldwide celebrated by honoring his legacy. This special screening will enlighten a well-varied audience and inspire them to value diversity in their profession and in our world.
It is our hope you will see the value of this screening on YSU's campus and will choose to serve as a sponsor for this important event or join as an advertiser!
If you have any additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact Tracey Hughes: secretary@neoacmchapter.org

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Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage Act or SHIELD Act, to prevent EMP damage

Can your teenage children survive without Texting or Internet, for a day, a weak or years? Recent storms across the country have had many go without power for days, and a few people without power for weeks. Now consider what happens when the power goes out for years. The U.S. has 80,000 miles of extra-high voltage (EHV) transmission lines making up the backbone transmission grid that enables the long-haul transport of electricity for our nation, all of it acting as a giant antenna to pick up Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) events. Such a EMP event could come from natural solar storms or a man made deliberate attack. "The first warning the U.S. would have of such a strike in progress would be the EMP..."

Congressional documents (see below) from the Committee on armed services indicate that a small nuclear device detonated 250 miles above northeastern Nebraska would have wide spread devastation throughout the continental United States, as well as Canada and Mexico.

As hard as it is to believe, Congress (113th Congress, 1st Session) actually tries to do something that makes sense on a very rare occasion. In this case they created H. R. 2417 "Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage Act" or the "SHIELD Act":

Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage Act or SHIELD Act - Amends the Federal Power Act [16 U.S.C. § 824a(c)] to authorize the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), with or without notice, hearing, or report, to order emergency measures to protect the reliability of either the bulk-power system or the defense critical electric infrastructure whenever the President issues a written directive or determination identifying an imminent grid security threat.

Directs FERC to consult with governmental authorities in Canada, Mexico, and the Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) regarding implementation of emergency measures.

Prescribes: (1) implementation procedures; and (2) related cost recovery measures affecting owners, operators, and users of either the bulk-power system or the defense critical electric infrastructure.

Directs FERC to require any owner, user, or operator of the domestic bulk-power system to implement measures to protect the system against specified vulnerabilities.

Requires FERC to issue an order directing ERO to submit for approval, within 30 days, a reliability standard requiring implementation, by any owner, operator, or user of the bulk-power system in the United States, of measures to protect the bulk-power system against an identified grid security vulnerability (including a protection plan with automated hardware-based solutions [This could be creating a new market area for Embedded Systems]).

Directs FERC also to order the ERO to submit reliability standards to: (1) protect the bulk-power system from a reasonably foreseeable geomagnetic storm event or electromagnetic pulse event (EMP); and (2) require entities that own or operate large transformers to ensure their adequate availability to restore promptly the reliable operation of the bulk-power system in the event of destruction or disability as a result of attack or a geomagnetic storm or EMP.

Directs the Secretary of Energy to establish a program to: (1) develop technical expertise in the protection of electric energy systems against either geomagnetic storms or malicious acts using electronic communications or electromagnetic weapons; and (2) share it with owners, operators, or users of systems for the generation, transmission, or distribution of electric energy located in the United States and with state commissions.

If you are not familiar with the potential threat from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) events, I've have explained how it works and the decades worth of damage that could be caused in the past:

• Scientists, Politicians Take Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Threat Seriously. Human Exposure to EM Fields.
• Natural or man-made EMP attack on the horizon?
• Comet to cause EMP Armageddon? Are you prepared for EMP?
• DHS Study of Critical Infrastructure Risks from GPS Disruptions.
• From Its Birthplace: A Symposium on the Future of Nuclear Power, March 27 and 28th and the coming Grid Collapse.

Some of the mega-transformers have a two year lead time, when they need to be replaced. 90% of consumed power passes through a high voltage transformer at some point. If these transformers fail, especially in large numbers, therein lies a very big problem. --- Power Hungry: Prototyping Replacement EHV Transformers EHV transformers, and the nation's electric grid, are on the Department of Homeland Security's mind.

Alas in typical politics can't just get something done in one try, H.R. 2417 has been handed off to the Energy & Commerce Committee, where it may take a EMP event to get it moving...You may want to speak to your congressional representative about this issue.

Not addressed is the issue of the cost to the 'user', which is you and I. In typical government overreach The Man could come and demand that you retrofit your house with EMP protection, at your expense. On the upside the massive and permanent failure of The Grid could finally result in things like Cold Fusion becoming a reality on a large scale.

Make no mistake here, far more than just The Grid will fail during a EMP event. Potentially every unprotected semiconductor, that is your fancy phone for example, could be damaged beyond any hope of repair. The hobby of Steampunk, that typically features steam-powered machinery, could suddenly go from a hobby of some, to the survival of the fittest for all in a EMP flash...

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Congressional Committee on armed services EMP reports, and other government documents:

• Threat Posed by Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) to U.S. Military Systems and Civil Infrastructure.; July 16, 1997
• Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP): should this be a problem of national concern to private enterprise, businesses small and large, as well as government?; June 1, 1999
• The report of the commission to assess the threat to the u.s. from electromagnetic pulse attack.; July 22, 2004
• Terrorism and the EMP threat to homeland security.; March 8, 2005
• R. James Woolsey testimony before the house Committee on Energy and Commerce.; May 21, 2013 "Information Warfare Operation of Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. These potential adversaries in their military doctrines include as a dimension of cyber warfare a wide spectrum of operations beyond computer viruses, including sabotage and kinetic attacks, up to and including nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack..."