Permethrin poisoning in Cats

Permethrin poisoning in Cats 

Lyndsay Williams

21/9/2012

Dot (left) and twin sister Ditto on right, born June 2011.

Cats are well now (21/9/2012) 

From Wikipedia:Permethrin is a common synthetic chemical, widely used as an insecticide, acaricide, and insect repellent.  It is not known to rapidly harm most mammals or birds, but is dangerously toxic to cats and fish.

It is used in popular flea killer sold by large UK Supermarkets.It is probably ok if used with dogs as per instructions but not with cats.From The Feline Advisory Bureau  UK: (year unknown) 

 Permethrin has been reported to be the most common cause of poisoning of cats in the USA and the most common toxicological cause of death of cats reported to the UK Veterinary Poisons Information Service.

Video here, warning slightly distressing but educational. 


This month there has been a large outbreak of fleas in UK re the weather, this BBC report covers it.The carpet in our house and pet bedding was treated as per instructions with a popular yellow  flea powder. I read the small print twice before applying, but  no mention of danger to cats. Unfortunately one of the cats,  Dot, (15 months old) became lethargic, not eating or drinking for several days. We took her to the vet with the flea powder. Vet examined her and noted swollen mouth and bleeding and other malaise and treated her. Vet said poison was "highly likely" due to  Permethrin but cat would probably be "ok".

Dot

I then checked other flea killers available in the UK  and noticed they also contained Permethrin.  I then tried to contact the manufacturer of the flea powder via their web site but no phone number, only email or postal and a response within 28 working  days, i.e. up to 6 weeks!  As the matter was urgent, I contacted them via public means via Twitter and they are now responding, suppling me with a claim form to fill in. It would be useful if these Permethrin based flea powders were labelled as toxic to cats. I have asked the manufacturer to do this.
The cat is now recovering. The flea powder however did not kill the fleas so I used a traditional lamp and sticky paper  to sort them out as here, did the job.



Contact Lyndsay Williams, Cambridge, UK  sensecam@gmail.com Tel +44 (0) 7970 101578

Arduino case design

This is a 3D printable case design for the smallest Arduino Pro Mini. There is space for a rechargeable 3.7V 150mAh Li Poly battery (also UK supplier)  and a sensor.  Holes are provided for reset, led viewing and additional sensors and cables. Battery should last several days before recharging dependant on application. 

3D printable version here from Shapeways

This case can be printed, but is not tested yet, expected mid August 2012.

Case design by Lyndsay Williams Sensecam@gmail.com

Kittens 29th April 2012, lots of rain in Cambridge so they are at home!

'Huge' water resource exists under Africa

BBC News 20th April 2012 

Why does image of the water in North Africa look like that of Mediterranean?

Look at Aquifier in blue below and the "leg" shape of Italy:

image from above blue sea looks like the Mediterranean, click to enlarge - annotations added 8 Feb 2013 

I can see Italy, Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea,  Greece, Crete but all distorted.

Is is a coincidence or computer error?

Slightly like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_drift

Is this where the Kinect really started?

Serendipitously: Is this where the Kinect really started?

Posted on April 15, 2011 

This article was first scheduled to appear in The Independent in 26 February 2002.

Hmm, ultrasonic detection… navigation… that sounds like…

Amazing what you discover when you’re looking for completely other things. I was doing a search for “tablet” and hit this.

BY CHARLES ARTHUR
Technology Editor The Guardian 

After the hands-free phone – the hands-free computer. Microsoft has secretly developed a prototype handheld computer that lets users navigate around large documents or images on screens by moving their hands or heads – but without touching the computer.
The system, developed at its British research centre in Cambridge, was last week taken by its British-born inventor to the US to show off at the company’s headquarters, to assess its commercial potential.
Rather than the usual mouse or keyboard, the new system – dubbed “Sonarscreen” – senses the movements by using ultrasonic emitters and sensors attached to the screen. While the sound is inaudible to humans, the computer can sense it and assess changes in the echoes as movement, much as a bat senses how near walls and objects are.
Its developer, Lyndsay Williams, hit on the idea when she was trying to navigate her way through a map on Cambridge on the Web to find a specific location.
The result – familiar to many Web users – was a frustrating episode in which she kept clicking to zoom in and then out and then left and then right, but kept missing the image she wanted.
“I said to myself, there has to be an easier way to handle large images and documents without depending on a mouse and without so many clicks,” she noted in an internal Microsoft briefing document that has been seen by The Independent.
Although Microsoft is best known as a software company, it has recently moved into making hardware with its Xbox games console, to be released in Europe in March, and says “major hardware manufacturers” will offer pen-operated tablet-shaped PCs, made to its specification, “in the second half of 2002″. The Tablets would be the ideal format for the new ultrasonic system – although some observers have cast doubts on whether the shape will prove popular with users.
Ms Williams, who has a long pedigree in computing – including having designed the hardware for the first sound card in an IBM-compatible PC in 1987 – rigged up a working model of her system in just four weeks.
Presently it is just a demonstration model, believed to be based on the Tablet PC, which is essentially a large screen with a computer processor attached. In one software setup, for map viewing, moving the face nearer to the screen enlarges the onscreen image, and gesturing left or right with the hands scrolls the image in the same direction.
Another setup will enlarge onscreen text as the face gets further away – so that one can view the screen, say for reading an electronic documents, from a comfortable distance.
“We proved the technology works and now we really need to test users to find out if this method of manipulating information is easy and comfortable for customers to use on a handheld device,” Ms Williams notes in the internal document.
But Andy Brown, research manager of mobile computing at IDC, a computing market research and analysis company, said: “It sounds interesting, but over the years there have been a lot of things that are invented, but very few actually materialise. The trouble is that their invention is driven by engineers rather than end-users. And though tests might find that people say they like it, if it’s at all expensive to implement then it won’t get taken up.”
However he said that it could have interesting applications once “pervasive” computing – where computers are built into homes and react with people constantly – becomes commonplace. “But that’s about five to ten years away,” he added.
Microsoft Cambridge estimates that the ultrasonic sensors cost no more than a few pounds each, and are just 3 millimetres across – which ought to mean that they pose no significant cost to PC manufacturers.
The Microsoft Cambridge laboratories were established in June 1997.

reinventing the wheel

Biomimetic robot

The goal was to make a robotic device with the following goals.

very small and compact - 2" diameter
no external moving parts
very low weight - currently 22 g with battery and debug connector
can be made waterproof -wrap in silicone rubber and use inductive charging
will work on slippery surfaces
long battery life
collision avoidance using infrared
can be radio controlled or GPS driven


Here is a Video of a very early prototype made with an Arduino LilyPad.
It is based on using the movement of centrifugal  printed pancake motors.  Further work needed on accurate steering etc.
Prototype currently runs for > 2 hours on one recharge of 3.7V 150mAhr model helicopter Lithium Polymer battery.

End Jan, the graphene will be delivered to Girton Labs and so the low  friction surface can be added onto the actuators.

So far applications are not much more than a cat toy but possible military applications.

Further reference - sidewinder snake movement

The Chocolate Chip - World's First Electronic Fragrance Semiconductor

Wake up and smell the chocolate ....

Here is Girton Labs latest development of Programmable Electronic Fragrance, PEF designed by Lyndsay Williams. These are a development of  our SenseBooks which were cookery books with images and associated scents for herbs and spices, tested by Girton Labs in 2008, research financed by EEDA.

 Girton Labs design philosophy  is that engineering is a combination of science and art, and our latest creation is this elegant chocolate button.  We decided to use synthetic chocolate fragrance for the first test - who doesn't like the smell of chocolate?

Chocolate also has therapeutic  properties as described here in Nature. PEF is based on a Cypress Programmable System on a Chip. PEF  is part of the  ThrillChip system, an arousal system for the senses that uses touch actuators such as vibration,  heat, cold and nerve arousal, and now adding electronic fragrance , PSOC and PowerPSOC allows MOSFET actuators, 20 bit analogue to digital converter, (used for measuring biometric signals such as galvanic skin response and controlling dose ), programmable gain op amps, accelerometer interface,  power management and microcontroller on one semiconductor. This PEF custom semiconductor will be available for licensing once prototype development is finished.
The PEF chip has actuators that can mix multiple synthetic fragrances in the cylindrical chamber as above. A 3D printed Lab on Chip is used as part of the well or reservoir design. A switchable matrix will allow up to 16 fragrances to be mixed in the chamber. If just 8 fragrances are used, this should theoretically provide a maximum combination of 40,320  fragrances, but needs testing.


An an example,  if there are 3 fragrance pots, A, B, and C there are the following 7 possible combinations.

1. A
2. B
3. C
4. A and B
5. A and C
6. B  and C
7. A and B and C

The time on for each fragrance will allow more combinations.

  Fragrance technology has been tried in the past for many decades but as liquid  has suffered problems from lingering odours and leaks.  These problems are solved  by creating  solid scents, the technology is  in the public domain. The new technology allows very fast switching of scents on and off using semiconductors. This allows smell is be added to mobile phones, books, games  etc.
  Sensors such as accelerometers detect movement in the person and allowed a controlled fragrance output.
PEF is low cost and the cartridges are replaceable. The system is as thin as the battery, in this current prototype  we use an Lithium model helicopter battery.
More details of PEF available under NDA.


A example of  a chocolate fragrance  is Angel perfume  by Thierry Mugler - but this can never be switched off once applied to the body.

Angel perfume Thierry Mugler

PSOC PEF semiconductor

3D printed Lab On Chip

PSOC, image from Cypress Semiconductors

PSOC prototype controller from Cypress,  actual chip is approx 8 x 8 mm

(c) Lyndsay Williams www.sensecam.co.uk