Sehr empfehlenswert! Global Warming is a hoax and Climate Change is a religion!
Sunday, April 30, 2023
No Time to Get Ready for Your Meeting? Use Xpression Camera to Be Dressed for All Occasions
Just what I needed! Now I can shrink my wardrobe! 😊
I recommend not to try it naked! 😊
"In today's fast-paced world, we often find ourselves running from one appointment to another with little to no time to prepare. In such cases, the Xpression Camera has emerged as a game-changer, enabling people to appear well-dressed and professional for any occasion, even when they are in a hurry. This revolutionary camera system uses advanced AI technology to transform your appearance in real-time, ensuring you always look your best. ..."
Building a Precise Assistive-Feeding Robot That Can Handle Any Meal
Good news! But it sounds like hype! What about spaghetti? 😊 The future of assisted living!
"... The team has now developed several novel robotic algorithms for autonomously and comfortably accomplishing each step of the feeding process for a variety of food types. One algorithm combines computer vision and haptics to evaluate the angle and speed at which to insert a fork into a food item; another uses a second robotic arm to push food onto a spoon; and a third delivers food into a person’s mouth in a way that feels natural and comfortable. ..."
Algorithms combine haptics and computer vision to evaluate how to insert a fork into a person's mouth naturally and comfortably.
Mitochondria power-supply failure may cause age-related cognitive impairment
Good news! Towards beating the ravages of age!
"... “Fifty percent of people experience loss of working memory with old age, meaning their ability to hold and manipulate information in the short-term decreases,” ... “We set out to understand why some individuals maintain healthy working memory as they age, while others do not. In the process, we discovered a novel mechanism for the synaptic basis of cognitive impairment.” ...
“Investigating these microscopic dysfunctions is uncharted territory that could revolutionize our understanding of aging and its impact on cognition.” ..."
“Investigating these microscopic dysfunctions is uncharted territory that could revolutionize our understanding of aging and its impact on cognition.” ..."
From the abstract:
"Morphology and function of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), and corresponding working memory performance, are affected early in the aging process, but nearly half of aged individuals are spared of working memory deficits. Translationally relevant model systems are critical for determining the neurobiological drivers of this variability. The common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) is advantageous as a model for these investigations because, as a non-human primate, marmosets have a clearly defined dlPFC that enables measurement of prefrontal-dependent cognitive functions, and their short (∼10 year) lifespan facilitates longitudinal studies of aging. Previously, we characterized working memory capacity in a cohort of marmosets that collectively covered the lifespan, and found age-related working memory impairment. We also found a remarkable degree of heterogeneity in performance, similar to that found in humans. Here, we tested the hypothesis that changes to synaptic ultrastructure that affect synaptic efficacy stratify marmosets that age with cognitive impairment from those that age without cognitive impairment. We utilized electron microscopy to visualize synapses in the marmoset dlPFC and measured the sizes of boutons, presynaptic mitochondria, and synapses. We found that coordinated scaling of the sizes of synapses and mitochondria with their associated boutons is essential for intact working memory performance in aged marmosets. Further, lack of synaptic scaling, due to a remarkable failure of synaptic mitochondria to scale with presynaptic boutons, selectively underlies age-related working memory impairment. We posit that this decoupling results in mismatched energy supply and demand, leading to impaired synaptic transmission. We also found that aged marmosets have fewer synapses in dlPFC than young, though the severity of synapse loss did not predict whether aging occurred with or without cognitive impairment. This work identifies a novel mechanism of synapse dysfunction that stratifies marmosets that age with cognitive impairment from those that age without cognitive impairment. ..."
Normally, the different parts of the synaptic complex grow and shrink together. The researchers found evidence that this process can go awry in aging, which may contribute to cognitive impairment.
Expanding our understanding how specific species of bacteria in the gut feelings influence emotional wellbeing
Amazing stuff! Notice, again women are treated in a derogatory way by e.g. using the word "people" despite the fact that this was a study on women only! And the authors of two articles did not fail to mention "mostly white women". Again skin color racism!!!
"Specific species of bacteria were present with higher abundances in women who reported being happier, more hopeful and having better emotion management skills
A new study ... has linked bacteria in our gut to positive emotions like happiness and hopefulness and healthier emotion management skills. ..."
"... The new study included women from a mind-body sub-study of the Nurses’ Health Study II. These middle-aged ... women filled out a survey that asked about their feelings in the last 30 days, asking them to report positive (feeling happy or hopeful about the future) or negative (sad, afraid, worried, restless, hopeless, depressed, or lonely) emotions. The survey also assessed how they handled their emotions. The two options were reframing the situation to see it in a more positive light or suppressing negative emotions.
Three months after answering the survey, the women provided stool samples, which were analyzed using metagenomic sequencing. The team compared the results from the microbial analysis to the survey responses about emotions, looking for connections. ...
The analysis found that [women] who suppressed their emotions had a less diverse gut microbiome. The investigators also found that [women] who reported happier feelings had lower levels of Firmicutes bacterium CAG 94 and Ruminococcaceae bacterium D16. On the other hand, people who had more negative emotions had more of these bacteria. ..."
From the abstract:
"Background
Accumulating evidence suggests that positive and negative emotions, as well as emotion regulation, play key roles in human health and disease. Recent work has shown the gut microbiome is important in modulating mental and physical health through the gut–brain axis. Yet, its association with emotions and emotion regulation are understudied. Here we examined whether positive and negative emotions, as well as two emotion regulation strategies (i.e. cognitive reappraisal and suppression), were associated with the gut microbiome composition and functional pathways in healthy women.
Methods
Participants were from the Mind-Body Study (N = 206, mean age = 61), a sub-study of the Nurses' Health Study II cohort. In 2013, participants completed measures of emotion-related factors. Two pairs of stool samples were collected, 6 months apart, 3 months after emotion-related factors measures were completed. Analyses examined associations of emotion-related factors with gut microbial diversity, overall microbiome structure, and specific species/pathways and adjusted for relevant covariates.
Results
Alpha diversity was negatively associated with suppression. In multivariate analysis, positive emotions were inversely associated with the relative abundance of Firmicutes bacterium CAG 94 and Ruminococcaceae bacterium D16, while negative emotions were directly correlated with the relative abundance of these same species. At the metabolic pathway level, negative emotions were inversely related to the biosynthesis of pantothenate, coenzyme A, and adenosine.
Conclusions
These findings offer human evidence supporting linkages of emotions and related regulatory processes with the gut microbiome and highlight the importance of incorporating the gut microbiome in our understanding of emotion-related factors and their associations with physical health."
Emotional Wellbeing May be Directly Linked to Women's Gut Health Specific species of bacteria were present with higher abundances in women who reported being happier, more hopeful and having better emotion management skills
Gut feelings: associations of emotions and emotion regulation with the gut microbiome in women (no public access, but here is the link to the preprint)
Women are not people!
Again and again academia and intellectuals are treating women in a derogatory or demeaning way!
Whenever they can or whenever they see an opportunity they refuse to address women as women, but as "people"!
This is so disgusting!
A Texan offers gun owner safety education in Mandarin as gun ownership among Asian Americans increases
Good news! Misunderstandings can be fatal!
"As gun ownership spikes among Asian Americans, customers travel in from as far away as El Paso and Lubbock to take classes with Arthur Kuo, one of the only Mandarin-speaking gun instructors in Texas."
Since 2010 over 10,000 ancient human genome sequences have been published
Amazing stuff! This is only the beginning! Lot's of potential!
"In 2010, researchers published the first genome sequence from an ancient human, using tufts of hair from a man who lived around 4,000 years ago in Greenland. In the 13 years since, scientists have generated genome data from more than 10,000 ancient people — and there’s no sign of a slowdown. ...
Before 2010, ancient-DNA studies focused on limited stretches of DNA, such as the roughly 16,500-base-pair-long mitochondrial genome or short segments of the nearly 3.1 billion base pairs in the human genome. Since then, advances in DNA sequencing have made it feasible to decode entire ancient genomes. Initially, this process was labour-intensive, and relied on finding rare samples with high levels of genuine ancient DNA. As a result, it took several years to generate genome data from a dozen individuals.
Each year since 2018, researchers have produced genome data from thousands of ancient humans, thanks to technological advances in DNA sequencing and extraction methods. ...
Nearly 80% of ancient-human genome sequences in the database come from just three institutions ... [Harvard Medical School] contributed nearly half of the total (others are based at the University of Copenhagen and two Max Planck Institutes in Germany). ..."
Nearly 80% of ancient-human genome sequences in the database come from just three institutions ... [Harvard Medical School] contributed nearly half of the total (others are based at the University of Copenhagen and two Max Planck Institutes in Germany). ..."
Implicit Memory: What Is It And What Does It Do?
Recommendable! Nice overview article!
"... Implicit memory is one of the two main kinds of long-term memory. This means that any implicit memories you generate last for a very, very long time. For example, some implicit memories last for days while others can span years or even decades. ..."
Sand cat: the amazing desert animal that doesn't need to drink water
Almost a cat like no other! They are omnivores!
"The sand cat (Felis margarita harrisoni) has a wide but not contiguous distribution through the deserts of northern Africa and southwest and central Asia. These gorgeous creatures are highly elusive and people rarely get to see them in the wild. They’re also solitary creatures: they only get together when they mate. ...
They don’t grow bigger than a house cat ..."
They don’t grow bigger than a house cat ..."
Intel-Tower Semiconductor deal announced early 2022 is delayed until June 2023 due to Chinese regulator
What? This is very concerning!
"Intel's acquisition of Israeli chipmaker Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (Nasdaq: TSEM; TASE:TSEM) for $5.4 billion, which was announced early last year is still waiting to be completed. In January 2023, Intel announced that completion of the deal was being delayed until before the end of June 2023 as the intensifying chip war between the US and China is casting a shadow over whether the Chinese regulator will approved the deal. ... Intel did not refer to the merger in its first quarter financial report, but CEO Pat Gelsinger provided a general and unsatisfactory statement about the continuation of talks with the Chinese following his visit to the country. Now, Intel only has only two months left to receive Chinese approval, unless it will be postponed again, or even cancelled. ...
At the start of April, top Intel executives met with senior Chinese government officials for talks, and Gelsinger even traveled to China to discuss with China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao, the issue of supply chain stability in the chip industry. ...
The Chinese also fully understand Intel's dependence on them. China was the largest market for the US chipmaker last year - 27% of its revenue, or $21.1 billion."The Surprising Centuries-old Origins of the Unicorn
Recommendable! Of course, in our time the LGBTQ interpretation had to be included in this video!
Saturday, April 29, 2023
A Large-Scale Power Plant Has Turned Solar Power Into Hydrogen Fuel
I am not sure this is viable and sustainable at the scale needed for the world population and businesses!
I have recently blogged here my critical opinion about hydrogen and water! And they like us to forget about the Hindenburg disaster!
"... Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology broke through the 1-kilowatt ceiling of green hydrogen generation using solar energy. The system turns solar power into hydrogen, oxygen, and heat. ... Researchers in Switzerland took a promising lab experiment and scaled it into a real-world example of how we could use solar energy to produce green hydrogen. Their system broke the coveted 1-kilowatt ceiling for green hydrogen production, and offers a new commercialization opportunity. ..."
"... But this dish is special, because it works like an artificial tree [???]. After concentrating solar radiation nearly 1,000 times, a reactor above the dish uses that sunlight to convert water into valuable and renewable hydrogen, oxygen, and heat. ... “With an output power of over 2 kilowatts, we’ve cracked the 1-kilowatt ceiling for our pilot reactor while maintaining record-high efficiency for this large scale. ...” ..."
From the abstract:
"The production of synthetic fuels and chemicals from solar energy and abundant reagents offers a promising pathway to a sustainable fuel economy and chemical industry. For the production of hydrogen, photoelectrochemical or integrated photovoltaic and electrolysis devices have demonstrated outstanding performance at the lab scale, but there remains a lack of larger-scale on-sun demonstrations (>100 W). Here we present the successful scaling of a thermally integrated photoelectrochemical device—utilizing concentrated solar irradiation—to a kW-scale pilot plant capable of co-generation of hydrogen and heat. A solar-to-hydrogen device-level efficiency of greater than 20% at an H2 production rate of >2.0 kW (>0.8 g min−1) is achieved. A validated model-based optimization highlights the dominant energetic losses and predicts straightforward strategies to improve the system-level efficiency of >5.5% towards the device-level efficiency. We identify solutions to the key technological challenges, control and operation strategies and discuss the future outlook of this emerging technology."
A solar hydrogen system that co-generates heat and oxygen (primary source) EPFL researchers have built a pilot-scale solar reactor that produces usable heat and oxygen, in addition to generating hydrogen with unprecedented efficiency for its size.
Kilowatt-scale solar hydrogen production system using a concentrated integrated photoelectrochemical device (open access)
How many thousands of those need to be built to provide hydrogen for millions of people and businesses?
Fig. 1: Overview of the system
Graphene biointerface Treats Cardiac Arrhythmia with Light
Amazing stuff! Say goodbye to conventional pacemakers and defibrillators!
"... the new graphene “tattoo” implant is thinner than a single strand of hair yet still functions like a classical pacemaker. But unlike current pacemakers and implanted defibrillators, which require hard, rigid materials that are mechanically incompatible with the body, the new device softly melds to the heart to simultaneously sense and treat irregular heartbeats. The implant is thin and flexible enough to conform to the heart’s delicate contours as well as stretchy and strong enough to withstand the dynamic motions of a beating heart. ...
After implanting the device into a rat model, the researchers demonstrated that the graphene tattoo could successfully sense irregular heart rhythms and then deliver electrical stimulation through a series of pulses without constraining or altering the heart’s natural motions. Even better: The technology also is optically transparent, allowing the researchers to use an external source of optical light to record and stimulate the heart through the device. ..."
After implanting the device into a rat model, the researchers demonstrated that the graphene tattoo could successfully sense irregular heart rhythms and then deliver electrical stimulation through a series of pulses without constraining or altering the heart’s natural motions. Even better: The technology also is optically transparent, allowing the researchers to use an external source of optical light to record and stimulate the heart through the device. ..."
From the abstract:
"Heart rhythm disorders, known as arrhythmias, cause significant morbidity and are one of the leading causes of mortality. Cardiac arrhythmias are frequently treated by implantable devices, such as pacemakers and defibrillators, or by ablation therapy guided by electroanatomical mapping. Both implantable and ablation therapies require sophisticated biointerfaces for electrophysiological measurements of electrograms and delivery of therapeutic stimulation or ablation energy. In this work, a graphene biointerface for in vivo cardiac electrophysiology is reported for the first time. Leveraging sub-micrometer-thick tissue-conformable graphene arrays, sensing and stimulation of the open mammalian heart are demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, the graphene biointerface treatment of atrioventricular block (the kind of arrhythmia where the electrical conduction from the atria to the ventricles is interrupted) is demonstrated. The graphene arrays show effective electrochemical properties, namely interface impedance down to 40 Ω cm2 at 1 kHz, charge storage capacity up to 63.7 mC cm−2, and charge injection capacity up to 704 µC cm−2. Transparency of the graphene structures allows for simultaneous optical mapping of cardiac action potentials, calcium transients, and optogenetic stimulation while performing electrical measurements and stimulation. The report presents evidence of the significant potential of graphene biointerfaces for advanced cardiac electrophysiology and arrhythmia therapy."
Figure 1 Schematic illustration of the graphene biointerface function
Research investigate the diverse viral load found in used baby diapers of one year old babies
What is in your poop? 😊
"Researchers who peeked inside the dirty diapers of 647 healthy Danish 1-year-olds made a surprising discovery: More than 200 previously unknown viral families nested within the nappies. ...
The study ... which examined the feces of babies enrolled in a long-term asthma and chronic inflammatory disease study, detailed 10,000 viral species from 248 viral families; of those families, just 16 were already known, ... Viruses were 10X more plentiful than bacterial species.
90% of the viruses were bacteriophages, which don’t cause disease but attack bacteria instead of human cells. ..."
From the abstract:
"The gut microbiome is shaped through infancy and impacts the maturation of the immune system, thus protecting against chronic disease later in life. Phages, or viruses that infect bacteria, modulate bacterial growth by lysis and lysogeny, with the latter being especially prominent in the infant gut. Viral metagenomes (viromes) are difficult to analyse because they span uncharted viral diversity, lacking marker genes and standardized detection methods. Here we systematically resolved the viral diversity in faecal viromes from 647 1-year-olds belonging to Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood 2010, an unselected Danish cohort of healthy mother–child pairs. By assembly and curation we uncovered 10,000 viral species from 248 virus family-level clades (VFCs). Most (232 VFCs) were previously unknown, belonging to the Caudoviricetes viral class. Hosts were determined for 79% of phage using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat spacers within bacterial metagenomes from the same children. Typical Bacteroides-infecting crAssphages were outnumbered by undescribed phage families infecting Clostridiales and Bifidobacterium. Phage lifestyles were conserved at the viral family level, with 33 virulent and 118 temperate phage families. Virulent phages were more abundant, while temperate ones were more prevalent and diverse. Together, the viral families found in this study expand existing phage taxonomy and provide a resource aiding future infant gut virome research."
Fig. 1: An atlas of infant gut DNA virus diversity
How cannabis triggres appetite for favorite food and insatiable hunger or hedonism across the animal kingdom
Amazing stuff! Is that actually the real reason why so many people use cannabis? 😊 The worms were bathed in a solution of an endocannabinoid!
"... When under the influence, Caenorhabditis elegans worms choose to feed for longer than normal, and show a stronger preference for their favourite high-quality foods over less nutritious options.
The study ... suggests that the mechanism by which cannabis affects appetite evolved more than 500 million years ago, when the evolutionary paths of C. elegans and humans diverged. This commonality across the animal kingdom suggests that C. elegans could be used to study how cannabis affects the human nervous system. ...
High and hungry
... Cannabinoid molecules derived from the cannabis plant bind to the same receptors as molecules naturally found in the body, called endocannabinoids. Those receptors are found in the brain and many other tissues, and the endocannabinoid system is thought to regulate key functions, such as sleep, memory, anxiety and eating. ...
To investigate the behavioural effects of cannabinoids, the researchers immersed the worms in a solution of the endocannabinoid anandamide before placing them in the maze. ...
The worms that received this endocannabinoid bath did seem to develop a bigger appetite. When in the maze, they showed a stronger preference for nutritionally superior bacteria than did their sober peers, and spent more time eating. Worms under the influence also showed less interest in nutritionally inferior bacteria. ..."
To investigate the behavioural effects of cannabinoids, the researchers immersed the worms in a solution of the endocannabinoid anandamide before placing them in the maze. ...
The worms that received this endocannabinoid bath did seem to develop a bigger appetite. When in the maze, they showed a stronger preference for nutritionally superior bacteria than did their sober peers, and spent more time eating. Worms under the influence also showed less interest in nutritionally inferior bacteria. ..."
From the abstract:
"The ability of cannabis to increase food consumption has been known for centuries. In addition to producing hyperphagia, cannabinoids can amplify existing preferences for calorically dense, palatable food sources, a phenomenon called hedonic amplification of feeding. These effects result from the action of plant-derived cannabinoids that mimic endogenous ligands called endocannabinoids. The high degree of conservation of cannabinoid signaling at the molecular level across the animal kingdom suggests hedonic feeding may also be widely conserved. Here, we show that exposure of Caenorhabditis elegans to anandamide, an endocannabinoid common to nematodes and mammals, shifts both appetitive and consummatory responses toward nutritionally superior food, an effect analogous to hedonic feeding. We find that anandamide’s effect on feeding requires the C. elegans cannabinoid receptor NPR-19 but can also be mediated by the human CB1 cannabinoid receptor, indicating functional conservation between the nematode and mammalian endocannabinoid systems for the regulation of food preferences. Furthermore, anandamide has reciprocal effects on appetitive and consummatory responses to food, increasing and decreasing responses to inferior and superior foods, respectively. Anandamide’s behavioral effects require the AWC chemosensory neurons, and anandamide renders these neurons more sensitive to superior foods and less sensitive to inferior foods, mirroring the reciprocal effects seen at the behavioral level. Our findings reveal a surprising degree of functional conservation in the effects of endocannabinoids on hedonic feeding across species and establish a new system to investigate the cellular and molecular basis of endocannabinoid system function in the regulation of food choice."
The conserved endocannabinoid anandamide modulates olfactory sensitivity to induce hedonic feeding in C. elegans (open access)
Figure 6A model for AEA-induced hedonic feeding
In this genetically engineered C. elegans, neurons that respond to cannabinoids appear green. Wow, almost the whole worm is green!
Justice Alito has a 'pretty good idea' of who leaked Dobbs decision draft
One can speculate it was someone with whom Justice Alito worked together! Presumably and hopefully, this person no longer works at the U.S. Supreme Court!
Supposedly, no forensic evidence was found!
The TRUTH About Election Fraud | Texas AG Ken Paxton
Very recommendable! The radical and massive switch to mail in voting in 2020 blamed on Covid-19 without signature verification and with drop off boxes etc. sure was a blatant violation of election integrity! Not to mention that the voter rolls in most states are invalid to a significant degree and dubious!
President Trump made a huge mistake to allow this switch to mail in voting instead of stopping it!
Friday, April 28, 2023
Fumio Kishida Plans to Fix Japan’s Gender Inequality Problem with Palki Sharma
Hopefully, Japan is not so stupid to introduce government enforced gender quotas like other Western countries!
Men watch out in the battle of the sexes! Women want leadership roles but not gender equality e.g. in the construction or mining industry! Let men do the sweaty and dirty work!
Men watch out in the battle of the sexes! Women want leadership roles but not gender equality e.g. in the construction or mining industry! Let men do the sweaty and dirty work!
Problems with ‘pruning’ brain connections linked to various adolescent mental health disorders and psychiatric comorbidities
Good news!
"The findings ... may help explain why people are often affected by more than one mental health disorder, and may in future help identify those at greatest risk.
One in seven adolescents (aged 10-19 years old) worldwide experiences mental health disorders, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Depression, anxiety and behavioural disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), are among the leading causes of illness and disability among young people, and adolescents will commonly have more than one mental health disorder.
Many mental health problems emerge during adolescence. ...
identified a characteristic pattern of brain activity among these adolescents, which they have termed the ‘neuropsychopathological factor’, or NP factor for short. ... Adolescents who experienced mental health problems – regardless of whether their disorder was one of internalising or externalising symptoms, or whether they experienced multiple disorders – showed similar patterns of brain activity. These patterns – the NP factor – were largely apparent in the frontal lobes ... When the team looked at genetic data from the IMAGEN cohort, they found that the NP factor was strongest in individuals who carried a particular variant of the gene IGSF11 that has been previously associated with multiple mental health disorders. This gene is known to play an important role in synaptic pruning, a process whereby unnecessary brain connections – synapses – are discarded. Problems with pruning may particularly affect the frontal lobes, since these regions are the last brain areas to complete development in adolescents and young adults. ..."
identified a characteristic pattern of brain activity among these adolescents, which they have termed the ‘neuropsychopathological factor’, or NP factor for short. ... Adolescents who experienced mental health problems – regardless of whether their disorder was one of internalising or externalising symptoms, or whether they experienced multiple disorders – showed similar patterns of brain activity. These patterns – the NP factor – were largely apparent in the frontal lobes ... When the team looked at genetic data from the IMAGEN cohort, they found that the NP factor was strongest in individuals who carried a particular variant of the gene IGSF11 that has been previously associated with multiple mental health disorders. This gene is known to play an important role in synaptic pruning, a process whereby unnecessary brain connections – synapses – are discarded. Problems with pruning may particularly affect the frontal lobes, since these regions are the last brain areas to complete development in adolescents and young adults. ..."
From the abstract:
"Recent studies proposed a general psychopathology factor underlying common comorbidities among psychiatric disorders. However, its neurobiological mechanisms and generalizability remain elusive. In this study, we used a large longitudinal neuroimaging cohort from adolescence to young adulthood (IMAGEN) to define a neuropsychopathological (NP) factor across externalizing and internalizing symptoms using multitask connectomes. We demonstrate that this NP factor might represent a unified, genetically determined, delayed development of the prefrontal cortex that further leads to poor executive function. We also show this NP factor to be reproducible in multiple developmental periods, from preadolescence to early adulthood, and generalizable to the resting-state connectome and clinical samples (the ADHD-200 Sample and the Stratify Project). In conclusion, we identify a reproducible and general neural basis underlying symptoms of multiple mental health disorders, bridging multidimensional evidence from behavioral, neuroimaging and genetic substrates. These findings may help to develop new therapeutic interventions for psychiatric comorbidities. "
A shared neural basis underlying psychiatric comorbidity (open access)
Fig. 4: Neurobiological characterization of the NP factor
It’s Time to Tackle Human Rights Fraud
Recommendable! Some non governmental organisations have been accused for decades of fraud, dubious activities, and misuse of private and government funds!
"... Human rights advocacy sounds lofty, but in practice, political agendas and outright greed now threaten an entire industry at a time when objective human rights monitoring has never been more important."
Female Babysitter with criminal record accused of raping 13-year-old boy, forcing him to dress in drag
Welcome to the age of gender equality! Another Me Too!
Not only are some girls molested by male predators ...
New job: Undercover content moderator to police the metaverse and virtual reality
In the age of augmented or virtual reality new jobs are created like this one!
I am sure this moderation can also be largely automated with the help of AI!
"... the forefront of a new field, VR and metaverse content moderation.
Digital safety in the metaverse has been off to a somewhat rocky start, with reports of sexual assaults, bullying, and child grooming—an issue that’s only becoming more urgent with Meta’s recent announcement that it is lowering the age minimum for its Horizon Worlds platform from 18 to 13.
Because traditional moderation tools, such as AI-enabled filters on certain words, don’t translate well to real-time immersive environments, [human moderators] are the primary way to ensure safety in the digital world. ..."
AI airport Baggage Scanner Is Faster And More Accurate Than human scanner operators
Good news! That is a very welcome and useful application of computer vision!
Just imagine airports were to install automated baggage screeners from two different competing firms?
"One of the biggest frustrations for air passengers is standing in line, waiting for their bags to be scanned.
And one of the biggest dangers for the airline industry is that security staff, who spend their days staring at the screen, will miss something. ...
It’s already deployed at several airports in Europe ... where it detected over 500,000 prohibited items last year. That covers anything from scissors and screwdrivers to drugs and banknotes. ..."
It’s already deployed at several airports in Europe ... where it detected over 500,000 prohibited items last year. That covers anything from scissors and screwdrivers to drugs and banknotes. ..."
Lessons Learned From a COVID-19 Dog Screening Pilot in California K-12 Schools. Really!
Why do we still need dogs for sniffing? It should be a high priority to replace dog noses at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century!!!
"... A team led by researchers from the California Department of Public Health, which also sponsors a statewide school-based COVID-19 antigen testing program, used two trained dogs in 50 visits to 27 schools from April 1 to May 25, 2022, a period dominated by the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. The medical-alert dogs had undergone 2 months of COVID-19 scent training in a lab, where they achieved greater than 95% sensitivity and specificity. ..."
"... Scent-trained dogs are a strategy for rapid, noninvasive, low-cost, and environmentally responsible COVID-19 screening. We conducted a dog screening program to complement a school antigen testing program. ..."
Scent-trained dogs highly accurate in detecting COVID-19 in schools Scent-trained dogs detected COVID-19 infection with 83% sensitivity and 90% specificity in nearly 3,900 screenings at California K-12 schools in spring 2022
Israel At 75: On The Rise From Startup Nation To Unicorn Nation
Headline of the day!
"A spirit of determination, enterprise and innovation has earned it the title Startup Nation in spite of – or maybe because of – its tough journey to adulthood. ...
The country remains a powerhouse of innovation, he says, punching way above its weight, attracting investment that is hugely disproportionate to its size, and pushing the boundaries of “deep tech” – the game-changing developments that are re-shaping our world.
“I think that the future for Israel is bright, and the only people who can screw it up is ourselves,” ..."
The country remains a powerhouse of innovation, he says, punching way above its weight, attracting investment that is hugely disproportionate to its size, and pushing the boundaries of “deep tech” – the game-changing developments that are re-shaping our world.
“I think that the future for Israel is bright, and the only people who can screw it up is ourselves,” ..."
White hat Hackers took Control European Space Agency Satellite During Test
Scary stuff! As if those kind of security tests have never been done before?
"Just how vulnerable are the thousands of government-operated satellites speeding along their orbits above our heads? A team of researchers proved they could hack into a European Space Agency-owned satellite, allowing them to take full control of its communication, imaging—and even its maneuverability systems. The intrusion was a controlled hack as part of ESA’s ongoing CYSAT conference. ..."
Sind Klimastiftungen die neuen Hedgefonds?
Empfehlenswert! Was steckt hinter der täglichen Anfeuerung des Klimawahns? Möglicherweise auch sehr handfeste Geschäftsinteressen! Die Feinde des Westens tuen ihr übriges (Putin der Schreckliche, China usw.)
Der sog. Klimawandel ist der grösste Schwindel und Skandal in unserer Zeit! Sogar viele Wissenschaftler sind daran beteiligt!
Habecks Mafia-Strukturen: Brandner deckt sagenhaften Filz im Wirtschaftsministerium auf
Empfehlenswert! Aktuelles zum Vetternwirtschafts- und Klimawahnminister Habeck! Die Bananenrepublik D. konkurriert mit Sizilien!
'What is this woman smoking?': Kamala Harris' latest 'word salad'
The Australians are having too much fun with the U.S. Vice President!
The senile and demented 46th President is only propped up on life support so as to prevent her from becoming the next president! 😊
Turkey President Erdogan cancels election campaign appearances
Hopefully, this is the end of the Erdogan era!
Thursday, April 27, 2023
Russian firms like state-owned Gazprom are sending employees to fight in Ukraine
Incredible! Is this out of desperation! When will the Russian people finally get rid of Putin the Terrible!
Russia Ukraine War: What Is Xi Jinping’s Pitch to Zelensky? with Palki Sharma
The China and Xi Jinping have a unique historical opportunity to become a global leader on par with the United States if the communist dictator manages to broker a peace deal with Russia and the Ukraine.
I blogged here in late February about this great opportunity for China in more detail! Let ancient Chinese wisdom trump communist follies!
Make Russia subservient to China! Or can China bully Russia into peace!
Blessed are the peacemakers! Let Xi Jinping twist the arm of the other dictator! Let the world be in awe!
This video also shows some interesting Ukraine-China relations. E.g. China also imports significant quantities of agricultural products from the Ukraine; the first aircraft carrier of China was a former Soviet Union ship bought by China from the Ukraine and more.
De-Dollarisation: Argentina to Pay China in Yuan With Palki Sharma
Recommendable! The Chinese currency is on the rise! The Indian currency is catching up!
Adani Group crisis puts India's winner-take-all economy on trial
India, a rising superpower, may face unprecedented business crimes as well!
"India's Adani Group has had a rough few months since an explosive report by U.S.-based short-seller Hindenburg Research in January accused the conglomerate of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.
The scandal has prompted broader scrutiny of the tight links between government and business in India and raised questions about the so-called India Inc. model, in which a handful of large companies dominate domestic industry."
Pulsed pyrolysis offers better way to breakdown plastics into their building blocks
Good news! Lately, there are so many news about human ingenuity solving the issue of plastic recycling! Here is another one! The yield of this new method seems to be little bit low.
I bet in the near future we have developed some plastic made of biodegradable material etc.!
If you suffer from plastophobia, please seek immediate medical help!
From the abstract:
"Depolymerization is a promising strategy for recycling waste plastic into constituent monomers for subsequent repolymerization. However, many commodity plastics cannot be selectively depolymerized using conventional thermochemical approaches, as it is difficult to control the reaction progress and pathway. Although catalysts can improve the selectivity, they are susceptible to performance degradation. Here we present a catalyst-free, far-from-equilibrium thermochemical depolymerization method that can generate monomers from commodity plastics (polypropylene (PP) and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)) by means of pyrolysis. This selective depolymerization process is realized by two features: (1) a spatial temperature gradient and (2) a temporal heating profile. The spatial temperature gradient is achieved using a bilayer structure of porous carbon felt, in which the top electrically heated layer generates and conducts heat down to the underlying reactor layer and plastic. The resulting temperature gradient promotes continuous melting, wicking, vaporization and reaction of the plastic as it encounters the increasing temperature traversing the bilayer, enabling a high degree of depolymerization. Meanwhile, pulsing the electrical current through the top heater layer generates a temporal heating profile that features periodic high peak temperatures (for example, about 600 °C) to enable depolymerization, yet the transient heating duration (for example, 0.11 s) can suppress unwanted side reactions. Using this approach, we depolymerized PP and PET to their monomers with yields of about 36% and about 43%, respectively. Overall, this electrified spatiotemporal heating (STH) approach potentially offers a solution to the global plastic waste problem."
Depolymerization of plastics by means of electrified spatiotemporal heating (no public access)
The reactor can break down polypropylene into its monomers with reasonable efficiency
English for trippers: Which witch eats a sandwich during witching hour
Don't despair, it's all witchcraft! No spells cast yet!
Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Disgraceful Lies About January 6th Told By Tucker Carlson. Really!
Why was Tucker Carlson fired by Fox?
As far as I know, Tucker Carlson was the only major media person, who released some of the footage of what actually went on inside the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. How many people were actually killed during the insurrection? An unarmed white woman Ashli Babbitt by a black police officer!
Here is one answer!
The majority leader of the U.S. Senate (age 72) has become a very awful lifetime career politician! His resignation should be next! With leaders like him no wonder the Dimocratic Party is so deranged!
"Last night, millions of Americans tuned into one of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on cable television.
With contempt for the facts, disregard of the risks, and knowing full well he was lying—lying—to his audience, Fox News host Tucker Carlson ran a lengthy segment last night arguing the January 6th Capitol attack was not a violent insurrection.
By diving deep into the waters of conspiracy, and cherry picking from thousands of hours of security footage, Mr. Carlson told the bold face lie that the Capitol attack—which we all saw with our own eyes—was, somehow, not an attack at all.
He tried to argue it was nothing more than a peaceful sightseeing tour. Can you imagine? A nonviolent demonstration, a perfectly fine and appropriate instance of people expressing their opinion.
I, and so many others who were here in the Capitol, and millions and millions of Americans, are just furious with Tucker Carlson and Kevin McCarthy today.
Members of my staff were here at the Capitol on January 6th. Their lives were put in danger, as were the lives of many of my colleagues, as well as police, maintenance staff, reporters, countless others.
At one point, I was within 30 feet of the rioters. One of them, I was told, shouted out, “let's get him,” before my detail pulled me away and we ran in the other direction. To say January 6th was not violent is a lie—a lie pure and simple.
I don’t think I have ever seen a prime-time cable news anchor manipulate his viewers the way Mr. Carlson did last night.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen an anchor treat the American people, and American democracy, with such disdain. And he’s going to come back tonight with another segment. Fox News should tell him not to. Fox News, Rupert Murdoch—tell Mr. Carlson not to run a second segment of lies. You know it's a lie. You've admitted it's a lie. ..."
Credits: Greg Kelly: Freedom is under assault (4/25/2023)
This is what a demonic demagogue of the Dimocratic Party looks like
Injectable synthetic blood clots stop internal bleeding by mimicking the body's natural clotting process
Good news! Very clever! Sounds a bit counter intuitive! 😊
"Scientists at MIT have developed a synthetic system that can stem internal bleeding, to help more people survive long enough to reach a hospital after a traumatic injury. Two components come together at the wound to form a clot, without doing so elsewhere in the body where it might be dangerous. ...
The MIT team has now developed a synthetic system that could be injected by first responders to stem internal bleeding. It does so using nanoparticles and polymers that work to boost the formation of natural blood clots. ...
The MIT team has now developed a synthetic system that could be injected by first responders to stem internal bleeding. It does so using nanoparticles and polymers that work to boost the formation of natural blood clots. ...
The new system is made up of two major components – nanoparticles that recruit platelets, and a polymer that mimics fibrinogen. The nanoparticles are made of a biocompatible material called PEG-PLGA, and have a peptide that helps them bind to activated platelets. This means that they accumulate where there are higher concentrations of platelets, such as wounds, and work to draw even more to the area. ... Importantly, the team also created a crosslinker system, with a chemical group on the nanoparticles that binds to a tag on the fibrinogen-mimicking protein. This helps the two components in the synthetic clotting system find each other at the site of a wound and plug it up more efficiently. ..."
From the abstract:
"Primary hemostasis (platelet plug formation) and secondary hemostasis (fibrin clot formation) are intertwined processes that occur upon vascular injury. Researchers have sought to target wounds by leveraging cues specific to these processes, such as using peptides that bind activated platelets or fibrin. While these materials have shown success in various injury models, they are commonly designed for the purpose of treating solely primary or secondary hemostasis. In this work, a two-component system consisting of a targeting component (azide/GRGDS PEG-PLGA nanoparticles) and a crosslinking component (multifunctional DBCO) is developed to treat internal bleeding. The system leverages increased injury accumulation to achieve crosslinking above a critical concentration, addressing both primary and secondary hemostasis by amplifying platelet recruitment and mitigating plasminolysis for greater clot stability. Nanoparticle aggregation is measured to validate concentration-dependent crosslinking, while a 1:3 azide/GRGDS ratio is found to increase platelet recruitment, decrease clot degradation in hemodiluted environments, and decrease complement activation. Finally, this approach significantly increases survival relative to the particle-only control in a liver resection model. In light of prior successes with the particle-only system, these results emphasize the potential of this technology in aiding hemostasis and the importance of a holistic approach in engineering new treatments for hemorrhage."
Two-component system could offer a new way to halt internal bleeding The technology, which mimics the body’s natural clotting process, could help keep severely injured people alive until they are treated at a hospital.
Engineering a Two-Component Hemostat for the Treatment of Internal Bleeding through Wound-Targeted Crosslinking (open access)
Scheme 1 Two-component system designed for wound-targeted crosslinking
MMA-Kämpferin Katharina Dalisda: Warum sie als Frau in den Käfig stieg
Auch das ist Gleichberechtigung der Geschlechter!
Sollte je ein Vergewaltiger es versuchen ...
Tiefengeothermie: Ist Wärme aus der Tiefe eine Lösung für nachhaltige Energieversorgung?
Habe erhebliche Zweifel, ob die Ausbeutung der Tiefengeothermie im großen Maßstab harmlos ist!
Der Klimawahn in der Bananenrepublik D. gebiert seltsame, wenn nicht sogar gefährliche Ideen! Als ob nicht tausende Windmühlen schlimm genug sind!
The most at-risk regions in the world for high-impact heatwaves. Really!
This seems to be the latest propaganda and demagoguery hit piece circulated by the purveyors of the Global Warming Hoax and Climate Change Religion!
Plain and simple Nature published junk science! Clearly, ideology trumped science!
Is it not curious how one sided this so called scientific study is? What about regions impacted by cold waves or unaffected regions?
From the abstract:
"Heatwaves are becoming more frequent under climate change [????] and can lead to thousands of excess deaths. Adaptation to extreme weather events often occurs in response to an event, with communities learning fast following unexpectedly impactful events. Using extreme value statistics [????], here we show where regional temperature records are statistically likely to be exceeded, and therefore communities might be more at-risk. In 31% of regions examined, the observed daily maximum temperature record is exceptional. Climate models [they are junk!] suggest that similar behaviour can occur in any region. In some regions, such as Afghanistan and parts of Central America, this is a particular problem - not only have they the potential for far more extreme heatwaves than experienced, but their population is growing and increasingly exposed because of limited healthcare and energy resources. We urge policy makers [????] in vulnerable regions to consider if heat action plans are sufficient for what might come."
Look at all the grey areas with "inconsistent data" or the regions colored in shades of blue meaning impacted by cold waves!
Fig. 2: Generalised Extreme Value (GEV) fit to calculate the return period of record events globally
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)