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Xylitol is a common zero-calorie sweetener found in sugar-free candy and toothpaste. Cleveland Clinic researchers found higher amounts of the sugar alcohol xylitol are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events like heart attack and stroke.

The team, led by Stanley Hazen, M.D., Ph.D., confirmed the association in a large-scale patient analysis, preclinical research models and a clinical intervention study. Findings were published today in the European Heart Journal.

Xylitol is a common sugar substitute used in sugar-free candy, gums, baked goods and oral products like toothpaste. Over the past decade, the use of sugar substitutes, including sugar alcohols and artificial sweeteners, has increased significantly in processed foods that are promoted as healthy alternatives.

Chinese researchers have developed an open-source “brain-on-chip” interface system, which is the first of its kind in the world. The system can instruct a robot to avoid obstacles, track, and grasp through “mind control,” the Science and Technology Daily reported on Wednesday.

The interface system was co-developed by research teams from Tianjin University and Southern University of Science and Technology.

The system uses an artificial brain cultivated in vitro – such as a “brain-like organ,” which can interact with external information through encoding, decoding and stimulus-feedback when coupled with electrode chips, according to the report.

The brain is the most complex organ ever created. Its functions are supported by a network of tens of billions of densely packed neurons, with trillions of connections exchanging information and performing calculations. Trying to understand the complexity of the brain can be dizzying. Nevertheless, if we ever hope to understand how the brain works, we need to be able to map neurons and study how they are wired.

Now, publishing in Nature Communications, researchers from Kyushu University have developed a new AI tool, which they call QDyeFinder, that can automatically identify and reconstruct individual neurons from images of the mouse brain. The process involves tagging neurons with a super-multicolor labeling protocol, and then letting the AI automatically identify the neuron’s structure by matching similar color combinations.

Microbes that are used for health, agricultural, or other applications need to be able to withstand extreme conditions, and ideally the manufacturing processes used to make tablets for long-term storage. MIT researchers have now developed a new way to make microbes hardy enough to withstand these extreme conditions.

Their method involves mixing bacteria with food and drug additives from a list of compounds that the FDA classifies as “generally regarded as safe.” The researchers identified formulations that help to stabilize several different types of microbes, including yeast and bacteria, and they showed that these formulations could withstand high temperatures, radiation, and industrial processing that can damage unprotected microbes.

In an even more extreme test, some of the microbes recently returned from a trip to the International Space Station, coordinated by Space Center Houston Manager of Science and Research Phyllis Friello, and the researchers are now analyzing how well the microbes were able to withstand those conditions.

This is a recording of the AGI23 Conference, Day 1, June 16th 2023, Stockholm. This video shows the following tutorial: Test and Evaluation First Principles for General Learning Systems, led by Tyler Cody.

SingularityNET was founded by Dr. Ben Goertzel with the mission of creating a decentralized, democratic, inclusive, and beneficial Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). An AGI is not dependent on any central entity, is open to anyone, and is not restricted to the narrow goals of a single corporation or even a single country.

Continue reading “AGI-23 | Test and Evaluation First Principles for General Learning Systems” »

Dr Carol Bernstein examines the role of increased bile acids in gastrointestinal cancers, including colon cancer.

Researchers from Sinai Health and the University of Toronto have gleaned new insights into how thyroid cancer could be more effectively treated.

The study, which looked at thyroid tumor tissues and thyroid nodule biopsies from 620 patients at Mount Sinai Hospital from 2016 to 2022, examined whether differences in patients’ RAS genomic variants were reflected in the status of their tumors. It also investigated the presence of the variant BRAF V600E and TERT promoter variants in the patient’s samples.

Researchers ultimately concluded that differences in RAS in combination with BRAF V600E and TERT promoter variants could be used to arrive at more accurate cancer diagnoses in patients with indeterminate thyroid nodules.

Treating cancer can sometimes feel like a game of Whac-A-Mole. The disease can become resistant to treatment, and clinicians never know when, where and what resistance might emerge, leaving them one step behind. But a team led by Penn State researchers has found a way to reprogram disease evolution and design tumors that are easier to treat.

They created a modular genetic circuit that turns cancer cells into a “Trojan horse,” causing them to self-destruct and kill nearby drug-resistant cancer cells. Tested in human cell lines and in mice as proof of concept, the circuit outsmarted a wide range of resistance.

The findings were published today, July 4, in the journal Nature Biotechnology. The researchers also filed a provisional application to patent the technology described in the paper.

In this thought-provoking lecture, Prof. Jay Friedenberg from Manhattan College delves into the intricate interplay between cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and ethics. With nearly 30 years of teaching experience, Prof. Friedenberg discusses how visual perception research informs AI design, the implications of brain-machine interfaces, the role of creativity in both humans and AI, and the necessity for ethical considerations as technology evolves. He emphasizes the importance of human agency in shaping our technological future and explores the concept of universal values that could guide the development of AGI for the betterment of society.

00:00 Introduction to Jay Friedenberg.
01:02 Connecting Cognitive Science and AI
02:36 Human Augmentation and Technology.
03:50 Brain-Machine Interfaces.
05:43 Balancing Optimism and Caution in AI
07:52 Free Will vs Determinism.
12:34 Creativity in Humans and Machines.
16:45 Ethics and Value Alignment in AI
20:09 Conclusion and Future Work.

Continue reading “Exploring AI, Cognitive Science, and Ethics | Deep Interview with Jay Friedenberg” »