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Stanford Medicine researchers have developed a new method for influenza vaccination that encourages a robust immune response to all four common flu subtypes, potentially increasing the vaccine’s efficacy.

In laboratory tests using human tonsil organoids, the modified vaccine showed promising results in combating both seasonal and bird flu strains. The approach involves a combined antigen methodology that might also protect against emerging flu variants with pandemic potential.

Innovative Flu Vaccine Development

NUS researchers found that deuterated water (D₂O) reduces pain by modulating the TRPV1 ion channel, offering a non-addictive alternative to conventional painkillers.

Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS), in partnership with Peking University, China, have uncovered new insights into the TRPV1 (transient receptor potential vanilloid 1) ion channel and its role in pain perception. Their findings demonstrate how solvent molecules can influence pain signals, paving the way for potential development of safer, non-addictive pain management strategies.

Effective pain management is vital for improving quality of life and overall well-being. The TRPV1 ion channel, which plays a key role in detecting pain, expands its pore when activated, enabling ions and larger molecules to pass through. However, the ability of water molecules to permeate the TRPV1 channel has remained uncertain.

The rise of generative AI has ushered in an era of unprecedented innovation, demanding increasingly complex and more powerful AI models. These advanced models necessitate high-performance infrastructure capable of efficiently scaling AI training, tuning, and inferencing workloads while optimizing for both system performance and cost effectiveness.

Google Cloud has been pioneering AI infrastructure for over a decade, culminating in a unified architecture called AI Hypercomputer that seamlessly integrates workload-optimized hardware (TPUs, GPUs, and CPUs), open software, and flexible consumption models to power the most advanced AI models. This holistic approach optimizes every layer of the stack for optimal scale, performance, and efficiency across the broadest range of models and applications. AI Hypercomputer is one of the many reasons why Google Cloud was named a leader in Forrester’s AI Infrastructure Wave. Just last week, Google Cloud was also named a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Strategic Cloud Platform Services, where for the second consecutive year, we are the only Leader to improve on both vision and ability to execute.

The origins of the decoration lie in Vienna’s 17th district, where the inventor’s descendants are still making them for collectors around the world.

Combining metallic glass with the Berreman mode of epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) thin films achieves a dual-function system for infrared camouflage and thermal management within an identical wavelength region of the atmospheric window. In recent research, metallic glasses were selected for their tunable optical properties, providing adjustable emissivity for versatile thermal camouflage while maintaining effective thermal management.

Thermal infrared camouflage aims to reduce the detectability of a target using thermal imaging devices. Given the typically high thermal emissivity in everyday environments, the thermal emissivity of the background environment must be considered. The conventional low-emissivity strategy for thermal camouflage is only effective for targets at extremely high temperatures, making it unsuitable for applications near room-to-medium-high temperature range (350 °C).

In a study published in Materials Horizons, Professor Hsuen-Li Chen from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at National Taiwan University led his research team in designing an innovative multilayer thin-film structure. This structure introduces metallic glass into infrared thermal camouflage technology, exploiting its adjustable emissivity to accommodate diverse infrared thermal camouflage scenarios.

Researchers from Kyushu University have developed an innovative technique to non-invasively measure two key signals, membrane voltage and intracellular calcium levels, at the same time, in neurons of awake animals. This new method offers a more complete understanding of how neurons function, revealing that these two signals encode different information for sensory stimuli. The research was published in Communications Biology on September 16, 2024.

Neurons are cells that act as the brain’s fundamental building blocks, transmitting information through electrical signals. When a neuron receives a stimulus, changes in membrane voltage (the electrical charge across the neuron cell membrane) trigger the neuron to activate, causing rapid changes in membrane voltage to propagate along the neuron as an electrical signal. These changes in membrane voltage then lead to changes in intracellular calcium (calcium levels inside neurons).

Historically, measuring membrane voltage has involved invasive techniques using electrodes. As a non-invasive alternative, scientists have developed techniques to measure calcium activity using fluorescent proteins that are sensitive to calcium ions as sensors, providing an indirect proxy for neuron activity. However, these different methods mean that the two signals have almost always been studied separately, making it challenging to understand how they interact in real-time and to identify their distinct functions in living animals.

Toyota’s CUE6 robot sets a record with an 80.6-ft basketball shot, showcasing AI innovation.

Toyota’s AI robot CUE6 set a GWR with an 80.6-ft basketball shot, showcasing advanced precision and years of innovation in robotics.

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A persistent challenge in quantum research has been overcome by scientists at the University of Copenhagen in collaboration with Ruhr University Bochum. They have successfully achieved control over two quantum light sources simultaneously—a feat previously limited to just one.

This breakthrough might appear modest to those outside the realm of quantum mechanics, but it marks a pivotal moment in the field. By enabling the creation of quantum mechanical entanglement, this advancement opens the door to transformative commercial technologies.

Scientists at Newcastle University have created a new lung scanning method that shows real-time changes in lung function. This technique tracks airflow in and out of the lungs, particularly in patients with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or those who have had a lung transplant. This innovation could help doctors detect declines in lung function earlier.

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