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Blog – Page 24

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Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, conference, huddle, and training rooms, as well as executive offices and classrooms. Founded in 2011, Zoom helps businesses and organizations bring their teams together in a frictionless environment to get more done. Zoom is a publicly traded company headquartered in San Jose, CA.

Quantum reservoir computing peaks at the edge of many-body chaos, study suggests

Reservoir computing is a promising machine learning-based approach for the analysis of data that changes over time, such as weather patterns, recorded speech or stock market trends. Classical reservoir computing techniques are known to perform best at the “edge of chaos,” or in simpler terms, at a “sweet spot” in which the behavior of systems is neither entirely predictable (i.e., order) nor completely unpredictable (i.e., chaos).

In recent years, some physicists and quantum engineers have been exploring the possibility of realizing a quantum equivalent of classical reservoir computing, known as quantum reservoir computing (QRC). These approaches enable the processing of temporal data and the prediction of events unfolding over time, leveraging high-dimensional quantum states.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo carried out a study investigating how QRC would behave when applied to complex quantum many-body systems, which consist of several interacting quantum particles. Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, introduces a physics-based framework that could inform the future development of QRC systems.

Engineered nanoparticles could deliver better targeted cancer treatment to lymph nodes

Scientists at McGill University and the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Institute have developed a new way to deliver cancer immunotherapy that caused fewer side effects compared to standard treatment in a preclinical study. The work is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The experimental approach is designed to treat cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes, a difficult-to-treat stage of the disease. Today, most immunotherapies are delivered by intravenous (IV) infusion and circulate throughout the body. This can trigger immune responses in healthy tissues, leading to serious side effects.

“Some immunotherapies cause such severe side effects that clinicians are forced to lower the dose, making treatment less effective,” said senior author Guojun Chen, Assistant Professor in McGill’s Department of Biomedical Engineering and member of the Goodman Cancer Institute. “Our approach could allow for higher, more effective doses while limiting toxicity, which is a major goal in cancer treatment.”

‘All-in-one,’ single-atom could power both sides of water splitting

Green hydrogen production technology, which utilizes renewable energy to produce eco-friendly hydrogen without carbon emissions, is gaining attention as a core technology for addressing global warming. Green hydrogen is produced through electrolysis, a process that separates hydrogen and oxygen by applying electrical energy to water, requiring low-cost, high-efficiency, high-performance catalysts.

A research team led by Dr. Na Jongbeom and Dr. Kim Jong Min from Korea Institute of Science and Technology’s Center for Extreme Materials Research has developed next-generation water electrolysis catalyst technology. This technology integrates a single-atom “All-in-one” catalyst precisely controlled down to the atomic level with binder-free electrode technology. The study is published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.

A key feature of this technology is its ability to stably perform both hydrogen evolution and oxygen evolution reactions simultaneously on a single electrode.

Nanotubes unlock new wavelengths for smarter sensing

Sensors made of carbon nanotubes that can measure infrared and terahertz radiation are being tested for uses ranging from detecting damaged cables after earthquakes, to collecting health data via ultrathin wearable devices, and assisting with pharmaceutical quality control, say researchers in Japan.

“Accurately visualizing the internal structures of organisms and objects is integral to our daily lives, from medical imaging to security scanning in airports,” and terahertz sensors built from carbon nanotubes are uniquely suited to this purpose, says Yukio Kawano is a professor of engineering at Chuo University in Tokyo, and project leader at the Kanagawa Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (KISTEC) in Japan.

Compared with many sensor technologies that can only detect one part of the electromagnetic spectrum, Kawano’s team is working to create sensors that can detect terahertz and a broader range of radiation, and use them to produce high-resolution images.

Tailored COX-2 Inhibition for Precision Adjuvant Therapy of Localized Metastatic Colon Cancer

💬 Editorial: Precision adjuvant therapy for stage III ColonCancer may be enhanced through molecular profiling for ctDNA status and PIK3CA mutation, informing use of celecoxib or aspirin alongside standard treatment.

CALGB/SWOG 80,702 Alliance was a placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial (RCT) of daily celecoxib (400 mg/d vs placebo) as an adjuvant therapy to fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) toward improving disease-free survival (DFS) of minimal residual localized (stage III) metastatic colon cancer.1 The rationale for the trial was a preponderance of evidence from RCTs and observational studies showing that selective cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2 or prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 [PTGS2]) inhibitors, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as celecoxib and rofecoxib, reduce the incidence of premalignant colorectal polyps and colorectal cancer (CRC). Although the primary trial results did not show daily celecoxib to be statistically significantly associated with improvement in DFS or overall survival (OS),1 the results raised the possibility that yet-to-be-determined subgroups may experience a significant benefit. Indeed, Nowak et al2 reported in 2024 that a significant protective effect was observed among patients with tumors harboring mutations to exons 9 or 20 of the PIK3CA gene within the subset of the Alliance trial population with available whole-exome tumor sequencing data.

The possibility for molecular selection for NSAID adjuvant therapy of CRC, specifically on the basis of PIK3CA mutation was first raised in a prospective observational study by Liao and colleagues3 in 2012 for aspirin—a less selective COX-2 inhibitor. This finding for aspirin was later corroborated with post hoc observational follow-up of the VICTOR RCT of daily rofecoxib (20 mg vs placebo),4 which, like the Alliance trial, did not demonstrate a significant protective benefit for rofecoxib among unselected patients.5 Most recently, 2 RCTs of daily low-dose aspirin, ALASSCA6 and SAKK41/13,7 showed that aspirin, among patients enrolled using molecular selection for tumor PIK3CA mutation, led to a similar survival benefit of approximately 50% compared to placebo.

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