Lifeboat Foundation

An artificial intelligence (AI) tool can accurately identify normal and abnormal chest X-rays in a clinical setting, according to a study published in Radiology.

Chest X-rays are used to diagnose a wide variety of conditions to do with the heart and lungs. An abnormal chest X-ray can be an indication of a range of conditions, including cancer and chronic lung diseases.

An AI tool that can accurately differentiate between normal and abnormal chest X-rays would greatly alleviate the heavy workload experienced by radiologists globally.

Reducing the methylation of a key messenger RNA can promote migration of macrophages into the brain and ameliorate symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease in a mouse model, according to a new study publishing March 7 in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Rui Zhang of Air Force Medical University in Xian, Shaanxi, China. The results illuminate one pathway for entrance of peripheral immune cells into the brain, and may provide a new target for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

A presumed trigger for the development of Alzheimer’s disease is the accumulation of proteinaceous, extracellular amyloid-beta plaques in the brain. High levels of amyloid-beta in mice leads to neurodegeneration and cognitive symptoms reminiscent of human Alzheimer’s disease, and reduction of amyloid-beta is a major goal in development of new treatments.

One potential pathway for getting rid of amyloid-beta is the migration of blood-derived myeloid cells into the brain, and their maturation into macrophages, which, along with resident microglia, can consume amyloid-beta. That migration is a complex phenomenon controlled by multiple interacting players, but a potentially important one is the methylation of messenger RNA within the myeloid cells.

I recently read an interesting book on reality, entitled The Fabric of Reality. In the book, David Deutsch constructs a unified theory of reality by combining four fundamental theories: 1. Quantum mechanics (multiverse interpretation). 2. Turing principle of computers and artificial intelligence. 3. Popperian epistemology. 4. Darwinian evolution. Deutsch says: In all cases the theory […].

HRL Laboratories, LLC, has published the first demonstration of universal control of encoded spin qubits. This newly emerging approach to quantum computation uses a novel silicon-based qubit device architecture, fabricated in HRL’s Malibu cleanroom, to trap single electrons in quantum dots. Spins of three such single electrons host energy-degenerate qubit states, which are controlled by nearest-neighbor contact interactions that partially swap spin states with those of their neighbors.

Posted online ahead of publication in the journal Nature, the HRL experiment demonstrated universal control of their encoded qubits, which means the qubits can be used successfully for any kind of quantum computational algorithm implementation. The encoded silicon/silicon germanium quantum dot qubits use three electron spins and a control scheme whereby voltages applied to metal gates partially swap the directions of those electron-spins without ever aligning them in any particular direction. The demonstration involved applying thousands of these precisely calibrated voltage pulses in strict relation to one another over the course of a few millionths of a second. The article is entitled “Universal logic with encoded spin qubits in silicon.”

Continue reading “First demonstration of universal control of encoded spin qubits” »

However, this picture, which depicts the evolution of man, may actually pose a danger to our general understanding of how evolution plays out on the planet. One might interpret the picture as: Evolution is a unidirectional, progressive process for the betterment of species. This, in fact could not be farther from the truth.

So, what is evolution exactly?

Compared to those of us who live at sea level, the 2 million people worldwide who live above 4,500 meters (or 14,764 feet) of elevation—about the height of Mount Rainier, Mount Whitney, and many Colorado and Alaska peaks—have lower rates of metabolic diseases such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, hypercholesterolemia, and obesity.

Now, researchers at Gladstone Institutes have shed light on this phenomenon. They showed how chronically low oxygen levels, such as those experienced at high elevation, rewire how mice burn sugars and fats. The work, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, not only helps explain the metabolic differences of people who live at high altitude, but could also lead to new treatments for metabolic disease.

“When an organism is exposed to chronically low levels of oxygen, we found that different organs reshuffle their fuel sources and their energy-producing pathways in various ways,” says Gladstone Assistant Investigator Isha Jain, Ph.D., senior author of the new study. “We hope these findings will help us identify metabolic switches that might be beneficial for metabolism even outside of low-oxygen environments.”

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

As part of a one of a kind project, the first flying taxis will be utilized during the 2024 Olympic Games in France and will be used to drive passengers around. This project is supervised by the Paris Transportation Network and the general manager of France for Commercial Air.

Few months prior to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, a series of test will commence and will examine the service. If the tests prove successful, this will allow airlines to develop a similar service during 2028–2030, according to a report by Maariv news.

A one-year, placebo-controlled trial of oral nicotinamide (vitamin B3) therapy by the University of Sydney did not lead to lower rates of skin cancer in organ transplant recipients. The result is in striking contrast to a previous trial in which oral nicotinamide was concluded to be effective in reducing the rates of new nonmelanoma skin cancers and actinic keratoses in high-risk patients.

In the previous trial, “A Phase 3 Randomized Trial of Nicotinamide for Skin-Cancer Chemoprevention,” participants were ineligible if they were immunosuppressed. Results showed an estimated 23% lower overall rate of new nonmelanoma skin cancers, with similar reductions of both new basal-cell and squamous-cell carcinomas. Interestingly, the previous trial found five rare, more aggressive carcinomas (two morphoeic, three poorly differentiated) in the nicotinamide group, while the placebo control had zero.

Transplant recipients are commonly given immunosuppressant drugs to prevent the body’s immune system from attacking the new organ tissues. These patients are approximately 100 times more likely than the general public to develop squamous cell carcinoma, according to a Swedish study. A higher risk of developing skin cancer combined with lower survival rates means transplant patients urgently need a safe and effective way to lessen the risk.

Summary: Utilizing a classic neural network, researchers have created a new artificial intelligence model based on recent biological findings that shows improved memory performance.

Source: OIST

Computer models are an important tool for studying how the brain makes and stores memories and other types of complex information. But creating such models is a tricky business. Somehow, a symphony of signals – both biochemical and electrical – and a tangle of connections between neurons and other cell types creates the hardware for memories to take hold. Yet because neuroscientists don’t fully understand the underlying biology of the brain, encoding the process into a computer model in order to study it further has been a challenge.