Lifeboat Foundation

We identified five themes centred on the impact of diagnosis: (i) Denial and acceptance (three sub-themes: Denial of diagnosis; Acceptance of diagnosis; Conflict between denial and acceptance); (ii) Stigma of diagnosis and selective disclosure; (iii) The process of diagnosis, (iv) Losing, maintaining, and finding a sense of the self (two sub-themes: The lost self; Constructing and maintaining a sense of self); and (v) Receiving, finding, and providing support.

Figure 1 shows a created a diagram on the potential connections between the themes and subthemes. The process of diagnosis spans the entire experience and has a bearing on denial, conflict and acceptance. Stigma also feeds into denial, conflict and lack of identity. Acceptance of a diagnosis is heavily based on the experience and process of healthcare services, and through supportive peer spaces that reinforce and maintains a clear sense of self/identity.

Objective: Cognitive loss in older adults is a growing issue in our society, and there is a need to develop inexpensive, simple, effective in-home treatments. This study was conducted to explore the use of olfactory enrichment at night to improve cognitive ability in healthy older adults.

Methods: Male and female older adults (N = 43), age 60–85, were enrolled in the study and randomly assigned to an Olfactory Enriched or Control group. Individuals in the enriched group were exposed to 7 different odorants a week, one per night, for 2 h, using an odorant diffuser. Individuals in the control group had the same experience with de minimis amounts of odorant. Neuropsychological assessments and fMRI scans were administered at the beginning of the study and after 6 months.

Results: A statistically significant 226% improvement was observed in the enriched group compared to the control group on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test and improved functioning was observed in the left uncinate fasciculus, as assessed by mean diffusivity.

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 ionization energy is the amount of energy required to remove a single electron from an atom. If the atom has more than one electron, each one requires more energy than the previous one. The result is a series of increasing energy levels, and in the quantum world these energies correspond to frequencies, as in a musical scale.

This raises an interesting question: if we could hear these frequencies how would they sound? I created an app to find out, and in this video I used my app to share what I learned. As it turns out, the results are quite musical.

Continue reading “Stanley Jordan Plays the Periodical Table (Ionization Energies)” »

Terahertz technology has the potential to address the growing need for faster data transfer rates, but converting terahertz signals to various lower frequencies remains a challenge. Recently, Japanese researchers have devised a novel approach to both up-and down-convert terahertz signals within a waveguide. This is achieved by dynamically altering the waveguide’s conductivity using light, thereby creating a temporal boundary. Their breakthrough could lead to advancements in optoelectronics and improved telecommunications efficiency.

As we plunge deeper into the Information Age, the demand for faster data transmission keeps soaring, accentuated by fast progress in fields like deep learning and robotics. Against this backdrop, more and more scientists are exploring the potential of using terahertz waves to develop high-speed telecommunication technologies.

However, to use the terahertz band efficiently, we need frequency division multiplexing (FDM) techniques to transmit multiple signals simultaneously. Of course, being able to up-convert or down-convert the frequency of a terahertz signal to another arbitrary frequency is a logical prerequisite to FDM. This has unfortunately proven quite difficult with current technologies. The main issue is that terahertz waves are extremely high-frequency waves from the viewpoint of conventional electronics and very low-energy light in the context of optics, exceeding the capabilities of most devices and configurations across both fields. Therefore, a radically different approach will be needed to overcome current limitations.

Crater 2, a large, dim satellite galaxy, exhibits properties that challenge traditional cold dark matter theories. The SIDM theory provides a better explanation, suggesting dark matter interactions that reduce density and increase galaxy size, matching observations.

Crater 2, located approximately 380,000 light years from Earth, is one of the largest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. Extremely cold and with slow-moving stars, Crater 2 has low surface brightness. How this galaxy originated remains unclear.

Challenges in Understanding Crater 2.

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.

The Fireball collaboration at CERN has generated a powerful electron-positron plasma beam to study black hole jets, significantly advancing our understanding of these cosmic phenomena and supporting simulations with experimental data. Credit: SciTechDaily.com.

The Fireball collaboration used CERN ’s HiRadMat facility to produce an analog of the jets of matter and antimatter that stream out of some black holes and neutron stars.

At CERN’s HiRadMat facility, researchers have created a high-density electron-positron plasma beam that mimics astrophysical jets from black holes, providing new insights into space phenomena. These experiments help validate theoretical models with real-world data, paving the way for deeper understanding of cosmic events like black hole jets.

A new computational technique developed enables the use of surface mapping technologies like GPS to analyze subsurface geological structures.

This method, termed deformation imaging, offers insights into the rigidity of the Earth’s crust and mantle, enhancing our understanding of geological processes like earthquakes. The technique has already provided a detailed view of subsurface areas during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and has the potential for widespread future applications with satellite data.

New Geological Imaging Technique