Hundreds of thousands of Americans are now at risk of identity theft and fraud after a major data breach at a human resources firm.
In a new filing with the Office of the Maine Attorney General, Maryland-based Kelly Benefits says it has discovered a significant cybersecurity incident impacting 413,032 people.
The company says an internal investigation revealed that an unknown entity gained unauthorized access to its database and stole sensitive customer information, including names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, tax ID numbers, medical and health insurance records and financial account datasets.
Researchers headed by a team at the California Institute of Technology developed an ultrasound-guided 3D printing technique that could make it possible to fabricate medical implants in vivo and deliver tailored therapies to tissues deep inside the body—all without invasive surgery. The researchers say the imaging-guided deep tissue in vivo sound printing (DISP) platform utilizes low-temperature–sensitive liposomes (LTSLs) as carriers for cross-linking agents, enabling precise, controlled in situ fabrication of biomaterials within deep tissues.
Reporting on their development in Science “Imaging-guided deep tissue in vivo sound printing”, first author Elham Davoodi, PhD, and senior, corresponding author Wei Gao, PhD, described proof of concept studies demonstrating in vivo printing within the bladders and muscles of mice, and rabbits, respectively. Gas vesicle (GV)–based ultrasound imaging integrated into the printing platform enabled real-time monitoring of the printing process and precise positioning. In their paper, the authors concluded, “DISP’s ability to print conductive, drug-loaded, cell-laden, and bioadhesive biomaterials demonstrates its versatility for diverse biomedical applications.”
Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting technologies offer significant promise to modern medicine by enabling the creation of customized implants, intricate medical devices, and engineered tissues, tailored to individual patients, the authors wrote. “However, the implantation of these constructs often requires invasive surgeries, limiting their utility for minimally invasive treatments.”
Tuochao Chen, a University of Washington doctoral student, recently toured a museum in Mexico. Chen doesn’t speak Spanish, so he ran a translation app on his phone and pointed the microphone at the tour guide. But even in a museum’s relative quiet, the surrounding noise was too much. The resulting text was useless.
Various technologies have emerged lately promising fluent translation, but none of these solved Chen’s problem of public spaces. Meta’s new glasses, for instance, function only with an isolated speaker; they play an automated voice translation after the speaker finishes.
Now, Chen and a team of UW researchers have designed a headphone system that translates several speakers at once, while preserving the direction and qualities of people’s voices. The team built the system, called Spatial Speech Translation, with off-the-shelf noise-canceling headphones fitted with microphones. The team’s algorithms separate out the different speakers in a space and follow them as they move, translate their speech and play it back with a 2–4 second delay.
Computer simulations help materials scientists and biochemists study the motion of macromolecules, advancing the development of new drugs and sustainable materials. However, these simulations pose a challenge for even the most powerful supercomputers.
A University of Oregon graduate student has developed a new mathematical equation that significantly improves the accuracy of the simplified computer models used to study the motion and behavior of large molecules such as proteins, nucleic acids and synthetic materials such as plastics.
The breakthrough, published last month in Physical Review Letters, enhances researchers’ ability to investigate the motion of large molecules in complex biological processes, such as DNA replication. It could aid in understanding diseases linked to errors in such replication, potentially leading to new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
Researchers found the PHGDH gene directly causes Alzheimer’s and discovered a drug-like molecule, NCT-503, that may help treat the disease early by targeting the gene’s hidden function. A recent study has revealed that a gene previously identified as a biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease is not jus
“I think, therefore I am,” René Descartes, the 17th-century French philosopher and mathematician, famously wrote in 1637. His idea was straightforward: even if your senses, the world, or your body deceives you, the very act of thinking proves you exist because there’s a thinker doing the thinking. Cogito, ergo sum, as the phrase goes in Latin, cemented the way the Western world would continue to define the self for the next 400 years—as a thinking mind, first and foremost.
But a growing body of neuroscience studies suggest the father of modern thought got it backward: the true foundation of consciousness isn’t thought, some scientists say—it’s feeling. A massive international study published in Nature late last month is further driving the theory forward. That means “I feel, therefore I am” may be the new maxim of consciousness. We are not thinking machines that feel; we are feeling bodies that think. And it’s more than a philosophical debate, too. Determining where consciousness resides could reshape life-or-death decisions and force society to rethink who, or what, truly counts as being self-aware.
The experiment used a rare “adversarial collaboration” model, bringing together scientists with opposing views to test two major theories of consciousness: integrated information theory (IIT) and global neuronal workspace theory (GNWT). Put simply, IIT says consciousness arises when information in the brain is deeply connected, especially in the back of the brain. GNWT argues that consciousness arises when the front of the brain broadcasts important information across a wide network, like a brain-wide alert.
Extract from “Evolution, Basal Cognition and Regenerative Medicine”, kindly contributed by Michael Levin in SEMF’s 2023 Interdisciplinary Summer School (http…
Some 460 million metric tons of plastic are produced globally each year, out of which a staggering 91% of plastic waste is never recycled—with 12% incinerated and 79% left to end up in landfills and oceans and linger in our environment.
Exposure to various elements causes the plastics to break down into microplastics (5 mm) and nanoplastics (1,000 nm). There is a growing public health concern as these nanoplastics (NPs) make their way into the human body through air, water, food and contact with skin.
A recent study published in ACS ES&T Water has revealed that the already detrimental effects of NPs are further amplified by their ability to interact with various toxic environmental contaminants, such as heavy metal ions.
