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Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming an integral tool in health care. In our new collection, the editors of NEJM AI provide insight into how the use of AI in clinical practice can improve patient care and outcomes.

Featured in this collection:

GPT versus Resident Physicians — A Benchmark Based on Official Board Scores Artificial Intelligence–Powered Rapid Identification of ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction via Electrocardiogram (ARISE) — A Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial Use of GPT-4 to Diagnose Complex Clinical Cases.

Download now.

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Within a cell, DNA carries the genetic code for building proteins. To build proteins, the cell makes a copy of DNA, called mRNA. Then, another molecule called a ribosome reads the mRNA, translating it into protein. But this step has been a visual mystery; scientists previously did not know how the ribosome attaches to and reads mRNA.

Now, a team of international scientists, including University of Michigan researchers, has used advanced microscopy to image how ribosomes recruit to mRNA while it’s being transcribed by an enzyme called RNA polymerase (RNAP). Their results, which examine the process in bacteria, are published in the journal Science.

“Understanding how the captures or ‘recruits’ the mRNA is a prerequisite for everything that comes after, such as understanding how it can even begin to interpret the information encoded in the mRNA,” said Albert Weixlbaumer, a researcher from Institut de génétique et de biologie moléculaire et cellulaire in France who co-led the study.

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Abstract. Pharmacological inhibition of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway with rapamycin can extend lifespan in several organisms. Although this includes the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, effects in this species are relatively weak and sometimes difficult to reproduce. Here we test effects of drug dosage and timing of delivery to establish the upper limits of its capacity to extend life, and investigate drug effects on age-related pathology and causes of mortality. Liposome-mediated rapamycin treatment throughout adulthood showed a dose-dependent effect, causing a maximal 21.9% increase in mean lifespan, but shortening of lifespan at the highest dose, suggesting drug toxicity. Rapamycin treatment of larvae delayed development, weakly reduced fertility and modestly extended lifespan. By contrast, treatment initiated later in life robustly increased lifespan, even from Day 16 (or ~70 years in human terms). The rapalog temsirolimus extended lifespan similarly to rapamycin, but effects of everolimus were weaker. As in mouse, rapamycin had mixed effects on age-related pathologies, inhibiting one (uterine tumor growth) but not several others, suggesting a segmental antigeroid effect. These findings should usefully inform future experimental studies with rapamycin and rapalogs in C. elegans.

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Resistance to one antibiotic can make bacteria resistant or sensitive to another antibiotic, opening paths for combinatorial treatments. This study presents an approach to systematically discover and understand such antibiotic relationships.

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The new sound-based method moves objects regardless of surroundings or properties.

Researchers have successfully manipulated the movement of objects using sound. They directed floating objects around obstacles in an aquatic environment, unveiling new possibilities for noninvasive, targeted drug delivery and other biomedical applications.

Researchers from EPFL’s School of Engineering employed optics-inspired techniques to achieve this object manipulation.

“Optical tweezers work by creating a light ‘hotspot’ to trap particles, like a ball falling into a hole. But if there are other objects in the vicinity, this hole is difficult to create and move around,” said Romain Fleury, head of the Laboratory of Wave Engineering in EPFL’s School of Engineering.

Continue reading “Scientists move objects with sound, noninvasive drug delivery in reach” | >

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An increase in the number of earthquakes under a volcano near Alaska’s largest city this year has geologists paying attention.

Mount Spurr, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) northwest of Anchorage, last erupted in 1992, spewing an ash cloud nearly 12 miles (19 kilometers) into the air, prompting flights to be canceled and people to don masks. Another eruption at the 11,100-foot (3,383-meter) stratovolcano could be severely disruptive to the city, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

The observatory raised its alert status for Mount Spurr in October — from green to yellow — when the increase in seismic activity became pronounced and a ground deformation was spotted in satellite data. Observatory scientist David Fee said Friday there have been about 1,500 small earthquake below the volcano this year, compared to about 100 in a normal year.

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Light Field Lab has launched its SolidLight Holographic and Volumetric display technologies that will power some amazing imagery of the future.

These next-generation display technologies will be used by major companies to build a wide variety of holographic images and animations. Connecting a bunch of panels together, the system can modulate 10 billion pixels per square meter.

Last year, Light Field Lab raised $50 million, adding to its war chest of $85 million raised since its inception. And now I can see where that money is going. The San Jose, California-based company gave me a theatrical tour of an animated demo of an alien that it builds in collaboration with the SETI Institute, the organization searching for extraterrestrial intelligence in our galaxy.

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