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Jan 6, 2022

Second-generation AI-powered digital pills are changing the future of healthcare

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, information science, robotics/AI

The first-generation AI systems did not address these needs, which led to a low adoption rate. But the second-generation AI systems are focused on a single subject – improving patients’ clinical outcomes. The digital pills combine a personalised second-generation AI system along with the branded or generic drug and improve the patient response as it increases adherence and overcomes the loss of response to chronic medications. It works on improving the effectiveness of drugs and therefore reducing healthcare costs and increasing end-user adoption.

There are many examples to prove that there is a partial or complete loss of response to chronic medications. Cancer drug resistance is a major obstacle for the treatment of multiple malignancies, one-third of epileptics develop resistance to anti-epileptic drugs; also, a similar percentage of patients with depression develop resistance to anti-depressants. Other than the loss of response to chronic medications, low adherence is also a common problem for many NCDs. A little less than 50% of severely asthmatic patients adhere to inhaled treatments, while 40% of hypertensive patients show non-adherence.

The second-generation systems are aimed at improving outcomes and reducing side effects. To overcome the hurdle of biases induced by big data, these systems implement an n = 1 concept in a personalised therapeutic regimen. This focus of the algorithm improves the clinically meaningful outcome for an individual subject. The personalised closed-loop system used by the second-generation system is designed to improve the end-organ function and overcome tolerance and loss of effectiveness.

Jan 6, 2022

Old Coal Plant Site to Be Transformed Into a Walkable City

Posted by in categories: government, sustainability, transportation

Lakeview Generating Station was once a coal plant in Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto. But now, developers are reimagining it to become a mixed-use, lakefront village, where residents can walk or bike anywhere within the site in just 15 minutes.

Lakeview Village, as the new development will be named, will reclaim access and views of the lake, both of which the former coal plant had restricted for locals. As reported by Fast Company, the government shut down the plant in 2005, and initially planned to replace it with a gas-fired power plant. But the community protested this idea, instead pushing for the site to become something meaningful for the residents.

“There were a lot of grassroots community efforts that really resisted and had a more ambitious vision for what the waterfront could be here, toward a mixed-use, sustainable waterfront community,” Brian Sutherland, vice president of development at Argo Development Corporation, told Fast Company. Argo is leading the redevelopment project.

Jan 6, 2022

Omicron might have come from a mouse, but what kind of mouse?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing recently reported intriguing new evidence for a possible mouse origin of the Omicron variant. Their paper, posted on the BioRxiv preprint server, was quickly picked up and published a few days later by the Journal of Genetics and Genomics, and defies the prevailing theory which claims that the polymutant spike sequence of Omicron must have evolved under protracted infection in a severely immunocompromised patient.

Their main idea is that a mouse could have somehow been infected with the human virus by “reverse zoonotic transfer,” whereupon the virus evolved all or many of its 45 novel mutations, and then subsequently was transferred back to humans. While this theory might explain why Omicron appears so anomalous when plotted on a phylogenetic tree against the usual suspects, there is one major problem: The mouse homolog of the human ACE2 receptor (hACE2), which the virus typically uses to gain entry into , has little affinity for the standard issue SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

So little in fact, that in order to study the virus in this preferred research animal, scientists must artificially introduce hACE2 in order to create mice that show any significant respiratory distress upon infection. These are made in several ways, each showing unique tissue tropisms, penetrance and correspondingly different effects. Researchers have conducted knock-in experiments in which the human hACE2 sequence is integrated into the and induced under the control of a number of different promoters. Adenoviruses can also be used to infect cells and create replicating plasmids that propagate the hACE2 code.

Jan 6, 2022

How the unstable muon could revolutionize experimental particle physics

Posted by in category: particle physics

Particle physics needs a new collider to supersede the Large Hadron Collider. Muons, not electrons or protons, might hold the key.

Jan 6, 2022

Horizon’s eVTOL hoverbike debuts fascinating hemispheric rotors

Posted by in category: transportation

Horizon Aeronautics is prototyping an eVTOL hovercycle concept that uses a complex and interesting split-swashplate “Blainjett” variable pitch rotor system that only exposes half of each fan. Very odd, but Horizon says it’s highly efficient.

To understand how this Blainjett propulsion system works – and before anyone asks, no, these guys are no relation to me – you first need to understand how the swashplate and cyclic controls work to distribute thrust as a helicopter’s top rotor spins. Each blade can vary its pitch independently, with the height of the swashplate determining the pitch. With the swashplate sitting flat, pushing the whole thing up and down will change the pitch of all the blades at once.

But with the cyclic control, helicopter pilots are able to tilt the swashplate. Pushing the stick forward, for example, tilts it such that the blades gradually tilt as they spin around, getting flatter as they pass the front of the aircraft, then pitching up to develop more lift as they go around the back. The result is an asymmetry in lift, with more at the back of the disc, and the aircraft pitches forward and accelerates in that direction. The cyclic control can do this in any direction; it’s part of what makes helicopters such dynamic aircraft.

Jan 6, 2022

Astronomers Discover One of The Biggest Structures Ever Seen in The Milky Way

Posted by in categories: particle physics, space travel

Roughly 13.8 billion years ago, our Universe was born in a massive explosion that gave rise to the first subatomic particles and the laws of physics as we know them.

About 370,000 years later, hydrogen had formed, the building block of stars, which fuse hydrogen and helium in their interiors to create all the heavier elements. While hydrogen remains the most pervasive element in the Universe, it can be difficult to detect individual clouds of hydrogen gas in the interstellar medium (ISM).

Continue reading “Astronomers Discover One of The Biggest Structures Ever Seen in The Milky Way” »

Jan 6, 2022

What to Know

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

A COVID testing site says it has detected what is believed to be the first ‘flurona’ co-infection, a combination of influenza and coronavirus, in Los Angeles County.

Jan 6, 2022

A Texas team comes up with a COVID vaccine that could be a global game changer

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Peter Hotez and Maria Elena Bottazzi used an oldie-but-goodie technology to devise a vaccine that’s easy to make — and relatively cheap. India has already ordered 300 million doses.

Jan 6, 2022

The Top Archaeological Discoveries of 2021

Posted by in category: futurism

During 2021, thousands of archaeologists worked tirelessly to continue to excavate, explore, publish, and keep the field alive across the globe.


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Jan 6, 2022

Google’s 2022 Plans are to Connect It All, Including Android…

Posted by in categories: computing, mobile phones

Google is bringing Fast Pair to Windows and TVs and more. It’s also planning Wear OS watch unlocks for phones.


Google laid out its plans for a number of new features coming to its ecosystem of devices and operating systems this year, a lot of which is focused on connecting them all or making setup easier. Whether you have an Android phone and an Android TV or a Chrome OS devices and a Wear OS watch, there is a good chance they will start to talk to each other.

Quicker setup of all devices

Continue reading “Google’s 2022 Plans are to Connect It All, Including Android…” »