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May 8, 2019

Researchers make transformational AI seem ‘unremarkable’

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

Physicians making life-and-death decisions about organ transplants, cancer treatments or heart surgeries typically don’t give much thought to how artificial intelligence might help them. And that’s how researchers at Carnegie Mellon University say clinical AI tools should be designed—so doctors don’t need to think about them.

A surgeon might never feel the need to ask an AI for advice, much less allow it to make a for them, said John Zimmerman, the Tang Family Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Human-Computer Interaction in CMU’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII). But an AI might guide decisions if it were embedded in the decision-making routines already used by the clinical team, providing AI-generated predictions and evaluations as part of the overall mix of information.

Zimmerman and his colleagues call this approach “Unremarkable AI.”

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May 8, 2019

Radical theory says our universe sits on an inflating bubble in an extra dimension

Posted by in category: quantum physics

Cosmologists propose a groundbreaking model of the universe using string theory.

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May 8, 2019

Quercetin conjugated with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles improves learning and memory better than free quercetin via interacting with proteins involved in LTP

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, nanotechnology, neuroscience

Biomedical application of quercetin (QT) as an effective flavonoid has limitations due to its low bioavailability. Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle (SPION) is a novel drug delivery system that enhances the bioavailability of quercetin. The effect of short time usage of quercetin on learning and memory function and its signaling pathways in the healthy rat is not well understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of free quercetin and in conjugation with SPION on learning and memory in healthy rats and to find quercetin target proteins involved in learning and memory using Morris water maze (MWM) and computational methods respectively. Results of MWM show an improvement in learning and memory of rats treated with either quercetin or QT-SPION. Better learning and memory functions using QT-SPION reveal increased bioavailability of quercetin. Comparative molecular docking studies show the better binding affinity of quercetin to RSK2, MSK1, CytC, Cdc42, Apaf1, FADD, CRK proteins. Quercetin in comparison to specific inhibitors of each protein also demonstrates a better QT binding affinity. This suggests that quercetin binds to proteins leading to prevent neural cell apoptosis and improves learning and memory. Therefore, SPIONs could increase the bioavailability of quercetin and by this way improve learning and memory.

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May 8, 2019

Face it: a farmed animal is someone, not something

Posted by in category: futurism

Farmed animals have personalities, smarts, even a sense of agency. Why then do we saddle them with lives of utter despair?

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May 8, 2019

New recyclable plastic can break its molecular bonds and start over

Posted by in category: materials

Plastics are useful and ubiquitous – but that’s not always a good combination. The vast majority of plastic waste can’t be recycled, meaning it ends up in landfills at best or the ocean at worst. To help curb the problem, researchers at Berkeley Lab have now designed a new type of plastic that can apparently be reduced right back to its molecular parts, before being remade over and over.

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May 8, 2019

Immortality Gene Discovered

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension

Circa 1998


CELL BIOLOGY
F or cells, aging and cancer are often opposite sides of a genetic coin: With “heads,” cells will eventually stop dividing, reaching a permanently quiescent stage called senescence, as do normal human cells in lab cultures. With “tails,” the cells with genetic defects can become immortal and never stop dividing—a common characteristic of cultured cancer cells. Now, a group at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston has found a gene that may help determine which side the coin lands on.

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May 8, 2019

Researchers Have Discovered What The ‘Immortality’ Enzyme Looks Like

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

We now have the most detailed images ever of the enzyme telomerase. What does this mean for ageing and cancer?

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May 8, 2019

Stem cell ‘immortality’ gene found

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

2003


A master gene that directs embryonic stem cells to remain in a state of perpetual youth is revealed.

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May 8, 2019

New approach to drug discovery could lead to personalized treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, neuroscience

Researchers have developed a method that could drastically accelerate the search for new drugs to treat mental health disorders such as schizophrenia.

Mental health disorders are the leading cause of disability worldwide, accounting for 31% of total years lived with disability. While our understanding of the biology behind these disorders has increased, no new neuropsychiatric drugs with improved have been developed in the last few decades, and most existing treatments were found through luck.

This is mainly because doctors can’t take brain tissue samples from in the same way that they are able to do a biopsy on a cancer tumour elsewhere in the body for example, so it’s difficult for researchers to understand exactly what to target when designing new neuropsychiatric drugs.

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May 8, 2019

Source credibility is key to derailing fake news

Posted by in category: policy

Fake news is a threat to American democratic institutions and false information can have far-reaching effects. A new study provides a roadmap for dealing with fake news.

Research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides new evidence that people’s beliefs about the source of information affects how they take in that information, even at the level of their automatic responses. They also found that new information can modify or even undo existing impressions caused by fake news.

“We wanted to know whether offering information about the source of news matters for people’s gut-level, automatic reactions,” said Melissa Ferguson, co-author on the paper and psychology professor at Cornell University. “Does knowing that something is fake have lingering pernicious effects that can later shape and influence our thoughts and behavior toward the person? Our studies suggest that establishing credibility for is the right policy to combat .”

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