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Category: biotech/medical – Page 810

Circa 2020

Imagine a dressing that releases antibiotics on demand and absorbs excessive wound exudate at the same time. Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology hope to achieve just that, by developing a smart coating that actively releases and absorbs multiple fluids, triggered by a radio signal. This material is not only beneficial for the health care industry, it is also very promising in the field of robotics or even virtual reality.

TU/e-researcher Danqing Liu, from the Institute of Complex Molecular Systems and the lead author of this paper, and her PhD student Yuanyuan Zhan are inspired by the skins of living creatures. Human skin secretes oil to defend against bacteria and sweats to regulate the body temperature. A fish secretes mucus from its skin to reduce friction from the water to swim faster. Liu now presents an artificial skin: a smart surface that can actively and repeatedly release and reabsorb substances under environmental stimuli, in this case radio waves. And that is special, as in the field of smart materials, most approaches are limited to passive release.

The potential applications are numerous. Dressings using this type of material could regulate drug delivery, to administer a drug on demand over a longer time and then ‘re-load’ with a different drug. Robots could use the layer of skin to ‘sweat’ for cooling themselves, which reduces the need for heavy ventilators inside their bodies. Machines could release lubricant to mechanical parts when needed. Or advanced controllers for virtual reality gaming could be made, that get wet or dry to enhance the human perception.

The basis of the material, the coating, is made of liquid-crystal molecules, well-known from LCD screens. These molecules have so-called responsive properties. Liu: “You could imagine this as a communication material. It communicates with its environment and reacts to stimuli.” With her team at the department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry she discovered that the liquid-crystal molecules react to radio waves. When the waves are turned on, the molecules twist to orient with the waves’ direction of travel.

Continue reading “Artificial skin heals wounds and makes robots sweat” | >

Nanoscientists have developed a wearable textile that can convert body movement into useable electricity and even store that energy. The fabric potentially has a wide range of applications from medical monitoring to assisting athletes and their coaches in tracking their performance, as well as smart displays on clothing.

The research team responsible for the describe how it works in a paper published in Nano Research Energy.

From smart watches to cordless headphones, people already have access to a wide range of wearable electronic devices. A range of health, sport and activity monitors are now integrated into smartphones.

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A video worth watching. An amazingly detailed deep dive into Sam Altman’s interviews and a high-level look at AI LLMs.

Missed by much of the media, Sam Altman (and co) have revealed at least 16 surprising things over his World Tour. From AI’s designing AIs to ‘unstoppable opensource’, the ‘customisation’ leak (with a new 16k ChatGPT and ‘steerable GPT 4), AI and religion, and possible regrets over having ‘pushed the button’.

I’ll bring in all of this and eleven other insights, together with a new and highly relevant paper just released this week on ‘dual-use’. Whether you are interested in ‘solving climate change by telling AIs to do it’, ‘staring extinction in the face’ or just a deepfake Altman, this video touches on it all, ending with comments from Brockman in Seoul.

I watched over ten hours of interviews to bring you this footage from Jordan, India, Abu Dhabi, UK, South Korea, Germany, Poland, Israel and more.

Altman Abu Dhabi, HUB71, ‘change it’s architecture’: https://youtu.be/RZd870NCukg.

Continue reading “Sam Altman’s World Tour, in 16 Moments” | >

A study in Australia found that men with anxiety disorders tended to have reduced bone mineral density in their lumbar spine and femoral neck bones. This association was found even when controlling for sociodemographic, biometric and lifestyle factors, other diseases, and medication use, but disappeared when participants with a history of mood disorders were excluded from the sample. The study was published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica.

Bone mineral density refers to the quantity of minerals, primarily calcium and phosphorus, present in a segment of bone. It serves as an indicator of bone strength and density.

Studies have shown that certain psychiatric disorders might negatively impact bone health. These include unipolar depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and anorexia nervosa. A meta-analytic review of 21 studies conducted in 2016 reported a very clear link between depression and reduced bone mineral density in several regions.

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Researchers from the University of California, Davis, and an international team of scientists have used the genome-editing tool CRISPR-Cas to create disease-resistant rice plants, according to a new study published in the journal Nature June 14.

Small-scale field trials in China showed that the newly-created variety, developed through genome editing of a recently discovered gene, exhibited both and resistance to the fungus that causes a serious disease called . Rice is an essential crop that feeds half of the world’s population.

Guotian Li, a co-lead author of the study, initially discovered a mutant known as a lesion mimic mutant while working as a postdoctoral scholar in Pamela Ronald’s lab at UC Davis. Ronald is co-lead author and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and the Genome Center.

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Scientists from a collection of Chinese research institutions collaborated on a study of organ regeneration in mammals, finding deer antler blastema progenitor cells are a possible source of conserved regeneration cells in higher vertebrates. Published in the journal Science, the researchers suggest the findings have applications in clinical bone repair. With the activation of key characteristic genes, it could potentially be used in regenerative medicine for skeletal, long bone or limb regeneration.

Limb and organ regeneration is a long coveted technology in . Humans have some limited regenerative abilities, mostly in our livers. If a portion of the liver is removed, the remaining liver will begin to grow until it reaches its original functional size. Lungs, kidneys, and pancreas can do this also, though not as thoroughly or efficiently.

Compare this to a lizard regenerating a tail, a zebrafish replacing a fin, a lobster regrowing a claw, or an axolotl salamander that can rebuild organs, limbs, spinal cord and even missing .

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On May 8, Shenzhen citizens found a significant reduction in their social security pension balances. Some people’s accounts even shrunk a third, the most loss reached 120,000 RMB, around 17,000 USD. A wave of public outcry ensued, with aggrieved parties accusing the government of arbitrarily “pooling” their hard-earned social security funds. The controversy grew to such an extent that the balance inquiry function of the Shenzhen social security system was promptly suspended.

Following in the footsteps of Shanghai, Shenzhen has become the second major city to execute a social security coordination. Between midnight on April 24th, 2023, and 9 am on May 8th, the Shenzhen Social Insurance Information System was suspended to integrate into Guangdong Province’s system, thereby linking to the National Pension Insurance Coordinated Information System for Enterprise Employees. Upon the system’s restoration, however, a considerable number of Shenzhen residents were shocked to find that their social security account balances suddenly decreased, with some accounts seeing a drastic 30–40% plunge. The whereabouts of these diverted funds remains a mystery.

The government’s actions prompted sharp rebuke. Many people criticised the authorities for appropriating funds without prior consent or notification, especially for a matter as important as social security funds. As the public searched for the reason behind this, some people pointed out the precarious state of the existing pension and medical insurance funds, which are very low, and underscored the severe challenges confronting the nation. To mitigate this crisis, the CCP is reportedly exploring various reform measures, including the integration of Shenzhen’s social security system with that of Guangdong Province, to pool and coordinate the two funds together.

#chinaPensions #chinaeconomy #chinaobserver.

All rights reserved.

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Population aging is the top global demographic trend; the pandemic can teach us how to prepare for it.

Total world population passed the 8 billion milestone on November 15, 2022. The progression from 7 to 8 billion people took a mere 12 years, conjuring up long-standing fears associated with rapid population growth, including food shortages, rampant unemployment, the depletion of natural resources, and unchecked environmental degradation.

But the most formidable demographic challenge facing the world is no longer rapid population growth, but population aging. Thoughtful preparedness—combining behavioral changes, investment in human capital and infrastructure, policy and institutional reforms, and technological innovations—can enable countries to meet the challenge and take advantage of the opportunities presented by demographic change.

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Healthy cells work hard to maintain the integrity of our DNA, but occasionally, a chromosome can get separated from the others and break apart during cell division. The tiny fragments of DNA then get reassembled in random order in the new cell, sometimes producing cancerous gene mutations.

This chromosomal shattering and rearranging is called “chromothripsis” and occurs in the majority of human cancers, especially cancers of the bones, brain and fatty tissue. Chromothripsis was first described just over a decade ago, but scientists did not understand how the floating pieces of DNA were able to be put back together.

In a study published in Nature, researchers at University of California San Diego have answered this question, discovering that the shattered DNA fragments are actually tethered together. This allows them to travel as one during and be re-encapsulated by one of the new daughter cells, where they are reassembled in a different order.

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Colon cancer screening | Colonoscopy.

0:00 Introduction.
0:24 What is colon cancer.
0:56 Risk factors of colon cancer.
1:47 Signs and symptoms of colon cancer.
4:36 Late stage colon cancer Signs and symptoms.
5:03 How to prevent colorectal cancer.

What is colorectal cancer?
Colorectal carcinoma or colorectal cancer is the cancer of large intestine and/or rectum.

What are the risk factors of colon cancer?
There are several risk factors we can count. However, the most important one is older age. The chances of having colon cancer increases with age.

There are other risk factors like:
History of inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

Family history of colorectal cancer or colorectal polyps.

Continue reading “Colon Cancer Symptoms | Colorectal Cancer | 10 warning signs of Colon Cancer | Colon Cancer” | >