Lifeboat Foundation

Interesting read and one that many have learned over the years; however, the rules are always changing though.

Illustration: Peter C. Espina /GT

The story of China’s rapid modernization through the use of Western technology took an unusual twist last week when a US firm aiming to build America’s first high-speed rail line abruptly cut its ties with a Chinese partner over technology transfer issues. XpressWest, the US builder of the line connecting Los Angeles and Las Vegas, was quite frank, blaming its decision on Washington’s requirement that rail cars for the project be locally manufactured.

Continue reading “China must learn that tech transfer two-process deal” »

Could there be a sweet revenge iin store for a particular large tech co. n the end?

HELSINKI: Nokia has signed a USD 1.53 billion frame agreement with China Mobile to create a “cloud network” for the Chinese operator, the Finnish telecom equipment giant said today.

The deal would entail “seamless connectivity that will more efficiently meet the ever-growing data demands of its subscriber base,” Nokia said in a statement.

Continue reading “Nokia to build China Mobile’s cloud network” »

Another article on Quantum Security; this time from Sydney (generating single photons to make communications and information secured).

With enough computing effort most contemporary security systems will be broken. But a research team at the University of Sydney has made a major breakthrough in generating single photons (light particles), as carriers of quantum information in security systems.

The collaboration involving physicists at the Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), an ARC Centre of Excellence headquartered in the School of Physics, and electrical engineers from the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, has been published in Nature Communications.

The team’s work resolved a key issue holding back the development of password exchange which can only be broken by violating the laws of physics. Photons are generated in a pair, and detecting one indicates the existence of the other. This allows scientists to manage the timing of photon events so that they always arrive at the time they are expected.

Continue reading “Breakthrough technology to improve cyber security” »

Nice.

A gene called Prkci can point cells in the right direction, according to a new study in Developmental Biology.

In the study, USC Stem Cell researcher In Kyoung Mah from the laboratory of Francesca Mariani and colleagues demonstrated Prkci’s role in organizing cells into balls and tubes during early embryo and organ formation.

Continue reading “Gene called Prkci helps organize organisms and their organs” »

Why gene studies and solutions matter.

Scientists have confirmed that a gene mutation causes severe glaucoma and blindness in children. Now they want to target the gene for treatment.

Stress during pregnancy may raise the risk for having a child with autism for women who have an altered gene.

Very insightful for my deep mind/ neuro mapping friends.

If you have trouble learning a new language as an adult, maybe you can blame your genes and brain structure, a U.S. study suggested Monday.

The study by researchers at the University of Washington showed that genetic variations of the so-called COMT gene and a measure of the strength of the brain’s communications network — known as “white matter”— jointly accounted for 46 percent of the reason for why some college students performed better than others in the second language class.

Continue reading “Genes, brain structure influence second language learning: study” »

Diabetes 2 tie to Vitamin D issues.

First study of Emiratis’ genes highlights the links between type 2 diabetes and a deficiency in vitamin D. Soon doctors may be able to prioritise care for those who are most at risk.

ABU DHABI // The first study to examine Emirati genes and the links between type 2 diabetes and vitamin D deficiency uncovered a genetic code that identifies those susceptible to the deficiency.

Continue reading “Emirati gene study shows diabetes and vitamin D deficiency risks” »

Jumping genes — not jumping beans.

“Jumping genes” are ubiquitous. Every domain of life hosts these sequences of DNA that can “jump” from one position to another along a chromosome; in fact, nearly half the human genome is made up of jumping genes. Depending on their specific excision and insertion points, jumping genes can interrupt or trigger gene expression, driving genetic mutation and contributing to cell diversification. Since their discovery in the 1940s, researchers have been able to study the behavior of these jumping genes, generally known as transposons or transposable elements (TE), primarily through indirect methods that infer individual activity from bulk results. However, such techniques are not sensitive enough to determine precisely how or why the transposons jump, and what factors trigger their activity.

Reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have observed jumping gene activity in real time within living cells. The study is the collaborative effort of physics professors Thomas Kuhlman and Nigel Goldenfeld, at the Center for the Physics of Living Cells, a National Science Foundation Physics Frontiers Center.

Continue reading “Watching ‘jumping genes’ in action” »