Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: food

Scientists develop wearable robotic system to restore hand function

Researchers at the Medical University of Vienna, in collaboration with ETH Zurich, the Technical University of Munich and Medical Faculty Belgrade, have developed a wearable neurorobotic system that combines electrical neurostimulation with hand exoskeletons. In a clinical trial involving 14 patients with hand impairments caused by neurological injury, the technology supported finger mobility, tactile perception and grip control. The results demonstrate the potential of personalised assistive systems for people living with the consequences of spinal cord or brain injury. The study has recently been published in the journal Science Advances.

Hand movements and the sense of touch are essential for everyday activities such as grasping, eating, dressing or personal hygiene. However, after damage to the central nervous system, motor and sensory impairments of the hand often persist. Conventional rehabilitation can achieve improvements, but does not always lead to sufficient restoration of hand function. There is therefore a great need for assistive technologies suitable for everyday use.

A research team led by study director Stanisa Raspopovic from the Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at MedUni Vienna has developed the “SensoExo” system for assisting people with hand sensorimotor impairements. It combines a wearable hand exoskeleton with a custom-fitted neurostimulation sleeve. The sleeve stimulates specific nerves and muscles in the forearm through the skin. Sensors on the fingers detect touch and gripping forces and translate this information into electrical stimulation, providing users with tactile feedback. In addition, functional electrical stimulation can assist users open and close their fingers more easily.

Trace additive unlocks faster bioplastic biodegradation without losing transparency or strength

Compostable plastics could be part of a solution to the world’s plastic waste problem. But currently these materials need industrial composting facilities to break down. In a step toward making a home-compostable plastic, researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have augmented polylactide (PLA)—a widely used biobased and compostable polymer—with a small amount of an additive. Tests show it helps the material degrade substantially faster without sacrificing critical qualities like strength or transparency.

“PLA can be made to degrade much more effectively under practical composting conditions without compromising the properties that make it useful in everyday applications,” says Marc Hillmyer, a corresponding author of the paper.

PLA is currently found in products such as food packaging, textiles and biomedical devices, and it accounts for roughly two-thirds of total bio-based and biodegradable plastics production worldwide. “Composting is considered one of the most effective end-of-life strategies for PLA products, especially food-contaminated single-use products, because it eliminates the need for additional sorting and washing processes,” says Hillmyer. This process converts organic waste into environmentally innocuous products such as small organic acids.

Scientists uncover hidden phosphorus reservoir vital for future food production

Researchers have developed a simpler, more cost-effective method to measure a biologically important form of phosphorus in soils, providing new insights into nutrient cycling that could help improve sustainable agricultural management.

Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for plant growth and global food production, yet its natural reserves are finite. Understanding how phosphorus is stored, transformed and made available in soils is critical for maintaining soil fertility while reducing environmental impacts.

In a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, an international research team, including scientists from Sultan Qaboos University, James Hutton Institute, the Environment Authority of Oman and others, optimized a laboratory method for measuring DNA-bound phosphorus (DNA-P) in soils. DNA-P is part of the organic phosphorus pool associated with living microorganisms and plays an important role in nutrient cycling.

Electric ‘nose’ can smell when your food’s gone bad

Most of us have used the sniff test to decide whether a slightly expired bottle of milk or a week-old box of takeout is still good to eat. But while the human nose can be quite astute, it doesn’t always catch everything. Each year, millions of people in the U.S. are sickened by food-borne pathogens that thrive in undercooked or spoiled food.

Luckily for our collective stomachs, a new “electronic nose” developed at UC Berkeley can detect the scents associated with spoiled food much more accurately than the human nose. It can also sniff out the presence of common food allergens, like walnuts and peanuts, which can be deadly for those with sensitivities. The nose is described in a new study published in the journal Science Advances.

“I think ‘smart’ fridges—which come with sensors that you can control on your phone—would be a great application for this kind of technology,” said study lead author Carla Bassil, a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering and computer sciences at Berkeley and a member of the Javey Research Group. “How great would it be if your fridge could tell you, ‘Hey, your broccoli’s going to go bad soon, so you should probably eat that,’ Or, ” Your chicken is on its last day’?”

Canada’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy: AI for All

Message from the minister The Government’s vision: AI for All Key pillars of the strategy Priority sectors Pillar 1: Protecting Canadians and safeguarding democracy Pillar 2: Ensuring AI empowers Canadians Pillar 3: Powering AI adoption for shared prosperity Pillar 4: Building the Canadian sovereign AI foundation Pillar 5: Scaling Canadian champions Pillar 6: Building trusted partnerships and global alliances Conclusion

An innovative Canada is a stronger Canada. And AI is the major driver of innovation in Canada and around the world. But to understand the potential of Canadian AI, you have to see how it is already working to improve the lives of people. How a Canadian pediatric cardiologist in Halifax named Dr. Robert Chen is using the AI application he built to diagnose heart murmurs in newborns. His technology could cut down wait times by many months for anxious parents to see a specialist, saving our health care system tens of millions of dollars.

You have to see how a Canadian AI company called Croptimistic is helping farmers precisely map their soil. This technology allows them to use less fertilizer, while increasing crop yield, making our food system more resilient and more affordable.

Nanoparticles from tattoos circulate inside the body, study finds

The elements that make up the ink in tattoos travel inside the body in micro and nanoparticle forms and reach the lymph nodes, according to a study published in Scientific Reports on 12 September by scientists from Germany and the ESRF, the European Synchrotron, Grenoble (France). It is the first time researchers have found analytical evidence of the transport of organic and inorganic pigments and toxic element impurities as well as in depth characterization of the pigments ex vivo in tattooed tissues. Two ESRF beamlines were crucial in this breakthrough.

“When someone wants to get a tattoo, they are often very careful in choosing a parlour where they use sterile needles that haven’t been used previously. No one checks the chemical composition of the colours, but our study shows that maybe they should,” explains Hiram Castillo, one of the authors of the study and scientist at the ESRF.

The reality is that little is known about the potential impurities in the colour mixture applied to the skin. Most tattoo inks contain organic pigments, but also include preservatives and contaminants like nickel, chromium, manganese or cobalt. Besides carbon black, the second most common ingredient used in tattoo inks is (TiO2), a white usually applied to create certain shades when mixed with colorants. TiO2 is also commonly used in food additives, sunscreens and paints. Delayed healing, along with skin elevation and itching, are often associated with white tattoos, and by consequence with the use of TiO2.

Scientists Put a Fruit Fly’s Brain in a Computer Simulation… What It Did Is Now Scaring Scientists

Scientists have achieved an incredible breakthrough by recreating the brain of a fruit fly inside a computer simulation. By mapping around 140,000 neurons and millions of connections, they built a digital brain that can sense its environment, process information, and even control a virtual body. In the simulation, the digital fly was able to search for food, respond to stimuli, and show behaviors that were not directly programmed by scientists. This discovery shows how powerful neural connections are in generating behavior. It also raises fascinating questions about the nature of intelligence, consciousness, and whether complex brains—including ours—could one day be simulated in computers.

sources

https://eon.systems/updates/embodied-brain-emulation.

Research Paper for more information.
https://marginalrevolution.com/margin…

#Science.
#Neuroscience.
#ArtificialIntelligence.
#BrainSimulation.
#FruitFlyBrain.
#Connectome.
#FutureTech.
#ComputerSimulation.
#NeuralNetworks.
#ScienceDiscovery

Gut microbes unlock hormone signaling that regulates gut movement, study suggests

Millions of people worldwide are periodically or chronically affected by gut-related conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and gastroenteritis. Uncovering the physiological and biological processes that contribute to gut health could thus be highly valuable, as it might help devise more effective interventions to prevent and treat these ailments.

The transit of food, fluids and waste through the intestine is known to be coordinated by various interacting systems in the body, including gut wall muscles, neurons in the gastrointestinal tract and hormones. A growing body of research has also been exploring the crucial contribution of bacteria and other microorganisms residing in the digestive tract, which are collectively referred to as the gut microbiome.

Researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Laval University recently carried out a study aimed at better understanding how these gut microbes interact with specific sex hormones and nerve cells that control the movement of muscles in the intestines.

This specially-designed jacket pulls drinking water from thin air

Engineers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a jacket that harvests drinking water directly from the air. The technology could benefit anyone who spends a lot of time in areas without easy access to drinking water, from hobbyist hikers, campers and runners to agricultural workers, emergency responders and soldiers. The advance in fabric technology comes alongside a new benchmark for atmospheric water harvesting.

“Water harvesting from air is usually imagined as a stationary device such as a box, a panel or a large sorbent bed,” said Guihua Yu, chair professor of the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and Texas Materials Institute and one of the leaders of the new research appearing in Science Advances. “Here, we wanted to rethink the form of the technology. If the fabric itself can collect water from air, it opens a new direction for personal and portable water access.”

The textile incorporated into the jacket collects moisture and funnels it to detachable harvesting units. Those units are placed in a foldable collector piece and heated to produce water.

/* */