Lifeboat Foundation

Lithium-ion batteries have been at the forefront of energy storage technologies. However, the availability of lithium is limited. Consequently, the growing demand for energy-storage systems has led to the search for low-cost and more accessible materials for rechargeable batteries. Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are a promising candidate due to the virtually unlimited sodium (Na) resources in seawater and salt deposits.

Wyoming just approved its largest solar farm – 771 megawatts (MW) of utility-scale solar plus battery storage.

Developer Enbridge has been issued a siting permit by the Industrial Siting Council to construct and operate Cowboy Solar I & II on private land leases in Laramie County, in the state’s southeast corner. Next steps will be to obtain county, environmental, and municipal permits.

Cowboy Solar I will include 400 MW of solar power and 136 MW of battery storage, while Cowboy Solar II will have 371 MW of solar power and 133 MW of battery storage.

The global shift to electric vehicles is gaining momentum, yet the extraction of battery materials has a significant environmental footprint that comes with high costs.

From ohio state university & stanford university: neurobiologically inspired long-term memory for large language models.

From ohio state university & stanford university.

Hipporag: neurobiologically inspired long-term memory for large language models.

Continue reading “OSU-NLP-Group/HippoRAG: HippoRAG is a novel RAG framework inspired by human long-term memory that enables LLMs to continuously integrate knowledge across external documents” »

The immune system provides an integral defense against cancer growth and progression. Activating an anti-tumor immune response relies on several biological steps that can ultimately result in the elimination of tumor cells. T cell activation, a process requiring three “signals,” is required for optimal anti-tumor immunity.

T cells, immune cells generated in the thymus, have a programmed affinity for a specific particle foreign to the body. T cells must become specially “trained” to recognize this foreign protein, known as an antigen. After leaving the thymus, T cells circulate throughout the body in search of their antigen.

Antigen presenting cells (APCs) comprise another category of immune cells required for effective anti-tumor immunity. APCs also circulate the body, where they locate, process, and “present” pieces of antigen on their surface. A surface molecule called a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) holds the antigen on the outside of the APC.

The Kia EV3 — the new all-electric compact SUV revealed Thursday — illustrates a growing appetite among global automakers to bring generative AI into their vehicles.

The automaker said the Kia EV3 will feature a new voice assistant that is built off ChatGPT, the text-generating AI chatbot developed by OpenAI. The Kia EV3, and its AI assistant, will first come to market in Korea in July 2024, followed by Europe in the second half of the year. Kia expects to expand sales of the vehicle into other regions following the European launch. It will eventually come to the United States, although the automaker did not provide a date.

This isn’t, however, a pure OpenAI affair. Kia had its hands in the development of the voice assistant too.

A recent article in Cell Reports Medicine, by Dr. Felipe Andrade, uncovers insights into lupus symptoms. More specifically, how these symptoms can range in severity among individuals. Andrade is a principal investigator and Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and specializes in rheumatology. His work focuses on the mechanisms of systemic autoimmune disease and the role of proteins that mediate this mechanism.

Lupus is an autoimmune disorder in which the body attacks its own tissues and cells. A chronic inflammatory disease, lupus affects about 1.5 million Americans. While the cause of lupus is unknown, there are several subsets including, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), cutaneous lupus, drug-induced lupus, and neonatal lupus. The most common subset is SLE with symptoms that include muscle/joint pain, fever, rashes, chest pain, hair loss, fatigue, mouth sores, kidney issues, and others. Unfortunately, there is no cure for lupus, but medication and lifestyle changes help moderate the symptoms. Medication that prevents or reduces inflammation are usually prescribed with other therapies that target pain and protect tissue damage.

Andrade and others explored the underlying mechanism that drives lupus. Researchers conclude that immune proteins, known as interferons, are elevated in lupus and can cause lupus-related symptoms including rashes, chest pain, fatigue, and soreness. Interferons help regulate inflammation and attract immune cells to the site of infection. In a healthy immune system interferon helps fight off infection. However, in the context of lupus, the protein helps to prolong inflammation that causes deterioration of tissues and cells.

And officials can come at those in slightly different ways — meaning that there isn’t necessarily a disconnect between SPACECOM and Space Force, she noted.

But, writ large, Christensen isn’t convinced most new commercial space companies currently being funded by venture capital — whether looking to provide satellite servicing or remote sensing or delivery via rocket — will be able to make it long term without Pentagon and IC dollars.

“I think the US national security community is going to shape commercial space for the foreseeable future,” she said.

Ask anyone working in quantum computing and they may tell you they have been dealing with the frustratingly contrarian and intricately delicate state of entanglement since the beginning of time. However, a new study suggests this might be impossible. In fact, entanglement may have been absent in the earliest moments of the universe, researchers are reporting — a hypothesis that would — if validated — challenge our understanding of quantum mechanics and the nature of time itself.

The research, detailed in a paper by Jim Al-Khalili, of the University of Surrey and Eddy Keming Chen, University of California, San Diego and published on the pre-print server ArXiv, explores the so-called entanglement past hypothesis. In the study, the researchers explore why time only flows in one direction, a fundamental concept in both quantum physics and thermodynamics.

According to the researchers the concept of quantum entanglement, where two particles become so deeply linked that their properties seem to remain interconnected regardless of the distance between them, is central to modern quantum mechanics. It’s also a key ingredient for the potential of quantum computers to tackle massively complex calculations. It’s also why quantum computing is so vexing, because entanglement can be disrupted by external influences, leading to a process known as decoherence.