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Category: biotech/medical – Page 328

A new Nature Human Behaviour study, jointly led by Dr. Margherita Malanchini at Queen Mary University of London and Dr. Andrea Allegrini at University College London, has revealed that non-cognitive skills, such as motivation and self-regulation, are as important as intelligence in determining academic success. These skills become increasingly influential throughout a child’s education, with genetic factors playing a significant role.

The research, conducted in collaboration with an international team of experts, suggests that fostering non-cognitive skills alongside could significantly improve educational outcomes.

“Our research challenges the long-held assumption that intelligence is the primary driver of ,” says Dr. Malanchini, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Queen Mary University of London.

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A novel, water-resistant patch-wearable cardioverter-defibrillator (P-WCD) is safe and effective for patients at risk for sudden cardiac arrest, according to a study published in the Aug. 6 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

John Hummel, M.D., from The Ohio State University in Columbus, and colleagues assessed the safety and clinical effectiveness of a novel P-WCD. The analysis included 290 patients at risk for sudden cardiac arrest due to ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation who were not candidates for or refused an implantable defibrillator.

The researchers found that the clinically significant cutaneous adverse device effect rate was 2.30 percent, with no severe adverse effects. There were no device-related deaths or serious adverse events reported. The inappropriate shock rate was 0.36 per 100 patient-months. Nine patients received 11 shocks, of which nine shocks were adjudicated to be appropriate. Eight of nine appropriate shocks were successful with a single shock. Median wear time compliance was 23.5 hours per day.

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Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) have emerged as a promising solution for restoring communication and control to individuals with severe motor impairments. Traditionally, these systems have been bulky, power-intensive, and limited in their practical applications. Researchers at EPFL have developed the first high-performance, Miniaturized Brain-Machine Interface (MiBMI), offering an extremely small, low-power, highly accurate, and versatile solution.

Published in the latest issue of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (“MiBMI: A 192/512-Channel 2.46mm 2 Miniaturized Brain-Machine Interface Chipset Enabling 31-Class Brain-to-Text Conversion Through Distinctive Neural Codes”) and presented at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, the MiBMI not only enhances the efficiency and scalability of brain-machine interfaces but also paves the way for practical, fully implantable devices. This technology holds the potential to significantly improve the quality of life for patients with conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinal cord injuries.

An image of the chip. (Image: EPFL)

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Sensors that can be easily and safely introduced in the brain could have important medical applications and could also contribute to the development of brain-interfacing devices. While significant progress has been made toward the development of these sensors, most existing devices can only be deployed via invasive surgical procedures that can have numerous complications.

Researchers at Seoul National University and other institutes in South Korea recently created a new biodegradable and self-deployable tent that could be far easier to insert onto the surface of the human brain. Their proposed electrode design, outlined in Nature Electronics, could naturally degrade inside the human body without leaving any residues, which means that once it is inserted in the body it does not need to be surgically removed.

“Our recent paper was born out of a growing awareness of the clinical challenges linked to the implantation of electrodes via invasive brain surgery,” Seung-Kyun Kang, corresponding author of the paper, told Medical Xpress.

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Noninvasive braincomputer interfaces could vastly improve brain computer control.

Over the past two decades, the international biomedical research community has demonstrated increasingly sophisticated ways to allow a person’s brain to communicate with a device, allowing breakthroughs aimed at improving quality of life, such as access to computers and the internet, and more recently control of a prosthetic limb. DARPA has been at the forefront of this research.

The state of the art in brain-system communications has employed invasive techniques that allow precise, high-quality connections to specific neurons or groups of neurons. These techniques have helped patients with brain injury and other illnesses. However, these techniques are not appropriate for able-bodied people. DARPA now seeks to achieve high levels of brain-system communications without surgery, in its new program, Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3).

“DARPA created N3 to pursue a path to a safe, portable neural interface system capable of reading from and writing to multiple points in the brain at once,” said Dr. Al Emondi, program manager in DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office (BTO). “High-resolution, nonsurgical neurotechnology has been elusive, but thanks to recent advances in biomedical engineering, neuroscience, synthetic biology, and nanotechnology, we now believe the goal is attainable.”

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A newly discovered code within DNA—coined “spatial grammar”—holds a key to understanding how gene activity is encoded in the human genome.

This breakthrough finding, identified by researchers at Washington State University and the University of California, San Diego and published in Nature, revealed a long-postulated hidden spatial grammar embedded in DNA. The research could reshape scientists’ understanding of and how genetic variations may influence in development or disease.

Transcription factors, the proteins that control which genes in one’s genome are turned on or off, play a crucial role in this code. Long thought of as either or repressors of gene activity, this research shows the function of transcription factors is far more complex.

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Dr. Vopson proposes that information has mass and is the fifth state of matter, expanding our current understanding of the universe’s basic building blocks.

Physicist Dr. Melvin Vopson from the University of Portsmouth has proposed an experiment to prove that information is the fifth state of matter, alongside solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. His theory suggests that information possesses mass and is a fundamental component of the universe, similar to DNA in living organisms. The experiment involves using particle-antiparticle collisions to detect and measure this information. If proven correct, this could radically change our understanding of physics, suggesting that information might even be the elusive dark matter that makes up nearly a third of the universe.

After reading the article, a Reddit user gained more than 1.7k upvotes with this comment: “Here’s explanation: When you collide an electron and a positron (an anti-electron) they are completely destroyed, releasing their mass equivalent energy as photons. The information equivalence theory predicts that you aren’t just destroying the mass but also internal information the particle has. If this is true, the annihilation would also release photons equal to the information-energy equivalence.” This article will amaze you by showing how information might be the key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe. Don’t forget to discuss this fascinating theory in the comment section below!

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