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Jan 11, 2024

IRobot shares plunge 19% on report Amazon won’t offer concessions to resolve EU probe

Posted by in category: futurism

Shares of Amazon closed up 1.5% on Wednesday.

Last November, the European Commission warned the planned acquisition raises competition concerns, saying it found Amazon may have the ability to prevent or degrade iRobot rivals’ access to its online site by delisting or reducing the visibility of their products in search results and other areas.

The European Commission opened an in-depth probe into the purchase last July and is expected to rule on the deal by Feb. 14.

Jan 10, 2024

Kim Jong Un threatens South Korea with ‘annihilation’

Posted by in category: futurism

The North Korean dictator was also quoted as saying he had ‘no intention of avoiding war’ with his country’s southern neighbor as he toured the major weapons factory, cigarette in hand.

Jan 10, 2024

Putin may be about to launch an apocalyptic assault

Posted by in category: futurism

I cannot completely confirm if this true as the nuclear threats are a constant thing now.

Jan 10, 2024

How a mutation in microglia elevates Alzheimer’s risk

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

A study finds that microglia with mutant TREM2 protein reduce brain circuit connections, promote inflammation, and contribute to Alzheimer’s.

Jan 10, 2024

Need for speed: How hummingbirds switch mental gears in flight

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Hummingbirds use two distinct sensory strategies to control their flight, depending on whether they’re hovering or in forward motion, according to new research by University of British Columbia (UBC) zoologists.

“When in forward fight, hummingbirds rely on what we call an ‘internal forward model’—almost an ingrained, intuitive autopilot—to gauge speed,” says Dr. Vikram B. Baliga, lead author of a new study on hummingbird locomotion published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. “There’s just too much information coming in to rely directly on every from your surroundings.”

“But when hovering or dealing with cues that might require a change in altitude, we found they rely much more on , direct visual feedback from their environment.”

Jan 10, 2024

Neuropsychological effects of rapid-acting antidepressants may explain their clinical benefits, new research finds

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Rapid-acting antidepressants, including ketamine, scopolamine and psilocybin, have been found to have immediate and lasting positive effects on mood in patients with major depressive disorder but how these effects arise is unknown. New research led by the University of Bristol explored their neuropsychological effects and found that all three of these drugs can modulate affective biases associated with learning and memory.

The paper, published in Science Translational Medicine was carried out in collaboration with researchers at Compass Pathways, Boehringer Ingelheim, and the University of Cambridge.

Negative affective biases are a core feature of . Affective biases occur when emotions alter how the brain processes information and negative affective biases are thought to contribute to the development and continuation of depressed mood.

Jan 10, 2024

A magnetically actuated acoustic metamaterial

Posted by in categories: computing, engineering, space

Space coiling acoustic metamaterials are static and require manual reconfiguration for sound-field modulation. In a new report published in Communications Materials, Christabel Choi, and a team of scientists in computer science and engineering in the U.K., and Italy, developed an approach for active reconfiguration with standalone dynamics to space-coil unit cells known as dynamic meta-bricks.

The meta-bricks housed an actuatable, magnetorheological, elastomeric flap, to function like a switch and to directly regulate the transmitted ultrasound. The scientists showed the synergy between active and passive reconfigurability to develop multifunctional metamaterials with additional degrees of freedom, for design and implementation.

Jan 10, 2024

SAG-AFTRA Approves AI Voice Acting For Video Games

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

The union’s agreement with AI voiceover studio Replica is being called out by some of the industry’s top voice talent.

Jan 10, 2024

Oxford starts human testing of Nipah virus vaccine

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Jan 11 (Reuters) — The University of Oxford said on Thursday it had begun human testing of an experimental vaccine against the brain-swelling Nipah virus that led to outbreaks in India’s Kerala state and other parts of Asia.

There is no vaccine yet for the deadly virus. Nipah was first identified about 25 years ago in Malaysia and has led to outbreaks in Bangladesh, India and Singapore.

The first participants in the Oxford trial received doses of the vaccine over the last week. The shot is based on the same technology as the one used in AstraZeneca (AZN.L) and Serum Institute of India’s COVID-19 shots.

Jan 10, 2024

Ancient human DNA helps explain why northern Europeans have higher multiple sclerosis risk

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience

Ancient DNA helps explain why northern Europeans have a higher risk of multiple sclerosis than other ancestries: It’s a genetic legacy of horseback-riding cattle herders who swept into the region about 5,000 years ago.

The findings come from a huge project to compare modern DNA with that culled from ancient humans’ teeth and bones — allowing scientists to trace both prehistoric migration and disease-linked genes that tagged along.

When a Bronze Age people called the Yamnaya moved from the steppes of what are now Ukraine and Russia into northwestern Europe, they carried gene variants that today are known to increase people’s risk of multiple sclerosis, researchers reported Wednesday.