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Blog – Page 15

Applied physicists at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have created a photon router that could plug into quantum networks to create robust optical interfaces for noise-sensitive microwave quantum computers.

The breakthrough is a crucial step toward someday realizing modular, distributed quantum computing networks that leverage existing telecommunications infrastructure. Comprising millions of miles of optical fiber, today’s fiber-optic networks send information between computing clusters as pulses of light, or photons, all around the world in the blink of an eye.

Led by Marko Lončar, the Tiantsai Lin Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics at SEAS, the team has created a microwave-optical quantum transducer, a device designed for quantum processing systems that use superconducting microwave qubits as their smallest units of operation (analogous to the 1s and 0s of classical bits).

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I very much enjoyed reading this nicely done preclinical study on using nebulized vasopressin to improve social cognition in low-sociality rhesus monkeys. Reading about their study design in particular was highly informative/educational! #preclinical #medicine #biomedicine

Low cerebrospinal (CSF) arginine vasopressin (AVP) concentration is a biomarker of social impairment in low-social monkeys and children with autism, suggesting that AVP administration may improve primate social functioning. However, AVP administration also increases aggression, at least in “neurotypical” animals with intact AVP signaling. Here, we tested the effects of a voluntary drug administration method in low-social male rhesus monkeys with high autistic-like trait burden. Monkeys received nebulized AVP or placebo, using a within-subjects design. Study 1 (N = 8) investigated the effects of AVP administration on social cognition in two tests comparing responses to social versus nonsocial stimuli. Test 1: Placebo-administered monkeys lacked face recognition memory, whereas face recognition memory was “rescued” following AVP administration.

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More mammals were living on the ground several million years before the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, new research led by the University of Bristol has revealed.

The study, published in the journal Palaeontology, provides fresh evidence that many mammals were already shifting toward a more ground-based lifestyle leading up to the asteroid’s impact.

By analyzing small-fossilized bone fragments, specifically end of limb bones, from marsupial and found in Western North America—the only place with a well-preserved terrestrial fossil record from this time—the team discovered signs that these mammals were adapting to life on the ground. End of were analyzed as they bear signatures of locomotory habit that can be statistically compared with modern mammals.

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Neurological complications are an important concern in patients undergoing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. Consensus guidelines inform the management of immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS). However, these guidelines are based on the early clinical experience with CD19 targeting CAR T cells in B-cell malignancies. In contrast, there are so far no published best practice recommendations on the current management of other non-classical neurological complications, which frequently develop after CAR T-cell infusion and cause clinically significant neurotoxicity.

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Immunotherapies, predominantly immune-checkpoint inhibitors and chimaeric antigen receptor T cells, have transformed oncology. Nonetheless, these systemically administered agents have several limitations, including the risk of off-target toxicities and a lack of activity owing to an inability to overcome an immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment (TME). In this Review, the authors describe the potential to overcome these challenges using functionalized nanomaterials that are designed to release a wide range of immunotherapeutic cargoes in response to specific TME characteristics, including hypoxia, differences in pH, the presence of specific enzymes, reactive oxygen species and/or high levels of extracellular ATP.

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Everything is bigger in Texas — including a new housing development with a futuristic vision.

Icon, a 3D technology company, is behind dozens of next-generation 3D-printed homes in the Lone Star State. A YouTube video gives viewers an inside look at the new homes built with robotic construction at the Wolf Ranch development in Georgetown.

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