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Blog – Page 2199

Year 2023 face_with_colon_three

Bioengineers and tissue engineers intend to reconstruct skin equivalents with physiologically relevant cellular and matrix architectures for basic research and industrial applications. Skin pathophysiology depends on skin-nerve crosstalk and researchers must therefore develop reliable models of skin in the lab to assess selective communications between epidermal keratinocytes and sensory neurons.

In a new report now published in Nature Communications, Jinchul Ahn and a research team in , bio-convergence engineering, and therapeutics and biotechnology in South Korea presented a three-dimensional, innervated epidermal keratinocyte layer on a to create a sensory neuron-epidermal keratinocyte co-culture model. The maintained well-organized basal-suprabasal stratification and enhanced barrier function for physiologically relevant anatomical representation to show the feasibility of imaging in the lab, alongside functional analyses to improve the existing co-culture models. The platform is well-suited for biomedical and pharmaceutical research.

Skin: The largest sensory organ of the human body

Continue reading “Skin-on-a-chip: Modeling an innervated epidermal-like layer on a microfluidic chip” | >

CES has always been the place for weird, out-there gadgets to make their debuts, and this year’s show is no exception.

Skyted, a Toulouse, France-based startup founded by former Airbus VP Stéphane Hersen and acoustical engineer Frank Simon, is bringing what look like a pair of human muzzles to CES 2024. Called the “Mobility Privacy Mask” and “Hybrid Silent Mask,” the face-worn accoutrements are designed to “absorb voice frequencies” in noisy environments like plains, trains and rideshares, Hersen says.

“Skyted’s solution is ideal for commuters, business executives and travelers anywhere,” Hersen is quoted as saying in a press release. “No matter how busy or public the location is, they can now speak in silence and with the assurance that no one nearby can hear their conversation.”

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Meteorologists on Earth struggle to predict the weather, but what about scientists trying to predict the weather on exoplanets that are light-years from Earth? This is what a recently accepted study to The Astrophysical Journal Supplement hopes to unveil as an international team of researchers used data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to conduct a three-year investigation into weather patterns on WASP-121 b, which is a “hot Jupiter” that orbits its star in just over one day and located approximately 880 light-years from Earth. This study holds the potential to not only advance our understanding of exoplanets and their atmospheres, but also how we study them, as well.

Artist impression of WASP-121 b orbiting its host star. (Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STSci))

“The assembled dataset represents a significant amount of observing time for a single planet and is currently the only consistent set of such repeated observations,” said Dr. Quentin Changeat, who is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Astronomy at University College London and lead author of the study. “The information that we extracted from those observations was used to infer the chemistry, temperature, and clouds of the atmosphere of WASP-121 b at different times. This provided us with an exquisite picture of the planet changing over time.”

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A new patent granted to Apple details how the company is thinking of using the Vision Pro’s external display to show what the wearer is looking at inside the device.

The patent, which includes Jony Ive as an inventor, details ways an outside screen on a generic head-mounted display could be used to indicate what the wearer is seeing to people around them. While the patent isn’t specifically about the Vision Pro and its “EyeSight” display feature, it’s clear that some of the ideas here informed the features in the final headset.

For example, Apple has talked publicly about how the outer screen on the Vision Pro can let outsiders see the eyes of the person wearing the headset or display a colorful pattern that indicates the wearer is fully immersed in VR. But pictures in the patent detail how an external display could be used for a few sillier-looking applications, like displaying the weather, sunglasses on your face, a DO NOT DISTURB sign, or even replacing the wearer’s eyes with Zoom icons.

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Qualcomm extends its presence in AI inference processing, began with its Cloud AI 100 series accelerators, with the launch of its new Qualcomm Cloud AI 100 Ultra.

While Qualcomm’s Cloud AI 100 accelerator family has long been available from several tier-one technology providers such as Lenovo, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Inventec, Foxconn, Gigabyte, and Asus, it’s starting to see deployment in the public cloud.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently introduced its first Qualcomm-based accelerated instance type, the DL2q, featuring the Qualcomm Cloud AI 100. While the new instance type can be used for general inference applications, the companies highlight the accelerator’s specific applicability in developing automotive ADAS and related applications – an area in which Qualcomm is rapidly expanding its presence.

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Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and accounts for 12.5% of all new cancer cases globally. And while the overall incidence has been decreasing and five-year survival rates in the U.S. exceed 90%, the burden of this disease cannot be underestimated.

On December 20, a new study titled “ENPP1 is an innate immune checkpoint of the anticancer cGAMP–STING pathway in breast cancer” was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by a team of Stanford researchers led by Lingyin Li, one of the top experts in the STING pathway in cancer.

Ectonucleotide Pyrophosphatase/Phosphodiesterase 1 (ENPP1) is a multifaceted enzyme that plays a significant role in various biological processes. At its core, ENPP1 is known for its ability to break down ATP, a primary energy molecule in the body, into AMP and inorganic pyrophosphate. This activity is crucial in regulating bone mineralization and preventing abnormal calcium deposits in the body. In addition to its role in bone health, ENPP1 is also involved in regulating insulin signaling, which links it to metabolic disorders like diabetes.

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