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Blog – Page 2350

Summary: A new study identified the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) as a central regulator in the brain’s inhibitory control circuit.

Using dynamic causal modeling and fMRI on a sample of 250 participants, the study reveals that the rIFG significantly influences the caudate nucleus and thalamus during response inhibition tasks. This research also shows gender differences in brain function: women have distinct neural patterns in the thalamus, and overall, better inhibitory control correlates with stronger neural communication from the thalamus to the rIFG.

These findings provide valuable insights for developing neuromodulation therapies for mental and neurological disorders with inhibitory control deficits.

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Are humans disrupting the Earth’s salt cycle through deicing roads and other salt activities? This is what a recent study published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment hopes to address as a team of researchers led by the University of Maryland examine the environmental impact of salting roads as a safety measure from freezing temperatures, resulting in increased levels of salt throughout the environment, including the air, soil, and water, thus disrupting the Earth’s natural salt cycle. While the Earth’s natural salt cycle is a process that occurs over vast periods of geologic time, human activities are increasing this cycle in alarming ways.

Salts being used as deicing agents are common across the United States during the winter, with more than 44 billion pounds of deicing agent used annually. In fact, between 2013–17, road salts accounted for 44 percent of the salt use in the United States, which accounts for 13.9 percent of total dissolved solids that make their way into streams and waterways across the nation.

“This is a slow-moving train wreck,” said Dr. Megan Rippy, who is an assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech and a co-author on the study. “It’s playing out so slowly that it’s easy to overlook that our streams, lakes, and drinking water resources are becoming progressively saltier.”

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In today’s column, I am continuing my ongoing series that has closely been exploring the use of generative AI as a generalized interactive chatbot that imparts mental health guidance.

But serious and sobering qualms exist. There isn’t a pre-check to validate that someone ought to be resorting to generic generative AI for such advisement. There isn’t any ironclad certification of the generative AI for use in this specific capacity. The guardrails of the generative AI might not be sufficient to avoid professing ill-advised guidance. So-called AI hallucinations can arise (as an aside, the parlance “AI hallucination” terminology is something that I demonstrably disfavor as a phraseology, for the reasons stated at the link here, but anyway generally connotes that generative AI can produce specious or fabricated answers). And so on.

All in all, you might declare that we are immersed in the Wild West of AI-based human mental health advisement, which is taking place surreptitiously yet in plain sight, and lacks the traditional kinds of checks and balances that society expects to protectively be instilled.

I’ve got a bit of an additional surprise for you. Consider a new facet that you might find notably intriguing and at the same time disturbing. It is the latest novelty approach that veers into the mental health realm by controversially using generative AI in a rage-room capacity.

Continue reading “Using Generative AI As An Interactive Rage-Room Chatbot Raises Mental Health Guidance Qualms” | >

R550X can carry loads of up to 1,200 pounds, boasts a flight time exceeding three hours, and a top speed of 150 miles per hour.

Rotor Technologies Inc., a firm engaged in the development of autonomous vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, has unveiled and commenced the production of what it claims to be the “largest uncrewed civilian helicopter on the market.”

Termed R550X, the VTOL is derived from the U.S. firm’s Robinson R44 platform and is developed as a versatile autonomous helicopter designed for multiple missions.

Continue reading “Rotor: World’s largest uncrewed drone helicopter enters production” | >

E-Revolt cuts conversion time from weeks to just a day.

Converting a fuel-run car to a fully electric car in 24 hours sounds unbelievable, but that’s what German startup e-Revolt claims it can do.

Normally this conversion process takes weeks, but e-Revolt’s battery design and workflow are revolutionizing this landscape.

With a conversion time of a day, e-Revolt curbs the addition of 30 tonnes of CO2 in the air, provides an electric range of 250 kilometers (155 miles), and 100 percent insurance coverage post upgrade.

Continue reading “This company can convert your fuel car into an EV — in just a day” | >

The powerful jet engine will help reduce travel times between popular global destinations in an environment-friendly manner.

Dassault Aviation’s newest business jet Falcon 6X has entered service powered by Pratt and Whitney’s (PW) 812D engines offering 14,000 pounds (lbs) of thrust. The engines underwent rigorous testing since their selection five years ago and will now help the first extra wide-body business jet zoom around the world at 0.9 Mach.

Dassault’s newest offering aims to redefine the travel experience by offering unparalleled comforts of space and luxury in a business jet. The extra wide body design of the aircraft is further enhanced by the “uninterrupted lines” feature of the cabin that de-clutters in interiors like never before.

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Scientists have developed a model to better understand the physics of the powerful superflares emitted by stars far beyond our solar system.

Solar flares, which are rapid and strong bursts of energy and radiation that originate from the Sun’s surface, are known to be emitted into space by our Sun.

NASA’s Kepler and TESS missions, however, have discovered several stars may produce superflares that are 100–10,000 times brighter than those emitted by our Sun.

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