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A breakthrough plasmonic catalyst, stable in air, revolutionizes acetylene semi-hydrogenation, marking a significant advance in sustainable catalysis.

In a significant breakthrough, Prof. Polshettiwar’s group at TIFR, Mumbai has developed a novel “Plasmonic Reduction Catalyst Stable in Air,” defying the common instability of reduction catalysts in the presence of air. The catalyst merges platinum-doped ruthenium clusters, with ‘plasmonic black gold’. This black gold efficiently harvests visible light and generates numerous hot spots due to plasmonic coupling, enhancing its catalytic performance.

Superior Performance in Semi-Hydrogenation.

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Window to the soul? Maybe, but the eyes are also a flashing neon sign for a new artificial intelligence-based system that can read them to predict what you’ll do next.

A University of Maryland researcher and two colleagues have used and a new deep-learning AI to predict study participants’ choices while they viewed a comparison website with rows and columns of products and their features.

The algorithm, known as RETINA (Raw Eye Tracking and Image Ncoder Architecture), could accurately zero in on selections before people had even made their decisions.

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New nanocavities pave the way for enhanced nanoscale lasers and LEDs that could enable faster data transmission using smaller, more energy-efficient devices.

As we transition to a new era in computing, there is a need for new devices that integrate electronic and photonic functionalities at the nanoscale while enhancing the interaction between photons and electrons. In an important step toward fulfilling this need, researchers have developed a new III-V semiconductor nanocavity that confines light at levels below the so-called diffraction limit.

“Nanocavities with ultrasmall mode volumes hold great promise for improving a wide range of photonic devices and technologies, from lasers and LEDs to quantum communication and sensing, while also opening up possibilities in emerging fields such as quantum computing,” said the leading author Meng Xiong from the Technical University of Denmark. “For example, light sources based on these nanocavities could significantly improve communication by enabling faster data transmission and strongly reduced energy consumption.

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GeoMindGPT, a customized version of ChatGPT, powered by GPT-4, is p ioneering the frontier of AI-assisted understanding of complex scientific and philosophical concepts with a special focus on Global Superintelligence, Technological Singularity, Transhumanism & Posthumanism, Consciousness Studies, Quantum Gravity, Simulation Metaphysics.

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Cancer treatments, including chemotherapy, in addition to killing a large number of tumor cells, also result in the generation of senescent tumor cells (also called “zombie cells”). While senescent cells do not reproduce, they do, unfortunately, generate a favorable environment for the expansion of tumor cells that may have escaped the effects of the chemotherapy and eventually result in tumor regrowth.

An international team of researchers led by Dr. Manuel Serrano at IRB Barcelona has described in Nature Cancer how cells that have become senescent after chemotherapy activate the PD-L2 protein to protect themselves from the immune system while recruiting immune suppressor cells. The latter creates an inhibitory environment that impairs the ability of lymphocytes to kill cancer cells.

Based on these findings, scientists wondered what would be the effect of inactivating PD-L2. Interestingly, lacking PD-L2 are rapidly eliminated by the immune system. This intercepts the capacity of senescent cells to create an immunosuppressive environment and, as a result, lymphocytes retain their full capacity to kill those that may have escaped the effects of chemotherapy.

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