Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Blog – Page 3833

More than a million species of arthropods –cold-blooded creepy-crawlies including all insects — crawl and buzz around us outdoors and indoors, aboveground and underground, in our plumbing systems, in our food and on our bodies.

Like them or not, they do essential tasks like pollinating our crops, aerating farmland and sustaining an enormous diversity of predators from warblers to wolverines.

Yet despite arthropods’ crucial importance to the environment and humanity, and amid concerns that some of these populations are dwindling, scientists did not know how many are really out there and how much they weigh collectively.

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The bones of the face and skull can be affected due to a wide range of conditions, including cleft palate defects, traumatic injuries, cancer, and bone loss from dentures. Although bone replacements are routinely used to regenerate the missing tissue, they are vulnerable to bacterial infection. In a new study, researchers investigated whether manuka honey, made from tea trees, can be used to resist bacterial infection and promote bone growth.

Bone implants account for 45% of all hospital-contracted infections, impeding healing. Typically, these implants are made from biomaterials that contain extracellular matrix components—molecules that provide structural support to cells. However, researchers commonly use metal implants or synthetic polymers to study defects and infections. Therefore, there is a gap in the understanding of how biomaterials behave in response to infection.

“Imagine a metal versus something soft and porous that is made up of extracellular matrix components. They have very different characteristics,” said Marley Dewey, a former graduate student in the Harley lab and the first author of the paper. “Using our scaffolds, this is the first paper to look at how these materials become infected.”

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A.I. systems like ChatGPT, Bing, and Bard are here to stay

Generative A.I., the kind of software that powers OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bing, and Google’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Bard, is all the rage. But the explosion in generative A.I., so named because it generates “new” content based on information it pulls from the web, is facing increasing scrutiny from consumers and experts.

Fears that the software could be used to help students cheat on tests and provide inaccurate, bizarre responses to users’ queries are drawing questions about the platforms’ accuracy and capabilities. And some are wondering if the products have been released too early for their own good.

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Today’s news from the frontier of quantum computing includes Amazon Web Services’ release of cloud-based simulation software for modeling the electromagnetic properties of quantum hardware, Google’s latest technological advance aimed at lowering the error rate of quantum calculations, and new recommendations about the public sector’s role on the frontier.

Amazon opens a ‘Palace’ for designers

Amazon Web Services is introducing an open-source software platform called Palace (which stands for Pa rallel, La rge-Scale Computational Electromagnetics) that can perform 3D simulations of complex electromagnetic models and enable the design of quantum computing hardware. The code is available via GitHub and can be used in conjunction with AWS ParallelCluster.

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Apple has reportedly secured all available orders for N3, TSMC’s first-generation 3-nanometer process that is likely to be used in the upcoming iPhone 15 Pro lineup as well as new MacBooks scheduled for launch in the second half of 2023.

According to a paywalled DigiTimes report, Apple has procured 100% of the initial N3 supply, which is said to have a high yield, despite the higher costs involved and the decline in the foundry’s utilization rate in the first half of 2023. Mass production of TSMC’s 3nm process began in late December, and the foundry has scaled up process capacity at a gradual pace with monthly output set to reach 45,000 wafers in March, according to the report’s sources.

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ATP, the compound essential for the functioning of photosynthetic organisms such as plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, is produced by an enzyme called “chloroplast ATP synthase” (CFoCF1). To control ATP production under varying light conditions, the enzyme uses a redox regulatory mechanism that modifies the ATP synthesis activity in response to changes in the redox state of cysteine (Cys) residues, which exist as dithiols under reducing (light) conditions, but forms a disulfide bond under oxidizing (dark) conditions. However, this mechanism has not yet been fully understood.

Now, in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers from Japan led by Prof. Toru Hisabori from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) has uncovered the role of the amino acid sequences present in CFoCF1, revealing how the regulates ATP production in photosynthetic organisms.

To understand how the conformation of the present in CFoCF1 contributes to the regulation mechanism, the researchers used the unicellular green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, to produce the enzyme. “By leveraging the powerful genetics of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a for photosynthesis, we conducted a comprehensive biochemical analysis of the CFoCF1 molecule,” explains Prof. Hisabori.

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