Lifeboat Foundation

Q&A with Akiko Iwasaki, PhD, discussing research her team conducted recently that discovered local vaccines administered with a nasal spray were more effective in protecting mice against influenza than vaccines that are injected into the muscle, the way standard flu shots are done.

A Yale School of Medicine research team led by Akiko Iwasaki, PhD, recently found that local vaccines administered with a nasal spray were more effective in protecting mice against influenza than vaccines that are injected into the muscle, the way standard flu shots are done. Iwasaki, who is Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Immunobiology and professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology and of epidemiology (microbial diseases), discusses her new research, which was published December 10 in Science Immunology.

Akiko Iwasaki: We found that local mucosal immunity that’s established by intranasal vaccination elicits a much more robust and cross reactive, cross protective immunity than a conventional vaccine that uses intramuscular injection. And the way we got to this knowledge is that we were comparing different routes of vaccine administration and found that only after the intranasal vaccination, there are these antibodies that are secreted into the mucosa known as IgA. And this IgA coats the mucus membrane and mucus surface and protects the host by preventing the virus from entering the body. So it’s like putting the guard outside of the door instead of inside the door where antibodies normally work, inside the body.

Continue reading “Nasal Vaccination May Protect Against Respiratory Viruses Better Than Injected Vaccines” »

Tesla confirmed that it will shut down “passenger play,” which allows for playing video games on the center screen of its vehicles while driving. The change comes after NHTSA announced that it is opening an official probe into the situation.

Tesla has recently been putting more work toward video games inside its vehicles with the goal to “optimize fun” with its ownership experience.

Last year, we reported on Tesla building a new video game and user interface team in Austin, Texas. The goal is to build the platform, Tesla Arcade, and onboard as many video games as possible. Video games are primarily supposed to be used while parked and charging, but Tesla allows playing them while driving after a warning that the feature — called “passenger play” –should only be used by passengers.

A new analysis of Event Horizon Telescope data from 2017 brings to light the magnetic fields twisted around the black hole at the core of galaxy M87.

AutoML-Zero is unique because it uses simple mathematical concepts to generate algorithms “from scratch,” as the paper states. Then, it selects the best ones, and mutates them through a process that’s similar to Darwinian evolution.

AutoML-Zero first randomly generates 100 candidate algorithms, each of which then performs a task, like recognizing an image. The performance of these algorithms is compared to hand-designed algorithms.-Zero then selects the top-performing algorithm to be the “parent.”

“This parent is then copied and mutated to produce a child algorithm that is added to the population, while the oldest algorithm in the population is removed,” the paper states.

The insertion of a gene found in animals prompted potato and rice plants to produce 50% more food and exhibit drought-resistant qualities.

I seek to recognize Einstein before everyone knows that they are an Einstein. There left us 1 spot at the codegen team (works on Codex 2.0) and the language team (works on GPT-4). https://grnh.se/68b9465f4us

Ethical training database paves the way for AI systems to be pretrained in human values.

A robot avatar that mimics the motions of a human controller could take the place of workers in several dangerous jobs, such as tree trimming and construction, by the end of 2022.

The challenge: If a tree branch gets too close to a power line, it can cause electrical outages or, even worse, dangerous fires (as Californians know all too well). To avoid this, utility companies have to regularly trim trees near their lines.

Continue reading “Robot avatar safely trims trees around active power lines” »

Bigger, faster, stronger: This is Ascento Pro! Our newest creation can climb full flights of stairs, drive at up to 12km/h and all this for up to 8h per battery charge. Oh and also it is now autonomous. Full autonomy is achieved through LiDAR, onboard cameras and LED headlights.

source/image(PrtSc): Ascento Robotics