What can the decline of the Roman Empire and the end of European feudalism tell us about COVID-19 and the future of the West?
â€ïž Check out the Gradient Dissent podcast by Weights & Biases: http://wandb.me/gd.
đ The paper âEndless Loops: Detecting and Animating Periodic Patterns in Still Imagesâ and the app are available here:
https://pub.res.lightricks.com/endless-loops/
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Exploring Synthetic Biology
Posted in bioengineering, biological
Here is a snapshot of our talks on synthetic biology. These videos will provide you with a basic understanding and appreciation for this field. These lectures start with an introduction to synthetic biology and go through the major discoveries and ethical controversies that arise from this field. You can check out the full Synthetic Biology Playlist here!
The four citizen astronauts flying to space with Inspiration4 this September experienced weightlessness for the first time this weekend during a zero-g training flight.
This animated map shows the last billion years of Earthâs tectonic plate movement in just 40 seconds, showing how continents formed.
Manufactured on tsmcâs 180 nm process.
Libre-SOC developers sent the first test ASIC to TSMCâs manufacturing facilities.
What is AMD Infinity Cache?
Posted in computing, entertainment
Infinity Cache is one of the headline features found in AMDâs RDNA 2 â the GPU architecture behind the next generation of gaming graphics, including the PS5, the Xbox Series X and, of course, AMDâs own Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards. But, what is Infinity Cache?
Read on to learn more about Infinity Cache, how it works and where you can find it.
Infinity Cache is an all-new cache level AMD says will improve the efficiency and performance of its RDNA 2 architecture during 4K and 1440p gaming.
Circa 2010
In this review, we consider the evidence that a reduction in neurogenesis underlies aging-related cognitive deficits, and impairments in disorders such as Alzheimerâs disease (AD). The molecular and cellular alterations associated with impaired neurogenesis in the aging brain are discussed. Dysfunction of presenilin-1, misprocessing of amyloid precursor protein and toxic effects of hyperphosphorylated tau and ÎČ-amyloid likely contribute to impaired neurogenesis in AD. Since factors such as exercise, enrichment and dietary energy restriction enhance neurogenesis, and protect against age-related cognitive decline and AD, knowledge of the underlying neurogenic signaling pathways could lead to novel therapeutic strategies for preserving brain function. In addition, manipulation of endogenous neural stem cells and stem cell transplantation, as stand-alone or adjunct treatments, seem promising.
There is a progressive decline in the regenerative capacity of most organs with increasing age, resulting in functional decline and poor repair from injury and disease. Once thought to exist only in high turnover tissues, such as the intestinal lining or bone marrow, it now appears that most tissues harbor stem cells that contribute to tissue integrity throughout life. In many cases, stem cell numbers decrease with age, suggesting stem cell aging may be of fundamental importance to the biology of aging (for review, see Ref. [1]). Therefore, understanding the regulation of stem cell maintenance and/or activation is of considerable relevance to understanding the age-related decline in maintaining tissue integrity, function, and regenerative response.
The adult brain contains neural stem cells (NSCs) that self-renew, proliferate and give rise to neural progenitor cells (NPC) that exhibit partial lineage-commitment. Following several cycles of proliferation, NPC differentiate into new neurons and glia. NSCs are increasingly acknowledged to be of functional significance and harbor potential for repair of the diseased or injured brain. The dramatic decline in neurogenesis with age is thought to underlie impairments in learning and memory, at least in part. Aging is also the greatest risk factor for Alzheimerâs disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive loss of memory and cognitive decline. Alterations in neurogenesis have been described extensively in animal models of AD, and key proteins involved in AD pathogenesis are shown to regulate neurogenesis.
Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women around the world, responsible for 1700 deaths every day. Although the vast majority of breast cancers are treatable, the most aggressive subtypeâtriple negative breast cancer (TNBC) â has a high recurrence rate, a high potential for metastasis and shows resistance to conventional treatments, leading to very poor prognosis and survival outcomes. A team of researchers at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center (RI-MUHC) conducted a preclinical study and discovered a novel targeted combination therapy that efficiently reduced tumor growth in metastatic breast cancer. Published in Nature Communications, their findings could lead to the development of a novel first line targeted therapy for the treatment of TNBC, with the prospect of rapidly transitioning to clinical trials in humans.
âThere is no targeted therapy for TNBC. Chemotherapy treatment can even enrich these tumors in cancer stem cells and be detrimental to the patient, as we have shown in a previous study,â says Dr. Jean-Jacques Lebrun, senior scientist in the Cancer Research Program at the RI-MUHC and principal investigator of the study. âFilling that huge medical gap was our motivation in conducting this study.â
While most breast cancers have one of three main receptors that are like entrance gates for treatmentsâestrogen, progesterone and a protein called human epidermal growth factor (HER2) â TNBC has none, thus the name triple negative breast cancer. Using state-of-the-art technologies such as gene editing and genome-wide molecular approaches, the team identified two pathways which could be targeted in a therapeutic strategy.
