Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Blog – Page 6

Researchers at the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University in China have uncovered a sharply rising burden of skin cancer in older adults driven largely by population growth and affecting men twice as often.

Skin cancer already ranks among the costliest malignancies to treat, and an aging world means more time for ultraviolet damage to accumulate. Previous research shows older patients now make up nearly three-quarters of new cases, yet global data capturing the full scope and trend in those over 65 remains scarce.

In the study, “Burden of Skin Cancer in Older Adults From 1990 to 2021 and Modelled Projection to 2050,” published in JAMA Dermatology, researchers mined the Global Burden of Diseases 2021 registry to quantify how melanoma, , and affect adults aged 65 and older worldwide.

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Most humans can recall specific events and past experiences for long periods of time. This capability, referred to as episodic memory, is known to be in great part supported by the activity of neurons in the hippocampus and medial temporal lobe.

Past neuroscience and psychology studies consistently found that is associative. This essentially means that remembering one past event, for instance a graduation, can in many cases prompt people to also remember other related events, such as a party that celebrated the graduation.

Researchers at Biología Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIByNE)-CONICET and the University of Buenos Aires recently carried out a new study exploring the possibility that the reactivation of specific episodic memories does not only help to strengthen those memories, but also the memories of other related events or experiences.

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A breakthrough study, led by scientists at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, has uncovered how daylight can boost the immune system’s ability to fight infections.

The team focused on the most abundant immune cells in our bodies, called neutrophils, which are a type of white blood cell. These cells move quickly to the site of an infection and kill invading bacteria.

The researchers used zebrafish, a small freshwater fish, as a , because its is similar to ours and the fish can be bred to have transparent bodies, making it easy to observe biological processes in real time.

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Researchers from Nagoya City University, Tohoku University, and other institutions have used numerical simulations to replicate how a peculiar mineral texture called barred olivine forms inside chondrules—millimeter-sized spherical particles found in meteorites. These chondrules are considered time capsules from the early solar system, and barred olivine is a rare mineral texture not seen in Earth rocks.

The study is published in Science Advances.

Associate Professor Hitoshi Miura of Nagoya City University and the team were the first to reproduce this texture using and theoretically elucidate its formation process.

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Our cells rely on microscopic highways and specialized protein vehicles to move everything—from positioning organelles to carting protein instructions to disposing of cellular garbage. These highways (called microtubules) and vehicles (called motor proteins) are indispensable to cellular function and survival.

The dysfunction of motor proteins and their associated proteins can lead to severe neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. For example, the dysfunction of Lis1, a partner protein to the motor protein , can lead to the rare fatal birth defect lissencephaly, or “smooth brain,” for which there is no cure. But therapeutics that target and restore dynein or Lis1 function could change those dismal outcomes—and developing those therapeutics depends on thoroughly understanding how dynein and Lis1 interact.

New research from the Salk Institute and UC San Diego captured short movies of Lis1 “turning on” dynein. The movies allowed the team to catalog 16 shapes that the two proteins take as they interact, some of which have never been seen before. These insights will be foundational for designing future therapeutics that restore dynein and Lis1 function, since they shine a light on precise locations where drugs could interact with the proteins.

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Blue phosphorescent OLEDs can now last as long as the green phosphorescent OLEDs already in devices, University of Michigan researchers have demonstrated, paving the way for further improving the energy efficiency of OLED screens.

“This moves the blues into the domain of green lifetimes,” said Stephen Forrest, the Peter A. Franken Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering and corresponding author of the study in Nature Photonics.

“I can’t say the problem is completely solved—of course it’s not solved until it enters your display—but I think we’ve shown the path to a real solution that has been evading the community for two decades.”

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Hyperspectral imaging (HSI), or imaging spectroscopy, captures detailed information across the electromagnetic spectrum by acquiring a spectrum for each pixel in an image. This enables precise identification of materials through their spectral signatures.

HSI supports Earth remote sensing applications such as automated classification, abundance mapping, and estimation of physical and biological properties like soil moisture, sediment density, , biomass, leaf area, and pigment content.

Although HSI offers detailed insight into a remote sensing scene, HSI data may not be readily available for an intended application. Recent studies have attempted to combine HSI with traditional red-green-blue (RGB) video acquisition to lower costs and improve performance. However, this fusion technology still faces technical challenges.

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New studies stemming from the Armamentarium consortium outline findings that advance tools based on Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors. An announcement about the work explains how an AAV “acts like a shuttle capable of transporting specially designed DNA into the cell.”

Two of the studies on these AAV tools were conducted by collaborative teams organized by Xiangmin Xu, Ph.D., UC Irvine Chancellor’s Professor of anatomy and neurobiology and director of the campus’s Center for Neural Circuit Mapping.

“This Armamentarium’s collection of work enables new tools that help to deepen our understanding of the human central nervous system structure and function,” says Xu. “Our own brain-targeting technology could help treat Alzheimer’s disease and many other neurological disorders.”

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Charging electric-vehicle batteries in Ithaca’s frigid winter can be tough, and freezing temperatures also decrease the driving range. Hot weather can be just as challenging, leading to decomposition of battery materials and, possibly, catastrophic failure.

For (EVs) to be widely accepted, safe and fast-charging lithium-ion batteries need to be able to operate in extreme temperatures. But to achieve this, scientists need to understand how materials used in EVs change during temperature-related chemical reactions, a so-far elusive goal.

Now, Cornell chemists led by Yao Yang, Ph.D. ‘21, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, have developed a way to diagnose the mechanisms behind battery failure in extreme climates using electron microscopy. Their first-of-its-kind operando (“operating”) electrochemical transmission electron microscopy (TEM) enables them to watch chemistry in action and collect real-time movies showing what happens to energy materials during temperature changes.

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Diamond is one of the most prized materials in advanced technologies due to its unmatched hardness, ability to conduct heat and capacity to host quantum-friendly defects. The same qualities that make diamond useful also make it difficult to process.

Engineers and researchers who work with diamond for quantum sensors, or thermal management technologies need it in ultrathin, ultrasmooth layers. But traditional techniques, like laser cutting and polishing, often damage the material or create surface defects.

Ion implantation and lift-off is a way to separate a thin layer of diamond from a larger crystal by bombarding a diamond with high-energy carbon ions, which penetrate to a specific depth below the surface. The process creates a buried layer in the diamond substrate where the crystalline lattice has been disrupted. That damaged layer effectively acts like a seam: Through high-temperature annealing, it turns into smooth graphite, allowing for the diamond layer above it to be lifted off in one uniform, ultrathin wafer.

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