Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 8727

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A Mayo Clinic study finds that applying artificial intelligence (AI) to a widely available, inexpensive test – the electrocardiogram (EKG) – results in a simple, affordable early indicator of asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction, which is a precursor to heart failure. The research team found that the AI/EKG test accuracy compares favorably with other common screening tests, such as mammography for breast cancer. The findings were published in Nature Medicine.

Asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction is characterized by the presence of a weak heart pump with a risk of overt heart failure. It affects 7 million Americans, and is associated with reduced quality of life and longevity. But asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction is treatable when identified.

Read more | >

UPS Flight Forward recently was awarded their Part 135 certification from the Federal Aviation Administration, which allows them to make deliveries by drone throughout the U.S. This week, UPS in partnership with CVS made their first residential delivery by drone by dropping off prescription drugs from a CVS pharmacy directly to a consumer’s home.

Read more | >

A group of scientists led by Artem Oganov of Skoltech and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and Ivan Troyan of the Institute of Crystallography of RAS has succeeded in synthesizing thorium decahydride (ThH10), a new superconducting material with the very high critical temperature of 161 kelvins. The results of their study, supported by a Russian Science Foundation grant, were published in the journal Materials Today on November 6, 2019.

A truly remarkable property of quantum materials, superconductivity is the complete loss of electrical resistance under quite specific, and sometimes very harsh, conditions. Despite the tremendous potential for quantum computers and high-sensitivity detectors, the application of superconductors is hindered by the fact that their valuable properties typically manifest themselves at very low temperatures or extremely high pressures.

Until recently, the list of superconductors was topped by a mercury-containing cuprate, which becomes superconducting at 135 kelvins, or −138 degrees Celsius. This year, lanthanum decahydride, LaH10, set a new record of −13 C, which is very close to room temperature. Unfortunately, that superconductor requires pressures approaching 2 million atmospheres, which can hardly be maintained in real-life applications. Scientists, therefore, continue their quest for a superconductor that retains its properties at standard conditions.

Read more | >

The Kidney Project, a national effort to develop an implantable bio-artificial kidney that could eliminate the need for dialysis, will announce a key milestone in a November 7, 2019 presentation at the American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week 2019 conference in Washington, DC.

The team will report that UC San Francisco scientists have successfully implanted a prototype bioreactor containing functional human into pigs without significant safety concerns. The device, which is about the size of a deck of cards, did not trigger an immune reaction or cause clots in the animals, an important milestone on the road to future human trials.

“This is the first demonstration that kidney cells can be implanted successfully in a large animal without immunosuppression and remain healthy enough to perform their function. This is a key milestone for us,” said Kidney Project co-lead Shuvo Roy, Ph.D., a faculty member in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, a joint department of the UCSF Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine. “Based on these results, we can now focus on scaling up the bioreactor and combining it with the blood filtration component of the artificial kidney.”

Read more | >

While many high-school sophomores are busy partying and socializing, Jack Andraka developed a test for pancreatic cancer that is the first test that detects the disease and tumors before they get out of hand.

And with pancreatic cancer having the lowest survival rate of any cancer, he truly accomplished something amazing with his work.

Pancreatic cancer shows no symptoms in the early stages and affects more than 8,000 people each year in the Uk and 45,000 in the U.S. Due to poor testing procedures in the past, by the time the cancer is detected, 4 out of 5 people are inoperable.

Read more | >

Ironically #AI has been proven to develop racial and gender bias. Gee, I wonder why?

For the second year in a row, more than a dozen AI researchers from African countries have been denied visas to a major AI conference in Canada.

Canada’s decision to refuse visas to African AI researchers seems ham-fisted, given that the country’s tech industry has been the beneficiary, in recent years, of America’s move toward isolationism. In 2017, Trudeau launched a visa program designed to attract high-tech workers—including those who found themselves unable to get into the US—by streamlining Canada’s visa-approval process. The recent decision to block access to NeurIPS for a diverse pool of talent appears to be a step in the opposite direction.

“It seems crazy,” says Joshua Gans, a professor at Toronto University’s Rotman School of Business who studies the impact of AI on innovation and economic growth. “What is the worst that happens? The scientists come here, stay here, and develop their AI here rather than in Africa?”\

Continue reading “African AI Experts Get Excluded From a Conference—Again” | >