Lifeboat Foundation

New research provides evidence that the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms can affect brain processes related to emotional functioning long after the substance has left one’s body. The findings, published in Scientific Reports, shed new light on the long-term effects of psilocybin.

Rather than examining the brain while it’s under the influence of psilocybin, the researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine were interested in the enduring impact of the substance.

“Nearly all psychedelic imaging studies have been conducted during acute effects of psychedelic drugs. While acute effects of psychedelics on the brain are of course incredibly interesting, the enduring effects of psychedelic drugs on brain function have great untapped value in helping us to understand more about the brain, affect, and the treatment of psychiatric disorders,” said Frederick S. Barrett (@FredBarrettPhD), an assistant professor and the corresponding author of the study.

The malaria medication unproven as a remedy for coronavirus sufferers is being given to sickened troops, Joint Staff Surgeon Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul Friedrichs said at the Pentagon Monday, adding that New York City still faces the biggest threat from the virus.

“The projections are proving not to be all that accurate,” he said, noting Defense Secretary Mark Esper had authorized use of the hospital ship USNS Comfort to take on COVID patients in its limited intensive care spaces.

Defense Department spokesman Jonathan Hoffman added: “DoD continues to surge assets to New York in preparation for the worst.”

Is a low-cost Israeli #ventilator the key to saving #coronavirus patients in #Iran, Africa and more?

“We are not talking about a website for the general public, we are talking about engineers and other experts, and we know the groups who are working on it because they are in touch with us via WhatsApp and emails, to ask questions and understand how to proceed,” he said.

“AmboVent” is a device inspired by the bag-valve mask ventilators that paramedics use when they’re manually ventilating patients in an ambulance, which also offers controls for respiration rate, volume, and maximum peak pressure. Organizations involved in its development include the Magen David Adom, Israeli Air Force 108 Electronics Depot; physicians from Hadassah and Tel Aviv Sourasky medical centers; Microsoft; Rafael, an Israeli defense contractor; Israeli Aerospace Industries; and mentors and students from FIRST Israel, a student robotics organization.

Continue reading “Coronavirus: Israeli researchers design low-cost open-source ventilator” »

History suggests that the effects will be permanent.

Welcome to the twilight zone.

TOKYO (Reuters) — Spring graduation ceremonies in Japan have been cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, but students at one school were able to attend remotely by controlling avatar robots while logged on at home.

The robots, dubbed “Newme” by developer ANA Holdings, were dressed in graduation caps and gowns for the ceremony at the Business Breakthrough University in Tokyo.

Continue reading “Robots replace Japanese students at graduation amid coronavirus” »

British engineers are developing a modern version of the Negative Pressure Ventilator (NPV), more popularly known as the “iron lung,” to provide COVID-19 patients under the care of the NHS with a simple, inexpensive alternative to ventilators.

One of the resources that is in critically short supply for treating COVID-19 patients in need of respiratory support is ventilators. They help to support breathing in people whose lungs have been heavily affected by the virus, but these machines face a number of problems.

The most obvious difficulty is that ventilators are in short supply across the world as health authorities scramble to secure enough to meet the current and estimated demand as the pandemic spreads. They are also complex, expensive, require monitoring by trained personnel, and are dangerous to use on even healthy people because they require the patient to be intubated and sedated, and sometimes even paralyzed.

Is you wear a facemask please keep this in mind:

1. The Coronavirus can live on the outside of your mask for up to 7 days.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanmic/article/PIIS2666&#…3/fulltext

Continue reading “Stability of SARS-CoV-2 in different environmental conditions” »

Lipid nanoparticles containing genetic drugs can be bioengineered to tune their biodistribution and induce organ-specific gene regulation.

Coronavirus-stricken British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was rushed to intensive care on Monday — as cases of the disease soared past 1.3 million across the globe.

The news came as the US reached a grim milestone of its own, with the death toll topping 10,000 and the number of cases hitting 347,000.

And it may get worse, yet. New data suggests that the peak of the pandemic — when an alarming 3,130 Americans are predicted to die in a single day — is still 10 days away.