Lifeboat Foundation

As electronic devices become progressively smaller, the technology that powers them needs to get smaller and thinner.

One of the key challenges scientists face in developing this technology is finding materials that can perform well at an ultrathin size. But now, Berkeley researchers think they may have the answer.

Led by Sayeef Salahuddin, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, and graduate student Suraj Cheema, a team of researchers has managed to grow onto silicon an ultrathin material that demonstrates a unique electrical property called ferroelectricity. The duo’s findings were published in the April 22 issue of Nature.

👽 Giant Viruses : “Mimiviruses”

(Jan 2016)

Fyodor R., issue 3, refund institute

Continue reading “MIMIVIRE is a defence system in mimivirus that confers resistance to virophage” »

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O,.o Could be used to control light in electronics.

Inadequate ventilator settings may cause overwhelming inflammatory responses associated with ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Here, we examined potential benefits of glutamine (GLN) on a two-hit model for VILI after acid aspiration-induced lung injury in rats. Rats were intratracheally challenged with hydrochloric acid as a first hit to induce lung inflammation, then randomly received intravenous GLN or lactated Ringer’s solution (vehicle control) thirty min before different ventilator strategies. Rats were then randomized to receive mechanical ventilation as a second hit with a high tidal volume (TV) of 15 mL/kg and zero positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) or a low TV of 6 mL/kg with PEEP of 5 cm H₂O. We evaluated lung oxygenation, inflammation, mechanics, and histology. After ventilator use for 4 h, high TV resulted in greater lung injury physiologic and biologic indices. Compared with vehicle treated rats, GLN administration attenuated lung injury, with improved oxygenation and static compliance, and decreased respiratory elastance, lung edema, extended lung destruction (lung injury scores and lung histology), neutrophil recruitment in the lung, and cytokine production. Thus, GLN administration improved the physiologic and biologic profiles of this experimental model of VILI based on the two-hit theory.

Keywords: acid aspiration, ARDS, glutamine, ventilator-induced lung injury.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a catastrophic syndrome among critically ill patients. One of its major causes is acid aspiration as an initial pneumonitis that may be complicated by subsequent bacterial pneumonia after inhaling low pH gastric fluid [1, 2, 3, 4]. Gastric fluid aspiration frequently occurs in trauma or critical patients with head trauma, alcohol or cerebrovascular accidents, and is also a complication of general anesthesia that occurs in 1 in 2000–3000 cases when anesthetics are used [3, 4].

An international team of scientists led by the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, has been able to reconstruct, in the smallest details, the skulls of some of the world’s oldest known dinosaur embryos in 3D, using powerful and non-destructive synchrotron techniques at the ESRF, the European Synchrotron in France. They found that the skulls develop in the same order as those of today’s crocodiles, chickens, turtles and lizards. The findings are published today in Scientific Reports.

University of the Witwatersrand scientists publish 3D reconstructions of the ~2cm-long skulls of some of the world’s oldest dinosaur embryos in an article in Scientific Reports. The embryos, found in 1976 in Golden Gate Highlands National Park (Free State Province, South Africa) belong to South Africa’s iconic dinosaur Massospondylus carinatus, a 5-meter long herbivore that nested in the Free State region 200 million years ago.

The scientific usefulness of the embryos was previously limited by their extremely fragile nature and tiny size. In 2015, scientists Kimi Chapelle and Jonah Choiniere, from the University of Witwatersrand, brought them to the European Synchrotron (ESRF) in Grenoble, France for scanning. At the ESRF, an 844 metre-ring of electrons travelling at the speed of light emits high-powered X-ray beams that can be used to non-destructively scan matter, including fossils. The embryos were scanned at an unprecedented level of detail — at the resolution of an individual bone cell. With these data in hand, and after nearly 3 years of data processing at Wits’ laboratory, the team was able to reconstruct a 3D model of the baby dinosaur skull. “No lab CT scanner in the world can generate these kinds of data,” said Vincent Fernandez, one of the co-authors and scientist at the Natural History Museum in London (UK).

This is a good one pass it on

This study aimed to explore whether the therapeutic effects of EPO rely on the suppression of the NLRP3 inflammasome and the specific mechanisms in an LPS-induced ALI mouse model. ALI was induced in C57BL/6 mice by intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of LPS (15 mg/kg). EPO was administered intraperitoneally at 5 U/g after LPS challenge. The mice were sacrificed 8 h later. Our findings indicated that application of EPO markedly diminished LPS-induced lung injury by restoring histopathological changes, lessened lung wet/dry (W/D) ratio, protein concentrations in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) levels. Meanwhile, EPO evidently decreased interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and interleukin-18 (IL-18) secretion, the expression of NLRP3 inflammasome components including pro-IL-1β, NLRP3, and cleaved caspase-1 as well as phosphorylation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) p65, which may be associated with activation of EPO receptor (EPOR), phosphorylation of Janus-tyrosine kinase 2 (JAK2) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3)

Taken together, this study indicates that EPO can effectively attenuate LPS-induced lung injury in mice by suppressing the NLRP3 inflammasome, which is dependent upon activation of EPOR/JAK2/STAT3 signaling and inhibition of the NF-κB pathway.

Continue reading “Suppression of NLRP3 Inflammasome” »

If you have not seen these useless boxes, this one is the best so far! • Credit: @worldofartists • Via fxhm (youtube)… #engineer #funny #artistic #makingfactory #designer #invention #makersgonnamake #sandiego #electronics

Samsung Electronics today announced it will be introducing the first DRAM memory modules in the industry designed with cutting-edge Extreme Ultraviolet Technology (EUV).

One of the world’s leading memory manufacturers, Samsung says that response to a million evaluation units of its first line of 10nm-class DDR4 DRAM modules has been positive and that it will soon begin processing orders for worldwide distribution.

EUV technology allows memory modules to be manufactured more accurately and more quickly. It speeds up the lithography process by reducing the number of repetitive steps and facilitates the production of complex chip patterns. It means greater performance accuracy and a shortened development time.