Winter hit U.S. honeybees hard with the highest loss rate yet, an annual survey of beekeepers showed.
* This article was originally published here
Wednesday, 19 June 2019
'Goldilocks' neurons promote REM sleep
Every night while sleeping, we cycle between two very different states of sleep. Upon falling asleep, we enter non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep where our breathing is slow and regular and movement of our limbs or eyes are minimal. Approximately 90 minutes later, how-ever, we enter rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. This is a paradoxical state where our breathing becomes fast and irregular, our limbs twitch, and our eyes move rapidly. In REM sleep, our brain is highly active, but we also become paralyzed and we lose the ability to thermoregulate or maintain our constant body temperature. "This loss of thermoregulation in REM sleep is one of the most peculiar aspects of sleep, particularly since we have finely-tuned mechanisms that control our body temperature while awake or in non-REM sleep," says Markus Schmidt of the Department for BioMedical Research (DBMR) of the University of Bern, and the Department of Neurology, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital. On the one hand, the findings confirm a hypothesis proposed earlier by Schmidt, senior author of the study, and on the other hand represent a breakthrough for sleep medicine. The paper was published in Current Biology and highlighted by the editors with a comment.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Florida city pays $600,000 ransom to save computer records
A Florida city agreed to pay $600,000 in ransom to hackers who took over its computer system, the latest in thousands of attacks worldwide aimed at extorting money from governments and businesses.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Marriage may not aid financial savings for those who favor immediate rewards
A study of married couples in Vietnam suggests that, when one spouse tends to favor immediate rewards, marriage does not help them commit to saving money. Hisaki Kono of Kyoto University, Japan, and Tomomi Tanaka of the World Bank, US, present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Researchers develop new method to evaluate artificial heart valves
Researchers at Concordia have devised a technique to detect obstructions in a type of mechanical heart valve they believe will contribute to safer follow-up methods for cardiologists and their patients.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Melting of Himalayan glaciers has doubled in recent years
A newly comprehensive study shows that melting of Himalayan glaciers caused by rising temperatures has accelerated dramatically since the start of the 21st century. The analysis, spanning 40 years of satellite observations across India, China, Nepal and Bhutan, indicates that glaciers have been losing the equivalent of more than a vertical foot and half of ice each year since 2000—double the amount of melting that took place from 1975 to 2000. The study is the latest and perhaps most convincing indication that climate change is eating the Himalayas' glaciers, potentially threatening water supplies for hundreds of millions of people downstream across much of Asia.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Facebook research focuses on lifelike environments for AI-powered assistants
Virtual Robots have moved up to an elite platform dedicated to stepping up their game. The platform is dubbed AI Habitat.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Compact, low-cost fingerprint reader could reduce infant mortality around the world
A team of Michigan State University researchers have created Infant-Prints—a low-cost, high-resolution and portable solution to accurately identify infants in an effort to help reduce infant mortality around the world.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
New research finds increased CT use for suspected urolithiasis patients in ED
A new study performed in conjunction with the Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute examines changing characteristics of utilization and potential disparities in US emergency department (ED) patients undergoing CT of the abdomen and pelvis (CTAP) for suspected urolithiasis. The study is published online in the Journal of American College of Radiology (JACR).
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Spintronic memory cells for neural networks
In recent years, researchers have proposed a wide variety of hardware implementations for feed-forward artificial neural networks. These implementations include three key components: a dot-product engine that can compute convolution and fully-connected layer operations, memory elements to store intermediate inter and intra-layer results, and other components that can compute non-linear activation functions.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Overcoming PTSD: Study reveals memory disruption drug target
Fight or flight, panic, trembling: Our brains are wired to ensure we respond instantly to fear. While that fear response may save our lives in the dangerous moment, at times people stay on high alert long after the threat has passed, and develop post-traumatic stress disorder.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
A forest of nano-mushroom structures keep this plastic clean and stain-free
Technologies like solar panels and LEDs require a cover material that repels water, dirt and oil while still letting plenty of light through. There is also interest in new flexible materials so these devices can be incorporated into a variety of creative applications like curtains, clothes, and paper. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh's Swanson School of Engineering have created a flexible optical plastic that has all of those properties, finding inspiration in a surprising place: the shape of Enoki mushrooms.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Narcissists and psychopaths: how some societies ensure these dangerous people never wield power
Throughout history, people who have gained positions of power tend to be precisely the kind of people who should not be entrusted with it. A desire for power often correlates with negative personality traits: selfishness, greed and a lack of empathy. And the people who have the strongest desire for power tend to be the most ruthless and lacking in compassion.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Adidas loses EU court battle over 'three stripe' design
German sportswear giant Adidas on Wednesday lost a legal battle to trademark its "three stripe" motif in the EU, as a court ruled the design was not distinctive enough to deserve protection.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
'Alexa, monitor my heart': Researchers develop first contactless cardiac arrest AI system for smart speakers
Almost 500,000 Americans die each year from cardiac arrest, when the heart suddenly stops beating.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Women's awareness of alcohol's role in breast cancer risk is poor
Women's awareness of alcohol's role in boosting breast cancer risk is poor, indicates research published in the online journal BMJ Open.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Ethics of AI: how should we treat rational, sentient robots – if they existed?
Imagine a world where humans co-existed with beings who, like us, had minds, thoughts, feelings, self-conscious awareness and the capacity to perform purposeful actions—but, unlike us, these beings had artificial mechanical bodies that could be switched on and off.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Does the gas in galaxy clusters flow like honey?
We have seen intricate patterns that milk makes in coffee and much smoother ones that honey makes when stirred with a spoon. Which of these cases best describes the behavior of the hot gas in galaxy clusters? By answering this question, a new study using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has deepened our understanding of galaxy clusters, the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
A dietary supplement improves skills of an atypical Rett syndrome patient
A multicentric translational research study carried out by groups of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Sant Joan de Déu Hospital (HSJD) , the University of Barcelona (UB), Hospital Clínic (IDIBAPS), the University of Vic (UVic), Sant Pau i la Santa Creu Hospital (IIB Sant Pau), the Rare Diseases Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBERER) and the Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique (CEA, France), has demonstrated the potential of the amino acid L-serine—administered as a dietary supplement—to improve the neuronal function of a patient with a mutation of glutamate receptors associated with atypical Rett syndrome with severe encephalopathy.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Does greater immersion in virtual reality lead to a better experience?
Contrary to current industry trends to develop more immersive virtual reality systems, a new study found that a more immersive environment or the presence of real-world distractions could have surprising effects on a participant's recall, description of the virtual encounter, and how positive they feel about the experience. The design, results, and implications of this timely study are published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
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