In Russia, a group of scientists developed a hearing implant that reduces noise distortion by 17 %, increasing the precision of perception, as it transmits 9 % through the skull bones directly to the inner ear.

Scientists from Perm National Research Polytechnic University collaborated with colleagues from Perm State Medical University and the Russian Medical University to develop a new, more efficient hearing implant.

The implant is a bone conduction hearing aid. By transmitting sound through bone conduction, unlike conventional hearing aids, these devices bypass damaged parts of the auditory system in people with congenital ear abnormalities, trauma, or middle ear diseases.

In this innovation, the Russian engineers elegantly solved the problem of signal distortion and loss that occurs because standard metal fittings do not always guarantee a tight contact between the device’s components, resulting in some vibrations being lost.

The new design features a flat platform for the adapter between the vibrating element and the titanium implant, allowing for a tighter fit and more efficient vibration transmission. A polymer ring was also added to dampen unnecessary vibrations and reduce interference. Tests showed that this design transmits sound better across all frequencies.

Another development by the scientists is a special program for designing a customized hearing implant. According to the engineers, “the doctor inputs the parameters of the skull and bone tissue, and the system automatically builds a 3D model of the adapter, ideal for the individual.”

M.Pino

Source: www1.ru

(Reference image source: Anthony Camerlo on Unsplash)

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Egypt announced the cultivation of cotton in desert conditions for the first time, following several trials conducted in the city of El Tor in South Sinai.

Regarding this, Minister of Agriculture and Land Alaa Farouk stated that “this breakthrough demonstrates how scientific research can be applied to agriculture, benefiting both farmers and the national economy.”

For its part, the Cotton Research Institute added that these trials used “modern irrigation and fertilization techniques, which evaluated six cotton genotypes, including ‘Super Giza 86,’ ‘Super Giza 94,’ and ‘Super Giza 97,’ along with three new strains.”

Regarding the first harvest, authorities reported that it was harvested 127 days after planting and added that the tested varieties are able to tolerate the drought, salinity, and heat of the area.

The Minister of Agriculture said they will continue to provide support to researchers and agricultural projects aimed at increasing productivity and that they “intend to introduce this approach to other governorates while training farmers in updated cultivation methods.”

M.Pino

Source: tvbrics

(Reference image source: Sze Yin Chan on Unsplash)

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An article published in the journal Nature reviews the discovery by a group of scientists of a new electric field of the Earth, which is added to the already known ones: the magnetic and the gravitational field.

The announcement, after 60 years of knowing only two fields of the blue planet, comes to expand the effect of this electric field on the dynamics of the atmosphere.

According to the article, “the discovery was made thanks to NASA’s Endurance suborbital rocket, which was launched from Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago near the North Pole. “This place is one of the few in the world where precise measurements can be made in the region of the polar wind, a stream of particles that flows from the Earth’s atmosphere into space.”

This polar wind, which was first detected in the 1960s, “contained particles that moved at supersonic speeds, but without having been heated, which baffled scientists.”

After hard work by the team since 2016, led by Glyn Collinson from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the launch of Endurance was achieved on May 11, 2022, reaching an altitude of 768 kilometers. In that position, he began collecting critical data, detecting “a change in electrical potential of just 0.55 volts at an altitude of 518 kilometers.”

Although the quantity is minimal, it allowed us to demonstrate “that the electric field is responsible for the impulse of hydrogen ions in the polar wind, allowing them to escape into space.”

The results have a relevance that marks a milestone in the topic, since “it not only solves the enigma of the polar wind, but also has important implications for planetary physics. The electric field, known as the ambipolar field, acts as a kind of “conveyor belt” that lifts the atmosphere into space.

On the other hand, scientists have indicated that the discovery has a “significant impact on the ionosphere, a crucial layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, increasing its density at higher altitudes than previously estimated.”

Without a doubt, the new electric field of the Earth opens new perspectives in planetary exploration.

M.Pino

Source: computerhoy

(Reference image source: Unsplash+, in collaboration with Hartono Creative Studio)

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Researchers from the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC in Spanish) have identified and characterized a new class of antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 that act by blocking the entry of the virus into the host cell through its interaction with the ‘spike’ protein (S protein).

The work has been carried out by researchers from the Higher Council for Scientific Research at the Institute of Medicinal Chemistry (IQM-CSIC), the Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio-CSIC-UV) and the Institute of Biomedicine of Valencia (IBV -CSIC), members of the Interdisciplinary Thematic Platform (PTI) Global Health, and has been the result of the interdisciplinary collaboration of the authors within the framework of the ‘PTI+ Global Health’, which has been published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

In the initial stages of the replication cycle of SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of Covid-19, interaction occurs between the viral S protein and the primary receptor of the host cell, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), followed by internalization of the virus.

According to the CSIC, these initial stages of the infection are especially attractive in the search for antivirals, since compounds that act at this level could be used both therapeutically and prophylaxis.

Previous studies carried out by IQM-CSIC researchers indicated that tryptophan derivatives (an essential amino acid) are good candidates for use as antivirals, since they have the ability to inhibit the entry of different viruses and have low cytotoxicity.

In this study, screening tests have been carried out from a collection of different multivalent derivatives of tryptophan, with possible antiviral activity. By using VSV (vesicular stomatitis virus) pseudoparticles, capable of expressing the S protein of SARS-CoV-2, the interaction of the compounds in the collection with the viral ‘spike’ protein was evaluated.

After this screening process, the scientists have identified a hit compound, a molecule with the sought-after pharmacological activity, which has been studied and optimized, obtaining a thiophenyltryptophan C-2 trimer, active and useful for more advanced clinical studies.

Among the studies to which this compound has been subjected, the validation of the antiviral activity against genuine SARS-CoV-2 is included. In addition, other analyzes with Thermofluor and microscale thermophoresis demonstrate the interaction of these compounds with the RBD receptor binding domain of the S protein, preventing the interaction with ACE2.

Finally, the researchers used high-resolution cryoelectronic microscopy to characterize the structure of the S protein in the presence and absence of the hit compound tested, which has contributed to clarifying the mechanism of action of this new class of antiviral compounds.

Source: dpa

(Reference image source: Unsplash, in collaboration with Getty Images)

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) published an interactive map that allows you to explore the surface of Mars, under the name of Global CTX Mosaic.

Internet users can tour the red planet through 110,000 images collected by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), which they obtained through NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

“I wanted something that was accessible to everyone. Anyone can use this tool now. My mother, who just turned 78, can use this map. The goal is to lower the barriers for people interested in exploring Mars,” Jay Dickson, the lead scientist for the project, said in a statement.

Photographs of the red planet cover almost 25 square meters of surface area per pixel; that is, in a single photograph a large segment of the planet can be observed.

The map captures geological features such as cliffs, impact craters, dust swirl tracks, and dust storm tracks on Mars.

The CTX offers a broader view of the terrain around those features, which NASA says will help scientists better understand the Red Planet’s landscape.

CTX allows you to choose images of river channels, now dry, that stand out in the landscape. Also, it allows you to explore regions such as the craters called Gale and Jezero, or Olympus Mons, the highest volcano in the solar system.

NASA estimates that a landing on Mars, the closest planet to Earth, would be possible in the late 2030s or early 2040s.

Both scientists and the public can navigate a new global map of Mars that shows cliffs, craters, and dust devil tracks in mesmerizing detail. It uses a mosaic composed of 110,000 images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. See more and try it yourself: https://t.co/TO69fe9pBK pic.twitter.com/4Dq0KnsVum

— NASA Mars (@NASAMars) April 5, 2023

With information from El Sumario

(Reference image source: Javier Miranda, Unsplash)

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Scientists Maxwell Murialdo and Jonathan L. Belof, from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, confirmed the design of a stablecoin that they have called Electricity Stablecoin (E-Stablecoin) and that would transmit energy as a form of information.

The researchers decided to combine “statistical mechanics and information theory” to create this new virtual currency. The innovation will facilitate the transmission of “electricity without physical cables or network.

The value of the stablecoin, linked to a physical asset such as electricity, will depend entirely on the utility granted to it and will be minted “through the contribution of a kilowatt-hour of electricity, plus a commission.

Electricity Stablecoin could be used in transactions just like the other stablecoins in the crypto market or “the energy could be extracted by burning it, also in exchange for a fee.”

Smart contracts control the process

It is the first time a “hard-pegged” stablecoin, which can be traded “directly for a specific amount of a physical asset”. In the opinion of the researchers, electricity has both a fairly stable price and demand in the markets.

Furthermore, the electricity that would be used to mint the currency would be sustainable. “Investors could mint E-Stablecoin in regions where electricity prices are low, and burn the tokens where electricity is more expensive.”

With E-Stablecoin no “trusted centralized authority is required to hold or disburse the asset” because the entire process is designed to be controlled via smart contracts, with a decentralized data storage cloud.

Researchers Murialdo and Belof described their creation “as a proof of concept” and admit that further advances are required for an E-Stablecoin that works with greater “speed, transfer entropy and scalability of information engines”.

Additionally, they admit the need to optimize cloud storage or look for an alternative, however, their research has impact and theoretical implications, especially for the value that cryptocurrencies obtain.

M. Rodríguez

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Source: es.cointelegraph.com

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A group of scientists from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore established a new system to cover the lenses of eyeglasses that will prevent the condensation of fog, which is capable of cleaning itself and has anti-reflective properties. The result is anti-reflective lenses that don’t fog up and clean themselves.

This new eyeglass treatment promises to end both problems simultaneously. According to Chen Zhong, one of the authors of the discovery, explained: “Our team has demonstrated a method that is quick to apply, within an hour, that produces long-lasting results, demonstrating its potential for a wide range of practical applications.”

Zhong stressed that there are different products on the market, in sprays or wipes, anti-fog, but their effectiveness “are temporary and have limited effectiveness” having to be applied constantly for them to have an effect.

The method combines various materials

The research allowed the development of a method that works on polycarbonate lenses. According to the procedure, the first step is to treat the plastic with oxygen plasma, a substance used to clean the surfaces, which improves adherence. Subsequently and by means of “a pulsed laser, they cover the lens with a thin film that has two layers: one of silicon dioxide and the other of titanium dioxide“, the concentrated laser makes it easier to vaporize the excess material and reaches a film of the desired thickness.

Likewise, the use of “titanium dioxide” allows the lenses to clean themselves because it has photocatalytic capacity and when exposed to ultraviolet sunlight, it reacts with organic residues, eliminating them.

Laboratory experiments showed that the new coating is well suited to breaking down bacteria and dirt on the lens surface after exposure to sunlight throughout the day. Additionally, the researchers highlighted that the “system makes the crystals anti-reflective”, facilitating greater clarity in vision.

Innovation in the market

The group of researchers are waiting to be granted the “patent for this method and are looking for collaborators to bring the innovation to the market.” Likewise, the scientists consider that their system “would also be very useful in industrial applications of different optical components, such as surveillance cameras.”

Sun Ye, lead author of the discovery, said: “The results obtained demonstrate the multifunctionality of our coating. It is anti-reflective, anti-fog and self-cleaning. He explained that the manufacturing method is fast, easy and durable” when compared to other “anti-fog methods that usually end up in coatings with limited functions.”

M. Rodríguez

Source: elconfidencial.com

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Scientists at the University of Newcastle in Australia are developing a method to measure glucose through saliva and thus avoid the prick that leaves a pinpoint of blood, considered the most effective way so far.

According to published information, the technique consists in that users would place a strip on their tongue and after waiting a few minutes they will be able to review the results that will be reflected in an application downloaded to a smartphone.

Paul Dastoor, professor of physics at Newcastle University in New South Wales and project leader, explains that the inspiration to find a new way to record blood sugar levels came from the school where his wife works as a primary school teacher, when he saw some children suffer from the puncture to obtain the drop of blood and measure their glucose.

The researcher believes that the method “really opens up the possibility of painless and inexpensive glucose testing. And hopefully there would be much better results for those with diabetes. The exciting prospect is that in the future we could have a diabetes test that does not involve stabbing ourselves four to six times a day.”

Dastoor explained that the presence of glucose in saliva is minimal, which is why highly accurate meters are required to achieve effectiveness.

He emphasizes that the strip is a biosensor that measures biological or chemical reactions generating signals, developing with a specific material to generate a reaction according to the levels of sugar in saliva by means of hydrogen peroxide.

This component is expressed in hydrogen ions that are responsible for generating an electrical signal that would be processed and displayed by an application on the smartphone.

The Australian government is allocating about 3.4 million dollars for this project, and once the clinical trials are approved, they will mass-produce the kits and encourage the download of the app they are going to develop. If the method is approved, it is estimated that the first productions would be coming out in 2023.

M. Rodríguez

Source: fayerwayer.com

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