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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 29, 2021 at 10:36am

In a neuroprosthetic first, ALS patient sends social media message via brain-computer interface

A 62-year-old amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patient in Australia recently became the first person to post a message on social media using only his thoughts. On December 23, he posted an initial brief message, "Hello World," on Twitter.

The technology that allowed the patient  to send his message was developed by a brain computer interface company,  and the device is called the Stentrode Brain Computer Interface (SBCI); a type of endovascular brain implant. It was implanted into the patient's brain without opening his skull—instead, it was inserted through his jugular vein. The tiny (8 mm) brain implant was designed to allow people who have lost the ability to speak to communicate using only their thoughts. The SBCI is wireless and works by reading brainwaves and translating them to words—the motor neuroprosthesis was placed into the patient's brain using techniques that have been used for several years to treat people with strokes. Human clinical trials have been underway  for over a year—currently, the device has been implanted in just one other person, but more are planned.

The patient e is now able to compose messages by thinking of words or actions (such as mouse clicks), which are translated to activity on a computer screen.

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-12-neuroprosthetic-als-patient-soc...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 29, 2021 at 10:09am

Scientists digitally 'unwrap' mummy of pharaoh Amenhotep I for the first time in 3,000 years

All the royal mummies found in the 19th and 20th centuries have long since been opened for study. With one exception: egyptologists have never been bold enough to open the mummy of Pharaoh Amenhotep I. Not because of any mythical curse, but because it is perfectly wrapped, beautifully decorated with flower garlands, and with face and neck covered by an exquisite lifelike facemask inset with colorful stones. But now for the first time, scientists from Egypt have used three-dimensional CT (computed tomography) scanning to 'digitally unwrap' this royal mummy and study its contents. They report their findings in Frontiers in Medicine.

This was the first time in three millennia that Amenhotep's mummy has been opened. The previous time was in the 11th century BCE, more than four centuries after his original mummification and burial. Hieroglyphics have described how during the later 21st dynasty, priests restored and reburied royal mummies from more ancient dynasties, to repair the damage done by grave robbers.

"This fact that Amenhotep I's mummy had never been unwrapped in modern times gave us a unique opportunity: not just to study how he had originally been mummified and buried, but also how he had been treated and reburied twice, centuries after his death.

By digitally unwrapping of the mummy and 'peeling off' its virtual layers—the facemask, the bandages, and the mummy itself—researchers could study this well-preserved pharaoh in unprecedented detail.

The things that were found during the study:  

Amenhotep I was approximately 35 years old when he died. He was approximately 169cm tall, circumcized, and had good teeth. Within his wrappings, he wore 30 amulets and a unique golden girdle with gold beads."

Amenhotep I seems to have physically resembled his father: he had a narrow chin, a small narrow nose, curly hair, and mildly protruding upper teeth. Researchers couldn't find any wounds or disfigurement due to disease to justify the cause of death, except numerous mutiliations post mortem, presumably by grave robbers after his first burial. His entrails had been removed by the first mummifiers, but not his brain or heart.

at least for Amenhotep I, the priests of the 21^st dynasty lovingly repaired the injuries inflicted by the tomb robbers, restored his mummy to its former glory, and preserved the magnificent jewelry and amulets in place.

Sahar N. Saleem et al, Digital Unwrapping of the Mummy of King Amenhotep I (1525–1504 BC) Using CT, Frontiers in Medicine (2021). DOI: 10.3389/fmed.2021.778498

https://phys.org/news/2021-12-scientists-digitally-unwrap-mummy-pha...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 29, 2021 at 9:37am

The Final moments: Brain Death and the process of stopping it

For years, scientists have researched what happens to your brain when you die, but despite everything we've found out, progress has been stymied by an inability to easily monitor human death – since physicians are conventionally obliged to prevent death if they can, not monitor it as it takes hold. What this means is most of our understanding of the processes involved in brain death come from animal experiments, strengthened with what we can glean from the accounts of resuscitated patients disclosing their near-death experiences. But in 2018, an international team of scientists made a breakthrough. In animals, within 20 to 40 seconds of oxygen deprivation, the brain enters an 'energy-saving mode' where it becomes electrically inactive and neurons cease communicating with one another. After a few minutes, the brain begins to break down as ion gradients in cells dissipate, and a wave of electrochemical energy – called a spreading depolarisation (or 'brain tsunami') spreads throughout the cortex and other brain regions, ultimately causing irreversible brain damage.

A team of neurologists  – who monitored these processes taking place in nine patients with devastating brain injuries (under Do Not Resuscitate – Comfort Care orders) – say the tsunami of brain death may actually be capable of being stopped.

After circulatory arrest, spreading depolarisation marks the loss of stored electrochemical energy in brain cells and the onset of toxic processes that eventually lead to death. But it is reversible – up to a point – when the circulation is restored.

Using neuro-monitoring technology called subdural electrode strips and intraparenchymal electrode arrays, the researchers monitored spreading depolarisation in the patients' brains, and they suggest it's not a one-way wave – as long as circulation (and thus oxygen supply) can be resumed to the brain.

"Anoxia-triggered [spreading depolarisation] is fully reversible without any signs of cellular damage, if the oxidative substrate supply is re-established before the so-called commitment point, defined as the time when neurons start dying under persistent depolarisation. For patients at risk of brain damage or death incurred through cerebral ischemia or other kinds of stroke, the findings could one day be a life-saver, although the researchers explain a lot more work is needed before physicians will be able to take advantage of these discoveries.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ana.25147

https://www.sciencealert.com/death-bringing-brain-tsunamis-have-bee...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 29, 2021 at 8:10am

Quantum Computers, Explained With Quantum Physics

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 28, 2021 at 11:49am

The microneedles themselves are made of a non-degradable, biocompatible hydrogel that also contains zwitterionic poly-sulfobetaine (poly-SPB). As reported in previous studies by the same authors, this polymer suppresses protein aggregation. Thus, the researchers incorporated it during the fabrication process and showed that the proteins pre-loaded in the microneedles were stable even when subjected to various external stresses.

Additionally, the scientists developed a straightforward and cost-effective way to fabricate microneedle arrays made from the abovementioned materials. They resorted to photolithography, a process in which a photomask is used to selectively block UV light from reaching a target surface to control chemical reactions locally.

To test the performance of these microneedle arrays for drug delivery, the researchers loaded them with 50 microliters of drug solutions containing rhodamine B as a dye alongside lysozyme and insulin as example proteins. Through various experiments on porcine skin, the teams verified that their microneedle patches offered both high drug-loading capacity and high drug-release rate. Moreover, they confirmed that the microneedles could both load and preserve various water-soluble drugs and proteins simultaneously, eliminating the need for refrigeration.

Overall, the proposed microneedle arrays seem to be a remarkably promising platform for administering therapeutic drugs and vaccines.

Harit Pitakjakpipop et al, Facile Photolithographic Fabrication of Zwitterionic Polymer Microneedles with Protein Aggregation Inhibition for Transdermal Drug Delivery, Biomacromolecules (2021). DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.1c01325

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-12-rethinking-drugs-breakthroug...

Part 2

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 28, 2021 at 11:46am

Rethinking how drugs are administered: A breakthrough in microneedle patches

The painful feeling of receiving an injection through a hypodermic needle or with the unpleasant sensation of swallowing a large pill is a globally familiar sensation. But what if a revolutionary and gentler way of administering drugs was in the works? For over two decades, researchers have been investigating various types of microneedles as a minimally invasive method for transdermal drug delivery. Arrays of microneedles can be designed to be loaded with a drug or chemical, which they then release over time onto the blood stream after piercing slightly beyond the skin layers.

Microneedles offer several advantages compared to other types of drug delivery. First, they are painless and cause virtually no damage to the skin nor bleeding. Second, they can be self-administered. Third, unlike traditional needles, the disposal of microneedles is much easier as they don't leave behind hazardous waste. Unfortunately, there are still a few challenges that need to be addressed before microneedles become the next big thing in healthcare. One is their fabrication cost, which generally involves expensive molds, materials, and machinery. Another issue is the aggregation and degradation of proteins when microneedles are pre-loaded with a protein-based medicine, as these molecules are quite sensitive to external conditions such as temperature, acidity and salt concentration.

In a recent study published in Biomacromolecules, two research teams from Japan and Thailand collaborated to address the main limitations of existing microneedles.

One team developed and applied a functional polymer that effectively suppresses protein aggregation. The other team perfected a microneedle fabrication method suitable for the industrial scale based on photolithography. By combining these two efforts, the teams managed to produce microneedles patches with several attractive properties and potential scalability to clinical settings.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 28, 2021 at 11:42am

Heavy metals have a reputation for being dangerous, but some are essential nutrients that you can't live without.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 28, 2021 at 7:37am

Snapshots from high in the sky allow new insight into ecosystems around the world

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 28, 2021 at 7:28am

Mountain spring water isn't as clean as you think it is

 Mountain spring water is often touted as the cleanest water you can drink. But a new study revealed this isn't the case.

Using data collected over 40 years, researchers detailed how water quality in high-elevation streams has been negatively affected by a combination of historical events and modern changes, namely sediment from rural roads and agricultural runoff.

Unpaved roads are just one of several factors contributing to sediment runoff.

When streams carry a lot of sediment, it makes it more difficult for animals to see food in the water, and it affects fish growth and disease resistance. Sediment also continues to flow downstream and into public water supplies, where it costs cities and towns more to filter.

The landscape you see now isn't what it was like in 1900. For generations, people farmed the valleys  and left the hillsides forested, for hunting and gathering. But the new settlers cut the forests and even tried to farm the hills, causing erosion and sediment to move into the streams. Today, stream beds continue to show evidence of sediment deposited more than a century ago, even as new sediment pushes through the waters.

Many years later, a new kind of development in the region created a different kind of land disturbance. For generations, residents considered the steep mountain slopes undevelopable. But the 1980s and '90s brought a desire for mountain getaway homes with views.

By building homes on mountain ridges, he said, it created more land disturbance through carving out unpaved roads and cutting into hillsides, sometimes creating landslides.

"Roadside ditches and unpaved roads produce a lot of sediment, and their sediment production increases as roads get steeper and as gravel roads get more use. in areas with both mountain and valley development, the researchers found sediment concentrations four to six times higher.

Farming also takes its toll. The studies researchers analyzed found many streams in the area to have high nutrient concentrations—particularly nitrate. When a stream flowing through a pasture loses its buffer of trees, it loses a natural protection against nutrient runoff.

Streams without shade also have higher water temperatures.

The paper was published earlier this month in the journal Bioscience.

C Rhett Jackson et al, Distinctive Connectivities of Near-Stream and Watershed-Wide Land Uses Differentially Degrade Rural Aquatic Ecosystems, BioScience (2021). DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biab098

https://researchnews.cc/news/10775/Mountain-spring-water-isn-t-as-c...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 28, 2021 at 7:21am

The telescope is on a 30-day long journey to cover the 15,00,000 kilometers distance between Earth and its intended orbit. It will reach the location by the end of January.

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/where-is-james-webb-telesco...

Part 4

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