develop | Common News Update

Feb122021 by adminNo Comments

Study: Most with severe COVID-19 develop a ‘robust’ antibody response

Health

Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Most people's immune systems can fight back against COVID-19 when they develop severe disease, according to a study published Thursday by PLOS Pathogens. Eight people, after recovery from serious illness, had higher levels of neutralizing antibodies against the virus than 10 patients with more mild symptoms, the data showed. Advertisement Neutralizing antibodies are proteins produced by the immune system to fight off infections. The findings support the use of antibody-based therapy, perhaps with blood plasma donated by those who have recovered from COVID-19, to prevent and treat the disease, the researchers said. "Even with a vaccine at our doorstep, arming clinicians with specific anti-[COVID-19] therapeutics is extremely important," wrote the authors, from Tel Aviv Un...

Jan252021 by adminNo Comments

Scientists develop ultrafast laser system to remove cancers more precisely

Technology

A new laser system that may revolutionise the treatment of cancers and help surgeons remove them without damaging healthy tissue, is being developed by scientists.Experts at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh are working on the system based around ultrafast picosecond lasers that deliver energy in a series of pulses one trillionth of a second long. Professor Jonathan Shephard, who is leading the project, was given £1.2 million by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to develop the treatment.He said the system has proven successful on colorectal cancers in the lab."We proved in the lab that our laser system can remove cancer cells in a way that restricts damage to the surrounding, healthy cells - within the width of a human hair," he said. ...

Jul192020 by adminNo Comments

Inside the failure to develop a contact-tracing app

Technology

Matt Hancock was clear: it was all Apple's fault.Standing at the same Downing Street podium where he had promised the government's contact-tracing app would "save lives", Mr Hancock now admitted it would not be ready for the lifting of lockdown. For months, the health secretary had insisted a homemade app was better than one based on the technology developed by Google and Apple.Yet even as he announced that the government would now use the American firms' system, Mr Hancock rounded on Apple."As it stands, our app won't work because Apple won't change their system," he said, citing a statistic some believe was inaccurate: that the app's Bluetooth system, which was supposed to detect nearby phones as a way of tracking potentially risky contacts, only detected 4% of iPhones, rendering it effe...

Jul22020 by adminNo Comments

Scientists develop better way to measure, translate dog years

Science

July 2 (UPI) -- Estimating a dog's age isn't a matter of simple arithmetic. Translating a dog's age to human years using the popular method of multiplying by seven might be amusing, but it's of little use to a vet. Scientists now have developed a better way to measure the aging process in dogs and more precisely convert dog age to human years. Advertisement "We had been working on ways of monitoring human age and aging at the molecular level," Trey Ideker, professor at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center, told UPI in an email. "Marks on DNA, called methylation marks, turned out to be a really accurate way to 'diagnose' aging." Inspired by his graduate student Tiny Wang and her love of dogs, Ideker and his research partners used the same met...

Jun232020 by adminNo Comments

Mercedes, NVIDIA to develop new automated driving system

Technology

Four days after shelving an autonomous vehicle agreement with BMW, Mercedes is announcing a deal to work with chip and software maker NVIDIAByThe Associated PressJune 23, 2020, 8:03 PM1 min read1 min readDETROIT -- Four days after shelving an autonomous vehicle agreement with BMW, Mercedes has announced a deal to work with chip and software maker NVIDIA. The companies said Tuesday that the two will create a computing and artificial intelligence system for automated driving. It will be rolled out starting in 2024 in the next generation of Mercedes vehicles, allowing them to be upgraded with more automated driving functions. The German automaker and Silicon Valley tech company say a main feature will be automated driving from address to address on regular routes. There also will be future s...