Monday 17 June 2019

Tracking life's first step: Two molecules 'awaken' brand new genome

Within hours after fertilization, a unique genome forms from chromosomes contributed by the egg and sperm. However, this new genome is initially inactive and must be "awakened" to begin the transcription of its DNA and start embryonic development. How life's first step happens has long fascinated developmental biologists.

* 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

PoseRBPF: A new particle filter for 6D object pose tracking

Researchers at NVIDIA, University of Washington, Stanford University, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have recently developed a Rao-Blackwellized particle filter for 6-D pose tracking, called PoseRBPF. The approach can effectively estimate the 3-D translation of an object and its full distribution over the 3-D rotation. The paper describing this filter, pre-published on arXiv, will be presented at the upcoming Robotics Science and Systems Conference in Freiburg, Germany.

* This article was originally published here

Testing therapies on mini-tumors of head and neck cancer

Head and neck cancer is an aggressive type of cancer that often grows back, despite patients undergoing harsh treatments. Researchers of the Hubrecht Institute (KNAW) and UMC Utrecht succeeded in growing mini-tumors (or organoids) of head and neck cancers, that can be kept alive in the petri-dish for a long time. Else Driehuis, researcher at the Hubrecht Institute: "These mini-tumors can be used to better understand this complex disease. Moreover, organoids allow us to test both novel and existing therapies in the lab, without burdening the patient."

* This article was originally published here

Ethiopian Airlines rejects 'pilot error' claim in US

A US politician who blamed pilot error for contributing to the deadly crash of a Boeing 737 MAX flown by Ethiopian Airlines was "seriously misinformed", the carrier's boss has said.

* This article was originally published here

Drones for early detection of forest fires

The UC3M's researchers coordinating the scientific part of the project, Fernando García y Abdulla al-Kaff, from the Department of Systems Engineering and Automation, have developed the complete automatic flight system, as well as the interface with which the emergency service can access information about what is occurring in real time.

* This article was originally published here

Balancing data protection and research needs in the age of the GDPR

Scientific journals and funding bodies often require researchers to deposit individual genetic data from studies in research repositories in order to increase data sharing with the aim of enabling the reproducibility of new findings, as well as facilitating new discoveries. However, the introduction of new regulations such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) can complicate this, according to the results of a study to be presented at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today.

* This article was originally published here

Moral emotions, a diagnotic tool for frontotemporal dementia?

A study conducted by Marc Teichmann and Carole Azuar at the Brain and Spine Institute in Paris (France) and at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital shows a particularly marked impairment of moral emotions in patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The results, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, open a new approach for early, sensitive and specific diagnosis of FTD.

* This article was originally published here

Huawei founder says revenue will be billions below forecast

Huawei's founder said Monday that the Chinese telecom giant's revenue will be $30 billion less than forecast over the next two years, as he compared the company to a "badly damaged plane" in the face of U.S. government actions against it.

* This article was originally published here