Category Uncategorized

Study shows Glucagon is Key for Kidney Health

Glucagon, a hormone best known for promoting blood sugar production in the liver, also appears to play a key role in maintaining kidney health. When UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers removed receptors for this hormone from mouse kidneys, the animals developed symptoms akin to chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Their findings, published in Cell Metabolism, shed new light on glucagon’s physiological functions and provide new insights into CKD, a disease that affects hundreds of millions of people around the globe, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

“Our study defines important protective effects of glucagon for kidney health and normal systemic metabolic well-being of the entire organism,” said study leader Philipp Scherer, Ph.D...

Read More

Human-like Real-Time Sketching by a Humanoid Robot

Human-like real-time sketching by a humanoid robot
TEO the UC3M Robotics Lab humanoid robot painting a flower. Credit: Fernandez-Fernandez et al

The rapid advancement of deep learning algorithms and generative models has enabled the automated production of increasingly striking AI-generated artistic content. Most of this AI-generated art, however, is created by algorithms and computational models, rather than by physical robots.

Researchers at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) recently developed a deep learning-based model that allows a humanoid robot to sketch pictures, similarly to how a human artist would. Their paper, published in Cognitive Systems Research, offers a remarkable demonstration of how robots could actively engage in creative processes.

“Our idea was to propose a ...

Read More

Astronomers Observe the Effect of Dark Matter on the Evolution of the Galaxies

Astronomers observe the effect of dark matter on the evolution of the galaxies
Image of a galaxy showing, on the left, its stellar component, and on the right (in negative), the dark matter present in its halo. Credit: Gabriel Pérez Díaz, SMM (IAC) / The EAGLE team

Dark matter comprises around 85% of all the matter in the universe. Although ordinary matter absorbs, reflects and emits light, dark matter cannot be seen directly, which makes its detection difficult. Its existence is inferred from its gravitational effects on visible matter, the material that forms stars, planets, and other objects in the cosmos.

Galaxies are made up of these two types of material The dark matter is distributed in halos, which are huge structures surrounding galaxies, while the ordinary matter is mainly present in the central regions where most of the stars are found.

Traditi...

Read More

Neural Networks made of Light: Research team develops AI System in Optical Fibers

Neural networks made of light: Research team develops AI system in optical fibers
System training and solving the n-bit parity problem. A) Flowchart of the digital processing layers to interpret the system readout. The training is performed offline using bin selection and linear regression. A simple search algorithm iterates through different frequency bin combinations (see Experimental Section). For each combination, linear regression is used to predict the label (or value) of an inference task. The prediction error was estimated through cross-validation of subsets of the training data. The best-performing combination of bins (i.e., lowest loss) defines an inference-ready system configuration. B) Experimentally measured operation fidelity associated with the n-bit parity problem for increasing bit length and system nonlinearity...
Read More