North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo agreed to arrange a second summit “as soon as possible,” and discussed potential U.S. inspections of North Korean nuclear sites, South Korea’s presidential office said on Sunday.

South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in held talks with Pompeo in Seoul after the top U.S. diplomat met with Kim for more than three hours during a short trip to Pyongyang that was aimed at breaking a gridlock in their nuclear talks. 

Pompeo told Moon that he and Kim discussed denuclearization steps to be taken by the North and the issue of U.S. government inspection of those actions, which Washington has been calling for, as well as the measures the United States would conduct in return, according to Moon’s press secretary Yoon Young-chan. 

Pompeo and Kim also agreed to form a working group “at an early date” to discuss the denuclearization process and the second summit, which Kim proposed to U.S. President Donald Trump in a letter last month, Yoon said. 

“Secretary Pompeo said he and Chairman Kim concurred that they will hold the second U.S.-North Korea summit as soon as possible,” Yoon said in a statement. 

“The two sides also agreed to continue discussions to decide on the detailed timing and location of the second summit.” 

While Seoul sounded upbeat, Pompeo struck a more cautious tone. 

He said his latest, fourth trip to the North was “another step forward” to denuclearization and he had a “good, productive conversation” with Kim, but more needed to be done. 

“As President Trump said, there are many steps along the way and we took one of them today,” Pompeo told Moon. “It was another step forward. So this is, I think, a good outcome for all of us.” 

Moon expressed hopes that Pompeo’s trip and the proposed second meeting between Kim and Trump would make “irreversible, decisive progress in terms of denuclearization as well as the peace process.” 

Moon had his own third summit with Kim last month in Pyongyang, which was partly intended to help salvage the stumbling negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington, after Trump called off Pompeo’s planned visit to the North in late August citing lack of progress. 

Kim pledged to work toward denuclearization at the Singapore summit, but Pyongyang’s actions have since fallen short of Washington’s demands for irreversible steps to give up its arsenal, including declaring all nuclear and missile facilities. 

At last month’s meeting with Moon, Kim promised to allow outside inspections of key missile facilities, and expressed a willingness, for the first time, to “permanently” scrap Yongbyon, North Korea’s main nuclear complex. 

‘GOOD FUTURE’

Shortly after arriving in South Korea, Pompeo posted a photo of himself walking along with Kim on Twitter, saying: “Had a good trip to #Pyongyang to meet with Chairman Kim. We continue to make progress on agreements made at Singapore Summit. Thanks for hosting me and my team @StateDept.” 

Kim and Pompeo met for about two hours, and then had lunch together at the Paekhwawon, or 100 Flowers Garden, a prestigious state guesthouse, for another hour and a half, according to a pool report. 
 

hi @pedroshulk

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Don’t look for a gender-swapped James Bond movie any time in the future, as Bond producer Barbara Broccoli says the iconic secret agent character will stay male. Daniel Craig is currently locked in as Bond for one more movie, but after that the character will seemingly be up for grabs. Many fans favor the idea of thinking outside the box when it comes to casting Craig’s Bond successor.

One highly popular future Bond casting idea has Idris Elba jumping aboard to become the first-ever black 007. Others prefer the idea of swapping genders and making Bond female for the first time ever. Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt and Gillian Anderson are just a few of the women whose names have come up in speculation about which actress might be a contender to take on the role of Bond once Craig is ready to give it up. The possibility of a female Bond seemed to become more viable when Jodie Whittaker landed the role of The Dcotor on Doctor Who, making her the first woman ever to portray the iconic Time Lord.

But unfortunately, fans of the female Bond idea will likely not get their way any time soon. Speaking to The Guardian, Bond producer Barbara Broccoli made it clear that 007 will continue to remain his old traditional male self for the foreseeable future. Broccoli said:

“Bond is male. He’s a male character. He was written as a male and I think he’ll probably stay as a male. And that’s fine. We don’t have to turn male characters into women. Let’s just create more female characters and make the story fit those female characters.”

 

Indeed, Broccoli’s point about not turning male characters into female characters has been brought up previously as regards the gender-swapped Bond idea. Actress Rachel Weisz (who also happens to be married to Daniel Craig) has been quoted as saying that Bond should not be a woman. Former Bond girl Rosamund Pike has also gone on record as being against the idea of switching Bond’s gender.

It’s a fair point to make that creating original, interesting female characters should be prioritized above arguably gimmicky gender-swapping moves. That being said, swapping genders can sometimes lead to good results and strong box office returns, as was demonstrated by this year’s female-led Ocean’s 8, a reboot of the male-centric Ocean’s franchise. If the Bond franchise should find itself falling off at the box office in the future, making Bond female could be a way to help re-invigorate the venerable property.

So, even though Barbara Broccoli seems against the idea of a female Bond right now, that doesn’t mean she will always feel that way. Much will depend on what happens with Bond 25, the planned next installment in the series. Daniel Craig will be back for that one, with Cary Fukunaga on-board as director after Danny Boyle abruptly dropped out due to creative differences. If Bond 25 matches the numbers put up by Skyfall and Spectre, there’s no reason to think Eon will deviate from the formula for the next Bond after that. But all bets will be off if for some reason Bond 25 falters. The door could still be open for a person of color, and/or a woman, playing James Bond.

 

Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg apologizes for botching Fox's first attempt at adapting Chris Claremont's Dark Phoenix saga in X-Men: The Last Stand. A longtime producer of Fox's X-Men films, Kinberg also wrote the Brett Ratner-directed movie, alongside Zak Penn. The film was the final installment in the series' initial continuity, before it was rebooted by Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class.

Specific narrative points are still being kept under wraps, but people involved in Dark Phoenix are hyping it up, including Sophie Turner (Jean Grey/Phoenix), who promised fans that it will revolutionize the superhero genre. Meanwhile, Jennifer Lawrence (Raven/Mystique) dubbed it her best X-Men experience. The movie is set to be the last Fox-controlled X-Men film before rights to the mutants, alongside all their tie-in characters, return to Marvel Entertainment after the Disney and Fox merger is finalized.

Speaking with EW as he continues to promote Dark Phoenix, Kinberg apologized for Fox's first attempt to adapt the quintessential storyline from the comics back in 2006. Considering that he was a pivotal part of The Last Stand, the first-time director also assures fans that this time, they made sure to stick to the source material as closely as possible. Kinberg previously named Logan and the original Star Wars trilogy - as well as other MCU cosmic-set films - as influences on his upcoming movie, but following his apology, he specifically named Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok as another significant inspiration.

"I’m sorry for X-Men 3. We tried to tell the Dark Phoenix story and we didn’t do it properly. So, with this Dark Phoenix story there is no ‘cure’ plot, there is no other plot. It is the Dark Phoenix story, as told in comics, as told in the cartoons. Sophie is the center of the film, that’s why she’s the one person that’s in the teaser poster. The entire movie revolves around her. It’s a movie that goes into space and is cosmic, very much inspired actually by what [Taika] did with Thor — even though the tone is totally different — but just the ability to make a character movie that still feels grounded, and fun, but is in whole other universes. Jessica Chastain’s character plays an alien, and that’s all I can tell you about that. But, yeah, it’s the Dark Phoenix story and if you’ve read that comic I think you’re going to like the movie a lot."

 

Admittedly, not many were initially sold on the idea of retelling the same print narrative, especially since Fox could've gone with other storylines that have never been translated to the big screen. It didn't help that Dark Phoenix's release has been pushed back a few times, alongside rumors that the reshoots were to alter a huge chunk of the movie. Over the years, the term "reshoots" has developed a negative connotation after being associated with problem-laded productions, that said, reshoots have always been mandatory, especially for blockbusters.

While the film's first trailer didn't necessarily squash people's concerns that Dark Phoenix will be just an updated version of The Last Stand, the buzz surrounding the event-exclusive footage shown at NYCC may sway naysayers to give the movie a fair shot. Those who were lucky enough to see the preview raved about the chemistry of the established X-Men team before Jean's change of heart. From the looks of it, Kinberg's apology may not just be lip service, assuming the forthcoming mutant-centered movie blows everyone away.

 

New findings suggest that diet is a major contributor for the increased risk of hypertension in black compared to white Americans. The results, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, are part of the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study, which looks at the incidence of stroke in approximately 30,000 individuals. The study is funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a part of the National Institutes of Health.

"This study addresses a lead cause of racial disparity in mortality and identifies potential lifestyle changes that could reduce racial disparities in both stroke and heart disease," said Claudia Moy, Ph.D., NINDS program director and one of the study authors.

In the study, led by George Howard, Dr.P.H., a biostatistics professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, researchers studied individuals over the age of 45 over a period of 10 years and looked to identify risk factors associated with the higher likelihood of developing high blood pressure in the study participants.

"The majority of disparities we see in the health of black versus white Americans are cardiovascular in nature," said Dr. Howard, "and of these, all are tied to an increase in high blood pressure."

For both men and women, a diet composed of high amounts of fried and processed foods and sweetened beverages was the greatest factor associated with why blacks are at a greater risk of developing high blood pressure compared to whites. For both men and women, other important factors included salt intake and education level. For women, additional factors contributing to the racial difference in high blood pressure included obesity and waist size.

"One of the main factors affecting the difference between the black and white population is cardiovascular disease, and the increased risk of high blood pressure among black Americans could help explain why their life expectancy is four years shorter than that of whites," said Dr. Howard. "Understanding how we can prevent this increased risk of hypertension in blacks is critical for reducing health disparities among the black population."

The researchers hope that these findings could be applied to reduce the prevalence of hypertension and thus the risk of stroke and heart attack in the black American population. This study suggests that lifestyle changes, particularly changes in diet, could help reduce the disparities seen in black versus white Americans.

"The best way to treat high blood pressure is to prevent it from occurring in the first place," said Dr. Howard.

The REGARDS study includes more than 30,000 black and white Americans, approximately half of whom live in the Stroke Belt, an area in the southeastern United States where the rate of stroke mortality is higher than the rest of the country. Of these, 6,897 participants, 1,807 black and 5,090 white, were analyzed for this study.

In 2016, the NINDS launched a stroke prevention campaign called Mind Your Risks, which is designed to educate people aged 45-65 about the link between uncontrolled high blood pressure and the risk of having a stroke or developing dementia later in life.
 

Brain regions best known for recognizing the potential horror of a hurricane also help us recognize, appreciate and categorize our food, scientists report.

They found that a group of large, triangular-shaped neurons, in two almond-shaped structures on either side of our brain, form cliques that help us enjoy the total food experience, from recognizing a banana to anticipating its taste and texture, placing it correctly in the category of food and maybe even the subcategory of a breakfast food.

"Our knowledge is categorical," says Dr. Joe Z. Tsien, neuroscientist in the Department of Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Cognitive and Systems Neurobiology.

"You are not only creating a specific experience memory about a banana but, almost like a library, you are putting those memories in categories like you would comic books or science fiction," says the corresponding author of the study in the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

The cells are pyramidal cells and the brain regions the two amygdala. Most research that has be done on the amygdalae is about fear, and Tsien's team also was looking at their role in fear. But while examining neuronal response, they decided to also look at potential roles in positive emotions like the food experience.

"It's the pyramidal cells that help distinguish a banana from a cake and put it in categories like breakfast or lunch," Tsien says. "They provide structural organization for knowledge from a specific food, to a category of food to the general concept of food."

Pyramidal cells also function like a receiver, taking input about food from the taste buds on our tongue and the smell of a biscuit, then broadcasting the information they collect to other parts of the brain. Just how they organized for these many tasks was unknown.

When all goes well with the prewired neural circuitry, we recognize a banana as the fruit and food that it is, know that we like it and usually eat it for breakfast. Nearby interneurons help the big neurons in those circuits talk with each other and help moderate their activity.

When it doesn't work well, we may have an eating disorder that prompts us to compulsively eat or conversely, to not eat.

In addition to better understanding how our brains process food, the scientists believe their work may one day provide insight into these difficult-to-treat eating disorders.

A few previous studies have indicated that the base of the amygdalae have a role in the food experience, but how our neurons line up to represent the experience was pretty much unknown, Tsien says.

For these studies, the scientists looked at the pyramidal cells' response in mice freely consuming biscuits, rice, milk and water, as well as the response of the interneurons connected to them.

"Interneurons are like a gatekeeper," he says, with a lot of power, noting their dysfunction also can result in problems like seizures.

They found the vast majority of pyramidal neurons increased their firing in response to just one food item, others to varying combinations like biscuits and rice or biscuits and milk. Only a tiny percentage of the neurons responded to all three of those foods and the ones that did also responded to water.

About one third of the neurons that increased their firing in response to food responded to milk, likely because of its important role in continued healthy development after birth, the scientists write. The duration of the pyramidal cells' increased firing generally correlated with how long it took mice to eat the food.

Also, when the mice ate several of the same food items consecutively, like consuming multiple rice pellets, the excitement of the pyramidal neuron that recognized that food began to diminish. That likely helps explain why mice -- like many people -- prefer a selection of foods as they eat, Tsien says.

Interneurons on the other hand did not get super excited over any specific food, the scientists note, but they were more excited about eating biscuits than drinking milk, a response they plan to pursue further by including more items of solid and liquid foods to see if the response to the two items continues to hold. Interneurons instead focused on the broader food experience.

The food-focused cell assemblage Tsien and his colleagues report is a fundamental organizational structure for the brain that reflect his Theory of Connectivity. The theory, first published in the journal Trends in Neurosciences in 2015, provides a basic algorithm that helps us understand how neurons line up in our brains to acquire and use knowledge about life experiences from food to friends. He and his colleagues subsequently identified 15 different cliques in the amygdalae involved in recognizing and categorizing the different foods consumed.

Tsien says these cliques form during development almost like they are waiting to experience that banana or biscuit. He notes that he doubts that those of us with a more vastly varied or even exotic diet, have significantly more pyramidal cells or cliques.

Tsien says cliques are prewired during development because they show up and start responding immediately to foods. The individual pyramidal cell structure persevered even when the NMDA receptor, a master switch for learning and memory, was disabled.

Pyramidal cells are some of the largest neurons in the body and are excitatory neurons, which means they usually call for some action. "Generally speaking, in any given neural circuit there are excitatory cells and there also are inhibitory cells to provide a balance," Tsien says.

The brain has about 86 billion neurons and each neuron can have tens of thousands of synapses, or connections, with other neurons, which helps explain the seemingly endless potential of the brain.

The amygdalae are found deep inside the brain on either side of the head in about the same vicinity as the ears, and are most widely associated with memory, processing emotions like survival and fear and even our libido. More recently, there is evidence they play a role in assigning value -- good or bad -- and in addictive behavior. There is some lab evidence the cells in the amygdalae also respond to things like salt and sucrose as well as temperature and texture.

The age-old adage "I'll sleep on it" has proven to be scientifically sound advice, according to a new study which measured changes in people's brain activity and responses before and after a nap. The findings, published in the Journal of Sleep Research, support the advice which suggests that a period of sleep may help weighing up pros and cons or gain insight before making a challenging decision.

The Medical Research Council-funded study, led by University of Bristol researchers, aimed to understand whether a short period of sleep can help us process unconscious information and how this might affect behaviour and reaction time.

The findings further reveal the benefits of a short bout of sleep on cognitive brain function and found that even during short bouts of sleep we process information that we are not consciously aware of.

While previous evidence demonstrates that sleep helps problem solving,resulting in enhanced cognition upon awaking; it was not clear whether some form of conscious mental process was required before or during sleep to aid problem solving. In this study, researchers hid information by presenting it very briefly and "masking" it -- so it was never consciously perceived -- the masked prime task. The hidden information, however, was processed at a subliminal level within the brain and the extent to which it interferes with responses to consciously perceived information was measured.

Sixteen healthy participants across a range of ages were recruited to take part in an experiment. Participants carried out two tasks -- the masked prime task and a control task where participants simply responded when they saw a red or blue square on a screen. Participants practiced the tasks and then either stayed awake or took a 90-minute nap before doing the tasks again.

Using an EEG, which records the electrical activity naturally produced in the brain, researchers measured the change in brain activity and response pre-and-post nap.

Sleep (but not wake) improved processing speed in the masked prime task -- but not in the control task -- suggesting sleep-specific improvements in processing of subconsciously presented primes.

The findings suggest that even a short bout of sleep may help improve our responses and process information. Therefore, the results here suggest a potentially sleep-dependent, task-specific enhancement of brain processing that could optimise human goal-directed behaviour.

Importantly, while it is already known that the process of acquiring knowledge and information recall, memory, is strengthened during sleep. This study suggests that information acquired during wakefulness may potentially be processed in some deeper, qualitative way during sleep

Dr LizCoulthard, Consultant Senior Lecturer in Dementia Neurology at the University of Bristol Medical School: Translational Health Sciences, said: "The findings are remarkable in that they can occur in the absence of initial intentional, conscious awareness, by processing of implicitly presented cues beneath participants' conscious awareness.

"Further research in a larger sample size is needed to compare if and how the findings differ between ages, and investigation of underlying neural mechanisms."

Paper: 'Nap-Mediated Benefit to Implicit Information ProcessingAcross Age Using an Affective Priming Paradigm' by E Coulthard et al in the Journal of Sleep Research [open access]

A healthy relationship starts with the word "we."

Past research by UC Riverside psychologist Megan Robbins has emphasized the power of first-person personal pronouns such as "we" and "us" in relationships. "We-talk" is an indicator of interdependence, meaning partners affect one another's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This is a shift from self-oriented to relationship-oriented.

New research by her lab has greatly magnified the body of evidence asserting that the pronouns we use foretell good relationship outcomes. Robbins and her team reviewed and analyzed 30 studies of nearly 5,300 participants to assert that couples who often say "we" and "us" have more successful relationships and are healthier and happier.

"By examining all these studies together, they let us see the bigger picture. We-talk is an indicator of interdependence and general positivity in romantic relationships," said Alexander Karan, a graduate student in Robbins' lab and lead author of a related paper recently published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

Interdependence is tied to relationship-healthy behaviors, such as being supportive in stressful times. "Interdependence Theory," first introduced in the 1950s, holds that interdependent romantic partners are more inclusive in how they both think, feel, behave, and rely on each other for support over time.

For the study participants -- about half of whom were married -- Robbins' team looked at five measures: relationship outcomes (satisfaction, length of union); relationship behaviors (positive vs. negative interactions observed); mental health; physical health; and health behaviors (how well participants take care of themselves).

The benefit was evident in all five categories, and virtually equal for both men and women.

"The benefit of analyzing many different couples in a lot of different contexts is that it establishes we-talk isn't just positively related in one context, but that it indicates positive functioning overall," Karan said.

That is to say, we-talk is good for young couples, and it's good for older couples. It's good when resolving a conflict; it's even good when the partner is not physically present. Most importantly, though we-talk is good when one uses it, it's even better when one's romantic partner uses it.

Karan said the primary takeaway is that interdependence may bring about supportive and relationship-centered behaviors and positive perceptions of the partner -- especially important in times of stress and conflict.

A chicken-or-the-egg question that remains unanswered, and is the subject of upcoming research for Robbins' team: Does we-talk make for happy couples, or do happy couples make for we-talk?

"It is likely both," Robbins said. "Hearing yourself or a partner say these words could shift individuals' ways of thinking to be more interdependent, which could lead to a healthier relationship."

However: "It could also be the case that because the relationship is healthy and interdependent, the partners are being supportive and use we-talk."

Scientists at the Krembil Research Institute have developed a novel therapeutic treatment that has the potential to stop knee and spine osteoarthritis in its tracks.

A team led by Principal Investigator Dr. Mohit Kapoor, Arthritis Research Director at UHN, published the results today in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases in a paper titled "microRNA-181a-5p antisense oligonucleotides attenuate osteoarthritis in facet and knee joints."

"This is important because there are currently no drugs or treatments available to patients that can stop osteoarthritis," says Dr. Kapoor, a Krembil Senior Scientist.

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis. It affects about five million Canadians and is characterized by a breakdown of the protective cartilage found in the body's spine, hand, knee and hip joints.

"Current treatments for osteoarthritis address the symptoms, such as pain, but are unable to stop the progression of the disease," says Dr. Kapoor. "The blocker we've tested is disease modifying. It has the ability to prevent further joint destruction in both knee and spine."

Utilizing a variety of experimental models, including animal models and human tissue samples, the Krembil team zeroed in on a biomarker, or molecule, called microRNA-181a-5p, which is believed to also cause the inflammation, cartilage destruction and collagen depletion.

Using a blocker consisting of Locked Nucleic Acid-Antisense Oligonucleotides (LNA-ASO), the team was able to stop destruction and protect the cartilage.

"The blocker is based on antisense technology. When you inject this blocker into the joints, it blocks the destructive activity caused by microRNA-181-5p and stops cartilage degeneration," said Dr. Akihiro Nakamura, first author of the paper and a post-doctoral research fellow in the Kapoor Lab.

In addition to testing with animal models, the research team applied this approach using cells and tissues from Toronto Western Hospital patients who have knee and/or spine osteoarthritis.

"The technology in osteoarthritis is in its infancy, but the research has now taken a big step forward. If we are able to develop a safe and effective injection for patients, this discovery could be a game changer," said Dr. Raja Rampersaud, an orthopedic spine surgeon and clinician scientist at Toronto Western who collaborated with the Kapoor team.

Next steps for the research team include commencement of safety studies, determining proper dosage and developing a method for injecting the blocker directly into the knee and spine joints.

Funding for this study was provided by the Krembil Foundation, The Toronto General & Western Hospital Foundation and The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

There has been interest across behavioral and social sciences - including psychology, economics and education - in whether people are born to be rational decision-makers or if rationality can be enhanced through education.

Published in Science, a new study led by Hyuncheol Bryant Kim, assistant professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell University, found that education can be leveraged to help enhance an individual's economic decision-making quality or economic rationality.

"Using a randomized controlled trial of education support and laboratory experiments that mimic real-life examples, we established causal evidence that an education intervention increases not only educational outcomes but also economic rationality in terms of measuring how consistently people make decisions to seek their economic goals," Kim said.

Kim and his colleagues examined this hypothesis through a controlled trial of education support in Malawi, arranged by a nongovernmental organization, which provided financial support for education in a sample of nearly 3,000 female ninth and 10th graders.

"We found that those who took part in the education intervention had higher scores of economic rationality, suggesting that education is a tool for enhancing an individual's economic decision-making quality," Kim said. "While we know that schooling has been shown in previous work to have positive effects on a wide range of outcomes, such as income and health, our work provides evidence of potentially additional benefits coming from improvements in people's decision-making abilities."

Traditional economic analysis assumes that humans make rational choices. However, mounting evidence shows that people tend to make systematic errors in judgment and decision-making and that there is a high level of diversity in how rational individuals are.

Kim points out that most other research on improving the quality of decision-making targets the reduction of decision biases. For example, behavioral economists have urged policymakers to intervene in markets and restructure choice environments, the way that a decision is presented, without restraining people's freedom of choice.

"We take a different stand: proper policy tools can enhance general capabilities of decision making," Kim said. "Education can better equip people for high-quality decision-making for their lives."

"Governments must never neglect investments in human capital of their citizens," he said, noting that Malawi is ranked one of the lowest in the world in human capital - the economic value of citizens. "In addition, this evidence provides an additional rationale for investment in education in resource constrained settings such as Malawi and other developing nations."

Scientists have determined a gene signature that is linked to the severity of spinal cord injury in animals and humans, according to a study in the open-access journal eLife.

The discovery of key genes that are switched on or off in response to spinal cord injury could inform the development of biomarkers that predict recovery and possibly pinpoint new targets for treatment.

At the moment, there are no widely available treatments capable of immediately restoring motor and sensory function after injury. A major barrier is the lack of understanding of the complex cascade of biological processes that occur when a spinal cord injury happens.

"Our understanding of the pathophysiological processes triggered by spinal cord injury is fragmentary," explains senior author Michael Skinnider, a medical and PhD student at the University of British Columbia, Canada. "We set out to integrate the data from decades of small-scale studies using a systems biology approach."

The team first reviewed past experiments to find genes associated with the response to spinal cord injury, searching through more than 500 studies. They found 695 unique human genes that had been linked with the response to spinal cord injury and, of these, 151 were linked in more than one study. Further analysis showed that the genes are biologically and functionally related, coding for groups of protein molecules that physically interact with one another.

To find if these genes truly reflect functional changes after spinal cord injury, the team constructed a network of genes from healthy human spinal cords and integrated this data with those determined from the experimental studies. They found that two groups of genes (M3 and M7) included a high number of the genes that had been previously pinpointed in experiments as important in the response to spinal cord injury.

They next looked at five experimental studies of gene expression in mice and rats after spinal cord injury to see whether these gene groups (and others) were significantly altered. They found that four gene groups, including M3 and M7, were switched on, and a further two gene groups were switched off. Some gene groups were not as connected in mice and rats as in humans, suggesting that they might be human-specific markers of spinal cord injury. Other gene groups were only important at a certain time-point after injury, suggesting that they are involved in the transition from acute to chronic injury.

Of all the gene groups studied, M3 genes were most strongly linked to injury severity in both mice and rats, which suggests that these genes could make an ideal biomarker for predicting injury severity. Indeed, one of the genes in this group, annexin A1, previously associated with spinal cord injury, was able to perfectly differentiate between moderately and severely injured rats when used as a biomarker.

"We have developed an integrated, systems-level approach to understand the mechanisms of spinal cord injury," concludes lead author Jordan Squair, MD/PhD student at the University of British Columbia, Canada. "We have identified gene signatures that predict injury severity and, if reversed therapeutically, could potentially increase functional recovery."

Google Translation:

October notice

Welcome to the 7th holiday, the management team is arranged as follows:
1. During the 10/4-7 period, the entire station does not count traffic for free.
2. During the 10/4-7 period, all station invitations are granted for a limited time. The invitation link is valid for 1 hour and expires. Please carefully read the relevant terms when you invite:

- Do not send invitations in public, such as posting, Weibo, open forums, etc.
- Any form of multiple number, exchange invitation, and invitation transaction is strictly prohibited. Once found, the account number is forbidden and ban tree according to the situation.
- Please surrender your account in any way (including but not limited to Taobao).
- Do not invite those who have previously owned the account but have been banned for violations (including but not limited to bloodsucking, trading, cheating, etc.).
- Do not use the bonus value feature to help the invitee pass the new person assessment.

Note: If you are inviting, please fill in the email and click the invitation, indicating that the email has been registered. Please do not change the email invitation. Maybe this person may be blacklisted due to cheating, selling, etc., such as forcibly changing the email invitation. The consequences of this will be borne by you, including your own account will be banned and no reason for appeal.

Another: HDChina recording group temporarily enters the repair period, the update progress will be slower than usual.

====HDChina Staff====

HDChina invitation system will be opened on October 4, 2018, site-wide freeleech will be issued at the same time. Invitation system will remain open until October 7, 2018. (All invitation link will only valid for an hour).

You are not allowed to exchange invitation with another user, register multiple accounts for same person. 

Trading is strictly prohibited.

Please only send the invitations to people you familiar with, DO NOT invite people who violated rules(such as cheating and trading etc.) in HDChina, otherwise, you and your invitees' account will result in ban with no mercy.

Tips: when you see the system saying "The email have already been used." when you trying to send out an invitation to your "friend," you should stop sending the invitation to this person immediately because your "friend" is very likely violated rules in the past time.

====HDChina Staff====

hi, @Iroziro

PM your mail. and enjoy 

 

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Global Invite's will Close on 7th October 2018 @ 19:00:01

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Til 13 Oct 2018.

"Here’s a question for you,” I say to our dinner guests, dodging a knowing glance from my wife. “Imagine a future in which you could surgically replace your legs with robotic substitutes that had all the functionality and sensation of their biological counterparts. Let’s say these new legs would allow you to run all day at 20 miles per hour without getting tired. Would you have the surgery?"

Like most people I pose this question to, our guests respond with some variation on the theme of “no way”; the idea of undergoing a surgical procedure with the sole purpose of augmenting performance beyond traditional human limits borders on the unthinkable.

“Would your answer change if you had arthritis in your knees?” This is where things get interesting. People think differently about intervention when injury or illness is involved. The idea of a major surgery becomes more tractable to us in the setting of rehabilitation.

Consider the simplistic example of human walking speed. The average human walks at a baseline three miles per hour. If someone is only able to walk at one mile per hour, we do everything we can to increase their walking ability. However, to take a person who is already able to walk at three miles per hour and surgically alter their body so that they can walk twice as fast seems, to us, unreasonable.

What fascinates me about this is that the three-mile-per-hour baseline is set by arbitrary limitations of the healthy human body. If we ignore this reference point altogether, and consider that each case simply offers an improvement in walking ability, the line between augmentation and rehabilitation all but disappears. Why, then, are we so married to this arbitrary distinction between rehabilitating and augmenting? What makes us hold so tightly to baseline human function?

Where We Stand Now

As the functionality of advanced prosthetic devices continues to increase at an astounding rate, questions like these are becoming more relevant. Experimental prostheses, intended for the rehabilitation of people with amputation, are now able to replicate the motions of biological limbs with high fidelity. Neural interfacing technologies enable a person with amputation to control these devices with their brain and nervous system. Before long, synthetic body parts will outperform biological ones.

Against this backdrop, my colleagues and I developed a methodology to improve the connection between the biological body and a synthetic limb. Our approach, known as the agonist-antagonist myoneural interface (“AMI” for short), enables us to reflect joint movement sensations from a prosthetic limb onto the human nervous system. In other words, the AMI allows people to not only control a prosthesis with their brain, but also to feel its movements as if it were their own limb. The AMI involves a reimagining of the amputation surgery, so that the resultant residual limb is better suited to interact with a neurally-controlled prosthesis. In addition to increasing functionality, the AMI was designed with the primary goal of enabling adoption of a prosthetic limb as part of a patient’s physical identity (known as “embodiment”).

Early results have been remarkable. Patients with below-knee AMI amputation are better able to control an experimental prosthetic leg, compared to people who had their legs amputated in the traditional way. In addition, the AMI patients show increased evidence of embodiment. They identify with the device, and describe feeling as though it is part of them, part of self.

Where We’re Going

True embodiment of robotic devices has the potential to fundamentally alter humankind’s relationship with the built world. Throughout history, humans have excelled as tool builders. We innovate in ways that allow us to design and augment the world around us. However, tools for augmentation are typically external to our body identity; there is a clean line drawn between smart phone and self. As we advance our ability to integrate synthetic systems with physical identity, humanity will have the capacity to sculpt that very identity, rather than just the world in which it exists.

For this potential to be realized, we will need to let go of our reservations about surgery for augmentation. In reality, this shift has already begun. Consider the approximately 17.5 million surgical and minimally invasive cosmetic procedures performed in the United States in 2017 alone. Many of these represent patients with no demonstrated medical need, who have opted to undergo a surgical procedure for the sole purpose of synthetically enhancing their body. The ethical basis for such a procedure is built on the individual perception that the benefits of that procedure outweigh its costs.

At present, it seems absurd that amputation would ever reach this point. However, as robotic technology improves and becomes more integrated with self, the balance of cost and benefit will shift, lending a new perspective on what now seems like an unfathomable decision to electively amputate a healthy limb. When this barrier is crossed, we will collide head-on with the question of whether it is acceptable for a person to “upgrade” such an essential part of their body.

At a societal level, the potential benefits of physical augmentation are far-reaching. The world of robotic limb augmentation will be a world of experienced surgeons whose hands are perfectly steady, firefighters whose legs allow them to kick through walls, and athletes who never again have to worry about injury. It will be a world in which a teenage boy and his grandmother embark together on a four-hour sprint through the woods, for the sheer joy of it. It will be a world in which the human experience is fundamentally enriched, because our bodies, which play such a defining role in that experience, are truly malleable.

This is not to say that such societal benefits stand without potential costs. One justifiable concern is the misuse of augmentative technologies. We are all quite familiar with the proverbial supervillain whose nervous system has been fused to that of an all-powerful robot.

In reality, misuse is likely to be both subtler and more insidious than this. As with all new technology, careful legislation will be necessary to work against those who would hijack physical augmentations for violent or oppressive purposes. It will also be important to ensure broad access to these technologies, to protect against further socioeconomic stratification. This particular issue is helped by the tendency of the cost of a technology to scale inversely with market size. It is my hope that when robotic augmentations are as ubiquitous as cell phones, the technology will serve to equalize, rather than to stratify.

In our future bodies, when we as a society decide that the benefits of augmentation outweigh the costs, it will no longer matter whether the base materials that make us up are biological or synthetic. When our AMI patients are connected to their experimental prosthesis, it is irrelevant to them that the leg is made of metal and carbon fiber; to them, it is simply their leg. After our first patient wore the experimental prosthesis for the first time, he sent me an email that provides a look at the immense possibility the future holds:

What transpired is still slowly sinking in. I keep trying to describe the sensation to people. Then this morning my daughter asked me if I felt like a cyborg. The answer was, “No, I felt like I had a foot.”

Back in February 2017, nearly seven months before Apple unveiled the Apple iPhone X, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the front facing camera on what was then called the iPhone 8, was going to be "revolutionary." Kuo was right. Of course, by now we recognize that the analyst was talking about the TrueDepth Camera, which helps drive Face ID. Apple considered this feature to be such a success, that all three 2018 models sport the TrueDepth Camera and use Face ID instead of Touch ID to unlock the device and for identity verification.

The success of Apple's use of Vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) 3D scanning technology has industry sources expecting a surge in demand for components used in manufacturing these modules. This bodes well for companies involved in the production of such components starting as soon as next year. Suppliers of these components are looking forward to 2019 and 2020 when they expect business from Android phone manufacturers to take off.

Additionally, there is talk that Apple will have a rear-facing camera with 3D scanning capabilities starting with the 2019 iPhone models. It would allow Apple to offer more AR applications than it does currently. Unlike the TrueDepth Camera, which uses structured light to project images on a face to construct a depth map, the rumor mill says that Apple will resort to using Time of Flight technology for a rear-mounted 3D scanning camera. "TOF" measures the speed at which laser signals are bounced back to the sender to create a 3D map.

ALpharatio.cc  open Global Invite's will Close on 7th October 2018 @ 19:00:01

*Quickly take the opportunity*

"That's when good neighbours become good friends"

Kylie Minogue and her fans sang the Neighbours theme tune during a concert in Leeds yesterday (October 4).

As Digital Spy reports, the singer, who is currently on her ‘Golden’ tour, broke in to the song mid-way through her set, encouraging the audience to sing along.

Minogue starred in the long-running Australian soap from 1986 to 1988. She played a mechanic called Charlene who married Scott Robinson, played by her real-life boyfriend at the time, Jason Donovan.

The couple performed their 1988 hit, ‘Especially For You’, at Radio 2’s Live In Hyde Park last month.

In other news, the 50-year-old pop star has reportedly been confirmed for the 2019 Glastonbury Legends slot.

The rumours come 14 years after she was forced to scrap a huge headline slot following a breast cancer diagnosis.

A Glastonbury insider told The Sun in September: “Kylie had to pull out of Glastonbury in 2005 just a month before she was due to appear so this performance will be a very emotional and poignant moment for her.

Featuring contributions from Lukas Nelson, Jason Isbell, Mark Ronson, and Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow

The soundtrack for A Star is Born, a new film with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in the leading roles, has been released.

A Star is Born, which is a remake of the 1937 musical romance drama, is out now in cinemas.

The 19 original songs on the soundtrack, which you can find on Spotify and Apple Music, feature stars Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga with contributions from Lukas Nelson, Jason Isbell, Mark Ronson, and Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow.

One of the songs, “Shallow”, had landed Gaga her 20th top 40 hit in the UK charts.

The record also included 15 dialogue tracks that, according to a press release, feature “those moments that will take listeners on a journey that mirrors the experience of seeing the film.”

Gaga said earlier this year that working alongside Cooper on the film had “changed” her.

“It just has changed me. Watching Bradley work was phenomenal and then having him believe in me – it gave me more ammunition to believe in myself and I just feel so blessed to have had that experience.”

She added: “I think what I learned from Bradley [is] it’s okay to be relentlessly sure of your vision and to go after it with every fibre of your being, and to never stop white gloving what you’re making.”