Savannah, GA United States - High School Diploma or GED required. General knowledge of applicable regulatory requirements and customer specifications. Must know how to use a multimeter. Entry level position. Six (6) months accredited schooling in aviation electronics or general electrical experien... View

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The crystal structure uniformity is numerically estimated as the standard deviation of the crystal space quantizer 〈G3〉. This criterion has been applied to explore the uniformity of ionic sublattices in 21465 crystal structures of inorganic ionic compounds. In most cases, at least one kind of sublattice (whole ionic lattice, cationic or anionic sublattice) was found to be highly uniform with a small 〈G3〉 value. Non-uniform structures appeared to be either erroneous or essentially non-ionic. As a result, a set of uniformity criteria is proposed for the estimation of the stability of ionic crystal structures.

A systematic procedure is introduced for modeling charge-neutral non-polar surfaces of ionic minerals containing polyatomic anions. By integrating distance- and charge-based clustering to identify chemical species within the mineral bulk, our pipeline, PolyCleaver, renders a variety of theoretically viable surface terminations. As a demonstrative example, this approach was applied to forsterite (Mg2SiO4), unveiling a rich interface landscape based on interactions with formaldehyde, a relevant multifaceted molecule, and more particularly in prebiotic chemistry. This high-throughput method, going beyond techniques traditionally applied in the modeling of minerals, offers new insights into the potential catalytic properties of diverse surfaces, enabling a broader exploration of synthetic pathways in complex mineral systems.

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Charity foundation «Dopomogator» and Allbionics team have announced the launch of a bionic prosthetics project for Ukrainians

Location: Engineering Library- TK7874.84.R47 2016

WESTERN PLAINS AVIATION LLC is hiring in Greeley COAvionics Tech positions available. Visit us to learn more about WESTERN PLAINS AVIATION LLC and see our job postings on www.avjobs.com Please reference Avjobs when applying. How do you feel about this type of job?

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Savannah, GA United States - High School Diploma or GED required. General knowledge of applicable regulatory requirements and customer specifications. Must know how to use a multimeter. Entry level position. Six (6) months accredited schooling in aviation electronics or general electrical exper... View

Savannah, GA United States - High School Diploma or GED required. Two (2) years of accredited schooling in aviation electronics or two (2) years related work experience required or, an avionics certificate from an accredited school and (1) year of related work experience. Knowledge of applicable r... View

The main protease (3CL Mpro) from SARS–CoV-2, the etiological agent of COVID-19, is an essential enzyme for viral replication. 3CL Mpro possesses an unusual catalytic dyad composed of Cys145 and His41 residues. A critical question in the field has been what the protonation states of the ionizable residues in the substrate-binding active-site cavity are; resolving this point would help understand the catalytic details of the enzyme and inform rational drug development against this pernicious virus. Here, we present the room-temperature neutron structure of 3CL Mpro, which allowed direct determination of hydrogen atom positions and, hence, protonation states in the protease. We observe that the catalytic site natively adopts a zwitterionic reactive form in which Cys145 is in the negatively charged thiolate state and His41 is doubly protonated and positively charged, instead of the neutral unreactive state usually envisaged. The neutron structure also identified the protonation states, and thus electrical charges, of all other amino acid residues and revealed intricate hydrogen-bonding networks in the active-site cavity and at the dimer interface. The fine atomic details present in this structure were made possible by the unique scattering properties of the neutron, which is an ideal probe for locating hydrogen positions and experimentally determining protonation states at near-physiological temperature. Our observations provide critical information for structure-assisted and computational drug design, allowing precise tailoring of inhibitors to the enzyme's electrostatic environment.

In-depth coverage of proteomic analysis could enhance our understanding to the mechanism of the protein functions. Unfortunately, many highly hydrophobic proteins and low-abundance proteins, which play critical roles in signaling networks, are easily lost during sample preparation, mainly attributed to the fact that very few extractants can simultaneously satisfy the requirements on strong solubilizing ability to membrane proteins and good enzyme compatibility. Thus, it is urgent to screen out ideal extractant from the huge compound libraries in a fast and effective way. Herein, by investigating the interior mechanism of extractants on the membrane proteins solubilization and trypsin compatibility, a molecular dynamics simulation system was established as complement to the experimental procedure to narrow down the scope of candidates for proteomics analysis. The simulation data shows that the van der Waals interaction between cation group of ionic liquid and membrane protein is the dominant factor in determining protein solubilization. In combination with the experimental data, 1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (C12Im-Cl) is on the shortlist for the suitable candidates from comprehensive aspects. Inspired by the advantages of C12Im-Cl, an ionic liquid-based filter-aided sample preparation (i-FASP) method was developed. Using this strategy, over 3,300 proteins were confidently identified from 10³ HeLa cells (~100 ng proteins) in a single run, an improvement of 53% over the conventional FASP method. Then the i-FASP method was further successfully applied to the label-free relative quantitation of human liver cancer and para-carcinoma tissues with obviously improved accuracy, reproducibility and coverage than the commonly used urea-based FASP method. The above results demonstrated that the i-FASP method could be performed as a versatile tool for the in-depth coverage proteomic analysis of biological samples.

In the international competition, people with physical disabilities put state-of-the-art devices to the test as they race to complete the tasks of everyday life

The future of an innovative retinal implant and dozens of its users just got brighter, after Science, a bioelectronics startup run by Neuralink’s cofounder, Max Hodak, acquired Pixium’s technology at the last minute.

Pixium Vision, whose Prima system to tackle vision loss is implanted in 47 people across Europe and the United States, was in danger of disappearing completely until Science stepped in to buy the French company’s assets in April, for an undisclosed amount.

Pixium has been developing Prima for a decade, building on work by Daniel Palanker, a professor of ophthalmology at Stanford University. The 2-by-2-millimeter square implant is surgically implanted under the retina, where it turns infrared data from camera-equipped glasses into pulses of electricity. These replace signals generated by photoreceptor rods and cones, which are damaged in people suffering from age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Early feasibility studies in the E.U. and the United States suggested Prima was safe and potentially effective, but Pixium ran out of money last November before the final results of a larger, multiyear pivotal trial in Europe.

“It’s very important to us to avoid another debacle like Argus II.”

With the financial and legal clock ticking down, the trial data finally arrived in March this year. “And the results from that were just pretty stunning,” says Max Hodak, Science’s founder and CEO, in his first interview since the acquisition.

Although neither Pixium nor Science has yet released the full dataset, Hodak shared with IEEE Spectrum videos of three people using Prima, each of them previously unable to read or recognize faces due to AMD. The videos show them slowly but fluently reading a hardback book, filling in a crossword puzzle, and playing cards.

“This is legit ‘form vision’ that I don’t think any device has ever done,” says Hodak. Form vision is the ability to recognize visual elements as parts of a larger object. “It’s this type of data that convinced us. And from there we were like, this should get to patients.”

As well as buying the Prima technology, Hodak says that Science will hire the majority of Pixium’s 35 engineering and regulatory staff, in a push to get the technology approved in Europe as quickly as possible.

The Prima implant receives visual data and is powered by near-infrared signals beamed from special spectacles.Pixium

Another priority is supporting existing Prima patients, says Lloyd Diamond, Pixium’s outgoing CEO. “It’s very important to us to avoid another debacle like Argus II,” he says, referring to another retinal implant whose manufacturer went out of business in 2022, leaving users literally in the dark.

Diamond is excited to be working with Science, which is based in Silicon Valley with a chip foundry in North Carolina. “They have a very deep workforce in software development, in electronic development, and in biologic research,” he says. “And there are probably only a few foundries in the world that could manufacture an implant such as ours. Being able to internalize part of that process is a very big advantage.”

Hodak hopes that a first-generation Prima product could quickly be upgraded with a wide-angle camera and the latest electronics. “We think that there’s one straight shrink, where we’ll move to smaller pixels and get higher visual acuity,” he says. “After that, we’ll probably move to a 3D electrode design, where we’ll be able to get closer to single-cell resolution.” That could deliver even sharper artificial vision.

In parallel, Science will continue Pixium’s discussions with the FDA in the United States about advancing a clinical trial there.

The success of Prima is critical, says Hodak, who started Science in 2021 after leaving Neuralink, a brain-computer interface company he cofounded with Elon Musk. “Elon can do whatever he wants for as long as he wants, but we need something that can finance future development,” he says. “Prima is big enough in terms of impact to patients and society that it is capable of helping us finance the rest of our ambitions.”

These include a next-generation Prima device, which Hodak says he is already talking about with Palanker, and a second visual prosthesis, currently called the Science Eye. This will tackle retinitis pigmentosa, a condition affecting peripheral vision—the same condition targeted by Second Sight’s ill-fated Argus II device.

“The Argus II just didn’t work that well,” says Hodak. “In the end, it was a pure bridge to nowhere.” Like the Argus II and Prima, the Science Eye relies on camera glasses and an implant, but with the addition of optogenetic therapy. This uses a genetically engineered virus to deliver a gene to specific optic nerve cells in the retina, making them light-sensitive at a particular wavelength. A tiny implanted display with a resolution sharper than an iPhone screen then enables fine control over the newly sensitized cells.

That system is still undergoing animal trials, but Hodak is almost ready to pull the trigger on its first human clinical studies, likely in Australia and New Zealand.

“In the long term, I think precision optogenetics will be more powerful than Prima’s electrical stimulation,” he says. “But we’re agnostic about which approach works to restore vision.”

One thing he does believe vehemently, unlike Musk, is that the retina is the best place to put an implant. Neuralink and Cortigent (the successor company of Second Sight) are both working on prosthetics that target the brain’s visual cortex.

“There’s a lot that you can do in cortex, but vision is not one of them,” says Hodak. He thinks the visual cortex is too complex, too distributed, and too difficult to access surgically to be useful.

“As long as the optic nerve is intact, the retina is the ideal place to think about restoring vision to the brain,” he says. “This is all a question of effect size. If someone has been in darkness for a decade, with no light, no perception, and you can give them any type of visual stimulus, they’re going to be into it. The Pixium patients can intuitively read, and that was really what convinced us that this was worth picking up and pursuing.”

For the first time, a small group of patients with amputations below the knee were able to control the movements of their prosthetic legs through neural signals—rather than relying on programmed cycles for all or part of a motion—and resume walking with a natural gait. The achievement required a specialized amputation surgery combined with a non-invasive surface electrode connection to a robotic prosthetic lower leg. A study describing the technologies was published today in the journal Nature Medicine.

“What happens then is quite miraculous. The patients that have this neural interface are able to walk at normal speeds; and up and down steps and slopes; and maneuver obstacles really without thinking about it. It’s natural. It’s involuntary,” said co-author Hugh Herr, who develops bionic prosthetics at the MIT Media Lab. “Even though their limb is made of titanium and silicone—all these various electromechanical components—the limb feels natural and it moves naturally, even without conscious thought.”

The approach relies on surgery at the amputation site to create what the researchers call an agonist-antagonist myoneural Interface, or AMI. The procedure involves connecting pairs of muscles (in the case of below-the-knee amputation, two pairs), as well as the introduction of proprietary synthetic elements.

The interface creates a two-way connection between body and machine. Muscle-sensing electrodes send signals to a small computer in the prosthetic limb that interprets them as angles and forces for joints at the ankle and ball of the foot. It also sends information back about the position of the artificial leg, restoring a sense of where the limb is in space, also known as proprioception.

Video 1 www.youtube.com

“The particular mode of control is far beyond what anybody else has come up with,” said Daniel Ferris, a neuromechanical engineer at the University of Florida; Ferris was not involved in the study, but has worked on neural interfaces for controlling lower limb prostheses. “It’s a really novel idea that they’ve built on over the last eight years that’s showing really positive outcomes for better bionic lower legs.” The latest publication is notable for a larger participant pool than previous studies, with seven treatment patients and seven control patients with amputations and typical prosthetic legs.

To test the bionic legs, patients were asked to walk on level ground at different speeds; up and down slopes and stairs; and to maneuver around obstacles. The AMI users had a more natural gait, more closely resembling movement by someone using a natural limb. More naturalistic motion can improve freedom of movement, particularly over challenging terrain, but in other studies researchers have also noted reduced energetic costs, reduced stress on the body, and even social benefits for some amputees.

Co-author Hyungeun Song, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT, says the group was surprised by the efficiency of the bionic setup. The prosthetic interface sent just 18 percent of the typical amount of information that’s sent from a limb to the spine, yet it was enough to allow patients to walk with what was considered a normal gait.

Next Steps for the Bionic Leg

AMI amputations have now become the standard at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts, where co-author Matthew Carty works. And because of patient benefits in terms of pain and ease of using even passive (or non-robotic) prosthetics, this technique—or something similar—could spread well beyond the current research setting. To date, roughly 60 people worldwide have received AMI surgery above or below either an elbow or knee.

In principle, Herr said, someone with a previously amputated limb, such as himself, could undergo AMI rehabilitation, and he is strongly considering the procedure. More than 2 million Americans are currently living with a lost limb, according to the Amputee Coalition, and nearly 200,000 lower legs are amputated each year in the United States.

On the robotics side, there are already commercial leg prosthetics that could be made compatible with the neural interface. The area in greatest need of development is the connection between amputation site and prosthesis. Herr says commercialization of that interface might be around five years away.

Herr says his long-term goal is neural integration and embodiment: the sense that a prosthetic is part of the body, rather than a tool. The new study “is a critical step forward—pun intended.”