The Rode Wireless Micro might even be small enough to fit in your pocket. #Rode #Microphones #Vlogging

The molecular biologist describes how genetically engineered corn and wheat could become powerful tools for de-carbonizing the planet.

Microplastics are invisible but omnipresent.

Location: Engineering Library- R857.M3S853 2016

Location: Electronic Resource- 

In the second episode of his series learning Logic Pro X for Mac, Ming introduces two main sections. In the first part, Ming explains why the Interface and Microphone are important in professional recording and music editing, and how the Interface works. Ming uses logic to demonstrate how to slice and dice regions, efficiently move regions to neighboring regions, and export and merge projects into different audio formats. These shortcuts include:

Command + B: Bounce your project

Option + [ ] "Align the current region to the left or right of other regions.

Pause or play: Space bar.

See also: Learning Logic Pro X: Episode 1 - Creating a New Project

Note: Logic Pro X is a professional grade digital audio workstation (DAW) and MIDI sequencer. It is suggested to have some familiarity with Digital Audio Workstations to get the most from this series.

Podcasting 2.0 introduced a new way for your audience to support your podcast by sending micropayments. This is usually measured by satoshis (abbreviated as "sats"), which are one hundred millionths of a Bitcoin. As such a small portion of cryptocurrency, many people might wonder whether the effort is even worth the return.

The post Are Podcasting 2.0 Micropayments Actually Worth It? first appeared on The Audacity to Podcast.

The first frost of the season probably isn’t too far away. Properly preparing the agricultural soil for next spring and summer is a matter of timing. Getting the cover crops in place is essential before a hard freeze occurs. The Washtenaw County Conservation District is working to make it convenient and effective for local farmers. Conservation technician Matt Dejonge explained it all in his conversation with WEMU's David Fair.

En 6AM de Caracol Radio estuvo el gobernador de Cundinamarca, Jorge Emilio Rey, para hablar sobre el lamentable caso de Alexis Delgado, el niño de 2 años que fue encontrado con signos de tortura en Cundinamarca.

The pandemic has driven consumers online for everything from groceries to outdoor heaters. But e-commerce experts caution that online sellers are netting not just revenue, but a treasure trove of personal data, too.

I know that we'd all like some come-together-in-unity rhetoric, but on Morning Joseph (Biden's favorite show!) they're reading Maureen Dowd columns about the evil transes and, you know, we're back to the bad days of the early aughts.

“The spraying of orchards and vineyards certainly isn’t an eco-friendly process, with tractors spewing exhaust as they douse crops in herbicides and pesticides. That’s one of the main reasons the electric, autonomous Prospr robot was created,” reports New Atlas: Manufactured by New Zealand agritech company Robotics Plus, the all-wheel-drive robotic vehicle was unveiled last September […]

The post Crop-spraying robot saves farmers time, cuts emissions of greenhouse gases appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus are dangerous fungal pathogens with high morbidity and mortality, particularly in immunocompromised patients. Innate immune-mediated programmed cell death (pyroptosis, apoptosis, necroptosis) is an integral part of host defense against pathogens. Inflammasomes, which are canonically formed upstream of pyroptosis, have been characterized as key mediators of fungal sensing and drivers of proinflammatory responses. However, the specific cell death pathways and key upstream sensors activated in the context of Candida and Aspergillus infections are unknown. Here, we report that C. albicans and A. fumigatus infection induced inflammatory programmed cell death in the form of pyroptosis, apoptosis, and necroptosis (PANoptosis). Further, we identified the innate immune sensor Z-DNA binding protein 1 (ZBP1) as the apical sensor of fungal infection responsible for activating the inflammasome/pyroptosis, apoptosis, and necroptosis. The Zα2 domain of ZBP1 was required to promote this inflammasome activation and PANoptosis. Overall, our results demonstrate that C. albicans and A. fumigatus induce PANoptosis and that ZBP1 plays a vital role in inflammasome activation and PANoptosis in response to fungal pathogens.

Saverio Cinti
Nov 1, 2005; 46:2347-2355
Research Articles

The development of a chronic, low-grade inflammation originating from adipose tissue in obese subjects is widely recognized to induce insulin resistance, leading to the development of type 2 diabetes. The adipose tissue microenvironment drives specific metabolic reprogramming of adipose tissue macrophages, contributing to the induction of tissue inflammation. Uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2), a mitochondrial anion carrier, is thought to separately modulate inflammatory and metabolic processes in macrophages and is up-regulated in macrophages in the context of obesity and diabetes. Here, we investigate the role of UCP2 in macrophage activation in the context of obesity-induced adipose tissue inflammation and insulin resistance. Using a myeloid-specific knockout of UCP2 (Ucp2ΔLysM), we found that UCP2 deficiency significantly increases glycolysis and oxidative respiration, both unstimulated and after inflammatory conditions. Strikingly, fatty acid loading abolished the metabolic differences between Ucp2ΔLysM macrophages and their floxed controls. Furthermore, Ucp2ΔLysM macrophages show attenuated pro-inflammatory responses toward Toll-like receptor-2 and -4 stimulation. To test the relevance of macrophage-specific Ucp2 deletion in vivo, Ucp2ΔLysM and Ucp2fl/fl mice were rendered obese and insulin resistant through high-fat feeding. Although no differences in adipose tissue inflammation or insulin resistance was found between the two genotypes, adipose tissue macrophages isolated from diet-induced obese Ucp2ΔLysM mice showed decreased TNFα secretion after ex vivo lipopolysaccharide stimulation compared with their Ucp2fl/fl littermates. Together, these results demonstrate that although UCP2 regulates both metabolism and the inflammatory response of macrophages, its activity is not crucial in shaping macrophage activation in the adipose tissue during obesity-induced insulin resistance.

Jenny E. Kanter
Dec 8, 2020; 0:jlr.ILR120001217v1-jlr.ILR120001217
Images in Lipid Research

CHANDLER, Ariz., Oct. 23, 2024 — The global edge computing market is expected to grow by more than 30 percent in the next five years, serving mission-critical applications in the […]

The post Microchip Expands 64-Bit Portfolio with High-Performance PIC64HX Microprocessors for Edge Computing appeared first on HPCwire.

Many schools that have recently opened their doors are already seeing COVID-19 cases among students and staff. Should that shake the confidence of other school leaders who are planning to reopen?

A new study identified the tiny pollutants in the olfactory bulbs of eight cadavers, suggesting microplastics can travel through the nose to the brain

Each of the 11 dolphins sampled exhaled at least one suspected particle of microplastic, which researchers say “highlights how extensive environmental microplastic pollution is”

Microplastics have been steadily increasing in freshwater environments for decades and are directly tied to rising global plastic production since the 1950s, according to a new study by an interdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers.

Scientists have spotted microplastics, tiny pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters, in some of the most pristine environments on Earth, from the depths of the Mariana Trench to the snow on Mt. Everest to the mountaintop clouds of China and Japan. Microplastics have been detected in human brains, the bellies of sea turtles and the roots of plants. Now, new research led by Penn State scientists reveals that microplastics in the atmosphere could be affecting weather and climate.

The Delaware Department of Agriculture is now accepting proposals for anticipated funding through the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. DDA anticipates more than $344,000 to be allocated to increase the competitiveness of Delaware-grown specialty crops. Applications will be accepted through April 20, 2021.

The Delaware Department of Agriculture (DDA) received an additional round of funding to enhance the competitiveness of Delaware-grown specialty crops through USDA’s Pandemic Assistance Program. USDA awarded each state department of agriculture an allocation based upon their most recent available value of specialty crop cash receipts and acreage of specialty crop production in the state. As a result, Delaware received an additional $465,433 under H.R. 133 – the Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 133 Stimulus Funding) to distribute through a competitive grant process.

The Delaware Department of Agriculture (DDA) today issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the 2022 Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. The federal Farm Bill is allotting approximately $320,000 through a competitive grant process to fund innovative projects supporting specialty crops and creating new and better markets for the Delaware specialty crop industry. DDA will accept applications through March 25, 2022.

The Delaware Department of Agriculture (DDA) is accepting proposals for the 2023 Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. The federal Farm Bill is allotting approximately $340,000 through a competitive grant process to fund innovative projects supporting specialty crops and creating new and better markets for the Delaware specialty crop industry. DDA will accept applications through March 24, 2023.

The annual sign-up period for the Kent Conservation District’s popular Cover Crop Cost-Share Program – funded in part by DNREC – has opened and runs through Aug. 30. The program helps Kent County farmers offset seed, labor, and equipment costs when planting fall cover crops that help protect local water quality, build healthy soils, and capture carbon from the atmosphere.

Vesper, the maker of piezoelectric sensors used in microphone production and winner of CES Innovation Award 2018 raised a $23M Series B round. American Family Ventures led the investment with participation from Accomplice, Amazon Alexa Fund, Baidu, Bose Ventures, Hyperplane, Sands Capital, Shure, Synaptics, ZZ Capital and some undisclosed investors.

Vesper’s innovative sensors can be used in consumer electronics like TV remote controls, smart speakers, smartphones, intelligent sensor nodes, and hearables. The company will use the funding proceeds to scale-up its functions like mass production of its microphones and support expanded research and development, hiring, and establishing international sales offices.

The main product of Vesper is VM1000, a low noise, high range,single-ended analog output piezoelectric MEMS microphone. It consists of a piezoelectric sensor and circuitry to buffer and amplify the output.

The hot-selling product of Vesper is VM1010 with ZeroPower Listening which is the first MEMS microphone that enables voice activation to battery-powered consumer devices.

The unique selling point of Vesper’s products is they are built to operate in rugged environments that have dust and moisture.

"Vesper's ZeroPower Listening capabilities coupled with its ability to withstand water, dust, oil, and particulate contaminants enables users that have never before been possible," said Katelyn Johnson, principal of American Family Ventures. "We are excited about Vesper's quest to transform our connected world, including IoT devices."

Other recent funding news include $24 raised by sensor-based baby sock maker Owlet, IFTTT banks $24M from Salesforce to scale its IoT Enterprise offering, and Intel sells its Wind River Software to TPG.

Dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico have tiny bits of plastic in their breath, and this is probably a worldwide problem

Title: Is Climate Change Draining Nutrients From Crops?
Category: Health News
Created: 8/27/2018 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/28/2018 12:00:00 AM

Influenza A virus (IAV) is one of the leading causes of respiratory infections. The lack of efficient anti-influenza therapeutics requires a better understanding of how IAV interacts with host cells. Alveolar macrophages are tissue-specific macrophages that play a critical role in lung innate immunity and homeostasis, yet their role during influenza infection remains unclear. First, our review highlights an active IAV replication within alveolar macrophages, despite an abortive viral cycle. Such infection leads to persistent alveolar macrophage inflammation and diminished phagocytic function, alongside direct mitochondrial damage and indirect metabolic shifts in the alveolar micro-environment. We also discuss the "macrophage disappearance reaction", which is a drastic reduction of the alveolar macrophage population observed after influenza infection in mice but debated in humans, with unclear underlying mechanisms. Furthermore, we explore the dual nature of alveolar macrophage responses to IAV infection, questioning whether they are deleterious or protective for the host. While IAV may exploit immuno-evasion strategies and induce alveolar macrophage alteration or depletion, this could potentially reduce excessive inflammation and allow for the replacement of more effective cells. Despite these insights, the pathophysiological role of alveolar macrophages during IAV infection in humans remains understudied, urging further exploration to unravel their precise contributions to disease progression and resolution.

Although acute inflammation serves essential functions in maintaining tissue homeostasis, chronic inflammation is causally linked to many diseases. Macrophages are a major cell type that orchestrates inflammatory processes. During inflammation, macrophages undergo polarization and activation, thereby mobilizing pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory transcriptional programs that regulate ensuing macrophage functions. Fatty acid binding protein 5 (FABP5) is a lipid chaperone highly expressed in macrophages. FABP5 deletion is implicated in driving macrophages toward an anti-inflammatory phenotype, yet signaling pathways regulated by macrophage-FABP5 have not been systematically profiled. We leveraged proteomic and phosphoproteomic approaches to characterize pathways modulated by FABP5 in M1 and M2 polarized bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs). Stable isotope labeling by amino acids-based analysis of M1 and M2 polarized wild-type and FABP5 knockout BMDMs revealed numerous differentially regulated proteins and phosphoproteins. FABP5 deletion impacted downstream pathways associated with inflammation, cytokine production, oxidative stress, and kinase activity. Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) emerged as a novel target of FABP5 and pharmacological FABP5 inhibition blunted TLR2-mediated activation of downstream pathways, ascribing a novel role for FABP5 in TLR2 signaling. This study represents a comprehensive characterization of the impact of FABP5 deletion on the proteomic and phosphoproteomic landscape of M1 and M2 polarized BMDMs. Loss of FABP5 altered pathways implicated in inflammatory responses, macrophage function, and TLR2 signaling. This work provides a foundation for future studies seeking to investigate the therapeutic potential of FABP5 inhibition in pathophysiological states resulting from dysregulated inflammatory signaling.

A flurry of studies has found microplastics in nearly every organ in the human body, from the brain to the testicles. But very few have revealed whether these tiny bits of plastic impact our health

It turns out microplastics have an effect on the weather and climate.

A thimbleful of soil can contain a universe of microorganisms, up to 10 billion by some estimates. Now a group of researchers in Bath, United Kingdom, are building prototype technologies that harvest electrons exhaled by some micro-species.

The idea is to power up low-yield sensors and switches, and perhaps help farmers digitally optimize crop yields to meet increasing demand and more and more stressful growing conditions. There could be other tasks, too, that might make use of a plant-and-forget, low-yield power source—such as monitoring canals for illegal waste dumping.

The research started small, based out of the University of Bath, with field-testing in a Brazilian primary school classroom and a green pond near it—just before the onset of the pandemic.

“We had no idea what the surroundings would be. We just packed the equipment we needed and went,” says Jakub Dziegielowski, a University of Bath, U.K. chemical engineering Ph.D. student. “And the pond was right by the school—it was definitely polluted, very green, with living creatures in it, and definitely not something I’d feel comfortable drinking from. So it got the job done.”

The experiments they did along with kids from the school and Brazilian researchers that summer of 2019 were aimed at running water purifiers. It did so. However, it also wasn’t very efficient, compared to, say, a solar panel.

So work has moved on in the Bath labs: in the next weeks, Dziegielowski will both turn 29 and graduate with his doctorate. And he, along with two other University of Bath advisors and colleagues recently launched a spinoff company—it’s called Bactery—to perfect a prototype for a network of soil microbial fuel cells for use in agriculture.

A microbial fuel cell is a kind of power plant that converts chemical energy stored in organic molecules into electrical energy, using microbes as a catalyst. It’s more often used to refer to liquid-based systems, Dziegielowski says. Organics from wastewater serve as the energy source, and the liquid stream mixes past the electrodes.

A soil microbial fuel cell, however, has one of its electrodes—the anode, which absorbs electrons—in the dirt. The other electrode, the cathode, is exposed to air. Batteries work because ions move through an electrolyte between electrodes to complete a circuit. In this case, the soil itself acts as the electrolyte—as well as source of the catalytic microbes, and as the source of the fuel.

The Bath, U.K.-based startup Bactery has developed a set up fuel cells powered by microbes in the soil—with, in the prototype pictured here, graphite mats as electrodes. University of Bath

Fields full of Watts

In a primary school in the fishing village of Icapuí on Brazil’s semi-arid northeastern coast, the group made use of basic components: graphite felt mats acting as electrodes, and nylon pegs to maintain spacing and alignment between them. (Bactery is now developing new kinds of casing.)

By setting up the cells in a parallel matrix, the Icapuí setup could generate 38 milliwatts per square meter. In work since, the Bath group’s been able to reach 200 milliwatts per square meter.

Electroactive bacteria—also called exoelectrogens or electricigens—take in soluble iron or acids or sugar and exhale electrons. There are dozens of species of microbes that can do this, including bacteria belonging to genera such as Geobacter and Shewanella. There are many others.

But 200 milliwatts per square meter is not a lot of juice: enough to charge a mobile phone, maybe, or keep an LED nightlight going—or, perhaps, serve as a power source for sensors or irrigation switches. “As in so many things, it comes down to the economics,” says Bruce Logan, an environmental engineer at Penn State who wrote a 2007 book, Microbial Fuel Cells.

A decade ago Palo Alto engineers launched the MudWatt, a self-contained kit that could light a small LED. It’s mostly marketed as a school science project. But even now, some 760 million people do not have reliable access to electricity. “In remote areas, soil microbial fuel cells with higher conversion and power management efficiencies would fare better than batteries,” says Sheela Berchmans, a retired chief scientist of the Central Electrochemical Research Institute in Tamil Nadu, India.

Korneel Rabaey, professor in the department of biotechnology at the University of Ghent, in Belgium, says electrochemical micro-power sources—a category that now includes the Bactery battery—is gaining buzz in resource recovery, for uses such as extracting pollutants from wastewater, with electricity as a byproduct. “You can think of many applications that don’t require a lot of power,” he says, “But where sensors are important.”

Imagine you’re a baby cocoa plant, just unfurling your first tentative roots into the fertile, welcoming soil.

Somewhere nearby, a predator stirs. It has no ears to hear you, no eyes to see you. But it knows where you are, thanks in part to the weak electric field emitted by your roots.

It is microscopic, but it’s not alone. By the thousands, the creatures converge, slithering through the waterlogged soil, propelled by their flagella. If they reach you, they will use fungal-like hyphae to penetrate and devour you from the inside. They’re getting closer. You’re a plant. You have no legs. There’s no escape.

But just before they fall upon you, they hesitate. They seem confused. Then, en masse, they swarm off in a different direction, lured by a more attractive electric field. You are safe. And they will soon be dead.

If Eleonora Moratto and Giovanni Sena get their way, this is the future of crop pathogen control.

Many variables are involved in the global food crisis, but among the worst are the pests that devastate food crops, ruining up to 40 percent of their yield before they can be harvested. One of these—the little protist in the example above, an oomycete formally known as Phytophthora palmivora—has a US $1 billion appetite for economic staples like cocoa, palm, and rubber.

There is currently no chemical defense that can vanquish these creatures without poisoning the rest of the (often beneficial) organisms living in the soil. So Moratto, Sena, and their colleagues at Sena’s group at Imperial College London settled on a non-traditional approach: They exploited P. palmivora’s electric sense, which can be spoofed.

All plant roots that have been measured to date generate external ion flux, which translates into a very weak electric field. Decades of evidence suggests that this signal is an important target for predators’ navigation systems. However, it remains a matter of some debate how much their predators rely on plants’ electrical signatures to locate them, as opposed to chemical or mechanical information. Last year, Moratto and Sena’s group found that P. palmivora spores are attracted to the positive electrode of a cell generating current densities of 1 ampere per square meter. “The spores followed the electric field,” says Sena, suggesting that a similar mechanism helps them find natural bioelectric fields emitted by roots in the soil.

That got the researchers wondering: Might such an artificial electric field override the protists’ other sensory inputs, and scramble their compasses as they tried to use plant roots’ much weaker electrical output?

To test the idea, the researchers developed two ways to protect plant roots using a constant vertical electric field. They cultivated two common snacks for P. palmivora—a flowering plant related to cabbage and mustard, and a legume often used as a livestock feed plant—in tubes in a hydroponic solution.

Two electric-field configurations were tested: A “global” vertical field [left] and a field generated by two small nearby electrodes. The global field proved to be slightly more effective.Eleonora Moratto

In the first assay, the researchers sandwiched the plant roots between rows of electrodes above and below, which completely engulfed them in a “global” vertical field. For the second set, the field was generated using two small electrodes a short distance away from the plant, creating current densities on the order of 10 A/m². Then they unleashed the protists.

With respect to the control group, both methods successfully diverted a significant portion of the predators away from the plant roots. They swarmed the positive electrode, where—since zoospores can’t survive for longer than about 2 to 3 hours without a host—they presumably starved to death. Or worse. Neil Gow, whose research presented some of the first evidence for zoospore electrosensing, has other theories about their fate. “Applied electrical fields generate toxic products and steep pH gradients near and around the electrodes due to the electrolysis of water,” he says. “The tropism towards the electrode might be followed by killing or immobilization due to the induced pH gradients.”

Not only did the technique prevent infestation, but some evidence indicates that it may also mitigate existing infections. The researchers published their results in August in Scientific Reports.

The global electric field was marginally more successful than the local. However, it would be harder to translate from lab conditions into a (literal) field trial in soil. The local electric field setup would be easy to replicate: “All you have to do is stick the little plug into the soil next to the crop you want to protect,” says Sena.

Moratto and Sena say this is a proof of concept that demonstrates a basis for a new, pesticide-free way to protect food crops. (Sena likens the technique to the decoys used by fighter jets to draw away incoming missiles by mimicking the signals of the original target.) They are now looking for funding to expand the project. The first step is testing the local setup in soil; the next is to test the approach on Phytophthora infestans, a meaner, scarier cousin of P. palmivora.

P. infestans attacks a more varied diet of crops—you may be familiar with its work during the Irish potato famine. The close genetic similarities imply another promising candidate for electrical pest control. This investigation, however, may require more funding. P. infestans research can be undertaken only under more stringent laboratory security protocols.

The work at Imperial ties into the broader—and somewhat charged—debate around electrostatic ecology; that is, the extent to which creatures including ticks make use of heretofore poorly understood electrical mechanisms to orient themselves and in other ways enhance their survival. “Most people still aren’t aware that naturally occurring electricity can play an ecological role,” says Sam England, a behavioral ecologist with Berlin’s Natural History Museum. “So I suspect that once these electrical phenomena become more well known and understood, they will inspire a greater number of practical applications like this one.”

Reducing medlinkplastic pollution/medlink by 5% annually could potentially stabilize the presence of microplastics-pieces smaller than 5 mm-in ocean surface waters (!--ref1--).

Discover how IWMI researchers are using climate-smart agriculture to combat low crop yields in the Global South.

The post Severe summer weather ruins crops in Asia and Africa causing vegetable prices to skyrocket first appeared on International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

Micro-and nano plastics are everywhere in the air, water, food and even inside the human body. However, the risks they pose to the environment or to human health are unclear.