The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) created the Biostasis programme to develop new possibilities for extending the golden hour, not by improving logistics or battlefield care, but by going after time itself, at least how the body manages it.Biostasis will attempt to directly address the need for additional time in continuously operating biological systems faced with catastrophic, life-threatening events.However, due to the realities of combat, there are often hard limits to the availability of rapid medical transport and care.When a soldier suffers a traumatic injury or acute infection, the time from event to first medical treatment is usually the most significant factor in determining the outcome between saving a life or not.To support eventual transition to patients, DARPA will work with federal health and regulatory agencies as the program advances to develop a pathway for potential, future human medical use. The concept aims to slow life to save life.

DARPA is looking for biochemical approaches that control cellular energetics at the protein level.By the end of the five-year, fundamental research program DARPA hopes to have multiple tools for reducing the risk of permanent damage or death following acute injury or infection."If we can figure out the best ways to bolster other biological systems and make them less likely to enter a runaway downward spiral after being damaged, then we will have made a significant addition to the biology toolbox," said McClure-Begley.Creatures such as tardigrades and wood frogs exhibit a capability known as "cryptobiosis," a state where all metabolic processes appear to have stopped, yet life persists."Within a cell, these catalysts come in the form of proteins and large molecular machines that transform chemical and kinetic energy into biological processes," said McClure-Begley..This critical, initial window of time is called the "golden hour," but in many cases the opportunity to intervene may extend much less than sixty minutes, which is why the military invests heavily in moving casualties as rapidly as possible from the battlefield to suitable medical facilities.While the specific molecular mechanisms involved in these animals are very different, they China automatic woodworking edge banding machine share a common biochemical concept: they selectively stabilise their intracellular machinery."At the molecular level, life is a set of continuous biochemical reactions, and a defining characteristic of these reactions is that they need a catalyst to occur at all," said Tristan McClure-Begley, the Biostasis programme manager.

"Our goal with Biostasis is to control those molecular machines and get them to all slow their roll at about the same rate so that we can slow down the entire system gracefully and avoid adverse consequences when the intervention is reversed or wears off," he said.Biostasis is initially aimed at generating proof-of-concept, benchtop technologies and testing their application in simple living systems for experimental validation.The US defence research agency is developing treatments that can slow down biological processes in the event of life-threatening injuries, extending the critical "golden hour" within which the patients life can be saved.The programme will leverage molecular biology to develop new ways of controlling the speed at which living systems operate, and thus extend the window of time following a damaging event before a system collapses

Muhammad Abbas, an Army jawan from a remote village of Karnah tehsil in Kashmir’s frontier district of Kupwara, on Thursday morning began a sad and arduous journey of his life. Accompanying by a few relatives, he was expecting to reach the destination by late evening "if, God forbid, nothing untoward happens en route. Abbas’ mother died following a massive cardiac arrest at his official quarters at an Army base in Pathankot in neighbouring Punjab last week.

The district officials said that they had arranged for a helicopter sortie on Thursday but Abbas and others decided not to avail it as they were not sure if weather conditions will be good enough for it.. Also, road communications, rail and air services were disrupted across the Valley.Abbas said that he was promised that a helicopter would be arranged by the Kupwara administration to take him home to his village in Karnah tehsil of the district. He added that the people of Karnah have been pleading for construction of a tunnel to evade treacherous Sadhna pass for the last three decades "but what can be done—a helpless and hopeless situation to be in for Karnah residents". Neither was done.Ignoring the threat, Abbas (25), after consulting his relatives, decided to embark on the dangerous journey as the authorities allegedly failed to arrange a helicopter sortie to enable them to reach their native village with his mother’s body. Parts of Kupwara and neighbouring Bandipore and Baramulla districts and Ganderbal district in north of Srinagar witnessed a series of snow avalanches and cave-ins since January 25 following heavy snowfalls, resulting into the death of as many as 20 Army officers and jawans and eight civilians. After returning to Kashmir, he kept her body in an Army barrack in Kupwara for four nights, hoping China Woodworking Machine Suppliers he would be able to carry it home either by road after snow is cleared from it or the authorities will arrange a helicopter for them. On each morning during this period, he and his relatives tried to carry the coffin through five to six feet deep snow but had to give it up after walking some distance. The officials said that because of the persisting hostile weather conditions they could not do it and that, for the same reason, safe navigation of the helicopter was not possible.Carrying the body of his 60-year-old mother Sakeena Begum on his shoulders, Abbas began trekking through the waist-deep snow from Chowkibal to his native village close to the Line of Control (LoC) where he plans to give her a decent burial."

The entire 52-km Chowkibal-Karnah road which passes through elevations of about 3,200 metre is avalanche-prone and an official warning against venturing out in the area stands valid for next 24 hours. They added that men and machinery were already on the job to clear the road beyond Chowkibal to ensure a "smooth journey" for them. "To keep Gulmarg open for a few thousand tourists, the authorities take three to five hours to clear the 14 km up-stretch from Tangmarg but somehow where thousands of border residents live, the people at helm just don’t seem to care," wrote Mufti Islah, a Kashmiri journalist on his Facebook timeline.But critics asked that when the authorities could make roads linking the Valley’s resorts like Gulmarg and Pahalgam with summer capital Srinagar passable within hours of these getting blocked in the aftermath of snowfall why are people living in remote areas left to suffer at the mercy of bad weather."Only about 25 km of the road from Chowkibal to Sadhna top and downhill had to be cleared of snow," he said. "But they kept us waiting and we are now left with no option but to walk," he told reporters before leaving for home

With the web of US sanctions tightening, Iran faces a host of challenges as it looks to an isolated port in the countrys far southeast to maintain the flow of goods. our rail network, road network and airport are all being developed, so that we can implement the North-South Corridor," Roads and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami told AFP while visiting Chabahar for a development conference."Ive been researching Chabahar for the past year and a half, and the infrastructure is now in place to do serious work here," she said.But Mr Gupta is counting on the ports proximity to India and Afghanistan to attract business. Ever since the (1979 Islamic) revolution, we have been under sanctions and we are working on how to counter them," Eslami said, as he oversaw the unloading of a first shipment of Afghan goods lined up to be re-exported from Chabahar.It is also the only Iranian port with exemptions from unilateral economic sanctions reimposed by the United States in 2018.

"We will keep on developing this port.Afghan trade as well as plans for a trading route by rail between central Asia and the Indian Ocean called the North-South Corridor are the main reasons the Islamic republic has invested one billion dollars in Chabahars Shahid Beheshti port, official sources say.5 million tonnes.Arun Kumar Gupta, managing director of India Ports Global Limited which has a 10-year concession at the new port, played down the startup issues..Hossein Shahdadi of the provincial ports and maritime authority said that in the first 11 months of the past Iranian year, which started on March 21, 2018, "there has been a 56 percent increase in cargo handled at the port compared with the previous year".But more than a year since the new installations became operational in December 2017, business has yet to pick up."Weve also had a 25 percent rise in the number of ships calling at the port" on the Gulf of Oman, he said."Any port will have a gestation period, there will be lulls but we are very sure that traffic will pick up," Mr Gupta told AFP.The port in Chabahar, only about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the Pakistan border and located on the Indian Ocean, is Irans largest outside the Gulf.The Indian company began work in December and has so far handled only an average of 60,000 tonnes of cargo per month.Only 20 ships have docked at the new section of the port and most of its three kilometres of waterfront remains unutilised, with new machinery and neatly lined-up cranes standing idle.1 million tonnes of cargo, a far cry from the ports annual capacity of 8.More than 200 hectares (almost 500 acres) of land have been reclaimed from the sea for the project and over 17

We were born with sanctions.The ships that officials say have docked in the past year have only loaded and unloaded 2.5 million cubic metres (618 million cubic feet) dredged, creating a 16.As for the sanctions, Irans roads minister said the challenge was nothing new.Apart from security concerns, US sanctions banning financial transactions with Iran make it ever harder to pay or receive payments.Some like Afsaneh Rabiani, who runs a freight forwarding company, see Chabahar as an opportunity for "those willing to take the risk"..That is due mainly to the pivotal role of the port, and a planned railway line, in breaking landlocked Afghanistans China Edge banding Machine dependence on Pakistan for trade with the world, especially India