navan
/
Daily-Dose
mirror of https://github.com/navanchauhan/Daily-Dose.git
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Added daily report

This commit is contained in:
Navan Chauhan 2022-10-12 13:12:55 +00:00
parent 56bae81301
commit 1515fdd382
3 changed files with 564 additions and 2 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

190
archive-covid-19/12 October, 2022.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,190 @@
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
<title>12 October, 2022</title>
<style type="text/css">
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
</style>
<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
<body>
<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The SARS-CoV-2 envelope (E) protein forms a calcium- and voltage-activated calcium channel</strong> -
<div>
The function of ion channels is essential in the infectious cycle of many viruses. To facilitate viral uptake, maturation and export, viruses must modify the ionic balance of their host cells, in particular of calcium ions (Ca2+). Viroporins encoded in the viral genome play a key part in altering the cell’s ionic homeostasis. In SARS-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) - the causative agent of Covid-19 - the envelope (E) protein is considered to form ion channels in ERGIC organellar membranes, whose function is closely linked to disease progression and lethality. Deletion, blockade, or loss-of-function mutation of coronaviral E proteins results in propagation-deficient or attenuated virus variants. The exact physiological function of the E protein, however, is not sufficiently understood. Since one of the key features of the ER is its function as a Ca2+ storage compartment, we investigated the activity of E in the context of this cation. Molecular dynamics simulations and voltage-clamp electrophysiological measurements show that E exhibits ion channel activity that is regulated by increased luminal Ca2+ concentration, membrane voltage, post-translational protein modification, and negatively charged ERGIC lipids. Particularly, calcium ions bind to a distinct region at the ER-luminal channel entrance, where they activate the channel and maintain the pore in an open state. Also, alongside monovalent ions, the E protein is highly permeable to Ca2+. Our results suggest that the physiological role of the E protein is the release of Ca2+ from the ER, and that the distinct Ca2+ activation site may serve as a promising target for channel blockers, potentially inhibiting the infectious cycle of coronaviruses.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.11.511775v1" target="_blank">The SARS-CoV-2 envelope (E) protein forms a calcium- and voltage-activated calcium channel</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Perceptions and predictors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among health care providers across five countries in sub-Saharan Africa</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The African continent has some of the world’s lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates. While the limited availability of vaccines is a contributing factor, COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among health care providers (HCP) is another factor that could adversely affect efforts to control infections on the continent. We sought to understand the extent of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among HCP, and its contributing factors in Africa. We evaluated COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among 1,499 HCP enrolled in a repeated cross-sectional telephone survey in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania and Ghana. We defined COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among HCP as self-reported responses of definitely not, maybe, unsure, or undecided on whether to get the COVID-19 vaccine, compared to definitely getting the vaccine. We used Poisson regression models to evaluate factors influencing vaccine hesitancy among HCP. Approximately 65.6% were nurses and the mean age (±SD) of participants was 35.8 (±9.7) years. At least 67% of the HCP reported being vaccinated. Reasons for low COVID-19 vaccine uptake included concern about vaccine effectiveness, side effects and fear of receiving unsafe and experimental vaccines. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy affected 45.7% of the HCP in Burkina Faso, 25.7% in Tanzania, 9.8% in Ethiopia, 9% in Ghana and 8.1% in Nigeria. Respondents reporting that COVID-19 vaccines are very effective (RR:0.21, 95% CI:0.08, 0.55), and older HCP (45 or older vs.20-29 years, RR:0.65, 95% CI: 0.44,0.95) were less likely to be vaccine-hesitant. Nurses were more likely to be vaccine-hesitant (RR 1.38, 95% CI: 1.00,1.89) compared to doctors. We found higher vaccine hesitancy among HCP in Burkina Faso and Tanzania. Information asymmetry among HCP, beliefs about vaccine effectiveness and the endorsement of vaccines by the public health institutions may be important. Efforts to address hesitancy should address information and knowledge gaps among different cadres of HCP and should be coupled with efforts to increase vaccine supply.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.11.22280952v1" target="_blank">Perceptions and predictors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among health care providers across five countries in sub-Saharan Africa</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A Third Dose COVID-19 Vaccination in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Patients</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We previously reported that a second dose of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine was safe and effective for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) patients. However, some of these patients did not achieve seroconversion. Here, we investigated the safety and efficacy of a third dose of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine in Japanese allogeneic HSCT patients. Antibody titers against the S1 spike protein were measured using the QuaResearch COVID-19 Human IgM IgG ELISA kit. The previous study included 25 allogeneic HSCT patients who received two doses of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. Following the exclusion of three patients because of the development of COVID-19 (n = 2) and loss to follow-up (n = 1), the study evaluated 22 allogeneic HSCT patients who received a third dose of COVID19 mRNA vaccine (BNT162b2 [n = 15] and mRNA1273 [n = 7]). Median age at the time of the first vaccination was 56 (range, 23-71) years. Median time from HSCT to the third vaccination and from the second to the third vaccination was 1842 (range, 378-4279) days and 219 (range, 194-258) days, respectively. Five patients were receiving immunosuppressants at the third vaccination, namely calcineurin inhibitors (CI) alone (n = 1), steroids alone (n = 2), or CI combined with steroids (n = 2). Median optical density of S1 IgG titers before and after the third dose was 0.099 (range, 0.001-0.713) and 1.315 (range, 0.006-1.730), respectively. Among 22 evaluable patients, 21 (95%) seroconverted after the third dose. Four of the five patients treated with steroids or CI seroconverted after the third vaccination. One patient with a serum IgG level of 173 mg/dL who received steroids did not achieve seroconversion. On one-week follow-up, none of our patients had &gt; grade 3 or serious adverse events, new onset graft versus host disease (GVHD), or GVHD exacerbation after vaccination. The most frequent adverse event was mild pain at the injection site. A third dose of the BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccines was safe and effective for allogeneic HSCT patients.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.08.22280863v1" target="_blank">A Third Dose COVID-19 Vaccination in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Patients</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Brain imaging and neuropsychological assessment of individuals recovered from mild to moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
As SARS-CoV-2 infections have been shown to affect the central nervous system, the investigation of associated alterations of brain structure and neuropsychological sequelae is crucial to help address future health care needs. Therefore, we performed a comprehensive neuroimaging and neuropsychological assessment of 223 non-vaccinated individuals recovered from a mild to moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection (100 female/123 male, age [years], mean +- SD, 55.54 +- 7.07; median 9.7 months after infection) in comparison with 223 matched controls (93 female/130 male, 55.74 +- 6.60) within the framework of the Hamburg City Health Study. Primary study outcomes were advanced diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of white matter microstructure, cortical thickness, white matter hyperintensity load and neuropsychological test scores. Among all 11 MRI markers tested, significant differences were found in global measures of mean diffusivity and extracellular free-water which were elevated in the white matter of post-SARS-CoV-2 individuals comparing to matched controls (free-water: 0.148 +- 0.018 vs. 0.142 +- 0.017, P&lt;.001; mean diffusivity [10-3 mm2/s]: 0.747 +- 0.021 vs. 0.740 +- 0.020, P&lt;.001). Group classification accuracy based on diffusion imaging markers was up to 80%. Neuropsychological test scores did not significantly differ between groups. Collectively, our findings suggest that subtle changes in white matter extracellular water content last beyond the acute infection with SARS-CoV-2. However, in our sample, a mild to moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection was not associated with neuropsychological deficits, significant changes in cortical structure or vascular lesions several months after recovery. External validation of our findings and longitudinal follow-up investigations are needed.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.08.22277420v3" target="_blank">Brain imaging and neuropsychological assessment of individuals recovered from mild to moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Innate immune sensing of self-derived double-stranded RNA by RIG-I-MAVS-TNF-α regulates the survival and senescence fate of SARS-2-S syncytia</strong> -
<div>
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains an important health threat. Syncytial formation by infected cells mediated by the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (SARS-2-S) is a hallmark of COVID-19-associated pathology. Although SARS-CoV-2 infection evokes cellular senescence, as in other viruses, the direct link between SARS-2-S-induced syncytia with senescence in the absence of viral infection and their senescence fate determinants remain unknown. Here, we show that syncytia formed by cells expressing exogenously delivered SARS-2-S exhibited a senescence-like phenotype in vitro and that SARS-2-S mRNA induced senescence phenotype in vivo. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) containing SARS-2-S also induced senescent syncytium formation independent of the de novo synthesis of SARS-2-S. Mechanistically, we show that the accumulation of endogenous dsRNA, partially that whose formation is induced by activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR), in SARS-2-S syncytia triggers RIG-I-MAVS signalling to drive the TNF–dependent survival and senescence fate of SARS-2-S syncytia. Our findings suggest that the fusogenic ability of SARS-2-S might contribute to the side effects of particular COVID-19 vaccines or perhaps long COVID-19 syndrome and provide insight into how these effects can be prevented.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.10.511541v1" target="_blank">Innate immune sensing of self-derived double-stranded RNA by RIG-I-MAVS-TNF-α regulates the survival and senescence fate of SARS-2-S syncytia</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Bridging machine learning and compartment models to predict an epidemic</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
This work proposes a Physics-informed Machine learning method to model and emulate the progression of COVID-19. Besides the high accuracy, lower data need, and interpretability, the method also estimates hidden parameters from data, which are useful for policymakers to flatten the curve and better understand public healthcare system.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.07.22280853v1" target="_blank">Bridging machine learning and compartment models to predict an epidemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVID19 Diagnosis Using Chest X-rays and Transfer Learning</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A pandemic of respiratory illnesses from a novel coronavirus known as Sars-CoV-2 has swept across the globe since December of 2019. This is calling upon the research community including medical imaging to provide effective tools for use in combating this virus. Research in biomedical imaging of viral patients is already very active with machine learning models being created for diagnosing Sars-CoV-2 infections in patients using CT scans and chest x-rays. We aim to build upon this research. Here we used a transfer-learning approach to develop models capable of diagnosing COVID19 from chest x-ray. For this work we compiled a dataset of 112120 negative images from the Chest X-Ray 14 and 2725 positive images from public repositories. We tested multiple models, including logistic regression and random forest and XGBoost with and without principal components analysis, using five-fold cross-validation to evaluate recall, precision, and f1-score. These models were compared to a pre-trained deep-learning model for evaluating chest x-rays called COVID-Net. Our best model was XGBoost with principal components with a recall, precision, and f1-score of 0.692, 0.960, 0.804 respectively. This model greatly outperformed COVID-Net which scored 0.987, 0.025, 0.048. This model, with its high precision and reasonable sensitivity, would be most useful as rule-in test for COVID19. Though it outperforms some chemical assays in sensitivity, this model should be studied in patients who would not ordinarily receive a chest x-ray before being used for screening.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.09.22280877v1" target="_blank">COVID19 Diagnosis Using Chest X-rays and Transfer Learning</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Infection-induced immunity is associated with protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection, but not decreased infectivity during household transmission</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Understanding the impact of infection-induced immunity on SARS-CoV-2 transmission will provide insight into the transition of SARS-CoV-2 to endemicity. Here we estimate the effects of prior infection induced immunity and children on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in households. Methods We conducted a household cohort study between March 2020-June 2022 in Managua, Nicaragua where when one household member tests positive for SARS-CoV-2, household members are closely monitored for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Using a pairwise survival model, we estimate the association of infection period, age, symptoms, and infection-induced immunity with secondary attack risk. Results Overall transmission occurred in 72.4% of households, 42% of household contacts were infected and the secondary attack risk was 13.0% (95% CI: 11.7, 14.6). Prior immunity did not impact the probability of transmitting SARS-CoV-2. However, participants with pre-existing infection-induced immunity were half as likely to be infected compared to naive individuals (RR 0.53, 95% CI: 0.39, 0.72), but this reduction was not observed in children. Likewise, symptomatic infected individuals were more likely to transmit (RR 24.4, 95% CI: 7.8, 76.1); however, symptom presentation was not associated with infectivity of young children. Young children were less likely to transmit SARS-CoV-2 than adults. During the omicron era, infection-induced immunity remained protective against infection. Conclusions Infection-induced immunity is associated with protection against infection for adults and adolescents. While young children are less infectious, prior infection and asymptomatic presentation did not reduce their infectivity as was seen in adults. As SARS-CoV-2 transitions to endemicity, children may become more important in transmission dynamics.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.10.22280915v1" target="_blank">Infection-induced immunity is associated with protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection, but not decreased infectivity during household transmission</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on exercise habits and overweight in Japan: a nation-wide panel survey</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Introduction: A catastrophic disaster may cause distant health impacts like immobility and obesity. This research aims at analysing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on exercise habit and overweight in the Japanese population. Methods: Nation-wide online questionnaires were conducted five times from October 2020 to October 2021. The change in exercise habit, body mass index (BMI) and status of overweight (BMI&gt;25kg/m2) were compared between the first questionnaire and later ones. Risk factors of losing exercise habit or developing overweight were analysed using multiple regression. Results: Data was obtained from 16,642 participants. In the early phase of the pandemic, people with high income and elderly females showed higher risk of decreased exercise days. Proportion of overweight was increased from 22.2% to 26.6% in males and from 9.3% to 10.8% in females. Middle aged males, elderly females, males who experienced SARS-CoV-2 infection were at higher risks of developing overweight. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that risks of immobility and overweight are homogeneous. Continuous intervention for elderly females and long-term intervention for males who were infected might be especially needed. As most disasters can cause similar social transformation, research and evaluation of immobility and obesity should be addressed in future disaster preparation/ mitigation plans.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.11.22280942v1" target="_blank">Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on exercise habits and overweight in Japan: a nation-wide panel survey</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Epidemic graph diagrams as analytics for epidemic control in the data-rich era</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
COVID-19 highlighted how modeling is an integral part of pandemic response. But it also exposed fundamental methodological challenges. As high-resolution data on disease progression, epidemic surveillance, and host behavior are now available, can models turn them into accurate epidemic estimates and reliable public health recommendations? Take the epidemic threshold, which estimates the potential for an infection to spread in a host population, quantifying epidemic risk throughout epidemic emergence, mitigation, and control. While models increasingly integrated realistic host contacts, no parallel development occurred with matching detail in disease progression and interventions. This narrowed the use of the epidemic threshold to oversimplified disease and control descriptions. Here, we introduce the epidemic graph diagrams (EGDs), novel representations to compute the epidemic threshold directly from arbitrarily complex data on contacts, disease and control efforts. We define a grammar of diagram operations to decompose, compare, simplify models, extracting new theoretical understanding and improving computational efficiency. We test EGDs on two public health challenges, influenza and sexually-transmitted infections, to (i) explain the emergence of resistant influenza variants in the 2007-2008 season, and (ii) demonstrate that neglecting non-infectious prodromic stages biases the predicted epidemic risk, compromising control. EGDs are however general, and increase the performance of mathematical modeling to respond to present and future public health challenges.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.10.22280897v1" target="_blank">Epidemic graph diagrams as analytics for epidemic control in the data-rich era</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Assessing the epidemic impact of protests during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Protests during the COVID-19 pandemic present a complex trade-off between democratic rights of freedom of assembly and an epidemic risk, and have created a need for careful assessment of protest-driven infections. Here, we build a coupled disease transmission model and assess the impact of protests on the COVID-19 spread in the continental US using a dataset of 4,121 protests and 1.66 million protesters between April and June of 2020. We find that protests in 2020 had limited effects, creating tens of additional daily cases country-wide, due to their small size. However, a simple scaling relation of protest-driven infections derived from our simulations reveals that very large protests with over millions of participants can significantly boost outbreaks and impact the healthcare system. In the worst-case scenario, very large protests can add over 20,000 daily cases and over 7,000 thousand ICU admissions over the continental US. We hope our model can aid the policy rationale to maintain freedom of assembly in the current and future pandemics, while providing estimates for preparations for a healthcare surge in the worst-case setting.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.10.22280896v1" target="_blank">Assessing the epidemic impact of protests during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and implications for population immunity: Evidence from two Health and Demographic Surveillance System sites in Kenya, February-June 2022</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Up-to-date SARS-CoV-2 antibody seroprevalence estimates are important for informing public health planning, including priorities for Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination programs. We sought to estimate infection- and vaccination-induced SARS-CoV-2 antibody seroprevalence within representative samples of the Kenyan population approximately two years into the COVID-19 pandemic and approximately one year after rollout of the national COVID-19 vaccination program. Methods We conducted cross-sectional serosurveys within random, age-stratified samples of Kilifi Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) and Nairobi Urban HDSS residents. Anti-spike (anti-S) immunoglobulin G (IgG) and anti-nucleoprotein (anti-N) IgG were measured using validated in-house ELISAs. Target-specific Bayesian population-weighted seroprevalence was calculated overall, by sex and by age, with adjustment for test performance as appropriate. Anti-S IgG concentrations were estimated with reference to the WHO International Standard (IS) for anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin and their reverse cumulative distributions plotted. Results Between February and June 2022, 852 and 851 individuals within the Kilifi HDSS and the Nairobi Urban HDSS, respectively, were sampled. Only 11.0% (95% confidence interval [CI] 9.0-13.3) of all Kilifi HDSS participants and 33.4% (95%CI 30.2-36.6) of all Nairobi Urban HDSS participants had received any doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Population-weighted anti-S IgG seroprevalence was 69.1% (95% credible interval [CrI] 65.8-72.3) within the Kilifi HDSS and 88.5% (95%CrI 86.1-90.6) within the Nairobi Urban HDSS. Among COVID-unvaccinated residents of the Kilifi HDSS and Nairobi Urban HDSS, it was 66.7% (95%CrI 63.3-70.0) and 85.3% (95%CrI 82.1-88.2), respectively. Population-weighted, test-adjusted anti-N IgG seroprevalence within the Kilifi HDSS was 53.5% (95%CrI 46.5-61.1) and 65.5% (95%CrI 56.0-75.6) within the Nairobi Urban HDSS. The prevalence of anti-N antibodies was similar in vaccinated and unvaccinated subgroups in both HDSS populations. Anti-S IgG concentrations were significantly lower among Kilifi HDSS residents than among Nairobi Urban HDSS residents (p&lt; 0.001). Conclusions Approximately, 7 in 10 Kilifi residents and 9 in 10 Nairobi residents were seropositive for anti-S IgG by May 2022 and June 2022, respectively. Given COVID-19 vaccination coverage, anti-S IgG seropositivity among COVID-unvaccinated individuals, and anti-N IgG seroprevalence, population-level anti-S IgG seroprevalence was predominantly derived from infection. Interventions to improve COVID-19 vaccination uptake should be targeted to individuals in rural Kenya who are at high risk of severe COVID-19.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.10.22280824v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and implications for population immunity: Evidence from two Health and Demographic Surveillance System sites in Kenya, February-June 2022</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>MIGH-T: A Multi-Parametric and High-Throughput Platform for Host-Virus Binding Screens</strong> -
<div>
Speed is key during infectious disease outbreaks. It is essential, for example, to identify critical host binding factors to the pathogens as fast as possible. The complexity of host plasma membrane is often a limiting factor hindering fast and accurate determination of host binding factors as well as high-throughput screening for neutralizing antimicrobial drug targets. Here we describe MIGH-T, a multi-parametric and high-throughput platform tackling this bottleneck and enabling fast screens for host binding factors as well as new antiviral drug targets. The sensitivity and robustness of our platform was validated by blocking SARS-CoV-2 spike particles with nanobodies and IgGs from human serum samples.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.10.511545v1" target="_blank">MIGH-T: A Multi-Parametric and High-Throughput Platform for Host-Virus Binding Screens</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Comparative efficacy of antiviral strategies targeting different stages of the viral life cycle: A viral quasispecies dynamics study</strong> -
<div>
While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact public health worldwide significantly, the use of antiviral drugs and therapies has dramatically reduced the instances of severe disease and death. More broadly, the unprecedented use of antivirals also provides hope for preventing and mitigating similar viral outbreaks in the future. Here we ask: What are the comparative impact of antiviral therapeutics targeting different stages of the viral lifecycle? How do antiviral therapeutics impact the viral population in the bloodstream, or in other words, the viral load in high and low-immunity individuals? To address these questions, we use a model of viral quasispecies dynamics to examine the efficacy of antiviral strategies targeting three critical aspects of the viral life cycle, fecundity, reproduction rate, or infection rate. We find a linear relationship of the viral load with the change in fecundity and a power law with the change in the reproduction rate of the virus, with the viral load decreasing as the fecundity and the reproduction rates are decreased. Interestingly, however, for antivirals that target the infection rate, the viral load changes non-monotonically with the change in infection rate; the viral population initially increases and then decreases as the infection rate is decreased. The initial increase is especially pronounced for individuals with low immunity. By examining the viral population inside cells for such cases, we found that the therapeutics are only effective in such individuals if they stop the infection process entirely. Otherwise, the viral population inside cells does not go extinct. Our results predict the effectiveness of different antiviral strategies for COVID-19 and similar viral diseases and provide insights into the susceptibility of individuals with low immunity to effects like long covid.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.10.511620v1" target="_blank">Comparative efficacy of antiviral strategies targeting different stages of the viral life cycle: A viral quasispecies dynamics study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>GenSLMs: Genome-scale language models reveal SARS-CoV-2 evolutionary dynamics.</strong> -
<div>
Our work seeks to transform how new and emergent variants of pandemic causing viruses, specially SARS-CoV-2, are identified and classified. By adapting large language models (LLMs) for genomic data, we build genome-scale language models (GenSLMs) which can learn the evolutionary landscape of SARS-CoV-2 genomes. By pre-training on over 110 million prokaryotic gene sequences, and then finetuning a SARS-CoV-2 specific model on 1.5 million genomes, we show that GenSLM can accurately and rapidly identify variants of concern. Thus, to our knowledge, GenSLM represents one of the first whole genome scale foundation models which can generalize to other prediction tasks. We demonstrate the scaling of GenSLMs on both GPU-based supercomputers and AI-hardware accelerators, achieving over 1.54 zettaflops in training runs. We present initial scientific insights gleaned from examining GenSLMs in tracking the evolutionary dynamics of SARS-CoV-2, noting that its full potential on large biological data is yet to be realized.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.10.511571v1" target="_blank">GenSLMs: Genome-scale language models reveal SARS-CoV-2 evolutionary dynamics.</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Clinical Study of Recombinant Omicron-Delta COVID-19 Vaccine (CHO Cell)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Recombinant Omicron-Delta COVID-19 Vaccine (CHO Cell);   Biological: Inactivated COVID-19 vaccine (Vero Cell)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biologic Pharmacy Co., Ltd.;   First Affiliated Hospital Bengbu Medical College<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Learn About a Repeat 5-Day Treatment With the Study Medicines (Called Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir) in People 12 Years Old or Older With Return of COVID-19 Symptoms and SARS-CoV-2 Positivity After Finishing Treatment With Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: nirmatrelvir;   Drug: ritonavir;   Drug: placebo for nirmatrelvir<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Pfizer<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Phase III Study to Evaluate Immunogenicity and Safety of COVID-19 Vaccine EuCorVac-19 in Healthy Adults</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: EuCorVac-19;   Biological: ChAdOx1<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   EuBiologics Co.,Ltd<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study Evaluating Diltiazem in Combination With Standard Treatment in the Management of Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19 Pneumonia</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: DILTIAZEM TEVA 60 mg or placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Hospices Civils de Lyon;   Signia Therapeutics<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Booster Dose Reminder/Recall for Adolescents</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Vaccines<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Reminder/Recall Sent Via Preferred Method of Communication<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Research on Community Based ATK Test Study to Control Spread of COVID-19 in Migrant Community</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pandemic<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: STANDARD Q COVID-19 Ag Test<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Oxford<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Simulation Education on Nursing Students</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19 Pandemic;   Simulation of Physical Illness<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Simulation training;   Other: Control Group<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Mehmet Akif Ersoy University<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>VAX-MOM COVID-19: Increasing Maternal COVID-19 Vaccination</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Immunization; Infection;   Pregnancy Related;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: VAX-MOM COVID-19 Intervention;   Other: Standard of Care<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Rochester;   Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;   University of California, Los Angeles<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety and Immunogenicity of COVID-19 Vaccine, AdCLD-CoV19-1 OMI, as a Booster</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Vaccines<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: AdCLD-CoV19-1 OMI (Part A);   Biological: AdCLD-CoV19-1 OMI (Part B);   Other: Placebo (Part B)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Cellid Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Personalized Computerized Training Program for Cognitive Dysfunction After COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Post-Acute COVID-19;   Long COVID<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: CogniFit’s CCT Post COVID-19<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Universidad Antonio de Nebrija<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sequential Enhanced Safety Study of a Novel Coronavirus Messenger RNA (mRNA) Vaccine in Adults Aged 18 Years and Older.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Corona Virus Disease 2019(COVID-19)<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: 0.3ml of mRNA vaccine<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Yu Qin<br/><b>Enrolling by invitation</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Understanding the Impact of Death Conditions Linked to the COVID-19 Crisis on the Grieving Process in Bereaved Families</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Psychological Disorder<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Qualitative research interview<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Phase 3 Study to Evaluate Immunogenicity and Safety of BBV154 Booster Dose</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Respiratory Infection<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: BBV154 Intranasal Vaccine;   Biological: Intramuscular vaccine COVAXIN;   Biological: Covishield<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Bharat Biotech International Limited<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Impact of Teeth Brushing in Ventilated COVID-19 Patients.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Microbial Colonization;   COVID-19 Respiratory Infection;   Dysbiosis;   VAP - Ventilator Associated Pneumonia;   HAI<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Procedure: Oral Procedure<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University Hospital in Krakow<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>PAPR: PAP + MBSR for Front-line Healthcare Provider COVID-19 Related Burnout</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Depression;   Burnout, Professional<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Psilocybin;   Behavioral: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Utah;   Heffter Research Institute;   Usona Institute<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In silico analysis of the antidepressant fluoxetine and related drugs at SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) and papain-like protease (PLpro)</strong> - CONCLUSION: In an in silico perspective, it is likely that the SSRIs and other anti-depressants could interact with Mpro and cause the enzyme to malfunction. Unfortunately, the same drugs did not present similar results on PLpro crystal, therefore no inhibition is expected on an in vitro trial. Anyway, in vitro test are necessary for the better understanding the links between SARS-CoV-2 proteases and anti-depressants.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Investigation of Streptomyces sp. Strain EMB24 Secondary Metabolite Profile Has Unraveled Its Extraordinary Antibacterial Potency Against Drug-Resistant Bacteria</strong> - With the overuse and misuse of antibiotics amid COVID-19 pandemic, the antimicrobial resistance, which is already a global challenge, has accelerated its pace significantly. Finding novel and potential antibiotics seems one of the probable solutions. In this work, a novel Streptomyces sp. strain EMB24 was isolated and found to be an excellent source of antimicrobials as confirmed by agar-plug assay. It showed antibacterial activity against infection-causing bacteria, namely Staphylococcus…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A First in man study to Evaluate the Safety, Pharmacokinetics, and Pharmacodynamics of RP7214, a Dihydroorotate Dehydrogenase (DHODH) inhibitor in Healthy Subjects</strong> - Dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH) is a mitochondrial enzyme that is essential for pyrimidine de-novo synthesis. Rapidly growing cancer cells and replicating viruses are dependent on host cell nucleotides, the precursors of which are provided by DHODH. Hence DHODH becomes an ideal target for pharmacological intervention. RP7214 is a potent and selective inhibitor of human DHODH and has shown anti-viral and anti-leukemic activity in preclinical studies. This paper describes the Phase I study…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Face masks inhibit facial cues for approachability and trustworthiness: an eyetracking study</strong> - Wearing face masks during the Covid-19 pandemic has undeniable benefits from our health perspective. However, the interpersonal costs on social interactions may have been underappreciated. Because masks obscure critical facial regions signaling approach/avoidance intent and social trust, this implies that facial inference of approachability and trustworthiness may be severely discounted. Here, in our eyetracking experiment, we show that people judged masked faces as less approachable and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rapid Generation of Circulating and Mucosal Decoy Human ACE2 using mRNA Nanotherapeutics for the Potential Treatment of SARS-CoV-2</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can cause lethal pulmonary damage in humans. It contains spike proteins on its envelope that bind to human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) expressed on airway cells, enabling entry of the virus, and causing infection. The soluble form of hACE2 binds SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, prevents viral entry into target cells, and ameliorates lung injury; however, its short half-life limits therapeutic utilities. Here, synthetic mRNA is…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Therapeutic potential of kaempferol on Streptococcus pneumoniae infection</strong> - Co-infections with pathogens and secondary bacterial infections play significant roles during the pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pathogenetic process, caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Notably, co-infections with Streptococcus pneumoniae (S. pneumoniae), as a major Gram-positive pathogen causing pneumonia or meningitis, severely threaten the diagnosis, therapy, and prognosis of COVID-19 worldwide. Accumulating evidences have emerged indicating…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on changes in temperature-sensitive cardiovascular and respiratory disease mortality in Japan</strong> - Some cardiovascular and respiratory diseases are triggered by changes in ambient temperature or extremes of temperature. This study aimed to clarify the changes in mortality associated with temperature-sensitive diseases in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used data from three major cities (Sapporo City, Tokyo 23 wards, and Osaka City) from 2010 to 2019 to determine disease mortality rates and monthly mean temperatures from April to December. If the pandemic had not occurred in 2020, the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunogenicity to SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant among school-aged children with 2-dose of inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccines followed by BNT162b2 booster</strong> - CONCLUSION: A regimen of 2-dose of inactivated vaccine followed by BNT162b2 booster dose elicited high neutralizing antibody against the Omicron variants in healthy school-aged children.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A photoelectrochemical immunosensor based on magnetic all-solid-state Z-scheme heterojunction for SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein detection</strong> - Rapid, convenient and accurate detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is urgently needed to timely diagnosis of coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) and control of the epidemic. In this study, a signal-off photoelectrochemical (PEC) immunosensor was constructed for SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) protein detection based on a magnetic all-solid-state Z-scheme heterojunction (Fe(3)O(4)<span class="citation" data-cites="SiO">@SiO</span>(2)<span class="citation" data-cites="TiO">@TiO</span>(2)<span class="citation" data-cites="CdS/Au">@CdS/Au</span>, FSTCA). Integrating the advantages of magnetic materials and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Chemical screen uncovers novel structural classes of inhibitors of the papain-like protease of coronaviruses</strong> - The papain-like protease (PLpro) of coronaviruses is an attractive antiviral target to inhibit both viral replication and interference of the host immune response. We have identified and characterized three novel classes of small molecules, thiophene, cyanofuran, and triazoloquinazoline, as PLpro inhibitors Thiophene inhibited the PLpro of two major coronaviruses, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) including…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Impact of SARS-CoV-2-specific memory B cells on the immune response after mRNA-based Comirnaty vaccine in seronegative health care workers</strong> - CONCLUSION: IgG<sup>(-)MBC</sup>(-) individuals showed the worst humoral and cellular responses, both in frequency and magnitude, after vaccination. Individuals whose antibodies wane and become undetectable after a given period of time post vaccination and show no specific MBCs are less protected and hence are good candidates for boosting vaccine. On the other hand, seronegative individuals with specific MBC showed faster and higher responses compared to the IgG<sup>(-)MBC</sup>(-) group.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Synthesis, spectroscopic, topological, hirshfeld surface analysis, and anti-covid-19 molecular docking investigation of isopropyl 1-benzoyl-4-(benzoyloxy)-2,6-diphenyl-1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridine-3-carboxylate</strong> - Isopropyl 1-benzoyl-4-(benzoyloxy)-2,6-diphenyl-1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridine-3-carboxylate (IDPC) was synthesized and characterized via spectroscopic (FT-IR and NMR) techniques. Hirshfeld surface and topological analyses were conducted to study structural and molecular properties. The energy gap (E(g)), frontier orbital energies (E(HOMO), E(LUMO)) and reactivity parameters (like chemical hardness and global hardness) were calculated using density functional theory with B3LYP/6-311++G (d,p) level…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effects of immunophilin inhibitors and non-immunosuppressive analogs on coronavirus replication in human infection models</strong> - CONCLUSION: The immunophilin inhibitors CsA and ALV display robust anti-coronaviral properties in multiple infection models, including phBECs, reflecting a primary site of HCoV infection. In contrast, FK506 displayed cell-type specific effects, strongly affecting CoV replication in Huh7.5 and HEK293, but inconsistently and less pronounced in phBECs.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The potential molecular implications of adiponectin in the evolution of SARS-CoV-2: Inbuilt tendency</strong> - Adiponectin (APN) is an adipokine concerned in the regulation of glucose metabolism, insulin sensitivity and fatty acid oxidation. APN plays a critical role in viral infections by regulating the immune response through its anti-inflammatory/pro-inflammatory axis. Reduction of APN may augment the severity of viral infections because APN inhibits immune cells’ response via suppression of inflammatory signaling pathways and stimulation of adenosine monophosphate protein kinase (AMPK). Moreover, APN…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pathophysiology of Post-COVID syndromes: a new perspective</strong> - Most COVID-19 patients recovered with low mortality; however, some patients experienced long-term symptoms described as “long-COVID” or “Post-COVID syndrome” (PCS). Patients may have persisting symptoms for weeks after acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, including dyspnea, fatigue, myalgia, insomnia, cognitive and olfactory disorders. These symptoms may last for months in some patients. PCS may progress in association with the development of mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), which is a distinct kind…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

372
archive-daily-dose/12 October, 2022.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,372 @@
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
<title>12 October, 2022</title>
<style type="text/css">
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
</style>
<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
<body>
<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Roy Moore Was Banned from the Mall but Won His Defamation Suit</strong> - A jury in Alabama awarded the former Senate candidate more than eight million dollars. A lawyer for the defense says that the case reflects a worrying trend. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/roy-moore-was-banned-from-the-mall-but-won-his-defamation-suit">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Long March Toward a National Latino Museum</strong> - A community whose role in U.S. history has been too often ignored is telling its story at the Smithsonian. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-long-march-toward-a-national-latino-museum">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kyiv’s Peace Is Destroyed</strong> - After repelling Russia’s assault earlier this year, the city awakens to missile strikes. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/kyivs-peace-is-destroyed">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Close Is Vladimir Putin to Using a Nuclear Bomb?</strong> - A Russian attack would terrorize the Ukrainian population and shatter a seven-decade-old international taboo, all while bringing few benefits on the battlefield. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-close-is-vladimir-putin-to-using-a-nuclear-bomb">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Timely Economics Nobel—and a Warning</strong> - As Wall Street gets jittery, Stockholm honors three economists who warned about fragilities in the banking system. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/a-timely-economics-nobel-and-a-warning">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The Try Guys have broken our brains</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A screenshot of three Saturday Night Live male comedians, dressed as the YouTubers Try Guys and sitting on a cream-colored sofa, addressing their viewers." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/uxn_K8falI0_8MqXb4GgAsEY_sM=/286x0:1562x957/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71484630/Screen_Shot_2022_10_11_at_4.50.45_PM.0.png"/>
<figcaption>
Saturday Night Live
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Gossip is the new true crime.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O4Oa7r">
The recent fervor surrounding the Try Guys, a BuzzFeed-born YouTube collective of four guys who try things, is by all accounts pretty banal: One of the Try Guys cheated on his wife with an employee and was subsequently ousted from the group. Out of all the examples of bizarre drama between professional YouTubers, many of which have been <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/youtube-drama-channels-guide.html">christened with nicknames like “Dramageddon” or “Karmageddon,”</a> this one is hardly the juiciest.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<div id="ZDSvNm">
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xzx95z">
But if you are at all interested in the parasocial dynamics between content creators and their fans, or the intricacies of apology video posturing, or the paradox of the “wife guy,” or media studies in general, it is by far the most fascinating. What might have once been of interest to a small portion of mid-2010s YouTuber diehards is now a national punchline, ripe for pillory on <em>Saturday Night Live</em> in a sketch that deftly skewered the smarmy dramatics of the three leftover Try Guys’ responses to the whole thing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s1nTAP">
What made it even more prescient was the swift and <a href="https://twitter.com/emiliniumfalcon/status/1578971054357483525">furious backlash from Try Guys fans</a> on Twitter and YouTube, who argued that the sketch <a href="https://twitter.com/zerorantss/status/1578961780516458496">downplayed the power dynamic</a> between employer and employee and that it made fun of men who <a href="https://twitter.com/hensandhoneybs/status/1579226475957735424">“hold other men accountable.”</a> (I would argue that the sketch acknowledged both of these things and instead poked fun at the inherent ridiculousness of three men reading — and, let’s be clear, acting — from a teleprompter to millions of people about their friend cheating on his wife, but whatever. I’m not going to die on the hill of defending <em>SNL</em>.)
</p>
<div id="u7Kz9X">
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;">
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JCSM5V">
Anyway, the thing that’s worth talking about is not the ex-Try Guy and his workplace affair, because there has already been too much speculation on the details and also because, again, everyone involved is a professional content creator. What’s more interesting is why so many people, some who had followed the Try Guys’ work for years and others who were only introduced this past week, cared.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JXTh9Q">
Infidelity, as my colleague Aja Romano pointed out last week, is <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23387679/cheating-scandals-adam-levine-nia-long-try-guys-ned-fulmer">having a moment</a>: Beyond the Try Guys, a woman alleged that Maroon 5’s Adam Levine was cheating on his pregnant wife with her; married Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka was in an alleged relationship with a junior member of his staff; all while <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/17/invasion-of-the-sports-cheaters">cheating scandals of another form have rocked</a> the worlds of professional chess, poker, and fishing. Stories like these are irresistible in America’s rules-obsessed culture, where every person and every concept must be categorized as “good” or “bad,” morally righteous or unquestionably immoral, especially within internet communities dominated by young people <a href="https://mentalhellth.xyz/p/fuck-puritanism">who believe themselves to be moral authorities</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IixrQ1">
Every day, all the time, people are arguing in TikTok comment sections, Twitter threads, and Discord DMs about what is good and what is bad, but every so often, the entire internet feels like it’s discussing the same thing at once: the Try Guys, West Elm Caleb, Couch Guy, etc. What all of these viral phenomena amount to is gossip about other people’s personal lives, often people <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22716772/west-elm-caleb-couch-guy-tiktok-cancel">who weren’t even famous to begin with</a> but who got caught up in some largely invented scandal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NL61DX">
No matter where the discourse lands, there will be people who have decided that what has just occurred is actually a matter of great ethical importance and that their take is the only one that is truly right. Others, naturally, will pipe up with responses on why the take is wrong, actually, and that they as a human being are wrong, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/09/toxic-person-tiktok-internet-slang-meaning/670599/">and toxic</a>, and evil. Niche drama is a way to reinforce those beliefs and rules, and to assert ourselves as good. Much like our <a href="https://www.gawker.com/culture/true-crime-is-rotting-our-brains">obsession with true crime</a>, niche gossip is often less about the incident itself and more about what we can extrapolate from it in order to make ourselves feel more safe and protected. And it could never, the underlying thinking goes, have happened to us.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="btXrMj">
What I think the <em>SNL</em> sketch does well is poke fun at the group’s attempts at preserving their wholesome image: how they use therapeutic buzzwords to describe their feelings and congratulate themselves for kicking out a member despite the financial and public relations hit it cost them. (That the three other Try Guys are alleged to have known about and witnessed their <a href="https://twitter.com/ravii5150/status/1574851551889350657">partner’s bad behavior for years</a> adds a rather complicating element to this image.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bgaA2l">
Unlike random people who become the internet’s main character for the day, however, the Try Guys do this for a living. So far their videos entitled <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6fIp7mMJ90">“what happened”</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut68FBnWbAI&amp;t=1s">“ok, let’s talk about it”</a> have received a total of more than 15 million views (and yes, both videos are monetized). They are professional content creators, and nothing makes for better content than a scandal. The Try Guys will be fine. The next person who gets caught up in a viral drama tornado may not be.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VFfpOX">
<em>This column was first published in The Goods newsletter. </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/pages/newsletters"><em>Sign up here</em></a><em> so you don’t miss the next one, plus get newsletter exclusives.</em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>Biden is trying to remake the gig worker economy</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A food delivery worker in a gray coat and blue helmet carries an orange Caviar backpack out of a building, walking onto a busy sidewalk." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/U_svQa1FnqzXUoOJWiVeTF7ALeQ=/283x0:4810x3395/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71484283/1237480724.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A food delivery worker for Caviar in Times Square, New York City, in December 2021. The Biden administration has proposed a new regulation that would classify app-based delivery workers as employees. | Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Labor Department’s new worker classification rule, explained.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TApUkk">
The Biden administration has <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection/2022-21454/employee-or-independent-contractor-classification-under-the-fair-labor-standards-act">released a long-awaited proposal</a> that could make it easier for millions of truckers, Uber drivers, freelance writers, home care workers, and janitors to be classified as employees rather than independent contractors — a shift that would grant them access to a host of federal labor protections.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="21cAJK">
The Biden administration’s 184-page proposed rule would<strong> </strong>change how the federal agency determines who constitutes an employee or an independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the 1938 law that determines<strong> </strong>eligibility for<strong> </strong>protections like minimum wage, overtime, Social Security, and unemployment insurance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yiOxeX">
It’s the<strong> </strong>latest development in a legal back-and-forth between presidential administrations that stretches back more than a decade. If the rule is<strong> </strong>finalized, it will almost certainly be challenged in court.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gJPA3u">
The rule could have ramifications for the so-called gig economy. Companies like Uber, Lyft, and Instacart have argued that classifying their drivers as employees rather than contractors would devastate their business models. Other self-employed workers defend their independent contractor status, and say they prefer the flexibility and autonomy they’re afforded as they seek to balance other priorities in their lives.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VslnaK">
If the Biden administration’s proposed rule goes into effect — a big if — it could have significant consequences for workers and businesses alike.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KnNab2">
In the waning days of the Trump administration, the Labor Department <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/07/2020-29274/independent-contractor-status-under-the-fair-labor-standards-act">finalized a new rule</a> that gave extra weight to two specific questions when determining if someone is an independent contractor: how much control does a worker have over their work — can they set their own schedule, work for multiple employers, and reject certain projects? And how great is a worker’s opportunity for profit or loss based on their own initiative or investment? One tenet of independent contracting is that there should be “entrepreneurial opportunity” built into the arrangement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JtsQGb">
Organized labor has long held that this sort of employee classification test is too narrow, and that a broader “multi-factorial” test should be used to ensure higher working standards for as many people as possible. Union activists say a better test would give roughly equal weight to at least seven factors, including how important the worker is for the employer’s business, and how long the worker is employed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DZZbSy">
The Biden administration agrees. It<strong> </strong>wrote in its new proposal that it sees reverting back to this broader test as “more consistent with existing judicial precedent and the Department’s longstanding guidance prior” to the 2021 Trump rule.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E45kQs">
Rondu Gantt, an Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash driver based in San Francisco who organizes with the campaign Gig Workers Rising, said in a statement, “This rule can help establish bedrock protections for app-based workers like me and give us an important tool to fight for respect and safety on the job. Gig workers deserve all of the rights that other employees have, including the right to organize. This rule can also help protect workers all around the country as gig corporations try to bring their abusive model to the rest of the economy.”
</p>
<h3 id="aETvr7">
Federal courts have rejected past attempts to make the independent contracting rule more worker-friendly
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8uVtDu">
The lines between contracting and employment have been blurring in the age of remote work, but in general, it’s about<strong> </strong>how much control an employer exerts over an individual performing work for them, and what legal entitlements a worker can expect as a result. One major legal entitlement employees enjoy is the right to join a union. Another is the right to be paid at least the minimum wage, and for businesses to pay a portion of their Social Security tax. Contractors have no such guarantees, but some prefer the flexibility, and say they’d trade the workplace protections for freedom from a boss.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uoptHy">
The federal government has not made adjudicating this debate simple. In 1947, Congress explicitly carved out independent contractors from the National Labor Relations Act’s definition of “employee.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Dd6gGw">
In 1968, the Supreme Court ruled in its <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/390/254/"><em>United Insurance </em>decision</a> that the “obvious purpose” of Congress excluding independent contractors from the law was<strong> </strong>to have the NLRB and courts “apply the common-law agency test” when distinguishing an employee from an independent contractor. Since then, the board and courts have used<strong> </strong><a href="https://iccoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Different-Tests-for-Defining-Employee-Website.pdf">a 10-factor test to settle the question</a>. Much of the legal debate over the last 15 years has been over whether any of those 10 factors — particularly entrepreneurial opportunity — should weigh more heavily than others.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rxv6Md">
In 2006, FedEx Home Delivery drivers in Massachusetts sought to unionize with the Teamsters, but after they won their union election, FedEx refused to bargain with the drivers, saying they were independent contractors. The National Labor Relations Board sided with the drivers <a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/case/34-RC-002205">in 2007</a>, but two years later, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit <a href="https://casetext.com/case/fedex-home-delivery-v-nlrb">overturned the NLRB’s decision</a>, pointing to the drivers’ “entrepreneurial potential” — meaning their ability to shape both their work conditions for FedEx and additional clients — as a decisive factor. The appellate judges wrote in their decision that the NLRB “has no authority whatsoever over independent contractors.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OmhDiI">
The NLRB chose not to appeal this to the Supreme Court, the only US court whose rulings the NLRB considers as binding<strong>. </strong>So when a similar case came back up a half-decade later, the NLRB <a href="https://thenationaltriallawyers.org/2014/11/nlrb-fedex-employees/">sided with FedEx drivers again</a>. (This case involved Hartford, Connecticut, drivers who unionized.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y3nHGi">
Three years later, in 2017, the DC Circuit rejected the NLRB’s ruling once again, and pointed back to its 2009 decision when it said, “The question before this court was already asked and answered.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pxqkYA">
As all this was going on, businesses like Uber that rely heavily on independent contracting continued to expand, and began to look at currying favor with sympathetic politicians who could help codify their legally<strong> </strong>vulnerable business models. Corporate executives kept a wary eye on the legal battles unfolding in Washington, DC, but few felt real pressure to change their practices amid the uncertainty.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bPYpks">
By January 2019, the NLRB, which at this point had a Republican-appointee majority on its five-member panel, formally overturned its 2014 <em>FedEx </em>decision, in a case where a regional NLRB office had found that shuttle drivers who owned and operated franchises of SuperShuttle DFW were independent contractors. This <a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/case/16-RC-010963">2019 <em>SuperShuttle </em>decision</a> effectively reverted society back to the old gig economy-friendly independent contractor standard.
</p>
<h3 id="yclSgd">
Biden’s team has hinted it would be revisiting the misclassification issue
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hyHhT2">
The Biden administration has been building toward action on this issue for years.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3ngzRY">
Biden’s presidential campaign emphasized supporting and standing with labor unions, and the week of his inauguration he <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/20/trump-labor-board-460978">forced out two Trump-appointed NLRB counsels</a>, the first time in more than 70 years a president exercised that power. He then appointed Democrat Lauren McFerran, the lone dissenter in the 2019 <em>SuperShuttle </em>decision, to serve as NLRB board chair, and his administration <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/biden-axes-trump-gig-worker-rule-backs-broader-employee-model">blocked the Trump independent contractor rule</a> from taking effect.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ibVgDv">
Biden also nominated Jennifer Abruzzo, a lawyer with the Communications Workers of America, to serve as the NLRB’s general counsel. By August 2021 Abruzzo had <a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/general-counsel-jennifer-abruzzo-releases-memorandum-presenting-issue">issued a 10-page memo</a> laying out her priorities and instructed the agency’s regional offices to prioritize cases that pertain to specific past decisions, including the 2019 <em>SuperShuttle </em>case.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4Usiu5">
<strong></strong>In late December, the National Labor Relations Board announced it would be accepting briefs relating to whether the federal agency should reconsider its standard — again — for determining independent contractor status.
</p>
<h3 id="Qg8uRs">
The fierce debate over contracting and the global economy
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nwdZBD">
When the NLRB issued its request for briefs in late December, it asked two main questions: Should the board stick to the independent contractor standard it established in its 2019 <em>SuperShuttle</em> decision? And if not, then what standard should replace it: should the NLRB return to its 2014 standard set by the more union-friendly <em>FedEx Home Delivery </em>decision?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qRQsjA">
Public interest, government, and industry groups submitted more than 30 amicus briefs <a href="https://thecapitolforum.com/nlrb-atlanta-opera-briefs-include-antitrust-arguments-and-novel-proposals-setting-stage-for-gig-economy-to-face-all-of-government-approach-on-misclassification-concerns/">and were far from unanimous</a>. While many of the same arguments were recycled from the <em>FedEx</em> and <em>SuperShuttle</em> cases, briefs also featured some new themes, like that misclassification of workers poses an antitrust threat. One brief, filed by the Department of Justice’s antitrust division, argued that “a vague or under-inclusive” employee standard could harm workers, employers, and competition directly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="axcwJx">
The Labor Department rule is technically separate from the NLRB request for documents, though it centers on very similar legal questions. Before Tuesday, the Labor Department says, its wage and hour division considered feedback shared by stakeholders in forums held during the summer of 2022.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PJ6IjC">
“Standards and definitions under both statutes are a little different, but it’s definitely the same fruit salad and the two pieces of fruit are right next to each other,” said Michael Lotito, a management-side labor attorney at the law firm Littler Mendelson.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BDh4nx">
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler <a href="https://aflcio.org/press/releases/proposed-labor-rule-victory-working-people">hailed the draft rule</a> on Tuesday<strong> </strong>for “restoring commonsense rules to determine who is an employee, and making it harder for employers to intentionally misclassify their employees as independent contractors.” In the organization’s<strong> </strong>filed briefs to the NLRB, it warned against trying to revert back to a standard that couldn’t survive the courts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hz3CmK">
An NLRB brief filed by Democratic attorneys general representing 15 states and Washington, DC, argued that the “entrepreneurial opportunity” standard privileged by <em>SuperShuttle </em>is “particularly vulnerable to evasion” by employers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3zmTuc">
They urged instead weighting the three factors that form the basis for the so-called <a href="https://www.labor.ca.gov/employmentstatus/abctest/">“ABC” tests</a> used by many states to determine employee status, a test that makes it harder to classify someone as a contractor. A worker is only considered a contractor under this test if they have relative independence from the business paying their wages, if their work is separate from the type of work the business is typically engaged in, and if they typically do the type of work that the business hired them to do. In particular, “entrepreneurial opportunity” is insufficient to merit contractor status under the ABC test.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="trJCA7">
Some groups had urged the NLRB to find a new middle-ground position.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bb45Sz">
Buckle, a digital financial services company that provides insurance and credit options to drivers for ride-share and other gig companies, said the NLRB “should not be afraid to set a precedent allowing both employees and independent contractors.” For example, they said, their data indicates that 80 to 90 percent of drivers on gig platforms work less than 20 hours a week. But for the<strong> </strong>10 to 20 percent who drive 20 hours or more per week, and who<strong> </strong>“are heavily relied upon” by the companies to maintain consistent service levels, there should be clearer pathways to distinguish between them and the more casual workers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="545eRW">
Other groups pushed the Biden administration to adhere to the status quo. One brief representing 12 Republican senators and another brief representing 30 Republican representatives pointed out that the Democratic-backed <a href="https://www.vox.com/22319838/house-passes-pro-act-unions">Protecting Right to Organize Act</a>, which would make it harder to classify workers as independent contractors, failed to pass in the Senate. “Congressional opposition to the change is, in part, because many Members believe that the current approach is best adapted to a twenty-first century economy,” the GOP officials wrote.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="omwpH9">
The US Chamber of Commerce, the largest business lobby, also warned of government overreach. There is no reason for the NLRB to depart from its <em>SuperShuttle </em>standard, the Chamber wrote in its brief, and to do so “is a plain instance of its policy reach far exceeding its legitimate regulatory grasp.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hEOjLn">
Some groups <a href="https://fightforfreelancersusa.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/fight-for-freelancers-nlrb-amicus-brief.pdf">representing freelancers</a> and small businesses also urged the NLRB against revising its contracting standard, worried they would lose their prized independent status. They pointed to government surveys, like a <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-15-168r.pdf">2015 GAO report</a> that found more than 85 percent of independent contractors and those self-employed appeared content with their status. In 2018, the Bureau of Labor Statistics <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/conemp.nr0.htm">reported 79 percent</a> of independent contractors preferred their contracting arrangement over a traditional job.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aJfjPs">
The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council <a href="https://sbecouncil.org/2022/10/11/dols-proposed-independent-contractor-rule-throws-called-water-on-u-s-entrepreneurship-and-flexibility/">issued a statement</a> on Tuesday calling the Labor Department’s rule “out-of-touch with the modern economy and how people want to work.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sKnUir">
Given this opposition, a court challenge to the rule seems inevitable. Lotito, the labor lawyer, told Vox he thinks the Biden administration’s new rule will fail in court, and pointed <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/business-groups-get-trump-independent-contractor-rule-reinstated">to his firm’s successful challenge</a> against the Biden administration’s withdrawal of Trump’s worker classification rule. “My overall sense is that they really did not pay any attention to the [Texas] District Court’s decision; there’s no explanation that I’ve read so far that explains how the Trump rule has interfered with their ability to enforce their mission,” he said. “From an Administrative Procedure Act perspective, I also think this is a straight flop.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="biRxtQ">
However, no legal challenge can be mounted against the rule until it is finalized. The Department of Labor is currently soliciting public comments on its proposal, and the final rule will likely not be issued for another few months.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CKIZlv">
</p></li>
<li><strong>The $1,500 ticket to Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/aTCzKJqVX5m5dAvGIk81Zn2m3IE=/240x0:1680x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71483041/Productivity_2_2.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Meta’s new Quest Pro headset device is its first mixed reality headset. | Courtesy of Meta
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Mark Zuckerberg wants you to work in the metaverse. It will cost you.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kkok52">
Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, released its long-awaited new virtual reality headset on Tuesday during Meta Connect, its annual developer conference.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Yimi01">
The new headset, <a href="https://www.oculus.com/blog/meta-quest-pro-price-release-date/">called the Quest Pro</a>, is a high-end device meant to have functionality rivaling a computer. In his keynote on Tuesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the new device “the next major step for VR” and “an important milestone on the path to building the metaverse.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2XzlHm">
“We’re in a moment now when a lot of the technologies that will power the metaverse are starting to take off,” Zuckerberg said at Connect.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SB8MYc">
Zuckerberg is betting that one day, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22799665/facebook-metaverse-meta-zuckerberg-oculus-vr-ar">AR/VR devices will become as ubiquitous</a> as mobile phones or laptops, and the Quest Pro is an important way for the company to demonstrate the promise of that vision. The Quest Pro is Meta’s first “mixed reality” device — meaning that you can see virtual objects overlaid onto your everyday real-life surroundings, unlike pure VR in which you’re completely detached from reality. The physical headset is designed to fit more comfortably on your head, and it comes with inward-facing eye tracking sensors, so that your avatars in the metaverse can naturally mimic your facial expressions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sEBIc7">
These are definite improvements to Meta’s existing VR/AR products. But there’s a major barrier that could stop the Quest Pro from fulfilling Zuckerberg’s ambitions to make his metaverse plan mainstream: the price tag. The Quest Pro costs nearly $1,500. That’s a price point that’s inaccessible to many everyday consumers, particularly during a period of economic downturn. It’s a 275 percent increase in the price point of its last AR/VR release, the Quest 2.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fJihaQ">
That’s why Meta is selling its new AR/VR device as a work product, for people like architects, product designers, and molecular chemists who might be willing to pay up for a high-powered tool. Many of these professionals use 3D modeling in their day-to-day jobs that could justify the headset’s cost. That’s also why Meta announced partnerships with Adobe to put its 3D design software on VR, as well as with Microsoft to put its entire office suite of products on the Quest Pro.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bzVfUM">
In Meta’s Connect presentation Tuesday, the company gave some examples of how certain companies are using its AR/VR products already, such as the shoe companies Puma and New Balance designing products in VR, and the pharmaceutical company Novartis doing nanomolecular design with the technology.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pPFA7c">
But if Meta is pitching its marquee metaverse product as a high-end product for niche industry professionals, where does that leave everyone else? If the metaverse is going to be the next wave of computing akin to the modern internet or mobile phone, as Zuckerberg predicts it will, then it needs a critical mass of users — not just a small group of professional users who use it for specific industry applications.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="csr9I2">
Early smartphones or proto-smartphones like the iPhone and BlackBerry were also <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2604020/the-evolution-of-apples-iphone.html#:~:text=After%20months%20of%20rumors%20and,It%20offered%20a%203.5%2Din.">prohibitively expensive</a> for many everyday consumers at first, but eventually wireless providers began to help subsidize their access. And the utility of these phones for a wide variety of professions and interests (like being able to, for the first time, check email on the go, or combine an mp3 player with a phone) made them worth the cost — which, for the iPhone, actually increased over time. For Meta’s AR/VR products, there’s no outside network provider giving a subsidy at this point, and the use cases aren’t as strong for everyday users. That could change in the future, though, if the use cases for AR/VR become more compelling in both work and social settings.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o8Oqf6">
To Meta’s credit, building AR/VR is expensive. And Meta has, to date, produced some of the most affordable AR/VR headsets on the market. Zuckerberg recently told The Verge that the <a href="https://twitter.com/alexeheath/status/1579922604718055424">company’s strategy isn’t to make money from its AR/VR hardware</a>, and many speculated that it was selling its other AR/VR product, the Quest 2, at a loss for $399. (Before August, it was $299 — making it several hundred dollars cheaper than some of its leading competitors.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cR3SKT">
But the Quest Pro, like many emerging technologies, faces other barriers — like the fact that it can only be used for about one to two hours with a full charge, making it hard to use outside the home or office space where a charging station is handy. And the fact that its avatars still don’t have all the convincing qualities of regular human life, like legs (<a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/10/11/23399439/metaverse-mark-zuckerberg-connect-avatar-legs-meta-microsoft-apple-vr-ar">Zuckerberg has promised those</a> at some point in the near future).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iZqx1K">
But the biggest challenge for Meta will be its accessibility. The personal computer, internet, and cellphone all revolutionized society. But these devices only started drastically reshaping the way we communicate once they were accessible and affordable enough to become mainstream. Meta indicated on Tuesday that it’s serious about improving the quality of the technology it offers in VR/AR, even if it has a long way to go. But it’s facing an even more pressing challenge: We’re not yet at the point where the products closest to achieving the metaverse vision are at a justifiable price to the everyday user.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dXIoRA">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oRdGqs">
</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Spring Grove, Phenom, Agostini Carracci and Petronia impress</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Wakeful and Oscars Thunder work well</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Loch Lomond, Wild Emperor, Philosophy, Adjustment please</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Lovlina Borgohain bags gold in middleweight category in National Games</strong> - This was Lovlina’s first medal after switching to the middleweight, in which she would make her international debut at the upcoming Asian championships in Amman.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mbappé reportedly wants out of PSG amid growing frustration</strong> - A series of reports published in France and Spain say that PSG star Kylian Mbappé is frustrated and wants to leave during January's transfer window</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Andhra Pradesh: Three-day Kuchipudi dance festival to begin in Vijayawada from October 14</strong> - 3,000 artistes from the Telugu States will take part in the programme</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Andhra Pradesh: CPI conference will unveil a road map to oust BJP-led government at Centre, says D. Raja</strong> - The national conference, which will also see the participation of delegates from 17 nations, will be organised in Vijayawada from October 14 to 18</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Elections were forced on people of Munugode: Jagadish Reddy</strong> - Four Ministers take part in campaign for the by-election</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Retail inflation rises to 7.41% in September; industrial sectors hit too</strong> - September’s retail inflation level highest since April 2022</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Fruits of reservation not percolated to bottom of society: NHRC chief</strong> - In his address at the NHRC Foundation Day, NHRC chairperson Justice (retd) Arun Kumar Mishra also pressed for urgent jail reforms.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Crimea bridge attack arrests as market in Donetsk region attacked</strong> - Russia detains eight over Saturday’s incident, as seven die in an attack on a market in eastern Ukraine.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Elon Musk denies he spoke to Putin about Ukraine war</strong> - The Tesla boss has denied reports he spoke to the Russian leader before tweeting about the Ukraine war.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Irish women’s team apologise over pro-IRA chants</strong> - The FAI and Republic of Ireland women’s manager Vera Pauw apologise for a pro-IRA chant by the team’s players after the World Cup play-off win.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Madeleine McCann suspect charged with separate sex offences</strong> - The key suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine is charged in Germany over unrelated offences.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>French oil workers vote to continue strike</strong> - The stoppage at refineries, now in its third week, has led to long queues at petrol stations.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SpaceX announces a second private flight to the Moon aboard Starship</strong> - “We can’t force the timeline. It will happen when it happens.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1889174">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>After fight vs. FAA, Verizon’s and AT&amp;T’s new spectrum is boosting 5G speeds</strong> - OpenSignal tests show C-band’s impact on 5G download speeds. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1889243">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>All the Best Prime Day Deals still running for Amazon’s Early Access sale [Updated]</strong> - We’ve sorted through Amazon’s pre-holiday sale to find the stuff that’s worth your time. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1888606">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Nikon Small World microscopy contest 2022: Meet this year’s top 10 winners</strong> - Your annual reminder that science can be beautiful as well as informative. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1889195">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Fake Joe Rogan interviews fake Steve Jobs in an AI-powered podcast</strong> - Voice synthesis PR stunt calls upon the dead to help sell an AI product. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1889202">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The Indian restaurant I work for is so secretive I had to sign a legal agreement that I wouldn’t share the flatbread recipe</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Just their standard naan disclosure agreement.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/DrFridayTK"> /u/DrFridayTK </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y1vmdf/the_indian_restaurant_i_work_for_is_so_secretive/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y1vmdf/the_indian_restaurant_i_work_for_is_so_secretive/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I used to go out with a girl who punched me in the face when she orgasmed.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I didn’t mind too much until I found out she was faking them
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/AdeptLengthiness8886"> /u/AdeptLengthiness8886 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y1wum7/i_used_to_go_out_with_a_girl_who_punched_me_in/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y1wum7/i_used_to_go_out_with_a_girl_who_punched_me_in/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A man goes to confessional and tells the priest, “Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. I took the Lord’s name in vain while golfing.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I understand, my son,” the priest says. “I play the game as well, and it can be frustrating. What happened?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Well,” the man says, “I hit my drive on the fifteenth green and it sliced to the right, into the trees.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Was that when you did it?” The priest asked.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No, the ball bounced off a tree and onto the green,” the man continued. “But it bounced into a sandtrap.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“And then you cursed?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No, I pulled out a wedge and chipped the ball right out of there. It rolled down the green and stopped two feet from the cup.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Ah, that was when you blasphemed,” the priest nods.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No, Father,” the man replies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Jesus Christ,” the priest yells, “You missed a two-foot putt?!”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/WeNeedToTalkAboutMe"> /u/WeNeedToTalkAboutMe </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y1jle6/a_man_goes_to_confessional_and_tells_the_priest/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y1jle6/a_man_goes_to_confessional_and_tells_the_priest/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Burglars are getting very clever these days.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Last night, my wife woke me up, “Darling! Darling! There’s a burglar downstairs!!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So I go down, check every room and don’t find anyone. Then I realized I don’t have a wife and when I went back upstairs my bed and TV were gone.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/vect77"> /u/vect77 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y1csgh/burglars_are_getting_very_clever_these_days/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y1csgh/burglars_are_getting_very_clever_these_days/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I taught my kids about democracy tonight by having them vote on which movie to watch and pizza to order.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I then picked the movie and pizza because I’m the one with the money.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/the_houser"> /u/the_houser </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y1ed0j/i_taught_my_kids_about_democracy_tonight_by/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y1ed0j/i_taught_my_kids_about_democracy_tonight_by/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

4
index.html
View File

File diff suppressed because one or more lines are too long