The relationship between risk perception and information sources during the COVID-19 pandemic in Southeast Alaska -
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+Objective: We describe changes in consumption of different information sources during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic across Southeast Alaska. Study Design: We administered two surveys in Southeast Alaska at two critical points during the COVID-19 pandemic (April-June 2020 and November 2020-February 2021) resulting in a convenience sample (n > 1000) of respondents over age 18. Methods: Using survey responses from the two time points, we calculated absolute and percent changes in reported usage of 11 different information sources and tested these changes using a two-proportion z-score. We used logistic regression to estimate the probability of consuming national news, local news, internet sources, social media, and talking with trusted individuals while controlling for demographic variables (age, sex, ethnicity group), risk perceptions, and time. Results: We found no strong relationships between risk perceptions and the probability of consuming various information sources. Males were significantly less likely to consume national sources, local sources, and use social media. Respondents 65 years and older were significantly more likely to consume national sources and local sources and were significantly less likely to consume social media. Conclusions: Different demographic groups use various information sources differently in Southeast Alaska. This could result in uneven quality of, understanding of, and action upon public health messages.
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TISSUE-SPECIFIC METABOLOMIC REPROGRAMMING DETERMINES THE DISEASE PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF SARS-COV-2 VARIANTS IN HAMSTER MODEL -
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+Despite significant effort, a clear understanding of host tissue-specific responses and their implications for immunopathogenicity against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant infection has remained poorly defined. To shed light on the interaction between organs and specific SARS-CoV-2 variants, we sought to characterize the complex relationship among acute multisystem manifestations, dysbiosis of the gut microbiota, and the resulting implications for SARS-CoV-2 variant-specific immunopathogenesis in the Golden Syrian Hamster (GSH) model using multi-omics approaches. Our investigation revealed increased viremia in diverse tissues of delta-infected GSH compared to the omicron variant. Multi-omics analyses uncovered distinctive metabolic responses between the delta and omicron variants, with the former demonstrating dysregulation in synaptic transmission proteins associated with neurocognitive disorders. Additionally, delta-infected GSH exhibited an altered fecal microbiota composition, marked by increased inflammation-associated taxa and reduced commensal bacteria compared to the omicron variant. These findings underscore the SARS-CoV-2-mediated tissue insult, characterized by modified host metabolites, neurological protein dysregulation, and gut dysbiosis, highlighting the compromised gut-lung-brain axis during acute infection.
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RAMEN Unveils Clinical Variable Networks for COVID-19 Severity and Long COVID Using Absorbing Random Walks and Genetic Algorithms -
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+The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly altered global socioeconomic structures and individual lives. Understanding the disease mechanisms and facilitating diagnosis requires comprehending the complex interplay among clinical factors like demographics, symptoms, comorbidities, treatments, lab results, complications, and other metrics, and their relation to outcomes such as disease severity and long term outcomes (e.g.Ā post-COVID-19 condition/long COVID). Conventional correlational methods struggle with indirect and directional connections among these factors, while standard graphical methods like Bayesian networks are computationally demanding for extensive clinical variables. In response, we introduced RAMEN, a methodology that integrates Genetic Algorithms with random walks for efficient Bayesian network inference, designed to map the intricate relationships among clinical variables. Applying RAMEN to the Biobanque quebecoise de la COVID-19 (BQC19) dataset, we identified critical markers for long COVID and varying disease severity. The Bayesian Network, corroborated by existing literature and supported through multi-omics analyses, highlights significant clinical variables linked to COVID-19 outcomes. RAMENās ability to accurately map these connections contributes substantially to developing early and effective diagnostics for severe COVID-19 and long COVID.
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End-user feedback of rapid diagnostics in rural Kenya -
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+Underserved communities in low-resource countries are disproportionately impacted by communicable diseases when compared to those in developed countries. These communities have limited access to life saving diagnostic laboratory tests making it difficult to treat communicable diseases like SARS-CoV-2 and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Rapid diagnostic tests, like the COVID-19 antigen (Ag) test, play a crucial role in underserved communities by enabling fast and inexpensive diagnosis in low-resource settings. Unfortunately, these rapid test platforms often lack the accuracy and precision of their laboratory-based analogs, resulting in a need for improved rapid diagnostics. The World Health Organizationās (WHO) ASSURED (Affordable, Sensitive, Specific, User-friendly, Rapid and robust, Equipment-free, and Deliverable to end-users) criteria are often referenced in the development of diagnostic tests. In this work, we aim to provide guidance to the āuser-friendlyā component of ASSURED through end-user surveys taken in rural Kenya. In these surveys, we examine the user-friendliness of two of the most commonly used rapid diagnostic tests, the COVID-19 Ag test and pregnancy test, by assessing participantsā familiarity with the tests, their opinion of test appearance, and the perceived complexity of the operatorās workflow. We also examine community acceptance and desire for a self-test for the highly stigmatized HIV. We intend these results to help guide developers of future rapid diagnostic tests intended for low-resource communities.
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Telemedicineās Impact on Diabetes Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cohort Study in a Large Integrated Healthcare System -
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+Introduction To examine if patients exposed to primary care telemedicine (telephone or video) early in the COVID-19 pandemic had higher rates of downstream HbA1c measurement and improved HbA1c levels in the second year of the pandemic. Research Design and Methods In a cohort of 242, 848 Kaiser Permanente Northern California patients with diabetes, we examined associations between early-pandemic patient-initiated telemedicine visit and downstream HbA1c monitoring and results during the second year of the pandemic. Results Adjusted HbA1c measurement rates were significantly higher among patients with telemedicine exposure in the early-pandemic prior year than those with no visits in the prior year (91.0% testing for patients with video visits, 90.5% for telephone visits, visits, 86.7% for no visits, p < 0.05). Among those with HbA1c measured, the rates of having an HbA1c < 8% in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic were also statistically significantly higher among patients with telemedicine exposure in the early-pandemic prior year than those with no visits in the prior year (68.5% with HbA1c< 8% for video visits, 67.3% for telephone visits, 66.6% for no visits, p < 0.05). Conclusions Access to telephone and video telemedicine throughout the early COVID-19 pandemic was associated with patients9 continued engagement in recommended diabetes care. Although our study analyzed telemedicine use during a pandemic, telemedicine visits may continue to support ongoing health care access and positive clinical outcomes.
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Risk of Adverse Events Following Monovalent Third or Booster Dose of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccination in U.S. Adults Ages 18 Years and Older -
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+Background The U.S. FDA authorized the monovalent third primary series or booster doses of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines in August 2021 for persons 18 years and older. Monitoring of outcomes following updated authorizations is critical to evaluate vaccine safety and can provide early detection of rare adverse events (AEs) not identified in pre-licensure trials. Methods We evaluated the risk of 17 AEs following third doses of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines from August 2021 through early 2022 among adults aged 18-64 years in three commercial databases (Optum, Carelon Research, CVS Health) and adults aged >65 years in Medicare Fee-For-Service. We compared observed AE incidence rates to historical (expected) rates prior to the pandemic, estimated incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for the Medicare database and pooled IRR across the three commercial databases. Analyses were also stratified by prior history of COVID-19 diagnosis. Estimates exceeding a pre-defined threshold were considered statistical signals. Results Four AEs met the threshold for statistical signals for BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 vaccines including Bells Palsy and pulmonary embolism in Medicare, and anaphylaxis and myocarditis/pericarditis in commercial databases. Nine AEs and three AEs signaled among adults with and without prior COVID-19 diagnosis, respectively. Conclusions This early monitoring study identified statistical signals for AEs following third doses of COVID-19 mRNA vaccination. Since this method is intended for screening purposes and generates crude results, results do not establish a causal association between the vaccines and AEs. FDAs public health assessment remains consistent that the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the risks of vaccination.
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The Impact on Well-Being of Cognitive Bias about Infectious Diseases -
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+We investigate the relationship between bias about infectious disease and well-being. First, we empirically establish the existence and the causes of bias, specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic. After that we investigate theoretically the effects of bias on well-being. In order to do this, we present a behavioral-epidemiological differential equation model derived from an agent-based model that combines rational choice behavior with infectious disease dynamics. In addition the model is evaluated normatively by an axiomatically characterized model of an ethical, impartial, eudaimonistic and individualist observer. These assumptions imply a new proof for the utilitarian principle. The result is that while increased fear improves purely epidemiological outcomes, the social welfare outcome shows mixed results; which shows that it is not enough to take only epidemiological measures into account when generating policy recommendations. Finally, we draw some practical consequences from the model, argue, as it pertains to the topic, for protective rights against psychological control by the state, and give some outlooks for future research.
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Beyond Borders: Spatial Disparities in the Mortality Burden of the Covid-19 pandemic across 569 European Regions (2020-2021) -
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+This article presents a detailed analysis of the global mortality burden of the COVID-19 pandemic across 569 regions in 25 European countries. We produce sex-specific excess mortality and present our results using Age-Standardised Years of Life Lost (ASYLL) in 2020 and 2021, as well as the cumulative impact over the two pandemic years. Employing a robust forecasting approach that considers regional diversity and provides confidence intervals, we find notable losses in 362 regions in 2020 (440 regions in 2021). Conversely, only seven regions experienced gains in 2020 (four regions in 2021). Most importantly, we estimate that eight regions suffered losses exceeding 20 years of life per 1,000 population in 2020, whereas this number increased to 75 regions in 2021. The contiguity of the regions investigated in our study also reveals the changing geographical patterns of the pandemic. While the highest excess mortality values were concentrated in the early COVID-19 outbreak areas during the initial pandemic year, a clear East-West gradient appeared in 2021, with regions of Slovakia, Hungary, and Latvia experiencing the highest losses. This research underscores the importance of regional analyses for a nuanced comprehension of the pandemic9s impact.
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Respiratory symptoms after coalmine fire and pandemic: a longitudinal analysis of the Hazelwood Health Study adult cohort -
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+Background Extreme but discrete fine particle <2.5Ī¼m (PM2.5) exposure is associated with higher prevalence of respiratory symptoms. It is unknown whether these effects abate, persist, or worsen over time, nor whether COVID-19 exacerbates PM2.5 effects. Methods We analysed longitudinal survey data from a cohort residing near a 2014 coalmine fire in regional Australia. A 2016/2017 survey included n=4,056 participants, of whom n=612 were followed-up in 2022. Items include questions about 7 respiratory symptoms, history of COVID-19, and time-location diaries that were combined with geospatial models of fire-related PM2.5. Associations were examined using logistic and mixed-effects logistic regressions. Results PM2.5 exposure predicted higher prevalence of chronic cough and current wheeze 2-3 years post-fire. At the 2022 follow-up, PM2.5 exposure was associated with worsening prevalence of chronic cough and possibly current wheeze. While were no detectable interaction effects between PM2.5 and COVID-19, participants with a history of COVID-19 exhibited more significant associations between PM2.5 exposure and respiratory symptoms. Discussion Short-term but extreme PM2.5 may increase the long-term prevalence of chronic cough, while COVID-19 may exacerbate the effect on other respiratory symptoms.
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Career Navigator: An online platform to streamline professional development and career education for graduate bioscientists -
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+Graduate professional development is a highly dynamic enterprise that prepares graduate students for personal and career success in a variety of fields, including the biosciences. National policies, funding awards, and institutional programs have generated myriad tools and services for graduate bioscience students, including new learning resources, events, connections to prospective employers, and opportunities to strengthen academic and professional portfolios. These interventions are welcome and have done much to enhance graduate bioscience training, but they may also be overwhelming for trainees. To streamline professional development and career education information for the bioscience graduate students at our institution, we tested a model where we built a centralized web portal of career development resources. Here we present our strategy and best practices for website design. We show data that students preferred a centralized online portal over other forms of resource communication; that programming, paired communication and environmental factors (e.g.Ā remote learning and work as in the COVID-19 pandemic) combined to increase sustained engagement with the site; and that harnessing website analytics is an effective way to measure site utilization and generate insights on programming and resource development. This data, in turn, fits into broader priorities to evaluate interventions in graduate bioscience education.
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Heterologous Prime-Boost with Immunologically Orthogonal Protein Nanoparticles for Peptide Immunofocusing -
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+Protein nanoparticles are effective platforms for antigen presentation and targeting effector immune cells in vaccine development. Encapsulins are a class of protein-based microbial nanocompartments that self-assemble into icosahedral structures with external diameters ranging from 24 to 42 nm. Encapsulins from Mxyococcus xanthus were designed to package bacterial RNA when produced in E. coli and were shown to have immunogenic and self-adjuvanting properties enhanced by this RNA. We genetically incorporated a 20-mer peptide derived from a mutant strain of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) into the encapsulin protomeric coat protein for presentation on the exterior surface of the particle. This immunogen elicited conformationally-relevant humoral responses to the SARS-CoV-2 RBD. Immunological recognition was enhanced when the same peptide was presented in a heterologous prime/boost vaccination strategy using the engineered encapsulin and a previously reported variant of the PP7 virus-like particle, leading to the development of a selective antibody response against a SARS-CoV-2 RBD point mutant. While generating epitope-focused antibody responses is an interplay between inherent vaccine properties and B/T cells, here we demonstrate the use of orthogonal nanoparticles to fine-tune the control of epitope focusing.
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Biochemical characterization of naturally occurring mutations in SARS-CoV-2 RNA-dependent RNA polymerase -
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+Since the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, mutations in all subunits of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) of the virus have been repeatedly reported. Although RdRp represents a primary target for antiviral drugs, experimental studies exploring the phenotypic effect of these mutations have been limited. This study focuses on the phenotypic effects of substitutions in the three RdRp subunits: nsp7, nsp8, and nsp12, selected based on their occurrence rate and potential impact. We employed nano-differential scanning fluorimetry and microscale thermophoresis to examine the impact of these mutations on protein stability and RdRp complex assembly. We observed diverse impacts; notably, a single mutation in nsp8 significantly increased its stability as evidenced by a 13 [deg]C increase in melting temperature, whereas certain mutations in nsp7 and nsp8 reduced their binding affinity to nsp12 during RdRp complex formation. Using a fluorometric enzymatic assay, we assessed the overall effect on RNA polymerase activity. We found that most of the examined mutations altered the polymerase activity, often as a direct result of changes in stability or affinity to the other components of the RdRp complex. Intriguingly, a combination of nsp8 A21V and nsp12 P323L mutations resulted in a 50% increase in polymerase activity. Additionally, some of the examined substitutions in the RdRp subunits notably influenced the sensitivity of RdRp to Remdesivir, highlighting their potential implications for therapeutic strategies. To our knowledge, this is the first biochemical study to demonstrate the impact of amino acid mutations across all components constituting the RdRp complex in emerging SARS-CoV-2 subvariants.
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Emotional Contagion in Scandinavia during the COVID-19 Public Health Crisis -
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+In this article we present the findings of social media analysis of the spread of misinformation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and outline how analyses of the psychological properties of a text can be used to optimize strategic messaging online. Our data used Twitter data, collected during the COVID-19 pandemic and analyzed using a suite of AI based analytical tools, which provided data for further empirical analysis. The analysis yielded insights related to the differences in the dynamics of the spread of misinformation within (and outside of) Scandinavian countries. Analysing this data enabled us to explore three hypotheses: (1) Misinformation will be associated with specific moral signatures, which will differ between Scandinavian and non-Scandinavian samples, (2) Levels of engagement will be associated with specific themes and moral concerns, which will differ between Scandinavian and non-Scandinavian samples, and (3) Within Scandinavia, similar unique signatures will be discernible at the country level, with Sweden driving significant differences. These specific results provide guidance for healthcare professionals responsible for communicating information and crafting messages that are more resonant with their target population and more generally demonstrate the ability for social media analysis to be useful in strategic decision making when going beyond focusing on engagement metrics or sentiment alone.
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Leveraging Social Media Data for Unobtrusive Measurement of Academicsā Well-Being -
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+Understanding and promoting researchersā well-being is crucial for successful research outcomes and a thriving scientific community. Traditional well-being assessments can be resource-intensive, prompting the computational analysis of academic social networks as a promising alternative. It has been shown that sentiment analysis of social media text data can be used to infer well-being in the general population, but it is not known whether this approach is transferable to the specific subgroup of researchers. This proof-of-concept study addresses this research question by assessing the potential of scholarly communication in social media to provide insights into researchersā emotional well-being using sentiment analysis. Therefore, we derived researchersā emotional well-being from a dataset of more than 13 Million tweets from almost 16,000 psychology researchers, and utilized survey data from the COVID-19 pandemic for external validation of our results. Our aim was to confirm two hypotheses: lower well-being during the pandemic (H1) and a stronger impact on female researchers (H2). Using structural break analysis, the impact of the pandemic was found to be statistically significant for positive sentiments. A differential effect by gender was observed descriptively, but did not reach statistical significance. Results suggest that sentiment analysis of researchersā tweets can provide insights into their well-being, but to a limited extent than in the general population. Exploratory analysis of cognitive well-being revealed that some, but not all PERMA+4 dimensions are prevalent in researchersā social media posts. We discuss promising expansions of our approach and highlight practical implications for policymakers.
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Deep plasma proteomics with data-independent acquisition: A fastlane towards biomarkers identification. -
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+Plasma proteomic is a precious tool in human disease research, but requires extensive sample preparation in order to perform in-depth analysis and biomarker discovery using traditional Data-Dependent Acquisition (DDA). Here, we highlight the efficacy of combining moderate plasma prefractionation and Data-Independent Acquisition (DIA) to significantly improve proteome coverage and depth, while remaining cost- and time-efficient. Using human plasma collected from a 20-patient COVID-19 cohort, our method utilises commonly available solutions for depletion, sample preparation, and fractionation, followed by 3 LC-MS/MS injections for a 360-minutes DIA run time. DIA-NN software was then used for precursor identification, and the QFeatures R package was used for protein aggregation. We detect 1,321 proteins on average per patient, and 2,031 unique proteins across the cohort. Filtering precursors present in under 25% of patients, we still detect 1,230 average proteins and 1,590 unique proteins, indicating robust protein identification. Differential analysis further demonstrates the applicability of this method for plasma proteomic research and clinical biomarker identification. In summary, this study introduces a streamlined, cost- and time-effective approach to deep plasma proteome analysis, expanding its utility beyond classical research environments and enabling larger-scale multi-omics investigations in clinical settings.
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Effectiveness of a Nasal Spray on Viral Respiratory Infections - Conditions: Acute Respiratory Tract Infection; Flu, Human; COVID-19; Common Cold Interventions: Device: Nasal Spray HSV Treatment Sponsors: CEN Biotech; Urgo Research, Innovation & Development Recruiting
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GS-441524 for COVID-19 SAD, FE, and MAD Study in Healthy Subjects - Conditions: COVID-19 Interventions: Drug: GS-441524; Drug: Placebo Sponsors: National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS); Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc.; ICON Government and Public Health Solutions, Inc Not yet recruiting
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The Aerobic Exercise Capacity and Muscle Strenght in Individuals With COVID-19 - Conditions: COVID-19 Pneumonia; COVID-19 Interventions: Device: Kardiopulmonary exercise test (Quark KPET C12x/T12x device connected to the Omnia version 1.6.8 COSMED system); Device: Peripheral muscle strength measurement (microFET3 (Hoggan Health Industries, Fabrication Enterprises, lnc) and JAMAR hydraulic hand dynamometer (Sammons Preston, Rolyon, Bolingbrook).; Device: Standard exercise tolerance test (a bicycle ergometer and recorded through the ergoline rehabilitation system 2 Version 1.08 SPI.); Device: Aerobic exercise training (a bicycle ergometer and recorded through the ergoline rehabilitation system 2 Version 1.08 SPI.) Sponsors: Selda Sarıkaya; Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University Completed
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UNAIR Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccine INAVAC as Heterologue Booster (Immunobridging Study) in Adolescent Subjects - Conditions: COVID-19 Pandemic; COVID-19 Vaccines Interventions: Biological: INAVAC (Vaksin Merah Putih - UA- SARS CoV-2 (Vero Cell Inactivated) 5 Ī¼g Sponsors: Dr.Ā Soetomo General Hospital; Indonesia-MoH; Universitas Airlangga; PT Biotis Pharmaceuticals, Indonesia Active, not recruiting
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World Health Organization (WHO) , COVID19 Case Series of Post Covid 19 Rhino Orbito Cerebral Mucormycosis in Egypt - Conditions: Mucormycosis; Rhinocerebral (Etiology); COVID-19 Interventions: Procedure: debridment Sponsors: Nasser Institute For Research and Treatment Completed
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Treatment of Post-COVID-19 With Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: a Randomized, Controlled Trial - Conditions: Post-COVID-19 Syndrome; Post-COVID Syndrome; Post COVID-19 Condition; Post-COVID Condition; Post COVID-19 Condition, Unspecified; Long COVID; Long Covid19 Interventions: Drug: Hyperbaric oxygen Sponsors: Erasmus Medical Center; Da Vinci Clinic; HGC Rijswijk Not yet recruiting
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Mindfulness-based Mobile Applications Program - Conditions: COVID-19; Cell Phone Use; Nurse; Mental Health Interventions: Device: mindfulness-based mobile applications program Sponsors: Yu-Chien Huang Completed
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Attention Training for COVID-19 Related Distress - Conditions: Anxiety Interventions: Behavioral: Attention Bias Modification; Behavioral: Attention Control Training; Behavioral: Neutral training Sponsors: Palo Alto University Not yet recruiting
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Correlation of Antibody Response to COVID-19 Vaccination in Pregnant Woman and Transplacental Passage Into Cord Blood. - Conditions: Covid-19 Interventions: Diagnostic Test: COVID-19 Spike Protein IgG Quantitative Antibody (CMIA) Sponsors: Vachira Phuket Hospital Recruiting
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UNAIR Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccine as Homologue Booster (Immunobridging Study) - Conditions: COVID-19 Pandemic; COVID-19 Vaccines; COVID-19 Virus Disease Interventions: Biological: INAVAC (Vaksin Merah Putih - UA- SARS CoV-2 (Vero Cell Inactivated) 5 Ī¼g Sponsors: Dr.Ā Soetomo General Hospital; Universitas Airlangga; Biotis Pharmaceuticals, Indonesia; Indonesia-MoH Recruiting
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From PubMed
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Exploring Retrograde Trafficking: Mechanisms and Consequences in Cancer and Disease - Retrograde trafficking (RT) orchestrates the intracellular movement of cargo from the plasma membrane, endosomes, Golgi or endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC) in an inward/ER-directed manner. RT works as the opposing movement to anterograde trafficking (outward secretion), and the two work together to maintain cellular homeostasis. This is achieved through maintaining cell polarity, retrieving proteins responsible for anterograde trafficking and redirecting proteinsā¦
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Antiplatelet therapy prior to COVID-19 infection impacts on patients mortality: a propensity score-matched cohort study - One of the major pathomechanisms of COVID-19 is the interplay of hyperinflammation and disruptions in coagulation processes, involving thrombocytes. Antiplatelet therapy (AP) by anti-inflammatory effect and inhibition of platelet aggregation may affect these pathways. The aim of this study was to investigate if AP has an impact on the in-hospital course and medium-term outcomes in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The study population (2170 COVID-19 patients: mean Ā± SD age 60 Ā± 19 years old, 50%ā¦
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Pan-viral propagation blockade by inhibiting host cell PNPT1 - Successful viral propagation within infected cells necessitates the virusesā ability to overcome the cellular integrated stress response (ISR), triggered during viral infection, which in turn inhibits general protein translation. In our study, we unveil a shared tactic employed by viruses to suppress ISR by upregulating host cell polyribonucleotide nucleotidyltransferase 1 (PNPT1). The propagation of adenovirus, murine cytomegalovirus, and hepatovirus within their respective host cells inducesā¦
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Synergistic Binding of SARS-CoV-2 to ACE2 and Gangliosides in Native Lipid Membranes - Viruses utilize cell surface glycans and plasma membrane receptors to attain an adequate attachment strength for initiating cellular entry. We show that SARS-CoV-2 particles bind to endogenous ACE2 receptors and added sialylated gangliosides in near-native membranes. This was explored using supported membrane bilayers (SMBs) that were formed using plasma membrane vesicles having endogenous ACE2 and GD1a gangliosides reconstituted in lipid vesicles. The virus binding rate to the SMBs isā¦
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Viral RNA Replication Suppression of SARS-CoV-2: Atomistic Insights into Inhibition Mechanisms of RdRp Machinery by ddhCTP - The nonstructural protein 12, known as RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), is essential for both replication and repair of the viral genome. The RdRp of SARS-CoV-2 has been used as a promising candidate for drug development since the inception of the COVID-19 spread. In this work, we performed an in silico investigation on the insertion of the naturally modified pyrimidine nucleobase ddhCTP into the SARS-CoV-2 RdRp active site, in a comparative analysis with the natural one (CTP). Theā¦
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NLRP1 restricts porcine deltacoronavirus infection via IL-11 inhibiting the phosphorylation of the ERK signaling pathway - Continuously emerging highly pathogenic coronaviruses remain a major threat to human and animal health. Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) is a newly emerging enterotropic swine coronavirus that causes large-scale outbreaks of severe diarrhea disease in piglets. Unlike other porcine coronaviruses, PDCoV has a wide range of species tissue tropism, including primary human cells, which poses a significant risk of cross-species transmission. Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptorā¦
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Nsp1 facilitates SARS-CoV-2 replication through calcineurin-NFAT signaling - SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, has been intensely studied in search of effective antiviral treatments. The immunosuppressant cyclosporine A (CsA) has been suggested to be a pan-coronavirus inhibitor, yet its underlying mechanism remained largely unknown. Here, we found that non-structural protein 1 (Nsp1) of SARS-CoV-2 usurped CsA-suppressed nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) signaling to drive the expression of cellular DEAD-box helicase 5 (DDX5), which facilitates viralā¦
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Reduced interleukin-18 secretion by human monocytic cells in response to infections with hyper-virulent Streptococcus pyogenes - CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate that strains, which harbor covR/S mutations, interfere with IL-18 and IL-8 responses in monocytic cells by utilizing the caspase-8 axis. Future experiments aim to identify the underlying mechanism and consequences for NSTI patients.
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Methyl rosmarinate is an allosteric inhibitor of SARS-cov-2 3 C L protease as a potential candidate against SARS-cov-2 infection - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been ongoing for more than three years and urgently needs to be addressed. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) prescriptions have played an important role in the clinical treatment of patients with COVID-19 in China. However, it is difficult to uncover the potential molecular mechanisms of the active ingredients in these TCM prescriptions. In this paper, we developed a newā¦
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Human transferrin receptor can mediate SARS-CoV-2 infection - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has been detected in almost all organs of coronavirus disease-19 patients, although some organs do not express angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2), a known receptor of SARS-CoV-2, implying the presence of alternative receptors and/or co-receptors. Here, we show that the ubiquitously distributed human transferrin receptor (TfR), which binds to diferric transferrin to traffic between membrane and endosome for the ironā¦
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Polyvalent Nanobody Structure Designed for Boosting SARS-CoV-2 Inhibition - Coronavirus transmission and mutations have brought intensive challenges on pandemic control and disease treatment. Developing robust and versatile antiviral drugs for viral neutralization is highly desired. Here, we created a new polyvalent nanobody (Nb) structure that shows the effective inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Our polyvalent Nb structure, called āPNSā, is achieved by first conjugating single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and the receptor-binding domain (RBD)-targeting Nb with retainedā¦
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Efficacy of Host Cell Serine Protease Inhibitor MM3122 against SARS-CoV-2 for Treatment and Prevention of COVID-19 - We have developed a novel class of peptidomimetic inhibitors targeting several host cell human serine proteases including transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2), matriptase and hepsin. TMPRSS2 is a membrane associated protease which is highly expressed in the upper and lower respiratory tract and is utilized by SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses to proteolytically process their glycoproteins, enabling host cell receptor binding, entry, replication, and dissemination of new virion particles. We haveā¦
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Antimicrobial and Virus Adsorption Properties of Y-Zeolite Exchanged with Silver and Zinc Cations - The antimicrobial activity of silver and zinc exchanged cations in Y-zeolite (Ag/CBV-600, Zn/CBV-600) is evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus (gram (+)) and Escherichia coli (gram (-)) bacteria along with their adsorption capacity for viruses: brome mosaic virus (BMV), cowpea chlorotic mottle virus (CCMV), and the bacteriophage MS2. The physicochemical properties of synthesized nanomaterials are characterized by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), UV-Visā¦
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Diphenyl ethers from the cultured lichen mycobiont of Graphis handelii Zahlbr - CONCLUSION: A new compound, handelone (1) was isolated from the cultured mycobiont of Graphis handelii. From these compounds, four new derivatives were prepared. Compound 1 showed good activity against M^(pro) with an IC(50) value of 5.2 Ī¼M but it showed weak or inactive activity in other tests. Other compounds were inactive in all assays.
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Sialic Acid Conjugate-Modified Cationic Liposomal Paclitaxel for Targeted Therapy of Lung Metastasis in Breast Cancer: What a Difference the Cation Content Makes - Cationic lipids play a pivotal role in developing novel drug delivery systems for diverse biomedical applications, owing to the success of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 and the Phase III antitumor agent EndoTAG-1. However, the therapeutic potential of these positively charged liposomes is limited by dose-dependent toxicity. While an increased content of cationic lipids in the formulation can enhance the uptake and cytotoxicity toward tumor-associated cells, it is crucial to balance theseā¦
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From Patent Search
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The Israeli Settlers Attacking Their Palestinian Neighbors - With the worldās focus on Gaza, settlers have used wartime chaos as cover for violence and dispossession. - link
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What a Major Solar Storm Could Do to Our Planet - Disturbances on the sun may have the potential to devastate our power grid and communication systems. When the next big storm arrives, will we be prepared for it? - link
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A Professor Claimed to Be Native American. Did She Know She Wasnāt? - Elizabeth Hoover, who has taught at Brown and Berkeley, insists that she made an honest mistake. Her critics say she has been lying for more than a decade. - link
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Inside North Koreaās Forced-Labor Program in China - Workers sent from the country to Chinese factories describe enduring beatings and sexual abuse, having their wages taken by the state, and being told that if they try to escape they will be ākilled without a trace.ā - link
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The Increasing Attacks on Kamala Harris - The Vice-President is trying to cast herself as a leader and connect with voters who are not excited about the Democratic ticket. - link
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From Vox
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Black Nazis? A woman pope? Thatās just the start of Googleās AI problem. -
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+Screenshot of @EndWokenessās post on X
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+The Gemini image generator isnāt just suffering from a technical problem, but from a philosophical one.
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+Just last week, Google was forced to pump the brakes on its AI image generator, called Gemini, after critics complained that it was pushing bias ā¦ against white people.
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+The controversy started with ā you guessed it ā a viral post on X. According to that post from the user @EndWokeness, when asked for an image of a Founding Father of America, Gemini showed a Black man, a Native American man, an Asian man, and a relatively dark-skinned man. Asked for a portrait of a pope, it showed a Black man and a woman of color. Nazis, too, were reportedly portrayed as racially diverse.
+
+
+
+
+Americaās Founding Fathers, Vikings, and the Pope according to Google AI: pic.twitter.com/lw4aIKLwkp
+
+After complaints from the likes of Elon Musk, who called Geminiās output āracistā and Google āwoke,ā the company suspended the AI toolās ability to generate pictures of people.
+
+
+āItās clear that this feature missed the mark. Some of the images generated are inaccurate or even offensive,ā Google Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan wrote, adding that Gemini does sometimes āovercompensateā in its quest to show diversity.
+
+
+Raghavan gave a technical explanation for why the tool overcompensates: Google had taught Gemini to avoid falling into some of AIās classic traps, like stereotypically portraying all lawyers as men. But, Raghavan wrote, āour tuning to ensure that Gemini showed a range of people failed to account for cases that should clearly not show a range.ā
+
+
+This might all sound like just the latest iteration of the dreary culture war over āwokenessā ā and one that, at least this time, can be solved by quickly patching a technical problem. (Google plans to relaunch the tool in a few weeks.)
+
+
+But thereās something deeper going on here. The problem with Gemini is not just a technical problem.
+
+
+Itās a philosophical problem ā one for which the AI world has no clear-cut solution.
+
+
+What does bias mean?
+
+
+Imagine that you work at Google. Your boss tells you to design an AI image generator. Thatās a piece of cake for you ā youāre a brilliant computer scientist! But one day, as youāre testing the tool, you realize youāve got a conundrum.
+
+
+You ask the AI to generate an image of a CEO. Lo and behold, itās a man. On the one hand, you live in a world where the vast majority of CEOs are male, so maybe your tool should accurately reflect that, creating images of man after man after man. On the other hand, that may reinforce gender stereotypes that keep women out of the C-suite. And thereās nothing in the definition of āCEOā that specifies a gender. So should you instead make a tool that shows a balanced mix, even if itās not a mix that reflects todayās reality?
+
+
+This comes down to how you understand bias.
+
+
+Computer scientists are used to thinking about ābiasā in terms of its statistical meaning: A program for making predictions is biased if itās consistently wrong in one direction or another. (For example, if a weather app always overestimates the probability of rain, its predictions are statistically biased.) Thatās very clear, but itās also very different from the way most people use the word ābiasā ā which is more like āprejudiced against a certain group.ā
+
+
+The problem is, if you design your image generator to make statistically unbiased predictions about the gender breakdown among CEOs, then it will be biased in the second sense of the word. And if you design it not to have its predictions correlate with gender, it will be biased in the statistical sense.
+
+
+So how should you resolve the trade-off?
+
+
+āI donāt think there can be a clear answer to these questions,ā Julia Stoyanovich, director of the NYU Center for Responsible AI, told me when I previously reported on this topic. āBecause this is all based on values.ā
+
+
+Embedded within any algorithm is a value judgment about what to prioritize, including when it comes to these competing notions of bias. So companies have to decide whether they want to be accurate in portraying what society currently looks like, or promote a vision of what they think society could or even should look like ā a dream world.
+
+
+
+How can tech companies do a better job navigating this tension?
+
+
+The first thing we should expect companies to do is get explicit about what an algorithm is optimizing for: Which type of bias will it focus on reducing? Then companies have to figure out how to build that into the algorithm.
+
+
+Part of that is predicting how people are likely to use an AI tool. They might try to create historical depictions of the world (think: white popes) but they might also try to create depictions of a dream world (female popes, bring it on!).
+
+
+āIn Gemini, they erred towards the ādream worldā approach, understanding that defaulting to the historic biases that the model learned would (minimally) result in massive public pushback,ā wrote Margaret Mitchell, chief ethics scientist at the AI startup Hugging Face.
+
+
+Google might have used certain tricks āunder the hoodā to push Gemini to produce dream-world images, Mitchell explained. For example, it may have been appending diversity terms to usersā prompts, turning āa popeā into āa pope who is femaleā or āa Founding Fatherā into āa Founding Father who is Black.ā
+
+
+But instead of adopting only a dream-world approach, Google could have equipped Gemini to suss out which approach the user actually wants (say, by soliciting feedback about the userās preferences) ā and then generate that, assuming the user isnāt asking for something off-limits.
+
+
+What counts as off-limits comes down, once again, to values. Every company needs to explicitly define its values and then equip its AI tool to refuse requests that violate them. Otherwise, we end up with things like Taylor Swift porn.
+
+
+AI developers have the technical ability to do this. The question is whether theyāve got the philosophical ability to reckon with the value choices theyāre making ā and the integrity to be transparent about them.
+
Should Big Pharma pay poor countries for finding new diseases? -
+
+
+
+African nations were left waiting for Covid-19 vaccines. Can the world come up with a plan to prevent that from happening in future pandemics? | Osvaldo Silva/AFP via Getty Images
+
+
+
+Thereās a stalemate over stopping future pandemics ā and it comes down to money.
+
+
+The Covid-19 pandemic revealed that, in a global health emergency, all the aspirational rhetoric about international cooperation didnāt mean much. Once groundbreaking Covid-19 vaccines became available a year into the pandemic, rich countries looked out for themselves and poorer countries were largely left behind.
+
+
+That brought recriminations, but also a pledge from the worldās nations to learn from those mistakes and create a better playbook for when a future pathogen inevitably threatens the world. So at the end of 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the global community would negotiate a pandemic treaty to set the rules for international cooperation in future public health crises. Those efforts were supposed to reach a triumphant conclusion this May, at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, where the final product of treaty negotiations would be reviewed and ratified by the worldās nations.
+
+
+But the last few months of negotiations have instead been tumultuous. The same divisions between rich and poor countries that emerged during Covid are now threatening to derail what was meant to be a landmark achievement in protecting the world from catastrophic pandemics.
+
+
+The fundamental problem is that, much as they were in the thick of the pandemic, wealthy nations remain largely allied with Big Pharma against the Global Southās interests.
+
+
+The stalemate over sharing information about emerging diseases
+
+
+One major sticking point in the pandemic treaty is about coming to an agreement on sharing information about dangerous new pathogens ā a key component of keeping the world safe from future pandemics.
+
+
+Africa in particular is the source of many emerging diseases that could pose a risk to humans. Under the system being contemplated in the pandemic treaty talks, once a potentially dangerous virus is identified, developing countries would share access to viral samples with developed countries, home to the bulk of the worldās biopharmaceutical industry. The industry would then take that information to begin developing medical countermeasures, like vaccines or new treatments. Then those new medicines would be shared equitably between the nations where they were developed and the nations that provided the raw material about the diseases.
+
+
+In exchange for providing pathogen samples, African nations want pharmaceutical companies to pay an annual fee to support a centralized system for sharing pathogen information and for sharing the medical products that are ultimately developed from that information, potentially managed by a major multilateral body like the WHO. They also want pharmaceutical companies to commit to making a certain percentage of the products developed from these pathogen samples (diagnostics, vaccines, medicines) available for free or for the cost of production in a future pandemic.
+
+
+But Big Pharma opposes both compensating countries for sharing pathogen information and the creation of a centralized bureaucracy to manage that process, arguing that it would slow down the development of medical breakthroughs. Drug companies have been largely supported in that position by the US and European Union.
+
+
+Big Pharmaās argument should be familiar to anybody who has followed the drug pricing debate in the US: Whenever a new regulation is proposed, the drug industry warns that it will stifle innovation. Research on drug development, however, suggests that may not be true.
+
+
+The pharmaceutical industry says it does not have a problem with reserving some of its products for low-income countries. But its conditions for providing that conflict directly with the desires of the Global South.
+
+
+Pharma companies want free, unfettered access to the pathogen information from the Global South. They also want intellectual property rights to treatments to be protected, which could make it harder for new medicines to get to developing countries by limiting the scale of production. (Relaxing IP rules, on the other hand, would make it easier for other parties to manufacture their own version of the medicines and distribute them in an emergency.)
+
+
+During Covid, the vaccination initiative Covax attempted to circumvent IP rights in order to quickly produce and distribute vaccines, but those efforts were delayed and ultimately watered down, in part with the support of international actors like the EU, where many big drugmakers are based. āBy organizing its multilateral effort with a commitment to saving IP rights at the same time as saving lives, [COVAX] created a terribly limited and limiting vaccine supply system for underserved and excluded populations,ā according to a recent analysis in the journal New Political Economy.
+
+
+Private interests could derail the pandemic treaty
+
+
+That is exactly the type of situation that a pandemic accord is meant to prevent. But the current stalemate suggests that the underlying dynamics that led to millions in the Global South missing out on Covid vaccines havenāt changed.
+
+
+Wealthy states remain too often beholden to their biopharma industries. They have established a complex web of regulations that protect the companiesā IP, giving nations first access to the drugs and vaccines their drugmakers produce. That entanglement has created what the authors of the New Policy Economy paper, Matthew Sparke of the University of California Santa Cruz and Owain Williams of the University of Leeds, describe as collusion between developed nations and the drug industry.
+
+
+āThey serve to capture value from biomedical innovation in ways that limit global access to medicines while simultaneously entrenching the dominance of high-income countries, lead firms and the interests of investors,ā they wrote.
+
+
+Many other questions about the pandemic treaty must still be resolved in the coming months, including the nature of the agreement itself. Should it be opt-in or opt-out? The latter would mean that it comes into force more quickly (and that some of its provisions could be watered down). But an opt-out treaty might be politically difficult in countries like the US, where broad swaths of the public are skeptical of global health authorities, and a Republican-controlled House may not ratify such an agreement.
+
+
+It is too early to declare the pandemic treaty dead ā negotiators are in the midst of a two-week meeting to try to resolve these issues. But the obstacles are substantial. Pharmaās influence has frequently thwarted drug cost control efforts in the US and around the world. Letās hope this time policymakers can overcome it.
+
+
Can Biden contain the fallout from his Gaza policy inĀ Michigan? -
+
+
+
+US Rep.Ā Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) speaks alongside Shawn Fain, president of the United Automobile Workers, at a press conference calling for a ceasefire in the Middle East, outside of the US Capitol on December 14, 2023, in Washington, DC. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
+
+
+
+Bidenās support for Israelās military campaign is testing Arab American votersā loyalty inĀ Michigan and beyond.
+
+
+Editorās note, February 28, 6:45 am ET: President Joe Biden won Michiganās Democratic primary Tuesday night. With nearly all of the vote counted, about 13 percent went to āuncommitted.ā The original story that follows was published February 27.
+
+
+Arab American activists and their allies are urging voters to cast ballots as āuncommittedā in Michiganās Democratic primary on Tuesday in protest of President Joe Bidenās support for Israelās war in Gaza. Theyāre unlikely to change the result of the contest, in which Biden is the only major candidate, but theyāre hoping to signal their anger ā and send a warning ā to Democrats in one of the most critical swing states on the 2024 map.
+
+
+Michigan is home to more than 300,000 people who claim Middle Eastern or North African heritage, many of them concentrated in the city of Dearborn ā one of the largest Arab American communities in the US. These are voters who helped deliver Michigan to Biden in 2020, when his margin of victory in the state was just over 154,000 votes. In Wayne County, where Dearborn is located, as well as Oakland County, where Arab Americans also make up a significant share of the population, voters backed him at rates of about 69 and 56 percent, respectively.
+
+
+Those days, however, are over. Biden is currently losing to former President Donald Trump in seven major polls conducted in Michigan since the beginning of the war. There are multiple reasons for that, including falling support in the powerful auto workers union, which endorsed Biden glaringly late in the game this year, but Arab Americans and young progressive voters in the state have also cited Gaza as an important factor, and most Michiganders support a ceasefire.
+
+
+Arab American officials in Michigan have become prominent critics of the USās support for Israelās campaign, which has killed about 30,000 Palestinians since the October 7 attack by Hamas. The mayor of Dearborn ā Abdullah Hammoud, who has Lebanese ancestry ā wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times Wednesday that āWe donāt have to imagine the violence and injustice being carried out against the Palestinian people. Many of us lived it, and still bear the scars of life under occupation and apartheid.ā US Rep.Ā Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan), the only Palestinian member of Congress, has explicitly told voters not to support Biden.
+
+Tlaibās sister, Layla Elabed, is now heading up the āListen to Michiganā campaign to encourage at least 10,000 Michiganders to vote āuncommittedā in support of a ceasefire in Gaza. Now endorsed by progressive organizations including Our Revolution and the Democratic Socialists of America, the campaign has been conducting text and phone banking, buying digital ads, knocking on doors, and sending out mailers throughout Michigan.
+
+
+āThis is a protest vote against genocide,ā Elabed said. āThe resounding sense in a lot of Arab American communities and Muslim American communities is that our voices donāt matter here. And our lives donāt matter abroad.ā
+
+
+Even if the organizers of the uncommitted campaign succeed, they wonāt affect Bidenās chances of securing his partyās nomination. But depending on how large the uncommitted vote is in Michigan, it could spell trouble for Biden in the fall, should Arab Americans and their allies stay home or cast a ballot for Trump in a state Biden, currently in a tight contest nationally, will likely need to win.
+
+
+Biden has faltered on Arab American outreach
+
+
+The uncommitted campaign is the product of what Arab American leaders say is the White Houseās failure to listen to them and address their concerns through traditional outreach channels. Since October, Arab American leaders have been trying to no avail to get an audience with Biden to voice their concerns about the war, said Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, who grew up in Dearborn.
+
+
+Biden quietly hosted a group of five Muslim leaders in late October at the White House, where they told him that he had failed to show empathy for the acute suffering in Gaza. But that was seen as a slight by the ethnic constituency of Arab Americans, who are also Christian, Druze, Jewish, Mandaen, and other faiths, as well as secular, Berry said. And in February, Biden skipped a scheduled stop in Dearborn while visiting Michigan, instead meeting with auto workers in the Detroit metro area.
+
+
+āFor months, weāve been asking for meaningful engagement on policy, and, frankly, are being ignored,ā Berry said.
+
+
+The Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee did not respond to requests for comment.
+
+
+Officials from the Biden campaign and the White House, as well as Biden surrogates, have visited Michigan multiple times in the last two months with the intent of smoothing things over with the Arab American community. In January, Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez held small meetings with some Arab American leaders after others made clear that they were too angry to be open to dialogue in a planned larger meeting. And even after adjusting the plan, there was one meeting in which all 10 to 15 people invited declined to attend in protest.
+
+
+To Elabed, the fact that Biden sent his campaign manager to Michigan signaled that he was more interested in securing Arab American votes than talking āabout how this failed policy is affecting our communities,ā she said.
+
+
+In February, a group of White House officials, including USAID administrator Samantha Power, also visited Michigan to highlight how the administration is trying to get humanitarian aid to Palestinians. In a closed-door meeting, deputy national security adviser Jon Finer reportedly admitted that the administration had āmisstepped in the course of responding to this crisisā and āleft a very damaging impression, based on what has been a wholly inadequate public accounting for how much the president, the administration, the country values the lives of Palestinians.ā
+
+
+Biden ally Rep.Ā Ro Khanna (D-CA) ā who supports a ceasefire in Gaza and cutting off further aid to Israel ā met with Arab and Muslim leaders in Michigan earlier this month to talk about how to build support for their policy demands in Washington.
+
+
+But Elabed said it still doesnāt feel as though Biden is adequately responding to the concerns of the Arab American community. His sharpest critique of Israelās campaign came only earlier this month, when he said that it was āover the topā and that civilian suffering and death āhad to stop.ā Meanwhile, the US recently vetoed a ceasefire resolution at the United Nations for the third time since the start of the war. The Biden administration continues to push for a $14.1 billion supplemental aid package for Israel on top of the approximately $3.3 billion it already receives annually from the US, and is continuing to make major arms sales while offering unconditional military support to Israel.
+
+
+āFor Joe Biden to ignore the very communities that largely brought him Michigan in 2020 is a slap in the face,ā Elabed said. āIt does feel so dehumanizing that a party that I have supported my whole adult life is now ignoring the deaths and murder of my people and the destruction of my ancestral land.ā
+
+
+Arab Americans say blame Biden if Trump wins a second term ā not them
+
+
+Michigan Gov.Ā Gretchen Whitmer is urging voters in her state not to vote uncommitted. āItās important not to lose sight of the fact that any vote thatās not cast for Joe Biden supports a second Trump term,ā she said on Sunday during an interview on CNNās State of the Union.
+
+
+But many Arab American activists are arguing that Whitmer and others critiquing uncommitted voters should instead lay the blame at Bidenās feet.
+
+
+āIf the outcome is that we have another Trump presidency, it is going to be Joe Biden and his administration and the Democratic Party that hands over the White House to the Trump administration,ā Elabed said. āBecause when you ignore your core constituency ā¦ you have no one to blame but yourselves.ā
+
+
+Many Arab American voters fear a second Trump presidency ā not just on the issue of Gaza ā and acknowledge that his foreign policy was disastrous for Palestinians and the Arab world, Berry said.
+
+
+He moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2017 ā a choice made in recognition of the fact that Israel had made unified Jerusalem its capital but a decidedly controversial one given that control of Jerusalem has historically been a key sticking point in negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. The US recognized the Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights under Trump and reaffirmed it under Biden.
+
+
+The Trump administration also argued in 2019 that Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bankare not necessarily illegal, lending legitimacy to Israelās claims on the territories, but the annexations and moves toward it are widely regarded as illegal under international law, and no other country has recognized them.
+
+None of this is news to Arab American voters. But activists argue itās still hard for them to justify voting for Biden when the Biden administration has in their minds failed to adequately push back on the slaughter of Palestinians after October 7.
+
+
+āWe fought back for those four years,ā Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said. āWe pushed back and we found ways to fight back against [Trumpās] policies. But the one thing we didnāt have was a genocide.ā
+
+
+Berry said her organization is pushing hard to ensure that Arab Americans donāt just sit this election out as a result of anger with Biden, which she said is not how the communityās best interests are served, but isnāt encouraging that they vote any particular way. The alternatives include voting for third-party candidates or casting a ballot for Trump. Many Iraqi Chaldean Christians in Michiganās Macomb and Oakland counties already backed him in 2020, when he promised to shield them from deportation.
+
+
+Ayoub said he himself doesnāt think Trump is the right option. But given what heās been hearing from Arab and Muslim voters, he said theyāre willing to consider him.
+
+
+āWeāll speak to [Trump]. And if he does the right moves in the campaign ā¦ we donāt mind voting for him,ā Ayoub said. āThose dead family members, those dead bodies, those images weāre seeing ā¦ Thatās enough for them to say, give me a few bad tweets and a few mean words and let my family members live.ā
+
+
+What does all of this really mean, in Michigan and nationally?
+
+
+The national contest between Biden and Trump, who is all but assured the GOP nomination, is tight. As one of six major battleground states in 2024, Michigan could determine the outcome of the election overall, and Biden canāt afford any significant splintering of his coalition there.
+
+
+The Arab American community in Michigan is small, making up slightly over 1 percent of the stateās population of 10 million. And outside the Arab American community, there are ānot that manyā voters who disagree with Bidenās policies in Gaza and even fewer are āso motivated in their anger against Biden that they would vote uncommitted in a Democratic primary,ā Bill Ballenger, a longtime political pundit in Michigan, said.
+
+
+But if the margins in Michigan are anywhere as close as they were in 2020 and 2016, āmaybe the loss of support in the Arab American community could spell the difference between victory and defeat for Biden,ā Ballenger said. āNo wonder heās worried.ā
+
+
+And while the war in Gaza looms large in Michigan because of its large Arab American community, itās an issue that has resonated nationally among Arab Americans, who also have sizable and growing communities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Georgia. The movement to abandon Biden over his stance on Gaza has already spread to some of those states, and his campaign is struggling to secure surrogates and endorsements that could help bridge the gap with Arab Americans and young progressives. Nationally, Bidenās support among Arab American voters has fallen from 59 in 2020 to 17 percent after the war in Gaza broke out in October.
+
+
+Democrats generally have also increasingly turned against the war in Gaza. About half of 2020 Biden voters said that they believe Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in a February poll by YouGov/The Economist.
+
+
+That doesnāt necessarily mean that theyāll decide how to vote based on Bidenās response to the war; the economy remains a bipartisan priority for voters, and Democrats also citehealth care, climate change, poverty, racism, abortion, and womenās rights as top concerns. Biden is pushing the progress heās made on the economy and trying to draw a sharp contrast with Trump on these other issues so far. But the number of uncommitted voters in Michigan could signal just how deep Democratic discontent is.
+
+
+āThis is not only isolated to Arab or Muslim voters in Michigan,ā Ayoub said.
+
+
+Haleema Shah contributed reporting to this article.
+
+
+Clarification, February 27, 10:30 am: This story has been updated to clarify Abed Ayoubās views and those of Arab American voters.
+
+
From The Hindu: Sports
+
+
Chennaiās growing Boccia community celebrates friendship, while winning laurels along the way - With national champions in their midst, boccia players from Chennai make sure to not skip a Ssaturday training session, and tell us about how the paralympic sport has impacted their lives
+
Jaiswal rises to 12th, Jurel to 69th in ICC Test rankings - Joe Root is back in the top three.
+
Erling Haaland scores five as Man City thrash Luton in FA Cup - 23-year-old Haalandās first four goals against Luton were all assisted by Kevin De Bruyne
+
Ind vs Eng Tests | Dreams come true when you hold on to them against the odds - Not so long ago our best players came from the cities and traditional centres: Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai. For a little over a generation now, they have emerged from the old backwaters. This continues.
+
Dedicate primed to complete a hat-trick -
+
+
From The Hindu: National News
+
+
Here are the big stories from Karnataka today - Welcome to the Karnataka Today newsletter, your guide from The Hindu on the major news stories to follow today. Curated and written byĀ Nalme Nachiyar.
+
Railways land-for-job case: Delhi court grants bail to ex-Bihar CM Rabri Devi, 2 daughters - The central probe agency submitted that stringent conditions should be imposed on the accused while granting them bail.
+
Actor assault case: Kerala HC declines plea for cancelling bail granted to actor Dileep - In view of theĀ fact that case trial is nearing completion
+
Eco-theatre: Tierra to connect children with nature -
+
NCB-Navy-Gujarat ATS joint operation makes largest ever offshore drug seizure - The Indian Navy mobilised its mission-deployed maritime patrol aircraft and warship, following which the boat was intercepted early on Tuesday morning
+
+
From BBC: Europe
+
+
To defeat Putin, stop being boring, Yulia Navalnaya tells MEPs - āIf you really want to defeat Putin, you have to become an innovator,ā Alexei Navalnyās widow says. āAnd you have to stop being boring.ā
+
Navalny to be buried on Friday in Moscow - The Russian opposition leaderās widow says she fears police could make arrests at the funeral.
+
Grenfell-style cladding fear after Valencia fire - Construction pictures suggest the cladding used on the building may be of a type now banned in the UK.
+
Cataloniaās farmers demand more help over drought - As Spain continues to be blighted by a lack of rain, farmers want more government assistance.
+
Partner of woman held in Russia calls for her release - Dual US-Russian citizen Ksenia Karelina is accused of treason and raising funds for the Ukrainian army.
+
+
From Ars Technica
+
+
How strong is Nintendoās legal case against Switch emulator Yuzu? - Nintendo is ābasically taking the position that emulation itself is unlawful.ā - link
+
Smallish car, biggish priceāwe try out the 2024 BMW X2 M35i - We drive the new Sports Activity Coupe, but thereās no EV version for the US market. - link
+
OpenAI accuses NYT of hacking ChatGPT to set up copyright suit - OpenAI ābizarrelyā mischaracterizes hacking, NYT lawyer says. - link
+
Wendyās will experiment with dynamic surge pricing for food in 2025 - Surge pricing test next year means your cheeseburger may get more expensive at 6 pm. - link
+
It turns out that Odysseus landed on the Moon without any altimetry data - āHours after we got off the launch pad, we almost lost the spacecraft.ā - link
+
+
From Jokes Subreddit
+
+
A Jewish son tells his father he is moving out. -
+
+
+The son returns a year later and tells his father that he has converted to Christianity. The father is upset and calls his friend who is also Jewish. āYou wonāt believe this, my son David moved out for a year and came back and told me he converted to Christianity.ā His friend says, āyou wonāt believe thisā¦my son Benjamin moved away for a year and when he came back HE converted to Christianity tooā!
+
+
+Both upset, they call their rabbi and explain what happened. The rabbi says, āyou wonāt believe this, my son Joshua moved away and when HE came back he told me he converted to Christianity tooā! The rabbi suggests they call God and tell him.
+
+
+The rabbi tells God that all three men had sons who moved away and converted to Christianity and donāt know what to do. God says to them, āyou wonāt believe thisā¦
+
+Iāve told her not to get her hopes up. āAfter all,ā I say, āweāre only going to celebrate it for half a minuteā when she asked what in the world I was talking about, I pointed out āThis is your thirty-second birthdayā
+
+She says she wants to open an account and deposit the money there, and proceeds to put a big pile of bills in the counter.
+
+
+This catches the eye of the Banks manager, Mr Barry, who, with a smile, says he will take care of this and invites her to his office.
+
+
+They start the paperwork for opening the account and the manager starts asking some questions
+
+
+"Here at The Somerset Bank we are glad to have you as a client Mrs Smith, but regulations require us to investigate the origin of large quantities of money.
+
+
+Would you mind telling us where it comes from?"
+
+
+āItās quite simple, Iām very good at bettingā
+
+
+āBets? sports betting?ā
+
+
+āWell, I usually bet on less common mattersā
+
+
+āLike what?ā
+
+
+āWell, maybe youād like to go against me on one of such bets. I bet $200K that your balls are not round, they are squareā
+
+
+The manager is surprised by that.
+
+
+āYou mean my testicles??ā
+
+
+āYes, your testicles, I bet $200K they are squareā
+
+
+The manager hesitates, heās sure as hell his balls are not square, and she certainly has the money, so he thinks this is an easy bet to win without risking anything.
+
+
+āOkay then, you got yourself a bet Mrs Smith!ā And they shake hands.
+
+
+The lady says: āsince the amount is so high, I would like to bring a notary to witness so thereās no disputes, we will come tomorrow morningā
+
+
+The manager agrees to the deal and says goodbye to the lady. That night, just to make sure, he looked at his balls in the mirror, reassuring himself as he started to think what he was going to spend the money on.
+
+
+The next day, the lady appears in the office with a man accompanying him and the manager takes them to his office.
+
+
+There, the lady asks him to take out his pants and underwear, and he complies, a bit nervous.
+
+
+Lady says: āIāll need to check them with my own hands, itās a big amount of money and I need to make sureā
+
+
+The manager agrees, it is a big amount of money after all.
+
+
+She starts touching the balls and looking them closely and says āyes, I think they might be roundā, and at the same time, the notary starts banging his head against the wall.
+
+
+āWhatās wrong with him!!??ā asks the manager.
+
+
+āI told you I was good at betting Mr Barry, I might have lost $200K to you, but yesterday I bet this guy $800K that by this morning I would have the balls of the manager of the Bank of Somerset in my own hands!!ā
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