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<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>A combination of RBD and NTD neutralizing antibodies limits the generation of SARS-CoV-2 spike neutralization-escape mutants</strong> -
<div>
Most known SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies (nAbs), including those approved by the FDA for emergency use, inhibit viral infection by targeting the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike (S) protein. Variants of concern (VOC) carrying mutations in the RBD or other regions of S reduce the effectiveness of many nAbs and vaccines by evading neutralization. Therefore, therapies that are less susceptible to resistance are urgently needed. Here, we characterized the memory B-cell repertoire of COVID-19 convalescent donors and analyzed their RBD and non-RBD nAbs. We found that many of the non-RBD-targeting nAbs were specific to the N-terminal domain (NTD). Using neutralization assays with authentic SARS-CoV-2 and a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus carrying SARS-CoV-2 S protein (rVSV-SARS2), we defined a panel of potent RBD and NTD nAbs. Next, we used a combination of neutralization-escape rVSV-SARS2 mutants and a yeast display library of RBD mutants to map their epitopes. The most potent RBD nAb competed with hACE2 binding and targeted an epitope that includes residue F490. The most potent NTD nAb epitope included Y145, K150 and W152. As seen with some of the natural VOC, the neutralization potencies of COVID-19 convalescent sera were reduced by 4-16-fold against rVSV-SARS2 bearing Y145D, K150E or W152R spike mutations. Moreover, we found that combining RBD and NTD nAbs modestly enhanced their neutralization potential. Notably, the same combination of RBD and NTD nAbs limited the development of neutralization-escape mutants in vitro, suggesting such a strategy may have higher efficacy and utility for mitigating the emergence of VOC.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.10.447999v1" target="_blank">A combination of RBD and NTD neutralizing antibodies limits the generation of SARS-CoV-2 spike neutralization-escape mutants</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 SARS-CoV-2 variants display enhanced Spike-mediated fusion</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 (variant Alpha) and B.1.351 (variant Beta) have supplanted pre-existing strains in many countries. Severe COVID-19 is characterized by lung abnormalities, including the presence of syncytial pneumocytes. Syncytia form when infected cells fuse with adjacent cells. The fitness, cytopathic effects and type-I interferon (IFN) sensitivity of the variants remain poorly characterized. Here, we assessed B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 spread and fusion in cell cultures. B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 replicated similarly to D614G reference strain in Vero, Caco-2, Calu-3 and primary airway cells and were similarly sensitive to IFN. The variants formed larger and more numerous syncytia. Variant Spikes, in the absence of any other viral proteins, resulted in faster fusion relative to D614G. B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 fusion was similarly inhibited by interferon induced transmembrane proteins (IFITMs). Individual mutations present in the variant Spikes modified fusogenicity, binding to ACE2 and recognition by monoclonal antibodies. Also, B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants remain sensitive to innate immunity components. The mutations present in the two variants globally enhance viral fusogenicity and allow for antibody evasion.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.11.448011v1" target="_blank">B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 SARS-CoV-2 variants display enhanced Spike-mediated fusion</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>High-affinity, neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 can be made in the absence of T follicular helper cells</strong> -
<div>
T follicular helper (Tfh) cells are the conventional drivers of protective, germinal center (GC)-based antiviral antibody responses. However, loss of Tfh cells and GCs has been observed in patients with severe COVID-19. As T cell-B cell interactions and immunoglobulin class switching still occur in these patients, non-canonical pathways of antibody production may be operative during SARS-CoV-2 infection. We found that both Tfh-dependent and -independent antibodies were induced against SARS-CoV-2 as well as influenza A virus. Tfh-independent responses were mediated by a population we call lymph node (LN)-Th1 cells, which remain in the LN and interact with B cells outside of GCs to promote high-affinity but broad-spectrum antibodies. Strikingly, antibodies generated in the presence and absence of Tfh cells displayed similar neutralization potency against homologous SARS-CoV-2 as well as the B.1.351 variant of concern. These data support a new paradigm for the induction of B cell responses during viral infection that enables effective, neutralizing antibody production to complement traditional GCs and even compensate for GCs damaged by viral inflammation.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.10.447982v1" target="_blank">High-affinity, neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 can be made in the absence of T follicular helper cells</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Anti-SARS-CoV-2 hyperimmune immunoglobulin provides potent and robust neutralization capacity and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity and phagocytosis induction through N and S proteins</strong> -
<div>
Although progressive COVID-19 vaccinations provide a significant reduction of infection rate in the short- to mid- term, effective COVID-19 treatments will continue to be an urgent need. Methods: We have functionally characterized the anti-SARS-CoV-2 hyperimmune immunoglobulin (hIG) prepared from human COVID-19 convalescent plasma. SARS-CoV-2 virus neutralization was evaluated by four different methodologies (plaque reduction, virus induced cytotoxicity, TCID50 reduction and immunofluorimetry-based methodology) performed at four different laboratories and using four geographically different SARS-CoV-2 isolates (one each from USA and Italy; two from Spain). Two of the isolates contained the D614G mutation. Neutralization capacity against the original Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 straom and variants (D614G mutant, B.1.1.7, P.1 and B.1.351 variants) was evaluated using a pseudovirus platform expressing the corresponding spike (S) protein. The capacity to induce antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis (ADCP) was also evaluated. Results: All the SARS-CoV-2 isolates tested were effectively neutralized by hIG solutions. This was confirmed by all four methodologies showing potent neutralization capacity. Wild-type SARS-CoV-2 and variants were effectively neutralized as demonstrated using the pseudovirus platform. The hIG solutions had the capacity to induce ADCC and ADCP against SARS-CoV-2 N and S proteins but not the E protein. Under our experimental conditions, very low concentrations (25-100 g IgG/mL) were required to induce both effects. Besides the S protein, we observed a clear and potent effect triggered by antibodies in the hIG solutions against the SARS-CoV-2 N protein. Conclusions: These results show that, beyond neutralization, other IgG Fc-dependent pathways may play a role in the protection from and/or resolution of SARS-CoV-2 infection when using hIG COVID-19 products. This could be especially relevant for the treatment of more neutralization resistant SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.11.447942v1" target="_blank">Anti-SARS-CoV-2 hyperimmune immunoglobulin provides potent and robust neutralization capacity and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity and phagocytosis induction through N and S proteins</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Severe COVID-19 associated variants linked to chemokine receptor gene control in monocytes and macrophages</strong> -
<div>
Genome-wide association studies have identified 3p21.31 as the main risk locus for severe disease in COVID-19 patients, although underlying biological mechanisms remain elusive. We performed a comprehensive epigenomic dissection of the 3p21.31 locus, identifying a CTCF-dependent tissue-specific 3D regulatory chromatin hub that controls the activity of several tissue-homing chemokine receptor (CCR) genes in monocytes and macrophages. Risk SNPs colocalized with regulatory elements and were linked to increased expression of CCR1, CCR2 and CCR5 in monocytes and macrophages. As excessive organ infiltration of inflammatory monocytes and macrophages is a hallmark of severe COVID-19, our findings provide a rationale for the genetic association of 3p21.31 variants with elevated risk of hospitalization upon SARS-CoV-2 infection.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.22.427813v3" target="_blank">Severe COVID-19 associated variants linked to chemokine receptor gene control in monocytes and macrophages</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Breakthrough infection with SARS-CoV-2 and its predictors among healthcare workers in a medical college and hospital complex in Delhi, India</strong> -
<div>
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Introduction The study objective was to determine the breakthrough infection rate of Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in those vaccinated with either BBV152 or AZD1222 (ChAdOx1-S) vaccine among healthcare workers (HCWs). Methods A cross-sectional analysis was conducted a medical college and hospital complex in Delhi, India through telephonic interviews among HCWs who had received at-least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine during January to March 2021. Breakthrough infections were operationally defined as occurrence of Covid-19 infection ≥14 days after administration of two doses of either Covid-19 vaccine. Results We enrolled 325 HCWs with mean (SD) age of 29.1 (9.9) years including 211 (64.9%) males. Two seventy nine (85.8%) HCWs were fully vaccinated while 46 (14.2%) were partially vaccinated. There were 168 (51.7%) BBV152 and 157 (48.3%) AZD1222 (ChAdOx1-S) recipients. A total of 37 (11.3%, 95% C.I. 8.3, 15.3) breakthrough infections were observed in the HCWs. The median (IQR) time until incidence of Covid-19 breakthrough infection since receiving second dose of either Covid-19 vaccine was 47 (28.5, 55) days. Additionally, 20 (6.1%) non-breakthrough Covid-19 infections were recorded in the HCWs post vaccination with either a single dose of a Covid-19 vaccine or both doses but prior to a period of 14 days since administration of the second dose. Most breakthrough infection cases (94.4%) were mild and did not require supplemental oxygen therapy. HCWs without a history of natural Covid-19 infection and recovery prior to vaccination were 3.8 times more at risk to contract a Covid-19 infection or reinfection in spite of vaccination with at-least one dose of either Covid-19 vaccine. Conclusion Nearly one in nine HCWs experienced a Covid-19 breakthrough infection in the present study.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.07.21258447v2" target="_blank">Breakthrough infection with SARS-CoV-2 and its predictors among healthcare workers in a medical college and hospital complex in Delhi, India</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Symptom profiles and accuracy of clinical definitions for COVID-19 in the community. Results of the Virus Watch community cohort.</strong> -
<div>
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Background: Understanding the symptomatology and accuracy of clinical case definitions for COVID-19 in the community is important for the initiation of Test, Trace and Isolate (TTI) and may, in future, be important for early prescription of antivirals. Methods: Virus Watch is a large community cohort with prospective daily recording of a wide range of symptoms and self-reporting of swab results (mainly undertaken through the UK TTI System). We compared frequency, severity, timing, and duration of symptoms in test positive and test negative cases. We compared the test performance of the current UK case definition used by TTI (any one of: new continuous cough, high temperature or loss of or change in sense of smell or taste) with a wider definition that also included muscle aches or chills or headache or loss of appetite. Findings: We included results from 8213 swabbed illnesses, 944 of which tested positive for COVID-19. All symptoms were more common in swab positive than swab negative illnesses and symptoms were also more severe and of longer duration. Common symptoms such as cough, headache, fatigue, muscle aches and loss of appetite occurred early in the course of illness but were also very common in test-negative illnesses. Rarer symptoms such as fever or loss or altered sense of smell or taste were often not present but were markedly more common in swab positive compared to swab negative cases. The current UK definition had a sensitivity and specificity of 81% and 47% respectively for symptomatic COVID-19 compared to 93% and 26% for the broader definition. On average cases met the broader case definition one day earlier than current definition. 1.7-fold more illnesses met the broader definition than the current case definition. Interpretation: COVID-19 is difficult to distinguish from other respiratory infections and common ailments on the basis of symptoms. Broadening the list of symptoms used to encourage engagement with TTI could moderately increase the number of infections identified and shorten delays but with a large increase in the number of tests needed and in the number of people and contacts who do not have COVID-19 but might need to self-isolate whilst awaiting results.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.14.21257229v2" target="_blank">Symptom profiles and accuracy of clinical definitions for COVID-19 in the community. Results of the Virus Watch community cohort.</a>
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<li><strong>Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Young Adults Before and During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence from a Canadian Population-Based Cohort</strong> -
<div>
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Objectives: Concerns have been raised that the COVID-19 pandemic could increase risk for adverse mental health outcomes, especially in young adults, a vulnerable age group. We investigated changes in depression and anxiety symptoms (overall and severe) from before to during the pandemic, as well as whether these changes are linked to COVID-19 related stressors and pre-existing vulnerabilities in young adults followed in the context of a population-based cohort. Method: Participants (n=1039) from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development reported on their depression and anxiety symptoms and completed a COVID-19 questionnaire during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the summer of 2020 (age 22 years). Assessments at age 20 (2018) were used to estimate pre-pandemic depression and anxiety symptom severity. Results: While overall levels of depression and anxiety symptoms did not change, there was an increase in rates of severe depression (but not severe anxiety) from before (6.1%) to during (8.2%) the pandemic. Depressive and anxiety symptoms increased from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic among young adults with the lowest levels of symptoms before the pandemic, while they decreased among those with the highest levels of pre-existing symptoms. Youth who were living alone experienced an increase in depressive symptoms. Other COVID-19 related variables (e.g., loss of education/occupation, frequent news-seeking) and pre-existing vulnerabilities (e.g., low SES, low social support) were not associated with changes in depression or anxiety symptoms. Conclusion: Depression and anxiety symptoms in young adults from Quebec in Summer 2020 were comparable to symptoms reported in 2018. Most COVID-19 related stressors and pre-existing vulnerabilities were not associated with changes in symptoms. However, the increased rate of severe depression and the increase in depression and anxiety symptoms among young adults with the least mental health symptoms before the COVID-19 pandemic are concerning.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.23.21255994v2" target="_blank">Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Young Adults Before and During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence from a Canadian Population-Based Cohort</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Assessing the risk of vaccine-driven virulence evolution in SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
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How might COVID-19 vaccines alter selection for increased SARS-CoV-2 virulence, or lethality? Framing current evidence surrounding SARS-CoV-2 biology and COVID-19 vaccines in the context of evolutionary theory indicates that prospects for virulence evolution remain uncertain. However, differential effects of vaccinal immunity on transmission and disease severity between respiratory compartments could select for increased virulence. To bound expectations for this outcome, we analyze an evo-epidemiological model. Synthesizing model predictions with vaccine efficacy data, we conclude that while vaccine driven virulence evolution remains a theoretical risk, it is unlikely to threaten prospects for herd immunity in immunized populations . Given that this event would nevertheless impact unvaccinated populations, virulence should be monitored to facilitate swift mitigation efforts.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.01.20241836v2" target="_blank">Assessing the risk of vaccine-driven virulence evolution in SARS-CoV-2</a>
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<li><strong>FebriDx point-of-care test in patients with suspected COVID-19: a systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy studies</strong> -
<div>
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Background: We conducted a systematic review and individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of a commercial point-of-care test, the FebriDx lateral flow device (LFD), in adult patients with suspected COVID-19. The FebriDx LFD is designed to distinguish between viral and bacterial respiratory infection. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, Google Scholar, LitCovid, ClinicalTrials.gov and preprint servers on the 13th of January 2021 to identify studies reporting diagnostic accuracy of FebriDx (myxovirus resistance protein A component) versus real time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing for SARS-CoV-2 in adult patients suspected of COVID-19. IPD were sought from studies meeting the eligibility criteria. Studies were screened for risk of bias using the QUADAS-2 tool. A bivariate linear mixed model was fitted to the data to obtain a pooled estimate of sensitivity and specificity with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). A summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve of the model was constructed. A sub-group analysis was performed by meta-regression using the same modelling approach to compare pooled estimates of sensitivity and specificity between patients with a symptom duration of 0 to 7 days and &gt;7 days, and patients aged between 16 to 73 years and &gt;73 years. Results: Ten studies were screened, and three studies with a total of 1481 patients receiving hospital care were included. FebriDx produced an estimated pooled sensitivity of 0.911 (95% CI: 0.855-0.946) and specificity of 0.868 (95% CI: 0.802-0.915) compared to RT-PCR. There were no significant differences between the sub-groups of 0 to 7 days and &gt;7 days in estimated pooled sensitivity (p = 0.473) or specificity (p = 0.853). There were also no significant differences between the sub-groups of 16 to 73 years of age and &gt;73 years of age in estimated pooled sensitivity (p = 0.946) or specificity (p = 0.486). Conclusions: Based on the results of three studies, the FebriDx LFD had high diagnostic accuracy for COVID-19 in a hospital setting, however, the pooled estimates of sensitivity and specificity should be interpreted with caution due to the small number of studies included, risk of bias, and inconsistent reference standards. Further research is required to confirm these findings, and determine how FebriDx would perform in different healthcare settings and patient populations.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.15.20213108v2" target="_blank">FebriDx point-of-care test in patients with suspected COVID-19: a systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy studies</a>
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<li><strong>Definitions matter: heterogeneity of COVID-19 disease severity criteria and incomplete reporting compromise meta-analysis</strong> -
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Therapeutic efficacy in COVID-19 is dependent upon disease stage and severity (treatment effect heterogeneity). Unfortunately, definitions of severity vary widely. This compromises the meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and the therapeutic guidelines derived from them. The World Health Organisation “living” guidelines for the treatment of COVID-19 are based on a network meta-analysis (NMA) of published RCTs. We reviewed the 81 studies included in the WHO COVID-19 living NMA and compared their severity classifications with the severity classifications employed by the international COVID-NMA initiative. The two were concordant in only 35% (24/68) of trials. Of the RCTs evaluated 69% (55/77) were considered by the WHO group to include patients with a range of severities (12 mild-moderate; 3 mild-severe; 18 mild-critical; 5 moderate-severe; 8 moderate-critical; 10 severe-critical), but the distribution of disease severities within these groups usually could not be determined, and data on the duration of illness and/or oxygen saturation values were often missing. Where severity classifications were clear there was substantial overlap in mortality across trials in different severity strata. This imprecision in severity assessment compromises the validity of some therapeutic recommendations; notably extrapolation of “lack of therapeutic benefit” shown in hospitalised severely ill patients on respiratory support to ambulant mildly ill patients is not warranted. Both harmonised unambiguous definitions of severity and individual patient data meta-analyses are needed to guide and improve therapeutic recommendations in COVID-19.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.04.21257852v2" target="_blank">Definitions matter: heterogeneity of COVID-19 disease severity criteria and incomplete reporting compromise meta-analysis</a>
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<li><strong>Predicted pH-dependent stability of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein trimer from interfacial acidic groups</strong> -
<div>
Transition between receptor binding domain (RBD) up and down forms of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein trimer is coupled to receptor binding and is one route by which variants can alter viral properties. It is becoming apparent that key roles in the transition are played by pH and a more compact closed form, termed locked. Calculations of pH-dependence are made for a large set of spike trimers, including locked form trimer structures that have recently become available. Several acidic sidechains become sufficiently buried in the locked form to give a predicted pH-dependence in the mild acidic range, with stabilisation of the locked form as pH reduces from 7.5 to 5, consistent with emerging characterisation by cryo-electron microscopy. The calculated pH effects in pre-fusion spike trimers are modulated mainly by aspartic acid residues, rather than the more familiar histidine role at mild acidic pH. These acidic sidechains are generally surface located and weakly interacting when not in a locked conformation. In this model, their replacement (perhaps with asparagine) would remove the pH-dependent destabilisation of locked spike trimer conformations, and increase their recovery at neutral pH. This would provide an alternative or supplement to the insertion of disulphide linkages for stabilising spike protein trimers, with potential relevance for vaccine design.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.06.447235v1" target="_blank">Predicted pH-dependent stability of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein trimer from interfacial acidic groups</a>
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<li><strong>Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) IN THE MIDDLE OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC</strong> -
<div>
Based on the data above, it can be said that MSMEs have a significant role in the Indonesian economy. However, this has changed because since 2020 the performance of MSMEs has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is unavoidable, as we know the Indonesian economy has also experienced a decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Central Statistics Agency noted that economic growth throughout 2020 contracted 2.07 percent on an annual basis. The contraction was caused by the weakening in various sectors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/6q94j/" target="_blank">Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) IN THE MIDDLE OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC</a>
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<li><strong>A year of COVID-19 GWAS results from the GRASP portal reveals potential SARS-CoV-2 modifiers</strong> -
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Host genetic variants influence the susceptibility and severity of several infectious diseases, and the discovery of novel genetic associations with Covid-19 phenotypes could help developing new therapeutic strategies to reduce its burden. Between May 2020 and February 2021, we used Covid-19 data released periodically by UK Biobank and performed over 400 Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) of Covid-19 susceptibility (N=15,738 cases), hospitalization (N=1,916), severe outcomes (N=935) and death (N=828), stratified by ancestry and sex. In coherence with previous studies, we observed 2 independent signals at the chr3p21.31 locus (rs73062389-A, OR=1.22, P=7.64E-14 and rs13092887-A, OR=1.73, P=2.38E-8, in Europeans) modulating susceptibility and severity, respectively, and a signal influencing susceptibility at the ABO locus (rs9411378-A, OR=1.10, P =7.36E-10, in Europeans), which was more significant in men than in women (P=0.01). In addition, we detected 7 genome-wide significant signals in the last data release analyzed (on February 24th 2021), of which 4 were associated with susceptibility (SCRT2, LRMDA, chr15q24.2, MIR3681HG), 2 with hospitalization (ANKS1A, chr12p13.31) and 1 for severity (ADGRE1). Finally, we identified over 300 associations which increased in significance over time, and reached at least P&lt;10-5 in the last data release analyzed. We replicated 2 of these signals in an independent dataset: a variant downstream of CCL3 (rs2011959) associated with severity in men, and a variant located in an ATP5PO intron (rs12482569) associated with hospitalization. These results, freely available on the GRASP portal, provide new insights on the host genetic architecture of Covid-19 phenotypes.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.08.21258507v1" target="_blank">A year of COVID-19 GWAS results from the GRASP portal reveals potential SARS-CoV-2 modifiers</a>
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<li><strong>Adaptive vaccination may be needed to extirpate COVID-19: Results from a runtime-alterable strain-drift and waning-immunity model</strong> -
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We developed an elaborated susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) individual-based model (IBM) with pathogen strain drift, waning and cross immunity, implemented as a novel Java Runtime-Alterable-Model Platform (J-RAMP). This platform allows parameter values, process formulations, and scriptable runtime drivers to be easily added at the start of simulation. It includes facility for integration into the R statistical and other data analysis platforms. We selected a set of parameter values and process descriptions relevant to the current COVID-19 pandemic. These include pathogen-specific shedding, environmental persistence, host transmission and mortality, within-host pathogen mutation and replication, adaptive social distancing, and time dependent vaccine rate and strain valency specifications. Our simulations illustrate that if waning immunity outpaces vaccination rates, then vaccination rollouts may fail to contain the most transmissible strains. Our study highlights the need for adaptive vaccination rollouts, which depend on reliable real-time monitoring and surveillance of strain proliferation and reinfection data needed to ensure that vaccines target emerging strains and constrain escape mutations. Together with such data, our platform has the potential to inform the design of vaccination programs that extirpate rather than exacerbate local outbreaks. Finally, our RAMP concept promotes the development of highly flexible models that can be easily shared among researchers and policymakers not only addressing healthcare crises, but other types of environmental crises as well.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.07.21258504v1" target="_blank">Adaptive vaccination may be needed to extirpate COVID-19: Results from a runtime-alterable strain-drift and waning-immunity model</a>
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<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>Study of Allogeneic Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Treat Post COVID-19 “Long Haul” Pulmonary Compromise</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: COVI-MSC<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.<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>Intramuscular VIR-7831 (Sotrovimab) for Mild/Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: VIR-7831<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Vir Biotechnology, Inc.;   GlaxoSmithKline<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>Collecting Respiratory Sound Samples From Corona Patients to Extend the Diagnostic Capability of VOQX Electronic Stethoscope to Diagnose COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: Electronic stethoscope<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sanolla<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>The Burden of COVID-19 Survivorship</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Exercise Training<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Mayo Clinic<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>Community-based Post-exposure Prophylaxis for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Guduchi Ghanvati;   Other: Standard guidelines<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   NMP Medical Research Institute;   Aarogyam UK;   Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Rajasthan Ayurved University;   Samta Ayurveda Prakoshtha, India;   Padmanabhama Ayurveda Hospital and Research Centre<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>Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Coughed Droplets From Patients With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: PneumoniaCheck<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Emory University;   Georgia Tech Foundation<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>Favipiravir +/- Nitazoxanide: Early Antivirals Combination Therapy in COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Favipiravir;   Drug: Nitazoxanide;   Other: Nitazoxanide Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Coordinación de Investigación en Salud, Mexico;   University College, London;   Centro de Investigacion y Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politecnico Nacional (CINVESTAV);   Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara;   Siegfried Rhein S.A. de C.V.;   Strides Pharma Science Limited;   Hakken Enterprise<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>Epidemiologic Intelligence Network (EpI-Net) to Promote COVID-19 Testing</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Epi-Net Intervention<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Ponce Medical School Foundation, Inc.;   Duke University;   Harvard School of Public Health<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>Ivermectin Treatment Efficacy in Covid-19 High Risk Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Ivermectin 0.4mg/kg/day for 5 days<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Clinical Research Centre, Malaysia<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>To Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of TQ Formula in Covid-19 Participants</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Black Seed Oil Cap/Tab<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Novatek Pharmaceuticals<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>A Randomized, Controlled, Multicenter, Open Label Phase II Clinical Study to Evaluate Infliximab in the Treatment of Patients With Severe COVID-19 Disease</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Infliximab;   Other: Standard of Care<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Jena University Hospital;   German Federal Ministry of Education and Research;   Celltrion<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 2b Multi-Center, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study, Evaluating Efficacy and Safety of Allocetra-OTS in Patients With Severe or Critical COVID-19 With Associated Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: ALLOCETRA-OTS;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Enlivex Therapeutics Ltd.<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>Bifido- and Lactobacilli in Symptomatic Adult COVID-19 Outpatients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Respiratory Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Dietary Supplement<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Nordic Biotic Sp. z o.o.<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>Nicotinamide-based Supportive Therapy in Lymphopenia for Patients With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Covid19;   Lymphopenia<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: nicotinamide<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Qiang Hu<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>Safety and Efficacy of Dupilumab for Treatment of Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Dupilumab;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Virginia;   PBM C19 Research, LLC (PBM);   Virginia Catalyst, Virginia Biosciences Health Research Corporation (VBHRC)<br/><b>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>SARS-CoV-2 envelope protein causes acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)-like pathological damages and constitutes an antiviral target</strong> - Cytokine storm and multi-organ failure are the main causes of SARS-CoV-2-related death. However, the origin of excessive damages caused by SARS-CoV-2 remains largely unknown. Here we show that the SARS-CoV-2 envelope (2-E) protein alone is able to cause acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)-like damages in vitro and in vivo. 2-E proteins were found to form a type of pH-sensitive cation channels in bilayer lipid membranes. As observed in SARS-CoV-2-infected cells, heterologous expression of…</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>I(nsp1)ecting SARS-CoV-2-ribosome interactions</strong> - While SARS-CoV-2 is causing modern human historys most serious health crisis and upending our way of life, clinical and basic research on the virus is advancing rapidly, leading to fascinating discoveries. Two studies have revealed how the viral virulence factor, nonstructural protein 1 (Nsp1), binds human ribosomes to inhibit host cell translation. Here, we examine the main conclusions on the molecular activity of Nsp1 and its role in suppressing innate immune responses. We discuss different…</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>Correction To: Ceftazidime is a potential drug to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro by blocking spike protein-ACE2 interaction</strong> - No abstract</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>Macrophage biomimetic nanocarriers for anti-inflammation and targeted antiviral treatment in COVID-19</strong> - CONCLUSION: Collectively, such macrophage biomimetic nanocarriers based drug delivery system showed favorable anti-inflammation and targeted antiviral effects, which may possess a comprehensive therapeutic value in COVID-19 treatment.</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>Vitamin D attenuates COVID-19 complications via modulation of proinflammatory cytokines, antiviral proteins, and autophagy</strong> - Introduction: Global emergence of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) has clearly shown variable severity, mortality, and frequency between and within populations worldwide. These striking differences have made many biological variables attractive for future investigations. One of these variables, vitamin D, has been implicated in COVID-19 with rapidly growing scientific evidence. Areas covered: The review intended to systematically explore the sources, and immunomodulatory the role of vitamin D…</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 potential antiviral activity of Esculentoside A against binding interactions of SARS-COV-2 spike protein and angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2)</strong> - The recent emergence of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has resulted in a devastating pandemic with global concern. However, to date, there are no regimens to prevent and treat SARS-CoV-2 virus. There is an urgent need to identify novel leads with anti-viral properties that impede viral pathogenesis in the host system. Esculentoside A (EsA), a saponin isolated from the root of Phytolacca esculenta, is known to exhibit diverse pharmacological properties, especially anti-inflammatory activity….</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>Efficacy and safety of Dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH) inhibitors “Leflunomide” and “Teriflunomide” in Covid-19: A narrative review</strong> - Dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH) is rate-limiting enzyme in biosynthesis of pyrimidone which catalyzes the oxidation of dihydro-orotate to orotate. Orotate is utilized in the biosynthesis of uridine-monophosphate. DHODH inhibitors have shown promise as antiviral agent against Cytomegalovirus, Ebola, Influenza, Epstein Barr and Picornavirus. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 action of DHODH inhibitors are also coming up. In this review, we have reviewed the safety and efficacy of approved DHODH inhibitors…</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 targets of natural products for the management of cardiovascular symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019</strong> - The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first occurred in China in December 2019 and subsequently spread all over the world with cardiovascular, renal, and pulmonary symptoms. Therefore, recognizing and treating the cardiovascular sign and symptoms that caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can be effective in reducing patient mortality. To control the COVID-19-related cardiovascular symptoms, natural products are considered one of the promising…</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>SARS-CoV-2 Nonstructural Protein 1 Inhibits the Interferon Response by Causing Depletion of Key Host Signaling Factors</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. While previous studies have shown that several SARS-CoV-2 proteins can antagonize the interferon (IFN) response, some of the mechanisms by which they do so are not well understood. In this study, we describe two novel mechanisms by which SARS-CoV-2 blocks the IFN pathway. Type I IFNs and IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs) were poorly induced during SARS-CoV-2…</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>Mechanism of Inhibition of the Reproduction of SARS-CoV-2 and Ebola Viruses by Remdesivir</strong> - Remdesivir is an antiviral drug initially designed against the Ebola virus. The results obtained with it both in biochemical studies in vitro and in cell line assays in vivo were very promising, but it proved to be ineffective in clinical trials. Remdesivir exhibited far better efficacy when repurposed against SARS-CoV-2. The chemistry that accounts for this difference is the subject of this study. Here, we examine the hypothesis that remdesivir monophosphate (RMP)-containing RNA functions as a…</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>Punicalagin and zinc (II) ions inhibit the activity of SARS-CoV-2 3CL-protease in vitro</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that these compounds could be used as potential antiviral drugs against COVID-19.</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>In Silico Evaluation of Cyclophilin Inhibitors as Potential Treatment for SARS-CoV-2</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Despite CsAs promising antiviral characteristics, the interactions between cyclophilins and coagulation factors emphasize risk stratification for COVID patients with thrombosis dispositions.</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 Therapeutic Potential of Galectin-3 in the Treatment of Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma Patients and Those Compromised With COVID-19</strong> - The novel coronavirus pneumonia COVID-19 is characterized by all age susceptibility, which imposes a dramatic threat to the human species all over the world. According to current available data, the cytokine storm appears to be the most life-threatening symptom of severe COVID-19 cases accompanied with lung fibrosis. Galectin-3 (Gal-3), a member of soluble β-galactoside-binding lectin families, has been implicated as a key regulator in various inflammation conditions in addition to its…</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>Simple rapid in vitro screening method for SARS-CoV-2 anti-virals that identifies potential cytomorbidity-associated false positives</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: We describe the methodology for a simple in vitro drug screening assay that identifies potential anti-viral drugs via their ability to inhibit SARS-CoV-2-induced CPE. The additional growth assay illustrated how several drugs display anti-viral activity at concentrations that induce cytomorbidity. For instance, hydroxychloroquine showed anti-viral activity at concentrations that slow cell growth, arguing that its purported in vitro anti-viral activity arises from non-specific…</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>N-(4-Hydroxyphenyl) retinamide suppresses SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-mediated cell-cell fusion by a dihydroceramide delta4-desaturase 1-independent mechanism</strong> - The membrane fusion between the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and host cells is essential for the initial step of infection; therefore, the host cell membrane components, including sphingolipids, influence the viral infection. We assessed several inhibitors of the enzymes pertaining to sphingolipid metabolism, against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (S)-mediated cell-cell fusion and viral infection. N-(4-hydroxyphenyl) retinamide (4-HPR), an inhibitor of dihydroceramide…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>폐마스크 밀봉 회수기</strong> - 본 발명은 마스크 착용 후 버려지는 일회용 폐마스크를 비닐봉지에 넣은 후 밀봉하여 배출함으로써, 2차 감염을 예방하고 일반 생활폐기물과 선별 분리 배출하여 환경오염을 방지하는 데 그 목적이 있다. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=KR325788342">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COST EFFECTIVE PORTABLE OXYGEN CONCENTRATOR FOR COVID-19</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU324964715">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>METHOD OF IDENTIFYING SEVERE ACUTE RESPIRATORY SYNDROME CORONA VIRUS 2 (SARS-COV-2) RIBONUCLEIC ACID (RNA)</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU323956811">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Erweiterbare Desinfektionsvorrichtung</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Erweiterbare Desinfektionsvorrichtung, umfassend: einen Hauptkörper, der eine umgekehrt U-förmige Basisplatte aufweist, wobei die umgekehrt U-förmige Basisplatte mit einer Öffnung versehen ist und jeweils eine Seitenplatte sich von zwei Seiten der umgekehrt U-förmigen Basisplatte nach außen erstreckt; und mindestens eine Desinfektionslampe, die in den auf zwei Seiten des Hauptkörpers befindlichen Seitenplatten angeordnet ist und eine Lichtemissionseinheit, eine Erfassungseinheit, eine Steuereinheit und eine Stromversorgungseinheit umfasst.</p></li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE326402480">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Einfache Sterilisationsvorrichtung</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Einfache Sterilisationsvorrichtung, mit einem Hauptkörper (11), der in Längsrichtung einen ersten Plattenabschnitt (111) und in Querrichtung einen zweiten Plattenabschnitt (112) aufweist, wobei der erste Plattenabschnitt (111) und der zweite Plattenabschnitt (112) L-förmig miteinander verbunden sind; und einer Sterilisationslampe (12), die an dem Hauptkörper (11) angeordnet ist und eine Lichtemissionseinheit (121), eine Sensoreinheit (122), eine Steuereinheit (123) und eine Stromeinheit (124) aufweist.</p></li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE326402479">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Klemmarme aufweisende Desinfektionsvorrichtung</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Klemmarme aufweisende Desinfektionsvorrichtung, umfassend: einen Hauptkörper; eine Desinfektionslampe, die im Hauptkörper angeordnet ist und eine Lichtemissionseinheit, eine Erfassungseinheit, eine Steuereinheit und eine Stromversorgungseinheit umfasst; einen Klemmabschnitt, der auf einer Seite des Hauptkörpers angeordnet ist, wobei der Klemmabschnitt zwei gegenüberliegende Greifbacken umfasst, wobei mindestens eine der beiden Greifbacken mit einer Schwenkachse versehen ist, wobei ein Klemmraum durch passgenaues Schließen der beiden Greifbacken entsteht und die beiden Greifbacken jeweils mit einem Durchgangsloch versehen sind; einen Befestigungsabschnitt, der durch die Durchgangslöcher der beiden Greifbacken hindurchgeführt ist;und ein Schild, das auf einer Seite des Klemmabschnitts angeordnet und mit einem Aufnahmeloch versehen ist.</p></li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE326402478">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Aufhängbare Sterilisationsvorrichtung</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Aufhängbare Sterilisationsvorrichtung, mit einem Hauptkörper (11); einer Sterilisationslampe (12), die an dem Hauptkörper (11) angeordnet ist und eine Lichtemissionseinheit (121), eine Sensoreinheit (122), eine Steuereinheit (123) und eine Stromeinheit (124) aufweist; einem Klemmabschnitt (13), der an einer Seite des Hautpkörpers (11) angeordnet ist und zwei gegenüberliegend angeordnete Klemmbacken (131) aufweist, wobei mindestens eine der beiden Klemmbacken (131) mit einem Achsbolzen (132) versehen ist, wobei die beiden Klemmbacken (131) beim Schließen einen Klemmraum (134) bilden, und wobei die beiden Klemmbacken (131) jeweils mit einem Durchgangsloch (135) versehen sind; und einem Befestigungselement (14), das durch die Durchgangslöcher (135) der beiden Klemmbacken (131) hindurchgeführt wird.</p></li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE326402477">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sterilisationsvorrichtung zur Verbesserung der Desinfektionswirkung</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Sterilisationsvorrichtung zur Verbesserung der Desinfektionswirkung, umfassend: einen Hauptkörper, der eine erste Oberfläche, eine von der ersten Oberfläche abgewandte zweite Oberfläche und ein Aufnahmeloch aufweist, wobei die zwei Seiten des Hauptkörpers jeweils mit einem Durchgangsloch versehen sind, wobei die Durchgangslöcher mit dem Aufnahmeloch durchgängig verbunden sind; eine Desinfektionslampe, die auf der zweiten Oberfläche des Hauptkörpers angeordnet ist und eine Lichtemissionseinheit, eine Erfassungseinheit, eine Steuereinheit und eine Stromversorgungseinheit umfasst; und ein Befestigungsteil, das durch die Durchgangslöcher und das Aufnahmeloch des Hauptkörpers hindurchgeführt ist.</p></li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE326402481">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IMPROVEMENTS RELATED TO PARTICLE, INCLUDING SARS-CoV-2, DETECTION AND METHODS THEREFOR</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU323295937">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>DEEP LEARNING BASED SYSTEM FOR DETECTION OF COVID-19 DISEASE OF PATIENT AT INFECTION RISK</strong> - The present invention relates to Deep learning based system for detection of covid-19 disease of patient at infection risk. The objective of the present invention is to solve the problems in the prior art related to technologies of detection of covid-19 disease using CT scan image processing. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN324122821">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
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<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>Netanyahus Likely Departure Is Not Easing the Fears of Palestinians</strong> - Attacks by settlers in the West Bank have been on the rise for years—and a new Israeli government is no guarantee of change. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/netanyahus-likely-departure-is-not-easing-the-fears-of-palestinians">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is There Any Time Left for Maya Wiley?</strong> - The former City Hall lawyer, who has received the endorsement of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, considers herself the last progressive standing in New Yorks mayoral race. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/is-there-any-time-left-for-maya-wiley">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Importance of Teaching Dred Scott</strong> - By limiting discussion of the infamous Supreme Court decision, law-school professors risk minimizing the role of racism in American history. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-importance-of-teaching-dred-scott">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Heidi Larson, Vaccine Anthropologist</strong> - The worlds richest countries are now its most vaccine-hesitant. Can we learn to trust our shots before the next pandemic? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-medicine/heidi-larson-vaccine-anthropologist">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Other Side of the River, Revisited</strong> - Police in a Michigan resort town have reopened the case of a Black teens mysterious death. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-other-side-of-the-river-revisited">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>One possible cause of the 2020 murder increase: More guns</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A person at a protest holds up a sign that reads, “End gun violence.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vXW_Mtw0j5kWeMc1KcjT5jOfUls=/0x0:5973x4480/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69443671/1167624313.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
People participate in a demonstration and news conference against illegal guns in front of the Jacob Javits Federal Building on August 12, 2019, in New York. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Police are pointing fingers at protests to explain the murder increase. The data suggests the story is more complicated.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UWMd4H">
The year 2020 saw the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22344713/murder-violent-crime-spike-surge-2020-covid-19-coronavirus">largest recorded increase in homicides</a> in United States history — an increase likely propelled by a complex mix of factors, from more guns to stresses of the pandemic to <a href="https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/spd-warns-of-staffing-crisis-after-66-more-officers-leave/281-040a65b1-3165-4f24-8652-a5d10860aac7">fewer police officers on the streets</a> to a crisis in relations between police and citizens.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y6nFJc">
But one persistent theory is that a change in policing last summer primarily drove increased gun violence. This is an especially popular explanation among law enforcement figures. Former Baltimore Police Department Deputy Commissioner Jason Johnson recently <a href="https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/7137565002?__twitter_impression=true">argued</a> that the real driver of last years murder rise was a severe decline in police activity, especially after protests erupted last summer in the wake of George Floyds murder.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4CammA">
St. Louis Police Commissioner John Hayden suggested that the police resources devoted to protests prevented officers from engaging in neighborhood policing. Former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said police were “stretched to the limit” by the protests and coronavirus restrictions. Summarizing widespread reductions in stops and arrests, Johnson wrote that “when the Thin Blue Line retreats, violence charges in.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EtdXeP">
But data from numerous large American cities complicates that narrative, suggesting that the change in policing alone is not sufficient to explain last years large increase in murder and that a growing number of firearms on the streets likely played a significant role.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="voAPHY">
Its true that police activity, as measured by stops and arrests, declined significantly in 2020. Still, despite that drop, and weeks before Floyds murder and the ensuing protests, police began finding firearms more often than in previous years.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tq32Mx">
This pattern does not support the idea that overwhelmed police forces werent able to take guns off the streets, leading to a surge in violence. Instead, the spike in firearms as a percentage of stops and arrests provides evidence that there were simply more guns on the streets throughout 2020 than in the past, which may have intensified other sources of violence and contributed to the historic rise in murders.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kUzFFG">
While there is no standardized, national open data on stops, information on police activity in 10 cities that we compiled points toward the same pattern.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TSZCTm">
First, stops and arrests fell rapidly in each city in March and April 2020, driven by pandemic restrictions on police contact or due to fewer people being outside (and thus available to be stopped by police).
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Chart: Policy activity dropped in March 2020" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wPiAm5XmUE3J7X7XT3GQYfb2yYM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22653589/goB5z_police_activity_dropped_in_march_2020.png"/> <cite>Data analysis by Jeff Asher and Rob Arthur</cite>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sj8X53">
If less policing alone led to increased violence, we would have expected to see an uptick in March and April after this clear change. But there was no observable increase in gun violence in these cities at that time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pvJGs2">
Police activity dropped again after Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd in late May 2020, this time with an accompanying surge in shootings in many cities. Cities generally saw stops and arrests increase over the last few months of 2020 — though still below pre-pandemic levels — with the elevated level of violence remaining.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="537Yxm">
While the volume of stops and arrests fell dramatically in March and April in all 10 cities, police in every city were more likely to find a firearm when they made stops and arrests. In Chicago, for example, police stops decreased nearly 70 percent between January and May 2020, but officers actually found 83 percent <em>more</em> firearms in May than in January.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PsPd9x">
Jens Ludwig, director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, analyzed stops in Chicago and <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-data-points-gun-carrying-crime-lab-20210403-5iz6blr6urhlji7hxwyjwrnhc4-htmlstory.html">concluded</a> that “unless the police have become dramatically better at figuring out who is illegally carrying a gun (and so have become better at figuring out who to stop), the implication is that lots more people are carrying guns illegally in Chicago.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7z76VV">
The same pattern was seen across numerous cities with available data. There were 34 percent fewer arrest charges in Los Angeles in April and May 2020 compared to April and May 2019, but charges for weapons possession were up. The problem was not confined just to big cities, either. In Tucson, Arizona, for example, there were 39 percent fewer arrests in April and May 2020 compared to a year earlier but 29 percent more arrests for weapons or firearms possession.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Chart: The share of arrests finding weapons jumped as the pandemic began" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CcFfoD7WJr91YYsG3_OzVCAl65k=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22653702/2wz5m_the_share_of_arrests_finding_weapons_jumped_as_the_pandemic_began.png"/> <cite>Data analysis by Jeff Asher and Rob Arthur</cite>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lM0qMq">
The share of stops or arrests that resulted in a firearm being found increased in every city. In Washington, DC, the share of all arrests that were weapons violations went from 5 percent in January to March 2020, to 7 percent in April and 9 percent in May. The share of arrests for weapons possession went from 1 percent between January and March 2020 in Charleston, South Carolina, to 4 percent between April and December.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mcrSGf">
Almost every city followed the same pattern: a dramatic jump in the share of arrests or stops with a firearm in April and May, a decline in June, and a return to the earlier elevated levels for the remainder of the year.
</p>
<h3 id="ldvou1">
The legitimacy crisis in law enforcement
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kcWoLB">
The implication of this trend is that — assuming police did not suddenly become substantially better at identifying who has an illegal gun — firearm carrying increased at the beginning of the pandemic, well before the protests, and persisted at that level for the remainder of the year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FyFxCh">
It is possible that in the midst of the pandemic, police started engaging in better-targeted stops that were more likely to yield arrests. But finding other kinds of contraband, like drugs, did not become more frequent, only guns.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NCs4Sx">
Data on <a href="https://informationportal.igchicago.org/investigatory-stop-reports-searches/">investigatory stops</a><a href="https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/2020-06/Arrests%20etc.%20June%202020.pdf">defined</a> as stops “based upon reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime” — in Chicago is instructive and suggests more firearms were found because more were being carried, rather than a change in policing strategy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y5mwGl">
The share of searches in investigative stops that found drugs just before Covid-19 lockdowns was virtually unchanged after Covid-19, going from 20.9 percent between October 2019 and March 2020 to 20.7 percent between April and September 2020. The demographics of searches did not change much, either, with Black people making up 74.3 percent of people searched in stops from October 2019 to March 2020 and 76.1 percent from April through December. But CPD officers found firearms in 11.5 percent of searches from April to September, compared to 3.7 percent of searches in the six months prior.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YjNzpr">
Since all cities with data had an increase in the share of stops or arrests with a gun at around the same time, no one change in departmental or prosecutorial policy can explain why.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KGEwz3">
Investigative stops and arrests show an increase in firearm carrying beginning in March or April, shortly after <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/nics_firearm_checks_-_month_year.pdf/view">background checks surged to unprecedented levels</a> nationally. More firearms could have contributed to the historic rise in murders in 2020 by turning less dangerous crimes into potentially lethal encounters.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KFrOIQ">
Police finding more firearms in stops and arrests does not fit with the idea that a decrease in proactive police activity targeting firearms was the major driver for 2020s historic murder totals, though it certainly cannot be ruled out as a contributing factor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f82wsq">
Johnson put the blame on progressive prosecutors, writing that “making arrests for drug and weapons crimes that will go unprosecuted exposes officers to the risk of disciplinary action, lawsuits and criminal prosecution. To mitigate that risk, police take a more passive approach.” But firearm arrests increased 42 percent in Philadelphia — home of progressive prosecutor Larry Krasner — between April and December 2020, compared to the same time frame in 2019.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V0vU3E">
The data all points to substantially more complex causes behind the rise in murder than the simple narrative of a change in policing as the sole or even main driver. It is plausible, though, that the summers drops in stops and arrests, protests against police violence, and increases in gun violence are all symptoms of the same disease: what criminologists David Pyrooz, Justin Nix, and Scott Wolfe recently called a “legitimacy crisis in the criminal justice system,” the result of intensifying distrust in “the law and its gatekeepers” as a result of injustice.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1HqP4g">
Writing in <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2021/02/24/denver-crime-rate-homicide-shooting-property-crime-police/">the Denver Post</a>, they said that a “legitimacy crisis is consequential for three reasons. The first is depolicing, where officers pull back from proactive policing in response to public criticism. Second, depleted trust in the law means citizens will think twice about calling the police to report crimes or suspicious behaviors. Lastly, delegitimacy of the law emboldens criminal offending populations, as the moral obligation to follow the law is weakened.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZZ9cua">
The trend toward more firearms sales and more guns on the street seems to have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/upshot/murder-rate-usa.html">continued into 2021</a>. Background checks accelerated even beyond last years peak in the first three months of this year. And the latest data from these cities stops shows that police are finding as many guns as they did in the second half of 2020.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bPoxr0">
Early figures from many cities show murders have increased from last years baseline as well. If the greater availability of firearms contributed to last years violence, the latest arrest data suggests it may contribute even more deaths to 2021s murder total.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qQQrWS">
<em>Rob Arthur is an independent journalist and data scientist based in Chicago. Hes on Twitter at </em><a href="https://twitter.com/No_Little_Plans"><em><span class="citation" data-cites="No_Little_Plans">@No_Little_Plans</span></em></a><em>. Jeff Asher is a crime analyst based in New Orleans and co-founder of AH Datalytics. You can find him on Twitter at </em><a href="https://twitter.com/crimealytics?lang=en"><em><span class="citation" data-cites="Crimealytics">@Crimealytics</span></em></a><em>. </em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>How stressed out are factory-farmed animals? AI might have the answer.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5_35u2oJ_KYnysodCzTAnthEeP8=/206x0:2873x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69443617/AP19129493780151_copy.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Pigs eat from a trough at the Las Vegas Livestock pig farm in 2019. | John Locher/AP
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The promise and perils of using facial recognition technology on animals.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uTeekq">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Ih03t">
Facial recognition technology is rapidly becoming ubiquitous, used in everything from security cameras to smartphones. But in the near future, humans may not be the only ones to be digitally captured. Researchers are <a href="https://www.bristolroboticslab.com/centre-for-machine-vision">training forms of artificial intelligence</a> to recognize individual animals by their faces alone — and even discern their emotional state just by reading their expressions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dylbB2">
Much of the research into animal facial expressions has focused on species like dogs and horses. But some of the most cutting-edge work is aimed at an unlikely subject: the farmed hog.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="COV9Q8">
The typical hog factory farm employs a small number of workers to oversee hundreds, or even thousands, of pigs — too many for the people running the facility to tell which ones might be in distress. Researchers at the Centre for Machine Vision at the University of West England, where pig emotion recognition work is being conducted, envision this technology could be used to help farmworkers more readily identify sickness and injury. If AI can routinely scan the pigs faces and alert workers to particularly stressed-out animals, treatment can come sooner and suffering can be reduced.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<div id="IefZr9">
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hjFHLw">
There is even potential for the technology someday advancing to the point of detecting “happiness” in pigs — a holy grail for animal ag.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="woVs3z">
But while the idea of learning more about what animals are feeling is self-evidently enticing — why wouldnt we want to learn more about them? — some animal welfare advocates question the very premise of this research. While the bulk of the funding is from the UK government, one reason for the skepticism is that the research is partly <a href="https://www.bristolroboticslab.com/centre-for-machine-vision">supported</a> by companies in the meat and agriculture industry, including a pig genetics company that has availed its farms for the study.<strong> </strong>Its not hard to see that industrys interest in this work: Keeping more pigs alive under intensive conditions would be a financial boon, as would being able to advertise how “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/dairylea-bernard-matthews-food-meat-dairy-labels-mislead-shoppers-animal-welfare-farms-a8477636.html">happy</a>” the animals were — something the Centres website suggests could be possible.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Trr5PR">
And that all leads to a deeper question: Just how comfortable — let alone happy — can a pig be on a factory farm? In the US, nearly all pigs raised for meat are kept in unnatural, highly mechanized, and crowded conditions, given no access to the outdoors. Conditions are similar in much of the European Union, and <a href="https://clf.jhsph.edu/sites/default/files/2019-01/IFAP-in-low-and-middle-income-countries-a-landscape-assessment.pdf">factory farming is on the rise</a> in low- and middle-income countries as global demand for meat increases. These environments are so difficult to endure that, by some estimates, up to <a href="https://www.cals.iastate.edu/news/releases/iowa-state-university-lead-research-increase-pig-survivability">35 percent of US-raised pigs</a> die before ever reaching the market.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xkQscqyVzFmK2RheP4ZlZ0bOjBU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22652871/GettyImages_525917582_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Carsten Koall/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Piglets crowd a stall inside a hog farm in Drahnsdorf, Germany, in 2016.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V9KJ57">
The project of discerning the emotional state of pigs — and the meat industrys larger push to invent new technology that promises to improve animal welfare — illustrates the fine line between meaningful efforts to reduce animal suffering and so-called “<a href="https://civileats.com/2021/01/19/are-some-animal-welfare-labels-humanewashing/">humane-washing</a>,” where animal welfare is portrayed as being better than it actually is.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ueBLPg">
There is a <a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/farm-animal-welfare">growing body of research</a> that shows what changes farms could make today to reduce the suffering of farmed animals, like eliminating extreme confinement, ending breeding practices that make animals grow too big too fast, and providing outdoor access and enrichments designed to mimic experiences they would normally enjoy if left to their own devices. All of which raises the question: Who is this new technology really for — the pigs, or the humans who raise, slaughter, and eat them?
</p>
<h3 id="sl5lLp">
How to identify stressed-out pigs
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mdkQ6A">
The most cost-effective methods of raising animals tend to cause the most harm. Animals bodies become levers on which a balancing act is performed: expending the fewest resources (such as living space) while keeping animals alive and productive. Economic considerations often outweigh welfare, resulting in the inhumane conditions that are a hallmark of intensive animal agriculture.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VwI6UZ">
On the side of animal well-being are researchers like Melvyn Smith, director of the Centre for Machine Vision, for whom improving animal welfare is a big motivator in his quest to use AI to identify stressed-out pigs. “If we could understand how the animal is feeling, if the animal can tell us this itself, then that gives us an opportunity to tailor treatment and care for individual animals,” he told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FKo8Nw">
To try to understand how an animal is feeling, he and his colleagues, in partnership with Scotlands Rural College, are building on past facial recognition research. They have already trained a form of deep-learning AI that is tailored to analyzing images, known as a convolutional neural network (CNN), to distinguish between individual pigs just by analyzing photos of their faces.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4Pht5r">
This new project — aimed at recognizing emotions — adds a layer of nuance to this research by training the CNN to recognize the difference between stressed and unstressed pigs.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<aside id="KTaNzg">
<q>The most cost-effective methods of raising animals tend to cause the most harm</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ak1qkR">
Like other deep learning algorithms, the Centres CNN learns by being exposed to data sets — in this case, thousands of photographs of pig faces that are likely to be experiencing stress or not. Cameras affixed just above the water spigot where pigs drink allow for close-up and relatively uniform images of each pig every time they take a sip. The CNN then analyzes each photograph, searching for subtle variations in the pigs faces around the eyes, the position of the ears, and other features.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rM4Kbi">
To observe whether pigs are stressed, the animals are placed in situations known to be either mildly stressful or preferable. Pigs kept in pens with multiple generations tend to experience stress (particularly true of younger pigs), whereas relatively stress-free environments can be created by giving pigs essentially an all-you-can-eat buffet. Saliva and blood can be measured to determine cortisol levels, a chemical associated with a stress response.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wRpuK2">
With the three-year project about halfway complete, the results so far are impressive: The CNN is able to distinguish between pigs stressed and unstressed facial expressions more than 90 percent of the time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CdsUMa">
By helping AI recognize expressions related to core emotional states in pigs, farmworkers could be alerted to individuals that are experiencing discomfort, allowing for swifter medical attention or alterations to the pigs living environment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xryrSV">
Caring for farmed animals as individuals is becoming increasingly difficult due to intensive animal agriculture operations. On smaller-scale farms, workers are able to spend far more time with individual pigs, getting to know animals personalities and watch out for suggestions that they may be unwell. But most pigs live on factory farms, where just a few workers can be <a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/docs/hsus-report-pig-industry-welfare.pdf">responsible </a>for the care of thousands of animals.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E7InD5">
And factory farms are ramping up around the world: In the US, where factory farming has become <a href="https://sentientmedia.org/u-s-farmed-animals-live-on-factory-farms/#:~:text=A%20global%20analysis%20conducted%20by,hens%2C%20or%20125%2C000%20broiler%20chickens.">the norm</a> for animal agriculture generally, nearly <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/194382/number-of-hogs-slaughtered-in-the-us-since-2000/">130 million pigs</a> were raised and slaughtered in 2019 alone. The UK saw intensive pig farming <a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-07-17/megafarms-uk-intensive-farming-meat">increase</a> 26 percent between 2011 and 2017. In China, a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/18/a-12-storey-pig-farm-has-china-found-a-way-to-stop-future-pandemics-">“hog hotel” factory farm</a> consisting of a collection of buildings reaching 12 stories into the sky clocks in as the biggest multi-story hog farm on the planet, with the capacity to house upward of 1,000 pigs per floor.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/r2PfPhx8TXy8J1g2pHpdTbUZCfA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22652880/GettyImages_551116493_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Christian Adam via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A sow with her piglets in a farrowing crate in Germany. Factory farms are ramping up around the world.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iKcM5s">
It is no easy task to keep pigs alive within the crowded indoor conditions of factory farms. According to the Iowa Pork Industry Center at Iowa State University, about <a href="https://www.cals.iastate.edu/news/releases/iowa-state-university-lead-research-increase-pig-survivability">one in three</a> pigs die before reaching the market due to factors like <a href="https://www.wageningenacademic.com/doi/10.3920/978-90-8686-803-2_11">stillbirth, sow crushing</a>, <a href="https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/3745e8d1-4a20-4ec8-a25d-e212f26f24e6/downloads/Jordan%20lit%20review%20infectious.pdf?ver=1614622667306">infectious diseases</a>, and <a href="https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/3745e8d1-4a20-4ec8-a25d-e212f26f24e6/downloads/Jordan%20lit%20review%20non-infectious.pdf?ver=1614622667306">poor air quality</a>. Not only does this figure represent massive economic losses for the industry, it also demonstrates the sheer scale of health problems pigs on factory farms must regularly contend with, many of which can <a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/docs/hsus-report-pig-industry-welfare.pdf">cause </a>chronic physical and psychological pain even when they are not ultimately fatal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LRwyB2">
Identifying negative emotions like stress could help reduce the suffering of farmed pigs. But the research wont end there: The next goal is detecting subtler emotions, including happiness.
</p>
<h3 id="znxmoT">
Can animals have a good life on a factory farm?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q1VoAV">
Interest in animal facial expressions seems to be growing within the scientific community. Facial coding systems are being developed for species like horses and dogs, where expressions related to <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0131738">pain</a> or <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-55714-6">frustration</a> are being mapped out. Dogs have been observed to make <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/3k3yn9/scientists-say-puppy-dog-eyes-evolutionary-trait-to-make-dogs-cuter">“cute” faces</a> at humans, while <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalgeographic.com%2Fanimals%2Farticle%2Fhappy-rats-facial-expression-animals-emotion&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F22528451%2Fpig-farm-animal-welfare-happiness-artificial-intelligence-facial-recognition" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">rats </a>and <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(09)01129-4">chimps </a>are perceived to smile and laugh when they are tickled.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ky4wLz">
But is happiness something that can be measured by facial expression?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j34Xn9">
Smiths team wants to find out. Once the current study on pig stress is complete, the next stage will be seeing whether the CNN can detect other, more nuanced emotions, perhaps one day giving “farmers and their prospective customers an idea of how happy their pigs are,” as the Centres website <a href="https://www.bristolroboticslab.com/centre-for-machine-vision">notes</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2WhWPp">
But technology capable of detecting happiness and more subtle or complex emotions is not without controversy. When its applied to human beings, critics <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/25/8929793/emotion-recognition-analysis-ai-machine-learning-facial-expression-review">warn</a> of the inaccuracies arising with a one-to-one mapping of prototypical expressions to emotions. A scowl doesnt always mean anger; a furrowed brow doesnt always denote concentration.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GgTXb0">
Further complicating the matter is that happiness is a philosophically elusive concept even when it comes to Homo sapiens, since there remains a lack of consensus over what exactly constitutes happiness. <a href="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/happiness/definition">Fleeting moments </a>of pleasure, joy, or contentment, along with longer-term experiences of an engaged, <a href="https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/43062/10902_2004_article_1278.pdf?sequence=1">meaningful life</a>, are thought to be among the ingredients associated with states of happiness in people.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aSzkds">
While the constituents of happiness probably look different depending on the species, certain conditions are more likely to guarantee the suppression of happiness regardless of the kind of animal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bulDYx">
“Pigs can never be happy in factory farms,” says Lori Marino, director of the Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy and an expert in animal behavior who co-authored <a href="http://www.kimmela.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Someone-Project_PIGS_WhitePaper.pdf">a study</a> on pig cognition and emotion. To Marino, “a CAFO [concentrated animal feeding operation] is so far from what a pig needs to thrive that it could not be a place that would make a pig happy or content. They are not designed for pig happiness.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ifbvopvQOxbMYB6we8mxy37qL9o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22652904/AP20036571850277_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Charlie Neibergall/AP</cite>
<figcaption>
Inside a CAFO, or concentrated animal feeding operation, in Lawler, Iowa, in 2018.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wfYv3x">
“I also worry that these companies will only share data that are self-serving and the data will be biased toward convincing people that pigs are happy in CAFOs,” she continued.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0Ivafw">
These concerns may be well-founded. People and businesses that use animals often state that the animals under their control are happy, like the California Milk Advisory Boards <a href="https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&amp;u=googlescholar&amp;id=GALE%7CA435794914&amp;v=2.1&amp;it=r&amp;sid=AONE&amp;asid=224bfee6">“Happy Cow” campaign</a> or Elon Musks “<a href="http://independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/elon-musk-monkey-brain-chip-clubhouse-b1795691.html">totally happy</a>” lab monkey.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="89BeC6">
Such claims of animal happiness can be dubious given the mounting science revealing the extent to which animals can be harmed in captivity. One of Marinos other studies looks at how captivity can <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-neural-cruelty-of-captivity-keeping-large-mammals-in-zoos-and-aquariums-damages-their-brains-142240">cause</a> brain damage in some animals, impairing cognitive functions such as memory and decision-making.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DA4yEm">
Other researchers conducted a <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/03/how-horse-feeling-new-mobile-brain-wave-reader-could-tell?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&amp;utm_campaign=8f8c011b27-briefing-dy-20210310&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-8f8c011b27-43905957">study</a> that found horses that were confined within stalls emitted brain waves associated with states like depression and anxiety, whereas horses allowed to roam in herds on pastures showed brain waves associated with feelings of calm. Pregnant pigs kept in gestation crates, cages that are barely bigger than their bodies, are known to become <a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/docs/hsus-report-pig-industry-welfare.pdf">unresponsive </a>over time — behavior that has been linked to depression. Much is already known about the emotional state of animals in captivity without state-of-the-art tech telling us.
</p>
<aside id="GUhoPm">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8k9emh">
Smiths inquiry into whether pigs are happy on farms may find theyre not, but that doesnt deter him. He says he is interested in switching the longstanding emphasis within the animal research community from detecting simply an absence of negative emotions to detecting positive emotions, and that this might lead to a better understanding of what contributes to higher quality of life and happiness for pigs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3XOUQV">
But given that the current project is partly supported by industry stakeholders, including the farming technology company AgSense (owned by Valmont Industries), JSR Genetics Ltd. (a pig breeding company), and Garth Pig Practice (a veterinary consulting service), skepticism about the uses of this technology is in order. (AgSense, Valmont Industries, and Garth Pig Practice did not respond to requests for comments for this article.)
</p>
<h3 id="enKrcw">
Moving the needle on animal welfare
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AJU8sy">
The intensive animal agriculture industry is facing increasing scrutiny of operations that not only harm animals but give rise to a litany of damaging consequences, from perpetuating <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/9/16/21430837/future-perfect-podcast-season-3-north-carolina-cafo-pig-farm">environmental racism</a> — especially in North Carolina, where hog farms disproportionately pollute predominantly Black communities — to accelerating <a href="https://thecounter.org/meat-dairy-greenhouse-gas-emissions/">climate change</a>. Demands to abolish factory farming altogether are <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/7/8/21311327/farmers-factory-farms-cafos-animal-rights-booker-warren-khanna">growing louder</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="95Lhph">
Still, improvements in farmed animal welfare are worthwhile since its unlikely factory farming is going away anytime soon. Once implemented, the Centres CNN may quantifiably improve the welfare of pigs on factory farms, even if incrementally.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Eqi5AB">
But while theres still much to learn about animal welfare, theres even more that we already know. If the pork sector were concerned with animal thriving, practices known to cause chronic stress — such as gestation crates — would already be eradicated.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/V60bMOyDlKAhKGY7oON-jC4XEiM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22652943/GettyImages_1134235617_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Greenpeace activists call on European Parliament members to vote against livestock factory farms in Brussels in 2019.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0esqoX">
There exists abundant evidence of the pain male piglets <a href="https://www.avma.org/sites/default/files/resources/swine_castration_bgnd.pdf">endure </a>when they are castrated without anesthesia, yet these mutilations continue to be widespread.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5iMPVO">
Confining pigs indoors within crowded, barren pens on concrete flooring can lead to abnormal biting behaviors that can devolve into cannibalism — something that can be <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0168159196010313">addressed</a> by giving pigs additional space and covering floors with natural materials like peat or compost.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LPMooH">
AI technology may one day yield deeper insights into farmed animals emotional states. And theres some genuine value in research diving into what animals are feeling. The question that looms over the use of such tech in a factory farming context is whether we already know enough anyway.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SoGVAy">
<em>Laura Bridgeman is an award-winning writer interested in gender, food systems, and justice. Her essay on Western dominator identity is featured in </em><a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351068840-5/western-dominator-ecocultural-identity-denial-animal-autonomy-laura-bridgeman?context=ubx&amp;refId=12342fbd-7264-4ba7-828d-ddd504f759f3">The Routledge Handbook of Ecocultural Identity (2020</a>)<em>. Find her on Twitter </em><a href="https://twitter.com/laura_bridgeman?lang=en"><em><span class="citation" data-cites="laura_bridgeman">@laura_bridgeman</span></em></a><em>.</em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>The Trump administration forced Apple to turn over lawmakers data. Democrats are outraged.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Representative Adam Schiff sits next to a gavel." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3z8VUaSSIfzYnhB3zWP4IgU0aqo=/382x0:5561x3884/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69442124/GettyImages_1232323507.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Device metadata from Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was obtained by the Department of Justice. | Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Some say its an attack on the separation of powers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4iy2pE">
Democratic lawmakers are calling for an investigation into the Trump administrations Department of Justice (DOJ) and its use of subpoenas to obtain device metadata belonging to at least two members of Congress. They say its a disturbing attack on the separation of powers, the principle of keeping the operations of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches generally separate from one another.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="exsuIV">
The calls for oversight follow a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/us/politics/justice-department-leaks-trump-administration.html">New York Times report</a> revealing that the DOJ made Apple turn over records from several people associated with the House Intelligence Committee — including Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Eric Swalwell, their staff and family, one of whom was a minor — in the midst of an investigation into people leaking classified information. While the seizure of this data happened back in 2017 and 2018, a DOJ gag order kept Apple from informing the representatives until just last month when they received an email notification from the company. Now, members are <a href="https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1403417754544316420">reportedly racing</a> to gather more details from Apple about the scope of the DOJ subpoena.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VFL7n5">
That the Department of Justice sought the private phone data of US lawmakers without their knowledge is remarkable and disturbing. While details are still emerging, the exchange sets a concerning precedent about the ability of the executive branch to obtain the digital records of lawmakers as well as tech companies roles in complying with such orders. Attention has now turned to both Apple and the DOJ, and it has raised concerns over how each approaches controversial government demands for sensitive data.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5vGtfv">
Its unclear what data Apple actually handed over. Apple did not respond to Recodes request for comment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZMOHdD">
Still, Democrats are outraged, calling the seizure of this data “<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=separation%20powers&amp;src=typed_query">an assault</a>” on the separation of powers. They say the subpoenas constituted dangerously broad government surveillance deployed in service of the political interests of then-President Donald Trump.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9rCrDD">
“President Trump repeatedly and flagrantly demanded that the Department of Justice carry out his political will and tried to use the Department as a cudgel against his political opponents and members of the media,” Rep. Schiff told Recode in a statement. “It is increasingly apparent that those demands did not fall on deaf ears.”
</p>
<aside id="QlaMcf">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VeARLX">
The DOJs inspector general, Michael Horowitz, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/06/11/trump-doj-secretly-seized-phone-data-reps-schiff-swalwell/7651271002/">announced</a> on Friday that he will start a review of the agencys actions under the Trump administration and will look at “whether any such uses, or the investigations, were based upon improper considerations.” Sen. Ron Wyden <a href="https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1403357383997407232">has also promised</a> to introduce legislation aimed at “reform[ing] the abuse of gag orders” and increasing transparency into government surveillance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k4ttoI">
Companies like Apple frequently hand over user data when government agencies demand. Heres how Recodes Sara Morrison explained it <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/24/21133600/police-fbi-phone-search-protests-password-rights">last year</a>.
</p>
<blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4x1HXF">
Depending on what law enforcement is looking for, it may not need physical possession of your device at all. A lot of information on your phone is also stored elsewhere. For example, if you back up your iPhone to Apples iCloud, the government can get it from Apple. If it needs to see whose DMs you slid into, law enforcement can contact Twitter. As long as they go through the proper and established legal channels to get it, police can get their hands on pretty much anything youve stored outside of your device.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R72HY1">
You do have some rights here. The Fourth Amendment protects you from illegal search and seizure, and a <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-121">provision</a> of the <a href="https://it.ojp.gov/PrivacyLiberty/authorities/statutes/1285">Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986</a> (ECPA) dictates what law enforcement must obtain in order to get the information. It might be a subpoena, court order, or warrant, depending on what its looking for. (WhatsApp actually does a good job of explaining this <a href="https://faq.whatsapp.com/en/general/26000050">in its FAQ</a>.) A section of the ECPA, known as the Stored Communications Act, says that service providers must have those orders before they can give the requested information to law enforcement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BsUiqJ">
But, assuming the government has the right paperwork, your information is very obtainable.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J2x6kH">
On Apples US-focused <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.apple.com%2Flegal%2Ftransparency%2Fus.html&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Frecode%2F2021%2F6%2F11%2F22530070%2Ftrump-doj-apple-data-schiff" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">transparency website</a>, the company says it can receive government requests related to a persons device identifier, financial identifiers, customer data related to account information, and customer data requested in the midst of an emergency. In the case of the DOJs investigation into leaks, Apple <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/us/politics/justice-department-leaks-trump-administration.html">turned over metadata and account information</a>, according to the Times.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sPyv5i">
“These demands for lawmakers private data are especially disturbing because they threaten the separation of powers. But the problem is far bigger,” ACLU senior attorney Patrick Toomey told Recode in an email. “The government seizes the sensitive information of vast numbers of people each year, often without any notice to the people affected.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BgrSPv">
Tech companies do have some power when they receive these kinds of requests. They can try to reject a government request as being invalid, though they often dont. Apple says that between January and June 2020, the company provided data 82 percent of the time when a government agency requested identifying information about a particular device. Tech companies can also try to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/google-says-it-fought-gag-orders-in-wikileaks-investigation/2015/01/28/e62bfd04-a5c9-11e4-a06b-9df2002b86a0_story.html">fight a gag order</a>. In this case, a gag order seemed to remain in place.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c4Sqa0">
This is concerning. At the same time, the seizure of this kind of data is a dark reminder that companies like Apple continue to hold onto vast amounts of user data, and that they can be legally obligated to hand it over to the government without a user ever knowing.
</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>Indias white-ball squad to have 14-day quarantine in Mumbai, match simulation ahead of Sri Lanka games</strong> - Players will undergo six RT-PCR tests on alternate days before flying off to Colombo</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>Michael Holding criticises England teams moment of unity gesture, likens it to saying all lives matter</strong> - England players wore T-shirts sporting messages against any racism, religious intolerance, sexism and other anti-discrimination slogans, having decided to not take the knee after the series against West Indies last year</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>Brazil womens soccer team protests harassment amid probe</strong> - Brazil players including superstar Marta on Friday used their social media channels to protest, but didnt name Caboclo, who is not expected to return to his position after the 30-day suspension.</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>De Kocks 141 puts South Africa on top against West Indies</strong> - After being dismissed for 97 on the first day, the West Indies slumped to 51-4 as it began its second innings 225 runs behind South Africa.</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>Ngidis five-for adds to West Indies woes</strong> - South Africa calls the shots in first Test</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>SAD-BSP alliance a new political &amp; social initiative: Mayawati</strong> - SAD stalwart Parkash Singh Badal described the formation of the SAD-BSP alliance as “the beginning of a secular, federal democratic revolution in the State.</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>Telangana government again raises demand for hike in FRBM limit</strong> - State suffers ₹4,100 crore revenue loss in May itself, Harish Rao says at GST Council meet</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>Congress to take out a march against rising fuel prices on Monday</strong> - The Dakshina Kannada District Congress Committee members and other Congress activists will take out a march in the city on Monday to urge the Central</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>Firms to get notices for not paying rentals to Govt. Flying Training School</strong> - Minister asks officials to take legal action, warns against laxity</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>Punjab Finance Minister slams continued GST on COVID related material</strong> - Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal on Saturday said the GSTs Group of Ministers (GoM) should stop acting like a shahenshah (emperor) of yes</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>G7: Leaders to unveil global anti-pandemic action plan</strong> - They will pledge all their resources to ensure a global pandemic like Covid-19 is never repeated.</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>England considers four-week delay to lockdown end</strong> - It comes amid concern over rising cases and the transmissibility of the Delta variant in England.</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 Open 2021: Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal &amp; faces Stefanos Tsitsipas in final</strong> - Novak Djokovic ends Rafael Nadals reign at the French Open in a classic semi-final which will be ranked among the all-time great matches.</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>Turkey 0-3 Italy: The Azzurri start Euro 2020 with impressive win over Turkey</strong> - Euro 2020 opens in spectacular fashion as Italy get their campaign off to a flying start in front of their own fans against Turkey.</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>Plastic pollution: take-out food is littering the oceans</strong> - Single-use plastic from take-out food is a big source of pollution in oceans and rivers, scientists say.</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>How to protect species and save the planet—at the same time</strong> - A major new report suggests tackling biodiversity, climate crises simultaneously. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1772553">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Three experts resign as FDA advisors over approval of Alzheimers drug</strong> - One former advisor accused the FDA of presenting “slanted” questions to committee. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1772629">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>NY cant force ISPs to offer $15 low-income broadband plans, judge rules</strong> - $15 requirement is rate regulation and preempted by federal law, ruling says. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1772604">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>CD Projekt Red does an about-face, says ransomware crooks are leaking data</strong> - Data taken in breach disclosed in February likely related to employees and contractors. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1772586">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>MySQL 101: Installation, care, and feeding on Ubuntu</strong> - If youve got 15 minutes, we can show you the ropes of basic MySQL management. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1772445">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>A Computer Science student at MIT showed up at his buddies dorm room with a new bike. His buddy said “sweet bike, whered ya get it?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Youll never believe this,” he said, “I was walking across campus and this beautiful blonde on a bike stopped, threw down her bike, tore off all her clothes and said <em>take whatever you want!</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
His buddy stared at him blankly for a minute, then said “smart. Her clothes would have never fit you.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nxurkr/a_computer_science_student_at_mit_showed_up_at/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nxurkr/a_computer_science_student_at_mit_showed_up_at/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A boy starts his first day at Walmart.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
His trainer says to him “Ill take care of the first 2 customers to show you how its done and you can look after the 3rd.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So the trainer goes to the first customer and says “Can I help you, mam?” Lady goes “Im looking for some garden hose.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Trainer “Okay 10, 20 or 30 ft?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Lady “30ft.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He takes her to where the hoses are and says “After, can I interest you in a lawn mower?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Why would I need a lawn mower?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Well youre going to water your grass, the grass is going to grow and youre going to need to cut it. Youll need a lawnmower for that.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Actually yeah, I do need a lawnmower.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The boy is pretty impressed that his trainer was able to sell this lady a lawnmower. So the trainer goes to the second customer and says “Can I help you, sir?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The man says “Yeah, Im looking for some fertilizer.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Sure. 10, 20 or 30 pounds?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“20”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So the trainer takes the man to where the fertilizer is and says “When youre done can I interest you in a new lawnmower?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Why would I need a lawnmower?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Well youre going to fertilize your grass, the grass is going to grow and youre going to need to cut it. Youre going to need a lawnmower.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yeah, actually, I do need a lawnmower”.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The boy at this point is amazed by his trainers salesmanship.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So now its the boys turn to help a customer. He goes up to this lady and asks “Is there something I can help you with today?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Im looking for some tampons.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Sure, 10, 20 or 30 pack?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“30 pack”.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So the boy takes the lady to where the tampons are and says “When youre done can I interest you in a lawnmower?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The lady looks at him confused as says “What on earth would I need a lawnmower for?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Well, your weekends fucked, might as well cut the grass.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/nothinlefttochoose"> /u/nothinlefttochoose </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nxit3h/a_boy_starts_his_first_day_at_walmart/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nxit3h/a_boy_starts_his_first_day_at_walmart/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>While in China, an American man is sexually promiscuous and does not use a condom the entire time he is there.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A week after arriving back home in the States, he wakes one morning to find his penis covered with bright green and purple spots. Horrified, he immediately goes to see a doctor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The doctor, never having seen anything like this before, orders some tests and tells the man to return in two days for the results. After two days, the doctor tells him, “Ive got bad news for you, you have contracted Mongolian VD. Its very rare and almost unheard of here in the US. We know very little about it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The man perplexed asks, “Well, cant you give me a shot or something to fix me up, Doc?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The doctor answers, “Im sorry, theres no known cure. We are going to have to amputate your penis.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The man screams in horror, “Absolutely not !! I want a second opinion… !!!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The doctor replies, “Well, its your choice. Go ahead, if you want, but surgery is your only option.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The next day, the man seeks out a Chinese doctor, figuring that hell know more about the disease. The Chinese doctor examines his penis and proclaims, “Ahh… yes, Mongolian VD. Very rare disease.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The guy says to the doctor, “Yeah, yeah, I already know that, but what can we do? My American doctor wants to cut off my penis!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Chinese doctor shakes his head and laughs, “Stupid Amelican docttah, always want operate, make more money that way. No need amputate!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Oh, thank God!” the man exclaims.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yes,” says the Chinese doctor. “Wait two weeks. Fall off by itself.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Genius_Mate"> /u/Genius_Mate </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nxehwd/while_in_china_an_american_man_is_sexually/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nxehwd/while_in_china_an_american_man_is_sexually/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I was horrified when my wife told me that my six-year-old son wasnt actually mine.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Apparently I need to pay more attention during school pick-up.
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/nikan69"> /u/nikan69 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nxvqnu/i_was_horrified_when_my_wife_told_me_that_my/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nxvqnu/i_was_horrified_when_my_wife_told_me_that_my/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Ever since my girlfriend got pregnant, everything in my life has changed.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
My phone number, my address, my name. Everything.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/-Tigger"> /u/-Tigger </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ny3kz9/ever_since_my_girlfriend_got_pregnant_everything/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ny3kz9/ever_since_my_girlfriend_got_pregnant_everything/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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