CNBC host calls Kevin McCarthy a hypocrite to his face for 'unsustainable' Trump tax cuts

David Edwards
April 17, 2023

CNBC/screen grab


CNBC host Sara Eisen challenged House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Monday after he demanded spending cuts in return for raising the nation's debt limit.

During an interview in New York, McCarthy told Eisen that the country was like a child with a credit card.

"Would you just raise the limit?" he asked.

"Well, if it meant playing with America's standing and full faith and credit of U.S. government debt, I feel like you can deal with the spending in other ways, which is totally legitimate," Eisen observed.

McCarthy suggested that there was no other way to reduce the nation's debt.

"You did it three times in the Trump administration," Eisen noted.

"We never raised the debt ceiling by itself," McCarthy insisted.

"And tax cuts," Eisen interrupted. "That was like $2 trillion in deficit."

But McCarthy argued that the Trump-era tax cuts were good for the economy.

"So I was going to ask you about taxes because I wonder, because you want to extend the Trump tax cuts, correct?" Eisen asked. "But isn't that a little hypocritical when you're talking about finding savings everywhere and being on an unsustainable fiscal path?"

"How's that hypocritical when it's bringing tax cuts, tax savings?" McCarthy retorted. "I will always advocate for the idea that we are streamlining our tax policies, that we're also streamlining our regulation."

Watch the video below from CNBC.

Fox News host calls out GOPer's George Soros lie: 'He did not give money directly to Bragg'

David Edwards
April 16, 2023

Fox News/screen grab

Fox News host Eric Shawn fact-checked Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) live after the lawmaker suggested liberal billionaire George Soros was directly funding New York County District Attorney General Alvin Bragg.

Van Drew told Shawn that he disagreed with Bragg, the prosecutor of former President Donald Trump's felony criminal case.

According to the lawmaker, Bragg was prosecuting the wrong people because Soros funds him.

"You see it in Washington," Van Drew said. "You see it in Seattle. You see it in New York. These are George Soros-funded people."




"Soros does give money," Shawn interrupted. "He says he did not give money directly to Bragg. He gave money to an organization that supports Bragg. But you do have a point."

As the interview ended, Van Drew suggested Soros was behind the rising crime.

"Bragg is the centerpiece for it," Van Drew insisted. "Man, he is just the guy that represents it all, along with his buddy George Soros."

"Well, I don't know if they're buddies," Shawn replied.

"He gave them money. In a sneaky way," Van Drew asserted.

"Alright," the Fox News host laughed. "We'll see what comes out of the hearing."

Van Drew said he would attend a House Judiciary Committee hearing held in New York on Monday. Committee members expect testimony from "victims" of Bragg's policies.

George Soros reportedly contributed to an organization that supported Bragg's campaign, but there is no evidence that the billionaire directly contributed to the district attorney's campaign or office.

Watch the video from Fox News 

 

Jake Tapper slaps down GOP lawmaker: Murders are higher in your state's cities than Manhattan

Matthew Chapman
April 17, 2023

Screengrab of CNN's Jake Tapper.

CNN's Jake Tapper grilled Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) on Monday over why Republicans held a field hearing in Manhattan to focus on crime, when Manhattan is one of the safest large urban areas in the United States — and considerably safer than major cities near his own district.

This parallels a number of fact-checks highlighting Republicans from areas with worse violent crime than Manhattan accusing the District Attorney of ignoring crime as part of their attempt to delegitimize his prosecution of former President Donald Trump, including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).

"Let's start with the House Judiciary Committee in New York City today," said Tapper. "Republicans being very critical of the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, depicting him as soft on crime, lots of people testifying about their experiences as victims or their family members' victims. Democrats are calling it a political stunt, and they say it's being undertaken to slam Bragg because he's prosecuting Donald Trump and not these other criminals. What's your take on it all?"

"Well, Jake, I think there's a bigger story here and that crime is at crisis levels across our inner cities, including New York, but Chicago, L.A., I mean, we could we could go down the list," said Waltz. "At the end of the day, to hear the actual stories from these victims, who themselves are the victims, not the criminal, and to hear time and time again that the perpetrators of these violent crimes on on their relatives were not prosecuted or were basically slapped on the wrist, is something certainly I think worthy of the Judiciary Committee highlighting."

"I take your point, and it is horrible what's happening nationwide, although the statistics differ here and there," said Tapper. "I mean for example, you represent Florida's Sixth Congressional District, it's between Jacksonville and Orlando. Both of them have higher homicide rates than New York City, that's according to an analysis from the conservative organization Wirepoints. New York City, statistically, is one of the safest big cities in the country in terms of murder, and that's why I think this focus on New York might look political to some."

Waltz insisted that that's just "one statistic ... look at the amount of assaults, for example on subway stations." (Neither Jacksonville nor Orlando have subways.) He proceeded to say, "Crime is up and crimes up in cities all over the country, including in Florida, and you have to look, for example, you just mentioned Orlando, that's largely a Democrat-run city and county."

Watch video below or at this link.

'It's over': Controversial conservative complains that straight white men are 'at the bottom of the heap'

Gideon Rubin
April 17, 2023

Kevin McCarthy, Mitch McConnell (Photo via AFP)

A conservative political author on Monday asserted that America’s efforts to promote diversity are leading to “civilizational suicide,” The Daily Wire reports.

Heather Mac Donald said she believes Black people in America enjoy advantages in a society that unfairly punishes white people for past injustices.

Mac Donald made the remarks during an appearance on Sirius XM’s “The Megyn Kelly Show” podcast.

The “Diversity Delusion” author claimed that the “phony charge of racism” is contributing to the decline.

“America is tearing down every meritocratic institution on the phony charge of racism,” she said.

“It has to end.”

“The culture in those [Black] communities has to change,” Mac Donald said.
“There’s a very terrible, destructive, self-destructive ideology in black communities that says that academic effort is acting white. So, if you are a black student who is studying, who is paying attention in class, you will be demeaned as somehow betraying your race.”

She insisted that systemic racism no longer exists in America.

“That is not our reality today,” she said.

“Here’s the reality Megyn, Black privilege. It’s not white privilege, it’s Black privilege. The reality is being Black today, in any mainstream institution confers an enormous advantage ... There is not a single law firm, a single bank, a single tech lab in Silicon Valley, a single science lab that’s not twisting itself into knots to try to find, hire and promote as many as remotely qualified Blacks as possible.

“White heterosexual males, it’s over for them. They are at the bottom of the heap.”

Akili Labs and BGI Genomics to deliver their first commercial clinical sequencing facility in Africa

Business Announcement

BGI GENOMICS

 

IMAGE: AKILI LABS AND BGI GENOMICS TO DELIVER THEIR FIRST COMMERCIAL CLINICAL SEQUENCING FACILITY IN AFRICA view more 

CREDIT: BGI GENOMICS

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA and SHENZHEN, CHINA - 31.03.23

Akili Labs (Pty) Ltd, a pioneer of cost-effective molecular diagnostics and secure genomic data storage solutions, and BGI Genomics Co. Ltd, the world’s leading integrated solutions provider of precision medicine, today announced the signing of a technology transfer agreement that will provide the Southern region of Africa with clinical-grade sequencing solutions.

"Improving the cost and turnaround time of genetic sequencing services will play a major role in the expansion of precision medicine-driven healthcare in Africa," said Charles F.J. Faul, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Akili. "Locally provided services have struggled with capacity restraints and are challenged with local pricing of reagents and equipment. Often, the only solution is to send samples to Europe or the USA, where sequencing is cheaper. However, this comes at a price: the application for export permits can be a lengthy process, and then there is the risk of sample loss or damage during shipping.

“Access to sequencing is only one part of the equation”, said Stuart A. Ali, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Akili. “This partnership supplies the first truly Africa-based service to meet our client needs. With this partnership, we can process samples locally in full compliance with regional data protection laws.”

“We are thrilled to see the progress being made in genomics sequencing development in Africa.”, said Ronnie Mao, Business Manager of Southern Africa, BGI Genomics. “With the continent being home to the world's most diverse genomics data, it's crucial that local talent has the tools and resources to further our understanding of clinical genetics, we welcome the initiative to develop localized genomics sequencing capabilities in Africa, with a focus on clinical genetics and improving health outcomes. This will not only benefit the people of Africa but also it's important to enable and empower local talent to lead this effort and bring their unique perspectives to the field. We look forward to seeing the positive impact that this development will have on the health of individuals and communities in Africa.”

About Akili

Akili specializes in cost-effective and accessible diagnostic services through a combination of careful technology selection and process optimization. Aiming for vertical integration to drive precision medicine, our services are supported by a proprietary cloud platform and data is stored using highly secure encryption and compression algorithms. Akili Labs has regional offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa, Lusaka, Zambia and Maryland, USA. These locations collectively establish the start of a global network for precision medicine and consumer genetics services.

About BGI Genomics:

BGI Genomics, headquartered in Shenzhen China, is the world’s leading integrated solutions provider of precision medicine. Our services cover over 100 countries and regions, involving more than 2,300 medical institutions. In July 2017, as a subsidiary of BGI Group, BGI Genomics (300676.SZ) was officially listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Binghamton University receives $9.3 million in federal funding to train school-based mental health professionals

Grant and Award Announcement

BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: MASTER OF SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS FROM BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY INTERN AT JOHNSON CITY HIGH SCHOOL IN JOHNSON CITY, N.Y. view more 

CREDIT: BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY, STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Economically disadvantaged students face food scarcity, unreliable access to services and other stressors, which can have a huge impact on their mental health. In Broome and Tioga counties, more than 50% of children live in families characterized as low income. New federal funding will help to put more Binghamton University social work students in schools to provide the services that these students need to succeed.

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded two 5-year awards, totalling $9.3 million, to Binghamton University Community Schools (BUCS) to expand mental health services in New York’s Southern Tier as part of its Mental Health Service Provider Demonstration Grant Program.

“Both grants aim to put more social workers in schools, and we have a really great opportunity to do this because we have an excellent social work education program and strong relationships with our local schools,” said Naorah Rimkunas, assistant professor of social work and education at Binghamton University’s College of Community and Public Affairs (CCPA) and principal investigator for both awards. “And we can leverage that and put those students who are training to become social workers into schools to offset the shortage of mental health providers.”

Laura Bronstein, founding director of BUCS and CCPA dean, is thrilled that the work of BUCS will be expanded by these two new grants.

“As a leader in university-assisted community schools for small cities and rural communities, BUCS works with communities locally and beyond to support success for all students through out-of-classroom support in collaboration with universities and other community partners,” Bronstein said. “Increasingly, children are being left behind due to challenges that even the best teachers can’t address on their own. This includes issues like anxiety and depression, violence, poverty and many others that interfere with students’ abilities to focus on learning in the classroom. These new federal grants allow us to provide support for mental health challenges that have been skyrocketing among youth, especially since the advent of the pandemic.”

“As a social worker who has worked in and with schools for the past 20 years, I have witnessed the need for mental health support and the importance of family engagement to ensure that the two most important systems children engage with every day are aligned in true partnership around the needs of children,” said Luann Kida, co-principal investigator and executive director of BUCS. “This funding will allow Binghamton University to support our local schools while also providing social work interns valuable field experiences that will not only serve young people and their families, but also strengthen skills for emerging professionals preparing them to work within or alongside school systems. These proposals are the example of what can happen when partners build plans that are mutually beneficial on a core foundation of trust.”

A total of $5.7 million will fund the Rural Mental Health in Schools Expansion. This initiative will expand social work support to middle and high school students and families in four high-needs school districts (Harpursville, Whitney Point, Windsor, and Owego-Apalachin). Approximately 3,300 students at seven schools will be served through this initiative, which builds on a pilot telemental health project where Binghamton University social work students were trained to provide solution-focused telemental health virtually to young people in partner schools.

“During the pandemic, everything was disrupted; our schools were closed. Schools are a source of all things for children and families. They’re a source for services, especially through our community schools initiatives, and mental health services were interrupted,” Rimkunas said. “By doing a telemental health pilot, we were able to see that parents and students were accessing the services. This new funding allows us to expand on that so we can educate more social work students to have the skills, tools, and competencies to reach more students and families.”

The telemental approach will be implemented in tandem with an in-person approach that includes on-site mental health services for children and intensive outreach to the most hard-to-reach families with the intent to connect them as partners in the education and development of their children. This project will not only target social work interns serving in their field placements; it will also build capacity to increase the number of social work field instructors and provide technical assistance to school partners around building a culturally responsive, trauma-informed approach that fosters safety and professional growth for students, families and staff. One new social worker will be placed in each partnering school district and up to four social work interns will complete their practicums in each school, up to 16 per year.

The other $3.5 million will fund the Family Partner Program, which will serve approximately 3,700 students at the Chenango Forks and Maine-Endwell school districts.

“The Family Partner Program is really about building out our family engagement practices,” Rimkunas said. “We’ve been doing family engagement through our community school work for over a decade and this program will provide additional education to the social work students in these family engagement practices. The point of this is to bring in families as partners in the academic growth and social and emotional well-being of their children. But it takes skill to do that, so being able to teach social work students to do that will help to 1) make that a solid practice for them and 2) reach more families and students because there will be more social workers in our schools.”

“Our staff and CCPA student interns will greatly expand their support for mental health through schools by collaborating with families as partners in this work, building on over a decade of family engagement work that is core to our community schools approach,” Bronstein said. “The prevention and interventions we will provide through these grants are built on cutting-edge research developed by CCPA faculty, including Youjung Lee and Kelley Cook’s telemental health model. Lastly and equally important, these grants advance the education of the next generation of a diverse group of social workers in evidence-based, skill-rich approaches that center on the child, families and caregivers, so that all children may not only survive, but thrive.”

Rimkunas said that BUCS will spend the spring and summer hiring field instructors and recruiting social work students for participation in the fall. She is excited about the impact that the grants will have in local schools.

“It just means so much for our local community,” Rimkunas said. “To be able to bring attention to mental health to the area, and then also be able to offer innovative training for our social work students, I’m thrilled.”

Researchers trace genetic agent in life-threatening fungal disease

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

 

IMAGE: UNIVERSITY OF IOWA BIOLOGISTS HAVE UNCOVERED A SHARED GENETIC FACTOR AMONG DISEASE-CAUSING FUNGI, INCLUDING ONE SPECIES THAT HAS BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH HOSPITAL OUTBREAKS IN THE US. THE IMAGE SHOWS PROTEINS ENCODED BY THE HIL GENE FAMILY THAT ROOT THEMSELVES IN CELLS AND USE STICKY, OR ADHESIVE, PROPERTIES TO ATTACH THEMSELVES TO MEDICAL DEVICES, SUCH AS CATHETERS, TO TISSUE OR TO CREATE A DRUG-RESISTANT WALL CALLED BIOFILM. view more 

CREDIT: BIN HE LAB, UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

Nature has an ingenious way of taking advantage of beneficial situations.

Take Candida auris, for example. This yeast was unknown as recently as 2009, but it burst onto the scene when scientists learned it was causing life-threatening invasive infections to patients in hospitals and nursing-care facilities. In 2019, the danger from C. auris was grave enough that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named it a serious global health threat, citing the yeast’s spread and its resistance to a host of anti-fungal drugs. Last month, the CDC reported C. auris has been detected in nearly half the states in the U.S.

So, how did a simple, unknown yeast suddenly become a public health enemy? Part of the answer, say biologists at the University of Iowa, is found in a gene family that encodes sticky properties, or adhesins, that appear central to the virulence in fungal diseases, including some that threaten humans.

In a new study, the researchers report one such adhesin family, called the Hil family, existed in the common ancestor of all yeast species, but is more numerous in disease-causing species than benign ones. Moreover, the researchers found, some disease-causing species with a large Hil gene family are distantly related, suggesting that each species with a large Hil family independently evolved the family size, rather than having the genes passed down.

“We found this gene family has specifically and repeatedly expanded by gene duplications in pathogenic yeast lineages,” says Bin He, assistant professor in the Department of Biology and a co-corresponding author on the study. “Moreover, their sequences evolved rapidly after the duplications, possibly generating functional diversity to allow the yeast to adapt to the complex host environment.”

The adaptation element is key: The Hil genes likely encode proteins that allow the organism to become adhesive. More specifically, the proteins, through their structure, help yeast cells to stick to host tissue and inanimate surfaces (such as catheters), and to stitch themselves together, like interlocking Legos, to form a nearly impenetrable, drug-resistant wall, called biofilm.

It’s natural selection at its finest, or most devilish, one could say. The Hil genes either are not present or not active in a bunch of other yeast species, such as baker’s yeast, that are in fact beneficial to humans (assuming people like bread). But in species that are pathogenic, the researchers found, the Hil (short for the Hyr/Iff-like) family is very much alive and well, wreaking its adhesive havoc.

“That’s convergent evolution,” He says. “You find a way to succeed in an environmental niche.”

The researchers sequenced the proteins in the adhesin family, and searched all other organisms—including the plant, animal, and bacterial kingdoms—to find out whether any other species had a similar protein sequence. They found the Hil gene family in just one place, the Saccharomycetes class, part of the Fungi kingdom.

The analysis revealed another important clue: The Hil family popped up in species that had no close relatives, taxonomically speaking. For instance, the Hil family is present, and active, in C. auris and another disease-causing species, Candida albicans. But when the researchers looked at more closely related species for each, the Hil gene number was either low, or it didn’t exist at all.

“That’s the idea of a parallel, or independent, evolution,” He says. “Basically, these genes reached the same end state, not by descending, not by inheritance, but by independent evolution. They all took similar evolutionary paths.”

The study itself sprang from a graduate-level bioinformatics class at Iowa. In fall 2019, the course’s instructors centered the curriculum on C. auris, whose 5,000-gene genome had recently been sequenced. One student group decided to investigate C. auris’ penchant for stickiness.

It was a wise, and fruitful, selection.

“We picked proteins based on domains with keywords that we thought could be involved in making a fungal pathogen sticky and came up with this group of adhesins,” explains Lindsey Snyder, who was a student in the class and is pursuing a doctorate in genetics at Iowa. “At the time, there were two small adhesin families reported in the genome we were working with, so once we realized how large this (Hil) family was, we were pretty sure we found something that hadn’t been characterized yet in this species.”

Jan Fassler, a professor in the Department of Biology who conceived the class in 2013 with fellow biology associate professor Albert Erives, says the instructors would choose genomes that were new in the literature and had intriguing biological attributes.

“We chose recently sequenced genomes so that there would be very little prior investigation, thus allowing students to feel as if they were (and they were) making new discoveries,” says Fassler, director of the biomedical sciences program and the co-corresponding author on the study.

The researchers next want to investigate, through experiments, specifically how the Hil family allows C. auris to become adhesive. This would advance the research beyond identifying the genes involved and could lead to medical advances.

“Here is the hope: We have identified a gene family that may play an important role in the pathogenesis and is restricted to this group of fungi. This could be a drug target if we can figure out how to inhibit it,” He says.

The study, “Parallel expansion and divergence of an adhesin family in pathogenic yeasts,” was published online in the journal Genetics on Feb. 16.

Rachel Smoak, who earned a doctorate in civil and environmental engineering from Iowa in 2022 and was a member of the graduate student group that investigated the Hil gene family, is a contributing author on the study.

The National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation funded the research.

---

JOURNAL

Genetics

DOI

10.1093/genetics/iyad024 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Parallel expansion and divergence of an adhesin family in pathogenic yeasts

NCD Academy launches new Health Equity and Social Determinants of Health course

Innovative online education platform helping global healthcare professionals address non-communicable diseases

Business Announcement

AMERICAN COLLEGE OF CARDIOLOGY

Viatris Inc. (NASDAQ: VTRS), a global healthcare company, and the American College of Cardiology (ACC) today released the latest NCD Academy course, Health Equity and Social Determinants of Health in NCDs, coinciding with World Health Day and the theme “Health for All.” The NCD Academy is a user-friendly, interactive online platform developed by the ACC in partnership with the NCD Alliance and the World Heart Federation and sponsored by Viatris. The program is designed to equip primary healthcare professionals with educational resources and skills to enhance their ability to prevent and treat non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The NCD Academy’s overarching goal is aligned with the vision to make health for all a reality, by providing continued education for skilled health workers and supporting people-centered care.

Health equity, as described by the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), is the absence of inequalities in healthcare that are avoidable by reasonable means. The new Health Equity and Social Determinants of Health in NCDs course aims to educate and increase awareness of health inequities and provide support on how to address them to achieve equitable care for all. Course topics led by leading experts in global health equity include an overview of social determinants of health; a closer look at the impact of structural discrimination; and strategies for tackling disparities in vulnerable communities, as well as low- and middle-income countries.

“Health equity and broadening access to healthcare is core to Viatris’ mission of empowering people worldwide to live healthier at every stage of life. We are proud to collaborate with our NCD Academy partners to support the launch of the new course on Health Equity, as part of our continuing efforts to deliver access to health education on a global level,” said Lobna Salem, Head of Medical Affairs, Developed Markets. “NCDs account for over 70% of deaths globally, many of which are preventable. Viatris is committed to helping to reduce this number, as demonstrated through one of our initial sustainability goals announced in our 2021 Sustainability Report: to impact 100 million patients via HCP education and outreach regarding prevention, diagnosis and treatment options for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and other important chronic conditions to improve outcomes through the NCD Academy by the end of 2025.”

Launched in 2020, the NCD Academy features courses on nearly all aspects of NCDs, including cardiovascular disease and cancer. More recent courses also address mental health and advocacy and their respective roles in the NCD crisis, from which no country is immune. The new Health Equity course is being rolled out throughout the month of April, available at ACC.org/NCDAcademy.

“Health equity is a critical global health issue that must be addressed if we are to truly stem the tide of NCDs,” said Dipti Itchhaporia, MD, MACC, former ACC president and a past chair of the College’s Health Equity Task Force. “Transforming cardiovascular care and improving heart health for all needs to start with solving for health equity. The ACC is proud to partner with Viatris, WHF and NCD Alliance to drive awareness and action around this important topic. Together we are delivering global education that inspires global action and, while there is still much work to be done, it is exciting to see how far we’ve come to date.”

For more information about the NCD Academy and to view available courses visit ACC.org/NCDAcademy.

About the NCD Academy

NCD Academy equips healthcare professionals, such as general practitioners, internists, nurses and community health workers, with high-quality continuing education available anytime, anywhere, and free of charge on fundamental skills to prevent, manage and mitigate today's leading causes of death and disability. Courses address non-communicable diseases (NCDs) through an intersectional lens given shared risk factors and the tendency of NCDs to coexist with one another, as well as with infectious diseases. Courses include eLearning that emulates the experience of intensive face-to-face training through interactive knowledge application and practice in the form of patient cases and games such as trivia. The Academy has hosted 44 trainings, equipping more than 70,000 health care professionals across ten countries with the latest science, technology, resources and tools to manage and prevent NCDs. The program has reached physicians and patients across many countries including Argentina, China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Iraq, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Spain and the United States.

About the American College of Cardiology

The American College of Cardiology (ACC) is the global leader in transforming cardiovascular care and improving heart health for all. As the preeminent source of professional medical education for the entire cardiovascular care team since 1949, ACC credentials cardiovascular professionals in over 140 countries who meet stringent qualifications and leads in the formation of health policy, standards and guidelines. Through its world-renowned family of JACC Journals, NCDR registries, ACC Accreditation Services, global network of Member Sections, CardioSmart patient resources and more, the College is committed to ensuring a world where science, knowledge and innovation optimize patient care and outcomes. Learn more at ACC.org or follow @ACCinTouch.

About Viatris
Viatris Inc. (NASDAQ: VTRS) is a global healthcare company empowering people worldwide to live healthier at every stage of life. We provide access to medicines, advance sustainable operations, develop innovative solutions and leverage our collective expertise to connect more people to more products and services through our one-of-a-kind Global Healthcare Gateway®. Formed in November 2020, Viatris brings together scientific, manufacturing and distribution expertise with proven regulatory, medical, and commercial capabilities to deliver high-quality medicines to patients in more than 165 countries and territories. Viatris' portfolio comprises more than 1,400 approved molecules across a wide range of therapeutic areas, spanning both non-communicable and infectious diseases, including globally recognized brands, complex generic and branded medicines, and a variety of over-the-counter consumer products. With approximately 37,000 colleagues globally, Viatris is headquartered in the U.S., with global centers in Pittsburgh, Shanghai and Hyderabad, India. Learn more at viatris.com and investor.viatris.com, and connect with us on Twitter at @ViatrisInc, LinkedIn and YouTube.

 

Adolescents who use smartphones for more than three hours a day suffer more from back pain

The finding is from a longitudinal study conducted in Brazil. Analyzing data for high school students aged 13-18, it concluded that the problem affects girls more than boys and is associated with physical inactivity and low academic achievement

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

Thanks to the popularization of smartphones and tablets, and the multiplication of video channels, computer games and educational apps, children and adolescents are spending more and more time looking at screens, usually with bad posture, which can cause back pain, among other problems.

A study by Brazilian researchers, funded by FAPESP and reported in an article published in the scientific journal Healthcare, identified several risk factors for spinal health, such as looking at screens for more than three hours a day, proximity of the eyes to the screen, and sitting or lying on the stomach.

The study focused on thoracic spine pain (TSP). The thoracic spine is located at the back of the chest (the thorax), mostly between the shoulder blades, extending from the bottom of the neck to the start of the lumbar spine. The data analyzed came from surveys of 14- to 18-year-old male and female students in the first and second years of high school in Bauru, a medium-sized city in São Paulo state.

A baseline questionnaire was completed in March-June 2017 by 1,628 participants, of whom 1,393 completed a follow-up questionnaire in 2018. The analysis showed a one-year prevalence of 38.4% (the proportion reporting TSP in both the baseline and follow-up surveys) and a one-year incidence of 10.1% (new TSP reported only in the follow-up survey). More girls than boys reported TSP.

Risk factors

TSP is common in different age groups of the general population worldwide, with prevalence ranging from 15%-35% in adults and 13%-35% in children and adolescents. Explosive growth in the use of electronic devices during the COVID-19 pandemic clearly made the problem worse. The risk factors associated with TSP are physical, physiological, psychological and behavioral, according to several investigations. There is also strong evidence of the effects of physical activity, sedentary habits and mental disorders on spinal health. All these factors are considered critical by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its latest global review of evidence and guidelines.

“The study can be used to inform health education programs for school students, teachers, staff and parents,” said Alberto de Vitta, first author of the article. He has a PhD in education from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in public health at São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Botucatu. 

“This is in line with some of the objectives of the National Curriculum Parameters [PCN, Brazilian government guidelines for secondary schools], according to which schools are responsible for health education, including identification of risks to individual and collective health and interventions to combat them, as well as promotion of self-care habits with regard to the body’s possibilities and limits,” said Vitta, who is currently teaching and researching at Eduvale College as a faculty member in its Department of Physical Therapy in Avaré, São Paulo state, and the University of Sapucaí Valley’s Graduate Program in Education, Knowledge and Society in Pouso Alegre, Minas Gerais state.

Information on risk factors for TSP in high school students is important because children and adolescents with back pain are more inactive, achieve less academically and have more psychosocial problems, according to the article. In addition, fewer studies have been conducted on TSP than on lower back and neck pain. A systematic review of the literature on TSP found only two prospective studies regarding prognostic factors.

The other authors of the article are Matias Noll of the Federal Institute of Goiás (IFG) and the Federal University of Goiás’s School of Physical Education and Dance (FEFD-UFG) in Brazil; Nicoly Machado Maciel of the University of São Paulo (USP); and Manuel Monfort-Pañego and Vicente Miñana-Signes of the University of Valencia in Spain.

About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe.

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JOURNAL

Healthcare

DOI

10.3390/healthcare11020196 

ARTICLE TITLE

Thoracic Spine Pain in High School Adolescents: A One-Year Longitudinal Study

Increasing use of asset building programs could lead to increase in wealth for low income families

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BOSTON MEDICAL CENTER

BOSTON – New research from Boston Medical Center found that increasing the use of underutilized asset building programs could be part of the solution to help build wealth for low income families. Published in Pediatrics, the study showed that a novel approach–incorporating wealth-building programs into healthcare–may make them more accessible to families in need.

Financial strain is a common problem in the United States and associated with many adult and child health problems, including life expectancy, gestational age at birth, birth weight, suicidality and depression, smoking, food insecurity, and child behavioral and developmental outcomes. In response to the well-documented connection between wealth and health, income maximization and asset building programs have emerged in healthcare (Medical Financial Partnerships) as potential solutions to address adverse social determinants of health, rooted in poverty. Incorporating financial interventions into routine clinical care may help address the negative health impacts of financial strain.

There are structural barriers to the uptake of these programs for families with low incomes, such as the “cliff effect,” which remains one of the largest barriers to asset building. Many benefits are income and asset limited – as income increases, benefits decrease or disappear, which can push families “over the cliff” and actually render them financially worse off after an incremental raise. Families living in subsidized housing, in which residents pay 30% of their income as rent, are at a particularly high risk for the cliff effect.

One tool to mitigate the cliff effect is Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS), an asset building program for residents in some types of federally subsidized housing. Created by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), FSS provides coordinator services, like financial coaching, and the opportunity to save the amount of their rent increase (when their income increases) in an escrow account. This money can be used towards their financial goals during the program and can be accessed without restriction once they finish the program.

FSS enrollees are more likely to be employed, have higher incomes than their peers by the end of the program, and leave with an average of $5,294 in savings. Though a potentially powerful tool to build wealth for families with low incomes, FSS is drastically underutilized with a national enrollment level of only 3%. Many families have not heard about this program or find government programs like FSS to be time consuming, confusing, and untrustworthy, especially given the historical disenfranchisement of Black and Latino communities and communities with low incomes.

“Knowing helpful programs exist but are so underutilized or mistrusted by the very families they are meant to help is unacceptable and must be addressed,” said senior author Lucy Marcil, MD, MPH, Associate Director for Economic Mobility in the Center for the Urban Child and Healthy Family and co-founder and Executive Director of StreetCred at Boston Medical Center and assistant professor of General Pediatrics at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. “For better or worse, wealth is intrinsically linked to the health and well-being of individuals, so it is vital we do what we can to educate and empower those who need these programs the most.”

To increase education and access to asset building opportunities, this study piloted the use of a trusted and frequented healthcare system to engage eligible families for FSS. Researchers tracked eligibility, interest, and enrollment rates and evaluated the pilots using an implementation science framework, in addition to reviewing feedback from staff who introduced the program to eligible families. 

More systematic and qualitative work is needed to amplify families’ voices and interrogate the root causes of low enrollment. Partnering with families to understand their lived experiences is an important next step to maximize enrollment. Some areas to consider for successful future implementation include: 1) timeline of outreach, 2) families’ relationships with individuals performing outreach, and 3) current bandwidth of the families. Systematic implementation trials are needed to study these outcomes in more detail. 

 

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About Boston Medical Center

Boston Medical Center is a leading academic medical center with a deep commitment to health equity and a proud history of serving all who come to us for care. BMC provides high-quality healthcare and wrap around support that treats the whole person, extending beyond our physical campus into our vibrant and diverse communities. BMC is advancing medicine, while training the next generation of healthcare providers and researchers as the primary teaching affiliate of Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. BMC is a founding member of Boston Medical Center Health System, which supports patients and health plan members through a value based, coordinated continuum of care.

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JOURNAL

PEDIATRICS

DOI

10.1542/peds.2022-059028 

ARTICLE TITLE

Promoting Housing-Based Asset Building Programs in Healthcare

Technology advance paves way to more realistic 3D holograms for virtual reality and more

Researchers overcome two bottlenecks in current digital holographic techniques

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OPTICA

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS HAVE DEVELOPED A NEW WAY TO ACHIEVE DYNAMIC PROJECTION OF 3D OBJECTS ONTO ULTRAHIGH-DENSITY SUCCESSIVE PLANES. BY PACKING MORE DETAILS INTO A 3D IMAGE, THIS APPROACH COULD ENABLE REALISTIC REPRESENTATIONS FOR USE IN VIRTUAL REALITY AND OTHER APPLICATIONS. view more 

CREDIT: LEI GONG, UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF CHINA

WASHINGTON — Researchers have developed a new way to create dynamic ultrahigh-density 3D holographic projections. By packing more details into a 3D image, this type of hologram could enable realistic representations of the world around us for use in virtual reality and other applications.

“A 3D hologram can present real 3D scenes with continuous and fine features,” said Lei Gong, who led a research team from the University of Science and Technology of China. “For virtual reality, our method could be used with headset-based holographic displays to greatly improve the viewing angles, which would enhance the 3D viewing experience. It could also provide better 3D visuals without requiring a headset.”

Producing a realistic-looking holographic display of 3D objects requires projecting images with a high pixel resolution onto a large number of successive planes, or layers, that are spaced closely together. This achieves high depth resolution, which is important for providing the depth cues that make the hologram look three dimensional.

In Optica, Optica Publishing Group’s journal for high-impact research, Gong’s team and Chengwei Qiu’s research team at the National University of Singapore describe their new approach, called three-dimensional scattering-assisted dynamic holography (3D-SDH). They show that it can achieve a depth resolution more than three orders of magnitude greater than state-of-the-art methods for multiplane holographic projection.

“Our new method overcomes two long-existing bottlenecks in current digital holographic techniques — low axial resolution and high interplane crosstalk — that prevent fine depth control of the hologram and thus limit the quality of the 3D display,” said Gong. “Our approach could also improve holography-based optical encryption by allowing more data to be encrypted in the hologram.”

Producing more detailed holograms

Creating a dynamic holographic projection typically involves using a spatial light modulator (SLM) to modulate the intensity and/or phase of a light beam. However, today’s holograms are limited in terms of quality because current SLM technology allows only a few low-resolution images to be projected onto sperate planes with low depth resolution.

To overcome this problem, the researchers combined an SLM with a diffuser that enables multiple image planes to be separated by a much smaller amount without being constrained by the properties of the SLM. By also suppressing crosstalk between the planes and exploiting scattering of light and wavefront shaping, this setup enables ultrahigh-density 3D holographic projection.

To test the new method, the researchers first used simulations to show that it could produce 3D reconstructions with a much smaller depth interval between each plane. For example, they were able to project a 3D rocket model with 125 successive image planes at a depth interval of 0.96 mm in a single 1000×1000-pixel hologram, compared to 32 image planes with a depth interval of 3.75 mm using another recently developed approach known as random vector-based computer-generated holography.

To validate the concept experimentally, they built a prototype 3D-SDH projector to create dynamic 3D projections and compared this to a conventional state-of- the-art setup for 3D Fresnel computer-generated holography. They showed that 3D-SDH achieved an improvement in axial resolution of more than three orders of magnitude over the conventional counterpart.

The 3D holograms the researchers demonstrated are all point-cloud 3D images, meaning they cannot present the solid body of a 3D object. Ultimately, the researchers would like to be able to project a collection of 3D objects with a hologram, which would require a higher pixel-count hologram and new algorithms.

Paper: P. Yu, Y. Liu, Z. Wang, J. Liang, X. S. Liu, Y. Li, C. Qiu, L. Gong, “Ultrahigh-density 3D Holographic Projection by Scattering-assisted Dynamic Holography,” 10, 4 (2023).

DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.483057.

The new 3D scattering-assisted dynamic holography approach creates a digital hologram by projecting high-resolution images onto planes spaced closely together (a), achieving a more realistic representation than conventional holography techniques (b).

The researchers used their new method to simulate a holographic representation of a rocket [drawing shown in (a), point-cloud model in (b)]. A volume-rendered image of the 3D rocket projected by the random vector-based computer-generated holography (RV-CGH) method is shown in (c), using a single 1000×1000-pixel hologram. The 3D projection is represented by 32 images with a depth interval of 3.75 mm. Volume-rendered image of the object projected by 3D-SDH is shown in (d). 125 image planes with a uniform distance of 0.96 mm are simultaneously projected from a single 1000×1000-pixel hologram. Volume-rendered images of the simulated 3D rocket with varying perspective views are pictured in (e–g).

CREDIT

Lei Gong, University of Science and Technology of China

About Optica

Optica is an open-access journal dedicated to the rapid dissemination of high-impact peer-reviewed research across the entire spectrum of optics and photonics. Published monthly by Optica Publishing Group, the Journal provides a forum for pioneering research to be swiftly accessed by the international community, whether that research is theoretical or experimental, fundamental or applied. Optica maintains a distinguished editorial board of more than 60 associate editors from around the world and is overseen by Editor-in-Chief Prem Kumar, Northwestern University, USA. For more information, visit Optica.

About Optica Publishing Group (formerly OSA)

Optica Publishing Group is a division of Optica, the society advancing optics and photonics worldwide. It publishes the largest collection of peer-reviewed content in optics and photonics, including 18 prestigious journals, the society’s flagship member magazine, and papers from more than 835 conferences, including 6,500+ associated videos. With over 400,000 journal articles, conference papers and videos to search, discover and access, Optica Publishing Group represents the full range of research in the field from around the globe.

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JOURNAL

Optica

DOI

10.1364/OPTICA.483057 

ARTICLE TITLE

Ultrahigh-density 3D holographic projection by scattering-assisted dynamic holography