Saturday, April 11, 2020

3-D-printed corals could improve bioenergy and help coral reefs

by University of Cambridge

Credit: Sarah Collins (Cambridge University)

Researchers from Cambridge University and University of California San Diego have 3-D printed coral-inspired structures that are capable of growing dense populations of microscopic algae. Their results, reported in the journal Nature Communications, open the door to new bio-inspired materials and their applications for coral conservation.

In the ocean, corals and algae have an intricate symbiotic relationship. The coral provides a host for the algae, while the algae produce sugars to the coral through photosynthesis. This relationship is responsible for one of the most diverse and productive ecosystems on Earth, the coral reef.

"Corals are highly efficient at collecting and using light," said first author Dr. Daniel Wangpraseurt, a Marie Curie Fellow from Cambridge's Department of Chemistry. "In our lab, we're looking for methods to copy and mimic these strategies from nature for commercial applications."

Wangpraseurt and his colleagues 3-D printed coral structures and used them as incubators for algae growth. They tested various types of microalgae and found growth rates were 100x higher than in standard liquid growth mediums.

To create the intricate structures of natural corals, the researchers used a rapid 3-D bioprinting technique originally developed for the bioprinting of artificial liver cells.

The coral-inspired structures were highly efficient at redistributing light, just like natural corals. Only biocompatible materials were used to fabricate the 3-D printed bionic corals.

A scanning electron microscope image of the microalgal colonies in the hybrid living biopolymers. Credit: University of Cambridge

"We developed an artificial coral tissue and skeleton with a combination of polymer gels and hydrogels doped with cellulose nanomaterials to mimic the optical properties of living corals," said Dr. Silvia Vignolini, who led the research. "Cellulose is an abundant biopolymer; it is excellent at scattering light and we used it to optimise delivery of light into photosynthetic algae."

The team used an optical analogue to ultrasound, called optical coherence tomography, to scan living corals and utilise the models for their 3-D printed designs. The custom-made 3-D bioprinter uses light to print coral micro-scale structures in seconds. The printed coral copies natural coral structures and light-harvesting properties, creating an artificial host-microenvironment for the living microalgae.

Microalgae growing on the 3D printed coral structure. Credit: Nature Communications

Left: Close-up of coral reef microstructures consisting of a coral skeleton (white) and coral tissue (orange-yellow).

Right: SEM image of 3D printed coral skeleton. Credit: Nature Communications

"By copying the host microhabitat, we can also use our 3-D bioprinted corals as a model system for the coral-algal symbiosis, which is urgently needed to understand the breakdown of the symbiosis during coral reef decline," said Wangpraseurt. "There are many different applications for our new technology. We have recently created a company, called mantaz, that uses coral-inspired light-harvesting approaches to cultivate algae for bioproducts in developing countries. We hope that our technique will be scalable so it can have a real impact on the algal biosector and ultimately reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are responsible for coral reef death."

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Combination of light and temperature naturally regulate algal abundance
More information: Bionic 3D printed corals, Nature Communications (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15486-4

Video: What is food insecurity?

by Steffan Hacker, Tufts University

Norbert Wilson is a professor of food policy at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. His research touches on a number of food issues of such as access, choice, and food waste. He continues to work on food safety and quality issues in international trade and domestic food systems. Additionally, his work is moving to explore equity in food access and health.

Wilson has published in AEA Papers and Proceedings, World Development, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Journal of Public Health, Food Policy and Agricultural Economics, among others.

Prior to the Friedman School, Norbert was a professor of agricultural economics at Auburn University from 1999 to 2016. He was also an economist/policy analyst in the trade directorate (2004-2006) and in the agriculture directorate (2001-2002) of the Organization of Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) in Paris, France.

"Food insecurity is often linked with a number of poor health outcomes such as diabetes and cardiovascular problems," said Norbert Wilson, a professor of food policy at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Credit: Steffan Hacker

A heightened focus on food security and sustainability

How much do I need to clean at home?

by Bev Betkowski, University of Alberta

It's a big ask to wipe down everything in sight to avoid bringing COVID-19 home, but having a strategy will keep it manageable, says a University of Alberta expert.

"It's all about risk management," said virologist David Evans. "Think about your process to minimize cross-contamination once you're in the house. Ask yourself what you are touching and how to keep it clean, and avoid touching your face."

All the fuss really is necessary because the virus spreads easily, he added.

He said the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is spread by the droplets and sputum people are coughing up. That spreads out on surfaces and is transmitted between people.

"So someone coughs into their hand, then touches a doorknob and it spreads really easily," explained Evans.

"One person can give it to two more, then two give it to four, four to eight and so on. That exponential function is something we really want to stop, and one of the ways to do that is through good cleaning measures."

He said cleaning and washing knocks the level of the virus below the point at which it can cause infections.

"When you wipe off your doorknobs, you've taken what could be a large load of the virus down to a small load," he explained.

The coronavirus is fragile, easily killed by soap and water, making it doubly important to develop a cleaning routine, he added.

"Viruses are wrapped in fatty envelopes essential for infectivity, but soap cuts through them like dish detergent on a greasy plate. It inactivates those viral membranes."

There's no simple answer to how long the virus lives on different surfaces like cloth, plastic, cardboard and metal since survival will vary, though research suggests the virus can live for up to 24 hours on cardboard and for up to 72 hours on other surfaces, including plastic.

Some surfaces like cardboard and cloth are less hospitable to viruses, Evans said.

"They absorb onto those materials, dry up and are inactivated, so they would disappear faster."

The Government of Canada lists household cleaners that can be used against COVID-19, Evans said. A diluted bleach solution will also work, and if you're facing store shelves sold out of hand wipes or hand sanitizer, use a wet cloth soaked in liquid soap.

Here's what to think about when safeguarding your home against COVID-19.

Shopping

When bringing groceries and other purchases into the house, wash your hands first, before and after putting things away to avoid picking up a load of virus off an item and then touching your face, which can cause infection.

Not everything needs to be wiped down, Evans suggested, since most items being handled would likely have a low virus load, which dies off as the items are put away to sit in the cupboard.

"Once the virus has dried, it's hard to get off a surface and spread through contact."

Wash off, rinse and dry any fruits and vegetables that would be eaten raw, using warm water with dish soap.

Leave cloth shopping bags at home for now.

"They can be washed, but out of caution for the time being, it's OK to use plastic. It helps protect staff bagging groceries," he said.

Doing laundry

It may not be necessary to wash clothing we wouldn't often launder, like coats or gloves, but it depends on the degree of contact with potentially contaminated surfaces.

"It comes down to how likely you are to pick up a big load of virus on an item and then get it on your face. Think about how much virus you've possibly put on that material. A coat probably would have a low amount of virus, and as it's sitting on the cloth, it's decaying," said Evans.

High-touch items like dishcloths, hand and kitchen towels should be changed daily.

Regular laundry detergent is adequate to kill the virus, even in cold water.

"Turn up the water temperature if you prefer, but there's no need to wreck fragile clothing," said Evans.

Housecleaning

The best way to keep your home clear of COVID-19 is by wiping things down behind you after walking in the door, Evans said.

"Think about that entry process, because that lessens the risk of bringing a virus in. Hang up your coat and then wash your hands before you do anything else in the house.

"Then think about what you've touched on the way in. Wipe down doorknobs, light switches, phones, keys.

"Once those commonly touched items are disinfected, viruses aren't going to reappear magically from nowhere, so you're fine."

Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

Provided by University of Alberta

Engineers designing, building ventilators to aid in the fight against COVID-19

by Amanda Bowman, Texas Tech University

A group from Texas Tech University's Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering is using its time to create much-needed ventilators to aid the medical community.

Texas Tech University's Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering has formed a working group at the behest of Dean Al Sacco Jr. to design and build new ventilators to meet the needs of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For almost two weeks, a group of engineering faculty, staff and students, led by Nurcan Bac, senior associate academic dean in the College of Engineering and in partnership with regional high school students and high school engineering programs, has undertaken an effort to supply emergency respirators to health care workers on the South Plains.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has already stretched critical medical supplies to their limits and, hopefully, the ventilators the group has will be enough to provide the care needed in the coming months," Bac said. "However, if they are not, everything that can be turned into a ventilator or a respirator needs to be repurposed to serve that effort.

"In this spirit, everyone helping on the team has drawn inspiration from efforts all over the world. They have come together to generate new designs to turn anything already in a hospital not currently being used as a ventilator into a ventilator or a respirator. Right now, four designs have been developed, and two are already in the prototyping phase, being prepped for testing."

All four current designs seek to repurpose a bag valve mask (BVM), more commonly known as an artificial manual breathing unit (AMBU) bag into an automated ventilator. The first design uses a single arm to compress an AMBU bag.

The single-arm AMBU bag compression design was designed by Mazan Nachawati and a team of mechanical engineering senior design students under the direction of Jeff Hanson, a mechanical engineering instructor. This design is currently built and in the process of being prepped for stress tests to begin early next week.

The second design involves the use of a rack and pinion gear to compress an AMBU bag. This build was designed by Hans Hudyncia and a team of mechanical engineering senior design students under Hanson's direction.

The first 3-D print of that design was just completed and is currently being constructed. The next phase for that project is to add a motor and controls, then it will be tested.

The third design uses a pressure chamber to compress an AMBU bag encased within. This project was designed by Chris O'Neal, Steven Bavousett and a team of mechanical engineering senior design students under Hanson's direction. This design is currently being fabricated and will move forward rapidly in the coming weeks.

The last design, currently referred to as the TTU AMBU-Vent, was started by Frenship High School junior Mark Dannemiller under the direction of his father, Joseph Dannemiller, assistant academic dean of the College of Engineering. This design seeks to springboard off a Massachusetts Institute of Technology design while making several changes to materials and layout.

This design is fully constructed and going through its last round of tests and software updates before undergoing stress testing.

All electronics and controls for these projects are being designed by electrical and computer engineering professor Richard Gale and doctoral student Derek Johnston; mechanical engineering student Preston Abadie, Burak Aksak, associate chair, research and graduate affairs and an associate professor and Kalana Pothuvila.

All manufacturing processes and supply assessments are being coordinated by Roy Mullins and Chase George of Texas Tech's mechanical engineering shop; Michael Giesselmann, department chair and professor of electrical and computer engineering and Richard Woodcock, unit coordinator of lab support in electrical and computer engineering.

"We sincerely hope all of these efforts result in products that are not needed, but we understand that as the number of people needing non-intrusive ventilation and intrusive ventilations increases, the number of available health care workers free to assist these patients decreases," Bac said.

"These projects are a testament to the community atmosphere we have here on the South Plains and at Texas Tech. Every member of this team is giving their all, sometimes not sleeping much for days, to get those who are and will be affected all the tools they need to get through these trying times.

ICU ventilators: What they are, how they work and why it's hard to make more

Provided by Texas Tech University

Social media can accurately forecast economic impact of natural disasters—including COVID-19 pandemic

by University of Bristol

Time series for the total number of Facebook posts made by all businesses in Kathmandu, Nepal showing transformed posting activity data resulting from the proposed methodology. Credit: University of Bristol

Social media should be used to chart the economic impact and recovery of businesses in countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research published in Nature Communications. University of Bristol scientists describe a 'real time' method accurately trialled across three global natural disasters which could be used to reliably forecast the financial impact of the current global health crisis.

Traditional economic recovery estimates, such as surveys and interviews, are usually costly, time-consuming and do not scale-up well. However, researchers from Bristol's Departments of Engineering Maths and Civil Engineering show they were able to accurately estimate the downtime and recovery of small businesses in countries affected by three different natural hazards using aggregated social media data.

The method relies on the assumption that businesses tend to publish more social media posts when they are open and fewer when they are closed, hence analysing the aggregated posting activity of a group of businesses over time it is possible to infer when they are open or closed.

Using data from the public Facebook posts of local businesses collected before, during and after three natural disasters comprising the 2015 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal, the 2017 Chiapas earthquake in Mexico, and the 2017 hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, the team charted the number of smaller urban businesses who were closed and then were able to measure their recovery post-event. The team validated their analysis using field surveys, official reports, Facebook surveys, Facebook posts text analysis and other studies available in literature.

Importantly, the framework works in 'real time' without the need for text analysis which can be largely dependent on language, culture or semantic analysis and can be applied to any size area or type of natural disaster, in developed and developing countries, allowing local governments to better target the distribution of resources.

Dr. Filippo Simini, Senior Lecturer and lead author explains: "The challenge of nowcasting the effect of natural hazards such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and pandemics on assets, people and society has never been more timely than ever for assessing the ability of countries to recover from extreme events.

"Often, small to medium-sized businesses slip through the net of traditional monitoring process of recovery. We noticed in areas struck by natural hazard events that not all areas and populations react in the same way."

Dr. Flavia De Luca, Senior Lecturer in Bristol's Department of Civil Engineering and lead author, added: "We had the idea of supporting post-emergency deployment of resources after a natural hazard event using public Facebook posts of businesses to measure how a specific region is recovering after the event. It was amazing to find out that the approach was providing information on the recovery in 'real time."

"We would like to test the method to measure the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic."

Organizations with broad social ties help recovering from natural disasters

More information: Robert Eyre et al. Social media usage reveals recovery of small businesses after natural hazard events, Nature Communications (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15405-7

Fearful of COVID-19, Amazon workers ask California to probe working conditions

by Sam&Dean

Workers at Amazon's Eastvale, Calif., fulfillment center filed complaints with California and Riverside County regulators Wednesday, asking for investigations into what they say are dangerous working conditions that pose a threat to public health during the coronavirus pandemic.

The fulfillment center was the first in Southern California to report an employee testing positive for COVID-19 in late March, with a second case confirmed shortly after. On April 2, The Times confirmed that a third worker at the same facility, which Amazon refers to as LGB3 for short, had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and that cases had also occurred at five other Amazon facilities in the region.

But it wasn't until Tuesday night that Amazon sent a mass text to all workers at the facility informing them of the third case—five days after it was reported in The Times. According to screenshots of the text obtained by The Times, the third worker last reported for a shift March 31.

That delay put workers at risk, the complaints argue, and is representative of what they characterize as Amazon's slipshod response to the COVID-19 pandemic within its operations.

The filings, compiled by the Warehouse Worker Resource Center on behalf of LGB3 employees, allege that Amazon never stopped operations to clean and disinfect the parts of the facility where the infected workers had spent their shifts and that the company has failed to adapt its operations to promote social distancing. The CDC recommends that employers close off areas that people with COVID-19 have visited and "wait 24 hours or as long as practical before beginning cleaning and disinfection," as a precaution to ensure that cleaning crews encounter minimal levels of active virus.

Despite Amazon's official recommendation that employees wash their hands often, the complaints allege workers are forced to walk several minutes each way to the restroom to access hand sanitizer or soap and water, and that hand sanitizer dispensers are often empty. A typical employee is allowed only 30 minutes total for bathroom breaks during a 10-hour shift, in addition to a 30-minute lunch break and two 15-minute breaks.

In a statement, Amazon spokesman Timothy Carter said accusations of workers being put at risk are "simply not true. We are supporting the individuals who are recovering. We are following guidelines from health officials and medical experts, and are taking extreme measures to ensure the safety of employees at our site."

"Like all businesses grappling with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we are evaluating and making changes in real time, and encourage anyone to compare our overall pay, benefits and speed in which we're managing this crisis to other retailers and major employers across the country."

According to interviews with workers at the facility, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation, only some employees and managers are wearing masks, even after Amazon pledged to provide masks to all workers by this week in response to worker activism at Amazon warehouses in New York City and Riverside County officials ordered all residents to cover their faces when leaving home.

"Every time I come into work ever since the pandemic started, I'm coming into work with anxiety. I'm on edge all the time," one worker said. "There's a big question mark: Who has it? Why isn't everybody wearing a mask?"

Hundreds of workers at LGB3 signed and submitted a petition to managers after the first two reported cases in late March, asking Amazon to close the warehouse for two weeks, give all workers full pay during the closure, provide free testing for COVID-19, and offer time-and-a-half hazard pay, child-care subsidies, permanent paid sick leave, and an end to write-ups based on productivity rates.

Amazon has not responded directly to the petition but has implemented a number of new procedures in the last few weeks in response to the pandemic.

On March 30, Amazon warehouse workers in New York staged a walkout over the lack of protective gear and other safeguards. After the walkout, Amazon said it would provide masks to all warehouse workers and perform daily temperature checks on all arriving employees. (It also fired an employee who helped organize the walkout, saying he disregarded an instruction to self-quarantine in attending.)

The company is testing the temperature of employees at the beginning of their shifts, turning away anyone who has a fever over 100.4 degrees and requiring them to stay home for at least three days. After pushback from employees, the company said that workers who are turned away will be paid for up to five hours of their shift that day.

The company is also offering unpaid sick leave to all employees who wish to stay home and two weeks paid leave to any who test positive for COVID-19.

To increase social distancing at its logistics facilities, the company has also canceled the stand-up meetings that typically begin each shift, staggered shift times, spread out tables and chairs in break rooms, asked employees to remain six feet apart, and suspended exit screenings, which the company performs to check if employees are stealing merchandise, to reduce crowding at exits and entrances.

Amazon also says that it has increased the frequency and intensity of cleaning and sanitizing of surfaces, such as door handles and screens, that employees touch during a workday, and that workers are being asked to clean their workstations with sanitizing wipes at the beginning of their shifts. The company also announced Wednesday that it was testing the use disinfectant fog, a cleaning method often used on hospitals and airplanes, at the Staten Island warehouse where workers staged a walkout.

But workers say these measures are failing in practice. The LGB3 facility has only three break rooms, and even with staggered break schedules, people inevitably crowd around sinks, refrigerators and microwaves, with pressure to get back to their workstations on time making it difficult to wait for traffic to clear.

The complaints ask Cal/OSHA to conduct an immediate on-site inspection of the facility and request that the Riverside County Department of Public Health "use the full extent of (its) unique emergency authority" to address the issues raised by workers.

Neither department could be reached for comment by the time of publication.

Riverside has become one of the counties in the state that are most heavily affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, with 1,179 confirmed cases and 32 deaths as of Wednesday evening.

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Temperature checks, masks new norm for Amazon employees

©2020 Los Angeles Times
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Japan auto industry vows to protect jobs amid virus crisis

by Yuri Kageyama

Toyota Chief Executive Akio Toyoda promised Friday that the Japanese auto industry would seek to protect jobs worldwide as it endures the coronavirus pandemic.

Toyoda, speaking as head of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, said he was worried the Japanese economy might be destroyed before the world can win the fight against the sickness caused by COVID-19.

"If our hospitals get overloaded to the point of devastation, then Japan may never be able to recover," Toyoda said on an online news conference.

The group that brings together Japanese automakers, including Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co., and also parts makers, will set up a special fund to help those laid off find jobs, Toyoda said.

Toyoda said the biggest threat to the industry is the potential loss of skilled workers with their manufacturing and engineering finesse.

After World War II, Toyota made pots and pans and grew potatoes on farms, Toyoda said, emphasizing automakers' determination to make practically anything to protect jobs and survive.

Like its counterparts in the U.S., Toyota has begun making face masks, although they were too wrinkly to be sold and will instead be used at Toyota facilities to reduce demand elsewhere, Toyoda said.

Japan declared a state of emergency this week as cases have continued to surge, especially in Tokyo and other urban areas. Japan has about 5,500 coronavirus cases, but the fear is that there may be an exponential jump. The world has 1.6 million confirmed cases, with more than 466,000 in the U.S.

Toyoda said 3,000 rooms now being used to quarantine auto workers returning from abroad, could, if needed, be used for other people.

He compared the current uncertainty and the need to stay home to enduring a long winter. Some assembly plants have halted production because cars aren't selling.

"We are now feeling more than ever that being able to go wherever you want is a truly moving experience," Toyoda said.

"We must survive. Or else there can be no spring."

Toyota chief hopes to help Japan automakers keep tech edge

THIRD WORLD USA
Crowdfunding fills gaps for virus-displaced workers

CROWD FUNDING; POST MODERN BEGGING BOWL

by Glenn Chapman

As unemployment rises due to virus-related closings, more people are turning to crowdfunding efforts to make ends meet

The coronavirus pandemic threatened game over for Endgame restaurant near Seattle.

It shared its plight online at crowd support platform GoFundMe, where donations eclipsed the restaurant's $5,500 goal to stay in business.

"All donations will go to expenses until we are able to resume normal operations," Michael Lamere and Austin Sines said in an online plea for help.

Musicians, podcasters, writers, strippers and others denied income by the coronavirus pandemic are turning to the power of online community spirit to make ends meet.

The health crisis and its massive economic impact have stirred increased interest in crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe and membership platforms such as Patreon.

"The generosity we are seeing is rather incredible and unprecedented," said GoFundMe chief executive Tim Cadogan.

The crowdfunding platform, which allows anyone to launch a campaign, has seen more than two million individual donations to coronavirus-related efforts, amounting to about $120 million, according to Cadogan.

COVID-19 related GoFundMe campaigns reflect evolving needs, from raising money to get supplies for health care professionals to supporting local restaurants barred from seating diners to helping the jobless pay rent.

A Coronavirus Rent Relief Fund launched about two weeks ago is raising money to help those left jobless avoid eviction.

"Coronavirus (COVID19) has created one of the most difficult moments in world history, a moment we will surely look back on," wrote the New York fund organizer, who raised some $220,000.

A journalists' furlough fund raised some $46,000 and a Miami campaign has collected $11,000 for struggling restaurant workers.

The platform has some more modest campaigns including a $1,000 effort for dancers—the Burlesque Community COVID-19 Response Fund in Los Angeles.

"I felt it imperative to help my community of dancers who are already underpaid and have effectively lost any way to make income," said organizer Veronica Voss, who boasts being Miss Hollywood Burlesque 2019.

Many campaigns however fall short, with demands rising and an estimated 17 million newly unemployed in the United States.

In one example, a campaign for the Just Oxtails Soul Food Restaurant in Texas raised just $1,700 toward a goal of $150,000.

The pandemic has forced the closing of thousands of businesses including Universal Studios Hollywood, adding to the jobless rolls

Desire to act

Large operations are also turning to GoFundMe, which makes a profit through processing fees from donations.

Frontline Responders Fund started by logistics giant Flexport and other companies is among top fundraisers at GoFundMe, having collected more than $6 million to get masks, gowns, gloves and other critical supplies to health care workers fighting the pandemic.

An Americas Food Fund at GoFundMe launched by Leonardo DiCaprio, Laurene Powell Jobs and Apple, along with the Ford Foundation, has raised more than $13 million.

Going behind the scenes

Meanwhile, some 50,000 new artists launched on Patreon last month.

The appeal to patrons goes beyond performers showing off their crafts to paying for inside glimpses their lives, particularly at this stressful time, said Patreon chief financial officer Carlos Cabrera, himself a musician.

"Orchestras are getting hit so hard; for them it is a double-whammy," he said.

Musicians unable to perform during the pandemic have been hit hard, and many have turned to online platforms for support

"They depend on in-person events, and the majority of their demographic are older folks who are at high risk."

Cabrera said that he feared financial hardships caused by the pandemic would cause Patreon pledges to plummet but the opposite has happened.

"Way more patrons are creating pledges and raising pledges," Cabrera told AFP.

More than 150,000 artists use Patreon to generate income by offering exclusive content to four million patrons in over 180 countries, according to the San Francisco-based platform established seven years ago.

The biggest category at Patreon is YouTube video creators, with podcasts in fast-growing second place ahead of illustrators such as artists who draw web comics and authors who release novels by the chapter.

Cabrera is seeing top music talent from around the world who, unable to tour, are recording at home and building Patreon pages to make money.

"I've seen artists go out for a walk in nature and hang out virtually with their fans," Cabrera said.

Half a million stolen passwords,

emails for sale on dark web

by Peter Grad , Tech Xplore

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Hackers stole personal data from more than a half million users of an Italy-based email service and posted the purloined information for sale online.

The servers at email.it were hacked two years ago. They contained passwords, security questions and email contents.

"Unfortunately, we must confirm that we have suffered a hacker attack," Email.It said in a statement to ZDNet, which broke the story Sunday.

The hackers, who obtained data from servers dating to 2007, put the information up for sale on the dark web this year, on Feb. 1.

In a statement the hackers posted on their site, they appear to view the act as part of just another business transaction.

"We breached Email.it Datacenter more than 2 years ago and we plant ourself like an APT [Advanced Persistent Threat]," the hackers, who call themselves NN (No Name) Hacking Group, said. "We took any possible sensitive data from their server and after we choosen [sic] to give them a chance to patch their holes asking for a little bounty."

The email.it company refused to pay the "little bounty" and instead notified Italian postal police authorities. The exact extortion amount was not revealed.

Following their failure to blackmail the company, NN listed their stolen data. They say it includes 46 databases filled with sensitive information about 600,000 users of the free email service. The hackers are listing the databases at prices ranging from 0.5 to 3 bitcoins per file. That translates to between $3,500 and $22,000.

Officials at email.it said no financial information from users was stored on any of their servers.
"The attack only concerned a server with administrative data" such as billing addresses, officials said. They also said paid subscribers of their business service were not affected.

The company has patched its servers.

This latest intrusion is reminiscent of a massive email server assault just over a year ago at VFEmail. In that instance, hackers erased data on all U.S. servers containing primary and backup information, leading the company to announce: "We have suffered catastrophic destruction at the hands of a hacker."

Kaspersky Lab, a multinational cybersecurity firm, advises consumer victims of major email hacks to take the following actions:

Run a deep scan on your hard drive and delete any tagged malware.

Change passwords on sensitive accounts.

Contact online services such as banks, credit card companies, entertainment accounts, etc.

Notify friends and other personal contacts whose information may have been lifted from address books in the assault.

Change security questions and answers

Amazon moves to create own lab for employee COVID-19 tests

**Angela, a delivery worker for Amazon Prime, wears a mask and gloves on her route in Los Angeles on April 8**

Amazon is moving to create it own lab to test employees for coronavirus as the e-commerce giant struggles with safety issues amid the pandemic.

The online retail leader, which began the year with some 750,000 employees and is growing, said it had begun "building incremental testing capacity" for the virus.

"A team of Amazonians with a variety of skills—from research scientists and program managers to procurement specialists and software engineers—have moved from their normal day jobs onto a dedicated team to work on this initiative," the company said in a blog post late Thursday.

"We have begun assembling the equipment we need to build our first lab and hope to start testing small numbers of our front line employees soon."

Amazon said it was making the move because of a shortage of tests that can confirm infections and concerns that even people without symptoms may be spreading the disease.

"We are not sure how far we will get in the relevant timeframe, but we think it's worth trying, and we stand ready to share anything we learn with others," the company said.

"If every person, including people with no symptoms, could be tested regularly, it would make a huge difference in how we are all fighting this virus. Those who test positive could be quarantined and cared for, and everyone who tests negative could re-enter the economy with confidence."

Amazon is believed to have had COVID-19 cases in a number of its warehouses, and has seen employee protests and walkouts in several of them to press for safety improvements.

Last week, Amazon began temperature checks and distribution of masks for employees, part of a ramped up safety effort.

Temperature checks were to be rolled out across Amazon's operations networks in the US and Europe, including Whole Foods Market grocery operations.

Last month, the Seattle-based internet giant set a goal of hiring 100,000 people and investing $350 million to support employees and partners during the pandemic, which has thrust the company into the spotlight due to its extensive infrastructure and logistics.

Temperature checks, masks new norm for Amazon employees

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