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Neuroscience

Ipsen Reports Solid Sales Growth in First Quarter 2020 With Limited COVID-19 Impact – Benzinga

Regulatory News:

Ipsen ((Euronext: IPN, OTC:IPSEY), a global specialty-driven biopharmaceutical group, today announced its sales for the first quarter of 2020.

Aymeric Le Chatelier, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Ipsen stated: "Thanks to the resilient Specialty Care product portfolio, the Group delivered solid sales growth in the first quarter with limited impact from COVID-19. Our priorities in these unprecedented times are to ensure the safety of our employees as well as driving business continuity so patients can maintain access to important medicines. Our 2020 guidance remains suspended until we have more visibility.

"During the first quarter, we received authorization to re-initiate dosing of palovarotene in patients with FOP and are now focused on working with the FDA and other agencies on defining a regulatory path forward with the objective of bringing palovarotene to FOP patients as quickly as possible.

"Thanks to the continued commitment and dedication of our people around the world, we are mobilized to face the COVID-19 pandemic. Together, we will continue to advance and strengthen our pipeline and drive growth and sustainability to fulfill our mission of improving patients' lives."

First quarter sales

First quarter 2020 unaudited IFRS consolidated sales

(in million euros)

Q1 2020

Q1 2019

%

Change

% Change

at constant currency1

Specialty Care

602.6

530.9

+13.5%

+12.5%

Consumer Healthcare

52.0

66.3

-21.5%

-21.9%

Group Sales

654.6

597.2

+9.6%

+8.7%

Continuing its growth trajectory, Ipsen achieved solid Group sales growth of 9.6% as reported, or 8.7%1 at constant exchange rates in the first quarter of 2020.

COVID-19 update

In the first quarter of 2020, the business remained strong with COVID-19 having a limited impact on sales due to increased stocking in the Oncology portfolio in some European countries toward the end of first quarter. This offsets a lower demand in China in February and March which had a significant impact on the Consumer Healthcare portfolio.

Ipsen continues to operate all of its manufacturing sites and is closely monitoring the situation. There is an adequate level of inventory with no supply chain issues anticipated to continue providing medicines to patients. There is also limited impact to date on clinical trials, with minimal disruption to investigational drug supply for ongoing patients, despite a general slowdown in the recruitment of new patients as well as new site activations in ongoing trials across Europe and the U.S.

Ipsen remains focused on ensuring that patients continue to have access to their treatments and on addressing the impact of this pandemic in their communities. Most Ipsen employees around the world, excluding mainly those at the manufacturing and distribution sites, are working from home today, and the commercial organization continues to support healthcare providers virtually.

In the second quarter of 2020, the situation in China should improve as business begins to resume. However, despite Ipsen's sustainable and resilient Oncology portfolio comprised mostly of highly-differentiated long-acting treatments for critical conditions, there is expected to be some impact from delayed diagnoses and lower new patient gains. It is also anticipated that there will be more of a negative impact on Dysport sales and revenues in both the therapeutics and aesthetics markets with delayed injections.

2020 Guidance

As announced on March 25th, the 2020 guidance remains suspended due to the lack of visibility on all the consequences of the global COVID-19 pandemic despite a resilient Oncology portfolio. It is not possible at this stage to quantify the impact on the Group's financial statements. Further updates will be provided as the situation evolves.

Palovarotene update

In the last few months, Ipsen made significant progress on advancing palovarotene, a top priority for the company. On 26 March 2020, clearance was received from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other regulatory authorities to re-initiate palovarotene dosing in patients 14 years of age and older in the fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) clinical program. It was also decided to terminate the Phase 2 MO-Ped trial in patients with multiple osteochondromas (MO) in order to analyze the accumulated data and to better inform on the efficacy, safety and future of palovarotene in MO. A Complete Response was recently submitted to address the FDA's questions related to the partial clinical hold on patients under 14 years of age in palovarotene trials.

Positive topline results from pivotal Phase 3 CheckMate -9ER trial

CheckMate -9ER, a pivotal Phase 3 trial evaluating Cabometyx in combination with Opdivo (nivolumab) compared to sunitinib in previously untreated advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC), met its primary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS) at final analysis, as well as the secondary endpoints of overall survival (OS) at a pre-specified interim analysis, and objective response rate (ORR).

The safety profiles of Cabometyx and Opdivo observed in the trial reflect the known safety profiles of the immunotherapy and tyrosine kinase inhibitor components in first-line RCC.

Detailed results of CheckMate -9ER will be submitted for presentation at an upcoming medical conference.

2020 Near-term priorities

Ipsen remains focused on the following near-term priorities:

2020 Annual Shareholders' Meeting and proposed distribution of 1.00 per share confirmed

The Annual Shareholders' Meeting will be held on 29 May 2020 behind closed doors, without the physical attendance of shareholders. It will be broadcast via a link provided on Ipsen's website. Ipsen will request its shareholders to cast their votes remotely and submit their questions in advance.

Furthermore, the company confirms the proposed distribution of 1.00 per share for the 2019 financial year to be paid on 5 June 2020. The ex-dividend date is set for 3 June 2020.

Conference call details

Ipsen will hold a conference call on Wednesday, 22 April 2020 at 2:30 p.m. (Paris time, GMT+1). Participants should dial in to the call approximately 15 minutes prior to its start. Participants can register for the call on the link below:

http://emea.directeventreg.com/registration/7159233

A recording will be available for seven days on Ipsen's website.

About Ipsen

Ipsen is a global specialty-driven biopharmaceutical group focused on innovation and Specialty Care. The Group develops and commercializes innovative medicines in three key therapeutic areas Oncology, Neuroscience and Rare Diseases. Its commitment to oncology is exemplified through its growing portfolio of key therapies for prostate cancer, neuroendocrine tumors, renal cell carcinoma and pancreatic cancer. Ipsen also has a well-established Consumer Healthcare business. With total sales over 2.5 billion in 2019, Ipsen sells more than 20 drugs in over 115 countries, with a direct commercial presence in more than 30 countries. Ipsen's R&D is focused on its innovative and differentiated technological platforms located in the heart of the leading biotechnological and life sciences hubs (Paris-Saclay, France; Oxford, UK; Cambridge, US). The Group has about 5,800 employees worldwide. Ipsen is listed in Paris (Euronext: IPN) and in the United States through a Sponsored Level I American Depositary Receipt program (OTC:IPSEY). For more information on Ipsen, visit http://www.ipsen.com.

Forward Looking Statement

The forward-looking statements, objectives and targets contained herein are based on the Group's management strategy, current views and assumptions. Such statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those anticipated herein. All of the above risks could affect the Group's future ability to achieve its financial targets, which were set assuming reasonable macroeconomic conditions based on the information available today. Use of the words "believes", "anticipates" and "expects" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, including the Group's expectations regarding future events, including regulatory filings and determinations. Moreover, the targets described in this document were prepared without taking into account external growth assumptions and potential future acquisitions, which may alter these parameters. These objectives are based on data and assumptions regarded as reasonable by the Group. These targets depend on conditions or facts likely to happen in the future, and not exclusively on historical data. Actual results may depart significantly from these targets given the occurrence of certain risks and uncertainties, notably the fact that a promising product in early development phase or clinical trial may end up never being launched on the market or reaching its commercial targets, notably for regulatory or competition reasons. The Group must face or might face competition from generic products that might translate into a loss of market share. Furthermore, the Research and Development process involves several stages each of which involves the substantial risk that the Group may fail to achieve its objectives and be forced to abandon its efforts with regards to a product in which it has invested significant sums. Therefore, the Group cannot be certain that favorable results obtained during pre-clinical trials will be confirmed subsequently during clinical trials, or that the results of clinical trials will be sufficient to demonstrate the safe and effective nature of the product concerned. There can be no guarantees a product will receive the necessary regulatory approvals or that the product will prove to be commercially successful. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Other risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; the Group's ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the Group's patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions. The Group also depends on third parties to develop and market some of its products which could potentially generate substantial royalties; these partners could behave in such ways which could cause damage to the Group's activities and financial results. The Group cannot be certain that its partners will fulfil their obligations. It might be unable to obtain any benefit from those agreements. A default by any of the Group's partners could generate lower revenues than expected. Such situations could have a negative impact on the Group's business, financial position or performance. The Group expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements, targets or estimates contained in this press release to reflect any change in events, conditions, assumptions or circumstances on which any such statements are based, unless so required by applicable law. The Group's business is subject to the risk factors outlined in its registration documents filed with the French Autorit des Marchs Financiers. The risks and uncertainties set out are not exhaustive and the reader is advised to refer to the Group's 2019 Universal Registration Document available on its website (www.ipsen.com).

Comparison of Consolidated Sales for the First Quarter 2020 and 2019:

Sales by therapeutic area and by product

1st Quarter

(in million euros)

2020

2019

% Variation

% Variation at

constant currency1

Oncology

492.6

420.7

17.1%

15.7%

Somatuline

285.5

235.5

21.2%

19.5%

Decapeptyl

96.6

88.7

8.9%

8.6%

Cabometyx

72.4

53.9

34.2%

34.3%

Onivyde

31.2

34.6

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Ipsen Reports Solid Sales Growth in First Quarter 2020 With Limited COVID-19 Impact - Benzinga

Neuroscience

The Idea of the Brain explores the evolution of neuroscience – Science News

The Idea of the BrainMatthew CobbBasic Books, $32

Neuroscientistslove a good metaphor. Through the years, plumbing, telegraph wires and computershave all been enlisted to help explain how the brain operates, neurobiologistand historian Matthew Cobb writes in The Idea of the Brain. And like anymetaphor, those approximations all fall short.

Cobb leads afascinating tour of how concepts of the brain have morphed over time. Hiswriting is clear, thoughtful and, when called for, funny. He describesexperiments by neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield, who zapped awake patients brainswith electricity to provoke reactions. Zapping certain places consistentlydredged up memories, which Cobb calls oneiric experiences. His footnote onthe term: Look it up. Its exactly theright word. I did, and it was.

Cobb runs though the history of certain concepts used to explain how the brain works, including electricity, evolution andneurons. Next comes a section on the present, which includes discussions ofmemory, circuits and consciousness. Cobb offers tastes of the latest research, anda heavy dose of realism. Memory studieshave made progress, but we are still far from understanding what ishappening when we remember, Cobb writes. Despite big efforts, we still onlydimly understand what is going on when we see.Our understanding of how antidepressants work? Virtually non-existent.

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This real talk isrefreshing, and Cobb uses it to great effect toargue that neuroscience is stymied. There have been many similarmoments in the past, when brain researchers became uncertain about how toproceed, he writes. Scientists have amassed an impressive stockpile of brain facts,but a true understanding of how the brain works eludes us.

Dont expect a computer metaphor to help. Like a computer, the brainsmain job is to process information. But some experts argue that because brains are biologicalthey evolved within the vagaries of a bodythey operate in ways that a machine doesnt (SN: 8/23/16).

Cobb reckonsthat, among other reasons, the mere existenceof such objections is a harbinger of the end of the computer metaphor.But that doesnt mean the comparison was awaste. Metaphors clarify thoughts, he writes, and scientists would do well toponder what might replace the concept.

He ends the book with a creative exercise inlooking ahead to what the future might hold. The possibilities include the creation of conscious machines, or even having toaccept that there is no brain theory to be found. Still, our currentignorance should not be viewed as a sign of defeat, Cobb writes, but as achallenge.

Buy The Idea of the Brain from Amazon.com.Science Newsis a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. Please see ourFAQfor more details.

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Neuroscience

Events this week: Managing stress through neuroscience, Yoga, and story time – mysouthborough

by beth on April 21, 2020

Above: Dont forget, SYFS is inviting you to join a special online talk Wednesday night by an expert to help manage stress

Here are highlights of whats happening around town this week. (There is one more potential event later this week, but the details are still TBD, so Im holding off on sharing.)

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Thursday, April 23, 2020

Friday, April 24, 2020

Tagged as:southborough-events-this-week

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Events this week: Managing stress through neuroscience, Yoga, and story time - mysouthborough

Neuroscience

The neuroscience of self-isolating and how technology helps us cope – The Next Web

Large numbers of people around the globe have been forced into solitude due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, social distancing is utterly at odds with our drive for social connection, the cornerstone of human evolution.

Suddenly confronted with a lack of social interactions, many of us are now experiencing more loneliness. We are missing that reassuring hug or shoulder pat from another human things we might normally expect in times of adversity. To cope, we try to fill the void with online social activities, such as synchronized Netflix viewings, games and video chat dance parties. But do these help?

When we spend quality time with another person, we experience intrinsic joy. Brain scanning studies show that subcortical brain regions, such as the ventral striatum, which plays an important role in motivation, are activated when receiving monetary and social rewards.

Loneliness can be seen in the brain. SpeedKingz/Shutterstock

When we feel lonely and rejected, brain regions associated with distress and rumination are activated instead. This may be due to evolution driving us to establish and maintain social connections to ensure survival. Lonely people also have a more negative focus and anxiously scrutinize peoples intentions. Sometimes this can become so strong that it makes us feel even more lonely creating a vicious cycle.

Not everyone relishes social connection to the same extent though. People with a more extrovert personality type seek more social activities, have access to larger social networks, and report lower perceived loneliness. People who score highly on neuroticism tend to report more perceived social isolation.

Loneliness has for some time been recognized as a significant threat to physical and mental health and has been found to be predictive of mortality.

So how can you best cope with loneliness and isolation? Analysis has suggested that the most successful interventions find ways to address the distorted thinking that loneliness creates. So if you are feeling lonely, try identifying automatic negative thoughts such as assuming people dont want to hear from you and reframing them as hypotheses rather than facts.

Another recent review of literature found that targeting coping strategies can also be beneficial. It discovered that approaches such as joining a support group to remove feelings of loneliness work particularly well. Emotion-based coping strategies, such as lowering expectations about relationships, were not as effective.

Social media is often vilified in public discourse. But many people who are self-isolating now rely on online social tools. An important aspect missing in instant messaging and social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, however, is the nonverbal cue such as a smile, gesture or glance. These allow us to gauge the tone and context of a social encounter. When this information is missing, we perceive fewer friendly cues from others.

So while online tools can be helpful during periods of isolation, embodiment and social presence are nevertheless missing. But there are ways to boost the rewards of online communication. One study used augmented reality to enable two people to interact with each others video chat images and found that they reported a higher sense of social presence and a more engaging experience. Similarly, participating in shared activities benefits the formation of close relationships with others. So whether it is a virtual pub quiz or a dance party, this may be particularly valuable during the lockdown.

Robots designed to engage us on a social level could also help isolated people feel less lonely, as they carry the benefit of embodiment. In a randomized control trial with Paro, a cuddly baby seal robot, residents in a care home who interacted with it reported reduced feelings of loneliness.

Research from our own laboratory seeks to identify how robotic features or behaviors influence our ability to feel socially connected to these machines. For example, a new study highlights that people conversationally engage with a humanoid robot to a similar extent as another person, and more so than with a voice assistant like Alexa or Siri.

New advances in mobile brain imaging technologies, along with the increasing social sophistication of some robots, provide opportunities for examining how people establish and maintain social connections with robots in real-time.

While the rise of social robots appears futuristic, they are already moving out of factories and into our homes, supermarkets, and hospitals. They even have new social roles in the coronavirus crisis for example as supermarket assistants, reminding shoppers of new health and safety rules.

Until we all have a sophisticated social robot to keep us company, perhaps the best remedy is to keep in touch with our loved ones online, especially through shared activities. And lets focus on the fact that close human contact will soon be safe again.

This article is republished from The ConversationbyEmily S. Cross, Professor of Social Robotics, Macquarie University and Anna Henschel, PhD Candidate in Psychology & Neuroscience, University of Glasgowunder a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The neuroscience of self-isolating and how technology helps us cope - The Next Web

Neuroscience

Keeping the zen in college | UDaily – UDaily

Article by Diane Stopyra Illustrations by Jeffrey C. Chase April 20, 2020

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic unfolds, there are few certainties. Among them? Netflix is a saving grace. Go ahead and binge that show about a tiger-obsessed man in Oklahoma or a money-laundering accountant in the Ozarks. Getting lost in someone elses story is a reprieve from your own. Zoning out is good for you.

But as it turns out zoning in is even better.

This is the philosophy behind mindfulness, the practice of paying close attention to the present moment. This means tuning in to external happenings say, the sound of a dog breathing at your feet or the sight of a tree branch blowing in the wind. It also means bringing attention to your internal state. Rather than trying to suppress or ignore thoughts, emotions or sensations as they arise, the goal is acknowledging these feelings and letting them pass without judgement. Research indicates the benefits are myriad: less stress, more self-compassion and greater immunity.

Escape activities like bingeing on Netflix are fine, said Amy Griffin, associate professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Science in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Delaware who specializes in mindfulness training for the 20-something demographic. Theres nothing wrong with that. But introducing a little bit of mindfulness into your day can ease some suffering longer term. Such a practice allows us to feel comfortable with being uncomfortable, so were better equipped to deal with whatever comes up.

Since the beginning of the spring semester, Griffin has been teaching a class for undergraduate neuroscience and psychology students on mindfulness and the brain. But once the coronavirus outbreak forced the UD community along with the rest of the world into quarantine, she figured more people might be craving a stress-coping mechanism, so she launched a free, four-week, virtual class on mindfulness for graduate students, happening now. She will also run a second section beginning April 30. Participants in each course will learn the benefits of two major mindfulness strategies: the body-mind integration you see with activities like yoga or deep-breathing exercises, and meditation.

People think you need to be a monk on a mountaintop to do this kind of thing, Griffin said. But if you can breathe, you can meditate.

Big caveat: Not all meditators are created equal. Take 20-somethings, for instance.

They dont respond very well to being told they need to sit on a cushion with their thoughts for 20 minutes a day, said Griffin, whose classes cater specifically to this demographic. That kind of strict sitting-with-your-thoughts thing may work for some people, but for college-aged students, graduate students and people with a lot on their plate, its good to have a variety of options.

For these individuals, Griffin, who is training as a mindfulness teacher with the North Carolina-based Koru Center, suggests guided meditation apps like the Ten percent Happier or Insight Timer options so that someone is holding your hand through the process. She also recommends a simple breath practice in which you breathe in for four counts, hold for two counts and breathe out for six counts this will trick the brain into relaxing, she said. Shoot for 10 mindful minutes per day, Griffin added, keeping in mind that consistency is more important than quantity.

But if youre finding it difficult to devote any time at all to nothing but mindfulness, dont despair. It is possible to bring such a practice to existing activities. Consider the (socially distanced) walk you are already taking around the neighborhood every afternoon. Dont spend it fretting over what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow. Rather, focus on the present moment by paying mind to the sensory input all around you the sound of a leaf crunching underfoot, the sight of paint chipping from a nearby fire hydrant, or the smell of barbeque coming from the house next door.

When it comes time to brush your teeth? Dont rush through the ritual while thinking about the answers to your last online quiz or that email you need to send your boss in the morning. Instead, bring attention to the circular motion of the activity or the sensation of the bristles in your mouth.

Focusing on just one thing at a time feels like a luxury, but its the way we should be conducting ourselves all the time for brain health and wellbeing, Griffin said. We love to multitask, but multitasking is actually very bad for the brain. If you can focus on just one thing at a time, youll be amazed at how much more you get out of it.

This is all easier said than done, as humans are easily hijacked by every passing notion.

We give so much credence to our thoughts, Griffin said. We take them so seriously. And theyre really just thoughts. Most of the time, we cant even verify whether theyre true.

Part of the problem is that, when a thought or feeling pops into the head of a typical human, the usual response is not to simply acknowledge it and let it go but, rather, to assign a story to it. Say, for example, you feel irritated by your spouse or your siblings during this period of national lockdown, in which families are enduring forced togetherness. The urge is rarely to feel the irritation and move on. Instead, people pile on extra feelings of guilt or anger, thinking something along the lines of: It is so selfish to feel irritated when so many people are truly suffering.

You judge yourself, and you try to analyze, analyze, analyze, Griffin said. But you cant think your way out of a feeling. The counterintuitive practice is to watch the feeling arise and then to watch it go away.

And remember, Griffin said, mindfulness is not meant only for some enlightened group of sherpas or transcendent yogis. People who struggle to stay in the present moment likely have the most to gain, so if thats you keep at it.

Something I hear frequently is I cant meditate, because I cant shut off my thoughts, Griffin said. But mindfulness is not about achieving a blank mind. Its about becoming familiar with what your mind is doing. Whatever strong emotion comes up, you can handle it, as long as you face it. Lean into it. Dont try to stuff it down.

Besides, if you ever do want a blank mind?

You already have Netflix for that.

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Neuroscience

Five from UAB awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships – The Mix

Such competitive awards demonstrate that UAB provides students an exceptionally strong foundation for research success.

Such competitive awards demonstrate that UAB provides students an exceptionally strong foundation for research success.A University of Alabama at Birmingham doctoral student and four recent alumni have been awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.

The full fellowships provide up to three years of support for graduate education, including a $34,000 annual stipend plus $12,000 per year toward the cost of their graduate work. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship program receives more than 12,000 applications each year and selects about 2,000 students.

Awardees include:

Queenisha Crichlow, who is pursuing a doctorate in medical clinical psychology at UAB, works in the lab of Sylvie Mrug, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Psychology in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences. Crichlow is studying socio-cultural risk and protective factors that reduce the likelihood of poor academic achievement, substance use and delinquency among African American youth.

Niharika Loomba (18), a UAB Honors College alumna who earned a degree in neuroscience, will begin graduate studies at Vanderbilt University this fall. She researches connectivity between specific brain regions in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Beau Johnson (18), a UAB Honors College alumnus who graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering, is pursuing a doctorate at Vanderbilt University. He is conducting research in biomechanics and assistive technologies, such as exoskeletons and prostheses.

Don Long (19) completed UABs Prep Scholars Program, which prepares under-represented students in biomedical/behavioral research for graduate degrees. He is a first-year doctoral student at Cornell University studying the gut microbiome as it pertains to starch degradation.

Catherine Marie Porter (17) who graduated from UAB with a degree in biomedical engineering, is continuing her studies in the same field at the University of Pennsylvania.

Three current students and two recent alumni received honorable mentions during the application process:

Indonesia Jordan, a graduate of Alabama A&M University, is studying behavioral neuroscience at UAB. She works in the lab of David Knight, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Psychology, studying the impact of chronic pain on emotional learning, memory and expression processes.

Tiffany DeVaughn Tucker, a first-year doctoral student in medical/clinical psychology, is using neuroimaging and neuropsychological assessments to study risk factors of cognitive deficits in patients with sickle cell disease. Tucker works in the lab of Donna Murdaugh, Ph.D., assistant professor in the UAB School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics.

Haley Beck, a post-baccalaureate student, is completing the UAB Prep Scholars Program and working in the lab of Despina Stavrinos, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Psychology. She will begin a doctoral program in experimental psychology at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville this fall.

Roshan Darji (18) completed degrees in biology, mathematics and chemistry at UAB and is a graduate of the UAB Honors College. He is studying bioinformatics and computational biology at Emory University.

Anastasia Niver (18) completed dual degrees in chemistry and neuroscience and was a student in the UAB Honors Colleges University Honors Program. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in chemistry at Duke University.

NSF fellowships are highly competitive, said Ashley Kuntz, Ph.D., director of UAB National and International Fellowships and Scholarships. It speaks highly of all the UAB faculty who have trained these students and continue to invest in their success. Time spent studying at UAB obviously provides an exceptionally strong foundation for research success.

As the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship has a long history of selecting recipients who achieve high levels of success in their future academic and professional careers. The reputation of the GRFP follows recipients and often helps them become lifelong leaders who contribute significantly to both scientific innovation and teaching. Past fellows include numerous Nobel Prize winners, such as former United States Secretary of EnergySteven Chu, Google founderSergey BrinandFreakonomicsco-authorSteven Levitt.

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Five from UAB awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships - The Mix

Neuroscience

Corona Virus Outbreak: NEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS Market 2020 Industry Growth Analysis, Segmentation, Size, Share, Trend, Future Demand And…

NEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data:Company, Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors, Product Category, Application and Specification with Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin, Main Business/Business Overview.

The report presents a highly comprehensive and accurate research study on the globalNEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS market. It offers PESTLE analysis, qualitative and quantitative analysis, Porters Five Forces analysis, and absolute dollar opportunity analysis to help players improve their business strategies. It also sheds light on critical NEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS Marketdynamics such as trends and opportunities, drivers, restraints, and challenges to help market participants stay informed and cement a strong position in the industry. With competitive landscape analysis, the authors of the report have made a brilliant attempt to help readers understand important business tactics that leading companies use to maintainNEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS market sustainability.

Download Premium Sample Copy Of This Report:Download FREE Sample PDF!

Global NEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS Market to reach USD 5.1 billion by 2025.

Global NEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS Market valued approximately USD 2.1 billion in 2016 is anticipated to grow with a healthy growth rate of more than 10.3% over the forecast period 2017-2025. The increasing automation of high-throughput screening and the availability of robust data management software tools, which enable researchers to develop systemic and process-oriented approaches toward neuroscience antibodies and assays techniques are some of the factors contributing to the growth of this segment.

The objective of the study is to define market sizes of different segments & countries in recent years and to forecast the values to the coming eight years. The report is designed to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the industry within each of the regions and countries involved in the study. Furthermore, the report also caters the detailed information about the crucial aspects such as driving factors & challenges which will define the future growth of the market. Additionally, the report shall also incorporate available opportunities in micro markets for stakeholders to invest along with the detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product offerings of key players. The detailed segments and sub-segment of the market are explained below:

By Product

oReagents

oInstruments

By Technology

oImmunoassay

oMolecular Diagnostics

By End User

oResearch Institutes

oHospitals

By Regions:

oNorth America

oU.S.

oCanada

oEurope

oUK

oGermany

oAsia Pacific

oChina

oIndia

oJapan

oRest of the World

Furthermore, years considered for the study are as follows:

Historical year 2015

Base year 2016

Forecast period 2017 to 2025

Some of the key manufacturers involved in the market are. Thermo Fisher Scientific, Abcam, Bio-Rad, Merck KGAA, Cell Signaling Technology, Genscript, Rockland Immunochemicals. Bio Legend, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Tecan, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Siemens. Acquisitions and effective mergers are some of the strategies adopted by the key manufacturers. New product launches and continuous technological innovations are the key strategies adopted by the major players.

Target Audience of the Global NEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS in Market Study:

oKey Consulting Companies & Advisors

oLarge, medium-sized, and small enterprises

oVenture capitalists

oValue-Added Resellers (VARs)

oThird-party knowledge providers

oInvestment bankers

oInvestors

Have Any Query Or Specific Requirement?Ask Our Industry Experts!

Table of Contents:

Study Coverage:It includes study objectives, years considered for the research study, growth rate and NEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS market size of type and application segments, key manufacturers covered, product scope, and highlights of segmental analysis.

Executive Summary:In this section, the report focuses on analysis of macroscopic indicators, market issues, drivers, and trends, competitive landscape, CAGR of the global NEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS market, and global production. Under the global production chapter, the authors of the report have included market pricing and trends, global capacity, global production, and global revenue forecasts.

NEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS Market Size by Manufacturer: Here, the report concentrates on revenue and production shares of manufacturers for all the years of the forecast period. It also focuses on price by manufacturer and expansion plans and mergers and acquisitions of companies.

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Corona Virus Outbreak: NEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS Market 2020 Industry Growth Analysis, Segmentation, Size, Share, Trend, Future Demand And...

Human Behavior

The tricky thing about predicting coronavirus and climate change: Human behavior – Grist

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Just a few weeks ago, researchers at Imperial College London released a model of the coronavirus pandemic that shocked policymakers into action. It predicted a staggering 2.2 million deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S., and up to 510,000 in the U.K. causing both countries to abruptly change course on containing the outbreak.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who had said that he wanted to allow the virus to spread through the country to build herd immunity, instituted a nationwide stay-at-home order. President Trump also changed direction, switching from calling it a hoax one week to saying every one of us has a critical role to play in slowing the disease.

But 10 days after the reports release, the epidemiologist who led the modeling effort, Neil Ferguson, appeared before the U.K. parliament, arguing that he now expected the countrys fatalities to be less than 20,000. (He didnt touch on projections for the U.S.) Some saw this as a troubling reversal. The conservative media outlet the Federalist announced that Ferguson had retracted the findings of his doomsday pandemic model.

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Models are simplified representations of reality and an often-maligned tool of modern science. Those that estimate how much greenhouse gases will heat up the planet have been attacked for years by deniers who argue that they have little connection to the real world. In the face of a global pandemic, when lives and jobs are on the line, epidemiologists are suddenly facing the same criticism. (Senator John Cornyn from Texas complained on Twitter that modeling of both the current pandemic and climate change isnt the scientific method, folks.)

Built using statistics and mathematics, scientific models can present possible futures how a disease might spread, for example, or how rising CO2 levels will change our climate. But they cant account for all aspects of reality, and will always come with uncertainty. They are tools, not crystal balls.

So those who criticized the Imperial College model for wrongly predicting millions of deaths in the U.S. and U.K. were off-base. Ferguson and his colleagues had predicted that over half a million Britons would die without mitigation measures and that approximately 250,000 would die with the measures the government was implementing. With optimal social-distancing measures, which the U.K. put into place shortly after the report was released, the researchers expected deaths in the tens of thousands. (The Imperial College group did not model U.S. deaths with strict social-distancing measures.)

So the model didnt change; the policies did. Meanwhile, the U.S. government has been relying on a model by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. That model initially projected between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths from the coronavirus now, that estimate has been revised down to between 30,000 and 170,000. Thats because it incorporated new social distancing data from Spain and Italy, suggesting that lockdown measures could be more effective at slowing the spread in the United States than previously believed.

I think in this pandemic its particularly difficult because were making assumptions in these models about human behaviors which are incredibly difficult to capture in a model and put a single number to, said Helen Jenkins, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Boston University. Most epidemiological models simulate the number of people who are susceptible, infected, and have recovered: a so-called S-I-R model. But that requires making estimates for how often people interact and how much social distancing they are doing a difficult job in a country of 300 million people and 50 states pursuing slightly different lockdown strategies.

Researchers face similar hurdles when predicting climate change. On the one hand, they use easier-to-model processes like convection, heat and fluid transfer. But at some point they also have to incorporate human and group behavior, at least if they want to predict how greenhouse gas emissions might change in the future.

You could have the very best physical model in the world, but if you get future human behavior wrong, youd end up with a pretty bad future projection, said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at the Breakthrough Institute. The uncertainties in climate change to our choices as individuals and as societies matter just as much if not more than the uncertainties in the physical climate system that were trying to model.

What makes the job even trickier is that once a projection is made public, the model itself can lead people to change their behaviors. If it projects millions of deaths from a pandemic, governments might tighten travel restrictions and people might decide to stay indoors. Zeynep Tufekci, associate professor at the University of North Carolina, wrote in the Atlantic that this is part of what models are supposed to do. They present a range, or a tree of possibilities, some of which are so disastrous that immediate action should be taken to prevent them. By changing behavior, she argues, we can prune those catastrophic branches and direct governments towards a safer future.

Hausfather and other scientists argue that we have already trimmed one potentially catastrophic branch when it comes to climate change. Back in the mid-2000s, it seemed possible that business-as-usual carbon emissions could lead to 5 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100. China was in a rush to open coal plants, and it looked like coal, the dirtiest of fossil fuels, was on track to dominate for another century. Today, a business-as-usual approach would likely lead to around 3 degrees Celsius of warming in part because world governments have begun cracking down on coal and boosting renewable energy.

Even though its nowhere near the level of action that would be required to meet Paris commitments, its still enough to start bending the curve away from these worst-case outcomes, Hausfather said.

Thats part of why Anthony Fauci, a key member of the White Houses coronavirus task force, has repeatedly said that appropriate action in hindsight will look like an overreaction. If it looks like youre overreacting, youre probably doing the right thing, he told Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation. Success can wind up looking like a failure.

What does that mean for addressing the pandemic? Social distancing appears to have helped the U.S. avoid the worst-case scenarios, but other questions remain. Researchers are now trying to understand which measures have been most effective (Closing schools? Limiting social gatherings?), so that some restrictions can be slowly lifted. But not every option can easily fit into epidemiological models. Public health officials and governors still have to use their own judgement, balancing health risks with other social and economic needs.

The German sociologist Ulrich Beck once wrote that expected risks are the whip to keep the present in line. Models are intended to do just that, to keep things from going off the rails. They cant provide certainty but for both climate change and coronavirus, they can help us avoid the worst.

The way that humanity tackles this pandemic parallels how it might fight climate change. Sign up for our semi-weekly newsletter,Climate in the Time of Coronavirus.

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The tricky thing about predicting coronavirus and climate change: Human behavior - Grist

Human Behavior

Different Types of Stress and Their Associated Cost – The Great Courses Daily News

By Mark Leary, Ph.D., Duke UniversityA stress and performance curve shows the different levels of acute and chronic stress and their impact on our performance. (Image: Arka38 /Shutterstock)

Most of the people we know are stressed out. Many of them are busy with work, or school, or family, or other activities. Not only do they have too much to do, but they also have to deal with all kinds of frustrating and stressful events, including problems at work, deadlines at school, and conflicts at home.

Some people are stressed out by their financial situation or legal problems, while some are dealing with the problems of people they care about, such as aging parents, children who are struggling, and friends or family members battling alcohol or drugs, among others.

There are also people whose everyday lives are just inherently stressful, such as police officers and members of the armed forces. And, of course, everybody occasionally experiences traumatic life events, such as the death of a loved one, or losing ones job, or having ones primary relationship fall apart.

This is a transcript from the video series Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior. Watch it now, on The Great Courses Plus.

One research study found that 75 percent of Americans say they experience extreme stress at least one day a week, on average. Another study that had people keep a daily record of stressful events found that respondents experienced at least one stressful event on 40 percent of the days, during the length of the study, and multiple stressful events on 10 percent of the days. Thats a lot of stress.

As you have probably experienced personally, stress takes a major toll on both psychological and physical well-being. Its hard for people to enjoy life when their stress levels are high. People who are under stress are often moody and hostile, and chronic stress leads some people to become depressed.

Stress interferes with peoples ability to perform well at work and at school. They are often juggling so many things that they cant do a good job on anything, and they are so preoccupied by whatever is causing their stress that they cant focus on the things they need to do. As stress mounts, people feel unable to handle even everyday tasks, so they often begin to avoid challenging situations. Studies show that about half the time that people stay home from work or from school, is not because they are sick, but because they feel too stressed out to deal with work or class.

And, of course, stress takes a tremendous toll on peoples health: high blood pressure, infections, and illnesses; weight gain, digestive problems, insomnia, skin conditions, and asthma are just a few of the health problems that can be caused by stress.

The financial costs of stress are also very high. Its beenestimated that stress costs American businesses $300 billion a year in missedwork, employee turnover, reduced productivity, and health-care costs.

Stress is such a serious and common problem that its not an understatement to suggest that we have a stress epidemic. But have you ever wondered where all this stress comes from, and why we dont deal with stress better than we do? Its almost as if human beings were designed with some sort of flaw that prevents them from coping with the stresses they experience in life.

Learn more about solving psychological mysteries.

To understand the causes of stress, we need to make a distinction between acute and chronic stress. Acute stress occurs when people experience an immediate threat to their well-being. Something happens that needs an immediate response from our side. Acute stress is a normal part of life for all animals, including human beings.

In fact, animals in the wild experience brief, acute stressors intermittently all day long. Theyre sitting in a tree, or grazing in a field, or swimming in a river, when suddenly a possible threat arisesa threatening animal, a loud noiseand their body spring into action to deal with the threat. Their heart rate and blood pressure increase, and their muscles become tense to prepare them to take action.

The same with people: you nearly have an accident while driving your car, or you think someone is following you while walking down a dark street, or you get a piece of bad news, or you lose your wallet. When these kinds of events happen, the stress response kicks in as natures way of helping you respond to the event. But, then, once the event is over, your body returns to normal and acute stress goes away, with little or no lingering effects.

Learn more about how human nature evolve.

Chronic stress is another matter altogether. When people talk about being under stress, theyre usually talking about chronic stress; stress thats almost always there. Even when the person is doing something else, its in the background ready to rise up at any time.

Most animals dont appear to experience chronic stress. Have you ever seen a chronically stressed-out animal in the wild? We have no evidence that between those occasional episodes of acute stress that occur throughout an animals day, animals are chronically worried, uptight, and stressed out.

A deer may be startled by a loud noise and take off through the forest, but as soon as the threat is gone, the deer immediately calms down and starts grazing. It doesnt appear to be tied in knots the way that many of us are. Throw a rock in the water and the fish scatter in a flurry of acute stress, but then they quickly return to normal.

The only animals that seem to show signs of chronic stress are some that live around human beings. Animals that are kept in cages or abused by people certainly show signs of chronic stress, but when left to their own devices, far away from people, animals dont appear to experience chronic stress the way that people do.

Both acute stress and chronic stress have an impact on us humans, but the negative impact of chronic stress is far greater. Every individual needs to be aware of it and needs to adopt measures to counter stress. American businesses need to equally cognizant of the impact stress has on their employees. Even if they think purely from a profit perspective, it makes sense to lower stress to reduce losses. Stress is a major problem that we all must address in order to make the best use of our bodies and time.

Some emotional signs of stress include depression or anxiety; anger, irritability or restlessness; feeling unmotivated or unfocused; trouble sleeping or sleeping too much; racing thoughts or constant worry; and problems with memory or concentration.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), the three different types of stress are acutestress, episodic acutestress, and chronicstress.

Stress or chronic stress does a lot of harm to our bodies. Over a periodoftime,it cancontribute to long-term problems of heart and blood vessels.

To relieve chronic stress, we should educate ourselves regarding the complications, set limits to our goals, get better sleep, try belly breathing, and get professional help.

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Different Types of Stress and Their Associated Cost - The Great Courses Daily News

Human Behavior

What can the Black Plague teach us about America’s reaction to the COVID-19 crisis? – LGBTQ Nation

As we navigate scary and uncertain times, its important to look to history as a guide. During my quarantine, I re-read A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. Its a book by Barbara Tuchman and Chapter 5 discusses how people reacted during the ominous Black Plague. It offers lessons we can apply to todays COVID-19 pandemic.

Ironically, the book actually cheered me up.

Related: Right-wing minister claims being trans is a Jewish plot to make humanity androgynous

If you think things are bleak today, remember that the Black Plague wiped out nearly one in three people in Europe and the Middle East between 1347 and 1351. This translates into more than 20 million corpses.

At the time it was widely thought God had given up on humanity to punish them for sin. Much of the population thought it might be the end of the world. So, as bad as things are and as frustrating as they may be, its important to count our blessings and realize that it could be significantly worse.

In October 1347, trading ships arrived from the Black Sea and pulled into the harbor of Messina, Sicily. The sailors on those doomed ships were sick and quickly dying with a horrific new disease. With its trademark black boils and rapid death the illness quickly spread like wildfire across Europe.

Of course, we are a much more advanced civilization today, but some things havent changed. Chiefly human nature which means there are direct parallels between then and now that we can learn from.

When people are frightened, they seek answers. Unfortunately, a significant subset also seeks out scapegoats. In Medieval Europe, Jews were falsely blamed for creating the Black Plague by poisoning the wells.

In Savoy in 1348, Jews were rounded up, put on trial and tortured until they confessed to poisoning the wells with packets of poison pills that they allegedly kept in a narrow stitched leather bag. These coerced confessions were distributed by a letter from town to town and formed the basis for mass retribution. A brutal and deadly wave of false allegations and savage attacks ensued.

The first assaults occurred in the Spring of 1348 in the French towns of Narbonne and Carcassonne. Jews were dragged out of their homes and thrown into bonfires.

In Freiburg, Augsburg, Nurnberg, Munich, Koenigsberg, Regensburg and other city centers, Jews were slaughtered by mobs with a thoroughness that seemed to seek a final solution.

Today, in 2020, there is no shortage of ignorant people and demagogues looking to point fingers, stir up trouble, assign blame and inflame tensions. They are opportunistically attempting to exploit the COVID-19 crisis to provoke hated against groups they dislike.

Shamefully, this effort has been led, in part, by President Donald Trump.

Trump is doing this, in spite of the fact we now know that Asian Americans have been targeted, attacked and victimized. While they arent being burned alive, like Jews during the Black Plague, they have been harassed, spit on and assaulted. Asian Americans now have targets on their backs.

There are those trying to blame LGBT people for the spread of the coronavirus. Obviously, this is irrational, but our opponents are looking to foment hate and provoke a violent backlash.

Homophobes are deliberately spreading a conspiracy theory that gay people caused coronavirus by partying too much in Italy, by using an old video from a carnival in Brazil. Unfortunately, the fake video has gone viral. No pun intended.

Televangelist Pat Robertson blamed the coronavirus on same-sex marriage.The Rev. Ralph Drollinger, Trumps Cabinet Bible teacher, said that LGBT people caused Gods wrath in a blog post on COVID-19.

This obnoxious behavior should surprise no one. After the terrorist attacks of 9-11, LGBT people were conveniently targeted by well-known televangelists, including Revs. Jerry Falwell and Robertson.

Had this finger-pointing occurred only a couple decades earlier, its likely the consequences would have been far greater. And in other countries, where LGBT rights are less secure, the effects of such reckless rhetoric could still prove deadly today.

In fact, a Ukrainian LGBT organization pushed back against such bigotry by suing Orthodox Patriarch Filaret over comments blaming the spread of the coronavirus on same-sex marriage. The gay rights activists said that his backward comments risked fueling hatred and discrimination.

And, most predictably, the Jews are still being scapegoated today. Rick Wiles, a Florida pastor and the founder of the far-right website TruNews, said on March 26 that God is giving the Jews the coronavirus because they oppose his son Jesus.

There is also a wild, online conspiracy theory that 5G wireless technology is responsible for spreading COVID-19. As a result, people are burning down cell towers. Whether its the 14th Century or the 21st Century, irrational human behavior is quite predictable.

Some religious fanatics will brazenly disobey social distancing rules, with little regard for the people they harm. They are selfish and dont care about anybody but themselves. They wantonly infect people, and if those individuals get sick or die they chalk it up to Gods will.

In 1349, a group of roaming Christian religious zealots called the flagellants erupted in a sudden frenzy, Tuchman wrote. Members of this cult would literally whip their own bodies in penance until they bled. They roamed in large bands that sped across Europe with the same fiery contagion as the plague, merrily slaughtering Jews at every stop along the way.

These extremists had very strict rules. They were forbidden to bathe or shave, change their clothes, sleep in beds, talk, or have intercourse with women without the group Masters permission. Unsurprisingly, similar to todays moralizing hypocrites, the flagellants were later charged with having orgies in which whipping was combined with sex.

According to Tuchmans book:

Organized groups of 200 to 1,000 flagellants stripped to the waist beat themselves with leather whips tipped with iron spikes until they bled. While they cried aloud to Christ and the Virgin for pity, and called upon God to spare us, the watching townspeople sobbed and groaned in sympathy. These bands put on regular performances in towns including church squares. The inhabitants greeted them with reverence and ringing of church bells, lodged them in their houses, and brought children to be healedthey dipped clothes in blood, which they pressed against their eyes and preserved as relics.

As you can well imagine, this caused an explosion of new cases of Black Plague, leading to even more sickness, death, and despair. This was done at a time when they actually did know about social distancing. They didnt know the science behind the theory or about the bacteria that caused the plague, but they did have an understanding that it was spread from close human contact. So, even in the 14th Century, what the flagellants did was grossly reckless and irresponsible.

Which brings us to the year 2020, where we have the same self-absorbed religious zealots who have apparently learned nothing from history. Mired in ignorance and superstition, they flout the law, flock to megachurches, and foolishly believe that God will protect them. Some of those arrogant and thoughtless people will get sick and they will die. They will also infect other innocent people who dont share their beliefs.

One pastor who learned the hard way was Bishop Gerald Glenn of New Deliverance Evangelistic Church in Richmond, VA. During his infamous in-person service, the Bishop said he firmly believed God was larger than the virus and said he was proud of being controversial for violating safety protocols. The Bishop also claimed he was an essential worker, saying hes a preacher and he talks to God.

Proving God has a sense of humor, the good pastor died from the coronavirus on Easter Sunday.

A third similarity with the 14th Century are efforts by unethical charlatans to promote quack cures. Some of these magic elixirs to treat the Black Plague included: drawing out the infection by making the infected person bleed, purging it with laxatives or enemas, lancing the black boils, application of hot plasters, pills of powdered stags horn, compounds of rare spices, and emeralds.

There was also a bizarre belief that latrine attendants were immune to the Black Plague, so many people visited the public latrines on the theory that the odors were efficacious.

Of course, this was at a time when people thought washing the scalp with a boys urine cured ringworm, and gout was treated with goat dung, mixed with rosemary and honey. Talk about the cure being worse than the curse!

The final similarity between then and now is the role social and financial inequality plays in spreading diseases.

The rich fled to their country places with wells of cool water and vaults of rare wines. The urban poor died in their burrows, and only the stench of their bodies informed neighbors of their death. That the poor were more heavily afflicted than the rich was clearly remarked at the time in the north and the south. A Scottish chronicler, John of Fordun, stated flatly that the pest attacked especially the meaner sort and common peopleseldom the magnates.

Sound familiar? Unfortunately, then and now, different incomes often lead to different health outcomes. I guess they didnt have universal healthcare back then either.

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What can the Black Plague teach us about America's reaction to the COVID-19 crisis? - LGBTQ Nation