All posts by medical

Human Behavior

Attention to objects in peripheral vision is not driven by tiny eye movements – National Institutes of Health (.gov)

News Release

Friday, March 25, 2022

Findings resolve controversy about brain systems for attention.

Minuscule involuntary eye movements, known as microsaccades, can occur even while one is carefully staring at a fixed point in space. When paying attention to something in the peripheral vision (called covert attention), these microsaccades sometimes align towards the object of interest. New research by National Eye Institute (NEI) investigators shows that while these microsaccades seem to boost or diminish the strength of the brain signals underlying attention, the eye movements are not drivers of those brain signals. The findings will help researchers interpret studies about covert attention and may open new areas for research into attention disorders and behavior. NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health.

Scientists working on the neuroscience of attention have recently become concerned that because both attention and eye movements, like microsaccades, involve the same groups of neurons in the brain, that microsaccades might be required for shifting attention.

If microsaccades were driving attention, that would bring into question a lot of previous research in the field. said Richard Krauzlis, Ph.D., chief of the NEI Section on Eye Movements and Visual Selection, and senior author of a study report on the research. This work shows that while microsaccades and attention do share some mechanisms, covert attention is not driven by eye movements.

Krauzlis previous research has shown that covert attention causes a modulation of certain neuronal signals in an evolutionarily ancient area of the brain called the superior colliculus, which is involved in the detection of events. When attention is being paid to a particular area for example, the right-hand side of ones peripheral vision signals in the superior colliculus relating to events that occur in that area will receive an extra boost, while signals relating to events occurring somewhere else, like on the left-hand side, will be depressed.

When something shows up in our peripheral vision, we quickly shift our eyes make a large saccade toward the event to take a better look. This movement brings the event into our high-resolution central vision. These eye movements are accompanied by a general decrease in visual signals, as the brain ignores the quickly shifting visual information received by the eye. In laboratory studies of covert attention, primates or people are directed to avoid those types of large saccades, keeping the attended event in the peripheral vision. However, involuntary microsaccades, which are accompanied by similar decreases in visual signals, often occur anyway.

In this study, led by first author Gongchen Yu, Ph.D., the researchers asked whether attention-based signal changes in the superior colliculus are driven by microsaccades, or if the two processes can be separated.

The researchers trained monkeys to hold their eyes straight ahead, while attending to their peripheral vision. The researchers would cue either the left or right side by flashing a ring on the cued side. After the cue, the monkeys would release a joystick if they detected a color change on the cued side, while ignoring any color changes on the uncued side. The researchers could measure changes in neuronal activity on both sides of the superior colliculus, detecting a boost to the cued side, and lower signals on the uncued side.

At the same time, the researchers used high-resolution eye-tracking cameras to measure microsaccades during the trials. Sometimes, there would be no microsaccades. In other trials, the monkeys would make a microsaccade toward the cued side, or away from the cued side. By lining up the signals based on the time any microsaccade began, the researchers found that the neuronal signals for attention in the superior colliculus were present before the microsaccade, and then would re-establish after the microsaccade.

In essence, although the eye movement would also trigger changes to neuronal signals in the superior colliculus, attention-related signals occurred independently of the eye movement signals.

While the neuronal circuits activated by these two systems do overlap, the link between microsaccades and attention is not a causal one, Krauzlis said.

The majority of vision neuroscientists have been using this type of experimental system to study visual attention for decades. Its a big relief to reconfirm that microsaccades are not the driver of the neuronal changes seen with visual attention, said Yu. This result means we dont need to reevaluate decades of work!

This study was funded by the NEI Intramural Program.

This press release describes a basic research finding. Basic research increases our understanding of human behavior and biology, which is foundational to advancing new and better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease. Science is an unpredictable and incremental process each research advance builds on past discoveries, often in unexpected ways. Most clinical advances would not be possible without the knowledge of fundamental basic research. To learn more about basic research, visit https://www.nih.gov/news-events/basic-research-digital-media-kit.

NEI leads the federal governments research on the visual system and eye diseases. NEI supports basic and clinical science programs to develop sight-saving treatments and address special needs of people with vision loss. For more information, visit https://www.nei.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIHTurning Discovery Into Health

Yu G, Herman JP, Katz LN, and Krauzlis RJ. Microsaccades as a marker not a cause for attention-related modulation. eLife 2022;11:e74168.https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.74168

###

More here:
Attention to objects in peripheral vision is not driven by tiny eye movements - National Institutes of Health (.gov)

Human Behavior

The Metaverse: What Is It, and Why Should You Care? – TechSpot

The Metaverse. Some are calling it the next evolution of the Internet, others say it's already existed for years. One way or another, it's the focus of some of the most influential media companies in the world, and you should look into it, too.

I've always been fascinated with the Metaverse, long before I even knew there was a name tied to the idea. Going all the way back to when I was a young boy. Like most other little boys, I was dreaming of being a superhero, a knight, a swashbuckler, and on the most whimsical days, some conglomeration of those and many more action-y archetypes rolled into one as I adventured through various worlds built in the collective fantasy of my friends and I.

Illustration by Mo

As time went on, I relegated those realm-treading ideas to the section at the back of my mind labeled "fanciful nonsense," right next to light-sabers and world peace-thinking that videogames and books would be the closest of proxy for exploring other worlds that I'd have in my lifetime.

That course of thinking was changed in an instant one Saturday afternoon on a visit to a friend's house. I had popped in unannounced to find many of my peers lumped into a crowd, trilling with unabashed awe. When they had enough sense about them collectively to notice the new arrival, I was ushered to the center of the crowd, and strapped into a bulky headset, the Oculus Rift, playing a game called Robo Recall a simple affair where you shoot at errant robots rampaging through a futuristic city.

Totally enveloped, with a level of immersion I had never approached, even with the most thrilling of media I'd ever consumed, I was gleefully tearing through these hordes of robots.

I wasn't pointing a crosshair at these robots and clicking like had always been the case before. Instead, I was looking down the sights of the wacky, futuristic weapons by moving my hand to eye level, pinching my real fingers together to catch a bullet, and slinging my wrist forward to throw things.

It was mere seconds before the thoughts of the bulky headgear and alien controllers were completely gone, and I was completely within this game. Alas, the game came not without danger- I whipped to my right to shoot one of those rampaging robots and felt a sharp crack in the back of my hand, and pulling the headset off, I realized I had clubbed one of my boys with the Rift's controller.

As he picked himself up from the floor I put myself into time-out for being a danger to myself and others, and as I sat off to the side watching as others took their own turns shooting robots I was totally elated. This thing I was seeing -- I knew it was monumentous. Not just because this technology on its own was revolutionary and kind of amazing to behold, but because it was a tiny baby-step between the real world and a fantastical and truly infinite one, appealing to some latent hope deep within me. Something that seemed so impossibly far away, was emerging into reality, and having the incredible courtesy not only to happen during my lifetime, but in front of my very eyes.

Before we delve into the vast and complex issue of trying to divine the future of technology a task in which many more qualified before me have failed miserably or become exalted in their unparalleled facticity, I would like to include something akin to a disclaimer.

Takes on the internet, smartphones, television, and basically every other innovation of technology at the time of their conception and adoption have a tendency to skew outwards to those two extremes. We highlight and make prolific use of the most egregious deniers using the clarity of hindsight to make those speakers of antiquity into a mockery, or highlight people who were ahead of their time while ignoring the middling opinions that make up the contemporary thought.

Image credit: Jezael Melgoza

While I sing the praises of the amazing technological advancements, I also hope to forewarn that there are terrible dangers afoot. The more we become lost in the coming wonderland, the more the masters of that domain will have the ability to influence our lives, ideas, and perception an opportunity we know they will seize if given.

I believe that the Metaverse is an inevitability, save for a catastrophe of infrastructure or a foundational shift in human behavior. As is the order of our society, what once was a whimsical idea will be breathed into reality moving forward, even if it manifests as malignant and damnably corrupted.

As I see it, humanity approaches the Metaverse, treading a narrow and harrowing path. Waiting at the end, the ultimate reward for going where we have never dared, nor had the ability to go before, an Eden where humanity's technological staking will allow us to meaningfully transcend many of the boundaries of our primary physical reality and largely eliminate the logistical hurdles of space and distance from a myriad of activities.

The danger lies on either side of that path, pulling at us with an avaricious gravity towards gray quagmires of corporate control. Places where many of humanity's base freedoms are an illusion. The barons of those desolate kingdoms having complete control over what may exist within this new reality that we adopt.

As we explore the idea of the Metaverse here today, I plead with you to consider that the technology that will soon be at our disposal does not have the innate quality of being a supreme good, nor an ultimate, undoing evil. It is something that will be built and guided by the actions and ideals of many people, and has the capability to end up in either of these final destinations, and so many in between.

The prefix "Meta-" means beyond, and "-verse" refers to the Universe. Combine them to get the rather fitting term "Metaverse," meaning "beyond the Universe." All things considered, Metaverse feels an appropriately extravagant word for the ideas it represents.

This shiny new buzzword we're throwing around isn't actually so new. It originated in the 1992 Sci-fi novel, Snow Crash. I feel it is of note that this is the same place that is thought to have popularized the term "avatar" when referring to a digital representation of someone, so just with that accolade you can tell Snow Crash had its effect on the tech decades beyond when it was written.

While that's all good and dandy, choosing to use this term feels like a terrible, looming omen when you look at the source material. Snow Crash presents a dystopian, fractured state in a year very near to our own. In this shattered vision of America, what are essentially corporate oligarchs have all of the power in the presented society, and aim to employ literal memetic viruses that reprogram the human mind.

Facebook, a company constantly under fire for misuse of information and largely accused of shady and unscrupulous practices, taking up its new mantle of "Meta," and pledging to build the Metaverse seems to be about as on the nose as falling face first into asphalt. The cynic in me almost sees this as a brazen admission. Like, they're coming right out and saying, "Yup, we're done hiding it. We are untenably unconcerned with the well being of you lowly peasants. Our hegemony over information will be brutal and unceasing."

"Well," you might be asking, "now that you've scared me with your grossly exaggerated pessimism, what actually is this Metaverse thing you're talking about?" And I'd say that it's rather difficult to pin down.

What might have someone said if you asked them what an automobile was in the early 1880's, prior to their public sale? There were some brilliant people, and they probably could have come up with some idea of what that might be, but the first automobiles were not yet available for them to see.

The Metaverse exists in this same space at the moment. We can talk about it, and think about it, but it is rather impalpable in that the Metaverse is very different from anything that exists right now.

Illustration by Mo

As simply as I can put it, the Metaverse is a network of virtual 3D spaces we would be able to venture into and move between, functioning as a sort of 3D internet- or an "internet of places." Ideally, it would be engaged with using virtual reality devices, but would likely allow for augmented reality and traditional 2D displays to participate as well.

Imagine the world in The Matrix or Ready Player One. Those are two contemporary, and also dystopian (is anyone else noticing a pattern emerge?), examples of a Metaverse. Hopefully, the emerging real world version won't involve enslavement by robotic overlords or a large, and rather uncomfortable looking port being drilled into the back of your head, but I'm not going to file it away as an impossibility.

There have been things that you might have interacted with before that are tiny microcosms of what the Metaverse might be when it comes into reality. Games like World of Warcraft and Runescape have full blown human-driven economies, in worlds populated by millions of people. Fortnite has been host to live and synchronous events for millions of users on several occasions now, and regularly incorporates through collaboration the intellectual properties of other companies in the form of events and cosmetics. Roblox allows users to create games, events, and cosmetics that other users can buy and use. Twitch and YouTube allow for viewers to consume content in a live and social way, regardless of location.

Now, to imagine the Metaverse all you need to do is roll all of those, and a million other things, into one simultaneously cohesive and disjointed package. I'm not going to lie to you here and pretend I know what's going to happen in the future, but I sure can try to take my best guess.

The Metaverse wouldn't just be for gaming, even if most of my examples might indicate otherwise. Digital games just serve as a great jumping off point for many of the ideas involved because they are our most common foray into virtual worlds. Instead, the Metaverse would serve as humanity's new Mecca for interaction if everything goes as planned, where instead of heading to a website on the Internet, you would navigate to a virtual space within the Metaverse. At this point in time it's a set of ideas that we have a rough outline to strive towards in the future.

Matthew Ball, a venture capitalist in the realm of tech, and now rising to a higher strata of fame as some sort of Metaverse oracle figure, has many writings on the Metaverse that are openly praised by enthusiasts and the figureheads of tech alike. He laid out these core elements of the Metaverse as a part of a growing series of essays discussing this upcoming new era of technology.

Persistent - Possibly the least controversial element in discussions I have found. There must be no ending to the Metaverse, nor stoppages. It would just go on in perpetuity. Like today's internet, the Metaverse must always be there. Individual pieces, say a particular game or virtual plaza, might lose support from their owners or have a lapse in availability due to extenuating circumstances, but the Metaverse as a network needs to be something that is always available if you have a device and a connection.

Image credit: Sandro Katalina

Live - The Metaverse should largely take place in real time. Even though there will be instanced content maybe in the order of a dungeon in a video game, or a private movie showing, most things taking place should be happening for everyone at the same time.

A very solid example of this is the aforementioned live events hosted in Fortnite. When Ariana Grande's music was playing at her digital concert, everyone was hearing it simultaneously and participating in mini-games with other players for the duration.

A complete economy - In the Metaverse people will be able to own, trade, and invest in just about anything that goes on there. This likely begins with digital goods and real estate, but will become more diverse with a variety of services and speculative assets as time goes on. It's highly likely that there will be jobs that exist entirely within the Metaverse, and the currencies of choice will become legitimized and able to be exchanged with real world money.

If you're like me, the concept of digital property may sound preposterous, but in doing research about the Metaverse I found examples going back almost two decades that offered a small bit of legitimacy. Entropia Universe, an MMO that launched in 2003, has had virtual land and buildings sold for hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars in at least one case.

Unlimited user capacity - Like today's internet, there should be hypothetically no limit to how many people might be using the Metaverse at once. Not every single place within the Metaverse needs to be able to house the entire world, but the overall network of spaces should be unlimited in capacity.

Inter-usage of data and assets - A good portion of the items that exist within the Metaverse should be able to move with you from one setting or scene to another. Your favorite "I'm with stupid" hat for your avatar should be able to follow you from a movie viewing, to a game, to your company's virtual workspace (though you might want to take that off unless your boss is really cool) to most other places you go in the Metaverse.

Populated by a diverse pool of creators - In the Metaverse, anyone should be able to develop experiences for others to enjoy. Games, videos, movies, episodicals, and more should be able to enter this realm from any person with the know-how.

Like how anyone can make a website on the internet today, anyone should be able to set up their own space within the Metaverse and populate it with whatever they like. With the amazing programs some of which I'll touch on later in this piece this creation will be easier and more accessible to people without the specialized skills you need to make similar things today.

This last criterion is one glimmering shard of hope for the Metaverse. I know it is the general impression that Meta, Epic and Microsoft own the Metaverse before it even exists, however this is not the reality. Just like the Internet, no sole proprietor will own the Metaverse. Undoubtedly, some of the existing titanic tech companies, and a handful of new ones, will have a large influence and an equally large share of the traffic there, but it is something that belongs to everyone. There is the possibility that if the Metaverse is treated as such from the get-go, we might steer it away from the failings that plague the Internet in its current state.

The Metaverse won't be some monolithic piece of sci-fi level tech. It is an intricate web of slowly developing pieces that will come together into a global conglomerate. Hopefully, just like the internet before it, there will be constant evolution and change throughout the life of the Metaverse.

Now that the Metaverse is on people's minds and making waves in the media, we're sure to see a growing wave of support pouring into its development. Even if there is no shortage of people who will disparage the very concept, the Metaverse is still likely to be adopted quickly if it follows the trend of emerging technologies of the past.

Image credit: Muhammad Asyfaul

Humans are creatures of convenience, and if this new stuff makes their lives easier or more enjoyable they will use it. I may not be ancient and wizened, but I have been around long enough to remember when smartphones were "just a silly little fad."

Here are some examples of companies and their projects that are making a push into the Metaverse.

Meta, formerly Facebook, has made quite the show hiring a force of ten thousand European workers to develop the Metaverse. What exactly they have in mind is still shrouded in some mystery. We can take a look at one of their latest projects to get a glimpse into what they might be up to. Meta launched Horizon Worlds at the end of last year. This project works as a hub to explore user-designed 3D worlds in virtual reality.

In its current state, this appears to be rather rudimentary and impractical, but if you can look beyond the simplistic graphics and the horrifically puny 20 user limit per world, you can get a glimpse of how the Metaverse might work from a user standpoint.

Horizon has you open into a miniature hub-world where you can browse through community made content. Once you find a place to go, you just tap a button and you're teleported there.

Something like this will be a necessity in a realized Metaverse. Just like the Internet, you'll need some sort of browser program unless you just love punching in direct addresses. It looks like Meta's goal here is to create Metaverse navigation tools and they are largely neglecting to make content of their own.

Epic has been very forward that they hope to be on the vanguard of the Metaverse's creation. Massive hit game, Fortnite, has proven to be more culturally significant than you might expect from a cartoonishly styled game for all ages. Without trying to be disparaging, at least some of the astronomical success Fortnite has seen is from its events and crossovers with other massive brands.

At the peak of the hype around the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you could log into Fortnite to find a special game-mode where you had the chance to play as Thanos. When they changed the game's iconic map out for a newer one, there was a lead up event with cutscenes starring Dwayne Johnson.

They have used the game as a platform for live digital events for massively popular musical guests. You can find character crossovers from every place imaginable. There's John Wick, Spiderman, and even some real people like Ninja and Ariana Grande have been immortalized as skins in the game.

The point in all this is: Epic is doing the type of stuff that has to make the Metaverse a very fun and interesting place, and are setting a gold standard for the types of entertainment that will be huge within it. Furthermore, Fortnite gives people the opportunity to make their own island, and design the games and activities there, giving users a taste of that network-of-places style so important to the Metaverse.

Some of Epic's other efforts can be seen as both steps towards establishing themselves within the Metaverse and being very developer friendly. They are selling access to Unreal Engine licensing at a very competitive rate, and offering a desirable shopfront for smaller developers by taking a much smaller cut of the pie when it comes to revenue relative to other major sellers.

They are also giving free access to developers for their Easy Anti-Cheat and Voice services, both used in the smooth multiplayer experience of Fortnite (and many other titles you've probably heard of). By having this shared communication infrastructure built into many games, including one of the largest of all time, they are establishing a stronger case that those platforms define the standard when moving forward.

Since the interchange of assets and information from place to place is a key element of a realized Metaverse, there will be a coming standardization of many things, and it appears that Epic is trying now to establish leverage for their own creations to set that standard in the areas where they are staked.

With those things in mind and the absolutely staggering visuals of the new Unreal Engine 5, it wouldn't surprise me if Epic's engine, communication services, and storefront are worked to become a foundational piece of the Metaverse as it moves forward.

Epic has also recently fought legal battles with Apple and Google over what they call antitrust behavior about their market practices, claiming that among other things, the high share they demand, is harmful to developers using their storefronts. While Apple was found in their case not to be monopolistic, there was an injunction made that forbids them from continuing some practices that limited consumer choices in their stores.

While none of us are green enough to think that this is done out of altruism on Epic's part, the fact that corporate maneuvering has a side effect that is beneficial to smaller developers offers hope that some of these giant players might come to challenge the practices of their competitors moving forward.

For the Metaverse to live up to its potential, it will need to be an environment where developers of all sizes have the opportunity to add their own creations with fair chance at compensation.

Microsoft is trying to advance remote business solutions for the Metaverse with something called Mesh. Microsoft mesh is touting its "Holoportation" technology- live scanning and rendering of something inside of a virtual space.

In the Mesh trailer below you see the participants each wearing AR or VR headsets working together over a holographic display laid out on the table. Beyond that, Mesh allows integration with Office 365, and can allow users to introduce their files into the shared space for real-time edits from their team.

Any movement or changes should be visible wherever the viewers are within about a tenth of a second. As high-speed internet becomes available ubiquitously, this is just about as close to teleportation as we're gonna get short of a real life teleportation device. By making remote work and meetings as seamless as they can be by utilizing this new software with augmented reality, we are likely to see more and more people become remote workers.

Nvidia is definitely a contender in the literal shaping of the Metaverse, with Omniverse, a suite of programs used to create virtual spaces and bring them to life. It is kind of like the aforementioned Mesh, but for building 3D environments.

By coupling with the tools that people are using today to shape, edit, texture, render etc. 3D places and things, and adding the ability to collaborate these things in real time, this program is leaping forward in how streamlined and cooperative the process of building in 3D can be.

Either Omniverse, or something like it is going to be what shapes the places that make up the Metaverse. Omniverse makes it easier than ever to create high quality virtual spaces, which are the foundation of anything happening in the Metaverse. Imagine the things that you might see if entire teams of environmental designers, and animators working together in one live space.

On top of all of that, there are AI-powered solutions within these programs to speed up the tedium inherent to these types of tasks. The most amazing tool that I saw automatically animated faces speaking by tying them to a video or script. As these tools become more and more powerful, making a world of your own will eventually become easy enough for most anyone to do it.

Even though I've only spoken of corporate endeavors in this section, in a place that's designed to be an endless world of experiences, the user generated will vastly outnumber the proprietary in volume. Everyone, if they so desire, will be able to leave their own mark on this new world.

Image credit: S R

The Metaverse needs you to exist. There will be a need for the creative types to fill it with interesting things to do. We need to be technically oriented to design the necessary infrastructure to support it. We need the politically inclined to vote for policy makers that resist the iron grip of those that would pervert these new vistas for personal gain. We need people who understand this new technology and how to drive it to its fullest potential. Only together with our wonderful tapestry of skills can make real this new place that not long ago we all relegated as fanciful nonsense.

As with every other wave of technology, this one will bring with it solutions to old problems, and pose new ones of its own. The creation and operation of a project of this scale will create many, many jobs. Meta is hiring ten thousand to work on building the Metaverse.

As it comes closer to reality, there will be a growing need for specialized development of hardware and software ecosystems that rise to the myriad challenges present in bringing the Metaverse to fruition. Not only will these rising fields create employment for many people, but they will need people to teach them, and design their software and equipment.

Image: Mo

Furthermore, in this environment where you need only to log in to work instead of commute, startups utilizing the new tech can hire workers from anywhere in the world and invite them to their virtual space. As the Metaverse is embraced by the masses, many people will be untethered physically from their job.

As of March 2021, 21% of Americans were teleworking, and according to Global Workplace Analytics' expectations, by the end of 2021, 25-30% of the global workforce was to be working from home. During the era of the Metaverse, that section of the workforce will only grow, and they can choose to live wherever they like with little consideration for where their employers may be. Perhaps this new paradigm will allow people to move closer to their families, or maybe an introverted professional would like a remote house far away from the bustle of cities.

There is something going on in Venezuela that we'll see more of after the Metaverse becomes accessible. Due to a period of unprecedented inflation, many people there have turned to selling gold and items in the aforementioned multiplayer game Runescape, because it has a relatively stable in-game economy and using it to bring in foreign money from the global player-base was more sustainable and effective in earning than even high-skill jobs within Venezuela.

In ways similar to this, the Metaverse might be utilized creatively to open up avenues of capital to those that need it the most.

For certain types of disabilities, the Metaverse has the potential to be an even field in a way that real life can't quite match. Those with reduced mobility will likely be able to participate in events they might be barred from in real life, while perhaps a deaf individual might have the option to render subtitles for the goings on in a way to feel more included. As a physically disabled person, the Metaverse shines as a rapturous decoupling of the bodies of the enfeebled and their ability to participate in things like exploration and socialization.

It's no secret that being endlessly connected to everyone else has some negative modifier on social interactions and mental health, especially in teenagers. From 2008 to 2019, the reported rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in young adults rose by 47% along with the meteoric rise of social media and those two phenomena are largely believed to be intertwined.

Image credit: Shubham Dhage

The Metaverse might worsen this social woe, but some say the opposite. Virtual worlds are thought to be more socially intimate than scrolling through your feed. Maybe a new form of social media based on doing and experiencing things together will be a mentally healthier alternative than looking at selectively chosen snapshots and snippets of others' lives. It's unknown what effect this will have on socialization, but we can all try to hope for a turn to the positive. I for one, know anecdotally that Twitter and Instagram introduced leagues more strife into my life than stacking blocks with my friends in Minecraft.

The Metaverse will likely require a staggering amount of energy to keep running. We know little so far about how the Metaverse will be hosted, or how its data will be managed, but it is almost a certainty that it will have its costs. There's no telling which available technology, or new ones, we will use to create and distribute electricity in the future, but as it stands now there is a likelihood that the Metaverse has the potential to be environmentally deleterious within the existing state in which energy is produced.

Like with the internet, we can imagine there will be an army of scammers trying to defraud normal people, and any new tech is going to empower them with new tools and strategies. Americans are defrauded out of billions of dollars each year through internet and telephone scam strategies. Unless preventive measures are taken to protect people in the Metaverse, or there is education made available on how to protect yourself in this environment, more Metaverse users than necessary will fall victim to these new methods.

Like all new things, the Metaverse will be unpredictable, and tainted by certain less than desirable elements, but has the potential to be something wonderful and fun to reignite that childish whimsy so often pushed away in our modern world. A new and endless frontier for exploration waits just over the horizon. Together we can dive in and experience a whole new universe of possibilities as it unfolds right in front of us. Not long ago, this kind of technology would have been impossible to tell apart from magic, and we are so lucky to see it all coming together.

Masthead credit: julien Tromeur

Read more:
The Metaverse: What Is It, and Why Should You Care? - TechSpot

Human Behavior

The influence of risk perceptions on close contact frequency during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic | Scientific Reports – Nature.com

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic that has led to unprecedented negative health outcomes and social economic burden2,3, it is important to understand factors that influence individual behaviour. Our study explored the relationship between 5 specific perception variables related to COVID-19 and behavioral response in terms of the reported number of social contacts. We used a generalized linear mixed effects model in order to take into account both the within-participant and between participant variability from the two longitudinal datasets.

The results indicated that individuals who perceived themselves to experience severe illness if they contract a COVID-19 infection tended to make significantly fewer contacts as compared to those who had low or neutral perceptions. The observed relationship between the perceived severity and social contact behaviour was consistent in both analyses (i.e, analyses involving survey data from the first 8 waves of data collection, and also from the subsequent 11 waves). It is important to note that these two longitudinal surveys queried respondents behavior in two different COVID-19 pandemic waves in Belgium, with the first survey coinciding with the first COVID-19 wave, and the second survey with the second wave. Hence the similarity between the observed patterns of associations is suggestive of the crucial role perceived severity has on social contact behaviour. Our findings were echoed greatly by results from a study utilizing CoMix data from the United Kingdom (UK)32. This study found that individuals aged between 18 and 59 years who perceived high levels of seriousness if infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus had lower mean number of contacts than those who perceived low levels of seriousness.

Several studies examined the role of risk perceptions on adoption of recommended preventive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic7,12,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22. These studies have found that perceived severity was associated with the adoption of the protective behaviours, in line with the Health Belief Model. More specifically, people with higher perceived severity of the disease were found to be more likely to adopt the recommended precautionary measures. However, it is important to mention that the response variable of interest differed between studies. Whilst the response variable in our study was the number of social contacts, other studies considered indicators of avoidance of behaviour or adoption of the recommended measures as their outcome. Nonetheless, the results all point towards the critical role of perceived severity on individuals response behaviour. Furthermore, the differences in the number of contacts for individuals with high perceived severity versus individuals with low or neutral levels of severity was around one contact in our study. The evaluation of the implications of such differences on the transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 are a topic for future research. In addition, with respect to other response variables, the number of contacts can more easily and more consistently be included in mathematical models of infectious diseases33, making the analysis presented in this work crucial for future modelling endeavours of COVID-19.

In our study, the relationship between perceived susceptibility and the number of social contacts did not yield consistent relationships. These ambiguities may have resulted from a variety of factors including, but not limited to: firstly, there could be the presence of optimism bias, a phenomenon where individuals tend to underestimate their likelihood of experiencing a negative event or overestimate the likelihood of positive events34. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this refers to individuals underestimating their perceived risk of getting infected. Several studies have indicated the presence of optimism bias during the COVID-19 pandemic12,14,35. Secondly, individuals having a higher number of social contacts might perceive themselves more likely to get infected as a result of their behaviour and vice-versa. Results from the aforementioned study in UK32 found that in general, participants who indicated to be likely to get infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus had higher mean number of contacts than those who indicated to be unlikely to get the virus. And thirdly, this could be due to individuals perception on their inherent vulnerability to infection. Thus based on our results, the relationship between perceived susceptibility and social contact behaviour remains inconclusive and thus warrants more research.

Similarly, the relationship between perceived benefit to vulnerable and number of social contacts yielded inconsistent results. There were no significant differences in social contact behaviour between individuals who had high, neutral or low perceptions in terms of protecting the vulnerable individuals in the population. This could be due to either participants responding to the questionnaire item based on the frequency of contacts with vulnerable individuals within their close social circle or occupation (i.e, health care workers in elderly homes). In addition, it might be that participants who are vulnerable (mainly elderly people with underlying comorbidities) perceive no major benefit to other vulnerable individuals as they generally make fewer social contacts. As such, more research is required in this perspective as deliberate efforts in the realm of public health messaging and communication has emphasized on adhering to recommended measures to protect others36.

Perceived effectiveness of measures and perceived adherence to measures were both inversely associated with the number of contacts. Participants with high levels of perceived effectiveness of measures made lower number of contacts than those with low levels. Similarly, participants with high levels of perceived adherence to measures made fewer contacts than those low levels. However, the observed differences were generally small. According to the theory of Protection Motivation and Self-efficacy, persons belief in effectiveness of an intervention measure, and their confidence to adhere to the measure predicts the likelihood of engaging in the preventive behaviour24. Previous studies conducted under this theoretical frameworkthat explore the relationships between perceived effectiveness of measures and perceived adherence to measures with the recommended health behaviourdo not explicitly use the number of social contacts as a proxy of the recommended health behaviour. Instead, they use indicators of avoidance of behaviours or adoption of recommended measures as above-mentioned. However, our results are consistent with results from previous studies4,5,6,15,25,26,37 despite the outcome variables being slightly different. It is worth mentioning that the number of social contacts is a proxy of contact events responsible for disease transmission and is influenced by underlying determinants such as household size, day of the week (weekday versus weekend), age, among others as indicated in our study as well as in previous studies27,38. Thus, more studies utilizing the number of social contacts as a proxy of the adoption of recommended measures will be pertinent to shed more light on the influence of perceptions on contact behaviour, while controlling for possible confounders. Furthermore, data on perceived effectiveness of measures and perceived adherence to measures was only collected in the first 8 waves (i.e, the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic), and thus continued data collection on these contextual factors could be of great importance to gain additional insights in the observed relationships. It is worth mentioning that both the perceptions and number of social contacts changed over time with slight differences observed by age groups. Furthermore, the wave of data collection which coincided with changing regimes of intervention measures and also changing landscape of the pandemic, was an important factor in the interaction effects of the perception variables, further highlighting that perceptions and social contact behaviour were dynamic in time. This is consistent with results from 2 studies that found evolution of both perceptions and protective behaviours during the influenza A(H1N1)v2009 pandemic9,10, and a recent study from UK conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic22.

Our findings highlight the importance of aligning the publics COVID-19 related perceptions with reality. That is, people who perceive COVID-19 to be more severe, will be more inclined to engage in preventive behaviours (here measured as the number of social contacts). Based on our results, we can suggest that public health communication and targeted messaging could yield more impact if tailored to messages emphasizing the severity of COVID-19. Thus, it is important to stress the severity of COVID-19e.g in terms of excess mortality39 or long-term effects post COVID-19 infection40. Furthermore, we found significant interaction effects between age and both perceived severity and perceived susceptibility, hence age-adjusted campaigns with respect to disease severity and susceptibility are required to enhance social distancing measures. A collaborative multidisciplinary approach by scientists, policymakers and communication experts is pivotal to formulate an effective and contextualized strategy that could optimise the impact of public health messaging41.

Our study has several limitations. The associations between the perception variables and number of social contacts could have been affected by the level of stringency of the intervention measures that were being implemented. For example, during a lockdown, participants may not be able to contact people outside their household, even if they wanted to. However, this effect should be minimal as we controlled for the survey wave of data collection where different intervention measures were put in place. Information on COVID-19 vaccination was only partly available during the second survey. The percentage of the vaccinated individuals ranged from 0.5% in wave 12 to 14.8% in wave 19. Hence, due to the small sample of the vaccinated respondents, the vaccination status was not included in the analyses. However, a descriptive analysis (Supplementary Fig. S13) revealed no apparent differences in risk perceptions in the vaccinated individuals (before and after vaccination), and also in social contact behaviour between the vaccinated and not vaccinated (Supplementary Fig. S14). Although the panel of participants was representative by gender, age and region of residence in each survey wave, the voluntary opt-in of participants in each subsequent survey wave could be subject to self-selection bias where individuals more concerned about the pandemic in general would be more likely to participate. However, the participation rate was relatively high with 67.5% having participated in 3 or more waves in the first 8 survey waves and 63.19% in the subsequent 11 survey waves. Based on their importance in the context of social contact behaviourwe made sure the sampling design ensured representativeness in terms of age, gender and region of residence27,38. However, other potential factors such as race, urban/rural dwelling, income and education were not considered. Future studies of social contact patterns could take the latter factors into account to obtain an even more representative sample and to assess the impact of these factors on social contact patterns. In the process of model building for the different perception variables which entailed numerous hypothesis testing, our models could have missed potential significant interaction effects other than the ones we mainly focused on in our exploratory modeling. The latter were selected due to their epidemiological relevance in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This could have marginally affected the significance of the terms in the final models in our analyses. While potentially having an impact on respondents risk perception, we did not collect information about their COVID-19 infection history. However, given the study was conducted in the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, where the percentages of the already infected in the population ranged between 0.04% and 0.62% in the first survey, and 4.05% and 7.72% in the second survey, the population-level effect is expected to be minimal. Our study findings could be subject to reverse causality since we assumed that perceptions precede the social contact behaviour, which might not necessarily be true. Our study could also suffer from social desirability bias, despite that anonymity of responses was assured. The results of our study apply to the Belgian population and caution is required when extrapolating these to other populations.

This study assessed the relationship between COVID-19 perceptions and social contact behaviour using two longitudinal surveys from a panel of individuals between April and August 2020, and November 2020 and April 2021 in Belgium. We found that individuals who perceived COVID-19 to be a serious illness for them made a significantly lower number of contacts as compared to those who had low or neutral perceptions. Similarly, individuals with high levels of perceived effectiveness and perceived adherence to measures made fewer contacts as compared to those with low levels. Given the importance of human behaviour in the transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 virus, tailored communication strategies by public health officials about the severity of COVID-19 is crucial.

Read more:
The influence of risk perceptions on close contact frequency during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic | Scientific Reports - Nature.com

Human Behavior

DO | The Social Limelight – Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

There is a very specific feeling of dread that often overtakes me in uncomfortable social settings. My blood begins to churn and immense pressure builds up in my chest. I cant quite think straight and the usual screening process between emotion and action is infiltrated by panic and an impulse to escape. As much as I might try to behave normally, my mind is scrambling to find some way out of my imagined spotlight.

These episodes are a regular occurrence for me. As you can imagine, it gets exhausting always being front and center on a stage that youve completely fabricated for yourself. Im unable to do much of anything without also considering how the people around me are likely to perceive it. Every twitch in my facial expression, every touch of my hair, every small shift in my intonation has been thoroughly envisioned, assessed and cleared by my inner self-critic. Anything that risks alienating me from the group is a no-go and any grab for attention, no matter how small, must first be assessed through every doomsday scenario imaginable.

My outlook is fueled by two very conflicting feelings. The first is the outside gaze, the judgments that the people around me are surely making at all times. Their assessments of my appearance, my personality and the way I carry myself. No action goes unnoticed and every little insecurity Im zoomed in on must be a blaring siren alerting everyone that I should be avoided at all costs.

Accompanying my adolescent egocentrism is the second reason for my insecurity-driven social complex, which is the fear of being alone. I assume this worry stems somehow from evolutionary adaptations for group survival and the reproductive advantages of attracting a mate by being similar to everyone else. In the 21st century, this amounts to feelings of estrangement like Im a pariah in any social circle I attempt to wedge my way into. My place in the group is justified by happenstance and my presence would never be missed or even noticed if I happened to slip out quietly, as is my tendency when faced with the slightest bit of discomfort.

I feel at once like the center of attention and a forgettable wisp of a personality. In my mind, everyones always participating in the nitpicking and the badmouthing, but never doing anything to challenge those assumptions about me. Its always my job to prove my social worth to get others to talk to me, a task far too exhausting to beat out a solo night of watching Korean rom-coms, accompanied by a bubbling pot of instant ramen.

I could point to multiple origins in my life that could be potentially responsible for my paradoxical unease. When I was a child, I was always extremely aware of how adults were judging my actions whether they were impressed by my shows of maturity or bursting out into amused, but nevertheless hurtful, fits of laughter at the blunders that children make out of simply not knowing enough about socially acceptable human behavior. Anytime I misused a punchline I heard from a TV show or unknowingly violated some unspoken social norm, I made sure to quickly scan how the adults were reacting. Any indication that I was doing something even slightly out of line was motivation for me to just keep it to myself the next time. I never understood that their reactions were merely out of amusement and not a judgment on me.

Another possible source lies in my position in my family. As the eldest son in a small Asian family, I never had to vie much for attention when I was younger. I received praise and affection for the smallest accomplishments and grew up convinced that I deserved to be part of the group just for being me. Attending gifted programs from the 2nd to 12th grade meant that I kept the same circle of friends for most of my childhood, never having to fend for myself in an environment where I didnt already know several people I could fall back on.

College completely disrupted the safety nets I grew up cherishing so much. Gone are the doting family members who hang onto my every word and the friends who dont need some compelling reason to give me their time of day. I have no anchor to rely on, no reason to believe that I will be welcomed into the crowd with open arms.

All I want is some sense of security. The ability to interact with others without the expectation to prove that Im a friend-worthy person. I dont want to feel like I have to nitpick every last thing I do because I dont trust that the people around me arent internally badmouthing me.

Too often do I live in service of my imagined sense of others perceptions. I become convinced that negating any potentially embarrassing parts of my personality is the easiest way to get others to like me, when the truth is usually the complete opposite. My constant search for signs of alienation or disinterest in the people I interact with exhausts the little decision-making chimp in my brain to the point where avoiding the interaction altogether is the most attractive choice.

The magnifying glass that I feel constantly pointed at me, no matter how self-imposed it may be, restrains all the most distinctive elements of my personality. Behind the wall of insecurities and timid small talk is, in my opinion, a perceptive, curious, open-minded and incredibly humble individual. The only one preventing him from emerging more frequently is almost always me.

Noah Do is a sophomore in the College of Human Ecology. He can be reached at [emailprotected] Noahs Arc runs every other Monday this semester.

Read more:
DO | The Social Limelight - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Human Behavior

Women’s body image more likely to be impacted by pornography if they are high in anxious attachment – PsyPost

Does pornography usage make women more self-conscious about their bodies? A study published in the Computers in Human Behavior journal suggests that this relationship may be related to attachment style to romantic partners.

Body image self-consciousness is something many women struggle with for a myriad of reasons, including the strict societal beauty standards placed on women. Being self-conscious about ones own body is associated with negative body satisfaction, lower sexual self-esteem, and lower self-perceived attractiveness. Body image self-consciousness during sexual activity can lead to a less fulfilling sex life, with decreased sexual functioning and pleasure and increased shame and anxiety.

Attachment theory posters that people seek support and proximity when faced with a threat, and that the level of responsiveness they receive from a caregiver in childhood can have implications for romantic relationships later in life. Attachment theory and body image self-consciousness have not been significantly studied together, and the new research seeks to address that, as well as examine a potential mediating role of pornography usage.

Study author Ateret Gewirtz-Meydan and colleagues conducted an online survey of 1,001 Israeli women ranging from 18 to 56 years of age. Participants completed a demographic survey, an attachment orientation scale, answered how often they consume pornographic content, and completed a measure on body image. Gerwitz-Meydan and colleagues sought to measure if pornography usage mediated the relationship between attachment and body image self-consciousness in this study.

Results showed significant group differences between participants in romantic relationships and participants not in romantic relationships. People in romantic relationships showed lower levels of anxious and avoidant attachment styles and reported lower body-image insecurities and pornography usage. Pornography usage was not a mediator between attachment and body image for women who were not in a romantic relationship and was a significant mediator only for women in a romantic relationship who showed an anxious attachment style. This is consistent with previous research that shows that anxious attachment, not avoidant attachment, predicts body dissatisfaction and insecurity.

This study has implications for treating body image issues by working on attachment style. Despite this advantage, the study has some limitations to speak of. Regarding the sample, it was a convenience sample gathered through social media, which may limit generalizability. This research also focused purely on women, and future research could focus on if similar relationships are found in men. Gerwitz-Meydan and colleagues also left pornography usage as a pretty vague variable, and the relationship may be affected by what type or medium of pornography is consumed.

The findings of the present study extend the literature by utilizing attachment theory to gain a better understanding of how women develop body image self-consciousness during intimate relations, the researchers concluded. Specifically, the findings suggest that women may be more susceptible to the influence of pornography use on their body image self-consciousness when they are anxiously attached and in a romantic relationship.

The study, Attachment insecurities and body image self-consciousness along women: The mediating role of pornography use, was authored by Ateret Gewirtz-Meydan, Kimberly J. Mitchell, Zohar Spivak-Lavi, and Shane W. Kraus.

Follow this link:
Women's body image more likely to be impacted by pornography if they are high in anxious attachment - PsyPost

Human Behavior

Human Population Collapse May Be Closer Than We Think – E/The Environmental Magazine

Courtesy of TRT World Fair Use

Greenhouse gas emissions continued unabated in 2021, and there is no sign that countries are going to honor their commitments to lower them anytime soon. This is evident as the West scrambles for ways to replace Russian fossil fuel supplies as quickly as possible. This means that fossil fuel emissions will not abate, and that we will reach a global mean surface temperature 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than the preindustrial level decades sooner than had previously been predicted. Indeed, 1.5 degrees is the threshold that climate science tells us spells the point at which the effects of global warming will become irreversible and devastating, and will have profound consequences to global ecosystems and to our global civilization.

These impacts are already bad and rapidly worsening. More and hotter heat waves, more frequent and worsening storms, catastrophic flooding, prolonged droughts, wildfires of unprecedented frequency and scale, continuing acidification of the oceans and consequent destruction of marine ecosystems, and a species extinction rate 1,000 times higher than the normal background rate are already wreaking havoc with planetary ecosystems and will only get worse. Feedback loops reinforce these devastating trends, and tipping points threaten to make then suddenly and rapidly turn even more deadly.

All of this promises that, rather than a gradual effect on humankind, the impact of global warming on human population may be rapid and catastrophic. The main compounding factor will be human migration. As heat begins to become an existential threat to the populations in the tropic and subtropic zones, up to three billion people will migrate towards the temperate zones. This is 40% of the human population, and its movement will present an existential threat to the populations in the temperate zones. The inevitable consequence will be conflict on a scale that dwarfs anything in human history.

This conflict, which will manifest itself on national borders across the world, may unleash the use of nuclear weapons that will make the loss of life even more devastating. The deteriorating climate and this unparalleled level of conflict will reduce food production and distribution, and this will further exacerbate the loss of life. As the pace of climate change continues to accelerate, this scenario is likely to play out in a matter of years, not decades, and consequently, the decrease in the human population will be sudden rather than gradual. The following graph shows a potential scenario.

This graph shows two population scenarios. The blue line is the UNs low population scenario. The orange line is a scenario that anticipates a draconian impact of climate change on the human population. It envisions global population peaking in 2030. During the subsequent decade, the scenario projects that population will decrease by one billion as the reproduction rate even in developing countries turns negative, and as the global mortality rate begins to climb. Between 2040 and 2050, this scenario envisions the global human population falling by over six billion people as the human mortality rate soars due to the catastrophic effects of global warming, the reduction of food supplies, global warfare, and the destruction of the infrastructure and communication on which our global civilization depends.

This is speculation. There is no certainty that this scenario will play itself out. But it is not unreasonable speculation. Without a rapid and dramatic change in human behavior on a planetary scale, there is no reason to assume that we are immune from such a horrendous fate.

RELATED POSTS

Go here to read the rest:
Human Population Collapse May Be Closer Than We Think - E/The Environmental Magazine

Human Behavior

New infosec products of the week: March 25, 2022 – Help Net Security

Heres a look at the most interesting products from the past week, featuring releases from AvePoint, DTEX Systems, ExtraHop, NICE Actimize, and Sonrai Security.

NICE Actimizes X-Sight Entity Risk solution delivers data intelligence from a variety of data sources to ensure an entity profile is always accurate and analyzes entity networks and behaviors to provide a single entity trust score which informs detection and prevention systems to power their analytic precision.

Sonrai Security announced its expansion into Cloud Workload Protection (CWPP), with new capabilities that enable enterprise companies to appropriately react to host-based threats according to their immediate severity and business impact.

AvePoints new enhancements automate retention and disposal rules, and provide safe information access retrieval, so that organizations can easily meet requirements and reduce storage overages at the same time.

Reveal(x) 360 Cloud Threat Defense for AWS is purpose-built to stop advanced threats like ransomware, software supply chain attacks, and more. This new offering includes VPC Flow Logs and additional protocol analysis, providing both depth and breadth of visibility for threats in AWS.

The behavioral, contextual workforce intelligence provided by DTEX InTERCEPT extends the capabilities of the Microsoft 365 E5 modules to detect and capture intentional data loss incidents, stop intellectual property theft, pinpoint human behavior attribution as well as malware root cause, and prevents the use and misuse of unsanctioned and sanctioned SaaS applications.

Follow this link:
New infosec products of the week: March 25, 2022 - Help Net Security

Human Behavior

LatticeFlow: The Venture Leader Technology that enables robust and trustworthy AI – Venturelab

28.03.2022 07:00, Isabelle Mitchell

The Venture Leaders Technology expert jury had their work cut out for them this year: They had to look through 180 applications to choose the 10 members of the Swiss National Startup team that will travel to Silicon Valley in April. Before the 10 entrepreneurs meet with international investors and industry leaders to strengthen their business network and advance their globalization, we want to introduce you to each of the 10 Venture Leaders Technology 2022: Meet Petar Tsankov, the co-founder and CEO of LatticeFlow.

Name: Petar TsankovLocation: ZurichNationality: Bulgaria/USAGraduated from: ETH PhD in CS, 2017Job title: Co-founder and CEO of LatticeFlow Number of employees: 12Money raised: USD 2.8 millionFirst touchpoint with Venturelab:In 2022, for theVenture Leaders programPetar, can you summarize what LatticeFlow does?We empower ML [machine learning] teams to deliver robust and performant AI systems, solving a major roadblock to the widespread adoption of AI in our daily lives.How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?I was reading a Stanford research paper on verifying the correctness of AI models at my ETH office when I realized how we could develop a massively more scalable approach by leveraging techniques from classic program analysis. This idea led to building the worlds first scalable robust AI platform that works on large deep learning models, which form the foundations of modern AI systems. These results triggered significant interest across the industry that was actively looking into solutions that enable safe, robust, and reliable adoption of recent AI advances.What do you expect from the Venture Leaders Technology roadshow, and how will it help you achieve your vision?A fun fact is that it all actually started in San Francisco for us. In early 2020, right before the pandemic hit, I was on a three-week solo roadshow in the US, looking to get feedback from entrepreneurs and investors on our product and business model. The Venture Leaders roadshow is an exciting opportunity to go back and meet these people again. More generally, to build our global brand and become the world leader in robust and trustworthy AI, we need also to win the US market. I expect that the Venture Leaders roadshow will accelerate our expansion into the US market.What is one thing not many people know about you?I had my first professional IT gig when I was 14 years old. A friend of mine took me to his brother-in-laws company to set up a couple of brand new computers and printers in the office. Initially, the company staff was skeptical because of my youthful appearance, but ultimately, I got the work done and was then compensated with an ice cream. They actually took me to my favorite ice cream shop, and I cant say I wasnt thrilled.What is your favorite podcast?Currently, I love Lex Fridmans podcast. Lex is a master at asking simple, direct questions, offering an excellent opportunity to pick into the brains of great minds in business and science. I also enjoy Andrew Hubermans podcast, bringing knowledge about the latest advances in neuroscience, human behavior, and beyond.

What is always in your fridge? Lemons. I always start my day with freshly squeezed lemon in warm water.What are you most proud of? Receiving the John Atanasoff Award from the President of Bulgaria, given once per year to a computer scientist for major research contributions in the domain. I know some of the prior awardees and am proud to have my name next to theirs.How did you come up with the name of your startup?The first startup I co-founded was ChainSecurity, which focused on blockchain security. This time, I wanted a less obvious name that is not directly related to the companys business. My co-founder, Prof. Martin Vechev, came up with LatticeFlow. We always wanted to plug in the term Lattice somewhere, which is the abstract mathematical structure that underpins the theory behind our robust AI platform that initiated all our work on safe, robust, and trustworthy AI.What is your favorite productivity hack?Do what you love with people you admire and are proud to work with. Thats the main hack. Also, work on big problems that matter; this is essential to persevere during difficult times.How and where do you clear your mind to stay productive?I run in the mountains for about 40-50 minutes in the morning. This is the best way to detach from technology, pop up from the daily routine to reflect on what is happening around me, and plan the time ahead. Most of my decisions about what to focus on and prioritize happen while running.What is your greatest professional failure, and what did you learn from it?I forgot about a clients deadlinea security review of a crypto token that was about to launchand received a reminder from the client on Christmas Eve. This happened in the early days of my previous company when I was still reluctant to adopt a calendar to manage my time (I do use a calendar today). My co-founder and I spent Christmas reviewing the code of the crypto token, which ultimately had a successful launch and right now ranks among the most-valued cryptocurrencies on the market with a valuation of nearly USD 500 million.For more information and updates on LatticeFlow and the Venture Leaders Technology 2022, follow#VLeadersTechon social media and onwww.venture-leaders.ch/technology.

The Venture Leaders Technology 2022 program is organized by Venturelab and supported by dpd Switzerland, EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, Kellerhals Carrard, Rothschild & Co, and the Canton of Vaud.

LatticeFlow (https://latticeflow.ai/) is an award-winning deep-tech spin-off and creator of the worlds first platform for robust AI models. The company was founded in 2020 by globally leading AI rese... Read more

See more here:
LatticeFlow: The Venture Leader Technology that enables robust and trustworthy AI - Venturelab

Immunology

Press Release: Sanofi continues on path to industry leadership in Immunology with Dupixent (dupilumab) as key driver – Yahoo Finance

Sanofi - Aventis Groupe

Sanofi continues on path to industry leadership in Immunology with Dupixent (dupilumab) as key driver

Dupixent peak sales ambition raised to more than 13 billion

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 2023 pivotal readouts provide potential for additional Dupixent sales ambition upgrade

13 potential new medicines currently in the clinic to treat chronic inflammatory diseases, with 17 readouts expected by the end of 2024

Paris, March 28, 2022. Tomorrow, Sanofi will host an Immunology Investor Event with key members of the leadership team providing updates on how the company is advancing its Immunology strategy, including the ambition to more than quadruple Immunology franchise sales by the end of the decade. The focus of the event is on Dupixent (dupilumab), a key growth driver, and Sanofis rapidly advancing pipeline, highlighting dermatological, respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases as priority therapeutic areas. Sanofi has raised the Dupixent sales peak ambition to more than 13 billion. This new ambition does not include potential for additional sales ambition upgrade from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with pivotal readouts anticipated in 2023.

For more than a decade Sanofi, in collaboration with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN), has been advancing the science of diseases driven by type 2 inflammation. Dupixent is now a market leader and more than 400,000 patients with certain types of atopic dermatitis (AD), asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis have been treated globally. By 2025, Dupixent is expected to generate an additional 11 new regulatory submissions across indications and age groups.

Bill SiboldExecutive Vice President, Head of Global Specialty Care, SanofiIn the five years since launch, Dupixent has excelled in improving the lives of patients with diseases driven by type 2 inflammation. This truly unique medicine is only at the beginning of its journey to helping potentially millions of patients. Beyond Dupixent, we are committed to delivering the next generation of novel medicines that we hope will change the practice of medicine in chronic inflammatory diseases beyond type 2 inflammation. We are committed to moving with the utmost urgency to bring new medicines to patients that address their individual needs, offering choice and hope.

Story continues

Sanofis novel pipeline is comprised of 13 next-generation medicines designed to target mechanisms beyond type 2 inflammation. Our Research & Development (R&D) teams are following the science to control chronic inflammation and collaborating with leading experts across all sectors to address both urgent and growing patient needs. We are focused on targets with the most potential to alter the course of immune-based diseases, from the mildest to the most severe, using novel technologies that unlock previously inaccessible biology. These drug discovery platforms, for example, synthetic biology, TAILORED COVALENCY chemistry, and multispecific NANOBODY molecules, are allowing Sanofi to pursue both injectable and oral therapeutics. Sanofis attack in immunological diseases also entails precision medicine approaches that aim to remove the guess-work from clinical practice by treating the right patients, with the right medicines, at the right time.

John Reed, M.D., Ph.D.Global Head of Research and Development, SanofiOur long-term strategy goes well beyond Dupixent to deliver best-in-class medicines that break efficacy ceilings and help patients with chronic inflammatory diseases achieve long-term disease modification. We are pursuing this ambition through precision medicine approaches that leverage our proprietary technologies, such as our NANOBODY platform that can help us address multiple therapeutic targets with one medicine. With approximately 21 clinical readouts expected across our promising immunology pipeline by the end of next year, it is an exciting time for our team working in Immunology R&D.

Sanofi will highlight the following assets in its growing R&D pipeline:

Three candidates for AD, complementing Dupixents position in AD driven by type 2 inflammation, spanning all severities of disease as well as topical, oral and injectable administration. These drug development programs include our acceleration of priority asset amlitelimab, an anti-OX40L antibody that aims to restore immune homeostasis between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory T cells.

Two complementary candidates for COPD, developed in collaboration with Regeneron, targeting distinct subpopulations.

A broad Phase 1 clinical program of small molecules and biologics. These candidate medicines include oral small molecules, degraders, synthetic cytokines, and several NANOBODY molecules, designed to simultaneously tackle two proven targets, thus aiming to break efficacy ceilings.

Immunology Investor Event Details

The hybrid Immunology Investor Event will take place on Tuesday, March 29 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. CEST / 8 a.m. to noon EDT (webcast, in-person meeting at Sanofis Cambridge office).

For background slides and webcast information, please refer to the following link. The information will be available beginning Tuesday, March 29 at 1 p.m. CEST / 7 a.m. EDT.https://www.sanofi.com/en/investors/financial-results-and-events/investor-presentations/Immunology-Investor-Event-2022

About Our Inflammatory Pipeline

Through world-class R&D and a laser focus on patients, Sanofi discovers, develops and delivers best-in-class treatments that improve the lives of people living with chronic inflammatory diseases. The Immunology pipeline consists of 7 potential new medicines in Phase 1 clinical development, 5 in Phase 2 clinical development, and 1 in Phase 3 clinical development. These programs include potential treatments across a wide range of inflammatory conditions. Dupilumab is being jointly developed by Sanofi and Regeneron under a global collaboration agreement. In addition to the 3 currently approved indications, Sanofi and Regeneron are studying dupilumab in nearly a dozen other diseases.

About SanofiWe are an innovative global healthcare company, driven by one purpose: we chase the miracles of science to improve peoples lives. Our team, across some 100 countries, is dedicated to transforming the practice of medicine by working to turn the impossible into the possible. We provide potentially life-changing treatment options and life-saving vaccine protection to millions of people globally, while putting sustainability and social responsibility at the center of our ambitions. Sanofi is listed on EURONEXT: SAN and NASDAQ: SNY

Media RelationsSandrine Guendoul | + 33 6 25 09 14 25 | sandrine.guendoul@sanofi.comSally Bain | + 1 617 834 6026 | sally.bain@sanofi.com

Investor RelationsEva Schaefer-Jansen | + 33 7 86 80 56 39 | eva.schaefer-jansen@sanofi.comArnaud Delpine | + 33 6 73 69 36 93 | arnaud.delepine@sanofi.comCorentine Driancourt | + 33 6 40 56 92 21 | corentine.driancourt@sanofi.comFelix Lauscher | + 1 908 612 7239 | felix.lauscher@sanofi.comPriya Nanduri | +1 617 764 6418 | priya.nanduri@sanofi.com Nathalie Pham | + 33 7 85 93 30 17 | nathalie.pham@sanofi.com

Sanofi Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. These statements include projections and estimates regarding the marketing and other potential of the product, or regarding potential future revenues from the product. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words expects, anticipates, believes, intends, estimates, plans and similar expressions. Although Sanofis management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Sanofi, that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include among other things, unexpected regulatory actions or delays, or government regulation generally, that could affect the availability or commercial potential of the product, the fact that product may not be commercially successful, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including future clinical data and analysis of existing clinical data relating to the product, including post marketing, unexpected safety, quality or manufacturing issues, competition in general, risks associated with intellectual property and any related future litigation and the ultimate outcome of such litigation, and volatile economic and market conditions, and the impact that COVID-19 will have on us, our customers, suppliers, vendors, and other business partners, and the financial condition of any one of them, as well as on our employees and on the global economy as a whole. Any material effect of COVID-19 on any of the foregoing could also adversely impact us. This situation is changing rapidly and additional impacts may arise of which we are not currently aware and may exacerbate other previously identified risks. The risks and uncertainties also include the uncertainties discussed or identified in the public filings with the SEC and the AMF made by Sanofi, including those listed under Risk Factors and Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements in Sanofis annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2021. Other than as required by applicable law, Sanofi does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements.

Attachment

See the original post here:
Press Release: Sanofi continues on path to industry leadership in Immunology with Dupixent (dupilumab) as key driver - Yahoo Finance