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Human Behavior

The Square Helmer Ruben Ostlund on Filming Triangle of Sadness With Woody Harrelson During Pandemic (EXCLUSIVE) – Variety

Ruben stlund, the Palme dOr-winning director of The Square, did not binge-watch series on a couch during the pandemic. Instead, stlund, who received the 2021 Nordic Honorary Dragon Award on Thursday, told Variety that he had the time of his life shooting Triangle of Sadness, his most ambitious film to date, in exotic locations with a multinational cast, including Woody Harrelson.

The 72-day shoot took place on a deserted Island in Greece and onboard The Christina O, a prestigious yacht whose passengers have included Winston Churchill, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe.

Perks aside, stlund admitted that on a few occasions (he and his producers) werent sure (they) could finish the shooting in the fall.

One key challenge was having the cast travel from multiple locations, but especially the U.S. from where Harrelson flew, in spite of an international travel ban. The staff at the gate wouldnt let Woody board the plane. And then, when he arrived, we were afraid he would be sent back to the U.S. We felt that anything could happen at any moment because of the COVID-19 hysteria, said stlund, who mentioned that the production carried out 1,061 tests throughout filming and all were negative.

It was also a race against the clock to wrap shooting on the yacht before filming restrictions kicked in in Greece.

We had to shoot several days on the yacht just as Greece was going into lockdown, and we knew that if we couldnt finish the shoot on the yacht, we would lose everything, (including) one big scene where we blow everything up! said stlund.

The film boasts a 13 million ($15.6 million) budget and a splashy production value. Its an expensive film. We have a cast with actors of eight different nationalities, we captured the fashion world and were blowing things up in a spectacular way, including the yacht (which has) a fun symbolic value, said the filmmaker.

stlund also noted he had a blast working with Harrelson, whom he described as a fantastic person and 100% socialist from the many political discussions the pair had during filming.

In Triangle of Sadness, Harrelson plays a rabid Marxist who is the captain of a cruise for the super-rich. The yacht sinks, leaving survivors, including a fashion model celebrity couple, marooned on an island.

Hes been famous since he was 20 and now hes 60 hes a superstar but he doesnt act that way. Hes a very social person and we had so much fun shooting this film. I also pushed him like I push any other actor, said stlund, whose banner, Plattform, produced the film with Coproduction Office and Essential Films.

Harrelson stars opposite Harris Dickinson (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil), Charlbi Dean, Vicki Berlin, Dolly De Leon and Zlatko Buric, among others.

stlund, who is known for his sharp sense of observation, isnt done exploring human nature in extreme situations. Hes currently in early development on The Entertainment System is Down, a feature project set on board a long-haul flight and inspired by Aldous Huxleys dystopian novel Brave New World.

In a world controlled by advanced entertainment systems, you have people stuck on a long flight with no screens to look at. Im curious to see if people will start talking to each other or what will happen, he said.

stlund added that the movie would be like an experimental lab looking at human behavior from different perspectives. One aspect hes particularly interested in is the so-called air rages among passengers. Air rages are uncontrollable and considered a danger, so when one happens, the plane has to land. Interestingly enough, air rages are more frequent when economy passengers board through business class, stlund quipped.

The daring helmer said, going forward, he aims to continue making films with his European production partners, whether or not theyre in English.

While we were preparing this tribute for the Gteborg Festival with [its artistic director] Jonas Holmberg, it was fun because I could look back at my body of work, my social approach when looking at human behavior and I want this to remain my main focus, said stlund, whos been offered several projects from Hollywood since winning the Palme dOr for The Square in 2017.

stlund also said he had a special bond with Swedens Goteborg Film Festival, where he made his first steps in the film world back in 1998. Its like a football team youre cheering for, or old relatives. I feel loyalty towards them; they have made cinema something thats alive and interesting, and theyre a big part of why Im doing what Im doing.

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The Square Helmer Ruben Ostlund on Filming Triangle of Sadness With Woody Harrelson During Pandemic (EXCLUSIVE) - Variety

Human Behavior

Ending the Rat Race: How Evolution Can Change Science for the Better – SciTechDaily

Mathematical modeler and statistics. Credit: Image is provided by the Anthro Illustrated project (https://anthroillustrated.com)

Current reforms to end the rat race between scientists can help; but are they enough?

Science is societys best method for understanding the world. Yet many scientists are unhappy with the way it works, and there are growing concerns that there is something broken in current scientific practice.

Many of the rules and procedures that are meant to promote innovative research are little more than historical precedents with little reason to suppose they encourage efficient or reliable discoveries. Worse, they can have perverse side-effects that harm both science and scientists. A well-known example is the general preference for positive over negative results, which creates a publication bias giving the false impression that certain effects exist, where in reality the dissenting evidence simply fails to be released.

Arizona State University researchers Thomas Morgan and Minhua Yan, working with ASU graduate Leonid Tiokhin, now at University of Technology Eindhoven in the Netherlands, have developed a new model, published this week in Nature Human Behaviour, to better understand the challenges facing the scientific process and how we can make it better. They focused on the priority rule: the tendency for the first scientist to document a finding to be disproportionately rewarded with prestige, prizes and career opportunities while those in second place get little to no recognition.

Many scientists have sleepless nights worrying about being scooped fearing that their work wont be considered novel enough for the highest-impact scientific journals because a different group working on the same topic manages to publish first. The priority rule has been around for centuries. In the 17th century, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz haggled over who invented calculus. And in the 19th century, Charles Darwin rushed to publish On the Origin of Species to avoid being scooped by Alfred Russel Wallace.

Rewarding priority is understandable and has some benefits. However, it comes at a cost, Tiokhin said. Rewards for priority may tempt scientists to sacrifice the quality of their research and cut corners.

The idea is that competition encourages scientists to work hard and efficiently, such that discoveries are made quickly, said Morgan, a research affiliate with theInstitute of Human Originsand associate professor with theSchool of Human Evolution and Social Change.But if everyone is working hard, and you need to come in first to be successful, then theres a temptation to cut corners to maximize your chances, even if it means the science suffers.

This is partly why some academic publishers, such as PLOS and eLife, now offer scoop protection, allowing researchers to publish findings identical to those already published within a certain timeframe. The problem is that science and publishers currently dont have a good idea about whether these reforms make sense.

To figure out how exactly the preference for priority affects science, and whether recent reforms offer any solution for its potential drawbacks, the collaborators developed an evolutionary agent-based model. This computer model simulates how a group of scientists investigate or abandon research questions, depending on their own results and the behavior of other scientists they compete against.The benefit of an evolutionary simulation is that we dont need to specify in advance how scientists behave. We just create a world in which success is rewarded, and we let selection figure out what kinds of behavior this favors, Morgan said. We can then vary what it means to successful for instance, whether or not its critical to come first and see how selection changes the behavior of scientists in response. We can also measure the benefit to society are scientists being efficient? Are their findings accurate? And so on.

The researchers found that a culture of excessive rewards for priority can have harmful effects. Among other things, it motivates scientists to conduct quick and dirty studies, so that they can be first to publish. This reduces the quality of their work and harms the reliability of science as a whole.

The model also suggests that scoop protection, as introduced by PLOS and eLife, works.

It reduces the temptation to rush the research and gives researchers more time to collect additional data, Tiokhin said. However, scoop protection is no panacea.

This is because scoop protection motivates some scientists to continue with a research line even after several results on that topic have been published, which reduces the total number of research questions the scientific community can address.

Scoop protection reforms in themselves, while helpful, are not sufficient to guarantee high-quality research or a reliable published literature. The model also shows that even with scoop protection, scientists will be tempted to run many small studies if new studies are cheap and easy to set up and the rewards for negative results are high. This suggests that measures that force scientists to invest more heavily in each study, such as asking scientists to preregister their studies or get their research plans criticized before they begin collecting data, can help.

We also learned that inefficiency in science is not always a bad thing. On the contrary inefficiencies force researchers to think twice before starting a new study, Tiokhin said.

Another option is to make large-scale data collection so straightforward that there is less incentive to skimp on data, alternatively, reviewers and journals could be more vigilant in looking out for underpowered studies with small sample sizes.

This project is an example of metascience, the use of the scientific method to study science itself.

It was a great pleasure to be part of this project. I got to use my modeling skills not only to make specific scientific discoveries, but also to shed light on how the scientific procedure itself should be designed to increase research quality and credibility. This benefits the whole scientific community and ultimately, the whole society, said Yan, a graduate student in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change.

Reference: Competition for priority harms the reliability of science, but reforms can help by Leonid Tiokhin, Minhua Yan and Thomas J. H. Morgan, 28 January 2021, Nature Human Behaviour.DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-01040-1

Written by Julie Russ (ASU) and H.G.P van Appeven (Eindhoven University of Technology).

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Ending the Rat Race: How Evolution Can Change Science for the Better - SciTechDaily

Human Behavior

Family ties and pandemics: Evidence from Covid-19 | VOX, CEPR Policy Portal – voxeu.org

Luca Di Gialleonardo, Mauro Mar, Antonello Motroni, Francesco Porcelli 04 February 2021

We still have imperfect knowledge of the 2020 pandemic from the Sars-CoV-2 virus, its origin, how it is evolving, and when it will come to an end. The history of humankind is full of pandemics, each with profound impacts on the habits of people, the evolution of health treatments, and the economy (Baldwin and Weder di Mauro eds. 2020a and 2020b). There are still some uncertainties about the implementation of containment measures and the intensity of lockdown needed (Flaxman et al. 2020, Barro 2020, Barro et al. 2020, Asvae et al. 2020, Scala et al. 2020, Hsiang et al. 2020, Aksoy et al. 2020, Van Bavel et al. 2020, Bartscher et al. 2020a, 2020b, Barrios et al. 2020, Bayer and Kuhn 2020, Borgonovi and Andrieu 2020). In the absence of a vaccine, self-isolation and social distancing, along with mask-wearing and cleaning hands, are the only protection tools against the virus (Greenstone and Nigam 2020, Scott and Old 2020, Hsiang et al. 2020, Aksoy et al. 2020, Flaxman et al. 2020). Such actions, however, generate a painful disruption to economic activities. That disruption, in turn, feeds deniers, populism, and social discontent.

We do not have yet the epidemiological proof to affirm specific cause-and-effect links. It is now clear, however, that close relationships between people in transport (trains, buses, and airplanes), schools, workplaces, and mass events significantly increase the probability of contracting the virus. When the medium is the air, to stop a possible exponential growth1one must avoid staying close to potentially infected people; subsequently, the identification of contagion chains and the isolation of spreaders are essential aspects to slowing the spread. However, it was underappreciated at least at the beginning of the pandemic that social capital, family ties, and personal behaviour are also crucial factors in the spread of the virus.2

In our recent study (di Gialleonardo et al. 2020), we provide an empirical analysis of the relationship between the spread of Covid-19 and the strength of family ties. The dataset combines different sources for a cross-section of 63 countries3taking into account seven dimensions: diffusion of the virus, the power of family ties, social capital in terms of trust and religion, the policy instruments implemented to stop the outbreak, the status of the economy, geography, and demography.4 Figure 1 and Figure 2 report the main variables of the study related, respectively, to the spread of Covid-19 and the strength of family ties.

Figure 1 Covid-19 outbreak data registered from 22 January to 12 September for the 63 countries included in the analysis

Source: Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) of the Johns Hopkins University.

Figure 2 Family-ties variables for the 63 countries included in the analysis

Source: authors elaboration using data from World Values Survey.

As suggested in Mar-Motroni-Porcelli (2020), we measure the strength of family ties considering the principal component of three World Values Survey (WVS) variables: the importance of the family, the childrens respect for parents (love-parents), and the generosity of parents towards children (help-child).5

Final results confirm a robust positive relationship between the strength of family ties and the contagion rate across the world. Our estimates show that one standard deviation increase in the principal component of the strength of family ties generates a 0.454 increase in the standard deviation of the number of daily cases per capita.6As visualised in Figure 3, the main force driving the positive correlation is the generosity of parents towards their children (variable help-child).

Figure 3 Correlation between family ties and Covid-19 cases from 22 January to 12 September

Source: authors elaboration using data from World Values Survey and Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) of the Johns Hopkins University.

In line with the existing literature, our paper also shows interesting evidence stemming from social capital variables - trust in other people and religiosity are negatively correlated with the number of cases, while trust in the church shows a positive correlation (Borgonovi and Andrieu 2020, Durante et al. 2020, Bartscher et al. 2020a and 2020b, Barrios et al. 2020, Bayer and Kuhn 2020). Our study also shows that the mortality rate (number of deaths over the number of registered cases) appears to be independent of social behaviours, including family ties. Mortality is positively correlated with other structural variables, such as income, the number of hospital beds, life expectancy, and the average age of the population. More advanced countries have richer and more efficient healthcare systems and healthier lifestyles, which are key factors for virus tracing and treatment strategies. Finally, geographical position and latitude also appear relevant.

A pact between generations is therefore essential. Young people must be "prudent at school, respecting the rules, and keeping the measures at home".7Some clinical evidence in Italy shows that family lunch on Sundays is more dangerous than going to the supermarket. There is no doubt that, until the vaccine is distributed, pharmacological therapies will not be sufficient to contract the spread of Covid-19 if not complemented with the social measures that proved effective during past pandemic events. As far as possible, contacts between the elderly and grandchildren must be limited; we have to protect the former with socially bearable distancing measures such as wearing masks, hand washing, and maintaining appropriate safety distances. It is yet another confirmation that family ties, social capital, and trust are essential not only for economic and social issues, but also for key policies in health care and management of a pandemic. The final question is: Will the pandemic change our social habits in the long run, including the strength of family ties

Aksoy, C G, M Ganslmeier and P Poutvaara (2020), Public Attention and Policy Responses to Covid-19 Pandemic, Cesifo Working Paper, no. 8409.

Asvae, A, G Alfani, F Gandolfi and M Le Moglie (2020), Epidemics and Trust: The Case of the Spanish Flu, IGIER Working Paper Series, March.

Baldwin, R (2000), Covid-19 testing for testing times: Fostering economic recovery and preparing for the second wave, VoxEU.org, 26 March.

Baldwin, R and B Weder di Mauro (2020a), Economics in the Time of COVID-19, VoxEU.org, 6 March.

Baldwin, R and B Weder di Mauro (2020b), Mitigating the COVID economic crisis: Act fast and do whatever it takes, VoxEU.org, 18 March.

Barrios J, E Benmelech, Y Hochberg, P Sapienza and L Zingales (2020), Civic Capital and Social Distancing during the Covid-19 Pandemic, Working paper, University of Chicago, 28 May.

Barro, R J (2020), Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions and Mortality in U.S. Cities during the Great Influenza Pandemic, 1918-1919, NBER Working Papers, No. 27049.

Barro, R J, F Ursa and J Weng (2020), The coronavirus and the great influenza pandemic: Lessons from the Spanish flu for the coronaviruss potential effects on mortality and economic activity, NBER Working Papers, No. 26866.

Bartscher, A, S Seitz, S Siegloch, M Slotwinski and N Wehrhfer (2020a), Social Capital and the spread of Covid-19: Insights from European Countries, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 14711.

Bartscher, A, S Seitz, S Siegloch, M Slotwinski and N Wehrhfer (2020b), The role of social capital in the spread of Covid-19, VoxEU.org, 18 June.

Bayer, C and M Kuhn (2020), Intergenerational ties and case fatality rates: A cross-country analysis, VoxEU.org, 20 March.

Borgonovi, F and E Andrieu (2020), The role of social capital in promoting social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic in the US, VoxEU.org, 10 June.

Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) (2020), COVID 19 Dashboard, John Hopkins University.

Di Gialleonardo, L, M Mar, A Motroni and F Porcelli (2020), Family Ties and the Pandemic, Some Evidences from Sars-CoV-2, Covid Economics 60, 4 December.

Durante, R, L Guiso and G Gulino (2020), Civic capital and social distancing: Evidence from Italians response to Covid-19, VoxEU.org, 16 April.

Flaxman, S, S Mishra, A Gandy et al. (2020), Estimating the effects of non- pharmaceutical interventions on COVID-19 in Europe, Nature584, 257261.

Greenstone, M and V Nigam (2020), Does Social Distancing Matter?, Working Paper Becker Friedman Institute, n. 26, 25 March.

Hsiang S, D Allen, S Annan-Phan et al. (2020), The effect of large-scale anti-contagion policies on the COVID-19 pandemic, Nature584.

Mar, M, A Motroni, F Porcelli (2020), How family ties affect trust, tax morale and underground economy, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization174, 235252.

Scala A, A Flori, A Spelta, E Brugnoli, M Cinelli, W Quattrociocchi and F Pammolli (2020), Time, space and social interactions: exit mechanisms for the Covid-19 epidemics, Sci Rep 10, 13764.

Scott, A and J D Old (2020), The interaction between Covid-19 and an ageing society, VoxEU.org, 27 April.

Van Bavel,B, PBoggio, V Capraro et al. (2020), Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response, Nature Human Behavior4, May.

1A recent analysis by Baldwin (2020) shows that the epidemiological curve not necessarily follow the path of an exponential curve, but rather tends to rise rapidly, peaks, and then flattens.

2Van Bavel et al. (2020) highlights that the perception of threat plays a very important role. Like other animals, human beings can perceive emotions and the feeling of threat that can be very effective in the virus containment, since it motivates people to adopt good practices and changes unhealthy behaviours.

3This is the maximum number of countries for which we have been able to measure the strength of family ties in a consistent way by using World Values Survey data.

4Information on COVID-19 outbreak are taken from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSS 2020) of the Johns Hopkins University. Data include, for 187 countries, the number of confirmed cases, the number of deaths, and the number of recovered, from 22 January to 12 September, the day we closed the estimation.

5 In the empirical analysis, the overall measure of family ties is computed using the principal component of the three variables: "importance of family", "love-parents", and "help-child".

6This result, robust to different specifications of our model, is obtained through the OLS estimator (robust for heteroscedasticity) applied to a linear regression model in which we control for the following variables: Religiosity, trust church, trust people, rule of law index, COVID measures stringency index, GDP per capita in Purchasing Power Parity, human development index, health spending in % of GDP, number of beds per 1,000 inhabitants, latitude, northern hemisphere dummy, median age in years, life expectancy, diabetes prevalence, and cardiovascular death rate. Information on the composition of the population, status of the economy, the policy response to the pandemic, and other general structural characteristics of each country (including data on health care systems), are taken from "GlobalEconomy.com" and "Ourworldindata.org". These two web repositories combine official statistics and research data sources on almost all countries. Finally, information on trust, attitude toward religion, and composition of the family (especially to monitor the ratio of older people living within a family) have been collected from the latest World Values Survey edition available at the time.

7 The French Health Prefecture has recently reiterated that "a significant number of outbreaks originate in the family or friends", and for this reason, private meetings should be limited to fewer than six or ten people. In Spain, the limit was set to six, as in the UK and Italy. Giuseppe Ippolito, the scientific director of Italian "Istituto Lazzaro Spallanzani", a major Covid centre in Italy, stated that the resurgence of infections could be attributed to "a transmission model that involves family contacts between different age groups".

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Family ties and pandemics: Evidence from Covid-19 | VOX, CEPR Policy Portal - voxeu.org

Human Behavior

Specially designed rig will act as crash pad for truckers while construction closes runaway ramps – CDLLife

Truckers who lose control at the bottom of a freeway in Australia are expected to crash into the back of a specially designed truck for the duration of construction, officials say.

The South Eastern Freeway will be under construction for resurfacing beginning this upcoming Sunday, which will close the runaway truck ramps. Because of this, the Transport Department has set up a special truck outfitted with a shock absorber system as a replacement for the ramps.

It is basically a rigid truck with a massive rear fender with a huge shock absorber system built into it, said The head of the South Australian Road Transport Association, Steve Shearer.

Apparently it can withstand the impact of a fully loaded semi-trailer going at 100kmph, it will stop that truck.

While the device is structurally sound, officials say the trickiest part of this transition will be getting truck drivers to actually use the device, since they spend so much of their lives trying not to smash into another truck.

Its a very innovative, but mentally challenging approach, Shearer said to ABC News Australia.

Its been used elsewhere in the country and on some roadworks with lower speed events to protect the road workers, but the point weve made is its counter-intuitive for a truck driver. The human behavior problem is getting truck drivers to understand what theyre seeing in front of them.

Would you be able to intentionally crash into this truck if your brakes failed?

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Specially designed rig will act as crash pad for truckers while construction closes runaway ramps - CDLLife

Biochemistry

Biochemistry, Doppler echocardiography, and electrocardiography evaluation in captive owl monkeys (Aotus sp). – Physician’s Weekly

The cardiovascular system of owl monkeys has been studied due to frequent postmortem findings of heart disease in asymptomatic animals. The silent aspect and the difficulty of early diagnosis intensify the importance of studying the cardiovascular system in this species.Echocardiogram evaluation was carried out on 60 animals, grouped into suspect or non-suspect of having heart diseases, and evaluated through electrocardiogram, hematology, and biochemical tests.Doppler echocardiography indicated two animals with suspicion of left ventricular hypertrophy and eight with dilated cardiomyopathy. Suspect animals had higher cardiac measurements and reduced shortening fraction. Troponin I was detectable in two animals (0.128ng/mL and 0.584ng/mL), and serum albumin concentration was significantly higher in non-suspect animals (P<.05).The importance of echocardiographic measurements of IVSd, IVSs, LVIDd, LVIDs, LVPWd, LVPWs, LA, EF, and FS in the cardiac evaluation of captive owl monkeys was evidenced.

PubMed

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Biochemistry, Doppler echocardiography, and electrocardiography evaluation in captive owl monkeys (Aotus sp). - Physician's Weekly

Biochemistry

Student Scientist Searches for Therapeutics to Treat West Nile Virus | CSUF News – CSUF News

Biochemistry major Shaina Nguyen works in the lab on her West Nile virus research project.

With no treatment or cure for West Nile virus spread through the bite of an infected mosquito Cal State Fullerton undergraduate researcher Shaina Nguyen is working on creating new therapeutics to treat people infected with the disease.

Hopefully, our research could provide possible drug therapeutics to stop West Nile virus, Nguyen said.

Since her freshman year, Nguyen, a biochemistry major who is graduating in May, has worked in the lab of Nicholas T. Salzameda, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry. The researchers are seeking treatments since there is no vaccine or medications available for the mosquito-borne disease.

In the ongoing study, the faculty-student research team is studying a viral protein for the West Nile virus, known as the NS2B-NS3 protease, which is responsible for producing viral particles for replication and is a promising therapeutic target in stopping infection, Nguyen said.

The lab also is experimenting with Zafirlukast, a currently available anti-asthmatic drug.

Given the structure of Zafirlukast, we want to make modifications to this drug to see if it could further improve the inhibition against the West Nile virus NS2B-NS3 protease, she said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during mosquito season, which starts in the summer and continues through fall, about 1 in 5 people who are infected with West Nile virus develop a fever and other symptoms. About 1 out of 150 infected people get a severe condition, including neurological symptoms, such as meningitis and encephalitis, or sometimes, fatal illnesses.

Glenn Nagel Undergraduate Student Research Award

For her outstanding research and presentation, Nguyen received the Glenn Nagel Undergraduate Student Research Award at the recent 33rd annual California State University Biotechnology Symposium. The award is named in honor of Nagel, a former biochemistry professor at Cal State Fullerton who became a dean at Cal State Long Beach. The Nagel Award fosters excellence in undergraduate student research.

The virtual symposium, presented by the California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology, featured 36 student nominees and finalists from 13 campuses who competed for systemwide undergraduate and graduate research awards.

Its humbling to receive this award. Dr. Salzameda has pushed me and guided me to realize my dreams for graduate school, said Nguyen, an award-winning scholar who has presented her research at regional and national conferences.

Nguyen is a scholar in the universitys Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) program, which prepares students for graduate school and careers in biomedical research, a Presidents Scholar and University Honors Program student.

Her research adviser relayed that Nguyen, who plans to pursue an M.D.-Ph.D. program to become a physician-scientist in a clinical setting, is a top student scholar.

Shaina has always found ways to amaze me, whether earning As in all her courses or making a new molecule that others could not make, Salzameda said. The M.D.-Ph.D. programs are reserved for the very best students. Shaina will succeed and put her talents to improving the health care of people through biomedical research.

Nguyens parents, who were teenagers, and grandparents fled Vietnam in the late 1970s. Her close family ties reinforce the importance of holding on to her Vietnamese culture and her academic pursuits and career goals.

She has maintained a 4.0 GPA, despite the personal loss of both her grandmothers while in college. Nguyen pressed on by spending long hours in the lab several days a week to work on her research project, earning good grades and staying on track to graduate in four years.

My grandmothers wouldnt have wanted me to stop, Nguyen said. This research project has required a lot of hard work, with bumps along the way, but it has paid off.

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Student Scientist Searches for Therapeutics to Treat West Nile Virus | CSUF News - CSUF News

Biochemistry

Bio-Based Itaconic Acid Market 2021 | Key Findings, Trends, Market Share, and Growth Forecast | Thermo Fisher Scientific., Itaconix Corporation,…

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Bio-Based Itaconic Acid Market 2021 | Key Findings, Trends, Market Share, and Growth Forecast | Thermo Fisher Scientific., Itaconix Corporation,...

Biochemistry

Fully Auto Biochemistry Analyzer Market 2021-2027 Global Industry to Revenue Growth in the Coming Years NeighborWebSJ – NeighborWebSJ

Global Fully Auto Biochemistry Analyzer Market 2021-27 Abbott, Hitachi, Mindray Medical, Thermo Scientific

The research report on the Fully Auto Biochemistry Analyzer Market 2021-27 2021 is a highly professional, comprehensive and detailed assessment of the respective market that offers significant information for those who are seeking information about the global Fully Auto Biochemistry Analyzer industry. The Fully Auto Biochemistry Analyzer market report provides an in-depth specification, essential strategies, cost structure and upcoming prospects of the world Fully Auto Biochemistry Analyzer market. It also highlights the futuristic trends in the Fully Auto Biochemistry Analyzer market that will impact the marketing demand during the predicted timeframe from 2021-2027.

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Key companies covered in this report are:

RocheDanaherSiemens HealthcareAbbottHitachiMindray MedicalThermo ScientificKHBAbaxisHoriba MedicalELITechGaomi CaihongSunostikSenloSysmexUritTecom ScienceRandox LaboratoriesDiruiAdaltisRayto

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Floor-standingBench-top

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HospitalResearchOthers

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Fully Auto Biochemistry Analyzer Market 2021-2027 Global Industry to Revenue Growth in the Coming Years NeighborWebSJ - NeighborWebSJ

Biochemistry

Immunomic Therapeutics’ CEO to present at the BIO CEO & Investor Digital Conference – Business Wire

ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI), a privately held, Maryland-based biotechnology company, announced today that the company will present at the BIO CEO & Investor Digital Conference, February 16-18, 2021. Chief Executive Officer at ITI, Dr. Bill Hearl, will present a talk titled, ITI-1000-A Novel Immunotherapy for GBM. Dr. Hearl will discuss ITIs investigational UNiversal Intracellular Targeted Expression (UNITE) platform and its application in immuno-oncology, specifically glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). ITIs technology platform has the potential to utilize the bodys natural biochemistry to develop a broad immune response and is currently being employed in a Phase II clinical trial as a cancer immunotherapy.

Presentation details are as follows:

Who: William Hearl, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Immunomic Therapeutics

What: ITI-1000--A Novel Immunotherapy for GBM

Where: Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. - BIO CEO & Investor Digital Conference | BIO

About UNITE

ITIs investigational UNITE platform, or UNiversal Intracellular Targeted Expression, works by fusing target antigens with the Lysosomal Associated Membrane Protein, an endogenous protein in humans, for immune processing. In this way, ITIs vaccines (DNA or RNA) have the potential to utilize the bodys natural biochemistry to develop a broad immune response including antibody production, cytokine release and critical immunological memory. This approach could put UNITE technology at the crossroads of immunotherapies in a number of illnesses, including cancer, allergy and infectious diseases. UNITE is currently being employed in Phase II clinical trials as a cancer immunotherapy. ITI is also collaborating with academic centers and biotechnology companies to study the use of UNITE in cancer types of high mortality, including cases where there are limited treatment options like glioblastoma and acute myeloid leukemia. ITI believes that these early clinical studies may provide a proof of concept for UNITE therapy in cancer, and if successful, set the stage for future studies, including combinations in these tumor types and others. Preclinical data is currently being developed to explore whether LAMP nucleic acid constructs may amplify and activate the immune response in highly immunogenic tumor types and be used to create immune responses to tumor types that otherwise do not provoke an immune response.

About Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc.

Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI) is a privately-held, clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of vaccines through its investigational proprietary technology platform, UNiversal Intracellular Targeted Expression (UNITE), which is designed to utilize the bodys natural biochemistry to develop vaccines that have the potential to generate broad immune responses. The UNITE platform has a robust history of applications in various therapeutic areas, including infectious diseases, oncology, allergy and autoimmune diseases. ITI is primarily focused on applying the UNITE platform to oncology, where it could potentially have broad applications, including targeting viral antigens, cancer antigens, neoantigens and producing antigen-derived antibodies as biologics. In early 2020, an investment of over $78M by HLB Co., LTD, a global pharmaceutical company, enabled ITI to accelerate application of its immuno-oncology platform, in particular to glioblastoma multiforme, and rapidly advance other key candidates in the pipeline, including the most recent initiative into infectious diseases with development of its vaccine candidate for COVID-19. The Company has built a large pipeline from UNITE with four oncology programs, multiple animal health programs and a SARS-CoV-2 program to prevent and treat COVID-19. ITI has entered into a significant allergy partnership with Astellas Pharma and has formed several academic collaborations with leading Immuno-oncology researchers at Duke University and the University of Florida. ITI maintains its headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. For more information, please visit http://www.immunomix.com.

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Immunomic Therapeutics' CEO to present at the BIO CEO & Investor Digital Conference - Business Wire

Biochemistry

Should people who have had Covid-19 be at the back of the vaccine queue? – The Week (UK)

Matt Webster, principal lecturer in biochemistry at Anglia Ruskin University, onwhether natural antibodies reduce the need for a quick jab

A recent report from Public Health England showed that 83% of people who had had Covidwere protected from reinfection five months later. Given that 3.7 million people in the UK have had Covid, should those with antibodies be at the back of the vaccine queue?

With the current high death rate, rising case numbers, closed schools and a seemingly interminable lockdown, it is natural to look for ways to speed up the vaccination rollout. Surely those who have already had Covid and recovered can be deprioritised so that people shielding at home can receive the vaccine sooner?

Certainly, the government is not afraid of hacking the process to increase short-term vaccine coverage. The recent example of lengthening the wait for a second dose proves that. But how feasible and effective would it be to not vaccinate people who have had the virus?

First, how sure are we that those people recovered remain protected five months later? While there is no doubt that the antibodies that helped you recover from Covid will last for some time after your illness, hopefully reducing the chance of reinfection, this study was on recovered healthcare professionals, looking at whether they went on to catch Covid again.

Despite the rising case number, a lot improved in those five months, particularly in the availability of protective equipment for healthcare workers and the isolation of Covid patients in hospital. This complicates checking healthcare workers antibody-derived protection rates and the calculation for how long you may remain protected.

But cant we just check the antibodies at the test centres, sending those home that dont need their immune system trained in Covid-focused jiu-jitsu? We can definitely test for antibodies. The test has been available with a few stop-starts for some time, but critically it relies on a blood test.

Englands test-and-trace programme, which has struggled to process swab tests on the scale needed to match case numbers, would surely collapse at the request to process antibody tests for the entire UK population. Shipping, extraction, processing, testing...all while poor Mrs Jones sits in a school hall with a nurse poised with a vaccine jab waiting for the green light.

How about using the test-and-trace data to sort those that need the jab from those that dont?

While I will overlook that use of dont (antibodies are not everlasting, even if you have had Covid) the real question here is how much do you trust the accuracy of test and trace, and of peoples ability to self-declare accurately? At the start of the pandemic everyone I spoke with had had that Covid despite being untested and unable to identify any exposure other than I went on a train.

This improved with mass swab-testing, but accuracy, particularly false positives, would be an issue if used to exclude vulnerable people from the vaccine queue.

Like many things related to this pandemic, a good idea is complicated by the detail.

Vaccine deployment could be targeted more precisely if we knew how long each of us retained antibodies and had an instant test capable of estimating how much and for how long we would be protected. Given that we have neither - and the NHS is under immense pressure already -the approach of vaccinating in demographic groups currently appears to be our only option.

Matt Webster, principal lecturer in biochemistry atAnglia Ruskin University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Should people who have had Covid-19 be at the back of the vaccine queue? - The Week (UK)