Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

Repurposed drug helps obese mice lose weight, improve metabolic function – National Institutes of Health

News Release

Thursday, May 14, 2020

Treatment with disulfiram, normally prescribed to treat alcohol use disorder, shows health benefits in animal study.

An off-label experiment in mice using disulfiram, which has been used to treat alcohol use disorder for more than 50 years, consistently normalized body weight and reversed metabolic damage in obese middle-aged mice of both sexes. The international study was led by researchers at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health . The results were published online in the journal Cell Metabolism on May 14.

The scientific team studied groups of 9-month-old lab mice who had been fed a high-fat diet for 12 weeks. As expected, this diet made the mice overweight and they started to show signs of pre-diabetes-like metabolic problems, such as insulin resistance and elevated fasting blood sugar levels. Next, the scientists divided these mice into four groups to be fed four different diets for an additional 12 weeks: a standard diet alone, a high-fat diet alone, a high-fat diet with a low amount of disulfiram, or a high-fat diet with a higher amount of disulfiram. As expected, the mice who stayed on the high-fat diet alone continued to gain weight and show metabolic problems. Mice who switched to standard diet alone gradually saw their body weight, fat composition and blood sugar levels return to normal.

The mice in the remaining two groups, with either a low or high dose of disulfiram added to their still-fatty food, showed a dramatic decrease in their weight and related metabolic damage. Mice on the high disulfiram dose lost as much as 40% of their body weight in just four weeks, effectively normalizing their weight to that of obese mice who were switched back to standard diet. Mice in either disulfiram dose diet group became leaner and showed significant improvement in blood glucose levels on par with the mice who were returned to standard diet. Disulfiram treatment, which has few harmful side effects in humans, also appeared to protect the pancreas and liver from damage caused by pre-diabetic type metabolic changes and fat build up usually caused by eating a high-fat diet.

The NIA scientists, Michel Bernier, Ph.D., and Rafael de Cabo, Ph.D., collaborate frequently with researchers at NIH and beyond on studies into how changes in dietary patterns like intermittent fasting could lead to cognitive and physical health benefits. They first became interested in disulfiram after reading about the benefits this class of drug has shown in treating type 2 diabetes in rats, coupled with the growing interest in repurposing drugs that may also improve healthy aging.

When we first went down this path, we did not know what to expect, but once we started to see data showing dramatic weight loss and leaner body mass in the mice, we turned to each other and couldnt quite believe our eyes, Bernier said.

According to studys research team, the key to the positive results seem to stem from disulfirams anti-inflammatory properties, which helped the mice avoid imbalances in fasting glucose and protected them from the damage of fatty diet and weight gain while improving metabolic efficiency. Both groups of obese mice (control and disulfiram) were not subjected to any form of exercise, nor did they demonstrate noticeable spontaneous behavioral changes. Based on the evidence they observed, the researchers believe the beneficial results of disulfiram stem solely from the drug. They did not observe any negative side effects from disulfiram in the mice.

The research team stresses that these results are based on animal studies, and they cannot be extrapolated to any potential benefits for human at this point. It is recommended that disulfiram not be used off-label for weight management outside of the context of clinical trials. Still, given the findings, they are planning future steps for studying disulfirams potential, including a controlled clinical study to test if it could help individuals with morbid obesity lose weight, as well as deeper investigation into the drugs molecular mechanisms and potential for combining with other therapeutic interventions.

The research was supported by NIA through its intramural research program, NIA grants AG031782 and AG038072, in collaboration with colleagues from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Yale University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, and University of Sydney, Australia.

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.

About the National Institute on Aging (NIA): NIA leads the U.S. federal government effort to conduct and support research on aging and the health and well-being of older people. Learn more about age-related cognitive change and neurodegenerative diseases via NIAs Alzheimer's and related Dementias Education and Referral (ADEAR) Center website. For information about a broad range of aging topics, visit the main NIA website and stay connected.

About the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA): The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, is the primary U.S. agency for conducting and supporting research on the causes, consequences, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of alcohol use disorder. NIAAA also disseminates research findings to general, professional, and academic audiences. Additional alcohol research information and publications are available at https://www.niaaa.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

Bernier et al. Disulfiram prevents and treats diet-induced obesity and related co-morbidities in mice.Cell Metabolism. 2020 May 14. doi:TBD

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Repurposed drug helps obese mice lose weight, improve metabolic function - National Institutes of Health

Human Behavior

Gov. Walz’s stay-at-home order will expire on Sunday. Some restrictions will remain in place. – Sahan Journal

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Minnesota is poised to enter a new stage of the coronavirus pandemic one thats less aggressive in containing the virus.

Gov. Tim Walz is letting his stay-at-home order expire on Sunday night, rather than adding on more time to slow transmission of COVID-19. Beginning Monday, retail businesses will be allowed to reopen with limited capacity and group gatherings of 10 or fewer people, including at places of worship, will be permitted once again.

The governor made the announcement in a broadcast address to the state Wednesday night. After the speech, he conceded to reporters that his moves were something of a gamble on human behavior and on the virus not spreading too aggressively.

This is either going to work or not work, Walz said. People are either going to stay out of the hospital or get in it.

Restrictions on restaurants, bars, theaters, bowling alleys and venues that attract large crowds will remain, however.

Were not flipping a switch and everythings going back to normal at once, Walz said in his address.

The DFL governor wont permit restaurants to legally resume dine-in service for now, keeping them takeout-only. He said hes instructed his agencies to assemble a plan over the next week for a limited and safe reopening of bars, restaurants and other places of public accommodation June 1.

When they do come back, those establishments are likely to face capacity limits. Walz also said he signed an executive order ensuring that people can raise safety concerns about their workplaces without discrimination or retaliation.

Its a similar situation for hair salons and barber shops, gyms and other currently restricted activities that havent been able to serve customers since March. Salons and barbershops are allowed to sell products for curbside pickup but arent allowed to provide services in-shop.

There were a few other noteworthy changes for what would be allowed, assuming people follow the distance and gathering rules:

During his Wednesday evening address, Walz praised Minnesotans for toughing it out the past two months, saying the stay-home order keeping Minnesotans from congregating in crowded public places had helped check the spread of the disease, saved thousands of lives and bought Minnesota time to secure needed health care supplies and prepare for a surge of COVID-19 hospitalizations.

He acknowledged that the move had cost tens of thousands of Minnesotans their jobs as retail, hospitality and other sectors shut down.

Even as he announced the end of the stay-at-home order, he pleaded with Minnesotans to stay smart about being safe. He said he was counting on people to work from home if possible, wear masks out, stay 6 feet from others even when youre in groups of 10 or fewer and get tested if you show symptoms of COVID-19.

We are still in the heart of this pandemic and this can go in a bad direction quickly, he said. The goal, he added, was to keep the spread of the disease to a simmer and not a boil.

This story comes to you from MPR News, a partner with Sahan Journal. We will be sharing stories betweenSahanJournal.comandMPRNews.org.

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Gov. Walz's stay-at-home order will expire on Sunday. Some restrictions will remain in place. - Sahan Journal

Human Behavior

Opinion: Conspiracism is a popular phenomenon; addressing it requires understanding and dialogue rather than censorship – Eastern Echo

The conditions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, including restrictive government policies and a crashing economy, create fertile ground for conspiracy theories. This may be eased by the online nature of socialization and information dissemination.

Ive personally seen way too much mis- and disinformation about the coronavirus on my various social media feeds. Perhaps the most prevalent piece of this is the viral Plandemic video, which had been circulating on Facebook via a Youtube link until the platforms decided to axe the video due to safety concerns.

Much of what was included in the video was an extended interview with Judy Mikovitz, a figure in the anti-vaccination movement who has produced unsubstantiated claims about vaccinations and had a quite rocky career as a researcher and activist. Because a quick Google search can bring up her records and quickly debunk some of the foundational claims in the video, its a bit disheartening that it gained so much popularity.However, while I was on board with them removing the video, I recognize that the videos removal may hurt more than help matters regarding public distrust in elites handling of COVID-19.

Plandemic, or its claim that the pandemic was orchestrated by a malicious government and health department, is one of many conspiracy theories circulating about COVID-19 in this time of uncertainty, but it is not the strongest. The strongest and most circulated theory is about disinfectant, a claim/theory echoed by President Trump himself; this one is so disproportionate that Axios removed it from its data chart in order to show the other theories to scale.

Most experts and sources say that conspiracy theories are appealing because they offer a relatively simplistic and straightforward explanation for things their believers dont - or dont want to - understand. Nuanced explanations are often taxing and, in some cases, boring. This opens the door for people to find explanations with more accessible and convincing appeal, especially if these explanations reinforce their preconceptions.

Conspiracy theories are simply compelling, and a near majority of Americans believe in at least one. An Axios study found that in their nationally representative survey, a majority of respondents claimed to believe in at least one of the 22 conspiracy theories they were prompted with.

J. Eric Oliver and Thomas J. Wood, in an article featured in the American Journal of Political Science titled Conspiracy Theories and the Paranoid Style(s) of Mass Opinion, found that half of Americans consistently believe in at least one conspiracy theory by analyzing data from four nationally representative surveys between 2006 and 2011. They also found that while some researchers find conspiracism to be a feature of right wing politics, political conservatism, authoritarianism, and political ignorance were not major factors in whether someone endorsed a conspiracy theory. Conspiratorial politics, it turns out, is a widespread tendency across the entire ideological spectrum.

Apart from ideology, these researchers found conspiratorial politics to be driven more by human behavior and belief in the religious or occult. Common characteristics of conspiracies are that unusual phenomena are claimed to arise from intentional, malicious forces, and that mainstream accounts of these phenomena are either a hoax or a distraction. Conspiracy theories also involve an attempt to interpret complex phenomena as a sort of battle between good and evil, where the believers group attachments play a sizable role. This is why partisan conspiracies have such strong appeal and support, although partisanship doesnt necessarily drive conspiratorial beliefs itself.

Conspiratorial politics also arent a result of political naivete or ignorance, as those who tended to be more politically knowledgeable were no less susceptible to their appeal. The strongest predictor of whether one is to believe in a conspiracy is previous conspiratorial ideation, which usually hinges on two psychological phenomena.

The first is that unexplained and complex phenomena tend to be boiled down to more simplistic, intentional, and malicious forces.

The second is that narratives of good versus evil are quite popular in American discourse and are especially present in religious and populist rhetoric.

The inclination towards attributing malicious intention to unexplained phenomena and processing political information as forces of good versus forces of evil, then, explains how Americans are so captured by conspiracism.

These conspiracies thrive with the internet as a tool, but there is no indication that the internet drives the conspiracies themselves. Often, it can place a natural ceiling on the belief in certain conspiracies; such is true with the Kennedy assassination conspiracism.

While coronavirus conspiracy theories arent as popular as theories involving the 1 percent and Jeffrey Epsteins supposed suicide, they may not have reached their ceiling. Those that center on intentional, malicious forces, such as Plandemic, the idea that the virus has been exaggerated to hurt President Trumps chances at reelection, and the idea that the virus was created and spread on purpose as a bioweapon, most likely hold water because they offer simplistic explanations of malicious, intentional forces in an intriguing narrative of good versus evil.

These kinds of conspiracy theories involving public health will likely continue, just as those involving vaccinations and 5G technologies have. In some cases, the internet-sanctioned public debates on these conspiracy theories may present a natural ceiling. In others, actors like Facebook and Youtube may be forced to intervene if their administrators believe conspiracies at this scale pose a threat to public health and safety, potentially fueling more conspiracism.

In any case, attributing malice to those who believe in these theories is mostly unhelpful, especially given the susceptibility of the larger American public to conspiracism. While questioning and assessing these narratives is necessary, demonizing those who hold conspiratorial beliefs is mostly unhelpful; theyre searching for answers, too.

The best way to navigate popular conspiracy theories, then, is to approach it from the understanding that these theories are a mostly natural phenomenon and that people arent necessarily wrong to endorse some of them. They may be factually incorrect, but they are not behaviorally out-of-bounds.

Further, popular conspiracy theories should be approached with the knowledge that public debate itself can put a ceiling on conspiracy theories. Facebook and Youtube may have added fuel to the conspiratorial fire by removing the Plandemic video.

Additionally, the COVID-19 crisis is relatively new, and the trajectory of these theories is still unknown. They may fizzle out, or they may find more fertile ground. Approaching them productively, and with this knowledge of human psychology, can be helpful both to media platforms and the government.

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Opinion: Conspiracism is a popular phenomenon; addressing it requires understanding and dialogue rather than censorship - Eastern Echo

Human Behavior

Fire Good. The Surprising Health Benefits of Making a Campfire – Men’s Journal

Anthropologists believe that when our ancestors started cooking food, we unlocked more calories, leading to bigger brains. And from there, the internet. The logic goes that gathering together to make meals led to speaking and planning, which in turn helped us create new tools and build the social pacts that evolved into the modern world.

For most people, fire isnt nearly as important any more. However, its legacy endures. Building and enjoying a fire has hidden benefitsespecially for men, and especially during the trying times of the COVID-19pandemic.

Those groups more successful at keeping the fire going would have had an advantage over groups that didnt, explains Christopher D. Lynn, an anthropologist at the University of Alabama. A strong case can be made that this created a selective evolutionary pressure for people who can chill out by a fire, which puts them in the mood and position to learn from storytelling and to act cooperatively, rather than independently.

To test this theory, Lynn sat 226 adults down in front of a video of a fire, some silent and some with crackling sounds. The ones who saw and heard the flames experienced a 5 percent drop in blood pressure. The longer the test subjects sat in front of the fire, the more relaxed they got, says Lynn.

In other words, sitting around a fire is calming. Its a valuable skill any time, but even more so with a global health crisis turning up the collective temperature on stress and anxiety.

Fires benefits go even further, right to the gathering of the wood. Chopping trees boosts testosterone levels more than competing at sports, according to a study of Tsimane forager-farmers in the Bolivian Amazon by Ben Trumble, a behavior and economic researcher now at Arizona State University. The results shifted sciences understanding of the manliest of hormones.

By focusing so much on the role of testosterone in aggression and competition, we have missed out on the importance of testosterone in a variety of other tasks, Trumble told ABC. In humans, men tend to compete for the attention of women via economic productivity as opposed to fighting other men in the street, so examining changes in testosterone during food production is important.

In a study published in Evolution and Human Behavior, he compared saliva samples of Tsimane men before and after a game of soccer and before and after cutting down trees to clear land for farming and firewood. Testosterone levels increased after both activities, but more so after swinging an axe: a 30 percent increase in testosterone after soccer, compared to 48 percent for chopping.

Larger spikes in testosterone enhance muscle performance, and increase mens ability to chop trees, resulting in more food production, Trumble says.

Trumble just wrote a prescription for the 10 million Americans suffering from low testosterone. Building a blaze has never felt more enticing. Heres how to do it like a pro.

For access to exclusive gear videos, celebrity interviews, and more, subscribe on YouTube!

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Fire Good. The Surprising Health Benefits of Making a Campfire - Men's Journal

Human Behavior

COVID 19 PANDEMIC: Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market to Witness Astonishing Growth by 2026 – Cole of Duty

Global Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market research report provides detail information about Market Introduction, Market Summary, Global market Revenue (Revenue USD), Market Drivers, Market Restraints, Market Opportunities, Competitive Analysis, Regional and Country Level.

Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market Size Covers Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, CAGR, Trends, Forecast And Business Opportunity.

>>Need a PDF of the global market report? Visit: https://industrystatsreport.com/Request/Sample?ResearchPostId=12806&RequestType=Sample

Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market is valued at USD 14.78 Billion in 2018 and expected to reach USD 28.99 Billion by 2025 with the CAGR of 10.1% over the forecast period.

Increasing industrialization with leading to surge in manpower which require for human resource management using the information technology, digital platforms & digitalization are some of the major factors driving the growth of Global Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market.

Human capital management (HCM) is a crucial part of any organization, government entities and other small to large corporations. Due to growing industrialization, the numbers of people in the organization are increasing with a rapid pace. Hence, to handle such a huge number of employees the digitally-controlled softwares are being used that performs various functions of accessing the human behavior, performance and collect the day to day activities in the organization. This software helps and supports human resources in the organization and helps to take the appropriate decisions. In addition to this, the human capital management software makes the task easy and more efficient so that to manage employees management, acquisition, mergers, and optimization of people in the organizations, to develop future leaders, transparent processes, and a digital HR experience in the organizations. Recently, cutting edge technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning technologies, block chain, cloud based software and many others are being used for the daily accessing of human behavior. In 2018, Workday Software Company acquired Stories.bi for the usage of advanced technology by analytics and adaptive insights for cloud-based enterprise performance management, human capital management and business intelligence. Recently, during the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2020, to face the imposed challenges Oracle had offered free access to its workforce health and safety solution to help HR professionals for its current human capital management cloud customers.

Global Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market is segmented on the basis of product type, services, deployment, application, end-user and region & country level. On the basis of product type, the market is classified as core HR, workforce management, sourcing and recruiting, applicant tracking system, staffing vendor management and others. On the basis of services, the market is segmented into integration, support and maintenance, consulting and others. On the basis of the deployments are segmented into on cloud and on premise. On the basis of applications, the market is segmented as analytics, training and recruitment, payroll, HR planning and others. On the basis of end-users, the market is segmented into BFSI, manufacturing, healthcare, energy, retail, logistics and transportation and others.

The regions covered in global human capital management (HCM) software market report are North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. On the basis of country level, global human capital management (HCM) software market sub divided in U.S., Mexico, Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Italy, China, Japan, India, South East Asia, GCC, Africa, etc.

Key Players for Global Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market Report

Global human capital management (HCM) software market reports cover prominent players like SAP SE, IBM, Net Suite, Oracle Corporation, Workday, Inc., Ultimate Software Group, Ceridian, Paycom, Cornerstone OnDemand, Beeline, Azure, Benefit focus, Blackboard, Bullhorn, Businessolver, Campus Management, and others.

Global Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market Dynamics

The key factor driving the growth of global human capital management (HCM) software market is increasing industrialization which leads to surge in manpower which require for human resource management using the information technology, digital platforms & digitalization. According to International Labour Office (ALO) in 2018, the number of employed people were estimated around 3.3billion globally and around 360million people in 2018 were contributing as family workers. Hence, to handle such a huge number of employment, the digital platforms using information technology helps to access the human task, behaviors and management of the these people. According to the CompTIA organization in 2020, the global information technology industry is expected to reach USD 5.2 trillion which directly responsible for the growth of human capital management (HCM) software in this sector. In addition to this, rapidly increasing digitalization with advanced technology is also supplementing the market growth. According to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), digital platforms companies are increasing rapidly in the world economy, the market capitalization of these companies were USD 7 trillion in 2017 which was USD 100 million more than with 67% higher than in 2015. This massive rise in digital technology is also supplementing the growth of global human capital management (HCM) software market.

However, one of the major factors that restrict the human capital management (HCM) software market is increasing incidences of cybercrime for the personal data breaches in the organizations. In spite of that, rising focus on manufacturing of computer devices with technological advancement using artificial intelligence, IoT, augmented reality and virtual reality, machine learning, block chain technology, etc. for emerging industries like BFSI, energies, healthcare, telecom and retail can create huge opportunity to fuel the further market growth.

Global Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market Regional Analysis

North America is expected to dominate the global human capital management (HCM) software market with the potential rate due to surge in information technology services with technological advancement using IoT, cloud based platforms, artificial intelligence and electronic industries in this region followed by Europe. According to the CompTIA organization, the United States is the worlds largest tech market accounted around 32% of the total global technology shares with an estimation of approximately USD 1.7 trillion for 2020 the size of the U.S. market.

Europe is expected to witness a significant growth in the global human capital management (HCM) software due to rising adoption of advanced technology and consumer spending. In addition, rise in the employment rate with increased private investments and stronger private demand along with the government support are also supplementing the demand for human capital management (HCM) software in this region. According to International Labor Office in 2018, total estimated around 10.2 million people in the sub region of Europe were employed, out of which around 56% were women, and other were men available to work.

The Asia Pacific is the largest still the worlds strongest market in the global human capital management (HCM) software due to rapidly increasing of service sector using advanced technology like AI, IoT etc. as well as surge in population. According to a recent study report by ALO in 2018, the number of workers relocating mostly to service sector in this region notably in the market services accounting for about 32%, up from 26% since in 2000. Hence this rapid shifting of workers into service sector will create huge opportunity for the of human capital management (HCM) software market in this region during the forecast period.

Key Benefits for Global Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market Report

Global market report covers in depth historical and forecast analysis.

Global market research report provides detail information about Market Introduction, Market Summary, Global market Revenue (Revenue USD), Market Drivers, Market Restraints, Market opportunities, Competitive Analysis, Regional and Country Level.

Global market report helps to identify opportunities in market place.

Global market report covers extensive analysis of emerging trends and competitive landscape.

By Product Type:

By Services:

By Deployment:

By Applications:

By End-User:

By Regional & Country Analysis:

Need a PDF of the global market report? Visit: https://industrystatsreport.com/Request/Sample?ResearchPostId=12806&RequestType=Methodology

Table of Content:

Market Overview: The report begins with this section where product overview and highlights of product and application segments of the Global Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market are provided. Highlights of the segmentation study include price, revenue, sales, sales growth rate, and market share by product.

Competition by Company: Here, the competition in the Worldwide Global Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market is analyzed, By price, revenue, sales, and market share by company, market rate, competitive situations Landscape, and latest trends, merger, expansion, acquisition, and market shares of top companies.

Company Profiles and Sales Data: As the name suggests, this section gives the sales data of key players of the Global Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market as well as some useful information on their business. It talks about the gross margin, price, revenue, products, and their specifications, type, applications, competitors, manufacturing base, and the main business of key players operating in the Global Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market.

Market Status and Outlook by Region: In this section, the report discusses about gross margin, sales, revenue, production, market share, CAGR, and market size by region. Here, the Global Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market is deeply analyzed on the basis of regions and countries such as North America, Europe, China, India, Japan, and the MEA.

Application or End User: This section of the research study shows how different end-user/application segments contribute to the Global Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market.

Market Forecast: Here, the report offers a complete forecast of the Global Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market by product, application, and region. It also offers global sales and revenue forecast for all years of the forecast period.

Research Findings and Conclusion: This is one of the last sections of the report where the findings of the analysts and the conclusion of the research study are provided.

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We publish market research reports & business insights produced by highly qualified and experienced industry analysts. Our research reports are available in a wide range of industry verticals including aviation, food & beverage, healthcare, ICT, Construction, Chemicals and lot more. Brand Essence Market Research report will be best fit for senior executives, business development managers, marketing managers, consultants, CEOs, CIOs, COOs, and Directors, governments, agencies, organizations and Ph.D. Students.

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COVID 19 PANDEMIC: Human Capital Management (HCM) Software Market to Witness Astonishing Growth by 2026 - Cole of Duty

Human Behavior

Donald Trumps threat to China, doctors deaths in Russia & other global Covid news – ThePrint

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New Delhi: The Covid-19 pandemic continues to devastate several countries across the world the latest count is 45,27,811 cases and over 3,03,438 deaths.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to cut-off his countrys entire relationship with China. The pandemic is now spreading through war-torn Yemen. Doctors are increasingly dying in Russia as the virus spreads further. Meanwhile, the outbreak is also making some Artificial Intelligence (AI) models useless in the e-commerce sector.

ThePrint brings you the most important global stories on the Covid-19 pandemic and why they matter.

As the US-China tensions continue to escalate, President Donald Trump said Thursday that he was no longer on talking terms with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, and Washington could go as far ahead as to end the whole relationship with Beijing, the Straits Times is reporting.

In turn, Chinas state-run Global Times has said, Trump turns up election strategy nonsense with China cut-off threat.

During a morning show on Fox Business, Trump said, I have a very good relationship (with Xi Jinping) but I just right now I dont want to speak to him. He went on to threaten the US relationship with China if the two countries failed to resolve their trade disputes. We could cut off the whole relationship. Now if you did, what would happen? Youd save $500 billion, if you cut off the whole relationship, he said.

Trump did not explain what he meant by the whole relationship, but the $500 billion figure suggests that he might have been referring to trade. He has tweeted in the past that we lose 500 Billion Dollars a year to China on trade, notes the Straits Times report.

There has been a dramatic rise in the number of deaths due to Covid-like symptoms in the southern Yemeni city of Aden, says a BBC report. Citing official figures, Save the Children said there had been at least 380 deaths in the past week, notes the report.

While it seems like the pandemic is finally spreading through war-torn country, Yemen has only reported a few dozen cases until now. Moreover, owing to almost five years of civil war and the war with Gulf Cooperation Council countries, the countrys healthcare system is completely damaged.

Our teams on the ground are seeing how people are being sent away from hospitals, breathing heavily or even collapsing. People are dying because they cant get treatment that would normally save their lives. There are patients who go from hospital to hospital and yet cannot get admitted, Mohammed Alshamaa, Save the Childrens director in Yemen, tells the BBC.

Also read:Drugs, mafia, alcohol Lucknow to London, how underground economy is thriving in pandemic

As the novel coronavirus pandemic spreads through Russia, over 180 doctors have lost their lives to the lethal virus, the New York Times reports.

Russia is hailing its medical workers as heroes, their photographs plastered on billboards and their stories glamorized on state TV. But as the country develops into one of the global epicenters of the disease, those workers are suffering astonishing levels of infection and death in their ranks, notes the report.

A website that memorialises the doctors, nurses, and other health workers who have lost their lives to Covid-19, lists at least 180 doctors. Moreover, according to the countrys health minister at least 400 Russian hospitals have experienced an outbreak.

Over the past few weeks, several drugs such as remdesivir have been undergoing rushed clinical trials to test their potency as anti-Covid drugs.

In an interview to The New Yorker, Peter B. Bach, a physician and epidemiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he runs the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes talks about how effective remdesivir might be and how we should be thinking about standards of evidence in the middle of a public-health catastrophe.

Theres this romantic vision of the genius scientist who has the eureka moment and it all plays out well, but cluttered among all those events are many more missteps where we have an idea and we think it will work and, when we rigorously evaluate it, it doesnt. And thats all O.K, says Bach.

Frustrating as it is in the moment, its the only way we have consistently made progress against human disease and we have made considerable progress, he adds.

The novel coronavirus has now been detected in one of the Rohingya refugee camps in southern Bangladesh, Al Jazeera is reporting.

An ethnic Rohingya refugee and a local person tested positive for Covid-19, a senior Bangladeshi official and a United Nations spokeswoman said on Thursday. It was the first confirmed case in the densely populated camps as humanitarian groups warned the infection could devastate the crowded settlement, notes the report.

Bangladesh has so far reported over 18,000 cases and 280 deaths. The rising fear of Covid-19 spreading through the refugee camps has alarmed the countrys health officials, who feel that it could substantially worsen the crisis faced by the Rohingyas.

Also read:US-shaped void forces Australia to stand up to assertive trade-partner China

The popular Indonesian resort island Bali has managed to duck the pandemic with the help of its local traditions, says a Bloomberg report.

The success in curbing the virus has come with the help of about 1,500 traditional village committees with considerable sway over the majority Hindu residents, according to Governor Wayan Koster. The island with a population of 4.2 million has reported just four virus-related deaths and 337 confirmed cases for a fatality rate of 1.2%, far below the national average of 6.4%, notes the report.

Its also in sharp contrast to the widely-criticized efforts at the national level, which have led to deaths swelling to more than 1,000 and officials now warning the disease may infect almost 100,000 before starting to ease, it adds.

In an unexpected development, several AI models that are responsible for helping various e-commerce platforms with inventory management, fraud detection, marketing, and more are no longer working the way they should because of change in customer behaviour amid the Covid-19 pandemic, notes a report in the MIT Technology Review.

Machine-learning models trained on normal human behavior are now finding that normal has changed, and some are no longer working as they should. Machine-learning models are designed to respond to changes. But most are also fragile; they perform badly when input data differs too much from the data they were trained on, adds the report.

A raging pandemic is not just threatening human life but is also emerging as a major risk for the safety of wildlife in Africa, Al Jazeera reports.

Given that most governments are now focused on only dealing with the pandemic, it is giving a free hand to poachers, criminal syndicates, and illegal wildlife traders, it says.

Also read:People living longer and healthier lives but Covid threatens to disrupt that: WHO report

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Donald Trumps threat to China, doctors deaths in Russia & other global Covid news - ThePrint

Human Behavior

Look to the Private Sector for Positive Change – The Times of Israel

It appears that the private sector will lead us to more evolved human behavior, and this will have a positive impact on the entire world.

One ofMarco Montemagnos first questions forYuval Noah Harariwas aboutglobal solidarity. Whether it will really happen after this moment or if well forget everything once we get out of lockdown? Yuval replied that we could have reacted with more global solidarity bysharing more informationabout the virus, and even more information about lockdown policies, instead of each country experimenting on their own. Same goes for the distribution of medical supplies and the economy.

In my opinion we have a lot to learn from the private sector when it comes to the management of our affairs. Here are some examples from two of Israels most successful startups who manage everything from a global perspective.

I participated in a webinar called Turning a Challenge Into an Opportunityhosted byMonday.comandAppsFlyer, because I wanted to see how marketing teams dealt with the crisis. The first thing they mentioned was that both these companies are hiring for many new positions.

The hosts demonstrated the changes that had been implemented from the moment the crisis hit and the steps they recommended for navigating the near future. It all seemed quite obvious to me as a marketing professional, but then I realized that all this change had been done under very unusual conditions.

Maybe these talented pros had little kids crawling all over them and needing attention while they were making these strategic shifts, not to mention also cleaning, cooking and doing laundry with everyone in the house. Apparently, all that actually brought out some very unique things that you dont normally hear. Because the common vibe I heard throughout the webinar beyond the marketing tips were things like:staying human, doing good at the same time, asking customers how they were feeling, be compassionate, providing value (rather than simply put out content), and come from a place of empathy. I dont think those are standard marketing tactics that you used to hear in the old normal.

So I did a little research, and discovered that these core values and behaviors come from the founders of these companies. InHow to lead in this time of crisismonday.comco-founderEran Zinmantalks about how they immediately decided to pivot to remote work when the crisis hit, and how much effort it took to shift the entire team from their old routine to a new one. And I love the way they talk about this whole process so transparently so that everyone can learn from it.

AppsFlyer CEOOren Kanielalso pivoted their global team of 1000 to immediately begin working on what the major brands they serve would need for the new reality:Surprisingly, the COVID-19 crisis managed to buy us some time. We used it to survey our customers and figure out how we can better support them during this new era. We foundenormous opportunities to add value, and quickly pulled an amazing project together that I am excited to announce today. The first phase includes a set of new features and enhancements that makes the AppsFlyer platform more remote-work-friendly, productive, and effective.

During lockdown they produced6 New Features to Power Through the New Normal,a feat that could have taken years to pull off in the old normal.

Since global companies are used to solving challenges together they are far ahead of governments in the globalization department. They pool all the talents of their global teams to power through to the next stage.

Globalization has been catching on ever since we became aware of it 2030 years ago. But today we have a much clearer idea of where all this is headed.

For example, two things that used to be completely opposite were the economy and society. Throughout history this clash caused crises and revolutions that created pressure throughout the entire human network.

This is all about our inability to find the right balance between the main issue humans and the means, which is money. This has always created a conflict of interest, and still does.

The development processes the world is going through highlights this in the form of one crisis on top of another. And along with every crisis there is another point, a point of birth.

After every crisis that was due to our previous behaviors and value systems, new values are born that are more suited to our desirable development. There is always the gap between the current state and desired situation that helps us improve and acquire more advanced forms of life.

It appears that the private sector will lead us to more evolved human behavior, and this will have a positive impact on the entire world. When a crisis hits, companies dont have the luxury of waiting around for things to get better. A healthy business must react swiftly by doing away with the old, and adjusting to the future reality.

Connecting the human and economic aspects with words such as visionary entrepreneurship, agility, belonging, and loyalty, is really a dream come true. So instead of waiting for the next crisis to come along and adjust our perspective again, lets start making some significant changes. Lets let the right kind of leaders take us into the new era.

Entrepreneurs heading global companies have a much healthier perspective of our ideal future. We should be paying more attention to how business leaders get things done in a more conscious way. And especially how important it is to them, and their employees, to be contributing in a meaningful way to the whole.

Josia Nakash made Aliya from Canada at the age of 12 on a 28-foot Cape Dory sailboat. She loves sharing all the good Israel has to offer the world. Josia has a BA in International Relations and Political Science. She was the IDF's second female sniper instructor and is a top marketing consultant and copywriter.

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Look to the Private Sector for Positive Change - The Times of Israel

Human Behavior

Gen. Jack Keane accuses China of ‘criminal behavior,’ says Xi ‘doesn’t care about loss of life’ from pandemic – Fox News

Fox News senior strategic analyst Gen. Jack Keane joined "The Story" Friday to discuss the escalating tension between the United States and China, telling host Martha MacCallumthe Communist country needs to be held accountable for the coronavirus pandemic.

"Strategically, this administration reset the table when they came in and they saw China not as a country that wasa competitor, which is to be sure, and not as a country that is one that we should cooperate with,and on certain levels we should," Keane said.

"But they saw China as a predator economically, geopolitically and militarily. And the change in policy, and it's playing out before our eyes, is that at times we have to confront China and we have to do it with our allies. And that's a completely different policy from the past and that's all pre-pandemic."

CHINA ISSUES LENGTHY REBUTTAL TO TOP 24 COVID-19 'LIES' TOLD BY THE UNITED STATES

Keane describedChina's actions in the early part of the pandemic as "criminal behavior."

"Post-pandemic, there needs to be a comprehensive strategy in dealing with [what] China has done and holding them accountable, not just for the origin and lack of transparency on [the] origin and human-to-human spread, but actually growing a pandemic from an epidemic by permitting international flights out of the country," Keane said.

The retired general theorized that China allowed the virus to spread because Chinese President Xi Jinping wanted to neutralize the advantage other countries could have gained while China struggled with the outbreak.

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"He doesn't care about loss of life. He cares about the economic contraction thatwas experienced in his country. And he wanted the other countries to go through that same economic contraction as he was going through," Keane said. "And he was hoping that he would recover sooner than they did. That's what this is about. And he's got to be held accountable for that."

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Gen. Jack Keane accuses China of 'criminal behavior,' says Xi 'doesn't care about loss of life' from pandemic - Fox News

Human Behavior

Our problem is our health system and, sometimes, experts too The Manila Times – The Manila Times

ITis a given that in order to increase our capacityfor gettinga picture of the extent of the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), mass testing has to be done.

But we have been hearing scientists, experts and knowledgeable people say that rapid testing kits are not foolproof in that they can give you false results. Even the more sophisticated tests have their limitations. We are also told that each test kit, rapid or otherwise, will cost an arm and a leg. People believe and think that these tests should be free. They are not. Even if people may not be paying for their tests, someone else is paying for them. We all do through our taxes, through our Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth) contributions, the increase for which many do not want to pay.

Mass testing is expensive. In order to do this, the government will have to spend a huge amount of money, and experts say there are no perfect tests. Rapid tests may produce false positives or negatives. On the other hand, the more sophisticated and advanced testing protocols would take a while to get the results and are also not entirely free of limitations. Mass testing, under ideal conditions,will have to be doneona huge sample of our population, preferably a representative sample. And considering that test results are just temporary indications of the state of ones health at the time they are conducted since there is always the risk of being infected right after a test is taken this should be repeated periodically. This would translate to millions of people getting tested every 14 days or even less.

We can just imagine the stress this would exact on our public coffers. This will cost billions. And yet, many people want them for free. And worse, many turn livid at the thought of parting with 3percentof their monthly salary to pay their Philhealth premiums.

This may sound unpopular. But I dont think fighting this virus rests on mass testing alone. I also do not buy the argument that flattening the curve is dependent on mass testing. What mass testing will give us is data. But it is uncomfortable to think that the purpose of spending billions on test kits even on uninfected or less vulnerable people is for our experts to have numbers to graph and analyze.

Experts are scientists, unless they are just pretending. In a not-so-perfect world, science may not have the luxury of complete information,that it finds itself operating on and making sense of empirical data that is generated from ongoing events. This is where social scientists become very useful. After all, human behavior is contextual, inter-textual and inter-subjective.

It has been four months since we had our first Covid-19 andtwo monthssinceenhanced community quarantine was imposed. By this time, almosteveryone is alreadyconscious of the virus, what it does and what we should do. Others may be recalcitrant and obstinate, but there are more people who are cooperative and obedient.

We have limited resources. We cannot advocate for mass testing the way we want it to be done, ideally, but a more systematic and efficient way is a must. But certainly, it is safe to assume that areas with low cases, or with few or even no new cases, is a good scientific indicator of the level of infection in the population. It is empirical evidence. And people who may be walking asymptomatic carriers may already have infected others that turned symptomatic and have been already caught by the system.

We do not need to spend billions on testing uninfected people just to give them, and us,somepeace of mind. What should give us peace of mind is an efficient health bureaucracy and a world-class health system. And that is where our taxes should go. In the face oflimitedresources, it would be wiser to spend those billions in improving our health systems capacity to respond to the present and future pandemics. We have the best health care professionals in the world that we even export them. But their talents require corresponding support by providing them with world-class facilities, equipment and salaries that they deserve.

It is also important to invest in science and to increase supportforresearch and development. However, even a robust investment in science doesnt inoculate us from other problems, some of which ironically are created by scientists and experts themselves.One of the bothersome anomalies emanating from experts during extreme events such as this Covid-19 pandemic is theirtendency to mobilize their biases to inflate the importance of their fields and disciplines, even to the point of spinning science and sensationalizing the truth. This may not be fake news. But it is nevertheless misleading and distorting, which is technically still propaganda. Most are done not by scientists but by science journalists. But others are done with their consent, with some actively involved in propagating biases, or spinning their findings to acquire a sense of novelty, or urgency, or importance. Science is driven by the existence of problems, and nothing can pump up the adrenaline for discovery and invention than the existence of a disruptive episode such as a pandemic. And here lies the temptation to succumb to fame-seeking. In fact, the label expert ends up getting abused. But the problem is not just about pseudo-scientists becoming instant experts by just googling. It is also about real science misrepresenting itself.

In the end, the key is still prevention. Let us all become active agents in fighting this virus.

Let us frequently wash our hands, wear face masks, practice physical distancing, and remain critical of our government and its officials as they preside over making our personal health a matter for their public decisions.

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Our problem is our health system and, sometimes, experts too The Manila Times - The Manila Times

Human Behavior

Repurposed drug helps obese mice lose weight, improve metabolic function – National Institute on Aging

An off-label experiment in mice using disulfiram, which has been used to treat alcohol use disorder for more than 50 years, consistently normalized body weight and reversed metabolic damage in obese middle-aged mice of both sexes. The international study was led by researchers at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health . The results were published online in the journal Cell Metabolism on May 14.

The scientific team studied groups of 9-month-old lab mice who had been fed a high-fat diet for 12 weeks. As expected, this diet made the mice overweight and they started to show signs of pre-diabetes-like metabolic problems, such as insulin resistance and elevated fasting blood sugar levels. Next, the scientists divided these mice into four groups to be fed four different diets for an additional 12 weeks: a standard diet alone, a high-fat diet alone, a high-fat diet with a low amount of disulfiram, or a high-fat diet with a higher amount of disulfiram. As expected, the mice who stayed on the high-fat diet alone continued to gain weight and show metabolic problems. Mice who switched to standard diet alone gradually saw their body weight, fat composition and blood sugar levels return to normal.

The mice in the remaining two groups, with either a low or high dose of disulfiram added to their still-fatty food, showed a dramatic decrease in their weight and related metabolic damage. Mice on the high disulfiram dose lost as much as 40% of their body weight in just four weeks, effectively normalizing their weight to that of obese mice who were switched back to standard diet. Mice in either disulfiram dose diet group became leaner and showed significant improvement in blood glucose levels on par with the mice who were returned to standard diet. Disulfiram treatment, which has few harmful side effects in humans, also appeared to protect the pancreas and liver from damage caused by pre-diabetic type metabolic changes and fat build up usually caused by eating a high-fat diet.

The NIA scientists, Michel Bernier, Ph.D., and Rafael de Cabo, Ph.D., collaborate frequently with researchers at NIH and beyond on studies into how changes in dietary patterns like intermittent fasting could lead to cognitive and physical health benefits. They first became interested in disulfiram after reading about the benefits this class of drug has shown in treating type 2 diabetes in rats, coupled with the growing interest in repurposing drugs that may also improve healthy aging.

When we first went down this path, we did not know what to expect, but once we started to see data showing dramatic weight loss and leaner body mass in the mice, we turned to each other and couldnt quite believe our eyes, Bernier said.

According to studys research team, the key to the positive results seem to stem from disulfirams anti-inflammatory properties, which helped the mice avoid imbalances in fasting glucose and protected them from the damage of fatty diet and weight gain while improving metabolic efficiency. Both groups of obese mice (control and disulfiram) were not subjected to any form of exercise, nor did they demonstrate noticeable spontaneous behavioral changes. Based on the evidence they observed, the researchers believe the beneficial results of disulfiram stem solely from the drug. They did not observe any negative side effects from disulfiram in the mice.

The research team stresses that these results are based on animal studies, and they cannot be extrapolated to any potential benefits for human at this point. It is recommended that disulfiram not be used off-label for weight management outside of the context of clinical trials. Still, given the findings, they are planning future steps for studying disulfirams potential, including a controlled clinical study to test if it could help individuals with morbid obesity lose weight, as well as deeper investigation into the drugs molecular mechanisms and potential for combining with other therapeutic interventions.

The research was supported by NIA through its intramural research program, NIA grants AG031782 and AG038072, in collaboration with colleagues from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Yale University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, and University of Sydney, Australia.

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.

Reference:

Bernier et al. Disulfiram prevents and treats diet-induced obesity and related co-morbidities in mice. Cell Metabolism. 2020 May 14. doi: /10.1016/j.cmet.2020.04.019

About the National Institute on Aging (NIA): NIA leads the U.S. federal government effort to conduct and support research on aging and the health and well-being of older people. Learn more about age-related cognitive change and neurodegenerative diseases via NIAs Alzheimer's and related Dementias Education and Referral (ADEAR) Center website. For information about a broad range of aging topics, visit the main NIA website and stay connected.

About the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA): The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, is the primary U.S. agency for conducting and supporting research on the causes, consequences, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of alcohol use disorder. NIAAA also disseminates research findings to general, professional, and academic audiences. Additional alcohol research information and publications are available at https://www.niaaa.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 https://www.nih.gov/.

NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health

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Repurposed drug helps obese mice lose weight, improve metabolic function - National Institute on Aging