Embryology

Letter: A conservative court is God’s will | INFORUM – INFORUM

With the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, both political parties know that a conservative replacement would be enough to overwhelm the liberal alliance of the court and potentially overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in 1973. There is no doubt this issue is unique as many Americans consider abortion a moral priority. Why is this appointment so crucial? A conservative court could very well decide that the abortion precedents used in Roe and, as Justice Clarence Thomas argues, are grievously wrong. How could the Roe decision be unconstitutional?

History shows that the court is not perfect or infallible. Some of its decisions have been reversed or repealed. Prior to Roe v. Wade, Thomas said that the court conceived a free-floating right to privacy found in the penumbras of five different Amendments to the Constitution the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth. He said this reasoning is as mystifying as it is baseless. In Roe v. Wade, Thomas said, the court utilized its newfound power to strike down a Texas law restricting abortion as a violation of a womans constitutional right to privacy. He said the court then concluded from previously established constitutional penumbras and without any legal explanation, that the right to privacy was broad enough to encompass a womans [abortion] decision. Thomas says that Roe is grievously wrong for many reasons, but that its core holding does not support a womans right to abort her unborn child.

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The Roe decision also directly conflicts with the 14th Amendment which declares that governments cannot deprive any person of "life, liberty or property" without due process of law. In this regard, the U.S. Constitution guarantees the protection of life. Shouldnt the protection of life take precedence over an unwritten right to privacy? Democrats know this is a conflict of rights and that Roe could very well be overturned.

Christians are told to keep religion out of politics. The Roe decision directly clashes with this principle. The decision also ignores science. The science of embryology proves that the genetic composition of human beings is established at the time of fertilization. Molecular biology verifies that this genetic material, also known as DNA, is the the very basis of life itself. The scientific consensus is that human life begins at conception. Its also the scientific consensus the left conveniently chooses to ignore.

The Supreme Court was established to determine whether our laws are in harmony with the Constitution. The court was not meant to be politicized by judges who rule based on personal policy opinions. Its foremost allegiance is to the American people, not the preferences and desires of activist judges or an ever-changing secular popular culture.

Abortion is the greatest crisis that has ever threatened the future of the United States. Just look at all the misery legalized abortion has caused in our country since 1973. The fact is, when abortion was legalized, government not only created a constitutional crisis, it instigated a national tragedy that has led to the death of over 60 million babies. This issue is unique in that we can actually change an unrighteous precedent which is also the No. 1 cause of death in America. I believe a conservative court is God giving our country that chance to correct a grievous wrong and protect the most vulnerable in our society, our children. If we do, God will surely bless the USA.

This letter does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Forum's editorial board nor Forum ownership.

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Letter: A conservative court is God's will | INFORUM - INFORUM

Embryology

Early ovarian ageing: is a low number of oocytes harvested in young women associated with an earlier and increased risk of age-related diseases? -…

Do young women with early ovarian ageing (EOA), defined as unexplained, and repeatedly few oocytes harvested in ART have an increased risk of age-related events?At follow-up, women with idiopathic EOA had an increased risk of age-related events compared to women with normal ovarian ageing (NOA).Early and premature menopause is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), osteoporosis and death. In young women, repeated harvest of few oocytes in well-stimulated ART cycles is a likely predictor of advanced menopausal age and may thus serve as an early marker of accelerated general ageing.A register-based national, historical cohort study. Young women (37 years) having their first ART treatment in a public or private fertility clinic during the period 1995-2014 were divided into two groups depending on ovarian reserve status: EOA (n=1222) and NOA (n=16385). Several national registers were applied to assess morbidity and mortality.EOA was defined as 5 oocytes harvested in a minimum of two FSH-stimulated cycles and NOA as 8 oocytes in at least one cycle. Cases with known causes influencing the ovarian reserve (endometriosis, ovarian surgery, polycystic ovary syndrome, chemotherapy etc.) were excluded. To investigate for early signs of ageing, primary outcome was an overall risk of ageing-related events, defined as a diagnosis of either CVD, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, cancer, cataract, Alzheimers or Parkinsons disease, by death of any-cause as well as a Charlson comorbidity index score of 1 or by registration of early retirement benefit. Cox regression models were used to assess the risk of these events. Exposure status was defined 1 year after the first ART cycle to assure reliable classification, and time-to-event was measured from that time point.Median follow-up time from baseline to first event was 4.9 years (10/90 percentile 0.7/11.8) and 6.4 years (1.1/13.3) in the EOA and NOA group, respectively. Women with EOA had an increased risk of ageing-related events when compared to women with a normal oocyte yield (adjusted hazard ratio 1.24, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.43). Stratifying on categories, the EOA group had a significantly increased risk for CVD (1.44, 1.19 to 1.75) and osteoporosis (2.45, 1.59 to 3.90). Charlson comorbidity index (1.15, 0.93 to 1.41) and early retirement benefit (1.21, 0.80 to 1.83) was also increased, although not reaching statistical significance.Cycles never reaching oocyte aspiration were left out of account in the inclusion process and we may therefore have missed women with the most severe forms of EOA. We had no information on the total doses of gonadotrophin administered in each cycle.These findings indicate that oocyte yield may serve as marker of later accelerated ageing when, unexpectedly, repeatedly few oocytes are harvested in young women. Counselling on life-style factors as a prophylactic effort against cardiovascular and other age-related diseases may be essential for this group of women.No external funding was received for this study. All authors declare no conflict of interest.N/A. The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

PubMed

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Embryology

Known Unknowns: The Pros, Cons and Consequences of Known Donation – BioNews

21 September 2020

Donor conception was the focus of the event 'Known Unknowns: The Pros, Cons and Consequences of Known Donation', held online by the Progress Educational Trust (PET), the charity that publishes BioNews, in partnership with the University of Manchester.

Sarah Norcross, director of PET, beganby explaining how the introduction of releasing a sperm, egg or embryo donor's identity to the donor-conceived child when they reach 18 (so-called identity release donation), thewide availability of genetic tests, and therise in known donor arrangements are eroding donor anonymity. Norcross then opened the discussion by asking what level of connection should exist between donor and recipient and donor and donor-conceived child.

The first speaker Dr Petra Nordqvist, researcher and senior lecturer at the University of Manchester, spoke about her team's project Curious Connections which has been exploring the impact of donation on the lives of donors. Using in-depth interviews, Dr Nordqvist discovered that the degree of relationship between donor and recipient varies greatly. It was interesting to learn that although donors do not see themselves as parents, they feel a 'sense of connection', signifying that the relationship carries an 'emotional charge' that needs to be carefully managed. Dr Nordqvist also raised some valid concerns regarding identity release, asking 'how will they [donor-conceived people] make sense of it and how will relationships change?'.

The second speaker, Natasha Fox, gave a moving account of her experience growing up as the daughter of the first person in Scotland to access IVF treatment as a single woman. Fox spoke passionately about the challenges her mother faced as a single parent in the 1990s and how her interest in her family history sharpened over time, along with her curiosity about her donor. It was both fascinating and heart-breaking to hear Fox recall writing letters to her unknown donor, counting down the days to her 18th birthday and meeting her half-sister whom she discovered by taking a DNA test. Fox's resilience also came across as she criticised the media's treatment of donor-conceived people and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's (HFEA) lack of action and low re-registration rates.

The third speaker Nina Barnsley, director of the Donor Conception Network, continued the discussion by outlining the pros and cons of known donor arrangements. Based on anecdotal evidence, she said the majority of experiences were positive. However, Barnsley noted that difficulties can arise, for example, when the donor wants to take on more of a parental role or the donor-conceived child has stronger opinions later in life such as wanting more or less contact with the donor or wanting to call the donor dad 'blurring the lines'. Barnsley emphasised the need to set boundaries and be mindful of our terminology. She concluded by saying 'things are going fine but occasionally a spanner can come into the works.'

The next speaker was Erika Tranfield, the founder and director of Pride Angel, a website that connects donors and co-parents online. Tranfield began by presenting data which showed how the demand for gamete donation has increased over the last ten years, together with a rise in the online fertility industry. She then shared her personal journey of becoming a mother to a donor-conceived child, which gave a more intimate perspective on how the process works, and shed a more positive light on online connection services. Tranfield also balanced this resounding positivity by highlighting some of the hurdles she faced and stressing the importance of understanding intentions and expectations from the outset.

The final speaker of the evening was Natalie Gamble, solicitor at NGA law, which specialises in fertility and family law. Gamble briefly described the spectrum of known donor arrangements and explained how difficulties can arise when roles are poorly defined and expectations are mismatched. She emphasised the complexity and inflexibility of UK law, urging recipients and donors to take more time to understand the law, ensure their expectations are aligned and written agreements are put in place. After a whistle-stop tour of the law, it was encouraging to hear Gamble end on a positive note saying that known donation was 'a good thing' as it offers transparency and an opportunity for a donor-conceived child to have more people in the world who love them.

During the Q&A session, the most popular questions centred on Dr Nordqvist's research, Fox's experience as a donor-conceived person, and navigating complex relationships.

Dr Nordqvist spoke about the lack of consistency in the reasons why relationships break down, the possible tensions between generations, and the importance of using the right language although there are exceptions, as a rule neither donors nor recipients think it appropriate to refer to donors as parents. Dr Nordqvist also said that some donors prefer to stay anonymous, and that different routes can be equally successful.

Gamble agreed that we should not assume donors want to be involved. She also spoke about the redundancy of the UK's legal framework and recommended donors and recipients seek legal advice early on, as there can be a great deal of emotional vulnerability when relationships break down.

Barnsley echoed this by emphasising the value of good communication, preparation and long-term planning. She also stressed the importance of focusing on the child's needs and allowing them to find their own language. Fox agreed that it's about finding words that 'feel right' and being aware that feelings change.

Norcross concluded that people and families are complicated, and there is a great deal to take forward from this event and discussion regarding pre-planning, communication and terminology.

I would recommend this event to anyone interested in understanding the very real impact donor conception has on people's everyday lives. I was fascinated by Dr Nordqvist's research, the work of Barnsley's organisation and Gamble's legal perspective, which helped build a wider picture of how we navigate connectedness. I was also completely captivated by Fox and Tranfield's moving and thought-provoking stories. As Fox noted in her final thoughts, it's encouraging that events such as this are becoming more common.

The Progress Educational Trust (PET) is grateful to the University of Manchester's Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives, and to the European Sperm Bank, for supporting this event.

Register now for PET's next free-to-attend online event ,'Donate, Destroy or Delay? When IVF Embryos Are No Longer Needed for Treatment', taking place place from 5pm-6.30pm (BST) on Tuesday 29 September 2020. All are welcome find out more here, and register to attend here.

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Known Unknowns: The Pros, Cons and Consequences of Known Donation - BioNews

Biochemistry

Dimethyl Itaconate (CAS Number 617-52-7) Market Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Research Analysis Forecast 2020-2026 with Itaconix…

It is our aim to provide our readers with report for Dimethyl Itaconate (CAS Number 617-52-7) Market, which examines the industry during the period 2020 2026. One goal is to present deeper insight into this line of business in this document. The first part of the report focuses on providing the industry definition for the product or service under focus in the Dimethyl Itaconate (CAS Number 617-52-7) Market report. Next, the document will study the factors responsible for hindering and enhancing growth in the industry. After covering various areas of interest in the industry, the report aims to provide how the Dimethyl Itaconate (CAS Number 617-52-7) Market will grow during the forecast period.

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Biochemistry

Anita Qualls and Aditya Wood: Feeding the Frontlines – University of Georgia

Anita Qualls and Aditya Sood dont remember when they met.

Maybe it was during a group gathering in Myers Hall, where they both lived freshman year. It could have been in one of the many biology classes they shared. Regardless of the starting point, Qualls BS 19 and Sood BS 19 both agree that they became close friends while taking an evolutionary biology course their senior year.

So in the spring, when Qualls was looking for a way to support those fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, Sood was one the first people she contacted. The nonprofit they formed has helped ease the burden of thousands of frontline workers across the state. And at a time when collaboration is more important than ever, they are helping bring the UGA community closer together.

We were amazed at the interest from our friends to be involved, Qualls says. (Andrew Davis Tucker/UGA)

When the pandemic hit, Sood was in his second semester of medical school at Emory. Qualls was in Cambridge, England, as UGAs first-ever Churchill Scholar. The prestigious scholarship gave her the opportunity to study immunology before entering medical school at the University of California, San Francisco this fall.

After Qualls was forced to return to the States in mid-March, she actively sought ways to contribute to the fight against COVID-19. One of the friends she reached out to was Cali Callaway BS 17, MS 17, a third-year medical student at Cornell. She was involved in an effort to deliver restaurant-made meals to health care workers around New York, called NYP Healthcare Heroes.

The concept created a partnership between the organization and local restaurants who made and then delivered fresh meals to health care workers in hospitals and medical clinics around the state. To minimize touchpoints, Feed the Frontlines volunteers arent directly involved with food preparation or delivery. Instead, they handle the logistics of connecting with health care providers and providing funding to restaurant partners.

When Qualls, who was quarantining in Hiawassee but lives in Johns Creek, learned about Feed the Frontlines, she set up a similar effort in Athens. But she didnt want to stop there, so she contacted Sood, who lives in Alpharetta.

When the pandemic hit, Sood was in his second semester of medical school at Emory. (Andrew Davis Tucker/UGA)

We realized there was a need, not just with healthcare workers who were struggling but also with local restaurants that had no source of income but massive rents to pay. We realized we could join these two together, not just in Athens but across all of Georgia, Sood says.

What followed was a masterclass in networking and coordination. Qualls and Sood cast a wide net and reeled in dozens of friends and acquaintances from across Georgia who, like them, were trying to figure out a way to make an impact.

Feed the Frontlines Georgia grew from four people to 80 in just two and a half weeks, and it now serves more than 40 hospitals and clinics across the state. More than 1,000 meals are delivered statewide every week. Qualls estimates that 90% of the volunteers are current UGA students or alumni.

We were amazed at the interest from our friends to be involved, Qualls says. (A list of UGA alumni and students who work with Feed the Frontlines Georgia is listed below.)

Weve never worked on something that has been so fast paced and growing like this, she continues. Weve both run organizations before, and weve both been in leadership. But this was really unique because of the timeline and because of the eagerness of every person in our organization.

Feed the Frontlines Georgia serves not only cities like Athens, Atlanta, and Columbus, but it also provides crucial support to rural areas like Berrien County (east of Tifton) and Lanier County (near Valdosta).

To date, they have raised more than $75,000, which has kept dozens of restaurants afloat. Qualls and Sood say Feed the Frontlines Georgia will continue as long as there is a need, even after they return to school in the fall if necessary.

Feed the Frontlines Georgia AdministratorsAnita Qualls BS 19Aditya Sood BS 19Taylor Stumpf BS 20Jenny Zhang BS 20Vineet Raman BS 19, BA 19, BA 19Taylor Pigg, fourth-year student double-majoring in cellular biology and biologyElise Karinshak, second-year student double-majoring in data science and marketing

Feed the Frontlines Georgia CoordinatorsCristian Escalera BSEd 17Maya Ahmadieh BS 19, BA 19Prabhjot Minhas BS 19, BA 19Adrianne Smith BS 17, MPH 17Jessica Ma BA 20, BA 20Avni Ahuja BA 20Nidhi Thiruppathi BS 19Juhi Varshney BS 17, BA 17Jacob Greenway BS 19Landon Clark, fourth-year student majoring in biochemistry and molecular biologyJaaie Varshney, third-year student double majoring in political science and womens studiesJacob Struble, first-year student majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology

Feed the Frontlines Georgia VolunteersAnna McKenzie BA 18McKenzie Durand BS 20Aida Rassam BS 20Lizzie Digiovanni BMus 20Merritt Daniels BS 19Arnav Goyal, fourth-year student majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology

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Anita Qualls and Aditya Wood: Feeding the Frontlines - University of Georgia

Biochemistry

Alpine rose active: Clearing zombie cells in the skin – Cosmetics Business

22-Sep-2020

Ingredients

An organic Swiss alpine rose extract for skin rejuvenation

Alpine Rose Active is a purified extract of organic alpine rose leaves, which rejuvenates the skin through the novel anti-aging concept of senolytics.

Alpine rose is one of the most typical and iconic Swiss alpine plants. It grows at high altitudes in acidic and nutrient- poor soils, and it has developed impressive strategies to protect itself against the attack by free radicals.

Due to the difficulty of cultivating the alpine rose, Mibelle Biochemistry collaborates with organic farmers in the Swiss Alps who harvest the precious leaves by sustainable wildcrafting.

Several in vitro and in vivo studies have shown that the activity of Alpine Rose Active:

Alpine Rose Active is therefore able to protect skin proteins against oxidative damage, a known cause of cellular senescence, as well as rejuvenate the skin through its senolytic activity when cellular senescence has already taken place. It is COSMOS approved* and ECOCERT certified**.

INCI (EU / PCPC) DeclarationRhododendron Ferrugineum Extract (and) Glycerin (and) Aqua / Water

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Alpine rose active: Clearing zombie cells in the skin - Cosmetics Business

Biochemistry

Never mind the Metabolix: Prof Luke O’Neill – the popular scientist who moonlights as rock star – Independent.ie

When it comes to immunologists, Prof Luke O'Neill is something of a rock star.

irstly, he is the lead singer of a band called The Metabolix, which has performed for colleagues and students at the Trinity Ball.

He already had a high profile before Covid-19 hit, but now he is a household name.

O'Neill is one of a number of medical professionals who have become regulars on our TV screens and airwaves since the advent of Covid-19. Broadcasters are increasingly calling on medical experts to discuss and advise as Ireland, like other countries, tries to navigate the global pandemic.

Prof O'Neill told the Irish Independent he had been talking to the public about immunology for years "but nobody was listening".

"Covid-19 has been an opportunity to tell people about science, and I think it's a great privilege.

"Some of us [the medical professionals] have tried to be a reassuring presence. The more science you have out there, the better," he said.

He believes scientists, who are often paid by the taxpayer through State funding or grants, have a responsibility to talk to people through the media. - particularly when they have expertise that can benefit or help inform public health measures.

He has been steadily building a media profile as an accessible and entertaining science commentator for almost a decade.

The professor is a popular choice for broadcasters who want to present science in a plain-speaking or even humorous way.

He has had a regular slot answering questions about science on the Pat Kenny show on Newstalk for seven years. Kenny has described O'Neill as "as rare a creature and exotic a discovery as the Galapagos Islands". He regularly writes for the Sunday Independent, and Virgin Media's Six O'Clock Show has Prof O'Neill on regularly enough to describe him as the "resident boffin".

His ability for simply and effectively explaining science has also led to him regularly appearing on RT Junior to help talk about Covid-19 to children.

In 2016, he appeared on Eureka! The Big Bang Query - a comedy science quiz for RT.

Prof O'Neill was raised in Bray, Co Wicklow, and earned a degree in biochemistry at Trinity College in 1985, followed by a PhD in pharmacology from the University of London in 1988.

He now lives in Dublin with his wife Margaret Worrall, who is also a scientist. He has two children.

In 2007, Prof O'Neill was appointed chair of biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin. In 2011, he became the founder director at the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute.

Prof O'Neill has been listed among the top 1pc of most-cited researchers in his field, and is recognised as a top immunologist internationally.

In 2016, he was made a Fellow of the prestigious Royal Society for his immunology research. He helped found Inflazome in 2016, and the company's research into a drug that could stop a gene called NLRP3 - which is very active in inflammatory brain diseases - has attracted international attention.

He is also listed as a co-founder of Sitryx - a bio-pharmaceutical company that was set up in 2018 following Trinity College research into disease therapy.

His third book, Never Mind the B#ll*cks, Here's the Science, will be published next month.

It follows the publication of his first book Humanology in 2018 and a children's book, The Great Irish Science Book, in 2019.

Irish Independent

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Never mind the Metabolix: Prof Luke O'Neill - the popular scientist who moonlights as rock star - Independent.ie

Human Behavior

The Impact of Emotionally Intelligent Technology on Human Performance – Customer Think

Why is emotional intelligence technology important?

Technology has advanced our day-to-day lives with everything from making it easier to connect with others, to help with simple repetitive tasks. Until now, however, technology has not been human-aware, meaning it has not taken human behavior into account when assisting and guiding individuals. By becoming human-aware, technology can help enhance our natural abilities and assist with new challenges.

For decades, technology has viewed and treated every person the same way. The impact of such technology can only be so deep when it does not recognize and adapt to the attributes that make us uniquely human. Emotional intelligence technology can interpret each persons unique emotional make-up and provide support that best addresses a given persons strengths and weaknesses. Supporting positive change in human behavior beyond the surface level requires a personalized approach.

Now, new human-aware technology can account for our differences and even makes us better versions of ourselves by augmenting the skills we already possess. Most humans are innately emotionally intelligent and can empathetically maneuver a conversation. But by nature, some people are more emotionally intelligent than others, and even those with the most emotional intelligence can lose this ability when they become fatigued or distracted. A great example of this is in the call center, where customer service phone professionals must often handle more than fifty calls per day. These interactions require the phone professional to actively listen to each customers needs and respond in a caring and confident manner. This repetition and continuous demand for compassion can be draining, leading to cognitive overload and emotional fatigue and eventually, burn out.

Technology that analyzes and interprets behavior to provide real-time guidance helps lessen the burden on frontline workers it gives individuals a virtual coach that helps them display the soft skills necessary to manage a conversation. While doing so, the technology supplies managers and executives with performance data and customer insights. Supervisors are able to use this information to identify trends and better support employee performance, personalizing guidance for the long term as well. This is much different than the past, where it was impossible to provide an always-on coach for each employee.

The success of emotional intelligence technology requires collaboration across a number of disciplines. In particular, successful use cases have a direct benefit for many parties involved and a means by which to acquire the appropriate data to train and improve a system.

For emotional intelligence technology to be used more broadly, the first hurdle is the technology must exist and be proven to work. To create emotional intelligence technology takes careful collaboration between behavioral scientists, data scientists, machine learning experts, as well as traditional software developers. Today, some of the worlds leading insurance, healthcare and financial companies are combining these skills to create a fundamental thesis about human behavior and appropriately train a system to deploy to a given population.

The second key is access to a data set that can successfully be leveraged to train and improve the algorithms that make human-aware technology possible. Regulations come into play when we discuss the access to and use of data for a given context. Today, there are a select few companies, including Cogito, that have access to large enough data sources to successfully train systems. As the data can become anonymized and shared more broadly, it can accelerate the development of new and more powerful technology across a much broader set of innovative companies.

Thirdly, this type of technology must be applied in a context that delivers value to the users and society as a whole. We are years away from creating a system that generally guides behavior as a human would, and may never actually get there given all the nuances in human behavior. That said, detecting and guiding emotional intelligence can be effective if it is done within a specific context, such as call centers in the customer service industry.

Finally, it is vital to leverage this technology to augment, not replace human judgment. By providing deeper insights into human behavior and allowing a human to confirm or deny its accuracy, not only does it help a human in a given situation, but it provides feedback into the system to become more accurate for a given context over time.

Emotionally intelligent technology is uniquely positioned to demonstrate to society how AI can be used to augment our individual strengths to help us be better, more productive versions of ourselves. Now that this technology can identify our emotions, and the other qualities that make us uniquely human, it can help us strengthen them as well. Emotionally aware tech serves as a great example of how humans and AI can work collaboratively, with machine learning personalizing guidance in a manner that is objective and scalable.

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The Impact of Emotionally Intelligent Technology on Human Performance - Customer Think

Human Behavior

Positivity rates, cases, deaths all trending downward in state – The Daily World

By Evan Bush

The Seattle Times

Things are looking better to those of us who track the rise and fall of COVID-19 cases in earnest.

Daily confirmed case counts, hospitalizations and deaths have all dropped since spiking in July. The percentage of positive test results, averaged over a week, stood at about 3.3% in early September. That figure spiked to nearly 6% in mid-July, according to state data. The states goal is 2%.

We are pleased to see the testing positivity rate come down. We know the number of cases are decreasing across the state, said Dr. Cathy Wasserman, a state epidemiologist with the Department of Health (DOH), who added that people must remain vigilant, keep their distance and avoid gatherings. Human behavior is driving transmission changes.

No single behavior change likely accounts for the reduction in transmission. Instead, the health department attributes the improvement to a combination of factors such as wearing face coverings, limiting social gatherings and keeping physical distance in public. Gov. Jay Inslee required people to wear face coverings in public starting on June 26, as cases trended higher.

The encouraging drop in the states positivity rate is one sign transmission is slowing, but perhaps more importantly, the figure indicates that statewide testing is keeping up with the rate of the viruss spread.

The health department also is counting tests differently. The department in late August made several tweaks to its reporting of COVID-19 data and applied them retroactively. It was the latest in a series of adjustments to its methodology that the agency hopes will give a more accurate picture of the viruss presence in Washington.

Because some people are getting tested multiple times, the state is now counting the number of tests administered rather then the number of people tested.

We feel that is a more accurate representation of testing volume, said Wasserman, who is leading the health departments COVID-19 data efforts. The change will also help standardize Washington data for comparison with other states, she said.

Counting tests this way dropped the states overall, all-time positivity rate (the percentage of all tests in Washington that have come back positive). But, as the pandemic wears on, that figure has become less important. Instead, the health department highlights a seven-day average positivity rate, which makes it easier to spot changes and trends.

Since the pandemic began, the task of compiling COVID-19 data has been beset with problems as health departments nationwide scrambled to tweak health reporting systems to handle all the metrics needed to track the new virus. In Washington, an initial flood of data overwhelmed the states disease reporting system, and then, a computer workaround caused the state to double-count negative test results for two months. Those problems, and several others, have been corrected.

Washington state also has added to its COVID-19 data dashboard a new metric testing per capita which will help officials examine and compare peoples access to testing across geographic areas.

And on Aug. 28, the state stopped reporting deaths from COVID-19 on weekends.

We made that decision due to resource challenges at the state and local level. Many medical certifiers and public health officials we need to reconcile the count dont work on the weekends, Wasserman said.

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Positivity rates, cases, deaths all trending downward in state - The Daily World

Human Behavior

Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI – E-Flux

Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AIFebruary 22, 2020March 28, 2021

de Young Museum50 Hagiwara Tea Garden DrSan Francisco, CA 94118United States

deyoung.famsf.orgInstagram / Facebook / Twitter

Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AIexamines the current applications of AI as a challenge to traditional understandings of the humanmachine relationship, which have been locked into a discourse of likeness for centuries. This focus found an enduring expression in theuncanny valley, a metaphor introduced by Japanese robotics engineer Masahiro Mori in 1970 to chart human's comfort-discomfort spectrum with a robot based on its degree of resemblance. However, AI as we currently experience it, has shifted the problem from physical or intellectual replication to that of gradient statistical (mis)representation.

In just over a decade, the world has been reconfigured by algorithmic psy-ops that feed off of peoples tribal reflexes. Extremist, racist, and discriminatory tropes reemerged as a partisan bodyan ideological Frankenstein floating to the surface of the political landscape like the monstrous islands of plastics in the Pacific Ocean. This development was driven by statistical machines, today simply called artificial intelligence, or AI. This type of machine intelligence has traditionally been applied to decrease uncertainty in fields as diverse as climate science, healthcare, and gamingareas that benefit from the prediction of potential risks. But introduced into the social fabric, the predictive aims of AI have instead wreaked havoc and augmented uncertainty and instability.

Taking stock of AIs impact on ecologies, societies, and economies in ways we are only beginning to understand, Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AImetabolizes how AIs mechanisms are reshaping the humanmachine integration. It considersthe definition of the uncanny as put forth by Sigmund Freudinverting Descartes mind/body dichotomyto propose a different concept of theuncanny valley: one that is no longer limited to the humanlike robot or thinking machine, but that is mapped bythe mathematical operations of gradient descent, the calculations of algorithms designed to mine and analyze human behavior and project it into tradable futures. These futures are reflected back to people in ceaseless statistical montages* of on and offline prompts for social engagement, political advocacy, or commercial transactions that claim to know us better than we know ourselves. These prompts, derived from data mining and analysis and deployed in the service of behavioral design, alternately pitch the amygdala, the part of the brain that processes the negative emotions of fear, sadness, and aggression, against the positive emotions of the reward circuit with the goal to stimulate the latter.

At the dawn of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the uncanny valley is defined by addictive mechanisms, an emotional exoskeleton that draws people to the screen like firefliesone of the many hive mind metaphors for algorithmic optimization that ends up describing human behavior.Taking all these qualities into account, this gargantuan uncanny valley is emerging asthe refashioning of frontierism, whose sole aim is an ever deeper, global minima of attention capture.

With nearby Silicon Valley driving the market oriented development of AI, Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI is the first major museum exhibition in the United States to unite the work of Zach Blas, Ian Cheng, Simon Denny, Stephanie Dinkins, Forensic Architecture, Pierre Huyghe, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Christopher Kulendran Thomas with Annika Kuhlmann, Agnieszka Kurant, Lawrence Lek, Trevor Paglen, Hito Steyerl, Martine Syms, and the Zairja Collective. Building on the metaphors embedded within the technologyranging from heuristic models of collective intelligence to forms of excavation and statistical alter egosthe artists in this exhibition present a set of imaginations that convey a spatialized critique of machine learning.

*Claudia Schmuckli, Automatic Writing and Statistical Montage. Beyond the Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Cameron + Company, August 2020, 12.

Media Image Gallery

Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI is organized by Claudia Schmuckli, Curator in Charge of Contemporary Art and Programming atthe Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.

Presenting Exhibition Sponsor: Lisa & Douglas Goldman Fund. Lead Support: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Major Support: Deutsche Bank, Nion McEvoy and Leslie Berriman, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation, the Transformations of the Human Program at the Berggruen Institute, and The Paul L. Wattis Foundation. Significant Support: Marian Goodman Gallery. Additional support is provided by GameOn Technology, Gladstone Gallery, and Kaitlyn and Mike Krieger.

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the Transformations of the Human Program at the Berggruen Institute to the exhibition catalogue which is published with the assistance of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation. In-kind support is provided by Room & Board.

The Contemporary ArtProgram at the de Young and Legion of Honor is made possible by the Contemporary Support Council of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Media InquiriesHelena Nordstrom hnordstrom [at] famsf.org

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Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI - E-Flux