The head of a Houston-based company that was the subsidiary of a Chinese company that developed stolen trade secrets was sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to forfeit more than $330,000 by U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the District of Columbia.

A North Carolina man who took part in a conspiracy to steal design information from aircraft companies to speed up approval of competing airplane technology has been sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison.

Jerusalem Post: Meet the 107-year-old woman who survived the coronavirus and Spanish flu. “After Marilee Shapiro Asher was admitted to the hospital in mid-April sick with COVID-19, her daughter got a call from the doctor telling her she ought to get down there right away. Her mother likely had only 12 hours to live. ‘Well, … Continue reading Jerusalem Post: Meet the 107-year-old woman who survived the coronavirus and Spanish flu

Science Magazine: ‘Finally, a virus got me.’ Scientist who fought Ebola and HIV reflects on facing death from COVID-19. “Virologist Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, fell ill with COVID-19 in mid-March. He spent a week in a hospital and has been recovering at his home in London since. … Continue reading ‘Finally, a virus got me.’ Scientist who fought Ebola and HIV reflects on facing death from COVID-19 (Science Magazine)

The body of a man who drove his car over the edge of the Grand Canyon earlier this week has been identified as that of Gheorghe Chiriac of Apple Valley, California. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/news-2009-07-17_ident.htm

A man found deceased after park rangers and tactical team negotiators spent several hours trying to talk him out of a residence in Grand Canyon National Park has been identified as 51 year old Mark Twain Ferguson of Arizona. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/2010-05-13_ident.htm

The man killed in a single-vehicle accident on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park on August 23, has been identified. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/2010-08-27-identified.htm

https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/2011-02-17_id.htm

https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/2011-04-22_over-edge.htm

A woman who suffered fatal injuries in a fall in Grand Canyon National Park on Thursday, April 28, has been identified. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/2011-05-03_fatality.htm

A man whose body was found next to his car at the Cape Royal Trailhead on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park has been identified as Donald Haney of Cherokee Village, Arkansas. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/2011-10-04_nr-ident.htm

https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/2012-05-02_ident.htm

A woman who died in a fall from the South Rim’s Grandview Trail in Grand Canyon National Park has been identified as 68-year old Rosa Torres Rios of Nogales, Arizona. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/2012-07-23_ident.htm

The man who collapsed and died on the Bright Angel Trail in Grand Canyon yesterday has been identified as 72 year-old David Roberts of Cleveland, Tennessee. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/man-who-collapsed-and-died-on-bright-angel-trail-in-grand-canyon-national-park-is-identified.htm

A woman who died while hiking the South Kaibab trail in Grand Canyon National Park has been identified as 48-year old Sibylle Borger of Fredericksburg, VA. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/female-hiker-who-died-on-south-kaibab-trail-identified.htm

A man who died while hiking the North Kaibab Trail in Grand Canyon National Park has been identified as 47-year old Andrew Sammler of Lancaster, OH. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/hiker-identified.htm

A man who died while hiking the Bright Angel Trail has been identified. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/bright-angel-trail-fatality-identified.htm

This poll says the more water you drink, the happier you feel—and those who feel they “don't drink enough water” more commonly reported feeling unhappy.

The post Americans Who Drink This Much Water a Day Were More Likely to Report Feeling ‘Very Happy’ appeared first on Good News Network.

Kenyan scientists discovered a microbe–Microsporidia MB–inside some mosquitoes that completely protects them from malaria infection which spreads to humans.

The post Breakthrough For Kenyan Scientists Who Discover Natural Microbe That Completely Stops Malaria in Mosquitoes appeared first on Good News Network.

Gertie Painter raised thousands for charity with a series of abseils throughout her 90s but sadly died during her ninth

Decayed wood plays many critical roles in forest ecosystems. Standing dead trees, called snags, provide habitat for a suite of wildlife, including several species of birds, insects, bats, and other mammals. Down wood provides wildlife habitat and performs ecosystem services such as releasing humus, nitrogen, and phosphorus into the forest soil, storing pockets of moisture, and stabilizing soil on slopes. Root wads, tree stumps, hollow trees, and partially dead trees also perform important ecological roles as wildlife habitats and sources of soil organic matter. DecAID Advisor is an on-line decision-aiding system to help managers plan for wood decay elements for biodiversity in forests of Washington and Oregon. DecAID Advisor is a statistical "meta-analysis" and synthesis of a vast amount of wildlife and inventory data. It does not make decisions for managers, but instead, DecAID Advisor advises on size and amount of snags, down wood, and other wood decay elements to meet management objectives and to help set those objectives by forest type and structural condition class. It is the first decision-aiding tool of its kind, given its scope of species, inventory data, and topics provided.

Jackie Pexton, who is part of the Macmillian Toon Angels, has raised over £52,000 to show her support for the charity that has been a lifeline for her

Blyth schoolboy Ryan Office has recently returned from receiving proton beam therapy in Florida after being diagnosed with a very rare brain tumour

Newcastle United goalkeeper Rob Elliot has opened up about team-mate Isaac Hayden and what makes him such an important player

Want to get to know your peers a bit better? Maybe you're looking for an insight into someone you'd like to work for -- or are programming against! 10 Questions on ALL ACCESS is where players … more

"The identification of this male is of vital importance to this investigation"

Kalydeco is the first medicine in Europe to treat the underlying cause of the disease

Margaret Ethel Sinclair, 99, will turn 100-year-old on May 13

As part of our #InThisTogether campaign, we're highlighting the fantastic work being done by businesses and individuals during lockdown

QUEEN’s BRIAN MAY and ROGER TAYLOR in the U.K. and singer ADAM LAMBERT in L.A. have connected virtually to record a new version of QUEEN’s classic anthem, “We Are The … more

Embargoed until 8 a.m. CT/9 a.m. ET, Tuesday, March 17, 2020   DALLAS, Tuesday, March 17, 2020 – As the global impact of COVID-19 rises, the scientific community continues to evaluate the clinical impact and health care needs of patients with...

The Ethiopian Mekane Yesus Church owns and runs Aira Hospital - a small but by Ethiopian standards well equipped health facility - situtated in the far western part of rural Ethiopia. Despite financial hardship and lack of the most basic resources the dedicated surgeon Dr. Erik Erichsen and his team of local colleagues try as hard as they possibly can to serve some of the poorest people in the world

DALLAS, May 4, 2020 — Tomorrow, on #GivingTuesdayNow, a global day of philanthropic action to address the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Heart Association – the leading global public health organization devoted to a world of longer healthier lives – is...

As death rates from COVID-19 rise, the state is beginning to open back up. And with that the expectation is that Iowans get back to work. Iowans who don’t go back to work will lose...

Growing up on the Greenfield family farm outside a little town of 500, we worked hard and learned to look out for one another.

I’ve visited with folks in every corner of Iowa during my U.S. Senate campaign. The people I hear from want the dignity of providing for their families, and to know they can get a hand up when they need it. Now, as the coronavirus threatens our communities and Washington seems more focused on pointing fingers than getting results, Iowans want to know that we can get through this and come out stronger in the end. I’ve been through tough times, and I know from my own life that the only way we get through is by pulling together.

I was 24 when my first husband, an electrical worker, was killed in a workplace accident. Social Security and hard-earned union benefits helped me get back on my feet and pursue a career where I could support my two young sons. I’ll fight to protect and strengthen Social Security so every Iowan can get that same hand up.

So, I know what it’s like to have a loved one not come home from work. When I hear about workers having to choose between staying home safely or earning a paycheck, I say no way. Since March, I’ve put out two plans calling for more testing, personal protective equipment, paid sick leave, premium pay, and stronger protections for our front-line workers.

I also believe health care is a right — not a privilege. This shouldn’t be partisan.

As a businesswoman and a mom, I know the tough decisions our small businesses and families are making right now. That’s why I’ve called for more urgent economic aid and faster help for our small businesses and workers — not more bailouts for corporate CEOs. We also need a robust infrastructure plan and to invest in more skills training to create opportunity in all of our hometowns.

None of this will happen unless we make Washington work more like we do by ending political corruption. I’m not taking a dime of corporate PAC money and I will work to overturn Citizens United, and ban dark money and corporate PACs.

Sen. Joni Ernst broke her promise to be different. Instead, she’s voted with Mitch McConnell and her corporate PAC donors for tax breaks to corporations and the wealthiest — while hardworking Iowans fall further behind.

Iowans deserve a senator who shares their grit and their resolve, who will carry the fight for our small towns and our working families in her heart. It’s how we get through this pandemic and how we create more opportunity for our state. In the Senate, I’ll never forget where I’m from or who I’m fighting for, and I’ll always put Iowa first.

Theresa Greenfield is a candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.

Another day, another devastating new uptick in Iowa’s COVID-19 figures.

Several times in the past few weeks, Gov. Kim Reynolds has announced a new daily high in Iowa’s positive COVID-19 tests or deaths. On Tuesday, yet another striking record — 19 deaths in a 24-hour period, or nearly 10 percent of the state’s total COVID-19 deaths to date.

For a governor who says she is staking her pandemic response on data and metrics, those grim numbers don’t seem to weigh heavily on Reynolds’ decision-making.

“The fact is we can’t prevent people from getting the COVID-19 virus,” Reynolds said at her Tuesday news conference. “If we weren’t testing in these areas, people would still have the virus and without being tested, diagnosed and isolated it could spread even further.”

In one breath, Reynolds tells Iowans we are helpless to stop the virus’s spread. In the very next breath, she explains how testing and isolation can help prevent the spread.

It’s just one example of the confusing guidance Iowans are getting from the governor and her team. Iowans looking for answers about how to protect themselves and their families are finding seemingly conflicting answers.

They report we have reached the peak, only to backtrack. They say we’re in this together and there’s a statewide plan to confront the outbreak, but then they tell us it’s really about “personal responsibility.” They tell us to stay home as much as possible, then pivot to emphasizing the need for people who feel sick to stay home.

Sometimes, it almost feels as if Reynolds is blaming Iowans for getting sick.

Early on, Reynolds used a regional strategy to track the virus, based on factors such as hospitalizations and health care resources in six multicounty regions across the state. That approach has been brushed aside with little explanation to the public.

Instead, Iowa now has “open” and “closed” counties — 22 where significant restrictions remain intact, and 77 where businesses can open in a limited manner. After less than a week under the county-by-county strategy, there are early signs that the 77 counties are seeing an uptick in confirmed COVID-19 cases.

• Gov. Reynolds is disrupting her own virus response plan

Reynolds’ response in this phase of the pandemic is just as crucial as the initial phase, to prevent a deadlier wave. Shifting to the personal responsibility path also decentralizes leadership, which creates more uncertainty.

If Iowa’s “open” counties see a surge, will Reynolds relent and reimpose restrictions?

We have reason to doubt it. Just this week, Reynolds co-authored a Washington Post guest column with other governors, arguing “our approach worked.”

In Reynolds’ mind, she has already defeated the virus, so she’s retreating from the fight. That’s bad news for Iowans who are still very much on the front lines of this pandemic.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com

As death rates from COVID-19 rise, the state is beginning to open back up. And with that the expectation is that Iowans get back to work. Iowans who don’t go back to work will lose unemployment benefits, leaving thousands of workers forced to expose themselves and their families to a potentially deadly virus, which experts say could have a second wave in the fall.

The rush to reopen the state has left many questions about the health and safety of Iowans unanswered. Among those questions, “Who will watch the children?” is especially crucial.

Schools are closed for the rest of the year. The future of summer camps is uncertain. Half of the child care centers in America currently are closed. Using elderly parents for child care can be risky since grandparents are in the age bracket with the highest risk for death and complications from COVID-19.

This leaves families, mothers especially, at risk of losing their jobs and unemployment benefits.

Nationwide, women still carry the heavy burden of child care, despite the fact that most families are dual income homes. Two-thirds of minimum wage workers in America are women which puts them at risk for unemployment and illness because of exposure to the virus.

Already, the child care gap for women contributes to the wage gap. Women earn 80 cents to the male dollar. And the inequality is compounded when segmented by race.

Congress has tried to pass a paid leave policy, but those attempts have failed. And Iowa’s governor has so far not commented on the looming child care crisis as she declares victory over the virus and opens up the state.

Before the pandemic, a quarter of Iowa families lived in a child care desert, and child care in the state does not even come close to meeting the national definition of affordable. Experts estimated that the Iowa economy loses more than $1 billion each year because of a lack of child care. And with the reality of the pandemic sinking in, it will only get worse.

The Department of Human Services received $31.9 million in aid from the federal CARES Act that was dispersed to child care centers to help care for the children of essential workers. But as more people go back to work, that aid will be spent very quickly. Leaving the children of everyone else without answers to this fundamental question. If Reynolds wants to open up the state, her team needs to formulate a comprehensive plan that addresses the lack of child care and offers paid leave and works to reopen child care centers.

But rushing to open an economy when there is no child care is an attack not just on families but specifically mothers.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com

In 2003, my wife Lowri and I went to a christening party. We were friends of the hosts but we knew almost no-one else there. Sitting next to me was a thirty-something woman and her husband, both dressed in the corporate ‘smart casual’ uniform: Jersey, knitwear, and ready-faded jeans for her, formal shoes and tucked-in formal shirt for him (plus the jeans of course; that’s the casual bit). Both appeared polite, neutral, and neat in every respect.

I smiled and said hello, and asked how they knew our hosts. The conversation stalled pretty quickly the way all conversations will when only one participant is engaged. I persevered, asked about their children who they mentioned, trying to be a good friend to our hosts by being friendly to other guests. It must have prompted her to reciprocate. With reluctant interest she asked the default question: ‘What do you do?’ I paused, uncertain for a second. ‘I’m a web designer’ I managed after a bit of nervous confusion at what exactly it was that I did. Her face managed to drop even as she smiled condescendingly. ‘Oh. White backgrounds!’ she replied with a mixture of scorn and delight. I paused. ‘Much of the time’, I nodded with an attempt at a self-deprecating smile, trying to maintain the camaraderie of the occasion. ‘What do you do?’ I asked, curious to see where her dismissal was coming from. ‘I’m the creative director for … agency’ she said smugly, overbearingly confident in the knowledge that she had a trump card, and had played it. The conversation was over.

I’d like to say her reaction didn’t matter to me, but it did. It stung to be regarded so disdainfully by someone who I would naturally have considered a colleague. I thought to try and explain. To mention how I started in print, too. To find out why she had such little respect for web design, but that was me wanting to be understood. I already knew why. Anything I said would sound defensive. She may have been rude, but at least she was honest.

I am a web designer. I neither concentrate on the party venue, food, music, guest list, or entertainment, but on it all. On the feeling people enter with and walk away remembering. That’s my job. It’s probably yours too.

I’m self-actualised, without the stamp of approval from any guild, curriculum authority, or academic institution. I’m web taught. Colleague taught. Empirically taught. Tempered by over fifteen years of failed experiments on late nights with misbehaving browsers. I learnt how to create venues because none existed. I learnt what music to play for the people I wanted at the event, and how to keep them entertained when they arrived. I empathised, failed, re-empathised, and did it again. I make sites that work. That’s my certificate. That’s my validation.

I try, just like you, to imbue my practice with an abiding sense of responsibility for the universality of the Web as Tim Berners-Lee described it. After all, it’s that very universality that’s allowed our profession and the Web to thrive. From the founding of the W3C in 1994, to Mosaic shipping with <img> tag support in 1993, to the Web Standards Project in 1998, and the CSS Zen Garden in 2003, those who care have been instrumental in shaping the Web. Web designers included. In more recent times I look to the web type revolution, driven and curated by both web designers, developers, and the typography community. Again, we’re teaching ourselves. The venues are open to all, and getting more amazing by the day.

Apart from the sites we’ve built, all the best peripheral resources that support our work are made by us. We’ve contributed vast amounts of code to our collective toolkit. We’ve created inspirational conferences like Brooklyn Beta, New Adventures, Web Directions, Build, An Event Apart, dConstruct, and Webstock. As a group, we’ve produced, written-for, and supported forward-thinking magazines like A List Apart, 8 Faces, Smashing Mag, and The Manual. We’ve written the books that distill our knowledge either independently or with publishers from our own community like Five Simple Steps and A Book Apart. We’ve created services and tools like jQuery, Fontdeck, Typekit, Hashgrid, Teuxdeux, and Firebug. That’s just a sample. There’s so many I haven’t mentioned. We did these things. What an extraordinary industry.

I know I flushed with anger and embarrassment that day at the christening party. Afterwards, I started to look a little deeper into what I do. I started to ask what exactly it means to be a web designer. I started to realise how extraordinary our community is. How extraordinary this profession is that we’ve created. How good the work is that we do. How delightful it is when it does work; for audiences, clients, and us. How fantastic it is that I help build the Web. Long may that feeling last. May it never go away. There’s so much still to learn, create, and make. This is my our party. Hi, I’m Jon; my friends and I are making Mapalong, and I’m a web designer.

In a previous blogpost we talked about the Opus codec, which offers very low bitrates. Another codec seeking to achieve even lower bitrates is Codec 2.

Codec 2 is designed for use with speech only, and although the bitrates are impressive the results aren’t as clear as Opus, as you can hear in the following audio examples. However, there is some interesting work being done with Codec 2 in combination with neural network (WaveNets) that is yielding great results.

Layers of a WaveNet neural network.

Background

Codec 2 is an open source codec designed for speech, and aims for compression rates between 700bps and 3200bps (bits per seconds).

The man behind it, David Rowe, is an electronic engineer currently living in South Australia. He started the project in September 2009, with the main aim of improving low-cost radio communication for people living in remote areas of the world. With this in mind, he set out to develop a codec that would significantly reduce file sizes and the bandwidth required when streaming.

Another motivation according to David, was to be free from patented technologies used by closed source codes which he believes “require expensive and awkward licenses and are stifling innovation”. His belief is that this work can be done without requiring the use of patent protected codecs, so all his work is open source.

Potential Applications

Rowe’s perceived applications include VOIP trunking, voice over low bandwidth HF/VHF digital radio, (especially for amateur radio, so as to avoid issues with the use of proprietary codecs), and developing world and remote area communications, including military, police and emergency services.

Why we’re interested here at Auphonic is for its potential for longer podcasts, presentations and audiobooks, allowing for low storage and minimizing the effect of bad network connections.

How it Works

To achieve the lower rates sought, speech has to be reduced into the smallest possible information/data, and this means that the amount of redundant information that is transmitted has to be minimized.

To do this, Codec 2 uses harmonic sinusoidal speech coding. This splits the speech into 10 - 30ms segments, called frames. Each frame is then analysed for the fundamental frequency (or pitch), and the number of harmonics that fit into a 4Khz bandwidth. Further, for each of the harmonics within the 4khz range, the amplitude and phase are recorded.

This information is then coded, and the decoder reconstructs the audio based on this data.

Codec 2 Block diagrams - Encoder (left) And decoder (right)
Figure from Rowtel.

Audio Examples and Comparison with other Codecs

Whilst it all sounds great in theory, how does the reality match up? Let’s have a listen.

Here is a short wav audio file:

Applying Codec 2 (without the WaveNet decoder) at the different rates available, 3200bps, 2400bps,1600bps,1200bps and 700bps, we get:

These examples show significantly reduced file sizes.
Putting that information more meaningfully in terms of how much storage you would need for an hour of audio:

• At 3200bps, 1 hour of audio requires only 1.37MB (this would fit on one old 3½-inch floppy disk!)
• A rate of 2400bps equates to 1.03MB/h
• A rate of 1600bps equates to 0.68MB/h (Or approximately 2 hours of audio on one floppy disk!)
• A rate of 1200bps equates to 0.51MB/h
• A rate of 700bps equates to 0.3MB/h

So great compression, but the result is clearly not natural sounding.

As a comparison here is the same audio as a 8kb/s MP3:

The file size is significantly larger than Codec 2 and the quality is arguably still not useable. You can clearly hear what is sometimes called sizzle - the weird metallic sounds you hear on low quality MP3s.

There is a final codec which is worth comparing, one that that seems to capture the two ideals of usable quality at low bitrates that we want: Opus.
Because of it's convincing low-bitrate performance, Auphonic already offers Opus encoding all the way down to 6 kbps, the lowest bitrate that Opus supports.

Comparing Opus at this 6 kbps rate to the 8kbps MP3 shows a significant improvement - although slightly muffled, it still sounds natural:

Returning to Codec 2, and purely as s a bit of fun, here are some samples of Codec 2 on music! (Note that Codec 2 is not designed for music, it was only ever conceived for use on speech).

I personally couldn’t listen to the MP3 at this rate, so let’s listen to what Codec 2 does!

Codec 2 at different bitrates:

As you can hear, it is not suitable for this application at all!

Codec 2 and WaveNet

As we have heard, despite the impressive bitrates achieved, the end result is not very natural sounding.
However, where it starts to get more interesting is the work done by W. Bastiaan Kleijn from Cornell University Library. He has been using with Codec 2 running at 2400bps on the coding side, but replaced the Codec 2 decoder with a WaveNet deep learning generative model (for more informationsee the paper Wavenet based low rate speech coding).

Here are some samples from the authors:

Comparing to Codec 2 you can hear a significant increase in quality, and if you compare to the original, there is not a significant decrease in quality.

Conclusion

Whilst the (original) Codec 2 project represents very interesting work, it is limited, and the end result is not suited for podcasting. Also as we heard in the audio examples, it can only be used for voice recordings, and not music.

However, Codec 2 in combination with a WaveNet decoder improves the quality a lot and the low bitrate (2400bps) would be extremely interesting for podcasts and audiobooks distribution as well: one hour of audio would require only 1.03MB of storage!

Auphonic will add support for Codec 2 output files when the WaveNet decoder is in a usable form. For now we have just added support for Codec 2 input files.

Today, the Game of Thrones star announced that 12 random people will get to win a virtual dinner with her. She’s asking people to donate money to her charity SameYou, which helps people heal from brain injuries and strokes. Pledges will be used to assist brain injury survivors in recuperating at home, who have been asked to leave hospitals to make room for coronavirus patients.

Tags: coronavirus, Feilding Cage, healthcare, policy, Reuters

Want to create a wholesale order form in WordPress? If you’re a wholesaler looking to get online, but don’t want to manage a full-fledged eCommerce store, then you might want to consider adding a simple wholesale order form to your WordPress site. In this article, we’ll show you how to properly create a simple wholesale […]

The post How to Properly Create a Wholesale Order Form in WordPress appeared first on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.

Histopathology is a reflection of the molecular changes and provides prognostic phenotypes representing the disease progression. In this study, we introduced feature scores generated from hematoxylin and eosin histology images based on deep learning (DL) models developed for prostate pathology. We demonstrated that these feature scores were significantly prognostic for time to event endpoints (biochemical recurrence and cancer-specific survival) and had simultaneously molecular biologic associations to relevant genomic alterations and molecular subtypes using already trained DL models that were not previously exposed to the datasets of the current study. Further, we discussed the potential of such feature scores to improve the current tumor grading system and the challenges that are associated with tumor heterogeneity and the development of prognostic models from histology images. Our findings uncover the potential of feature scores from histology images as digital biomarkers in precision medicine and as an expanding utility for digital pathology.

Retired soccer star Briana Scurry talks about finally finding hope and help after almost three years of being told she wouldn't get any better.

Agencies, local authorities and national governments do not agree on who should be quarantined or what that should actually look like. Here’s what we do know. By Maya Miller, Caroline Chen and Joshua Kaplan ProPublica People who have been exposed to the coronavirus are being given incomplete or misleading information about whether they should quarantine themselves, exposing major gaps in the public health response to the pandemic and illuminating disagreement among officials about how useful the tactic even is at this point in the disease’s spread.…

[IMAGE-1] Watching Rian Johnson's Knives Out, I was reminded of my middle school English teacher Mrs. Soderbergh, who loved Agatha Christie books almost as much as she loved diagramming sentences. There was a week when she brought in a box stacked high with her own Christie paperbacks, set it down in front of the classroom and had each of us pick a book based solely on the plot summary on the back.…

By Michael D. Shear and Sarah Mervosh WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday openly encouraged right-wing protests of social distancing restrictions in states with stay-at-home orders, a day after announcing guidelines for how the nation’s governors should carry out an orderly reopening of their communities on their own timetables.…

The invention refers to a centrifuge for separating whole blood into its blood components and a method for extracting a highly enriched thrombocyte concentrate out of whole blood. For this purpose, the centrifuge comprises a closed loop and/or open-loop control unit as well as a drive unit coupled to the closed loop and/or open-loop control unit, a rotor (12) having at least two container receptacles (14a, 14b; 16a, 16) for removably holding containers (18, 20, 22, 24) being in fluid communication with each other, at least one sensor arranged between the container receptacles (14a, 14b; 16a, 16b) and coupled with the closed loop and/or open-loop control unit for detecting a separation layer. Herein, a motor/gear unit (30a, 30b, 32a, 32b) coupled to the closed loop and/or open-loop control unit is associated with each of the container receptacles (14a, 14b; 16a, 16b). Each of the motor/gear units is in operational contact through means (34) with each of the containers (18, 20, 22, 24) supported in the respective container receptacle (14a, 14b; 16a, 16b) such that a transfer and back-transfer of blood components between the containers (18, 20, 22, 24) is initiated.

Provided herein are mitochondrial-nuclear exchanged cells and animals comprising mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from one subject and nuclear DNA (nDNA) from a different subject. Methods for producing a mitochondrial-nuclear exchanged animal and animals made by the methods are provided. Also provided are methods of screening for agents useful for treating a disease or disorder using mitochondrial-nuclear exchanged animals or cells, tissues or organs thereof.

The invention concerns a harvested crop residue chopper and distribution arrangement for a combine (10) with a straw chopper (60) with a rotor (74) that can be brought into rotation about a horizontal axis (98) with chopper blades (76) fastened thereto that define an outer envelope (96), and with at least one impeller blower (82) arranged downstream of the straw chopper (60) with impeller blades (84) that can rotate about an axis of rotation (88) that extends vertically, in which the impeller blades (84) are provided with outer edges (94) that conform to the envelope (96) of the chopper knives (76) and follow it very closely and are not in contact with it.