Malignant pleural effusions (MPE) tend to recur and require definitive treatment with either chest drain and talc pleurodesis or indwelling pleural catheters (IPCs), which offer similar symptomatic benefits. In recent years, IPCs have become popular due to the presumed convenience of an outpatient procedure followed by home drainage leading to a misconception of IPCs being an ideal treatment for MPE. However, IPCs predispose the patient to multiple complications and have significant physical and psychological implications that are under-recognised. Patients require additional clinical reviews, hospital admissions and treatment for these complications related to IPCs. Additionally, there is a huge psychological impact of living with a home catheter that is a constant reminder of their cancer and this has been shown to affect quality of life negatively. Hence, IPCs should not be considered the "ideal" treatment for MPE management and clinicians should reflect the equipoise of the evidence for the benefits and accurately reflect the adverse effects of IPCs in their discussions with patients to facilitate informed decision making.

The experts behind Beyoncé, Kerry Washington and Serena Williams' tresses reveal their all-time favorite products for natural hair.

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The business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has called for a change of culture at the Post Office, as he gave evidence to the inquiry into the Horizon scandal.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has issued a call for proposals for its Centre for Advanced Research (CAR) initiative under the Extramural Research Programme, inviting experienced research teams to

Culture may play a role in how birds build collectively in the Kalahari Desert

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a robotic prosthetic ankle that can provide stability for lower limb amputees. The ankle uses electromyographic sensors placed on the sites of muscles in the residual limb that then convey the intentions of the wearer with regard to movement. So far, the system has been shown to […]

Neuralink’s visual prosthesis Blindsight has been designated a breakthrough device by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which potentially sets the technology on a fast track to approval.

In confirming the news, an FDA spokesperson emphasized that the designation does not mean that Blindsight is yet considered safe or effective. Technologies in the program have potential to improve the current standard of care and are novel compared to what’s available on the market, but the devices still have to go through full clinical trials before seeking FDA approval.

Still, the announcement is a sign that Neuralink is moving closer to testing Blindsight in human patients. The company is recruiting people with vision loss for studies in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Visual prostheses work by capturing visual information with a video camera, typically attached to glasses or a headset. Then a processor converts the data to an electrical signal that can be relayed to the nervous system. Retinal implants have been a common approach, with electrodes feeding the signal to nerves in the retina, at the back of the eye, from where it travels on to the brain. But Blindsight uses a brain implant to send the signal directly to neurons in the visual cortex.

In recent years, other companies developing artificial vision prosthetics have reached clinical research trials or beyond, only to struggle financially, leaving patients without support. Some of these technologies live on with new backing: Second Sight’s Orion cortical implant project is now in a clinical trial with Cortigent, and Pixium Vision’s Prima system is now owned by Science, with ex-Neuralink founder Max Hodak at the helm. No company has yet commercialized a visual prosthetic that uses a brain implant.

Elon Musk’s Claims About Blindsight

Very little information about Blindsight is publicly available. As of this writing, there is no official Blindsight page on the Neuralink website, and Neuralink did not respond to requests for comment. It’s also unclear how exactly Blindsight relates to a brain-computer interface that Neuralink has already implanted in two people with paralysis, who use their devices to control computer cursors.

Experts who spoke with IEEE Spectrum felt that, if judged against the strong claims made by Neuralink’s billionaire co-founder Elon Musk, Blindsight will almost certainly disappoint. However, some were still open to the possibility that Neuralink could successfully bring a device to market that can help people with vision loss, albeit with less dramatic effects on their sense of sight. While Musk’s personal fortune could help Blindsight weather difficulties that would end other projects, experts did not feel it was a guarantee of success.

After Neuralink announced on X (formerly Twitter) that Blindsight had received the breakthrough device designation, Musk wrote:

The Blindsight device from Neuralink will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see.

Provided the visual cortex is intact, it will even enable those who have been blind from birth to see for the first time.

To set expectations correctly, the vision will be at first be [sic] low resolution, like Atari graphics, but eventually it has the potential be [sic] better than natural vision and enable you to see in infrared, ultraviolet or even radar wavelengths, like Geordi La Forge.

Musk included a picture of La Forge, a character from the science-fiction franchise Star Trek who wears a vision-enhancing visor.

Experts Puncture the Blindsight Hype

“[Musk] will build the best cortical implant we can build with current technology. It will not produce anything like normal vision. [Yet] it might produce vision that can transform the lives of blind people,” said Ione Fine, a computational neuroscientist at the University of Washington, who has written about the potential limitations of cortical implants, given the complexity of the human visual system. Fine previously worked for the company Second Sight.

A successful visual prosthetic might more realistically be thought of as assistive technology than a cure for blindness. “At best, we’re talking about something that’s augmentative to a cane and a guide dog; not something that replaces a cane and a guide dog,” said Philip Troyk, a biomedical engineer at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Restoring natural vision is beyond the reach of today’s technology. But among Musks recent claims, Troyk says that a form of infrared sensing is plausible and has already been tested with one of his patients, who used it for help locating people within a room. That patient has a 400-electrode device implanted in the visual cortex as part of a collaborative research effort called the Intracortical Visual Prosthesis Project (ICVP). By comparison, Blindsight may have more than 1,000 electrodes, if it’s a similar device to Neuralink’s brain-computer interface.

Experts say they’d like more information about Neuralink’s visual prosthetic. “I’m leery about the fact that they are very superficial in their description of the devices,” said Gislin Dagnelie, a vision scientist at Johns Hopkins University who has been involved in multiple clinical trials for vision prosthetics, including a Second Sight retinal implant, and who is currently collaborating on the ICVP. “There’s no clear evaluation or pre-clinical work that has been published,” says Dagnelie. “It’s all based on: ‘Trust us, we’re Neuralink.’”

In the short term, too much hype could mislead clinical trial participants. It could also degrade interest in small but meaningful advancements in visual prosthetics. “Some of the [Neuralink] technology is exciting, and has potential,” said Troyk. “The way the messaging is being done detracts from that, potentially.”

Sep 3, 2015

The New Harvest argues that Africa can feed itself in a generation and help contribute to global food security despite its history of persistent food shortages and the rising threat of climate change. This new edition provides ideas on how to place agriculture at the center of the continent's long-term economic transformation. It demonstrates how policy coordination can help realize agriculture's full potential as a motherboard for other economic activities.

The full text of The New Harvest is available here.

hello products are a solution to the struggle at the sink. This advertisement shows the frustrations moms and dads can face when it�s brush time and they need to negotiate with their kids to brush.

Natural Light lamps, handheld solar lamps, are now bringing light and a better life to people in Zambia. The lamps are particularly crucial in Zambia as only 20 per cent of the population have access to electricity. When darkness falls, the remainder live without electric power, with their only light source being paraffin lamps, candles or bonfires. Even childbirth at night must often take place by the light of a mobile phone alone.

Explore RIBA's online collection with Google Arts & Culture, featuring new virtual tours and stories.

Here’s a thing I keep noticing, and it drives me nuts. In Italy, a ship captain is arrested for bringing immigrants to shore after rescuing from them near death at sea: The number of migrants reaching Italy’s shores has drastically diminished – just 2,800 so far this year – and the country is now led […]

Fibres in wet wipes and clothes often make their way into soil - and natural versions could be more damaging than synthetic ones

Plans for a four-year programme of cultural events ahead of the 2012 Olympics are announced in London.

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More than 5 billion people could suffer water shortages by 2050 due to climate change, Pincreased demand and polluted supplies, concluded the UN’s 2018 report on the state of the world’s water.

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Many individuals express concerns about the presence of chemicals, contaminants, or microplastics in their food. However, it's lesser-known that many

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AGRIS is a comprehensive bibliographic database focused on agriculture and nutrition, while AGROVOC is a multilingual thesaurus covering a wide range of agricultural terms.

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Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural systems is crucial to keeping the world on track to meet international climate goals.

The post Report – Countries must scale up the use of clean technologies to transform the global agricultural sector  first appeared on International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

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IWMI researchers call for careful planning, environmentally responsible water management and active community participation to ensure long-term success of irrigation projects in Nepal.

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UNDP and IWMI announced a joint initiative to assist smallholder farmers and small- to medium-sized enterprises to adopt circular economy models for the coffee and rice value chains.

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IWMI researchers comment on the importance of preserving Colombo's wetland ecosystem as the city becomes more vulnerable to flooding.

The post From wastelands to wetlands: The fight to save Sri Lanka’s natural flood buffers first appeared on International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

Discover how Cannabinol (CBN) found in cannabis can improve sleep, based on groundbreaking research from the University of Sydney.

Hypertension (high blood pressure) cases are on the rise. Practicing static isometric exercises (workouts that involve engaging muscles without movement)

Burning incense, a widespread practice in cultural and religious rituals, poses substantial health risks for people with allergies and asthma as per a

Cannabinol (CBN), a compound found in cannabis can improve sleep. Research by scientists at the University of Sydney has found that CBN increases sleep in rats (!--ref1--).

Baby's Bliss Nipple Cream for Mommies Certified by Natural Product Association; One of Few Baby Companies to Receive Nat

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Insufficient green spaces and chronic exposure to medlinkair pollution/medlink can lead to more frequent hospital stays for respiratory illnesses (!--ref1--).

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1.Unappropriate arrangements of supper: Many people have the habit of eating simple for breakfast and lunch. However, when comes to time of eating with families in the evening, they will take no scruples of whether it is chicken,...

Every visitor thinks about the Taj Mahal when they make any trip to India. Regularly considered to be one of the seventh wonder of the world, Taj Mahal should be explored by all visitors at least once in the whole life. About this...

India's fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector grew 5.7 per cent by value and 4.1 per cent by volume in the July-September quarter driven by rural demand which grew faster than urban markets for the third consecutive quarter, according to the latest report by consumer intelligence firm NielsenIQ.

In an exemplary action against laxity in rural development projects, Deputy Commissioner Vishesh Mahajan has ordered the withholding of salaries for the entire Rural Development Department, including engineering staff, citing unsatisfactory progress on developmental works.

There has been a 60 per cent rise in the average FMCG basket size among India's rural consumers in the last two years, driven by a growing preference for convenience products, according to the latest Group M and Kantar report released on Monday.

The Centre on Tuesday said it has released 15th Finance Commission grants for FY25 for rural local bodies in Kerala worth Rs 266.8 crore, along with Rs 27 crore for rural local bodies in Meghalaya (for FY22), for addressing location-specific needs.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that U.S. natural gas consumption reached a record high in January at 118 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). A burst of cold weather increased demand for heating and reduced natural gas production, which led to high inventory withdrawals.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects the benchmark Henry Hub spot price to average about $2.25 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in 2024, a 10% decrease from 2023 and a 65% decrease from 2022. In its March Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), EIA forecasts that U.S. natural gas inventories will be more than 30% higher than average at the end of the winter season following relatively low winter demand.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects that the United States will generate more electricity from renewables and coal in the second half of this year, as electricity demand and natural gas prices increase.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has several sets of data on the domestic production of crude oil and natural gas. Depending on your interests, the resources below can help you find the crude oil and natural gas data you need.

Natural gas produced from the three largest tight oil-producing plays in the United States has increased in the last decade. Natural gas comprised 40% of total production from the Bakken, the Eagle Ford, and the Permian compared with 29% in 2014.

1. Mr. Devansh Mohta, learned Counsel assisted by Mr. Vikram Rajkhowa, learned Counsel is present on behalf of the Applicant in Miscellaneous Application No.31/2023/EZ.

2. Arguments could not be concluded today.

1

3. On the request of the Counsel for the parties, put up this matter for further hearing on 25.11.2024.

4. List on 25.11.2024 for further hearing.

..................................... B. Amit Sthalekar, JM ............................................. Dr. Arun Kumar Verma, EM November 11, 2024, Original Application No.44/2020/EZ With Miscellaneous Application No.31/2023/EZ In Original Application No.43/2020/EZ SKB

The 'preliminary report' dated 24.07.2020 filed by the Expert Committee constituted by this Tribunal vide order dated 24.06.2020 is taken on record. On the request of learned Counsel appearing for the parties, adjourned to 06.08.2020. Liberty to file further submission, if any, before the next date.

Adarsh Kumar Goel, CP S. P. Wangdi, JM Dr. Nagin Nanda, EM July 29, 2020 Original Application No. 43/2020(EZ) & Original Application No. 44/2020(EZ) DV