OUR nation’s foundation is built on multiculturalism, which sets Malaysia apart from other countries in the world. We stand out because we have demonstrated to the world how people of all races, religions and cultures can live together in harmony.

There is no place for racism or sexism in this beautiful nation of ours, and all forms to spread any of these must be rejected.

However, two recent allegations highlighted by the National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) are deeply disturbing and pose a threat to the values our proud nation has fought for – that all Malaysians are equal.

It disturbs me that in this day and age, there are still those who resort to racism and sink so low as to call a fellow worker “black”.

It is demeaning to label a person as “black” just because of the person’s skin colour, and such a horrid act should not go unpunished.

As a fellow Malaysian, regardless of religion, I am appalled by such an act and call upon our unity minister to look into this matter and put an end to such practices.

It is our unity that has brought us this far, and now it is time to weed out those who still practise racism and eliminate this culture.

Another reported incident recently highlighted by NUBE involved a woman who was allegedly sexually harassed and bullied, only to be abruptly dismissed a day before Deepavali.

The bank’s excuse that she was dismissed for failing to attend an internal inquiry is utterly pathetic.

Instead, the bank should have offered the victim support and counselling after she endured years of sexual harassment.

According to reports, it is alleged that the perpetrator demanded she sleep with him and even sent her lewd pictures of himself.

Is the bank condoning sexual discrimination? The minister responsible must take immediate action to put an end to such harassment.

Sexual harassment cases must not go unchecked, as they remain a significant issue for many. According to the All Women’s Action Society, such cases are on the rise.

If these cases are reported but go unpunished, it will embolden more perpetrators to become increasingly daring in victimising women.

The two alleged incidents are deeply shocking and should be unequivocally condemned by our society. The relevant ministers and authorities must not turn a blind eye to this issue and must take immediate action to put an end to such practices.

Sarah Ibrahim Daud

Shah Alam

Celebrity couple Tom Holland and Zendaya are the highlight names in the cast for Academy Award-winning director Christopher Nolan's next movie.

If you're fed up with coming home to a mailbox full junk mail, you should know that there are some things you can do to stop it.

The post 4 Ways To Stop Junk Mail appeared first on Clark Howard.

Distinguished guests from the UK, US, Pakistan and other parts of the world participated in conference

In Hard am Bodensee, almost directly on the German-Austrian border, one of the largest and best bowls of Europe is located. This is the location of the Ride Further Tour 2017 from the 2nd - 3rd September with a big stint in the fifth round.

From England have already announced Kriss Kyle, Bas Keep, Matt Priest, Chaz Mailey and Lima Eltham, but that's not all. A total of 16 international pros will go to Hard in the start and then there would be the winners of the four wildcards. Chris Halbritter and Mätti Hilber have already qualified at the BMX Männle Turnier in Tuttlingen, two other wildcards can be won on the 2nd September at the Pre-Quali directly on site. But be careful: the number of participants is limited, so register quickly (register@wayfurther.com)

For more information on the Ride Further Tour 2017 in Hard, visit Facebook.

Retired tennis star Andy Murray will talk about his pro career during a four-show theater tour in Scotland and England in June 2025, his management group announced Tuesday.

Can't Stop Talking is part of our Contemporary Christian Music Library.

Prescient "longshoreman philosopher" Eric Hoffer never heard Iran's hideous, genocidal "Death to Israel" chant, but he would surely have reacted to it and the recent antisemitic barbarity in Amsterdam with what he wrote in the Los Angeles Times in 1968: "The Jews are alone in the world and always will be."

The tour kicks off July 11 in Seattle, concluding on Sept. 13 in Tampa, Florida. It hits San Francisco; Los Angeles; Arlington, Texas; East Rutherford, New Jersey; Philadelphia; Toronto; Chicago; and Boston.

The post My Chemical Romance returns with ‘The Black Parade’ tour, featuring a stop at Fenway appeared first on Boston.com.

May 18, 2006. It had been three days since Diane Pinkins’ husband, Ron, brought their only daughter, Rita, to the ER at Ascension St. Vincent hospital in Indianapolis.   The 27-year-old single mother of four had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia. Now she was in a critical care unit fighting for her life. “It was very devastating. Prayer was just the constant thing that held us all together,” Diane recalls. While on chemotherapy, Rita continued to deteriorate and ten days later...

The value of the FCIA member, FM 4991-approved or UL-ULC qualified firestop contractor comes from the commitment to excellence. These important designations – FM 4991-Approved, UL-Qualified, ULC-Qualified and FCIA Member in Good Standing – are being recognized by 07 84 00 Firestopping specifications in many occupancies around the world.

October product focus on Firestopping/Fireproofing.

ClarkDietrich is giving framing contractors greater flexibility in leveraging the firestopping power of its BlazeFrame family of products with the introduction of BlazeFrame Tape.

Specified Technologies announced that its SpecSeal LC Endothermic Firestop Sealant is now being offered in three colors: deep red, gray and white. Customers have been asking for both the white and gray for gypsum wallboard and concrete block spaces.

I once witnessed a contractor mixing red chalk into a bucket of mud, and when I inquired what he was doing, he responded, “I’m making firestop.”

For many cost estimators, the days of working with full-size plans and a single digitizer are a thing of the past. 

Pittsburgh — A new guide on stop-work authority from the United Steelworkers is aimed at helping workers develop and bargain for programs that allow them to halt unsafe or unhealthy operations and processes until hazards are abated.

Washington – A fall prevention guide recently released by NIOSH aims to help building owners and designers build more safety features into their facilities rather than relying on back-end controls.

Back injuries are among the most common injuries in the workplace, incurring above-average workers’ comp­ensation costs. More than half of these injuries occur when employees try to lift objects.

Here's how fine-tuning your LinkedIn company page can help you network and prospect for quality sales leads, and much more.

Washington — A new guidance document from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is intended to help prevent respiratory illnesses and infections in the workplace.

Flat is a four-letter word when it comes to the economic performance of the security installation channel in 2011. Despite predictions last year for a meager, yet optimistic 1 percent uptick in 2011, expectations did not materialize and total industry revenue neither grew nor fell — keeping at $43.9 billion. Perhaps because of this, integrators and security dealers are now ultra cautious, offering flat projections for 2012.

When a potentially dangerous process requires synchronous action by both hands to release or maintain the operation of a machine, the Duelco line of 2 Hand Control Stations with E-Stop button will effectively ensure the protection of the operator.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists steps employers can take to help minimize the spread of flu.

Histoplasmosis is a non-contagious, non-transmittable infectious disease caused by inhaling the spores of a fungus.

The Cable and Push-Button E-Stop emergency stop device features a unique cam operation for faster positive stopping of metal working machines, yet it is immune to nuisance tripping because of vibrations.

At NeoCon 2024, Floor Trends & Installation met up with AHF Products Chief Commercial Officer Jennifer Zimmerman and Vice President of Commercial Fred Reitz to learn more about the company’s commercial channel strategy, incorporating AHF Contract, Armstrong Flooring, Crossville Tile and Parterre brands.

When most of us heard about the "insect apocalypse" we were worried. When producer Jimmy Gutierrez heard it, he thought "this is great." Today he takes a journey in which he tries to learn to appreciate our many-legged companions.

Want to read a transcript or support the podcast? Check out our website.

Is there really such a thing as a "shy Trump voter"? Who is contacted to take part in pre-election polls? And are they reliable or not?

Author, columnist and political satirist Christopher Buckley entertains and enlightens us as we talk about his writing process. #writing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Too late Group E, Dinamo Moskva 6 games, six victories, 18 points, 9 goals scored, 3 against, passes through to the next round of the Europa League together with PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands). In Group H, Krasnodar had the first victory, away at Everton in the UK (city of Liverpool) but too late. Qualified for the next round: Borussia Mönchengladbach, Villarreal, Club Brugge, Torino, Besiktas, Tottenham, Red Bull Salzburg, Celtic, Inter, Dnipro, Feyenoord, Sevilla, Everton, Wolfsburg, Napoli, Young Boys, Dinamo Kiev, Steaua Bucuresti, Fiorentina, Guingamp, Legia Warsaw, Trabzonspor Played Won Drawn Lost Goals For Against Goal Difference Points

The United States has stopped research into new cancer treatments in Russia, Andrey Kaprin, oncologist at the Russian Ministry of Health, General Director of the National Medical Research Center of Radiology said. According to the expert, the United States independently refused to continue research into new cancer therapy. In particular, the US stopped cooperation on protocols. The corresponding decision of the United States has not affected cancer patients in Russia. On the contrary, domestic fundamental science was given a powerful impetus for development, he noted. "The most important thing that we have come to realise is that we need to create our own,” said the oncologist.

With the UK facing the hot temperatures, many of us will be wondering how to protect tech items from overheating and facing long lasting damage. 

By Craig McPherson, freelance writer.

Think of this. You've got a serious deadline to cover and are working on it. After one hour of work, you turn back to social media for a "state of relaxation". But guess what? You keep on scrolling your favourite social media platform for hours and end up missing the deadline. Sounds familiar, right?

A car exploded on Taras Shevchenko Street in Sevastopol, Crimea. The driver, a Russian serviceman, died from his injuries. The victim is believed to be captain of the first rank of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy. The car exploded as a result of the detonation of an improvised bomb that was attached to the bottom of the vehicle.

Coordinated power shutoffs could help control the wildfires spreading across New York and New Jersey, according to a Virginia Tech expert. These shutoffs could mitigate the risk posed by unseasonably dry conditions and challenging terrain, both of which have made containment efforts especially difficult, said Professor Ali Mehrizi-Sani, a Virginia Tech electrical engineering researcher.

The correct determination of X-ray transmission at X-ray nanoprobes equipped with small beamstops for small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering collection is an unsolved problem with huge implications for data correction pipelines. We present a cost-effective solution to detect the transmission via the X-ray fluorescence of the beamstop with an avalanche photodiode.

Quantitative X-ray diffraction approaches require careful correction for sample transmission. Though this is a routine task at state-of-the-art small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) or diffraction beamlines at synchrotron facilities, the transmission signal cannot be recorded concurrently with SAXS/WAXS when using the small, sub-millimetre beamstops at many X-ray nanoprobes during SAXS/WAXS experiments due to the divergence-limited size of the beamstop and the generally tight geometry. This is detrimental to the data quality and often the only solution is to re-scan the sample with a PIN photodiode as a detector to obtain transmission values. In this manuscript, we present a simple yet effective solution to this problem in the form of a small beamstop with an inlaid metal target for optimal fluorescence yield. This fluorescence can be detected with a high-sensitivity avalanche photodiode and provides a linear counter to determine the sample transmission.

An innovative dual-thickness semi-transparent beamstop designed to enhance the performance of small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments is introduced. This design integrates two absorbers of differing thicknesses side by side into a single attenuator, known as a beamstop. Instead of completely stopping the direct beam, it attenuates it, allowing the SAXS detector to measure the transmitted beam through the sample. This approach achieves true synchronization in measuring both scattered and transmitted signals and effectively eliminates higher-order harmonic contributions when determining the transmission light intensity through the sample. This facilitates and optimizes signal detection and background subtraction. This contribution details the theoretical basis and practical implementation of this solution at the SAXS station on the 1W2A beamline at the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility. It also anticipates its application at other SAXS stations, including that at the forthcoming High Energy Photon Source, providing an effective solution for high-precision SAXS experiments.

Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) enables molecular-resolution 3D imaging of complex biological specimens such as viral particles, cellular sections and, in some cases, whole cells. This enables the structural characterization of molecules in their near-native environments, without the need for purification or separation, thereby preserving biological information such as conformational states and spatial relationships between different molecular species. Subtomogram averaging is an image-processing workflow that allows users to leverage cryo-ET data to identify and localize target molecules, determine high-resolution structures of repeating molecular species and classify different conformational states. Here, STOPGAP, an open-source package for subtomogram averaging that is designed to provide users with fine control over each of these steps, is described. In providing detailed descriptions of the image-processing algorithms that STOPGAP uses, this manuscript is also intended to serve as a technical resource to users as well as for further community-driven software development.

During the automatic processing of crystallographic diffraction experiments, beamstop shadows are often unaccounted for or only partially masked. As a result of this, outlier reflection intensities are integrated, which is a known issue. Traditional statistical diagnostics have only limited effectiveness in identifying these outliers, here termed Not-Excluded-unMasked-Outliers (NEMOs). The diagnostic tool AUSPEX allows visual inspection of NEMOs, where they form a typical pattern: clusters at the low-resolution end of the AUSPEX plots of intensities or amplitudes versus resolution. To automate NEMO detection, a new algorithm was developed by combining data statistics with a density-based clustering method. This approach demonstrates a promising performance in detecting NEMOs in merged data sets without disrupting existing data-reduction pipelines. Re-refinement results indicate that excluding the identified NEMOs can effectively enhance the quality of subsequent structure-determination steps. This method offers a prospective automated means to assess the efficacy of a beamstop mask, as well as highlighting the potential of modern pattern-recognition techniques for automating outlier exclusion during data processing, facilitating future adaptation to evolving experimental strategies.

; Credit: /Joy Ho for NPR

Perhaps the only respite pandemic closures brought to my family — which includes two kids under age 6 — was freedom from the constant misery of dripping noses, sneezes and coughs. And statistics suggest we weren't the only ones who had fewer colds last year: With daycares and in-person schools closed and widespread use of masks and hand sanitizer in most communities, cases of many seasonal respiratory infections went down, and flu cases dropped off a cliff.

That reprieve might be ending. Social mixing has been starting up again in much of the U.S. and so have cases of garden-variety sniffles. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just warned physicians that RSV, a unpleasant respiratory virus, is surging right now in southern states. And it's not just happening in the U.S. — researchers in the U.K. and Hong Kong found that rhinovirus outbreaks spiked there, too, when COVID-19 lockdowns ended.

My family is at the vanguard of this trend. Right after Washington D.C. lifted its mask mandate a few weeks ago, both my kids got runny noses and coughs, and as soon as they tested negative for COVID-19, my pandemic fears were replaced by a familiar dread. I had visions of sleepless, cough-filled nights, dirty tissues everywhere, and — in short order — my own miserable cold.

"If someone in your house is sick, you're not only breathing in their sick air, you're touching those contaminated surfaces. You're having closer contact, you're having longer exposures," says Seema Lakdawala, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who studies how influenza viruses transmit between people. It can start to feel inevitable that the whole family will get sick.

Take heart, my fellow parents-of-adorable-little-germ-machines! Lakdawala says many strategies we all picked up to fight COVID-19 can also stop the spread of many routine respiratory viruses. In fact, they may be even more effective against run-of-the-mill germs, since, unlike the viruses behind most colds, SARS-CoV2 was new to the human immune system.

Those strategies start with everyone keeping their children home from school, camp and playdates when they're sick and keeping up with any and all vaccinations against childhood illnesses. Beyond that, specialists in infectious disease transmission I consulted offer five more tips for keeping my family and yours healthier this summer.

Tip #1: Hang on to those masks

In pre-pandemic times, it might have seemed like a weird move to put on a mask during storytime with your drippy-nosed kid, but Dr. Tina Tan says that's her top tip. She's a professor of pediatrics at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and a pediatric infectious disease physician at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago.

When it comes to influenza, a rhinovirus, or any of the other respiratory bugs constantly circulating, "once these viruses touch your mucous membranes, whether it's your eyes, your nose or your mouth, you do have a chance of contracting it," says Tan. Masks help stop infectious particles and virus-filled droplets from getting into your body.

"You don't need a N95," Tan says. A light-weight surgical mask or homemade cloth mask can work as long as it has two or more layers. The mask-wearing also doesn't have to be constant. "If you're going to be face to face with them — they're sitting in your lap, you're reading to them, you're feeding them, etc. — then I would say wear a mask," Tan advises.

Even better, if it's not too uncomfortable for your sick child, have them wear a mask, Lakdawala says. "If your kids are old enough to wear a mask, that would probably be the best strategy, because then you're reducing the amount of virus-laden aerosols in the environment."

How long should you stay masked-up?

For most respiratory viruses, "the infectious period is probably similar to that of COVID," says Dr. Jennifer Shu, a pediatrician in Atlanta and medical editor of the American Academy of Pediatrics' site HealthyChildren.org. It might technically start a few days before symptoms begin and last for up to two weeks, but your sniffly kids are likely most contagious during those first runny-nosed days Shu says. "You could have kids over [age] 2 wear a mask for the first three or four days of symptoms," she suggests.

And if you can't bring yourself to wear a mask or put one on your child inside your own home to fight a cold, don't worry. Lakdawala has a few more ideas.

Tip #2: Air it out, space it out

When Lakdawala's 5- and 8-year-old kids get sick, "I open the windows, I turn on the fans, I get a lot more air circulation going on in the house," she says — that is, weather and allergies permitting, of course.

"A lot of these viruses tend to circulate more during the colder weather, so where you live is going to determine how much you can open your windows," Tan points out. But certainly, she says, "the better the ventilation, the less likely the viruses are going to get transmitted from one person to another."

What about buying HEPA filter air purifiers, or changing the filter in your heating and air conditioning system? "I would not suggest going out to purchase extra HEPA filters just for this purpose," says Dr. Ibukun Kalu, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Duke University. For hospitals that are treating very contagious and serious pathogens like tuberculosis or SARS-CoV2, those upgrades may be important, she says. "But for all of the other routine viruses, it's routine ventilation."

Kalu says you might also want to think strategically about creating some social distance — when it's possible — like strategically having the parent who tends not to get as sick provide the one-on-one care for the sick kid.

Obviously, you can't isolate a sick child in a room by themselves until they recover, but Lakdawala says not getting too close or for too long can help. When her kids are sick, "I do try to just not snuggle them — keep them a little bit at a distance."

Tip #3: Don't try to be a HAZMAT team

There's good news on the house-cleaning front. "Most of these viruses don't live on surfaces for very long periods of time," says Tan.

The research on exactly how long cold-causing rhinoviruses can survive on surfaces — and how likely they are to remain infectious — isn't definitive. As Dr. Donald Goldmann of Boston Children's Hospital poetically put it in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal a couple decades ago, "Despite many years of study, from the plains of Salisbury, to the hills of Virginia, to the collegiate environment of Madison, WI, the precise routes rhinovirus takes to inflict the misery of the common cold on a susceptible population remain controversial." That's still true today, doctors say.

There's some evidence that contaminated surfaces are not very important in the spread of colds. In one little study from the 1980s, a dozen healthy men played poker with cards and chips that "were literally gummy" from the secretions of eight other men who had been infected with a rhinovirus as part of the study. Even after 12 hours of poker, none of the healthy volunteers caught colds.

Shu's take home advice? Be methodical in your cleaning of often-touched surfaces (kitchen table, countertops and the like) with soap and water when everybody's healthy, and maybe add bleach wipes or other disinfectant when someone in your household has a cold. But don't panic.

Tan agrees. "Wipe down frequently-touched surfaces multiple times a day," she says. "But you don't have to go crazy and, like, scour everything down with bleach."

You also don't need to do a lot of extra laundry in hopes of eliminating germs on clothes, towels, dishtowels and the like — that can be exhausting and futile. Instead, just try to encourage kids who are sick to use their own towel — and do what you can to give towels a chance to dry out between uses. "Having some common sense and doing laundry every few days — washing your towels every few days and washing your sheets every couple of weeks — is probably good enough," Shu says. "You don't need to go overboard for run-of-the-mill viruses."

Don't fret that there are germs everywhere and you can't touch anything, says Lakdawala. "If I touch something, that -- in itself — is not infecting me," she notes. Instead, it's getting a certain amount of virus on our hands and then touching our own nose, eyes or mouth that can infect us. "If I just go wash my hands, that risk is gone," Lakdawala says.

You can also skip wearing gloves around the house. "People think that they are safe when they're wearing the gloves — and then they touch their face with their gloves [on]" and infect themselves, she says.

Instead, just make it a habit to wash your hands frequently.

Tip #4: Seriously, just wash your hands

"The same handwashing guidelines for COVID also apply for common respiratory illnesses," Shu says. That is: regular soap with warm water, lathered for about 20 seconds.

"The reason why 20 seconds is recommended is because some studies show that washing your hands shorter than that doesn't really get rid of germs." She warns that there hasn't been a whole lot of research on this, and 20 seconds is not a magic number. "But it is thought that anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds is probably good enough to get rid of most of the germs," she says. (Note: No need to drive your family crazy singing the birthday song twice — y'all have options.)

"Wash your hands before you eat, after you eat, after you go to the bathroom ... if you're changing your child's diaper, et cetera.," says Tan. "And if you're going to use hand sanitizer, it has to be at least 60% alcohol."

"Your hands are probably the most important source of transmission outside of someone really coughing or sneezing in your face," Kalu adds.

Tip #5: Don't give up, but do keep perspective

So, what if your beloved child does cough or sneeze in your face? Should you then forget all this stuff and just give in to the inevitable?

Don't give up, says Lakdawala. "Just because you got one large exposure in your mouth and in close range, it doesn't mean that that was sufficient to initiate an infection," she says. Whether you get sick from that germy onslaught is going to depend on a lot of things — the particular virus, whether the sneeze landed in your mouth or nose, whether you've been exposed to some version of that virus before and more.

One tiny positive side effect of the coronavirus pandemic for Lakdawala has been a broader public understanding of "dose-response" in viral transmission. "Just because somebody breathed on you once doesn't necessarily mean that that's what's going to get you infected," she says.

Consider practicing the swiss cheese model of transmission control, Shu says. "Every layer of protection helps — if you find that wearing a face shield is too much, but you do everything else, you're still going to limit your exposure," she says. Just do what works for you and your family.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Patrick Doherty volunteered for a new medical intervention of gene-editor infusions for the treatment of genetically-based diseases.; Credit: /Patrick Doherty

Patrick Doherty had always been very active. He trekked the Himalayas and hiked trails in Spain.

But about a year and a half ago, he noticed pins and needles in his fingers and toes. His feet got cold. And then he started getting out of breath any time he walked his dog up the hills of County Donegal in Ireland where he lives.

"I noticed on some of the larger hill climbs I was getting a bit breathless," says Doherty, 65. "So I realized something was wrong."

Doherty found out he had a rare, but devastating inherited disease — known as transthyretin amyloidosis — that had killed his father. A misshapen protein was building up in his body, destroying important tissues, such as nerves in his hands and feet and his heart.

Doherty had watched others get crippled and die difficult deaths from amyloidosis.

"It's terrible prognosis," Doherty says. "This is a condition that deteriorates very rapidly. It's just dreadful."

So Doherty was thrilled when he found out that doctors were testing a new way to try to treat amyloidosis. The approach used a revolutionary gene-editing technique called CRISPR, which allows scientists to make very precise changes in DNA.

"I thought: Fantastic. I jumped at the opportunity," Doherty says.

On Saturday, researchers reported the first data indicating that the experimental treatment worked, causing levels of the destructive protein to plummet in Doherty's body and the bodies of five other patients treated with the approach.

"I feel fantastic," Doherty says. "It's just phenomenal."

The advance is being hailed not just for amyloidosis patients but also as a proof-of-concept that CRISPR could be used to treat many other, much more common diseases. It's a new way of using the innovative technology.

"This is a major milestone for patients," says Jennifer Doudna of the University of California, Berkeley, who shared a Nobel Prize for her work helping develop CRISPR.

"While these are early data, they show us that we can overcome one of the biggest challenges with applying CRISPR clinically so far, which is being able to deliver it systemically and get it to the right place," Doudna says.

CRISPR has already been shown to help patients suffering from the devastating blood disorders sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. And doctors are trying to use it to treat cancer and to restore vision to people blinded by a rare genetic disorder.

But those experiments involve taking cells out of the body, editing them in the lab, and infusing them back in or injecting CRISPR directly into cells that need fixing.

The study Doherty volunteered for is the first in which doctors are simply infusing the gene-editor directly into patients and letting it find its own way to the right gene in the right cells. In this case, it's cells in the liver making the destructive protein.

"This is the first example in which CRISPR-Cas9 is injected directly into the bloodstream — in other words systemic administration — where we use it as a way to reach a tissue that's far away from the site of injection and very specifically use it to edit disease-causing genes," says John Leonard, the CEO of Intellia Therapeutics, which is sponsoring the study.

Doctors infused billions of microscopic structures known as nanoparticles carrying genetic instructions for the CRISPR gene-editor into four patients in London and two in New Zealand. The nanoparticles were absorbed by their livers, where they unleashed armies of CRISPR gene-editors. The CRISPR editor honed in on the target gene in the liver and sliced it, disabling production of the destructive protein.

Within weeks, the levels of protein causing the disease plummeted. Researchers reported at the Peripheral Nerve Society Annual Meeting and in a paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

"It really is exciting," says Dr. Julian Gillmore, who is leading the study at the University College London, Royal Free Hospital.

"This has the potential to completely revolutionize the outcome for these patients who have lived with this disease in their family for many generations. It's decimated some families that I've been looking after. So this is amazing," Gillmore says.

The patients will have to be followed longer, and more patients will have to be treated, to make sure the treatment's safe, and determine how much it's helping, Gillmore stresses. But the approach could help those struck by amyloidosis that isn't inherited, which is a far more common version of the disease, he says.

Moreover, the promising results potentially open the door for using the same approach to treatment of many other, more common diseases for which taking cells out of the body or directly injecting CRISPR isn't realistic, including heart disease, muscular dystrophy and brain diseases such as Alzheimer's.

"This is really opening a new era as we think about gene-editing where we can begin to think about accessing all kinds of different tissue in the body via systemic administration," Leonard says.

Other scientists who are not involved in the research agree.

"This is a wonderful day for the future of gene-editing as a medicine,"
agree Fyodor Urnov, a professor of genetics at the University of California, Berkeley. "We as a species are watching this remarkable new show called: our gene-edited future."

Doherty says he started feeling better within weeks of the treatment and has continued to improve in the weeks since then.

"I definitely feel better," he told NPR. "I'm speaking to you from upstairs in our house. I climbed stairs to get up here. I would have been feeling breathless. I'm thrilled."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

For two decades now, and counting, the LANDFIRE program continues to assemble the most easy-to-use, intuitive and complete clearinghouse of remote sensing data products for wildland fire managers. 

“The technology services industry, at some level, is recession proof,” Premji said at the company’s 76th annual general meeting on Tuesday. “In good times, clients spend on new initiatives and business transformation and serving customers digitally. They focus on reducing costs when times are not so good,” he said addressing a question on inflation concerns.

The Catawba County Sheriff�s Office, in conjunction with The Cognitive Connection and The Foothills Coalition, is sponsoring an Operation Pill Stoppers program that now provides fixed locations for citizens to properly dispose of their unused and unwanted medications.

A customer walks behind a sign at a Nordstrom in Coral Gables, Fla., store seeking employees in May.; Credit: Marta Lavandier/AP

Two organizations filed a lawsuit against Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb in an attempt to block the state's push to end pandemic unemployment benefits on June 19.

Indiana Legal Services, an organization providing free legal assistance, and the Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis filed the lawsuit on behalf of five unnamed plaintiffs who are set to lose their jobless benefits. The complaint was filed Monday in Marion County Superior Court.

This lawsuit may be the first of its kind that aims to stop states from ending these benefits earlier than Congress mandated.

The unemployment insurance program "has served as a vital lifeline for thousands of Hoosiers," the complaint, reviewed by NPR, says. "By prematurely deciding t0 stop administering these federal benefits, Indiana has violated the clear mandates 0f Indiana's unemployment statute—to secure all rights and benefits available for unemployed individuals."

Indiana is one of 25 Republican-led states that decided to end jobless aid in an effort to get people to return to work. Indiana and seven other states are set to end expanded unemployment benefits as soon as this weekend. This is despite Congress's authorization for extra payments until early September.

Those benefits include the extra $300 a week in federal aid and the special pandemic program for gig workers that allows them to receive jobless benefits. Ordinarily, independent contractors wouldn't be eligible.

Plaintiffs, as well as many other Indiana residents, rely entirely on the unemployment benefits to pay for food and rent and to care for their families, the complaint alleges.

Attorneys in this case are requesting the judge approve a preliminary injunction that would allow people to receive their benefits while the case continues.

Holcomb says it's time to get back to work

Holcomb told The Indianapolis Star that people no longer need unemployment benefits as the state has a plethora of jobs open.

"Eliminating these pandemic programs will not be a silver bullet for employers to find employees, but we currently have about 116,000 available jobs in the state that need filled now," he said.

According to the governor's office, Indiana's unemployment rate has recovered to 3.9% after climbing to 17% at the height of the pandemic.

The lawsuit challenges Holcomb's assertion.

Each of the five plaintiffs say they are unable to return to work due to lingering injuries or disability, health conditions that put them at risk for COVID-19 exposure, dependent children at home and no childcare available, or no positions that are available in their career field.

Workers of color feel the loss of unemployment the most

The National Employment Law Project says ending these jobless benefits early threatens the livelihoods of workers of color the most.

Millions of Americans still heavily rely on jobless aid as the country slowly reopens from pandemic-induced lockdowns, according to the organization.

As of May 22, more than 15.3 million people still needed some form of unemployment benefit—nearly twice the number who received payments when the aid programs began in late March 2020, NELP said.

According to its analysis, over 46% of unemployment insurance recipients in the states ending the programs early are people of color.

"The brunt of the impact will be felt by Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other people of color," NELP says.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has ordered the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to suspend all work on a study to review and update the bureau’s offshore oil and gas operations inspection program to enhance safety.

A new congressionally mandated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine takes a comprehensive look at evidence on the human health effects of e-cigarettes.

The Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education today released three new individually authored publications to serve as resources for higher education institutions as they work to prevent sexual harassment and mitigate the damage it causes.