Historically, the intestinal lymphatics were considered passive conduits for fluids, immune cells, dietary lipids, lipid soluble vitamins, and lipophilic drugs. Studies of intestinal lymphatic drug delivery in the late 20th century focused primarily on the drugs’ physicochemical properties, especially high lipophilicity, that resulted in intestinal lymphatic transport. More recent discoveries have changed our traditional view by demonstrating that the lymphatics are active, plastic, and tissue-specific players in a range of biological and pathological processes, including within the intestine. These findings have, in turn, inspired exploration of lymph-specific therapies for a range of diseases, as well as the development of more sophisticated strategies to actively deliver drugs or vaccines to the intestinal lymph, including a range of nanotechnologies, lipid prodrugs, and lipid-conjugated materials that "hitchhike" onto lymphatic transport pathways. With the increasing development of novel therapeutics such as biologics, there has been interest in whether these therapeutics are absorbed and transported through intestinal lymph after oral administration. Here we review the current state of understanding of the anatomy and physiology of the gastrointestinal lymphatic system in health and disease, with a focus on aspects relevant to drug delivery. We summarize the current state-of-the-art approaches to deliver drugs and quantify their uptake into the intestinal lymphatic system. Finally, and excitingly, we discuss recent examples of significant pharmacokinetic and therapeutic benefits achieved via intestinal lymphatic drug delivery. We also propose approaches to advance the development and clinical application of intestinal lymphatic delivery strategies in the future.

There has been fallout. Speaker Nathan Cooper is said to have decreed guests will never again be seated inside the legislative chamber.

The post Edmonton activist protests climate crisis with demonstration in AB legislature appeared first on rabble.ca.

"I look forward to any contest, where of course it will be for branch members to select those they wish to represent them in Holyrood in the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections.”

Remedy's Alan Wake 2 has now "recouped most of its development and marketing expenses", CEO Tero Virtala has announced in a business review for January-September 2024. Speaking as somebody who would quite like there to be more Alan Wake games - or at least, moderately weird and pretty decent blockbuster singleplayer horror games - I am both pleased by this news and a little troubled that Remedy's eldritch forest fable (which came out in October 2023) has yet to break even.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: And in the day’s other news: A federal judge in Hawaii struck down the Trump administration’s latest travel ban.

That temporarily blocks enforcement of the order nationwide, but the Justice Department says it will appeal. The ban extended to six mostly Muslim nations, plus North Korea and Venezuela.

Pennsylvania Congressman Tom Marino withdrew today from consideration to be President Trump’s drug czar. That followed an investigation by The Washington Post and CBS News. They found Marino was key in passing a 2016 law that limits the Drug Enforcement Administration’s ability to rein in opioid distribution.

A new verbal battle has broken out between the president and Republican Senator John McCain. It began last night in Philadelphia, when the Arizona senator and former Vietnam POW appeared to criticize Mr. Trump and his followers. He cited a list of failings.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-Ariz.: To fear the world we have organized and led for three-quarters-of-a-century, to abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

JUDY WOODRUFF: The president answered by saying, “At some point, I fight back, and it won’t be pretty.”

In turn, McCain said, “I have faced tougher adversaries.”

In Afghanistan, Taliban bombings and shootings left at least 74 people dead today. The worst was Paktika province in the east, where two car bombs killed dozens, including the provincial police chief, and wounded more than 100 others. Taliban militants also staged attacks in the south and west of the country.

In Syria, militia forces backed by the U.S. say they have retaken the Islamic State group’s de facto capital. The city of Raqqa had been under ISIS control since 2014. The battle to recapture it began in June. Today, Kurdish-led fighters celebrated as they moved into the city center. The U.S. military said 90 percent of Raqqa has been taken, with pockets of militants remaining.

There’s word that U.S. airstrikes in Yemen killed dozens of Islamic State fighters on Monday. The strikes were apparently carried out by drones. The Pentagon says the targets were training camps for recruits.

In Northern Iraq, Kurdish forces withdrew from more territory today, as Iraqi government troops advanced. It came on the heels of the Kurds’ vote for independence. Federal forces and allied militia had already forced the Kurds to leave the area in and around Kirkuk and its oil fields.

Iraq’s prime minister said that paves the way for talks.

HAIDER AL-ABADI, Prime Minister, Iraq (through interpreter): I call for dialogue on the basis of partnership in one country and under the Constitution. The referendum is finished and has become a thing from the past. We hoped that they would cancel it, but we have finished it on the ground.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Meanwhile, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, insisted that the referendum will not be in vain.

Another 10,000 to 15,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Buddhist Myanmar for Bangladesh over the weekend. Drone video showed snaking lines of refugees making the trek to already crowded camps. Many told of villages torched by mobs and soldiers. Others said they were starved out of their homes.

Back in this country, a new fire broke out in the San Francisco Bay Area, just as crews had made major progress against other fires in Northern California. Thick smoke billowed from the new site early today, as it burned through forests in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Weary fire crews said they’re calling in more help.

ROB SHERMAN, Division Chief, Cal Fire: So, the idea is to hit it pretty hard with aircraft and then go ahead and hit it with the ground resources at the same time. We have had north winds, a lot of drying, and everything’s really, really dry. So it’s challenging.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In Southern California, yet another fire spread on Mount Wilson, about 25 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. It threatened a historic observatory and communications towers.

President Trump’s overall wealth has taken a hit, as his New York real estate loses some of its luster. Forbes ranks him 248 this year on its list of the 400 wealthiest Americans. That’s down nearly 100 points from last year. His estimated worth is $3.1 billion.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates again tops the list. He’s worth nearly $90 billion.

And on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average traded above 23,000 for the first time. In the end, it gained 40 points to close at 22997. The Nasdaq fell a fraction, and the S&P 500 added one point.

The post News Wrap: Trump’s latest travel ban blocked by federal judge appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

Radio astronomers teamed up with SpaceX to find a promising solution for helping expensive telescopes avoid interference from thousands of Starlink satellites

The European Space Agency is sending a probe to get a closer look at the asteroid Dimorphos, which had its orbit altered by NASA’s DART mission in 2022

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AI companies hope that feeding ever more data to their models will continue to boost performance, eventually leading to human-level intelligence. Behind this hope is the "transformer", a key breakthrough in AI, but what happens if it fails to deliver?

In a basement beneath City St George's, University of London, senior NATO leaders watch on as four research teams demonstrate the latest in AI-controlled, autonomous drone technolo0gy

CAPTCHA tests are supposed to distinguish humans from bots, but an AI system mastered the problem after training on thousands of images of road scenes

Joe Marler discussed his recent comments about the Haka, which sparked backlash.

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Senate Republicans on Wednesday will elect a new party leader for the first time in nearly two decades.

Around 25 per cent of the world’s population has intestinal parasite infections – these could hinder the effectiveness of covid-19 vaccines, according to research in mice

A new test spots Lyme disease faster than the existing go-to approach and, if approved, could reduce the risk of complications

Levels of certain cells, fatty molecules and proteins in the blood are different in people with chronic fatigue syndrome than in those without it, which could help doctors spot the condition sooner

ALS, the most common form of motor neuron disease, can take a long time to diagnose, but a blood test could help doctors spot the condition sooner

A chemical produced by gut bacteria could be the basis for a non-invasive test for endometriosis – and mouse experiments suggest it might also help treat the condition

From the benefits of fermented foods to diets that promise a better hormone balance, there is a confusing array of dietary advice out there

A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that some dairy farm employees showed signs of infection, even when they didn’t report feeling sick. The CDC concluded that more bird flu testing of dairy farm employees is required. According to Dr. Nirav Shah, the CDC’s principal... Continue Reading

In the first quarter of Monday's Dolphins-Rams game, ESPN reported that Tyreek Hill said a torn ligament in his wrist became worst after he was detained by police.

Boston Dynamics is the master of dropping amazing robot videos with no warning, and last week, we got a surprise look at the new electric Atlas going “hands on” with a practical factory task.

This video is notable because it’s the first real look we’ve had at the new Atlas doing something useful—or doing anything at all, really, as the introductory video from back in April (the first time we saw the robot) was less than a minute long. And the amount of progress that Boston Dynamics has made is immediately obvious, with the video showing a blend of autonomous perception, full body motion, and manipulation in a practical task.

We sent over some quick questions as soon as we saw the video, and we’ve got some extra detail from Scott Kuindersma, senior director of Robotics Research at Boston Dynamics.

If you haven’t seen this video yet, what kind of robotics person are you, and also here you go:

Atlas is autonomously moving engine covers between supplier containers and a mobile sequencing dolly. The robot receives as input a list of bin locations to move parts between.

Atlas uses a machine learning (ML) vision model to detect and localize the environment fixtures and individual bins [0:36]. The robot uses a specialized grasping policy and continuously estimates the state of manipulated objects to achieve the task.

There are no prescribed or teleoperated movements; all motions are generated autonomously online. The robot is able to detect and react to changes in the environment (e.g., moving fixtures) and action failures (e.g., failure to insert the cover, tripping, environment collisions [1:24]) using a combination of vision, force, and proprioceptive sensors.

Eagle-eyed viewers will have noticed that this task is very similar to what we saw hydraulic Atlas (Atlas classic?) working on just before it retired. We probably don’t need to read too much into the differences between how each robot performs that task, but it’s an interesting comparison to make.

For more details, here’s our Q&A with Kuindersma:

How many takes did this take?

Kuindersma: We ran this sequence a couple times that day, but typically we’re always filming as we continue developing and testing Atlas. Today we’re able to run that engine cover demo with high reliability, and we’re working to expand the scope and duration of tasks like these.

Is this a task that humans currently do?

Kuindersma: Yes.

What kind of world knowledge does Atlas have while doing this task?

Kuindersma: The robot has access to a CAD model of the engine cover that is used for object pose prediction from RGB images. Fixtures are represented more abstractly using a learned keypoint prediction model. The robot builds a map of the workcell at startup which is updated on the fly when changes are detected (e.g., moving fixture).

Does Atlas’s torso have a front or back in a meaningful way when it comes to how it operates?

Kuindersma: Its head/torso/pelvis/legs do have “forward” and “backward” directions, but the robot is able to rotate all of these relative to one another. The robot always knows which way is which, but sometimes the humans watching lose track.

Are the head and torso capable of unlimited rotation?

Kuindersma: Yes, many of Atlas’s joints are continuous.

How long did it take you folks to get used to the way Atlas moves?

Kuindersma: Atlas’s motions still surprise and delight the team.

OSHA recommends against squatting because it can lead to workplace injuries. How does Atlas feel about that?

Kuindersma: As might be evident by some of Atlas’s other motions, the kinds of behaviors that might be injurious for humans might be perfectly fine for robots.

Can you describe exactly what process Atlas goes through at 1:22?

Kuindersma: The engine cover gets caught on the fabric bins and triggers a learned failure detector on the robot. Right now this transitions into a general-purpose recovery controller, which results in a somewhat jarring motion (we will improve this). After recovery, the robot retries the insertion using visual feedback to estimate the state of both the part and fixture.

Were there other costume options you considered before going with the hot dog?

Kuindersma: Yes, but marketing wants to save them for next year.

How many important sensors does the hot dog costume occlude?

Kuindersma: None. The robot is using cameras in the head, proprioceptive sensors, IMU, and force sensors in the wrists and feet. We did have to cut the costume at the top so the head could still spin around.

Why are pickles always causing problems?

Kuindersma: Because pickles are pesky, polarizing pests.

Finished chips coming in from the foundry are subject to a battery of tests. For those destined for critical systems in cars, those tests are particularly extensive and can add 5 to 10 percent to the cost of a chip. But do you really need to do every single test?

Engineers at NXP have developed a machine-learning algorithm that learns the patterns of test results and figures out the subset of tests that are really needed and those that they could safely do without. The NXP engineers described the process at the IEEE International Test Conference in San Diego last week.

NXP makes a wide variety of chips with complex circuitry and advanced chip-making technology, including inverters for EV motors, audio chips for consumer electronics, and key-fob transponders to secure your car. These chips are tested with different signals at different voltages and at different temperatures in a test process called continue-on-fail. In that process, chips are tested in groups and are all subjected to the complete battery, even if some parts fail some of the tests along the way.

Chips were subject to between 41 and 164 tests, and the algorithm was able to recommend removing 42 to 74 percent of those tests.

“We have to ensure stringent quality requirements in the field, so we have to do a lot of testing,” says Mehul Shroff, an NXP Fellow who led the research. But with much of the actual production and packaging of chips outsourced to other companies, testing is one of the few knobs most chip companies can turn to control costs. “What we were trying to do here is come up with a way to reduce test cost in a way that was statistically rigorous and gave us good results without compromising field quality.”

A Test Recommender System

Shroff says the problem has certain similarities to the machine learning-based recommender systems used in e-commerce. “We took the concept from the retail world, where a data analyst can look at receipts and see what items people are buying together,” he says. “Instead of a transaction receipt, we have a unique part identifier and instead of the items that a consumer would purchase, we have a list of failing tests.”

The NXP algorithm then discovered which tests fail together. Of course, what’s at stake for whether a purchaser of bread will want to buy butter is quite different from whether a test of an automotive part at a particular temperature means other tests don’t need to be done. “We need to have 100 percent or near 100 percent certainty,” Shroff says. “We operate in a different space with respect to statistical rigor compared to the retail world, but it’s borrowing the same concept.”

As rigorous as the results are, Shroff says that they shouldn’t be relied upon on their own. You have to “make sure it makes sense from engineering perspective and that you can understand it in technical terms,” he says. “Only then, remove the test.”

Shroff and his colleagues analyzed data obtained from testing seven microcontrollers and applications processors built using advanced chipmaking processes. Depending on which chip was involved, they were subject to between 41 and 164 tests, and the algorithm was able to recommend removing 42 to 74 percent of those tests. Extending the analysis to data from other types of chips led to an even wider range of opportunities to trim testing.

The algorithm is a pilot project for now, and the NXP team is looking to expand it to a broader set of parts, reduce the computational overhead, and make it easier to use.

Why are there so many VPNs for Apple TV? Oh, right—geofencing.

Not a surprising generational update, but a lot of progress for just one year.

From Aldebaran to Vega, these gleaming beacons dazzle Northern Hemisphere viewers at various times of the year and provide a useful entry point into amateur astronomy

We’ve all been there. You’ve gone to the store or scrolled through countless online sites, desperately searching for a graduation gift that’s unique, funny, and something your friend won’t toss in a drawer and forget about. Well, it turns out there’s a new trend catching fire, and it’s a fake college diploma. Yes, you heard […]

The post Why Fake College Diplomas Are the Latest Comedy Trend in Graduation Gifts appeared first on Chart Attack.

Hours after mischief charges were dropped against a London, Ont., doctor who protested the Liberal government’s Israel policy by squirting ketchup at a member of parliament’s constituency office, Dr. Tarek Loubani repeated the protest.

All the kit balancing, squad leading, and lore you could want, if you want it.

The game will take "full advantage of Apple silicon," CD Projekt Red says.

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 19th, 2024. It’s the beginning of a new week, …

Continue reading "SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring ‘SteamWorld Heist II’, Plus the Latest Releases and Sales"

One of the biggest advantages to PC gaming is having access to multiple generations of game releases. We’ve seen entire …

Continue reading "Musou Games on Steam Deck – Samurai Warriors, Dynasty Warriors, Warriors Orochi, Empires, and Much More Tested on Steam Deck OLED"

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 20th, 2024. In today’s article, I’ve got a couple …

Continue reading "SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring ‘Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse’, Plus the Latest Releases and Sales"

Back in early 2016 when I was looking for import-friendly games on PS Vita, I used to often see Gundam …

Continue reading "Gundam Breaker 4 Review – Steam Deck, Switch, and PS5 Tested"

JOYCITY has launched an exciting new update for Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War, inviting everyone to join in …

Continue reading "‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War’ Adds Cross-Server Battles in Latest Empire Invasion Update"

It has been pointed out to me that perhaps I could be fairer to other Marvel games. I’m always covering …

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15 years on, Winamp "still lives"—but mismanagement blunted its llama-whipping.

All-timer of a game show moment stunned audience into silence

A voyage in this kind of spacecraft — while still conceptual — would take multiple lifetimes, crossing unimaginable gulfs of interstellar space. The theoretical exercise puts aside technical problems, including the propulsion system, and focusses on the design of the habitat and society.

If you have an iPhone that can run iOS 18, you can now download and install the public beta of iOS 18.2. One of the most useful new features is the capability to share the location of a lost item connected to Apple's Find My network with a third party. You can already share an item's location with people in your contacts list, but Apple says this could help in instances wherein you have to rely on the help of a stranger.

When you choose "Share Item Location" in the Find My app on iPhone, iPad or Mac, you'll get the option to share a link that shows the location of your missing item. The link's recipient will be able to open it on any device, and they'll also be able to see your Apple account email and/or phone number so that they can get in touch with you. You'll be able to see how many people visited the link, which expires after you're reunited with your lost belonging or after a week if you haven't found it by then.

Along with benevolent strangers, you'll be able to share the locations of misplaced AirTags and Find My accessories with select airlines. Apple has worked with several of them to integrate this feature into their systems. Only a small number of airline staff can access each Share Item Location link, and Apple says they'll first need to authenticate themselves with an Apple Account or partner email address.

More than 15 airlines will start supporting this feature in the coming months, including Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Eurowings, Iberia, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Turkish Airlines, United, Virgin Atlantic and Vueling. Apple says that more airlines will get involved over time to help track down mishandled or delayed bags.

Air transport tech company SITA is also incorporating Share Item Location into WorldTracer, its baggage-tracing system. According to Apple, this is used by more than 500 airlines and ground handlers at more than 2,800 airports.

Of course, installing beta software does have its downsides. There's a higher chance of running into bugs, and some apps or features might still not work as Apple had intended. If you don't mind and want to test iOS 18.2, you'll have to enable Beta Updates under Software Updates in your device's Settings menu. Apple is expected to roll out iOS 18.2 proper in December.

Meanwhile, as luck would have it, there's an early Black Friday deal on AirTags at the time of writing. You can scoop up a four-pack for a record low of $70.

Update, November 5 2024, 9:10AM ET: This story has been updated to clarify that these new features are in the developer beta of iOS 18.2. The public beta for that software isn't available just yet.

Update, November 11, 2024, 3:12PM ET: This story has been updated to include details of the airline integration and to note that a public beta of iOS 18.2 is now available.

The prolific British author discussed his latest book on Bookends with Mattea Roach.