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☆ Strong leg muscles may be linked with better outcomes after heart attack, study suggests
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Jacqueline Howard | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Growing evidence shows that building muscle strength can have benefits for your heart, even leading to better outcomes after a heart attack. Kamiya said that after a heart attack, medically known as a myocardial infarction, the heart can go through a process called myocardial remodeling or cardiac remodeling, in which fibrous tissue accumulates, causing an enlargement of the heart. But emerging evidence suggests that exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation can alter the course of such remodeling in a way that improves heart function. “Cardiac remodeling is the main cause of the onset of heart failure after myocardial infarction,” Kamiya said. But more can be learned about why some people may be more affected after a heart attack than others, said Dr. Shaline Rao, director of heart failure services at NYU Langone Hospital-Long Island, who was not involved in the new study.

☆ Rice. Half of Humanity Eats It. And Climate Change Is Wrecking It.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Somini Sengupta | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +12 min

Sometimes there’s not enough rain when seedlings need water, or too much when the plants need to keep their heads above water. Rice farmers are shifting their planting calendars. On top of that, there’s climate change: It has upended the rhythm of sunshine and rain that rice depends on. That’s a fraction of the emissions from coal, oil and gas, which together account for 35 percent of methane emissions. His experiment, carried out over seven years, concluded that by not flooding the fields continuously, farmers can reduce rice methane emissions by more than 60 percent.

Federal worker safety inspections have alleged poor maintenance or a lack of safety training at some Tyson plants where ammonia leaks injured workers. CNN interviewed eleven current or former Tyson workers across three different plants who experienced ammonia leaks. !”A safety sign hangs on a fence at a Tyson plant in Hope, Arkansas, in March 2023. Still, some Tyson workers who lived through ammonia leaks said they wished more had been done to protect them. That means that the data doesn’t necessarily cover Tyson plants or other meat facilities that hold smaller amounts of ammonia.

☆ Researchers Identify Possible New Risk for Breast Cancer
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Roni Caryn Rabin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Now, a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer could “be updated every time she gets a new mammogram.”Background: Breast Density MattersBreast density is now an acknowledged risk factor for breast cancer, albeit one of many. Dozens of states have started requiring mammography centers to notify women if they have dense breast tissue. In March, the Food and Drug Administration recommended that providers tell women about their breast density. But this is the first study to measure changes in density over time and to report a link to breast cancer. One next step may to be examine breast density over time in women taking medication to prevent breast cancer to see if the density decreases, Dr. Knudsen suggested.

☆ Kirin investors find vitamin deal hard to swallow
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The $15 billion Japanese company is best known as a brewer, but sources more than half its top line from other businesses. Kirin, led by CEO Yoshinori Isozaki, also reckons the deal will be accretive to earnings per share in the first year. Yet investors immediately wiped some $450 million off the purchaser’s market value on Thursday, almost double the premium it agreed to pay Blackmores’ shareholders. Blackmores may yet show Kirin has adopted a better dealmaking regimen, but investors aren’t holding their breath. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

Kirin has offered A$95 cash per Blackmores share, a 23.7% premium to the stock's last close, and a tad higher than its 22.4% jump in morning trade. Before the Kirin deal, its shares had been trading at one-third of their value at the height of the daigou craze in 2016. The board of Blackmores has unanimously recommended shareholders support the deal, with top shareholder and former chairman Marcus Blackmore also agreeing to vote in favour. Blackmores' share price rose as much as 22.4% to A$94, its highest since December 2021. Blackmores shareholders will be able to vote on the offer at a shareholder meeting in July and the companies expect the deal to close in early August.

About half of the new gun owners were female, 20% were Black, and 20% were Hispanic. Overall, gun owners were 63% male and 73% White. “The face of gun ownership is changing somewhat and the people who are becoming new gun owners today are less likely to be male and more likely to be non-White, more likely to be somewhat younger than existing and long-standing gun owners,” Miller said. “Most people are coming in as new gun owners looking for something for personal defense or we spend a lot of time with inquisitive people. “I have a Ruger and a Rossi – both rifles,” Shelby said.

☆ Risks of Tupperware and other plastic containers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Kristen Rogers | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Figuring out the answer to that question for any type of reusable plastic food storage products — not just Tupperware — often comes down to understanding what they’re made of. Risks of container wear and tearPutting stress on plastic food containers by washing them in the dishwasher or with rough scrub brushes “increase the ability of that plastic to leach whatever it was made out of,” Vandenburg said. The “microwave safe” label on some plastic containers doesn’t mean the product is totally safe from a health standpoint, she added. “Some of the plasticizers and chemicals can transfer from the plastic containers into the food during heating,” Rogers said. “If you can’t afford to replace everything all at once, replace them one at a time.”Glass food storage containers are a safer option.

☆ The next big thing in Big Tech career path is an AI-based 'bilingual' job skillset
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Eric Rosenbaum | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Microsoft unveiled new versions of its Bing internet-search engine and Edge browser powered by the newest technology from ChatGPT maker OpenAI. But the biggest one of all may be next, he says, through the combination of artificial intelligence and branches of science involved in medicine. But the opportunity won't translate into achievement without a new form of collaboration between the classic big tech talent and the medical field. One of her portfolio companies, Insitro, was founded by Stanford AI researcher Daphne Koller (Koller co-founder edtech company Coursera). "There is lots of exciting big talent opportunities coming from big tech and big cap pharma," she said.

☆ Pharmacy startups are losing their battle with giants like CVS and Walgreens
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Pharmacy startups like Capsule and Truepill are crumbling in the fight against pharmacy giants. But in the past year, the pharmacy startups have begun to crumble. Plus, each chain has thousands of stores across the country, providing the convenience that the pharmacy startups seek to replicate with tech. The digital-pharmacy shakeoutAnalysts suggested that healthcare startups with pharmacy components, rather than pure-play pharmacy startups, are best positioned to succeed. Truepill CEO Sid Viswanathan TruepillBut the pharmacy startups that have attempted to offer additional services have largely shelved those efforts in recent months.

Reuters reported in March 2020 that Syneos was working with investment bank Centerview Partners LLC to explore a sale. Syneos, which has a market capitalization of $3.9 billion and carries a $2.9 billion debt pile, was not immediately available for comment. Based in Morrisville, North Carolina, Syneos helps pharmaceutical companies with clinical trials and to market their drugs. There has been a wave of consolidation among contract research organizations in a bid to lower costs, amass more clinical trial data and win customers. Labcorp (LH.N), for example, said earlier this month that it will complete the spinoff of its contract research organization, called Fortrea, by the middle of this year.

☆ FTC Alleges Supplement Company ‘Hijacked’ Amazon Reviews to Boost Sales
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Megan Graham | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

Nutritional supplement company Bountiful Co. will pay $600,000 following Federal Trade Commission allegations that it made products on Amazon look like they had more reviews and higher average ratings than they really did. The FTC said the case marks its first enforcement action against a practice called “review hijacking,” in which a marketer makes reviews for one product appear to apply to another. Products considered variations share the same product page on Amazon as alternate choices, such as a T-shirt offered in multiple colors. The FTC said the decision to accept the proposed consent agreement was unanimous, with the commission voting 4-0 in favor of doing so. Though Amazon has been active in pursuit of fake review sellers, Mr. Freund said problems remain.

☆ Zaps to the Spinal Cord Improved Patients’ Paralysis After Stroke
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Nidhi Subbaraman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Stroke survivor Heather Rendulic, right, said she was able to open and close her hand for the first time in nine years while taking part in the trial. Photo: Tim Betler, UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences

China’s official count 0 2.5 million 83,150 deaths Model based on Shanghai outbreak 1.6 million deaths LOW ESTIMATE HIGH ESTIMATE Estimate using travel patterns 970,000 deaths Estimate using recent testing data 1.5 million deaths Estimate based on U.S. death rates 1.1 million deaths China’s official count 0 2.5 million 83,150 deaths Model based on Shanghai outbreak 1.6 million deaths LOW EST. But China’s official Covid death toll for the entire pandemic remains strikingly low: 83,150 people as of Feb. 9. Four separate academic teams have converged on broadly similar estimates: China’s Covid wave may have killed between a million and 1.5 million people. Why official data underrepresents China’s outbreak83,150 deaths China’s official count on Feb. 9 0 2.5M 83,150 deaths China’s official count on Feb. 9 0 2.5 millionChina has a narrow definition of what counts as a Covid-19 death. But the work was unwavering in its ultimate conclusion: Ending the “zero Covid” policy was likely to overwhelm the health care system, producing an estimated 1.6 million deaths.

October 2022 Wang Linfang,92, molecular biologist Four members of China’s two most prestigious academic institutions died in October – in line with the average in recent years. October 2022 Wang Linfang,92, molecular biologist Four members of China’s two most prestigious academic institutions died in October – in line with the average in recent years. Zhang Guocheng, 91 Zhao Zisen, 90, developed China’s first practical optical fiber Tang Hongxiao, 91 The obituaries began accumulating. October 2022 Wang Linfang,92, molecular biologist Four members of China’s two most prestigious academic institutions died in October – in line with the average in recent years. October 2022 Wang Linfang,92, molecular biologist Four members of China’s two most prestigious academic institutions died in October – in line with the average in recent years.

☆ Alphabet set to report fourth-quarter results after the close
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Google parent Alphabet will report fourth-quarter earnings Thursday after the close of regular trading. Revenue: $76.53 billion, according to Refinitiv estimates. $76.53 billion, according to Refinitiv estimates. $8.25 billion, according to StreetAccount estimates. $7.43 billion, according to StreetAccount estimates.

☆ I'm a leg-lengthening surgeon. Most of my clients are men with confidence issues — here's what the procedure's like
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Natalie Rahhal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Shahab Mahboubian performs 30 to 40 cosmetic limb-lengthening surgeries a year. The only field in medicine that uses all of these tools is orthopedic surgery, so it seemed like the right fit. I specialized in limb-lengthening surgery specifically because I wanted to do something that was different from everybody else. People that undergo limb-lengthening surgery are from all walks of life, and many used COVID lockdowns to recover post-surgery. I would say 80% to 85% of my cosmetic limb-lengthening patients are men, and 15% to 20% are women.

☆ How AI is detecting heart attack risk and aiming to outsmart America’s No. 1 killer
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Kerima Greene | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Cleerly founder and CEO James Min, a cardiologist, started the company to find a better way to assess heart health, by applying AI to the problem. Heart disease is the nation's No. CNBC: What are indirect markers of heart disease? Min: Many emergency department visits for heart attacks are preventable if risk factors for heart disease are identified in advance. Using millions of annotated CCTA images, Cleerly algorithms quantify and characterize atherosclerosis and its features.

☆ Researchers just tested ChatGPT on the same test questions as aspiring doctors – and found the AI was 'comfortably within the passing range'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

ChatGPT appeared capable of passing the US medical licensing examination in a research experiment. ChatGPT showed "moderate accuracy" and was "comfortably within the passing range," per the research. According to a new research experiment, ChatGPT showed "moderate accuracy" and was "comfortably within the passing range" in the exams. "ChatGPT performed at or near the passing threshold for all three exams without any specialized training or reinforcement," the researchers wrote in the paper. Another AI, developed by AI safety and research firm Anthropic, has passed a university-level law and economics exam, according to an academic at Virginia's George Mason University.

☆ Google to delay portion of staff bonus
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jan 19 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google is deferring a portion of its employees' year-end bonuses as part of a transition to a new performance management system, the search engine giant said on Thursday. The company will pay 80% advance bonus to eligible employees initially and the remainder in later months, a spokesperson told Reuters, adding that the move was communicated to staff last year. The development comes amid tech companies' attempts to limit spending amid a broader slowdown in demand and deteriorating economic conditions. The advance bonus will be paid in January and the remaining 20% in March or April, helping Google spread out costs to the next quarter, according to a CNBC, which first reported the story. Google typically paid full bonuses in the first month of the year.

☆ 'Concerning' map reveals where fish caught in the US are full of hazardous 'forever chemicals'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Fish in lakes and streams across the US are contaminated with hazardous "forever chemicals." Since their invention in the 1930s, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have multiplied and spread. They found PFOS — one of the most notorious substances — was the largest contributor to PFAS contamination in fish. Last year, the EPA lowered the level of PFOS in drinking water it considers safe to 0.02 parts per trillion. He said he's also seen PFAS contamination advisories for fishing spots in Sweden, where he lives.

☆ This biotech stock is up 10% in the last month — and analysts expect it to rise a further 118%
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Ganesh Rao | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Wall Street is bullish on the California-headquartered company, which makes the enzymes for Pfizer's Covid-19 oral antiviral treatment ; all eight equity analysts covering the stock give it a buy rating. Their median price target points to a 118% potential upside over the 12 months, according to FactSet. "We believe that PRGN's R & D event will validate the key value propositions that underscore PRGN-2012," said Cantor Fitzgerald's analysts in a note to clients on Jan. 12. Other companies on the list include the London-listed stock of Oxford Nanopore Technologies and Genus , which analysts expect to rise by more than 40% over the next 12 months. Clinical diagnostics company Bio-Rad Lab and Sweden-headquartered IVF specialist Vitrolife are the other stocks expected to go up by analysts.

☆ Google is delaying a portion of employee bonus checks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at a panel at the CEO Summit of the Americas hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on June 09, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Google executives are deferring a portion of employees' year-end bonus checks, according to documents viewed by CNBC, as the company moves toward permanently pushing back payouts. However, Google will pay qualifying full-time employees 80% of their bonus checks this month and the remaining 20% in March or April, the documents say. The delayed payment comes as Google CEO Sundar Pichai seeks to reel in costs while still avoiding mass layoffs. The company recently released new details, showing a larger number of employees will more easily fall into lower-rated categories, CNBC reported last month.

It came after Amazon said in November it was looking to cut staff, including in its devices and recruiting organizations. The company had 2,450 employees, according to PitchBook data, suggesting around 490 employees were laid off. In a letter to employees, CEO Logan Green and President John Zimmer pointed to "a probable recession sometime in the next year" and rising ride-share insurance costs. Shopify: 1,000 jobs cutIn July, Shopify announced it laid off 1,000 employees, which equals 10% of its global workforce. Tesla: 6,000 jobs cut

☆ Microsoft's major layoffs prove that no tech giant is safe from the market downturn
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Microsoft is the latest tech giant to have major layoffs, with plans to cut 10,000 employees. It's a strategy that will help these tech giants weather the ongoing downturn and come out on top, he added. Microsoft's layoffs also bring attention to the fact that the only tech giants that have avoided significant layoffs this cycle are Google and Apple. In another note to clients, RBC analysts advised C-suite leaders to bring down their quarterly and yearly revenue estimates even more. Got a tip about tech layoffs?

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