- America’s richest 10% are responsible for 40% of its planet-heating pollution, new report finds CNN
- The richest Americans account for 40 percent of U.S. climate emissions The Washington Post
- A carbon tax on investment income could be more fair and quickly make it less profitable to pollute − here’s why The Conversation Indonesia
- Study reveals America’s wealthiest 10% responsible for 40% of US greenhouse gas emissions Phys.org
- Income of Richest 10% Creates 40% of US Emissions, New Study Finds Business Insider
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Tag Archives: Responsible
Venus Colony Being Planned From Company Responsible For OceanGate Submarine Disaster – Giant Freakin Robot
- Venus Colony Being Planned From Company Responsible For OceanGate Submarine Disaster Giant Freakin Robot
- OceanGate Co-Founder Wants To Send 1,000 People To Venus, A Completely Uninhabitable Planet BroBible
- OceanGate Co-Founder Shifts Focus From The Titan Tragedy To Sending 1,000 Humans To Venus By 2050 Swarajya
- OceanGate Expeditions co-founder reveals ambitious ‘Humans2Venus’ project following tragic submersible inc The Economic Times
- The cofounder of OceanGate, the firm whose CEO died on a deep-sea dive for the Titanic, now wants to send 1,000 people to Venus Fortune
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FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Takes New Steps to Advance Responsible Artificial Intelligence Research, Development, and Deployment – The White House
- FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Takes New Steps to Advance Responsible Artificial Intelligence Research, Development, and Deployment The White House
- US launches AI research plan for challenges and democratic values Al Jazeera English
- Biden makes ‘equity,’ civil rights a top priority in development of ‘responsible’ AI Fox News
- Get ready for Team America: AI Police The Register
- White House unveils new efforts to guide federally backed research of artificial intelligence PBS NewsHour
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New MIT Research Indicates That Automation Is Responsible for Income Inequality
A newly published paper quantifies the extent to which automation has contributed to income inequality in the U.S., simply by replacing workers with technology — whether self-checkout machines, call-center systems, assembly-line technology, or other devices.
Recent data suggests that the majority of the increase in the wage gap since 1980 can be attributed to automation replacing less-educated workers.
When using self-checkout machines in supermarkets and drugstores, it is unlikely that you are bagging your purchases as efficiently as checkout clerks used to. The main advantage of automation for large retail chains is that it reduces the cost of bagging.
“If you introduce self-checkout kiosks, it’s not going to change productivity all that much,” says MIT economist Daron Acemoglu. However, in terms of lost wages for employees, he adds, “It’s going to have fairly large distributional effects, especially for low-skill service workers. It’s a labor-shifting device, rather than a productivity-increasing device.”
A newly published study co-authored by Acemoglu quantifies the extent to which automation has contributed to income inequality in the U.S., simply by replacing workers with technology — whether self-checkout machines, call-center systems, assembly-line technology, or other devices. Over the last four decades, the income gap between more- and less-educated workers has grown significantly; the study finds that automation accounts for more than half of that increase.
“This single one variable … explains 50 to 70 percent of the changes or variation between group inequality from 1980 to about 2016,” Acemoglu says.
The paper was recently published in the journal Econometrica. The authors are Acemoglu, who is an Institute Professor at
At the same time, the scholars used U.S. Census Bureau metrics, including its American Community Survey data, to track worker outcomes during this time for roughly 500 demographic subgroups, broken out by gender, education, age, race and ethnicity, and immigration status, while looking at employment, inflation-adjusted hourly wages, and more, from 1980 to 2016. By examining the links between changes in business practices alongside changes in labor market outcomes, the study can estimate what impact automation has had on workers.
Ultimately, Acemoglu and Restrepo conclude that the effects have been profound. Since 1980, for instance, they estimate that automation has reduced the wages of men without a high school degree by 8.8 percent and women without a high school degree by 2.3 percent, adjusted for inflation.
A central conceptual point, Acemoglu says, is that automation should be regarded differently from other forms of innovation, with its own distinct effects in workplaces, and not just lumped in as part of a broader trend toward the implementation of technology in everyday life generally.
Consider again those self-checkout kiosks. Acemoglu calls these types of tools “so-so technology,” or “so-so automation,” because of the tradeoffs they contain: Such innovations are good for the corporate bottom line, bad for service-industry employees, and not hugely important in terms of overall productivity gains, the real marker of an innovation that may improve our overall quality of life.
“Technological change that creates or increases industry productivity, or productivity of one type of labor, creates [those] large productivity gains but does not have huge distributional effects,” Acemoglu says. “In contrast, automation creates very large distributional effects and may not have big productivity effects.”
A new perspective on the big picture
The results occupy a distinctive place in the literature on automation and jobs. Some popular accounts of technology have forecast a near-total wipeout of jobs in the future. Alternately, many scholars have developed a more nuanced picture, in which technology disproportionately benefits highly educated workers but also produces significant complementarities between high-tech tools and labor.
The current study differs at least by degree with this latter picture, presenting a more stark outlook in which automation reduces earnings power for workers and potentially reduces the extent to which policy solutions — more bargaining power for workers, less market concentration — could mitigate the detrimental effects of automation upon wages.
“These are controversial findings in the sense that they imply a much bigger effect for automation than anyone else has thought, and they also imply less explanatory power for other [factors],” Acemoglu says.
Still, he adds, in the effort to identify drivers of income inequality, the study “does not obviate other nontechnological theories completely. Moreover, the pace of automation is often influenced by various institutional factors, including labor’s bargaining power.”
Labor economists say the study is an important addition to the literature on automation, work, and inequality, and should be reckoned with in future discussions of these issues.
For their part, in the paper Acemoglu and Restrepo identify multiple directions for future research. That includes investigating the reaction over time by both business and labor to the increase in automation; the quantitative effects of technologies that do create jobs; and the industry competition between firms that quickly adopted automation and those that did not.
Reference: “Tasks, Automation, and the Rise in U.S. Wage Inequality” by Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo, 14 October 2022, Econometrica.
DOI: 10.3982/ECTA19815
The study was funded by Google, the Hewlett Foundation, Microsoft, the National Science Foundation, Schmidt Sciences, the Sloan Foundation, and the Smith Richardson Foundation.
O’Neil: Texas made the only responsible decision by firing Chris Beard
It’s complicated.
That’s the go-to, right? That the only two people who know what happened between Chris Beard and Randi Trew are Beard and Trew, and trying to make decisions based on that gray area is tricky.
Except, no. It really isn’t. In fact, millions and millions of people in this country make the very uncomplicated decision every day to have healthy, safe, non-physical relationships with their partners. That’s not to say it’s easy. Interpersonal relationships are at the heart of this world spinning on its axis, and they are fraught with challenges. Parent-to-child, friend-to-friend, partner-to-partner, spouse-to-spouse, there isn’t one of us who hasn’t at one time fought with, been frustrated, exasperated, moved to tears by, or wanted to storm out on someone in our lives. It happens.
But we avoid the gray area because there is no gray area; there is a clear delineation between black and white. We stop at the line — maybe even teeter on the edge of it sometimes — but we stop because we remember the very simple lesson taught in toddlerhood: Do the right thing. Not the easy thing. The right thing.
Chris Beard didn’t do the right thing, and that’s why he’s no longer the coach at the University of Texas. It’s that simple. This is not about the legalese of when allegations turn into charges turn into convictions or Trew’s initial account to police and her turnabout 11 days later. Whether the district attorney chooses to continue the case is immaterial (Beard is scheduled for a hearing on Jan. 18 in district court).
The university made that abundantly clear in its explanation of its dismissal. It was not acting on the portion of its contract clause that allows Beard to be fired for being charged with a felony; it was enforcing the portion that allowed him to be dismissed for conduct unbecoming. As Texas’ vice president for legal affairs Jim Davis wrote in a letter to Beard’s attorney, “Chris Beard engaged in unacceptable behavior that makes him unfit to serve as head coach at our university.’’
That’s it. It’s that simple. His behavior is unacceptable. He is unfit. Something happened between a woman and the head basketball coach at Texas that was bad enough that it merited a 911 call, which resulted in a bite mark and scratches on Trew’s body, which gave the police cause to charge Beard with a third-degree felony. And that, Texas has decided, is enough. I was admittedly hard on the administration for its long road to this decision but I applaud the school for not only getting here, but getting here for the right reasons.
I take no great pleasure in any of this. I do not cheer the demise of a successful career, nor do I scream any sort of vindication. The times I’ve worked with and spoken to Beard — as recently as the week before his arrest — he’s always been considerate, professional and engaging. I respected him as a coach, and I liked what I knew of him as a person.
But that doesn’t diminish what happened, or make the inexcusable excusable, even though some would like that to be the case. It’s become, frankly, exhausting how everyone rushes to find the loophole for the accused, to protect their rights and ignore the simple rights of a person to not be assaulted. We’ve all become so numb to it all. When the news initially broke of Beard’s arrest, my Twitter mentions were filled with smart-ass jokes that were in poor taste at best, and deplorable at worst.
We have become so inured to bad behavior, that we barely seem to recognize it anymore. Rather than be horrified by the video of Dana White and his wife coming to blows during a New Year’s Eve party, we write it off as some sort of normal drunken behavior. It is not normal for a man and a woman to hit each other. It’s just not.
In its letter to Beard’s lawyer, Texas alluded to the idea that Beard himself did not grasp what he did, that he does not “understand the significance of the behavior he knows he engaged in, or the ensuing events that impair his ability to effectively lead our program.’’ It is hard to fathom that he could ever envision a way back from this, that he was either that ill-informed, or that arrogant. As soon as that 911 call hit dispatch, his career at Texas was over. It’s more than bad P.R. or giving trolling opponents the layup of poster boards with Beard in prison stripes.
It’s what a coach is supposed to represent — a leader, a role model, an adviser, a mentor. How could Beard sit across from a parent or guardian and promise to protect, guide and mold their son after that?
Sadly, plenty of people read that last sentence and rolled their eyes, amused at the concept of coaches as good people. We’ve gotten lazy there, too. The bad apple thing and all. The truth is, there are plenty of coaches — more than not — who fit that bill. Who develop lifelong relationships with players and guide them long after their eligibility runs out; who keep their office doors open and their phones on if someone needs to talk; who help kids overcome hardships or succeed where everyone else thought they would fail; who offer opportunity over obligation; who do not put their university in the uncomfortable position of defending them or waiting for a felony charge to be dropped so they can get back to coaching a game.
Who, just like millions and millions of ordinary folk, wake up every day and decide to do the right thing.
Chris Beard didn’t, and that’s why he’s no longer the head coach at Texas.
(Top photo: John E. Moore III / Getty Images)
Long Covid responsible for thousands of US deaths, report says, but true numbers are likely much higher
CNN
—
Long Covid leaves some people with long-term symptoms, but it can be deadly, too. It played a part in at least 3,544 deaths in the United States in the first 30 months of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new report says.
The report is the first official attempt by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics to quantify the number of long Covid deaths in the United States.
Some experts say this finding is probably a significant undercount, considering that up to 30% of people who get Covid-19 go on to have long-term symptoms, according to the CDC.
The research, published Wednesday, analyzed death certificates in the National Vital Statistics System from January 2020 through the end of June 2022.
The research was difficult because, unlike with diseases such as cancer or diabetes, the US did not have a specific disease code to track long Covid during that time period.
Not every doctor, medical examiner or coroner fills out a death certificate the same way, so the researchers had to create a program to scan more than a million death certificates for text. Because there is not one settled term to describe long Covid, they included several key terms in their search, including “chronic Covid,” “long Covid” and “post COVID syndrome.”
They found that long Covid deaths made up less than 0.3% of the 1,021,487 Covid-related deaths from January 2020 through June 2022. There were some common elements among those who died, as well.
The majority of people who died from long Covid were White, older and male.
Specifically, 78.5% of the deaths were among non-Hispanic White people. Non-Hispanic Black people made up 10.1% of the deaths, followed by Hispanic people at 7.8%.
The death rate was highest among non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Natives, at 14.8 per 100,000 people.
Covid-19 deaths have disproportionately been among people of color, CDC research shows, and the new report notes that more people who identify as Black or Hispanic may have died of the initial disease before they could even develop long Covid. This may account for some of the racial differences in the new findings.
Studies have also found that with more barriers to health care for people of color, some people who died may not have been able to see a doctor to get an official Covid diagnosis, so it wouldn’t be recognized on a death certificate, the report said.
Adults 75 to 84 accounted for 28.8% of long Covid deaths, followed by people 85 and older at 28.1% and people between 65 and 74 years old at 21.5%, the report says. In general, it is much more common for older adults to die from Covid than younger populations, CDC data shows.
Men accounted for a slightly larger proportion of the deaths, at 51.5%, which fits with other studies finding that being male is associated with a relative risk of developing severe Covid that’s 1.29 times the relative risk for women.
The new report had several limitations, including that the death numbers are still provisional and could change. Additionally, race is not always a reliable element on a death certificate, as studies have shown that thousands of Americans’ race is misclassified on their certificates. And clinical guidance on what constitutes long Covid has changed over the course of the pandemic, so death certificates may not fully capture the condition.
The study is a good start, but it takes a “fairly myopic view” of death from long Covid, said Dr. David Putrino, director of rehabilitation innovation for Mount Sinai Health System.
“This is very clearly data from folks who got very sick, ended up at the hospital with sustained organ damage,” said Putrino, who works closely with long Covid patients but was not involved in the new report.
He says the research misses a sizable number of people who may get long Covid and die as a result.
For instance, some people who are not hospitalized for an initial infection but get long Covid go on to develop heart problems, studies show. Long Covid would not necessarily be captured on those death certificates, Putrino said.
“We read every single day about people who have previously been healthy, get Covid, recover and then have a heart attack or stroke or pulmonary embolism,” Putrino said.
This research may also miss people with long Covid who died by suicide; the condition probably wouldn’t be listed on their death certificates.
“We currently know that suicidal thoughts, suicidal acts, suicidal ideation and completed suicides are occurring all around the country with folks who were previously healthy, had a less severe acute Covid infection but then went on to develop very severe post-acute sequelae,” Putrino said.
He is encouraged that the CDC is looking at the issue of death from long Covid.
“But again, we’re just going to continue to get these sorts of skewed records unless we educate physicians that there are many ways that long Covid can cause death, just like there are many ways long Covid can cause permanent disability,” Putrino said.
“People have had their lives completely ruined by Covid, and so this incomplete data point really only captures a small part of the long Covid experience,” he said. “There are more than one way to have your life taken away from you with long Covid. Death is only one of those ways.”
RSV responsible for 1 in 50 child deaths under age 5, study estimates
CNN
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A new study estimates that 1 in 50 deaths of otherwise healthy children under age 5 around the world is due to a common virus that’s currently surging in the US: respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. And in high-income countries, 1 in 56 babies who are born on time and are healthy will be hospitalized with RSV in the first year of life, according to the researchers’ estimates.
The virus is known to be especially dangerous for premature and medically fragile babies, but it causes a “substantial burden of disease in infants worldwide,” wrote the authors of the study, published Thursday in the journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine.
Other research has examined the number of children with pre-existing conditions who are hospitalized with RSV, but the new study is one of the first to look at the numbers in otherwise healthy kids.
“This is the lowest-risk baby who is being hospitalized for this, so really, numbers are really much higher than I think some people would have guessed,” said study co-author Dr. Louis Bont, a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital at University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands. Bont is also the founding chairman of the ReSViNET foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing the global burden of RSV infection.
The estimates are based on a study that looked at the number of RSV cases in 9,154 infants born between July 2017 and April 2020 who were followed for the first year of life. The babies received care at health centers across Europe.
About 1 in 1,000 children in the study were put in an intensive care unit to get help breathing from a mechanical ventilator. This care is vital: In parts of the world where there is a lack of hospital care, the risk of death is significant.
“The vast majority of deaths with RSV occur in developing countries,” Bont said. “In the developed world, mortality is really rare, and if it happens, it’s virtually only in those who have severe comorbidities. But in most places in the world, there is no intensive care unit.”
Globally, RSV is the second leading cause of death during the first year of a child’s life, after malaria. Between 100,000 and 200,000 babies die from the virus every year, Bont said.
There are fewer RSV deaths in high-income countries, but the virus still causes substantial morbidity, and even hospitalization can have serious effects, said Dr. Kristina Deeter, chair of pediatrics at the University of Nevada, Reno and a specialty medical officer for pediatric critical care at Pediatrix Medical Group.
“Whether that is just traumatic psychosocial, emotional issues after hospitalization or even having more vulnerable lungs – you can develop asthma later on, for instance, if you’ve had a really severe infection at a young age – it can damage your lungs permanently,” said Deeter, who was not involved in the new study. “It’s still an important virus in our world and something that we really focus on. It’s kind of the bread and butter of a pediatric ICU.”
Health-care providers know that November through March is the traditional “viral season,” and they must plan accordingly for RSV and other respiratory problems.
Dr. Nicholas Holmes, senior vice president and chief operating officer at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, said officials there are always sure to have enough respiratory therapists and physicians to manage the influx of cases.
Even then, at the largest pediatric hospital on the West Coast, officials have had to get creative to keep up with the patient load, Holmes said.
“One thing that we just recently implemented to help is that we have many clinicians who are licensed nurses or therapists, or physicians like myself, who are in nonclinical roles in the organization. So we are engaging those licensed staff back in to help support and bridging that gap to support our nurses, physicians who are in direct line of patient care,” Holmes said.
On Wednesday, Holmes said, through the hospital’s Helping Hands program, he spent an hour and a half in the emergency department rather than doing his usual work. He checked on families and patients, handing out blankets and fruit pops. It gave him a chance to watch for problems and alert nurses if a child was getting sicker and needed medical attention right away.
“This allows the nursing team in the triage area to really focus on the sickest of the sick kids,” Holmes said.
Although there is no specific treatment for RSV in healthy babies, recent developments around vaccines and therapies mean help could be on the way for busy hospitals.
There is only one monoclonal antibody treatment for patients who have pre-existing conditions or who were born prematurely. It’s been available since 1998 and has made a significant difference, Deeter said.
“Once premature babies started to receive that, the numbers drastically dropped,” she said. “It is incredibly rare at this point for us to put a baby on a ventilator for RSV. This tiny, fragile group is so well-protected by those injections; however, we still have thousands of babies coming in who didn’t receive those injections who still need supportive care, and often, they’re managed without a respiratory support system.”
There are things parents of infants can do to prevent RSV, said Dr. Priya Soni, an assistant professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. They’re the simple behaviors everyone is familiar with from the Covid-19 pandemic: Thoroughly wash your hands, stay home if you’re sick, and keep surfaces clean.
“The virus is a little more hardy on hard surfaces, so really cleaning those surfaces and hand-washing goes a long way with RSV, as well as limiting the child’s exposure to infected respiratory secretions and droplets overall,” said Soni, who wasn’t involved in the new research.
The study’s findings about the number of children who get RSV in the first months of life show how important it will be to have an immunization strategy for pregnant women, she said.
“Whatever we could do to close that gap for those young infants that are within the first six months of life, that may be really really prone to that RSV infection, will help,” Soni said.
In the US, four RSV vaccines may be nearing review by the FDA. Globally, more than a dozen are going through trials. A preventive treatment for lower respiratory tract infections caused by RSV got the go-ahead from the European Commission last week.
These developments can be game-changers, experts say.
“Every pediatrician that I know has always been working very, very hard during Christmastime. We are always swamped with RSV patients every year,” Bont said. “This or next year could be the last time that we actually see that, because it could really prevent the bulk of severe infection.”
Bay Area beheading victim’s family speaks: ‘Feel responsible’
The Bay Area woman who was allegedly beheaded in a domestic violence slaying was a 27-year-old DoorDash driver who leaves behind two young daughters, her family said.
Karina Castro was killed Thursday outside her home in San Carlos. At about 11:50 a.m. Thursday, San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived at Laurel Street and Magnolia Avenue, just a few blocks away from a Caltrain station, after witnesses reported an assault at the residence. Deputies found the woman’s body at the scene, but the sheriff’s office did not specify the cause of death; anonymous law enforcement officials told KGO that the woman was beheaded.
Jose Rafael Solano Landaeta, 33, was arrested on suspicion of murder and is expected in court later this week. Castro’s family says Landaeta is the father of Castro’s 1-year-old daughter and alleges he was abusive toward Castro. Marty Castro, Karina Castro’s father, said he raced to her home after seeing on the news that a woman had been killed in San Carlos; he said he learned at the scene his daughter was dead.
“If there’s somebody out there abusing your daughter, don’t take off. Don’t let it go. Don’t take no for an answer,” Marty Castro told KGO. “You feel responsible, no matter what anyone says.”
Karina Castro’s 7-year-old and 1-year-old daughters are with child protective services, Marty Castro said, and he hopes to have them released to his custody. The Community Foundation of San Carlos is taking donations to be put in trust for the children.
“I just want to thank everyone who’s donated to help my daughters kids, my beautiful grandchildren who have lost their mother to a senseless useless person,” Marty Castro wrote on a GoFundMe for the family. “Thank you all, this money will help them and help us give my daughter a funeral to remember I’m devastated broken empty and more hurt than I ever thought I could be by the situation but thank you all for helping us and the worst time of our lives.”
People with information related to the case can contact San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office Deputy David Brandt at dbrandt@smcgov.org or 650-333-8195. An investigation is ongoing.
Scientists may have found way to clear the brain of toxic chemicals responsible for Alzheimer’s
By Luke Andrews Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com
16:22 24 Aug 2022, updated 17:22 24 Aug 2022
- In Alzheimer’s, amyloid beta proteins build up in the brain and clump together
- But researchers say they may have found a way to clear them by ramping up levels of another protein
- In a study on mice genetically-engineered to make more amyloid beta, they found those given compounds that boosted the levels of aquaporin 4 cleared protein faster
- About 500,000 Americans are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s every year
A research team may have found a new way to clear harmful proteins in the brain that trigger cognitive diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, opening the door for new treatments for the devastating conditions.
Experts believe that Alzheimer’s is triggered by amyloid beta proteins building up in the brain and clumping together, triggering tell-tale symptoms such as memory loss and loss of general cognitive function.
Research from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, found that ramping up levels of a separate protein — aquaporin 4 — could help to remove them.
In a study on mice genetically-engineered to make more amyloid beta, they found that those given compounds that boosted the levels of aquaporin 4 cleared the harmful proteins faster than those that received a placebo or inert liquid.
About 500,000 Americans are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s every year, and 120,000 die from the disease annually. The study suggests that having more aquaporin 4 could help prevent the condition — but not cure it. It is not clear what causes Alzheimer’s disease, however, but some scientists suggest that a build-up of amyloid beta may not be behind it in every case.
In the study — published Wednesday in the journal Brain — scientists began by studying how aquaporin 4 was made in the brain.
Every now and again this protein is generated with what they described as a ‘little tail’ on the end.
Initially, the scientists thought this was just a fluke due to an error in how the protein was being generated.
But research quickly revealed that genes coding for this change were in several different species.
Testing showed that it was also normally around support cells — called astrocytes — which are near blood vessels. They said this was the ‘perfect place’ to be if it was used to flush out unwanted substances — such as amyloid beta.
To test the theory, they boosted the levels of aquaporin 4 in mice that had been genetically engineered to make more amyloid beta.
Dr. Darshan Sapkota, the biologist who led the study, screened 2,560 compounds to work out which might be able to ramp up the production.
He found two that could help: Apigenin — normally found in chamomile, parsley, onions and other plants — and sulphaquinoxaline — an antibiotic used by vets.
In the study, mice were then administered with either apigenin, sulphaquinoxaline, or a placebo.
Results showed those that got the compounds cleared amyloid beta faster than those that did not.
It was not clear how the substances were administered to mice, whether via supplements or through injections.
The scientists said it was not safe for people to consume the antibiotic sulphaquinoxaline without a prescription.
Although apigenin is available as a dietary supplement, they also cautioned against consuming large amounts of it because it is not known how much gets to the brain.
The scientists are now looking for new compounds that would influence the production of aquaporin 4 to take to further trials — and eventually human trials if they are shown to be safe.
But scientists are not clear on what causes Alzheimer’s — which affects about six million Americans.
The build up of amyloid beta in the brain is the prevailing hypothesis, because the plaques harm communication between cells. But some papers suggest that — while this is associated with the condition — it may not actually cause it.
A study from the University of California, San Diego, published in 2020 on 700 people is among those to suggest amyloid beta was associated with the condition in some cases rather than the root cause.
Dr. John Cirrito, a neurologist also involved in the study, said: ‘There’s lots of data that says reducing amyloid levels by just 20 percent to 25 percent stops amyloid build-up, at least in mice, and the effects we saw were in that ballpark.
‘That tells me that this could be a novel approach to treating Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases that involve protein aggregation in the brain.
‘There’s nothing that says this process is specific for amyloid beta. It may be enhancing, say, alpha-synuclein clearance, too which could benefit people with Parkinson’s disease.’
The team is now working on uncovering drugs that would influence the production of aquaporin 4 by looking at sulphaquinoxaline and other compounds.
Sapkota added: ‘We’re looking for something that could be quickly translated into the clinic.
‘Just knowing that it’s targetable at all by a drug is a helpful hint that there’s going to be something out there we can use.’
The research was part funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes.
Sapkota led the study while a post-doc at Washington University, but is now an assistant professor in biological sciences at the University of Texas, Dallas.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia that currently affects about six million Americans.
It is thought to be caused by the abnormal build-up of proteins in and around brain cells, including amyloid beta. Others involved are known as tau.
Scientists are not sure why these build up in some people, but it could be linked to genetic factors, diet or a head injury — among others.
Chile seeks to sanction those responsible for sinkhole near copper mine
The mysterious hole of 36.5 meters (120 feet) in diameter that emerged in late July has provoked the mobilization of local authorities and led the mining regulator Sernageomin to suspend operations of a nearby mine owned by Canada’s Lundin in the northern district of Candelaria.
“We are going to go all the way with consequences, to sanction, not just fine,” mining minister Marcela Hernando said in a press release, adding that fines tend to be insignificant and the ruling must be “exemplary” to mining companies.
Chilean authorities have not provided details of the investigation into causes of the sinkhole.
Local and foreign media showed various aerial images of the huge hole in a field near the Lundin Mining operation, about 665 kilometers (413 miles) north of the Chilean capital. Initially, the hole, near the town of Tierra Amarilla, measured about 25 meters (82 feet) across, with water visible at the bottom.
The Canadian firm owns 80% of the property, while the remaining 20% is in the hands of Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd and Sumitomo Corp.
The minister added that although the country’s mining regulator had carried out an inspection in the area in July, it was not able to detect the “over-exploitation.”
“That also makes us think that we have to reformulate what our inspection processes are,” she said.
In a statement, Lundin said the over-exploitation referred to by the minister had been duly reported.
“We want to be emphatic that, to date, this hypothesis as reported by Sernageomin has not been determined as the direct cause of the sinkhole. The hydrogeological and mining studies will provide the answers we are looking for today,” Lundin said.
“Different events that could have caused the sinkhole are being investigated, including the abnormal rainfall recorded during the month of July, which is relevant,” added Lundin.