British entrepreneur Mike Lynch faced arrest on the first day of his criminal trial, where prosecutors portrayed him as a controlling boss who orchestrated a massive fraud. Lynch is set to appear in court in San Francisco on Tuesday.
Co-founder of Autonomy, Lynch is accused of inflating the software company’s sales, misleading auditors, analysts, and regulators, and threatening those who raised concerns before its acquisition by Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011.
Lynch’s lawyers plan to have him testify once prosecutors complete their case against him. He has denied all allegations of wrongdoing and faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
A deal by HP to acquire Autonomy for $11.1 billion soured when HP reduced the purchase price by $8.8 billion due to alleged accounting irregularities, omissions, and misstatements in the business.
As the trial commenced, prosecutors called on Ganesh Vaidyanathan, Autonomy’s former head of accounting, as the first witness to testify about accounting issues raised in 2010.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Reeves argued that Lynch presented Autonomy as a successful company to HP but that its financial statements were false and misleading due to accounting tricks and concealing hardware sales.
Chamberlain, Autonomy’s financial director, also pleaded not guilty to charges related to falsifying documents and misleading auditors, with his attorney suggesting he was a pawn caught in a battle between giants.
Lynch alleges Autonomy’s poor performance post-acquisition was due to mismanagement by HP, not wrongdoing before the acquisition, as he spent time preparing for trial under house arrest.
Extradited from Britain to the U.S. last year, Lynch posted bail and wears a GPS tag on his ankle under 24-hour guard surveillance.
It is estimated that one in two people will develop cancer during their lifetime. However, advancements in diagnosis and treatment have led to more people surviving cancer than ever before. The question now is, will this trend of increasing survival rates continue, and how close are we to finding a cure?
The trend of improving survival rates is likely to continue, but the discovery of a cure for cancer is complicated due to the fact that cancer is not a single disease, but rather a group of over 200 diseases, each with its own unique characteristics. Despite this complexity, all cancers originate from mutant cells that divide uncontrollably.
While cancer cells evade normal controls on cell division, targeted cancer therapy has emerged as a promising treatment approach. This therapy focuses on inhibiting genetic mutations that drive cancer growth and has shown to be more effective with fewer side effects than traditional treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Targeted therapies like hormone therapy and drugs such as imatinib have revolutionized the treatment of certain types of cancer, improving survival rates significantly. The development of new drugs and the repurposing of existing ones have been accelerated by genetic technologies that utilize big data to understand genetic changes driving cancer.
The power of big data
Advances in cancer treatment have been further propelled by genetic technologies and clinical trials that utilize big data to develop new drugs and repurpose existing ones. The Cancer Genome Atlas Project, for example, provides valuable genetic information for various types of cancer, allowing for targeted treatments based on individual genetic profiles.
Credit: Getty Images
While drug treatments have seen significant advancements, immunotherapy has also emerged as a promising approach in cancer treatment. Immunotherapy aims to boost the patient’s immune system to detect and destroy cancer cells more effectively. This field is rapidly evolving, with treatments like immune checkpoint inhibitors and adoptive cell therapy showing promising results.
Vax is on track
Developments in cancer immunization, including mRNA-based vaccines, are changing the landscape of cancer treatment by utilizing the body’s immune system to target cancer cells. Early diagnosis remains crucial in cancer treatment, with advancements in AI technology offering improved diagnostic capabilities.
Prevention is also a key focus in the fight against cancer, with vaccines against infectious causes of cancer such as HPV and HBV showing promising results. Additionally, cancer prevention strategies using drugs or vaccines to eliminate cancer cells before they form detectable tumors are gaining traction.
While a single “cure” for cancer may be unlikely, ongoing advancements in diagnosis, treatment, and prevention offer new hope to cancer patients worldwide. The future of cancer treatment holds the promise of personalized medicine, targeted therapies, and innovative approaches to combat this complex disease.
Over the past four years, we’ve learned tough lessons about the balancing act of public health. Recent coronavirus research has highlighted the need to carefully weigh the benefits and harms of any action taken to mitigate the impact of the disease.
We need clarity on what has worked and what hasn’t in the fight against the coronavirus. One objective of a study was to understand more about this. Here’s what was found out…
Was the spread of the new coronavirus in nursing homes inevitable?
Early in the pandemic, being a resident or staff member in a care home carried the highest risk of death from coronavirus. The virus spread to nursing homes as elderly patients were discharged to make room for new hospitalizations. It was nearly impossible to stop infectious diseases from spreading within nursing homes, even if all patients were tested before being transferred to hospital, as tests can be negative until the person becomes infectious.
Did the personal protective equipment really work?
The importance of personal protective equipment (PPE) to reduce the risk of infection in hospitals and nursing homes was widely accepted even before COVID-19. The lack of availability of PPE was one of the main factors influencing coronavirus transmission in nursing homes.
Early in the pandemic, the benefits and risks of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) in the community were uncertain. NPIs such as closing schools and banning public gatherings were effective at reducing the spread of the virus.
Did wearing a mask help protect against coronavirus?
Wearing masks did reduce community transmission of coronavirus, at least until the Omicron variant emerged. The value of masks in schools is still debated, with some studies showing that mandatory mask-wearing in schools reduced infections at least for the first few weeks.
Has quarantine helped?
Testing and self-isolation should reduce coronavirus transmission, but studies have shown that for this to work, a significant proportion of infected people would need to self-isolate. Self-isolation rates may not have made a significant difference, as many infected people are never identified.
How effective was the lockdown?
Lockdowns have been associated with mental and musculoskeletal health problems. The overall impact of NPIs in relation to their harms is a broader societal debate beyond just a scientific question.
How effective has the vaccine rollout been?
Rapid development of effective vaccines has been a real success during the pandemic, preventing many more deaths. However, the vaccines did not create herd immunity and eradicated the virus. They also had side effects, such as blood clotting and heart inflammation. Advancements in vaccine science during the pandemic may benefit other infectious diseases for decades to come.
The classical understanding of brain organization is that the brain's perceptual areas represent the world 'as it is', and the brain's visual cortex represents the external world 'retinolocally', based on how light hits the retina. That's what it means. In contrast, the brain's memory areas are thought to represent information in an abstract form, stripped of details about physical properties. Now, a team of neuroscientists from Dartmouth College and the University of Edinburgh have identified the neural coding mechanisms that allow information to move back and forth between the brain's sensory and memory regions.
Traditional views of brain organization suggest that regions at the top of the cortical hierarchy process internally directed information using abstract, amodal neural codes. Nevertheless, recent reports have described the presence of retinotopic coding at cortical vertices, including the default mode network.What is the functional role of retinal local coding at the apex of the cortical hierarchy? Steel other. We report that retinotopic coding structures interactions between internally oriented (memory) and externally oriented (perception) brain regions. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.
“We now know that brain regions associated with memory encode the world, like a 'photo negative' of the universe,” said Dr. Adam Steele, a researcher at Dartmouth College.
“And that 'negativity' is part of the mechanism that moves information in and out of memory, and between perceptual and memory systems.”
In a series of experiments, participants were tested on perception and memory while their brain activity was recorded using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner.
Dr. Steele and his colleagues identified a contralateral push-pull-like coding mechanism that governs the interaction between perceptual and memory areas in the brain.
The results showed that when light hits the retina, the brain's visual cortex responds by increasing activity that represents the pattern of light.
Memory areas of the brain also respond to visual stimuli, but unlike visual areas, processing the same visual pattern reduces neural activity.
“There are three unusual findings in this study,” the researchers said.
“The first is the discovery that visual coding principles are stored in the memory system.”
“The second thing is that this visual code is upside down in our memory system.”
“When you see something in your visual field, neurons in your visual cortex become active and neurons in your memory system quiet down.”
“Third, this relationship is reversed during memory recall.”
“If you close your eyes and recall that visual stimulus in the same space, the relationship is reversed. Your memory system kicks in and suppresses the neurons in your sensory area.”
Dr Ed Shilson, a neuroscientist at the University of Edinburgh, said: “Our findings demonstrate how shared visual information is used by the memory system to bring recalled memories into and out of focus. “This provides a clear example of how this can be done.”
of study Published in today's magazine natural neuroscience.
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A. Steel other. Retinotopic codes structure interactions between perceptual and memory systems. nut neurosi, published online on January 2, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41593-023-01512-3
A new study reveals the quantum switching mechanism of light-harvesting complex II (LHCII), which is critical for efficient photosynthesis. This discovery, achieved through advanced cryo-EM and theoretical calculations, supports a dynamic role for LHCII in regulating energy transfer in plants. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
Photosynthesis is an important process that allows plants to use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into organic compounds. Light-harvesting complex II (LHCII) consists of dye molecules bound to proteins. It alternates between two main roles. Under strong light, excess energy is dissipated as heat through non-photochemical quenching, and under weak light, light is efficiently transferred to the reaction center.
Recent bioengineering research has revealed that faster switching between these functions can improve photosynthetic efficiency. For example, soybean crops showed yield increases of up to 33%. However, the precise atomic-level structural changes in LHCII that cause this control have not been known until now.
The molecular mechanism of NPQ and acidity-induced changes in several key structural factors cause the LHCII trimer to switch between light-harvesting and energy-quenching states.Credit: Institute of Physics
innovative research approach
In the new study, researchers led by Professor Weng Yuxiang from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Professor Gao Jiali’s group from the Shenzhen Bay Institute, combined single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) research. Using multistate density functional theory (MSDFT) calculations of energy transfer between photosynthetic pigment molecules, we analyzed the dynamic structure of his LHCII at atomic resolution and identified photosynthetic pigment quantum switches for intermolecular energy transfer. Masu.
As part of the study, they developed a series of six cryogenic states, including energy transfer states with LHCII in solution and energy quenching states with laterally confined LHCII in membrane nanodisks under neutral and acidic conditions. reported the EM structure.
Comparing these different structures shows that LHCII undergoes a structural change upon acidification. This change allosterically changes the interpigment distance of the fluorescence quenching locus lutein 1 (Lut1)-chlorophyll 612 (Chl612) only when LHCII is confined to membrane nanodiscs, leading to the quenching of excited Chl612 by Lut1. cause. Therefore, lateral pressure-confined LHCII (e.g., aggregated LHCII) is a prerequisite for non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), whereas acidThe induced conformational change enhances fluorescence quenching.
Cryo-EM structures of LHCII in nanodiscs and surfactant solutions at pH 7.8 and 5.4. Credit: Institute of Physics
Quantum switching mechanism in photosynthesis
Through cryo-EM structures and MSDFT calculations of known crystal structures in the extinction state and transient fluorescence experiments, an important quantum switching mechanism of LHCII with the Lut1-Chl612 distance as a key factor was revealed.
This distance controls the energy transfer quantum channels in response to lateral pressure and conformational changes to LHCII. That is, a small change in the critical distance of 5.6 Å allows a reversible switch between light collection and excess energy dissipation. This mechanism allows for rapid response to changes in light intensity, achieving both high efficiency and efficiency. photosynthesis Balanced photoprotection using LHCII as a quantum switch.
Fluorescence decay rate, relationship of Lut1–Chl612 electronic bond strength to Lut1–Chl612 separation distance, and plot of Lut1–Chl612 distance versus crossing angle of TM helices A and B in different LHCII structures. Credit: Institute of Physics
Previously, these two research groups collaborated on molecular dynamics simulations and ultrafast infrared spectroscopy experiments to propose that LHCII is an allosterically controlled molecular machine. Their current experimental cryo-EM structure confirms previously theoretically predicted structural changes in his LHCII.
Reference: “Cryo-EM structure of LHCII in photoactive and photoprotected states reveals allosteric control of light harvesting and excess energy dissipation” Meixia Ruan, Hao Li, Ying Zhang, Ruoqi Zhao, Jun Zhang, Yingjie Wang , Jiali Gao, Zhuan Wang, Yumei Wang, Dapeng Sun, Wei Ding, Yuxiang Weng, August 31, 2023, natural plants. DOI: 10.1038/s41477-023-01500-2
This research was supported by a project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee.
Developers are increasingly using third-party APIs to build applications, and the cost of some APIs can quickly increase. It has been difficult for businesses to understand and find ways to manage these costs.
That’s where Lunar.dev comes in. It’s a tool designed from the ground up to help developers monitor, manage, and take control of their API billing. Today, the company is releasing an open source version of the tool and also announcing a $6 million seed investment.
Lunar CEO Eyal Solomon said that businesses are increasingly relying on third-party APIs to quickly add functionality to applications such as payments, instant messaging, and access to large language models. Masu. These APIs make it easy to add this type of advanced functionality, but can have an impact in terms of monthly usage costs. “As enterprises expand their use of APIs, we’re seeing them build their own internal solutions to better manage and enforce control over the use of third-party APIs,” Solomon told TechCrunch. told.
They weren’t aware of a viable product for managing the use of third-party APIs, so they set out to build one. “The way we look at things is that we focus solely on consumption to help businesses reduce costs and maintain flawless performance and efficiency when it comes to using APIs,” he said.
Installation involves starting a Docker container that loads the Lunar proxy and Lunar interceptor. This allows you to see API traffic flowing through your development pipeline to your API provider. Lunar does not need to connect directly to the API to understand usage. After installation, it will automatically start intercepting your API traffic. Through a command line interface, developers can set usage policies, such as the maximum cost allowed, and those policies are implemented as traffic flows through the interceptor. A graphical interface for policy configuration is planned in the roadmap.
“We are in the developer pipeline, between the natural traffic from production to the API provider, where all the policies and policies are implemented and enforced,” Solomon said. says.
The company decided to start with an open source version of the tool to increase developer buy-in. In the future, we plan to build managed services for companies that don’t want to deal with raw open source, and this is ultimately how we make money. Lunar releases open source products in the following ways: MIT licenseAnd Solomon says open source components are important to his company and its development.
“We are open source, and being open source is some of the key building blocks on our platform. It’s something we’re dedicated to. [offering] our community of developers and engineering teams,” Solomon said.
The company is currently a small company with eight employees split between locations in Tel Aviv and San Francisco, but is currently hiring and seeking R&D and marketing personnel.
The $6 million seed was led by Uncork Capital, with participation from Angular Ventures.
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