Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: biotech/medical – Page 289

While threats and violence against pre-K to 12th-grade teachers and other school personnel in the United States declined during the pandemic, after the restrictions were lifted, incidents rebounded to levels equal to or exceeding those prior to the pandemic, according to research published in American Psychologist.

As a result, the percentage of teachers expressing intentions to resign or transfer rose from 49% during the pandemic to 57% afterward, the researchers found.

“Aggression and violence against educators and are major concerns that affect the well-being of school personnel and the students and families they serve. This study highlights a growing crisis in our schools that needs to be addressed nationally,” said lead author Susan Dvorak McMahon, Ph.D., of DePaul University, chair of the APA Task Force on Violence Against Educators and School Personnel. The conducted two surveys in collaboration with national education and related organizations.

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With advances in genomics research, personalized medicine, and sequencing-based technologies, there is a necessity for purification of high-quality genomic DNA from large volumes of blood. The rapidly growing landscape of biorepositories that store large amounts of DNA from an enormous number of biospecimens further fuels this need to find optimized solutions for reliable purification of DNA. The information derived from the purified DNA is crucial to health science research and facilitates drug discovery, biomarker discovery, clinical implementation projects, etc. For the success of these analyses and to derive relevant information, DNA extraction is the most critical step and must meet the criteria of extraction speed, yield and quality, as well as reproducibility. Many nucleic acid purification kits and automation workflows for processing blood samples in the volume range of 100–250 μL exist, but not many convenient, automated options exist for volumes as high as 2 mL without sample splitting. To fill this opening, Omega Bio-tek has developed a semi-automated solution on the MagBinder® Fit24 to extract DNA from large volumes of fresh or frozen blood. Here, we provide background information on biobanks, as well as present the solution Omega Bio-tek has developed for DNA extraction from large volumes of whole blood.

A biobank is a specialized repository that systematically collects, processes, stores, and manages biological samples for use in medical research and treatments. The primary purpose of a biobank is to provide a centralized and organized resource of high-quality biological materials, such as blood or tissue, along with relevant clinical and demographic data1. These invaluable assets are at the center of advancements in cancer treatments, biomarker discovery, and understanding genetic factors for disease. At a high level, biobanks can be classified by two categories1:

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It’s long been assumed that as cells divide in the human body, the genome is faithfully replicated in the resulting daughter cells. While errors are known to arise, there is machinery in the cell that can detect these genetic errors, and can often repair them. When mutations remain in the genome, it raises the risk that disease will arise.

But the human genome is made up of about 6 billion bases, and the human body contains billions, even trillions of cells. And it seems that errors and variations in the genome could actually arise far more often than we knew, according to a new study reported in Nature Genetics that analyzed blood stem cells. The research used advanced sequencing techniques to show that humans are made up of cells whose genomes may be far more heterogeneous that assumed. And these variations between cells are not always small. The research determined that about one out of every forty blood stem cells in healthy people carry major chromosomal alterations in their DNA. These chromosomal changes included copy number variations and rearrangements, but did not seem to cause any deleterious effect.

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People battling advanced colon cancers might have a new treatment option that could extend their survival, a new trial finds.

A combination of two experimental immunotherapy drugs plus standard chemotherapy led to a median 19.7 month survival for patients, compared to the median 9.5 months observed among folks who only got a targeted therapy called regorafenib.

“These results pave the way for further exploration of this promising treatment approach,” said study first author Dr. Zev Wainberg. He co-directs the UCLA Health GI Oncology Program, and is a researcher at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

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Oncologists base prognosis, the predicted long-term outcome of an individual’s cancer, on the chances of recovery versus the chances of experiencing a recurrence or failure to respond to interventions. A clear understanding of prognosis can significantly influence treatment planning, lifestyle, and overall quality of life of a cancer patient. Thus, ongoing research to uncover, validate, and optimize the predictive accuracy of prognostic factors, modifiable or non-modifiable characteristics that help estimate prognosis, has significant value to areas of cancer treatment and care.

A meta-analysis recently published in the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer evaluated the value of different prognostic factors for epithelial ovarian cancer, an aggressive and deadly cancer occurring in the tissue lining women’s ovaries.

Epithelial ovarian cancer represents a highly fatal disease, with an estimated 19,680 new cases and 12,740 deaths in the United States in 2024. Diagnosis of ovarian cancer remains challenging, and as a result, most women with ovarian cancer have advanced-stage disease. Once advanced, ovarian cancer may spread into the peritoneum, the tissue lining the abdominal wall and pelvic cavity, making it difficult to identify small lesions and fully assess the condition.

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GPT4 can score better than 95% of the average human on aptitude tests.

The GPT-4 language model recently completed the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), achieving a verbal score of 710 and a math score of 690, resulting in a combined score of 1400. Based on U.S. norms, this corresponds to a verbal IQ of 126, a math IQ of 126, and a full-scale IQ of 124. If taken at face value, one might conclude that GPT-4 surpasses 95% of the American population in intelligence and is approximately as intelligent as the average doctoral degree holder, medical doctor, or attorney.

However, the question remains: Is administering an IQ test to GPT-4 a valid undertaking or a significant categorization mistake?

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Graphene has been called “the wonder material of the 21st century.” Since its discovery in 2004, the material—a single layer of carbon atoms—has been touted for its host of unique properties, which include ultra-high electrical conductivity and remarkable tensile strength. It has the potential to transform electronics, energy storage, sensors, biomedical devices, and more. But graphene has had a dirty little secret: it’s dirty.

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