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The 19 hospitalized patients from a single nursing home had tested positive for the virus in April.

All were older than age 64 and had chronic health conditions such as hypertension, dementia, heart disease, diabetes and lung diseases. Their age and health issues are considered risk factors for severe COVID-19.

The patients received either one or two intravenous doses of itolizumab along with the standard treatments used in Cuba at the time. Those included antiviral drugs, antibiotics, chloroquine, interferon, and blood thinners. Only two patients required oxygen therapy after the first dose, and all but one were discharged from the hospital in 14 days.

N”(Reuters) — An antibody drug already being used against the coronavirus in Cuba decreased the risk of intensive care admission and death among nursing home residents with moderate COVID-19, according to a small study conducted in the island nation.

Continue reading “Antibody drug lowers risk of death in elderly COVID-19 patients: Cuban study” »

A campaign called Operation Skeleton Key has stolen source code, software development kits, chip designs, and more.

It would be heartening to think that cybersecurity has advanced since the 1990s, but some things never change. Vulnerabilities that some of us first saw in 1996 are still with us.

If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the news. Last month, Virginia-based cybersecurity firm GRIMM announced that they had found a vulnerability that affects many Netgear home WiFi routers. The cause? Outdated firmware that allows remote users to access the administrative systems in these routers.

If you think this exploit sounds like a 1990s-standard input overflow flaw, well done. That’s exactly what it is. As Nichols put it in his very detailed blog post: “1996 called, they want their vulnerability back.”

AMOLF researchers have presented a theory that describes the friction between biological filaments that are crosslinked by proteins. Surprisingly, their theory predicts that the friction force scales highly nonlinearly with the number of crosslinkers. The authors believe that cells use this scaling not only to stabilize cellular structures, but also to control their size. The new findings are important for the understanding of the dynamics of cellular structures such as the mitotic spindle, which pulls chromosomes apart during cell division.

Motor proteins versus frictional forces

Many cellular structures consist of long filaments that are crosslinked by motor proteins and non-motor proteins (see figure). These so-called cytoskeletal structures not only give cells their mechanical stability, but also enable them to crawl over surfaces and to pull chromosome apart during cell division. Force generation is typically attributed to motor proteins, which, using chemical fuel, can move the filaments with respect to one another. However, these motor forces are opposed by frictional forces that are generated by passive, non–motor proteins. These frictional forces are a central determinant of the mechanical properties of cytoskeletal structures, and they limit the speed and efficiency with which these structures are formed. Moreover, they can even be vital for their stability, because if the motor forces are not opposed by the friction forces generated by the passive crosslinkers, the structures can even fall apart.

An article published on the open-to-allcomers blogging site Medium earlier this week has made for some scary headlines.

Written as an independent research piece by an author going only by nusenu, the story is headlined:

Tesla’s stock (TSLA) is surging 18% over the last few days as investors are getting in just before Battery Day and the important announcements that it will bring. On Wednesday, Tesla announced a 5 for 1 stock split that sent the stock price surging.

Despite stock splits not actually changing the value of a company, they have been known to increase stock prices temporarily as people anticipate higher volume from small investors.

Steve Rowland, paleontologist and professor of Geology at UNLV, discusses the Ice Age fossils recently extracted from Carson City, at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum in Las Vegas on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020.

August 14, 2020 — 5:22 pm August 14, 2020 — 9:07 pm.

Ogba Educational Clinic promoting tech in Africa.

An update to Google’s blindness assistance app adds AI image recognition for food shopping.