BioMed Realty, a leading provider of real estate solutions to the life science community, has relocated their headquarters to discover@UTC at University Towne Centre, a campus the company has assembled and transformed over the last several years into a premier life science park in one of the top biotech markets in the country.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200825005293/en/

BioMed Realty, a leading provider of real estate solutions to the life science and technology industries, has relocated their headquarters to discover@UTC at San Diego's University Towne Centre. (Photo: Business Wire)

"Placing roots at our discover@UTC campus puts us at the center of our core San Diego market and adjacent to the regions leading life science and technology companies and research institutions," said President and CEO Tim Schoen. "This move demonstrates our commitment to continuing to invest in and serve the thriving San Diego life science community through all economic conditions, as the biotech industry and our innovative tenants advance the next generation of medicines and therapies."

Located at the intersection of Towne Centre Drive and Executive Drive, discover@UTC is a premier life science campus comprised of four buildings with 288,000 square feet. BioMed Realtys new headquarters brings the propertys leasing percentage to 94%. Other tenants that also moved their corporate headquarters to discover@UTC include Poseida Therapeutics, Samumed, and Human Longevity.

BioMed Realty acquired the campus in phases in 2010 and 2016, and successfully remodeled and repositioned the entire campus in 2017 under Blackstones ownership. In 2020, BioMed Realty completed significant improvements, including converting the properties to state-of-the-art lab/office buildings, enhancing the exterior faade, and adding new interior and exterior amenities.

To support the community of life science companies occupying discover@UTC, the property provides a host of amenities designed to enhance collaboration, support wellness, and provide convenience for tenants, including an on-site fitness center and caf, subterranean and surface level parking, and on-site security. In addition to this, the property contains a newly designed, eco-friendly parklike setting with tranquil water features, outdoor meeting spaces and a recreation/athletic field. The campus provides ideal ingress and egress access points to both the I-5 and I-805 freeways, and is centrally located within walking distance of the newly renovated Westfield Mall and a number of nearby retail stores, high end restaurants, fitness centers and hotels.

About BioMed Realty

Founded in 2004, and a Blackstone portfolio company since 2016, BioMed Realty owns, operates and develops high-quality life science real estate comprising 13.6 million square feet, including 2.5 million square feet of Class A properties in active development, to meet the growing demand of the life science and technology industries. BioMed Realtys portfolio is located in the leading innovation markets throughout the United States and United Kingdom, led by Boston-Cambridge, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, New York and Cambridge, U.K. With over 200 tenant partners, BioMed Realty provides real estate solutions for global enterprises, established biotechnology and innovation companies, leading universities and premier research institutions. Follow us on Twitter @biomedrealty.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200825005293/en/

Contacts

Hamilton McCullohAllison + Partners on behalf of BioMed Realty206-910-9797hamilton.mcculloh@allisonpr.com

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BioMed Realty Relocates Headquarters to University Towne Centre - Yahoo Finance

While health and longevity are matters of social justice and fairness, they are also cornerstones of economic productivity

This weeks news that the UK has officially entered a recession will have left many people deeply concerned. Chancellor Rishi Sunaks Dickensian announcement that hard times are here will have felt a particularly poorly chosen phrase to the millions for whom hard times have never gone away since the last recession in 2008-9.

Massive cuts to local authority budgets and a fall in health spending as a proportion of GDP in the last decade have been associated with poorer population health and increased child poverty. It has been estimated that the austerity measures introduced in the UK following the 2008 crash might have resulted in up to 150,000 excess deaths (excluding those relating to the covid-19 pandemic).

The 2008 crash prompted renewed political attention to the impact of poverty on health. The World Health Organizations Commission on the Social Determinants of Health was published in 2008, and Michael Marmots landmark review, Fair Society Healthy Lives two years later. Both laid bare the brutality of health and wealth inequalities both globally and in the UK. Today, such inequalities result in a massive 16-year disparity in the average life expectancy between Africa and Europe and, even more starkly, a 30-year difference in healthy life expectancythe number of years lived in good healthbetween the highest country (Singapore) and the lowest (Central African Republic). A similar picture is seen between different areas of the UK: the difference in healthy life expectancy between the highest and lowest areas is currently at 21.5 years for women and 15.8 years for men.

The pandemic has forced us to watch the impact of neoliberal economic policy on health as if on fast-forward. Deaths and morbidity from covid-19 have been on a steep socioeconomic gradient, and black and minority ethnic people have been particularly badly affected. An underfunded, marketised and fragmented NHS has only been able to cope with increased demand by cancelling almost all elective surgery and sidelining cancer care. Alfred Saad-Filho at Kings College London has argued that economic policies accelerated by post-2008 governments have directly resulted in the UKs unenviable pole position for highest covid-19 mortality rate in Europe.

Both the WHO Commission and the Marmot review set out a course to reduce health inequalities, a plan which they argued had economic as well as social benefits. While health and longevity are matters of social justice and fairness, they are also cornerstones of economic productivity.

However, a decade of austerity in the UK has shown governments since 2008 took a dim view of the recommendations from WHO and Marmot. In the 10 years on follow-up to the Marmot review, the team at the Institute of Health Equity has drawn a stark picture of the UK governments economic policy choices. Gains in life expectancy began stalling in 2011, and in some areas of England both life expectancy and healthy life expectancy have started falling.

But while the deleterious effect of a decades worth of austerity on public services and public health were predictable (and indeed predicted), they were not inevitable. Economist Jonathan Portes has shown that claims made during pandemic that there is a trade-off between health and negative economic growth are based on a false premise, arguing that it was not the recession that resulted in the terrible outcomes unearthed in Marmots follow-up review, but rather the political choice to disinvest in the welfare state. In their 2013 book The Body Economic, Stuckler and Basu argue:

Conventional wisdom holds that recessions are inevitably bad for human health. Thus, we ought to expect a rise in depression, suicide, alcoholism, infectious disease outbreaks, and many other health problems. But this is false. Recessions pose both threats and opportunities for public health, and sometimes can even improve health outcomes.

Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights made a similar point after a visit to the UK in 2018: the driving force [behind increasing levels of poverty] has not been economic but rather a commitment to achieving radical social re-engineering.

The tenacity of those who have fought in the anti-austerity movement over the last decade has meant that the argument against austerity as a response to a recessionwhich many Conservatives, including George Osborne, would like to rerun after the current downturnnow has high levels of public support. A 2018 UK poll found that a 66% majority thought austerity had gone too far and the British Social Attitudes survey in the same year found 60% were in favour of raising taxes, compared to only 31% when the same question was asked in 2010.

Marmots 10 years on report concluded that health is getting worse for people living in more deprived districts and regions, health inequalities are increasing and, for the population as a whole, health is declining. The report was published in February of this year, just before the devastating impact of covid-19 on the UK became apparent. The challenge is now even harder, the stakes higher, and the fight even more important.

JosephFreeris anNIHR Academic Clinical Fellow,Institute of Population Health Sciences, Queen Mary University London. He worked at The BMJ as the editorial registrar and Clinical Fellow, Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management, 2016-17.

Competing interests: None declared.

Original post:
The recession should remind us that health and wealth are political choices - The BMJ - The BMJ

The only thing missing from the serenity is an OLED. (Photo credit: Image by Steve Adcock via Pixabay; used under free license for commercial or non-commercial purposes.)

OLED proponents have long struggled to make substantial inroads into the lighting market, but they continue to push, and to identify new segments where the technology could be just right. The latest example: OLEDWorks wants to outfit recreational vehicles yes, RVs with the technologys soft and sleek illumination.

Its a market that excites the Rochester, NY-based company with growth potential, because as director of user experience Kathleen Vaeth noted in a recent blog post, RV sales are on the rise as people rethink their vacations in the era of social distancing and international travel restrictions, and start heading to national parks and the like.

On top of that, thin and flexible OLEDs are simpatico with modern RV interior design which Vaeth notes, has come on in leaps and bounds.

First, our obligatory, quick refresher: OLEDs (organic light-emitting diodes) are different from LEDs in that OLEDs are a thin material that entirely lights up in response to an electric charge, whereas LEDs are single light points. Invented at Rochester-based Eastman Kodak in 1987 (OLEDWorks was founded 10 years ago by former Kodak scientists), OLEDs have long failed to live up to the expectation that they will revolutionize lighting by literally weaving into the fabric of everything from lamps and fixtures to ceilings, walls, furniture, fashion, building faades, you name it. One problem is that the design of LED fixtures continues to improve; and OLEDs have trailed LEDs in energy efficiency.

But OLEDs are declining in price, improving in efficiency and slowly creeping into general illumination.

They are also finding specialty, niche, and architectural design uses. OLEDWorks will be supplying tail lights to Audi, for example.

RVs could be next, if OLEDWorks has its way. The company certainly thinks theres a big need.

The interior design has progressed significantly in recent years, allowing travelers to bring the comforts of home along with them, waxes Vaeth. High-quality cabinets, quartz countertops and spacious kitchens, leather seating, flat-screen TVs, air conditioning, solar power, and Wi-Fi connectivity are common features in todays models. But what about comfortable lighting?

Of course, she has the answer: The artificial lighting in these units have not progressed as much by comparison. At OLEDWorks, we think that this is the next frontier for designers to address and continue the revolution of the indoor RV space.

Vaeth points out that OLEDs, with their slim profile, fit the tight spaces of an RV, and also reduce overall vehicle weight, which reduces fuel consumption.

OLED lighting panels, measuring 1.4 millimeters in thickness and weighing less than 40 grams, offer an ultracompact and lightweight form factor that opens up the possibility of easily integrating lighting on horizontal and vertical surfaces, or in compact locations such as under cabinets and in drawers, she notes.

The thinness provides an aesthetic complemented by a mirror finish in the off state that can be used to accent the space, or blend into the background, Vaeth adds. She also trots out an attribute that OLED supporters often ascribe to the technology: The light is soft, diffuse, and glare free. Likewise, she notes that OLEDWorks thin panels avoid the blue spectrum that can undermine sleep when used at night, and that it avoids ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths which can be damaging.

This makes OLEDs compatible with lighting trends emphasizing lighting design for sustainability and human health, she notes.

Vaeths blog noticeably does not identify any signed-up RV customers. As OLED vendors hit the RV highway in search of deals, they will undoubtedly run into LED competitors, who offer many similar benefits, with LEDs probably still maintaining an edge in efficiency and in longevity. OLEDs might just have the leg up in design advantages, especially considering the space restrictions of an RV.

Describing the state of RV lighting today with technologies including incandescent, compact fluorescent, and LEDs, Vaeth notes, Most fixtures are small and compact but tend to be integrated into ceilings as recessed lighting or circular flush-mounted fixtures with push button switches. Specialized fixtures integrated for closer, more flexible illumination in spaces such sleeping areas can often be overly bright, or too dim. This can make for an illumination experience, even in the most state-of-the-art models, that is uneven with sharp contrast and shadows, and high in glare, which can cause discomfort and eye strain.

To paraphrase Vaeth, theres nothing like an OLED to take care of those shortcomings.

Wi-Fi. Quartz countertops. Flat-screen TVs. OLEDs. Ah, the great outdoors.

MARK HALPERis a contributing editor for LEDs Magazine, and an energy, technology, and business journalist (markhalper@aol.com).

For up-to-the-minute LED and SSL updates, why notfollow us on Twitter? Youll find curated content and commentary, as well as information on industry events, webcasts, and surveys on ourLinkedIn Company Pageandour Facebook page.

Visit link:
Could the latest in OLED lighting be heading into an RV? - LEDs Magazine

Los Angeles is beaches, eclectic food and sunshine kissed boulevards. But its also not. Its a crime to whittle any city down to its most superficial assets and forget the good stuff that makes it pulse with vitality, its heart.

Walter Thompson-Hernndez is a reporter dedicated to telling stories. Hes done just that over several years for such publications as the New York Times, NPR, Fusion, the BBC and the Guardian.

With the support of LAist Studios, Thompson-Hernndez recently published his newest storytelling venture, a podcast series appropriately titled California Love.

Inspired by the 1995 2Pac song by the same name, he explains in the show's prologue episode that Pac and Dr. Dres lyrics and deliciously addictive beat were revelatory for a young kid.

Dres voice eventually listed cities and landmarks throughout the state; it made the song feel not just flashy and cool but also informative, Thompson-Hernndez said in the shows opening salvo. It felt like a social studies class that I always wanted but never had.

The 32-year-old is holding class in this love letter to the city. A town in which he was raised, cutting his teeth on avenues that arent always represented in mainstream media or in the pages published on this here Internet.

Theres a kinship of telling stories that are grossly underrepresented that drew me to the podcast.

One of the more engrossing episodes thus far is that of the Compton Cowboys. Familiar to so many out there but unfortunately foreign to far more, they recently joined the chorus of protests that took place in the wake of George Floyd's death.

The group remains a beacon of calm and healing for a community that is often without either, abeloved contingent of horse-riding African-Americans who hail from a part of Los Angeles more renowned for hip-hop shoutouts than bucolic ranch living.

Thompson-Hernndez covered the community back in 2018 for the N.Y. Times and again in his book The Compton Cowboys: The New Generation of Cowboys in America's Urban Heartland, for which he won the Whiting Creative Non-Fiction Award in 2019.

The Cowboys ride again, making an appearance in the Aug. 6 episode of the podcast. Its a refreshingly deep dive into a group and a location that remains an important source of peace.

The ranch isnt just a ranch, Thompson-Hernndez explains in the episode. Beneath all the jokes and the shit-talking, theres something more profound taking place that can maybe help Compton heal from some of its wounds.

Its a refreshing but harrowing narrative into a group that has found their slice of heaven but also struggles to maintain its longevity.

Ranch owner and Cowboy leader Randy Hook doesnt hold back as he expresses the stress and dismay at keeping the ranch and the cowboys riding into the next generation, a generation that is already hooked.

One of the parting shots is from a boy named Keenan who says with bursting energy, When youre on top of the horse, its like the world just chills out for a minute. Its like youre in control of something.

Stories matter. From book to movie to podcast, the human experience deepens when you walk a mile in anothers boots. Empathy is in short supply these days, and Thompson-Hernndez has us going back to the well.

The sports world will certainly love the episode dedicated to Kobe Bryant and the impact he had on a budding writer.

My favorite in the series has to be Parrots: A Parable. Los Angeles is a city made up of natives and transplants. So many of the latter came to the City of Angeles of their own accord, seeking vitality in a bustling city.

But some, like the ubiquitous and often chatty parrot, came here without much of a say.

Thompson-Hernndez stretches his pen in a story that not only explains how L.A. came to house this prolific bird but also addresses humanity's ability to cage our own kind, something that is especially salient in 2020 with an administration that has separated migrant children from their parents.

The show makes the connection seamlessly and without a heavy hand, delivered with a moving story you will carry with you long after the episodes conclusion.

California Love resonates and educates. And like a great song from the 90s, you cant get it out of your head.

California Love is available from LAist Studios and can be heard wherever you stream your podcasts.

Continue reading here:
From Parrots to Black Cowboys, Walter Thompson-Hernndez is Telling the Stories That Matter - Sports Illustrated

Fossil Fuels

Published on August 13th, 2020 | by Steve Hanley

August 13th, 2020 by Steve Hanley

On August 5, Drew Shindell, a professor of Earth science at Duke University, appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Shindell is the lead author of the two most recent IPCC reports. He told the committee the latest study by his colleagues and NASA shows that Over the next 50 years, keeping to the 2 C pathway would prevent roughly 4.5 million premature deaths, and about 3.5 million hospitalizations and emergency room visits. He said many of these preventable deaths are tied to diseases resulting from poor air quality, including stroke, heart disease, and pulmonary diseases. The 2 C pathway refers to the guidelines adopted at the COP 22 climate conference in Paris in 2015 designed to prevent average global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Centigrade.

As Dave Roberts of Vox points out, Shindells testimony reveals that the effects of air pollution are roughly twice as bad as previously estimated. That is a bombshell in a sane world, it would be front page news across the country. But we do not live in a sane world. We live in a world dominated by a lunatic who wants to bring back incandescent light bulbs because LEDs make his skin look orange and to trash low-flow shower heads because his hair has to be perfect.

The air quality scientific community has hypothesized this for at least a decade, but research advances have let us quantify and confirm this notion, over and over, says Rebecca Saari, an air quality expert who teaches in civil and environmental engineering at the University of Waterloo. The air quality co-benefits are generally so valuable that they exceed the cost of climate action, often many times over. (emphasis added).

So lets see if we have this straight. Pollution from burning fossil fuels is making millions of people sick and many of them are dying prematurely as a result. The benefits of cleaning the air and making it safe to breathe would far outweigh the costs of doing so, and still we cannot find the political will to make that happen? It is enough to make a sentient person question whether humans are not, in fact, a form of environment-eating virus bent on destroying the only home they will ever have. That is the theory put forth in the movie The Matrix.

Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment; but you humans do not. Instead you multiply, and multiply, until every resource is consumed. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern a virus. How fitting that the world today is in the grip of just such a virus and yet we shrug our shoulders and wonder when things will get back to normal as if normal will somehow save us from ourselves.

The Shindell report says, The avoided deaths are valued at more than $37 trillion. The avoided health care spending due to reduced hospitalizations and emergency room visits exceeds $37 billion, and the increased labor productivity is valued at more than $75 billion. On average, this amounts to over $700 billion per year in benefits to the US from improved health and labor alone, far more than the cost of the energy transition.

Roberts writes, Scientists now know that exposure to smog (tiny, microscopic particulates) hurts prenatal and young brains. Even though they dont yet fully understand the biological mechanism, they know it reduces impulse control and degrades academic performance. Similarly, they know it hurts the kidneys, the spleen, even the nervous system.

Shindell adds. The well understood pathways, things like strokes, lower respiratory infections, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, only seem to capture about half the total. When you look at the [new] studies, you find that air pollution seems to affect almost every organ in the human body. About twice as many people die in total as die just from the pathways we understand. Weve been underestimating all along.

A recent study from the national academies of multiple countries, including the US, concludes, The scientific evidence is unequivocal: air pollution can harm health across the entire lifespan. It causes disease, disability and death, and impairs everyones quality of life. It damages lungs, hearts, brains, skin and other organs; it increases the risk of disease and disability, affecting virtually all systems in the human body.

What accounts for the latest study finding the effects of dirty air are twice as high as previously thought? Access to more data specifically information on 60 million Medicare patients. Such massive amounts of data allow researchers to control for socioeconomic status, temperature, hypertension and other existing conditions, says Shindell. You can convincingly demonstrate that correlation is in fact causal, because you can rule out essentially every other possibility.

The finding that the impacts of dirty air are twice what they were previously thought to be probably still underestimates the actual situation. On both air pollution and climate change, the study omitted many effects that are clearly present but cannot yet be reliably quantified. The true numbers are almost certainly higher, Dave Roberts writes.

And thats precisely where the so-called president of the United States and his cohort of deplorables have decided to attack the science. This group of fossil fuel industry apologists proposes to prohibit research based on randomized data because, you know, we need to be able to interrogate each and every one of the people in the survey to make sure they are not malingerers or immigrants or people of color or any of the other categories of people despised by Trump and his acolytes. They also want to exclude any secondary effects of air pollution from consideration, even thought those so-called co-benefits are by far the most significant when it comes to determining the total impact air pollution has on peoples health.

Dave Roberts concludes his remarks with these thoughts:

The extraordinary level of suffering humanity is currently experiencing from air pollution is not necessary for modernity; it could be reduced, at a cost well below the net social benefits, with clean energy technologies on hand..The millions of lives ended or degraded by fossil fuels every year are a choice (emphasis added). And when suffering on this scale, that is this brutally inequitable, becomes a choice, it enters the same ethical terrain as war, slavery, and genocide. The effects are more distributed over time and geography, as are the decision-making and the moral culpability, but the cumulative impact on human well-being on our longevity, health, learning, and happiness is comparable, and every bit as much worth fighting.

US policymakers have a chance to kick start an energy transition that could save 1.4 million American lives over the next 20 years, especially among the most vulnerable, even as it creates jobs and saves consumers money. As Shindell says, it would be unconscionable not to act on it.

As we at CleanTechnica often put it: Earth Justice = Social Justice = Racial Justice. This administration has not taken the actions needed to prevent 166,000 Americans from dying from COVID-19. What in the world makes anyone think they care a flying fig leaf about 1.4 million more unnecessary deaths over the next 20 years? They have shown absolutely no compassion for those afflicted so far. Instead, they plan to roll back pollution standards on mercury emissions from coal-powered generating plants, auto emission standards, and rules limiting how much climate killing methane fracking companies can spew into the atmosphere free of charge.

A seasoned criminal prosecutor could probably find grounds to charge most members of the current maladministration, industry lobbyists, and fossil fuel company heads with negligent homicide if not worse. Is that over the top? Perhaps, but when one considers the amount of harm being done deliberately to defenseless people who are innocent of any wrong doing, the idea may not be so far fetched. Perhaps they should be in the dock at the World Court in The Hague charged with crimes against humanity? You can form your own opinion on that subject.

What cannot be denied any longer is that burning fossil fuels is killing us and the planet that sustains us. At this point, nothing else matters. We must immediately find ways to stop making the burning of fossil fuels the basis of our economic system or perish. Make of that what you will.

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Tags: air pollution, dave roberts, Dr. Vox, Drew Shindell, IPCC, secondary effects of air pollution

Steve Hanley Steve writes about the interface between technology and sustainability from his homes in Florida and Connecticut or anywhere else the Singularity may lead him. You can follow him onTwitter but not on any social media platforms run by evil overlords like Facebook.

More:
Cleaning Up Our Polluted Air Would Save More Money Than It Costs - CleanTechnica

SunSystem Technology

Many commercial and utility-scale solar projects installed at the beginning of the solar construction boom are celebrating their 10th birthday around the year 2020. But instead of something to revel, this milestone is a nuisance for many project owners given that the string inverters on these systems are nearing their average 15-year lifespans.

In a new report, Wood Mackenzie estimated that approximately 4.2 GWDC of global solar assets will run into premature failures in 2020, with the annual total jumping to 36 GWDC in 2025.

The big question is are project owners adequately prepared for the O&M necessary to handle an influx of expired inverters between now and 2025?

In the study, Wood Mackenzie found the basic scope of solar O&M contracts cover very few basic maintenance activities.

Silvia Blumenschein-Schtz, CEO of solar monitoring provider Solar-Log, has found a similar theme in conversations with project owners. She recalls an EPC approaching her at a solar tradeshow in early 2020, saying he was thinking about adding monitoring to his portfolio of about 10,000 projects. She mentioned it would be helpful to also add monitoring hardware to the inverters to collect more comprehensive performance data, and he bristled at the thought of having to visit every site to install them.

I said, Dont you go out there one time per year? And he looked at me and said, I dont see a need for that,' Blumenschein-Schtz said. If you just talk about the typical residential/commercial/industrial sector, I think we would all be surprised to learn how many sites are not properly monitored yet. People dont know that they are losing a lot of money, and how easy it is to get back into that business to make money on the long term.

Solar-Logs monitoring platform.

There are plenty of options in the solar monitoring space. The technology continues to advance to alert project owners of failures or maintenance requirements with greater accuracy. But many asset owners still arent investing in it.

Solar-Log chief marketing officer Anne Nelson said more education is needed to show project owners the importance of monitoring.

O&M and the idea of selling services is a relatively new topic when were talking about the solar market, Nelson said.

Many first-generation solar projects were installed without monitoring, so project owners likely have no way of knowing if those aging inverters are working properly.

Solar-Log Base hardware

When we talk about the amount of money that would be lost, especially if an inverter dies on site and is completely undetected, even a small drop means a big financial loss, but if the inverter completely dies, thats a lot of money lost, Nelson said. So a lot of plant owners, if they knew that, would be totally willing to invest in having a service provider come out and add monitoringso that they can detect and protect this investment thats supposed to last 20 to 25 years,much after the lifetime of the inverter.

Most new inverters come with built-in monitoring options, but when sites have multiple inverter brands due to replacements over the years, monitoring is best performed by one neutral third-party system.

I really believe its so important to have a neutral inverter-agnostic monitoring platform, because when were talking about older plants, if you have to swap out components that are not matching the brand thats already on site, how do you monitor that unless you have a neutral system that can connect all of the different components regardless of which brand or model it is? Nelson said.

Another issue for project owners and O&M companies is that all inverters wont fail at the same time, costing more money for multiple one-off truck rolls to sites.

Youre not going to be able to be super-efficient about this because theyre all going to be a bunch of one-offs and failing at different times, said Derek Chase, CEO of O&M provider SunSystem Technology. If youre able to aggregate all of these and then make a mass purchase and schedule them all really smoothly with dense routes, you could really reduce the cost of all this. But nobodys going to be that proactive theyre just going to wait for one to go off and another one to go off. Somehow, somebodys got to see the bigger picture here and try to aggregate all this stuff together.

SunSystem Technology

SunSystem is working on pioneering such an aggregation with Palmetto Solar for the residential solar segment. The O&M company was struggling to organize sales and financing logistics for all the individual homeowners needing inverters fixed. SunSystem decided to partner with financier Palmetto Solar to aggregate all the individual, non-leased PPA customers and sell them new inverters, service and maintenance through Palmettos existing financing plan. That way, residents arent looking at one staggering bill for an inverter replacement.

But inverter maintenance for the larger-scale solar market is more complicated. Chase thinks many asset owners still view O&M as an afterthought. He also thinks there should be more inspections to ensure systems are safe throughout their lifespans.

Theres not even a standard and theres no enforcement of any of this, so thats what I think makes it be an afterthought. [Owners think], Hey, whatever, if something happens well figure it out,rather than, If I dont do this, an inspector might show up and shut our plant down and that would be bad news,' Chase said.

Chase also has concerns about whether string inverter manufacturers are prepared to handle the influx of inverters approaching their 15-year lifespans that require maintenance or replacement.

When SunSystem has to troubleshoot an inverter, Chase first calls the manufacturer to verify the unit is actually dead and the warranty is out of play. Then he sees if there are any monetary breaks if the unit is replaced with that companys product vs. switching brands.

Unfortunately, many inverter companies from the early 2010s are no longer in business. The inverter market has always been volatile, with high-profile company exits and acquisitions happening almost every year. Even if the original manufacturer is still in business, 10-year-old inverters most likely are out of warranty.

SunSystem Technology

For those companies still around, SunSystems team of 170 technicians has found that calling a manufacturer to help diagnose specific inverter issues can take up to an hour.

If you multiply that by 170 technicians, plus whatever other technicians are out there from different companies, the amount of just sheer on-hold time from a labor cost standpoint is crazy, Chase said.

He thinks inverter manufacturers should either scale-up their customer service workforce or offer digital solutions that allow technicians to submit return merchandise authorization requests through an app or similar streamlined process.

String inverter manufacturer CPS America has heard the customer service issues from O&M technicians and is working on solutions to streamline the process. The company uses RingCentral to route calls and has a goal for a human representative to answer the phone 90% of the time.

CPS also launched an Authorized Service Provider training program in early 2020 to help O&M techs learn specifics about its inverter line to help them troubleshoot in the field by themselves. The training is virtual and also offered at the companys Texas headquarters, which helps O&M techs form relationships with CPS workers.

The inverter companies are squeezed and under pressure. Not every inverter company has enough resources to be able to answer the phone all the time, said Ed Heacox, general manager of CPS America. One way to help make sure good service is available is to anticipate it and get the relationships in place in the region.

CPS has warehouses full of refurbished spare inverter models available for O&M technicians to swap with failed units. But as 2025 gets closer and old units start reaching end-of-life en masse, that stockpile will eventually run out.

In addition to checking with suppliers like us on readiness to support the field, another diligence some companies are going through is thinking ahead to, well, whats a reasonable retrofit of an old site to a modern inverter? Heacox said.

He expects retrofitting to grow in popularity as the original inverter fleet ages, whether its replacing old central inverters with string, replacing 600-V inverters with 1,000-V or higher, or other configurations.

SunSystems Chase said typically the most affordable solution in the case of string inverter failures would be to swap with another string inverter, but systems may have more longevity if the old string inverters are swapped in favor of new technology like string inverters with optimizers, or even microinverters. It may also be an opportune time to add storage to projects.

One thing that I always tell everybody if youre going to get a new inverter [or] make any investments your first dollars need to go toward a monitoring system, Chase said.

Detecting that an inverter is down in the first place is crucial as early inverters inch closer to their 15-year lifespans.

Were 10 years in now. Its a perfect time to go back to your original customer base and say, Hey, you could be losing money, lets take a look at the system. Lets install adequate professional monitoring so we can detect these issues,' said Nelson.

Continued here:
Is the solar industry prepared for a wave of end-of-life inverters? - Solar Power World

Tuatara used to be one of the several Rhynocephalia species that had once lived in the continent of Gondwana millions of years ago. Tuataraalso known as the dinosaur survivorhas genetic links to not only reptiles but also to the mammals like humans and scientists think that its DNA may hold the secret of longevity.

Neil Gemmel, a professor of anatomy at the University of Otago in New Zealand, in a recently conducted study, published in the journal Nature, said that this creature, one of the world's oldest species, has a genomic architecture "unlike anything previously reported, with an amalgam of features that have previously been viewed as characteristic of either mammals or reptiles."

Amniote vertebratesa clade of tetrapod vertebrates comprising the reptiles, birds, and mammalsare thought to have first appeared on earth around 312 million years ago and then branched off into two groups. Synapsids included ancient mammal species and now-extinct reptiles which had mammalian characteristics. Sauropsids were once dinosaurs and used to be ancestors of reptiles that have vanished from the earth or evolved into modern birds, lizards, and snakes.

But the Tuatara, which is also called New Zealand's living dinosaur, has puzzled researchers for so long due to its synapsid and sauropsid features which could reveal what we never knew about the evolution of amniote.

Synapsid and sauropsid characteristics similar to tuatara include extreme night vision and a sense of smell that could identify potential mates, as well as potential prey.

As per scientists, Tuatarawhose name derives from the Mori language that means "peaks on the back"has one of the largest vertebrate genomes ever. There are some repeating elements, unique to this lizard-like species, which became the entire phylum after it separated from snakes and lizards.

Hope for The Future

Tuatara shares parts of its genome with modern species like turtles, chickens, and even humans. The types of repeating elements in its DNA are closer to mammals, in comparison with lizards and birds. As per the scientists, Tuatara has evolved specialized genes for immunity, metabolism, thermal regulation, and odor reception.

Scientists believe that replicating such 'major histocompatibility complex' genes in humans could save several lives in the future. After conducting the recent study on the ancient-still living creature, scientists believe that the understanding of its extremely low metabolism and Methuselan longevity may open a new door of possibility to extend the human lifespan.

As Tuatara can live up to 100 years, making it the longest-lived reptiles after a tortoise, scientists believe that there may be a link to certain proteins in the species along with the genes that protect them from free radicals.

Gemmel explained that the MHC genes play an important role in "disease resistance, mate choice and kin recognition, and are among the most polymorphic genes in the vertebrate genome." While explaining the recent research process he also added that "Our annotation of MHC regions in the tuatara, and comparisons of the gene organization with that of six other species, identified 56 MHC genes."

As per the scientists, further research on Tuatara could help unlock still-unknown amazing advances in the future.

Read more here:
This Dinosaur Relative Has Links to Humans, Its DNA May Unlock Secrets of Longevity - International Business Times, Singapore Edition

The coronavirus pandemic hit the business pretty hard, but NeoGenomics (NASDAQ:NEO) had been preparing investors for months. Properly setting expectations turned out to be a great move.

Shares of NeoGenomics reached all-time highs shortly after the company announced second-quarter 2020 operating results. The financial metrics weren't pretty, and there's lingering uncertainty about the course of the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on the business, but investors are largely confident in the long-term strategy.

Can the growth stock maintain its expensive valuation?

Image source: Getty Images.

NeoGenomics is an oncology reference lab operating two business segments: clinical services and pharma services. The former collects patient samples from doctors, performs the test(s) selected by customers from a comprehensive menu, and returns the data. The latter helps biopharmaceutical companies to identify biomarkers for drug development, access oncology-specific datasets from pathologists, and develop and validate companion diagnostics.

When first-quarter 2020 operating results were announced, management prepared investors for a sour showing in the second quarter. The coronavirus pandemic was expected to impact clinical trials, which would hurt both business segments. However, NeoGenomics announced it wouldn't furlough employees and would continue investing in the business.

For the second quarter of 2020, total revenue slipped 14% compared to the year-ago period -- a sharp contrast to the double-digit growth investors have grown accustomed to in recent years. Gross profit sank due to lower revenue per test and higher costs, leaving investors with a relatively weak first-half showing for the business.

Metric

First Half 2020

First Half 2019

Change (YoY)

Clinical services

$166.9 million

$175.2 million

(5%)

Pharma services

$26.1 million

$22.1 million

18%

Total revenue

$193.0 million

$197.3 million

(2%)

Gross profit

$74.4 million

$96.1 million

(22%)

Operating income

($24.2 million)

$7.0 million

N/A

Net income

($13.8 million)

($0.4 million)

N/A

Operating cash flow

($5.0 million)

$1.4 million

N/A

Data source: SEC filing. YoY = year over year.

Pharma services revenue was the only bright spot, although the increase was entirely explained by the recent acquisition of assets from Human Longevity.

Despite the tough operating environment, management didn't flinch. On the second-quarter 2020 earnings conference call, CEO Douglas VanOort laid out a six-part business update comprising strategy and investments. Two developments in particular stood out.

NeoGenomics has converted a portion of its lab space to run up to 10,000 SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic tests per day, which could increase in the future. The business has also made a $25 million investment in a liquid biopsy start-up called Inivata. The equity investment gives the oncology reference lab the exclusive option to acquire Inivata.

More important, the investment provides NeoGenomics the option to commercialize the company's InvisionFirst-Lung liquid biopsy test. The diagnostic tests 37 relevant genes to drive care decisions for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), is covered by Medicare and multiple private insurance payers, and is one of only two next-generation sequencing (NGS) tests with specific Medicare coverage.

NeoGenomics ended June with $331 million in cash, which is more than enough to weather a prolonged downturn. Management acknowledged the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic, but has already begun to see signs of a rebound.

In April, test volumes were down 30% compared to the year-ago period. By June, test volumes were back in line with the prior-year period, although they were about 15% below pre-pandemic expectations for 2020. Volumes had not recovered to pre-pandemic expectations through July.

But management remains confident in the long-term plan. NeoGenomics is well-positioned for a strong recovery if and when the market permits. The business doesn't need an exceptional recovery -- a "V-shaped" recovery, if you will -- to climb back to profitability or growth. What's more, it could take advantage of the economic effects of the pandemic to acquire smaller peers that might be struggling.

That said, shares of NeoGenomics are certainly expensive. Is that the price to pay for profitable growth in an uncertain world? Perhaps, but investors might be better off waiting for a pullback, as the current valuation (as with many stocks right now) appears unsustainable in the near-term.

Read more from the original source:
NeoGenomics Slumps in Q2 but Readies for Second-Half Rebound - The Motley Fool

By Beth Sanborn

Its summer in Whatcom County. That generally means pleasant weather, usually not too hot or rainy, and longer daylight hours. Add in the coronavirus pandemic and many people are getting their daily exercise outdoors, often with walking or running. Using a fitness tracker to monitor activity levels is popular, often with a goal of taking 10,000 steps each day.

For some people, that goal of 10,000 steps is motivating and helps them be physically active. But for others, especially if they arent reaching their goal, its discouraging, reduces motivation and may lead to less physical activity.

Have you wondered how scientists came to recommend 10,000 steps per day as a fitness goal? Well, the truth is, the idea has little to no scientific research behind it. In 2019, Harvard Medical School researcher I-Min Lee looked into the history of the 10,000 steps a day goal and discovered that it most likely originated in the 60s when a Japanese company marketed a pedometer called Manpo-kei, which in Japanese means 10,000 steps meter. Most likely the name was chosen because the Japanese character for 10,000 looks a little like a man walking. Ads for the step counter said, Lets all walk 10,000 steps a day. This idea has persisted through the decades.

While theres nothing wrong with that goal, it may not be necessary for achieving health and longevity. Multiple researchers have concluded that while 10,000 steps is a good goal, there is nothing magical about that number and even 7,000-8,000 steps can improve health and longevity. (The average American adult takes about 3,000-5,000 steps a day.) Or, looking at exercise goals another way, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has done, aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week (which correlates to 7,000-8,000 steps a day).

The human body was designed for movement and physical activity is important for good health. Physical activity like walking can help control blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels. It can also stimulate creative thinking and is associated with living longer and healthier.

So if using a step counter or fitness tracker motivates you to exercise and you reach 10,000 steps a day (or more), thats great. But dont be discouraged if you dont reach that number. Make it your goal to be physically active above the level of your normal daily activity and enjoy the beauty of summer in the Pacific Northwest.

Beth Sanborn is a licensed nutritionist who lives in Birch Bay and holds a masters degree in public health nutrition.

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Boost your health with a step counter - Blaine Northern Light

DUBLIN, Oct. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Molecular Diagnostics Cancer Oncology Global Market Size, Strategy and Forecasts - 2019 to 2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

A market that just keeps on growing. Molecular Diagnostics for Cancer is positioned to directly benefit from the explosion in genomics knowledge. A range of dynamic trends are pushing market growth and company valuations.

Some of these include:

Exciting technical developments especially in the area of pharmacogenics hold the promise of a dynamic, growing and evolving world market that is moving out of the national and regional orientation and onto a global stage.

In addition customization work, breakouts for particular segments, assistance and support is included free of charge with every report.

The report provides data that analysts and planners can use. Hundreds of pages of information including a complete list of Current 2018 United States Medicare Fee Payment Schedules to help understand test pricing in detail. See lists of all current FDA Approved Molecular Diagnostic Tests. Make facilities planning decisions. Forecast demand for new testing regimes or technologies. Make research investment decisions.

Based on extensive primary and secondary research the testing volume data is broken down into price and volumes allowing researchers and investors to quickly create informed and reasonable forecasts of demand. Assistance in providing specific growth and market size estimates for new technology tests is normally provided without additional charges. Existing laboratories and hospitals can use the information directly to forecast and plan for clinical facilities growth. Again, assistance in using the information is normally provided without additional charges.

The report includes detailed breakouts for 18 Countries and 4 Regions. A detailed breakout for any country in the world is available to purchasers of the report.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Introduction and Market Definition1.1 What is Molecular Diagnostics1.2 The Diagnostics Revolution1.3 Market Definition1.3.1 Revenue Market Size1.4 Methodology1.4.1 Authors1.4.2 Sources1.5 U.S. Medical Market and laboratory Testing - Perspective1.5.1 U.S. Medicare Expenditures for Laboratory Testing

2. Market Overview2.1 Market Participants2.2 Market Segments2.2.1 Traditional Market Segmentation2.2.2 Laboratory Focus and Segmentation2.3 Industry Structure2.3.1 Hospital Testing Share2.3.2 Economies of Scale2.3.3 Physician Office Labs2.3.4 Physicians and POCT2.4 Profiles of Key MDx Companies

3. Market Trends 3.1 Factors Driving Growth 3.1.1 New Diagnostics Create New Markets3.1.2 New Roles for Diagnostics3.1.3 Longevity and Outcomes3.1.3 Expanding the Pharmaceutical Toolbox3.1.4 Regulatory Retreat3.2 Factors Limiting Growth3.2.1 Falling Prices3.2.2 Lower Costs3.2.3 Testing as a Controllable Cost3.2.4 Wellness has a Downside3.3 Instrumentation and Automation3.3.1 Instruments Key to Market Share3.3.2 Bioinformatics Plays a Role3.4 Diagnostic Technology Development3.4.1 Next Generation Sequencing3.4.2 Shifting Role of Diagnostics3.4.3 Multiplexing and Foundation One3.4.4 Pharmacogenomics Technology3.4.5 Whole Genome Sequencing 3.4.6 Gene Editing and Gene Therapy

4. Molecular Diagnostics Recent Developments

5. The Global Market for MDx Cancer5.1 MDx Cancer - Global Market Overview by Country

6. Global MDx Cancer Markets - By Type of Cancer6.1 Global Market by Cancer Type - Overview6.2 MDx Breast Cancer 6.3 MDx Colorectal Cancer 6.4 MDx Cervical Cancer6.5 MDx Lung Cancer6.6 MDx Precancer6.7 MDx Prostate Cancer6.8 MDx Melanoma6.9 MDx Blood Cancer6.10 MDx Other Cancer

7. Cancer Treatment and Trials7.1 FDA Cancer Drug Approvals by Year7.2 Clinical Trials Started 2010 to 2016 7.3 Prevalence of Cancer Treatments - 2015

8. Appendices I. United States Medicare System: January 2019 Clinical Laboratory Fees Schedule II. FDA Approved Human Genetic TestsIII. FDA Approved Microbial TestsIII. FDA Approved Pharmacogenomics Tests

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/wtq27v

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [emailprotected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

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Global Molecular Diagnostics Cancer Oncology Market to 2023: New Diagnostics Create New Markets, New Roles for Diagnostics, Longevity and Outcomes,...

The ageing process has been biologically reversed for the first time by giving humans oxygen therapy in a pressurised chamber.

Scientists in Israel showed they could turn back the clock in two key areas of the body believed to be responsible for the frailty and ill-health that comes with growing older.

As people age, the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes called telomeres shorten, causing DNA to become damaged and cells to stop replicating. At the same time, "zombie" senescent cells build up in the body, preventing regeneration.

Increasing telemere length and getting rid of senescent cells is the focus of many anti-ageing studies, and drugs are being developed to target those areas.

Now scientists at Tel Aviv University have shown that giving pure oxygen to older people while in a hyperbaric chamber increased the length of their telomeres by 20 per cent, a feat that has never been achieved before.

Scientists said thegrowth may mean that the telomeres of trial participants were now as long as they had been 25 years earlier.

The therapy also reduced senescent cells by up to 37 per cent, making way for new healthy cells to regrow. Animal studies have shown that removing senescent cells extends remaining life by more than one third.

"Since telomere shortening is considered the 'Holy Grail' of the biology of ageing, many pharmacological and environmental interventions are being extensively explored in the hopes of enabling telomere elongation," said Professor Shai Efrati of the Faculty of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University.

"The significant improvement of telomere length shown during and after these unique protocols provides the scientific community with a new foundation of understanding that ageing canindeedbe targeted and reversed at the basic cellular-biological level."

Many scientists now believe ageing itself is responsible for major conditions such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, arthritis, cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

It is also known that obesity, smoking, lack of physical activity, vitamin deficiency and inflammation can speed up the shortening of telomeres, demonstrating that they have a major impact on longevity.

View original post here:
Human ageing process biologically reversed in world first - Telegraph.co.uk

The secret to long life expectancy lies in the details. Tiny tails at the ends of chromosomes called telomeres erode with age but can be lengthened. Deep inside a persons cells DNA-based clocks slowly tick away and determine ones "biological age." By tweaking this cell, could humans be able to boost their longevity? Researchers from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology were able to dial up and down creatures' lifespans by altering protein activity levels.

The enzyme "tweaked" by researchers allows roundworms to convert sugar into energy when cellular energy is running low - the team found a way to "control it". Humans also have these proteins, offering up the possibilities of developing longevity-promoting drugs, according to the researchers.

The roundworms used in the study experienced a boost in longevity when researchers tinkered with a couple of proteins involved in monitoring the energy use by its cells.

Using a range of different biological research tools, including introducing foreign genes into the worm, a group of researchers were able to dial up and down the activity of the gene that tells cells to produce the VRK-1 protein.

Control worms lived about 16.9 days on average typically roundworms only live about two to three weeks.

However, the first line of worms who had elevated levels of VRK-1 lived about 20.8 days.

A second line lived about 23.7 days on average. Seung-Jae Lee is a professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and the paper's senior author.

He spoke of how longevity could switch by activating "a key cellular energy sensor and anti-ageing protein" called AMPK.

The key to activating AMPK is VRK-1 and this enzyme is found in worms but also has a close relative in human cells.

"We showed that the activation of AMPK by VRK-1 occurs in human cells as well as in the roundworm C. elegans," says Professor Lee.

"Therefore, it is possible that this mechanism can be applied to promoting human longevity in the future." Metabolic disorders involve the disruption of chemical reactions in the body, including diseases of the mitochondria.

But before metabolic disorder therapeutics or longevity drugs can be contemplated by scientists, further research still needs to be carried out to better understand how VRK-1 works to activate AMPK, the team explained.

They said they also need to figure out the precise mechanics of how AMPK controls cellular energy.

The study team notes that inhibiting mitochondrial respiration "increases life span in Drosophila and mammals" though some scientists argue that this is part of a bigger, more complicated picture.

This is only a small experiment on roundworms and a few human cells.

To really prove that VRK-1 can trigger these longevity-related changes in AMPK, the team will have to replicate their findings in other mammals, like mice.

Though mouse studies are still steps away from human ones, they provide clearer parallels to human beings that worm studies do, says Lee.

See original here:
How to live longer: Scientists discover enzyme which could be used to boost longevity - Express

Over the years, certain contentious issues have vexed the leadership and tested the ability of U.S. Masters Swimming to grow and develop. One of the most debated of these issues to hit the House of Delegates floor was the simple question of how old swimmers needed to be to participate in Masters Swimming.

For the first two decades or so of USMSs existence, swimmers had to be at least 25 to become members. Adult swimming, it seemed, was something you couldnt do until years after you were legally allowed to have a drink or cast a vote in an election. And a lot of that goes back to how swimmings international governing body, FINA, was set up.

FINAs official rules for Masters swimming do not extend to cover swimmers under the age of 25. USMS was in step with this until the mid-1980s when some folks began advocating for adding a younger age group. This faction wanted to see that change made so that the organization could be more inclusive and reach a segment of the swimming population that didnt have other options for swimming.

But simply adding an age group turned out to be a lot more difficult than we might expect looking back now.

We had huge arguments over this, says Tom Boak, a longtime member of the Woodland Masters Swim Club in Texas who also served as USMSs president from 1981 through 1985. One segment of the USMS leadership believed that because FINA didnt recognize swimmers younger than 25, USMS simply couldnt have swimmers younger than 25 involved either.

There was another faction that said, Thats crazy. We have all these people out here, we need to service this group, Boak recalls. The huge gap between collegiate swimmers leaving college and when they can start swimming with Masters made no sense.

To help address this issue, Boak recalls that proposals were floated starting in the mid-1980s, but it was an uphill battle to get it passed.

Nancy Ridout, longtime Masters swimmer and volunteer who served as president of the organization from 1997 to 2001, remembers the anti-younger age group faction really used scare tactics to try to sway more people to their side.

There was a rule that prohibited amateur swimmers from being tainted by professionals, Ridout says. The rule stated that an amateur swimmer couldnt swim in a pool or a meet or competition with a professional. Because Masters were considered professional, they figured that if college kids came home for the summer and wanted to work out, and the best place to do that was with a Masters group, they would forfeit their opportunity to swim in college or in the Olympics. They were afraid that leadership within FINA would not look kindly on this and it would jeopardize our American swimmers on the world and collegiate stages.

After much lobbying on both sides, a final vote was held at USMSs annual meeting in 1990. It was such a contentious issue and such a close vote that we counted the votes like five different times and every time it came out different, Boak says.

To break the stalemate and arrive at an accurate count, we had to actually physically divide the House of Delegates at the annual meeting, Boak recalls. Everybody in the House of Delegates had to stand up from their chairs and move to one side or the other of the room so that we could count the votes.

On that final vote, the proposal to add a 19- to 24-year-old age group passed by two votes, which is unbelievable, he says.

Looking back now, Boak says the opposition to adding the younger swimmers was totally illogical. But it was a hot-button issue that required a lot of time and effort to work through. In the end, however, that decision was monumental in terms of what Masters Swimming became.

The addition of the younger age group meant there would be no gap at all for someone who wanted to continue swimming after they got out of high school or college, and it helped increase USMSs membership numbers. With the more recent addition of College Club Swimming as a USMS program, the ranks of younger USMS members continue to grow.

In 2002, the age at which a swimmer could register with USMS was again loweredto 18but these 18-year-olds would have to wait until age 19 to compete. That rule was changed in 2005 when 18-year-olds were granted permission to register and compete just like any other adult.

At the other end of the age spectrum, it appears human longevity may be the only limiting factor in how many age groups get added. In 1989, the 9094 age group was added. Although FINA still doesnt recognize Masters swimmers younger than 25, it defines Masters age groups in five-year increments starting at age 25 and going as high as necessary. The organization spells out age groups through 9094 in its rule book.

USMSs rule book lists out all age groups running from 1824 right up though 100104 and includes a provision for additional five-year age groups to be added as high as is necessary. As humans continue to find ways of living longer and healthier, look for additional defined age groups to be added in the future.

Link:
USMS's 50th Anniversary: Expanding the Age Range | US Masters Swimming - U.S. Masters Swimming

An era is ending in Washington. After 468 regular-season and 96 playoff starts, Braden Holtby is moving on.

Its undeniably sad, even if its also undeniably the right time and the right move for both player and team.

Holtby leaves the Caps in second place in almost every cumulative goaltending category in franchise history, from wins to losses to minutes played and shots faced (hes also first in Stanley Cups won).

The man he trails is, of course, Olie Kolzig, the face of the franchise for basically the entire Screaming Eagle jersey period, a human organizational bridge who laced em up as a Cap with both Scott Stevens and Nicklas Backstrom and almost everyone in between.

Between Kolzig and then Holtby, the Caps have experienced remarkable stability in net for more than 20 years now. In fact, since the start of the 1997 season, 62% of Caps regular-season games and 77% of post-season matches have been started by one of the two (1,224 games). Theyve combined to win 636 games for Washington over that span, with Kolzig holding a 287-282 edge in the regular season and Holtby up 50-17 in the playoffs (and, yknow...). And as good as each man was on the ice, each was an even more valuable member of the community.

The Caps have been fortunate to find that kind of consistency and longevity in goal. But, of course, theyve had other netminders pass through town during this time - 22 of them, to be precise... which got us wondering if we could name them all.

We could not.

But maybe you can! Thanks to our pal @LikeTheMaps on Twitter, heres your chance to show us (or yourself, really) what youve got. You have ten minutes to name every Caps goalie since 1997 (@LikeTheMaps even spotted you games played and years to help). And no, Henrik Lundqvist doesnt count... yet.

On your mark, get set...

Read more from the original source:
From Kolzig to Holtby: Consistency and a Quiz - Japers' Rink

Pharmaceutical major AstraZeneca, who is developing a coronavirus vaccine in association with Oxford university, has paused their trials after a participant fell ill due to a "suspected adverse reaction", the company stated, as reported by medical journalStat News. "As part of the ongoing randomised, controlled global trials of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine, our standard review process was triggered and we voluntarily paused vaccination to allow review of safety data by an independent committee. This is a routine action which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials."

"In large trials, illnesses will sometimes happen by chance but must be reviewed independently. We are working to expedite the review of the single event to minimise any potential impact on the trial timeline," according to the statement.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is the most advanced one in the world, well into the third and final phase of human trials. The Moderna vaccine candidate is a close second.AstraZeneca's US-traded shares fell more than six per cent in after-hours trading following reports of the trial being paused.

Vaccine testing is a four-stage processpre-clinical testing on animals; Phase I clinical testing on a small group of people to determine its safety and to learn more about the immune response it provokes; Phase II trials, or expanded safety trials, where dosage and frequency will be tested across wider cross-sections of the population; Phase III large-scale tests where the vaccine is administered to thousands of people to confirm its efficacy. Phase I and Phase II are the early trials, which will then be followed by a rigorous, intensive Phase III clinical testing, where the longevity of the vaccine response (whether the vaccine will last for long periods of time) will be analysed.

What does an 'adverse event' mean?

According to United States Food and Drug Safety Administration (FDA), 'adverse events' are not necessarily side effects caused by vaccination. An adverse event is a "health problem that happens after vaccination that may or may not be caused by a vaccine". These events may require further investigation.

By definition, a side effect has been shown to be linked to a vaccine by scientific studies. While most vaccine trials induce some form ofpain at the injection site, hyperthermia, headache, asthenia (weakness or lack of energy), and muscle and joint pain in its participants, an adverse event would equate to something slightly more serious, possibly requiring hospitalisation.

On the flip side, temporary holds of large medical studies aren't unusual, and investigating any serious or unexpected reaction is a mandatory part of safety testing. AstraZeneca pointed out that it's possible the problem could be a coincidence; illnesses of all sorts could arise in studies of thousands of people.

During the third and final stage of testing, researchers look for any signs of possible side effects that may have gone undetected in earlier patient research. Because of their large size, the studies are considered the most important study phase for picking up less common side effects and establishing safety.

Dr Ashish Jha of Brown University said via Twitter that the significance of the interruption was unclear but that he was "still optimistic" that an effective vaccine will be found in the coming months. "But optimism isn't evidence," he wrote. "Let's let science drive this process."

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York, tweeted that the illness may be unrelated to the vaccine, "but the important part is that this is why we do trials before rolling out a vaccine to the general public".

How does the vaccine work?

The vaccine candidateAZD1222, according to AstraZeneca, uses a "replication-deficient chimpanzee viral vector based on a weakened version of a common cold (adenovirus) virus" that causes infections in chimpanzees and contains the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. After vaccination, the surface spike protein is produced, priming the immune system to attack COVID-19 if it later infects the body.

AstraZeneca has struck a deal with Europe's Inclusive Vaccines Alliance to supply up to 400 million doses of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine. The agreement struck Saturday aims to make the vaccine available to other European countries that wish to take part.

Late last month, AstraZeneca began recruiting 30,000 people in the US for its largest study of the vaccine. It also is testing the vaccine, developed by Oxford University, in thousands of people in Britain, and in smaller studies in Brazil and South Africa.

Two other vaccines are in huge, final-stage tests in the United States, one made by Moderna Inc. and the other by Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech. Those two vaccines work differently than AstraZeneca's, and the studies already have recruited about two-thirds of the needed volunteers.

The "adverse reaction" came the same day that AstraZeneca and eight other drugmakers issued an unusual pledge, vowing to uphold the highest ethical and scientific standards in developing their vaccines. The announcement follows worries that President Donald Trump will pressure the US Food and Drug Administration to approve a vaccine before it's proven to be safe and effective.

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Oxford COVID-19 vaccine trial paused after 'unexplained' illness in participant. What does it mean? - THE WEEK

A Concordia researcher, supported by Idunn Technologies, discovers new natural compounds that could promote longevity in health and reduce the incidence of associated diseases

MONTREAL, Sept. 9, 2020 /CNW/ - The recent pandemic has highlighted the importance of staying healthy so that you can better fight an infection or disease, if necessary. A Concordia University researcher has discovered 15 new plant extracts that help fight, not against infection, but against aging. These natural molecules could help prevent all the diseases associated with aging, not one at a time, but all at the same time. It is therefore a question of reducing the incidence of common ailments such as osteoarthritis, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. This approach has already been called "the ultimate preventive medicine" in the prestigious journal, Science.

Vladimir Titorenko, professor of biology at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Concordia, has been collaborating since 2013 with ric Simard, president of the company, Idunn Technologies, to discover new anti-aging molecules. This work has just been published in the scientific journal, Oncotarget. The TransBIOTech research center and the Cgep de Lvis-Lauzon also participated in these studies.

The recently published results were obtained from specific plant extracts, already recognized for various health benefits. Professor Titorenko's team identified the new anti-aging molecules from a long list of extracts from different parts of the plants studied. The new positive extracts (PE for "plant extract") are numbered as follows: PE26 (Serenoa repens), PE39 (Hypericum perforatum), PE42 (Ilex paraguariensis), PE47 (Ocimum tenuiflorum), PE59 (Solidago virgaurea), PE64 (Citrus sinensis ), PE68 (Humulus lupulus), PE69 (Vitis vinifera), PE72 (Andrographis paniculata), PE75 (Hydrastis canadensis), PE77 (Trigonella foenumgraecum), PE78 (Berberis vulgaris), PE79 (Crataegus monogyna), PE81 (Taraxacum erythrospermum) and PE83 (Ilex paraguariensis).

"We now have a large number of anti-aging plant extracts that may reduce the incidence or progression of age-related diseases in humans," said Dr. Vladimir Titorenko. This researcher devotes his efforts to understanding the molecular mechanisms that allow cells to resist aging.

Dr. Titorenko states that "With the aging of the population, the possibility of keeping people healthy longer constitutes a major advance which could have repercussions, not just in economic terms, but for the quality of life of the population and the capacity of the health care system in general."

The results of this research have clearly demonstrated that the beneficial effects observed on longevity are linked to the slowing of aging in yeast cells. "The identification of these new modulators could allow the development of new specialized products for healthy aging." explains Professor Titorenko.

A Quebec company, Idunn Technologies, is working to develop a large number of applications of these research results for human health. ric Simard is the co-editor of the article, CEO of Idunn Technologies and author of 4 books on healthy longevity (www.esimard.com). He explains that the company decided to market the fruits of this research by focusing on the optimization of natural products targeting the main health problems related to aging. These more effective products are marketed under the Vitoli brand (www.vitoli.ca).

The results presented also include analyses of the metabolic activity of mitochondria, the oxidation of membrane lipids, as well as the oxidation of proteins, DNA from mitochondria, and DNA from the cell nucleus. These anti-aging extracts, also called geroprotective or caloric restriction mimetics, increase the resistance of cells to oxidative stress and temperature. Improved cellular functioning reduces damage to cells while increasing their resistance to difficult situations. "Reduce wear and increase maintenance and cellular resistance; that's the secret to health longevity." concluded Dr. Simard.

This study was supported by a joint ARD-CRD (Applied Research and Development - Cooperative Research and Development) grant from Canada's Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). The work was also funded by the Concordia University Research Chairs Fund, a Concordia University Graduate Scholarship, and a Concordia University Excellence Scholarship.

Read the full report of the study: Discovery of fifteen new geroprotective plant extracts and identification of cellular processes they affect to prolong the chronological lifespan of budding yeast.

SOURCE Idunn Technologies

For further information: Interviews in English with Vicky Lutchman, M.Sc. researcher (among the authors of the study: 514-887-7520)

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15 new groups of molecules to fight against aging and protect our cells; one step closer to staying healthy longer, new study shows - Canada NewsWire

Bats have been blamed as a possible source of the new coronavirus pandemic ravaging the globe. But they might also point to possible ways out of it.

Scientists say the winged mammals' immune systems may offer clues on how to fight the new coronavirus and other dangerous viruses in humans.

"Humans have two possible strategies if we want to prevent inflammation, live longer and avoid the deadly effects of diseases like Covid-19," explained study lead author Vera Gorbunova, a professor of biology at the University of Rochester in New York. "One would be to not be exposed to any viruses, but that's not practical. The second would be to regulate our immune system more like a bat."

Resistance and longevity

Many deadly viruses that affect people are believed to have originated in bats, including rabies, Ebola and SARS-CoV-2, the strain that causes Covid-19. But bats have evolved a secret weapon: They're better able to tolerate viruses than humans and other mammals.

"We've been interested in longevity and disease resistance in bats for a while, but we didn't have the time to sit and think about it," Gorbunova said in a university news release.

"Being in quarantine gave us time to discuss this, and we realised there may be a very strong connection between bats' resistance to infectious diseases and their longevity. We also realised that bats can provide clues to human therapies used to fight diseases," she explained.

Typically, a species' lifespan is associated with its body size. The smaller a species, the shorter its lifespan. But many bat species have lifespans of 30 to 40 years, which is impressive for their size, the authors noted in a review article published recently in Cell Metabolism.

Bats' longevity and tolerance to viruses may be due to their ability to control inflammation, which is involved in both ageing and disease. Viruses, including Covid-19, can trigger inflammation.

Our bodies overreact

With Covid-19, this inflammatory response goes "haywire", Gorbunova said. In fact, in many cases it is the inflammatory response that kills the patient, more so than the virus itself.

"The human immune system works like that: Once we get infected, our body sounds an alarm and we develop a fever and inflammation. The goal is to kill the virus and fight infection, but it can also be a detrimental response as our bodies overreact to the threat," Gorbunova said.

In contrast, bats' immune systems control viruses without mounting a strong inflammatory response.

There are several possible reasons why bats evolved to fight viruses and live long lives. Flight may be one of them, the researchers noted.

Constant exposure to viruses

Bats are the only mammals that can fly, which required them to adapt to rapid increases in body temperature, sudden surges in metabolism and molecular damage. These adaptations may also assist in disease resistance, the study authors suggested.

Another factor is that many species of bats live in large, dense colonies, and hang close together on cave ceilings or in trees. Those conditions are ideal for transmitting viruses and other pathogens.

According to Andrei Seluanov, a biology professor at the University of Rochester, "Bats are constantly exposed to viruses. They are always flying out and bringing back something new to the cave or nest, and they transfer the virus because they live in such close proximity to each other."

This means that bats' immune systems are continuously adapting to deal with new viruses. Studying bats' immune systems could lead to new ways to fight aging and diseases in humans, the researchers said.

Image credit: Igam Ogam, Unsplash

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Coronavirus may have come from bats; could they also hold clues to treatments? - Health24

A new report from research firm KLAS found that nearly half of the 19 healthcare executives surveyed say that either telehealth functionality or capacity has been their primary problem to solve during the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis.

Other major challenges include remote patient monitoring, interoperability, real-time data analytics, work-from-home resources and patient surveillance.

"While healthcare organizations have found stopgaps in many areas, few have successfully implemented permanent solutions that serve a long-term strategy," wrote the report authors.

HIMSS20 Digital

WHY IT MATTERS

As the novel coronavirus pandemic spread across the country this spring, the need became quickly evident for healthcare organizations to spin up telehealth solutions.

Aided by relaxed federal regulations, many health systems modified existing infrastructure or relied on consumer-facing products to fill the gap and address increased demand.

"We have had the ability to perform video visits for six years. Until the middle of March, we had performed just over 1,000 visits total during that time. Since the middle of March, we have performed over 160,000 due to payment waivers and necessity," wrote one customer quoted in the report.

We used a few tactics. First, we used tools like Skype, Google Duo and FaceTime as a stopgap. Then we expanded our Epic/Vidyo integration from urgent care visits to all visit types, including surgical and non-surgical specialties and all primary care. This let us replace the stopgap tools," wrote another respondent.

"We also implemented on-premises telehealth in the ER, ICU and floors; that way, a provider can be in the same building as the patient but not in the same room, decreasing exposure and limiting PPE usage," they continued.

Nearly half of executives said their organization had enhanced telehealth-related electronic health record functionality the most because of the COVID-19 crisis, with another 50% saying they'd enhanced such tools "somewhat."

"While a few leverage EHR dashboards to get the real-time data they need, most load the data from their EHRs into other software solutions (e.g., Microsoft Power BI and Tableau) to either house the data or build data visualizations," wrote the report authors.

And although remote patient monitoring has been another technology concern, only four organizations out of 18 say they have a workable solution.

"Eight organizations say their RPM technology problem remains unsolved," write the report authors.

THE LARGER TREND

As the report notes, the longevity of telehealth is still uncertain. Although many legislators have signaled their support for some permanent policies that would enable access to virtual care, the details particularly around reimbursement remain murky.

This past month, the American Hospital Association wrote an open letter to President Donald Trump and leaders at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services urging them to take specific actions to safeguard telehealth in the longer term.

"We urge the Administration to work with the AHA and Congress to create a future for telehealth that allows not only clinicians, but also hospitals and health systems, to code and bill for virtual services," wrote AHA president and CEO Richard J. Pollack.

ON THE RECORD

Regarding the executives surveyed in the KLAS report, "Several mentioned using consumer-facing products e.g., Apple FaceTime, Google Duo, Zoom or Skype that enable organizations without existing telehealth capabilities to quickly ramp up and handle increased demand," wrote the authors.

"While many solutions are suitable for this emergency purpose, solutions that serve a strategic, long-term telehealth vision are much scarcer," they continued.

Kat Jercich is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.Twitter: @kjercichHealthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

Read more:
Healthcare execs say telehealth is their No. 1 pandemic tech problem - Healthcare IT News

Authored by: Jaykhosh Chidambaran

Be vocal about local are the new buzzwords in Indian economic circles, propagated by populist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alluding to a resurgence of its manufacturing sector, congruent to a previous reform agenda of Make in India. The global backlash against China as the malefactor of the novel coronavirus pandemic has reached a crescendo. Political leaders from both sides of the Atlantic have consensus on de-risking economies from monopoly dependence on China, touted as the factory of the world. An indignant Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has earmarked 245 billion Yen to assist infrastructure spending for those Japanese firms, exhorting to shift production facilities out of China. Can India ride the crest of this global anti-China sentiment, and use this opportunity to revamp local manufacturing and attract greenfield investments from multi-national companies?

The challenges: Pitfalls in the education and skill development ecosystem

Notwithstanding the lack of integrated infrastructure or active labour market legislations, the singular determinant of Indian emergence as the global manufacturing hub will be a skilled workforce. But it is also the current lacunae, which impedes this goal. Of the 450 million labor force, more than 50 percent are illiterate or only possess primary education, 50 million with secondary education, 7.9 million underwent vocational training, and a mere 10.5 million fall under the technically qualified gambit. Industry statistics reveal that an alarmingly high 83 percent of graduates are unemployable owing to the dearth of essential technical and management skills required to survive in the 21st century, new-age industries.

Indias education system has traditionally been based on rote learning. Post-independence India established, across the country, polytechnics, industrial training institutes (ITI), government engineering colleges, and institutes of higher learning to redirect the nation to a path of industrialisation and modernization. Their curriculum is predominantly input focused and there is little or no emphasis on experiential learning except for a few institutes like Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institute of Management (IIMs), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT).

The Annual Employability Survey 2019, done by an employability assessment company Aspiring Minds revealed that more than 95 percent of engineers are unfit for Information Technology jobs, stirring a controversy. These findings were corroborated by a veteran industry leader, CP Gurnani, CEO of Tech Mahindra, an Indian IT major that top IT companies in India hire only 6 percent of all engineering graduates. A decade-old McKinsey report had tabled similar findings that only a quarter of the graduating Indian technocrats have employability quotient, an indication of the retrogression in Indian technical education not commensurate with rapid technological advances.

The solution: Productivity-based skill development

Any sustainable educational goal should inevitably involve industry experts with sector-specific knowledge, from formulating curriculum to providing a roadmap for mandatory skills and capabilities warranted in creating a knowledge society and an innovation economy. The German dual skilling model for developing sustainable and state-of-the-art Vocational Education Training (VET) is worthy of emulation in India. Under this hugely successful program, students receive theory and conceptual lessons in the classroom for a week, followed by an apprenticeship in manufacturing facilities of companies, the week after, and alternating until successful completion of the courses.

This can be bolstered by nation-wide collaborative initiatives between the government and Indian industries should be rolled out for upgrading and redeployment of existing skills, enabling closure of skill gaps. Such large to medium and small industries participation in this synergetic program should be incentivised by corporate tax rebates, access to low-cost capital, re-classification of loans as subordinated debt, etc.

The public-private participation between government and industry will mitigate budget, resource, and time constraints, often a deterrent to social programs in emerging economies. An entry-level accountant could acquire basic conceptual and functional skills within a year, doing an accounting software course like Tally rather than enrolling in a three-year undergraduate commerce course. Similarly, a welder who had completed a two-year ITI course exposed to theories on different types of welding techniques might be grossly unemployable in an automobile production line welding job, that requires to perform 9 precision welds in an hour. If the German model is applied here, a student receives on-the-job training with an automobile manufacturer, as an apprentice for 45 days and become readily fit for employment.

Skilled workforce and foreign investments

Internationalisation of production has expanded opportunities for knowledge spillovers from the industrial world to developing markets. Unique, cutting edge skill sets are inevitable to compete and emerge as winners in New-Age economies dominated by semiconductors, fintech, artificial intelligence, robotics, and machine learning. The flow of technology and capital from the developed world to the developing world will rise exponentially, if the emerging market of India can offer highly skilled labor force, reciprocally, for setting up Greenfield investments or Brownfield acquisitions by MNCs.

In India, creating a highly differentiated ecosystem, skilled in producing a wide basket of goods that is technology-intensive, requiring superior learning and therefore not easily replicated, is critical to income leveling, wealth creation, and economic growth in the future. When MNCs strategically unbundle non-core functions in the service sector in developed markets and decide on outsourcing to competitive third world destinations, tapping into the availability of cost-effective, top-quality talent pool is always the primary criteria. Service sector contribution as a percentage of GDP is steadily increasing in almost all emerging markets, emulating the pattern in developed, free markets of the West. Complexity and income have positive correlations.

Re-imagining Indian education and the role of R&D

Annually, more than 12 million new job seekers enter the Indian labour market but create employment for only 5 million-odd jobs, and the major lacunae are unemployability due to skill gaps. Structural and institutional reforms are long overdue in the Indian educational sector. India is still home to over 600,000 villages and providing free access to qualitative primary and secondary education in rural heartlands is critical in empowering rural population (especially women folk), generating capacity employment, resuscitating rural demand, poverty alleviation, and edifying rural infrastructure in MSME sectors.

Ever since the First Industrialisation Revolution, if there is one input that is fundamental to improving the quality and longevity of human life on earth, indubitably, it is Research. Innovations and discoveries which, engendered quantum advancements in transport, telecommunications, medicine, and technology, that had transformed the world into a Global Village and Global Audience were consummated on establishing sophisticated R&D facilities in developed economies. It has created a stellar global fraternity of scientists.

A far-sighted and symbiotic public-private participation in the R&D sector, harnessing the powers of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotics, and Deep Learning should receive legislative support as part of the Skilling India initiative. Such synergetic partnerships have the potential to catapult India into a global leader in genome engineering, pharmaceuticals, connected devices in pro-active healthcare management, low-cost online education, and integration of virtual universities, fintech, clean renewable energy solutions, manufacturing, and agriculture.

The vision of the Indian Government, encompassing slogans such as Make in India, Skill India, Start Up India, Digital India to transform its socio-economic landscape by capitalising on its demographic dividend and assume global leadership in 21st century is contingent on a highly skilled and competent workforce. Creating that leadership capital is the order of the present that defines the future of India.

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VIEW: Revolutionizing Indias skills landscape to create a future-ready workforce - CNBCTV18

NEW YORK, Aug. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Trellus Health, a resilience-driven digital health solution for chronic conditions, today announced that it has raised $5 million of seed funding to transform the way chronic conditions are treated, with an initial focus in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. The round was led by Mount Sinai Health System(MSHS) and EKF Diagnostics, a global medical manufacturer of point-of-care and central lab devices and tests. Trellus has also entered into an exclusive multi-year contract with MSHS to commercialize its patent pending GRITT-IBDTM resilience assessment and personalized treatment methodology.

Ninety-percent of the United States' $3.3 trillion annual health care expenditure is for chronic diseases, with patients suffering from both chronic medical and mental health conditions costing twice as much, according to the CDC. Despite these cost implications, traditional care models fail to address the emotional well-being of people with chronic conditions, and access to expert interdisciplinary care resources to deliver specialist-level care is highly limited.

"We are transforming the way chronic conditions are treated by developing a resilience-driven connected care platform that integrates precision medicine with psychosocial care," said Monique Fayad, CEO of Trellus Health. "The traditional journey of medical care for people living with chronic conditions typically results in repeated costly, unplanned emergency room visits and hospitalizations, high rates of work absenteeism and lost productivity, as well as chronic disability and behavioral health issues. We're working to change this by focusing on building patients' resilience while integrating all partners in care, including employers, insurance plans, health systems, Trellus-certified GI providers, nurses, psychologists, and dieticians who can utilize Trellus Health's proprietary platform to effectively monitor and communicate with patients and their caregivers in real time."

The first chronic condition that Trellus Health will address is IBD, one of the costliest chronic conditions with a high mental health burden, affecting 3 million patients in the U.S.(7 million globally) and costing the U.S. healthcare system over $30 billion a year, according to the Cost of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: An Initiative From the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation 2019.Since 2016, the company's co-founders, Marla Dubinsky, MD, and Laurie Keefer, PhD, who together bring close to 50 years of experience managing IBD and serve as co-directors of the Mount Sinai IBD Medical Home, have integrated resilience-driven multi-disciplinary care into the management of IBD patients.

"Our research on over 200 IBD patients indicates that more than 70% believe their condition would be better managed if they had support for anxiety or depression," said Dubinsky, who along with being a co-founder and board member, is also a Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine, Chief of Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and co-director of Susan and Leonard Feinstein IBD Clinical Center at Mount Sinai. "By personalizing care to address the psychosocial needs of all IBD patients and applying the latest evidence-based clinical approaches, we can help patients achieve disease control and enjoy a significantly improved quality of life."

Resilience-driven care incorporates positive psychology principles into all aspects of chronic disease management, with a focus on building acceptance, optimism, self-regulation, self-efficacy, and social support. Proven health benefits of resilience include increased longevity, cardiovascular, immune, and cognitive function, as well as physical well-being and reduced risk for depression and anxiety.

"Crohn's disease was discovered at Mount Sinai by Dr. Burrill Crohn nearly 100 years ago, and the System has made great strides in enhancing the the standard of care and outcomes for our patients," said Erik Lium, President, Mount Sinai Innovation Partners and Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Innovation Officer at Mount Sinai. "We're pleased to partner with Trellus Health to advance commercial development of a resilience-driven approach and connected care model for treating IBD and other complex chronic conditions, making Mount Sinai's technology available to more patients."

"Dr. Keefer's important research utilizing the GRITTTM Method at the Mount Sinai IBD Center shows first-hand how resilience-driven multidisciplinary care significantly reduces unplanned care," said Julian Baines, CEO of EKF Diagnostics. "We are excited to support Trellus in helping millions of people reduce their disease burden and improve their overall well being."

About Trellus HealthTrellus Health is a leading pioneer in resilience-driven care for people with complex chronic conditions. Through its multidisciplinary connected care platform, Trellus coordinates expert whole-person care, including both clinical and behavioral health, to improve outcomes and to reduce healthcare costs for patients, employers, and the healthcare system. The Company leverages its patent-pending GRITT-IBDTM resilience assessment and personalized treatment methodology, developed at the Mount Sinai Health System, to support patient resilience and wellness for better outcomes. For more information on Trellus Health, visit http://www.trellushealth.com.

The resilience-driven connected care solution described is based on technology developed by Mount Sinai faculty and licensed to Trellus Health. Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai faculty members Marla Dubinsky, MD, and Laurie Keefer, PhD,have a financial interest in Trellus Health.

About the Mount Sinai Health SystemThe Mount Sinai Health System is New York City's largest academic medical system, encompassing eight hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai is a national and international source of unrivaled education, translational research and discovery, and collaborative clinical leadership ensuring that we deliver the highest quality carefrom prevention to treatment of the most serious and complex human diseases. The Health System includes more than 7,200 physicians and features a robust and continually expanding network of multispecialty services, including more than 400 ambulatory practice locations throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, and Long Island. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 14 onU.S. News & World Report's"Honor Roll" of the Top 20 Best Hospitals in the country and the Icahn School of Medicine as one of the Top 20 Best Medical Schools in country. Mount Sinai Health System hospitals are consistently ranked regionally by specialty and our physicians in the top 1% of all physicians nationally byU.S. News & World Report.

For more information, visithttps://www.mountsinai.orgor find Mount Sinai onFacebook,TwitterandYouTube.

About Mount Sinai Innovation Partners (MSIP)MSIP is responsible for driving the real-world application and commercialization of Mount Sinai discoveries and inventions, and the development of research partnerships with industry. Our aim is to translate discoveries and inventions into health care products and services that benefit patients and society. MSIP is accountable for the full spectrum of commercialization activities required to bring Mount Sinai inventions to life. These activities include evaluating, patenting, marketing and licensing new technologies building research, collaborations and partnerships with commercial and nonprofit entities, material transfer and confidentiality, coaching innovators to advance commercially relevant translational discoveries, and actively fostering an ecosystem of entrepreneurship within the Mount Sinai research and health system communities. For more information, visitwww.ip.mountsinai.org.

About EKF DiagnosticsEKF Diagnostics is a global medical manufacturer of point-of-care (POCT) devices and tests for hemoglobin, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), glucose and lactate. EKF has offices in the UK, Germany, USA, Russia and China and a network of more than 200 distributors covering every country.

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