Category Archives: Evolution

KINGSTON, R.I. June 9, 2020 Men are taller than women because millennia ago big, strong men beat out their shorter rivals for access to mates. The female pelvis is broader than the male pelvis because women have evolved to give birth. So the thinking goes.

Theyre compelling evolutionary narratives that have lasted in textbooks, classrooms and pop culture as explanations for the skeletal differences between men and women. But as explanations, these simple stories no longer stand up to current science, says Holly Dunsworth, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Rhode Island.

Poring over decades of existing research, Dunsworth has reevaluated and rewritten the narrow, reigning theories for sex difference in height and pelvic width in a new paper, Expanding the evolutionary explanations for sex differences in the human skeleton. The paper, published online by the journal Evolutionary Anthropology, maps out the critical role of estrogen production on bone growth in men and women.

A lot of these conventions and how they support these old stories, such as sexual selection made men taller, are out of a tradition where we really only had skeletons to study, says Dunsworth. People hadnt done behavioral observations, or studied the physiology or the genetics. There have been so many advances in 150 years of human biology, and when you put all these things together, the old origin stories dont add up.

In rewriting the explanations, Dunsworth waded through hundreds of existing studies. Her paper cites 94 references, but she reviewed five times that. I tried not to go too far back. The further I went the more misconceptions I found, she says. I think there is an old assumption out there that testosterone makes men taller, but thats just not the science.

In her paper, Dunsworth focuses on how different levels of estrogen production dictate bone growth in both sexes, with ovaries producing more estrogen than testes. Boys and girls grow at roughly the same pace, reaching about 62 inches by age 13. At that age, greater estrogen production in girls causes long bone growth plates to fuse. Boys continue to grow taller for about five more years, until they reach levels of estrogen that fuse their bones. In that time, boys grow another 8 inches on average; girls just 2. As with height, sex differences in the pelvis skeleton are also rooted in the differing levels of estrogen and its effects over time on differing systems of gonads, genitals, ligaments and bones.

There are ways that men and women are so obviously different in their evolved reproductive physiology, Dunsworth says. Its really as if the reigning theories just look at the skeleton to claim that men are taller because they evolved to be dominant and competitive as if women didnt and to claim that women are broader because they evolved for reproduction as if men didnt. Conspicuous sex differences in our bodies lead to assumptions about gender differences. They feed our narratives about what a man is and what a woman is, and what our different roles in society should be. These myths about human nature havent exactly worked wonders for women and they fuel toxic masculinity.

Dunsworth, a biological anthropologist, sees it as her job as a professor and researcher to overturn outdated and false evolutionary traditions and to retell origin stories that are inclusive and unbiased.

We make meaning out of human evolutionary origin stories, she says. Whether they really dig human evolution or not, people are using it to make sense of the world and theyre thinking that some of these very narrow, very outdated ideas are the science, are the facts, she says. There are facts and then there are stories we tell about them. But we can improve our stories. There are more inclusive stories to tell, more complicated, more dynamic, more interesting, more scientific ways of describing the facts and telling stories about those facts.

Despite their flaws, theories of sexual selection for height and natural selection for pelvis size continue to be taught in classrooms, Dunsworth says, even in hers.

Weve taught it for years because theres an obsession with comparing the degree of difference between men and women to the much larger difference between male and female gorillas. Somehow, its supposed to show that we are more peaceful and more cooperative, while still acknowledging that, because human men are bigger than women, the big men in our ancestry have been the big winners, she says. I was teaching sexual selection. Its canon. I thought this is how we explain this until I sat back and thought it through.

Dunsworth had doubted the use of sexual selection to explain male and female body size differences. But the tipping point came in 2016 after she took exception on social media to comments by a well-known evolutionary biologist who was defending the theory in a politically charged rant.

Im a feminist and Im trying to be part of this inclusive, diverse future of the world, Dunsworth says. I knew that this one simple, narrow story wasnt even scientific. So, I spoke out. Thats when I realized this is a huge problem.

She started her research immediately and submitted her paper in 2018 for peer-review in Evolutionary Anthropology. Already available online, it appears in the May/June issue of the journal.

To have this new way of thinking in a major journal in my field and reviewed by my peers is the gold standard of knowledge, she says. Its not just me on my blog, raising my feminist fist in the air. This is how you advance knowledge.

More:

URI anthropology professor challenges evolutionary narratives of big, competitive men and broad, birthing women - URI Today

The global eye tracking market was valued at $456.3 million in 2017, and is projected to reach $1,818.1 million by 2024, registering a CAGR of 37.1% from 2018 to 2024. The report is a professional, all-inclusive study on the present state of the Eye Tracking industry with a focus on the global market. Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global total market of the Eye Tracking Element industry includingcapacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand, and Chinese import/export.In general, the study presents a detailed overview of the worldwide market covering all major parameters.

To Get This Report At Beneficial Rates:https://www.premiummarketinsights.com/sample/AMR00013811

Global Eye Tracking Market by Companies:

Tobii AB, LC technologies , Eyetech Digital Systems , Ergoneers GmbH, Smart Eye AB., Mirametrix Inc., Pupil Labs GmbH, Seeing Machines, SR Research Ltd., and Gazepoint.

Owning our reports will help you solve the following issues:

Eye Tracking Market by Region Segmentation:North America Country(United States, Canada)Asia Country(China, Japan, India, Korea)Europe Country(Germany, UK, France, Italy)Other Country(Middle East, Africa, GCC)

Make an Enquiry about This Report @https://www.premiummarketinsights.com/discount/AMR00013811

By Type

Head-mounted Eye TrackersRemote Eye Trackers

By ApplicationAssistive CommunicationAcademic ResearchConsumer Behavior ResearchUsability Testing

Key Points Describing Various Features of Report:-

Manufacturing Analysis The Eye Tracking market includes a section featuring manufacturing process investigation approved by means of essential data collated through Industry specialists and Key authorities of profiled organizations.

Eye Tracking Market Competition Leading professionals have been investigated depending on their company profile, product database, capacity, product/service value, transactions, and cost/revenue.

Demand & Supply and Effectiveness Furthermore, The Eye Tracking report provides information on distribution, Production, Consumption & EXIM (Export & Import).

Request a customized copy of Eye Tracking reportIf you wish to find more details of the report or want customization, contact us. You can get a detailed of the entire research here. If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will customize the report as you want.

Finally, the Eye Tracking Market report is an authentic source for gaining the market research that is likely to exponentially accelerate your business. The report gives the principle locale, economic situations coupled with item value, benefit, limit, generation, supply, request, and market development rate and figure and so on. The Eye Tracking report additionally presents a new task SWOT examination, speculation attainability investigation, and venture return investigation.

Major Topics Covered in this Report

Chapter 1 Study Coverage

Chapter 2 Executive Summary

Chapter 3 Market Size by Manufacturers

Chapter 4 Production by Regions

Chapter 5 Consumption by Regions

Chapter 6 Market Size by Type

Chapter 7 Market Size by Application

Chapter 8 Manufacturers Profiles

Chapter 9 Production Forecasts

Chapter 10 Consumption Forecast

Chapter 11 Upstream, Industry Chain and Downstream Customers Analysis

Chapter 12 Opportunities & Challenges, Threat and Affecting Factors

Chapter 13 Key Findings

Chapter 14 Appendix

About Premium market insights:

Premiummarketinsights.comis a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.

Sameer JoshiCall: US: +1-646-491-9876, Apac: +912067274191Email: [emailprotected]

Read the original here:

Eye Tracking Market to Exceed Industry Evolution in coming Years with Trends, Innovations & Opportunities by 2026 by Tobii AB, LC technologies,...

From two layers of rubberized fabric to a suit with a hatch in the back like a fridge door - read our timeline story about what types of protective garments Russians have used throughout all these years for sending people into space.

Gagarin was the first person in the history of mankind to go into space. But what did he wear on such a dangerous journey? Almost 60 years ago, Soviet specialists seriously believed that Yuri Gagarin could be launched into space without any spacesuit at all, just in an ordinary thermally insulated suit!

Had Sergei Korolev, the chief designer of the Soviet space program, not intervened at the last moment, that is probably what would have happened. But the first spacesuit did materialize and space fashion has undergone through many transformations since.

Making a spacesuit for a human was not the same at all as making a spacesuit for animals - specifically, the dogs which the Soviets had sent into space many times since the 1950s. The Vorkuta suit used by Su-9 jet fighter pilots became the prototype for the worlds first suit for space flights. It was called the SK-1 (and was the one Gagarin eventually wore). Only the helmet had to be completely redone - it had pressure sensors installed so that, in the event of a sharp drop in pressure, its mechanism would instantly slam down an airtight, clear visor.

SK-1 spacesuit

This spacesuit was a type of emergency and rescue suit, which cosmonauts put on for launch and re-entry. They served as a backup duplicating all life support systems - just in case a spaceship malfunctioned or the cosmonaut had to eject. The first spacesuits were made to measure for the selected cosmonauts, Gagarin and two on standby. In the event of cabin depressurization, for example, the spacesuits would have supported the cosmonauts for five hours. Interestingly, even the first spacesuits had a waste collection system, so they didnt have to be taken off when a cosmonaut needed to answer the call of nature.

Meanwhile, the USSR realized that the expansion of operations in space would not be confined to the interior of a spacecraft and that a fundamentally new type of spacesuit was needed - autonomous, suitable for spacewalks and performing the functions of a mini-spacecraft. THe first spacesuit of this type was the Berkut.

Berkut spacesuit

Unlike the SK-1, the Berkut spacesuit had a second hermetic casing and a shoulder pack with oxygen cylinders. But it, too, was made to measure, however, was not very mobile. When Alexei Leonov made his historic, first ever spacewalk, his spacesuit practically lost its pliancy, because of the pressure difference outside and inside, and, moreover, it became distended to such an extent that the sleeve increased in length and the gloves partly slipped off his hands. To return to the spacecraft, the cosmonaut was forced to lower the oxygen pressure inside the suit, at the risk of decompression. And even before his spacewalk, his suit had become completely wet inside because of sweat and condensation - it had no temperature regulation to speak of.

Leonov wearing a Berkut spacesuit

In the meantime, Soviet cosmonauts had also been planning to fly to the Moon and the Krechet was designed for just such a mission. It was a semi-rigid spacesuit with a hatch at the back like a door: The cosmonaut was not supposed to put it on like the American Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit designed for the Apollo-16 mission, but had to literally climb into it. The spacesuit had a special cable system which allowed the cosmonaut to close the hatch behind him. And although the Krechet never went to the Moon, its design was used for future extravehicular spacesuit models.

Krechet spacesuit

After the Berkut, the next generation of spacesuits arrived in the form of the Yastreb. It was also intended for spacewalks and was very similar to the Berkut, and was used on the new Soyuz spacecraft, which made its first flight in 1967. However, the Yastreb only had one opportunity to be employed in practice.

Yastreb spacesuit

A fact was that, for a short time the Soviet Union still sent cosmonauts to the orbital station without emergency rescue suits. The SK-1 had stopped being used back in 1964, the Yastreb was not suitable for launch and re-entry, and the design of Soyuz spaceships at the time made no provision for crew in spacesuits. In 1971, this inevitably led to tragedy: On returning to Earth, the cabin of the Soyuz decompressed and all three cosmonauts, none of whom were wearing spacesuits, died. It became clear that emergency rescue suits were needed and so, the Sokol spacesuit was urgently developed. Since 1973, and to this day, cosmonauts always wear Sokol spacesuits when going into space on Soyuz spacecraft.

Sokol spacesuit

All versions of the Sokol spacesuit had strict requirements with regards mobility and strength: For example, the pressure regulator was moved to the chest, so that the cosmonaut could always easily lower the pressure and improve mobility. The Sokols helmet was made of metal (something the Russian designers are still very proud of, believing that the new plastic SpaceX helmet, manufactured on a 3D printer, cannot compare with a metal one in strength). While the spacesuits numerous straps and cables were designed to make sure that in the event of depressurization it didnt balloon, the sleeve didnt expand and the fingertips didnt lose contact with the fingertips of the gloves (as happened in Leonovs case with the Berkut spacesuit).

As for the Yastreb, which was used for Extravehicular activity (EVA) just once, it was also replaced by an improved model - the Orlan spacesuit.

Orlan spacesuit

The Orlan is the most massive and impressive of all currently existing Russian spacesuits. Its main job is to protect cosmonauts from micrometeorites and radiation during EVAs. The Orlan is strong and multilayered, but very heavy - it weighs about 115 kg (254 lbs)! Of course, its not designed for walking, as outside the space station cosmonauts usually only work using their hands while floating in zero gravity. Still, even that isnt easy.

The design of the semi-rigid spacesuit is based on the Krechet lunar suit, and that is why its rear is like a backpack and opens like a fridge door. Unlike the Krechet, however, Orlan spacesuits are universal - the arm and leg and sleeves can be adjusted according to height. The temperature inside the spacesuit is also regulated, and when wearing it, a cosmonaut can be autonomous and does not have to rely on other equipment on the International Space Station (ISS) for up to seven hours.

The Orlan was used for an EVA for the first time in 1977 and its different versions are still in use on the ISS.

If using any of Russia Beyond's content, partly or in full, always provide an active hyperlink to the original material.

') }, error: function() { $email.val(''); alert('An unknown error occurred. Try later.'); } }); } }); }; initFormSubmit(); $completeButton.on('click', function (evt) { evt.preventDefault(); evt.window.location.reload(); }); }());

See the rest here:

The evolution of Russias spacesuit - from Gagarin to now (PHOTOS) - Russia Beyond

Two new transitional species of plant-eating horned dinosaurs have been unearthed in New Mexico, the United States.

Navajoceratops sullivani and Terminocavus sealeyi. Image credit: Ville Sinkkonen & Denver Fowler.

The newly-discovered dinosaurs roamed the Earth approximately 75 million years ago (Cretaceous period).

Named Navajoceratops sullivani and Terminocavus sealeyi, both species belong to Ceratopsidae, the same family as famous horned dinosaurs Triceratops, Centrosaurus, and Styracosaurus.

Their fragmentary skulls were uncovered from the Hunter Wash Member of the Kirtland Formation in New Mexico.

The specimens are intermediate in age between two previously known ceratopsid dinosaurs Pentaceratops and Anchiceratops.

Pentaceratops lived 75.3 million years ago in New Mexico and had a distinctive deep notch on the back border of the frill, and a pair of spikes at the center of the frill that turn outwards like the wings of a butterfly.

Anchiceratops had no notch in its frill and lived 3.8 million years later in what is now Canada.

In the 1990s, Texas Tech University paleontologist Thomas Lehman proposed that Pentaceratops might have been the ancestor of Anchiceratops.

Navajoceratops sullivani and Terminocavus sealeyi are intermediate in shape between these two dinosaurs and show how the notch in the frill became even deeper through time and eventually closed in on itself, explaining the lack of a notch in Anchiceratops.

The two intermediate skulls form important links in a 5 million year lineage stretching from Utahceratops through Pentaceratops, to Anchiceratops, said study authors Dr. Denver Fowler and Dr. Elizabeth Freedman Fowler from Badlands Dinosaur Museum and Museum of the Rockies.

The parietal frills of Navajoceratops sullivani (top) and Terminocavus sealeyi (bottom). Image credit: Fowler & Freedman Fowler, doi: 10.7717/peerj.9251.

The new specimens revealed a splitting event deep in the evolutionary history of long-frilled ceratopsids (chasmosaurines), after which a Pentaceratops lineage evolved a progressively deepening notch in the frill, contrasting against its sister group, the Chasmosaurus lineage, which evolved a progressively shallower notch.

The origin of this evolutionary split occurred during the Late Cretaceous period, when a vast interior seaway flooded the lowlands of North America dividing it into eastern and western subcontinents, the paleontologists said.

A short period of especially high sea level 85-83 million years ago brought the edge of the sea very close to the young Rocky Mountains.

For hundreds of miles across what is now central Utah to southern Alberta, the coastal plain would have been as little as 5-10 km wide, providing very little habitat for dinosaurs.

This would have effectively cut off northern and southern populations, which then probably evolved in isolation into two distinct lineages. However, after 83 million years ago, the sea receded from the mountain front, allowing northern and southern populations to mix again.

The teams paper appears in the journal PeerJ.

_____

D.W. Fowler & E.A. Freedman Fowler. 2020. Transitional evolutionary forms in chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaurs: evidence from the Campanian of New Mexico. PeerJ 8: e9251; doi: 10.7717/peerj.9251

This article is based on text provided by Dickinson Museum Center.

Read this article:

Two New Species from New Mexico Help Fill Gap in Evolution of Horned Dinosaurs | Paleontology - Sci-News.com

Twenty-first century neuroscience is an enticing field of research that offers the potential to deliver novel insights into the cognition of the human brain and the molecular mechanisms behind brain diseases. However, it needs a little help.

The brain is immensely complex, comprised of functionally diverse anatomical regions which contain a multitude of different cell types. We know that, in order for these varying cell types to serve their function, an array of genes must be differentially expressed throughout the brain; specific genes are switched off in certain areas and certain genes are turned on in others.

We need to be able to look at the brain through a genomic lens to assess how genes are regulated or dysregulated in the case of some pathologies to gain a holistic view of its function.

The marriage of neuroscience and genomics has birthed a growing research area known as neurogenomics, which aims to understand how the genome contributes to the evolution, structure, development and function of the nervous system through the analysis of regulatory and transcriptional processes.

The advent of single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has made this feat possible. This technique, which continues to be optimized, provides RNA expression profiles of individual cells. Conventionally, bulk RNA sequencing was the "gold standard" technology for the job; however, in mixed cell populations the measurements obtained from bulk RNA sequencing can miss significant differences between individual cells.More recently, developments in single nuclei RNA sequencing (sNuc-Seq) have propelled the field of neurogenomics even further. Now, researchers can isolate nuclei from particular cells to profile gene expression within that cell an elegant alternative to scRNA-seq for cells that are difficult to isolate.A team of scientists led by Philip Khaitovich, a professor at the Skoltech Center for Life Sciences, has conducted a large-scale analysis of gene expression in 33 different regions of human, chimpanzee, macaque and bonobo brains, adopting a mixture of bulk RNA seq and sNuc-Seq. From the data, they have created transcriptome maps of these brain regions, which they hope will be useful in human evolution research. The study is published in the journal Genome Research.

When looking at the cellular level, the scientists detected multiple expression differences between species with each of the cell types. This extended to non-neuronal cell types, where there was a substantially greater excess of human-specific expression differences in examined brain regions when compared to neurons, including astrocytes and oligodendrocyte progenitors.

The researchers were also able to decipher information on the sensitivity of the techniques adopted in the study.

Whilst multiple expression differences were detected between species within each cell type, approximately one third of these differences could be detected using bulk RNA-seq method; the remaining differences were only detectable using sNuc-Seq.

Whilst the cell-type-specific evolution differences observed in the study are indeed novel, the authors note that their findings do concur with the literature. They also identify an important component that they brand as "missing" from their study, which is an analysis of temporal patterns of expression evolution in the developing brain. They suggest this to be the appropriate next step in this research space.

Reference:

Khrameeva et al. (2020). Single-cell-resolution transcriptome map of human, chimpanzee, bonobo, and 3 macaque brains. Genomics Research. Doi: 10.1101/gr.256958.119

Excerpt from:

Exploring the Evolution of the Human Brain at the Single-cell Level - Technology Networks

A passion for minimalistic, human-powered expeditions has taken endurance athlete and ocean rower Olly Hicks to every continent and to every ocean. A world record-breaking adventurer, his brutal ocean crossings have taught him a little bit about solitude and survival. We sit down to find outa little more about the man behind the adventures.

Oceanographic Magazine (OM): How did you first connect with the ocean?

Olly Hicks (OH):My grandparents had a huge lake near their house in Derbyshire.We were always in that lake, swimming or messing around in old canoes. That was where I first connectedwith the water. I also grew up on the Suffolk coast, with the North Sea on my doorstep: brown, muddy water, stone shingle beaches and waves that would just dump on you, but when you dont know any better We also had a river nearby, so we had the best of both worlds.

OM: What captivated you about ocean rowing?

OH: Im not very introspective, but I think it does all stem from childhood in a way, growing up on the coast and messing around in boats. I didnt like any of the racing, but I loved exploring the creeks and going as far as I could on the river. When I was 13 my dad cut an article out of a newspaper about a man called Peter Bird, who died rowing across the Atlantic. That was really the start of it all. Id never heard of ocean rowing before that and I was just captivated by the concept; the beautiful simplicity of getting into a teeny boat on one continent, and with no technical expertise, just rowing until you get to the other side.

OM:What is it about man-powered minimalistic journeys that appeals to you?

OH: The essence of all these projects is the ocean its not really about the mode of transport. What appeals is being at sea. Solitude is a massive factor. Sailing is expensive and a bit more technical there are so many bits of kit, so much clobber, and its not novel. Budget-wise, it was partly born out of practicality but, that simplicity of concept hasnt changed much. Fundamentally its one person or two or four at the oars, and if they dont row, they aint going anywhere. I think thats the beauty of the challenge. When sailing you might make 200 miles while youre asleep in your bunk, whereas in a rowing boat you might make miles, you might go backwards, you might go south, you might go north, and its that jeopardy of the unknown and the simplicity of challenge. Youve got everything you need in your boat and youve just got to row. It just strips back all the complexity that we have to deal with in our daily lives.

See the original post here:

Evolution of a seafarer: In conversation with Olly Hicks, adventurer and Arksen Foundation executive director - Oceanographic - Oceanographic Magazine

Laurence Girard, Fruit Street Health CEO

Like many healthcare startups, Fruit Street Health has experienced many twists and turns in its evolution as a telemedicine company with multiple products. In an interview with MedCity News, CEO and co-founder Laurence Girard discussed the companys product offerings, business model and its focus on building a community of physician investors, as opposed to seeking funding from venture capitalists, all of which are reflective of the companys mission and journey.

After perceiving a growing need for digital health tools to manage chronic conditions, Girard founded Fruit Street Health in 2014. While serving as an ER volunteer, Girard took a course in nutrition epidemiology at the Harvard Extension School with a Harvard School of Public Health professor, which changed his initial plans of attending medical school.

I realized that we can prevent chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes and stroke through diet and lifestyle. I also started reading about physicians like Dr. Dean Ornish who proved you could reverse heart disease through diet and lifestyle modification. It made me think I could have a bigger social impact through a combination of technology and entrepreneurship in the field of public health.

In its first phase of business development, Fruit Street created a telemedicine software platform that would eventually be licensed to physicians and dietitians. For the first three years the company was developing telemedicine software and striving to find product market fit. It ultimately succeeded with strategic developments and the formation of critical relationships. Fruit Street found success when it pivoted its business model from telehealth software to delivering the CDCs Diabetes Prevention Program.

In 2017, Girard successfully registered the company for the CDC diabetes prevention program based on advice from a Fitbit executive. Fruit Street eventually got a stamp of approval from the CDC when it achieved full recognition. In order to achieve the full recognition designation from the CDC, diabetes prevention programs must achieve outcomes such as 5% average weight loss for participants that take part for at least nine months.

Fruit Streets flagship product is delivery of the CDCs diabetes prevention program via telehealth and live group video conferencing with registered dietitians. The program is designed to help patients with pre-diabetes lose 5% to 7% of their weight to reduce their risk for developing Type 2 diabetes. The program is based on research CMS funded that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine which proved that the diabetes prevention program helped patients with prediabetes reduce their risk for Type 2 diabetes by 58%.

It involves screening patients via a Type 2 diabetes risk assessment. If the results indicate the patient is at risk for the disease, they will be entered into a weekly telehealth program aimed at managing health and preventing the chronic condition. Members not only participate in the weekly group classes, but also share photos of their meals with dietitians providing feedback. They also use a wireless scale and Fitbit to track their physical activity.

When asked about the impact of the current public health crisis on Fruit Streets business, Girard said Medicares loosening of telehealth regulations has helped attract more customers. He noted that the CDC promoted Fruit Streets software as a solution for in-person diabetes prevention programs to switch to delivery of the program online via telemedicine during the pandemic.

Weve seen a big shift from these in-person diabetes prevention programs to adopting telemedicine relatively quickly, he said.

Rachel Neifeld, a registered dietitian, is among Fruit Streets recent hires who have helped thrust the company into pole position. She leads the digital diabetes prevention program. Previously, Rachel served as an inpatient dietitian at Montefiore Medical Center and New York Presbyterian Hospital, then as an outpatient diabetes educator at Beth Israel Mt. Sinai Endocrine Center.

In late April, Fruit Street hired Chief Technology Officer Ian McFarland, who served in a similar role at Pear Therapeutics, a digital therapeutics business. In fact, it was McFarland who persuaded Girard to expand Fruit Streets offering to include a service aimed at preventing and treating the coronavirus.

Fruit Street Health launched CovidMD at the height of the public health crisis, during which the countrys struggle regarding the need to address public health and the need to restore the economy was at its peak. The risk assessment, triage, and telemedicine platform, built on the Salesforce Service Cloud and Zoom, tracks sources of domestic exposure and pre-existing chronic conditions as part of a proprietary risk scoring system. This system generates both an exposure risk score and a health risk score for each person. Then, users are provided with personalized information about next steps, based on their risk scores and the latest CDC guidelines. Theyre also given the option to connect with a healthcare provider via live video, who will be able to take actions such as write a prescription or order an at-home test for Covid-19.

Eventually, Fruit Street plans to develop a more holistic telemedicine solution that will include behavioral health with psychiatrists and psychologists via live video, virtual primary care, and dietitian-based services which Fruit Street already delivers.

Fruit Streets investment model is what sets the company apart from the myriad of telemedicine companies on the market. Rather than utilize venture capital firms for funds, the company focuses on physician angel investors, who also function as advisers.

I realized that I enjoyed working with the physicians that had invested and they were the ones who were more focused on having a social impact, says Girard. I wanted Fruit Street to be a grassroots effort of physicians who want to have a social impact in public health through the power of telemedicine. I wanted to focus on physician investors rather than venture capitalists because physicians know more about healthcare products than a venture capital firm. What if a physician could use my product or tell me how I should design it based on their experience working with patients?

Asif Ali was the companys first physician-investor, a cardiologist at the University of Texas in Houston.

Physicians tend to invest between $25,000 to $50,000. Girard noted that many tap an IRA/401k to invest in the business. Recently, Fruit Street launched a crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine to offer a wider range of investment points for a wider variety of physician investors, demonstrating the companys value for its physician community, as well as its dedication to improving Fruit Streets program for patients and user experience for physicians.

Physicians develop clinical protocols, but they also talk to each other. I dont start every discussion a physician can post an idea and other physicians can respond in real time. So its really kind of like a collegiate forum where we discuss everything and anything. And then well have weekly updates on Zoom, where well share progress made on the product and the business impact in the chat box or just share their comments on product design and clinical protocols. They might make helpful introductions to potential customers; they might recommend colleagues to invest. Some of them use our telemedicine software in their practice. Some of them are actually telemedicine providers.

Girard has had a long journey in the telemedicine industry. He noted that his idea started on a napkin which has now grown into three telemedicine products that are having a social impact on diabetes prevention and providing medical care online.

Looking ahead, Girard envisions building a physician community of 10,000 that will serve as a hub for expert insights on product development and solidify the companys position for future growth.

Photo Credit: Zoom Video Communications

Read the original:

Cultivated by physician investors, Fruit Street Health's evolution as a telehealth business - MedCity News

Some, like our friend and colleague Michael Medved, have seen a complex design at work in history. Certainly, the knotting in the present situation in the United States is so complex the pandemic, the lockdown, the economic catastrophe, the death of George Floyd, the protests, the riots and looting, now the curfews, what next? as to be nearly impossible to untangle.

Certain threads in the events of recent months suggest the hand of a skilled novelist. Think of the role played by an elementary physiological process, breathing. Weve seen a virus that terrifies because it robs victims of breath, masks to protect us from the virus that themselves impede breathing, a lockdown that suffocates enterprise even as it brings fresh breathable air to cities because people stop driving their cars, a brutal death in which the victim pleads, I cant breathe, pepper spray to disperse unruly protests that, again, works because it makes it takes ones breath away.

The tapestry of the moment extends further back in time. An article in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday reported the death of a woman who was the last recipient of a veterans pension from the Union Army. The veteran was her father. The reminder that the Civil War was not so long ago struck me, too, as a storytellers touch. Slavery, racism, sectional division these forces that drove Americas greatest conflict remain powerful and raw.

From this tangle of motifs, Wesley Smith of the Center on Human Exceptionalism extracts one lesson relevant to our mission here: that the exceptional place of man in nature is a rebuke to racism.

From Racism Violates Human Exceptionalism, at the Humanize blog:

From a human exceptionalist perspective, racism is evil because it treats inherent equals as if they are unequal. And in the fiction, the racist justifies discriminating against, denigrating, and/or objectifying the targeted victim based on the fallacy that the others life is somehow less important or worth valuing. For people of faith, racism also rejects the victim as being equally made in the likeness and image of God. Talk about hubris!

Racism also violates our duties to love and respect each other simply and merely because we are human. Discriminatory behavior violates our duty as human beings to treat each other as we would want to be treated ourselves. Bigotry is an unacceptable form of withholding. It denies the mutual love we each owe to and are entitled to receive from all.

George Floyd is dead because the police officer who pinned his neck to the ground wanted to dominate his prisoner, perhaps because of Floyds race or maybe, simply because the officer, drunk with his own power, simply thought he could. Domination when not temporarily engaged to prevent danger or thwart harmful actions is a gross abuse of authority. It denies the respect we are each owed, and in a non-proper policing context, impedes human freedom.

Discrimination versus dignity, respect versus domination, freedom and creativity versus suffocation, ordered liberty versus the human zoo these are all the motifs of the hour. And looked at from a height, they are the themes of Discovery Institutes programs.

Recognizing the intelligent design in life is an antidote to the most negative ideas circulating in our culture. By contrast, seeing human beings as natural flotsam, tossed up by a random, unplanned material process without purpose or meaning, can contribute nothing positive. It only degrades and impoverishes.

The scientific debate about evolution can be set alongside the cultural impact of evolutionary thinking, uncovered in Discovery Institute documentaries like Human Zoos and The Biology of the Second Reich. A direct line connects Charles Darwin himself with these downstream effects.

In The Descent of Man, Darwin emphasized that humans are only animals in the end: Man is constructed on the same general type or model with other mammals. There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties. There is nothing special about our origins: I have at least, he wrote, as I hope, done good service in aiding to overthrow the dogma of separate creations. From his observations, Darwin drew the conclusion of a racial hierarchy with Africans at the bottom. He predicted that The civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races through the world.

Darwinian racism, with its denial of mankinds exceptional status, flowed like a river into the textbooks that American high school biology students learned from for decades. Only the civil rights movement began to turn that river backward. Martin Luther King Jr. understood the influence of scientific materialism on scientific racism and, as Discovery Institutes John West has noted here, he spoke forcefully against the idea that humans are the products of a blind material process. The design in U.S. history, which were living through right now, cant be understood without due regard for this crucial background.

Photo: A tribute to George Floyd, Minneapolis, by Lorie Shaull / CC BY-SA.

Read more:

Racism, Evolution, and Human Exceptionalism - Discovery Institute

The COVID-19 pandemic is making us rethink our life choices. Normalcy has taken on a new meaning and we are yet to experience how it will manifest further. It is not just about our health and economy but more about the basic way of continuing our lives. It does seem like 100 years of evolution is certainly being challenged in the last 100 days.

The last century saw us address needs of life, businesses, and society through newer inventions, technology shifts, industrialisation and automation, and in recent times digitalisation. There is incremental progress made over the years in every sphere of life, but the disruption has been gradual and seamless.

However, with the COVID-19 situation, several businesses are struggling to stay viable, product lifespan is under question and the entire business lifecycle of marketing, sales and operations must be reimagined, redesigned, and calibrated to suit all scenarios.

Businesses drive economy and future innovations. Most enterprises will need to heavily rely on data and digital technologies to carry out analysis and build models/scenarios to help them plan during such crises. A classic case of Darwinism is at play we will see a continued struggle for existence and survival of the fittest.

The big question is will businesses pivot on knowledge or assumptions? Past knowledge might not be relevant, but assumptions supported by a bunch of hypotheses and validated through data (real or simulated), will take us places.

With data-fuelled assumptions, the operating model must engage, serve and support customers for a better flexible design. Education, healthcare, and workplaces are leveraging digital technologies to change how they operate.

From a brick-and-mortar structure to a massive surge in online shopping, app-based deliveries, telemedicine, and repurposed transport vehicles supporting digital infrastructure, we are seeing it all.

Some of these shifts are here to stay. COVID-19 is radically accelerating the digital future towards the following:

Most of the times, businesses fail to ask good questions about data, governance, and agility. They are sitting on answers but are not breaking the barriers of departments. As businesses learn to harness and leverage more cross-departmental data, they will be able to build relevant and credible customer experiences.

Insights from streams of data will continuously improve business processes and machine learning will drive artificial intelligence into the mainstream.

Improvement in real-time data availability enables risk prediction and management. With a rolling forecast, resources could be optimally allocated to brace against sudden business impacts.

A continuous scenario planning around finance, sales, supply chain and operations gives businesses the desired agility for a longer sustenance.

We cannot afford a perpetual denial of the need for a connected digital ecosystem anymore.

With exposed vulnerabilities of processes, systems, and people working in silos, there is now an increased demand for proactive listening and collaboration at every touchpoint, for a fail-proof digital experience.

The new normal will see rapid inventions, innovation areas, and nimble technologies aligned with future needs. There is already a multifold demand for cloud, SaaS and collaborative technologies and investments will skyrocket in these areas.

It is a mixture of automation technologies - from RPA to AI, that exist to augment and expand human capabilities. With increased insights, reduced risks and an educated workforce, businesses will be able to make informed decisions with better inter-operability between processes.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and digitalisation have already set in motion the wheels of change. As more collaborative digital technologies join the bandwagon of keeping businesses afloat, it not only provides cost saving tickets but also increased job productivity. By empowering employees to work how, where, and when they like, businesses can create a responsive work culture.

If the present scenario is anyway making consumers behave differently, then why not reimagine the way our businesses function. It is time to take steps forward to join this undeniable digital revolution, with numerous technologies and data already at our aid.

Amidst volatility, complexity, and uncertainty lie hidden opportunities of evolution, learning, and growth, fuelled by calculated assumptions of a digital future ahead.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)

Want to make your startup journey smooth? YS Education brings a comprehensive Funding and Startup Course. Learn from India's top investors and entrepreneurs. Click here to know more.

See the original post here:

100 years of evolution is being challenged in last 100 days - YourStory

As the world prepares for future waves of COVID-19, the ability to predict mutations in the novel coronavirus even before they emerge will be essential to stopping future outbreaks.

Dr. Natalie Strynadka

UBC faculty of medicines Dr. Robert Brunham and Dr. Natalie Strynadka, together with the faculty of sciences Steven Plotkinalong with a team of commercial and academic collaboratorsare one step closer to achieving this thanks to a $1.8 million grant from the Digital Technology Supercluster COVID-19 Program, which aims to find solutions to urgent health care needs across Canada arising from COVID-19.

The project, Predicting the Evolution of COVID-19, brings together experts in artificial intelligence, computer modelling and structural biology to predict changes to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The findings will inform the early design of effective tests, therapies and vaccines, allowing public health systems globally to prepare and ideally prevent future pandemics caused by evolving strains of the virus.

For the first six-month phase of the project, Dr. Strynadkas lab is working to generate atomic resolution experimental datausing a cutting edge biophysical toolbox including x-ray crystallography and single particle cryo-electron microscopythat will in turn help train the computational algorithms to optimally predict future mutations of the virus

We are incredibly excited about this project, and grateful to the Digital Technology Supercluster for supporting our work, says Dr. Strynadka, a professor in the faculty of medicines department of biochemistry and molecular biology. Our goal is to harness powerful computational methods to predict mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We are working to create algorithms that will hopefully keep us a step ahead of the virus and give us the ability to know where future mutations might arise.

Our goal is to harness powerful computational methods to predict mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We are working to create algorithms that will hopefully keep us a step ahead of the virus and give us the ability to know where future mutations might arise. Dr. Natalie Strynadka

Dr. Brunham, a professor in the faculty of medicines division of infectious diseases and head of the Vaccine Research Laboratory at the BC Centre for Disease Control who was involved in responding to the SARS outbreak in 2003, is lending his expertise in vaccine development.

Dr. Robert Brunham

We believe the coronavirus spike protein may very well be the basis for a vaccine for this virus, says Brunham. This work will be tremendously important in anticipating whether the virus will mutate to escape immunity generated by the vaccine.

As part of the project, Plotkins lab is designing a universal antibody therapy that the virus cant easily evade through mutation.

Given past outbreaks such as SARS and MERS, which were also caused by coronaviruses, there is no reason to assume that another pandemic wouldnt happen again, says Plotkin, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy and has held a Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Molecular Biophysics. This is a problem that is not going to go away on its own, so we have to be forward-thinking in finding solutions for it.

The Predicting the Evolution of COVID-19 project is led by Terramera, a Vancouver-based company that fuses science, nature and artificial intelligence to transform how food is grown and the economics of agriculture. Collaborating partners include D-Wave, Menten AI, Microsoft, and ProMIS Neurosciences.

Read more:

Predicting the evolution of COVID-19 to help manage future outbreaks - UBC Faculty of Medicine