Category Archives: Progress

Janet Jackson has had a longstanding commitment to fitness, from her iconic ab-bearing Rolling Stone cover in the '90s to her remarkable slimdown after welcoming son Eissa in 2017. Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the singer/actress has made her workouts a top priorityand it shows.

In a new photo posted to her Instagram account, Jackson reveals her incredible workout progress, doing a full split in front of a mirrorand in high-heeled boots, no less.

" Split ," she captioned the impressive photo.

Jackson's amazing progress has inspired countless other fans to attempt the tricky moves themselves, with numerous fans posting photos of their own split progress to Instagram along with the hashtag #splitchallenge. Boosting her flexibility isn't the only way Jackson's made major changes to her overall fitness, however. Read on to discover what else the star does to achieve her incredible figure. And for more celebrity fitness news, Kristen Bell Does This Exact 30-Minute Workout Every Day.

While Jackson may not share many updates about herself on social media, her trainer, Paulette Sybliss, has been vocal about how much hard work Jackson puts in to achieve her fit frame.

In a 2017 interview with E! Online, Sybliss revealed that Jackson dropped 70 pounds following the birth of her son without doing any cardio.

"We were doing three or four exercises with weights back to back. What that doesyou would look at her and think she'd done like an hour of cardio with mebut when you're working with weights and you're working the muscle that way, it elevates the heart rate, but also it's creating that fat burning affect both during the session and also when she left me, and that was key," explained Sybliss.

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Jackson's workouts may be grueling, but she doesn't log long hours in the gym to get results.

"We were training a minimum of four times a week and the sessions were never less than 45 minutes, no more than an hour. Very intense, though," explained Sybliss. And for more celebrity transformations, Real Housewives Star Reveals the Two Foods She Stopped Eating to Lose 20 Pounds.

In order to maintain her progress without being sidelined by overexertion, Sybliss explained that taking time off to rest was essential.

"I need to keep her fit and healthy," said Sybliss. "We make sure that she rests [and] she doesn't get injured."

However, despite Janet's massive weight loss, Sybliss revealed that the star wasn't depriving herself to reach her goal.

"I believe that if you're eating well 90/95% of the time, you can eat in moderation anything that you want," said Sybliss. "If Janet feels that she needs to have a chocolate cake, go ahead and have a chocolate cake. You're not eating it every day. You won't get fat overnightA majority of the time she's really eating well." And for more on your favorite celebs, Heather Graham Celebrates Her Bikini Body In New Video.

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Janet Jackson Reveals Her Amazing Workout Progress in New Photo - Eat This, Not That

The Dusty Biscuit is on a bit of a hiatus right now as it puts finishing touches on its upcoming brick-and-mortar a big move for the formerpop-up that once served out ofan Airstream and isnow moving into the former Alchemy Pops space at411 S. Main St.

But the beignet concept which wowed Near Southsiders with creative spinslike maple bacon and theEverything Beignet-gal has more up its sleeve. The Dusty Biscuit is simultaneously opening a second location that is, another food truck inRendon, about 20 30 minutes from Fort Worth.

Dusty Biscuit will take over an extra trailer from ShaneBoys Craft Hawaiian Grindz, parking at 5731 Rendon Bloodworth Road near ShaneBoys and Hesters Fireworks. Dusty Biscuit owner Trey Smith says his food trailer will offer both beignetsand rotating Cajun options like creole-style gumbo and fried chicken dishes. Its expected to open in May.

As for the Fort Worth brick-and-mortar, Smith says he doesn't have a firm opening date yet, but"it can be as quickly as the next month." The approximately 500-square-foot spacespace is currently under construction and will feature a window into the kitchen so customers can watch their beignets as they're being made. Dusty Biscuit will also be utilizing the patio seating at adjacent venue The 4 Eleven,if no events are taking place that day.

The new space will allow Dusty Biscuit to expand its menu, Smith says. Expect an expanded coffee selection(including frozen caf au lait), specials like buttermilk biscuits and chicken and beignets, and, of course, beignets inmore sweet and savory varieties.

What's more Dusty Biscuit will be neighboring theupcoming Emporium Pies and already open Morgan's Ice Cream, something Smith says he's pretty pumped about.

Right at 4 Eleven, youll have Emporium Pies, Dusty Biscuit Beignets, a block down youve got Morgans Ice Cream, and theyre good friends of mine as well youve got, like, Dessert Capital of Fort Worth right there," Smith says."Youve got to get a pair of stretchy pants before you go home.

Samantha Calimbahin is the managing editor at Fort Worth Magazine. When she's not editing or making to-do lists for the magazine's gazillion projects, she's jamming on her guitar and planning her next trip to a Disney theme park.

April 12, 2021

10:43 AM

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Former Beignet Pop-Up Makes Progress on Brick-and-Mortar and a Second Location - Fort Worth Magazine

Published: 12 Apr 2021, 06:01

Worker assembling a Zinc8 zinc-air 'fuel cell' module. Image: Zinc8 Energy Solutions.

A zinc-air energy storage system (ZESS) offering 10 hours of storage is being trialled in a New York Power Authority (NYPA) project, while a US Department of Defense-funded investigation into flow batteries has moved into a physical validation and evaluation phase in Colorado.

Zinc8 Energy Solutions won a contract with public power organisation NYPA in January 2020 to demonstrate its patented zinc-air battery technology through the utilitys competitive Innovation Challenge programme, which was hosted in partnership with the Tandon School of Engineering at New York University.

NYPA will contribute to the costs of installing the technology solution in a project which aims to demonstrate the use cases for long-duration storage and how it can help integrate larger shares of renewable energy onto the states electric grid network.

Zinc8, headquartered in Vancouver, Canada and listed on both the Canadian Securities Exchange and Frankfurt Stock Exchange, will deploy a 100kW / 1MWh ZESS at a campus of the University of Buffalo in upstate New York. The primary function it will serve is peak shaving, reducing the Universitys draw of power from the grid at peak times which can enable more renewables, reduce reliance on fossil fuels and reduce the cost of electricity at the site.

It will also be used to help utility staff at the University train up their understanding of energy storage and University of Buffalo VP of facilities, Tonga Pham, said that in addition to peak shaving, the collaborative team behind the project is also interested in exploring alternative uses, which could include enabling emergency back-up power at campus buildings and gaining insight into the life cycle cost for alternative energy sources.

Initiatives such as this will greatly help UB in our quest to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, Pham added.

Meanwhile Ron MacDonald, CEO of Zinc8 described the project as a major milestone for his company on its intended path to commercialisation of the ZESS solution, which he said it is targeting for early 2023. MacDonald previously blogged for this website in June 2020 about the potential for zinc as an abundant and inexpensive medium for storage, with more than 11.9 million metric tonnes of zinc extracted from mines in more than 50 countries worldwide each year.

Best known for its industrial use in galvanising steel, zinc is abundant and inexpensive, and without any geopolitical complications as we have a significant North American supply. Zinc utilises the only battery chemistry that uses earth-abundant, recyclable materials with chemistry that is robust and safe.

Unlike lithium-ion technology, which requires new stacks in order to scale, zinc batteries are able to decouple the linkage between energy and power. This means that scaling the zinc batterytechnology can be accomplished by simply increasingthesize of the energy storage tank and quantity of the recharged zinc particles, MacDonald wrote.

Zinc-air batteries use oxygen from the atmosphere to extract power from zinc, making zinc-air battery production costs the lowest of all rechargeable batteries. Zinc-air batteries are non-flammable and non-toxic with a longer lifetime as compared to other batteries.

The company is among a handful looking to exploit the properties of zinc for long-duration energy storage, with European utility company EDF also developing a zinc-air battery and another North American player, Eos Energy Storage, marketing an aqueous zinc chemistry battery for the grid. Eos Energy Storage listed on NASDAQ as Eos Energy Enterprises through a merger with a special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC) in November 2020. Zinc8 is also working with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to deploy a pilot projectin the state, paired with an existing combined heat and power (CHP) system,which NYSERDA would support financially.

New York has an acute need for energy storage, with much of its generation in upstate areas and much of the electricity demand in the more densely-populated urban centres and its climate legislation which calls for full decarbonisation of the electric system by 2045, calls for 3GW of energy storage deployment by 2030.

NYPA, which serves about 25% of the states electric load, recently said in a strategic long-term plan that it wants to be a first-mover in understanding and deploying both short-duration and long-duration technologies. In a recent interview with this site, NYPA chief commercial officer Sarah Salati said that it is likely the majority of that 3GW of targeted deployment will be lithium-ion batteries, which she described as the choice of the industry to date, but that for peaking capacity applications going out to the future, long-duration technologies could offer a better option for transitioning the electric grid away from reliance on natural gas.

CEO Ron MacDonald also wrote in more depth about Zinc8's technology and the advantages of zinc for our technical journal PV Tech Power last quarter, an extract of which will be published on the site this week. You can subscribe to or download individual editions of the journal here.

Elsewhere, a study funded by the US Department of Defense which found vanadium redox flow batteries to be a potential way to reduce reliance on diesel engines for critical resiliency applications is entering a second phase.

The Department of Defense contracted energy solutions company Ameresco to conduct the study, the first phase of which looked at how flow batteries could be used in military microgrids, while the second phase will see flow battery systems deployed at the Department of Energys National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado. Flow battery provider Invinity Energy Systems and engineering company S&C Electric are supporting the research.

Energy-Storage.news reported in May last year that phase one of the project had confirmed that flow batteries could provide critical load coverage for 168 hours with only 1.6% to 3% less reliability than diesel fuel. It also indicated that while the higher cost of flow batteries versus lithium-ion makes lithium a better choice for the moment, the studys authors acknowledged that the flow battery industry is at an earlier stage of its development and that gains could still be made in the coming years.

As with the zinc-air battery, flow battery technology offers the opportunity to decouple energy from power at cell and stack level. This means that larger capacities and longer durations of storage and discharge are made possible through making the tanks of electrolyte that store energy larger. US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm recently spoke on Twitter about her view that flow batteries are good for grid storage, with the Department of Energy supporting funding of other moves to explore the technology and options for manufacturing it domestically.

Ameresco, which has executed a number of resiliency projects including energy efficiency upgrades, renewable energy and battery storage for the US military forces and other federal agencies, said that if the second phase of the research projects goes well, it could deploy a flow battery system at a Department of Defense site in future.

While the current project explores vanadium flow battery technology, Ameresco has also been selected for another project through the same funding mechanism, the Environmental Security Technology Certification Programme (ESTCP), to demonstrate the use of indoor-sited zinc-bromide flow batteries for buildings.

Microgrids offer enormous opportunity to provide resilient powerfrom military installations, to campuses to communities. Flexible energy storage is a key component to incorporating more variable renewable energy into microgrid systems. We are extremely pleased to bring our advanced laboratory capabilities and expert researchers to this ESTCP project to further advance the state of the art of the technology. We look forward to sharing results from this effort, which can inform a wide range of military and nonmilitary applications, NREL Energy Systems Integration Facility lab programme manager Dr Martha Symko-Davies said of the vanadium flow battery study.

Stay up to date with the latest news, analysis and opinions. Sign up here to the Energy-Storage.news Newsletter.

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Progress in US initiatives to demonstrate and investigate long-duration energy storage tech - Energy Storage News

It has been 10 years since Arsenal narrowly beat Chelsea on the bumpy Imperial Fields of Tooting & Mitcham United FC to launch the Womens Super League, which replaced the Womens Premier League as Englands top flight.

Fast forward a decade and the WSL has moved from its semi-professional eight-team beginnings to a fully professional top tier of 12 sides, a semi-pro second tier of 12 teams and a Barclays title sponsorship worth about 20m, not to mention a shift from broadcasters covering costs for the rights to televise games to a BBC and Sky Sports package worth 8m per season and record attendances. With more women and girls taking part than ever before, this is all fuelling a shift in attitudes around the very idea of their playing football.

If the lifting of the ban on womens football in 1971 brought the game out of the shadows, then the launch of the WSL in 2011 thrust a spotlight on it.

A decade ago, Kelly Simmons, then the FAs head of the national game (the grassroots) and now the head of the professional womens game, said: We hope womens football can build an audience on television and at matches and, if it can become more successful and gain in profile, it will help grow football further as a sport which girls and women want to play.

It has taken time for that broad vision for the game to be realised but now these goals are very much reality and the womens game is accelerating at breakneck speed.

Who knows where the game will be in 10 years time. Big audiences, says Simmons going into a milestone week for the WSL but also for her personally, having been such a driving force in the development of the womens game. You are already going to see big audiences, I think, next year.

But it is a sustainable league and sustainable clubs that are the goal and if anyone can be trusted to look into a crystal ball and predict the next phase of the game it is Simmons. The big change for me will be that the womens game should be able to generate enough revenue in 10 years to stand on its own two feet, she says. At the moment its growing revenue.

Youve seen a lot of brands come in at club level. Obviously, weve seen the Barclays deal, weve seen the multimillionpound TV rights announcement we made a couple of weeks ago, but its not yet sustainable. It cant survive without money made through mens football. I think over 10 years, well see that change, revenues will grow and ultimately we should be looking at a sustainable professional league in its own right and that will be a big shift.

To get to the point where womens teams are self-financing, Simmons believes it will take a couple of media rights cycles.

The growth to date has not come without casualties. Some clubs couldnt take that step. Thats been the toughest part of the 10 years without doubt, says Simmons. Knowing that the model is built with a part reliance on mens football club money and therefore weve lost clubs along the way, or theyve had to drop down to find a level of affordability, I think that that is really tough.

But I still think that without creating that licence, we wouldnt be setting those standards and we wouldnt be where we are today.

Enforcing the criteria and standards outlined in the licensing has been a demand in recent weeks, after Birmingham players sent a letter to the clubs board criticising their treatment. What I would say about Birmingham City is you cant underestimate how difficult it must be at the moment for all of the clubs who are losing so much money [to the pandemic] and who have major challenges and are adjusting and surviving, says Simmons.

It was really great to see Birmingham announcing theyll be playing at St Andrews next season because that was a big area of concern, so thats a tremendous step forward, and as I understand it from chatting to the people in the womens club, there are really good discussions going on about addressing the issues that they raised, so hopefully theyll get things sorted and be ready for the next season.

Despite the struggles of some clubs at the bottom end of the table, expansion is inevitable, says Simmons. There will be growth. What weve got to do is make sure that it grows without diluting the quality of the product, that weve got enough fully professional teams with the right support and the right amount of revenue. Obviously, the more teams we have the more it dilutes central revenues that are being distributed to support them.

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Next year that will mean the Championship will aim to accept two clubs via a fresh round of licensing to bring the league from 11 teams to 12 but the FA is taking a more cautious mediumterm approach to expansion beyond that. Meanwhile, early discussions have begun over league sponsorship, with the Barclays deal set to expire at the end of next season.

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FAs Kelly Simmons eager to build on progress of WSLs first decade - The Guardian

The Natanz uranium enrichment facility south of the Iranian capital Tehran, March 30, 2005. (Raheb Homavandi/Reuters)

Iran vowed to take revenge on Israel following an explosion at the Natanz nuclear facility on Sunday that reportedly crippled its ability to enrich uranium for the next nine months.

The explosion destroyed the independent internal power system that drives underground centrifuges at Natanz, two intelligence officials told the New York Times. American and Israeli intelligence officials told the Times that Israel was in part responsible for the operation, and Israeli officials told Hebrew media that the operation was executed by the Mossad.

The Zionists want to take revenge on the Iranian people for their success in lifting the oppressive [economic] sanctions, Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a statement broadcast by the countrys state television. But we will take our revenge from the Zionists.

Zarif added that the Zionists will get their answer in further nuclear progress.

The blast came amid renewed negotiations between the U.S. and Iran regarding the latters nuclear program. The Biden administration is attempting to reenter the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was intended to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capabilities. President Trump exited the deal in 2018, saying at the time that it didnt bring calm, it didnt bring peace, and it never will.

The Biden administration has indicated it is open to lifting some economic sanctions against Iran in order to return to the deal.

Meanwhile, the European Union warned against any actions intended to scupper current talks between the U.S. and Iran.

We reject any attempts to undermine or weaken diplomatic efforts on the nuclear agreement, EU spokesman Peter Sano said on Monday.

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Iran Vows Revenge, Further Nuclear Progress after Israeli Attack on Nuclear Facility - National Review

Yellowstone National Park sees progress and setbacks in effort to protect native cutthroat trout

Two summers ago, a gillnetting crew working to catch invasive lake trout on Yellowstone Lake pulled up its nets and found a small, hand-sized fish that sent shock waves through the fisheries biologists working to save threatened cutthroat trout in Yellowstone National Park.

The small fish was a cisco, and it was far from its native waters, the Great Lakes. How the out-of-place fish got there is a guess because there are no natural connections, but the implications of another invasive fish gobbling up the same food sources needed by native Yellowstone cutthroat trout are profound.

(The cisco) was a 3-year-old female, said Todd Koel, a Yellowstone fisheries biologist overseeing the parks lake trout suppression project. We did the otolith microchemistry work, essentially looking at the chemistry of the bone of the fish, and we determined that it was born in the lake, meaning that it has parents and it likely has thousands of siblings.

The discovery comes at a time when Yellowstone is making significant progress in the suppression of invasive lake trout discovered about 25 years ago. As the lake trout population mushroomed and fed on cutthroat, the native fish once numbering in the millions, saw its population crash. The ecology of the park, especially surrounding the lake, was changed. Those animals depending on abundant cutthroat disappeared or changed their diets. Tributary streams once teaming with spawning cutthroat trout from the lake, had few if any migratory fish.

Since the turn of the century, the lake trout population continued to grow, threatening to eliminate the cutthroat. The park, began spending nearly $3 million a year in suppression efforts and by 2012, lake trout numbers stopped increasing and cutthroat health began a slow rebound.

Ive got great optimism that the adult lake trout population has declined dramatically over the last six to seven years, and as a result, the cutthroat are coming back, said Dave Sweet, Trout Unlimiteds Yellowstone Lake special project manager. Were seeing higher numbers of cutthroat plus more importantly were seeing more young cutthroat, the smaller sizes.

Koel said the lake trout suppression project will get its annual review by an independent panel of scientists next week. The group is comprised of experts on lake trout and people who know how best to battle them.

Theyre interested in trying to help us, Koel said. They review our information from the year and our population modeling. They give us feedback, going forth every year. Due to the magnitude of the program and the cost, we want to make sure were not doing things in a vacuum.

Koel said many of the scientists giving feedback are familiar with lake trout and cisco behavior having worked in Midwestern lakes. He said most of his teams focus has been on lake trout, but after the discovery of the cisco, they spent last summer hunting the lake trying to find others.

This is not a good discovery at all, Koel said. Were trying to learn more. Were doing netting specifically for cisco now just to try and find more. Not suppression netting like we do for lake trout, but were doing targeting netting in ways that we could maybe catch another cisco.

Besides netting, the park crew has been opening up gillnetted lake trout stomachs since 2019 and we havent found another cisco yet. Cisco are a preferred forage fish for lake trout. He admits, though, that its like playing the lottery because only a few thousand stomachs are checked compared to more than 300,000 lake trout. The advantage goes to the species when it comes to detection, especially new invasions, he said.

A third method his team plans to use to detect cisco in the lake is environmental DNA sampling. This type of sampling tests lake water looking for DNA of specific fish.

Koel finds it irritating that his staff now has to be concerned about another invasive species after all the publicity made over unwanted lake trout.

The biggest punch in the gut for this one is that these cisco did not swim to Yellowstone Lake on their own, he said. Were in this battle with lake trout all these years that was a 25-year report that I published last year and then we still have stuff like that going on. Its hard. Its a hard one to swallow for sure.

Koel said he speculates that someone carefully transported the fish to the lake thinking it might be a source of food for lake trout.

Biologists have realized that lake trout need to be suppressed on more than one front.

Were in a spot where weve got the lake trout into significant decline, Koel said. Meaning since 2012 weve reduced the adult portion of the lake trout population by over 80%. Its a huge decline in adult reproducing lake trout, which is great, but they also are still able to produce a lot of young despite that decline in adults.

Koel said they have found success in killing lake trout eggs before they hatch.

The park hopes to crash the lake trout population, but Koel said it probably wont happen for another three to five years. The problem is that a few adults who escape gillnets can produce thousands of offspring, replacing those captured each summer through gillnetting efforts. One female lake trout can produce up to 9,000 eggs each year.

Biologists using telemetry technology have identified at least 14 sites where lake trout spawn. At one site, near Carrington Island in the West Thumb area of the lake, Koel and his crew have found success in killing lake trout eggs by showering organic pellets from a helicopter over spawning beds. The pellets decompose and remove dissolved oxygen from the water long enough to kill the eggs. Within a few weeks, the pellets wash away and the water returns to normal.

Weve eliminated all recruitment from that site the last two years, Koel said.

The program plans to complete environmental assessments on some of the other spawning sites in coming years to attack the fish before they become adults.

If we can kill these embryos at these sites in the fall, when the entire lake trout population is depending on the production from those limited sites, we can get to a point where we are treating a majority of those all of a sudden that becomes a lot easier than later trying to net them as adult fish all over the lake and in all depths of the lake, Koel said.

Sweet and Koel point to a trip in the Thorofare region of the park in 2019 as signs that lake trout suppression is paying off. A pack trip into this backcountry follows the main lake tributary, the Yellowstone River.

Its very encouraging, Sweet said. Those cutthroat are back in that headwaters of the Yellowstone River. The ones we were catching are almost certainly migratory fish out of the lake because they were large fish. They were 18 to 20 even 22-inch fish. These were big adult cutthroat that run up into the system out of the lake.

Koel said before the lake trout numbers were held in check, spawners up the Yellowstone River had disappeared along with the outfitters and other anglers intent on fishing for them.

When we were back there (in 2019) the camps were full of people, and there was a lot of traffic on the trails and people were fishing, Koel said. Im glad to see thats back.

The park estimates that it costs from $2.5 million to $3 million per year to conduct the lake trout suppression efforts. Funds have been coming from three main sources: The park budget, the Yellowstone Forever nonprofit partner and Trout Unlimited. The pandemic and recent restructuring at Yellowstone Forever has caused the foundation to pull back on its funding, Koel said. Trout Unlimited has committed to about $1 million each year. The park is picking up the rest of the tab by increasing fishing license fees, boating fees and other fees.

Were in it for the long haul, Sweet said of Trout Unlimiteds support. Its been a long process. We have supported them for well over 10 years, Id say about 13 years now.

Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly recently announced a doubling of fees to help cover the shortfall.

Efforts to restore native fish in Yellowstone Lake remain one of our highest conservation priorities, Sholly said in a statement. Our continued success will be largely dependent on a permanent and reliable revenue stream that will not only help us continue our native fish restoration efforts, but also increase our capacity to detect and prevent new nonnative species from entering Yellowstones waters.

In the past, three-day, seven-day and season-long Yellowstone fishing licenses were $18, $25 and $40, in 2021 fees will jump to $40, $55 and $75.

Boating permit costs also jump to $10 for a weeklong non-motorized decal to $20 and $30 for the season. Motorized seven-day and annual permits increased from $10 and $20 to $40 and $60 respectively.

The rest is here:

Battling invasives: Yellowstone National Park sees progress and setbacks in effort to protect native cutthroat trout - Post Register

A clinical trial says a treatment using "natural killer cells" is effective against Hodgkin lymphoma. Separately, retevmo, a drug from Eli Lilly already approved for lung and thyroid cancer treatments, has shown promise in beating rare tumors found elsewhere.

Stat:Natural Killer Cells Induce Remissions In Patients With Blood CancerTwo patients with advanced Hodgkin lymphoma were told their tumors were so resistant to treatment that hospice was their best option. Then, they were enrolled in a clinical trial of a novel immunotherapy involving so-called natural killer cells. After treatment, they saw complete remission. (Feuerstein, 4/9)

Stat:Lillys Retevmo Shows Success In Rare Tumors With Key Genetic MutationRetevmo, a drug developed by Eli Lillys Loxo Oncology unit, shows efficacy in tumors beyond the lung and thyroid cancers where it is approved so long as those tumors bear a key genetic alteration, the company said. Full data were released Sunday at a presentation at the virtual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. (Herper, 4/11)

Stat:Revolution Medicine Seeks To Bolster Case For Its Lead Cancer DrugRevolution Medicines on Saturday presented updated data to bolster the case for its lead cancer drug designed to stop tumor growth by throttling back mutations in a common cell-signaling pathway. The drug, called RMC-4630, wont shrink tumors very much on its own. The drugs main purpose will be as a backbone of combination treatments. (Feuerstein, 4/10)

Stat:ITeos Therapeutics Debuts First Data On TIGIT-Targeting Cancer ImmunotherapyITeos Therapeutics offered the first look at clinical data for its experimental cancer antibody that works by blocking the novel and very buzzworthy protein target called TIGIT. The tumor-shrinking activity of the companys drug, called EOS-448, was minimal but still comparable to early study data from competing TIGIT-targeted drugs in development, including ones from Roche and Merck. (Feuerstein, 4/11)

Stat:Clinical Study Reports Hold More Details About Cancer DrugFor years, researchers have urged regulators to release clinical study reports that are generated during clinical trials in order to support further research and improve care. Now, a new study offers evidence why this is a good idea: There were more harmful side effects found in clinical study reports than listings in corresponding trial registries or published studies. (Silverman, 4/9)

In other pharmaceutical industry news

Stat:Trial Shows Promise Aiming A Cold-Sore Virus At Children's Brain TumorsA therapy that sends a modified cold-sore virus to selectively kill tumor cells and spark an immune response to a particularly deadly brain cancer in children showed promise in an early clinical trial, scientists reported Saturday. They hope their approach to high-grade gliomas will pave the way toward a combination treatment with immunotherapy that could spare children the harsh toxicities of current therapies. (Cooney, 4/10)

The Washington Post:Are MRNA Flu Shots In The Works? Yes, But Not For The Upcoming Flu Season.The technology used in two of the coronavirus vaccines authorized by the Food and Drug Administration may enable scientists to develop flu shots in record time, but also make inoculations that could be more effective and protect against numerous flu strains for years at a time. The messenger-RNA technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines would be a leap forward for flu shots, some of which still rely on a process developed in the 1950s involving chickens, petri dishes and dead viruses. Researchers are hopeful that the success of those coronavirus vaccines will grease the wheels for mRNA flu shots and help expedite what is typically a lengthy process involving years of research, clinical trials and regulatory review and approval. (Bever, 4/11)

CBS News:Some Members Of Sackler Family Under Fire Over Ties To OpioidsPurdue Pharma, privately owned by some members of the Sackler family, is the drug maker that developed and marketed the powerful painkiller OxyContin. The company has been blamed for helping to spark the opioid epidemic that killed nearly half a million people in this country over the past two decades. And yet, for much of that time, the Sacklers one of the wealthiest families in America (as compiled by Forbes magazine) have largely avoided public scrutiny for the part they allegedly played. They are now the subject of Keefe's new book: "Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty" (Doubleday). (4/11)

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Progress In Treating Hodgkin Lymphoma - Kaiser Health News

BEDFORD, Mass., April 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Progress(NASDAQ: PRGS), the leading provider of products to develop, deploy and manage high-impact businessapplications, today announced The Worthy Web, a virtual six-week hackathon, challenging developers across the world to create web apps that help people lead better lives, stay connected, and contribute to society during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

The hackathon kicks off today and closes on May 24. It features a total of $40,000 in cash prizes distributed in multiple categories.

The Worthy Web aims to inspire developers to use their skills and the power of technology to build apps that will make the world a better place, said Sara Faatz, Director, Developer Relations, Progress. Whether it is apps that help people cope with the realities of living in a pandemic, connect restaurants with local shelters, help to make services accessible to those with disabilities, or anything related to betterment of the community or our world, the hackathon is part of our mission to enable the developer community to do well and have a positive impact on the world.

Developers can enter the hackathon at any time over the six-week period. The apps they create should be for the good of humanity and built leveraging Progress industry-leading developer tools. Winners will be selected based on the apps positive impact on the world or the community, quality of the idea, overall execution and implementation and use of the Progress developer tools in one of nine categories: Best Use of Telerik UI for Blazor, Best Use of Telerik UI for Angular, Best Use of KendoReact and others.

Winners will be announced on June 9.

Along with the hackathon, Progress will launch a Weekly Worthy Web Show that will feature practical tips on how to build Worthy Web apps and will host discussions on topics like accessibility, overcoming unconscious bias and ethical design in app development. The show, which will take place on the popular video streaming platform Twitch, aims to encourage collaboration, knowledge sharing and creativity among those joining the hackathon.

For more information about The Worthy Web and how to enter the hackathon, visit https://progress-worthyweb.devpost.com.

Additional Resources

About ProgressProgress (NASDAQ: PRGS) provides the leading products to develop, deploy and manage high-impact business applications. Our comprehensive product stack is designed to make technology teams more productive, and we have a deep commitment to the developer community, both open source and commercial alike. With Progress solutions, organizations can accelerate the creation and delivery of strategic business applications, automate the process by which apps are configured, deployed and scaled, and make critical data and content more accessible and secure -- leading to competitive differentiation and business success. Over 1,700 independent software vendors, 100,000+ enterprise customers, and a three-million-strong developer community rely on Progress to power their applications. Learn about Progress at http://www.progress.com or +1-800-477-6473.

Progress, Telerik, KendoReact, and Kendo UI are trademarks or registered trademarks of Progress Software Corporation and/or one of its subsidiaries or affiliates in the US and other countries. Any other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

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Progress Global Hackathon Challenges Developers to Build Apps to Make the World a Better Place - GlobeNewswire

Data from Phase 1b/2a study in chronic HBV patients show robust HBV specific T cell responses in 50% of evaluable patients across all study arms of VBI-2601 (BRII-179)

VBI-2601 (BRII-179) was well-tolerated with no safety signals observed at both low- and high-dose levels

Patient screening for the Phase 2 combination study of high-dose VBI-2601 (BRII-179) and BRII-835 (VIR-2218) initiated March 2021 first patient first dose anticipated early Q2 2021

VBI Vaccines Inc. (Nasdaq: VBIV) (VBI), a biopharmaceutical company driven by immunology in the pursuit of powerful prevention and treatment of disease, today announced data and next steps from the high-dose cohort of its Phase 1b/2a clinical study of VBI-2601 (BRII-179), the companys hepatitis B immunotherapeutic candidate, in chronically-infected hepatitis B patients. VBI-2601 (BRII-179) is being developed in collaboration with Brii Biosciences (Brii Bio) as part of a potential functional cure for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.

The Phase 1b/2a is a randomized, controlled study designed to assess the safety, tolerability, antiviral and immunologic activity of VBI-2601 (BRII-179) in 46 non-cirrhotic patients with chronic HBV infection on nucleos(t)ide analogue (NUC) therapy. The study is a two-part study to evaluate four doses of VBI-2601 (BRII-179), at either a low (20 g) or high (40 g) dose, with and without co-administration of interferon-alpha (IFN-).

Data to-date from 33 evaluable patients across all study arms suggest:

VBI-2601 (BRII-179) was well-tolerated at all dose levels with and without IFN-, with no significant adverse events identified

Restimulation of T cell immune responses to HBV surface antigens, including S, Pre-S1, and Pre-S2, in 50% (range: 50% - 78%) of evaluable patients from all VBI-2601 (BRII-179) cohorts compared to no detectable response in the control, NUC-only arm

The T cell responses and antibody responses were comparable across the 20g and 40g unadjuvanted study arms

T cell response rates between the adjuvanted and unadjuvanted cohorts were also comparable

VBI and Brii are targeting the presentation of the complete Phase 1b/2a dataset at a scientific conference later in 2021.

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Based on the acceptable safety profile and vaccine-induced adaptive immune responses observed to-date, the high dose of VBI-2601 (BRII-179), both with and without IFN-, was selected to progress into a Phase 2 combination study of VBI-2601 (BRII-179) and BRII-835 (VIR-2218), a novel small interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA) therapeutic candidate designed to inhibit expression of HBV proteins. Patient screening for the study initiated in March 2021 in New Zealand, and Brii Bio expects to initiate the study in China, Hong Kong, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, and South Korea in the second and third quarter of 2021.

About Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is one of the worlds most significant infectious disease threats with more than 290 million people infected globally. HBV infection is the leading cause of liver disease and, with current treatments, it is very difficult to cure, with many patients going on to develop liver cancers. An estimated 900,000 people die each year from complications of chronic HBV such as liver decompensation, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma.

About VBI-2601 (BRII-179)

VBI-2601 (BRII-179) is a novel recombinant, protein-based HBV immunotherapeutic candidate that builds upon the 3-antigen conformation of VBIs prophylactic 3-antigen HBV vaccine candidate, and is designed to target enhanced B-cell and T-cell immunity. VBI-2601 (BRII-179) is being developed in collaboration with Brii Biosciences in the licensed territory of China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan as part of a potential functional cure for chronic hepatitis B infection.

About VBI Vaccines Inc.

VBI Vaccines Inc. ("VBI") is a biopharmaceutical company driven by immunology in the pursuit of powerful prevention and treatment of disease. Through its innovative approach to virus-like particles ("VLPs"), including a proprietary enveloped VLP ("eVLP") platform technology, VBI develops vaccine candidates that mimic the natural presentation of viruses, designed to elicit the innate power of the human immune system. VBI is committed to targeting and overcoming significant infectious diseases, including hepatitis B, coronaviruses, and cytomegalovirus (CMV), as well as aggressive cancers including glioblastoma (GBM). VBI is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with research operations in Ottawa, Canada, and a research and manufacturing site in Rehovot, Israel.

Website Home: http://www.vbivaccines.com/ News and Resources: http://www.vbivaccines.com/news-and-resources/ Investors: http://www.vbivaccines.com/investors/

Cautionary Statement on Forward-looking Information

Certain statements in this press release that are forward-looking and not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). The Company cautions that such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may materially affect the Companys results of operations. Such forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. Actual results could differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including but not limited to, the impact of general economic, industry or political conditions in the United States or internationally; the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on our clinical studies, manufacturing, business plan, and the global economy; the ability to establish that potential products are efficacious or safe in preclinical or clinical trials; the ability to establish or maintain collaborations on the development of therapeutic candidates; the ability to obtain appropriate or necessary governmental approvals to market potential products; the ability to obtain future funding for developmental products and working capital and to obtain such funding on commercially reasonable terms; the Companys ability to manufacture product candidates on a commercial scale or in collaborations with third parties; changes in the size and nature of competitors; the ability to retain key executives and scientists; and the ability to secure and enforce legal rights related to the Companys products. A discussion of these and other factors, including risks and uncertainties with respect to the Company, is set forth in the Companys filings with the SEC and the Canadian securities authorities, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 2, 2021, and filed with the Canadian security authorities at sedar.com on March 2, 2021, as may be supplemented or amended by the Companys Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Given these risks, uncertainties and factors, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. All such forward-looking statements made herein are based on our current expectations and we undertake no duty or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements for any reason, except as required by law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210412005138/en/

Contacts

VBI Contact Nicole AndersonDirector, Corporate Communications & IRPhone: (617) 830-3031 x124Email: IR@vbivaccines.com

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VBI Vaccines Announces Phase 1b/2a Data and Progress of Hepatitis B Immunotherapeutic Candidate - Yahoo Finance

TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) -- A new upscale hotel is coming to downtown Tupelo near the Bancorp South Arena. Construction is currently underway.

Walker Thrash said Hotel Tupelo will soon be a reality.

Thrash explained he is a partner of Thrash Group.

He described Thrash Group as a Mississippi-based development and construction company that's behind this building project.

"Right now, we are right on track," Thrash said.

He explained crews began construction about a year and a half ago.

Thrash said the team jumped at the opportunity of having a project in the company's home state.

"We were really surprised at the amount of travel and tourism that happens with that being somewhat of a hub city."

"We saw that there was a need for a boutique hotel, that the leisure travel would support it."

Concerning progress, Project Manager Marco Oliver said the team has some usual delays such as weather, which is common.

However, he said it's nothing that's thrown them off, that they are still on schedule.

Walker said looking forward, his team is excited to get this project finished.

"It's an 80-room boutique hotel, like I said, with a full-service restaurant in downtown, and we really are excited about the energy I think we can bring to Main Street."

Builders said the hotel should be completed and operational by the end of December, 2021.

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Hotel Tupelo - Progress toward completion later this year - WTVA