A deadly heat wave continues in parts of the American Southwest. In Los Angeles, temperatures cooled off Friday, but residents are bracing for a long, hot summer.VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan reports.
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From: MeNeedIt

The Zika virus made headlines last year because it caused microcephaly in many babies whose mothers were pregnant while they had the virus. Microcephaly keeps the brain from developing normally in children but is relatively harmless to adults. That got cancer researchers thinking about the possibility the virus could be used to attack cancer cells in the brain. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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From: MeNeedIt

A new study by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says that safe burial practices may have helped prevent the transmission of thousands of cases of Ebola during the epidemic in West Africa between 2013 and 2016.

More than 11,300 people died from Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea before the epidemic was stopped in those countries in 2016.

Ebola is highly contagious and spread by direct contact with blood or other bodily fluids. Symptoms include a sudden fever, aching muscles, diarrhea and vomiting. 

Red Cross study

A co-author of the Red Cross Federation study, Amanda McClelland, says the traditional burial practice of washing and touching the dead was a major mode of transmission of Ebola during the outbreak in all three countries.

While isolating patients is key to preventing the spread of the disease, she says early burial is crucial to keeping Ebola in check.

“They can really produce super-spreading events where we get very large chains of transmission well beyond what a live case would cause in the community,” she said. “So, the infectiousness of the bodies increases. The virus is at its peak when a person dies. So, we see a much higher transmission from a body than we do from a live person.”

McClelland says the Red Cross had to change its approach in dealing with communities that adhered to traditional burial practices. Aid workers stopped talking about management of the remains and instead spoke about safe and dignified burials, she said.

Local volunteers

Burial teams made up entirely of local volunteers, gained the trust of the communities, which was critical to success, she said. In all, the teams provided more than 47,000 safe burials, accounting for more than 50 percent of all burials in the three countries during the outbreak.

This action, McClelland said, may have prevented more than 10,000 people from becoming infected with the virus, which is named for the Congolese river near where it was first identified in 1976.
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From: MeNeedIt

On a recent summer night, the sun was still shining as people prepared to run a 5K race for charity. But they hadn’t had a drop to drink or eat since before dawn. Ariadne Budianto reports.
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From: MeNeedIt

One of the challenges to designing prosthetics, or exoskeletons for the disabled, is that everyone is different. Technology designed to help a person walk or get around doesn’t work very well when it is built to be one-size-fits-all. But scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have figured out a quick, easy way to make each prosthetic different. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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From: MeNeedIt

There’s good news for pesto lovers.

The airport in Genoa, Italy, home of the famous sauce, is allowing passengers to take pesto with them on flights, providing they make a small donation of less than a dollar to the Flying Angels charity, which helps provide money for sick children to be flown overseas for treatment. Travelers giving donations will get a special sticker to put on their jar of pesto.

Since June 1, when the program started, some 500 jars of the basil, cheese, pine nut and olive oil sauce have already been allowed to pass through security, airport officials said.

“We consider it an amazing result”, airport press officer Nur El Gawohary told The Independent.

There are a few rules. Passengers can only take a 500-gram jar or two 250-gram jars, they must be flying directly from Genoa, and the pesto must be from Genoa.

Jars are scanned by a special x-ray machine before being allowed on board.

Airport officials say the idea came to them after having seized hundred of jars of pesto from travelers trying to take a little taste of Genoa back with them.

“Every year we were confiscating hundreds of pesto jars at security control, and throwing them away,” El Gawohary says. “It was a waste of food and an annoyance for our passengers. So we started to think about how we could allow people traveling with hand baggage only to take pesto with them.”
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From: MeNeedIt

The benefits of a Mediterranean diet are widely chronicled, but new research shows extra-virgin olive oil, a key part of the diet, may protect “against cognitive decline.”

Specifically, researchers at Temple University in Philadelphia say extra-virgin olive oil “protects memory and learning ability and reduces the formation of amyloid-beta plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain – classic markers of Alzheimer’s disease.”

Researcher say olive oil reduced inflammation and triggers a process called autophagy, which helps broken down cells to flush intracellular debris and toxins. This includes amyloid plaques and tau tangles, the latter of which is associated with memory loss in Alzheimer’s.

“Brain cells from mice fed diets enriched with extra-virgin olive oil had higher levels of autophagy and reduced levels of amyloid plaques and phosphorylated tau,” said senior investigator Domenico Praticò.

For their study, the researchers looked at mice with three traits of Alzheimer’s: memory impairment, amyloid plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles. The mice were put into two groups, one group got a diet enriched with extra-virgin olive oil, while the other group received a normal diet.

The olive oil was given to the mice when they were only six months old and before any symptoms of Alzheimer’s set in. While there was no difference in the appearance of the mice, at age 9 months and 12 months, the mice in the olive oil group “performed significantly better on tests designed to evaluate working memory, spatial memory, and learning abilities.”

An analysis of the brain tissue of the mice revealed more differences.

“One thing that stood out immediately was synaptic integrity,” Praticò said. The integrity of the connections between neurons, known as synapses, were preserved in animals on the extra-virgin olive oil diet. In addition, compared to mice on a regular diet, brain cells from animals in the olive oil group showed a dramatic increase in nerve-cell autophagy activation, which ultimately was responsible for the reduction in levels of amyloid plaques and phosphorylated tau.”

Next, researchers plan to see what happens to mice who are given olive oil at 12 months, when they are already showing symptoms.

“Usually when a patient sees a doctor for suspected symptoms of dementia, the disease is already present,” Praticò added. “We want to know whether olive oil added at a later time point in the diet can stop or reverse the disease.”

The study was published online June 21 in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology.
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From: MeNeedIt

Federal officials say Russian cyber-operatives targeted voting systems in 21 U.S. states last year and had varying degrees of success in penetrating them. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, that testimony before House and Senate panels Wednesday revealed significant tensions between state election officials and federal agencies whose cooperation is deemed essential to safeguard future elections.
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From: MeNeedIt

Cookie sales may take a back seat to fighting identity theft and other computer crime now that Girl Scouts as young as 5 are to be offered the chance to earn their first-ever cyber security badges.

Armed with a needle and thread, U.S. Girl Scouts who master the required skills can attach to their uniform’s sash the first of 18 cyber security badges that will be rolled out in September 2018, Girl Scouts of the USA said in a press release.

The education program, which aims to reach as many as 1.8 million Girl Scouts in kindergarten through sixth grade, is being developed in a partnership between the Girl Scouts and Palo Alto Networks (PANW.N), a security company.

The goal is to prevent cyberattacks and restore trust in digital operations by training “tomorrow’s diverse and innovative team of problem solvers equipped to counter emerging cyber threats,” Mark McLaughlin, chief executive officer of Palo Alto Networks, said in the release.

The move to instill “a valuable 21st century skill set” in girls best known for cookie sales is also aimed at eliminating barriers to cyber security employment, such as gender and geography, said Sylvia Acevedo, the CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA.

Women remain vastly underrepresented in the cyber security industry, holding just 11 percent of jobs globally, according to a recent study by (ISC)2, an international nonprofit focused on cyber security.

“In our increasingly tech-driven world, future generations must possess the skills to navigate the complexities and inherent challenges of the cyber realm,” Acevedo said in the release.

“From arming older girls with the tools to address this reality to helping younger girls protect their identities via internet safety, the launch of our national cyber security badge initiative represents our advocacy of cyber preparedness,” she said.
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From: MeNeedIt

Military conflicts and growing threats around the world continue to underpin demand for weapons, but industry and government leaders from the United States, Europe, Russia and the Middle East say they don’t see a huge near-term spike in arms orders.

Executives report being busier than ever at this year’s Paris Airshow, the oldest and biggest aerospace expo in the world, which featured aerial acrobatics by Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 fighter jet.

But they caution that foreign arms sales take years to complete, and NATO governments must get through lengthy budget and bureaucratic processes before they can raise military spending to meet a NATO target for members to spend 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense.

No big spurt seen

“We’re seeing some growth, but I like to be pragmatic. I’m not seeing a big tick up in defense spending across the board,” Leanne Caret, who heads Boeing’s defense business, told Reuters in an interview. Her division generates about 40 percent of its revenues overseas, a big change from just several years ago.

Boeing officials expect steady gains in weapons sales, but warn against expectations for any kind of “gold rush” despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to boost military spending, saying there may be more of a shift in what platforms and weapons programs are in demand.

Recent increases in tensions between Russia and the United States have raised concerns about another arms race, but top officials in both countries agree that there will not be a mad rush to bulk up on weapons.

Moscow’s top arms trade official, Dmitry Shugaev, told reporters at the show that Russian weapon makers remained competitive despite Western sanctions, but the cyclical nature of the business and budget constraints are dampening prospects for a big surge in global arms sales.

He also expressed skepticism that NATO members would rapidly increase their military budgets, despite pledging to move toward the 2 percent goal.

Trump position

Trump’s public declarations that NATO members are not pulling their weight may have had some impact. Lockheed Martin’s Aeronautics business leader, Orlando Carvalho, said national security budgets and military systems’ demand outside the United States are beginning to increase, “especially with the focus that the president has put on NATO.”

In 2016, total world military expenditure rose 0.4 percent to $1.69 trillion, according the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The European Union’s economic and financial affairs commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, also cited that risk, warning that European countries needed to match political pledges to boost military spending with actual resource commitments.

“There is now a window of opportunity for investing more in European defense … but as with all windows, a window closes if you don’t go through it,” he said.

Gradual increases in Europe

Germany and other European countries are boosting military spending, concerned about terrorism and Russia’s increasingly assertive military stance after its annexation of Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, but the increases are likely to be more gradual than dramatic.

In the missile defense arena, Western concerns about rapid advances in technology by North Korea, China and Iran, as well as Russia’s increased military activities, are driving orders for a range of defensive systems, according to U.S. and European executives.

“The threat is absolutely increasing and it’s increasing rapidly,” said Tim Cahill, vice president of air and missile defense systems at Lockheed. “In every region around the world, the level of interest in integrated air and missile defense has been going up in the last few months.”

Wes Kremer, president of Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems, said he was meeting with officials from countries that had not shown any interest in missile defense systems just four or five years ago.

“Back then, they didn’t see a ballistic missile threat, or they didn’t see Russia as a threat, but now that has changed,” he said.
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From: MeNeedIt

Intel said Wednesday it would become a major sponsor of the International Olympic Committee, making the computer chipmaker the latest technology company to put marketing dollars behind the global sporting event.

The new deal, which goes until 2024, comes a week after longtime Olympics sponsor McDonald’s Corp bowed out of its sponsorship deal three years early, citing a change in the company’s priorities as it tries to hold down costs.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but IOC sources have previously told Reuters that major sponsors pay about $100 million per four-year cycle, which includes one summer and one winter games. The IOC has been looking to increase the cost of those deals, sources previously said.

Intel joins about a dozen global Olympics sponsors such as Coca-Cola, Samsung and most recently, Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, which signed on six months ago. The IOC has been trying to make the Olympics more technologically savvy and appeal to younger people through its internet-based TV network, the Olympic Channel.

IOC President Thomas Bach and Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich said Intel’s sponsorship will open up new experiences for athletes, fans and spectators in emerging areas such as virtual reality.

“We’ll allow people online to feel like they are there,” Krzanich said, speaking at a press conference in New York.

Intel said it would provide 5G wireless technology, virtual reality, artificial intelligence platforms, and drones that could be used in aerial filming or light shows.

Changes for Intel

Intel’s business has undergone big changes in recent years. In March, it agreed to buy autonomous vehicle technology firm Mobileye for $15 billion in a bid to expand its reach beyond its core microprocessor business, which has faced declines along with the personal computer market.

Intel may be seeking to expand its reach in Asia, which is preparing to host three consecutive Olympic Games. Pyeongchang in South Korea is staging the 2018 winter games, Tokyo the 2020 Summer Olympics and Beijing the 2022 Winter Olympics. The IOC is deciding between Paris and Los Angeles for the 2024 summer games.

The IOC is looking to sign pricier deals while brands are trying to figure out whether exclusive Olympics sponsorship rights offer the marketing impact they once did. Some companies find it is much cheaper to work directly with athletes or specific countries than the IOC.

More Olympic partners

Timo Lumme, managing director of IOC Television and Marketing Services, said in an interview that the IOC, with 13 top sponsors, has more partners than ever before, showing that brands see “tangible returns” from investing in the games.

As for the tensions in the Korean Peninsula, Lumme said the IOC is monitoring the situation daily to see if it could effect the 2018 games.

“We feel very sure and comfortable and that the Korean government will provide a safe environment for the world’s athletes to meet next February,” Lumme said.
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From: MeNeedIt

Travis Kalanick, the combative and troubled CEO of ride-hailing giant Uber, resigned Tuesday under pressure from investors.

The company’s board confirmed the move early Tuesday, saying in a statement that Kalanick is taking time to heal from the death of his mother in a boating accident -while giving the company room to fully embrace this new chapter in Uber’s history.” He will remain on the Uber Technologies Inc. board.

In a statement, Kalanick said his resignation would help Uber go back to building -rather than be distracted with another fight.”

The resignation came after a series of costly missteps by Kalanick and the fast-growing company that he helped found eight years ago. Uber on Monday embarked on a 180-day program to change its image by allowing riders to give drivers tips through the Uber app, something the company had resisted under Kalanick.

The San Francisco-based company is trying to reverse damage done to its reputation by revelations of sexual harassment in its offices, allegations of trade secrets theft and an investigation into efforts to mislead government regulators.

Uber’s board said in a statement that Kalanick had -always put Uber first.”

While building the world’s biggest ride-hailing service, Uber developed a reputation for ruthless tactics that have occasionally outraged government regulators, drivers, riders and its employees.

The company’s hard-charging style has led to legal trouble. The U.S. Justice Department is investigating Uber’s past usage of phony software designed to thwart regulators.

Uber also is fighting allegations that it relies on a key piece of technology stolen from Google spin-off Waymo to build self-driving cars.
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From: MeNeedIt