I have the DSPT, it says it's encoded but it doesn't beep when I get to the Bridge.
When I try to cross the Bridge I die to the mines.
​
not sure what other information could be helpful...
- I used the profile editor to "mark for finish" or whatever "Assesment Part 1" (the 20 PMC kills near the Bridge)
- I have SVM installed, though I didn't actually change any settings

So in this post I want to discuss Strand, specifically it's physical manifestation. I believe it is a paracausal magnetic superposition and that many of it's visual properties can be observed in extremely high magnetic fields in which the field lines become braided, tangled or twisted into magnetic flux ropes.
I wrote a post before the release of Lightfall hypothesizing that Strand would be linked to String Theory and Panpsychism. While some of the concepts mentioned in that post are still important for understanding Strand (such as the hard problem of consciousness), in many ways it was off the mark. While mention of the "fabric of the universe" and the stringy nature of Strand seemed to allude to String Theory, this seems to be, at least at this stage, superficial at best.

Matter of Perception

Before we get into my analysis however it should be stated that what I will be discussing is the physical manifestation. During Lightfall Osiris elaborates on the Light's connection to the physical world and the manipulation of the fundamental forces that govern all interactions. He explains how Darkness is specifically tied to the mental world; consciousness, dreams and memory. He also says that the Light and Darkness form a paracausal union. A conjunction of intangible conscious realities.
We are told that both Strand and Stasis are tied to perception. They are metaphysical patterns stemming from the mind given form or shape by the one wielding it. Stasis for instance is about control over your environment whereas Strand is about relinquishing that control. Osiris elaborates:

Strand is the elemental manifestation of psychic connection. All minds are connected in a web of consciousness which we can now see and feel. To wield Strand is to pull on the hidden connecting threads and to use them to create, manipulate and unravel. Unlike Stasis, mastering Strand seems to require one to relinquish control, to embrace the connecting threads and perhaps flow with them.

It should be stated however that while Strand and Stasis are tied to perception, the effects that they manifest as are still physical, tangible and measurable. Take Stasis for instance. That metaphysical mental pattern underlying the need for control over one's environment manifests as highly-ordered negentropic time crystals. These crystals are still able to be analyzed under a microscope.
Similarly, Strand was manifested by us when we pulled the first thread so to speak. It took on a form of weaving; threads, ropes and strings; at least at a superficial level. But we are told the physical manifestation could have been very different had the Neomuni discovered it first, perhaps manifesting as cosmic water.

Paracausal Superposition

With that out of the way I want to discuss how Strand manifests physically and scientifically. We get some clues fairly early on. We are told that Strand is a byproduct of the Veil and Ghost analyses it concluding it is "like some sort of magnetic field all around Neomuna". Then Osiris ponders this new found power and says:

"A paracausal superposition. Like magnetic poles."

Now it could be easy to read this as talking about quantum superposition, a fundamental concept in quantum mechanics that describes the ability of a quantum system to be in multiple states simultaneously. However what Osiris is referring to is an entirely different concept altogether: magnetic superposition.

Magnetic superposition is a property of magnetic fields that describes how the magnetic fields from two or more sources can add together to create a combined magnetic field. This is similar to the way that forces can be added together in classical mechanics, where two forces can be combined to create a net force. In magnetic superposition, the magnetic field vectors add together and can either reinforce or cancel each other out, depending on their orientation and relative strengths.

So in simpler terms, it represents the superposition of a bunch of magnetic fields that all add up together. As we will see, magnetic fields are ubiquitous in nature. They are generated on an astronomical level in the planets and stars.
But they are also generated by all life.
While these "bio-magnetic" fields may be weak, the fact that this is a "paracausal superposition" suggests that the magnetic field lines are not limited to fields within our universe, but are perhaps a superposition of magnetic field lines from beyond.

Fluid Dynamics

While magnetism may seem like a relatively simple concept, it actually is responsible for a number of physical phenomena that can inform us on how Strand "flows". One of our biggest clues for this comes from the lore tab for Final Warning, a gun that apparently functions as an Atmospheric Spectrometer. We read:

The odd capabilities this "Final Warning" harbors have long been suspected by Dr. Sundaresh to be a byproduct of the Veil, replicating energy signatures we most often observe in fluid dynamics. With that in mind, I propose we begin testing the ability to engage that energy using both the Magnus and gyroscopic effects. We attempt to create a "paracausal skipping stone," if you will.

Fluid dynamics is a branch of physics that deals with the motion of fluids, including liquids and gases in the atmosphere. The Magnus effect and gyroscopic effects are both phenomena that arise from fluid dynamics, and are involved in the motion of objects through fluids.

• The Magnus effect, for example, is the force that causes a spinning object, like a spinning ball or a frisbee, to curve in flight.
• Gyroscopic effects arise when a spinning object experiences a force perpendicular to its rotation axis, causing it to move in a different direction.

Both of these forces also help explain skipping stones on water.
The take away here is that the Final Warning is taking advantage of these effects in order for its targeting capabilities to curve with the flow of Strand lines or increase direct line accuracy. But it hints at something more important, the fact that Strand flows like a fluid as well as it's relationship with the atmosphere.
It's quite possible that the Final Warning is an atmospheric magnetic spectrometer specifically used for studying Neptune's erratic magnetic field and its interaction with the atmosphere. Given Neptune's extreme erratic magnetic field and tendency to experience geomagnetic storms, it's not unlikely that a device like this would exist. It is also fitting thematically that just as we discovered an "ice-like" power on the icy world of Europa, we now discover a "magnetic-like" power on a gas giant with a highly erratic magnetic field.
If we take the fields of fluid dynamics and magnetism and combine them we actually get another field of science that can actually help us elucidate a lot about how Strand behaves and manifests.

Magnetohydrodynamics

Magnetohydrodynamics is a branch of physics that studies the behavior of electrically conducting fluids, such as plasmas, in the presence of magnetic fields.
It's useful for studying atmospheric effects caused by planetary magnetic fields and plasma in our Sun because these phenomena involve the interaction of magnetic fields with fluids.
It combines the principles of magnetism and fluid dynamics to understand phenomena such as the solar wind, the aurora borealis and the magnetic fields of planets.
Why is it of interest to us? As we will see, the fluid nature of Strand is quite comparable to the fluid dynamics of magnetic fields in electrically conducting fluids.
Magnetic field lines are often depicted as smooth, continuous curves as we can see in this concept art for Strand. But they can also form more complex structures in certain situations. For example, in plasmas (ionized gases), magnetic field lines can become tangled and form complex structures known as magnetic reconnection events.
In some contexts, magnetic field lines can also be thought of as "threads" that are woven through space. For example, in topology (the study of geometric shapes and their properties) and more specifically Magnetic topology, magnetic field lines can be described using mathematical techniques that involve the concept of "knots" and "links".
This is perhaps nowhere more evident than in our Sun.

Stellar Magnetism

While it may seem oddly tangential to talk about the Sun is relation to Strand it can actually give us a glimpse into how Strand behaves and flows. The Sun is a giant ball of plasma, and as such, magnetohydrodynamics plays a crucial role in understanding the physics of the Sun.
The Sun's magnetic field is generated by the motion of plasma within the Sun's interior. The magnetic field is not uniform and varies in strength and direction, forming sunspots, coronal loops, and other magnetic structures on the surface of the Sun.
Sunspots, which are cooler areas on the Sun's surface, produce very intense magnetic fields! The intensity causes the magnetic field lines to be twisted so much that they become tangled and frozen in the plasma, resulting in explosive releases of energy known as solar flares and coronal mass ejections that can affect Earth's atmosphere and technology.
Natural systems like the Sun's corona or even the Earth's magnetosphere can produce some very interesting phenomena that I believe are observed in Strand.

• A Magnetic Flux Rope is a twisted bundle of magnetic field lines that can occur in plasma within areas of strong magnetic activity. They can be thought of as magnetic "tubes" with a twisted or helical shape. They bear a striking resemblance to grapples and even threadlings.
• A Magnetic Tangle refers to the complex, twisted, and knotted configuration of magnetic field lines. They are a result of the complex behavior of magnetic fields in turbulent plasma and can arise spontaneously or through magnetic reconnection events. The magnetic flux in these tangles is frozen and stores vast amounts of energy. These are obviously comparable to Strand tangles.
• Magnetic Reconnection is a phenomenon that occurs when oppositely directed magnetic field lines break and then reconnect in a different configuration, like pulling apart and then reconnecting two ends of a magnet. This releases a large amount of magnetic energy that is converted into kinetic energy and heat, and can accelerate charged particles to high energies. This is comparable to the explosion caused by shooting a tangle.
• Auroras are caused by magnetic reconnection events , which are colorful displays of light that occur in the Earth's atmosphere at high latitudes. Coincidentally, a green aurora is typically caused by the interaction of charged particles from the Sun with oxygen atoms in the Earth's atmosphere. To me the way Strand glows as well as the waves produced by tangle explosions bear striking resemblance.

We can start to see the how Strand imitates the way magnetic field lines behave in large astronomical bodies, but what about it's relationship to consciousness and the so-called "web of life"?

Biomagnetism

Magnetism has played a vital role in various natural phenomena, including the seeding of the first stars, the structure of our galaxy. and plays a critical role in the behavior of charged particles in space.
Moreover it is important for life. Magnetism is known to have produced Magnetoreception in some organisms, such as migratory birds, which use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate. Life also produces a weak bio-magnetic field due to the presence of charged particles in living organisms, such as ions and electrically charged molecules. This bio-magnetic field is believed to play a role in various biological processes, including cell communication and regulation.
The biomagnetic field affects cell communication by influencing the movement of charged particles across cell membranes. Cell membranes are selectively permeable, meaning that they allow certain substances to pass through while blocking others. The movement of charged particles across cell membranes is critical for many cellular processes, including nerve signaling and muscle contraction.

Neuromagnetism

The brain also produces a magnetic field, which is known as the "neuromagnetic field". This field is produced by the electrical activity of neurons in the brain, which generates tiny magnetic fields that can be measured outside the head using specialized equipment, such as Magnetoencephalography.
This field is thought to be involved in the communication between different regions of the brain and in the coordination of neural activity. The brains magnetic field can also be used to study the neural correlates of various cognitive processes, such as perception, attention, and memory.
Some scientists have proposed that the magnetic resonance of the brain may even play a role in the emergence of subjective experience by facilitating the integration of information across different regions of the brain. This research can be seen in this article "Solving the “Hard Problem”: Consciousness as an Intrinsic Property of Magnetic Fields".
Our consciousness is the state of being aware of things around us and within ourselves. Biological consciousness is our ability as living beings to be aware of and respond to different types of experiences, like sensory information (sight, sound, touch, etc.), emotions, and thoughts.
When we are focused on something in particular, like a physical sensation or a task we're trying to complete, certain parts of our brain become more active and produce electrical signals. This activity creates magnetic fields in the same area (which can be picked up by Magnetic resonance imaging). These magnetic fields can help the brain pay attention to the sensations or thoughts that are most important at that moment.
It's likely that our conscious experiences and our current state of consciousness are related to this localized electrical and chemical activity in our brains. The magnetic information created by this activity can help different parts of the brain communicate with each other and respond quickly to new information, like threats or opportunities.
In short, our consciousness is influenced by the electrical signals in our brains, and these signals also create magnetic fields that can help our brains respond to the world around us.

Noetic Effects

We even get some lore in the Hidden Dossier that elaborates on the connection between magnetism and qualia. The lore talks about the explanatory gap.

The explanatory gap is the difference between what they learn inside the room and what they see outside. The gap between knowing everything about color and actually seeing a color. In this gap lives the idea of “qualia,” the first-person experiences of the mind. You cannot describe or communicate qualia; you can only have them.

It then explains how this was solved:

We solved the explanatory gap. Golden Age philosophers correctly identified the difference between the education of color and the experience of color. Experience occurs in the brain. Qualia, no matter how ineffable, are the result of physical processes. If the Gray Room Dweller had never experienced Red, it was because the neural correlates of the qualia Red had never been activated. Give the Gray Room Dweller a dose of hallucinogens, or an EMP to the right part of the brain, and they could experience all the colors imaginable without ever leaving their black-and-white room.

This relationship of magnetism to consciousness and Darkness is further gleaned from the experience with the K1 anomaly.

A black sphere—nothing could be simpler—and yet it is awesome, unspeakably complex, compactly infinite, full of as many things as it could possibly contain. We cannot spend long near it. Its electromagnetic flux is too subtle to burn through the fieldweave in our suits or cause any real harm, but we can't assume it'll stay that way. If the field spikes, it could force our nerves to fire, even drive us into seizure. High-Tesla magnetic fields do strange things to the mind.

In fact the noetic fields caused by the artifact were so bad that it's stated crew had to wear "Enhanced fieldweave for neural electromagnetic insulation".

Conclusion

Discover hidden connections. Fashion them into whatever you desire.

So in conclusion we can see a clear comparison between how Strand manifests physically with magnetic phenomena at both the astronomical and biological level. Connection, tangles, and flux ropes are phenomena of magnetism we can observe in our Sun and Earth's magnetosphere. This visualization continues with Strand.
But although it is like a magnetic field, it is clearly so much more.
It is a Paracausal Superposition of magnetic field lines produced by all life, in our universe and beyond. While the biomagnetic fields that life produces are weak, a paracausal superposition could explain why the Guardians are able to perceive these hidden connections and manipulate the fabric of reality at both the physical and the mental level.
Since the field is ubiquitous and connected to not only biological processes, but neurological processes as well - it explains how the Guardian can act a conduit and move with the flow of these paracausal magnetic field lines, twisting them and bending them according to their minds will.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
TL;DR: Strand is a paracausal superposition and is connected to the superposition of magnetic field lines throughout our universe and beyond. The fluid nature of Strand is comparable to the fluid dynamics of intense magnetic fields in a star's plasma or a planet's magnetosphere. The entanglement and contortion of strong magnetic fields can give rise to intricate structures like magnetic flux ropes and magnetic tangles. Magnetism also plays a crucial role in biological and neurological processes, with evidence suggesting that the brain's magnetic field may even give rise to subjective experience. Together, these factors contribute to our understanding of how Strand manifests.

https://www.reddit.com/NWBO/comments/117mc29/thoughts_on_the_latest_nwbo_dcvax_manuscript/ae kusterer
Re: None
Tuesday, February 21, 2023 3:05:53 PM
Post# of 569797 GoThoughts on the latest $NWBO DCVax manuscript preprint (de Godoy et al) Due diligence I read today a preprint of a manuscript by de Godoy et al that was submitted on February 15, 2023 to the Journal of Neuro-Oncology entitled “Assessment of Treatment Response to Dendritic Cell Vaccine in Patients with Glioblastoma using a Multiparametric MRI-Based Prediction Model”. Remarkably and signifying the importance and urgency of this study to the neuro-oncology community, by February 18, an editor had already been identified, reviewers requested and accepted. The preprint can be found at this link: https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-2591941/v1
My thoughts are below.
This paper is significant because the neuro-oncology community has had a difficult time identifying with reliability using non-invasive methods whether someone is truly progressing (TP) or pseudoprogressing (PSP), i.e., responding to the immunotherapy treatment but looking like they are progressing on MRI. This has been a major hindrance for glioblastoma clinical trials and immunotherapy clinical trials in general. And now there is a way to do so.
It reliably shows that one can, using multiparametric MRI distinguish between the two, and does so using the gold standard of histopathology. This is a very important step in reliably monitoring of large numbers of patients receiving DCVax in the future and making decisions on their treatment plan.
This is critical data not just for the FDA and other regulatory agencies to feel even more confident in the utility of DCVax, because they can see correlation between DCVax treatment, pseudoprogression via MRI and the histology of dead and dying tumors. The histology figure in Figure 1B-F is incredibly striking, showing how DCVax has resulted in death of the whole tumor. Note that the numbering of the panels in Figure 1 is rather unconventional, and I would suggest revision of the numbering system to the authors, if they happened to ever read this.
The correlation between MGMT methylation, Ki67, overall survival, and other factors is striking and interesting. It lends further confidence to the conclusions of the JAMA Oncology paper.
The Kaplan-Meier (survival) curves in Figure 2 are a thing of beauty. Amazing stuff. And it’s quite logical that survival is better if Ki67 levels are lower (remember that it's a proliferation marker).
It also points to a published animal model study of DCVax that I was unaware of (reference 6), which I will look at in my spare time.
I love this sentence: "The improvement in survival in MGMT methylated patients treated with DCVax-L could be due to synergies with TMZ chemotherapy [9]." because it suggests that DCVax even synergizes with chemotherapy...
Overall, this study makes the case that one can reliably identify pseudoprogression using a more advanced MRI technique and shows beautiful and convincing correlations between things that matter to neuroradiologists and neuropathologists, who not only play important roles in regulatory agencies and ADCOMs but also play countless critical roles including in diagnosis, determination of progression or prognosis, treatment decisions, tumor boards, etc.
I'm interested in reading your thoughts on the study in the comments below.
KryptyPop · 21 hr. ago Keep up the great DD Bio!!!!!! We longs are thankful to you and the many that add to all the DD on reddit, twitter and even a few of n Ihub. GLTA
We are getting so close!
Thank you Bio!!! The train is leaving the station????
9
Texstralia
20 hr. ago Thanks for another gem Bio!!
HisDanishDudeness · 12 hr. ago 60% of the times, it works ... EVERYTIME
Who would've known, that this timeless quote from Anchorman, would one day equal the efficacy of DCVax-L in combo with checkpoint inhibitors?
4
PDXbeerdo · 19 hr. ago Perfusion MRI forms a well-established component of glioma follow-up. In a recent survey among 220 European institutions, this technique was regarded as the modality of choice to distinguish radiation effects from tumor progression by the vast majority of institutions.37
The combination of MRS and DWI and/or perfusion imaging seems to be particularly powerful, with diagnostic accuracy reaching 90%,122, 123 and even >90% when all three techniques are used.124
Advanced MRI, particularly perfusion imaging and/or MRS, needs to be applied for the follow-up of treated brain tumor patients to distinguish pseudoprogression from true PD.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6175399/
BasicWasabi · 7 hr. ago This is interesting and encouraging to see in (yet to be published) literature. It’s only 17 patients, so hard to feel like this is earth shattering.
The only question I have is why they’ve decided to use mean OS instead of median OS, which is the standard (and what was used in the JAMA oncology paper). It smacks a bit of trying to make the numbers look better than they are. Mean OS is 22.4 months, but median is 20.4. Mean was brought up by one outlier. Of course, an argument could be made that the outliers are what make up the fat tail, but I still see that as a bigger hill to climb—and much harder to claim with a small trial.
BasicWasabi · 6 hr. ago Instead of downvoting my comment, maybe people can engage in healthy dialogue and provide some constructive reasons why my point of mean/median is either inaccurate or irrelevant. As someone with an advanced science degree, I do actually know what tf I’m talking about. This sub is fast becoming insufferable.
level 2 rkawong66 · 5 hr. ago Where is the term 'mean OS' used in either article? I searched both the original JAMA article and the pre-print article referenced above and couldn't find it.
User avatar level 3 BasicWasabi · 4 hr. ago In the pre-pub article linked above, you have to look in the collapsed “Results” section. The top portion is just the abbreviated content, which doesn’t define whether their OS is median or mean. The quote further down says “The mean overall survival (mOS) from surgery to the date of death for the seventeen patients was 22.4 months (range?=?8.5–63.9 months).”
The JAMA article uses median, which is the crux of my point.
Assessment of Treatment Response to Dendritic Cell Vaccine in Patients with Glioblastoma using a Multiparametric MRI-Based Prediction Model
Laiz Laura de Godoy, Sanjeev Chawla, Steven Brem, Sumei Wang, and 6 more
This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal.
https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2591941/v1
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License
Abstract Purpose Autologous tumor lysate-loaded dendritic cell vaccine (DCVax-L) is a promising treatment modality for glioblastomas. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential utility of multiparametric MRI-based prediction model in evaluating treatment response in glioblastoma patients treated with DCVax-L.
Methods Seventeen glioblastoma patients treated with standard-of-care therapy?+?DCVax-L were included. When tumor progression was suspected and repeat surgery was being contemplated, we sought to ascertain the number of cases correctly classified as true progression (TP)?+?mixed response or pseudoprogression (PsP) from multiparametric MRI-based prediction model using histopathology/mRANO criteria as ground truth. Multiparametric MRI model consisted of predictive probabilities (PP) of tumor progression computed from diffusion and perfusion MRI-derived parameters. A comparison of overall survival (OS) was performed between patients treated with standard-of-care therapy?+?DCVax-L and standard-of-care therapy alone (external controls). Additionally, Kaplan-Meier analyses were performed to compare OS between two groups of patients using PsP, Ki-67, and MGMT methylation status as stratification variables.
Results Multiparametric MRI model correctly predicted TP?+?mixed response in 72.7% of cases (8/11) and PsP in 83.3% (5/6) with an overall concordance rate of 76.5% with final diagnosis as determined by histopathology/mRANO criteria. There was a significant concordant correlation coefficient between PP values and histopathology/mRANO criteria (r?=?0.54; p?=?0.026). DCVax-L-treated patients had significantly prolonged OS than those treated with standard-of-care therapy (22.38?±?12.8 vs. 13.8?±?9.5months, p?=?0.040). Additionally, glioblastomas with PsP, MGMT methylation status, and Ki-67 values below median had longer OS than their counterparts.
Conclusion Multiparametric MRI-based prediction model can assess treatment response to DCVax-L in patients with glioblastoma.
Glioblastoma
Immunotherapy
Treatment response
Multiparametric MRI
Dendritic cell vaccine
Figures
Figure 1 Figure 1
Figure 2 Figure 2
Figure 3 Figure 3
Key Points - The spatial and temporal tumor heterogeneity present within glioblastomas render the usage of a single imaging modality or parameter unreliable in evaluating treatment response with high accuracy.
- Multiparametric MRI-based prediction model may aid in accurate assessment of treatment response to DCVax-L in glioblastoma patients.
- The combined use of standard-of-care therapy and DCVax-L prolongs overall survival in glioblastoma patients.
Introduction Glioblastoma is the most aggressive primary brain tumor, resistant to conventional therapy and carries a dismal prognosis. The current standard-of-care (SOC) treatment for newly diagnosed glioblastomas comprises maximal safe resection, followed by radiation therapy with concurrent temozolomide (TMZ) chemotherapy, followed by six cycles of adjuvant TMZ [1]. Despite multimodal therapy, the median overall survival remains only 15–17 months, with a 5-year survival rate of less than 5% [2].
Several immunotherapeutic approaches are currently being explored for the treatment of newly diagnosed and recurrent glioblastomas[3–5]. In particular, autologous tumor lysate-loaded dendritic cell vaccine (DCVax-L) has shown encouraging preliminary findings in pre-clinical animal model-based studies [6], and in early-stage clinical trials [7]. Recently, a large, multicentric, phase-3 clinical trial demonstrated acceptable safety and tolerability profiles of DCVax-L immunotherapy in glioblastoma patients [8] and reported prolonged survival outcomes in patients receiving DCVax-L plus SOC compared to those treated with standard therapy alone [9]. It is widely believed that various immunotherapeutic approaches, including DCVax-L, inhibit tumor growth by harnessing the power of patient’s own immune system. However, this process, in turn, induces extensive inflammation with peritumoral vasogenic edema, referred to as ‘treatment-related changes’ or ‘pseudoprogression’ (PsP) [10]. It, therefore, becomes imperative to accurately evaluate treatment response to DCVax-L, not only to determine its therapeutic efficacy, but also to determine clinical end-points.
As immunotherapies present new, complex patterns of response, conventional MRI is inadequate for reliable assessment of treatment response in glioblastoma patients, even after using refined response assessment criteria [11, 12]. In contrast, several studies have used advanced physiologic imaging techniques such as diffusion and perfusion MRI in evaluating treatment response to various immunotherapeutic regimens [13–17], including DCVax-L [16, 17] with variable success rates.
We previously developed a multiparametric MRI-based prediction model by combining the unique strengths of different imaging techniques to comprehensively evaluate treatment response in patients with glioblastoma who received surgery and concurrent chemoradiation therapy (CCRT) [18]. We have also successfully demonstrated the utility of this multiparametric approach in assessing treatment response to anti-EGFRvIII chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy in patients with recurrent glioblastomas with high accuracy [15].
In the present study, we extended our previously established multiparametric MRI-based predictive model [18] in evaluating treatment response to DCVax-L in glioblastoma patients.
Materials And Methods Patient Population The DCVax-L trial at the University of Pennsylvania, “A Phase-3 Clinical Trial Evaluating DC Vax®L, Autologous Dendritic Cells Pulsed with Tumor Lysate Antigen for the Treatment of Glioblastoma Multiforme”, per protocol, NCT00045968, was approved by the Abramson Cancer Center –Scientific Review Committee (UPCC # 34313) and the Institutional Review Board (#81817). The study was designed as a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded, multi-center, multi-national phase-3 clinical trial. The trial randomized patients with newly diagnosed-glioblastoma with no evidence of progression at baseline into the treatment cohort to receive DCVax-L as adjuvant therapy to SOC treatment and into the placebo cohort to receive SOC treatment supplemented with autologous mononuclear cells (MNC; placebo). Patients in either cohort who progressed during the study were offered a crossover (open-label) option with no unblinding to receive DCVax-L.
The inclusion criteria for enrollment in the present study were that all patients i) had histologically confirmed diagnosis of glioblastoma [19]; (ii) had been treated with SOC, i.e., surgery and CCRT, iii) presented with a new enhancing lesion in the radiation field after completion of CCRT, (iv) underwent successful administration of DCVax-L, and (v) had availability of standard and advanced (DTI and DSC) neuroimaging data at follow-up time points.
Based upon the inclusion criteria, a cohort of 17 patients (mean age?=?58.1?±?6.7 years, 13 males/ 4 females) with glioblastoma treated with SOC treatment plus DCVax-L were included in this study. In patients in whom tumor specimen was available from repeat surgery/biopsy, malignant features on histopathology were used to identify TP?+?mixed response (>?25% viable cells with malignant features; n?=?9) or PsP ( Therefore, we used a combination of these three parameters to compute the predictive probabilities (PP) of true progression using the following regression equation:
, where ß0 = -16.17, ß1?=?194.01, ß2 = -285.65, and ß3?=?1.21.
The most recent MRI (with availability of DTI and DSC sequences) preceding re-resection/biopsy, when progressive disease was suspected, was used to compute PP values in the present cohort. The enhancing lesions were considered as ‘TP?+?mixed response’ if the PP was =?50% and ‘PsP’ if PP was The overall survival (OS) was considered the primary clinical endpoint. The survival time of all the patients was recorded from the date of surgery to death. In the present study, a cohort of 48 glioblastoma patients (treated with surgery followed by CCRT) from our previous study [22] was included as an external control group to compare survival outcomes between patients treated with SOC and patients treated with SOC plus DCVax-L. There were no significant differences in age, gender, and KPS between these two groups of patients [23]. All these patients were treated at the same institution undergoing surgery and adjuvant treatment by the same clinical team.
MRI Data Acquisition All patients underwent MRI on a 3T Tim Trio whole-body MR scanner (Siemens, Erlangen, Germany) using a 12-channel phased-array head coil. The anatomical imaging protocol included axial 3D-T1-weighted magnetization-prepared rapid acquisition of gradient echo (MPRAGE) imaging and an axial T2-FLAIR imaging using standard parameters. The postcontrast T1-weighted images were acquired with the same parameters as the precontrast acquisition after administration of standard dose (0.14 mmol/Kg) of gadobenate dimeglumine (MultiHance, Bracco Imaging, Milano, Italy) intravenous contrast agent using a power injector (Medrad, Idianola, PA). Additionally, DTI and DSC-PWI sequences were acquired using the parameters described previously [18, 24, 25].
Image Processing And Data Analysis Motion and eddy current correction modules were applied to raw DTI data using an in-house developed software (IDL; ITT Visual Information Solutions, Boulder, Colorado). Pixel-wise mean diffusivity (MD), FA, CL, planar anisotropy (CP), and spherical anisotropy (CS) maps were computed by using the methods reported previously [24, 25]. Leakage-corrected CBV maps were generated by performing gamma-variate curve fitting from DSC-perfusion MRI data using NordicICE software (NordicNeuroLab, Bergen, Norway).
The DTI-derived maps, CBV maps, and T2-FLAIR images were resliced and co-registered to contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images. A semiautomatic approach was used to segment the contrast-enhancing regions of each lesion by using a signal intensity-based thresholding method [24, 25]. The median values of DTI metrics (MD, FA, CL, CP, and CS) from the enhancing regions were measured. In addition, the lower 10th percentile MD values were measured from the enhancing region and were reported as MDmin. The CBV values from the enhancing regions were normalized by corresponding values from contralateral normal white matter to obtain relative CBV (rCBV). The top 90th percentile rCBV values were also measured from the enhancing region and were reported as rCBVmax.
Radiographic Response Assessment Using mRANO Criteria Patients in whom repeat surgery, or biopsy was not performed, mRANO criteria [21] were used to determine the final diagnosis of TP?+?mixed response or PsP by a board-certified neuroradiologist (SM).
Histological/immunohistochemical Analysis Tumor specimens were originally cut, mounted, and stained with hematoxylin-eosin by standard methods. The status of isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH), O6-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase (MGMT), and EGFRvIII was determined using standard procedures [26] by a board-certified neuropathologist (MPN) who was blinded to the neuroimaging results.
Statistical Analysis Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests were used to determine the nature of data distribution. As the data showed departure from Gaussian distribution, non-parametric Mann-Whitney U tests were performed to assess differences in the median values of MD, FA, CL, CP, CS, rCBV, MDmin, and rCBVmax between TP?+?mixed response and PsP groups as determined by histopathology/mRANO criteria and by PP values. A probabilistic (p) value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. We sought to ascertain the number of cases correctly classified as PsP or TP?+?mixed response using multiparametric MRI-based prediction model using histopathology/mRANO criteria as ground truth in the final diagnosis of PsP and TP?+?mixed response. Pearson test was used to determine the concordance correlation coefficient between PP values and histopathology/mRANO criteria. Kaplan-Meier survival curve plots and log-rank tests were used to compare the OS using stratification factors: i) TP?+?mixed response and PsP treatment outcomes obtained from multiparametric MRI-based prediction model, and ii) histopathology/mRANO criteria; iii) MGMT profile (methylated and unmethylated status) ;iv) Ki-67 proliferation index in the recurrent specimens (above and below the median Ki-67); and v) imaging parameters (above and below the median values of FA, CL, and rCBVmax). A comparison of OS outcomes was performed between two matched groups of patients, one treated with SOC alone, the other DCVax-L plus SOC. Additionally, Pearson exact ?2 tests were performed to estimate the frequency of MGMT promoter methylation in TP?+?mixed response and PsP cases. All statistical analyses were performed using a statistical package, SPSS for Windows (v. 18.0; Chicago, IL).
Results Patient and tumor characteristics All patients (n?=?17) underwent maximal safe surgical resection upfront as newly diagnosed-glioblastomas, and 11/17 patients underwent repeat surgery for radiographically suspected progression (TP?+?mixed response?=?9; PsP?=?2) during or at the end of DCVax-L trial. Patients received intradermal injections of DCVax-L in the arm (mean dose of 0.27 ml?±?0.07 per injection; mean number of injections?=?6.9?±?2.2 per patient) six times in year one and twice per year thereafter. The patients harbored the following molecular profiles MGMT methylated (n?=?5), unmethylated (n?=?12), and IDH wild-type (n?=?17). The details of the demographic, clinical, and histopathological/immunohistochemical information are described in Table 1.
Table 1 Patient and tumor characteristics
Gender
Age
y/o
OS
months
DCVax-L dose when TP was suspected
MGMT
IDH
EGFRvIII
Ki-67 recurrent specimen
1
Female
51
20.4
4/4 doses
-
-
+
25
2
Male
51
17.8
5/7 doses
-
-
-
40
3
Female
63
63.9
9/10 doses
+
-
-
8
4
Male
65
13.9
4/4 doses
-
-
-
-
5
Male
66
13.6
6/9 doses
+
-
-
-
6
Male
60
17.0
3/6 doses
-
-
+
-
7
Male
43
21.1
6/7 doses
-
-
-
6
8
Female
61
38.3
3/6 doses
+
-
-
-
9
Male
64
24.2
6/9 doses
-
-
-
25
10
Male
64
25.6
5/8 doses
-
-
+
5
11
Male
57
23.4
8/11 doses
+
-
-
15
12
Male
58
18.4
10/10 doses
-
-
+
35
13
Male
57
19.1
3/4 doses
+
-
-
85
14
Male
61
25.1
5/7 doses
-
-
-
15
Male
66
8.5
4/4 doses
-
-
?
16
Male
47
8.5
5/5 doses
-
-
-
60
17
Female
54
21.7
6/6 doses
-
-
-
15
Abbreviations: y/o?=?years old; OS?=?overall survival; DCVax-L?=?Autologous tumor lysate-loaded dendritic cell vaccine; TP?=?true progression; MGMT?=?O6-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase; IDH?=?isocitrate dehydrogenase; EGFR?=?epidermal growth factor receptor. + = positive; - = negative. Determination Of TP?+?mixed Response And PsP Using MRI Data Representative anatomical images, DTI-derived parametric maps (FA, CL), and CBV maps from patients with TP?+?mixed response and PsP are shown, respectively, in Figs. 1-A and 1-B. The distributions of median values of DTI-derived parameters, and rCBVmax values from contrast-enhancing lesions of all patients are shown as box-and-whisker plots (Supplementary Fig. 1). No significant differences in these parameters were observed between the two groups of patients, using histopathology/mRANO criteria as the ground truth (p?>?0.05). While characterizing each lesion as TP?+?mixed response or PsP, our prediction model correctly predicted TP?+?mixed response in 8/11 of cases (72.7%) and PsP in 5/6 cases (83.3%) with an overall concordance rate of 76.5% with the final diagnosis determined by histopathology/mRANO criteria. Leave-one-out cross-validation analysis revealed that 76.5% of cases were correctly classified by using the multiparametric MRI model. Additionally, there was a significant concordant correlation coefficient between PP values and histopathology/mRANO criteria (r?=?0.54; p?=?0.026) (Table 2).
Table 2 Correlation between PP values and histopathology/mRANO criteria
Final Diagnosisa
PP-values
Histopathologyb
mRANOc
Agreementd
1
TP/mixed response
72%
TP/mixed response
Yes
2
TP/mixed response
52%
TP/mixed response
Yes
3
PsP
2%
PsP
Yes
4
TP/mixed response
98%
TP/mixed response
Yes
5
PsP
41%
PsP
Yes
6
TP/mixed response
99%
TP/mixed response
Yes
7
TP/mixed response
98%
TP/mixed response
Yes
8
PsP
3%
PsP
Yes
9
PsP
5%
TP/mixed response
No
10
PsP
15%
PsP
Yes
11
PsP
19%
PsP
Yes
12
TP/mixed response
84%
TP/mixed response
Yes
13
TP/mixed response
98%
PsP
No
14
TP/mixed response
90%
TP/mixed response
Yes
15
PsP
0.2%
TP/mixed response
No
16
PsP
5%
TP/mixed response
No
17
TP/mixed response
59%
TP/mixed response
Yes
a. PP-value: TP/mixed response if PP?=?50% and PsP if PP was ?25% and PsP if malignant features??0.05). While comparing the OS between two groups of patients (treated with SOC alone and DCVax-L plus SOC), significantly prolonged OS was observed from patients who were treated with DCVax-L plus SOC compared to those who were treated with only SOC (22.38?±?12.8 vs. 13.8?±?9.5 months, log-rank p?=?0.040, Fig. 2C).
As shown in Fig. 3, the frequency of patients harboring MGMT promoter methylation was significantly higher in PsP (5/6, 83.3%) than in TP?+?mixed response (0/11, 0%) cases when the assessment was performed using histopathology/mRANO criteria (p?=?0.001). A trend towards significance (p?=?0.079) was also observed when a similar assessment was performed using PP values derived from multiparametric MRI-based prediction model with the frequency of patients harboring MGMT promoter methylation higher in PsP (4/8, 50.0%) than in TP?+?mixed response (1/9, 11.11%).
Discussion In the present study, we used the combined utility of diffusion and perfusion MRI-derived parameters to assess treatment response to DCVax-L in glioblastoma patients. Our multiparametric MRI-based prediction model correctly classified new enhancing lesions as TP?+?mixed response or PsP in 76.5% of the cases. It is vital to accurately differentiate TP?+?mixed response from PsP for making informed clinical decisions on future therapeutic interventions and for precise prognostication of these patients.
Dendritic cell vaccine is an active immunotherapy that triggers an intense immune response by presenting tumor-associated/tumor-specific antigens towards major histocompatibility complexes (MHCs), allowing T-cells to bind, multiply and target tumor cells [27]. As with standard chemotherapy (temozolomide), conventional MRI neuroimaging patterns can be difficult to interpret in patients receiving immunotherapy [10]. Previous studies reported mixed results for evaluating treatment response by conventional neuroimaging in patients treated with diverse immunotherapeutic approaches [28–30]. Alternatively, diffusion and perfusion MRI techniques have been used with variable success to determine prognosis and to evaluate treatment response in glioblastoma patients treated with a variety of therapies [18, 31–33].
While evaluating treatment response to DCVax-L using diffusion and perfusion MRI techniques, a few studies observed considerable overlap in imaging parameters between TP and PsP cases [16, 17]. The limited success of these studies could be attributed to the fact that physiologic MRI techniques were used independently; imaging parameters were not synergistically integrated to obtain a reliable classification model to distinguish TP from PsP. Consistent with these studies, when we used DTI-derived parameters and rCBVmax independently to distinguish TP?+?mixed response or PsP in our study, we did not find significant differences for any single imaging parameter, substantiating the notion that individual parameters may not be always reliable, especially if the sample size is small.
The current study strengthens the concept that multiparametric analysis, by combining the unique strengths of diverse techniques, can lead to a more comprehensive and accurate assessment of treatment response in glioblastoma patients. We previously demonstrate the utility of multiparametric analysis to accurately evaluate treatment response to EGFRvIII targeted CAR-T cell immunotherapy [15] and interleukin-4 receptor-targeted immunotherapy [34] in patients with recurrent glioblastoma. In the present study, a significant concordant correlation coefficient was observed between multiparametric MRI and ground truth histopathology/mRANO method in determining the final diagnosis. Moreover, our prediction model correctly assessed the treatment response as PsP in 83.3% of cases, a result which is particularly helpful to promote personalized medicine: i) in avoiding unnecessary surgery/biopsy; ii) selecting effective treatment regimens; iii) maintaining effective therapy; and iv) providing reassurance to patients/practitioners. These findings are notable because glioblastomas are highly heterogeneous, genotypically and phenotypically, with heterogeneity increasing with treatment, including immunotherapy [12].
In the current study, we observed a significantly prolonged mean OS for patients treated with SOC therapy and DCVax-L, compared to a matched external control group from the same institution treated SOC alone, supporting a survival benefit of DCVax-L. The mean OS of patients treated with DCVax-L was 22.4 months versus 14 months (range 1–58 months) in the cohort of patients (n?=?48) treated with only with SOC. These findings are consistent with the phase-3 clinical trial results indicating that DCVax-L has survival benefits in glioblastoma patients [9].
In the current study, PsP patients had significantly prolonged OS than patients with TP?+?mixed response using histopathology/mRANO criteria, a finding consistent with previous studies involving glioblastoma patients treated with CCRT and alternative/targeted therapies or immunotherapies [7, 35–39] that have also reported that PsP patients have a superior prognosis [40–42].
Prior studies demonstrated that glioblastoma patients harboring methylated MGMT promotor treated with SOC have better clinical outcomes and MRI-based responses than those harboring unmethylated MGMT promoter [43, 44]. The DCVax-L phase-3 clinical trial, [9] also showed superior OS in methylated MGMT promoter group compared to MGMT unmethylated patients, and in comparison to MGMT methylated patients treated only with SOC. In concordance with the clinical trial, our DCVax-L -treated patients showed longer OS in MGMT methylated than in MGMT unmethylated group. The improvement in survival in MGMT methylated patients treated with DCVax-L could be due to synergies with TMZ chemotherapy [9]. In the current study, we also investigated the prognostic value of Ki-67 (cellular proliferation index) to determine the survival outcomes. In agreement with previous results [42], our glioblastoma harboring an elevated ki-67 score had a worse OS compared to patients with a lower ki-67 score. [42].
Despite promising results, our study had some shortcomings, including the retrospective study design, and the relatively small sample size of patients treated with DCVax-L. Additionally, 6/17 patients did not undergo repeat surgery/biopsy, with lack of tumor specimens for determining the final ‘ground truth’ diagnosis of TP?+?mixed response and PsP.
In conclusion, our findings indicate that multiparametric MRI could be a useful approach to assess response to DCVax-L immunotherapy in patients with glioblastoma. These encouraging findings warrant further validation in larger, prospective clinical trials.
Abbreviations CL- coefficient of linear anisotropy; CP- coefficient of planar anisotropy; CS - coefficient of spherical anisotropy; CAR-T - chimeric antigen receptor T-cell; CCRT - concurrent chemoradiation therapy; DCVax-L – autologous tumor lysate-pulsed dendritic cell vaccine; DTI - diffusion tensor imaging; DSC - dynamic susceptibility contrast; FA - fractional anisotropy; GBM - glioblastoma; IDH- isocitrate dehydrogenase; MD - mean diffusivity; MGMT - O6-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase; MRI - magnetic resonance imaging; OS - overall survival; PP- predictive probability of tumor progression; PsP - pseudoprogression; rCBV - relative cerebral blood volume; SOC - standard-of-care; TMZ - temozolomide; TP - true progression.
Declarations Acknowledgments
The support of Penn Neuroradiology Clinical Research Core (Ms. Lauren Karpf, Ms. Lisa Desiderio, and Dr. Shadi Asadollah) and Penn Neurosurgery Clinical Research Division (Ms. Eileen Maloney) and clinical research coordinators is gratefully acknowledged.
The dendritic cell vaccine trial at the University of Pennsylvania was sponsored by Northwest Biotherapeutics, the protocol, “A Phase-3 Clinical Trial Evaluating DC Vax®L, Autologous Dendritic Cells Pulsed with Tumor Lysate Antigen for the Treatment of Glioblastoma Multiforme”, approved by the Abramson Cancer Center – CTSRMC (Clinical Trials Scientific Review Committee (UPCC # 34313) and the Institutional Review Board (#81817). The data analyses and the drafting of the manuscript were performed by the authors, independent of the sponsor.
Funding: The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Conflict of interest: Dr. S. Brem received partial support of travel expenses in 2022 from Northwest Biotherapeutics. The remaining authors do not have any potential conflicts of interest.
Data availability: The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Ethics Approval: This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The DCVax-L trial at the University of Pennsylvania, “A Phase-3 Clinical Trial Evaluating DC Vax®L, Autologous Dendritic Cells Pulsed with Tumor Lysate Antigen for the Treatment of Glioblastoma Multiforme” was sponsored by Northwest Biotherapeutics, using the protocol, NCT00045968. It was approved by the Abramson Cancer Center – CTSRMC (Clinical Trials Scientific Review Committee (UPCC # 34313) and the Institutional Review Board (#81817).
Consent to Participate: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

[A3][Recruiting][Casual MILSIM][EU/NA] BlackCrusaders Brigade Discord - https://discord.gg/PMxS3SBW
Who are we?
The BlackCrusaders brigade is a casual milsim unit. We strive to create a realistic but enjoyable experience to our members and like to keep our operations as fresh as possible. We play as a modern Western fictional/PMC group using equipment from various nations.
What do we offer?
BCB has a variety of roles and specializations from rotary-wing pilots to combat engineers. Our operations are organized into campaigns on various terrains. Our mission editors aim to create immersive gameplay. We create many types of operations to complete such as city protection to HVT eliminations. When not in operations we usually have a persistent gamemode running, such as Antistasi or Vindicta.
Operations and Trainings
All of our events are hosted in Central Eropean Time (CET) typically starting at around 17:00 to 19:00 and will be played usually until 22:00. Our Operations are usually hosted on Saturdays or Sundays while trainings are hosted throughout the week. There is no mandatory attendance, but we do ask you to attend operations and trainings whenever you can. We understand that life comes first.
Additional Information
We look for respect in our members and those who can contribute to the unit in a positive way.
We ask people to be social in our unit. If you have questions, don't be afraid to ask. We appreciate any constructive criticism or suggestions, as we are a relatively new unit.
We do not have any age requirement, but we ask all of our members to present a level of maturity.
All members must have a functional microphone, a legitimate copy of ArmA 3
All members must must speak English.

I love SPT but I have a slight issue with the PMC AI, I don’t typically ever see PMC’s on any map other than customs despite going to “hot zones” like resort and new sawmill on woods, I have POOP’s AI tweaks, and the extended spawn point and open zones mod and also have upped the amount of PMC’s that spawn on the map via the server value editor mod but I played a few interchange raids and still saw one PMC any other mods that make the PMC’s move around the map more and go to popular areas?

Hi folks! For those of you who haven't seen my n posts/comments on the subreddit or met me in person, my name is Nicky, and I'm this term's MathSoc president (and a past PMC president, and a past mathNEWS editor, and an orientation leader, and a mathsoc councilloboard member. If you're involved on campus you've probably met me).
The reason I'm making this thread is I get to meet with people who have substantial authority fairly often; I'm meeting with the dean of math soon, I mean with various associate deans and committees pretty often. These are the people who enact university policy, decide course offerings and degree requirements.
I also have pretty regular meetings with the people in charge of M4 construction, which means that I have the ability to directly talk to the people deciding how M4 space will be used. My predecessor Evan already made excellent steps towards more student space in M4, and we're working on a concrete, signed agreement.
The issue is that I need to know what to advocate for. I obviously have thoughts, but my thoughts are the thoughts of a pure mathematician, the thoughts of someone who dropped co-op, and the thoughts of someone who has a very unique academic experience. I, very likely, will be unaware things that you care about. Enter these threads!
If there is any piece of university or course policy, no matter how big or small you want changed, or if there's something related to M4/your major you want clarified or advocated for, you can comment in this thread, visit the exec office in MC3038 (it'll be closed for a bit around 3:00 while we have a meeting), or email me at president at mathsoc dot uwaterloo dot ca. I plan to make these threads weekly-ish so that, if you have issues, you can get in touch with me in a less formal setting.
- Nicky <3

Long time lurker on EFT but you keep dying cause of the learning curve, well since you installed SPT on your rig, you want to enjoy the game and learn at the same time. Been playing since the SPT updated to the new wipe and I cannot stop playing it.
I've seen to many asked questions on discord and in this sub page so I decided to have a one stop shop by any means I'm not an expert in the game but below are the things that i have gathered and made the game enjoyable to me.
First of all thanks to the SPT Teams and MOD Devs in keeping this mod alive.
USE LINKS

• https://hub.sp-tarkov.com/faq/
• https://escapefromtarkov.fandom.com/wiki/Escape_from_Tarkov_Wiki
• https://mapgenie.io/tarkov - Helpful to understand the maps with icons
• Mod Overhaul For SPT 3.4 thanks to Particular_Meal_2784 for creating this
• Join the Discord, very helpful teams in there and I'm on there as well asking questions like yourself.

For my first profile I decided to give myself a little chance to survive a raid to understand the game & learn the mechanics but keep in mind I'm LEVEL 11 right now, so I'm fairly new and learning with you but when I get the hang of things then I will slowly changing the settings to default.
Any changes or additional mods you add or make let me know and how this help you on your first raids.
1st PROFILE made with EDGE OF DARKNESS

• Version 3.4.1 - all mods are compatible

MODS - Where do MODS go to? What Folder?

• SPT MAIN INSTALLTION FOLDER
• BEPINEX > PLUGIN
• USER > MODS

KMC SERVER VALUE MODIFIER 1.5.9H1

• INSTALL IN USER > MODS FOLDER

MY SVM Settings - https://imgur.com/a/W6fM4dg

• Create a Preset of your own
• Save and Apply
• Run Launcher
• ENJOY!

AMANDS'S GRAPHICS 1.2.0 - you can see better in game and better FPS but this is dependent on what your PC can handle

• (INSTALL IN BEPINEX > PLUGIN FOLDER)
• Press F12 in game for menu settings

GAME PANEL HUD 2.3.4 - Give you a little help with the hub such as compass, how many bullets you have, status of your health. This is probably the most helpful hud for any new comer like myself.

• (INSTALL IN BEPINEX > PLUGIN FOLDER)
• Press F12 in game for menu settings

SPT-AKI PROFILE EDITOR 2.5 - You can edit your profile, like stuck on a quest or change a things like Leveling up your stats and more but I just use this to ultimately if i'm stuck on a quest that i cannot find the item.

• (INSTALL IN YOUR PC USING THE EXE FILE)

TIME & WEATHER CHANGER 2.3.1 - Is your raid too dark? well this can control the time & weather with this by using the HOME button your keyboard. while in game.

• (INSTALL IN BEPINEX > PLUGIN FOLDER)
• Press Home in game for menu settings

AMANDS'S HITMARKER 2.2.0 - I'm still learning this but it gives you a little satisfaction of your bullet hitting the scav/boss/pmc.

• (INSTALL IN BEPINEX > PLUGIN FOLDER)

AI LIMIT 1.4.1 - this load the bots within your distance and help out your FPS.

• (INSTALL IN BEPINEX > PLUGIN FOLDER)
• Press F12 in game for menu settings

INSURANCE+ 1.0.1 (AKI 3.4.X) - This will help you with gear fear, basically you get to keep what you went in the raid with but remember you will lose the stuff you find that in your bag unless you insure it.

• INSTALL IN USER > MODS FOLDER
• Default settings

NEVER LOSE EQUIPMENTS 4.3.0 - Do you keep dying & losing your loot that are in your pockets, vest & backpack, well this help alot. The only issue I have with this is my STASH capacity, organize your stash with other cases and bags but dont be a hoarder and keep every loot you have, sell that shit. get a case for your meds, keys, bullets.

• INSTALL IN USER > MODS FOLDER
• Default settings

PROPS OBVIOUSLY ORIGINAL PROGRAM (POOP) 1.4.0 - This will make SCAV/BOSS/PMCS play like their online, with random difficulty when they spawn in but if you want to up the challenge try POOP VARIETY 1.3.0 set the tone of the difficulty.

• INSTALL IN USER > MODS FOLDER
• Default settings

SIMPLE WAVE AI GENERATOR (SWAG) 1.3.0 - This will make SCAV/BOSS/PMCS play like their online, with random difficulty when they spawn. Tone of the difficulty add this SWAG VARIETY 1.2.0C but you will to download the this version of SWAG 1.2.0

• INSTALL IN USER > MODS FOLDER
• Default settings
• Works along side with POOP mods

ALL OPEN ZONES 1.0.1 - Can't really tell if this mod is doing anything cause my heart is racing while in raid and anxiety kicks in but this mod will spawn PMC and SCAVS anywhere in the map.

• INSTALL IN USER > MODS FOLDER

NO BUSH ESP 1.10 This will make the bots can't find you in the bushes instantly from a distance. I haven't tried this myself as I don't camp a lot.

• (INSTALL IN BEPINEX > PLUGIN FOLDER)
• Press F12 in game for menu settings

NEWLY ADDITIONAL MODS - JANUARY 25th
SPT REALISM AMMO STAT 1.0.0 - it'll show what DMG and PEN of each bullet Sample Picture

• INSTALL IN USER > MODS FOLDER

SERVPH'S COMBAT OVERHAUL 0.5-A (3.4.0 / 3.4.1) - adds a little visual to where you hold the gun while walking (videos on links) and also changes a bit with the recoil as well.

• (INSTALL IN BEPINEX > PLUGIN FOLDER)
• Press F12 in game for menu settings
• You'll have config the keybind ( I added the press of the middle mouse as it lowers the gun)

SERVPH'S TARKY MENU 69.69.69.420 (3.4.0) - Similar to SVM program but you can change the FOV

• (INSTALL IN BEPINEX > PLUGIN FOLDER)
• Press F12 in game for menu settings

Did you know? Our senior has received a rejection from a reputed journal! The journal editors said they found a lot of plagiarized content. How come he never used a plagiarism detector? There are so many tools on internet. Now he will have to rework on the whole paper and go through paper submission process again!
As a researcher, you will agree how tedious the process of paper publishing is! Therefore, it is not worthy to go through this process again due to plagiarized content. Detecting it in your paper is not a difficult task, if you know which tool to use.
In this article we will discuss about online tools that are trustworthy and user-friendly, and how to manage plagiarism detectors to eliminate intentional, reckless, or unintentional plagiarized content.

What Is Plagiarism?

Broadly speaking plagiarism is defined as copying another person’s work or borrowing someone else’s original idea, without giving due credit. However, when it comes to plagiarized content in research publishing –

1. Showing someone else’s work as your own,
2. Repeating words or ideas from someone else without giving credit,
3. Not putting quotation marks to quotations,
4. Providing incorrect information about the source from where the quote was taken,
5. And using images, videos or audio without providing proper citations is plagiarism.

How Does Plagiarism Affect the Research Community?

Due to the world of digitization and inappropriate reuse of resources from internet, plagiarism largely affects academic research. In olden days, it was easier to detect plagiarism, but with the increase in use of electronic media and online journals dishonesty and academic fraud is difficult to detect.
It injures the research ethics and integrity. It questions the researchers, professors or students of their credibility and can lead to severe punishments such as suspension and lose of authority.
However, there has been a rise in detection software which can assist researchers, professors, and students in identifying the copied content. Moreover, the softwares are well tested, widely available, affordable and easy to us. Furthermore, the software can help users identify self-plagiarized content, which they themselves are not aware of.

Why Is Plagiarism Detector Important for Students?

Even after seeing a constant rise in dependency on plagiarism detectors, most of the students are still unaware and ignorant about the use of plagiarism checker tools and ways to avoid plagiarism.
Moreover, many students hesitate to use plagiarism detectors because they believe their research content is genuine. However, even best writers fall prey to accidental plagiarism and thus need to resort to plagiarism detectors.

1. Plagiarism Detectors Can Provide more References and Wider Cross-reference Repositories

Internet is a hub for pool of data. The search engines cannot do justice to the vastness of research data available. However, plagiarism checkers provide more references and wider range of cross-reference repositories. In fact, you could find books and articles that are included in the repositories with plagiarism programs which cannot be found directly on search engines.

2. Highlighting Content Becomes Easier for Detecting Plagiarism

It is challenging to search sentence by sentence for an accidental presence of plagiarism. However, plagiarism checker for students shows the material that is compared in the results. Furthermore, you will get the details about sources of the original content, and you could also access the site of source.

3. Gives You Thorough Data of Comparisons or Matches

Plagiarism checker for students provides a total percentage of comparisons or matches. Universities often have an agreed standard of percentage that students need to adhere to. Therefore, plagiarism detector can help students eliminate any issues that suspect plagiarism.

4. Resort to Plagiarism Checkers Instead of Paraphrasing

These tools save your time and effort, as compared to paraphrasing services. Furthermore, plagiarism detectors highlight any work that is similar to the original text of the author and fix the sentence if you could not correctly paraphrase and quote the test.

5. Using Plagiarism Checker Proves Your Honest Intentions

You could provide the plagiarism results which submitting the assignments, as a necessary precaution, if you are questioned regarding plagiarized content. Also, this shows your honest intention of creating unique content and could be given a benefit of doubt for unintentional or accidental plagiarism.

How Does Plagiarism Detector Work?

The tools use advanced database software to scan for a match between your text and existing text. These detection tools crawl web content and index it, they further scan your text and check for similarities against the database of existing content. Furthermore, keyword analysis highlights exact matches.
A user usually gets results in the form of plagiarism percentage, highlighted plagiarized content, and the list of sources. Though most of the checker tools operate similarly, there are some differences between them that affect the types of plagiarism that they can detect.
Examples of plagiarism checker tool and how they generate user-friendly results —
Enago’s plagiarism checker is one of a kind tool for quick, comprehensive, and dependable plagiarism checking. It not only provides plagiarism percentage with color-coded system but also enlists sources that have similarities with your document. It is easy to access with one click upload button.
The added feature of AI-based grammar check allows you to improve your document by correcting errors typical to academic and formal writing, such as spelling, grammar, and tone. Additionally, Enago’s plagiarism checker has power editing mode like none other. It enhances your document by correcting sentence structure, word choice, subject-specific phrasing, and much more.

Conclusion

There are many plagiarism detectors over the internet and they raise the question about data safety and security. Researchers are insecure about using these tools. However, there is no fear in using tools that provide paid and authentic services. You could do a thorough research on the detecting tools before buying their service.
Meticulous or not, you may accidentally plagiarize your content and it is best to use an accurate software eyes to review your content.
Have you used any of the above mentioned plagiarism tools? How was your experience throughout the process? Do write to us or comment below!

[A3][Recruiting][Casual MILSIM][EU/NA] BlackCrusaders Brigade Discord - https://discord.gg/PMxS3SBW
Who are we?
The BlackCrusaders brigade is a casual milsim unit. We strive to create a realistic but enjoyable experience to our members and like to keep our operations as fresh as possible. We play as a modern Western fictional/PMC group using equipment from various nations.
What do we offer?
BCB has a variety of roles and specializations from rotary-wing pilots to combat engineers. Our operations are organized into campaigns on various terrains. Our mission editors aim to create immersive gameplay. We create many types of operations to complete such as city protection to HVT eliminations. When not in operations we usually have a persistent gamemode running, such as Antistasi or Vindicta.
Operations and Trainings
All of our events are hosted in Central Eropean Time (CET) typically starting at around 17:00 to 19:00 and will be played usually until 22:00. Our Operations are usually hosted on Saturdays or Sundays while trainings are hosted throughout the week. There is no mandatory attendance, but we do ask you to attend operations and trainings whenever you can. We understand that life comes first.
Additional Information
We look for respect in our members and those who can contribute to the unit in a positive way.
We ask people to be social in our unit. If you have questions, don't be afraid to ask. We appreciate any constructive criticism or suggestions, as we are a relatively new unit.
We do not have any age requirement, but we ask all of our members to present a level of maturity.
All members must have a functional microphone, a legitimate copy of ArmA 3
All members must must speak English.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9535512/
Tro Kalayjian and Eric C Westman📷
Dear Editor:
We applaud Gardner et al. (1) for their study, especially during a pandemic. Lowering dietary carbohydrate is known to improve glycemic control (2), but this study has several methodological limitations, appearing as if there were a bias against the keto diet [Well Formulated Ketogenic Diet (WFKD)]. Bias #1: medication reduction was different for the 2 periods: during the WFKD period, subjects were instructed to stop the medication (which affects the main outcome of HbA1c), yet in the Mediterranean-Plus (Med-Plus) diet period, the dose was reduced by only 50% [the article states “excluding the four participants (who discontinued the medications), we observed a significant difference for both HbA1c and HDL-C between diets, favoring WFKD”]. Bias #2: changes in glycemic control “were adjusted for weight loss,” diminishing one of the advantages of the WFKD as compared with other diets: superior weight loss. Most concerning, though, are the basic design flaws that this crossover study did not have a washout period (to ensure a return to baseline state), nor a power calculation. Because a return to baseline state did not occur, most methodologists would suggest to treat the study as a parallel-group design and confine analysis to the first period alone (3). So, for the primary outcome, HbA1c, we would like to see a statistical analysis confined to the first period alone for the WFKD compared with Med-Plus diets (mean change: 0.66 compared with 0.31; n = 16; Supplemental Table 6A). If nonsignificant, we would like to see a post hoc power calculation to assess whether sufficient subjects were included in the study to exclude a clinically meaningful difference between the 2 diets.

This morning, the Associated Press Stylebook published an "Abortion Topical Guide" for reporters. This is a big deal because publications from national newspapers, magazines and TV networks to your local town paper or radio station follow AP Style, meaning the organization influences what almost every American reads or hears about abortion.
The Associated Press cites the pro-choice American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) in many of its rules, including these:

• Use the term "cardiac activity," not "heartbeat" (although there are many references to fetal "heartbeats" in academia, including a Journal of Prenatal Medicine article that says "at the end of the 4th week of gestation, the heartbeats of the embryo begin"³)
• Don't refer to "fetal pain" before 24 weeks gestation (even though the American College of Pediatricians says fetuses at 12 weeks may feel pain¹)
• Don't write "late-term abortion" because abortions don't happen late term (41 weeks or later, but the AP cites no evidence of this, which they can't because it's impossible to prove a negative)
• If writing about medication abortion reversal, put the term in quote marks and include this information: "There is no scientific evidence that giving a different hormone, progesterone, is safe or effective at interrupting a medication abortion, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists." (No mention of the position of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which supports the reversal pill.²)

Other rules include:

• Use the term "anti-abortion centers," not "pregnancy resource centers" because the centers want to prevent abortions (even though they provide resources to pregnant women regardless of whether they're considering an abortion)
• Write or say "provides abortions," not "performs abortions" (although the AP doesn't give this advice for any other medical procedure)
• Don't use the term "pro-life" (or "pro-choice"); use "anti-abortion" or "abortion-rights"

Several times, the AP Style guide cites the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. But the guide doesn't cite any pro-life organizations or even any neutral/nonpartisan sources of data!
So if you think the media is biased against pro-lifers, you're right. Individual reporters who are against abortion won't have the freedom to ignore the above rules unless their editor also happens to be pro-life.
Source: I've worked in the media/communications for 16 years.
<sup>1. https://acpeds.org/position-statements/fetal-pain
2. https://americanpregnancy.org/unplanned-pregnancy/abortion-pill-reversal/
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3279166/</sup>
​
​

[A3][Recruiting][Casual MILSIM][EU/NA] BlackCrusaders Brigade Discord - https://discord.gg/PMxS3SBW
Who are we?
The BlackCrusaders brigade is a casual milsim unit. We strive to create a realistic but enjoyable experience to our members and like to keep our operations as fresh as possible. We play as a modern Western fictional/PMC group using equipment from various nations.
What do we offer?
BCB has a variety of roles and specializations from rotary-wing pilots to combat engineers. Our operations are organized into campaigns on various terrains. Our mission editors aim to create immersive gameplay. We create many types of operations to complete such as city protection to HVT eliminations. When not in operations we usually have a persistent gamemode running, such as Antistasi or Vindicta.
Operations and Trainings
All of our events are hosted in Central Eropean Time (CET) typically starting at around 17:00 to 19:00 and will be played usually until 22:00. Our Operations are usually hosted on Saturdays or Sundays while trainings are hosted throughout the week. There is no mandatory attendance, but we do ask you to attend operations and trainings whenever you can. We understand that life comes first.
Additional Information
We look for respect in our members and those who can contribute to the unit in a positive way.
We ask people to be social in our unit. If you have questions, don't be afraid to ask. We appreciate any constructive criticism or suggestions, as we are a relatively new unit.
We do not have any age requirement, but we ask all of our members to present a level of maturity.
All members must have a functional microphone, a legitimate copy of ArmA 3
All members must must speak English.

Even though mice can accumulate the plaques associated with Alzheimer’s, they do not display the memory problems seen in people.
Some researchers have also argued that amyloid β protein deposits in animals are different to humans, and therefore might not be suitable for comparison.
So what’s the verdict?
Looking into risk factors for developing Alzheimer’s is worthwhile.
But to suggest picking your nose, which introduces C. pneumoniae into the body, may raise the risk of Alzheimer’s in humans – based on this study – is overreach. – https://theconversation.com/does-picking-your-nose-really-increase-your-risk-of-dementia-193463
Glaciers across the globe - including the last ones in Africa - will be unavoidably lost by 2050 due to climate change, the UN says in a report.
A third of glaciers located in UN World Heritage sites will melt within three decades, a UNESCO report found.
Mount Kilimanjaro's last glaciers will vanish as will glaciers in the Alps and Yosemite National Park in the US.
They will melt regardless of the world's actions to combat climate change, the authors say.
Vanishing glaciers threaten Europe's water supplyIce and sled-dogs disappear as Greenland warms upWorld's glaciers melting at a faster pace
The report, which makes projections based on satellite data, comes as world leaders prepare to meet in Egypt for next week's COP27 climate change conference. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63489041
The results reported desynchronization of peripheral circadian clocks in gastrointestinal tissues and microbiome arrhythmicity from genetic and environmental circadian disruption models. Alternations were observed especially in microbial taxa involved in lipid and sugar metabolism and short-chain fatty acid fermentation.
In the Bmal1SCNfl/- mice, arrhythmicity of the microbiome was associated with adiposity, disruption of glucose homeostasis, and weight gain. Similarly, the SSW mice displayed an increase in body weight and plasma glucose levels associated with disrupting microbiome oscillation patterns. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20221103/Circadian-disruption-induces-weight-gain-through-changes-in-gut-microbiota.aspx
The investigation of food fraud databases, a semi-structured literature review and online interviews with stakeholders revealed that adulteration is the major fraud type in ginger products. And the most vulnerable ginger products are ground ginger and finely processed ginger. The ginger supply chain from China to the EU comprises nine stages and is medium vulnerable to food fraud, both in regard to opportunities and motivational drivers https://www.nature.com/articles/s41538-022-00166-y
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan, employs a unique tool in his research on the impacts of climate change on coastal ecosystems: fish urine. He and the researchers in his Coastal Ecology and Conservation Lab use fish urine and artificial reefs to study aquatic ecosystem conservation and food insecurity.
Allgeier said his research aims to lay the groundwork for future solutions in conserving coastal ecosystems, such as coral reefs and seagrass, which are under increased threat from factors associated with climate change and habitat encroachment. https://www.michigandaily.com/research/fish-pee-to-save-the-reefs-umich-professor-discusses-coral-ecosystem-conservation-research/
A new study, led by experts at the University of Nottingham found that the risk of stomach bleeding caused by using aspirin long-term, can be reduced with a short course of antibiotics, potentially improving the safety of aspirin when used to prevent heart attacks, strokes and possibly some cancers. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/970025
In summary, the study identified green tea catechins and resveratrol as promising candidates for anti-plaque properties, functional neuroprotective features against AD, and minimal toxicity. Although citicoline and metformin treatments demonstrated plaque suppression and low toxicity, these compounds were not protective against HSV-induced perturbations in neuronal signaling. Overall, the study established a simple platform for rapid screening and characterization of compounds against AD in 2D cell cultures and 3D human cortical tissue models. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20221103/Green-tea-catechins-and-resveratrol-display-neuroprotective-properties-in-Alzheimers-models.aspx
Researchers continue to question how the monkeypox virus has evolved over time. The efficacy of current CDC-approved drugs to treat monkeypox have been suboptimal, likely because they were originally developed to treat HIV and herpes but have since received emergency use authorization in an attempt to control the recent monkeypox outbreak.
“One hypothesis is when patients were being treated for HIV and herpes with these drugs, they may have also been infected with monkeypox without knowing, and the monkeypox virus got smarter and mutated to evade the drugs,” Singh said. “Another hypothesis is the monkeypox virus may be hijacking proteins we have in our bodies and using them to become more infectious and pathogenic.” https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/970225
IceCube neutrinos give us first glimpse into the inner depths of an active galaxy https://icecube.wisc.edu/news/press-releases/2022/11/icecube-neutrinos-give-us-first-glimpse-into-the-inner-depths-of-an-active-galaxy/
It took many years of measurements using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and new statistical methods to make it possible for Resconi and her team to accumulate enough neutrino events for their discovery.
Detective work in the eternal ice
The IceCube telescope, located in the ice of the Antarctic, has been detecting the light traces resulting from incident neutrinos since 2011. "Based on their energy and their angle of incidence we can reconstruct where they come from," says TUM scientist Dr. Theo Glauch. "The statistical evaluation shows a highly significant cluster of neutrino impacts coming from the direction of the active galaxy NGC 1068. This means we can assume with a probability bordering on certainty that the high-energy neutrino radiation comes from this galaxy." https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/970138
Companies often don't match climate talk and lobbying, study says https://phys.org/news/2022-11-companies-dont-climate-lobbying.html
The Royal Hawaiian Beach in Waikiki is a popular beach at the center of Hawai'i's tourism hub, with a valuation of $2.2 billion, according to a 2016 study. Two recently published studies provide new understanding of how and why this iconic beach is chronically eroding -- enabling coastal managers and policymakers to more effectively manage the coastline. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221103105008.htm
Growing native bushfoods could reverse environmental degradation and offer better food security. But how do we get bushfoods in the agricultural sector in a market saturated by modern crops?
New research from James Cook University's TropWATER has mapped Australia's entire landscape to uncover the best places to grow more than 170 bushfoods. https://phys.org/news/2022-11-bushfoods-australia-landscape-boost-bush.html
Azure is taking a more centralized approach. They 3D print the floor, roof, and walls of their homes in their 10,000-square-foot factory in Culver City (outside LA). By the time a home leaves the factory, it’s 99 percent complete; it gets shipped to its site on a flatbed truck, and all that’s left to do is connect the modules to one another and to the foundation and utilities. https://singularityhub.com/2022/11/04/these-sleek-houses-are-3d-printed-from-recycled-plastic-prices-start-at-26900/
A 30-minute, self-administered online training module can protect adolescents from unhealthy responses to stress and related mental health consequences, suggests research funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. Scientists designed the training module, known as the “synergistic mindsets intervention,” to empower adolescents to harness both stressful events and stress responses to support their goals. https://www.nichd.nih.gov/newsroom/news/070622-teen-stress
“If you own an infant head-shaping pillow, throw it away; do not donate or give it to anyone else,” the alert said. “Be aware that infant head shaping pillows are not safe or effective for preventing or treating flat head syndrome or other medical conditions.”
In most cases, flat head syndrome will go away on its own as an infant grows up, the FDA said. It is not painful and it does not cause any developmental concerns. Using a head-shaping pillow may delay necessary medical evaluations and mask something more serious, such as craniosynostosis, where a developing infant’s skull bones join together too early. https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-11-04/infant-head-shaping-pillows-are-useless-and-dangerous-to-baby-fda-warns
In grassland soils, the types of viruses are dramatically different over short distances in space and time. The makeup of viral communities also was very sensitive to changes in soil moisture caused by an experimental drought. These effects may have downstream implications for the amount and pathways of soil-carbon cycling. https://phys.org/news/2022-11-viruses-soil.html
Egg whites can be transformed into a material capable of filtering microplastics from seawater https://phys.org/news/2022-11-egg-whites-material-capable-filtering.html
Russia, Ukraine and much of eastern Europe will be lucky if the Ukraine war ends without disaster at Zaporizhzhia. The world should be ashamed that, nearly 70 years after US President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed the era of ‘atoms for peace’, people are depending on luck. The world’s governments hold the power to prevent disaster. Will they act?
Nature 611, 232-235 (2022)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03580-0 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03580-0
Middle-income and working-class Californians represented by far the largest block of the million-plus households in the state that installed rooftop solar in 2021, according to a new Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study
The study shows how essential California’s subsidies for rooftop solar are in helping deploy the clean, renewable power source across the state. Solar not only cuts rates for consumers suffering from astronomical bills caused by California’s monopoly utilities like Pacific Gas & Electric, but it also helps to fight the climate crisis. https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/2022/11/californias-middle-income-residents-outpace-wealthy-rooftop
Strange scientific theory predicts a second type of liquid water
There are at least 15 different types of solid water (ice). Now, scientists believe that there might be a second type of liquid water. https://bigthink.com/hard-science/second-phase-liquid-wate
Plant-derived materials such as cellulose often exhibit thermally insulating properties. A new material made from nanoscale cellulose fibers shows the reverse, high thermal conductivity. This makes it useful in areas previously dominated by synthetic polymer materials. Materials based on cellulose have environmental benefits over polymers, so research on this could lead to greener technological applications where thermal conductivity is needed. https://phys.org/news/2022-11-thermal-properties-cellulose-nanofibers.html
As the world heads into COP27, there is no room for bad information on climate change in our major newspapers. Allow me to share the latest on what’s happening in Greenland based on information from scientists whose major focus includes study of the ice sheet and the Arctic region.
Drs. Twila Moon and Nikoosh Carlo, who conduct research relevant to high northern latitudes, recently exchanged thoughts with Johanna Chao Kreilick and me about a recent article that missed the mark on Greenland and climate change. https://blog.ucsusa.org/brenda-ekwurzel/what-is-the-story-about-greenland-and-climate-change/
How a quest for mathematical truth and complex models can lead to useless scientific predictions – new research https://theconversation.com/how-a-quest-for-mathematical-truth-and-complex-models-can-lead-to-useless-scientific-predictions-new-research-192454
When put to the test, bees have proved over and over again that they've got a lot more to offer than pollinating, making honey and being fiercely loyal to a queen. The industrious insects can count and alter their behavior when things seem difficult, and now some scientists say there's proof they also like to play. https://www.npr.org/2022/11/05/1134355887/bumblebees-can-play-does-it-mean-they-have-feelings-study-says-yes
Present results indicated that after 5 weeks of feeding trial and as compared to control, the ZnONPs supplementation groups recorded higher body weight, improved feed consumption, feed conversion ratio and performance index. Serum biochemical analyses revealed that serum cholesterol, triglyceride, low density lipoprotein and uric acid decreased significantly, while high density lipoprotein and liver enzyme concentrations were increased significantly. Meanwhile, zinc accumulation in serum, liver and breast and thigh muscle were linearly increased with increasing zinc supplementation. It could be concluded that supplementation of ZnONPs to broiler diet at 40 or 60 mg/kg improved productive performance, birds' physiological status and the lower levels Zn (40 mg/kg diet) revealed promising results and can be used as an effective feed additive in broilers. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-22836-3
Scientists at Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, have used an artificial intelligence (AI) language model to predict the unknown structures of more than 600 million proteins belonging to viruses, bacteria and other microbes. https://www.livescience.com/meta-predicts-600-million-protein-shapes
Economic interests cloud hazard reductions in the European regulation of substances of very high concern https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-34492-2
Therefore, the Earth must have been magnetized at a very early epoch, either preimpact or as a result of the impact itself. Either way, any realistic model of the formation of the Earth–Moon system must include magnetic field evolution. This requirement may ultimately constrain the models sufficiently to discriminate between the various candidates. https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2120682119?af=R
A 10-year retrospective analysis of Toxoplasma gondii qPCR screening in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation recipients https://www.nature.com/articles/s41409-022-01861-w
2n
Economy-wide evaluation of CO2 and air quality impacts of electrification in the United States https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33902-9
Ad Armageddon
Windows users are well aware that Microsoft's operating system is already rife with ads. Well, they're more like annoying suggestions that look exactly like obnoxious pop-ups to try out its new features or apps, like Microsoft Edge, the web browser that no one uses but everyone is forced to know still exists.
But now, it looks like Microsoft is considering implementing ads for real, or in other words, allowing third parties to start putting ads up too — a planned tradeoff to allow the company to sell cheaper PCs. https://futurism.com/the-byte/microsoft-cheap-computers-relentless-ads
A citizen petition is a means by which an individual or organization can request changes in health regulations from the FDA. Among other things, Valisure's petition asks the agency to request recalls for the products listed and to review and update regulations and guidance related to the use of impurities like benzene in consumer cosmetic products.
Of the samples that Valisure tested and included in the petition, some potentially contained benzene levels as high as 170 times the FDA's concentration limit of two parts per million, the laboratory said.
"The detection of high levels of benzene in dry shampoos should be cause for significant concern since these products are likely used indoors, where benzene may linger and be inhaled for prolonged periods of time," Valisure CEO David Light said in the release. "These and other issues identified by Valisure, including the detection of benzene in body spray, hand sanitizer, and sunscreen products, strongly underscore the importance of independent testing and its need to be better integrated into an increasingly complex and vulnerable global supply chain." https://www.cnet.com/health/personal-care/6-shampoo-brands-recalled-over-cancer-risk-check-if-yours-is-one-of-them/
Mohammad Aldergham said he saw families let their guard down and connect within a day of the camp starting.(Supplied: Richie Ho for Variety Tasmania)
For Mr Tran, that moment came after dinner on the first night.
"Some of the kids know each other and they communicate even though they don't say anything," Mr Tran said.
"Most of the kids are non-verbal, but the way that they communicate is so genuine and we can learn that part from them."
Another Motor Mouth camp?
Motor Mouth will be held again in Tasmania next year and Mr Tran intends to participate again.
He said his biggest lesson from the camp was continued modelling on the AAC device to increase the range of symbols, letters, words and phrases available.
"As long as we keep modelling the device, so that Leo can use it to communicate what he wants, that's the most important thing family and friends can do," he said.
"Hopefully by the time the next camp comes, we will have more stories of our modelling and can be an example for other families." https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-06/communicating-non-verbal-child-aac-variety-tasmania-motor-mouth/101615898
Brain changes in autism are far more sweeping than previously known, UCLA-led study finds
The study is the most comprehensive effort yet to study how autism affects the brain at the molecular level https://www.uclahealth.org/news/brain-changes-autism-are-far-more-sweeping-previously-known
Geneva —
U.N. rights chief Volker Turk on Saturday urged Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, to make respect for human rights central to the social network after he sacked around half the company's employees.
Reports of Musk laying off the platform's entire human rights team were "not, from my perspective, an encouraging start," Turk said in an open letter. https://www.voanews.com/a/un-urges-musk-to-ensure-twitter-respects-human-rights-/6822275.html
An AI-created impression of a quantized black hole. Image Credit: NightCafe Creator AI
A team modeling the behavior of black holes has come to the conclusion the masses of the universe’s densest objects are quantized, similar to the way electrons orbiting atoms can only have specific energies. Moreover, just as particles can simultaneously be in multiple places at once, known as superposition, the authors of a new paper claim black holes can have two masses, being simultaneously a combination of a probability of each mass. If you’re struggling to grasp these concepts don’t worry too much, even the authors of a paper admit it wasn’t what they expected. https://www.iflscience.com/black-holes-can-apparently-have-two-different-masses-at-once-66071
This bizarre little organism doesn't have a brain, or a nervous system; its blobby, bright-yellow body is just one cell. This slime mold species has thrived, more or less unchanged, for a billion years in its damp, decaying habitats.
And, in the last decade, it's been changing how we think about cognition and problem-solving.
"I think it's the same kind of revolution that occurred when people realized that plants could communicate with each other," said biologist Audrey Dussutour of the French National Center for Scientific Research. https://www.sciencealert.com/this-weirdly-smart-creeping-slime-is-redefining-how-we-understand-intelligence
In a bid to increase sales and reduce food waste, more and more of Japan’s convenience stores and supermarkets are letting artificial intelligence analyze data such as past sales figures to decide what discounts to apply to perishable products. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/11/06/national/science-health/ai-waste-reduction/
A short exposure to a semi-natural habitat alleviates the honey bee hive microbial imbalance caused by agricultural stress https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-23287-6
The most conspicuous no-show will be China's Xi Jinping, whose leadership was renewed last month at a Communist Party Congress.
US President Joe Biden has said he will come, but only after legislative elections on Tuesday that could see either or both houses of Congress fall into the hands of Republicans hostile to international action on climate change.
Cooperation between the United States and China—the world's two largest economies and carbon polluters—has been crucial to rare breakthroughs in the nearly 30-year saga of UN climate talks, including the 2015 Paris Agreement. https://phys.org/news/2022-11-climate-summit-backsliding.html
“It seems that those children with eczema in particular also have more severe symptoms of neurodevelopmental delay. We need to understand why. It may lead to opportunities for earlier detection and supports to improve outcomes for both developmental processes.” https://www.psypost.org/2022/11/eczema-linked-to-increased-symptom-severity-in-children-with-autism-spectrum-disorder-64229
The trial is studying the lifespan of the lab grown cells compared with infusions of standard red blood cells from the same donor. The lab-grown blood cells are all fresh, so the trial team expect them to perform better than a similar transfusion of standard donated red cells, which contains cells of varying ages.
Additionally, if manufactured cells last longer in the body, patients who regularly need blood may not need transfusions as often. That would reduce iron overload from frequent blood transfusions, which can lead to serious complications. https://scienceblog.com/534738/lab-grown-blood-used-for-first-time-in-human-patients/
The researchers theorise that there is a neurological link between these physiological processes and music. They believe that our anatomy can pick up on low frequencies, affecting our perception of “groove”, spontaneous movement and rhythm.
Cameron suggests that the super-low frequencies may influence the vestibular system which controls body position and movement through the inner ear.
“Very low frequencies may also affect vestibular sensitivity, adding to people’s experience of movement. Nailing down the brain mechanisms involved will require looking the effects of low frequencies on the vestibular, tactile, and auditory pathways,” says Cameron. https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/bass-dance-more/?amp=1
The 4,281-foot-long (1,305 meters) tunnel, which brought water to thousands of people in its heyday, was discovered by an Egyptian-Dominican Republic archaeological team, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement (opens in new tab).
Ancient Egyptian builders constructed the 6.6-foot-high (2 m) tunnel at a depth of about 65 feet (20 m) beneath the ground, Kathleen Martínez, a Dominican archaeologist and director of the team that discovered the tunnel, told Live Science in an email. "[It] is an exact replica of Eupalinos Tunnel in Greece, which is considered as one of the most important engineering achievements of antiquity," Martinez said. The Eupalinos tunnel, in Samos, a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, also carried water. https://www.livescience.com/ancient-tunnel-found-under-egyptian-temple
? How fossil fuel hegemony works
The concept of “hegemony” was developed by the Italian intellectual Antonio Gramsci. In the 1920s, Gramsci sought to explain how dominant classes maintained their power beyond the use of force and coercion.
He argued hegemony involved a continuous process of winning the consent of key actors in society such as industrialists, the media, and religious and educational institutions, to form a ruling bloc. Civil society would thus accept the prevailing order, dampening any threat of revolution.
Gramsci’s ideas help us understand the lack of action in response to the climate crisis. In particular, it helps explain the business sector’s inordinate influence on climate policy across the world. https://theconversation.com/a-technologically-advanced-society-is-choosing-to-destroy-itself-its-both-fascinating-and-horrifying-to-watch-192939
? climate experts and small and developing countries celebrated an early victory. After 27 years of UN-led climate negotiations and 30 years of activist campaigns, the issue of compensation for victims of the climate crisis has made it onto the agenda for the first time this year.
The issue of compensation is known as "loss and damage," which refers to the loss and damage of cultures, of livelihoods, of properties and of lives due to the human-induced climate crisis. https://www.cnet.com/science/climate/climate-change-has-a-cost-the-world-wants-the-us-to-pay-its-share/
People who use wood-burning stoves are needed to take part in the UK’s first study to understand how an air quality alert system could help reduce the health risks posed by wood smoke around their homes and in their communities.
Academics at the universities of Nottingham and Sheffield are studying the Burner Alert system – the first and only system in the UK. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/970395
“The question is: What happens when piracy is also an issue?” he said. “Can bundling encourage piracy to a point where the profit loss from piracy more than wipes out the benefits from reduced elasticity?”
Piracy is widespread because technology makes it easy to make illegal copies and distribute them, Lahiri said.
For example, the penultimate season of the TV series “Game of Thrones” was pirated more than 1 billion times, according to a 2017 report by the anti-piracy analyst firm MUSO.
“Consumers’ frustrations become obvious if we consider ‘Game of Thrones,’” Lahiri said. “To watch it, you must pay for an HBO subscription package that includes access to a variety of programming, including shows that you may not be willing or have the time to watch. Many netizens and bloggers believe that this pushes consumers toward piracy since consumers are often not interested in paying for programming they do not intend to watch.” https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/970401
Early head-and-neck cooling in concussed ice hockey players resulted in shorter time to return-to-play. This expanded study of Swedish ice hockey teams, in which the median time to initiate head-neck cooling following a concussion was 10 minutes, https://www.news-medical.net/news/20221107/Early-head-and-neck-cooling-after-sports-concussion-results-in-shorter-time-to-return-to-play.aspx
Supercomputer simulations have helped scientists reveal in a bilayer moiré system a new species of an electronic phenomenon called an exciton, which is an electrically neutral quasiparticle, yet one that can carry energy and consists of an electron and electron ‘hole' that can be created for example by light impinging certain semiconductors and other materials. https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/new-quasiparticle-discovered-in-moire-patterns
Cost concerns increasingly outweighed worries about the pandemic as the top reason Americans deferred healthcare, according to a new study by Qualtrics (Nasdaq: XM), the leader and creator of the experience management category. Between 2020 and 2022 the share of consumers deferring care because of pandemic-related health concerns decreased by 11 percentage points from 28% to 17% while the share of consumers deferring care because of cost concerns grew by four percentage points from 27% to 31%.
“If people can’t afford to access care in the first place, then not only are they having a poor experience, but we will never fully realize the health outcomes in our communities that we aspire to.” - Qualtrics Chief Medical Officer Dr. Adrienne Boissy https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221107005051/en/Rising-Costs-Replace-Pandemic-Concerns-As-Top-Reason-Americans-Defer-Healthcare
This study establishes the feasibility of manipulating soil microbial communities to control the composition and function of bacteria associated with plants. The findings could help design ecosystems to promote the growth and health of plants, which is crucial for sustainable agriculture.
The approach developed in the study is ironic since biologically, bacteria use CRISPR-Cas systems to counter attacking viruses. Biotechnology has adapted CRISPR-Cas systems to edit genes in animals and humans. But in the current study, the researchers flip the board and load viruses with CRISPR-Cas machinery to change bacterial behavior, specifically when the target bacterium exists within a microbiome. https://www.genengnews.com/topics/genome-editing/editing-specific-bacteria-in-soil-microbiomes-using-phage-delivered-base-editors/
Pollinating bees aren’t fond of fertilizers or pesticides due to the way chemicals impact the electric field around flowers, according to a study published today in the journal PNAS Nexus.
“This is the first study that shows that chemical-induced changes in plant electrophysiology translate to a change in floral electric fields,” Ellard Hunting, a research associate in sensory biophysics at the University of Bristol, tells Popular Mechanics. “So, chemistry translates to a change in plant physiology, changing the physics around a flower, which in turn translates to a change in bee behavior.” https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a41889190/fertilizers-alter-flowers-electric-fields/
Al Gore said the world could reduce emissions by 50% by the end of this decade, and reach net zero by 2050, with the help of now-available technologies.
“We are capable of solving this crisis because once the world reaches true net-zero, temperatures will stop increasing in as little as three to five years,” he said. https://apnews.com/article/science-business-al-gore-non-governmental-organizations-climate-and-environment-47f6f1e63ec50636c4e81c79d9b82bdc
But the answer to the question of how skeletons evolved before becoming bendy backbones has long eluded scientists.
Because the soft tissue surrounding the skeleton is rarely preserved, this has remained a palaeontological riddle.
Four specimens of a species called Gangtoucunia aspera allow scientists to finally answer these questions. The 514-million-year-old fossils preserved impressions of the animals’ soft tissues – including the gut, mouthparts and the tissue surrounding the hollow-tube skeleton. https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/fossils-first-skeletons/?amp=1
For most of us, what helps the most is knowing that cognitive dissonance is an everyday human experience, and likely to pass.
If we are not too hard on ourselves, and open to evaluating our behaviour in a much broader context, we shouldn’t feel too much discomfort. https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-feel-bad-when-our-beliefs-dont-match-our-actions-blame-cognitive-dissonance-193444
This is how music begins to play a part in social bonding. Infant-directed singing is a universal occurrence that fosters affiliative bonding across cultural boundaries. Infant-directed singing focuses the infant's attention, controls their level of arousal, and eases their suffering.
Singing to babies helps caregivers feel more emotionally connected to their infants and controls their own levels of arousal. The process of physiological entrainment is a promising candidate as a potential mechanism through which infant-directed singing may promote social behaviors. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20221108/Infant-directed-singing-improves-infantse28099-social-visual-behavior-according-to-new-research.aspx
KETOSIS STABILIZES BRAIN NETWORKS
Muiica-Parodi et al. [1] reported that a one-week KD increases functional brain network stability, restoring it to that seen in younger people. They showed that in younger (<50 years old) adults, nutritional ketosis stabilized functional networks. Most importantly, in a separate, larger sample, they found network instability increased with age and with decreases in cognitive functioning [1], with the aging effect being accelerated in young people with T2DM. Although ketosis has a significant cumulative and synergistic effect over the years, these network changes occurred with a single week of ketosis, suggesting short-term adaptations to network stability are feasible with a KD. Ruling out any effects of weight loss on network stability, the authors reported similar network stabilization when giving participants a single exogenous ketone ester drink. https://jpbs.hapres.com/htmls/JPBS_1500_Detail.html#034
PHS now recommends an optimal fluoride concentration of 0.7 milligrams/liter (mg/L). In this guidance, the optimal concentration of fluoride in drinking water is the concentration that provides the best balance of protection from dental caries while limiting the risk of dental fluorosis. The earlier PHS recommendation for fluoride concentrations was based on outdoor air temperature of geographic areas and ranged from 0.7–1.2 mg/L. This updated guidance is intended to apply to community water systems that currently fluoridate, or that will initiate fluoridation, and is based on considerations that include: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4547570/#!po=0.515464
PHS acknowledges the concerns of commenters and appreciates the efforts of all who submitted responses to the Federal Register notice describing its recommendation to lower the fluoride concentration in drinking water for the prevention of dental caries. The full federal panel considered these responses in the context of best available science but did not alter its recommendation that the optimal fluoride -concentration in drinking water for prevention of dental caries in the United States be reduced to 0.7 mg/L, from the previous range of 0.7–1.2 mg/L, based on the following information: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4547570/#__ffn_sectitle
Fluoridation: Follow the Money By Carol Kopf, Media Director, Fluoride Action Network
Multi-billion dollar international conglomerates, which benefit from tooth decay and fluoride sales, pour money into organized dentistry which is behind virtually every fluoridation initiative.The American Dental Association (ADA), many of its over 250 constituent state and city associations are benefactors along with other fluoridation-promoting dental groups and schools.
Dentists, inside and outside of government and industry, seem to have vast amounts of money and influence to promote fluoridation. Where does it come from? https://fluoridealert.org/content/bulletin_12-24-13/ As of July 18, 2022, a total of 85 human studies have investigated the relationship between fluoride and human intelligence. W-links
76 2022 These results, which were found among mother-child pairs living in fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities in Canada, underscore the importance of sufficient iodine intake in pregnancy to minimize the neurotoxicity of fluoride in boys..... https://fluoridealert.org/studies/brain01/
Furthermore, studies that examined vaccinated individuals who experienced breakthrough severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections found a high incidence of long COVID symptoms such as deteriorated musculoskeletal, neurological, and mental health among these individuals after recovery. This indicates that vaccination provides only limited protection against long COVID.
Melatonin is a cryoprotective hormone and chemical that exhibits anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunoregulatory activity and has been seen to impair viral infections, play a role in circadian rhythm maintenance, and be effective against diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. It is also involved in the activation of glutathione-synthesizing enzymes. Melatonin could potentially be a therapeutic agent in treating long COVID symptoms. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20221109/Melatonin-could-be-a-potential-therapy-for-long-COVID-symptoms.aspx
Last year, another study at Monash discovered strong electronic interactions in a 2D metal-organic framework. The researchers found signatures of magnetism in this material. They showed that this magnetism arose due to strong interactions that were only present when the non-magnetic components were brought together.
This material was grown on a metallic substrate. The substrate was important for the growth and measurement of the material.
Explainer: Metal-organic framework
A crystalline material where organic molecules are connected by metal atoms. Metal-organic frameworks can show many different properties by changing the molecules or metal atoms. Understanding quasiparticle excitations and their interactions is crucial for efforts to control complex materials (such as high-temperature superconductors and topological insulators) that may form the basis of future low-energy electronics and quantum information processing. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221109124307.htm
The widespread retrenchment in the U.S. technology industry has thrown thousands of workers in Silicon Valley out of work, a trend greatly amplified on Wednesday by Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, which announced it would eliminate 13% of its workforce, amounting to more than 11,000 jobs.
The announcement followed on the heels of major layoffs at other tech firms, most recently Twitter, which is restructuring in the aftermath of its takeover by Tesla founder Elon Musk, and also business software firm Salesforce and social media giant Snap, Inc.
Other major tech firms, including Apple, Amazon and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, have said that they will slow or curtail new hiring.
Announcing the job cuts, Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted he had made an error in judgment by assuming the sharp growth in online commerce that coincided with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic signaled a permanent change in consumer habits. https://www.voanews.com/a/meta-layoffs-deepen-silicon-valley-s-jobs-losses-/6828028.html
Researchers have discovered that the neurotransmitter adenosine effectively acts as a brake to dopamine, another well-known neurotransmitter involved in motor control. The discovery could immediately suggest new avenues of drug development to treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease, a movement disorder where the loss of dopamine-producing cells has been widely implicated as a cause. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221109124330.htm
The Flint, Michigan water crisis has brought concern about lead toxicity in drinking water back into the headlines. But the public health issue goes well beyond Flint. According to recent estimates, more than half the population were exposed to high levels of lead as children. How does damage from lead exposure manifest as people age?
Children who are exposed to lead-contaminated drinking water may end up with a worse baseline of cognitive function in old age, according to new research. https://m.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-721988
The Hubble space telescope has captured supernova images from three different moments, according to a new video released by NASA Goddard. The video, which can be found embedded below, showcases the explosion of the supernova at three different points in time. https://bgr.com/science/hubble-captures-images-of-supernova-from-three-different-moments-in-time/