Tag Archives: the-researchers

COVID virus mutated in Dutch man, raising importance of proper immunocompromised care – Cosmos

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Dutch medical scientists are warning about the risk of viruses mutating over long periods in infected immunocompromised people.

Forthcoming research from the group relates to a previously reported case of a 72-year-old Dutch man who was infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus for a record 613 days before dieing from a blood disorder.

The research, which is not yet published or peer-reviewed, will this week be presented at a global congress of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

They tracked the evolution of the virus within the mans system, while he was administered the antivirals sotrovimab, sarilumab and dexamethasone.

Samples taken between February 2022 and September 2023 noted more than 50 mutations in the viruss genetic sequence. Evidence of immune escape was also observed in the form of changes multiple changes to the virus spike protein.

During the period of infection, the virus evolved resistance to sotrovimab.

In their presentation, the 6 researchers will argue that immunocompromised patients need close monitoring, not only for their own health outcomes but also for signs of viral change that could spread beyond the patient.

They report that in this case the highly mutated, drug-resistant variant was not passed to anyone else.

This case underscores the risk of persistent SARS-CoV-2 infection in immunocompromised individuals as unique SARS-CoV-2 viral variants may emerge due to extensive intra-host evolution, the researchers write.

Though they note this is an extreme case, they report also monitoring other prolonged infections ranging from a month to 2 years in length.

Prolonged infections in immunocompromised patients are much more common compared to the general community, they say However, from the viewpoint of the general public, prolonged infections remain rare as the immunocompromised population is only a very small percentage of the total population.

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COVID virus mutated in Dutch man, raising importance of proper immunocompromised care - Cosmos

Dutchman had coronavirus for 613 days; Virus mutated over 50 times in his body – NL Times

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A Dutch man was infected with the coronavirus for 613 days, researchers from the Amsterdam UMC report. To the authors' knowledge, it is the longest SARS-CoV-2 infection duration to date. The virus muted over 50 times in his body.

The 72-year-old immunocompromised man continuously tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 from his admission to an Amsterdam clinic in February 2022 until he died of an underlying condition in October 2023. He initially became infected with the Omnicron variant of the coronavirus, but the virus mutated over 50 times in his body. As far as the researchers know, he did not infect anyone else with his mutated form of the virus.

Such persistent coronavirus infections are rare, but several cases of infections lasting hundreds of days in immunocompromised patients have been reported. Researchers worry that these persistent infections could lead to more mutations in the coronavirus. For instance, it is thought that the initial emergence of the Omicron variant originated in an immunocompromised individual, highlighting the importance of close genomic surveillance in this patient population. Not all mutations may be as manageable as the Omicron variant.

We emphasize the importance of continuing genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 evolution in immunocompromised individuals with persistent infections given the potential public health threat of possibly introducing viral escape variants into the community, the researchers said. They stressed that there must be a balance between this surveillance and human supportive care for the patients involved.

The researchers also stressed that from the viewpoint of the general public, prolonged infections remain rare as the immunocompromised population is only a very small percentage of the total population.

The Amsterdam researchers will present their findings at the ESCMID medical congress in Barcelona between April 27 and 31.

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Dutchman had coronavirus for 613 days; Virus mutated over 50 times in his body - NL Times

ChatGPT Use Linked to Memory Loss, Procrastination in Students – Futurism

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You won't always have an AI chatbot in your pocket... right? Brain Drain

New research has found a worrying link to memory loss and tanking grades in students who relied on ChatGPT, in an early but fascinating exploration of the swift impact that large language models have had in education.

As detailed in a new studypublished in the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, the researchers surveyed hundreds of university students ranging from undergrads to doctoral candidates over two phases, using self-reported evaluations. They were spurred on by witnessing more and more of their own students turn to ChatGPT.

"My interest in this topic stemmed from the growing prevalence of generative artificial intelligence in academia and its potential impact on students," study co-author Muhammad Abhas at the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences in Pakistan told PsyPost. "For the last year, I observed an increasing, uncritical, reliance on generative AI tools among my students for various assignments and projects I assigned."

In the first phase, the researchers collected responses from 165 students who used an eight-item scale to report their degree of ChatGPT reliance. The items ranged from "I use ChatGPT for my course assignments" to "ChatGPT is part of my campus life."

To validate those results, they also conducted a more rigorous "time-lagged" second phase, in which they expanded their scope to nearly 500 students, who were surveyed three times at one to two week intervals.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the researchers found that students under a heavy academic workload and "time pressure" were much more likely to use ChatGPT. They observed that those who relied on ChatGPT reported more procrastination, more memory loss, and a drop in GPA. And the reason why is quite simple: the chatbot, however good or bad its responses are, is making schoolwork too easy.

"Since ChatGPT can quickly respond to any questions asked by a user," the researchers wrote in the study, "students who excessively use ChatGPT may reduce their cognitive efforts to complete their academic tasks, resulting in poor memory."

There were a few curveballs, however.

"Contrary to expectations, students who were more sensitive to rewards were less likely to use generative AI," Abbas told PsyPost, suggesting that those seeking good grades avoided using the chatbot out of fear of getting caught.

It's possible that the relationship between ChatGPT usage and its negative effects is bidirectional, notes PsyPost. A student may turn to the chatbot because they already have bad grades, and not the other way around. It's also worth considering that the data was self-reported, which comes with its own biases.

That's not to exonerate AI, though. Based on these findings, we should be wary about ChatGPT's role in education.

"The average person should recognize the dark side of excessive generative AI usage," Abbas told Psypost. "While these tools offer convenience, they can also lead to negative consequences such as procrastination, memory loss, and compromised academic performance."

More on AI: Google's AI Search Caught Pushing Users to Download Malware

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ChatGPT Use Linked to Memory Loss, Procrastination in Students - Futurism

Readers Want Publications to Label AI-Generated Content

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Trust Issues

With levels of distrust towards the news reaching new heights, some publications have begun experimenting with publishing artificial intelligence-generated content — which has been an unmitigated disaster in many instances.

And as it turns out, readers are becoming increasingly wary of the trend, which could only serve to erode their trust even further.

According to a new preprint study by researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Minnesota, readers want news media to disclose if the article was AI-generated. But they also tend to trust news organizations less if they use AI-generated articles unless they list other articles that have served as sources for the AI-generated content.

"As news organizations increasingly look toward adopting AI technologies in their newsrooms," the researchers write, "our results hold implications for how disclosures about these techniques may contribute to or further undermine audience confidence in the institution of journalism at a time in which its standing with the public is especially tenuous."

Full Disclosure

For their study, the researchers surveyed 1,483 people English speakers located in the United States and presented them with a batch of political news articles that were AI-generated. Some were labeled as created by AI and some were not. Others were labeled as AI and contained a list of news articles that served as sources.

The researchers then asked the readers to rate the trustworthiness of news organizations by looking at the articles. The researchers found that readers rated content from news organizations that published articles labeled as AI-generated lower on an 11-point trust scale compared to news organizations that had articles with no disclosure.

Interestingly, articles that were labeled as being AI-generated weren't deemed by participants as being "less accurate or more biased," according to the paper. This tracks with the results of the appended survey participants also filled out: more than 80 percent of them want news organizations to label if content was AI-generated.

The researchers also noted some important limitations of their study, including pre-existing partisan divides and the associated variation in the amount of trust in the media. People may have also been put off by the lack of real-world associations of the mock news organizations named in the study.

It's a heavily nuanced topic that highlights the need for further research as well as more disclosure and a thorough vetting of generated content by news orgs.

"I don’t think all audiences will inevitably see all uses of these technologies in newsrooms as a net negative," coauthor and University of Minnesota researcher Benjamin Toff told Nieman Lab, "and I am especially interested in whether there are ways of describing these applications that may actually be greeted positively as a reason to be more trusting rather than less."

More on AI content: Sports Illustrated Union Says It’s "Horrified" by Publication of AI-Generated Writers

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Readers Want Publications to Label AI-Generated Content