Using AI, machine learning and advanced analytics to protect and optimize business – Security Magazine

Using AI, machine learning and advanced analytics to protect and optimize business | Security Magazine This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more. This Website Uses CookiesBy closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn MoreThis website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.

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Using AI, machine learning and advanced analytics to protect and optimize business - Security Magazine

7 Machine Learning Portfolio Projects to Boost the Resume – KDnuggets

There is a high demand for machine learning engineer jobs, but the hiring process is tough to crack. Companies want to hire professionals with experience in dealing with various machine learning problems.

For a newbie or fresh graduate, there are only a few ways to showcase skills and experience. They can either get an internship, work on open source projects, volunteer in NGO projects, or work on portfolio projects.

In this post, we will be focusing on machine learning portfolio projects that will boost your resume and help you during the recruitment process. Working solo on the project also makes you better at problem-solving.

mRNA Degradation project is a complex regression problem. The challenge in this project is to predict degradation rates that can help scientists design more stable vaccines in the future.

The project is 2 years old, but you will learn a lot about solving regression problems using complex 3D data manipulation and deep learning GRU models. Furthermore, we will be predicting 5 targets: reactivity, deg_Mg_pH10, deg_Mg_50C, deg_pH10, deg_50C.

Automatic Image Captioning is the must-have project in your resume. You will learn about computer vision, CNN pre-trained models, and LSTM for natural language processing.

In the end, you will build the application on Streamlit or Gradio to showcase your results. The image caption generator will generate a simple text describing the image.

You can find multiple similar projects online and even create your deep learning architecture to predict captions in different languages.

The primary purpose of the portfolio project is to work on a unique problem. It can be the same model architecture but a different dataset. Working with various data types will improve your chance of getting hired.

Forecasting using Deep Learning is a popular project idea, and you will learn many things about time series data analysis, data handling, pre-processing, and neural networks for time-series problems.

The time series forecasting is not simple. You need to understand seasonality, holiday seasons, trends, and daily fluctuation. Most of the time, you dont even require neural networks, and simple linear regression can provide you with the best-performing model. But in the stock market, where the risk is high, even a one percent difference means millions of dollars in profit for the company.

Having a Reinforcement Learning project on your resume gives you an edge during the hiring process. The recruiter will assume that you are good at problem-solving and you are eager to expand your boundaries to learn about complex machine learning tasks.

In the Self-Driving car project, you will train the Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) model in the OpenAI Gym environment (CarRacing-v0).

Before you start the project, you need to learn the fundamentals of Reinforcement Learning as it is quite different from other machine learning tasks. During the project, you will experiment with various types of models and methodologies to improve agent performance.

Conversational AI is a fun project. You will learn about Hugging Face Transformers, Facebook Blender Bot, handling conversational data, and creating chatbot interfaces (API or Web App).

Due to the huge library of datasets and pre-trained models available on Hugging Face, you can basically finetune the model on a new dataset. It can be Rick and Morty conversation, your favorite film character, or any celebrity that you love.

Apart from that you can improve the chatbot for your specific use case. In case of medical application. The chatbot needs technical knowledge and understands the patient's sentiment.

Automatic Speech Recognition is my favorite project ever. I have learned everything about transformers, handling audio data, and improving the model performance. It took me 2 months to understand the fundamentals and another two to create the architecture that will work on top of the Wave2Vec2 model.

You can improve the model performance by boosting Wav2Vec2 with n-grams and text pre-processing. I have even pre-processed the audio data to improve the sound quality.

The fun part is that you can fine-tune the Wav2Vec2 model on any type of language.

End-to-end machine learning project experience is a must. Without it, your chance of getting hired is pretty slim.

You will learn:

The main purpose of this project is not about building the best model or learning new deep learning architecture. The main goal is to familiarize the industry standards and techniques for building, deploying, and monitoring machine learning applications. You will learn a lot about development operations and how you can create a fully automated system.

After working on a few projects, I will highly recommend you create a profile on GitHub or any code-sharing site where you can share your project findings and documentation.

The principal purpose of working on a project is to improve your odds of getting hired. Showcasing the projects and presenting yourself in front of a potential recruiter is a skill.

So, after working on a project, start promoting it on social media, create a fun web app using Gradio or Streamlit, and write an engaging blog. Dont think about what people are going to say. Just keep working on a project and keep sharing. And I am sure in no time multiple recruiters will approach you for the job.

Abid Ali Awan (@1abidaliawan) is a certified data scientist professional who loves building machine learning models. Currently, he is focusing on content creation and writing technical blogs on machine learning and data science technologies. Abid holds a Master's degree in Technology Management and a bachelor's degree in Telecommunication Engineering. His vision is to build an AI product using a graph neural network for students struggling with mental illness.

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7 Machine Learning Portfolio Projects to Boost the Resume - KDnuggets

Wanted: artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help humans and computers work together – Military & Aerospace Electronics

ARLINGTON, Va. U.S. military researchers are asking industry to develop computers able not only to analyze large amounts of data automatically, but also communicate and cooperate with humans to resolve ambiguities and improve performance over time.

Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., issued a broad agency announcement (HR001122S0052) on Thursday for the Environment-driven Conceptual Learning (ECOLE) project.

From industry, the DARPA ECOLE project seeks proposals in five areas: human language technology; computer vision; artificial intelligence (AI); reasoning; and human-computer interaction.

ECOLE will create AI agents able to learn from linguistic and visual input to enable humans and computers to work together to analyze image, video, and multimedia documents quickly in missions where reliability and robustness are essential.

Related: Military researchers to apply artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to combat medical triage

ECOLE will develop algorithms that can identify, represent, and ground the attributes that form the symbolic and contextual model for a particular object or activity through interactive machine learning with a human analyst. Knowledge of attributes and affordances, learned dynamically from data encountered within an analytic workflow, will enable joint reasoning with a human partner.

This acquired knowledge also will enable the machine to recognize never-before-seen objects and activities without misclassifying them as a member of a previously learned class, detect changes in known objects, and report these changes when they are significant.

System interaction with human intelligence analysts is expected to be symbiotic, with the systems augmenting human cognitive capabilities while simultaneously seeking instruction and correction to achieve accuracy.

Industry proposals should specify how symbolic knowledge representations will be acquired from unlabeled data, including the specifics of the learning mechanism; how these representations will be associated and reasoned within a growing body of knowledge; how the representations will be applied to human-interpretable object and activity recognition; and how the framework will permit collaboration with several analysts to resolve ambiguity, extend the set of known representations, and provide greater recognitional accuracy and coverage.

Related: Artificial intelligence (AI) to enable manned and unmanned vehicles adapt to unforeseen events like damage

The four-year ECOLE project with three phases; this solicitation concerns only the first and second phases. The first phase will create prototype agents that can pull relevant information out of unlabeled multimedia data, supplemented with human interaction.

These prototypes will demonstrate not only the ability to learn new concepts, but also to recombine previously learned attributes to recognize never-before-seen objects and activities. Systems also will be able to reason over similarities and differences in objects and activities.

The second phase of the ECOLE project will scale-up the framework to include several AI agents and human analysts to help deal with uncertain or contradictory information.

Computer interaction with human analysts will enable the system to learn to name and describe objects, actions, and properties to verify and augment their representations, and to acquire complex knowledge quickly and accurately from potentially sparse observations.

Related: Wanted: artificial intelligence (AI) and machine autonomy algorithms for military command and control

Humans and computers will work together primarily through the English language -- including words with several different meanings -- in a way that is readily understandable. The ECOLE project also will have two technical areas: distributed curriculum learning; and human-machine collaborative analysis.

Distributed curriculum learning involves multimedia data, and will use human partners provide feedback on the learning process. human-machine collaborative analysis will involve a human-machine interface (HMI) to improve ECOLE representations and analyze data such as multimedia and social media.

Companies interested should upload abstracts no later than 29 Sept. 2022, and full proposals by 14 Nov. 2022 to the DARPA BAA website at https://baa.darpa.mil.

Email questions or concerns to DARPA at ECOLE@darpa.mil. More information is online at https://sam.gov/opp/fd50cb65daf5493d886fa1ddc2c0dd77/view.

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Wanted: artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help humans and computers work together - Military & Aerospace Electronics

The Prediction of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia Free Survival in Very Preterm Infants Using Machine Learning – Physician’s Weekly

Researchers found bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) was one of the premature births most common and significant consequences. It was critical to make a timely diagnosis by utilizing prediction techniques so that action could be taken quickly to mitigate any negative impacts. The study aimed to use machine learning and the idea that BPD has a developmental genesis to create a tool for predicting whether or not a person would acquire BPD. Preliminary model development made use of datasets including prenatal variables and early postnatal respiratory assistance; subsequent model combinations made use of logistic regression to yield an ensemble model. The simulation of medical situations was carried out. Results from 689 newborns were included. For model building, investigators randomly chose data from 80% of newborns, while data from 20% was used for validation. Receiver operating characteristic curves used to evaluate the final models performance yielded values of 0.921 (95% CI: 0.899-0.943) for the training dataset and 0.899 (95% CI]: 0.848-0.949) for the validation dataset. Compared to NIPPV, extubation to CPAP appears to improve BPD-free survival in simulations. Successful extubation may also be defined as the absence of the need for reintubation within 9 days of the initial extubation. Clinical utility of machine learning-based BPD prediction using perinatal characteristics and respiratory data may exist to facilitate early targeted intervention in high-risk infants.

Source: bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12887-022-03602-w

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The Prediction of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia Free Survival in Very Preterm Infants Using Machine Learning - Physician's Weekly

Explainable machine learning analysis reveals sex and gender differences in the phenotypic and neurobiological markers of Cannabis Use Disorder |…

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Explainable machine learning analysis reveals sex and gender differences in the phenotypic and neurobiological markers of Cannabis Use Disorder |...

New FundsPeople Learning Module! Machine Learning And Quantitative Investing: How To Incorporate Them Into A Portfolio With Goldman Sachs AM – World…

The module, aimed entirely at professional investors, consists of six chapters and is valid for one hour of training for re-certification from EFPA Spain or 1 CPD credit from CFA Society Spain.

When people talk about data intelligence, they often use the terms machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), and deep learning (DL) interchangeably. But what is the difference between these methods? Why is it increasing in importance in asset management? How does quantitative investing apply to the investment process? Many doubts that we will solve in the six chapters in which the module is structured Machine learning and quantitative investing: how to incorporate them into portfolio buildingWhich is supported by Goldman Sachs AM.

You already know the system of adding continuing education hours. Once the test is completed and answered, module can be validated as 1 cpd credit CFA Society Spain How One Hour Recertification Training EIA, EIP, EFA and EFP D EFPA Spain, provided you successfully complete the knowledge test at the end of this module.

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New FundsPeople Learning Module! Machine Learning And Quantitative Investing: How To Incorporate Them Into A Portfolio With Goldman Sachs AM - World...

The Future of AI Tutors in Higher Education – EdTech Magazine: Focus on K-12

Google-Powered Julian Teaches and Learns at Walden University

Steven Tom, chief customer officer atAdtalem Global Education, was at a conference several years ago and saw a demonstration of an AI tutor that left him thinking bigger. The tool he saw took student questions and answered them according to what he called a script, following a preset path programmed by a human on the back end that, the idea was, eventually took the student to the right answer. Itsounded a lot like adaptive learning, a concept that has been around for decades and has failed to take off, in part because it takes a lot of effort to program and is fairly inflexible in how it responds.

Somebody had to spend hours and hours and days and days creating the questions, scripting how the tutor was going to interact with the student, Tom says. And then the AI portion of it was like when you read a news article and give it a thumbs-up, thumbs-down the kind of learning based on whether you liked the question or not. In that sense, it really wasnt dynamic, and it really wasnt scalable.

That experience set Tom on a mission to solve for both of those weaknesses.

His first step was to reach out to the teams atGoogleworking in AI and higher education. Toms team atWalden University, an online university recently acquired by Adtalem, worked with Google to build the AI tutor that wouldbe introduced to students and faculty as Julianin the spring of 2021.

We wanted to see if we could tackle this challenge of creating a truly dynamic, truly unscripted AI tutor that could essentially ingest content on its own, make sense of it, pull the key concepts out of it and then foster with the student a real tutoring session where it can generate its own questions and assess the students answers completely on its own, Tom says. At the time, it was kind of a pipe dream.

Today, Tom says, that dream has at least partly come true.

Julian is more dynamic than most AI tutors. By design, it was rolled out in courses where its not easy for a machine to tell if the answer is right or wrong (as opposed to, say, a math course). At Walden, Julians first courses were in early childhood education and sociology.

DISCOVER:Successful AI examples in higher education that can inspire our future.

And while Julian is not exactly judging right or wrong it doesnt do any grading, for example it is ingesting information and learning as it goes. Its using the same course materials the students are given, and it directs them back to those sources in response to the questions they ask. Then it takes those questions and answers and feeds them back into itself to learn what students are asking about and grow even smarter for next time, Tom says.

Because it was developed with Google, Julian lives in theGoogle Cloud, meaning it has taken little to no infrastructure investment on Waldens part. Tom says programmers opted to use an application programming interface to drive the tool, with an eye on its future use.

Since it is API-driven, Tom says, Julian can potentially appear in many environments: While its currently a chatbot embedded in the universitys learning management system, it could easily exist as an avatar in an augmented or virtual reality environment, or as a voice on the phone, in the future.

The future is also where the innovative team at Georgia Tech is focused. The university that first brought Jill Watson to life has since rolled out two new tools related to AI tutoring:AskJillandAgent Smith. The Atlanta-based university also recently helped establish theNational AI Institute for Adult Learning and Online Education(AI-ALOE) thanks to a five-year, $20 milliongrant from the National Science Foundation.

The grant will fund large-scale investments in technology infrastructure, according to Ashok Goel, a computer science professor at Georgia Tech and the executive director of AI-ALOE. The investments will go towarddata storage, compliance andcybersecurity.

AI-ALOE is interested particularly in adult learners, as the name suggests. Goel says he anticipates millions of Americans will need to be reskilled or upskilled in the coming decade as automation changes the way we work, and those people wont be traditional college students. They will have families, jobs and other responsibilities, and they may not get to their coursework until the wee hours of the night or on the weekends, when professors, teaching assistants and human tutors are not available, increasing the need for AI to help.

READ MORE:Improve online learning and more with artificial intelligence.

As for the initiative itself, Goel wants to bring AI tutors to the world on a massive scale. Jill Watson is great, he says, but the effort it takes to create one Jill Watson makes it nearly impossible to replicate at other higher education institutions or in K12 environments. And the programs other goal improving the AI capabilities itself will go hand in hand with expanded use of a tool like Jill Watson.

Goel says Georgia Techs AI tools have learned from more than 40,000 user questions over the years. That may seem impressive at first, but Goel says 4 million questions would be a much nicer base to learn from.

Even as the AI is getting smarter, the latest version of the AI is designed to help expand its reach. Agent Smith (named after the self-cloning antagonist inThe Matrixmovies) offers the most intriguing potential for large-scale growth. Agent Smith is a cloner, capable of replicating a Jill Watson AI tutor for courses and classrooms around the country in as little as five hours. Thats still too long, Goel says, and the AI tutor interface is still a little clunky, but the team is making progress.

Why cant we offer AI tutors to every teacher and every learner and class in the world? Goel asks. If Jill Watson remains solely the provenance of 30 classes, thats interesting, but its not a game changer. It becomes a game changer only if anyone can use it.

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Astera Labs to Host Mayor of Burnaby at Grand Opening Of New Vancouver Design Center and Lab Dedicated to Purpose-Built Connectivity Solutions for…

--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Astera Labs Inc. :

WHEN:

Wednesday, September 21, 2022, from 9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. PDT

WHERE:

Astera Labs Vancouver4370 Dominion StreetBurnaby, BC V5G 4L7Canada

WHO:

WHAT:

Astera Labs welcomes the Mayor of Burnaby and the Burnaby Board of Trade President and CEO to celebrate the grand opening of its new state-of-the-art design center and lab in the Greater Vancouver Area.

Astera Labs Vancouver will support the companys development of cutting-edge interconnect technologies for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning architectures in the Cloud. The rapidly growing semiconductor company chose the Vancouver area to tap into the regions rich technology talent base to drive product development, customer support and marketing. The Vancouver location increases the companys operations in Canada, which already includes the new Research and Development Design Center in Toronto, and adds to its global footprint with headquarters in Santa Clara, California and offices around the globe.

Astera Labs is actively hiring across multiple engineering and marketing disciplines to support end-to-end product and application development and overall go-to-market operations. Open positions can be found at http://www.AsteraLabs.com/Careers/.

The ribbon cutting and photo opportunity with Burnaby Officials and Astera Labs Executives will be held outdoors. Below is an overview of the event agenda:

Event Schedule

Formal Remarks

9:30 a.m. 10:00 a.m. PDT

Ribbon Cutting / Photo Op / Media Q&A

10:00 a.m. 10:30 a.m. PDT

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About Astera Labs

Astera Labs Inc. is a leader in purpose-built data and memory connectivity solutions to remove performance bottlenecks throughout the data center. With locations worldwide, the companys silicon, software, and system-level connectivity solutions help realize the vision of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in the Cloud through CXL, PCIe, and Ethernet technologies. For more information about Astera Labs including open positions, visit http://www.AsteraLabs.com.

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Astera Labs to Host Mayor of Burnaby at Grand Opening Of New Vancouver Design Center and Lab Dedicated to Purpose-Built Connectivity Solutions for...

Edge Impulse and RealPars Announce Automation Technology Content Partnership – PR Newswire

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- RealPars, the leader in cutting-edge industrial education, and Edge Impulse, the best-in-class edge machine learning platform, today announce that they are teaming up to provide new and groundbreaking content to further development of advanced manufacturing tools and techniques.

The initial partnership focuses on predictive maintenance programming, leveraging RealPars' innovative training platform to show how Edge Impulse's machine learning tools can optimize maintenance cycles on industrial equipment. Predictive maintenance is quickly becoming a highly sought-after method of upkeep in industrial settings. Through the use of ML algorithms, embedded sensors, and onboard computing, the technique can be used to detect anomalies in machinery before breakdowns occur, allowing for just-in-time repair or replacement in order to maximize uptime and minimize costly shut downs. The partnership between Edge Impulse and RealPars will help build awareness and advancement of the practice.

Edge Impulse, the leading development platform for ML on edge devices, allows developers to quickly and easily create and optimize solutions with real-world data. The company's platform streamlines the entire process of collecting and structuring datasets, designing ML algorithms with ready-made building blocks, validating the models with real-time data, and deploying the fully optimized production-ready result to an edge target. The Edge Impulse development platform, already in use by thousands of companies, stands to unlock massive value across manufacturing and many other industries, with millions of developers making billions of devices smarter.

The two firms will kick off the partnership with a workshop on predictive maintenance; more information can be found on the partnership landing page, and will be announced at Imagine, Edge Impulse's ML conference, this September 28. Register at edgeimpulse.com/imagine

Edge Impulse is the leading machine learning platform, enabling all enterprises to build smarter edge products. Their technology empowers developers to bring more ML products to market faster, and helps enterprise teams rapidly develop industry-specific solutions in weeks instead of years. The Edge Impulse platform provides powerful automation and low-code capabilities to make it easier to build valuable datasets and develop advanced ML with streaming data. With over 40,000 developers, and partnerships with the top silicon vendors, Edge Impulse offers a seamless integration experience to validate and deploy with confidence across the largest hardware ecosystem. To learn more, visit edgeimpulse.com.

RealPars is the world's largest online learning platform for cutting-edge industrial technologies.

Their goal is to give anyone in the world the ability to learn new skills they need to succeed in their career as an engineer in the industrial space. RealPars is set out to create a new, easy-to-follow way of learning - making it engaging, flexible, and accessible for as many people as possible. Explaining complicated engineering concepts in an easy-to-follow format is what sets RealPars apart from any other learning platform. Since launching the platform in 2018, RealPars has helped millions of people around the globe unlock modern technical skills and reach their full potential. To learn more, head on over to realpars.com.

SOURCE Edge Impulse

Originally posted here:
Edge Impulse and RealPars Announce Automation Technology Content Partnership - PR Newswire

Machine Learning Week 4 – Updated Iowa Game by Game Projections, Season Record, and Championship Odds – Black Heart Gold Pants

Not familiar with BizarroMath? Youre in luck; Ive launched a web site for it where you can get an explanation of the numbers and browse the data.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

All lines courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook as of 8:00am, Monday, September 19, 2022.

Iowa football continues to be the #1 supplier of high-quality material for the Sickos Committee.

This week, BizarroMath went 4-8 ATS and 5-7 O/U. Combined with the prior record of 11-8 and 6-13, respectively, the algorithm is 15-16 ATS and 11-20 O/U on the season after three full weeks of play. Not a great outing in the second straight strange week of Division I NCAA Football, but were still learning about these teams.

Vegas Says: MI -46.5, U/O 57.5

BizarroMath Says: MI -64.10 (MI cover), 71.66 (over)

Actual Outcome: MI 59, UCONN 0 (ATS hit, O/U hit)

One Sentence Recap: Michigan aint played nobody.

Vegas Says: OU -11.5, O/U 64.5

BizarroMath Says: OU -7.90 (NE cover), 60.03 (under)

Actual Outcome: OU 49, NE 14 (ATS miss, O/U hit)

One Sentence Recap: We should all be rooting for Mickey Josephs no-nonsense, just play the damn game style, which is a welcome departure from Scott Frosts chesty preening, but Nebraska still seems mired in a deep hole of undisciplined play and softness at the point of attack.

Vegas Says: n/a

BizarroMath Says: n/a

Actual Outcome: SILL 31, NU 24

One Sentence Recap: I watched the Salukis play many at a game at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls over the years and I was probably less surprised than many that they pulled off this upset.

Vegas Says: Pk, O/U 58.5

BizarroMath Says: PUR -2.22 (Purdue win), O/U 47.9 (under)

Actual Outcome: SYR 32, PUR 29 (ATS miss, O/U miss)

One Sentence Recap: Much like the Penn State game, this game was there for the taking and Purdue simply refused, and I want to reiterate that Ive been skeptical since before the season began that the 2022 Edition of Purdue would be able to maintain the momentum from last year.

Vegas Says: IN -6.5, O/U 59.0

BizarroMath Says: WKY -12.90 (WKY cover), 65.99 (over)

Actual Outcome: IND 33, WKY 30 (ATS hit, O/U hit)

One Sentence Recap: BizMas prediction of a WKY upset damn near came true, but Tom Allens sweeping, must win now changing in the offseason seem to be paying dividends as the Hoosiers are figuring some things out and finding ways to win.

Vegas Says: RUT -17.5, O/U 44

BizarroMath: RUT -23.74 (RUT cover), 44.62 (over)

Actual Outcome: RUT 16, TEM 14 (ATS miss, O/U miss)

One Sentence Recap: Im pretty sure Rutgers is close to its pre-season O/U win total already, as the Scarlet Knights, like the other Eastern Red Team, keep finding ways to win.

Vegas Says: PSU -3, O/U 49

BizarroMath: PSU -2.71 (Auburn cover), 44.70 (under)

Actual Outcome: PSU 41, AUB 12 (ATS miss, O/U miss)

One Sentence Recap: It just means more.

Vegas Says: MN -27.5, O/U 46.5

BizarroMath: MN -23.95 (CO cover), 44.20 (under)

Actual Outcome: MN 49, CO 7 (ATS miss, O/U miss)

One Sentence Recap: Minnesota aint played nobody.

Vegas Says: WI -37.5, O/U 46.5

BizarroMath: WI -38.71 (WI cover), 50.1 (over)

Actual Outcome: WI 66, NMSU 7 (ATS hit, O/U hit)

One Sentence Recap: Theres nothing interesting about this game other than two observations: (1) this is the most points Wisconsin has scored in the Paul Chryst era; (2) Wisconsin has the same problem as Iowa in that Chryst has probably hit his ceiling and isnt going to elevate the program any further, but he wins too much to let him go.

Vegas Says: OSU -31.5, O/U 61

BizarroMath: OSU -28.36 (Toledo cover), 66.12 (over)

Actual Outcome: OSU 77, TOL 21 (ATS miss, O/U hit)

One Sentence Recap: OSUs opponent-adjusted yards surrendered this year is an absurd 2.28, which could be more a function of the small sample size we have for their opponents than anything, but this is why I blend data, folks.

Vegas Says: -MSU 3, O/U 57.5

BizarroMath: MSU -8.44 (MSU cover), 50.28 (under)

Actual Outcome: WA 39, MSU 28 (ATS miss, O/U miss)

One Sentence Recap: Ive told you my numbers dont like the Spartans, and Washington just showed us why.

Vegas Says: IA -23, O/U 40

BizarroMath: IA -2.48 (Nevada cover), 47.22 (over)

Actual Outcome: IA 27, NE 0 (ATS miss, O/U miss)

One Sentence Recap: Weird how when you inject a bunch of scholarship players back into your line-up, and play a defense of dubious quality, you can kind of, sort of, move the ball a little bit, even with an historically incompetent offense.

Vegas Says: MD -3.5, O/U 69.5

BizarroMath: SMU -1.31 (SMU cover), 75.22 (over)

Actual Outcome: MD 34, SMU 27 (ATS hit, O/U miss)

One Sentence Recap: First Four Games Maryland has scored 121 points through 3 games; I put the O/U on how many more games before Iowa breaks that mark at 5.5.

Now that I have the http://www.BizarroMath.com web site up and running, you can take a look at Iowas game-by-game projections and season projections yourself. Im going to not post the images this week and leave it to you to visit the site if you want to see the data. This is not a clickbait money scheme. There are no ads on that site, I wrote the HTML by hand because Im old and thats how I roll, and I make $0 off you visiting that site.

If you prefer to have the data presented in-line here, let me know, I will do that next week. Please answer the poll below to help me figure out how best to do this.

5%

21%

54%

13%

4%

1%

Also Caveat: If you come back to these links in the future, they will be updated with the results of future games, which also is a reason to post the data here for posterity, I suppose. Anyway, I may change the web site in the future to provide week-by-week updates showing the net changes. If youre interested in that, please let me know.

On to the analysis.

We finally have two FBS games worth of data on Iowa and can we start jumping to conclusions. Iowas raw PPG against D1 competition are at 17.0, which is good for #108 in the country. Iowas raw YPG are 243.50, which puts the Hawkeyes at #115. Iowas raw YPP are 4.20, ranking the Black and Old Gold at #110. The team is very slowly crawling out of the Division 1 cellar, but didnt exactly light the world on fire Saturday in a wet, frequently-interrupted outing against a Nevada team widely regarded as being Not Very Good.

We dont have enough data for opponent-adjustments for Iowa at this point (I require at least 3 adjustable games). Iowas blended data is what is used for the projections, and you can review that on the BizarroMath.com web site. Suffice it to say that Iowas outing against Nevada was similar in profile to what the team looked like last year. But, the schedule is a bit tougher this year, and Iowa needed some good fortune last year to make the Big 10 Championship game. I know nobody wants to hear it, but if this offense can climb up out of the triple digit rankings and get even to the 80th-90th range, that just might be enough to stay in the conference race.

But this season may simply boil down to schedule. Wisconsins cross-over games are @Ohio State, @MSU, and Maryland at home. Thats about as hard as it gets without playing either Michigan or Penn State. Minnesotas cross-over games are @Penn State, @Michigan State, and Rutgers. Iowas are @Rugers, Michigan, @Ohio State. From most to least difficult, Id say Iowa has the worst draw, then Wisconsin, then Minnesota. The Gophers also get Purdue and Iowa at home, and have Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Illinois on the road. The Badgers have Illinois and Purdue at home and go on the road to play Nebraska, Iowa, and (dont laugh) Northwestern. The Badgers are 1-6 at Northwestern this Century. The schedule generally favors the Gophers, and with Iowa playing Michigan and Ohio State in October, we shouldnt be surprised if the Hawkeyes are out of the division race before November.

That said, Iowas game-by-game odds are moving in the right direction. Iowa is a significant underdog vs. Michigan and Ohio State as expected, and a slight dog to Wisconsin and (stop traffic) Illinois. Perhaps most alarming is that the Hawkeyes have only a 37.92% chance to beat Minnesota. But! Recall that I am not doing opponent adjustments to the 2022 data yet for Minnesota, so their gaudy numbers are being taken at face value, and theyll drop after the Gophers play Michigan State this weekend.

To give you an idea of how that works, consider Michigan, which has played enough adjustable games that I can run opponent adjustments. Their opposition has been so terrible that BizarroMath discounts the Wolverines raw 55.33 PPG by a whopping 22.54 points. This means that this Wolverine team is expected to put up just 32.80 points against an average D1 defense, to say nothing of what they can do against a Top 5 defense, which Iowa just so happens to have (again, before opponent-adjustments). Michigans adjusted data is thus actually worse than last year, whose offense was, opponent-adjusted, worth 42.17 PPG.

Minnesotas adjustments will come soon enough, and well see them return to deep below the Earth, where filthy rodents belong. But, so, too, will Iowas, and of Iowas three adjustable opponents after this coming weekend - Rutgers, Nevada, and Iowa State - the Cyclones are by far the best team.

Iowa Season Projections

The Nevada win and swing in the statistics towards something more similar to last years putrid but still-better-than-this-crap offensive performance has brightened Iowas season outlook somewhat. Iowas most likely outcome now is 7-5 (27.13% chance), with 6-6 being more likely (25.89%) than 8-4 (17.52%). There is a 92.11% chance that Iowa doesnt reach 9.3, and a 78.42% chance that the Hawkeyes get bowl eligible this year.

The Gilded Rodents flashy numbers have pulled them almost even with Wisconsin, as the Badgers and Gophers are both in the 35-40% range for a division championship. Purdues continued struggles drops the Boilermakers to the four spot, elevating hapless Iowa to the third place in the West, though the Hawkeyes chances of actually winning the damn thing drop to 8.40%, Iowas climb up the division ladder from 5th to 3rd is more a function of the poor play of the teams now ranked lower than anything Iowa is doing on the field.

Im a bit puzzled by the conference race in the East, where Ohio State shot from last weeks 21.53% to this weeks 64.18% chance, but I think its because BizMa now has the Buckeyes with a 77.74% chance of winning The Game, which is the main shift that accounts for this change. Why? Well, this week we have opponent-adjustments for both teams and OSU has played a tougher schedule, so the Buckeyes numbers are not being discounted nearly as much as Michigans.

For example, on offense, OSU is putting up a raw 8.49 YPP, which BizMa is actually adjusting up to 9.58. Michigan, by comparison, is putting up 7.97 YPP, but BizMa is adjusting it down to 6.36 YPP based on the competition. As we move into the conference slate and the quality of each teams opposition evens out, well probably see those numbers flatten out a bit.

I love week 4. Because the number of games I have to track is cut in half.

Vegas Says: n/a

BizarroMath: n/a

One Sentence Prediction: Your Fighting Illini are going to be 3-1 going into conference play, and they have been competitive, if a bit raggety.

Vegas Says: MI -17, O/U 62.5

BizarroMath: MI -3.81, O/U 58.01 (MD cover, under)

One Sentence Prediction: BizMa sees this game as being much closer than Vegas does, and I think the difference might be a function of where we are in the season, as I just dont see Marylands defense holding Michigan down, and I dont buy that under for even a second, folks.

Vegas Says: PSU -26, O/U 60.5

BizarroMath: PSU -30.47, O/U 58.97 (PSU cover, under)

One Sentence Prediction: I dont know a thing about Central Michigan this year but a final along the lines of 45-13 sounds about right.

Vegas Says: MN -2, O/U 51.0

BizarroMath: MN -8.75, O/U 45.49 (MN cover, under)

One Sentence Prediction: Well soon know if the Gilded Rodents are fools gold, but not this week, as I think Minnesota is going to put up some points here in something like a 42-23 affair.

Vegas Says: CIN -15.5, O/U 54.0

BizarroMath: CIN -25.04, O/U 53.90 (CIN cover, under)

One Sentence Prediction: The Hoosiers either crash hard back down to Terra Firma in an embarrassing road rout, or this winds up being an unexpectedly knotty game.

Vegas Says: IA -7.5, O/U 35.5

BizarroMath: IA -9.85, O/U 32.09 (IA cover, under)

One Sentence Prediction: In Assy Football, the MVP is from one of two separate, yet equally important, groups: the punt team, which establishes poor field position for the opposition; and the punt return team, who try to field the ball outside of the 15 yard line without turning it over; this is their magnum opus.

Vegas Says: OSU -17.5, O/U 56.5

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Machine Learning Week 4 - Updated Iowa Game by Game Projections, Season Record, and Championship Odds - Black Heart Gold Pants

Join the challenge to explore the Moon! – EurekAlert

image:The Archytas Dome region of the lunar surface is the target area for the EXPLORE Lunar Data Challenges 2022. view more

Credit: Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University/EXPLORE/Jacobs University.https://exploredatachallenges.space/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Archytas2.png

Lunar enthusiasts of all ages are challenged to help identify features on the Moon that might pose a hazard to rovers or astronauts exploring the surface.

The2022 EXPLORE Lunar Data Challengeis focused on theArchytas Dome region, close to the Apollo 17 landing site where the last humans set foot on the Moon 50 years ago this December.

The Machine Learning Lunar Data Challenge is open to students, researchers and professionals in areas related to planetary sciences, but also to anyone with expertise in data processing. There is also a Public Lunar Data Challenge to plot the safe traverse of a lunar rover across the surface of the Moon, open to anyone who wants to have a go, as well as a Classroom Lunar Data Challenge for schools, with hands-on activities about lunar exploration and machine learning.

Announcing the EXPLORE Machine Learning Lunar Data Challenge during the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2022 in Granada, Spain, this week Giacomo Nodjoumi said: The Challenge uses data of the Archytas Dome taken by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission. This area of the Moon is packed craters of different ages, boulders, mounds, and a long, sinuous depression, or rille. The wide variety of features in this zone makes it a very interesting area for exploration and the perfect scenario for this Data Challenge.

The Machine Learning Lunar Data Challenge is in three steps: firstly, participants should train and test a model capable of recognising craters and boulders on the lunar surface. Secondly, they should use their model to label craters and boulders in a set of images of the Archytas zone. Finally, they should use the outputs of their models to create a map of an optimal traverse across the lunar surface to visit defined sites of scientific interest and avoid hazards, such as heavily cratered zones.

The public and schools are also invited to use lunar images to identify features and plot a journey for a rover. Prizes for the challenges include vouchers totalling 1500 Euros, as well as pieces of real Moon rock from lunar meteorites.

The EXPLORE project, which is funded through the European Commissions Horizon 2020 Programme, gathers experts from different fields of science and technical expertise to develop new tools that will promote the exploitation of space science data.

Through the EXPLORE Data Challenges, we aim to raise awareness of the scientific tools that we are developing, improve their accuracy by bringing in expertise from other communities, and involve schools and the public in space science research, said Nick Cox, the Coordinator of the EXPLORE project.

The deadline for entries closes on 21 November 2022 and winners will be announced in mid-December on the anniversaries of the Apollo 17 mission milestones.

The 2022 EXPLORE Data Challenges can be found at:https://exploredatachallenges.space

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Join the challenge to explore the Moon! - EurekAlert

Scope of Biochemistry in Pakistan | Jobs, Salary, And Career – The Academia Mag

Choosing a career is a tough task, especially when it comes to deciding which degree one wants to choose. It can be a tough decision, as we dont know what the future holds, or which career would be in high demand in the coming days. However, the field of biochemistry is always on the rise, and it opens a gateway to multiple job opportunities once you graduate with a degree in biochemistry. Students often wonder if the scope of biochemistry is good in Pakistan or if they will have a bright future with the qualification of biochemistry. Well, if you are interested and very much passionate about biochemistry but confused if this qualification has any scope in our country, then you have landed on the right page. Because in this article we will discuss everything related to biochemistry as to what is the scope of this qualification, the jobs, the salary, and what career opportunities it holds.

Read on!

Biochemistry is the chemistry of biological processes. This subject deals with all kinds of biological processes which involves chemical reactions like reproduction, metabolism, growth, etc. Biochemistry also includes the sciences of biophysical chemistry, neurochemistry, bioorganic, etc. Biochemistry helps individuals understand biology at a molecular level, it also offers a wide variety of techniques that are critical for conducting research in biomedical or agricultural fields. It has also made quite significant contributions towards understanding as well as finding the DNA structures.

Many students often ask this question while choosing a higher education degree because everyone wants a secure future with a great job. Well, one thing is for sure, there is a huge demand and scope in the field of biochemistry in Pakistan so the students wanting to pursue this degree can choose it in an instant. A graduate in biochemistry can easily find a good job whether in a private or a public sector. There are multiple fields in which a biochemist can easily get employment. In fact, biochemistry is a field where an individual can very quickly make a rewarding secure career.

The employment of biophysicists and biochemists is expected to grow by a whopping 15% in the coming years. After obtaining a degree in biochemistry, the graduates can easily get great work opportunities in a wide range of fields which includes hospitals, education sectors, agriculture, research organizations, food institutes, and much more. The demand for biochemistry has always been on the rise in Pakistan and it will continue to do so. Hence, biochemistry is a good career in Pakistan.

Read more: Scope of Food Science and Technology in Pakistan

As biochemistry is known to be used in a vast variety of fields which includes agriculture, pharmaceutical companies, research organizations, education sectors, etc. People who hold a degree in biochemistry can work in numerous places and fields. This may include:

The salary of biochemists varies from industry to private sector or public sector. It also depends on the qualifications and skill sets one has. But an average salary of a biochemistry graduate would be from approximately 50,000- 65,000 per month. However, the salary may raise with the passage of time and may go up to 75,000- 150,000 per month.

Good Luck!

Original post:
Scope of Biochemistry in Pakistan | Jobs, Salary, And Career - The Academia Mag

Shining lights on the cell – ASBMB Today

The cellular machinery is a remarkable system that is able to regulate myriad life processes with exquisite specificity by responding to a variety of environmental cues. This essential regulation is achieved through a network of highly dynamic signaling molecules that are regulated both spatially and temporally.

Inspired by natures fluorescent proteins and photosensors, biochemists have made tremendous advances toward developing new classes of genetically encoded protein tools to detect and control signaling activities with high spatiotemporal precision. With these new tools, new kinds of biochemistry, biology and cell biology are being discovered on a regular basis.

For the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual meeting, Discover BMB, in Seattle in March, we have assembled symposia featuring some of the top experts in these diverse fields who will discuss new tools for manipulating and visualizing the activity of enzymes and other classes of protein activity in living cells across a range of settings. As an example of the impact of these tools, we will highlight the emerging field of liquidliquid phase separation as an organizing principle of cell signaling uniquely identified by advances in our ability to probe and control biomolecules in vitro and in cells.

Keywords: Optogenetics, fluorescent biosensors, protein engineering, phase separation.

Who should attend: Biochemists, cell biologists and protein engineers interested in novel protein-based tools to observe and control cellular behavior as well as new concepts in cellular organization that have emerged from use of these reagents.

Theme song: Blinding Lights by The Weeknd.

This session is powered by high-quality photons from the UV to the infrared.

Toolkit for native biochemistry: Sensors, actuators and computational toolsKevin H. Gardner (chair),City University of New York Advanced Science Research CenterKlaus Hahn,University of North Carolina at Chapel HillSabrina Spencer,University of Colorado BoulderDavid van Valen,California Institute of Technology

Spatiotemporal control of cellular signalingJin Zhang (chair),University of California, San DiegoMark von Zastrow,University of California, San FranciscoLukasz Bugaj,University of PennsylvaniaAnton Bennett,Yale University

Liquidliquid phase separation as a signaling paradigmChristine Mayr (chair),Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterZhijian "James" Chen,University of Texas Southwestern Medical CenterSarah Veatch,University of MichiganShana ElbaumGarfinkle,City University of New York Advanced Science Research Center

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Shining lights on the cell - ASBMB Today

A Cross-Sectional Study of Various Imaging and Biochemical Biomarkers | OPTH – Dove Medical Press

Introduction

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder affecting 463 million people globally and 77 million people in India. When ophthalmic manifestations are considered, DR is taking center stage today. DR is one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide in working adult age groups.1

DR naturally progresses from non-proliferative abnormalities to proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), characterized by neovascularization involving disc (NVD) or neovascularization elsewhere (NVE). The leading cause of vision loss in DR patients is Diabetic Macular Edema (DME). DME is characterized by retinal thickening and edema, which can develop in all stages of retinopathy.2

Many studies and clinical trials have confirmed significant risk factors for DME, such as hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, hypertension, smoking, and nephropathy.2 There are many biomarkers to assess these risk factors for DR and DME. It can be clinical (general and ocular), imaging, biochemical, and molecular.3

One of the imaging modalities used to assess DR and DME is OCT. It is a non-invasive, non-contact method for assessment of macular edema and each feature observed in OCT acts as an imaging biomarker. The biochemical biomarkers considered are glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), total cholesterol, serum low-density lipoprotein (LDL), serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL), total triglycerides, serum creatinine, serum urea and microalbuminuria.4

The relationship between different biomarkers and stages of DR and DME will be necessary for optimal clinical management and new clinical strategies to prevent vision loss. However, no studies have established a strong association between these biomarkers in different stages of DR. In our study, we compared these biomarkers for DME in various stages of DR and their association with each stage of DR.

It is a cross-sectional observational study conducted at the Department of Ophthalmology of AIIMS, Raipur, between 1 May 2020 and 31 October 2021. The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Raipur, India, and the study was carried out as per the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki (IEC Approval Number: 1026). Written informed consent was taken from all the patients to use the data for research purposes. All patients of type 2 DM with DME with ages ranging from 30 to 70 years with Central Subfield Thickness (CST) on CIRRUS 500 SD-OCT [Carl Zeiss Meditec, Jena, Germany] >250m were included in the study. We included one eye for each patient. In cases of bilateral DME, we included the eye with higher CST on OCT. Patients with a history of having undergone scattered retinal photocoagulation (PRP)/focal laser, history of intravitreal injections of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) or steroids, YAG capsulotomy within 3 months in the same eye, present or past evidence of uveitis, cataract surgery within 6 months, eye trauma and patients with media opacity like cataract causing hindrance for fundus/OCT examination were excluded from the study. Complete ophthalmic examination was done under slit-lamp biomicroscopy and indirect ophthalmoscope, and patients were graded according to the International Clinical Disease Severity Scale for DR and DME.5 We divided the patients into two major study groups: Group A DME with NPDR and Group B DME with PDR. Group A was further subdivided into three categories based on different stages of NPDR: Group A (1) DME with mild NPDR, Group A (2) DME with moderate NPDR, and Group A (3) DME with severe NPDR. OCT was done to quantify DME, and a horizontal raster scan of 1212mm length was taken through the foveal centre. OCT morphological patterns were assessed by a single vitreoretinal specialist, including central subfield thickness (CST), cystoid macular edema (CME), diffuse retinal thickening (DRT), hyperreflective retinal foci, subretinal fluid (SRF), and epiretinal membrane (ERM). Blood and urine investigations were done on the same day. Those being HbA1c, serum LDL, serum HDL, serum triglycerides, total cholesterol, serum creatinine, serum urea, and microalbuminuria. The primary outcome measure was to compare imaging and biochemical biomarkers in type 2 diabetic patients with DME in different stages of diabetic retinopathy.

Statistical analysis was carried out using statistical packages for IBM SPSS vs 22 for Windows. Continuous and categorical variables were expressed as mean SD and percentages, respectively. Two-sided p values were considered statistically significant at p<0.05. Chi-square test was applied for comparison of categorical variables and one-way ANOVA test for continuous variables.

We included 100 eyes of 100 patients with type 2 DM with DR and DME in the study. The overall mean age of the study population was 54.849.87 years. The mean age of patients in Group A was 55.45 9.88 years, while the mean age of those in Group B was 53.34 9.88 years. The two groups did not show a significant difference in age distribution (P=0.336). Male preponderance was observed amongst the study population (76%). The mean duration of diabetes in Group A was 10.59 5.21 years, and that in Group B was 9.82 5.72 years, found to be very similar among the two study groups (p=0.52).

Out of 100 patients, 1 (1%) was diagnosed with DME with mild NPDR, 44 (44%) with DME with moderate NPDR, 29 (29%) with DME with severe NPDR, and 29 (29%) with DME with PDR. As Group A (1) had only one patient, we did not include it in the calculation. Mean CST was high in all groups, and the analysis of CST in the study groups was done by one-way ANOVA test, but we did not find any significant difference between the study groups (p= 0.494; p>0.05). The commonest OCT biomarker was CME amongst all patients of both groups, which was 69%, followed by SRF (64%), HRF (60%), DRT (50%), and less common was ERM (18%). We used the Chi-square test to compare these biomarkers between various groups. There was no significant difference found (p>0.05) for CME, HRF, and SRF, but the presence of DRT and ERM was more in Group B and found to be significant (p=0.04) (Table 1).

Table 1 Comparison of Various OCT Biomarkers

One-way ANOVA test was applied for analysis of all continuous variables. The mean fasting and post-prandial blood sugar levels were high in both groups, but the difference was not statistically significant (FBS, p=0.727; PPBS, p=0.444).

The mean HbA1c was more than 7% for all groups and slightly high for Group B, but the difference was insignificant (p=0.090). The mean serum LDL level, mean serum triglyceride level, mean microalbuminuria level, and mean serum creatinine level were compared between groups, but we did not find any significant association between these factors and DR. We found that only mean serum urea level was high in Group B and a significant difference was found amongst the groups (p=0.027; p<0.05) (Table 2).

Table 2 Comparison of Biochemical Biomarkers

DR can be defined as prolonged hyperglycemia leading to retinal microvascular damage. This internally leads to DME, a common cause of vision loss and visual disability worldwide.6

DME is a preventable cause of vision loss; elucidating and preventing the risk factors of DME can go a long way in reducing morbidity in diabetics. Many studies have been done to elicit the risk factors and biomarkers for DME. Still, no studies have compared these imaging and biochemical biomarkers with various stages of DR with DME and associated their relation with the severity of the disease. This study might add to the literature and bridge the gap, which will help in better management.

The mean age in both the groups of the present study signifies middle age group is usually affected by DR and DME, similar to other studies.7,8 Male preponderance was observed in our study (76%). The prolonged duration of diabetes is a known risk factor for DR and DME. We observed that both groups had an almost similar mean duration of diabetes (10 years or more), indicating that longer duration was a factor responsible for the development of DR and DME.9 Duration of disease is a significant risk factor for the development of DR but not a marker for severity of the disease.

The advent of OCT has been an essential tool in assessing the CST and also monitoring the patients with DME for progression of the disease.10

In the present study, the mean CST was high in Group A (3) (436.23140.58 m) and low in the Group B (397.4895.41 m), but there was no remarkable difference among the study groups (p=0.494). In contrast, a study done by Yassin et al concluded that CST had a positive correlation with the severity of the disease when different stages of DR were taken into consideration, with high-risk PDR (P=0.050) and severe NPDR (P=0.021) being statistically significant.11 In the present study, cystoid pattern was the most common morphological pattern, and CME was almost equally present in all the study groups, similar to Acan et al.12 DRT is the most common pattern according to many studies.11

Yassin et al also concluded that DRT is associated with significantly good visual acuity.11 However, in contrast, DRT was increasingly present (69%) in the severe stage of DR (DME with PDR) in the present study. Ghosh et al concluded that there is a correlation between serum creatinine and albuminuria with that of DME, primarily serous type strongly associated with albuminuria.13 In our study, SRF was present in more than 50% of the patients in each study group but not significantly different in each study group (p=0.329).

An infrequent OCT finding in the present study was ERM. Still, we observed it in a more significant number of patients belonging to Group B (31.0%). Knyazer et al found a significant association between ERM to age, cataract surgery, and diabetic retinopathy.14 Knyazer et al also reported a prevalence of ERM at 6.5% in type 2 diabetes mellitus, and Mitchell et al reported a prevalence of 11% in patients with DR.

While Ng et al reported a high prevalence of ERM that is 33.3% in both types of DM, there is a paucity of information in the literature regarding the correlation between the presence of ERM and stages of DR.15,16

In our study, the blood glucose levels were, in general, raised more than the normal range amongst all the study groups indicating that deranged blood glucose levels as one of the risk factors for the development of DME in DR patients.17 HbA1c levels best reflect the glycaemic control in DR patients. It is well-established now that tight blood glucose control early in the course of diabetes is beneficial in the protection against DR. This knowledge was provided by the randomized controlled intervention trial in type 1 diabetes patients by the Diabetes Control and complications Trial (DCCT) and in type 2 diabetes patients by the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS).18,19 Asensio-Sanchez et al, in their study, reported that increased levels of HbA1c were significantly associated with CSME, with an increase of 2.4 with every 1% elevation in HbA1c.2 In the present study, HbA1c was deranged in all patients with various stages of DR with DME, although it was slightly high in Group B (mean HbA1c-8.872.19%); in comparison, we did not find it significant (p=0.090).20

Raman et al, in their study SN DREAM, and Benarous et al reported a significant correlation between high cholesterol levels and severity of DR and CSME.7,21 In the present study, the mean serum LDL level difference was not substantial, but serum LDL levels were observed to be more deranged in Group B patients (mean=350.931128.15 mg/dL). In our study, we found serum triglyceride levels and serum cholesterol levels were deranged amongst all the study groups suggesting higher levels of serum triglyceride and serum cholesterol may be involved in the development of DME, and levels were slightly elevated in Group B patients. Still, no significant association was found between these factors and DR (p<0.05). Not many studies have been done to elicit the correlation between serum urea and different stages of diabetic retinopathy in DME patients. The comparison of mean serum urea levels was made, and a significant difference was found amongst the groups (p=0.027); on further evaluation, we found high serum urea levels present amongst the patients in Group B (mean=64.2765.52 mg/dL), indicating its relation to the severity of disease but needs more studies to establish more decisive conclusion with larger sample size. Similarly, the mean microalbuminuria level in Group B patients was found it be high (mean=337.83412.87 g/min), but when a comparison was made by one-way ANOVA test, it was not significant (p>0.05).

Zander et al reported microalbuminuria as one of the risk factors associated with DME and DR.22 In this study, the mean microalbuminuria was found to be at an increasing level in Group B patients stipulating that microalbuminuria can be one of the risk factors in the development of DME and severity of disease but cannot be concluded in our study due to poor sample size.

Koo et al reported that SRF in OCT was significantly associated with an increase in levels of microalbuminuria as compared to other OCT patterns.23 Acan et al reported that microalbuminuria was considerably higher in patients with DRT patterns in OCT (61.9%) compared to SRF (50.0%) and CME patterns (25.0%).12 In our study, we could not elicit any association between microalbuminuria and specific pattern of OCT, especially SRF.

Imaging biomarkers such as patterns of OCT findings, those being DRT and ERM have the potential to be the indicators for assessing the severity of the disease, but significant conclusions could not be drawn due to the lack of sufficient sample. Likewise, biochemical biomarkers such as serum urea and microalbuminuria were found to be deranged in severe stages of the disease, which needs further evaluation to be concluded as indicators of disease severity.

The authors report no financial interest or conflicts of interest in this work.

1. International Diabetes Federation. IDF Diabetes Atlas. 9th ed. Brussels, Belgium: International Diabetes Federation; 2019.

2. Asensio-Snchez VM, Gmez-Ramrez V, Morales-Gmez I, et al. Clinically significant diabetic macular edema: systemic risk factors. Arch Soc Esp Oftalmol. 2008;83(3):173176.

3. Fong DS, Aiello L, Gardner TW, et al. Retinopathy in diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2004;27(Suppl 1):S84S87. doi:10.2337/diacare.27.2007.s84

4. Jenkins AJ, Joglekar MV, Hardikar AA, et al. Biomarkers in diabetic retinopathy. Rev Diabet Stud. 2015;12(12):159195. doi:10.1900/RDS.2015.12.159

5. Wilkinson CP, Ferris FL 3rd, Klein RE, et al. Proposed international clinical diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema disease severity scales. Ophthalmology. 2003;110(9):16771682. doi:10.1016/S0161-6420(03)00475-5

6. Photocoagulation for diabetic macular edema. Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study report number 1. Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study research group. Arch Ophthalmol. 1985;103(12):17961806.

7. Raman R, Rani PK, Kulothungan V, Rachepalle SR, Kumaramanickavel G, Sharma T. Influence of serum lipids on clinically significant versus nonclinically significant macular edema: SN-DREAMS Report number 13. Ophthalmology. 2010;117(4):766772. doi:10.1016/j.ophtha.2009.09.005

8. Mukhtar A, Khan MS, Junejo M, Ishaq M, Akbar B. Effect of pan retinal photocoagulation on central macular thickness and visual acuity in proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Pak J Med Sci. 2016;32(1):221224. doi:10.12669/pjms.321.8758

9. Ferris FL 3rd. A complication of diabetic retinopathy. Surv Ophthalmol. 1984;28 Suppl:452461. doi:10.1016/0039-6257(84)90227-3

10. Peng YJ, Tsai MJ. Impact of metabolic control on macular thickness in diabetic macular oedema. Diab Vasc Dis Res. 2018;15(2):165168. doi:10.1177/1479164117746023

11. Yassin SA, ALjohani SM, Alromaih AZ, Alrushood AA. Optical coherence tomography patterns of diabetic macular edema in a Saudi population. Clin Ophthalmol. 2019;13:707714. doi:10.2147/OPTH.S199713

12. Acan D, Karahan E, Kocak N, Kaynak S. Evaluation of systemic risk factors in different optical coherence tomographic patterns of diabetic macular edema. Int J Ophthalmol. 2018;11(7):12041209. doi:10.18240/ijo.2018.07.21

13. Ghosh S, Bansal P, Shejao H, Hegde R, Roy D, Biswas S. Correlation of morphological pattern of optical coherence tomography in diabetic macular edema with systemic risk factors in middle aged males. Int Ophthalmol. 2015;35(1):310. doi:10.1007/s10792-014-9922-z

14. Knyazer B, Schachter O, Plakht Y, et al. Epiretinal membrane in diabetes mellitus patients screened by nonmydriatic fundus camera. Can J Ophthalmol. 2016;51(1):4146. doi:10.1016/j.jcjo.2015.09.01

15. Mitchell P, Smith W, Chey T, Wang JJ, Chang A. Prevalence and associations of epiretinal membranes. The Blue Mountains Eye Study, Australia. Ophthalmology. 1997;104(6):10331040. doi:10.1016/S0161-6420(97)30190-0

16. Ng CH, Cheung N, Wang JJ, et al. Prevalence and risk factors for epiretinal membranes in a multi-ethnic United States population. Ophthalmology. 2011;118(4):694699. doi:10.1016/j.ophtha.2010.08.009

17. Klein R, Klein BE, Moss SE. Epidemiology of proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Diabetes Care. 1992;15(12):18751891. doi:10.2337/diacare.15.12.1875

18. Nathan DM. DCCT/EDIC Research Group. The diabetes control and complications trial/epidemiology of diabetes interventions and complications study at 30 years: overview. Diabetes Care. 2014;37(1):916. doi:10.2337/dc13-2112

19. King P, Peacock I, Donnelly R. The UK prospective diabetes study (UKPDS): clinical and therapeutic implications for type 2 diabetes. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 1999;48(5):643648. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2125.1999.00092

20. Vitale S, Maguire MG, Murphy RP, et al. Clinically significant macular edema in type I diabetes. Incidence and risk factors. Ophthalmology. 1995;102(8):11701176. doi:10.1016/s0161-6420(95)30894-9

21. Benarous R, Sasongko MB, Qureshi S, et al. Differential association of serum lipids with diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2011;52(10):74647469. doi:10.1167/iovs.11-7598

22. Zander E, Herfurth S, Bohl B, et al. Maculopathy in patients with diabetes mellitus type 1 and type 2: associations with risk factors. Br J Ophthalmol. 2000;84(8):871876. doi:10.1136/bjo.84.8.871

23. Koo NK, Jin HC, Kim KS, Kim YC. Relationship between the morphology of diabetic macular edema and renal dysfunction in diabetes. Korean J Ophthalmol. 2013;27(2):98102. doi:10.3341/kjo.2013.27.2.98

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Computation is the new experiment – ASBMB Today

After decades of playing second fiddle, computation is now taking center stage achieving critical insights that experimentation alone cannot provide. We are witnessing a dramatic rise in artificial intelligencebased methods coupled with year-on-year improvements of physics-based approaches. We now can fold a protein accurately from sequence alone!

Game-changing methods in protein and enzyme design are hurtling toward us. Scientists now can integrate numerous experimental data sets into computational models to explore previously unseen elements at (and across) scales never before achieved. Computational simulations are rewriting textbooks from molecules to system dynamics and function. Machine learning is transforming drug design and development.

All in all, you will not find a symposium at Discover BMB, the annual meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, filled with more excitement and possibility than ours. Buckle up for a thrilling ride in March in Seattle!

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, structural biology, simulation, drug discovery, bioinformatics, systems biology, machine learning.

Who should attend: All who want to find out how computation is transforming biological problem-solving.

Theme song: Respect by Aretha Franklin, because computation deserves it.

This session is powered by a powerful flux capacitor.

Structure determinationDebora Marks,Harvard Medical SchoolRommie E. Amaro (chair),University of California, San DiegoRamanathan Arvind,Argonne National Laboratory; University of ChicagoJason Perry,Gilead Sciences Inc.

Drug designJohn Chodera,Sloan Kettering InstituteDavid Baker,University of WashingtonSteve Capuzzi,Vertex PharmaceuticalsCelia Schiffer (chair),University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School

Bioinformatics / Systems biologyMarian Walhout,University of Massachusetts Chan Medical SchoolJanet George,Intel CorporationIvet Bahar (chair),University of Pittsburgh School of MedicineHenry van dem Bedam,AtomWise Inc.

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UCF Researchers Prove that COVID Disinfectant Works in Latest Research Paper – UCF

A team of UCF researchers have proven the efficacy of a nanomaterial-based disinfectant they developed to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Through their experiments, they found that the disinfectant was able to kill several serious viruses including SARS and Zika. The results of their findings were recently published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

It is always a delight to have our research work featured in a reputed journal, said Udit Kumar, a doctoral student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and the lead author of the journal article. Given the theme and possible impact of antiviral research in current times, our article will definitely aid our fight against global pandemics.

The paper outlines the most recent study from a multidisciplinary team of researchers that includes Sudipta Seal, the chair of the MSE department, and Griff Parks, a College of Medicine virologist and director of the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences. They experimented with the nanomaterial yttrium silicate, which has antiviral properties that are activated by white light, such as sunlight or LED lights. As long as there is a continuous source of light, the antiviral properties regenerate, creating a self-cleaning surface disinfectant.

Yttrium silicate acts as a silent killer, with antiviral properties constantly recharged by the light, Kumar says. It is most effective in minimizing surface to the surface spread of many viruses.

Kumar says their test of yttrium silicate in white light disinfected surfaces with high viral loads in approximately 30 minutes. Additionally, the nanomaterial was able to combat the spread of other viruses including parainfluenza, vesicular stomatitis, rhinovirus, Zika and SARS.

This disinfectant technology is an important achievement for both engineering and health because we all were affected during the pandemic, Seal says. COVID is still ongoing and who knows what other illnesses are on the horizon.

Other UCF researchers, including College of Medicine postdoctoral researcher Candace Fox 16MS 19PhD, nanotechnology student Balaashwin Babu 20 and materials science and engineering student Erik Marcelo, are co-authors on the paper.

This publication is the culmination of timely insight by the investigators as to the importance of rapid development of broad-spectrum anti-microbials, as well as hard work in the lab to show the potency of our new materials, Parks says. This is an outstanding example of the power of cross-discipline research in this case, materials science and microbiology researchers from CECS and COM.

The research is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundations RAPID program.

Seal joined UCFs Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Advanced Materials Processing Analysis Center, which is part of UCFsCollege of Engineering and Computer Science, in 1997. He has an appointment at theCollege of Medicineand is a member of UCFs prosthetics clusterBiionix. He is the former director of UCFs NanoScience Technology Center and Advanced Materials Processing Analysis Center. He received his doctorate in materials engineering with a minor in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California Berkeley.

Parks is theCollege of Medicinesassociate dean forResearch. He came to UCF in 2014 as director of the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences after 20 years at the Wake Forest School of Medicine, where he was professor and chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. He earned his doctorate in biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin and was an American Cancer Society Fellow at Northwestern University.

Study title: Potent Inactivation of Human Respiratory Viruses Including SARS-CoV-2 by a Photoactivated Self-Cleaning Regenerative Antiviral Coating

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Role of Chitosan and Chitosan-Based Nanomaterials in Plant Sciences: Nanomaterial-Plant Interactions – The Physiological, Morphological, Biochemical…

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Role of Chitosan and Chitosan-Based Nanomaterials in Plant Sciences. Nanomaterial-Plant Interactions" book from Elsevier Science and Technology has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Role of Chitosan and Chitosan-Based Nanomaterials in Plant Sciences explores the physiological, morphological, biochemical and molecular regulation of chitosan and chitosan-based nanoparticles in plants in normal conditions, as well as during different stresses, and their probable mechanism of operation in the tolerance mechanism.

The book stimulates further research in the field of chitosan and will foster further interests for researchers, academicians and scientists worldwide. Nanotechnology is being used widely in all disciplines of science and technology, including plant sciences.

Chitosan has widely been reported as a beneficial organic compound for the growth and developments of plants and it plays a protective role for the plants against abiotic and biotic stresses. Yet there are very few books available that deal exclusively with Chitosan and Chitosan based nanoparticles impacts on plants respectively.

Key Topics Covered:

For more information about this book visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/mbi2dq

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Role of Chitosan and Chitosan-Based Nanomaterials in Plant Sciences: Nanomaterial-Plant Interactions - The Physiological, Morphological, Biochemical...

How a complex molecule moves iron through the body – ASBMB Today

New research provides fresh insight into how an important class of molecules are created and moved in human cells.

For years, scientists knew that mitochondria specialized structures inside cells in the body that are essential for respiration and energy production were involved in the assembly and movement of iron-sulfur cofactors, some of the most essential compounds in the human body. But until now, researchers didnt understand how exactly the process worked.

New research, published in the journal Nature Communications, found that these cofactors are moved with the help of a substance called glutathione, an antioxidant that helps prevent certain types of cell damage by transporting these essential iron cofactors across a membrane barrier.

Mechanism of cluster transport by Atm1.

Glutathione is especially useful as it aids in regulating metals like iron, which is used by red blood cells to make hemoglobin, a protein needed to help carry oxygen throughout the body, said James Cowan, co-author of the study and a distinguished university professor emeritus in chemistry and biochemistry at Ohio State.

Iron compounds are critical for the proper functioning of cellular biochemistry, and their assembly and transport is a complex process, Cowan said. We have determined how a specific class of iron cofactors is moved from one cellular compartment to another by use of complex molecular machinery, allowing them to be used in multiple steps of cellular chemistry.

Iron-sulfur clusters are an important class of compounds that carry out a variety of metabolic processes, like helping to transfer electrons in the production of energy and making key metabolites in the cell, as well as assisting in the replication of our genetic information.

But when these clusters don't work properly, or when key proteins cant get them, then bad things happen, Cowan said.

If unable to function, the corrupted protein can give rise to several diseases, including rare forms of anemia, Friedreichs ataxia (a disorder that causes progressive nervous system damage), and a multitude of other metabolic and neurological disorders.

So to study how this essential mechanism works, researchers began by taking a fungus called C. thermophilum, identifying the key protein molecule of interest, and producing large quantities of that protein for structural determination. The study notes that the protein they studied within C. thermophilum is essentially a cellular twin of the human protein ABCB7, which transfers iron-sulfur clusters in people, making it the perfect specimen to study iron-sulfur cluster export in people.

By using a combination of cryo-electron microscopy and computational modeling, the team was then able to create a series of structural models detailing the pathway that mitochondria use to export the iron cofactors to different locations inside the body. While their findings are vital to learning more about the basic building blocks of cellular biochemistry, Cowan said hes excited to see how their discovery could later advance medicine and therapeutics.

By understanding how these cofactors are assembled and moved in human cells, we can lay the groundwork for determining how to prevent or alleviate symptoms of certain diseases, he said. We can also use that fundamental knowledge as the foundation for other advances in understanding cellular chemistry.

This article was republished with permission from The Ohio State University. Read the original.

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Researchers discover toxin that kills bacteria in unprecedented ways – ASBMB Today

McMaster researchers have discovered a previously unknown bacteria-killing toxin that could pave the way for a new generation of antibiotics.

The study, led by John Whitney at the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, shows that the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, known to cause hospital-acquired infections such as pneumonia, secretes a toxin that has evolved to kill other species of bacteria.

Courtesy of Blake Dillon/McMaster University

John Whitney (right) and Nathan Bullen have studied this toxin for nearly three years.

For Whitney, the key aspect of his discovery is not just that this toxin kills bacteria, but how it does so.

This research is significant, because it shows that the toxin targets essential RNA molecules of other bacteria, effectively rendering them non-functional, says Whitney, an associate professor in the department of biochemistry and biomedical sciences.

Like humans, bacteria require properly functioning RNA in order to live.

First study author Nathan Bullen, a graduate student in biochemistry and biomedical sciences, describes it as a total assault on the cell because of the number of essential pathways depend on functional RNAs.

Whitney and Bullen, together with colleagues at Imperial College London and the University of Manitoba, have studied this toxin for nearly three years to understand exactly how it functions at a molecular level.

This is the graphical abstract for the team's paper, "An ADP-ribosyltransferase toxin kills bacterial cells by modifying structured non-coding RNAs."

The breakthrough, published in the journalMolecular Cell, was achieved by Bullen after rigorous experimentation on common targets of toxins, such as protein and DNA molecules, before eventually testing the toxin against RNA.

This discovery breaks well-established precedents set by protein-targeting toxins secreted by other bacteria, such as those that cause cholera and diphtheria.

Researchers say that this development holds great potential for future research that could eventually lead to new innovations that combat infection-causing bacteria.

Whitney says future antibiotic development can build on the newly discovered vulnerability.

This article was republished with permission from the Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University. Read the original.

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Researchers discover toxin that kills bacteria in unprecedented ways - ASBMB Today

Decipher GC Validation in Patients Receiving SRT Without Hormone Therapy after Radical Prostatectomy – Physician’s Weekly

The Decipher genomic classifier (GC) has demonstrated the ability to predict prostate cancer outcomes independently. Researchers sought to verify the GC in a randomized phase III trial of dose-escalated salvage radiotherapy (SRT) following radical prostatectomy.

In a phase III trial of 350 men with biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy who were randomly assigned to 64 Gy or 70 Gy without concurrent hormonal therapy or pelvic nodal RT, a clinical-grade whole-transcriptome assay was performed on radical prostatectomy samples obtained from patients enrolled in Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK) 09/10. A predetermined statistical strategy was created to determine how the GC will affect clinical results. The main outcome was biochemical development; the secondary outcomes were clinical development and delay in hormone treatment. Age, T-category, Gleason score, post radical prostatectomy persistent prostate-specific antigen (PSA), PSA at randomization, and randomization arm were all adjusted in multivariable analyses to take competing hazards into account.

With a median follow-up of 6.3 years, the analytic cohort of 226 patients was typical of the whole experiment (interquartile range 6.1-7.2 years). The GC (high versus low-intermediate) was independently correlated with biochemical progress (subdistribution hazard ratio (sHR) 2.26, 95% CI1.42-3.60; P<0.001), clinical progress (HR 2.29, 95% CI 1.32-3.98; P=0.003), and hormone therapy use (sHR 2.99, 95% CI 1.55-5.76; P=0.001). Compared to GC low-intermediate patients, GC high patients had 5-year independence from biochemical advancement of 45% as opposed to 71%. Both the general cohort and individuals with lower vs. higher GC scores did not benefit from the dose increase.

The predictive value of the GC has been proven in this investigation, which is the first modern randomized controlled trial in patients treated with early SRT without concomitant hormone treatment or pelvic nodal RT. High-GC patients were more than twice as likely to develop biochemical and clinical progression and undergo salvage hormone treatment than lower-GC patients, independent of common clinicopathologic factors and RT dosage. These findings support the therapeutic utility of Decipher GC for individualized concurrent systemic treatment in the context of postoperative salvage.

Reference: annalsofoncology.org/article/S0923-7534(22)01205-4/fulltext

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