Category Archives: Human Longevity

By Baohua Jia from Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

Every age in the history of human civilisation has a signature material, from the Stone Age, to the Bronze and Iron Ages. We might even call todays information-driven society the Silicon Age.

Since the 1960s, silicon nanostructures, the building-blocks of microchips, have supercharged the development of electronics, communications, manufacturing, medicine, and more.

How small are these nanostructures? Very, very small you could fit at least 3,000 silicon transistors onto the tip of a human hair. But there is a limit: below about 5 nanometres (5 millionths of a millimetre), it is hard to improve the performance of silicon devices any further.

So if we are about to exhaust the potential of silicon nanomaterials, what will be our next signature material? Thats where atomaterials come in.

Atomaterials is short for atomic materials, so called because their properties depend on the precise configuration of their atoms. It is a new but rapidly developing field.

One example is graphene, which is made of carbon atoms. Unlike diamond, in which the carbon atoms form a rigid three-dimensional structure, graphene is made of single layer of carbon atoms, bonded together in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice.

Diamonds rigid structure is the reason for its celebrated hardness and longevity, making it the perfect material for high-end drill bits and expensive jewellery. In contrast, the two-dimensional form of carbon atoms in graphene allows electron travelling frictionless at a high speed giving ultrahigh conductivity and the outstanding in plane mechanical strength. Thus, graphene has broad applications in medicines, electronics, energy storage, light processing, and water filtration.

Using lasers, we can fashion these atomic structures into miniaturised devices with exceptional performance.

Using atomaterials, our lab has been working on a range of innovations, at various stages of development. They include:

The film absorbs almost all the sunlight shining on it and converts it into heat. The temperature can be increased to 160 within 30 seconds. This heat can then distil seawater with an efficiency greater than 95%, and the distilled water is cleaner than tapwater. This low-cost technology can be suitable for domestic and industry applications.

Smart sensing film. These flexible atomaterial films can incorporate a wide range of functions including environmental sensing, communication, and energy storage. They have a broad range of applications in healthcare, sports, advanced manufacturing, farming, and others. For example, smart films could monitor soil humidity near plants roots, thus helping to make agriculture more water-efficient.

Ultrathin, ultra-lightweight lenses. The bulkiest part of a mobile phone camera is the lens, because it needs to be made of thick glass with particular optical properties. But lenses made with graphene can be mere millionths of a millimetre thick, and still deliver superb image quality. Such lenses could greatly reduce the weight and cost of everything from phones to space satellites.

Near-instant power supply. We have developed an environmentally friendly supercapacitor from graphene that charges devices in seconds, and has a lifetime of millions of charge cycles. By attaching it to the back of a solar cell, it can store and deliver solar-generated energy whenever and wherever required. You will be free and truly mobile.

It can take years for some of these laboratory technologies to reach fruition. To try and speed up the process, we established the CTAM Global OpenLab to engage with industry, academia, government and the wider community and to promote sharing and collaboration. The lab was launched earlier this month at the International Conference on Nanomaterial and Atomaterial Sciences and Applications (ICNASA2020).

The world is facing pressing challenges, from climate change, to energy and resource scarcity, to our health and well-being.

Material innovation is more vital than ever and needs to be more efficient, design-driven and environmentally friendly. But these challenges can only be solved by joint effort from worldwide researchers, enterprise, industry and government with a sharing and open mindset.

Baohua Jia, Professor, Swinburne University of Technology

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Atom-scale materials are the next tech frontier - Cosmos

Many people dream of becoming their own boss to realize a satisfying career trajectory theyve been unable to find in traditional work environments.

Helping professionals achieve this dream are platforms like Upwork, a platform for independent talent to find quality clients and engagements. With 57 million Americans freelancing or, 35 percent of the U.S. workforce Upwork is helping empower professionals to take control of their careers, giving them the freedom to choose their clients, their workload, and how, when, and where they make a living.

To meet demand of the rising trend, Upwork scaled quickly, but attracting new talent to the companywasnt hard. Like freelancers, its employees want steady career progression and access to opportunities theyre passionate about.

At Upwork, youre enabled to not only have an impact on allowing freelancers to better their lives, but youre also able to work with some of the largest companies today, said Avery Sebastian, a mid-market account executive. That sets off light bulbs in my head on a daily basis.

In just a few years, the Chicago branch has grown from a 25-person WeWork office to its current sprawling, trendy workplace. Bustling with over 200 employees, its turned into the companys largest outpost and a springboard for career advancement.

Everybody has signed up for a job that we understand is going to be a challenge. But thats part of the excitement, said Travis Smith, sales manager, mid-market. When you get a collection of those types of people and continue to hire people that have that mindset, some pretty cool things happen.

No matter the size, maintaining an inclusive and supportive environment has been a constant priority. While many employees keep an entrepreneurial mindset, Upwork ensures that its giving everyone the tools they need to succeed professionally.

After all, Upworks mission is to create economic opportunities so people have better lives.

Erin Thomas often takes her laptop into Upworks kitchen to work. Seated in the social hub, she is surrounded by the sort of chatter that fills any company break room and some thats not. Its not eavesdropping per se, its more her keeping tabs on the pulse of the company.

People kind of sidle up to one another and give advice and support. You can tell its not always a formal management relationship, Thomas said. Everyone is just really game to help each other out.

In late 2019, Thomas took on the newly created role of vice president, head of diversity, inclusion and belonging. With the steady influx of new faces, installing a position like Thomass was a proactive move: Upworks entrepreneurial environment is a big part of its culture but so is its commitment to meeting employees where they are.

My primary focus is making sure that, on a human level, everyone knows and feels like they belong here, Thomas said.

Upwork instills camaraderie right off the bat through new hire cohorts, made up of new hires from all departments. For those new to the company, like Thomas, having an immediate support system was helpful and months later, shes still finding those relationships important.

Given my role, I want to know whats going on in other areas of business. Whats great is that I can ping those folks from my cohort to ask them about whats happening in enterprise sales or what a particular acronym means in the mid-market group, Thomas said. Its really nice because, otherwise, I could get pretty lost.

Finding that natural fit can be hard for some, but strong bonds in the workplace can help employees feel supported and understood. At Upwork, formal and informal mentorship plays a big role in connecting people.

Last year, Sebastian, the mid-market AE, felt confident in his role, but wasnt entirely satisfied he wanted to level up. In a move typical for Upwork employees looking to improve, he reached out to a large enterprise account executive, who was happy to help.

I was able to connect with this rep in formal meetings twice a week, Sebastian said. We would go over current processes and look for ways to constantly improve. He also helped me with some career coaching to help me get to where I am today.

Because the results of mentorship can be so fruitful, Upwork ensures that everyone has access to a more seasoned employee to share tricks and advice with. On day one, new hires are assigned a mentor. This gives them a jumping-off point and an immediate contact who has been through what theyre going through and can help them define their role at Upwork. For those who struggle in asking for help, its a valuable asset.

Instead of being seen as a chore or a partnership limited to the first few weeks, the perception is that mentorship is a mutually beneficial relationship with longevity. For employees who have been with the company for a while, mentoring newer teammates can sharpen their leadership skills.

For example, amember of Smiths team approached him with the hopes of gaining practice in career coaching. She was looking for career growth and knew that a big part of that was being able to lead.

With that goal in mind, Smith helped her find opportunities to do so.

She made huge strides by mentoring people from account management, account executives and BDRs, Smith said. Fast forward to today: She just started her new job as manager.

One benefit of a growing company is that new roles are created much faster than in smaller organizations. When Upwork was a fraction of the size, it wasnt logistically possible to provide the kind of acceleration seen today.

One of the really cool things that weve been able to see is promotion, Smith said. With time, people that have done well have seen career progressions and have moved throughout the organization. Its very rewarding to see.

Sebastian joined Upwork two years ago, when the office was roughly half the size it is now. In that time, hes been promoted three times and now serves as a mid-market account executive. Having an entrepreneurs mindset, he says, has helped him in preparing for the next role.

I communicated with my management team about what my career goals and interests were, and often touched base on those aspirations, Sebastian said. As openings became available, I was able to show the leadership team that I have done the type of work that will enable me to succeed in the next role.

While self-promotion is always encouraged, Upwork understands that thanks to biases and harmful social conditioning, advocating for oneself isnt as easy as leaning in. Thats why it has instituted talent processes that help ensure everyone has a seat at the table even those who arent primed for displaying ambition in traditional ways.

We know that if we only leave it up to self-promotion, only certain folks would get those opportunities. So we buttress that spirit, Thomas said. We work with certain employee groups who we know culturally, because of biases or other barriers, might actually show up in a different way than conventionally expected when they self promote. Leaders take cultural competency and inclusion really seriously and dont position it as supplemental to their day jobs. Its a core part of their leadership expectations.

When assessing performance, Upwork takes a high-level look at how their leadership team is made up to ensure it reflects the diversity seen in the company. A 2019 study on women in the workplace found that promotions are given out disproportionately to men, who are often unconsciously evaluated not entirely on their past performance but on what they could accomplish.

By understanding this behavior, Upwork can reap the benefits of a truly diverse workforce.

We believe in a meritocracy where the best ideas are surfaced to the top. Weve made a very conscious effort to put formal processes in place to make sure everyones voices are heard, Smith said. As weve added people, weve only gotten better not just through the numbers but with the diversity of ideas that float around and now make up the culture, and how we execute our sales process and methodology.

As Upwork continues its upward trajectory, inclusivity and collaboration will remain at the forefront of its growth strategy. Leaders at the company see it as the only path to accomplishing all they want to.

We have some audacious goals, which means more collaboration and solving problems weve never tried to tackle, Thomas said. In order to do well, weve got to keep the fundamentals in place in terms of people being collaborative, being able to empathize, being able to admit mistakes and being open to growth. To us, those are all the underpinnings of an inclusive culture where folks belong.

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There Are 57 Million U.S. Independent Professionals Upwork Wants Them All to Succeed - Built In Chicago

QY Research recently generated a research report titled, Precision Medicine Software Market Report: Company Analysis, History and Future Overview, Global Sales Trends by 2025. The research report represents the potential growth opportunities that prevail in the global market. The report is analyzed on the basis of secondary research methodologies acquired from historic and forecast data. The global Precision Medicine Software market is expected to grow substantially and thrive in terms of volume and value during the forecast period. The report will provide an insight into the growth opportunities and restraints that construct the market. Readers can gain meaningful comprehension about the future of the market.

Competitive Landscape

The report includes numerous key players and manufacturers operating in the regional and global markets. This section demonstrates the strategies adopted by players in the Precision Medicine Software market to stay ahead in the competition. New trends and its adoption by players help readers understand the dynamics of the industry and how it can be used to their own profit. The readers can also identify the footsteps of players to understand the global market better. Company outlining of the key players such as Syapse Inc., Fabric Genomics Inc., Translational Software Inc., SOPHiA GENETICS SA, N-of-One Inc., Human Longevity Inc., Gene42 Inc., Sunquest Information Systems Inc., PierianDx Inc., LifeOmic, Foundation Medicine Inc. and 2bPrecise LLC.

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Global Precision Medicine Software Market: Drivers and Restraints

This section of the report includes drivers, restraints, and trends that are likely to shape the Precision Medicine Software market. The influence of drivers and restraints affect the market in each region differently. The report offers underlying drivers that compel the consumers to invest in the products and services. This section includes consumer demand and government policies that affect the Precision Medicine Software market. The detailed information assists readers in understanding the needs of consumer demands. The report provides drivers at the local and global levels to help determine the market forces. This information will help readers decide potential strategies that can help them stay ahead in the competitive industry.

Restraints provided in this section of the report contrasts the drivers segment as it explains the factors that can hamper the growth of the Precision Medicine Software market during the forecast period. Restraints play a pivotal role in the global and regional market as it bends the prospective opportunities in the market. Readers can weigh and asses the drivers and restraints before making any investments or strategies.

Global Precision Medicine Software Market: Segment Analysis

The report includes major segments such as product type and end-user that provide an array of components that determine the portfolio of the Precision Medicine Software industry. Each type furnishes information regarding the sales value during the forecast period. The application section also provides sales by volume and consumption during the forecast period. The understanding of the segment directs the readers in recognizing the importance of factors that shape the market growth.

The Market is split into Following segments which are as follows:

By Delivery Mode

Cloud-based

On-premise

By Application

Rare Diseases

Oncology

Pharmacogenomics

By End User

Healthcare Providers

Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies

Global Precision Medicine Software Market: Regional Analysis

This section of the report provides detailed information about each region and how numerous factors of that particular region affect the growth of the Precision Medicine Software market. The government policies, weather, politics, and other factors determine the future of the market differently in each region.The major regions covered in the report include North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa, and others.

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Precision Medicine Software Market 2020 Growth Analysis, Share, Demand by Regions, Industry Development and Growth opportunities for Leading Players...

PRINCETON, N.J., Feb. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Soligenix, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNGX) (Soligenix or the Company), a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing products to treat rare diseases where there is an unmet medical need, announced today that its RiVax(heat stable ricin toxin vaccine) development program for prevention of ricin intoxication has received "Fast Track" designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Fast track is a designation that the FDA reserves for a drug intendedto treat a serious or life- threatening condition and one that demonstrates the potential to address an unmet medical need for the condition.Fast track designation is intended to facilitate the development and expedite the review of new drugs and biologics.For instance, should events warrant, Soligenix will be eligible to submit a biologics license application (BLA) for RiVaxon a rolling basis, permitting the FDA to review sections of the BLA prior to receiving the complete submission.Additionally, BLAs for fast track development programs ordinarily will be eligible for priority review, which imparts an abbreviated review time of approximately six months.

"We are very pleased to have been granted fast track designation from the FDA to go along with the orphan drug designation previously received," stated Christopher J. Schaber, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Soligenix."We believe that the FDA's action in granting fast track designation validates the unmet medical need that currently exists for a vaccine providing protection against lethal ricin toxin exposure and for the potential key role RiVaxcan serve as a part of the US Strategic National Stockpile."

The development of RiVax has been funded through a series of grants from both the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the FDA and ongoing development is sponsored by NIAID contract #HHSN272201400039C. Non-dilutive funding for the development of RiVax has exceeded $40 million to date.

About Ricin Toxin

Ricin toxin is a lethal plant-derived toxin and potential biological weapon because of its stability and high potency, and the fact that it is readily extracted from by-products of castor oil production.Ricin comes in many forms including powder, mist or pellet.Ricin can also be dissolved in water and other liquids.The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the lethal dose in humans is about the size of a grain of salt.Ricin toxin illness causes tissue necrosis and general organ failure leading to death within several days of exposure.Ricin is especially toxic when inhaled.Ricin works by entering cells of the body and preventing the cells from making the proteins they need.Without the proteins, cells die, which is eventually harmful to the entire body.

There are currently no effective treatments for ricin poisoning.The successful development of an effective vaccine against ricin toxin may act as a deterrent against the actual use of ricin as a biological weapon and could be used to vaccinate military personnel and civilian emergency responders at high risk of potential exposure in the event of a biological attack.

About RiVax

RiVax is Soligenix's proprietary heat stable recombinant subunit vaccine developed to protect against exposure to ricin toxin, the threat of which has been highlighted recently in the news with an envelope addressed to President Trump that was thought to contain this potent and potentially lethal toxin.With RiVax, Soligenix is a world leader in the area of ricin toxin vaccine research.

RiVax contains a genetically altered version of a Ricin Toxin A (RTA) chain containing two mutations that inactivate the toxicity of the ricin molecule. A Phase 1A clinical trial was conducted with a formulation of RiVax that did not contain an adjuvant.This trial revealed dose dependent seroconversion as well as lack of toxicity of the molecule when administered intramuscularly to human volunteers.The adjuvant-free formulation of RiVax induced toxin neutralizing antibodies that lasted up to 127 days after the third vaccination in several individuals.

To increase the longevity and magnitude of toxin neutralizing antibodies, RiVax was subsequently formulated with an adjuvant of aluminum salts (known colloquially as alum) for a Phase 1B clinical trial.Alum is an adjuvant that is used in many human vaccines, including most vaccines used in infants.The results of the Phase 1B study indicated that alum-adjuvanted RiVax was safe and well tolerated, and induced greater ricin neutralizing antibody levels in humans than adjuvant-free RiVax.In animal studies, the alum formulation of RiVax also induced higher titers and longer-lasting antibodies than the adjuvant-free vaccine.Vaccination with the thermostabilized alum-adjuvanted RiVax formulation in a large animal model provided 100% protection (p<0.0001) against acute exposure to aerosolized ricin, the most lethal route of exposure for ricin.The protected animals also had no signs of gross lung damage, a serious and enduring ramification with long-term consequences for survivors of ricin exposure.These results are described in a publication available here.

Heat stabilization of RiVax is achieved with the Company's proprietary ThermoVax technology, designed to eliminate the cold-chain production, distribution and storage logistics required for most vaccines.The technology utilizes precise lyophilization of protein immunogens with conventional aluminum adjuvants in combination with secondary adjuvants for rapid onset of protective immunity with the fewest number of vaccinations.By employing ThermoVax during the final formulation of RiVax, the vaccine has demonstrated enhanced stability and the ability to withstand temperatures at least as high as 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for up to one year. These results are described in a publication available here.

The development of RiVax has been funded through a series of grants from both the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the FDA and ongoing development is sponsored by NIAID contract #HHSN272201400039C. Non-dilutive funding for the development of RiVax has exceeded $40 million to date.RiVax is being developed under the FDA "Animal Rule" and potentially would be added to the Strategic National Stockpile and dispensed in the event of a terrorist threat.RiVax has received orphan drug designation in the US and in Europe.

As a new chemical entity, an FDA approved RiVax vaccine has the potential to qualify for a biodefense Priority Review Voucher (PRV), which allows the holder accelerated review of a drug application. Approved under the 21st Century Health Cures Act in late 2016, the biodefense PRV is awarded upon approval as a medical countermeasure when the active ingredient(s) have not been otherwise approved for use in any context.PRVs are transferable and can be sold, with sales in recent years in excess of $100 million.When redeemed, PRVs entitle the user to an accelerated review period of six months, saving a median of seven months' review time as calculated in 2009.However, the FDA must be advised 90 days in advance of the use of the PRV and the use of a PRV is associated with an additional user fee ($2.1 million in 2020).

About Soligenix, Inc.

Soligenix is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing products to treat rare diseases where there is an unmet medical need. Our Specialized BioTherapeutics business segment is developing SGX301 as a novel photodynamic therapy utilizing safe visible light for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, our first-in-class innate defense regulator (IDR) technology, dusquetide (SGX942) for the treatment of oral mucositis in head and neck cancer, and proprietary formulations of oral beclomethasone 17,21-dipropionate (BDP) for the prevention/treatment of gastrointestinal (GI) disorders characterized by severe inflammation including pediatric Crohn's disease (SGX203) and acute radiation enteritis (SGX201).

Our Public Health Solutions business segment includes active development programs for RiVax, our ricin toxin vaccine candidate, OrbeShield, our GI acute radiation syndrome therapeutic candidate and SGX943, our therapeutic candidate for antibiotic resistant and emerging infectious disease. The development of our vaccine programs incorporates the use of our proprietary heat stabilization platform technology, known as ThermoVax. To date, this business segment has been supported with government grant and contract funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the Defense Threat Reduction Agents (DTRA) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

For further information regarding Soligenix, Inc., please visit the Company's website at http://www.soligenix.com.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements that reflect Soligenix, Inc.'s current expectations about its future results, performance, prospects and opportunities, including but not limited to, potential market sizes, patient populations and clinical trial enrollment.Statements that are not historical facts, such as "anticipates," "estimates," "believes," "hopes," "intends," "plans," "expects," "goal," "may," "suggest," "will," "potential," or similar expressions, are forward-looking statements.These statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results in future periods to differ materially from what is expressed in, or implied by, these statements.Soligenix cannot assure you that it will be able to successfully develop, achieve regulatory approval for or commercialize products based on its technologies, particularly in light of the significant uncertainty inherent in developing therapeutics and vaccines against bioterror threats, conducting preclinical and clinical trials of therapeutics and vaccines, obtaining regulatory approvals and manufacturing therapeutics and vaccines, that product development and commercialization efforts will not be reduced or discontinued due to difficulties or delays in clinical trials or due to lack of progress or positive results from research and development efforts, that it will be able to successfully obtain any further funding to support product development and commercialization efforts, including grants and awards, maintain its existing grants which are subject to performance requirements, enter into any biodefense procurement contracts with the U.S. Government or other countries, that it will be able to compete with larger and better financed competitors in the biotechnology industry, that changes in health care practice, third party reimbursement limitations and Federal and/or state health care reform initiatives will not negatively affect its business, or that the U.S. Congress may not pass any legislation that would provide additional funding for the Project BioShield program. In addition, there can be no assurance as to the timing or success of the Phase 3 clinical trial of SGX942 (dusquetide) as a treatment for oral mucositis in patients with head and neck cancer receiving chemoradiation therapy or the Phase 3 clinical trial of SGX301 (synthetic hypericin) for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Further, there can be no assurance that RiVax will qualify for a biodefense Priority Review Voucher (PRV) or that the prior sales of PRVs will be indicative of any potential sales price for a PRV for RiVax. Also, no assurance can be provided that the Company will receive or continue to receive non-dilutive government funding from grants and contracts that have been or may be awarded or for which the Company will apply in the future.These and other risk factors are described from time to time in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, Soligenix's reports on Forms 10-Q and 10-K. Unless required by law, Soligenix assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fda-grants-soligenix-fast-track-designation-for-rivax-in-the-prevention-of-ricin-poisoning-301004194.html

SOURCE Soligenix, Inc.

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FDA Grants Soligenix "Fast Track" Designation for RiVax in the Prevention of Ricin Poisoning - BioSpace

Will the future of work be awful in a world of artificial intelligence and robots? When we look at the longer arc of world trends they are pretty good. In the last few decades, globally, we have pulled more people out of extreme poverty, dramatically increased literacy rates, and for the short period of time we have had the internet, connected more than half the globe. In short, innovations are helping us to live longer, prosper, and be better educated than the generations that came before us. However, we face new challenges that previous generations never faced in how to keep relevant in a workplace that is constantly changing. Its not enough anymore to earn a degree or learn a trade when our knowledge might be irrelevant by graduation.

So how do you navigate a career in a world of constant change? To find out how we could successfully ride the waves of digital disruption, I talked with future of work expert Heather McGowan. Heather didnt start as a thought leader in work. She began her career in Industrial Design and as the world changed, so did her expertise. Her experience in multiple fields (she also earned a business degree) allowed her to help universities redesign their programs for the changing demands of the workplace. In some ways, she has been thinking about the future of work for many years as she prepared undergrads for the new work paradigm of constant change.

So what do we need to do to stay on top? We need to focus on human skills, flearning, and unlearning.

To stay relevant, we need to focus on human skills. McGowan demonstrates in her new book The Adaptation Advantage, soft skills like creativity, communication, and empathy will be more important than learning hard skills like GSuite or coding. While our digital friends of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robots may soon be able to replace any repetitive or routine skills we can do, they arent all that good at being creative, understanding our needs, or communicating with us. Current technologies can make established processes more efficient but those tech tools cannot dream, imagine, or make meaning. We have only digitized about 20% of our economy, so as we progress in this process, soft skills, which are hard if not impossible to automate, becoming increasingly important.

So today we need to focus on being creative to come up with novel questions and undertake complex problems. We need to be able to communicate well in order to collaborate and work together as teams. Finally, empathy is always in demand as we collaborate with others and work in the creative and service economies.

We need to adapt a flearning mindset. Businesses and universities have created systems of learning and work cultures that haveas Theoretical Neuroscientist and Founder of Socos Labs Dr. Vivienne Ming saysdesigned failure right out of the system. Instead of learning, McGowan suggests we need to embrace Flearning. [Note the term flearning (failing + learning) was coined after the 2012 FailCon (Failure Conference), in a brainstorming session led by Mick Liubinskas, co-founder of business incubator Pollenizer]. In our obsession to prove learning, we have trained people to find the single right answer to known questions rather than probe new problems or find new insights and questions all togetherthese are tasks that are not as easily automated. Those who can find and frame novel challenges in order to create new value, essentially those adept at innovation, will never have to look for work.

However, failure is an integral part of innovation and an important part of learning. We learn best by making mistakes and improving on our attempts. We need to strive as institutions and individuals to feel its okay to try something new and not have it work, as long as you learn from the experience. Leading teams in this new normal requires executives who can establish psychological safety for their teams by demonstrating vulnerability such that their team members feel safe taking risks, failing, being wrong, and asking for help. This approach is new for many and may be uncomfortable. Our tendency as leaders to seek to establish ourselves as experts is also a challenge. There is an academic term known as earned dogmatism effect whereonce earned or deemed an expertwe discard new information in favor of holding onto our perceived expertise. In a world of accelerated change, this is a real liability.

Finally, we all need to learn how to unlearn. According to McGowan, unlearning is the process of letting go of old methods and the means of doing things so you can adopt new processes and methods. For example, transitioning from analog processes to digital processes requires unlearning; or shifting from one business model to another requires unlearning. We all have to be willing to let go of the ways things always have been done to adapt to the way things are being accomplished now.

Even more significant, we may have to let go of who we think we are. Our obsession over the last few decades of defining ourselves with a fixed occupational identity, evidenced by our colloquial greeting What do you do? can become a trap, preventing learning and adaptation in a world of accelerated change. In this world, our career arcs are longer by nature of expansive human longevity. Since the change rate is faster, we will experience more jobs across more industries making our ability to learn and adapt our single greatest competitive advantage.

If not, well not only fall behind in our work and industries, we may fall into an identity crisis. Studies by IBM (NYSE: IBM) found in 2014 it took 4 days to close the skills gap; in 2018, that gap became 36 days. Looking across all Westerm European countries, that gap equals 14 to 16% of your time or a minimum of an hour a day to catch up with 2018. The World Economic Forum predicts in less than 3 years (by 2022) we may need 101 days a year or 45% of our time learning in order to keep pace with changes in work. When you consider what we put away for retirement (e.g., 14-16% of the money we make every day according to research by AARP and Fidelity,) Heather believes that Learning Is the New Pension.

In the end, the new work world may seem daunting but we have the skills to succeed. Thinking about humans today, we live in environments once considered uninhabitable by our ancestors. We forge technology tools that extend our human potential. Heather calls this approach the adaptation advantage. Schools, businesses, and individuals who are willing to adapt to a new learning mindset will thrive. This new mindset is one in which we continuously learn, focus on human skills, embrace failure in learning, and unlearn the old ways to let in the new.

(Featured image by Free-Photos from Pixabay)

DISCLAIMER: This article was written by a third party contributor and does not reflect the opinion of Born2Invest, its management, staff or its associates. Please review our disclaimer for more information.

This article may include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words believe, project, estimate, become, plan, will, and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks as well as uncertainties, including those discussed in the following cautionary statements and elsewhere in this article and on this site. Although the Company may believe that its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, the actual results that the Company may achieve may differ materially from any forward-looking statements, which reflect the opinions of the management of the Company only as of the date hereof. Additionally, please make sure to read these important disclosures.

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Why learning how to handle failure is the key to career success - Born2Invest

As we enter a new decade, the human race finds itself faced with worldwide political turmoil, economic injustice, dizzying technological achievements, and an existential threat in the form of a spiralling climate crisis. In order to rise to and overcome these challenges, humanity is going to need to drastically reevaluate the way it caters to some of its basic needs.

The global urban population has grown rapidly, from 751mn people in 1950 to 4.2bn today. Almost 70% of the worlds population is predicted to live in urban areas by 2050, according to a report by the United Nations (UN) released last year. At the start of the 1800s, more than 90% of the population (in the US) lived on farms and, on average, a farmer grew enough each year to feed between three and five people. Throughout the subsequent centuries, advances in agricultural technology and technique meant that farms produced more food using less labour. In 1900, an acre of land used to grow corn only produced 18% of the yield achieved on the same piece of land in 2014. Today, farmers represent a mere 1.4% of the US population, and the average size of farms has grown dramatically. The ratio of people in cities to the farmers that feed them is already at a huge disparity and, as that relationship becomes more and more imbalanced, the strain put upon the agricultural industry has the potential to spell disaster for a global food supply - to say nothing of biodiversity, quality of diet and cultural connections to cuisine itself.

Massive demand for year-round, mass produced, cheap produce today is already causing problems, from the incipient extinction of the honey bee to the wildfires and droughts exacerbated by overfarming water-wasteful crops like almonds and avocados. One of the most prominent issues, however, is the fact that as more people move into cities, the supply chains required to feed these swelling urban populations get longer and less sustainable. Food grown and produced to last for long periods of time contains more indigestible fats and sugars. Diets are changing with rising incomes and urbanisation people are consuming more animal-source foods, sugar, fats and oils, refined grains, and processed foods. This nutrition transition is causing increases in overweight and obesity and diet-related diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, noted a report on Changing diets: Urbanization and the nutrition transition by researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute.

In the UK, despite all the advances of modern medicine, life expectancy for lower-middle class and working class males is - when adjusted for infant mortality - three years lower than it was in the mid-Victorian era. The implications of a better understanding of mid-Victorian health are profound. It becomes clear that, with the exception of family planning, the vast edifice of post-1948 healthcare has not so much enabled us to live longer but has merely supplied methods of controlling the symptoms of non-communicable degenerative diseases, which have become prevalent due to our failure to maintain mid-Victorian nutritional standards, write Dr Paul Clayton, a Fellow at the Institute of Food, Brain and Behaviour, Oxford; and Judith Rowbotham, a Visiting Research Fellow at Plymouth University. The mid-Victorian diet that Clayton and Rowbotham espouse the values of was fairly one-note, but had spectacular benefits. The Victorian urban poor consumed diets which were limited, but contained extremely high nutrient density, write Clayton and Rowbotham. Bread could be expensive but onions, watercress, cabbage, and fruit like apples and cherries were all cheap and did not need to be carefully budgeted for. Beetroot was eaten all year round; Jerusalem artichokes were often home-grown. Fish such as herrings and meat in some form (scraps, chops and even joints) were common too. All in all, a reversion to mid-Victorian nutritional values would significantly improve health expectancy today the current pandemics of obesity and diabetes represent in many ways an acceleration of the ageing process. We need to go back to the future.

The population of the UK in the mid-Victorian era was about 30mn and, despite being at the height of the Industrial Revolution - was a lot less urbanised than it is today. In 2019, more than 83% of the UKs population live in cities and towns, the country employs fewer than half a million farmers and produces less than 60% of the food it consumes.

How do we fix it?

The key to improving nutrition and shortening the supply chains between rural farms and urban consumers may be deceptively simple. While, just grow the food in the cities, might seem like a somewhat glib response to a nuanced issue, there are compelling cases around the world for doing just that.

In an unassuming warehouse in New Jersey, serried rows of kale, lettuce and other leafy greens are stacked in shelving units and trays that reach up into the air. The climate - light intensity, humidity, nutrient balance in the soil - is meticulously tracked by a network of sensors and cameras that feed oceans of data into a proprietary operating system that allows the facilitys operators to grow food 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in conditions that are as close to perfect as can be found anywhere. This is Bowery Farming, an urban agriculture startup founded in 2015 by Irving Fain, David Golden and Brian Falther, backed by Google Ventures. In an interview in 2018, Fain - who is also Bowerys CEO - claimed that his companys urban farming techniques use no pesticides and "95% less water than traditional agriculture, all while remaining 100-plus times more productive on the same footprint of land.

Urban and vertical farming techniques are growing (sorry) in popularity across the world as a potential way to solve a number of the challenges posed by increasing populations, climate instability and food deserts (areas of rural, suburban or urban land without farms or grocery stores, making it next to impossible to obtain quality, fresh food in an affordable way and offering only convenience food chains in their place - food deserts are playing a major role in the deterioration of urban population health). The practice has its roots (again, sorry) in times of economic scarcity and turmoil - the Great Depression and the Second World War both saw a huge increase in the number of urban farms - and can be as low-tech as growing a head of lettuce on your bathroom windowsill, or as futuristic as a fully-automated, end-to-end hydroponic facility operated by artificial intelligence (but more about Stacked in a minute). At the moment, urban farming operations are turning to vertical farming, the practice of using (typically) climate-controlled environments to grow plants across multiple levels - a practice that can turn a 3,000 sq ft allotment in a city centre into effectively a 9,000 sq ft agricultural facility.

Regardless of the level of technology employed across their operations, there are a few key vertical farming techniques that are being adopted in an effort to solve one of the key problems facing modern agriculture: water wastage.

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Hydroponics

The practice of growing plants without soil. Hydroponics uses a nutrient-rich liquid solution to submerge the roots of plants, which are placed in an inert medium (gravel, sand, clay pellets) for support. The method can drastically reduce water usage and increase yield.

Aquaponics

Adding an additional layer of sustainability to the hydroponic technique, aquaponics uses fish as the generators for the nitrate-rich plant food. Fish create ammonia-rich waste in their tank, the water from which is then pumped into an inert medium that contains plants. Bacteria in the bed turns ammonia into nitrates which the plants use for food, cleaning the water in the process. Then, the clean water is cycled back into the fish tank for the symbiotic process to begin again. Fish like perch or catfish can also ensure that the method provides two sources of food.

Aeroponics

Invented by NASA in the 1990s as a way of potentially raising crops in space (where tiny soil particles can be a nightmare for delicate instruments and electronics), aeroponics doesnt use a liquid or solid medium to cultivate crops, instead using a nutrient-rich mist. It uses 90% less water than conventional hydroponic techniques.

Feeding plants using closed systems like these gives farmers an enviable amount of control over the condition of their crops. In Bowerys system, a simple tweak of the lighting and nitrate levels in the soil can deliver a crop of kale thats less chalky. As with any industry undergoing a digital transformation - and the data-driven, high-tech operations at Bowerys three farms are certainly indicative of that - old roles and new roles are being constantly combined. Katie Morich, a Bowery farmer explained in an interview with Food & Wine that her job has become half farmer and half data scientist. The combination of traditional and tech has been yielding promising results at Bowery, which is scheduled to open its third farm (an operation some 90 times larger than the companys first operation in New Jersey, situated in Baltimore) in 2020.

However, despite the success of startups like Bowery, and the promise of urban and vertical farming techniques, the industry isnt immune to teething troubles. While environmentally sustainable (although a number of urban farms still use pesticides), vertical farms have been struggling to compete financially as a combination of electricity costs, small scale operations and higher rent in urban areas conspire to make profitability a challenge. According to a report by Emerald Insight, less than a third of urban farmers in the US are making a living from their operations. There are, it would seem, two solutions to this problem:

Its not about the money

One of the major benefits of vertical farming systems is that, thanks to a technique like aquaponics, and increasingly cheap IoT technology, urban farming doesnt need to be a full time job. A majority of urban farms in the US are registered non-profits or community projects. Dividing the work among a neighbourhood or even a block of flats could make for self-contained farming communities in the city that are free from depending on imported, expensive produce.

Founded in 2009, Colorado-based company The Aquaponics Source specialises in providing small scale aquaponics systems for schools, institutes and household use. Startup AquaSprouts sells self-contained home units with a focus on education and home use that cost under US$200, although the internet assures me you can build an industrial scale system to grow edible fish and leafy greens for significantly less (assuming you know a guy whos looking to get rid of a giant rainwater barrel). Going small and cooperative may provide a look into the way urban farming can help support the global food supply. After all, its how the practice began.

Go big or go home

Operations like Bowery and Brooklyn Grange (a 44,000 sq ft rooftop farm in Long Island) are significant scale operations and some of the few for-profit urban farms to have shown serious longevity in the fledgling industry.

Capitalising on the idea that bigger is better and makes more money is French urban farming startup Agripolis. In collaboration with Cultures en Ville, the company is set to open the worlds largest urban farm in Paris early this year.

The goal is to make this urban farm a globally-recognised model for responsible production, with nutrients used in organic farming and quality products grown in rhythm with nature's cycles, all in the heart of Paris, the company said in a statement. The farm will grow more than 1,000 fruits and vegetables a day when in season.

Whatever shape the future of urban agriculture takes, it may be one of humanitys best shots at overcoming the challenges of the coming decades.

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Urban farming: technology and tradition - Gigabit Magazine - Technology News, Magazine and Website

What did target date fund providers learn from the market crash a decade ago? Not much, for some providers, believes Richard Weiss, chief investment officer-multi-asset strategies at Kansas City-based American Century Investments.

The subsequent lengthy bull market has motivated some TDF providers to allocate more to equities, Weiss thinks. The reason that some providers have done so well is that theyve loaded up on equities, especially mega-cap U.S. tech stocks. Target date providers were getting pressure from clients and advisors: Why arent you getting a higher return in this bull market? he says. But the next time there is a big decline in the market, that is going to lead those providers to go off the cliff. It will be a wakeup call for some plan sponsors and participants on how risky an investment theyve morphed into. Others will realize how risky their target date fund always has been, which they havent realized yet because theyve only gotten in during the past 10 years, in the bull market.

Not that the past decade has led target date providers to adopt cookie-cutter glide path philosophies and sub-asset class allocation approaches. They are still created pretty differently across providers, says Scott Donaldson, senior investment strategist at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania-based Vanguard Group. There are differences in the level of aggressiveness of the glide path, from an equity standpoint. And within the glide path, there is a diverse set of strategies in how the providers have implemented it.Range Rovers?

Todays target date funds typically have a relatively narrow range of equity allocations in the funds for investors early in their career, says Jeff Holt, Chicago-based director of multiasset and alternative strategies at Morningstar. The allocations become more different as you get closer to the retirement date, he adds. Glide paths more commonly go through retirement, he says, but the approaches at and in retirement differ substantially. If you look at the extremes of equity allocations at retirement, the range exceeds 50 percentage points. One of John Hancocks series has 8% in equity at retirement, and some providers have more than 60%. The industry average is 43%.

How target date funds will do in the next extended market downturn depends on what theyre exposed to, Holt says. A decade ago, performance declines went beyond equities to numerous other asset classes. In 2008, target date funds participated in the market volatility. The question is, will they continue to participate in the next downward market? he says. If the 2008 market environment were to happen again, the expectation is that target date funds will again participate in the losses. By and large, the main structure of target date funds hasnt changed dramatically in the past 10 years.

The Fidelity Freedom Funds have a slightly higher-than-average equity allocation early on (90% for the 2050 fund versus 88% for the industry average, according to year-end 2018 Morningstar data), then shift into a lower-than average equity allocation during retirement (24% for the 2005 fund versus a 33% average, Morningstar says). From an overall objective standpoint, were trying to deliver something that helps participants maintain their standard of living in retirement, says Sarah OToole, institutional portfolio manager at Boston-based Fidelity Investments. For younger investors, were focused on achieving a total-return objective, and were sacrificing a bit of diversification to do that. Younger investors can better withstand downturns, because they have time to make it up, she says. Then, as people move closer to retirement and beyond retirement, our focus for participants is on providing diversification and resiliency across different market environments.

The Principal LifeTime Funds allocation aligns closely with the industry averages early in the glide path, but then shifts into a lower-than-average equity allocation in retirement. (Principals Strategic Income Fund holds 23% in equity versus a 33% average for 2005 funds, according to Morningstar data.)A couple of main factors influence Principals design of its glide path, says Randy Welch, managing director and portfolio manager at Des Moines, Iowa-based Principal. It starts with doing Monte Carlo simulations to create an initial, optimally efficient allocation path. Then Principal has looked at participant data and behavior across its entire recordkeeping platform, to take into account actual utilization of TDFs.

Human Conditions

We try to manage volatility by being realistic about participants, Welch says, adding that those in TDFs tend to have lower balances than other participants. If I just run Monte Carlo simulations unconstrained, it will say that I need to add more risk to the portfolio. But were also sensitive to the human side of this. Many individuals in target date funds who are approaching retirement are somewhat underfunded, but they are also concerned about volatility. Many of these people havent saved enough, but I dont want to just increase the risk in the portfolio to try to make up for that.

American Centurys OneChoice Target Date Portfolios have a glide path thats unique and flatter than most, a Morningstar report says. Between the 2030 fund and the 2010 fund, for example, equity dips from 55% to 45%. Weve stuck with our original philosophy, and weve paid the price for it, Weiss says. Weve lagged the performance of some of the more aggressive target date funds in the past several years. But we are sitting here with a process and a philosophy designed to work through a full market cycle, both a bull and bear market.

The reason for our flatter glide path is to minimize the sequence of returns risk, meaning the risk of getting caught in an 08 scenario right before youre about to retire, Weiss says. Its designed to smooth out returns over time. He describes American Centurys TDFs as best suited for sponsors concerned most about getting the highest proportion of their participants through to a successful retirement, not necessarily with the most money.

Different Strokes

The Vanguard Target Retirement Funds maintain an equity glide path that matches up closely with industry averages throughout, Donaldson says. Vanguard seeks to balance risks that participants face equally, he says. Investors in target date funds have many risks to contend with, and there are many different investment strategies to focus on certain risks, he says. We think that it is important to account for many types of risk. With a glide path design, you are making one selection for many people, who are in many types of situations.

If you talk to participants, youll find that they have different weights placed on different risks for each individual, Donaldson continues. Plan sponsors selecting a target date fund family need to put their fiduciary hat on, in the sense that they need to balance the different risks. You want the product that they believe might do the best for the most investors, and not one that focuses on one particular risk characteristic.

The Retirement Series of T. Rowe Prices target date funds has a higher-than-average percentage of equity around retirement: 55% for the 2020 fund, versus the 44% industry average that Morningstar cites. T. Rowe Prices investment philosophy for the TDFs emphasizes longevity risk. Our primary objective is supporting investors ability to have lifetime income, so that people do not run out of money, says Joe Martel, a portfolio specialist at the Baltimore-based firm. We also want to help overcome the reality that many participants are under-saving as a percentage of their income. The vast majority of participants save under the 15% general rule of thumb about how much people should save for retirement and if they are saving 15%, its usually back-loaded during the later years of their career.

Dont Get Fooled

Target date funds still differ in how they seek diversification, Holt says. The equity glide path just scratches the surface of the differences between TDFs, he says. The sub-asset class differences are still pretty prevalent. Thats where you see the differences in how much they allocate to investments like TIPS (Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities).

Understanding target date funds requires going deeper than just knowing the equity versus fixed income breakdown, Weiss says. The glide path philosophy should filter down to the sub-asset class decisions and the individual stocks and bonds held, he says.

In the target date fund world, the shorthand is to simply look at the glide path, which just shows the percentage of equities and the percentage of bonds, and which can easily be gamed, Weiss says. You can masquerade as a low-risk glide path by having a low equity exposure, but getting juiced up on exposure to things like commodities. It is critical to look at the next level of asset allocation, so you dont get fooled.

Thats especially important for understanding a target date fund familys risks for those in or near retirement, says Weiss, who believes that protection against downside risks should dominate then. Its the diversification more than anything that matters at that point, he says. Concentrations are the enemy of a retiree.

For Fidelity, its sub-asset class investment decisions revolve around increasing diversification, OToole says. Its a balance between growing the assets and protecting the assets, she says. For example, in 2018 the Freedom Funds made allocations to TIPS and long-term Treasuries, to help with inflation risk. We are focused on increasing diversification, given the uncertainty about the markets in the long term, she says. And inflation protection gets more important as investors age.

Some target date funds have diversified more within fixed income the past few years. T. Rowe Price has added long-duration Treasury bonds and an absolute return fixed income strategy, for example. While we believe that longevity risk should be the focus, that doesnt mean we ignore volatility, Martel says. Our belief is that fixed income, and the level of diversification that a TDF has within fixed income, is by far the best way to address volatility. Because in the end, equities are equities.

Vanguard now allocates 30% of its TDF fixed income portfolio to non-U.S. fixed income, Donaldson says. Investment-grade, non-U.S. fixed income can be a pretty strong diversifier, he says. Having a combination of high-quality fixed income is important to reduce equity risk. The real value of fixed income in a target date portfolio is not return generation, but the volatility and risk mitigation.

Market risk remains the greatest risk of a target date fund portfolio, whether a TDF allocates 80% or 20% to equity, Donaldson says. Being broadly diversified across many different asset classes is one way to control downside risk, he says. One of the most common ways to do that is diversifying away from U.S. equities into non-U.S. equities, in both developed markets and emerging markets. Its one of the few ways that you can diversify equity risk without moving out of equities.

Vanguard has made several sub-asset class tweaks over the past decade, Donaldson says. Most of those were in some way related to gradually increasing the global diversification of the funds, he says, moving more assets into non-U.S. equities and fixed income.

In the spring of 2019, Fidelity increased the diversification of the Freedom Funds equity exposure, OToole says. We moved from 70/30 in U.S. versus non-U.S. equities to a 60/40 allocation, she says. We want to preserve the home-country bias, because participants are funding U.S. dollar-based liabilities (their retirement-expense needs).

International equity and fixed income holdings have increased among target date fund managers the past few years, Holt says. Within the sub-asset classes, weve seen a move away from as pronounced a home-country bias, he says. Most of the TDFs are still weighted toward U.S. equities, but less so.

Helping Sponsors Get Clarity

Sponsors need plan advisors to help them ensure theyve matched the right target date fund family with their participant base and plan. Its about understanding the goals of the target date provider, and how that aligns with the goals of the participants and the sponsor, OToole says.

To help sponsors decide, Welch suggests working with a plans provider to get TDF utilization data for a sample of the participant population. They can look at the individual characteristics of those participants, he says. We look closely at the belly of the age curve, from age 50 to normal retirement age. What sort of account balances do they have? What are their deferral rates at that point? If most of the participants have large account balances and are coming into their retirement funded adequately, the sponsor may want a target date fund thats more conservative, because those participants have got plenty of assets. But other sponsors will want something more aggressive in that case.

Utilizing the right target date family ultimately boils down to an employers philosophy, Martel believes, and he sees advisors playing a key role to help employers clarify that. First, its helping them determine, what is their objective? Who are you trying to solve for: Is the employee population theyre focusing on those around retirement, or younger workers, or do they weight those populations evenly? he says. Then its looking at the different types of risks and outcomes: Do they want to put a greater emphasis on longevity risk, or do they want to limit volatility around retirement? Help them understand the tradeoffs.

Sponsors need to understand the implications of prioritizing market risk or longevity risk, Martel says. The cost of getting lower volatility will be lower balances at retirement, he continues. Some sponsors are willing to accept more volatility to increase the chances that their participants will retire with enough income in retirement. But it is perfectly reasonable to say, Ill take lower balances at retirement to have lower volatility.

Judy Ward is a freelancer specializing in writing about retirement plans. The article originally appeared in the Winter 2019 issue of NAPA Net the Magazine.

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Missing the Target? - National Association of Plan Advisors

The Democratic presidential field is getting tighter. But can we talk about how tight the results were between Bernie Sanders andPete Buttigieg at last night's New Hampshire primary?

It's Ashley. Let's talk news, shall we?

But first, the first rule of mouse fight club: Get the crumbs. Check out this epic photo of two mice fighting over crumbs in the subway.

The Short List newsletter is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup.Subscribehere!

For the first time in almost a year, the Democratic presidential race is down to eight candidates. Three Democratic presidential candidates called it quits within hours of polls closing in New Hampshire on Tuesday, leaving the field with only one candidate of color and a solidified group of top contenders. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Sen. Michael Bennetended their campaigns nearly an hour after most polls closed Tuesday. Wednesday morning, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick ended his campaign, The Democratic presidential field was once large and diverse. Now, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who is of Samoan descent, is the only candidate of color left after Yang and Patrick dropped out.

Bernie Sanders took home the victory in New Hampshires Democratic primary Tuesday, edging Pete Buttigieg in a closer-than-expected finish that leaves the race for the Democratic presidential nomination still muddled.Amy Klobuchar came in a surprising third.Unsurprisingly,President Donald Trump easily won New Hampshires Republican primary against minimal opposition.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and his wife, Jane O'Meara Sanders, arrive at a primary night rally in Manchester, N.H., on Feb. 11.(Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP)

Atfirst, it was a rumor,a cough,a canceled school luncheon. Since emerging in late December, the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, has killedmore than 1,000 people and U.S. health officials said Wednesday that it is too early to predict a foreseeable end to the crisis.For Americans living in or visitingWuhan, the virus has brought amix of fear, panic and boredom. They've had to battle a lack of information, government quarantines and cold, long flights. Over the course of six weeks since the virus emerged, four Americans told USA TODAY how the coronavirus outbreak unfolded in Wuhan andabout their journey back to the USAand life in quarantine.

Workers arrange beds in a convention center converted into a temporary hospital in Wuhan, China, on Feb. 4. Chinese President Xi Jinping said, "We have launched a people's war of prevention of the epidemic."(Photo: AP)

Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna were buried last week in Orange County at a private family service,according to the Los Angeles Times. The paper cited death certificates, which stated Bryant's burial took place Feb. 7.Apublic memorial for Bryant, 41, and Gianna, 13, and the seven other victims involved in the helicopter crash that took their lives is planned for Feb. 24 at Staples Center.As fansmournthe death of an NBA icon, authorities are in the early stages of investigating the crash and its potential causes a process that could take several weeks.

Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna were killed in a helicopter crash.(Photo: The Associated Press)

For the first time, scientists detected a radio signal from a galaxy about500 million light-years away that repeatsat regular intervals. The series of radio waves were detected about once an hour for four days,then stopped,only to start up again 12 days later.This cycle repeated every 16.35 days for more than a year, according to anew paper about the research.Youre probably wondering: What the hell are sending us these things? Well,MIT ruined the fun: It's not likely to be aliens, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said in a statement, because the signals are a sign of energetic events that are on the extreme scale of the cosmos.

Siba, a majestic-looking standard poodle,got a fancy new chew toy Tuesday: the coveted Best in Show ribbon at the Westminster Dog Show. When asked how the poodle would like to celebrate her big win, her humansaid the demands are simple: Siba would like some chicken.

Siba, a standard poodle, wins Best in Show during the 144th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.(Photo: Adam Hunger, USA TODAY Sports)

This is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network.

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Another one bites the dust - USA TODAY

Clients now have access to Massachusetts General Hospital physician network through DoctorsForMe to help treat disease and support long-term health

Human Longevity, Inc., an innovator in providing data-driven health intelligence and precision health to physicians and patients, announced today the acquisition of DoctorsForMe, Inc. The acquisition now allows clients of Human Longevity to access world-class physicians and services of Mass General, well trusted by patients worldwide as one of the best hospitals in the world.

David Karow, MD, PhD, President and Chief Innovation Officer of Human Longevity, commented, "DoctorsForMe uses Big Data and AI technologies to match a patient with a doctor that perfectly matches the patients specific need. The acquisition enables Human Longevity to provide a complete health intelligence solution for our clients from early disease detection to personalized treatment, all with the goal of living a longer, healthier life."

ABOUT HUMAN LONGEVITY

Human Longevity provides unparalleled, precision health analytics to individuals through the Health Nucleus in La Jolla, CA. The Health Nucleus provides an assessment of current and future risk for cardiac, oncologic, metabolic and cognitive diseases and conditions. This is provided via a multi-modal approach, integrating data from an individuals whole genome, brain and body imaging via MRI, cardiac CT calcium scan, metabolic tests and more, using machine learning and artificial intelligence.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200115005207/en/

Contacts

Debbie Feinberg, VP of MarketingHuman Longevity, Inc.858-864-1058dfeinberg@humanlongevity.com

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Human Longevity Announces the Acquisition of DoctorsForMe - Yahoo Finance

The software of life. Thats how Stephane Bancel, the chief executive officer of Moderna, described messenger RNA (mRNA), which is at the core of Modernas drug development process.

Moderna is pioneering mRNA drugs that are believed to be able to direct the body to produce any protein of interest, including antibodies and other proteins that can create therapeutic activity. Bancel said mRNA is an information molecule.

Its like software, he said.

The company, which has secured enormous investments over the past few years, is inching closer to being a commercial company in developing personalized therapies for a wide range of diseases, including cancer. In order to create those personalized medicines, the Cambridge, Mass.-based company relies on gene sequencing and a partnership with one of the worlds largest companies Amazon.

In an interview with CNBCs Jim Cramer during the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference this week, Bancel said the company relies on Amazon Web Services to compare every letter of DNA in the sequencing process. Once that is done, the company can deduce what needs to be done to develop personalized medicine, Bancel explained.

Amazon Web Services, the fastest growing division of the company, according to CNBC, provides on-demand cloud computing platforms to companies. Moderna is currently using Amazon Web Services with more than a dozen drug candidates in its pipeline, which means the high-tech platform plays a central role in the companys drug development program. As CNBC explains, the company is using the powerful cloud-based service to speed up the time it takes a drug candidate to move from the preclinical to the clinical phase. In addition to Moderna, Amazon Web Services is being used by several pharmaceutical companies, including San Diego-based Human Longevity Inc., Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and more.

The reliance on the high-speed program could lead to the company finally becoming a commercial entity 10 years after it was launched. Last week, just ahead of JPM, Bancel pointed to one of the companys clinical candidates as a potential blockbuster, an experimental treatment for cytomegalovirus (CMV), the most common infectious cause of birth defects in the United States.

Moderna said the analysis following a Phase I trial, which was taken after the third and final vaccination, shows continued boosting of neutralizing antibody titers in patients. The mRNA-based vaccine, mRNA-1647, is designed to protect against CMV infection. Cytomegalovirus is a common pathogen and is the leading infectious cause of birth defects in the United States with approximately 25,000 newborns in the U.S. infected every year. CMV is passed from the mother to her unborn child. Birth defects occur in about 20% of infected babies. The defects can include neurodevelopmental disabilities such as hearing loss, vision impairment, varying degrees of learning disability and decreased muscle strength and coordination. There is no approved vaccine to prevent CMV infection.

In October, the company received Fast Track Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for mRNA-3927, its investigational mRNA therapeutic for propionic acidemia, which is caused by the inability of the body to breakdown certain proteins and fats which leads to the build-up of toxic chemicals. Moderna plans to initiate an open-label, multi-center, dose-escalation Phase I/II study of multiple ascending doses of mRNA-3927 in primarily pediatric patients.

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Moderna Partners with AWS to Explore the 'Software of Life' - PharmaLive