Lifeboat Foundation

Coronavirus is sending in the drones. In what’s being billed as a “world first,” startup Manna Aero has begun a drone delivery service in Moneygall, Ireland. Delivering medicine to vulnerable people locked in their homes, it provides yet another strong example of how technology is helping the world adjust to life in the shadow of the coronavirus.

Having received authorisation from the Irish Aviation Authority, Manna Aero’s service began last Friday as a pilot in Moneygall, which was previously best known as Barack Obama’s ancestral village. However, if the trial is successful, the service will be rolled out throughout Ireland, and could also be used to deliver food.

The drones will deliver prescription orders for medicine to around a dozen households. As Manna Zero’s founder Bobby Healy told the Irish Independent, the drones ensure “zero human-contact” and can execute deliveries “in ways normal delivery can’t.”

There is an ongoing battle between cancer cells and p53, the protein known as “the guardian of the genome,” and a study conducted at the University of Trento has identified a number of factors that influence the outcome of this battle and therefore the effectiveness of cancer treatments.

Scientists explore two therapeutic cancer treatment scenarios: In one scenario, cancer cells stop proliferating; in the other, their death rate increases. Both of these outcomes are regulated the protein p53. Based on the new findings, a specific factor, a protein known as DHX30, determines how p53 can lead cancer cells to their death. That is the conclusion reached by a team of researchers of the University of Trento, who focused on a new molecular mechanism that works like a switch.

Erik Dassi, member of the research team, said, “When cancer cells are treated with a certain drug, it is the action of this switch (DHX30) that makes them to go toward cell death and not in the direction of cell cycle arrest.”

🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

CONSPIRACY nuts are reportedly setting phone masts alight and targeting engineers after a bizarre claim 5G “radiation” caused the deadly coronavirus spread.

The theory originated last month after a video filmed at a US health conference claimed Africa was not as affected by the disease because it is “not a 5G region”.

Continue reading “5G coronavirus conspiracists BURNING phone masts amid bizarre claim ‘radiation’ sparked killer bug” »

Governments across the world are relying on mathematical projections to help guide decisions in this pandemic. Computer simulations account for only a fraction of the data analyses that modelling teams have performed in the crisis, Ferguson notes, but they are an increasingly important part of policymaking. But, as he and other modellers warn, much information about how SARS-CoV-2 spreads is still unknown and must be estimated or assumed — and that limits the precision of forecasts. An earlier version of the Imperial model, for instance, estimated that SARS-CoV-2 would be about as severe as influenza in necessitating the hospitalization of those infected. That turned out to be incorrect.

How epidemiologists rushed to model the coronavirus pandemic.

Panama is taking a new — if somewhat unorthodox — measure to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus: separation of the sexes.

Starting on Wednesday, only women will be able to leave their homes to buy necessities on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Men in Panama will be allowed to venture outside to run errands on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

“Authoritarian leaders … are using the coronavirus crisis … to strengthen their grip on power and weaken dissent,” one political scientist said.

This is the first reported case of COVID-19–associated acute necrotizing hemorrhagic encephalopathy. As the number of patients with COVID-19 increases worldwide, clinicians and radiologists should be watching for this presentation among patients presenting with COVID-19 and altered mental status.

Home Radiology Recently Published PreviousNext Reviews and CommentaryFree AccessImages in Radiology COVID-19–associated Acute Hemorrhagic Necrotizing Encephalopathy: CT and MRI FeaturesNeo Poyiadji, Gassan Shahin, Daniel Noujaim, Michael Stone, Suresh Patel, Brent Griffith Neo Poyiadji, Gassan S…

Dr. Susan White and her genetics team treated two triplets from a family who had an undiagnosed neurodegenerative disorder in 2014. After one year of age, the children’s developmental skills declined. They lost visual coordination. Feeding and swallowing food became impossible. The children developed intractable seizures.

Exactly what led to their neurodegeneration was a mystery.

“As you can imagine, that was just a horrendous experience for their family and we suspected a genetic condition because of that pattern of problems occurring in both children,” White, an associate professor at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and Victorian Clinical Genetics Services (VCGS), said in an interview with Being Patient.

AirZen | 5-in-1 Device: Humidifier, Purifier, Ionizer, Aroma Diffuser, Air Quality Station via APP | Check out ‘AirZen — Clean Air and Defence from Virus’ on Indiegogo.