Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency after new cases of the H5N1 avian influenza virus were detected in dairy cows in southern California, while insisting that the risk to the general public remains low. The virus has been spreading through US dairy cattle herds since March, affecting at least 16 states. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports no confirmed human-to-human transmission so far, at least 61 human cases have been detected across the country, including 34 in California.“ This proclamation is a targeted action to ensure that government agencies have the resources and flexibility they need to respond quickly to this outbreak,” Newsom said in a statement on Wednesday. “While the risk to the public remains low, we will continue to take all necessary steps to prevent the spread of this virus. ”The H5N1 virus is considered particularly dangerous with regard to human infections. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded more than 860 confirmed cases since 2003, with about 53 percent resulting in death. No deaths have been reported in the US as part of the current outbreak, which began in 2022 on poultry farms and led to the culling of more than 100 million birds in an attempt to control the spread of the disease. California is the first state to declare an emergency, though Colorado issued a targeted ‘disaster’ alert in July. Newsom’s declaration follows the detection of new infections on dairy farms in southern California.  The state has already implemented measures to combat bird flu by working with dairy and poultry farms to minimize employee exposure, as most cases are linked to dairy and poultry workers. The CDC confirmed the first case of severe illness in a person due to bird flu from a Louisiana case on Wednesday. The patient was reportedly in close contact with sick and dead birds from a backyard flock.The Food and Drug Admini-stration (FDA) has assured consumers that grocery-shelf beef and dairy products are safe to consume but advised against drinking raw milk. RT

Source : Myawady daily Newspaper

COLUMBIA researchers developed probiotic bacteria that train the immune system to eliminate cancer cells, paving the way for a new class of cancer vaccinations that take advantage of bacteria’s innate tumour-targeting abilities.

These microbial cancer vaccines can be tailored to each person’s specific original tumour and metastases, perhaps preventing future recurrences. In mice models of advanced colorectal cancer and melanoma, the bacterial vaccine stimulated the immune system, causing primary and metastatic malignancies to shrink or in many cases disappear entirely. All while leaving healthy body parts alone.

The findings were published in Nature. Researchers at Columbia University have developed a novel bacterial vaccine that demonstrates greater efficacy than peptide based therapeutic cancer vaccines used in prior clinical trials. This innovative approach effectively activates the entire immune system, promoting a robust antitumor response, especially in challenging advanced solid tumor models.

The personalized vaccine targets unique genetic mutations specific to each tumor, utilizing genetically engineered E. coli bacteria to produce neoantigens proteins that mark cancer cells for immune system attack.

Columbia researchers created a probiotic-based cancer vaccine that trains the immune system to target and eliminate tumors, showing promising results in mice models for advanced cancers. The idea of using bacteria in cancer treatment dates back to the late 19th century when Dr. William Coley observed tumor regression in patients injected with bacteria.

Modern research has revealed that some bacteria can naturally migrate to tumors, thriving in low-oxygen environments and eliciting immune responses. However, these natural interactions often lack the precision needed to effectively target and destroy tumors.

The new bacterial vaccine begins with a probiotic strain of E. coli, which researchers have genetically modified to enhance its interaction with the immune system.

Source- The Global New Light Of Myanmar

WHEN someone with an emotional issue or mental illness struggles with the idea of seeing a therapist in person, there is now another option: speaking to an artificial intelligence (AI) therapist through a WeChat mini program.

The AI therapist can answer questions about mental health, conduct mental health assessments and judge a person’s emotional state by capturing facial expressions with the camera on the mobile phone. It was presented at the two-day 2024 World Computing Conference held this week in Changsha, the capital of central China’s Hunan Province.

“The AI therapist will reply accordingly with its diagnosis and recommendations, speaking in an appropriate tone that should help comfort the person,” said Yu Min, executive dean of the innovation research institute of Hunan Trasen Science & Technology Corp Ltd, developer of the AI medical system.

People can also reach out to an AI doctor that can diagnose users after they describe their symptoms. It can also carry out traditional Chinese medicine tongue diagnosis and provide recipes and exercise recommendations to achieve improved balance and harmony within the body.

“Traditional models cannot meet the need to develop such systems in medical services, which require a high level of accuracy. However, fast-developing computing power has provided us with strong support to develop this medical system in a more

accurate way,” Yu said.

According to Pan Yunhe, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, new models are expected to help us become more knowledgeable and work toward preventive treatments for diseases in the coming years if data gathered from physical examinations, disease cases, families and regions is combined.

With extreme weather events increasing in frequency, computing power also has a huge role to play in the prevention and control of natural disasters.

Thanks to a disaster monitoring and early warning platform, six households in Dayingang Village, Hunan’s Changde City, were able to relocate before a landslide occurred due to a week of rainfall in June.

The platform, developed by Hunan BDS Micro-chipset Data Technology Co Ltd, is able to capture subtle changes in mountains by deploying high-precision monitoring equipment and sensors based on the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, said Long Pengyu, the company’s deputy general manager.

“The platform can analyze the monitoring data to determine the mountain’s status and predict natural disasters such as mudslides and landslides more than three hours in advance of their occurrence,” he said.

The prevention of geological disasters such as landslides is an important task during the flood season in Hunan. Landslides develop quickly in extreme weather, and early warnings can now be sent via radio and text messages to help residents relocate in advance to avoid deaths, injuries and financial losses, Long added.

To date, the monitoring and early warning platform has been applied in more than 10 provinces in China.

“With accelerating technological innovation and algorithm improvement, we now have better warning results and accuracy levels. As a developer, we’re also making efforts to reduce costs so that the platform can be used over a wider range and benefit more residents,” he said.

The scale of China’s computing industry reached 2.6 trillion yuan (about US$370 billion) in 2022, according to official statistics. SOURCE: Xinhua

Source- The Global New Light Of Myanmar