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The last time math performance was this low for 13-year-olds was in 1990.
Elizabethton City Schools in Tennessee provided English tutoring this year for 404 elementary and middle school students with the increased funding.
The debt ceiling legislation would end the pause on student loan payments on Aug. 30 at the latest.
Once in grad school, Anthony Paul Smith and I had the same temp job. It was a terrible job, doing tedious data entry to convert the Sunday circular coupons into a clickable webpage. Seldom has a temp job felt more purely pointless and degrading. And yet, a few months later, we caught ourselves fondly recalling those times, and Anthony suggested that we need to resist the urge to be nostalgic for something simply because it’s in the past.
I find myself thinking that about the pandemic lately. I am finally having a calm summer vacation at home, and especially now that My Esteemed Partner usually works from home, our routine is reminiscent of the pandemic. We followed stricter guidelines than most, for longer than most. For me, the “lockdown” lasted a year and a half, and even when I returned to teaching, our social life was very constricted.
I am a relatively healthy person, so I wasn’t especially worried about catching the novel coronavirus myself. It was more a matter of not wanting to accidentally harm others, since My Esteemed Partner was potentially more vulnerable, and I live in a building full of elderly people. The effect was much the same, though — the instinctive fear and avoidance of other people, who could all be a disease vector, the preference to huddle at home whenever possible. I remember once, the first pandemic summer, My Esteemed Partner wondered aloud if we could get a rental somewhere in Michigan, so that we could get out of the city but still be isolated. I always have some degree of travel anxiety, but this time around I was straight-up afraid — not just of the travel itself, but specifically of traveling to a place full of covid scofflaws. (Eventually, right-wing militants in Michigan would be arrested for plotting to kidnap the governor over covid restrictions.)
As I’ve written before, we had ideal circumstances — we lived in a very covid-compliant area, we both kept our jobs, we didn’t have childcare to worry about, and we even came out financially ahead. Ultimately we bought an apartment, something we wouldn’t have seen as a possibility just a couple years earlier. But I can tell it has lingering effects. My emotional equilibrium still feels “off.” I have less resilience, and I feel like my moods swing more than they should. Above all, my social muscles feel like they have atrophied. I have a friend who recently moved back to town, who has invited me out for last-minute drinks a few times, like back in grad school. I almost always turn him down, and though I can always think of some particular excuse, I am realizing that part of the problem is that I simply need more lead-time to build up my reserves and face a social situation.
Part of the issue is that I was never truly alone for any considerable amount of time. I know others who were single when the pandemic began who are dealing with a whole other level of difficulty, so I’m grateful that My Esteemed Partner was with me. Yet solitude has been a major part of my emotional equilibrium since I was a very young child, and I have been largely deprived of it for years. During the pandemic, my only time alone in the apartment would be when My Esteemed Partner was walking the dog. Eventually, doctors appointments or haircuts would provide longer windows. But I have had maybe 2-3 instance in the past few years where I had the house to myself for the better part of a working day, and that makes it hard for me to recenter. Thankfully My Esteemed Partner is doing a couple days in the office most weeks now, which seems to be helping.
Of course, I didn’t do myself a lot of favors with the transition to normal life. When I went back to teaching, I was so excited to be in-person again that I accepted a hugely undercompensated teaching overload — teaching more than I’d ever taught before in my life, two semesters in a row, complete with an extreme early-morning schedule. And this past year, I took on a faculty governance role that proved more time-consuming and otherwise stressful than I had anticipated. In other words, work has objectively been more stressful and demanding, so we would expect that my social and emotional resilience would be down from historic levels. And yet I feel like I was starting from a weaker baseline. These past couple years would have been hard no matter what, but would they have been this hard?
And ultimately, of course, I did get covid, and I did give it to My Esteemed Partner. We both had a very mild case, and she recovered faster than me. My main concern was not the physical discomfort, but rather the isolation. I also technically had long covid — though it manifested only in a persistent cough and a strange rash (verified by an actual doctor as a post-covid symptom!), rather than the scary symptoms we all picture when that dreaded, mysterious condition comes up.
None of this is to say that the disease isn’t serious for others, nor that we shouldn’t have taken more or different precautions as a society. I’m just suggesting that for me, and probably for many, the most enduring post-covid effects are due to the isolation itself rather than the disease.
And I wish that our public sphere were not structured so that bringing up those concerns automatically triggers the reaction of “OH! so you wish the elderly and immune-compromised would just die for your convenience, huh?!” No, I don’t. I sacrificed a not-inconsiderable percentage of my life to try to avoid harming others — primarily My Esteemed Partner, but also many people I barely know or have never met. That imposed a cost on me that is very real and that I am still dealing with. And it still seems like every day on social media I see a stray remark implying that “lockdowns never happened” or social isolation is easy and fun. Even the repeated refrain that “the pandemic isn’t over, by the way!” grates, because it seems to carry with it the assumption that we should return to that level of anxiety and restriction.
What is the point of this post? I’m not sure. Ultimately, this is my blog and I sometimes blog about personal things. If there’s a political point here, it might be the suggestion that maybe liberals don’t need to add a constant reminder of that terrible pandemic that ruined all our lives to their litany of smug truisms and that maybe it doesn’t need to be an article of faith that the side-effects of all pandemic restrictions are either non-existent or by definition swamped by their life-saving intentions. In any case, not seeing constant reminders of the pandemic or implicit accusations that I’m a bad person for feeling bad in its wake would help my mental health.
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Medical workers treating patients with Covid-19 at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in January 2022, when the Omicron wave was in full force.
The dip in civics performance was the first decline since the test began being administered in the late 1990s.
Enlarge / A microscope image of Streptococcus pyogenes, a common type of group A strep. (credit: Getty | BSIP)
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid a tall wave of respiratory viruses, health officials in Colorado and Minnesota documented an unusual spike in deadly, invasive infections from Streptococcus bacteria late last year, according to a study published this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The spike is yet another oddity of post-pandemic disease transmission, but one that points to a simple prevention strategy: flu shots.
The infections are invasive group A strep, or iGAS for short, which is caused by the same group of bacteria that cause relatively minor diseases, such as strep throat and scarlet fever. But iGAS occurs when the bacteria spread in the body and cause severe infection, such as necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating disease), toxic shock syndrome, or sepsis. These conditions can occur quickly and be deadly.
About a year ago, Dicky Barrett — then lead singer of the legendary ska band, the mighty mighty Bosstones — coproduced an anti-vax musical anthem with professional anti-vaxxer Robert Kennedy, Jr. Several days later, the Bosstones abruptly announced that the band was finally, officially done for. — Read the rest
Enlarge / Hughes Memorial Auditorium, where the outpouring event was hosted, on Asbury University's campus in Wilmore, Kentucky. (credit: Asbury University)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday issued a health alert for doctors and health officials to be on the lookout for measles cases after a person with a confirmed, contagious case attended a massive religious event in Kentucky last month, potentially exposing an estimated 20,000 people to one of the most infectious viruses on the planet.
The event was a spontaneous "outpouring" at Asbury University, which drew tens of thousands of worshippers to the small, private Christian institution in Wilmore from February 8 to 23. Attendees came from around Kentucky, other US states, and other countries.
A case of measles was confirmed in an unvaccinated person who had recently traveled out of the country before attending Asbury University's outpouring. The person was at the event from February 17 to 18, the CDC reported. The university added that the person attended before developing symptoms, suggesting the person did not know they were infected. But the CDC notes that people with measles are contagious four days before measles' telltale rash develops, and state health officials said the person was contagious while they were in attendance.
Enlarge / Pager, a 9-year-old Macaque, plays MindPong with his Neuralink. (credit: YouTube/NeuraLink)
The US Department of Transportation is investigating allegations that Elon Musk's brain-computer interface company, Neuralink, violated federal transportation regulations when it shipped contaminated implants removed from the brains of deceased research monkeys infected with multiple types of dangerous pathogens. The alleged violations could have put humans at risk of exposure to hazardous germs, including drug-resistant bacteria and a potentially life-threatening herpes virus.
Reuters was the first to report the department's investigation, which was sparked by allegations brought Thursday by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a medical group that advocates for animal welfare in medical research. The Department of Transportation confirmed to Ars on Friday that it has opened a standard investigation of Neuralink in response to PCRM's allegations.
In a letter addressed to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and William Schoonover, associate administrator of the department's Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration, the PCRM laid out its evidence for possible violations of hazardous material transportation regulations based on a trove of documents and emails obtained through public record requests. The advocacy group says the evidence shows Neuralink's contaminated hardware was not properly packaged to prevent exposure to humans and that Neuralink employees who transported the material had failed to undergo legally required training on how to safely transport such material.
Enlarge / Transmission electron micrograph of poliovirus type 1. (credit: Getty | BSIP)
An eradicated form of wild polio surfaced in routine wastewater monitoring in the Netherlands last year, offering a cautionary tale on the importance of monitoring for the tenacious virus, researchers report this week in the journal Eurosurveilance.
The sewage sample came up positive for infectious poliovirus in mid-November and genome sequencing revealed a strain of wild poliovirus type 3, which was declared globally eradicated in 2019. Its potential revival would be a devastating setback in the decades-long effort to stamp out highly infectious and potentially paralytic germ for good.
For brief background, there are three types of wild polioviruses: type 2 and type 3 have been eradicated, with the former being knocked out in 2015. Wild poliovirus type 1 continues to circulate in Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are also occasional vaccine-derived polioviruses that circulate in communities with low vaccination rates, which recently occurred in New York.
Elementary school students returning to in-person learning in a school in California in 2021. Education deficits were equivalent to about 35 percent of a school year and remained steady, according to a new study.
Enlarge / A bathroom on an Airbus A321neo. (credit: Getty | Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto)
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering blending sewage sampling from airplanes into its wastewater surveillance system, which has proven useful for monitoring the spread and prevalence of a variety of pathogens, particularly SARS-CoV-2.
Amid the pandemic, the CDC launched wastewater testing programs across the nation, trying to get ahead of SARS-CoV-2 surges. Viral particles are often shed in fecal matter and can be an early indication of an infection. The fecal focus has proven useful for sniffing out community-wide transmission trends and disease spread for not only COVID-19 but also other recent outbreaks as well, namely polio and mpox (formerly monkeypox). Adding surveillance from airplanes and airports could flush out yet more information about infectious disease spread, such as global travel patterns and the debut of novel viral variants.
A study published last week in PLOS Global Public Health found such sewage surveillance in UK airport terminals and airplanes was effective at tracking SARS-CoV-2 among international travelers. Overall, the surveillance data suggested that it is a "useful tool for monitoring the global transfer rate of human pathogens and other disease-causing agents across international borders and should form part of wider international efforts to monitor and contain the spread of future disease outbreaks," the authors, led by Kata Farkas of Bangor University, concluded.
Enlarge / Chicken eggs are disposed of at a quarantined farm in Israel's northern Moshav (village) of Margaliot on January 3, 2022. (credit: Getty | JALAA MAREY / AFP))
The ongoing bird flu outbreak in the US is now the longest and deadliest on record. More than 57 million birds have been killed by the virus or culled since a year ago, and the deadly disruption has helped propel skyrocketing egg prices and a spike in egg smuggling.
Since highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) was first detected in US birds in January 2022, the price of a carton of a dozen eggs has shot up from an average of about $1.79 in December 2021 to $4.25 in December 2022, a 137 percent increase, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Although inflation and supply chain issues partly explain the rise, eggs saw the largest percentage increase of any specific food, according to the consumer price index.
And the steep pricing is leading some at the US-Mexico border to try to smuggle in illegal cartons, which is prohibited. A US Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told NPR this week that people in El Paso, Texas, are buying eggs in Juárez, Mexico, because they are "significantly less expensive." Meanwhile, a customs official in San Diego tweeted a reminder amid a rise in egg interceptions that failure to declare such agriculture items at a port of entry can result in penalties up to $10,000.
Universal free school meal programs have drawn widespread support, with polls showing 74 percent of voters and 90 percent of parents favoring them.
A new biopolymer sensor that detects bacteria, toxins, and dangerous chemicals in the environment can be printed like ink on just about anything, including gloves, masks, or everyday clothing.
Using an enzyme similar to that found in fireflies, the sensor glows when it detects these otherwise invisible threats. The new technology is described in the journal Advanced Materials.
The biopolymer sensor, which is based on computationally designed proteins and silk fibroin extracted from the cocoons of the silk moth Bombyx Mori, can also be embedded in films, sponges, and filters, or molded like plastic to sample and detect airborne and waterborne dangers, used to signal infections, or even cancer in our bodies.
The researchers demonstrated how the sensor emits light within minutes as it detects the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID, anti-hepatitis B virus antibodies, the food-borne toxin botulinum neurotoxin B, or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), an indicator of the presence of breast cancer.
Currently, the sensors require a quick spray with a non-toxic chemical after being potentially exposed to bacteria, toxins, and dangerous chemicals. If the target is present, then the sensor generates light. The intensity of emitted light provides a quantitative measure of the concentration of the target.
“The combination of lab-designed proteins and silk is a sensor platform that can be adapted to detect a wide range of chemical and biological agents with a high degree of specificity and sensitivity,” says Fiorenzo Omenetto, professor of engineering and director of the Tufts University Silklab, where the bio-responsive materials were developed.
“For example, SARS-CoV-2 and anti-hepatitis B antibodies can be measured at levels that approach clinical assays.”
The sensing element is modular, so developers can swap in newly designed proteins to capture specific pathogens or molecules to measure, while the light emitting mechanism remains the same. “Using the sensor, we can pick up trace levels of airborne SARS-CoV-2, or we can imagine modifying it to adapt to whatever the next public health threat might be,” Omenetto says.
He notes that, although the sensor is in a conceptual stage, the application to detect breast cancer is particularly interesting. His team created a proof-of-concept silicone bra pad that when worn can absorb secreted fluid, report the levels of HER2 hormone, and provide an indication whether breast cancer may be present.
“While further development will be required to improve and clinically validate the assay, the opportunity for such diagnostics in everyday garments is certainly compelling,” Omenetto says.
The sensors can assume a seemingly endless variety of forms. To demonstrate this, the researchers created viral sensing drones in which their fuselage was embedded with the sensor material. During flight, the propellers direct airflow through the porous body of the drone, which can be examined after landing. The drones, which in the example reacted to airborne pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, could enable monitoring environments from a remote, safe distance.
The active component of the biopolymer sensor, which was developed by David Baker, professor in biochemistry at the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington, is a molecular switch made of proteins that act like lock and key, but with a cover.
When a virus, toxin, or other target molecule comes near, it binds to the switch and opens the cover. Another part of the switch—a molecular key—can then fit into the lock, and the combination forms a complete luciferase enzyme, similar to the enzyme that lights up fireflies and glowworms. The more virus, toxin, or other chemical that binds to the sensor, the brighter the glow.
The molecular glow-switch is embedded in a mixture of protein that is derived from silk cocoons, called silk fibroin. The silk fibroin is the inactive component of the biopolymer sensor, but has unique features, including the ability to be processed and manufactured using safe, water-based methods, and a remarkable versatility to be fabricated into different materials, such as films, sponges, textiles, or dispersed onto surfaces through an inkjet printer. Additionally, the silk fibroin stabilizes the molecular glow-switch and greatly extends its shelf life.
These biopolymer sensors are a big leap from other approaches to measuring pathogens or chemicals in the environment, which often rely on biological components that degrade quickly and require careful storage. The sensors also do not depend on electronic components that can be difficult to integrate into flexible wearable materials.
The researchers tested the shelf life of materials embedded with SARS-CoV-2 sensors after storing them at 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit) for four months and found very little change in performance. The breast cancer sensor shaped into a sponge was kept on the shelf at room temperature for one year, and still performed near its original sensitivity.
“This means we can manufacture, distribute, and store these sensing interfaces for long periods of time without losing their sensitivity or accuracy and without the need for refrigerated storage, which is remarkable due to the fact that they are made of protein,” says Luciana d’Amone, a graduate student in Omenetto’s lab who co-led the project with Giusy Matzeu, a research professor at Tufts’ Silklab.
This approach could make sensors widely available in different formats. “For example, you could make surgical masks capable of detecting pathogens, package them in boxes, and use them over time just like conventional masks,” says d’Amone. “We also showed that you can print the sensor inside food packaging to track spoilage and toxins. You can modify so many products that we use every day to include sensing, and store and use them as you normally would.”
The research team envisions applications for the biopolymer sensors ranging from personal and patient monitoring and infection control in health-care settings to environmental sensing in home, workplace, military, and disaster settings.
Source: Tufts University
The post Printable sensors glow when they detect viruses or other dangers appeared first on Futurity.
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