StemCell Therapy

Vision Care Market: Snapshot

World over, vision care has made some significant advances on the adoption of new population health approaches, especially in developed countries, underpinning the evolution of the vision care market. The goal is to achieve the care paradigm that promotes timely, effective, safe, and equitable treatment. More importantly, vision care must conform to standards of patient-centered care. This entire ecosystem needs to be engendered by standard clinical practice guidelines. Developed markets have been shifting toward the adoption of consistent evidence-based guidelines a key aspect in the expansion of the vision care market. An effective health approach hinges squarely on these evidence-based guidelines. The need has nudged the healthcare industry for increasing the awareness about comprehensive eye examinations in various parts of the world.

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Adoption of integrated model of care is a key part of comprehensive eye examinations. These examinations have occupied a key role in the vision care market for detect incipient eye diseases. That aside, such vision care also helps in diagnosing chronic conditions. A case in point is the use of comprehensive eye examinations in detecting multiple sclerosis and diabetes in adult population. Vision screening is different from an eye examination, nonetheless very crucial. In several countries, these screenings have helped identify potential vision problems and facilitate their early treatments. The significance is most evident in community settings. Thus, vision screening is emerging out as a vital diagnostic tool in children in various populations, opening new avenues in the vision care market. In recent years, the proponents of vision care underscore the importance of global partnerships and multisectoral collaboration.

Global Vision Care Market: Overview

An upcoming report on the global vision care market by TMR Research could be a valuable source of information for major stakeholders in the market. The report would offer a brilliant study of the market with its focus on market dynamics, segmentation, and geographical outreach. It could prove to be a useful guideline for players wanting to cement their position in the global vision care market.

Vision care or maintaining eye health are the major concerns globally. Vision-related diseases elevate the risk of blindness or significant vision loss. Good vision eases out daily important activities such as writing, reading, and watching. These also helps in communication, health, work, developmental learning and impacts in overall quality of life. Various factors such as chronic diseases, pollution, and unhealthy diets can affect in functioning of the eyes. Thus, plenty of products and treatments are developed to control vision related problems.

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Global Vision Care Market: Trends and Opportunities

Increasing usage of laptops, tablets, PCs, and phones in day-to-day lives, growing older population, and rising number of vision-related problems are believed to be driving the global vision care market. Apart from blindness, there are various vision related problems such as astigmatism, myopia, macular edema, retinal tears, and diabetic retinopathy. Growing demand from the population aged 65+ years, increasing healthcare industry, and rapid technological advancement in eye care products are expected to boost the global vision care market.

Although, declining eye care treatment rate, product design, and brand name are also projected to hinder the growth in the global vision care market. However, growing brand awareness and paradigm shift in the consumer behavior are projected to propel the global vision care market.

Global Vision Care Market: Market Potential

Growing advent of innovative product launches is expected to fuel the global vision care market. There are several products available for vision care such as contact lens, glass lens, contact lens solution, and IOLs. The incorporation of technology in developing vision care products increase efficiency, improves quality and precision of the final product, and reduces overall cost. Increasing demand for restoring normal vision with eyeglasses or contact lenses, cost-effectiveness in using vision care products instead of LASIK eye surgery, and rising advanced medical treatment are believed to be driving the global vision care market.

Global Vision Care Market: Regional Outlook

Region wise, there is a possibility of North America to lead the global vision care market as the region has witnessed rapid development in healthcare industry. Growing population suffering from eye related disorders, rapid technological advancement, and increasing healthcare industry with advanced infrastructure could also be fueling the global vision care market. The prominent countries in this region are US and Canada. Easy availability of glass lens and innovative product launches with the help of modern technology are projected to propel the global vision care market in these countries.

Global Vision Care Market: Competitive Dynamics

Some of the prominent players operating in the global vision care market are Johnson & Johnson, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, ZEISS and The Cooper Companies. The upcoming TMR report would provide crucial information on their product offerings, market standing, and strategies for progress.

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About TMR Research

TMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to busi-ness entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experi-enced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.

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Vision Care Market Statistics, Trends, Analysis Size and Growth Factors by 2028 - Cole of Duty

Sheikh Abdulqadir Muazu was struck with blindness at his prime when he was in his mid-20s but despite his disability has managed to write dozens of books and teachers thousand of students in his school.

His ability to write, or correct written text has left many baffled.

At 55, Sheikh Abdulqadir Muazu has been blind for more than half his life. He lost his sight over two years, while he was between the ages of 25 and 26, but three decades later, he has about a thousand people sitting at his foot to learn and has written about 100 books.

His blindness or his special abilities are not strange to Sheikh Abdulqadir who said it was all normal and part of his destiny.

I didnt lose sight instantly, the Jos-based cleric told Daily Trust. The problem kept developing day by day before I eventually lost my sight but that isnt strange to me. I completely lost sight when I was intensifying my quest for advanced Islamic and Western knowledge to fulfil my ambition, he said.

His ambition then was to be a teacher and he would not let blindness stop him. He pushed on to complete his studies.

I strived to pursue knowledge both within and outside Plateau State, he said. I went as far as Kano State, which was after I got blind, to ensure that I obtained more advanced knowledge that would be beneficial to the larger society.

Over the years, the society has found his knowledge useful as every day, hundreds of Jos residents gather at his feet for their studies in Islamic knowledge. He teaches various Islamic texts and boasts of having graduated policemen, soldiers and lecturers from his school. Every day, he attends to about 15 sangaya schools of various categories of students.

Despite his blindness, Sheikh Abdulqadir goes to class and makes use of the blackboard. His ability to write has surprised many people, including his students. He does not only write when teaching, but he has authored dozens of books on poetry, Quran exegesis (tafsir), Arabic grammar and more. His flair for writing predates his blindness.

I developed a fondness for writing right from my youth and that is why even when I became blind, writing books is not strange to me. I have written more than 100 books so far. Many have been published while some not yet, he said.

His writing process, he says, vary, where sometimes he relies on himself, other times he adapts.

Whenever I conceive an idea, I compose it myself. Sometime, I dictate to someone to write for me just as a person with sight would do if he doesnt want to use his or her hands and write. I equally teach students in classrooms like a normal teacher, he said.

He is so adept at this that he even detects and correct errors from oral readings rendered to him. Sheikh Abdulqadir believes these attributes are gifts from God.

To me, knowledge is light in the heart of people. It is not determined by your ability to see and that is why even when your eyes are closed, you could still write and detect errors made by someone who can see because what he would say or write is read from the heart. So, if God lightens your heart, whether you are blind or not, you will write or read well like a person with sight, he said. The Almighty took away my sight and gave me other qualities such as the ability to acquire knowledge, teach and even preach His gospel without sight.

His passion for teaching saw him build a school, which presently is closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the 30 years of his blindness, Sheikh Abdulqadir has adjusted to his circumstances that he believes the loss of one organ should not define him or any other person as that is destiny. He feels normal he said, and does things that have defied people with sight.

I believe that there is no difference in the pattern of life between now and before. Life is the same, he said. To me, if you believe that losing any of your sense organs is destiny, you dont see any difference between the time you could see and when you become visually disabled.

Contrary to the projections of blind or disabled people as poor and beggarly, Sheikh Abdulqadir preaches self-sufficiency. He has been able to take care of his needs and his family through his business of selling books.

I have never had problems of clothing or feeding my family. I have been living well, he said. He is doing well enough that he does not see the need for religious leaders to rely on the resources of their congregants to feed and take care of their needs as they could run businesses from which they could earn a livelihood.

Despite being an imam and leader of the Qadariyya Sufi movement in Plateau State, I run a daily business that sustains my family. I sell books mostly written in Arabic. I dont believe in living without a business because of my position as a religious leader, he said, When you wait for people to give you, you will lose their respect and will have a mind that may not stick to the truth.

One of his greatest accomplishment, he said, was fulfilling his fathers dream of building a mosque.

Before I turned blind, our father had said his major ambition was to build a mosque before he died. To actualise his long-time ambition, he had to sell his land to see if he could build it but death intercepted, he said.

Seeing how badly his father wanted to achieve this dream, Sheikh Abdulqadir put the resources at his disposal to achieve this dream. He also added a school, in which he now teaches. He takes great pride in saying that both the school and the mosque were built without taxing government or individuals.

For the preacher, other people with disabilities must understand that their circumstances may be challenging but giving up should not be an option. As for him, he is a fulfilled man living his dream in spite, not because, of his blindness. That is all there is to it.

Related

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The blind teacher of Jos who has written a hundred books - Daily Trust

SAN DIEGO, July 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Plex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("Plex"), announced that it has been awarded two Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Eye Institute: a $1.3 million Phase II grant (R44EY027236) and a $300,000 Phase I grant (R43EY031609). Under the Phase II grant, Plex intends to advance its lead anti-cataract drug candidate, CAP4196 through preclinical and IND enabling studies to gain clearance from the FDA to initiate its first-in-human clinical trials for the non-surgical treatment of cataracts. Plex also intends to develop its anti-cataract drug candidate, CAP4349 as an effective topical eye drop formulation to enhance its characteristics to effectively cross the cornea and accumulate in the eye lens in concentrations that can result in beneficial clinical outcomes under the Phase I grant.

CAP4196 and CAP4349 are topical eye drop formulations that act as modulators of the eye lens protein, alpha-A-crystallin (AAC). AAC is a major component of the eye lens that helps maintain its transparency. Loss of AAC function leads to the aggregation of damaged and/or aged proteins in the eye lens, which results in the formation of cataracts.

"The successful discovery of these drug candidates, CAP4196 and CAP4349, for the non-surgical treatment of cataracts and the receipt of these grants from the NIH further validates Plex's expertise in the development of treatments targeting diseases associated with protein misfolding and aggregation using its platform technology, which is focused on the discovery of barrier-crossing (CNS and ocular) drug-like compounds," said Dr. G. Sridhar Prasad, Principal Investigator on the Phase II grant and Chief Scientific Officer at Plex.

"The receipt of the Phase I grant from the NIH to optimize CAP4349 as a promising topical anti-cataract eye drop formulation will significantly bolster Plex's pipeline of anti-cataract agents and help to advance this candidate towards in vivo proof of concept efficacy and safety studies," said Dr. Santosh C. Sinha, Principal Investigator on the Phase I grant and Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Plex.

"I am proud to be part of Plex's journey in the development of CAP4196 and CAP4349 to treat cataracts which afflicts more than 35 million patients worldwide. The current standard of care involves surgical intervention that can cause potential side effects such as infections, bleeding, and secondary cataracts in more than 15% of cataracts procedures. If successful, CAP4196 and CAP4349 will be the only topical drugs capable of reversing cataracts without surgical intervention," said Mr. Hoji Alimi, Chief Executive Officer. "Accomplishments by the Plex scientific team will be a major contribution to the world of medicine and may ultimately help alleviate the financial and medical burdens currently felt by the millions afflicted with cataracts globally."

About CAP4196, CAP4349, and cataracts:CAP4196 and CAP4349 are drugs that have shown promise for the treatment of protein aggregation diseases for systemic use. Plex has successfully reformulated these drugs as effective topical eye drop formulations and demonstrated promising in vitro and ex vivo efficacy in multiple cataract models and in vivo safety. Cataracts, which is the clouding of the eye lens, is the leading cause of blindness worldwide, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where 30-60% of blindness in Africa and 60-80% in Southeast Asia is attributable to cataracts. The only treatment currently available is surgical extraction of the lens and replacement with an intraocular lens that is accompanied by a high public health burden.

About Plex Pharmaceuticals:Plex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a subsidiary of Collidion Inc., is an ophthalmology company focused on improving the lives of patients diagnosed with complex degenerative diseases caused by protein misfolding and aggregation. Plex's core competencies are in the discovery of drug-like small molecules by utilizing its core technologies, including functional fragment screening and x-ray crystallography to rationally design and synthesize New Chemical Entities (NCEs). The team at Plex has amassed decades of experience in numerous drug discovery programs that have successfully produced multiple clinical candidates, including an FDA approved drug. For more information, please visit http://www.plexpharma.com or http://www.collidion.com.

Contact:William H. Watson, IIIVP Business Development & Sales408-206-0349[emailprotected]

SOURCE Plex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

http://www.plexpharma.com

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Plex Pharmaceuticals Awarded $1.6 Million in Grant Funding from NIH to Advance Eye Drop Therapy for Cataracts - PRNewswire

(PRESS RELEASE) DUBLIN In support of Graves Disease Awareness Month, Horizon Therapeutics plc (Nasdaq: HZNP) and Prevent Blindness, the nations oldest volunteer eye health organization, launched an initiative encouraging people who are living with Graves disease to FOCUS on their eye health by recognizing the symptoms of a separate, but related disease called Thyroid Eye Disease (TED). Up to half of people with Graves disease will develop TED a serious, progressive and vision-threatening rare autoimmune disease that causes painful symptoms like eye bulging, double vision and facial disfigurement.1,2

The initiative, which was developed with input from the Graves disease and TED community, features a memory device that uses the word FOCUS to help people take steps to recognize and manage TED. Now through July 31, 2020, Horizon will donate $1 (up to $25,000) to Prevent Blindness each time the FOCUS graphic is shared on social media.

When first diagnosed with Graves disease, I thought the eye symptoms were just one facet of this rare autoimmune disease, said Christine G., who has been living with TED for 10 years. Similar to others with TED, I had light sensitivity, grittiness, pain, swelling and bulging of my eyes. After years of struggling to find answers, I learned that TED needed to be managed separately from Graves. With this knowledge, an entirely new world of hope opened before me. I am confident that this initiative will help others get an accurate diagnosis and will provide them with the vital resources and support now available to them.

The FOCUS memory device includes the following steps:

Prevent Blindness is committed to helping people who live with low vision, vision impairment and vision-related eye diseases feel empowered to speak up and get the care they deserve, said Jeff Todd, president and chief executive officer, Prevent Blindness. People living with TED dont have to struggle in silence. There are resources, like this initiative, that can help. We are proud to be a part of bringing much-needed attention to this often overlooked eye disease.

People who are living with Graves disease are encouraged to pay attention to changes in their eyes and visit an eye specialist, such as an ophthalmologist, neuro-ophthalmologist or oculoplastic surgeon, to get an eye exam. Spotting the signs and symptoms of TED early can help decrease the chances of serious and potentially permanent eye damage.3 All FOCUS resources will be posted throughout the month of July to the Listen to Your Eyes Facebook community. Additional information about TED can be found at ThyroidEyes.com, including what symptoms to watch for, a tool for tracking symptoms and a specialist finder; and on the Prevent Blindness website.

Over the past few years, we have been fortunate to listen and learn from the TED community about their experiences with this truly life changing disease, and how we can provide education and support, said Matt Flesch, vice president, communications and patient advocacy, Horizon. We often hear from people living with TED that not only is it difficult to distinguish the eye symptoms caused by TED from all of the other symptoms caused by Graves disease, but that it is also incredibly difficult to know where to go for support. This initiative was created to clear up the confusion and direct people to useful resources that will help them along their journey.

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New Initiative Encourages the Graves' Disease Community to FOCUS on Eye Health - InvisionMag

A hand sanitiser is being recalled after it was found to contain potentially lethal chemicals that are highly toxic to humans and can catch fire.

Thealert was issued on July 7 by The Chartered Trading Standards Institute for Shield Hand Sanitiser Gel.

Not only is the product ineffective at killing bacteria or viruses, but contains the toxic substance methanol that can be a fire risk, the alert warns.

Made in the UK, the 100ml gel is packaged in a plastic bottle and is available with a black or white self-closing cap.

The alert states: "Consequently, it does not kill bacteria or viruses, which could then reach the user, increasing the risk of infection.

"The product does contain methanol (measured value: 3.4%), which is acutely toxic to the central nervous system and the eye.

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"Ingestion or contact with methanol leads to blindness and death.

"Furthermore, the presence of methanol is not accompanied by the corresponding hazard pictograms and warnings.

"Users have therefore no information on the toxicity and flammability of the product, which in the presence of an ignition source, could lead to a fire."

The news of the recall comes as tens of thousands of people in "high-risk" jobs will be tested for coronavirus despite having no symptoms as part of a new government scheme.

People including taxi drivers, cleaners and shop assistants will be involved in the pilot announced by the Department of Health and Social Care today.

See the rest here:
Toxic hand sanitiser urgently recalled over fears it can cause blindness - Mirror Online

The novel, Blindness, by Portuguese Nobel Laureate Jos Saramago, is strikingly prescient about a sweeping illness. The plot revolves around a mysterious epidemic because of which people suddenly turn blind.

It starts with a person driving his car who turns blind while waiting at a traffic signal. He pleads to be taken home and a man, on the pretext of helping, takes him home but soon after runs away with his car. The contagion spreads rapidly and all those affected by the epidemic are quarantined in an asylum. The novel follows seven people, who do not have names but only descriptions: the doctor, the doctors wife, the girl with the dark glasses, etc. Lack of equitable delivery of food, inhospitable and unhygienic living conditions, police brutality and apathy of power structures lead to panic among the blind. They are on the brink of starvation. Seven characters escape the asylum and enter the city where they came from only to find that everybody in the city has become blind. Lacking any support, the country plunges into utter despair before resurrection happens quite magically.

Also read | Whos afraid of a virus wolf?

Apart from the obvious connections with the pandemic, there are other, numerous and allegorical ways in which Saramagos world resonates with contemporary India.

Consider for example, the case of blindness regarding the number of migrant workers. The governments own data sources are inconsistent and are a massive underestimate. The office of the Chief Labour Commissioner stated that there are 26 lakh migrants while various estimates, including the Economic Survey, put this number above 8 crore people. The anonymity of the workers has been reinforced as governments have not kept records of who they are and where they are working. This lack of accountability has given a free rein to the complex web of contractors and sub-contractors to exert various forms of exploitation. The migrant workers, like the characters in Blindness, have been rendered nameless in this unequal power gambit.

Then, there is the blindness about hunger and deaths. On June 30, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced free food grains for National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries till November. While it is a welcome move, it yet again excludes those without ration cards. As per estimates of Meghana Mungikar, Jean Drze, and Reetika Khera, roughly 10 crore eligible beneficiaries continue to be excluded under the NFSA . This is because the central government is still using 2011 Census data and hence underestimates NFSA coverage. Moreover, migrants and many self-employed workers do not have ration cards. At a time when the warehouses of the Food Corporation of India have 2.5 times the buffer stock norms, not universalising rations is inexplicable.

Also read | Getting cash transfers out of a JAM

Two petitions concerning food and income support for migrants were summarily dismissed by the Supreme Court of India during lockdown. The Court finally took suo motu cognisance of the crisis after 20 senior lawyers wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India to intervene. The Solicitor General, Tushar Mehta, representing the Union of India, has submitted that there has been no death in the Shramik trains because of lack of water and food, and all deaths took place due to earlier illnesses. On May 15, Union Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal at Bennett University said, We have gone through the entire three months without a single person starving. In reality, there have been at least 850 non-COVID deaths due to an unplanned lockdown. Indian Railway Protection Force Service data show that there have been 80 deaths in Shramik trains alone between May 9 and May 27; most of these are due to starvation and financial distress. Numerous ground reports indicated the extent of hunger. As in Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN) reports covering more than 34,000 workers, 50% had just one day of rations left and 64% had less than 100 when they reached out during the lockdown. In such light, the combination of falsehoods and measured silence by the governing institutions and the judiciary indicate that they have been afflicted by Saramagos imaginary epidemic of blindness that refused to see the gravity of the crisis.

As rising cases of COVID-19 suggest, the lockdown did not curb the spread of the virus. It was a unilateral decision taken, apparently, to buy time to create health-care facilities. However, the governments hubris backfired. The resilience and the perseverance of the migrants exerting their fundamental right to return pushed the government to respond this time. The SWAN report says: While a part of the governments slow response is due to the lack of empathy towards workers, a part is also the result of inefficiencies resulting from unilateral decision-making. Consequently, the government has created an archive of distress and a museum of misery. The maze of obfuscating travel orders and the opacity surrounding train schedules was as if the migrants were made to play a cruel game of snakes and ladders. The lucky ones took the metaphorical ladder to the train only to find themselves hungry and fighting with fellow migrant travellers to get food. Even among them, most have had to pay for travel forms, pay bribes and face police brutality. The resemblances with the plight of those in Saramagos novel are uncanny. The unlucky ones stayed back, some evicted from their rented spaces, waiting anxiously for their illusory chance to come. As a character says in the Saramago novel, ... you have to wait, give it time, its time that rules, time is our gambling partner on the other side of the table and it holds all the cards of the deck in its hand, we have to guess the winning cards of life, our lives.

Full coverage | Lockdown displaces lakhs of migrants

Unlike Saramagos fictional world, such systemic and structural blindness has no magical cure. After continued hostility that workers were forced to endure, it is difficult to pin down the precise analytical reasons for the diverse expressions from migrants. Some have been resolute about returning immediately while some are unable to return home without earnings. Surveys cannot do full justice to understanding these amalgam of expressions and would at best create reductive categories. We definitely do not need piecemeal platitudes coming from the central government. We need many corrections such as stronger adherence to constitutional values, transparency and accountability from the government and the judiciary. And, not just those in power but also those who elect them need to collectively treat the epidemic of blindness that has eroded our moral core where we do not feel uneasy in seeing the hardships of marginalised communities.

Rajendran Narayanan teaches at Azim Premji University and has been a SWAN volunteer

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The pandemic is about eyes shut - The Hindu

Taking in archival imagery, conservation objects, and photographs of plant activists, visual artist Liz Orton dissects the field of botany to invite us to look at nature in a more profound way.

According to botanists, todays extinction crisis is partly a problem of plant blindness. We dont see or know plants in the way we see and know animals, and they are going extinct at 500 times the natural rate, writes photographer Liz Orton.

Her ongoing work, Herbarium of Extinction, revolves around this statement, questioning in a variety of visual forms the reason for this blindness. That is, while botany originated in prehistory as herbalism with the efforts of early humans to identify and later cultivate edible, medicinal and poisonous plants, these efforts to calatogue plants led in the 18th century to the binomial system, approaching plants according to their only biological aspects.

This system remains in use to this day, with the consequence to alter our emotional proximity to plants. In a poetic way, Orton introduces the notion of attachment and memory that we are lacking for the flora by including to her series objects that used to belong to her mother a framed photograph of plants, a brush such as those used to clean nails after gardening, a dictionary open to the entry E as in extinction. Thats a personal story around lost and care, how you might use representation if you want to retrieve or recover something, she says.

Delving into the past of her subject, she was also triggered by the latin naming of plants associated to the binominal system. You could say in a way that botany was one of colonialisms agents of operation, she notes. To convey such an abstract concept, Orton worked with ancient botanical collections that have been digitised. Using available images of endangered specimens, she cleaned them, manipulated them, ultimately takes it one step further away from the plant itself. And by doing so, she also appropriates the process of digital repatriation - the return of items of cultural heritage in a digital format to the communities from which they originated to subtly point at imperialism. And what, if not imperialism, turned us to think of the world as always more accessible and available, in other words, consumable?

As an engaging counterpoint, portraits of plant activists and experts interacting with plants round off the series. Nature tends to be designated as a passive, static, backdrop across which the body works. And I was more interested in like the idea of the exchange between the body and the plant, Orton explains. I often told to the people, lets let the plant make the first move. The result is a gentle choreography of leaves and arms, branches and bodies, flowers and hands that arouse a curiosity to carefully look at nature again. With something else than our eyes.

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Liz Orton is a visual artist working with photography, text and film to explore the relationship between images, knowledge and authorship. Her work engages widely with archives, both real and imagined, to explore the tensions between personal and scientific forms of knowledge.

Laurence Cornet is a writer and curator based in Paris focusing on cultural and environmental issues. She is also the editorial director of Dysturb.

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This article is part of our feature series Photo Kernel, which aims to give space to the best contemporary practitioners in our community. The word Kernel means the core, centre, or essence of an object, but it also refers to image processing.

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The Alarming Phenomenon of Plant Blindness - PHmuseum

Associative freedom is often entirely absent from popular discourse about liberalism and our political debates, perhaps because liberals have come to take it entirely for granted.

Overall, the liberal ideal is a diverse, pluralistic society of autonomous people guided by reason and tolerance. The dream is harmonious coexistence. But liberalism also happens to excel at generating dissensus, and some of the major sociopolitical controversies of the past few years should be understood as conflicts not between liberalism and something else but between parties placing emphasis on different liberal freedomschiefly freedom of speech, a popular favorite which needs no introduction, and freedom of association, the under-heralded right of individuals to unite for a common purpose or in alignment with a particular set of values. Like free speech, freedom of association has been enshrined in liberal democratic jurisprudence here and across the world; liberal theorists from John Stuart Mill to John Rawls have declared it one of the essential human liberties. Yet associative freedom is often entirely absent from popular discourse about liberalism and our political debates, perhaps because liberals have come to take it entirely for granted.

For instance, while public universities in America are generally bound by the First Amendment, controversial speakers have no broad right to speak at private institutions. Those institutions do, however, have a right to decide what ideas they are and arent interested in entertaining and what people they believe will or will not be useful to their communities of scholarsa right that limits the entry and participation not only of public figures with controversial views but the vast majority of people in our society. Senators like Tom Cotton have every right to have their views published in a newspaper. But they have no specific right to have those views published by any particular publication. Rather, publications have the rightboth constitutionally as institutions of the press, and by convention as collections of individuals engaged in lawful projectsto decide what and whom they would or would not like to publish, based on whatever standards happen to prevail within each outlet.

When a speaker is denied or when staffers at a publication argue that something should not have been published, the rights of the parties in question havent been violated in any way. But what we tend to hear in these and similar situations are criticisms that are at odds with the principle that groups in liberal society have the general right to commit themselves to values which many might disagree with and make decisions on that basis. Theres nothing unreasonable about criticizing the substance of such decisions and the values that produce them. But accusations of illiberalism in these cases carry the implication that nonstate institutions under liberalism have an obligation of some sort to be maximally permissive of opposing ideasor at least maximally permissive of the kinds of ideas critics of progressive identity politics consider important. In fact, they do not.

Associative freedom is no less vital to liberalism than the other freedoms, and is actually integral to their functioning. There isnt a right explicitly enumerated in the First Amendment that isnt implicitly dependent on or augmented by similarly minded individuals having the right to come together. Most people worship with others; an assembly or petition of one isnt worth much; the institutions of the press are, again, associations; and individual speech is functionally inert unless some group chooses to offer a venue or a platform. And political speech is, in the first place, generally aimed at stirring some group or constituency to contemplation or action.

Ultimately, associative freedom is critical because groups and associations are the very building blocks of society. Political parties and unions, nonprofits and civic organizations, whole religions and whole ideologiesindividuals cannot be meaningfully free unless they have the freedom to create, make themselves part of, and define these and other kinds of affiliations. Some of our affiliations, including the major identity categories, are involuntary, and this is among the complications that makes associative freedom as messy as it is important. Just as the principle of free speech forces us into debates over hate speech, obscenity, and misinformation, association is the root of identity-based discrimination and other ills. The Supreme Courts decision in Bostock v. Clayton County banning employment discrimination on the basis of LGBTQ identity last month was a huge step forward, but in practice, workers of all stripes often lack the means and opportunity to defend themselves from unjust firingsall the more reason for those preoccupied with cancel culture and social mediadriven dismissals to support just-cause provisions and an end to at-will employment.

What about the oft-repeated charge that progressives today intend to establish group rights over and above the rights of the individualthat, specifically, minorities and certain disadvantaged groups are to be given more rights than, and held as superior to, white people? If this were the case, the critics of left illiberalism would truly be onto something: Individual rights are, again, at the center of liberal thought.

But that divergence isnt anywhere to be found in any of the major controversies that have recently captured broad attention. A minority chef who says she wants to be paid as much as her white colleagues has not said that white people are inferior; an unarmed black man under the knee of a policeman and begging for his life is not asking to be conferred a special privilege. The goal is parity, not superiority. The heart of the protests and cultural agitation weve witnessed has clearly been a desire to see minorities treated equallysharing the rights to which all people are entitled but that have been denied to many by societys extant bigots and the residual effects of injustices past.

Ultimately, its the realities of our collective past that make the notion that progressives are dragging the country toward illiberalism especially ridiculous. Over the course of two and a half centuries in this country, millions of human beings held as property toiled for the comfort and profit of already wealthy people who tortured and raped them. Just over 150 years ago, the last generation of slaves was released into systems of subjugation from which its descendants have not recovered. August will mark just 100 years since women were granted the right to vote; Black Americans, nominally awarded that right during Reconstruction, couldnt take full advantage of it until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. The litany of other inequities and crimes our country has perpetrated and continues to perpetrate against Native Americans, immigrants, religious and sexual minorities, political dissidents, and the poor is endless. All told, liberal society in the U.S. is, at best, just over half a century old: If it were a person, it would be too young to qualify for Medicare.

See the original post:
The Willful Blindness of Reactionary Liberalism - The New Republic

A hand sanitiser is being recalled after it was found to contain potentially lethal chemicals.

The alert was issued yesterday (July 7) by The Chartered Trading Standards Institute for Shield Hand Sanitiser Gel.

Not only is the product ineffective at killing bacteria or viruses, but it contains the toxic substance methanol and is believed to be a fire risk.

Made in the UK, the 100ml gel is packaged in a plastic bottle and is available in different colour, with a black or white self-closing cap.

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It has reportedly been sold online, particularly via eBay.

The alert, classed as serious, says: "The product contains an insufficient amount of ethanol and propan-2-ol (measured values: ? 0.05% and ? 0.1%, respectively).

"Consequently, it does not kill bacteria or viruses, which could then reach the user, increasing the risk of infection.

"The product does contain methanol (measured value: 3.4%), which is acutely toxic to the central nervous system and the eye.

"Ingestion or contact with methanol leads to blindness and death.

"Furthermore, the presence of methanol is not accompanied by the corresponding hazard pictograms and warnings.

"Users have therefore no information on the toxicity and flammability of the product, which in the presence of an ignition source, could lead to a fire."

If you have seen or heard anything you think we should know about, or in relation to this, please contact the Kent Live newsdesk by email at kentlivenewsdesk@reachplc.com.

Alternatively, you can get in touch with us via our Facebook page or on Twitter @kentlivenews.

Original post:
Toxic hand sanitiser urgently recalled over blindness and death fears - Kent Live

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Monday evening. We will have another update for you on Tuesday morning.

The 1.57bn emergency support package unveiled today for the culture sector has been warmly welcomed by many arts leaders but it will not be enough to save every job, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has said. We do not yet know how the money will be divided but the government's priority is to preserve "crown jewels". One theatre has offered an insight into how it will apply social distancing.

Coronavirus restrictions may have eased but sandwich chain Pret A Manger is the latest High Street company to announce shop closures and job cuts as it struggles to cope with the pandemic. Pret is reliant on sales from commuters and lunchtime office workers - both sources of revenue acutely hit by the lockdown.

No new deaths of people with coronavirus have been reported by Public Health Wales for the first day since March. However, BBC Wales health correspondent Owain Clarke points out that given the way the figures are compiled - tagged on to the actual date of death once reported - there have been previous days where the statistics show no Covid-19 deaths had occurred in Wales.

Northern Ireland is seeing a major easing of lockdown restrictions today. Barbers, hairdressers, tattoo parlours and nail salons are now allowed to reopen. Visiting rules at hospitals and care homes have also been eased, meaning many people can visit loved ones for the first time in months.

Three partially sighted and blind people have asked for others to be "understanding" as they try to navigate shops and High Streets in a socially distanced UK. Sue Baker, Reverend Simon Stokes and Mark Smith spoke of their experiences in the city of Norwich and said social distancing was taking away their independence.

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To check the rules on children returning to school.

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Coronavirus: Arts job fears, NI lockdown eases and coping with blindness - BBC News

We all love monsoons - hot and piping pakoras, long drives and the earthy scent of petrichor. But this lovely weather is also associated with a host of water and foodborne diseases including malaria, jaundice, leptospirosis, flu and diarrhoea. Not just this, the rainy season also invites a host of eye infections.As we all know, among eye infections, conjunctivitis is the most common one. Doctors report a sharp rise in eye infection during this humid weather. Three common types of eye infectionsConjunctivitisCommonly known as pink eye, conjunctivitis is the most common type of eye infection. Common symptoms include red eyes, discharge from the eyes. The infection can be easily spread from one person to another by touch.

KeratitisKeratitis is the infection of the cornea. The infection is caused by injury to the eyes caused due to unhygienic routine of contact lens. If left unattended, the infection can even lead to blindness.

TrachomaTrachoma is caused by bacterium chlamydia trachomatis. The infection is responsible for blindness in almost 1.9 million people across the globe. The blindness caused by trachoma is irreversible. It can be caused through direct touch or towels and flies that have come in contact with the eyes or nose of an infected person.

Other sources of contamination can include soil, uncooked meal and unwashed vegetables.

Tips to prevent eye infections- Wash your hands with soap and water frequently.

- Separate your towels, linens, clothes and bedsheets from other people in the family.

- Do not wear contact lenses while swimming. If you use them by mistake, get a new pair.

- Maintain good contact lens hygiene. Wash your hands thoroughly before wearing and taking off lenses.

- If you are trekking or cycling through the forest, wear protective eye gear.

- Take a bath from warm water if you get drenched in rain.

- If you feel any discomfort in eyes, seek medical help. Do not self-medicate.

- If you have already caught the infection, here are some tips to follow

- If you have already caught the infection, wear glasses or a face shield.

- Use boiled or filtered water to wash your eyes.

Read the original here:
3 types of eye infections and tips to prevent them during monsoon - Times of India

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) The Food and Drug Administration is recalling hand sanitizers with methanol, a hazardous ingredient.

And poison control centers are getting calls.

I do know poison control centers around the country have been, says Dr. Tony Pizon of The Pittsburgh Poison Center.

The FDA is also seeing hand sanitizers labeled as containing ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, but theyre contaminated with methanol. This type of alcohol can be used as a pesticide, a solvent or fuel.

It can be absorbed through the skin but is more dangerous if ingested.

There is a chance of absorbing it through your skin or inhaling the fumes that can cause minor toxicity, says Dr. Pizon. If youre just using hand sanitizer like using hand sanitizer, youre not likely to develop toxicity.

You need to be careful, it being around children and pets because we know ingesting the product is much more serious, says Dr. Matthew Stripp, AHN Director of Toxicology.

Methanol can cause nausea, vomiting, headache, seizures, coma and more.

There have actually been a couple of deaths reported, Dr. Pizon said. There have been several cases of blindness reported, as well.

The body tends to turn this type of alcohol, which is different than the alcohol and wine, beer, and liquor, it turns it into a toxic byproduct. And that can make your blood acidic, and it can do damage to your brain, Dr. Stripp said.

Luckily, methanol poisoning, if caught early, can be treated with IV fluids and medicines.

The end treatment would be dialysis to remove the methanol and the metabolites that caused the blindness, says Dr. Pizon.

Washing your hands with soap and water should be your first choice. If thats not possible, use hand sanitizer. But shop safely. You cant see or smell methanol.

The common feature among the tainted products?

Largely made in Mexico. Those would be the ones to avoid, Dr. Pizon said. Reputable brands made in the United States are really the way to ensure safety.

The FDA has recalled three products and has advised against using 13 others.

For a complete list, click here and here.

Read this article:
Some Hand Sanitizers On The Market May Be Dangerous - CBS Pittsburgh

The "Diabetic Retinopathy Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecasts (2020 - 2025)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Certain factors that are driving the market growth include the rising prevalence of diabetes and blindness due to the same, growing geriatric population base, increasing technological advancements in diabetic retinopathy surgical instruments.

There is an increasing burden of diabetic retinopathy across the globe. As stated by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), the global prevalence of DR from 2015 to 2019 was around 27%. The lowest prevalence was in Europe at 20.6% and South East Asia at 12.5% and highest in Africa at 33.8%, Middle East and North Africa 33.8%, and the Western Pacific region at 36.2%.

Hence, the rising prevalence of DR, along with the growing awareness and concern over it, are expected to drive the market growth over the forecast period.

Key Market Trends

Proliferative diabetic retinopathy is Expected to Hold Significant Market Share in the Type Segment

Proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR): PDR is the most advanced stage of diabetic retinopathy. At this stage, circulation problems deprive the retina of oxygen. As a result, new, fragile blood vessels can begin to grow in the retina and into the vitreous, the gel-like fluid that fills the back of the eye. The new blood vessels may leak blood into the vitreous, clouding vision.

Symptoms include progressive loss of vision, particularly in those who are not properly followed or treated. The major risk factors for PDR include the duration of diabetes, since 30-34 years of diabetes increase the risk of retinopathy by 65%, according to the reports published by the Columbia University. Hence, the rising prevalence of diabetes is directly contributing to a further increase in the prevalence of PDR.

North America Dominates the Market and Expected to do Same in the Forecast Period

Over the past decade, the prevalence of diabetes in North America has increased. People with diabetes are at risk for diabetic retinopathy. Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of new cases of blindness among adults aged 20 to 74 years in the United States. More than 100 million U.S. adults are now living with diabetes or prediabetes, according to a new report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Hence with the increasing number of people living with diabetes is expected to contribute to market growth across the entire region.

Competitive Landscape

The global Diabetic Retinopathy market is moderately competitive and consists of a few major players. Companies like Alimera Sciences, Allergan plc, BCN Peptides, Genentech, Glycadia Pharmaceuticals, Kowa Group, Novartis AG, Oxurion N.V., Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc, among others, which hold the substantial market share in the Diabetic Retinopathy market.

Key Topics Covered

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Study Deliverables

1.2 Study Assumptions

1.3 Scope of the Study

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

4 MARKET DYNAMICS

4.1 Market Overview

4.2 Market Drivers

4.2.1 Rising Prevalence of Diabetes and Blindness due to the Same

4.2.2 Growing Geriatric Population Base

4.2.3 Increasing Technological Advancements in Diabetic Retinopathy Surgical Instruments

4.3 Market Restraints

4.3.1 Lack of Skilled Ophthalmologists

4.3.2 Extended Approval Time for Drugs

4.4 Porter's Five Force Analysis

4.4.1 Threat of New Entrants

4.4.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers/Consumers

4.4.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

4.4.4 Threat of Substitute Products

4.4.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry

5 MARKET SEGMENTATION

5.1 By Type

5.1.1 Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy

5.1.2 Non-proliferative Retinopathy

5.2 By Management Approach

5.2.1 Anti-VEGF Drug

5.2.2 Intraocular Steroid Injection

5.2.3 Laser Surgery

5.2.4 Vitrectomy

5.3 Geography

5.3.1 North America

5.3.2 Europe

5.3.3 Asia-Pacific

5.3.4 Middle-East & Africa

5.3.5 South America

6 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

6.1 Company Profiles

6.1.1 Alimera Sciences

6.1.2 AbbVie Inc. (Allergan plc)

6.1.3 BCN Peptides

6.1.4 Genentech

6.1.5 Glycadia Pharmaceuticals

6.1.6 Kowa Group

6.1.7 Novartis AG

6.1.8 Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc

6.1.9 Oxurion N.V.

7 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE TRENDS

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/w4r3ha

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200709005619/en/

Contacts

ResearchAndMarkets.comLaura Wood, Senior Press Managerpress@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

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World Diabetic Retinopathy Market 2020-2025 - Rising Prevalence of DR Along With Growing Awareness and Concerns - ResearchAndMarkets.com - Yahoo...

WALTHAM Mass., July 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Apellis PharmaceuticalsInc., (NASDAQ:APLS), a global biopharmaceutical company pioneering targeted C3 therapies, today announced that it completed enrollment in the Phase 3 DERBY and OAKS studies investigating intravitreal pegcetacoplan (APL-2), a targeted C3 therapy, for the treatment of geographic atrophy (GA) secondary to age-related macular degeneration (AMD). GA causes blindness and is a progressive complement-driven eye disease1,2 that affects approximately five million people globally.3,4 There are no approved therapies for GA.

Completing enrollment in the Phase 3 DERBY and OAKS studies is a critical milestone that moves us one step closer to bringing the first treatment for geographic atrophy to patients. We are extremely grateful to all patients participating in these groundbreaking studies, said Federico Grossi, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer of Apellis. People living with GA need a treatment and we believetargeting the complement system at C3 with pegcetacoplan has the potential to control the excessive complement activation that drives the irreversible growth of GA lesions that cause blindness. We look forward to seeing top-line results in the third quarter of 2021.

A total of 1,259 patients are enrolled in DERBY and OAKS, which are pivotal randomized Phase 3 studies designed to compare the efficacy and safety of intravitreal pegcetacoplan with sham treatment in patients with GA secondary to AMD. The primary objective of the studies is to evaluate the reduction in growth of GA lesion size, measured by fundus autofluorescence (FAF) at month 12 compared to baseline.

Geographic atrophy leads to irreversible vision loss, a decline in the quality of life, and remains a major unmet need for our patients. Achieving this critical milestone reflects the importance of bringing this targeted C3 therapy to our GA patients. I want to thank my co-investigators for completing the enrollment of DERBY and OAKS, especially during the ongoing pandemic. I look forward to seeing the results next year with the hope that pegcetacoplan willenable clinicians to treat this debilitating disease,said Jeffrey S. Heier, MD, Principal Investigator of the DERBY study and Co-President & Medical Director,Director of Retinal Research,Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston.

In July 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted pegcetacoplan Fast Track Designation for the treatment of GA. The Phase 3 DERBY and OAKS studies were initiated based on positive results from the Phase 2 FILLY study, which showed that monthly pegcetacoplan treatment resulted in a 29% (p=0.008) reduction in the rate of GA lesion growth compared to sham injections at 12 months.

For more information about the DERBY and OAKS studies, visit http://www.clinicaltrials.gov: (NCT03525600) and (NCT03525613).

About Pegcetacoplan (APL-2)Pegcetacoplan is the only investigational targeted C3 therapy in late-stage clinical trials. It is designed to control excessive complement activation, which can lead to the onset and progression of many serious diseases. Pegcetacoplan is a synthetic cyclic peptide conjugated to a polyethylene glycol polymer that binds specifically to C3 and C3b.Apellis is evaluating pegcetacoplan in several clinical studies including geographic atrophy (GA), paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), cold agglutinin disease, and C3 glomerulopathy. Pegcetacoplan was granted Fast Track designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of GA and the treatment of PNH. For additional information regarding our clinical trials, visithttps://apellis.com/our-science/clinical-trials/.

About Geographic Atrophy (GA) GA is an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness. Excessive complement activation drives the irreversible lesion growth in GA5, and C3 is the only target to precisely control complement overactivation. Pegcetacoplan, studied in early and late-stage trials comprising a total of approximately 1500 patients, is the only targeted C3 inhibitor being evaluated in patients to control lesion growth in GA.6

GA lesions affect the central portion of the retina, known as the macula, which is responsible for central vision. GA is progressive and irreversible, leading to central visual impairment and permanent loss of vision. Based on published studies, approximately one million people have GA inthe United States and 5 million people have GA globally.1,2 There are currently noapproved treatments for GA.

About DERBY and OAKSDERBY (621 patients enrolled) and OAKS (638 patients enrolled) are Phase 3, multicenter, randomized, double-masked, sham-controlled studies to compare the efficacy and safety of intravitreal pegcetacoplan with sham injections in patients with GA secondary to AMD. The primary objective of the studies is to evaluate the efficacy of pegcetacoplan compared to sham injection in patients with GA secondary to AMD assessed by change in the total area of GA lesions from baseline as measured by fundus autofluorescence (FAF).

About FILLYThe FILLY study was a 246-patient, Phase 2, multicenter, randomized, single-masked, sham-controlled clinical trial evaluating pegcetacoplan in patients with GA secondary to AMD conducted at over 40 clinical sites in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Pegcetacoplan was administered as an intravitreal injection monthly or every other month (EOM) for 12 months, followed by six months of monitoring after the end of treatment. The primary efficacy endpoint was the change in GA lesion area from baseline to month 12 compared to sham.

In this study, pegcetacoplan met its primary endpoint of reducing the growth rate of the GA lesion (measured as square root transformation of GA lesion area) compared to sham after 12 months of treatment. Pegcetacoplan administered monthly via intravitreal injection showed a 29% (p=0.008) reduction in the rate of GA lesion growth compared to sham after 12 months of treatment. With every other month administration of pegcetacoplan, a 20% (p=0.067) reduction was observed compared to sham. Statistical significance was defined as p<0.1 for this study.

Pegcetacoplan was generally well-tolerated in the Phase 2 FILLY trial. Over the full 18-month study period, a total of 26 cases of exudative AMD were reported by the investigators. These were seen more frequently in the pegcetacoplan-treated patients (18 in the monthly treatment group, 7 in the every other month treatment group and 1 in the sham control group). No negative impact on visual acuity was observed. The results of the FILLY study were published in Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

About ApellisApellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapeutic compounds for the treatment of a broad range of life-threatening or debilitating autoimmune diseases based upon complement immunotherapy through the inhibition of the complement system at the level of C3. Apellis is the first company to advance chronic therapy with a C3 inhibitor into clinical trials. For additional information about Apellis and pegcetacoplan, please visithttp://www.apellis.com.

Apellis Forward-Looking StatementStatements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects, as well as any other statements regarding matters that are not historical facts, may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to the implications of preliminary clinical data. The words anticipate, believe, continue, could, estimate, expect, intend, may, plan, potential, predict, project, should, target, will, would and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: whether the companys clinical trials will be fully enrolled and completed when anticipated; whether preliminary or interim results from a clinical trial will be predictive of the final results of the trial; whether results obtained in preclinical studies and clinical trials will be indicative of results that will be generated in future clinical trials; whether pegcetacoplan will successfully advance through the clinical trial process on a timely basis, or at all; whether the results of the companys clinical trials will warrant regulatory submissions and whether pegcetacoplan will receive approval from the FDA or equivalent foreign regulatory agencies for GA, PNH, CAD, C3G or any other indication when expected or at all; whether, if Apellis products receive approval, they will be successfully distributed and marketed; and other factors discussed in the Risk Factors section of Apellis Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with theSecurities and Exchange CommissiononApril 29, 2020and the risks described in other filings that Apellis may make with theSecurities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and Apellis specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Media Contact:Mark Dolemedia@apellis.com617.997.3484

Investor Contact: Sam Martin/Maghan MeyersArgot Partnerssam@argotpartners.com/maghan@argotpartners.com212.600.1902

_______________________________________

1 Weber, BHF, Issa, PC, et al. The Role of the Complement System in Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Dtsch Arztebl Int 2014; 111(8): 1338. 2 Heesterbeek, TJ, Lechanteur YTE, et al. Complement activation levels are related to disease stage in AMD. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2020;61(3):18. 3 Rudnicka AR, Jarrar Z, Wormald R, et al. Age and gender variations inage-related macular degenerationprevalence in populations of European ancestry: a meta-analysis. Ophthalmology 2012;119:571580.4 Wong WL, Su X, Li X, et al. Global prevalence ofage-related macular degenerationand disease burden projection for 2020 and 2040: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Glob Health 2014;2:e106116.5 Seddon, JM, Rosner, B. Validated prediction models for macular degeneration progression and predictors of visual acuity loss identify high-risk individuals. Am J Ophthalmol 2019;198:223261. 6Yates, JRW, Sepp T, et al. Complement C3 Variant and the Risk of Age-Related Macular Degeneration. N Engl J Med 2007;357.

Here is the original post:
Apellis Completes Enrollment in Two Phase 3 Studies of the Targeted C3 Therapy, Pegcetacoplan, in Patients with Geographic Atrophy (GA) -...

For the second straight day, Catawba County Public Health Wednesday (July 8) reported 35 new cases of COVID-19, increasing the total to 1,081, with 14 deaths. Hospitalizations dropped to 16, from a pandemic high of 20 on Tuesday (July 7). 492 patients had recovered from the coronavirus in Catawba County and there had been 3,686 negative test results.

Catawba County Public Health is investigating a newly identified outbreak of COVID-19 at Abernethy Laurels in Newton, where three residents and two staff members have tested positive for the virus. The facility is informing patients, their family members, and staff about the situation.

This is the sixth congregate care facility outbreak identified in Catawba County. In a congregate living setting, a COVID-19 outbreak is defined as two or more laboratory-confirmed cases. The facility previously responded to an outbreak that involved three individuals. That outbreak has since resolved.

The Caldwell County Health Department reported 29 new cases of COVID-19, increasing the overall total to 555, with six deaths. 16 Caldwell County coronavirus patients were hospitalized and at least 301 had recovered.

A third COVID-19 outbreak has been confirmed in Caldwell County. Two employees at Hickory Falls Health and Rehabilitation tested positive for COVID-19. Eight more positive cases were reported at Brockford Inn Assisted Living. The facility currently has 40 residents and 18 employees who have tested positive for the virus. In congregate living settings, an outbreak of COVID-19 is defined as two or more laboratory-confirmed cases within 28 days.

15 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Burke County Wednesday, increasing the overall total to 1,116, with 20 deaths. There were seven people hospitalized with the coronavirus in Burke County, and at least 851 patients had recovered.

Wednesday's media briefing from Burke County included an update from North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services regarding hand sanitizer safety. A news release was sent out to warn residents about methanol-contaminated hand sanitizers. Methanol is a toxic alcohol that can cause blindness and/or death when absorbed through the skin or when swallowed. No alcohol-based hand sanitizers should ever be ingested.

Manufacturers and distributors are working on a voluntary recall of products that have a significant amount of methanol. There has been an increase in products manufactured in Mexico that are labeled to contain ethanol, whish is normal alcohol used in hand sanitizer, but was tested positive for methanol contamination. Get more details at this link: https://www.ncdhhs.gov/news/press-releases/public-health-risk-associated-methanol-contaminated-hand-sanitizers

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday reported 138 cases of COVID-19 in Alexander County, two more than the previous update issued by county health officials. Through Wednesday, there had been one coronavirus-related death in Alexander County.

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Thursday COVID-19 Update: Two More Outbreaks Reported In Hickory Metro, New Cases Added In All Counties - WHKY

Inherited retinal diseases marketis expected to gain market growth in the forecast period of 2020 to 2027. Data Bridge Market Research analyses the market to account to an annual growth rate of 4.40% in the above-mentioned forecast period. The growing awareness amongst the physicians and patients regarding the benefits associated with the usage of inherited retinal diseases has been directly impacting the growth of inherited retinal diseases market.

The inherited retinal diseases market document provides CAGR values along with its fluctuations for the definite forecast period. Pharmaceutical industry can achieve great benefits with this inherited retinal diseases market research report which brings market and competitive landscape clearly into the focus and assist to make better decisions. Thus, the all-inclusive market information and data of the inherited retinal diseases market document will surely grow business and improve return on investment (ROI). Market definition included in the report provides the scope of particular product with respect to the driving factors and restraints in the market. The key research methodology used here by DBMR research team is data triangulation which involves data mining, analysis of the impact of data variables on the market, and primary validation.

Ask For Complimentary Sample PDF| Request Athttps://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-inherited-retinal-diseases-market

The major players covered in the inherited retinal diseases market report are American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy, Spark Therapeutics, Inc., Invitae Corporation., The Choroideremia Research Foundation Inc, American Council of the Blind, Foundation Fighting Blindness, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Inc., Fighting Blindness, FIGHTING BLINDNESS CANADA, Lighthouse Guild, The RDH12 Fund For Sight, Sofia Sees Hope, Retina International, Usher Syndrome Coalition, VisionServe Alliance among other domestic and global players. Market share data is available for global, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America separately. DBMR analysts understand competitive strengths and provide competitive analysis for each competitor separately.

Some of the Main regions covered in this report are

This Inherited Retinal Diseases report includes the Market Dynamics which analyzes the drivers and restraints of the market and takes into account the various factors such as market obstacles, logistics, political and regulatory constraints or policy support. The most relevant factors are identified and qualitatively described in this Section.

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Global Inherited Retinal Diseases Market Scope and Market Size

Inherited retinal diseases market is segmented on the basis of type, treatment type and distribution channel. The growth amongst these segments will help you analyse meagre growth segments in the industries, and provide the users with valuable market overview and market insights to help them in making strategic decisions for identification of core market applications.

Based on type, inherited retinal diseases market is segmented into leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), retinitis pigmentosa, choroideremia, stargardts disease, and achromatopsia.

Inherited retinal diseases market has also been segmented based on treatment type such as gene therapy treatment, and symptomatic treatment.On the basis of distribution channel, the inherited retinal diseases market is segmented into hospital pharmacies, and retail pharmacies.

Report synopsis

1. Comprehensive quantitative analysis of the industry is provided for the period of 2019-2026 to assist stakeholders to capitalize on the prevailing market opportunities.2. Comprehensive analysis of the factors that drive and restrict the market growth is provided in the report.3. Comprehensive quantitative analysis of the industry is provided for the period of 2019-2026 to assist stakeholders to capitalize on the prevailing market opportunities.4. Extensive analysis of the key segments of the industry helps in understanding the trends in types of Inherited Retinal Diseases across global.5. To get a comprehensive overview of the Inherited Retinal Diseases market.

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Global Inherited Retinal Diseases Market Research & Clinical Advancements by 2027| Invitae Corporation., The Choroideremia Research Foundation...

If we could start 2020 all over again, the world would be satisfied if the big worry was wildfires and whether or not cat litter had a Non-GMO Project label.

Instead, we got a coronavirus from Wuhan, China, and a COVID-19 disease that isn't stopping any time soon.But science marches on, and we also have machine learning helping to grow artificial organs.

The human retina has a very limited capacity for regeneration. Any progressive loss of neurons, such as in glaucoma, inevitably leads to complete loss of vision. There is nothing a physician can recommend to halt it. But science is on the case. In a recent study, a neural network capable of recognizing retinal tissues during the process of differentiation does so without the need to modify cells, making it ideal for growing retinal tissue for developing cell replacement therapies to treat blindness and conducting research into new drugs.

Credit: MIPT Press Office

That's more complex than it reads at first. In multicellular organisms, the cells making up different organs and tissues start the same, but then acquire distinct functions and properties in the course of development. Stem cells have the potential to become any kind of cell, they undergo differentiation by producing proteins specific to certain tissues and organs.

The most advanced technique for replicating tissue differentiation in vitro relies on 3-D cell aggregates called organoids. Since organoid-based differentiation closely mimics natural processes, the resulting tissue is very similar to the one in an actual biological organ. Some of the stages in cell differentiation toward retina have a stochastic (random) nature, leading to considerable variations in the number of cells with a particular function even between artificial organs in the same batch. The discrepancy is even greater when different cell lines are involved. As a result, it is necessary to have a means of determining which cells have already differentiated at a given point in time. Otherwise, experiments will not be truly replicable, making clinical applications less reliable, too.

To spot differentiated cells, tissue engineers use fluorescent proteins. By inserting the gene responsible for the production of such a protein into the DNA of cells, researchers ensure that it is synthesized and produces a signal once a certain stage in cell development has been reached. While this technique is highly sensitive, specific, and convenient for quantitative assessments, it is not suitable for cells intended for transplantation or hereditary disease modeling.

To address that pitfall, the authors of the recent study proposed an alternative approach based on tissue structure. No reliable and objective criteria for predicting the quality of differentiated cells have been formulated so far. The researchers proposed that the best retinal tissues, those most suitable for transplantation, drug screening, or disease modeling, should be selected using neural networks and artificial intelligence.

The team trained a neural network - a computer algorithm that mimics the way neurons work in the human brain - to identify the tissues in a developing retina based on photographs made by a conventional light microscope. The researchers first had a number of experts identify the differentiated cells in 1,200 images via an accurate technique that involves the use of a fluorescent reporter. The neural network was trained on 750 images, with another 150 used for validation and 250 for testing predictions. At this last stage, the machine was able to spot differentiated cells with an 84% accuracy, compared with 67% achieved by humans.

"Our findings indicate that the current criteria used for early-stage retinal tissue selection may be subjective. They depend on the expert making the decision. However, we hypothesized that the tissue morphology, its structure, contains clues that enable predicting retinal differentiation, even at very early stages. And unlike a human, the computer program can extract that information!" states Evgenii Kegeles of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. "This approach does not require images of a very high quality, fluorescent reporters, or dyes, making it relatively easy to implement. It takes us one step closer to developing cellular therapies for the retinal diseases such as glaucoma and macular degeneration, which today invariably lead to blindness. Besides that, the approach can be transferred not just to other cell lines, but also to other human artificial organs."

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Neural Networks Growing Artificial Organs Is The 2020 We Expected Decades Ago - Science 2.0

But however well-intentioned, there are complications that come with works that aim to use colorblind casting to highlight people of color who wouldnt otherwise be represented. Creators may cast blind, thinking their job done, failing to consider that a Black man cast as a criminal or a Latina woman cast as a saucy seductress even when cast without any regard to their race can still be problematic. One kind of blindness can lead to another.

And then theres also the Hamilton problem. The show may place diverse bodies on the stage, but productions that would subvert a narrative traditionally owned by white characters must not just tag in actors of color but reconsider the fundamental way the new casting changes the story. In Hamilton, the revision of American history is dazzling and important, but it also neglects and negates the parts of the original story that dont fit so nicely into this narrow model. The characters relationship to slavery, for example, is scarcely mentioned, because it would be incongruous with the triumphant recasting of our countrys first leaders. (The Hamilton star and creator Lin-Manuel Miranda responded to this criticism this week, calling it valid.)

The trouble of a colorblind production might not be the casting itself, but the fact that the casting may still erase the reimagined characters identities. (If Willy Loman is Black, wouldnt he have a more complex understanding of the American dream?) Careless colorblind casting in animated roles, in live-action roles on TV, movies or the stage assumes that identities amount to nothing and that all experiences are transferable, which is far from the reality.

In a 1996 speech, the playwright August Wilson spoke out against colorblind casting overall, saying:

To mount an all-Black production of a Death of a Salesman or any other play conceived for white actors as an investigation of the human condition through the specifics of white culture is to deny us our own humanity, our own history, and the need to make our own investigations from the cultural ground on which we stand as Black Americans. It is an assault on our presence, and our difficult but honorable history in America; and it is an insult to our intelligence, our playwrights, and our many and varied contributions to the society and the world at large.

Wilson called not for colorblind casting, but for institutions that invite art by and for people of color, to tell their own stories and not simply ones adapted for them. He doesnt call for blindness, but visibility: people of color seen on stages and behind the curtains. This applies to all art forms people of color should be on movie screens, on the TV and in recording booths giving voice to stories about them.

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Hamilton, The Simpsons and the Problem With Colorblind Casting - The New York Times

Burnley wore a one-off all white fourth strip in the win over West Ham United on Wednesday night.

The Clarets have produced the strip after the Premier League flagged a colour clash between the two sides.

Burnleys home and away strips are a natural clash with the Hammers claret and blue kit while the Turf Moor sides green third kit has been deemed a clash by the Premier League system, which does take into account the impact on colour blind viewers.

The league try to ensure four different colours between the two teams - outfielders and goalkeepers - to ensure a contrast.

This includes avoiding a clash of red and green where possible, something that assists viewers watching the game who are colour blind.

The Premier League said Burnley were notified last summer in advance of the season starting that a new kit would be required and a white strip was agreed.

Burnley were able to play in green at Aston Villa as there was sufficient contrast on Villas shirt whereas West Hams is deemed all Claret - hence the change.

And the Clarets have a 100 per cent record in their new kit after Jay Rodriguez's goal gave them all three points.

Colour blindness, or colour vision deficiency, is one of the worlds most common genetic conditions but it is under-recognised and poorly understood. Worldwide, about 320 million people have some form of colour blindness and in the UK there are almost three million colour-blind people. Men are more likely to be colour blind than women, as approximately one in 12 men (8 per cent) inherit red/green colour blindness but only 1 in 200 (0.5%) of women do.

As a result colour-blindness leads to issues in football for people who are colour-blind, including kit clashes between players, goalkeepers, match officials, the playing surface; equipment such as match balls; venues, information and also TV coverage of the match itself.

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Why Burnley wore a white kit in their Premier League match with West Ham - Accrington Observer

South Dakota Livestock producers are encouraged to test their water sources as poor quality water can cause health problems in livestock.

SDSU Extension Cow/Calf Field Specialist Robin Salverson says high levels of sulfates in the water have caused polioencephalomalacia in some herds already this year, with blindness being a result. She says livestock water samples from the northwestern part of the state have indicated high levels of total salts, but this type of poor quality water can be found in all of western and possibly portions of eastern South Dakota.

Poor quality water will cause an animal to consume less water, as a result they will consume less forage/feed which leads to weight loss, decreased milk production and lower fertility. It can be successfully treated through the use of thiamine and anti-inflammatory injections, if caught early.

Salverson says whether big or small, full or running low, water from wells, dams, dugouts and creeks are often high in total salts, especially sulfates. Poor water quality is caused by areas having little to no runoff from snow or spring rain and accelerated by hot, dry and windy conditions. Additionally, certain water sources regardless of dry or wet years, are high in total salts. The only way to know if water is suitable for livestock is through testing.

Water sources such as spring-fed reservoirs and water that appears to be clear are often assumed to be safe but can still be high in salts/sulfates. The visual appearance of water should not be used to determine if the water is good or bad.

A quick, on-site test can be done at all SDSU Extension Regional Centersincluding the one in Pierre and some SDSU Extension County Offices across South Dakota. Contact your veterinarian to determine a treatment plan if you have any concern of potential losses due to polio.

For additional information or questions, contact Robin Salverson, SDSU Extension Cow/Calf Field Specialist, at 605.374.4177 or robin.salverson@sdstate.edu.

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Poor water quality may cause blindness, other issues in livestock - Drgnews