Origin of Domestic Chickens

By Bob Yirka, Phys. Org

June 29, 2020 -- [There is strong genome] evidence of an origin in southwestern parts of China, northern Thailand and Myanmar. In either event, once the bird was domesticated, all agree it was transported and bred on every continent except Antarctica.

Understanding chickens is important: they not only represent the most populous bird (they outnumber other species by a very large number) but they also represent the single largest source of animal protein in the human diet. They have also played a major role in human migration history.

More at: https://phys.org/news/2020-06-domesticated-chicken.htm

Fast Progress Toward a Vaccine

With large vaccine trials planned and monoclonal antibody trials underway, efficacy data could come this fall or winter

By Ryan Cross, Chemical and Engineering News


June 18, 2020 -- “Large trials this summer and fall could provide the first evidence that some of the experimental COVID-19 vaccines are working. AstraZeneca, which is developing an adenoviral vector vaccine designed at the University of Oxford, is recruiting 10,000 people in the UK, 30,000 people in the US, and potentially 2,000 people in Brazil for its Phase III study to determine if the vaccine is effective. If the trial is successful, AstraZeneca says, it could start distributing the vaccine as early as September in the UK and October in the US.”


Full article at: https://cen.acs.org/pharmaceuticals/drug-development/COVID-19-vaccines-antibodies-advance/98/i24

The Armada of 1779

The Armada of 1779 was a combined Franco-Spanish naval enterprise intended to divert British military assets, primarily of the Royal Navy, from other war theatres by invading the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. The proposed plan was to seize the Isle of Wight and then capture the British naval base of Portsmouth. Ultimately, no fleet battles were fought in the Channel and the Franco-Spanish invasion never materialized. This threat to Great Britain prompted comparisons to the earlier Spanish Armada of 1588.


Background


After the indecisive Battle of Ushant in 1778 between the British Royal Navy and the French Marine Royale, the French were certain that they could have triumphed if their force had been larger. France had allied itself with the Americans in February 1778 and additionally signed a secret treaty with 

Spain on 12 April 1779, which brought Spain into the war against Great Britain. Fearful of the consequences to their land claims in America, the Spanish did not openly support the American colonists' rebellion against British rule, but were willing to undertake direct operations against British interests elsewhere. Spain thus sought to regain various European territories controlled by Britain, most notably the fortress of Gibraltar, the possession of which effectively controlled access to trade in and out of the Mediterranean Sea. On 3 June 1779, in an attempt to achieve a strategic advantage by misleading the British, the French fleet at Brest left port hastily and sailed southward, deliberately under-provisioned in order to avoid Royal Navy scrutiny and a subsequent blockade. Then, on 16 June, Spain officially declared war on Great Britain.


Armada Campaign


The plan was for the French fleet to meet a Spanish fleet off the Sisargas Islands, near Corunna in north-west Spain, in order to begin an invasion of Britain. The French fleet was commanded by Admiral d'Orvilliers, who had also led at Ushant, and included 30 ships of the line and numerous smaller vessels. When the French reached the rendezvous point, the Spanish fleet was absent, the Spanish later claiming that the winds had been contrary, so d'Orvilliers had to suspend the invasion. Because the French fleet had deliberately departed from Brest before they were fully supplied, numerous problems quickly arose as the wait for the Spanish forces dragged out to several weeks. Scurvy weakened the crew, and in the hot, crowded conditions on board typhus and smallpox also broke out. It was not until 22 July that the Spanish fleet finally arrived, commanded by Don Luis de Córdova, who was to be subordinate to d'Orvilliers in the joint enterprise. It consisted of 36 ships of the line.


Meanwhile, an army of over 40,000 men was slowly being gathered around Le Havre and St. Malo in northern France, with 400 transport boats. The goal of the combined fleet was to put the Royal Navy out of action so that the allied army could be safely transported across the English Channel, (La Manche), and set up a base on either the Isle of Wight or the nearby British coast. At the time there were fewer than 40 Royal Navy ships of the line available in the English Channel area, under the command of the ailing 64-year-old Sir Charles Hardy, who had been desk-bound for 20 years. On 25 July the Franco-Spanish Armada set sail northwards to take on the British fleet, with contrary winds greatly slowing its progress. It soon became apparent that the diseases which had afflicted the French had also spread to the Spanish troops. Having missed opportunities to seize two important British convoys of merchant ships from the West Indies, which reached Plymouth on 31 July, the Armada finally passed Ushant on 11 August and entered the Channel. Three days later, a squadron under American colours but consisting mostly of French ships with French crews set sail from the French port of L'Orient, heading northward towards Ireland as a diversion. This diversionary fleet was commanded by John Paul Jones, an American captain with an alarming reputation in Britain.


Action Against the Royal Navy


Unknown to d'Orvilliers, the British fleet was not in the Channel. Having learned that the French fleet had gone out into the Atlantic in June, Admiral Hardy was instead patrolling off the Scilly Isles. On 14 August, the massive combined Franco-Spanish fleet came within sight of the English coast, causing a wave of alarm which quickly spread throughout the country but did not reach the Royal Navy ship Ardent, which had left Plymouth on 15 August to join Hardy on patrol. On 16 August the French and Spanish ships, which were sailing slowly eastwards up the Channel, received orders from France to turn around, as it had been decided by the government that the best place for the troops to land would be near Falmouth in Cornwall. D'Orvilliers considered this a foolish idea, and sent a reply asking the government to reconsider. The next day Ardent met an outlying French squadron of the great fleet, but was fooled into thinking it was British, and was swiftly captured.


Allied Failure


The Franco-Spanish allies hovered off Plymouth, waiting for a reply to d'Orvilliers' message. On 18 August a gale from the east drove them far to the west and out into the Atlantic. There was one beneficial result: as they struggled eastward again, on 25 August the French and Spanish finally learned the location of Hardy's fleet. They decided to neutralise it quickly, because they were finding it increasingly difficult to cope with sickness and a lack of food. The allies steered for the Scilly Isles with the intention of forcing a battle on the British, but Hardy attempted to dodge their move. On 31 August, under cover of fog, the British fleet slipped past Land's End, and Hardy began leading his would-be opponents as far as he could towards the key British naval base of Portsmouth. 

Remarkably, on 3 September, the completely undamaged British fleet reached the well-defended safety of the Solent, and set about equipping for battle. This was a problem for the French and Spanish, who were losing men daily to sickness. French military planners also realised that if the invasion were postponed much longer, their troops would be fighting through the British autumn and winter, which would be problematic. Accordingly, on that day the leaders of the great Armada abandoned their campaign and set sail for Brest.


Aftermath


Hasty improvements were made to Britain's coastal defences. The first earthworks were erected on the Western Heights at Dover. (These were later expanded as a defence against Napoleon's planned invasion in the early nineteenth century.) In addition, Fort Gillkicker was built at Portsmouth. For the Spanish, the expedition was an expensive waste of time. It prevented them from bringing their full force to bear on Gibraltar, which had strengthened its defences after weak early attacks and was able to successfully hold out until the end of the war. For the French, the expedition was very costly. 
Keeping so many ships at sea and so many troops waiting at embarkation ports for months on end was hugely expensive, and many sailors died of disease. D'Orvilliers resigned his post soon after returning to France. The French and Spanish fleets continued joint operations afterward, primarily against isolated British garrisons in order to protect troop landings, rather than as a direct challenge to the Royal Navy. Notable exceptions were the unsuccessful commitment to the Great Siege of Gibraltar, and another abortive pursuit of the Channel Fleet in August 1781, which was not part of an invasion plan.


                               https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armada_of_1779

Dolphins Learn Like Great Apes

Dolphins learn new foraging techniques not just from their mothers, but also from their peers, a study by the University of Zurich has found. More than 1,000 bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia were observed over 10 years and found to have cultural behavior that is similar to great apes.

From the University of Zurich


June 25, 2020 -- Dolphins use unusual techniques to obtain food: One of them, called “shelling”, is used by the dolphins in Shark Bay in Western Australia. Dolphins in this population trap fishes inside large empty gastropod shells. The shells are then brought to the surface and vigorously shaken so that the water drains out and the fish falls into their open mouth. Using the empty shell in this manner is comparable to tool use in humans.


Dolphins learn directly from their peers


It was previously thought the only way dolphins could learn new foraging methods while with their mother, a process known as vertical social transmission. However, a study initiated by Michael 
Krützen, director of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Zurich (UZH), has now shown that “shelling” is mainly passed on between peers rather than across generations – that is, via horizontal transmission. “Our results provide the first evidence that dolphins are also capable of learning from their peers as adults,” says Krützen. The analysis of extensive behavioral, genetic and environmental data spanning more than a decade led to these findings.


Cultural behavior similar to that of great apes


“This is an important milestone. It shows that cultural behavior of dolphins and other toothed whales is much more similar to the behavior of great apes, including humans, than was previously thought,” says Krützen. Gorillas and chimpanzees also learn new foraging techniques through both vertical and horizontal transmission. Although their evolutionary history and their environments are very different, there are striking similarities between cetaceans and great apes, according to Krützen: 
“Both are long-lived mammals with large brains that are capable of innovation and of passing on cultural behaviors.”


Behavioral observation over more than 10 years


The researchers made their discovery between 2007 and 2018 in the Western Gulf Zone of Shark Bay, where they observed Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) and documented how the shelling behavior was spread within the population. During this time, they identified more than 1,000 individuals from around 5,300 encounters with dolphin groups. “In total we documented 42 individual uses of shelling by 19 different dolphins,” says study leader Sonja Wild, who completed her PhD at the University of Leeds, and is now a postdoc at the University of Konstanz.


Quicker adaptation to changing environments


This discovery that wild dolphins can learn new foraging techniques outside of the mother-calf bond significantly widens our understanding of how they can adapt to fluctuating environmental conditions through behavioral changes. “Learning from others allows for a rapid spread of novel behaviors across populations,” says Wild.


For example, an unprecedented marine heatwave in 2011 was responsible for wiping out a large number of fish and invertebrates in Shark Bay, including the gastropods inhabiting the shells. “While we can only speculate as to whether the heatwave and subsequent prey depletion gave the dolphins a boost to adopt new foraging behavior from their associates, it seems quite possible that an abundance of dead shells may have increased learning opportunities for shelling behavior,” says Sonja Wild.


                 https://www.media.uzh.ch/en/Press-Releases/2020/Dolphins-Shelling.html

Identity Theft Warning Signs

Look out for some of the key warning signs of

potential identity theft or other online fraud:

• ·         You receive mail from companies with which you have not conducted business
• 
  
• ·         You receive mail at your current address with someone else’s name
•  
• ·         Emails arrive that look like correspondence from a company or organization youknow, but make unusual requests.  You may be asked to provide personal information, via email, including your date of birth, Social Security number or account number
• ·         You don’t receive your regular credit card bills or other financial statements
• ·         Debt collectors call about debts that aren’t yours
• ·         You receive notice that your information was compromised by a  data breach at a company  where you do business or have an account

Material for Brain-like Computers

From: U.S. Army Research Laboratory


June 18, 2020 -- Over the past few decades, computers have seen dramatic progress in processing power; however, even the most advanced computers are relatively rudimentary in comparison with the complexities and capabilities of the human brain.


Researchers at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory say this may be changing as they endeavor to design computers inspired by the human brain's neural structure.


As part of a collaboration with Lehigh University, Army researchers have identified a design strategy for the development of neuromorphic materials.


"Neuromorphic materials is a name given to the material categories or combination of materials that provide both computing and memory capabilities in devices," said Dr. Sina Najmaei, a research scientist and electrical engineer with the laboratory.


Najmaei and his colleagues published a paper, Dynamically reconfigurable electronic and phononic properties in intercalated Hafnium Disulfide (HfS2), in the May 2020 issue of Materials Today.


The neuromorphic computing concept is an in-memory solution that promises orders of magnitude reductions in power consumption over conventional transistors, and is suitable for complex data classification and processing. The limited power efficiency in conventional transistors is a fundamental technology shortcoming impeding future progress in computing.


Neuromorphic materials research conducted over the past 10 years has focused on understanding the unique properties of 2-D materials and their van der Waals multilayered structures.


"The findings show great promise for these materials in electronic applications, but also show the unique interfaces in these materials provide an unprecedented opportunity for design of material properties," Najmaei said.


Over the past four years, the team conducted an effort focused on the design of material properties for high-performance electronic applications.


"Our research led to our Materials Today paper, which expands this effort to design of reconfigurable properties in these materials based on van der Waal/organometallic hybrid systems and neuromorphic material design," Najmaei said.


Neuromorphic computing processes information using new models of computing similar to the brain's cognitive processes.


"In order to process and make rational inferences from the input, information and a new paradigm of 
computing is needed," Najmaei said. "Neuromorphic hardware with in-memory computer capabilities promises to bridge this ever-growing technology gap."


This research is an important stepping stone towards development of in-memory computing in hybrid devices with unique functional properties for integration in cognitive sensory devices and overcomes significant technical challenges that impede a bottom up approach for streamlining of brain-inspired computing hardware, he said.


If the researchers can ultimately develop a computer that can behave like the brain, it would be extremely useful to the warfighter, Najmaei said.


Neuromorphic computing, like a neural system, would offer computing capability complete with perks, such as robustness to damage, ability to learn, adaptability to change and others. It would have the potential to reduce operational power by a magnitude of 1,000 to 1 million times in comparison to today's computing paradigms.


This level of processing would be highly desirable for image recognition in autonomous systems, and for artificial intelligence in general. Given the significance of AI and autonomous systems in modern day warfare, neuromorphic computing may very well be a cornerstone for a wide range of future leap-ahead warfighting capabilities, Najmaei said.


                  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200618132349.htm

“Brainsourcing” Identifies Human Preferences

Monitoring electroencephalograms with the help of artificial intelligence makes it possible to determine the preferences of large groups of people from just their brain activity.

From: University of Helsinki


June 17, 2020 -- Researchers at the University of Helsinki have developed a technique, using artificial intelligence, to analyse opinions, and draw conclusions using the brain activity of groups of people. This technique, which the researchers call "brainsourcing," can be used to classify images or recommend content, something that has not been demonstrated before.


Crowdsourcing is a method to break up a more complex task into smaller tasks that can be distributed to large groups of people and solved individually. For example, people can be asked if an object can be seen in an image, and their responses are used as instructional data for an image recognition system. Even the most advanced image recognition systems based on artificial intelligence are not yet fully automated. Instead, training them requires the opinions of several people on the content of many sample images.


The University of Helsinki researchers experimented with the possibility of implementing crowdsourcing by analysing people's electroencephalograms (EEGs) with the help of AI techniques. Rather than asking for people's opinions, this information could be read directly from the EEG.


"We wanted to investigate whether crowdsourcing can be applied to image recognition by utilising the natural reactions of people without them having to carry out any manual tasks with a keyboard or mouse," says Academy Research Fellow Tuukka Ruotsalo from the University of Helsinki.


Computers classify images


In the study, a total of 30 volunteers were shown images of human faces on a computer display. The participants were instructed to label the faces in their mind based on what was portrayed in the images. For example, whether an image portrayed a blond or dark-haired individual, or a person smiling or not smiling. Unlike in conventional crowdsourcing tasks, they did not provide any additional information using the mouse or keyboard -- they simply observed the images presented to them.


Meanwhile, the brain activity of each participant was collected using electroencephalography. From the EEGs, the AI algorithm learned to recognise images relevant to the task, such as when an image of a blond person appeared on-screen.


In the results of the experiment, the computer was able to interpret these mental labels directly from the EEG. The researchers concluded that brainsourcing can be applied to simple and well-defined recognition tasks. Highly reliable labelling results were already achieved using data collected from 12 volunteers.


User-friendly techniques are on the way


The findings can be utilised in various interfaces that combine brain and computer activity. These interfaces would require the availability of lightweight and user-friendly EEG equipment in the form of wearable electronics, as opposed to the equipment used in the study, which requires a trained technician. Lightweight wearables that measure EEG are actively being developed and may be available sometime in the near future.


"Our approach is limited by the technology available," says Keith Davis, a student and research assistant at the University of Helsinki.


"Current methods to measure brain activity are adequate for controlled setups in a laboratory, but the technology needs to improve for everyday use. Additionally, these methods only capture a very small percentage of total brain activity. As brain imaging technologies improve, it may become possible to capture preference information directly from the brain. Instead of using conventional ratings or like buttons, you could simply listen to a song or watch a show, and your brain activity alone would be enough to determine your response to it."


                      https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200617150003.htm

E.U. May Ban American Travelers

Europe May Issue a Travel Ban for Americans Because of the Rapid Spread of the Coronavirus in the U.S.

By David Slotnick, Business Insider


June 23, 2020


“The EU is considering barring Americans from entering the bloc because the United States has not adequately controlled the spread of COVID-19, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing draft lists of travelers who would be allowed.


“Travelers from Russia and Brazil would also be blocked from entering EU countries under the lists, according to The Times.


“The move would be a major blow to America's prestige and world image, despite the Trump administration's claims that the US's outbreak is under control. The US has had more than 2.3 million coronavirus cases and 120,000 deaths, more than any other country.


“In early March, the Trump administration barred travel to the US from much of Europe, citing outbreaks in northern Italy, Germany, and elsewhere in the European Union. The prohibition has not been lifted, even as Europe has largely contained its outbreaks.”

               https://www.businessinsider.com/europe-travel-ban-americans-coronavirus-2020-6

A Better Measure of "Good Cholesterol"

Still no existing measures accurately predict heart attacks in black people

From:  UT Southwestern Medical Center


June 22, 2020 -- For decades, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol has been dubbed 'good  cholesterol' because of its role in moving fats and other cholesterol molecules out of artery walls. People with higher HDL cholesterol levels tend to have lower rates of cardiovascular disease, studies have shown.


Now, UT Southwestern scientists have analyzed data on more than 15,000 people to better understand the association between HDL cholesterol, heart attacks, and strokes in diverse populations. They found that the number of HDL particles, a little-used measurement of HDL, is a more reliable predictor of heart attack and stroke risk than the standard HDL cholesterol metric. Moreover, they found that among black people, neither HDL measurement was significantly associated with heart attack.

    
"Previous studies have looked at HDL levels in the population as a whole," says Anand Rohatgi, M.D., an associate professor of internal medicine at UTSW. "But we know that sometimes biology differs by gender and race, so we thought it was important to separately tease apart what's happening in those populations, as well as how HDL is associated with stroke, which has been understudied."


According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. More than 12 percent of adults in the U.S. have high total cholesterol levels, and more than 18 percent have what's currently considered low levels of HDL cholesterol.


Cholesterol is a waxy substance that is used by the body to make hormones and keep cells functioning properly. But when low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels are too high, cholesterol can accumulate inside blood vessels, forming deposits called plaques. These plaques can eventually lead to blood vessel blockages that cause heart attacks or strokes. HDL cholesterol helps remove cholesterol from blood vessels. But recent studies have come to mixed conclusions about the association between HDL cholesterol levels and health outcomes.


For the new paper, published in the journal Circulation, Rohatgi and his colleagues pooled together information on people who had participated in four large, nationwide studies -- the Dallas Heart Study, Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and the Prevention of Renal and Vascular Endstage Disease study. In all, the studies included 15,784 people followed over an average of 8 to 12 years. Of the participants, 54 percent were male, 22 percent were black, and their average age was 56 years.


"By combining all these large existing cohorts, we had enough numbers to look at these populations that had been understudied in the past," says Kavisha Singh, M.D., a research fellow in cardiology at UTSW and first author of the new study.


In addition, the data included two different measurements of HDL: HDL-P levels tally how many particles of HDL are circulating in the blood. HDL-C levels, the standard test, instead quantify how much total HDL cholesterol is inside those particles. Since the number of HDL particles may vary with regards to how much cholesterol they contain, the two measurements can be quite different and are only moderately correlated.


In the study, people with the highest HDL-P levels, above 37 mmol/L, had a 37 percent lower risk of heart attack and a 34 percent lower risk of stroke than those who had the lowest HDL-P levels. In women, this association was stronger -- those with the highest HDL-P levels had a 49 percent reduction in heart attacks and 46 percent reduction in stroke. While HDL-C predicted heart attack risk in the overall pool of people as well as in women, it was not associated with stroke.


When the researchers homed in on black participants, the results were different -- neither HDL-C nor HDL-P was linked to a black person's risk of heart attack.


"If you're white, low HDL cholesterol is still a powerful predictor of heart attack and stroke risk, and that has not changed," says Rohatgi. "But if you're not white, it's not that straightforward."


A better understanding of how HDL can help predict disease, and how that association varies among populations, is vital to lowering rates of cardiovascular disease, the researchers say.


"These risk markers are really relevant in everyday primary care and cardiology," says Singh. 
  
"Doctors use cholesterol levels to make decisions like whether a patient goes on medication or not."

The team is planning future studies on the functionality of HDL particles among black people, how HDL-P may be used clinically, and whether HDL-P might be associated with specific subtypes of strokes.


                 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200622132957.htm

Beijing Shrinks Hong Kong Liberty

Beijing to have sweeping powers over Hong Kong security law, stoking concerns

By Yew Lun Tian and Greg Torode of Reuters


Story at this link:


https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-hongkong-protests-security/beijing-to-have-sweeping-powers-over-hong-kong-security-law-idUSKBN23R0FC

Brain Injury and Severe COVID-19

University of Gothenburg


June 18, 2020 -- Certain patients who receive hospital care for coronavirus infection (COVID-19) exhibit clinical and neurochemical signs of brain injury, a University of Gothenburg study shows. In even moderate COVID-19 cases, finding and measuring a blood-based biomarker for brain damage proved to be possible.


Some people infected with the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 get only mild, cold-like symptoms, while others become severely ill and require hospital treatment. Among the latter, it has become clear that the patients sometimes show obvious signs of the brain not functioning as it should. These cases are not common, but do occur.


In a project at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, blood samples were taken from 47 patients with mild, moderate and severe COVID-19 in the course of their hospital stay. These samples were analyzed by means of highly sensitive biomarkers for brain injury. The results were compared with those from a healthy control group comprising 33 people matched by age and sex. 


Elevated concentration of brain-injury markers


Now that the research is being presented in the journal Neurology, it is evident that an increase in one of the biomarkers took place even with moderate COVID-19 — that is, in patients admitted to hospital but not in need of ventilator support. This marker, known as GFAP (glial fibrillary acidic protein), is normally present in astrocytes, a star-shaped neuron-supportive cell type in the brain, but leaks out in the event of astrocytic injury or overactivation.


The second biomarker investigated was NfL (neurofilament light chain protein), which is normally to be found inside the brain’s neuronal outgrowths, which it serves to stabilize, but which leaks out into the blood if they are damaged. Elevated plasma NfL concentrations were found in most of the patients who required ventilator treatment, and there was a marked correlation between how much they rose and the severity of the disease.


“The increase in NfL levels, in particular, over time is greater than we’ve seen previously in studies connected with intensive care, and this suggests that COVID-19 can in fact directly bring about a brain injury. Whether it’s the virus or the immune system that’s causing this is unclear at present, and more research is needed,” says Henrik Zetterberg (photo to the left), Professor of Neurochemistry, whose research team at Sahlgrenska Academy performed the measurements.


Monitoring effects of new therapies


Magnus Gisslén, Professor of Infectious Diseases at Sahlgrenska Academy and chief physician at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, leads the Academy’s clinical research on COVID-19.


In his view, blood tests for biomarkers associated with brain injury could be used for monitoring patients with moderate to severe COVID-19, to reduce the risk of brain injury.

“It would be highly interesting to see whether the NfL increase can be slowed down with new therapies, such as the new dexamethasone treatment that’s now been proposed,” Gisslen says.


https://sahlgrenska.gu.se/english/research/news-events/news-article/?languageId=100001&contentId=1689236&disableRedirect=true&returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fsahlgrenska.gu.se%2Fforskning%2Faktuellt%2Fnyhet%2F%2Ftydliga-tecken-pa-hjarnskada-vid-svar-covid-19.

Bollinger Invented "Bollinger Bands"

John A. Bollinger (born 1950) is an American author, financial analyst, contributor to the field of technical analysis and the developer of Bollinger Bands. His book Bollinger on Bollinger Bands (2001), has been translated into eleven languages. Since 1987, he has published the Capital Growth Letter, a newsletter which provides technical analysis of the financial markets.


Bollinger Bands

Bollinger Bands are intervals drawn on a price chart that define high and low on a relative basis. 

Bollinger started developing Bollinger Bands in the early 1980s. He was trading options at the time and much of his analytics involved volatility. At the time fixed width trading bands were in use. Mr. Bollinger's contribution was to use volatility standard deviation to make trading bands adaptive.

When Bollinger first introduced the concept to the public on Financial News Network, they had no name. During the program, the interviewer pointed to the bands and inquired as to what they were; Bollinger replied "Let's call them Bollinger Bands." 


Rational Analysis


"John Bollinger, CFA, has always concentrated on the overlap between technical and fundamental analysis, rather than focus on the differences. To bridge the gap between fundamental and technical analysis, Bollinger advocates an approach he calls 'Rational Analysis'". Bollinger first coined the term "Rational Analysis" in the late 1980s. He then defined it as the "juncture of the overlap between technical and fundamental analysis" and created a visual representation.


At the 2004 AIMR Conference, in his presentation titled Combining Technical and Fundamental Analysis, he took his concept one step further. Because the financial analysis community sub-categorizes itself in ever finer specialty groups, his updated definition of Rational Analysis was stated as "the union of the sets of technical, fundamental, quantitative and behavioral analysis".


The analogy Bollinger uses for Rational Analysis is having multiple tool kits each with different tools. To get the job done the rational approach is to take the tool that does the job best, regardless of which tool kit it comes from. The same is true for financial analysis. Depending on the analytical scenario, sometimes technical analysis tools provide the best insights. Sometimes fundamental analysis, behavioral analysis or quantitative analysis; and most often a combination of all four is the most rigorous and productive. 


Computerized Technical Analysis


After purchasing his first microcomputer in 1977, Bollinger became involved in the seminal stages of computer-driven technical analysis. Computer technology allowed Bollinger to develop Group Power, an industry group ranking system that shows developing trends in industry groups and sectors. 
Over the years the service evolved, the underlying structure becoming a proprietary equal-weighted industry group structure and delivery via the Internet allowed ever more complex analytics.


In 1996 Bollinger recognized the potential of the Internet for financial analysis and began the programming for equitytrader.com. The service utilized a 52 rule fuzzy logic model to provide analytics of the US equities market and was one of earliest charting and technical analysis websites. 


Professional Life


After becoming an independent trader in 1980 he joined the Financial News Network where he was the Chief Market Analyst for seven years, 1984–1990, a role in which he was responsible for the technical analysis content presented on air. After FNN's acquisition by NBC, Bollinger helped with the transition to CNBC and continued to provide commentary on a regular basis. He founded an investment firm, Bollinger Capital Management. Bollinger is both a CFA Chartered Financial Analyst and CMT Chartered Market Technician and was the first financial analyst to earn both designations. He is also the founding president of Market Analysts of Southern California. Bollinger continues to act as chief executive and leader of Bollinger Capital Management.


Author


He wrote Bollinger on Bollinger Bands in 2001.


                                              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bollinger

Precise Gene Editing and Fast DNA Repair

From: John Hopkins Medicine

June 17, 2020 -- In a series of experiments using human cancer cell lines, scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have successfully used light as a trigger to make precise cuts in genomic material rapidly, using a molecular scalpel known as CRISPR, and observe how specialized cell proteins repair the exact spot where the gene was cut.

Results of the experiments, published June 11 in Science, not only reveal new details about the DNA repair process, but also are likely, the researchers say, to speed up and aid understanding of the DNA activity that typically causes aging and many cancers.

"Our new system of gene editing allows for targeted DNA cutting within seconds after activation. With previous technologies, gene editing could take much longer -- even hours," says postdoctoral fellow Yang Liu, Ph.D., a member of the Johns Hopkins Medicine research team.

The powerful CRISPR tool has, in recent years, enabled scientists to easily change, or "edit," DNA sequences and alter gene functions to speed the pace of research on gene-linked conditions.

Adapted from a naturally occurring gene editing system found in bacteria, CRISPR uses small sequences of genetic material called RNA as a kind of guide that is coded to match and bind to a specific sequence of genomic DNA within a cell. The CRISPR molecule also contains an enzyme called Cas9, which acts as the scalpel to cut out the DNA sequence. Then, the cell uses its own enzymes and proteins to repair the sliced DNA, often adding DNA sequences that scientists slip into the cell.

Liu says that studying the DNA repair process has been hampered by an inability to damage the DNA, such as by using CRISPR, in a way that's fast, precise and "on demand."

For the new experiments, the scientists modified the CRISPR-Cas9 complex by engineering a light-sensitive RNA molecule that allows the CRISPR complex to cut genomic DNA in living cells only when exposed to a particular wavelength of light.

"The advantage of our technique is that researchers can get the CRISPR machinery to find its target without prematurely cutting the gene, holding back its action until exposed to light," says Johns Hopkins M.D.-Ph.D. candidate Roger Zou, also a member of the research team. "This allows researchers to have far more control over exactly where and when the DNA is cut," he adds.

Other research teams have experimented with both drugs and light activation to control CRISPR timing, says Taekjip Ha, Ph.D., Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry, Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. His team's experiments differ by improving the precise timing of CRISPR cuts and examining how quickly proteins repair the DNA damage.

For the current study, the Johns Hopkins team, led by Ha and Bin Wu, Ph.D., assistant professor of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, delivered an electric pulse to cultures of human embryonic kidney cells and bone cancer cells, which opened pores in the cell membrane and allowed the CRISPR complex with the light-activated RNA molecule to slide into the cells. Then, the scientists waited 12 hours for the CRISPR complex to bind to a targeted spot on the genomic DNA.

When they shined a light on the cells, they tracked the amount of time it took for the CRISPR complex to make the cut.

The team found that within 30 seconds of shining the light on the cells, the CRISPR complex had cut more than 50 percent of its targets.

To further examine the timing of DNA repair, the Johns Hopkins scientists tracked when proteins involved in DNA repair latched on to the DNA cuts. They determined that repair proteins started their work within two minutes of the CRISPR activation, and the repair was completed as early as 15 minutes later.

"We have shown that light-activated gene cutting is very fast, and it has potentially wide applications in biomedical research." says Ha. "Revealing the timing of CRISPR gene cuts allows us to see biological processes far more precisely." Ha and the Johns Hopkins team have dubbed the technique "very fast CRISPR on demand."

Ha also noted that light-activation offers better location control than drugs that can diffuse widely in the cell.

The Johns Hopkins team also used high-resolution microscopes to "see" how repair proteins interact with the CRISPR cut site in living cells.

They used these microscopes and a focused beam of light to show that they could activate CRISPR cutting of one of two gene copies that are normally found in human cells. This capability, they say, offers opportunities for using CRISPR to study and eventually treat conditions linked to only one abnormal gene copy, such as Huntington's disease.

"There is a big research community interested in studying DNA damage and its impact," says Ha. "The technology we developed is well suited to study that."

Ha notes that scientists typically use ionizing radiation or chemicals to study DNA damage. While those methods can also be fast, he says, they are not specific to a certain genomic location.

The team has filed a provisional patent on the CRISPR technology described in this research.

          https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200617121500.htm

Fed Bails Out Only the Wealthy

What’s so insidious about the Fed’s bailouts of investors in hedge funds, mortgage-REITS, stocks, bonds, leveraged loans, and other often risky assets? The destruction of capitalism.

By Wolf Richter --Jun 11, 2020


[This is the transcript of my podcast last Sunday, THE WOLF STREET REPORT. You can listen to it on YouTube, and you can find it on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and others.]


We’re in an economic meltdown like I’ve never seen before. Tens of millions of people have lost their jobs – and so suddenly, that the government data to track them has fallen into chaos, with different agencies reporting data that is all over the place and contradicting each other. None of these systems were designed to track this type of sudden collapse of the labor market during a pandemic.

Then there are the many small businesses that have had to shut down or lost most of their customers and revenues. And these entrepreneurs have no idea if they can make it through this period.


Over the past three months, about 110,000 people in the United States have died from the coronavirus. That number is still growing every day at a rate of about 1,000 deaths. But the efforts to slow the spread of the virus and save lives have caused enormous economic damage.


And people’s frustration and anger with racial injustice has boiled over, and they’re frustrated and angry over a host of systemic issues, including the inequality of economic prospects, and there have been big protests every day around the country for well over a week.


Just now, there was a protest march going by our place here in San Francisco. They had police escorts on motorcycles and cars. They were chanting “black lives matter” and other phrases, and clapping and waving, and holding up cardboard signs with various messages written on them. They were of all races – and I would say that the majority was young and white. These people woke up.


And there has been widespread looting earlier in this phase – in my neighborhood, all the drugstores were systematically looted a week ago at night by a convoy of cars that drove from store to store, and there were no protests anywhere near.


The looters came for the money and reacted to the horrendous economic inequality in this country, to the mind-boggling wealth disparity, and to the whole bizarre system that encourages a private equity firm to raid a company and loot it, and burn its creditors, and destroy its jobs, and then walk away a capitalist hero as the company collapses as nothing but a shell, which is what private equity firms have done repeatedly all over the place, including with Toys ‘R’ Us.


In a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll out today, 80% of the respondents said they feel that the country is spiraling out of control.


So there are some huge multi-faceted problems that need to be grappled with, and that need to be resolved, and people are hurting, and they’re frustrated, and they’re angry, and many are unemployed, and others have jobs that don’t pay enough to meet the rising living expenses, and small businesses are on the ropes, and there’s going to be a lot of pain.


And what does the Federal Reserve do?


It printed $2.9 trillion since early March to bail out investors in highly leveraged hedge funds that were imploding, and to bail out investors in highly leveraged mortgage REITs that were imploding, and to bail out asset holders whose stocks were plunging, and speculators in the riskiest concoctions, and investors of all kinds, and to bail out asset holders of any kind – and the wealthier they were, the more they got – to make sure they don’t feel any of the pain.


That’s what the Fed is doing.


So the Fed printed $2.9 trillion since early March. That’s about $22,000 per household. For the bottom half of households, $22,000 would have helped a lot to get through the crisis.

But this money wasn’t spread to them. It was helicopter money for Wall Street. And it went on to multiply. And most of it ended up with a relatively small number of households. And their wealth increased by the trillions of dollars.


The Fed’s huge purchases of Treasury securities in March was a hedge-fund bailout. As the Treasury market went haywire with the 10-year yield first plunging then spiking, hedge funds that had huge and highly leveraged bets on Treasuries began to blow up.


That the Fed’s massive Treasury purchases were a backdoor bailout of highly leveraged hedge funds was confirmed in an editorial by William Dudley, former president of the New York Fed. These hedge funds, he wrote, “were caught in an untenable trade of being long cash Treasuries and short Treasury futures.”


He explained: “When volatility was low, these positions could be leveraged up to generate attractive returns. But when the pandemic hit and volatility soared and those trades lost value, margin lenders who financed the positions asked for more equity.”


These were the margin calls that hedge funds couldn’t meet. And hedge funds were forced to sell their positions.


Dudley added, “This led to fire sales, with many sellers and few buyers. The result was a climb in Treasury yields, a widening in bid-offer spreads and a sharp drop in liquidity in what is normally the most liquid market in the world.”


And so the Fed bailed them out through the “backdoor” by buying vast amounts of Treasuries that pushed up their prices and pushed down their yields. And this action made sure that the people whose money was tied up in these hedge funds didn’t have to pay the price for the risk they took. They were made whole entirely, even as tens of millions of Americans lost their jobs.


The Fed’s huge purchases of mortgage-backed securities in March came when prices were plunging, as mortgage forbearance and huge job losses were putting mortgage payments at risk. And that was a bailout of highly leveraged mortgage-REITs, Dudley said.


“As volatility soared, real-estate investment trusts that invest in mortgage-backed securities were forced sellers as they struggled to meet margin calls,” Dudley said. “Again, the Fed purchases helped limit their losses.”


And then there is the bailout of “heavily indebted corporations,” as Dudley put it.


“This is significant because many corporations took on lots of debt by choice,” he said. So the Fed set up these special purpose vehicles, or SPVs, to purchase corporate bonds and leveraged loans, which pushed up their prices, pushed down the yield, and allowed these over-indebted companies to borrow in the market that was suddenly chasing yield as yield was evaporating.


“These actions also protected investors in high-yield mutual-bond funds,” Dudley said. “Had the funds been forced to sell amid plunging prices to meet large redemptions, this could have set off a chain reaction in which falling prices begat more sales. Both the asset managers and the retail investors who bought shares in these junk-bond funds escaped bearing the cost of their actions,” he said.


In central-bank lingo, this is called “moral hazard”: Bailing out the wealthy and asset holders, hedge funds, mortgage REITs, private equity firms, and huge risk takers, and it’s called “moral hazard” because it encourages this risky behavior because they know that they’re going to get a bailout when it hits the fan next time, and so they do the same thing again and take even greater risks, and it blows up again with even bigger consequences, and they get bailed out again with even more trillions.


Tens of millions of people are out of a job, and many people protest in the streets, seething with anger and frustration. And many of those that didn’t lose their jobs are living from paycheck-to-paycheck, while the fruits of their labor continually get eaten up by rising prices and rents and healthcare costs – the lucky ones that even have healthcare.


But the Fed bails out that concentration of wealth and power so they never have to feel the economic pain, so that they don’t have any skin in any crisis, and so that the wealth disparity continues to surge.

There is an elephantine long-term problem with these bailouts. People took these risks because they wanted the returns. Bailing them out and making them whole destroys the discipline of capitalism – and it destroys capitalism itself.


What you’ve got left is a messed-up situation where asset holders reap all the gains and rewards and returns, and when these bets hit the fan, the Fed shuffles the losses and risks into the other direction, which in the end crushes the fruits of labor of those who have to work for a living as they end up having to pay higher prices for everything, from healthcare to housing.


With these bailouts, the Fed confirms that there is no level playing field. And it purposefully and with premeditation increases a wealth disparity that is just out of this world.


The stock and bond markets had been immensely inflated by mid-February, when the reality of the pandemic sank in, and these stocks and bonds sold off, and markets crashed, as they should.

In the broader context, capitalism and its markets started to function properly in late February and early March. This crap that should have blown up long ago was finally blowing up. Ludicrously overvalued stocks were finally being somewhat less overvalued. Ludicrously overvalued bonds were finally less overvalued. Toxic mortgage-backed securities were still trading, but at much lower prices. If a hedge fund blows up because a highly leveraged bet didn’t work out, well, so be it. This is how capitalism should work.


The government provides an essential safety net for support. If those hedge fund managers lose their jobs because their hedge fund blew up, they can apply for unemployment insurance. That’s the only safety net they should get. What’s good for the goose, is good for the gander.


Asset holders and the wealthy were starting to feel the pain – not just people that don’t have any assets.


But no way, for the Fed.


By means of a slew of programs, the Fed has handed $2.9 trillion so far to Wall Street. Asset prices soared – bonds, stocks, mortgage-backed securities, leveraged loans, the whole schmear. People that owned them made many trillions of dollars in two months even as tens of millions of people lost their jobs and people protested in the streets.


The Fed bailed out and made whole those that hold assets. The more assets they hold, and the wealthier they are, they more they got so that they don’t have to feel the pain, and so that they don’t have to feel the anger, and so that they can continue to accumulate wealth and power while the rest of the country is screaming.


This is the largest wealth transfer in the history of mankind, and it increased by a huge amount the already huge wealth disparity. Thank you Fed halleluiah.


People who don’t hold assets, the people that depend on their labor to get through life, they got totally screwed.


I cannot think of a more heinous act that the Fed under the leadership of Wall Street insider Jerome Powell could have concocted.


And to top it off, we have to listen to the Fed’s and Powell’s insidious copy-and-paste propaganda.


At least Janet Yellen, when she was still at the San Francisco Fed in 2005, acknowledged that this principle was a tool of the central bank and was called the “wealth effect” – that’s the term she used in her paper at the time – that a central bank’s goal is to make the wealthy wealthier, and that this would trickle down and increase consumer spending and create inflation – meaning loss of purchasing power – for everyone else.


There were subsequent papers by other Fed officials that also described the “wealth effect.”


Ben Bernanke made the wealth effect the official reason behind the bailouts during and after the Financial Crisis. He explained the wealth effect in an editorial in the Washington Post in 2010.

The “wealth effect” means purposefully adding to the wealth disparity: Making some people immensely wealthy, concentrating money and power, and making everyone else pay more.


At least Yellen and Bernanke were honest about their insidious policies. With Powell and the current Fed, we have to listen to propaganda.


The phrase they copy-and-paste into everything to justify their bailouts of the wealthy is, and I quote: “…to support the credit needs of American households and businesses by fostering the functioning of financial markets.”


Which is unadulterated BS propaganda. Financial markets were functioning just fine, it’s just that prices were a lot lower, and if there were no buyers at those prices, there were lots of buyers at lower prices. That’s how markets are supposed to function.


So what the Fed has engineered is the biggest most sudden wealth transfer from labor to capital, from the many to the few, and the more assets they hold, the more they got. And those not in the privileged capital class, the Fed tells them, you’re screwed.


The Fed needs to shut these money-printing bailouts down and let markets sort this out and let the wealthy have some skin in the crisis – so it’s not just the people who have to work for a living that always pay the price in every crisis, while the rich can get even richer.


Congress could and should impose a lockdown on the Fed. But lawmakers belong to the same capital class that is getting made whole, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, at the top. They’re among the rich asset holders, and no way that they’re going to shut down the Fed’s scheme, when it has made them so rich. They certainly don’t want to have any skin in this crisis – or in any crisis. They too want to be bailed out each time it hits the fan.


You can listen to and subscribe to THE WOLF STREET REPORT on YouTube and you can find it on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and others.


     https://wolfstreet.com/2020/06/11/america-convulses-in-pain-fed-bails-out-the-wealthy/