How major US stock indexes fared Thursday, 12/5/2024In addition to boosting sales performance, the "Spring Dawn Plan" also aims to promote economic growth and development within industrial belts by encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation. By empowering local businesses to connect directly with consumers, this initiative stimulates job creation, drives investment, and fuels economic prosperity. Moreover, by fostering a supportive ecosystem for entrepreneurs to thrive, the "Spring Dawn Plan" cultivates a culture of creativity, collaboration, and sustainable growth within industrial belts, positioning them as vibrant hubs of economic activity and innovation.
NoneAs the defending champions face a tough challenge against their strong rivals, the Juventus vs. Manchester City showdown is a must-watch for all football enthusiasts. With top-class talent, tactical battles, and high stakes on the line, this encounter promises to deliver excitement, drama, and unforgettable moments that define the magic of the UEFA Champions League.
As part of a national “moonshot” to cure blindness, researchers at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus will receive as much as $46 million in federal funding over the next five years to pursue a first-of-its-kind full eye transplantation. “This is no easy undertaking, but I believe we can achieve this together,” said Dr. Kia Washington, the lead researcher for the University of Colorado-led team, during a press conference Monday. “And in fact I’ve never been more hopeful that a cure for blindness is within reach.” The CU team was one of four in the United States that received funding awards from the federal Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health , or ARPA-H. The CU-based group will focus on achieving the first-ever vision-restoring eye transplant by using “novel stem cell and bioelectronic technologies,” according to a news release announcing the funding. The work will be interdisciplinary, Washington and others said, and will link together researchers at institutions across the country. The four teams that received the funding will work alongside each other on distinct approaches, though officials said the teams would likely collaborate and eventually may merge depending on which research avenues show the most promise toward achieving the ultimate goal of transplanting an eye and curing blindness. Dr. Calvin Roberts, who will oversee the broader project for ARPA-H, said the agency wanted to take multiple “shots on goal” to ensure progress. “In the broader picture, achieving this would be probably the most monumental task in medicine within the last several decades,” said Dr. Daniel Pelaez of the University of Miami’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, which also received ARPA-H funding. Pelaez is the lead investigator for that team, which has pursued new procedures to successfully remove and preserve eyes from donors, amid other research. He told The Denver Post that only four organ systems have not been successfully transplanted: the inner ear, the brain, the spinal cord and the eye. All four are part of the central nervous system, which does not repair itself when damaged. If researchers can successfully transplant the human eye and restore vision to the patient, it might help unlock deeper discoveries about repairing damage to the brain and spine, Pelaez said, as well as addressing hearing loss. To succeed, researchers must successfully remove and preserve eyes from donors and then successfully connect and repair the optical nerve, which takes information from the eye and tells the brain what the eye sees. A team at New York University performed a full eye transplant on a human patient in November 2023, though the procedure — while a “remarkable achievement,” Pelaez said — did not restore the patient’s vision. It was also part of a partial face transplant; other approaches pursued via the ARPA-H funding will involve eye-specific transplants. Washington, the lead CU researcher, said she and her colleagues have already completed the eye transplant procedure — albeit without vision restoration — in rats. The CU team will next work on large animals to advance “optic nerve regenerative strategies,” the school said, as well as to study immunosuppression, which is critical to ensuring that patients’ immune systems don’t reject a donated organ. The goal is to eventually advance to human trials. Pelaez and his colleagues have completed their eye-removal procedure in cadavers, he said, and they’ve also studied regeneration in several animals that are capable of regenerating parts of their eyes, like salamanders or zebra fish. His team’s funding will focus in part on a life-support machine for the eye to keep it healthy and viable during the removal process. InGel Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based Harvard spinoff and the lead of a third team, will pursue research on 3-D printed technology and “micro-tunneled scaffolds” that carry certain types of stem cells as part of a focus on optical nerve regeneration and repair, ARPA-H said. ARPH-A, created two years ago, will oversee the teams’ work. Researchers at 52 institutions nationwide will also contribute to the teams. The CU-led group will include researchers from the University of Southern California, the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University and Johns Hopkins University, as well as from the National Eye Institute . The teams will simultaneously compete and collaborate: Pelaez said his team has communicated with researchers at CU and at Stanford, another award recipient, about their eye-removal research. The total funding available for the teams is $125 million, ARPA-H officials said Monday, and it will be distributed in phases, in part dependent on teams’ success. U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat who represents Denver in Congress, acknowledged the recent election results at the press conference Monday and pledged to continue fighting to preserve ARPA-H’s funding under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. The effort to cure blindness, Washington joked, was “biblical” in its enormity — a reference to the Bible story in which Jesus cures a blind man. She and others also likened it to a moonshot, meaning the effort to successfully put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon nearly 50 years ago. If curing blindness is similar to landing on the moon, then the space shuttle has already left the launchpad, Washington said. “We have launched,” she said, “and we are on our trajectory.”Article content A coalition of advocacy groups is denouncing what it describes as the over-policing of pro-Palestinian protesters in Montreal, and calling on the city to launch a public inquiry into the matter. Speaking outside the Montreal courthouse on Thursday, defence lawyer Barbara Bedont said she’s aware of 55 cases in which people have been charged over the protests. Bedont says many have been unfairly targeted for supporting the Palestinian cause. “The numbers speak for themselves,” Bedont said. “And you have to take that statistic in hand with the fact that I am not aware of any cases of arrests for the opposite movement — the ones who have been confronting pro-Palestinian demonstrators.” The news conference came as Montreal continues to see weekly protests over the Israel-Hamas war and on the heels of a pro-Palestinian, anti-NATO protest that turned violent last month, with windows smashed and clashes erupting between protesters and police . Beyond the number of protesters arrested and charged, the coalition is also criticizing the force used by police during the demonstrations, arguing it’s been excessive and misplaced. During the news conference, the coalition played a collection of videos captured during the last year showing Montreal police officers shoving protesters, using pepper spray and hitting them with batons. “People have suffered broken bones, concussions, cuts and other traumatic experiences,” said Ted Rutland, an associate professor at Concordia University who focuses on urban security and policing. “Police officers have a duty, in all situations, to choose the action that would be the least harmful to the citizen and to themselves,” Rutland added, arguing officers have failed to do so in “many, many cases” during the protests. Asked to respond to the allegations on Thursday, a spokesperson for the Montreal police department noted there have been more than 500 protests in the city since the outbreak of the war. Overall, the department said, criminal elements have been reported during only a dozen protests and a total of 109 arrests have been made. “The police service’s role during demonstrations is to ensure that they take place in peace and good order” and respect the law, as well as the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights and freedoms, the department added. The news conference also came in the wake of charges being dropped against three people who were accused of criminally harassing federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller outside his Montreal office. Mohanned Mansour, Samar Alkhdour and Wendy Ing had been charged with criminal harassment and mischief for allegedly damaging a car Miller was in. According to Bedont, the charges were withdrawn after the three accused presented video evidence that countered the allegations against them. “We were falsely accused of doing things we did not do,” Mansour said on Thursday. “I can’t even imagine what would have happened had we not had the video.” The three are calling on Miller to issue an apology and resign from his position. “(Miller) was a personal witness to the fact that no crime had occurred,” Bedont said. “He allowed a miscarriage of justice to continue. ... That is a breach of his ethical responsibilities.” In an email response Thursday, Quebec’s Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales (DPCP) said its prosecutors are free from “any political or police control or influence.” In the case related to Miller, spokesperson Lucas Bastien wrote, after new evidence was brought to its attention “the DPCP no longer had a reasonable prospect of conviction and therefore decided to withdraw the charges.” A spokesperson for Miller’s office declined to comment on the specifics of the case, but noted his office had been the site of daily protests for months. “Every individual has the full right to protest, to express their opinions and to make their discontent heard,” the spokesperson wrote. “However, no matter the point of view, nothing can excuse vandalism and the endangerment of others,” they added. “This is absolutely not peaceful protesting.” jfeith@postmedia.com
1. Ignoring Ten Haher's Transformation:
AP Trending SummaryBrief at 3:45 p.m. ESTWhat has happened to gambling reform under Labor? It’s simple – the government has been cowed by vested interests | Tim Costello
When the final match came to a close, there was a sense of excitement and pride in the air as the champions were crowned. The winning team's joy and jubilation were infectious, as they lifted the championship trophy high above their heads, surrounded by cheers and applause from the crowd. Their hard work, dedication, and passion for esports had paid off, and they had etched their names in history as the champions of the Fearless Contract Ant Esports National Challenge Championship.What sets "Endless Warmth" apart from other mobile games is its groundbreaking gameplay mechanics. Players will have the ability to "fold" the virtual paper world, manipulating objects and obstacles to solve puzzles and overcome challenges. This innovative feature adds a new dimension to traditional puzzle-solving gameplay, providing players with a fresh and engaging experience.
The UEFA Champions League is set to witness a thrilling encounter as defending champions Juventus take on powerhouse Manchester City in what promises to be a clash of titans. The highly-anticipated match-up pits two of Europe's top clubs against each other in a battle for supremacy on the continental stage.