Govt announces major reshuffle with key appointments across departments: Here’s who they areThe Last Supper Áine Fitzgerald Managing Editor At 1:25am on Sunday, the atmosphere on the second floor at Limerick Racecourse was thick with anticipation - and tiredness - as Niall Collins, FF, awaited the declaration that he had retained his seat. Towards the far end of the room, a scene was unfolding, naturally. ‘The Last Supper’ or, in this instance, ‘The Last Seat’. You couldn’t plan the composition of this masterpiece if you tried. You have Niall Collins positioned at the centre, akin to Jesus, surrounded by his supporters, who take on the roles of apostles. Collins sits slightly elevated, prominent amid the surrounding figures. Behind him, a person, crouched, forms what seems to be a crown-like halo around his head. On the far left (as opposed to centre-right), a bottle of water and a brown paper bag - remnants of someone else's last supper - create an ornate pillar effect. The expressions on the faces of those in the frame tell their own unique story - conveying the weariness and tension that had set in after all the long hours of waiting. Unlike the original Last Supper, however, two mobile phones are visible, their users quite possibly checking the time as they await the final result. Finally, at 2:09am, Niall Collins was elected to the final seat in Limerick County and the subjects in The Last Seat lifted him shoulder high. Finishing line Jerome O’Connell News editor THE next big event at Limerick Racecourse will be the four-day Christmas Racing Festival from December 26-29. No doubt the annual festive event will have just as much drama as the two-day General Election count at the Patrickswell venue. The countdown to the Christmas Racing Festival is well underway for Michael Lynch, CEO of Limerick Racecourse, and his team, and as part of preparations the post to mark the finishing line in front of the grandstand is in storage. With rumours of legal challenges in relation to the alphabetical error on the ballot paper, and of a potential recount due to the closeness of the Limerick City constituency candidates down the home stretch, all were hoping on Sunday that the lack of a post to mark the finishing line wasn’t an omen! An epic quest to have a City seat filled by midnight Faye Dorgan Reporter AS THE CLOCK edged towards midnight on Saturday, waiting for the final election count to get the first candidate over the line in the city felt a bit like reading Game of Thrones - battling tiredness while keeping a close eye on the rivalry between the chief protagonists. Limerick Racecourse turned into a political Westeros, with candidates vying for the Iron Seat - or at least a plush velvet one in the Dáil. One punter decided to pass the time by reading Game of Thrones as they waited, seeking solace in fictional feuds. “Winter is coming,” someone muttered, in a chilly count centre on the edge of Patrickswell. Counts came in slower than ravens, the suspense thicker than Tyrion’s wit, as crowds battled with tiredness that inevitably kicked in. Eventually, cheers erupted as the first seat was filled by Fianna Fáil TD Willie O’Dea, marking an election night triumph. Really cleaning up at the races Abigail Hayden Reporter AS THE hours ticked on in the county's mammoth of a count on Saturday, one group of clever entrepreueneurs made the waiting time worth it. Daithi and Cillian O'Donoghue, aged nine and 12, and Conor Kelly, 12, the great-nephews of newly re-elected Deputy Richard O'Donoghue, Independent Ireland, collected dozens of bottles and cans with the Re-Cycle logo. They collected recycling rubbish off count staff, supporters, and even Limerick Leader reporters. People were seen finishing off the dregs of their drinks as the three boys with the huge bin bag came around, to make sure their recycling waste added to the collection. After the re-election of their great-uncle, who praised them in his post-election interview, the three businessmen left the building with the rest of the family, along with two bulking bags of recycling. When asked about how much they had made, they coyly replied “over €20” - a greater profit than many leave the racecourse with! As these astute men know, the 15c deposit sure does add up! ‘I’ve never been so happy to be wrong about a prediction’ Nick Rabbitts Reporter LABOUR Party stalwart Joe Kemmy is something of an oracle when it comes to politics. Back in the summer, based on tallies alone, he correctly predicted John Moran would become Limerick’s first directly elected mayor, more than three days ahead of it actually happening. When Joe talks, people listen, especially where politics is concerned. So, on Saturday night, when he predicted that Labour’s Conor Sheehan was too far behind Social Democrats councillor Elisa O’Donovan to realistically catch her in the race for the fourth seat in Limerick City, I naturally put pen to paper. At the time, Cllr Sheehan was 391 votes behind Cllr O’Donovan. But he clawed back votes through Sunday, and secured the fourth seat on the last count. “I’ve never been happier about being wrong in a prediction in my whole life,” Joe beamed. Proof, if any were needed, that sometimes the greats get it wrong. Man in Black Donal O'Regan Reporter THERE were a number of senior gardai at the count centre - Superintendent Ollie Kennedy, Inspectors Gearoid Thompson, Fergal Hanrahan and Jimmy Ruddle to name but four - but there was also what appeared to be an FBI agent. He was straight out of the film Men in Black starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith. Think black suit, white shirt, earpiece - all he was missing were the shades. He stood behind this reporter at a doorway on the second floor of Limerick Racecourse. I never felt safer. There was no chance of an irate supporter complaining that I had mixed up their candidate’s vote on the Leader’s blog. But, of course, he wasn’t there to mind this lowly hack - he was there to protect Minister Patrick O’Donovan. One photographer, unknowingly, asked him if he could take his photo - thinking he was just a random supporter in the crowd. Understandably, the response was a polite “no” from the man in black who gave a wry smile to himself after the photographer moved along. The only chance of Mr O’Donovan being hurt was a sprained wrist from receiving congratulatory handshakes or hitting his head on the ceiling when he was lifted high in the air but this chap wasn’t taking any chances. He watched everything. He went home happy as Mr O’Donovan is still in a job. As did a supporter of the Fine Gael man who was moving a lot better than the last time I saw her. The lady in question was on crutches at the mayoral and council count in June after breaking her ankle. She came a cropper while rounding up ducks. However, she was flying it on Saturday, much like Mr O’Donovan. ‘Lotto luck’ for reporter Nick Rabbitts Reporter I HAVE been playing the lottery since I came to Ireland in 2008, and have very rarely ever won anything. Despite this, I carry on spending €6 twice a week on a ticket, ignoring criticism that it is a tax on hope, and there is more chance of my beloved Tottenham Hotspur Football Club winning a title than me landing the jackpot. (Soccer fans, if you know, you know!) But, on Saturday night, peering at a colleague’s laptop which was tuned into RTE One, I caught the lottery results. And my numbers came up! Well four of them did - three regular numbers and the bonus ball - landing me a very welcome €29. It gave me a nice lift in the middle of a very busy election count, and felt like proof - if ever any is needed - that consistency can pay off! For the record, my numbers are 4, 7, 14, 24, 39 and 45!
Penn State rolls past Maryland, clinches berth in Big Ten title gameCompany's first ultra-low power AI module will be commercially available for wearables and various other battery-powered on-device AI applications starting Q1 2025 SANTA CLARA, Calif. , Dec. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Ambient Scientific, The AI Processor Company, announced today its first coin cell battery powered AI module, named the Sparsh-board, targeted for a variety of on-device AI applications such as human activity recognition, voice control, acoustic event detection and more capable of running on a coin cell battery for months of always-on AI operation. Equipped with motion sensors, a digital microphone, BLE module and several other components, the Sparsh module is an extremely powerful and versatile module to enable rapid prototyping of a vast array of battery-powered AI applications. "While traditional MCUs force an undesirable tradeoff between AI performance and power consumption, our ultra-low power AI processor GPX10 ushers a paradigm shift with our groundbreaking analog in-memory computing technology," said GP Singh, Founder and CEO of Ambient Scientific. Product makers can now enable highly accurate and diverse AI applications without compromising on AI performance, battery life, form factor, flexibility and more. Ambient Scientific's exhaustive software stack makes the development of AI applications easier than ever before with support for industry standard AI frameworks such as Tensorflow and keras and a continuously evolving homegrown compiler, capable of supporting essentially all the major types of neural networks. With various sample AI applications and algorithms included, developers can get begin developing AI applications within minutes of downloading our AmbiSense SDK . Current applications being worked on cut across industries, including predictive maintenance, AI-enabled medical devices, wearables, voice controlled toys and more. With increasing demand from product makers, enthusiasts, students and researchers alike, Ambient Scientific plans to launch several reference designs for battery-powered AI applications and similar form factor modules to enable rapid prototyping and fulfill its mission to make AI computing efficient, accessible and affordable for all. Meet Ambient Scientific at CES 2025 Ambient Scientific is excited to unveil its Sparsh AI module at CES 2025 with live demostrations of AI applications running on coin cell batteries such as Fall Detection, voice recognition and more. To explore potential synergies, attendees can schedule meetings CES 2025 with Ambient Scientific at. To learn more about Ambient Scientific, visit our booth at CES 2025 or download our press kit . About Ambient Scientific Ambient Scientific is a fabless semiconductor company pioneering AI hardware and software design to create next-generation low-power processors for edge and on-device AI applications. With a team comprised of Ex-Sun Microsystems, Intel, Broadcom and Google professionals, Ambient Scientific is committed to bringing the power of AI to all, through cutting edge hardware and software products. To learn more about its products, visit www.ambientscientific.ai and follow Ambient Scientific on LinkedIn . Click here for more details about our booth at: https://ces25.mapyourshow.com/8_0/exhibitor/exhibitor-details.cfm?exhid=0013A00001egpuFQAQ . View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ambient-scientific-unveils-first-ever-ai-module-powered-by-a-coin-cell-battery-302332996.html SOURCE Ambient Scientific, Inc. Best trending stories from the week. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. You may occasionally receive promotions exclusive discounted subscription offers from the Roswell Daily Record. Feel free to cancel any time via the unsubscribe link in the newsletter you received. You can also control your newsletter options via your user dashboard by signing in.
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Overcoming some controversy, No. 7-ranked nationally (On3.com) Bradley Central turned its toughest challenge so far this season into another runaway win, knocking off fellow 2024 TSSAA State Tournament participant Lincoln County Saturday afternoon in the Bearette Thanksgiving Challenge, at Jim Smiddy Arena. Breaking open a four-point difference in the opening minute of the second half, "Papa Bear" Jason Reuter's squad went on a 24-2, seven-minute hot streak to break the game open on their way to a 62-35 blowout. "Lincoln's got a good team, I think returning every starter from last year's state tournament team," commented Coach Reuter. "We weathered the storm and outscored them by 15 in the third quarter and that was the ball game. "We held them to 18 points in the first half and I told the girls at halftime if we do that again in the second half we're going to win big, and we held them to 17. "We'll take it an move on. We've got one day to prepare to get ready to face a back-to-back state champion and then Cleveland on Friday, over there" he related. Having five state tournament qualifiers in their first half dozen games, Bradley Central (4-0) will head to Knoxville Tuesday for a battle of two-time defending state DII-AA champion Knox Catholic (5-1), which opened the campaign with four straight wins before falling to McMinn Central 63-39 Friday in the Farragut Thanksgiving Tournament. Continuing to start the season with an extremely tough schedule, the Bearettes will travel across town Friday to battle archrival and unbeaten Cleveland (6-0), which is not only coming off a Class 4A Final Four run last season, but winning the Silverdale Thanksgiving Invitational earlier this week, despite missing a pair of starters. In Saturday's other two game at the Bearette Thanksgiving Classic, 2024 TSSAA state semifinalist Coffee County came to town for a pair of wins over Ensworth (90-54) and Stewarts Creek (58-28). BEARETTES 62 LADY FALCONS 35 After the teams evenly split the game's opening eight points, the Bearettes closed out the first frame with the final dozen markers for a 10-point (16-6) edge. Lincoln County (2-2) fought back to take the second quarter by a 12-9 margin to loser the deficit to single digits (25-17) at the intermission. Abby Bryan, who led all scorers with 19 points, netted a 3-ball and a free throw in the first 57 seconds of the third period, before the hosts flexed their muscles for 20 straight points over the final seven minutes of the period, pushing the difference back to 22 points (45-23). Bryan once again led the girls from Fayetteville in a short rally, netting the first eight points for thee visitors, but Arkansas signee Harmonie Ware countered the run with back-to-back fast break buckets off steals and assists by Walter State-bound Malia Wilcox. Wilcox then sparked 13-3 streak with her second long-range bomb of the day as the Bearette "D" held Lincoln County to just a trio of free throws in the final five minutes. Ware paced Bradley with 17 points, hitting 6-fo-10 shots from the field, plus 4-for-5 at the free throw line, while grabbing a half dozen rebounds. Samford-bound Avary Brewer helped out with a trio of treys in her 13 points, plus she copped three steals and dished a pair of assists. Kennesaw State signee Tatianna Stovall posted a double-double for the victors with 10 points and 11 rebounds, plus she handed out four "dimes," swiped a pair of thefts and "swatted" two Lincoln County shot attempts. Netting just a half dozen points, 2024 Miss Tennessee Basketball finalist Kimora Fields was limited to just 14:33 on playing time after picking up two quick fouls early in the contest. "We have to overcome a little adversity with Kimora getting into foul trouble, but we've practice for that and we did a good job of compensating," assessed Coach Reuter. "It was good to see us face the adversity and still come away with a 27-point win." Along with Bryan's 19, Lincoln County got 10 points from Molly Brown to account for more then 82.6% of its scoring."Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum." Section 1.10.32 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum", written by Cicero in 45 BC "Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" To keep reading, please log in to your account, create a free account, or simply fill out the form below.
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BOSTON (AP) — Two men, including a dual Iranian American citizen, have been arrested on charges that they exported sensitive technology to Iran that was used in a drone attack in Jordan that killed three American troops early this year and injured dozens of other service members, the Justice Department said Monday. The pair were arrested after FBI specialists who analyzed the drone traced the navigation system to an Iranian company operated by one of the defendants, who relied on technology funneled from the U.S. by his alleged co-conspirator, officials said. “We often cite hypothetical risk when we talk about the dangers of American technology getting into dangerous hands,” said U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy, the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts. “Unfortunately, in this situation, we are not speculating.” The defendants were identified as Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, who prosecutors say works at a Massachusetts-based semiconductor company, and Mohammad Abedininajafabadi, who was arrested Monday in Italy as the Justice Department seeks his extradition to Massachusetts. Prosecutors allege that Abedininajafabadi, who also uses the surname Adedini and operates an Iranian company that manufactures navigation systems for drones, has connections to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. They allege that he conspired with Sadeghi to circumvent American export control laws, including through a front company in Switzerland, and procure sensitive technology into Iran. Both men are charged with export control violations, and Abedini separately faces charges of conspiring to provide material support to Iran. A lawyer for Sadeghi, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was arrested Monday in Massachusetts, did not immediately return an email seeking comment. U.S. officials blamed the January attack on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes Kataib Hezbollah. Three Georgia soldiers — Sgt. William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Sgt. Breonna Moffett of Savannah and Sgt. Kennedy Sanders of Waycross — were killed in the Jan. 28 drone attack on a U.S. outpost in northeastern Jordan called Tower 22. In the attack, the one-way attack drone may have been mistaken for a U.S. drone that was expected to return back to the logistics base about the same time and was not shot down. Instead, it crashed into living quarters, killing the three soldiers and injuring more than 40. Tower 22 held about 350 U.S. military personnel at the time. It is strategically located between Jordan and Syria, only 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Iraqi border, and in the months just after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and Israel’s blistering response in Gaza, Iranian-backed militias intensified their attacks on U.S. military locations in the region. Following the attack, the U.S. launched a huge counterstrike against 85 sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Iranian-backed militia and bolstered Tower 22’s defenses. ____ Tucker and Copp reported from Washington. Steve Leblanc, Eric Tucker And Tara Copp, The Associated PressThe government has found no evidence to suggest that hackers are using HDMI cables to steal user passwords, minister of electronics and information technology Jitin Prasada informed the Rajya Sabha in a written response on Friday. He did, however, acknowledge that the government was aware of different cybersecurity threats, including those using artificial intelligence (AI), for which the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) had also issued an advisory in May 2023. Prasada was responding to a specific question asked by NCP (SP) MP Fauzia Khan about whether the government was aware that hackers could use HDMI cables to steal user passwords. Khan was ostensibly referring to a July 2024 research paper published by three scientists from the University of the Republic (Uruguay) on Cornell University’s ArXiv service. According to this paper, the electromagnetic radiation can be collected using an antenna and then routed through a text recognition software (an AI model trained to interpret this radiation) to decode what is displayed on a screen, including passwords and other sensitive information. The scientists wrote that it could be done even without physical access to the target computer.
Georgia vs. Texas prediction, odds, best bets for SEC Championship tomorrowA recent study that recommended toxic chemicals in black plastic products be immediately thrown away included a math error that significantly overstated the risks of contamination, but its authors are standing by their conclusions and warn against using such products. Published in the peer-reviewed journal Chemosphere , experts from the nonprofit Toxic-Free Future said they detected flame retardants and other toxic chemicals in 85% of 203 items made of black plastic including kitchen utensils , take-out containers, children's toys and hair accessories. In a blog post, Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society in Canada, explained that the Toxin-Free Future scientists miscalculated the lower end of what the EPA considered a health risk through a multiplication error. Instead of humans being potentially exposed to a dose of toxic chemicals in black plastic utensils near the minimum level that the EPA deems a health risk, it's actually about one-tenth of that. (Dreamstime/TNS) The study initially said the potential exposure to chemicals found in one of the kitchen utensils approached the minimum levels the Environmental Protection Agency deemed a health risk. But in an update to the study, the authors say they made an error in their calculations and the real levels were "an order of magnitude lower" than the EPA's thresholds. The error was discovered by Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society in Canada. In a blog post, Schwarcz explained that the Toxin-Free Future scientists miscalculated the lower end of what the EPA considered a health risk through a multiplication error. Instead of humans being potentially exposed to a dose of toxic chemicals in black plastic utensils near the minimum level that the EPA deems a health risk, it's actually about one-tenth of that. Though Schwarcz said the risks outlined in the study aren't enough for him to discard his black plastic kitchen items if he had them, he agreed with the authors that flame retardants shouldn't be in these products in the first place. "The math error does not impact the study's findings, conclusions or recommendations," said Megan Liu, a co-author of the study who is the science and policy manager for Toxic-Free Future . She added that any traces of flame retardants or toxic chemicals in cooking utensils should be concerning for the public. Flame retardants are getting into commonly used items because black-colored products are being made from recycled electronic waste, such as discarded television sets and computers, that frequently contain the additives. When they're heated, the flame retardants and other toxic chemicals can migrate out. If you're wondering whether your old black plastic spoon or other utensils are a part of this group, Liu shared some more guidance. It's nearly impossible to know whether a black plastic product is contaminated. That's because these products that include recycled e-waste don't disclose a detailed list of all ingredients and contaminants in the product. Liu said it's also unclear how many types of flame retardants are in these black plastic products. Some of the products that researchers tested in this recent study "had up to nine different harmful chemicals and harmful flame retardants in them," she said. Anytime you're looking for the type of recycled plastic a product is made of you're going to look for a number within the chasing arrows (that form a triangle) logo. Recycling symbols are numbered 1 to 7 and we commonly associate the numbers with what we can toss in our blue recycling bins. The 1 through 7 numbers stand for, respectively, polyethylene terephthalate, high-density polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), low-density polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene or Styrofoam, and miscellaneous plastics (including polycarbonate, polylactide, acrylic, acrylonitrile butadiene, styrene, fiberglass and nylon). The study found higher levels of toxic flame retardants in polystyrene plastic, which is labeled with the number 6, said Liu. There isn't a definitive timeline of when recycled electronic-waste started to be incorporated into black plastic products specifically, but e-waste started to get recycled in the early 2000s, Liu said. The way computers, cellphones, stereos, printers and copiers were being disposed of previously was to simply add them to a landfill without reusing salvageable parts. But as the National Conference of State Legislatures notes, electronics production required a significant amount of resources that could be recovered through recycling. Recovering resources such as metals, plastics and glass through recycling used a fraction of the energy needed to mine new materials. However, the study pointed out that flame retardants and other chemical contaminates have been detected in and near e-waste recycling facilities, in indoor air and dust at formal e-waste recycling facilities in Canada, China, Spain and the U.S. It also noted contamination in soil samples surrounding e-waste recycling sites in China and Vietnam. The safest nontoxic material options for kitchen utensil are wood and stainless steel. The 20th century brought airplanes, radio, television, the internet, and plastic. Lots of plastic. That plastic is now showing up on shorelines, forming islands in oceans, and generating mountains of translucent trash on land. Around 700 species of animals in the sea have been found to interact with plastic daily. Companies across every industry face pressure to reduce the amount of plastic they produce. Seventy-two percent of the world's largest have made voluntary commitments to reduce their plastic waste, according to a Duke University analysis. One industry, in particular, has greatly benefited from advancements in single-use plastic technology: the medical industry. Only in recent years have businesses and academics in the field begun to talk about minimizing their impact on our environment like beverage manufacturers and other consumer goods-producing businesses. Medical Technology Schools analyzed academic studies published in the National Library of Medicine , the American Medical Association , and news reports to shed light on the medical community's use of plastics through history, their environmental problems, and proposed solutions to reduce their impact. And the impact can be significant. A single hospital patient generates nearly 34 pounds of waste a day —as much as a quarter of it is plastic. The COVID-19 pandemic only worsened the problem. The pandemic pushed hospital capacity to the brink and led to a massive increase in personal protective equipment and medical supply usage. Medical-grade masks and other protective equipment like face shields, made mostly of nonrenewable plastics, were in high demand. In 2020, the World Health Organization estimated that the international need for PPE manufacturing would boost 40% to address the public health crisis. Hospitals needed an estimated 89 million masks, 76 million gloves, and 1.6 million goggles every month of the pandemic. To date, nearly 677 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered, each requiring their own plastic syringe, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Global consulting firm Frost & Sullivan estimated that the U.S. would produce a year's worth of medical waste in just two months due to the pandemic. The World Economic Forum warned that the COVID-19 crisis threatened to " stall and even reverse progress " to reduce large plastic waste. It's a challenge researchers acknowledge today as they search for solutions. Plastics introduced an era of ultraconvenience to the world. It makes our clothes. It's made bike helmets and airbags possible. And it's a cheap material to produce, meaning it's cheap for consumers too. Almost as importantly, it's durable and incredibly easy to make into complex shapes—a trait that helped plastics invented in the mid-20th century quickly replace more expensive metal and wooden goods. That adoption extended to the medical field, where the single-use nature of plastics represented a move toward more hygienic tools for physicians and hospitals. But it wasn't plastic's sanitary qualities that the industry first latched onto. Like so many other technical advancements, convenience and cost were the initial driving factors. That they were more conducive to creating a sterile environment for patients was a benefit that health care began to tout closer to the end of the 20th century. PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, replaced glass bottles previously used to hold IV solution and replaced rubber tubing used throughout hospital settings. Plastic has also become the go-to material for making syringes and catheters. Plastic products are generally made from chemicals derived from the oil and natural gas refining process. Chemists use those byproducts to create synthetic materials with malleable and durable chemical structures. The low cost of these materials has helped medical device-makers support better health outcomes for communities across the U.S. since the 1900s. No longer was health care priced at rates only the elite could afford—it was accessible to a much larger swath of the public. In the last decade, the U.S., in particular, has emerged as a massive market for medical plastics. The country generally accounts for nearly half of the global market for medical devices. Plastic's durability is not only a benefit but a detriment to the environment, as the material can take many years to deteriorate when it enters landfills or trashes oceans. Estimates vary widely, but scientists ballpark that depending on the kind of plastic and the environment in which it decomposes, it could take dozens to thousands of years to break down entirely. COVID-19, which remains a burden for health care systems, isn't the only force raising the stakes for a health care industry pressured to reduce reliance on plastics or find ways to reuse them. Global annual production of plastic has doubled in the last two decades , according to the Environmental Protection Agency. As the U.S. looks toward the future, its aging population is another factor that could exacerbate the rate at which medical plastics end up in landfills. People require more medical care as they age, and aging baby boomers are expected to place increased demand on the medical device industry. At the same time, governments are under pressure to lower health care costs, which have become unaffordable even for those insured . As recently as 2021, researchers lamented a lack of data on efforts to recycle medical plastics. Around 350 hospitals participate in Practice Greenhealth's Environmental Excellence Awards . Practice Greenhealth is an organization working to help hospitals increase their sustainability. It's one of the few sources of hospital sustainability data, and its roster of participating hospitals represents a small fraction of the more than 6,000 hospitals operating in the U.S. To meet the need to reduce plastic waste generation, some hospitals are moving away from using plastic in certain applications. Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center replaced health care workers' disposable plastic isolation gowns with reusable cloth gowns at its hospitals in the last decade, saving money and preventing literal tons of medical waste. It also implemented a process for sterilizing and incinerating the boxes that hold used needles, allowing them to be reassembled and reused in a health care setting. Recycling plastic medical waste is complicated by the potential for contamination and the need to separate contaminated and noncontaminated waste; once separated, they can be broken down with heat or treated with chemicals and reprocessed. However, using chemical methods to break down and dispose of plastics has drawbacks. Over 200 nongovernmental organizations signed a letter in 2023 urging the Biden administration to end federal support for methods like these, arguing they generate toxic pollutants. The Vinyl Council of Australia is working with hospitals to recover used materials made of PVC . The materials are broken down into tiny pieces, washed and heated at high temperatures, and remade into things used outside medical settings. In the U.S. and Europe, there's the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council, a coalition of companies working in the health care device space that includes DuPont, Johnson & Johnson, and Medtronic. In 2021, the HPRC, advised by professionals at Kaiser Permanente and other health systems, rolled out a medical waste recycling pilot project with hopes of scaling it across more hospitals. Story editing by Ashleigh Graf. Copy editing by Paris Close. Photo selection by Clarese Moller. This story originally appeared on Medical Technology Schools and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio. Sign up here to get the latest health & fitness updates in your inbox every week!First phase of Balasaheb Thackeray Rashtriya Smarak completed, says MMRDA
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NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes drifted amid mixed trading Monday, ahead of this week’s upcoming meeting by the Federal Reserve that could set Wall Street’s direction into next year. The S&P 500 rose 0.4%, coming off its first losing week in the last four . The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.2% to a record, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was a laggard and fell 110 points, or 0.3%. Broadcom leaped 11.2% to help lead the S&P 500 for a second straight day after delivering a profit report last week that beat analysts’ expectations. The technology company is riding a wave of enthusiasm about its artificial-intelligence offerings in particular. The market’s main event, though, will arrive on Wednesday when the Federal Reserve will announce its last move on interest rates for the year. The widespread expectation is that it will cut its main rate for a third straight time, as it tries to boost the slowing job market after getting inflation nearly all the way down to its target of 2%. The question is how much more it will cut rates next year, and Fed officials will release projections for where they see the federal funds rate ending 2025, along with other economic indicators, once their meeting concludes. Fed Chair Jerome Powell will also answer questions in a press conference following the meeting. For now, the general expectation among traders is that the Fed may cut a couple more times in 2025, according to data from CME Group. But such expectations have been shrinking following reports suggesting inflation may be tougher to get all the way down to 2% from here. Besides last month’s slight acceleration in inflation, another worry is that President-elect Donald Trump’s preferences for tariffs and other policies could lead to higher inflation down the line. Goldman Sachs economist David Mericle has dropped his earlier forecast of a cut by the Fed in January, for example. Beyond the possibility of tariffs, he said Fed officials may also want to slow their cuts because of uncertainty about exactly how low rates need to go so that they no longer press the brakes on the economy. Expectations for a series of cuts to rates by the Fed have been one of the main reasons the S&P 500 has set an all-time high 57 times so far this year and is heading for one of its best years of the millennium . The economy has held up better than many feared, continuing to grow even after the Fed hiked the federal funds rate to a two-decade high in hopes of grinding down on inflation, which topped 9% two summers ago. On Wall Street, MicroStrategy jumped as much as 7% during the day as it continues to benefit from the surging price for bitcoin , which set another all-time high. But its stock ended the day down by les than 0.1% after bitcoin’s price pulled back below $106,000 after setting a record above $107,700, according to CoinDesk. The software company has been building its hoard of the cryptocurrency, and its stock price has more than sextupled this year. It will also soon join the Nasdaq 100 index. Bitcoin’s price has catapulted from roughly $44,000 at the start of the year, riding a recent wave of enthusiasm that Trump will create a system that’s more favorable to digital currencies . Honeywell rose 3.7% after saying it’s still considering a spin-off or sale of its aerospace business, as part of a review of its overall business. It said it plans to give an update with the release of its fourth-quarter results. They helped offset a drop for Nvidia, whose chips are powering much of the world’s move into AI. Its stock fell 1.7%. Because it’s grown so massive, with a total value topping $3 trillion, it was the single heaviest weight on the S&P 500. All told, the S&P 500 rose 22.99 points to 6,074.08. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 110.58 to 43,717.48, and the Nasdaq composite rose 247.17 to 20,173.89. In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.39% from 4.40% late Friday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, eased to 4.24% from 4.25%. In stock markets abroad, indexes fell modestly across much of Europe and Asia. They sank 0.9% in Hong Kong and 0.2% in Shanghai after China reported lackluster economic indicators for November despite attempts to strengthen the world’s second-largest economy. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.2% as law enforcement authorities pushed to summon impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol for questioning over his short-lived martial law decree, and the Constitutional Court met to discuss whether to remove him from office or reinstate him. AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.Ambient Scientific unveils first ever AI module powered by a coin cell batteryTimothy Alexander wrote a new post