Best News of Last Week
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1. Wisconsin hospitals will now be required to obtain explicit written consent before allowing medical students to perform a pelvic exam on a patient who is unconscious or under anesthesia: Report
Wisconsin hospitals will now be required to obtain explicit written consent before allowing medical students to perform a pelvic exam on a patient who is unconscious or under anesthesia. The law applies only to pelvic exams conducted solely for educational purposes and does not bar health care providers from performing medically necessary exams. The law also requires hospitals to have written policies and procedures requiring informed consent. This new law brings Wisconsin in line with the majority of other states and codifies practices already happening at healthcare providers across the state. The issue was brought to lawmakers' attention by a Madison resident who had experienced a pelvic exam or uterine manipulator used during a laparoscopic procedure without her knowledge or consent. The law is supported by various healthcare and advocacy groups.
2. “First of its kind” AI settlement: Anthropic to pay authors $1.5 billion | Settlement shows AI companies can face consequences for pirated training data.
The authors have revealed that Anthropic, an AI company, agreed to pay $1.5 billion and destroy all copies of the books it pirated to train its artificial intelligence models. This settlement is believed to be the largest publicly reported recovery in the history of US copyright litigation, covering 500,000 works that Anthropic had pirated. If the settlement is approved by the court, each author will receive $3,000 per work that Anthropic stole, with the final figure per work potentially being higher depending on the number of claims submitted. The settlement sets a precedent requiring AI companies to pay copyright owners, and it sends a powerful message that taking copyrighted works to train AI is wrong. This settlement is seen as an excellent result for authors, publishers, and rightsholders, and it demonstrates that there are serious consequences when companies pirate authors' works to train their AI.
3. Lola, a golden retriever, was diagnosed with a terminal cancer and given months to live. After enrolling in an inhaled immunotherapy trial, she is cancer free two years later.
A golden retriever named Lola in Northern California was given a terminal cancer diagnosis with just a couple of months to live. However, Lola participated in a clinical trial at UC Davis that used inhaled immunotherapies to treat her aggressive oral melanoma that had spread to her lungs. Surprisingly, Lola's cancer went into remission, and she is now cancer-free two years later. Researchers at UC Davis are studying Lola's case to understand what made her respond so well to the treatment, in hopes of developing more effective cancer therapies for both animals and humans. Lola's story highlights the potential of these clinical trials and the hope they can offer to those facing a dire cancer diagnosis.
4. NC Proposal Would Ban Police Officers From Having Sex in Squad Cars, On the Clock, or With Trainees
The state of North Carolina is proposing new guidelines to explicitly prohibit police officers from engaging in sex while on duty, in uniform, or inside police vehicles, as well as with subordinates or students in training programs. The current guidelines only require officers to demonstrate "good moral character," which has led to ambiguity and leniency in disciplinary cases. The proposed changes would also address lying during investigations and clarify grounds for certification revocation. The initiative is led by the state's Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission, and follows several high-profile cases of officer misconduct in recent years. The commission aims to help officers understand the boundaries of acceptable behavior and restore public trust in North Carolina policing.
5. New discovery: tiny protein called Midkine dismantles the toxic clumps behind Alzheimer’s
Researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have found that the protein midkine plays a preventative role against Alzheimer's disease. They discovered that midkine prevents amyloid beta, a protein that accumulates in the brain and causes the hallmark assemblies of Alzheimer's, from sticking together. Alzheimer's disease models lacking midkine showed higher levels of amyloid beta accumulation, indicating midkine's protective role. The findings provide insights into the disease-preventing mechanism of midkine and could lead to new drug discovery pathways for Alzheimer's treatment.
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That's it for last week :)
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