President Trump may have solidified his control over the Republican Party — even if he doesn't pull out a victory over Joe Biden — by expanding the GOP electorate and helping to reverse some 2016 Congressional losses.
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Dec. 10, 2024 10:12AM EST
Jul. 15, 2021 01:19AM EST
Man with severe paralysis communicates via brain waves in groundbreaking study
Researchers in California announced Wednesday that they have successfully accessed the brain waves of a man unable to speak due to severe paralysis and transformed his thoughts into sentences.
Why it matters: This is the first known "successful demonstration of direct decoding of full words from the brain activity of someone who is paralyzed and cannot speak," neurosurgeon Edward Chang, senior author on the study, said in a statement from the University of California, San Francisco.
"It shows strong promise to restore communication by tapping into the brain's natural speech machinery."
Chang
- The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, indicates that the approach researchers took could one day help thousands of people who are unable to speak if the method is developed further, according to U.C. San Francisco.
What they did: For the study, known as "BRAVO" (Brain-Computer Interface Restoration of Arm and Voice), researchers worked with a man in his late 30s whose paralysis is due to a brainstem stroke over 15 years ago that left him with limited head, neck, and limb movements. He had been communicating by using a pointer attached to a baseball cap to poke letters on a screen.
- Chang surgically implanted electrodes into the part of the brain that controls speech. The man worked with researchers to create a 50-word vocabulary — words like "water," "family" and "good" — that Chang's team recognized from brain activity using advanced computer algorithms.
- Researchers translated signals intended to control muscles of the vocal system for speaking words, rather than signals to move the arm or hand to enable typing.
- Chang said in his statement that this approach, known as speech neuroprosthesis, tapped into the natural and fluid aspects of speech, promising more rapid and organic communication.
Of note: The study follows an international team of researchers announcing in May that they helped a person with paralysis translate their imagined handwriting into text through a brain–computer interface that was faster than other types of assistive communication.
What they're saying: Leigh Hochberg, a neurologist with Massachusetts General Hospital, Brown University and the Department of Veterans Affairs, who wasn't involved in Chang's study but co-wrote an editorial on it, said this speech neuroprosthesis research was part of a wave of innovative progress in the field, per the New York Times.
- "It's now only a matter of years before there will be a clinically useful system that will allow for the restoration of communication," added Hochberg, who directs the BrainGate project, which is working on projects to help people affected by neurological disease.
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Jul. 11, 2021 07:51PM EST
Key administration posts remain vacant 6 months into Biden presidency
Nearly six months since his presidency began, Joe Biden's administration has yet to fill key leadership positions in a number of prominent agencies, the Washington Post reports.
Why it matters: Many of the empty positions are important to advancing the administration's agenda in areas such as the pandemic, voting rights, climate change and cracking down on corporations.
- Temporary agency leaders aren't as empowered to pursue an aggressive policy agenda as permanent heads, and are more likely to pursue short-term, rather than long-term, goals.
- “Acting people don’t bring that authority and can’t undertake long-term projects in the way that full-time confirmed people can," Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, told the Post.
The big picture: The reasons for the vacancies vary and the Biden administration's slow pace isn't necessarily unique.
- The Biden administration is filling empty positions faster than the Trump administration did, but slower than Obama, according to the Post.
- “We are ahead of several prior administrations in terms of nominations sent to the Senate for confirmation,” White House spokesman Chris Meagher told the Post.
State of play: The delays are hitting positions that are key in advancing the administration's long-term goals.
- The United States is hoping to ease out of the pandemic even as the FDA commissioner position, which oversees the approval of drugs and vaccines, remains vacant, the Post reports.
- The Office of Management and Budget is being manned by an acting director, despite the efforts to use budget reconciliation to pass the president's "human infrastructure" plan.
- Even as Biden cracks down on corporations, the antitrust position at the Justice Department, as well as the assistant attorney general for antitrust, both remain vacant.
- A number of other key regulatory roles remain open, including a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the chair and two members of the Council on Environmental Quality, per the Post.
- Biden also hasn't nominated a solicitor general, even as the federal government hopes to confront GOP-led efforts to curb voting access.
Go deeper: Biden vacancies delay Big Tech reckoning
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Oct. 23, 2020 12:39PM EST
Big Ten football is back
The Big Ten football season kicks off tonight after months of a "will they, won't they" narrative.
The state of play: Each team will play eight regular season games, culminating in a ninth, cross-divisional matchup on Dec. 19 (i.e. the Big Ten Championship, but also No. 2 East vs. No. 2 West, etc.).
- Because of the late start, the season is not only condensed but also has no open calendar slots. So any COVID-related postponement will likely result in cancellation and the game will be declared "no contest."
- Thus far, 10.6% of games nationally have been postponed. If that holds, six Big Ten games will be lost, and cancellations for playoff contenders will be particularly damaging.
Friday night lights: The Big Ten joins the Pac-12 and Mountain West as conferences regularly scheduling Friday games this fall.
- Tonight: Illinois at No. 14 Wisconsin (8pm ET, BTN).
- Tomorrow: Nebraska at No. 5 Ohio State; Rutgers at Michigan State; No. 8 Penn State at Indiana; Iowa at Purdue; No. 18 Michigan at No. 21 Minnesota; Maryland at Northwestern.
- Seven days a week: Add those to Tuesday and Wednesday's MACtion, Saturday's standard college slate and the NFL's Thursday, Sunday and Monday domination and we're looking at football nearly every day in November.
Favorites: Five teams enter opening day ranked in the AP poll, but three stand out as the conference's top contenders.
- No. 5 Ohio State: The conference's clear-cut frontrunner has a 68% chance to make the College Football Playoff, behind only Clemson (87%) and Alabama (82%).
- No. 8 Penn State: Important pieces are missing, namely LB Micah Parson who opted out to focus on the draft and RB Journey Brown (medical condition). But the remaining roster is still loaded with star power.
- No. 14 Wisconsin: Placement in the far easier Big Ten West gives the Badgers the fourth-best CFP odds in the nation (40%). Though they lost returning QB Jack Coan (foot injury), redshirt freshman Graham Mertz is the highest-rated QB recruit in school history.
Players to watch:
- Ohio State QB Justin Fields: If anyone from the Big Ten is going to challenge Trevor Lawrence and Mac Jones for the Heisman, it's Fields (third-place last year).
- Penn State QB Sean Clifford: He'll need to make a big leap after a fine but unspectacular sophomore campaign, and incoming OC Kirk Ciarrocca (last three years in Minnesota) could be the key to unlocking his potential.
- Wisconsin RB Nakia Harris: No team has more successfully maximized a unit than Wisconsin's running game, winning four of the past eight Doak Walker awards (nation's best RB). Will Harris continue the tradition?
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