Today the Department of Justice is proud to announce President Trump’s intent to nominate John Eisenberg to serve as Assistant Attorney General for National Security, Brett Shumate to serve as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, and Patrick Davis to serve as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs.
John Eisenberg (The National Security Division)
During President Trump’s first term, John served as the Legal Advisor to the National Security Council, Assistant to the President, and Deputy Counsel to the President for National Security Affairs. John has also served at the Department of Justice in several positions, including Associate Deputy Attorney General in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General and Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel. In addition to his government experience, John was also a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, where he focused on white-collar and internal-investigation matters as well as data-security issues.
John clerked for J. Michael Luttig of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and Stanford University.
Brett Shumate (The Civil Division)
Brett presently serves as the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division. Prior to rejoining the Department, Brett was a partner at Jones Day in Washington, D.C. He previously served at the Department as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Federal Programs Branch in the Civil Division.
Brett clerked for Judge Edith H. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He is a graduate of Wake Forest University School of Law and Furman University.
Patrick Davis (The Office of Legislative Affairs)
This will be Patrick’s third stint with the Department of Justice. During President Trump’s first term, Patrick served in DOJ management as Deputy Associate Attorney General. Earlier in his career, he served as a trial attorney in the Federal Programs Branch of the DOJ’s Civil Division. On Capitol Hill, Patrick was the Deputy Chief Investigative Counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he led the Committee’s “Russiagate” investigation and was instrumental in the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He later served as the Chief Investigative Counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Patrick rejoined the Department of Justice as the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs. Prior to his return to the Department, he served as Senior Counsel at the American Petroleum Institute.
Patrick is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Nebraska.
The independent committee provides advice to the Department for Transport (DfT) on the transport needs of disabled people – particularly on ministerial policy priorities and areas they think need urgent attention.
Their works helps DfT stand by its ambition to ensure transport is accessible for all, including keeping it at the heart of bus and rail reform, as well as the establishment of the Passenger Standards Authority.
Local Transport Minister, Simon Lightwood, said:
We are clear in our ambition to have an inclusive transport network so disabled people can travel easily confidently and with dignity. DPTAC has a key role in ensuring we develop policy that delivers this.
This unique committee has membership with broad understanding of the barriers faced by disabled people and it ensures those issues are understood right from the start of policy development.
The new members of DPTAC are:
Damian Joseph Bridgeman – prominent leader in public policy, disability advocacy, and corporate governance
Mark Cutter – Chair of Northern’s Accessibility User Group (NAUG) and the Rail Accessibility and Inclusion Forum for the North (RAIFN)
Carly Danesh Jones – autism advocate who has previously held advisory roles with Heathrow Airport and East Midlands Rail
Mary Doyle – coach who advises multinational companies on inclusivity and accessibility policy
Paul Finnegan – Chief Executive of suicide prevention charity Lighthouse
Dr Miro Griffiths – disability scholar at the University of Leeds
Prof Mari Martiskainen – Professor of Energy and Society at Science Policy Research Unit within the University of Sussex
Rachael Mole – consultant and advisor within accessibility and people management
Ruth Murran – english and drama teacher with life-long experience of global travel
Maral Nozratzadeh – postgraduate researcher at the University of Leeds School of Law
David Sindall – previously Head of Disability and Inclusion for the Association of Train Operating Companies for 12 years
Zamila Skingsley– former Cabinet Office Director
Edward Trewhella – Chief Executive at Driving Mobility
DPTAC has helped to inform DfT’s work to improve transport accessibility, including the Access For All programme which has made over 260 train stations accessible, as well as the Aviation Accessibility Task and Finish Group that was launched by DfT in November 2024.
It has also helped inform bus and coach policy, including the Public Service Vehicles (Accessible Information) Regulations 2023 that require operators of local bus and coach services to provide information on the route, direction of travel and each upcoming stop.
DPTAC chair, Matthew Campbell-Hill, said:
I am delighted to welcome our new DPTAC members, who bring a wealth of diverse experiences and expertise.
Their insights will be invaluable as we work together to remove barriers and improve accessibility across our transport network. By harnessing this collective knowledge, we can drive meaningful change and ensure that transport truly works for everyone.
Existing member Sue Sharp, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Society for Blind Children, has also been appointed the group’s Deputy Chair.
Those appointed to DPTAC serve terms of 2 to 3 years.
Under the Transport Act 1985, DPTAC’s membership should have between 10 and 20 members, excluding its chair. These appointments bring DPTACs membership to a total of 17.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
A study published in The Lancet Public Health looks at life expectancy changes across 20 European countries from 1990-2020.
Prof Jennifer Dowd, Professor of Demography and Population Health, University of Oxford, said:
Does the press release accurately reflect the science?
“While accurate overall, the press release at times oversimplifies and overstates the conclusions of the paper, including the press release title: “We are no longer living longer.” The paper looks at mortality trends from 1990-2021 and finds slowing improvements in life expectancy in the decade prior to COVID–but improvements still mean we are living longer. Life expectancy declined due to COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021, but this is likely a temporary shock and doesn’t mean we will die sooner than our parents and grandparents, as implied. The press release also states that food, physical activity, and obesity are largely to blame for these trends, but this overstates what we can confidently say about these causes.”
Is this good quality research? Are the conclusions backed up by solid data?
“This is good quality research, especially in the standard estimation of life expectancy trends and the causes of death contributing to these trends. The part of the analysis that tries to attribute slower mortality improvements to specific risk factors such as cholesterol, hypertension, and “dietary risks” is on shakier ground. The estimates used for this part of the analysis were based on different data and analysis that are not discussed in detail here. The estimation of how risk factors such as diet causally impact mortality is methodologically very challenging, and there is a lot of uncertainty about any single estimate. In addition, the population-representative data on the prevalence and trends of these risk factors across all the countries is not readily available. Putting these two sources of uncertainty together means it is very difficult to attribute country-level life expectancy trends to specific risk factors with high confidence. The “under the hood” part of how these estimates are produced is largely glossed over in the paper, but they are presented as established facts.”
How does this work fit with the existing evidence?
Have the authors accounted for confounders? Are there important limitations to be aware of?
“The portion of the paper attributing life expectancy changes to specific risk factors like diet and physical activity is based on other analyses that are highly vulnerable to bias due to confounding. The conclusions for this portion of the analysis should be tempered.”
What are the implications in the real world? Is there any overspeculation?
“We are seeing slowdowns in life expectancy improvements after decades of often rapid gains. But even slow improvements mean we are living longer on average. Slowing improvements may be a warning sign of things to come, so we need to continue tracking these trends. This paper makes strong statements about the specific risk factors responsible for slowing life expectancy improvements, including obesity, high cholesterol, and “occupational risks.” While these risk factors are no doubt important for health, we can’t say with certainty how each one contributes to these trends.”
How confident can we be as to the causes of the decline in life expectancy in England?
“The reported decline in life expectancy in England was only during COVID. Prior to that there were slower improvements in life expectancy compared to the previous period and compared to other countries. There is not broad agreement on the cause of these slowdowns, as it is difficult to directly test mechanisms such as austerity cuts. We have good evidence that the slower improvements were largely attributable to slowing improvements in cardiovascular disease, as well as some increases in external cause mortality such as drug deaths at younger ages and midlife. For more thorough examinations, please see paper here and here.”
Could these trends be potentially linked to current state of NHS/ waiting lists? Also could the use of weight-loss drugs potentially help reverse this trend if they tackle rising obesity rates?
“Challenges with the NHS are one potential contributor to mortality trends in England, but the size of their contribution is not well established. These trends likely reflect much longer-term trends in risk factors such as obesity that accumulate over time. Since the obesity epidemic is now many decades old, more people are entering midlife and older age having been obese for a long time, which could be contributing to these trends. There is cautious optimism that the new GLP-1 class of diabetes and weight-loss drugs could be a game-changer for treating obesity have some long-term benefits for life expectancy, though more evidence is needed to confirm this.”
Dr Yize Wan, NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Intensive Care Medicine & Anaesthesia, William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI), Queen Mary University London (QMUL), said:
“The reasons for these findings are complex and likely to be a combination of both individual risk factors from health behaviours and the need to improve access and delivery of healthcare systems. This study has highlighted the importance of addressing modifiable risk factors and preventing and not just treating long-term disease. It would be important to see if these trends are seen across the whole population or whether people from more socioeconomically deprived or different ethnic backgrounds are disproportionally affected. Particularly as we know that socioeconomically and ethnically disadvantaged population groups are more likely to be exposed to common risk factors such as poor diet and low physical activity as well as have more limited access to healthcare.”
Prof Tom Sanders, Professor emeritus of Nutrition and Dietetics, King’s College London (KCL), said:
“This is a useful analysis of changes in life expectancy across Europe since 2011 compared with the period 1990-2011. Prior to this life expectancy had increased by about 11 years compared with 1960s for a variety of reasons particularly better control of high blood pressure, blood pressure and immunisation against flu as well as lifestyle changes (smoking cessation and better diet) including increased prosperity. This study shows overall across the 20 countries there was an improvement in life expectancy increased from 1990 up to 2011 by on average 0.23 years but this rate of improvement slowed to 0.15 years between 2011 and 2019. The UK, France and Germany showed bigger declines in life-expectancy compared to the Nordic countries.
“It is important to recognise that the demographics of the European population have changed markedly in some countries such as the UK, France and Germany because of increased migration compared to Nordic countries. In the UK, the population growth had been due to migration often from countries where life expectancy is much lower.
“The authors attribute the small decline in life-expectancy to increasing prevalence of obesity particularly in younger and middle-aged adults. While, obesity is likely to contribute to decreased life expectancy in future generations, the prevalence was not particularly high in the older generation, who accounted for most of the deaths in the period 2011-2019.”
‘Changing life expectancy in European countries 1990–2021: a subanalysis of causes and risk factors from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021’by Nicholas Steel et al. was published in The Lancet Public Health at 23:30 UK time Tuesday 18th February 2025.
DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(25)00009-X
Declared interests
Dr Yize Wan: I have no declarations of interest.
Prof Jennifer Dowd: No conflicts.
For all other experts, no reply to our request for DOIs was received.
CHICAGO, Feb. 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Tiffani Chambers has joined TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) as Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer, effective February 19, 2025.
TransUnion’s Global Operations team serves an important role delivering premium experiences for consumers and customers. Tiffani will oversee activities including consumer relations, customer delivery and relationship management, TransUnion’s Global Capability Center network, procurement and real estate. She will report to TransUnion President and CEO Chris Cartwright and serve on the executive leadership team.
“Our vision is to make trust possible in global commerce, and our Operations team delivers information services and support every day that help consumers and businesses transact with confidence,” said Cartwright. “Tiffani is a proven leader with highly relevant global operations and financial services experience, and I’m confident she will be a great addition to our team as we work to drive greater innovation and service for the consumers and customers we serve.”
Chambers joins TransUnion from Bank of America, where she most recently served as chief operating officer to the retail banking division, leading all business management, strategy growth, digital transformation and control functions for the 30,000-person division. Prior to that, she served as chief operating officer for the bank’s global banking and markets, risk, finance and infrastructure technology team. She also served as managing director of global client strategy and operations for the operations division of Goldman Sachs, and previously held leadership roles with JP Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers and American Express. She earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BBA from Emory University, and she serves on the advisory board of the Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs at Mount Sinai Hospital.
About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) TransUnion is a global information and insights company with over 13,000 associates operating in more than 30 countries. We make trust possible by ensuring each person is reliably represented in the marketplace. We do this with a Tru™ picture of each person: an actionable view of consumers, stewarded with care. Through our acquisitions and technology investments we have developed innovative solutions that extend beyond our strong foundation in core credit into areas such as marketing, fraud, risk and advanced analytics. As a result, consumers and businesses can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good® — and it leads to economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for millions of people around the world. http://www.transunion.com/business
Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –
On March 10, HSE will launch an online course in strategic marketing and advertising, thanks to which students will be able to become “their own” in the professional community. Over six months of live and comfortable training, students will master the basic competencies and advanced skills necessary for an Internet marketer, and learn what is needed to prepare, launch and run marketing campaigns. What makes the program unique and why it is worth joining was explained by a professor at HSE in Nizhny Novgorod, head of the professional retraining program “Basic Marketing Course» Mikhail Shushkin.
— Who is the HSE Basic Marketing Course intended for?
— Firstly, for those who want to master a new profession of a marketer. Graduates of the program will be able to work both in agencies and in companies of various industries: banks, manufacturing, construction industry, retail, marketplaces, media projects, medicine, IT, tourism, restaurants and hotels. Marketers are needed everywhere.
Secondly, for those who already work in the advertising industry and want to increase their value in the labor market or improve their knowledge of new marketing trends.
HSE diplomas are highly valued by employers. This is because we provide only relevant tools. We are practitioners, we are inside the marketing industry, where everything changes every month. Therefore, we have the latest expertise and work with the newest tools.
Thirdly, the course will be useful for small and medium business owners. Almost every business faces the problem of attracting new customers and retaining existing ones. Therefore, entrepreneurs inevitably interact with marketing. It is quite difficult to understand it on your own, and transferring all marketing tasks to one agency is not always effective. The marketing industry is quite complex, and the cost of advertising is constantly growing. In order to develop an effective marketing strategy and competently select contractors for various types of work, knowledge in the field of marketing is necessary.
— What are the features of the program?
— The program is implemented online in the form of live classes with teachers. This means a lot of interaction, feedback, case discussions, debates and practical blocks. 60% of the classes are practice.
The distance format has a number of advantages. For example, your group can include students from different cities and countries. I will give an example from one of the classes. Classes start at 18:00 Moscow time. The teacher and students connect in advance, 10 minutes before the start. There is time to chat a little about life and marketing news. Ivan logs into the system and suggests watching the sunrise. Ivan is now in Los Angeles, he is a jazz musician. At this moment, Ekaterina shows the sunset in Kaliningrad. The “city game” begins: Beijing, Tashkent, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Belgrade, Madrid…
— What industries do the program’s listeners come from?
— Among them are employees of Gazprom, Baltika, LUKOIL, Magnit, X5, Dodo Pizza, Channel One, as well as theaters, universities (for example, Moscow State University), restaurants and cafes, IT businesses, startups and musical groups. Their basic education does not matter. Among our students are drilling rig operators in the Far North, sailors from the Far East, restaurant waiters in New Moscow, theater actors on Arbat and contextual advertising specialists in Moscow City. They are all united by an interest in marketing.
Some people need marketing to build a career in their company, others – to develop their own business projects, and still others – to enter a new, highly paid and interesting profession.
— Can a person without knowledge enter and successfully master the program?
— Definitely yes! Often complex terms mean simple things. Working in classifieds, digital PR, retail media, analytical tools, castdev, building a customer journey map, digital advertising algorithms, SMM, brand pyramid, media plan, sales funnels, conversion, marketing metrics — all this is not as difficult as it seems. It sounds serious, but believe me, these are logical and easy-to-understand tools. Their competent use helps to develop your own business or improve the efficiency of the current one.
The “language of marketers” is a separate topic altogether – it has become the subject of many memes and jokes. It seems that marketers deliberately use professional slang to create a closed club, like in youth culture. But in fact, these are convenient and standardized terms that help specialists from different cities and countries easily understand each other.
— Who teaches the classes?
— The next stream will be taught by marketers from companies such as MTS Ads, e-Promo, Dodo Pizza, Sber, and the NORMA agency. Among them are experts implementing marketing projects for LUKOIL, Mega shopping centers, Rostelecom, Alfa-Bank, and other companies.
All teachers are active practitioners in their fields: marketing research, digital advertising, customer service, PR, branding, creation and implementation of advertising concepts and communication strategies.
— What is the atmosphere like in the classes?
— The atmosphere in the classes is comfortable, friendly, I would even say family-like. The teachers are deeply versed in their disciplines, as they are practitioners.
Students do not feel pressure from teachers and classmates. The principle of the program is the most comfortable introduction to the specialty. Classmates and teachers are always ready to help and support each other.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
LONDON, Feb. 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — WTW (NASDAQ: WTW), a leading global advisory, broking, and solutions company, announced today a new scientific partnership with Cornell University to quantify the risks of severe and sustained drought worldwide. This collaboration will provide an in-depth view of global exposure to drought risks and the potential effects of water shortages on business operations.
Around two-thirds of the global population live in places that encounter water stress for at least part of the year. When water supplies are further diminished by drought, many communities experience reduced agricultural yield, energy production, and slower economic growth. The adverse effects of drought are more serious in low-income and middle-income countries and are particularly disruptive to agriculture-dominated areas of the developing world.
Climate change has already increased drought risks in many regions, but unfortunately even the latest generation of climate models still underestimate the potential severity, duration, and correlation of future droughts. Under this new initiative, WTW and Cornell University will collaborate to identify geographical ‘hotspots’ for climate-amplified drought, produce more accurate estimates of drought risk, and create new tools and datasets to anticipate single and multi-year drought. At Cornell, the research is supported by the Atkinson Center for Sustainability and led by Prof. Toby Ault, a leading global expert in future drought under climate change.
Scott St. George, Head of Weather & Climate Research for the WTW Research Network, said, “Water is essential to all industries, so no one can afford to have drought take them by surprise. We know climate change has already supercharged droughts in some places — witness the ongoing drought in the American Southwest, now in its third decade. Prof. Ault and his team at Cornell will provide us with a clear view of the real risk of drought and water scarcity. Those insights are absolutely critical for our clients’ operations and planning in water-dependent sectors such as food and beverage, energy producers, and waterborne transport.”
“We’re excited to work with WTW to translate cutting-edge climate science into actionable insights for the insurance industry,” said Prof. Toby Ault, Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University. “Our research has shown that traditional climate models often underestimate the risk of severe, prolonged droughts, particularly in regions already facing water stress. By combining our expertise in drought modeling with WTW’s industry knowledge, we can better prepare for the complex drought risks of the future.”
About Cornell University Cornell University is an Ivy League and statutory land-grant research university located in Ithaca, New York. Founded in 1865, Cornell is consistently ranked among the world’s leading academic institutions, with strengths in atmospheric sciences, engineering, and environmental research. The university’s Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences is internationally recognized for its leadership work in climate science, drought research, and applied climatology.
About WTW
At WTW (NASDAQ: WTW), we provide data-driven, insight-led solutions in the areas of people, risk and capital. Leveraging the global view and local expertise of our colleagues serving 140 countries and markets, we help organizations sharpen their strategy, enhance organizational resilience, motivate their workforce and maximize performance.
Working shoulder to shoulder with our clients, we uncover opportunities for sustainable success—and provide perspective that moves you. Learn more at wtwco.com.
LEXINGTON, Mass., Feb. 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Mimecast, a global cybersecurity leader transforming the way businesses manage and mitigate human risk, announced today the appointment of Adenike (Nikki) Cosgrove as Chief Marketing Officer.
Drawing on more than twenty years of cybersecurity experience, Nikki will lead Mimecast’s global marketing organization driving strategic growth and positioning in new and existing markets to further establish Mimecast as the clear industry leader in Human Risk Management.
Nikki brings a wealth of expertise to Mimecast. She joins the organization from Proofpoint (following their 2016 acquisition of Return Path Email Fraud Protection), where she spent more than nine years, most recently as regional CMO for EMEA, leading product and strategic marketing operations.
An accomplished cybersecurity executive, Nikki’s expertise spans the spectrum of product and business strategy including growth marketing, strategic communications, analyst relations, and competitive intelligence. Prior to Proofpoint, Nikki worked as lead EMEA advisor to security and risk professionals for Forrester Research and Canalys, where she developed a deep understanding of CISO challenges and helped clients with their information and cybersecurity strategies.
“Nikki’s expertise in our sector, coupled with her strategic leadership, business acumen and marketing pedigree, perfectly positions her to lead Mimecast’s marketing organization as we cement our reputation as industry leader in Human Risk Management,” said CEO, Marc van Zadelhoff. “The last year at Mimecast has been marked by innovation and strategic growth, including three industry-shaping acquisitions and global expansion. Nikki is joining us at an incredibly exciting time for the business and will play a key role in how we take this momentum forward across our global markets.”
Nikki holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Hull and a Master of Research, Telecommunications, from University College London. Nikki has lived in Japan, Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria, and currently resides in London.
“As the threat landscape evolves and cybercriminals increasingly target individuals, securing human risk has never been more critical,” said Nikki Cosgrove. “I’m excited to step into the role of Chief Marketing Officer and apply my experience to accelerate Mimecast’s momentum, strengthen our market leadership, and drive strategies that deliver even greater value to our customers worldwide.”
Mimecast is a leading cybersecurity company transforming the way businesses manage and mitigate human risk. Its AI-powered, API-enabled connected Human Risk Management platform is purpose-built to protect organizations from the spectrum of cyber threats. Integrating cutting-edge technology with human-centric pathways, our platform enhances visibility and provides strategic insight that enables decisive action and empowers businesses to protect their collaborative environments, safeguard their critical data and actively engage employees in reducing risk and enhancing productivity. More than 42,000 businesses worldwide trust Mimecast to help them keep ahead of the ever-evolving threat landscape. From insider risk to external threats, with Mimecast customers get more. More visibility. More insight. More agility. More security.
Mimecast is either a registered trademark or trademark of Mimecast Services Limited in the United States and/or other countries. Proofpoint is a registered trademark of Proofpoint, Inc. in the United States and other countries.All other third-party trademarks and logos contained in this press release are the property of their respective owners.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
A paper published in Nature Medicine looks at the contribution of genetic and lifestyle factors to risk of premature death, ageing, and age-related diseases.
Prof Felicity Gavins, Professor of Pharmacology at Brunel University of London, and Royal Society Wolfson Fellow, said:
“This is an exciting study. The fact that most of the risk factors identified are modifiable highlights an enormous opportunity for prevention. By addressing social inequalities, promoting healthy behaviours and reducing harmful exposures, we can really make a meaningful difference in reducing age-related diseases and premature mortality.
“However, some caution is needed. This is an observational study, so further research is needed to confirm causal relationships, especially before any long-term policy changes are made. Furthermore, targeted interventions will be essential to translating these findings into real-world impact.”
Dr Stephen Burgess, Group Leader at the MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge, said:
“This is a large and detailed investigation into the predictors of major causes of mortality in a UK-based population. It provides further demonstration supporting previous research that, in the majority of cases, our genes do not determine our future. There are exceptions, including rare conditions that are caused by a single genetic variation. But for the majority of conditions that Western people die from, disease risk is more strongly attributable to modifiable risk factors and our wider environment, as shaped by our upbringing and choices. Genetics can load the dice, but it is up to us how we play our hand.
“A limitation of the work is that it does not highlight particular risk factors, nor can it make specific causal claims about what would happen if we changed our risk factors and environment.”
Prof Frances Flinter, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Genetics, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust; and Member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, said:
“This is a very impressive, thorough and detailed analysis of a vast amount of genetic and non-genetic data from the UK Biobank. The authors compare the relative contributions to ageing and premature mortality of genetic susceptibility markers (polygenic risk scores) and environmental factors, which they refer to as the ‘exposome’ (including alcohol, diet, smoking, housing, type of heating, weight in childhood etc).
“Overall, polygenic risk scores (PRS) for twenty-two major diseases explained less than 2% of additional variation in mortality, whereas the exposome explained 17%. In particular, the exposome explained a greater proportion of the variation than polygenic risk scores for the incidence of disease of the lung, heart and liver, whereas polygenic risk scores explained a greater proportion of the variation than the exposome for dementia and breast, prostate and colorectal cancers.
“The risk of premature mortality was lower in Black, Asian and ethnicities other than white, even after adjustment for socio-demographic deprivation factors, which is currently unexplained.
“With so much focus on genetic determinism these days, it is good to be reminded of the significance of environmental contributions to health, particularly as the risk factors are known and many can be modified.”
Prof Ilaria Bellantuono, Professor in Musculoskeletal Ageing; and Co-Director of The Healthy Lifespan Institute, University of Sheffield, said:
“This important study comprehensively confirms what smaller studies have suggested: multiple socioeconomic and environmental factors significantly influence the risk of developing age-related diseases. More critically, it highlights that health is shaped by multiple interacting factors. This has important policy implications, meaning that policies targeting only one or two of these factors will have limited impact on extending healthspan. The findings support the need for an integrated, multi-faceted approach to prevention and to identify the most influential domains for intervention (smoking, socioeconomic status and deprivation, physical activity, sleep and mental and physical wellness including tiredness, as well as early life exposures including height and body size at 10 years and maternal smoking around birth).
“The study is rigorously conducted and transparently acknowledges its limitations, which are inevitable in research of this nature.”
Dr Julian Mutz, King’s Prize Research Fellow at the Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King’s College London, said:
“The study by Argentieri, van Duijn, and colleagues sought to tease apart the relative contributions of environmental exposures (termed the “exposome”) and genetic risk on biological ageing and premature mortality.
“The authors analysed data from the UK Biobank, a unique resource with a wealth of information on sociodemographic characteristics, health records, genetics and biomarker data from half a million UK residents.
“They employed a complex analytical design to identify environmental exposures that were independently associated with biological ageing (defined using a proteomic ageing clock that they developed in a previous high-profile study) and mortality, while minimising the risk of reverse causation, confounding and correlation between exposures. The approach is elegant, though certain assumptions warrant caution. For example, the finding that many exposures independently associated with mortality (e.g., diet or mental health) were not associated with the proteomic ageing clock (or had an association in the opposite direction) does not necessarily mean that these exposures do not impact ageing biology.
“Key findings from the study were that a higher income, Asian or Black ethnic background, higher levels of physical activity and living with a partner were associated with lower mortality risk and a protein-predicted age younger than chronological age. Smoking, living in council housing (reflecting socio-economic status) and the frequency of feeling tired were associated with higher mortality risk and a protein-predicted age older than chronological age.
“Each of the 25 independent exposures that the authors identified was associated with incident diseases and ageing biomarkers.
“To investigate the relative contribution of the environmental exposures compared to genetics, the authors calculated polygenic scores for 22 diseases. Polygenic scores aggregate the small effects of many common genetic variants to estimate an individual’s predisposition to specific traits or diseases. However, there are several caveats to this approach: first, polygenic scores only capture part of the genetic risk; and second, many environmental exposures also have a genetic component. The broad headline of the press release that “environmental factors affect health and ageing more than our genes” should be viewed in light of these limitations.
“One of the most interesting findings from this study is the comparison of the contributions of chronological age and sex (both non-modifiable risk factors), environmental exposures and polygenic scores across several disease endpoints. For example, for certain diseases (e.g., dementia), genetics appears to be more important.
“A key implication of the study is that there is a broad range of modifiable risk factors that could be targeted to reduce the risk of premature mortality and age-related disease. How successful this will be remains to be seen. We already know much about the health-promoting effects of lifestyle interventions, such as physical activity and smoking cessation, but a significant intention–behaviour gap remains.
“The authors have, for the most part, carefully highlighted that the observed associations may not be causal.”
Prof Kevin McConway, Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics, Open University, said:
“This new study involves a large dataset, using data from almost half a million participants in the UK Biobank, data on 164 different environmental exposures (using ‘exposure’ in the broad epidemiologists’ sense, from smoking and intake of various foods, to how plump they were at age 10, to their ethnicity) and (for some of them) genetic and blood measures too. It’s big data, and the researchers use some big-data methods.
“The aim was to quantify the contributions of environmental exposures and genetics to aging and premature mortality, taking into account many aspects of people’s environment rather than concentrating on a few risk factors determined in advance.
“The results are interesting, and I think they do support the researchers’ view that we can learn more by looking at many environmental exposures together rather than trying to pick them off one (or a few) at a time. However, there are some important limitations (as the researchers make clear).
“It would be easy to dismiss this new research by saying that all they have really found is that, if you want to be healthy in old age, you need to give up smoking, do some exercise and not be poor, and we already knew that. But that’s not (in my view) the important finding at all. The important finding is that you get more by looking at more aspects of the environment, if you have enough good data to do that – but that needs careful statistical analysis, including aspects that this study could not do itself. However I think there are good reasons not to pay too much attention to the exact numerical results in the paper, for reasons I’ll come to.
“This is an observational study – the UK Biobank researchers did not choose how the participants acted, but only observed and recorded what they said and did. Like all observational studies, the findings are about correlations and associations, not about cause and effect. The statistical methods used by the researchers can’t determine whether the associations between exposures and ill health and mortality, that they observed, are there because the exposures cause the ill health and mortality. They might, or they might not.
“The way the researchers filtered out exposures that might have showed up as associated with ill health only because they were correlated with other exposures, or because the exposure was actually caused by ill health (reverse causation, as it’s called), does to some extent make it a bit more likely that the associations they mainly report on are ones of cause and effect – but they certainly can’t confirm that they are cause and effect. The researchers say, in their conclusion, that their results indicate that interventions based on environmental exposures are possibly (my emphasis) the best starting point for improving age-related health, but they add that “future causal modelling [that is, research that specifically looks at cause and effect, which uses different methodology] will be needed to study specific exposures of interest.”
“In view of these issues about cause, it’s unfortunate that the press release uses a lot of language that implies the associations are indeed reflecting cause and effect. They talk about the impact of environmental factors on mortality and aging. If something isn’t causing the ill health, ‘impact’ is the wrong word – if you change a factor that is correlated with ill health but doesn’t cause it, you won’t change the level of ill health.
“And when the release says that environmental factors explained 17% of the variation in risk of death, compared to less than 2% for genetic predisposition, this is presenting a misleading picture of what is reported in the research paper. The paper talks about additional mortality variation (in addition to the variation explained by age and biological sex, which are the most important factors, unsurprisingly, along with smoking). And in this context, statisticians are using ‘variation explained’ to mean something statistically technical that has nothing direct to do with cause and effect, even though it sounds as if it does.
“There are other important limitations. The UK Biobank population isn’t typical of the general UK population. And the exposures were all measured at only one time point, when people first entered the UK Biobank study. Therefore, even though the UK Biobank is a major study that goes on through time, these findings can’t, for instance, look at the impact on ill health if someone gives up smoking, or becomes wealthier, or changes what they eat. The researchers emphasise the importance of studying what leads to ill health across the life course, not just at one or a few time points, but like most studies using UK Biobank data, they could not actually do that in this study, beyond looking at some things that participants said about their childhood when they entered the study.
“There is no implication that the 25 independent environmental factors that were identified in this research are the most important environmental factors, or the only important ones. The filtering process that removed factors that might have been correlated to strongly with other factors, or might have been liable to reverse causation, may have removed some that were in fact important to health. (I’m not saying that they should not have been removed, in the light of the overall aims of this study – just that removing them could have led to something being missed.)
“And obviously the researchers could only take into account environmental exposures that were recorded in the UK Biobank data, and that’s not everything. The early life exposures, mentioned in the press release and the paper as being important, were actually recorded alongside all the others when people entered the study, so based on what they recalled, and not actually followed up over time.
“Ideally in a study like that using a big and complicated data set, researchers would model the data statistically using just part of the data set, and then check with the rest of the data set whether the findings hold and are not just a statistical fluke. These researchers did that, splitting the data on English UK Biobank participants into two and checking the results from one half on the other half, and then checking several aspects of the statistical modelling by validating the results on data from UK Biobank participants in Scotland and Wales. That’s good, but not ideal, because the Scottish and Welsh participants are likely to be too similar to the English participants to give an independent enough validation.
“It’s interesting that the research paper says that they sought to validate the findings using a different study based in Rotterdam, which would have been much better than the Scottish and Welsh UK Biobank data. But they could not do that because the Rotterdam study did not have enough recorded environmental exposures that matched those in the UK Biobank. They point out that this is likely to be a more widespread problem, because there’s no standard way across different studies of this kind to choose which exposures to record, or how to define them.
“I have to say that I personally wouldn’t pay too much attention to any of the exact figures on associations that are given in the paper. That’s partly because of the limitations I’ve mentioned (and the researchers give more limitations in the paper). But it’s mainly because the data set is big and complicated, and the statistical methods used involved many stages and are complicated. The researchers had to make a long series of choices on which data to analyse and how to analyse it. Another team of researchers would not have made the same choices in each case. That doesn’t mean that this team is wrong and another team would be right – just that there often isn’t a clear best choice to be made. And other choices would have led to different findings, in terms of the detailed numbers at least.
“Statisticians sometimes refer to the series of choices of how to analyse a data set, not entirely seriously, as ‘researcher degrees of freedom’. This study has a lot of researcher degrees of freedom. The researchers did check out some of their choices by carrying out sensitivity analyses, but that doesn’t get near to dealing with every choice they had to make. If time and money were no object, it would be very interesting to see what a different research team made of the same data – but in the real world, that’s not going to happen.
“One final point about the press release. It says that 23 of the 25 independent environmental factors, identified in the research as contributing to the association between environmental exposure and ill health, ‘are modifiable’. The research paper says only that they are potentially modifiable. This sounds like a nit-pick, and maybe it is – but look at the factors (in Figure 2d in the paper, which shows the 25 along with age and biological sex). Smoking is modifiable, even if it can be hard for individuals to make that modification. But for some of the others it’s not easy to see what the modification might be. How do you modify things so that you are living with a partner, if you currently aren’t? (Living with a partner is associated with better health.) How do you modify how often you feel fed up, or how often you feel unenthusiastic? These potential modifications could maybe be done, but saying they are ‘modifiable’ is too much of a simplification. And it’s certainly important to understand that modifying some of them would be possible only by changes in society – it’s not just a question of individuals choosing what to do. (It also bears repeating that this study, because of the issues about cause and effect, can’t actually tell us with any certainty whether modifying these facts would actually change health anyway.)”
Dr Divyangana Rakesh, Lecturer and Researcher in the Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, said:
“This study makes clear just how much our environment shapes aging and mortality, and it is not surprising that environmental risk often outweighs genetic risk. The authors used a rigorous approach to show that while genetics play a role in specific diseases, our environment – from socioeconomic status to lifestyle factors – shapes overall health trajectories in powerful ways. We see this in developmental research as well, where environmental factors, including socioeconomic status and deprivation, play a crucial role in shaping children’s outcomes. Findings like these reinforce the urgent need to address environmental determinants of health if we want to support healthy development and aging for everyone.”
Prof Joyce Harper, Head of the Reproductive Science and Society Group, UCL Institute for Women’s Health, UCL, said:
“This extensive study systematically examined environmental factors linked to aging using data from the UK Biobank. The researchers conducted an exposome-wide analysis of all-cause mortality in a cohort of 492,567 individuals and investigated how these exposures influenced a proteomic age clock. Their findings identified 25 independent environmental factors associated with both mortality risk and proteomic aging.
“It is so great to see this brilliant study from Oxford Population Health. In today’s society, so many are trying to get a quick fix to improve health and longevity, but this study and others are showing the importance of our lifestyle and environment on healthy aging. It is the first study to show how the combined effect of individual exposures affects us through the life course. I hope people are listening.”
‘Integrating the environmental and genetic architectures of aging and mortality’ byM. Austin Argentieriet al.was published in Nature Medicine at 10.00am UK time on Wednesday 19 February 2025.
DOI: 10.1038/s41591-024-03483-9
Declared interests
Prof Felicity Gavins: “No conflicts.”
Prof Frances Flinter: “No CoI.”
Prof Ilaria Bellantuono: “I am funded by the Michael J Fox Foundation, Dunhill Medical Trust. I co-lead UkAgeNet (https://ukagenet.co.uk/ ) and I am co-director of the Healthy Lifespan Institute.”
Dr Julian Mutz: “I report no conflicts.”
Prof Kevin McConway: “Previously a Trustee of the SMC and a member of its Advisory Committee.”
Dr Divyangana Rakesh: “I have no conflicts of interest to declare.”
Prof Joyce Harper: “No conflicts. I am writing a book on health and happiness over 50 but I do not think that conflicts.”
For all other experts, no reply to our request for DOIs was received.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
A new study led by researchers from Oxford Population Health at the University of Oxford has investigated whether lifestyle and other environmental factors (the ‘exposome’) have a smaller or bigger impact on health and premature death than our genes.
The study uses data from UK Biobank, and the researchers have developed a new ‘ageing clock’ – a method to estimate how quickly people are ageing biologically based on levels of proteins in their blood. They then use this to see which environmental factors might be linked with biological ageing.
The study will be published in Nature Medicine and looks at 164 environmental factors and 22 diseases of ageing.
Journalists dialed into this briefing to hear from some of the authors of the study and to ask your questions.
Speakers included:
Prof Cornelia van Duijn, senior author of the paper and St Cross Professor of Epidemiology at Oxford Population Heath, University of Oxford
Dr Austin Argentieri, lead author of the study at Oxford Population Health, and Research Fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Broad Institute
New Materials and Methods for Hydrogen Transportation and Storage: Repurposing the Economic Future of the North Sea (MHYSTIC) will see existing energy asset and skills used to develop a suite of innovations that will boost the UK’s hydrogen distribution network.A project that will help establish a sustainable distribution network of hydrogen in Scotland and across the UK has got underway at the University of Aberdeen.
Led by a team of researchers at the University of Aberdeen with expertise in chemical, mechanical and materials engineering along with economic analysis for field applications in geological settings, the MHYSTIC project is one of 10 selected by the UK-HyRES Flexible Fund to advance hydrogen and alternative liquid fuels technologies.
The projects represent a broad spectrum of groundbreaking research, each aligned with the mission to accelerate the UK’s hydrogen transition and drive impactful scientific innovation. Collectively, nearly £3 million in funding has been awarded, enabling pioneering studies across multiple institutions and disciplines.
New Materials and Methods for Hydrogen Transportation and Storage: Repurposing the Economic Future of the North Sea (MHYSTIC) will see existing energy asset and skills used to develop a suite of innovations that will boost the UK’s hydrogen distribution network.
With support from international collaborators at the Lithuanian Energy Institute, industry partners including Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group, ABL Group, the European Marine Energy Centre, the Net Zero Technology Centre, John Lawrie Group, Statera Energy and Dräger Ltd will also play a crucial role in developing and disseminating outputs from the project.
The characterisation methods and models will reveal detailed mechanisms of H2 adsorption and material failure at a granular level, which will result in stepwise advances in knowledge with high academic impact and will help implement hydrogen economies in Scotland and the UK.” Project lead Dr Alfonso Martinez-Felipe
“MHYSTIC is one of the only 10 projects funded in this first round of applications and will have research, commercial and societal impacts by transferring its innovations to productive actors involved in the project,” explained project lead Dr Alfonso Martinez-Felipe from the University’s School of Engineering.
“The characterisation methods and models will reveal detailed mechanisms of H2 adsorption and material failure at a granular level, which will result in stepwise advances in knowledge with high academic impact and will help implement hydrogen economies in Scotland and the UK.”
Dr Martinez-Felipe is joined by colleagues Dr Amin Sharifi, Dr M. Amir Siddiq, Dr Marcin Kapitaniak and Dr Mehmet Kartal, all from the School of Engineering; and Professor John Underhill, Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Energy Transition at the University of Aberdeen.
“Being the smallest molecule, hydrogen is prone to leakage. It also embrittles steel,” said Professor Underhill. “Consequently, it’s essential to find new materials for hydrogen’s safe and secure storage and transportation if it is to play a role in the energy transition, something this research will address.”
UK-HyRES aims to define and tackle the research challenges blocking the wider use of low carbon fuels in the UK – funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The project is expected to run for 2.5 years.
In 2024, Beijing achieved significant strides in building the Integrated National Demonstration Zone for Greater Service Sector Openness, and the China (Beijing) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) – together referred to as the “two zones.” According to the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau, the city added 7,187 new projects, and implemented 85.7% of the tasks outlined in the State Council-approved work plan.
By the end of 2024, the total number of projects under the “two zones” initiative reached 9,945, with the estimated investment totaling 1.02 trillion yuan (US$140.6 billion).
The city’s number of newly established foreign-invested companies rose by 16.4% year on year, outpacing the national growth rate by 6.5 percentage points. Eight globally renowned pharmaceutical companies such as Lilly and Pfizer established R&D and innovation centers in Beijing last year.
The China (Beijing) FTZ attracted 39.9% of the city’s total utilized foreign investment in 2024, marking an increase of 20.6 percentage points from the previous year.
As part of its efforts to promote opening up, the FTZ established the nation’s first specialized area within the Tianzhu Comprehensive Bonded Zone for importing rare disease drugs unavailable in domestic markets.
Since April 11, 2024, more than 1,400 doses of medication for children with achondroplasia have been imported through the Tianzhu Comprehensive Bonded Zone to Beijing Children Hospital of Capital Medical University, said an official from the zone.
Tianzhu Comprehensive Bonded Zone ranked second in the country, according to assessment of the General Administration of Customs in 2023.
Additionally, Beijing explored pilot projects in sectors such as value-added telecommunications businesses and pharmaceuticals. The city also released the nation’s first negative list to facilitate the export of key industry data.
This year, Beijing will draft the third version of its work plan for the service sector demonstration zone, aiming to promote a higher level of openness.
Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –
As part of the 48th Universiade of Higher Education Institutions of the Novosibirsk Region, competitions in polyathlon and cross-country skiing were held.
The polyathlon program includes: air rifle shooting, cross-country skiing, pull-ups for boys and push-ups for girls. The cross-country skiing competitions include two individual races – classic and freestyle – and a 4-stage relay.
In the individual championship, Alina Polyakova (FEN) took second place in polyathlon.
In the overall team standings, we took third place in polyathlon and fourth place in cross-country skiing among girls and boys.
The team included:
Alexander Nemov, Nikita Zenin, Alina Losenkova and Igor Lotov (FF)
Igor Vdovin and Alexander Khramov (MMF)
Kartsev Yakov and Oleg Dultsev (GGF)
Kirill Kolosov and Sofia Lylova (FIT)
Daria Mikhailapova (IMPZ)
Sofia Melnikova (FEN)
Matvey Kopylov (IIR)
Lyubov Vorozhtsova (EF)
We thank our students and coaches Anastasia Trishkina and Olga Chernaya for their worthy fight at the regional student Universiade!
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Chinese researchers have developed the world’s first comprehensive database for energy grasses, a step that could support sustainable agriculture and advance renewable energy efforts, China Science and Technology Daily reported Wednesday. Energy grasses are a group of plants known for their rapid growth, high productivity and adaptability. They can be used to produce biomass fuels, pulp, cellulose, and chemicals, and they can also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve soil quality. Researchers from Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University created the Energy Grass Database, integrating multi-omics datasets from 11 energy grasses. The platform encompasses genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics and phenomics data to support functional genomic research across diverse energy grass species. Lin Zhanxi, a professor at the university, said the database offers a multifunctional platform for both scientific exploration and practical research, helping to foster sustainable agriculture and renewable energy development.
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
The Polytechnic University and the university’s industrial partner, JSC Rekond Plant, opened a joint laboratory at the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of SPbPU to study promising elements of the electronic component base (ECB) — capacitors and resistors — and to train highly qualified specialists in areas related to the plant’s activities.
The Rekond plant provided the institute with modern, expensive equipment for free use: two units for measuring the electrophysical parameters of passive electronic components for capacitors and resistors.
“Today, students are interested in high-tech science-intensive production, and it is very pleasant that serious enterprises are ready to participate in the training of future personnel, a new generation of engineers,” said Maxim Pasholikov, Vice-Rector for Youth Policy and Communication Technologies at SPbPU, at the opening of the laboratory. “Thank you for fulfilling an important mentoring function for our youth by coming to our site and allowing them to work on such equipment.”
Andrey Burlakov, assistant to the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Northwestern Federal District, who was present at the opening, congratulated the representatives of the university and the plant on the beginning of a new stage of productive interaction and wished to develop cooperation.
“We have been working closely with the university for a long time, we have established a dialogue, work that is aimed at creating new products within the framework of import substitution. The tasks and challenges that time throws at us show that we cannot exist separately, only together can we achieve good results, – is confident General Director of JSC “Rekond Plant” Yulia Novoselskaya. – We have a huge production base, accumulated experience, but without a scientific approach there will be no intensive development. We need new technologies and materials, and without qualified personnel that your university trains, we cannot move forward. Many students come for practical training, many stay to work. The guys have developed an interest in the industry, in the products that we produce, in the materials from which they are made. Of course, there is some lag behind foreign analogues. But with joint efforts we are reducing it. I invite all students to production, it will be interesting and useful for everyone.”
Director of the Institute of Economics and Technology Alexander Korotkov noted that the opening of the laboratory took place in the anniversary year of the Polytechnic University and on the eve of the 126th anniversary of the university.
“The basis of cooperation with the Rekond plant goes back to the times of the USSR, when it was still Positron, and our department of physics, dielectrics and polymers was fully oriented to the needs of the plant’s research activities,” recalled Alexander Stanislavovich. “And today, from our cooperation, we have received a synergistic effect, which allows us to train specialists for the Rekond plant at a new level.”
“The university should go hand in hand with the industry, only in this case we can set ambitious goals and achieve them,” says Nadezhda Grashchenko, head of the Directorate of Basic Educational Programs. “Educational programs should meet the needs of partners, quickly respond to questions that are raised here and now, but at the same time calculate tasks three or four steps ahead. If we do not set this vector, we will not know where to move. And when new laboratories open, students have access to industrial equipment, such steps are much easier to take.”
Representatives of other structural divisions of the university also dropped in on the opening. Acting Director of the Higher Engineering Physics School Roman Burkovsky noted that if 30 percent of Polytechnic University classrooms look like the new laboratory, more motivated students will come to the university.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
TGK-1 and Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University have entered into an agreement to provide services for the purpose of improving educational programs for students and programs for special training of power plant workers, as well as for the professional orientation of power engineering students for work in the TGK-1 group of companies.
Under the agreement, Polytech will integrate cases from the actual operation of TGK-1 power plants into the educational process, offer options for using digital twins of thermal power plants developed by the university for TGK-1 in the educational process, and conduct a sociological study among students. Polytech will use the income from the provision of services to equip a special high-tech classroom designed to train future power engineers.
We are extremely interested in the Polytechnic University’s competencies in training highly qualified power engineers, the opportunity, starting from the first years, to interact with students – potential employees of TGK-1, as well as competencies in the field of innovation. For our part, we contribute to the improvement of the material and educational base of the university, which improves the quality of training specialists. Such a mechanism of mutually beneficial cooperation can be used for other universities that are our support, – emphasized Eduard Lisitsky, Deputy Managing Director for Development and Property Management of PJSC TGK-1.
Cooperation with TGK-1 is a strategically important step for the Institute of Power Engineering and the entire Polytechnic University. As an engineering university, we strive to bring the student’s experience as close as possible to solving real industry problems. And the implementation of cases and the use of digital twins are the necessary tools to achieve this goal. It is especially valuable that such a partnership will be able to give talented students the opportunity to meet and get a job at a leading energy company as part of career guidance and close interaction with professionals. We are grateful to TGK-1 for their support and joint development of the educational and scientific material and technical base. I am sure that this project will become a successful example of mutually beneficial cooperation, – noted Viktor Barskov, Director of the Institute of Power Engineering.
PJSC TGK-1 (part of the Gazprom Energoholding Group) is a leading producer and supplier of electric and thermal energy in the North-West region of Russia. TGK-1 unites 52 power plants in four regions of Russia — St. Petersburg, Karelia, Leningrad and Murmansk regions.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
The Polytechnic University hosted the first Digital Hackathon, a joint forum for developers in the field of industrial AI, organized by Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University and Norilsk Nickel’s leading production complex in the Murmansk region, Kola MMC.
The hackathon participants searched for dependencies in an anonymous dataset of hydrometallurgical production using both classical machine learning methods and neural networks. The main result of each team’s work was a reasonably chosen method that has the potential for implementation and use in the company.
The expert jury from SPbPU included teachers of the Higher School of Cyber-Physical Systems Management: Professor Vyacheslav Shkodyrev, Professor Galina Malykhina, Associate Professor Vladimir Khokhlovsky, Senior Lecturer Vitaly Oleynikov. Kola MMC was represented by experts in Data Science and industrial AI: Evgeny Batz, Alexey Kozlov, Ivan Dublensky, Yaroslav Kraynyuchenko. The event was organized by 1st year Master’s student of IMMiT Konstantin Mashyanov.
My journey at Kola MMC began back in 2022 with an industrial internship at the Profstart enterprise. After that, I dreamed of uniting my beloved employer and my alma mater to create a synergy of science and business that can provide incredible potential for all parties, which we were able to see at the hackathon. Young specialists demonstrated new effective approaches in industrial AI, wise mentors from the university updated the current requests of the business customer and shared their scientific expertise, and respected experts from the industrial partner gave honest, practice- and business-oriented feedback. I believe that through our joint efforts we did not just make a hackathon, but laid the foundation for a platform of the future, capable of generating the maximum effect for three parties with one event: university – student – business, – shared his impressions Konstantin Mashyanov.
Five teams made it to the final defense. The hackathon can be considered international, as students from seven different countries worked on solving the problems.
The experts highly appreciated the level of preparation. The hackathon became a real professional test of the competencies of young developers, as well as an initiation into the exciting world of business. In just 10 minutes of defense, the participants had to not only demonstrate the depth of technical development, but also “sell” their solution to a real business, proving its viability and economic effect.
A hackathon is not just solving a task and defending it, it is a real challenge of adult life, when there is no single correct linear solution to a problem, and the result of teamwork must be presented in an interesting, academically correct, scientifically developed and practice-oriented way. I believe that the teams managed to achieve exactly this result. Also today we are on the threshold when we need to cultivate competent developers capable of implementing domestic solutions that will provide an economic effect and high quality of work at real domestic enterprises to ensure Russia’s technological leadership, – shared SPbPU professor Vyacheslav Shkodyrev.
After the defense, the experts gave feedback to the participants, talked about which industrial AI models are used in real production, and also said parting words.
Of course, in real development, it is important to apply various approaches and methods for a more accurate result, focused on the target function of the algorithm. There are no ideal models, any model is an abstraction, so it is important to lower a theoretically working method to a practical task. And in order to really progress, it is necessary to “cook” in the community of professionals, for example, attend events of specialized communities, which are becoming more and more every year, as well as solve problems in the chosen field on specialized sites and participate in competitions, – added AI expert of Kola MMC Alexey Kozlov.
First place — team «NorAI». The guys demonstrated, along with classical methods of machine learning, a neural network solution that has sufficient values of MAE, R2 Score, MSE metrics for implementation in industry. Team members: Tatevik Virabyan, Anna Bakalova, Shilpa, Yaroslav Votintsev (team captain), Mengran Li, masters of the Institute of Computer Science and Engineering. Second place — «mixAI». Team members: Paul Jean-Zouai (team captain), Oko Charles Chukwuebuka, Azmat Ullah, Luo Weizi, masters of the Institute of Computer Science and Engineering. Third place — «Fun and Nuts». Team members: Daniil Simonovsky, Maxim Pisarik (team captain), Evgeny Rubtsov.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Landmark study to investigate long-term health effects of vaping on young people’s health and wellbeing, alongside wider influences on adolescent health.
Groundbreaking research will investigate the long-term health effects of vaping on children, supporting major plans to tackle youth vaping and create a smoke free generation.
The £62 million research project into adolescent health, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will track 100,000 young people aged 8-18 years over a decade, collecting data on behaviour, biology and health records to understand what affects young people’s health and wellbeing, including the impact of vaping.
While vaping is less harmful than smoking and can be a useful tool to help adult smokers quit, youth vaping has skyrocketed in recent years, with a quarter of 11 to 15-year-olds having tried it.
The research coincides with the world-leading Tobacco and Vapes Bill which will clamp down on youth vaping by limiting flavours, packaging, and displays deliberately designed to appeal to children.
The study is one of three sets of research being commissioned by the government, alongside the launch of England’s first ever public health marketing campaign to educate children on vaping harms.
The long-term health impacts of youth vaping are not fully known, and this comprehensive approach will provide the most detailed picture yet, giving health carers and policymakers the robust evidence they need to protect the next generation from the potential health risks.
Minister for Public Health and Prevention, Ashley Dalton, said:
We know that vaping can be a useful tool to quit smoking, but it’s crucial we have clear evidence on the long-term health harms, especially for young people.
This landmark series of studies, combined with our first nationwide youth vaping campaign, will help drive evidence-based, decisive action to protect our children’s future.
Through bold preventative measures, such as the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, this government will deliver on our Plan for Change to build healthier lives and save our broken NHS.
Prof Lucy Chappell, NIHR CEO and Chief Scientific Adviser to DHSC said:
With vaping on the rise among young people, it is crucial that we develop a solid evidence base to better understand its health impacts, and help ensure we protect and support the next generation.
By investing in important research such as this we give young people, parents, and policymakers the knowledge they need to make informed decisions and safeguard long-term health.
Sarah Sleet, Chief Executive at Asthma + Lung UK, said:
The number of non-smokers, particularly young people, taking up vaping is extremely worrying. The long-term impact of vaping on the lungs isn’t yet known, so research into its effect on young people, is really important.
It is already known that vaping can cause inflammation in the airways, and people with asthma have told us that vapes can trigger their condition. Vaping could put developing lungs at risk, while exposure to nicotine – also contained in vapes – can damage developing brains. This is why young people should be stopped from taking up vaping in the first place.
The upcoming legislation, restricting vape flavours and packaging that appeal directly to young people, is an important step in tackling youth vaping along with a ban on cheap disposable vapes. Alongside this, arming young people with the facts about the dangers of vaping and how it affects their health with campaigns like Love Your Lungs, is absolutely vital.
Funded through the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR), the second set of groundbreaking research will see University College London (UCL) produce yearly updates capturing the latest vaping research from both the UK and international sources.
Separately, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) will conduct the most comprehensive analysis of youth vaping studies to date, also funded by NIHR.
These landmark studies will ensure healthcare workers can be kept at the cutting edge of the latest evidence and insights.
At the same time, the government is rolling out its first-ever nationwide campaign to inform young people about the hidden health dangers of vaping.
The campaign, Love Your Lungs, exposes the harms of vaping and nicotine addiction, highlighting that with their lungs and brains still developing, young people are more vulnerable to health risks.
Aimed at 13 – 18-year-olds, the campaign will roll out primarily on social media, using influencers to speak directly to its younger audience.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which contains ambitious plans to protect children from vaping, is currently making its way through Parliament. The Bill will also introduce a ban on the advertising and sponsorship of vapes and bolster enforcement to prevent underage and illicit sales.
From 1 June 2025, under separate environmental legislation, disposable vapes will be banned, reducing the availability and appeal of vapes to young people.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill forms part of the government’s Plan for Change, focusing on the crucial role prevention can take in cutting waiting lists and making the NHS fit for future.
Source: Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Signing of the document. Alexey Mikhailov, Svetlana Golovina and Mikhail Romanov
On February 18, a tripartite cooperation agreement was signed at SPbGASU between the university, the Committee for State Control, Use and Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments of St. Petersburg and the Russian software developer OOO TBS. It was signed by First Vice-Rector Svetlana Golovina, Chairman of KGIOP Alexey Mikhailov and General Director of OOO TBS Mikhail Romanov.
The agreement provides for the joint development of a methodology for creating information models of cultural heritage sites based on Russian software (Methodology IM OKN). The information model will include all the information about the site necessary for restoration work.
“We are starting a large and complex project that unites the efforts of many specialists involved in the restoration of cultural heritage sites and environmental renovation. The expected result is the development of a specialized Russian software product, which, as a necessary tool, will be able to reduce the time and cost of restoration,” commented Evgeny Korolev, Vice-Rector for Research, Head of the Department of Construction Materials Technologies and Metrology at SPbGASU.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –
A round table on the topic of “Russia’s Migration Policy: Trends and Strategies” was held at the Central House of Scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It was organized by the Scientific Council of the Department of Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Demographic Research (IDR) of the Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Vladimir Volokh, professor of the Department of Public Administration and Political Technologies of the State University of Management, member of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Interethnic Relations and the Public Council under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, and Doctor of Political Sciences, gave a plenary report on “Russia’s Migration Policy: Trends and Strategies”.
The presentation included his monograph “Selected Works”, prepared for the author’s 80th anniversary. The three-volume work is the culmination of many years of research, containing valuable analytical materials devoted to various aspects of migration policy.
The report examined the problems of migration processes in the context of integration processes and geopolitical turbulence, presented the results of empirical studies of migration at the national and regional levels, as well as strategic directions for the development of state migration policy in Russia.
The presentation aroused keen interest among leading Russian scientists, experts, researchers, government officials and anyone interested in migration and its impact on society. Representatives of government and public organizations, the scientific community and higher education institutions took an active part in the fruitful discussion that followed.
Head of the Department of Public Administration and Political Technologies of the State University of Management, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Nikolai Omelchenko emphasized the importance of the presented work and the significant role of the faculty of the department in conducting scientific research, including on the problems of population migration.
Famous scientists and practitioners in the field of public policy and migration relations formation shared their vision of the migration policy problem: V.Yu. Zorin, A.S. Brod, M.N. Khramova, T.N. Yudina, V.I. Mukomel, V.Yu. Ledeneva, E.A. Nazarova, T.N. Dmitrieva and others, noting the undoubted significance of the presented work. Migration issues today are directly related to ensuring Russia’s security, the country’s socio-economic life and are at the forefront of significant problems for the state.
Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 02/19/2025
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
The record-breaking “Ne Zha 2” has now officially become the highest-grossing animated film of all time.
A new poster to mark “Ne Zha 2” becoming the No. 1 animated film of all time. [Image courtesy of CMC Pictures]
By Wednesday noon, the unstoppable Chinese animated sensation had grossed 12.42 billion yuan ($1.71 billion) worldwide according to Chinese box office tracker Maoyan Pro. This surpasses Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” which claimed the top spot in animation history in 2024 by grossing $1.69 billion, per Box Office Mojo statistics.
As a result, “Ne Zha 2” has become the highest-grossing animated film globally and the eighth-highest-grossing film of all time, regardless of animation or live-action. Notably, it stands as the only Chinese or Asian film in a club dominated by Hollywood cinematic juggernauts.
This is just one of many impressive milestones the film has achieved since its debut on Jan. 29, the first day of the Chinese New Year. Its accomplishments include becoming the highest-grossing Chinese film ever, the highest-grossing film in a single market globally, the first film to surpass $1 billion in a single market, and the first non-Hollywood film to enter the coveted billion-dollar club.
“Thanks to the support of countless audiences, we have been able to achieve these miraculous accomplishments,” said Wang Jing, executive producer of “Ne Zha 2,” during an event promoting movie-themed tourism on Feb. 17 at the China National Film Museum in Beijing. “Rooted in Chinese culture, ‘Ne Zha 2’ reflects the spirit of constant innovation and striving to move upward, embodied by Chinese animators, filmmakers and audiences, showcasing the brilliance of Chinese culture to the world.”
“Congratulations to director Jiaozi and all Chinese animators,” said fellow animator Wang Yunfei, president of Its Cartoon Animation Studio. “Animation is an art form that creates new worlds and new life, which is why I still love it after 25 years in the industry.” Wang told China.org.cn that he hopes Chinese animators will embrace the belief that the journey itself is invaluable at this historic moment. “If you do not climb high mountains, you will not know how high the sky is. Keep your passion alive and continue forging ahead,” he said.
A still from “Ne Zha 2.” [Image courtesy of Enlight Media]
“Ne Zha 2” was developed over five years with a 4,000-strong team, featuring new characters, epic battle sequences and 1,900 special effects shots. In the film’s climactic battle, there are 200 million characters, showcasing wild imagination, a visual feast and immense workloads. The film involved the combined efforts of 138 Chinese animation and VFX companies, including teams that worked on previous animated hits and sci-fi blockbusters such as “Monkey King: Hero Is Back,” “Boonie Bears,” “Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification” and “The Wandering Earth.”
On social media, many animators who worked on the movie have expressed their excitement and happiness about joining the project, while a few also shared how exhausting the creative process was and how much of a perfectionist director Jiaozi is, challenging them to push their limits. Chen Xuguang, director of the Institute of Film, Television and Theatre at Peking University, noted that the film showcases the collaborative power of China’s creative ecosystem and signals an upgrade in both the film industry and its aesthetic standards.
Wang Shiyong, founder and CEO of Wuhan-based 2:10 Animation, and his team contributed to many visually spectacular scenes in “Ne Zha 2.” He expressed pride in the film’s achievements and emphasized its significance to the Chinese animation industry. “The film’s outstanding box office performance will attract more investment and talent to the animation industry, injecting strong vitality into its development,” he said.
As this world-class film climbs the global top 10 box office chart, its achievements have already stunned both domestic and international audiences, as well as industry insiders, showcasing the prowess and potential of Chinese cinema, culture and its market. Maoyan Pro analysts have now revised their projection for its total earnings to 15.1 billion yuan, which would be enough to place the film at No. 5 on the all-time global box office chart.
The film drew significant international attention and interest after it opened overseas last week in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. The film earned $7.2 million in North America from Feb. 14 through Sunday, setting a record for the highest opening weekend for any Chinese-language film in the past 20 years. Despite showing in only 660 theaters, it ranked No. 5 on the weekend chart, competing with Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World” which was shown in more than 4,000 theaters. In Australia, it secured third place with $1.5 million over the weekend.
A new international poster to mark “Ne Zha 2.” [Image courtesy of Enlight Media]
Both overseas critics and audiences have expressed their enjoyment of the movie. For example, critic Simon Abrams from RogerEbert.com wrote that “Ne Zha 2” is a “rare sequel that amplifies both its action and drama” without sacrificing much of what worked in the first movie, adding: “It’s also a rare blockbuster that offers something worthwhile for a wide-ranging audience.” Another critic, Fred Topel from Deadline.com, called the Chinese blockbuster “visually engaging,” noting that, “The rendering of martial arts battles is as graceful as DreamWorks Animation’s ‘Kung Fu Panda’ series. The myriad creatures should appeal to international fans of fantasy epics like ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings.’” On Rotten Tomatoes, its audience score has reached 99%, and on IMDb, it has also received an impressive 8.4/10 based on more than 4,300 user ratings.
Distributors announced on Tuesday that the film will be released in China’s Hong Kong and Macao on Feb. 22, with plans to roll out in various international territories later this year, including Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Greece.
Additionally, “Ne Zha 2” is generating a ripple effect beyond movie theaters, showcasing how its positive influence extends to culture, tourism, catering, merchandise and stock markets, further boosting China’s vibrant consumption and dynamic economy.
“Double pneumonia” is not an official medical term. It may be being used to describe two different aspects of Pope Francis’s condition.
1. A bilateral infection
Pope Francis has pneumonia in both lungs. This is known as “bilateral pneumonia”.
An infection in both lungs doesn’t necessarily mean it’s more severe, but location is important. It can make a difference which parts of the lung are affected.
When just one part of the lung or one lung is affected, the person can continue to breathe using the other lung while their body fights the infection.
However when both lungs are compromised, the person will be receiving very little oxygen.
2. A polymicrobial infection
The Vatican has also said the infection affecting Pope Francis’s lungs is “polymicrobial”.
This means the infection is being caused by more than one kind of microorganism (or “pathogen”).
So, the cause could be two (or more) different kinds of bacteria, or any combination of bacteria, virus and fungus. It’s vital to know what’s causing the infection to effectively treat it.
How is it diagnosed?
Usually, when someone presents with suspected pneumonia the hospital will sample their lungs with a sputum test or swab.
They will often also undergo an X-ray, usually to confirm which parts of the lung are involved.
Healthy lungs look “empty” on an X-ray, because they are filled with air. But pneumonia fills the lungs with fluid.
This means it’s usually very easy to see where pneumonia is affecting them, because the infection shows up as solid white mass on the scan.
The sputum or swab helps detect what is causing the infection and determine treatment. For example, a specific antibiotic will be used to target a certain bacterium.
Usually this works well. But if the infection is polymicrobial, the normal treatment might not be effective.
For example, the antibiotics may work on the bacteria. But if there’s also a virus – which can’t be treated with antibiotics – it may become the dominant pathogen driving the infection.
As a result, the patient may initially respond well to medication and then begin deteriorating again.
If the infection is caused by multiple bacteria, the patient might be given a broad-spectrum antibiotic rather than a single targeted drug.
A viral infection is harder to treat, as the anti-viral drugs that are available aren’t very effective or targeted.
In severe cases, a patient will also need to be in intensive care on a breathing machine because they can’t breathe alone. This helps make sure they receive enough oxygen while their body fights the infection.
Who is most susceptible?
It’s possible to recover, even from severe infections. However having pneumonia can damage the lungs, and this can make a repeat infection more likely.
Most people will never have a severe infection from these same pathogens. They may only experience a minor cold or flu, because their immune system can adequately fight the infection.
However, certain groups are much more vulnerable to developing a serious case of pneumonia.
He also had pleurisy (a condition that inflames the lungs) as a young adult. As a result, he had part of one lung removed, making him susceptible to lung infections.
On Tuesday, the Vatican said Pope Francis remains “in good spirits” while he receives medical care and is grateful for the support he has received.
Brian Oliver receives funding from the NHMRC, and the ARC. He is affiliated with the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, and the European Respiratory Society. He has given presentations on topics other than pneumonia at symposia organised by the pharmaceutical industry.
Min Feng does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
“Double pneumonia” is not an official medical term. It may be being used to describe two different aspects of Pope Francis’s condition.
1. A bilateral infection
Pope Francis has pneumonia in both lungs. This is known as “bilateral pneumonia”.
An infection in both lungs doesn’t necessarily mean it’s more severe, but location is important. It can make a difference which parts of the lung are affected.
When just one part of the lung or one lung is affected, the person can continue to breathe using the other lung while their body fights the infection.
However when both lungs are compromised, the person will be receiving very little oxygen.
2. A polymicrobial infection
The Vatican has also said the infection affecting Pope Francis’s lungs is “polymicrobial”.
This means the infection is being caused by more than one kind of microorganism (or “pathogen”).
So, the cause could be two (or more) different kinds of bacteria, or any combination of bacteria, virus and fungus. It’s vital to know what’s causing the infection to effectively treat it.
How is it diagnosed?
Usually, when someone presents with suspected pneumonia the hospital will sample their lungs with a sputum test or swab.
They will often also undergo an X-ray, usually to confirm which parts of the lung are involved.
Healthy lungs look “empty” on an X-ray, because they are filled with air. But pneumonia fills the lungs with fluid.
This means it’s usually very easy to see where pneumonia is affecting them, because the infection shows up as solid white mass on the scan.
The sputum or swab helps detect what is causing the infection and determine treatment. For example, a specific antibiotic will be used to target a certain bacterium.
Usually this works well. But if the infection is polymicrobial, the normal treatment might not be effective.
For example, the antibiotics may work on the bacteria. But if there’s also a virus – which can’t be treated with antibiotics – it may become the dominant pathogen driving the infection.
As a result, the patient may initially respond well to medication and then begin deteriorating again.
If the infection is caused by multiple bacteria, the patient might be given a broad-spectrum antibiotic rather than a single targeted drug.
A viral infection is harder to treat, as the anti-viral drugs that are available aren’t very effective or targeted.
In severe cases, a patient will also need to be in intensive care on a breathing machine because they can’t breathe alone. This helps make sure they receive enough oxygen while their body fights the infection.
Who is most susceptible?
It’s possible to recover, even from severe infections. However having pneumonia can damage the lungs, and this can make a repeat infection more likely.
Most people will never have a severe infection from these same pathogens. They may only experience a minor cold or flu, because their immune system can adequately fight the infection.
However, certain groups are much more vulnerable to developing a serious case of pneumonia.
He also had pleurisy (a condition that inflames the lungs) as a young adult. As a result, he had part of one lung removed, making him susceptible to lung infections.
On Tuesday, the Vatican said Pope Francis remains “in good spirits” while he receives medical care and is grateful for the support he has received.
Brian Oliver receives funding from the NHMRC, and the ARC. He is affiliated with the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, and the European Respiratory Society. He has given presentations on topics other than pneumonia at symposia organised by the pharmaceutical industry.
Min Feng does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank den Hartog, Professor of Information Systems, Research Chair in Critical Infrastructure, University of Canberra
DOGE employees – tech billionaire Elon Musk and his affiliates – have been granted access to sensitive personal and financial data, as well as other data critical for national security. This has created a national and international outcry, and serious concerns have been raised about data security, privacy and potential influence.
A group of 14 state attorneys-general attempted to have DOGE’s access to certain federal systems restricted, but a judge has denied the request.
Questions of trust
What are the deeper reasons behind this outcry? After all, Musk is far from the first businessman to gain political power.
There is, of course, US President Donald Trump himself, alongside many more on both sides of politics. Most of them kept running their businesses at arm’s length and went back to them after a stint in Washington.
So why are so many people alarmed now, but not before? The key word here is trust. Surveys suggest many people don’t trust Musk with this kind of access.
Does that mean we trusted the others? The foundation of modern cyber security is not to trust anything or anybody in the first place.
So while a lack of trust in Musk is one reason for disquiet, another is a lack of trust in the current state of cyber security in US government systems and procedures. And for good reason.
An insider threat
The situation in the US raises the spectre of what cyber experts call an “insider threat”. These concern cyber security incidents caused by people who have authorised access to systems and data.
Cyber security relies on controlling the so-called “CIA triad” of confidentiality, integrity and availability. Insider threats can compromise all three.
Authentication and subsequent authorisation of access has traditionally been an important measure to prevent cyber incidents from occurring. But apparently, that is not sufficient any more.
Perhaps the most famous insider incident in history is Edward Snowden’s leak of classified documents from the US National Security Agency in 2013. Australia too has had its share of insider breaches – the 2000 Maroochy Shire attack is still a textbook example.
Musk and his DOGE colleagues have now become insiders.
How to reduce the risk of insider threat
There are plenty of strategies organisations can follow to reduce the risk of insider threats:
more rigorous vetting of employees
giving users only the bare minimum access and privileges they need
continuously auditing who has access to what, and restricting access immediately when needed
authenticating and authorising users every time they access a different system or file (this is part of what is called a “zero trust architecture”)
monitoring for unusual behaviour regarding insiders accessing systems and files
developing and nurturing a cyber-aware culture in the organisation.
In government systems, the public should be able to trust these procedures are being rigorously applied. However, when it comes to Musk and DOGE, it seems they are not. And that’s where the core of the problem lies.
Clearances and a lack of care
DOGE employees without security clearance reportedly have access to classified systems which would normally be considered quite sensitive.
However, even security clearances offer no iron-clad guarantees.
Security clearances assume someone can be trusted based on their past. But past performance can never guarantee the future.
In the US, obtaining and holding a security clearance has become a status symbol. A clearance may also be a golden ticket to high-paying jobs and power, and hence subject to politics rather than independent judgement.
And it seems little care has been taken to keep users’ access and privileges to a minimum.
You might think DOGE’s employees, tasked with seeking out inefficiency, would only need read-only access to the US government IT systems. However, at least one of them temporarily had “write” access to the systems of the treasury, according to reports, enabling him to alter code controlling trillions in federal spending.
It all comes down to trust
Even if all possible access control and vetting procedures are in place and working perfectly, there will always be the problem of how to declassify information.
Or to put it another way: how do you make somebody forget everything they knew when their clearance or access is revoked or downgraded?
What Musk has seen, he can never unsee. And there is only so much that can be done to prevent this knowledge from leaking.
Even if all procedures to protect against insider threats are followed perfectly (and they aren’t), nothing is 100% secure.
We would still need a certain level of public trust that the obtained data and information would be dealt with responsibly. Has trust in Musk and his affiliates reached that level?
According to recent polling, public opinion is still divided.
Frank den Hartog is the Cisco Research Chair in Critical Infrastructure at the University of Canberra. He is an Adjunct Fellow at the University of New South Wales.
Abu Barkat Ullah is a steering committee member for the Canberra Cyber Hub and has received several research grants from Australian government and private organisations.
The Reserve Bank’s decision to cut interest rates for the first time in four years has triggered a round of celebration.
Mortgage holders are cheering the fact their monthly repayments are now slightly lower, while the Albanese government hopes the small easing in the cost of living will lift voters’ moods.
This is despite the Reserve Bank’s warnings that further rate cuts may not eventuate, depending on how much further progress is made on taming inflation.
But it’s important to remember not everybody benefits from an interest rate cut. Some will be worse off.
Savers lose out
Not all Australian households are net borrowers. Many are net savers, retirees or prospective homebuyers, who actually lose out when rates fall.
Another third of households have paid off their mortgage entirely, and so don’t benefit from a reduction in mortgage interest rates. And the remaining third are renters, who also don’t pay a mortgage.
So while this news is generally a good thing for borrowers, a fall in mortgage rates only directly benefits a minority of households.
Here are some of the ways lower interest rates might actually hurt rather than help the typical Australian household.
Higher house prices
One of the most immediate effects of lower interest rates is their impact on the housing market. With cheaper borrowing costs, more buyers can afford larger loans, bidding up house prices. This is great if you already own a home, but terrible if you’re still trying to buy one.
For young Australians locked out of home ownership, a rate cut makes things even harder. It drives prices higher, forcing prospective buyers to stretch their finances further just to get a foot in the market. Reserve Bank calculations suggest that, in the long run, higher house prices from lower rates can outweigh the benefit of lower mortgage repayments.
Lower returns on savings
If you’re a saver rather than a borrower, interest rate cuts are unequivocally bad news. Whether you’re saving for a home deposit, retirement, or just an emergency fund, lower rates mean you earn less on your bank deposits. The money in your savings account is now growing more slowly, making it harder to build wealth over time.
Indeed, more than 20 banks actually cut their term deposit rates in advance of the Reserve Bank’s decision on Tuesday, according to Canstar research.
Analysis of HILDA data, which surveys household wealth and income, suggests net savers tend to be younger households without property, retirees living off savings, and those who are not in full-time employment. For these groups, lower rates mean less income and fewer financial opportunities.
Retirees will feel the squeeze
Many retirees rely on income from interest-bearing assets such as term deposits or cash savings. When rates fall, their returns shrink. The cost-of-living crisis has made it harder for retirees on a fixed income to fund their lifestyles, and a rate cut only makes things worse.
While some retirees have exposure to the stock market via superannuation, many prefer the stability of cash savings. With rates falling, they face the tough choice of either reducing their spending or taking on more investment risk in their old age.
Bad news for the dollar, and overseas travellers
When the Reserve Bank cuts rates, it tends to weaken the Australian dollar. A weaker dollar makes overseas travel more expensive for Australians. That pint of beer in London, that piña colada in Puerto Rico, or that shopping trip to New York all become pricier.
For Australians planning international holidays, rate cuts are a blow. A strong Australian dollar makes travel cheaper, and lower rates work against that. So while mortgage holders might celebrate, anyone hoping to travel overseas finds themselves worse off.
A weaker dollar will make overseas travel more expensive. Shutterstock
Just as a weaker Australian dollar makes travel more expensive, it also increases the cost of imported goods. And Australia imports a lot – especially cars and petrol.
Since the closure of domestic car manufacturing, all new vehicles sold in Australia are imported. Petrol, the second-largest import, is also sensitive to currency fluctuations. When the Australian dollar weakens due to lower interest rates, the cost of these essential goods rises. For the millions of Australians who rely on their cars for daily life, this is a significant financial burden.
This isn’t to say rate cuts don’t benefit a large portion of Australians. Anyone with a significant mortgage debt will find themselves with lower monthly repayments, and that’s undoubtedly a financial relief.
But the public narrative around interest rates tends to treat cuts as a universal good, ignoring the many Australians who are left worse off.
Falling interest rates are a sign the high inflation that has caused the cost-of-living crisis has abated. That is an economic success that ought to be celebrated. But that now rates are falling again, we should at least acknowledge the costs that come with them.
Isaac Gross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Housing supply in Australia will be a key battleground in the election campaign. With home ownership more and more out of reach for young and not so young Australians, red tape and low productivity are strangling the builder industry just when it needs to be stepping up.
The productivity Commission, the government’s independent think tank, has a new report report pointing to ways governments need to address the issues. In this podcast we talk to commission chair Danielle Wood about the housing challenge, as well as Australia’s parlous productivity performance generally and her drive to get some fresh ideas on how to improve it.
On one of the report’s main recommendation, cutting red tape for construction approvals, Wood says,
I like to think of regulation as a bit like a hedge. […] There’s almost an unwavering tendency for it to grow over time if you don’t clip it back. And I think in housing that’s particularly true. You have multiple levels of government involved, particularly local governments and state governments. Lots of different policy objectives in play. So obviously, quality and safety being pivotal, local amenity, heritage, traffic, environmental, accessibility.
Lots and lots of decisions are taken, often without considering the trade off. And every time we add new regulations or more complex regulations, that imposes a cost. And ultimately that is a drag on housing, productivity and supply.
So what should be done?
We’ve certainly said we think there should be a good look at the national construction code, which is one source of regulatory burden where we think there’s scope to improve. I would love to see state governments – and I think they are turning their mind to this – to look at this question of just the sheer amount of regulation, the timeframes for approvals and look to ways to streamline the burden and also help develop and builders coordinate their way through that process more smoothly.
On why productivity in construction in particular has fallen so far, Wood explains,
You do not see many sectors go backwards in productivity over that sort of time horizon. One reason is that our homes are bigger and better quality. So I think that is worth noting. If we adjust for that, productivity has declined, but only by 12% rather than 50%.
We haven’t seen the same sort of innovation in homebuilding that we’ve seen in other parts of the economy. We still essentially build most houses the same way we did 100 years ago so we haven’t had that technological change driver of productivity. It’s an industry that’s characterised by lack of scale.
And then there are workforce challenges as well. And, you know, we all hear a lot about the challenge of attracting and retaining skilled trades workers. You know, that can make it hard, particularly building.
The Productivity Commission asked for submissions from the public on how to improve Australia’s productivity more generally. Wood is happy with how the initiaive is going,
It’s been worth the effort. We’ve actually ended up with more than 500 submissions in the end, And they’re from a mix from individuals, from businesses, from organisations. But for me, the beauty is being able to hear from people that we wouldn’t normally hear from in our reviews and the point is that all of us interact with aspects of government policy every day in our lives and I think we absolutely heard that through the submissions.
There were some fun ones there – high quality Japanese public toilets, more freely available free coffee. But more generally, I mean, we heard from small business owners about impacts of red tape and regulation [and] lots of interest in education policy. Unsurprisingly, again, it touches a lot of our lives, but looking for things like more work experience in schools, trying to build more industry-relevant skills into higher education.
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –
According to official data from Rospotrebnadzor, there is a slight increase in the incidence of respiratory viral infections in the Novosibirsk Region. At present, the incidence of acute respiratory viral infections is caused mainly by viruses of non-influenza etiology, with rhinoviruses predominating, which are usually not characterized by an acute course and serious complications, whereas last year the current coronavirus and respiratory syncytial virus, which is most dangerous for children under one year of age and the elderly, prevailed. This virus causes diseases of the lower respiratory tract and can cause serious complications, including pneumonia.
Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Bionanotechnology, Microbiology and Virology spoke about other features of the current epidemic season Faculty of Natural Sciences of NSU Sergey Netesov.
— Compared to the same period last year, the incidence of influenza has surprisingly decreased significantly, at least until mid-February. If you look at the curves of influenza and acute respiratory viral infections in 2024 and 2025, it seems that the peak of influenza is several weeks late this year. The reasons for this are still unknown. There are different versions, including an abnormally warm winter. Another reason could be the increase in the number of people vaccinated against influenza in 2024 compared to 2023. The influenza vaccines used in the summer and fall of last year proved to be highly effective, as a result of which the incidence fell, but in the last two weeks it has been growing.
In addition, in the current epidemiological season, the strains of influenza A viruses of the H3N2 subtype, which prevailed last season, have been replaced by strains of the H1N1 subtype. This is most likely due to the emergence of strong population immunity against viruses of the H3N2 subtype, which many people were vaccinated with and many had mild cases of last season. But the current epidemic season is not over yet (its maximum is usually recorded in February), so there is no need to relax until mid-March, and an increase in the incidence of influenza viruses has clearly emerged in the last two weeks, according to information from the website of the Research Institute of Influenza in St. Petersburg. Few people are currently sick with influenza B viruses, and they usually do not get seriously ill with them, and it does not cause serious complications in more or less healthy people. But older people should be careful for another month, wear masks in public places and avoid contact with young sick people and sick children.
To protect yourself in the next 2025/26 ARVI season, everyone should get vaccinated against influenza in September-October 2025, because by that time new seasonal vaccines, updated according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), will be available.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –
On February 26 at 11:50 the NSU History Museum will open the exhibition “Life as a Vocation” dedicated to the activities of Varlen Lvovich Soskin. The exhibition is part of a series of events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Honorary Professor of NSU, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, founder of the scientific school of modern Siberian science studies and cultural studies, veteran of the Great Patriotic War Varlen Lvovich Soskin.
In addition to the exhibition, on February 26 from 10:00 to 17:00 there will be Scientific Readings “Worlds of the Domestic Intelligentsia in the 20th Century: Profession, Society, Power”. The program includes reports by leading experts in the history of the Soviet and Russian intelligentsia on current issues of modern cultural studies and science studies, as well as speeches by V. L. Soskin’s students, colleagues, and a presentation of a book of memoirs.
Varlen Lvovich Soskin is a participant in the Great Patriotic War. He graduated from the history department of Leningrad State University and completed his postgraduate studies at Novosibirsk State Pedagogical Institute. Doctor of Historical Sciences, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Honored Worker of Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Honorary Professor of NSU. He worked at NSU part-time since 1964, and was one of the founders of historical training at the Humanities Department. Associate Professor (1964–1969), Professor (1969–2017) of the Department of History of the USSR/Russian History.
V. L. Soskin was the first in Russian historiography to use materials from the Siberian region to show the processes of transformation of cultural institutions in the extreme conditions of the era of wars and revolutions from the point of view of the relationship between the continuity of some and the rupture of others in cultural traditions. He was the first to develop the phenomena of cultural crises during the NEP years, the periodization of the stages of formation and development of the Soviet intelligentsia in the post-revolutionary period, and the mechanisms and factors of its socio-political differentiation in the first decade of Soviet power. V. L. Soskin’s ideas and approaches in the field of historical intelligentsia studies were further disseminated and developed in research centers that were established in the 1990s at the universities of Ivanovo, Yekaterinburg, and Omsk. A prominent researcher of the history of the formation and development of the scientific and educational potential of Siberia in the 20th century: from the emergence of the first organizational forms at the beginning of the century to the formation of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. One of the pioneers in adapting the systems approach to the tasks of historical research in the field of culture.
V. L. Soskin was the executive secretary of the Main Editorial Board of the 5-volume “History of Siberia” (1962–1968), deputy chairman of the organizing committee of the largest All-Union scientific conference of the Soviet period, “The Soviet Intelligentsia and Its Role in the Construction of Socialism and Communism” (Novosibirsk, 1979), was a member of a number of scientific councils on the theory and history of Soviet culture, and the editorial boards of the journals “Intelligentsia and the World” (Ivanovo), “Cultural Studies in Siberia” (Omsk).
V. L. Soskin is the creator of the scientific direction on the social history of Russian culture, science and intelligentsia, which gained fame and recognition not only in Siberia, but also in Russia. During his half-century of work at the Humanities Faculty, he created a permanent research seminar, in which 131 students received specialization, having defended their final qualifying works. 21 graduates of the Humanities Faculty prepared and defended candidate dissertations under the scientific supervision of V. L. Soskin. In the research works completed by students and dissertators under the supervision of V. L. Soskin, the problems of the history of the culture of Soviet society, professional detachments of the Russian intelligentsia, science and scientists were studied, including the history of the formation and development of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences. A number of students of V. L. Soskin – graduates of the Humanities Faculty became famous scientists who developed their own scientific directions, employees of research institutes and lecturers of universities.
More information about the work, scientific and educational activities of V.L. Soskin can be found here Here.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
“30 million achieved!” reads an announcement by FunCrazy, a creative toy brand, in its official Xiaohongshu post on February 16. The post, featuring an image of a Ne Zha collectible figure, marks a record-breaking milestone in less than a month: the co-branded crowdfunding campaign for the official movie “Ne Zha 2” merchandise surpasses 30 million yuan.
Toys featuring Nezha, the main character from “Ne Zha 2,” are pictured at the workshop of a toy manufacturer in Xiangtan, central China’s Hunan Province, Feb. 8, 2025. (Xinhua/Chen Sihan)
As the global earnings of “Ne Zha 2”, including pre-sales, hit a historic 12.319 billion yuan (about 1.72 billion U.S. dollars), its influence extends beyond the cinema to the shelves of both collectors and fans, marking a new chapter in the booming market for movie-related merchandise.
Another example of Ne Zha’s IP value is evident in the collectible blind box series co-produced by Pop Mart and creators of the movie. Sales of the blind box series surpassed 10 million yuan within just eight days of the launch, while the first batch of products quickly sold out.
In response to huge market demand, the brand has initiated pre-sales for subsequent batches of the blind box series, with shipping dates pushed back to late June. Pop Mart’s physical stores nationwide have largely sold out of them as well.
However, for some eager fans, waiting for the pre-sale is simply not an option. On Goofish, a second-hand trading platform, the price of some in-stock blind boxes has already increased by more than three times.
“I bought the full series of eight blind boxes as a birthday gift for myself. They’re so cute, and they even recreated the scene where Ne Zha and Ao Bing join forces to fight the villain,” shared by a movie fan on her Xiaohongshu post.
The iconic scene from the movie added extra popularity to the merchandise. Many fans recreated the moment when the two protagonists, Ne Zha and Ao Bing, hold hands to battle the thunder in collectible figures and shared them on social media, boosting its viral spread.
The massive success of Ne Zha’s merchandise sales highlights the growing economic impact of IPs. Beyond box office earnings, purchasing merchandise offers fans a tangible connection to the characters and stories, amplifying the value of an IP in today’s entertainment industry.
Consumer demand for spiritual and cultural values is rising, with a shift from functional attributes to emotional and spiritual significance. Consequently, diverse IP derivatives have become key catalysts for driving market enthusiasm, said Jiang Duo, associate professor of the Communication University of China.
“Ne Zha 2” is not the first cultural product to benefit from the spillover effect of the IP economy. In 2023, the Chinese sci-fi blockbuster “The Wandering Earth II” raked in a whopping box office revenue. A movie-related crowdfunding project was launched for merchandise.
The project garnered over 433,000 orders and raised more than 100 million yuan, far exceeding the original goal of 100,000 yuan.
Movie IPs are transitioning from being solely driven by box office revenue to exploring multiple sources of value, injecting more vitality into the cultural market. More and more Chinese companies are focusing on IP development and the cultural and creative industry. Their products are becoming much more sophisticated, and the expansion of offline channels plays a crucial role in supporting the development of the IP economy, said Jiang.
This photo taken with a mobile phone shows the skyline during the early morning in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 19, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]
China’s sustained efforts to boost domestic demand and reinforce supply chain resilience, as well as drive businesses toward green and digital transformation, will pave the way for deeper global business collaboration in its market this year, said executives of multinational corporations on Monday.
Despite the slowdown in global trade and investment growth in recent years, foreign companies remain steadfast in ramping up their investment in the Chinese market, they added.
Lan Qingxin, a professor specializing in cross-border investment studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said that as China embraces a new era of green and innovation-driven growth, global investors are increasingly focusing on digital solutions, supply chain optimization, high-end manufacturing, customized innovation and green businesses in the Chinese market.
Noting the widespread adoption of the advanced large language model DeepSeek among domestic and overseas users, Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said that China’s ability to attract foreign investment will be further enhanced this year.
DeepSeek, a two-year-old startup based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, has created the open-source LLM of the same name at a cost much lower than its foreign peers.
Even though geopolitical tensions are rising, global demand remains subdued and certain countries have tightened investment regulations, China saw the establishment of 59,080 new foreign-invested companies in 2024, marking a 9.9 percent year-on-year increase, data from the Ministry of Commerce shows.
Cummins Inc, a United States-based engine manufacturer, plans to increase its market share this year in key application sectors within China, including power generation equipment for data centers and high-tech manufacturing.
“Together with local partners, we will also accelerate the innovation pace on the internal combustion engine system, including high-efficiency diesel, natural gas and hydrogen internal combustion engines,” said Nathan Stoner, vice-president of Cummins.
Eager to seize more market share in China, Thai beverage company TCP Group, will commence operations of a production base in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region later this year to supply its popular energy drink Red Bull.
The production base, set up with a total investment of 1.3 billion yuan ($179.2 million), will strengthen the supply chain network, empower upstream and downstream partners, and create another important link connecting the markets between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said Saravoot Yoovidhya, CEO of TCP Group.
“The rapid response capability and strong execution power of China’s supply chain enable us to quickly adapt to market changes and promptly adjust production and supply chain strategies to meet the diversified demands of markets worldwide,” he added.
Yin Zheng, executive vice-president of Schneider Electric’s China and East Asia operations, said that as a major engine of global economic growth, China has a huge market, a strong industrial base and abundant innovation resources, while its cultivation of new quality productive forces provides an even stronger impetus for industrial transformation and upgrading.
The French industrial conglomerate has continuously increased research and development investment in China and has established a series of world-class innovation institutes in China to support industrial upgrading and energy transformation.
“We have been introducing innovative Chinese solutions and advanced products to the global market, expanding China’s impact and realizing the vision of ‘in China for the world’,” Yin said.
According to a recent survey by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China, more than 58 percent of Japanese companies surveyed recognize China as a key market for their global operations, and they plan to maintain or expand their investment in the Chinese market this year.
Several factors have influenced their investment decisions, including increasing demand and rising orders. The chamber said that Japanese businesses are also more confident about the Chinese market this year, driven by an improved business environment, a visa-free policy for Japanese citizens and government initiatives such as trade-in policies.
Sleep is the holy grail for new parents. So no wonder many tired parents are looking for something to help their babies sleep.
A TikTok trend claims giving your baby a tablespoon or two of butter in the evening will help them sleep more at night.
As we’ll see, butter is just the latest food that promises to help babies sleep at night. But no single food can do this.
So if you’re a new parent and desperate for a good night’s sleep, here’s what to try instead.
Is my baby’s sleep normal?
Babies need help to fall asleep, through feeding, movement (like rocking) or touch (like a cuddle or massage).
Newborn babies also do not know night from day. Melatonin in breastmilk helps babies sleep more at night until they start to make this sleep-inducing hormone themselves. Bottlefed newborn babies do not have access to this melatonin. Regardless of how you feed your baby, it can take several months for them to develop a sleep pattern with longer stretches at night.
Babies also sleep lighter than older children and adults. Light sleep helps ensure they continue breathing, protecting them from SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). It also means they wake easily and often.
The idea that babies should sleep deeply, alone and for long stretches, goes against their physiology. So “sleeping like a baby” usually means waking quite a lot at night.
Yet, many parents have been asked whether their baby is sleeping through the night and is a “good baby”. The perception is that if a baby doesn’t sleep for long stretches at night, it must be “bad”.
This may lead parents to say their babies sleep longer than they really do, setting unrealistic expectations for other new parents.
Could feeding butter do any harm?
The social pressure around baby sleep can add stress and anxiety for new parents. So the Tiktok trend about feeding babies butter may seem tempting.
But giving babies any solid food before they are around six months old is not recommended. Babies’ digestive systems are not ready for solid food until they are around six months and feeding them before this can cause constipation or make them more likely to catch an illness. For this reason alone, you should not give your young baby butter.
From about six months old, babies should be offered nutritious, iron-rich solid foods. Butter doesn’t fit this bill because it is almost all saturated fat. If butter replaces more nutritious foods, babies may not get the vitamins and minerals they need.
Butter is just the latest food claimed to help babies sleep better at night. Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock
Butter is the latest in a long line of beliefs about certain foods making babies sleep longer at night. It was once thought that adding cereal or crushed arrowroot biscuits in bottle of milk before bedtime would make them sleep longer. Research found this did not increase sleep at all.
Similarly, there is no evidence that giving babies butter before bed makes them sleep longer.
In fact, research shows the foods babies eat make no difference to night waking.
What else can I try?
Waking overnight doesn’t necessarily mean a baby is hungry. And stopping breastfeeds or bottle feeds overnight doesn’t necessarily reduce night waking.
Your baby could be too hot or cold, or need a nappy change. But some babies continue to wake at night even without an obvious problem.
Behavioural sleep interventions, known as “sleep training”, are not very effective in increasing overnight sleep. In one study, sleep training did not reduce the number of night wakes and only increased the length of the longest sleep by about 16 minutes. Sleep training is especially not recommended for babies under six months.
If you’re missing out on sleep at night, try to have small naps during the day while your baby sleeps. Ask friends and family to do some chores to allow you to nap.
If your baby is crying and you find yourself getting overwhelmed it is OK to put your baby down somewhere safe (like a cot or baby mat) and take some time to settle yourself.
If your baby’s sleep pattern changes significantly or they haven’t slept at all for more than a day, or if your baby seems to have pain or a fever see your doctor, or family and child health nurse, as soon as possible.
Some helpful resources
If you think your baby is not sleeping well because of a breastfeeding problem, the Australian Breastfeeding Association has a national helpline. The association can also advise on co-sleeping.
The charity Little Sparklers provides peer support for parents, including someone to chat to, about baby sleep. It also has helpful resources.
Karleen Gribble is a volunteer breastfeeding educator and counsellor with the Australian Breastfeeding Association, a member of the Public Health Association of Australia and the World Public Health Nutrition Association.
Naomi Hull is the National Coordinator of the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative – Australia and is on the Executive of the Infant and Toddler Foods Research Alliance. Naomi is a volunteer breastfeeding counsellor with the Australian Breastfeeding Association, and a member of the International Lactation Consulants Association, the Lactation Consultants of Australia and New Zealand, the Public Health Association of Australia and the World Public Health Nutrition Association. Naomi receives funding from a RTP Stipend Scholarship from the federal government.
Nina Chad has been the Infant and Young Child Feeding Consultant for the World Health Organization since 2021. She is a member of the Public Health Association of Australia, the World Public Health Nutrition Association and the Australian Breastfeeding Association.
