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  • NASA Flips a Mars Orbiter Upside Down – And Discovers a Hidden World – SciTechDaily

    1. NASA Flips a Mars Orbiter Upside Down – And Discovers a Hidden World  SciTechDaily
    2. NASA teaches Mars orbiter to roll over in quest to find Red Planet water  Space
    3. Remarkable Nasa photo shows eerie Mars landscape scattered with ‘TREES’ – and it’s not the only mystery in the sand  The Sun
    4. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Pulls Off Bold New Maneuvers After Two Decades in Space  Clarksville Online
    5. JPL-Managed Mars Spacecraft Reveals New Scientific Capabilities, Learns New Moves  Pasadena Now

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  • Understanding alzheimer’s: Four distinct progression routes

    Understanding alzheimer’s: Four distinct progression routes

    By mapping millions of real patient health records, UCLA scientists have uncovered four unique and predictable routes to Alzheimer’s, reshaping how we detect, understand, and potentially prevent the condition.

    Study: Identifying common disease trajectories of Alzheimer’s disease with electronic health records. Image credit: Vitalii Vodolazskyi/Shutterstock.com

    University of California, Los Angeles researchers identified four distinct pathways leading to Alzheimer’s disease. The study is published in eBioMedicine.

    Background

    Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by memory loss, cognitive decline, and difficulty performing daily activities. The prevalence of AD and AD-related dementia is steadily increasing worldwide. In the United States, over 6.7 million people live with these conditions, which is projected to reach 13 million by 2050.

    Several risk factors have been identified for AD, including cardiovascular disease, hearing loss, depression, diabetes, traumatic brain injury, and physical inactivity. Developing preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic strategies for AD requires an in-depth understanding of how these risk factors co-occur and in what sequence they emerge, rather than analyzing individual risk factors. 

    Evaluation of the timing and sequence of potential risk factors is particularly important for accurate AD risk prediction and identification of effective time frames for applying preventative measures or treatments. This study used millions of electronic health records to identify disease pathways that sequentially progress toward AD.

    The Study

    The researchers analyzed health data from 24,473 patients in the University of California Health Data Warehouse. They validated the findings in the nationally diverse All of Us Research Program, a diverse, nationally representative cohort.   

    After filtering out diagnoses that were not positively associated with subsequent AD, researchers identified 5,762 patients who contributed 6,794 unique disease trajectories of AD. Disease trajectory is defined as a sequence of health events over time occurring irregularly and encompassing diagnoses, medications, procedures, and laboratory tests. Each trajectory included at least three temporally ordered diagnoses, and many patients were found to follow more than one distinct disease path, with up to three trajectories per individual.

    Researchers mapped the temporal relationships between diagnoses leading to AD using advanced computational methods, including dynamic time warping, a method for comparing time series with irregular timing, k-means clustering, and network analysis.     

    Key findings

    The study identified four distinct disease trajectories leading to AD. These trajectories were: a mental health trajectory representing psychiatric conditions leading to cognitive decline; an encephalopathy trajectory representing brain dysfunctions that escalate over time; a mild cognitive impairment trajectory representing gradual progression of cognitive decline; and a vascular disease trajectory representing cardiovascular conditions contributing to dementia risk.

    Each pathway had characteristic demographic features, comorbidity patterns, and progression rates, suggesting different progression trajectories for different populations.

    The mental health trajectory focusing on depressive episode (F32) mainly affected women and Hispanic people and progressed to AD.  The mild cognitive impairment trajectory showed the progression from mild cognitive impairment (G31.84) to AD, and the vascular disease trajectory exhibited the longest electronic health record histories and the highest comorbidity burden, which highlights the chronic nature of cerebrovascular disease.

    The encephalopathy trajectory was associated with the most rapid progression to AD and subsequent death, highlighting a more aggressive disease course. The study further found that the encephalopathy cluster showed the shortest interval from the first disease indicator to AD diagnosis, and from AD diagnosis to death, suggesting a faster disease course in that subgroup.

    The presence of shared vascular risk factors such as hypertension across multiple trajectories indicates that these distinct disease progression pathways may be associated with common pathophysiological mechanisms. These findings highlight the importance of considering and managing shared risk factors to prevent the progression of multiple disease pathways to AD.

    The study found consistent directional ordering for approximately 26% of diagnostic progressions regarding directionality of relationships within these trajectories. For example, essential hypertension is frequently followed by depressive episodes, which then progress to AD, suggesting a potential causal sequence.

    The validation of study findings in the All of Us Research Program highlighted the generalizability of these trajectories across diverse populations and healthcare settings. These progression trajectories were found to predict the risk of AD more accurately than individual risk factors.

    As researchers suggest, healthcare professionals can use these trajectories to identify high-risk patients early, develop targeted interventions, and restrict harmful consequences.

    The study used causal inference modeling (Greedy Equivalence Search) to identify likely directional links between diagnoses within each trajectory. The encephalopathy cluster showed more consistent directional relationships (42.9%), indicating a more substantial potential for causal interpretation in this group.

    The researchers also constructed simplified “backbone” networks to highlight the most common disease sequences within each trajectory, using modularity-based pruning to reduce noise and emphasize dominant patterns.

    Study significance

    The study provides a comprehensive framework for identifying distinct and interconnected disease progression routes that lead to AD. This approach can be applied in different clinical settings to improve risk assessment, timely diagnosis, and targeted interventions. Healthcare professionals should consider the cumulative impact of sequential disease progression while assessing AD risk.

    The distinct trajectories identified in the study suggest that AD may develop through multiple pathways. The identification of specific risk factors such as depression, cerebrovascular disease, and other neurodegenerative conditions that often precede AD by several years provides opportunities for early intervention.

    The dataset analyzed in the study excluded patients older than 90 years, which may restrict the generalizability of its findings to the population with a high prevalence of AD. Furthermore, health data was collected from six academic health systems in California, which may limit representativeness relative to population-based samples.

    Potential misclassifications of AD patients in electronic health records may affect the study findings. Given this concern, researchers advise interpreting these trajectories as pathways leading to clinically diagnosed AD rather than biologically confirmed AD, which would require biomarkers for amyloid or tau pathology. Some diagnostic codes like “unspecified dementia” may reflect temporary or transitional clinical labels, highlighting the real-world complexity of disease classification in health records.

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  • UK government’s deal with Google ‘dangerously naive’, say campaigners | Google

    UK government’s deal with Google ‘dangerously naive’, say campaigners | Google

    Google has agreed a sweeping deal with the UK government to provide free technology to the public sector from the NHS to local councils– a move campaigners have called “dangerously naive”.

    The US company will be asked to “upskill” tens of thousands of civil servants in technology, including in using artificial intelligence, as part of an agreement which will not require the government to pay. It is considered in Whitehall to be giving Google “a foot in the door” as the digitisation of public services accelerates.

    However, the agreement prompted concerns about the precariousness of UK public data being held on US servers amid the unpredictable leadership of Donald Trump.

    The Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said Google Cloud, which provides databases, machine learning and computing power, had “agreed to work with the UK government in helping public services use advanced tech to shake off decades old ‘ball and chain’ legacy contracts which leave essential services vulnerable to cyber-attack”.

    Google’s services are considered more agile and efficient than traditional competitors, but there are concerns in Whitehall’s digital circles about the government becoming locked into a new kind of dependency.

    Other US tech firms including Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic have also been providing services to civil servants as they attempt to harness technology to boost the efficiency of cash-strapped public services.

    On Wednesday, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, met two of Mark Zuckerberg’s most senior lieutenants, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, and the head of its global business group, Nicola Mendelsohn.

    During the pandemic in 2020, Palantir, a tech firm founded by the libertarian Trump donor Peter Thiel, provided services to the UK government for £1 and in 2023 it won a £330m deal to create a single platform for NHS data.

    DSIT also said Google DeepMind, the tech company’s AI division, which is led by the Nobel prize-winning scientist Demis Hassabis, would “collaborate with technical experts in government to support them in deploying and diffusing new emerging technologies, driving efficiencies across the public sector, including accelerating scientific discovery”.

    But with ministers and government regulators facing pressing decisions on how to regulate AI, search, cloud computing and copyright, Martha Dark, the co-executive director of Foxglove, a non-profit organisation campaigning for fairer use of technology, said: “How is the government going to be able to hold Trump-supporting US big tech giants to any kind of serious account on this – or any other issue – after we’ve given Google the keys to the data kingdom? It’s hard to see this as anything other than dangerously naive on the part of Peter Kyle and government as a whole.”

    Other experts warned that the agreement could “entrench the market power” of a company such as Google and leave the UK government reliant on the technology from giant firms. Peter Kyle, the secretary of state for science and technology who announced the deal at a Google event in London on Wednesday, said “wherever possible, UK technology companies – large and small – [will] get a fair shot” at winning public tech contracts.

    The opportunity secured by Google was not put out to public tender as no money was changing hands, a government source said.

    DSIT said: “These arrangements will operate in full compliance with all applicable public procurement laws, and may be subject to future commercial agreements.”

    Kyle has held 11 meetings with representatives of Google since Labour took office, according to departmental registers up to the end of March.

    The Guardian has asked Google and the government what access the tech company will have to public data as part of the deal.

    Kyle has said he wants to “exploit the full potential of a partnership between government and Google, with much more collaboration between their UK AI lab, DeepMind, and my own AI developers”.

    There have been signs of new technology delivering efficiencies in the public sector. A recent trial of Microsoft’s AI Copilot tool, provided with a discount, by 20,000 civil servants found it saved them 26 minutes a day on average, according to a government study, and 82% said they did not want to return to previous working practices.

    But Imogen Parker, an associate director at the Ada Lovelace Institute, a research body focused on ensuring technology works for society, said the deal raised questions about the UK’s digital sovereignty.

    “The public needs to understand what Google is getting from this partnership and what the return will be for taxpayers in years to come,” she said. “Deals like this might look like good value for money today, but they risk lock-in tomorrow – limiting our ability to seek alternatives in future.”

    Kyle has previously been accused of being too close to big tech, and he opened his speech by saying he pleaded guilty to the “crime“ of meeting tech executives far more than his predecessor, after it was reported by the Guardian.

    “I make absolutely no apologies for meeting with technology companies – that’s the job,” he said, adding that it was important for keeping children safe on social media, making sure Britain was prepared for developments at the frontier of AI, and securing better deals for the taxpayer for the billions of pounds spent every year on technology.

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  • Kesha cancels Dallas concert due to safety concerns amid Texas floods, urges fans to get home safe

    Kesha cancels Dallas concert due to safety concerns amid Texas floods, urges fans to get home safe

    Kesha prioritised safety for herself and her fans during Texas’ deadly flash flooding by cancelling her Dallas concert at the Dos Equis Pavilion.

    Following delays that evening, Kesha announced the cancellation across X and Instagram on Tuesday, July 8. 

    “I wanted to say thank you for coming out to support an independent artist. I have been so excited for tonight and to celebrate my freedom and go tits out with all of you, but due to the weather and what yall here in Texas have been facing, I have to put your safety first,” she wrote. 

    Kesha noted she hoped to reschedule for the following evening, confirming all tickets would remain valid. “I’m going to stay here in your beautiful city and come back here tomorrow and would love to play for all of you tomorrow night,” she added. “All of your tickets will be honoured and I’m so sorry. Get home safe, let’s party tomorrow.”

    As of early Wednesday, July 9, over 107 people had died due to catastrophic flash flooding across Texas, with more than 160 people still missing. 
     

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  • Come and Play in the World Transnational Open Teams Championship!



    Come and Play in the World Transnational Open Teams Championship! | World Bridge Federation











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    Come and Play in the World Transnational Open Teams Championship!


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  • The ITA reports that taekwondo athlete Ulugbek Rashitov accepted a 2-year sanction for three whereabouts failures

    The ITA reports that taekwondo athlete Ulugbek Rashitov accepted a 2-year sanction for three whereabouts failures

    The ITA reports that taekwondo athlete Ulugbek Rashitov has agreed¹ to the consequences for his ADRV under Article 2.4 of the WT anti-doping rules (WT ADR).²

    Ulugbek Rashitov committed three whereabouts failures within a 12-month period. The athlete did not challenge the ADRV and agreed with the consequences proposed by the ITA. Accordingly, the case was resolved via an acceptance of consequences.

    The athlete’s period of ineligibility is from the date the athlete accepted a voluntary provisional suspension under article 7.4.4 of the WT ADR (13 May 2025) until 12 May 2027. In addition, all the athlete’s individual competitive results from the date of commission of the ADRV (3 February 2025) until the start of the period of ineligibility are disqualified.

    The decision may be challenged before the appeal division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport by the parties with a right of appeal in accordance with Article 13.2.3 of the WT ADR.

    The ITA will not comment further on this case.

     

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  • New Heat Sink Tested in Space Uses Melting Wax to Regulate Temperature

    New Heat Sink Tested in Space Uses Melting Wax to Regulate Temperature

    Andy Tomaswick

    Andy has been interested in space exploration ever since reading Pale Blue Dot in middle school. An engineer by training, he likes to focus on the practical challenges of space exploration, whether that’s getting rid of perchlorates on Mars or making ultra-smooth mirrors to capture ever clearer data. When not writing or engineering things he can be found entertaining his wife, four children, six cats, and two dogs, or running in circles to stay in shape.

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  • Pakistan kick-starts preparation for issuance of debut Panda bond – Markets

    Pakistan kick-starts preparation for issuance of debut Panda bond – Markets

    KARACHI: Representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan, have initiated a series of pre-marketing investor meetings in Beijing, China, from July 7 till 11, 2025, as part of a non-deal investor roadshow (NDR) in preparation for Pakistan’s debut Panda Bond issuance.

    The MoF delegation has held technical discussions with potential investors, underwriters, prospective guarantors, Chinese Rating Agency, and Chinese legal counsel.

    Khurram Schehzad, advisor to the finance minister, said on Wednesday in a post on X that meetings were focused on Pakistan’s macroeconomic review and outlook, ongoing debt management reforms, and the structure and progress of the proposed Panda Bond transaction.

    The discussions also covered regulatory processes, credit enhancement arrangements, and investor interest in the forthcoming issuance.

    The NDR drew strong initial interest, signaling investor confidence in Pakistan’s reform trajectory and its growing credibility in international capital markets, according to the X post.

    “The visit reflects the government’s commitment to proactive investor engagement and diversification of funding sources through access to China’s onshore capital market.”

    The inaugural Panda Bond is expected to be launched this year, following the completion of documentation and required approvals, including credit guarantees from multilateral development partners.

    Panda Bond: govt to raise $200m from Chinese investors: Aurangzeb

    “This milestone marks Pakistan’s strategic move to tap China’s deep and diversified onshore bond market, expand its investor base, and diversify funding sources through local currency instruments backed by multilateral partners.

    “The successful NDR so far reflects the government’s commitment to innovative and forward-looking financial diplomacy – and sends a clear message: Pakistan is ready to enter new capital frontiers with confidence and credibility.”

    Earlier, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has said that the size of the Panda Bond issuance would be around $300 million.

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  • Major autism study uncovers biologically distinct subtypes, paving the way for precision diagnosis and care

    Major autism study uncovers biologically distinct subtypes, paving the way for precision diagnosis and care

    Researchers at Princeton University and the Simons Foundation have identified four clinically and biologically distinct subtypes of autism, marking a transformative step in understanding the condition’s genetic underpinnings and potential for personalized care.

    Analyzing data from over 5,000 children in SPARK, an autism cohort study funded by the Simons Foundation, the researchers used a computational model to group individuals based on their combinations of traits. The team used a “person-centered” approach that considered a broad range of over 230 traits in each individual, from social interactions to repetitive behaviors to developmental milestones, rather than searching for genetic links to single traits.

    This approach enabled the discovery of clinically relevant autism subtypes, which the researchers linked to distinct genetic profiles and developmental trajectories, offering new insights into the biology underlying autism. Their results were published July 9 in Nature Genetics.

    “Understanding the genetics of autism is essential for revealing the biological mechanisms that contribute to the condition, enabling earlier and more accurate diagnosis, and guiding personalized care,” said senior study author Olga Troyanskaya, director of Princeton Precision Health, the Maduraperuma/Khot Professor of Computer Science and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton, and deputy director for genomics at the Center for Computational Biology of the Simons Foundation’s Flatiron Institute.

    Princeton University reserachers Aviya Litman, Olga Troyanskaya and Chandra Theesfeld are among the co-authors of a major study on autism subtypes and their underlying genetics. Photo by Denise Applewhite, Office of Communications

    The study defines four subtypes of autism — Social and Behavioral Challenges, Mixed ASD with Developmental Delay, Moderate Challenges, and Broadly Affected. Each subtype exhibits distinct developmental, medical, behavioral and psychiatric traits, and importantly, different patterns of genetic variation.

    • Individuals in the Social and Behavioral Challenges group show core autism traits, including social challenges and repetitive behaviors, but generally reach developmental milestones at a pace similar to children without autism.  They also often experience co-occurring conditions like ADHD, anxiety, depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder alongside autism. One of the larger groups, this constitutes around 37% of the participants in the study.
    • The Mixed ASD with Developmental Delay group tends to reach developmental milestones, such as walking and talking, later than children without autism, but usually does not show signs of anxiety, depression or disruptive behaviors. “Mixed” refers to differences within this group with respect to repetitive behaviors and social challenges. This group represents approximately 19% of the participants.
    • Individuals with Moderate Challenges show core autism-related behaviors, but less strongly than those in the other groups, and usually reach developmental milestones on a similar track to those without autism. They generally do not experience co-occurring psychiatric conditions. Roughly 34% of participants fall into this category.
    • The Broadly Affected group faces more extreme and wide-ranging challenges, including developmental delays, social and communication difficulties, repetitive behaviors and co-occurring psychiatric conditions like anxiety, depression and mood dysregulation. This is the smallest group, accounting for around 10% of the participants.

    “These findings are powerful because the classes represent different clinical presentations and outcomes, and critically we were able to connect them to distinct underlying biology,” said Aviya Litman, a Ph.D. student at Princeton and co-lead author.

    Distinct genetics behind the subtypes

    For decades, autism researchers and clinicians have been seeking robust definitions of autism subtypes to aid in diagnosis and care. Autism is known to be highly heritable, with many implicated genes.

    “While genetic testing is already part of the standard of care for people diagnosed with autism, thus far, this testing reveals variants that explain the autism of only about 20% of patients,” said study co-author Jennifer Foss-Feig, a clinical psychologist at the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and vice president and senior scientific officer at the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI). This study takes an approach that differs from classic gene discovery efforts by identifying robust autism subtypes that are linked to distinct types of genetic mutations and affected biological pathways.

    For example, children in the Broadly Affected group showed the highest proportion of damaging de novo mutations — those not inherited from either parent — while only the Mixed ASD with Developmental Delay group was more likely to carry rare inherited genetic variants. While children in both of these subtypes share some important traits like developmental delays and intellectual disability, these genetic differences suggest distinct mechanisms behind superficially similar clinical presentations.

    “These findings point to specific hypotheses linking various pathways to different presentations of autism,” said Litman, referring to differences in biology between children with different autism subtypes.

    Moreover, the researchers identified divergent biological processes affected in each subtype. “What we’re seeing is not just one biological story of autism, but multiple distinct narratives,” said Natalie Sauerwald, associate research scientist at the Flatiron Institute and co-lead author. “This helps explain why past genetic studies often fell short — it was like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle without realizing we were actually looking at multiple different puzzles mixed together. We couldn’t see the full picture, the genetic patterns, until we first separated individuals into subtypes.”

    Autism biology unfolds on different timelines

    The team also found that autism subtypes differ in the timing of genetic disruptions’ effects on brain development. Genes switch on and off at specific times, guiding different stages of development. While much of the genetic impact of autism was thought to occur before birth, in the Social and Behavioral Challenges subtype — which typically has substantial social and psychiatric challenges, no developmental delays, and a later diagnosis — mutations were found in genes that become active later in childhood. This suggests that, for these children, the biological mechanisms of autism may emerge after birth, aligning with their later clinical presentation.

    “By integrating genetic and clinical data at scale, we can now begin to map the trajectory of autism from biological mechanisms to clinical presentation,” said co-author Chandra Theesfeld, senior academic research manager at the Lewis-Sigler Institute and Princeton Precision Health.

    A paradigm shift for autism research

    This study builds on more than a decade of autism genomics research led by Troyanskaya and collaborators, supported by the Simons Foundation and the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and most recently by Princeton Precision Health, an interdisciplinary initiative launched in 2022. It is enabled by the close integration of interdisciplinary expertise in genomics, clinical psychology, molecular biology, computer science and modeling, and computational biology — with experts from Princeton Precision Health, the Flatiron Institute and SFARI.

    “The Princeton Precision Health initiative uses artificial intelligence and computational modeling to integrate across biological and clinical data,” said Jennifer Rexford, Princeton University provost and Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor in Engineering. “This initiative could not exist without the University’s charitable endowment. Our investments allow experts to collaborate across a range of disciplines to conduct transformative research that improves human health, including the potential for major advances in the diagnosis and treatment of autism made possible in this exciting project.”

    “It’s a whole new paradigm, to provide these groups as a starting point for investigating the genetics of autism,” said Theesfeld. Instead of searching for a biological explanation that encompasses all individuals with autism, researchers can now investigate the distinct genetic and biological processes driving each subtype.

    This shift could reshape both autism research and clinical care — helping clinicians anticipate different trajectories in diagnosis, development and treatment. “The ability to define biologically meaningful autism subtypes is foundational to realizing the vision of precision medicine for neurodevelopmental conditions,” said Sauerwald.

    While the current work defines four subtypes, “this doesn’t mean there are only four classes,” said Litman. “It means we now have a data-driven framework that shows there are at least four — and that they are meaningful in both the clinic and the genome.”

    Looking ahead

    For families navigating autism, knowing which subtype of autism their child has can offer new clarity, tailored care, support and community. “Understanding genetic causes for more individuals with autism could lead to more targeted developmental monitoring, precision treatment, and tailored support and accommodations at school or work,” said Foss-Feig. “It could tell families, when their children with autism are still young, something more about what symptoms they might — or might not — experience, what to look out for over the course of a lifespan, which treatments to pursue, and how to plan for their future.”

    Beyond its contributions to understanding autism subtypes and their underlying biology, the study offers a powerful framework for characterizing other complex, heterogeneous conditions and finding clinically relevant disease subtypes. As Theesfeld put it: “This opens the door to countless new scientific and clinical discoveries.”


    The paper, “Decomposition of phenotypic heterogeneity in autism reveals underlying genetic programs,” was published July 9 in Nature Genetics. In addition to Litman, Sauerwald, Foss-Feig, Theesfeld and Troyanskaya, co-authors include LeeAnne Green Snyder of the Simons Foundation, Christopher Y. Park and Yun Hao of the Flatiron Institute, and Ilan Dinstein of Ben Gurion University of the Negev, who contributed to the study during a sabbatical at the Simons Foundation. The research was supported in part by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Simons Foundation.

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